The Bandini Affair 30
Draginacht@aol.com (AKA Jeff)
Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. The story contains graphic descriptions of sex between men. Anyone who is forbidden by law to read such material must stop now. This story is being posted to the Nifty Archive solely for the enjoyment of its readers.
This story is a spin-off of an earlier story, "David's Initiation." If you haven't read "DI," that won't be a problem because this story can stand-alone. However, some of the characters from "DI" will appear throughout the story. "David's Initiation," along with earlier stories can be found in the Author's section of the Nifty Archive.
Reader comments are welcome, just be sure to include the title in your subject line (even "TBA" will do) so that it doesn't get dumped as spam.
Chapter 30
Sunday morning Leo and Matt walk hand in hand to church. Mike and Todd join them along the way. Upon entering, they find that Dave and Tony are already there, as are Dan and Berk. Just before the service begins, Kyle and Logan slide in and occupy the pew just behind them. Leo tries not to smile so much to avoid drawing attention. He is among friends - close friends. They accept him for who he is and he is one of them. He's never had friends like these. Not in high school or college, not ever. He feels a growing confidence that has been missing from his life. He slips his hand inside Matt's and feels proud.
After the service the group stood outside the church visiting. Dave announced he and Tony would like to invite them all to their house for their Platoon Christmas party and asked whether Saturday or Sunday after Christmas would be best. They quickly settled on Sunday and then everyone went their separate ways.
Leo sat in the office thinking about how his life had changed. Matt and another employee were out in the yard rearranging an area to accommodate a shipment of plants that would arrive tomorrow. Business had been slow for several weeks. A slowdown is normal this time of year but not this slow. He wished he knew more about the financial health of his family business and decided it was about time he got more deeply involved. He slipped into the break room and fixed a cup of tea.
Back in the office, he sipped his tea while he watched Matt through the window. Matt was bent over moving a 2-gallon container of hollies and presenting his narrow, tight ass for Leo to focus on. Leo remembered last night and how different it was from two nights earlier. Yes, Thursday night's sex was definitely physical and mental, but more than anything else it was emotional. And the spiritual element was also present but emotion was controlling. And then last night they started out about equally balanced between mental, emotional and physical. Of course the spiritual always seemed to come at the end. Leo was very pleased that Matt had taken the initiative and offered himself as a sort of consummation of their equal partnership. But after they recovered and he took charge, Leo realized he was first driven mentally, which quickly transitioned to intense physicality with not much emotional attachment. He'd never experienced anything so physically consuming as that moment riding Matt over the edge and then being flipped and finished in a blaze of his partner's passion.
"Hey, whatcha doin?" Matt asked. He saw Leo jump slightly and spin around to face him. Leo had been so engrossed in reliving last night that he hadn't seen Matt stand up and walk toward the office.
"Oh..." Leo replied quickly. He wondered if the bulge in his pants was showing then decided he hoped it was. "Thinking about you." He smiled.
"H-m-m, so I see." Matt chuckled. He made sure the door was closed, crossed the room and swept Leo into his arms for a brief kiss. It lasted just long enough to say `I missed you' but brief enough to comply with their agreed upon limitation on PDAs in the workplace.
"Seriously, what's going on?"
"Not much," Leo replied. "And that's what bothers me. I mean like, business is way off. Have you noticed it?"
"Yeah." Matt answered. "Last year it was down some from previous years but this year is depressingly slow. So slow in fact, that I'm beginning to get worried."
"So I think it's time I got more involved. Whadda ya think?" Matt didn't answer immediately; he just stood in that commanding pose, tall, slender, broad shoulders, weight shifted to one leg causing one hip to be lower than the other, projecting a strikingly sexy image and he looked into Leo's eyes.
"Ya know, I think you're the right man to do that." Matt said, breaking the silence. "I mean, Pop is still running things, making all the major decisions and I wonder if he could use some help." Matt quickly tried to clarify his comment. "Not that I think Pop's not capable, it's just that he might welcome some help; ya know what I mean?"
"I think I do," Leo replied as he reached out and stroked Matt's upper arm. They smiled at each other and then went about their work.
Christmas seemed to be approaching with accelerating speed. Leo and Matt maintained a professional relationship while at the Bandini Nursery but their evenings were sometimes torrid as they became totally familiar with each other.
Friday, December 18th, was a big day for the Carlsen family. It was arrival day for Ben, his wife Charlene and their three kids from London. Mom and Pop picked them up and helped them get settled at the house. The plan was for them to have an early dinner and go straight to bed because the time change would have their sleep/awake cycles all screwed up. Saturday would be their first day to greet the rest of the family.
Leo's problem (Matt would call it an opportunity) was deciding when to tell his brother about him and Matt. It would have to be soon because Matt was already a functioning member of the family. Should he do it with everyone present or should they seek privacy. Pop had already anticipated the problem and offered a suggestion.
Saturday, Leo went to his parents' house for lunch with Mom, Pop, Ben, and Charlene. Megan was in on the plan and had taken the kids to an amusement park so Leo would have no distractions. After lunch, Leo invited Ben to take a stroll in the garden so they could visit.
