Todd was, in fact, still awake. He'd gotten home from work a little while ago, and now he was spread out on the living room couch in his gray sweatpants and a white tee shirt, his notebook from that afternoon's class resting against his chest as he watched a repeat of Seinfeld on the television. This was the glamorous life of the bachelor whose boyfriend was in rehab - 90s TV shows and a hell of a lot of notes on the law that he didn't understand. It wasn't exactly what Todd had dreamed of his whole life, but it would have to do.
He heard the car pull up outside and glanced over at the window, watching as the headlights flashed against the blinds and made a shadow on the wall, then spun on away as the car was parked. It didn't occur to him right away that the visitor was for him because there wasn't really anyone around to visit him, aside from maybe Joseph, and he knew that he would never just show up like that, not now, after everything that had happened between them. But when he heard the footsteps on his front porch, he knew that someone was definitely approaching, and he hoped against hope that it wasn't Seth, returning home from rehab once again to announce that he was cured.
As it turned out, the surprise knock at the door had come from someone much more unexpected than Todd's drug addict boyfriend. And when he opened the door and saw her standing there, the elusive Winifred, his eyes grew big as saucers and his jaw hung open like a dog's on a hot summer day. "Oh. My. God," he said, punctuating each word and reverting to a more effeminate style of speech, which he had used back when he first came out, in an effort to align himself with his college's gay culture. He placed a hand over his heart. "Shut. up," he said. "No. way," Shaking his head, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her in a huge bear hug. He picked her up from the step, then set her back down again. "I should have known a knock in the middle of the night would be you! Get in here!" He took her hand and began dragging her into the house.