Unsmothered Curiosity

ERIC: 

I dashed into my room, ignoring Lucas’s knocks and mutters, and changed clothes. The moment I was ready, I made for the door.

“Do you mind telling me what you intend to do?” Lucas hurried after me.

I paused and turned to him. “I don’t know,” I murmured with a shrug.

“Where are you going?”

“Bernard. I have to see him.”

“Then what?”

“I…don’t know.”

And I really didn’t. 

Thankfully, Lucas didn’t waste breath blaming me this time; instead, he went straight into strategy.

“You shouldn’t go,” he said. “Wait till morning.”

“I won’t be able to sleep.”

“Eric, is this because you don’t want Bernard to misunderstand?”

I understood Lucas’s uncertainty. But it wasn’t Bernard I was worried about…it was Leonard. I wasn’t sure what I would do once I got there, but I needed to hear Bernard’s thoughts about Lucia—whether he planned to push further, whether I could stop. I had to see him.

“Eric,” Lucas added, reading my mind. “Bernard would have doubts until he fixes his phone. Until he shows your pictures to Leonard. He wouldn’t stay still even if you asked him to. Men like them don’t kill their curiosity. They feed it.”

“What should I do?”

“Do you like Bernard?”

“I do.”

“Do you love him?”

“No.”

“Think you could?”

“Possibly…but I don’t want him.”

“Break up with him tonight.”

I should come up with a reason for breaking up, that was my responsibility, Lucas said. That will shift his mind from Lucia to the sadness of the heartbreak. But I saw the flaw immediately.

“Wouldn’t that make him more suspicious? He sees a female version of me in his friend’s house. Then the male version in his house breaks up with him right after.”

Lucas frowned. “Right…”

It is not always that Lucas brings smart ideas to the table. But I wouldn’t blame him. Having a friend like me is capable of making a sane man insane.

“Then,” he said, “bring me his phone.”

That could work. I get Bernard’s phone, and Lucas wipes the photos and videos. I return the phone, and Bernard finds nothing in it.

However, there was a big challenge. It would take two days to access a damaged phone without repairing it. Moreover, he would have to delete only the photos and videos dated from when we were on the trip, which was the time Bernard and I started taking pictures together. But to extract and delete only the trip images and videos without tampering with other media in his gallery requires time to be that specific. It could take more than two days.

And I couldn’t exactly take Bernard’s phone for that long without raising every red flag. It is an unsmart move. The moment I leave his house tonight, he will continue his quest to connect Lucia and me, and fixing his phone is the only way. If he noticed his phone was missing after my visit and reappeared when I visited again, he would solve the puzzle instantly.

So we settled on the only possible play: Lucas would follow me to Bernard’s, stay nearby, and wait. I’d sneak out with the phone, give it to him, and while he worked on the phone at home, I’d keep Bernard occupied for days…make sure he doesn’t leave home until Lucas returns with the phone and I sneak it back in.

Bernard opened the door and pulled me into a hug.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” he said, bringing me out to his face. “If I were president, I’d ban all flu and its relatives.”

I smiled. Not a forced one. I genuinely smiled at his nonsense.

“You are always welcome, but why bring yourself here when you could have asked me to come see you. Or am I still on probation?”

Bernard doesn’t know where I stay. It was part of the condition I gave him: knowing where I stay is prohibited until we become official.

“I wanted to be here,” I said. “I think I am going to be sick for days, and I want to stay with you until I get better.”

He smiled. Kissed me without hesitation, not minding the flu. I do look like I caught it, though. With the night’s drama, I looked worse than anyone with the actual flu.

“I am sorry I missed our appointment,” I said.

“It wasn’t much entertainment, but I wish you’d been there. I met the shock of my life, Eric. It is good you are here because I’m still reeling.”

Bernard slid beside me in his bed. He told me about Lucia, swearing she looked…walked and talked like me.

“You don’t believe me?” he pressed when I feigned doubt. “Wait until you get better. I will take you to Leonard.”

“Is this your little trick to still bring me to see your friends?” I teased. “I have given you my word. I will meet Leonard and…?”

“Jimmy.”

“…Jimmy,” I echoed. “But don't include my look-alike Lucia in your plan.”

He spent another hour convincing me, insisting he saw right. 

When he finally went in for a shower, I searched for his phone. Saw other phones. Kept searching until I found the broken one resting in his briefcase like a treasure. I hurried outside to Lucas’s waiting cab. My poor friend had been there for over two hours. I couldn’t be more blessed.

Keeping Bernard home and away from everyone was easy—he’d jump into fire if I asked him to. He has fallen so much in love that when I look at him, I feel sorry. However, his feelings didn’t smother his curiosity. It only went dormant for three days.

On the fourth day, I couldn’t keep swallowing drugs as a fake flu patient. Lucas hasn’t returned with the phone; he needed more time. And Bernard didn’t say, but he was bored with babysitting a healthy patient.

As I sat watching TV, he walked in looking tense.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Have you seen my phone?”

I froze.

I had thought he was about to ask us out. To leave the house after days of lockdown.

“Which…of the phone?” I mumbled.

“The old one. The broken one.”