"Leo, I was sorry to hear about you and Marsha breaking up." Ben began as they stepped off the back porch. "I wish I'd been here for you but just couldn't make it. How're things going now?"
"Oh, I'm fine now. Marsha and I didn't exactly have an amicable separation but it wasn't hostile either."
"That's good to hear. So are you putting your life back together?"
"Yes, I believe so." Leo paused as they sat in a couple of chairs in the gazebo.
"Have you tried dating yet" Ben was naturally curious.
"Ha-ha," Leo laughed. "You might say that," he replied. Visions of him and Matt engaged in hot sexual intimacy flashed through his mind. That wasn't exactly `dating' but it filled a lot of other squares.
"Look, I'm sure there are tons of women who would love to have a man as good as you. Anyone special yet?"
That was an opening Leo couldn't let pass. He looked straight at his brother and began to speak.
"Ben, when you called at Thanksgiving, there's something I wanted to tell you but not over the phone." From previous experience, Leo had decided to get it over quickly.
"Okay," Ben replied.
"I'm living with someone."
"Nice!" Ben exclaimed with a smile. "Do I get to meet her?"
"Oh, you already have." Leo knew he was toying with his brother and it was a lot of fun.
"Hm-m-m," Ben said as he searched his brain for all the ladies he remembered.
"And it's a him,' not a her.'" Leo said and waited for a reaction.
"No..." Ben exclaimed in quiet disbelief and obvious surprise. Leo also noticed Ben smiling slightly like he used to when he thought Leo was joking with him.
"It's true..." Leo waited for further reaction. Ben's smile faded then reappeared as he thought through his brother's startling announcement.
"You're sure?" Ben asked.
"You mean, am I sure I'm living with a man instead of with a woman, or am I sure I know what I'm doing?"
"It has to be the latter because I'm sure you'd know the difference with the former. " Ben chuckled a little, which lightened the mood.
"Without a doubt." Leo smiled.
"Wow! Give me a few minutes to get over the shock!" Ben continued looking at Leo, studying him as if expecting to see some indication that his brother was gay, some sign he'd missed.
"Wow!" Ben repeated his earlier expression as he straightened in his chair. "Now I understand about you not wanting to tell me at Thanksgiving, but... I guess this means I'm the last to find out; like Mom and Pop and Megan already know." Ben was painting a picture in his mind so that he understood who all the players were.
"Yup, the whole family... this side of the Atlantic..." Leo tried to inject some levity to the conversation.
Ben stood, reached out, pulled his little brother into his arms and gave him a long hug.
"Thanks for telling me. And you were right not to tell me over the phone. Because I wouldn't have been able to do this." Ben gave Leo another squeeze and then released him. "Might that have had anything to do with your breakup with Marsha?" Ben asked as they sat down again.
Leo filled his brother in with an abbreviated version he'd told his parents. Ben had a few simple questions and the last one was the best.
"So, who's the lucky guy?" Ben asked as he watched Leo's face erupt in one huge grin.
"Well, I guess I'm the lucky guy. I have a partner and I think you know him."
"REALLY!" Ben exclaimed. He wracked his brain to think of the few gay friends he knew who might also know Leo.
"Remember Matt Close?"
"You don't mean..." Ben's eyebrows arched above his eyes. "Not that skinny kid who used to work for Pop in the summers!" Ben's mouth was gaping open.
"Ha-ha, yup..." Leo chuckled at his brother's reaction; it was almost the same as his when he first saw Matt several weeks ago. "And you should see him now!"
"Something tells me that's going to happen real soon, no?"
"Yes. We'll both be here for dinner this evening and I really hope you approve." Leo had a questioning look on his face.
"You want MY approval, little brother? Obviously the three other members of our family approve so who am I to go against that trend," a rhetorical question not needing a response. "Oh! I just remembered; Matt was the one who called the paramedics when Pop had his mini-stroke. I sure need to thank him for that."
"Yeah, that was a stroke of luck; no pun intended." Leo replied. "Look, I don't mean to break up this conversation but I need to get back to work." Leo said as he lifted himself from the chair. "I hope you can find time to visit the nursery while you're home."
"That's very high on my agenda. I have a lot of memories of that place, most good, a few not so good, but I really want to show the kids around the place and tell them stories."
"Yeah, I'll bet. I might like to hear some of those stories, too." Leo said as the two brothers stepped up onto the back porch. Ben still had several questions for his brother but decided to give them more thought before asking them.
Dinner that evening was a normal family affair. Ben observed how comfortably Matt seemed to meld with the group, like he belonged. After the table was cleared and the adults sat around drinking coffee, Pop made a surprise announcement. He called for a family meeting at 4:00 PM the next day, Sunday. And he was clear that Matt was expected to join them.
Sunday morning, Leo and Matt attended the early church service then went to the nursery. The plan was for them to leave at about 3:30 PM and let another experienced and trusted employee lock up at 5:00 PM.
Both men wondered why Pop was calling a meeting of the family; it must be something very important. But, in sharp contrast to the way they kept their communication open, on this occasion Leo and Matt kept their thought to themselves. Had they shared their thoughts they would have discovered they were focused on the same ideas.
