Andy's Mobile Phone
Carlos Ramirez entered the subway car holding a paper bag in his left hand. The bag temporarily housed his favorite treat from Dunkin' Donuts, a cream filled, powdered donut. In his right hand he clutched a container of black coffee, no sugar. It was past rush hour, and he had no trouble getting a seat. As soon as he was seated, he began to eat his donut and sip his coffee.
Carlos had overslept that morning. He was so late for work, he neither shaved nor showered. He had a very sparse beard, and could skip the shave, but it bothered him to skip the shower. It couldn't be helped. He dressed quickly, and ran to the subway station. On the way, he stopped just long enough to buy a cup of coffee and a donut for breakfast. He berated himself for partying last night, a work night. He vowed never to do that again. He could not afford to lose his job. The gay bar, he spent too much money in last night, would just have to await his presence on weekends only.
Carlos's bucket seat faced forward. Across the aisle the bench seats faced the center of the subway car. He glanced across the aisle, and realized that a good-looking guy was trying to get his attention. The guy was everything Carlos was not; blond, blue eyed and very WASPY. Carlos undressed him in his imagination, and decided that he was uncut, five inches flaccid, and eight hefty inches aroused.
(Reality check: the man was cut, four inches flaccid and six inches erect.)
Anyway, Carlos was a gorgeous hunk of Latin manhood. He just didn't realize how attractive he was. He had always wished he had been born a WASP. He was dark, swarthy, and five feet, eleven inches tall. He was uncut, and his cock was the exact size as the WASP's. At first, he believed the man was flirting with him, and he felt it in his groin. Unfortunately, the man kept tapping his chin with his finger, and Carlos realized that he was telling him that some of his donut had found a home on his chin. The powdered sugar was prolific in his unshaven stubble.
Carlos retrieved the paper napkin from the carry-out bag and wiped his chin clean. He looked at his benefactor, smiled, and mouthed the words, "Thank you."
Carlos had three more stops before reaching his destination, but the kind stranger got off at the next station. When he vacated his seat, Carlos realized that the man's cell phone must have slipped out of his back pocket. It was lying on the seat.
Carlos jumped up, retrieved the phone, and intended on returning it. He yelled, "Wait," but the doors closed, and he was too late. Carlos felt bad, but he reasoned that he could call someone on the contact list, and find out the man's name and where he lived. As an alternative, the owner of the telephone, might call his own number, hoping that whoever found it (if anyone found it) would answer the call.
He got no call from the stranger, so he decided to wait to call someone on the contact list until his first break at work. Because he had been so late, however, Carlos was extra busy at work. He skipped his break times, and even skipped lunch. He forgot all about the phone until he got home and emptied his pockets. He decided to wait until after dinner to try to reach one of the man's contacts. That way, he'd be sure the person was home from work.
The phone was an I Phone, and Carlos had an Android. No matter, he figured out quickly enough how to get to the contact list. He called the first name on the alphabetical list, J. Abbott. He had no opportunity to say, "hello." The voice at the other end must have read his caller ID, and he spurted out, "I told you and your faggot brother never to call me again. There's no way I spawned two faggot sons. Your mother cheated on me for sure. I'm glad we're divorced." J. Abbott hung up immediately.
Carlos was shocked, but he had some new information. The handsome stranger's surname was Abbott, and he was gay. Carlos was more determined than ever to locate the stranger on the train.
There were two more Abbots on the contact list, K. Abbott, and W. Abbott. He called K. Abbott first. Again, he had no chance to say, "hello," but this time the greeting was different. A sweet feminine voice said, "Andy, darling, is everything all right? You always call me on Sunday."
"Sorry, Ms. Abbott," Carlos said. "I'm not Andy."
Kate Abbott screamed. My son is not hurt, is he? Did he have an accident? Please tell me that he's alive."
"Calm down, Mrs. Abbott," Carlos said. "He's fine as far as I know, but I found his cell phone on the subway, and I'm trying to locate him to return it."
"Thank God," Kate mumbled. "You really gave me quite a scare.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am," Carlos said. "I hadn't meant to."
"Don't apologize. You're doing a really good deed. What's your name?"
"Carlos." Carlos refrained from revealing his surname.
"Carlos," Kate said, "I'm Andy's mother, Kate. I live in Cleveland. Andy lives with his brother, Willie, in Manhattan. If you wait a moment, I'll give you Willie's phone number and their address."
Kate gave him all the information he needed, and signed off, "God bless you." Carlos never expected that. After all, he might be doing a good deed, but it was hardly divine.
