“Then here’s an idea. Go back down the same way you came up.”
“Grump. I will not.” He took a seat on the floor and crossed his legs. “You know if you fellas would get on some sort of fuck schedule, I might be able to come up here and practice my Namaste.”
“Your what?”
Markie placed his palms together and bowed his head. “Namaste. It’s a religion or somethin’. I watch it on television all the time.”
“First. You don’t watch anything except gay porn. And secondly, you’re talking about yoga, not a religion.”
“Oh, same difference,” Markie said, waving him away. “Speaking of religion. You got something against body worshipping now?”
“Doesn’t concern you, Markie.” Harley refitted his glove to his hand and returned to work.
“Way I see it, maybe it does. We’re friends. Go way back and—are ya listen’ to me or not, Harley?”
He was now. Markie rarely called any of them by name unless he added a pet name along with it. “You have my ear.”
“Well at least I have somethin’. Guess that means I’m one step ahead of a pretty little vixen you and I know well.”
“We don’t know her at all, Markie.” Harley turned to his old friend. “We keep acting like we do but we don’t. We’ve tiptoed around here for over a week. No one wants to question her about her past because no one wants to know.”
“You do. You count. Don’t ‘cha?”
“Apparently not.” Harley butted his hips up against the ledge overlooking the lower barn. “I mentioned something to Mac about it the first night she stayed here.”
“And—” Markie sighed. “For God’s sake. Quit makin’ me drag everything out of ya.”
“He said it wasn’t important. Said he didn’t care who or what she’d done.”
“In that case, he should’ve gone ahead and stated the reason. Man is in love with her.”
“Exactly.”
“Let me tell ya a little story.”
“Maybe some other time.”
“I wasn’t askin’,” Markie drawled, jiggling his shoulders and making himself comfortable. “Ever wondered why I hate goin’ to Jackson Square?” He waited. “Never asked yourself why I wouldn’t be the first one on the scene when I’m typically in the area anyway?”
“Didn’t know you frequented the area,” Harley lied. He thought of Markie as a brother and because of that, he seldom thought about what Markie did in his spare time. He knew he was gay. He even knew he hung out in the parks where a lot of gay men went for casual encounters but they’d never talked about it.
Harley didn’t want to discuss it now.
“The short story is I had a few hookups with an ER doctor who works at Jackson Square. And for some reason that sorry damned bastard is working the late shifts now and since we’re usually called in after midnight…”
“You’re afraid you’ll bump into him.”
“When we went to process Sable, he was there in the front lobby.” Markie hesitated before he waved his hand in front of his face. “Enough already. Let’s not walk down Memory Lane, but the reason I brought it up is for your benefit. I didn’t have closure. I could’ve dealt with the lies. I could’ve coped with the hurt. What I can’t get past is that we never said good-bye. We never had the good old Dear John talk.”
“What’s the point if he lied to you?” Harley didn’t point out the fact that casual hookups were just that. Typically both parties understood the rules when they entered such a hassle-free adventure.
“I wanted him to say he was sorry. Was that too much to ask?” Markie shook his head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Is this going somewhere?”
Markie grinned and placed his forefinger on the dimple in his cheek. “No, sugar. I just like to hear myself ramble.” He dropped his arm to his side. “Well of course it is, baby boy. I’m worried about ya. Harley honey, you want answers and even if she had them, I’m not sure it’s gonna be anything you wanna hear. She has a past. Who doesn’t? Wouldn’t you rather start with a clean slate?”
“If I thought we could do that and her past wouldn’t come back and bite us later, maybe.”