The meeting began at 4:04, which qualified for being on time. "It's rare that we have the whole family together like this so Mom and I want to put some things on the table in order to develop a family perspective." Matt was wondering why he was there. Megan's husband and Ben's wife were with their kids at Megan's house. Pop began.
"To those of us who've been close to the business I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that we are struggling. The economy downturn has hurt the construction business quite hard and existing homeowners are delaying their plans to re-landscape. Of course, that's bad news for people in our business.
"Therefore," Pop paused, contemplating how to phrase the rest of his announcement. "I'm faced with something I never thought I'd have to deal with." He paused again. "If we want to survive... and it pains me to say this... we're going to have to lay off some of our longtime and valued employees." Pop looked around the table for some kind of visual feedback and the faces all expressed concern.
"It's either that or we close the nursery." Pop didn't have long to wait for a response.
"Oh, Pop, is it really that serious?" Ben exclaimed.
"I'm afraid it is, Son," Pop responded sadly.
"Surely there must be some alternative!" Ban countered.
"Okay," Pop continued. "That's what this meeting is all about. The subject in is the middle of the table so let's talk about it."
For the better part of the next hour, the Carlsen family reviewed the unpleasant details of the potentially losing the family business. Matt remained silent during the entire discussion. He had some opinions but felt somewhat out of place and kept them to himself. His reticence didn't go unnoticed.
"Matt, we haven't heard from you, yet." Pop said when the discussion slowed. "I'd like to know your thoughts on all of this.
"Well... uh..." Matt was obviously embarrassed. " I... uh... keep thinking back to a book I read in Junior College while working on my associate degree." He looked around the table and saw everyone looking at him, so he continued.
"I remember it was in Management Class and the instructor gave us a list of books to chose from and write a book report on one of them. I don't remember the name of the book I chose but it wasn't as thick as the others." Matt smiled and everyone chuckled.
"But I found it enjoyable to read. The book was about how a spice company somewhere in the Northeast, Baltimore maybe, and what they did to survive the great depression. It was a family business, just like Bandini, and I think there are some parallels we could look at." Matt paused hoping to get some comments.
"Go ahead, please," Ben requested.
"Yes, do." Mom added.
"Well... As I recall, the owner called a meeting of all the employees Ð they had many more then we do. And like you, Pop, that owner had been struggling with how to save the family business. So... he told his employees that one of his options was to lay off most of them, and even that might not save the business. Another option might be that no one would be laid off if they could agree to reduce everyone's incomes to survival wages, but they would share the company profits. For him, he'd forgo any income until the business was able to return their wages to normal. At the same time, he asked each employee for ideas and suggestions on how to improve the business. He wanted to know how they could become more efficient and save money.
"Surprisingly, the employees went for option two. There were no other jobs to go to if they lost the one they had. And it worked!" Matt exclaimed with a big smile. It's hard not to smile at a happy ending, which was evidenced by the smiles he got in return.
"Now, I know this isn't the great depression. But there may be some ideas here that we can entertain."
"Well, I'm all ears," Pop said with emphasis. That was followed by `me too' from everyone else. "I get the impression you've already given this some thought so please share that with us."
"Yes, sir." Matt replied. "I think we'd have to make a similar proposal to our employees and let them choose. On the wage issue, we won't have to consider `survival wages' but we'll have to have some reductions. I'm prepared to take a wage cut right now..."
"That won't be necessary." Pop interrupted.
"Okay, it's just a thought.
"And so can I." Leo interjected.
"Let's hear the rest of Matt's ideas before we start making any changes, please." Pop was maintaining control of the meeting. "You still have the floor, Matt."
"We'll probably have to reduce our inventory, too. Our suppliers won't like that because they're in the same boat we're in, but I don't see any choice. And we'll have to ask our employees for their ideas on how we can be more efficient, just like in the book." Matt stopped talking and looked around the table. A momentary silence filled the room.
"Brilliant!" Ben exclaimed. Five faces turned to look at him.
"Brilliant?" Leo asked with a chuckle. "You've been in England too long!" That proved to be the spark of humor to relieve the seriousness of the discussion. Everyone laughed and relaxed a bit.
Pop reclaimed the floor. Over the next few days he wanted to sit down with Matt and develop a more detailed plan and the best way to present it to the employees. They should probably wait until after the New Year. No sense in throwing cold water on the festive season.
"Now that we have a direction, Mom and I have an announcement." Everyone was looking at them as Mom placed her hand on top of Pop's and they smiled at each other.
"We've talked it over and we believe it's time we retired." There was no immediate response from their children. The fact was that each of the adult offspring had individually decided they would like to see their parents start enjoying their senior years. So the announcement was music to their ears.
"I never considered a time when I wouldn't be working at the nursery but after my stroke I had time to think about a lot of stuff. Ben," he looked at his son. "You have a professional career and London is too far away to be involved. Meg," Pop looked at his daughter. "You've always shied away from working more than part-time so you'd have plenty of time for your family." Pop paused briefly then added, "And I support your decision completely." Pop then looked at Leo and paused.
"So, Leo..." he paused again. "Are you and Matt the least bit interested in running the family business?"
(To be continued.)