Carlos noted that the W. Abbott on Andy's contact list, had the same telephone number as the one Kate had given him. He dialed the number on Andy's phone, and an automated voice informed him that William Abbott was not available. The robot requested that he should leave a short message, after the beep. He left a message explaining the reason for his call, and he gave Willie his name and his own phone number. His call was not returned that evening.
Willie was making the same mistake Carlos had made the evening before. He was out carousing at a gay bar in Greenwich Village on a work night. Carlos and Willie were kindred spirits; party animals.
The next morning, Carlos's phone rang in his office. He was surprised. All his friends and family knew that he wouldn't take personal calls at work, but he glanced at the caller ID, just to see who it was. It was W. Abbott and he decided to answer. If his boss should comment, he would tell him the circumstances of the call, and Carlos was sure that even Mr. Miserable would understand.
"Hello," Carlos said quietly.
"Hi, Mr. Ramirez." This is William Abbott. You called about my brother's cell phone."
"I really can't take personal calls at work, Mr. Abbott. Could you call me back after five?"
"Sure, but I have a better idea. It's Friday. A couple of friends and I are having a TGIF drink at a bar this evening. Why don't you join us and you can return the phone? When you get there just tell the maître d' who you are. He knows me well, and he'll get us together."
"What's the name of the place and where is it?"
"It's called The Male Room, and it's in Greenwich Village," Willie said.
Carlos broke out laughing. "The maître d' knows me well also. What time should I be there?"
"As early as you want to. I'm going there straight from work. I'm looking forward to meeting you. Ciao."
Carlos knew that Willie was gay. His father referred to him and Andy as faggots, but Willie didn't know about Carlos, until just this minute, when he outed himself. They were both excited about that.
Carlos approached the maître d'. They greeted each other cordially, and Carlos asked him if Willie Abbott had arrived yet.
"Yes, he's at the bar."
"Could you point him out to me please? We've never met," Carlos said.
"I think you'll both be very happy," the maître d' said with a broad grin.
He pointed Willie out to Carlos, and Carlos was stunned. The man sitting at the bar was the same man who lost his phone. It wasn't Willie. It was Andy. However, the maître d' said it was Willie, so when he got to the man at the bar, Carlos just asked, "Are you Willie?"
"Yes, you must be Carlos."
The two men shook hands firmly. They would have preferred to embrace, even to kiss, but they practiced restraint. Maybe, after dinner it would happen. Maybe they would even go home together. They were very attracted to each other.
Carlos could not refrain commenting on how much Willie looked like Andy.
"We're Identical twins," he explained. "Nobody can tell us apart. We used to play pranks on our parents and our friends often. They never knew who they were talking to, but when we grew up, the game lost its fun, and we stopped."
"Where's Andy now?" Carlos asked.
"Andy went to Philadelphia for the weekend. His boyfriend, Mitch, lives there, but he's moving to New York so they can be together. Andy went to help him pack. They just leased their own apartment. I'm going to be an empty nester."
"That's great," Carlos said. "Someday, I'd like to meet someone who would share an apartment with me, his or mine, I don't care."
"Me too," Willie said wistfully.
This was hardly the conversation two confirmed bachelors, and party animals, should be having, but they were both so smitten with each other, the words just flowed out of them.
Carlos sat down next to Willie and ordered a drink.
"In the meantime," Willie said, "give me Andy's phone so we don't forget about it after a couple of drinks."
Carlos reached into all his pockets. No phone. The light dawned.
"Shit," Carlos said, "At your suggestion, I came straight from work. The phone is still in my apartment. How did you get here?"
"By cab," Willie said.
"Me too. Why don't you come home with me after dinner, and pick up the phone?"
"That's the best invitation I've had since forever."
Willie could no longer resist. He leaned over and kissed Carlos on his lips. Carlos kissed back.
"Thanks," Willie said.
"For what?"
"You could have left the phone on the subway, or picked it up, cleaned out the data and kept it. You could even have made a zillion calls on it, but you didn't. You expended some effort to find the owner. If you hadn't been so good a Samaritan, we would never have met, so I repeat, thank you."
Carlos was embarrassed, so he changed the subject. "You said that you were meeting a couple of friends here, but you seem to be alone," he commented.
"Yes, Terry and Joel are my best friends, and Andy's also. The four of us grew up together. They should be here any minute. They're partners in their own law firm, and they went home after work to freshen up. By the way, they just got back from their honeymoon in Hawaii, so if they are all gushy and moonstruck, cut them some slack."
"Of course. It'll be fun to watch them."
Just then someone yelled, "Willie, here we are, all tanned and refreshed."
