My Cobra Guy

Episode Thirty-One

Johnny's phone dinged, advising him he had some sort of notification. He set the last box down in the yellow-painted bedroom and sat on the dark green coverlet. When he saw it was his social media, he hurriedly opened it, expecting a message from Ali, or even better, someone who wanted to enroll in Miyagi-Do. But it was a friend request from Daniel.

He frowned; he didn't see a reason to decline the request. What exactly would he be hiding from Daniel now that Daniel didn't already know?

After he approved the request, he found Daniel was rather chatty on social media. He posted business articles, including his own comments, and of course, pictures of him, his family, and the people at Miyagi-Do. He'd even posted the pictures that were taken yesterday, when he had seen that browser tab. Johnny had to be careful to close his browser.

He made sure it was closed, as he'd looked up something else embarrassing on his last break: "Can a concussion make me gay?" He hadn't been able to get a definitive answer. Usually when he typed a question, many others had asked the same one. Not in this case.

He could try contacting Dr. Howser, who'd advised Johnny to contact him if there were any complications. Would he get charged for that though? Would it be worth it if he could get some kind of treatment to stop these reactions to Daniel? Waiting it out wasn't helping, and the problem only grew worse. How much longer until he couldn't be around Daniel at all?

He closed his social media; looking through Daniel's pictures for too long was probably a terrible idea. He flipped back to his browser page. Maybe he just hadn't scrolled far enough to find what he was looking for. He scrolled and scrolled, looking through the many article titles, usually about people with the surname Gay, who'd been in accidents.

"Hey, Johnny," Daniel said, plopping down on the bed next to him.

How hadn't Johnny heard him come in? The phone fell from Johnny's startled fingers, and landed facedown on the floor. Please don't be broken, please don't be broken.... His laptop had been sold, afterall.

He reached for the phone at the same time as Daniel, but Johnny got it first. He didn't even look at the screen before shoving it into his pocket.

Daniel coughed into his hand before he asked, "What were you looking at?"

"Chicks!" Johnny said quickly. "There's lots of old swimsuit issues on the internet." He cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. "Uh, listen, I wanted to talk to you about the dojo. I know when you first started yours, you weren't charging. I charged for mine, maybe too much, but I think we should find a nice in-between."

"You want to start charging the kids for classes?"

"Well, yeah."

Daniel looked thoughtful for a moment. "Miguel mentioned you were having trouble finding another job. I guess it would be better if this were more profitable."

"Miguel's got a big mouth," Johnny snapped, then tried to calm himself by taking a deep breath. "It isn't just about me, though. Aren't you pulled away from the dealership pretty often for this? Did you have to hire help?"

"I gave Anoush more hours but, yeah, I'm here a lot more than I used to be. So, I guess we could talk about what to charge. I know June is paying you for Regina-"

"Too much. I told her to forget about it but she was insistent. If we get some kind of base pay, though, we can always charge extra if kids want extra training. I don't want to charge as much as I did before, though. I don't want to lose any of the students."

"Agreed. We have a good bunch here. And you're right: this is a business and we should treat it as such." Daniel gave him a sidelong look. "You've brought in a lot more students without any of my help. You're good at this."