Hodge chuckled. He rolled his eyes around to watch a group of middle-aged women laughing over their coffee. Why do people always meet their friends for coffee in diners? He looked back at Ethan. “'A manly recognition of her feminine wiles'?”
“Yes, sir. I'm telling you, man. You just don't know. Wait till you meet this woman.”
“I don't need to. Or I already have. They're all the same.” Hodge swirled the dregs of his coffee and lifted the cup to his lips.
“What? No, man. No. Not her. She's different.”
“Just like the last one?”
“The last one?” Ethan shot his hands up. “Who---Haley?” He grimaced and shook his head violently. “Maria is nothing like Haley. I can't believe you'd even compare them. Maria,” he leaned over the table, “is incomparable.” He sat back, proud of the point he'd scored.
Hodge drained his cup and signaled to the waitress for more. “They're not incomparable---they're all the same.” He set the cup down and pointed to emphasize his words. “All the same.” All---point---the---point---same.
“How can you say that?” Ethan hunched his shoulders incredulously. “All the same? What about---what about Yvette? Huh? What about Yvette?”
Hodge sighed. He looked hard at the table. “I can't believe you.”
Ethan nodded knowingly. “Exactly. What about Yvette?”
“Yvette,” Hodge articulated, “is 'incomparable'.”
“Oh, so she's incomparable? Maybe she is, maybe she is.” He leaned forward. “But if she is, why not Maria?” Ethan triumphantly pointed at the ceiling. “How you,” he stabbed the air in front of Hodge, “felt about Yvette, man, that's how I,” he stabbed the air in front of himself, “feel about Maria!”
The waitress poured Hodge's coffee, but Ethan waved her off. After she left, Hodge eyed Ethan for a second. “Do you know what you're talking about, Eeth?”
Half of Ethan's triumphant grin fell. “What do you mean? Of course I do. I saw all that. Front row.”
“You have no idea what that was like. Yvette and me,” Hodge looked across the aisle again. “Man, that was something normal all fucked up to look special. Ha ha, you remember that word from high school---snafu? That's what it was, man, a snafu.”
“You loved Yvette!”
“Yeah, but look where it went. Right down the crapper.”
Ethan didn't give up. “But tell me something, Hodge. Do you regret it?”
“Regret what?”
“Do you regret Yvette? Because if you don't,” he lowered his voice, “then you shouldn't be trying to drag me down about Maria. Maria is Yvette without all that baggage.”
Hodge absently stirred his coffee with the tip of his finger. He watched the wake of his finger swirl the black liquid. It was still the same. Ethan shifted in his seat. Hodge wiped his finger on the napkin and examined it. “Yvette without the baggage, huh?”
“Yes! Exactly! Take the hotness of Yvette, take away the baggage, and you've got Maria!” Ethan's face opened up like a missionary making his first convert.
“Let me tell you, man,” Hodge looked Ethan straight in the eye, “They're all the same.” He sipped his coffee. “All the fucking same.” He crumpled a packet of pink stuff between his fingers.
Ethan's face fell. His shoulders collapsed with his sigh. His head fell slightly forward. His eyes lost their focus. He blinked slowly. The corners of his mouth fell into a straight line. He shook his head to clear it. “Look, man, either you're with me on this one,” his eyes focused on Hodge's, darting back and forth between Hodge's. “Or you're not.” Ethan leaned back and pulled a couple of dollars out of his pocket. He dropped them on the table as he stood up.
“What? What is that supposed to mean?” Hodge looked up at Ethan. “I'm with you or I'm not?” Hodge threw the pink packet on the table and stood up. “Man, I've always been with you. That's why I'm here, being honest.” Ethan put on his jacket, listening but pretending not to. “I'm telling you they're all the same because they are.” He paused. “All the same. All of them. They're all the same.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Ethan pushed past Hodge toward the door.
Hodge hurried after him in the peculiar way of the 20-something male, a slow hurry. He grabbed Ethan's elbow and pulled him back. “Look, man. We're best friends. We have been since you saved my life in second grade---”
“I didn't save your life.”
“Whatever. We've been friends since second grade. I'm not trying to drag you down. I'm trying to keep you out of the gutter.”
Ethan yanked his arm out of Hodge's grasp. “Man---I've had enough. I bought you coffee so I could tell you about the love of my life, and---and---but you just can't see that. You just can't be happy for anybody else. Whatever, man. I know all about your baggage and your insecurity”---Hodge looked at Ethan sideways---“and I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to tell me that I don't know what I'm doing and that I'm going to get hurt.” Ethan's eyes narrowed. “Just like you.” He punctuated his words with his finger. Just---point---like---point---you. “But let me tell you something, Hodge,” he glanced around and knelt close by Hodge's ear. He whispered, “I'm not you.” Ethan turned on his heel and stalked out of the diner.
Hodge watched the door close after Ethan. The ringing bell over the door woke him up. He glanced at the other diners, shook his head, and slow-hurried after Ethan. He stepped in front of the diner, ready to follow Ethan wherever. He looked up the street one way, then down the other. He spotted Ethan standing in front of the window of a fancy restaurant three doors down. L'Amour Secret. He stood beside Ethan. When he looked in the window, he didn't recognize any of the patrons. He didn't have to.
Ethan stared, his lips half an inch apart. Hodge followed his eyes to a table halfway back against the far wall. A woman sat there. She was beautiful. Dark hair, that milky olive complexion of the Mediterranean. The distinctive nose that makes them self-conscious but which perfects the picture. She was slender. She was seated, but Hodge could see her long legs snaking out from under her skirt and crossed devilishly. And she smiled at the man across from her like he was the only man in the room---maybe in all the world.
Without a word, Hodge took Ethan by the arm, and pulled him away from the window, back into the dry traffic of the street.
