Strictly within Code

More from my trip to Los Angeles … My best friend and I stayed up almost all night both nights. Gossiping, teasing, laughing and talking, talking, talking. I was surprised and relieved that we are still most definitely us, still completely comfortable with each other, still finishing one another's sentences. If I didn't have this, I would be bereft.

His client-supplied corporate apartment is in an LA suburb, quite a haul from my Hollywood Blvd. hotel. The drive is anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour, depending on traffic and fire-related road closures/reroutes. (California is so incredibly carcentric!) The second night he was so tired and more than a little buzzed, so I insisted he take a nap before he hit the road.

I've dozed off in front of him more than once, but this is the first time the roles were reversed. He doesn't move much when he sleeps. He snores. And his fingers wake up first, twitching a bit before his eyes open.

Still, it was all very chaste. Since we were in Hollywood, it only appropriate that it reminded me of the old Hays Code: "Overseen for many years by what was known as the Hays Code (named for one of the Code's founding fathers, William Harrison Hayes), the Code imposed an almost laughably puritanical set of values on films. Not even married couples could be shown in bed together, unless each had one foot on the floor."

Both of his feet remained shod and most firmly on the floor.