I grinned. “How about I go get some coffees and something greasy and eggy while you shower? You stink. Bad.”
He glared at me. “Did you come over here to insult me at,” he paused to look at his watch, “nine in the fucking morning? On a Saturday?”
“I didn’t come over here with the intention of insulting you, but you made it very easy. Have you seen you?”
He groaned, leaning his head against the partially open door. “Xander, I love you, and usually, your neurotic behavior is cute, but not today. Today I want to sleep. I want to do nothing but sleep and not think.”
“Are you hungover?” I questioned, even though I already knew the answer. I needed him to admit his problem. I was sure that was the first step to curing the hangover.
He gave me a dry look. “No, not at all. I usually look like this first thing in the morning.”
I shook my head, clicking my tongue at him just like a mother hen. “Aren’t you getting a little old for this nonsense?”
“Again, why are you here? Can you just text me the lecture?”
I held up a hand. I knew what it was like to be hungover. Not recently, but I remembered the college years. Even then, I didn’t remember ever being quite as bad as he looked. I liked a good buzz, not a good drunk. It was probably part of that need to be in control all the time. I didn’t like my brain to be muddled and foggy. “I’m going to get the coffee and food. Take a minute for yourself. I’ll be back in fifteen.”
“Don’t come back,” he whimpered. “Please, drive across town and get the stuff.”
“I’m coming back. Trust me. I have something to show you and you want to see it.”
I walked away and went to retrieve the usual hangover cures. Greasy breakfasts were the ultimate cure. I was knocking on his door once again twenty minutes later. He opened the door with a towel slung low around his hips, his hair wet but still sticking up.
“This had better be fucking good,” he snapped, snatching one of the coffees from the tray I carried.
I pushed the door open and put the food on his small table before pulling out one of the Egg McMuffins. “It is good. I think it’s good. It’s going to need some tweaking, but I got the general idea.”
“Please, for the love of all that is holy, speak English. I can’t understand geek right now. My brain feels like a wet sponge and my mouth a dry cotton ball.”
“Sit, eat, and I’ll explain.”
He flopped down in the chair and grabbed one of the sandwiches. “My skull hurts.”
“Did you at least have a good time?”
He grinned and nodded. “Of course.”
“Is your good time still here?”
“Nah, I went to her place.”
“Good plan.”
He sucked down the coffee. “What’s the thing you need to show me?”
I smiled and wiped my mouth. “Remember your problem?”
“Problem?”
“The rudders and the ships in the harbor.”
He nodded. “Yes. Two separate problems.”
“No, the same problem. Rather, both problems solved with one solution.”
He rubbed his head. “God, you are exhausting.”
“Eat and I will show you.”
“Show me where?”
“Down at the docks,” I answered.
He did not look impressed. “I don’t want to work. I want to relax.”
“You don’t have to work. I want you to watch. I want you to observe and give me feedback. I trust you to tell me where it’s wrong. I need a second pair of eyes and only your eyes will understand what you are seeing.”
“Can you tell me what you’ve got up your sleeve?”
I winked. “I have to show you.”
“Where’s your girlfriend? Can’t you show her?”
“I just dropped her off. She is working today, and she wouldn’t understand like you.”
He grinned. “You had another sleepover.”
“I did.”
“Damn, one more and I think that means you are official,” he said. “I knew you liked her.”
I wasn’t afraid to admit it. “I do like her.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Tell her what?”
“That you like her,” he answered.
The conversation was very strange. It felt like we were in the sixth grade, talking about a girl. “I think she figured that part out all on her own.”
He crumbled up a sandwich wrapper and tossed it at me. “Not like that, asshole. You guys were supposed to be doing this casual thing. Whatever you have going with her is not casual. Have you had the talk? You know, the talk about where is this going, and blah, blah, blah.”
I slowly shook my head. “No. Not yet. I don’t think we need to ruin things by trying to put a label on it. It’s cool just the way it is.”
“Maybe for you, but she’s a woman.”
“No shit. Well that explains a lot.”
He shot me a dirty look. “You know what I mean. Women think differently. She’s probably already picking out China patterns and redecorating your house. You better figure out what you want before you wake up one morning with two kids and a wife.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think that’s quite how that happens. We aren’t there yet. We aren’t even close to being there. It was a sleepover. I’m not going to be proposing anytime soon.”
“That’s what they all say, and then one day, they are wearing a tux and being dragged down an aisle to be shackled forever.”
“You have a very twisted view on marriage. You should get therapy.”
“I don’t need therapy,” he said, finishing his second sandwich. He was already looking a little better. The greenish hue had faded and now he just looked pale and washed out.
He got up from the table and returned five minutes later dressed and ready to go. I drove him to the docks and popped open the trunk to pull out my prototype. His dark sunglasses shielded his eyes, but I knew he was glaring at me. “You dragged my ass out here to play with one of your toy boats?”
“No, I want to see if my theory will work.”
“What are you planning?” he asked, sounding a little more enthusiastic.
I put the boat in the water and used the remote to steer it while I explained my idea to improve speed that would allow better control. We messed around with the boat for a couple of hours. Each of us took turns controlling it.
“What do you think?”
He smiled and handed me the remote. “You are a genius. Do you think it will really work on a large ship?”
“I don’t know. In theory, it should. But there are a lot of details to work out. It isn’t just the rudder. It’s the propeller and the thrust—”
He held up a hand. “I get it. I trust you to work it all out, though.”
“I am going to keep working on it. I’ve been running it through my program, and every time I put it on a large ship, it fails. It’s frustrating.”
“You’ve been down this road before. You know there is going to be a lot of trial and error. You know you are going to have a lot of failure in your future. But just like before, you know it’s going to work out. You know you are going to make it work.”