Terry and Joel enveloped Willie in their arms. They all kissed on the lips, and Carlos grew jealous. He wished he had friends close enough to be so affectionate. Carlos grew up in Miami, in a strict, nearly fundamentalist catholic family. When he realized that he was gay, he knew he'd move away someday, someplace where he could be himself. He went to college in New York, and never left. He made friends in his new hometown, but not close ones.
Just when he was feeling sorry for himself, Willie introduced him to Terry and Joel. They grabbed hold of him, hugged him, thanked him for his kind and generous soul, and ended up by kissing him on their closed lips. At that moment, Carlos prayed that he could become friends with these three guys, even if they were WASPs.
"Listen guys," Willie said, "our dinner reservations aren't until a half hour down the pike. Let's have a couple at the bar while we're waiting."
Willie's party animal tendencies were showing, and Carlos's party animal tendencies were happy to comply. Terry and Joel seemed a bit more reticent.
"We'll join you," Joel said, "but we'll have cokes. We want to be cold stone sober when we fuck each other tonight."
He and Terry laughed, and gave each other a sloppy kiss on the lips. Now Carlos knew why Willie told him to cut the guys a lot of slack. They were madly in love, and Carlos was happy for them.
When the waiter came to the bar, to lead them to their table, Joel whispered in Willie's ear, "I know, you are relationship challenged, but if you let this one get away, you're also a fucking fool."
Willie was so hot for Carlos, that he returned Joel's comment with a sheepish grin. Then he said, "I'm going home with him tonight after dinner," and Joel gave him yet another hug.
After dinner, they socialized at the bar for a while more, but none of them stayed long. Terry and Joel were anxious to get home and make love. Willie and Carlos were anxious to get to Carlos's apartment to have sex. What Willie and Carlos were about to find out is that they never once in their lifetimes had sex. Whenever they coupled, which was often, they made very passionate love.
Willie and Carlos entered Carlos's apartment oblivious to the world around them. If forced to do so, Willie could not describe one thing in the apartment. They undressed in the bedroom, letting their clothes fall in a heap. Maybe Willie couldn't describe anything in the apartment, but he was capable of describing Carlos's body down to the minutest detail. Carlos was enjoying the same insight.
Carlos ran into the bathroom and started the shower. They both tested the temperature of the waterfall, and when they were satisfied, they went in. They had intended only on cleansing themselves, but they were in the shower for two hours. Yes, they got themselves squeaky clean, but they made love also. They sucked, fucked, and gave each other golden showers. They both came twice. As the water began to cool, they rinsed off, dried each other, and fell on Carlos's bed atop the bedsheet.
They wrapped their arms around each other, and fell fast asleep. In the early morning hours, Willie began to give Carlos a very sensuous trip around the world. It ended with Willie giving Carlos oral sex, yet again. When they recovered, Carlos reciprocated. After that they fell asleep for another three hours.
Neither of them was in the mood to cook, so they went out for a late brunch or an early lunch, whichever way you measure the time limits of either meal.
As they were concluding their meal, Willie said, "Come home with me, and bring the phone. Andy is moving out, and I'd like you to move in. I want you to make sure that I'm never lonely."
"Yes, I'll go home with you, but first I have to go back to my apartment to get the phone. I want it understood that after I see your apartment, we will decide jointly which one makes the most sense to stay in.
Andy and Willie had a two-bedroom apartment suitable to have guests. Carlos had a much smaller one-bedroom. They decided, without debate, that Carlos would move into Willie's apartment as soon as possible. He made the move in less than a month.
When Andy and Mitch came home and settled into their newly occupied apartment, the three couples did everything together, but only on the weekends. During the week, they stayed home like all married couples do. Nobody wanted to jeopardize his job.
One day the twins and their partners decided to have a double wedding, and join Terry and Joel in heavenly bliss. Of course, Andy and Willie's father wasn't invited, but their mother was there, and she was beaming. Carlos did not invite a single one of his ultra conservative catholic family. Mitch's parents were dead, but he invited his brother, Logan, his wife, and their four-year-old son, who was ringbearer for all of them. Logan, Terry and Joel were best men for all of them as well.
The newlyweds went on their honeymoons together. They emulated Terry and Joel, and both couples went to Hawaii. They weren't newbies to making love, so they took the time to do a lot of sightseeing.
Shortly after they got home and were resettled, Willie asked Carlos in bed one day, "Do you believe in guardian angels?"
"No," Carlos answered, "but I'm not strong in that conviction. Give me some evidence, and I could change my mind."
`Well," Willie said, "it's my strong conviction that Andy's phone did not fall out of his pocket. One of our guardian angels took it out. I truly believe that It was a guardian angel that arranged for us to meet and fall in love."
"Maybe, maybe not," Carlos mumbled as his guardian angel closed his eyes, and he fell fast asleep.