Chapter 20

He jumped from the bed, struggled into the jeans from last night, and pulled a T-shirt over his head. He rushed out to his balcony and looked down to see Jerome heading rapidly east toward the “L” train station at Jarvis. “Jerome!” he cried. “Jerome, please!”

Jerome stopped but did not turn around, as though he was debating with himself whether to acknowledge Sean or not. Finally he turned and looked up. Of course, several other commuters on the way to their morning train also stopped on the street to turn and look up at Sean as well. He could feel himself flushing even more.

“Can we just talk? Can you come back and give me a minute?”

“I don’t know that there’s much to talk about.”

A black man in a short-sleeve white button-down, dark pants, and dark tie stopped beside Jerome. Sean could just barely hear him, but he said, “You should hear the guy out. Give him his say. Come on…you know you want to.” The black man laughed and continued on his way.