Me and My Boys
Chapter 3
**If you don't mind reading about gay sex between characters that don't intentionally resemble anyone in real life and if it is safe for you to do so in your area then please enjoy!! Also, your feedback at Heavensforlife@aol.com is greatly appreciated. **
**The next morning, I woke up elated. I felt better than I had in weeks. After Jesse and I were done doing what we do best, he left, citing that he had an early morning. I'd learned so much about him the night before- we talked about his family (three sisters), his past relationships (a year-long engagement) and his job (buyer for Ralph Lauren) and I shared equal parts about my life. With both of our work schedules, we wouldn't be able to get together until this Friday, but that was ok. I needed time to focus on school, my friends and this thing with Will.
The next morning, bright an early, I met Charles for breakfast at Anaria's.
"Don't you ever work anymore?" I asked him. He was always doing brunches or lunches whatever power-people did. He told me he was being promoted to an executive. Leave it to Charles to accomplish that in merely four years.
"I've paid my dues," he replied. "I have recent graduates doing all of my work now."
"Wow, no more 80 hour weeks huh?"
"Nope. And did I mention that breakfast is on me?"
"It always is," I smiled at him.
"Now tell me about your date," he said. "Oh wait. I don't care."
"Shut up, shut up," I said. "You know you care. And it wasn't the date that was so amazing. It was seeing Will afterwards." Charles opened hi s mouth to say something caring and informative, but I cut him off. "Not like that. He came over while Jesse and I were having sex."
"Wow," he said smirking. "You are a genius."
"I know, I know. I learned from the best."
Charles appreciated the compliment and proceeded to tell me all about his night- first Jay, the mystery man with the impeccable taste and then the bartender who was referred to by Charles as simply Hot Bartender.
"You're kidding," I said speechless after the story. "Two in a row? You simply told him to use the upstairs shower and see himself out?"
"You make it sound so tacky," he said taking a sip of his Bloody Mary.
"Well," I said.
"Look, I'm young," he rationalized. "And I'm not getting any younger. I'm never going to be as thin and as happy as I am now. So I'm living it up."
And I wholly respected Charles for it. Later that day, I had a lunch with the other professors in my department. The whole thing was boring and pretentious and I couldn't wait to be out of there. I had plans to go home, watch an old Cary Grant film and call Jesse.
"Hey," I said. It was lame, but I couldn't think of anything else to say. Besides, he'd already called and left me a message earlier today, so either of us needing to sound cool was completely out of the question.
"Hey," he said. "It's been so long since I've heard from you." We both laughed.
"Shut up," I replied. "You called me this morning."
"Afternoon," he said. We talked for about ten minutes. He told me all about his day- almost losing his job over an order of scarves that wasn't going to arrive in time for the fall display. It was then my turn to tell him about my day. I got through the part about how boring all of my meetings were when my doorbell rang.
"There's someone at my door," I said. "It's probably Tanner. I'll call you right back."
"I'll hold my breath like I had to last night," he joked. I laughed and was still laughing when I got to the door.
"Hey Tan-" I began. "Whoa."
It was Will. He was standing there looking even better than he had the night before. His face had the perfect amount of three day stubble, his lips were the right equilibrium between too moist and too dry and his hair was longer than I'd remembered and hanging back like he'd just put his fingers through it. I noticed all of that, too afraid to look at the body I'm sure was hiding behind the Christian Dior blazer I remembered so well.
"Don't close the door," he said. "You've got to let me in." His accent was picture perfectly French and on any other day, it would have had me drooling on the floor.
"I thought I made myself clear last night," I said, my mood dropping and my smile fading.
"What you made clear last night is that we're still playing the petty games we left off with," he replied.
"Oh is that what this was? A game? When you up and left me without saying a word? After two fucking years, Will. Really? A petty game?"
"So I messed up," he said. By this time he'd come in and closed the door. I walked to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of vodka. "Can I have a drink?" he asked.
"Did you bring one?" I replied.
"Mikey, give me a chance to explain," he said.
"You have until I'm done with this drink," I said. He sat down. I stayed standing.
"I got a call to go back. There was a trip going through the Riveriera, the Alps, northern Africa and the Ivory Coast. Places I'd never seen, Mike. I knew that there would be pictures there that I had to take and sights that I had to see. If I had stopped to think... If I'd stopped to consult you, I know that I would have made the choice to stay and I would have missed a career, a life changing experience."
I let him get it all out albeit I wasn't listening to closely. The words sounded cheap. Me a week ago would have bought them. Me now wasn't even giving him the chance.
"That's a load of shit," I said. "Did you ever for once consider how it would make me feel to wake and find you gone? To have to go ask your boss, Will. Your boss who hates me, if he'd heard from you? I was humiliated last year and all I got from you was one email. One. And then you waltz back in here as if I had put my life in a freezer for you and was ready to just pick up where we left off? I don't know what you were smoking in the Alps but I hope you brought enough to last."
"I'm back, Mike," he said after a short pause. "For good. I'm back in the city. I'm working at a gallery."
I downed the rest of my vodka, burning my throat for a second. "Looks like your time is up," I managed to say holding my glass upside down.
"Let me take you out this weekend," he said standing.
"I have plans," I replied.
"Mike, come on," he said. "It's me."
"I have plans."
"Ok," he said. He'd finally made it to the door. "I get it. You've moved on. I feared you would have. But I hoped you..."
"You're a dime short and a day late," I said closing the door. And with that, the photographer and I had reached our last frame.
**I opted to stay in that night and instead of calling Jesse back, I kept myself occupied with lesson plans and student profiles. Uptown, however, Tanner was dealing with a problem of his own. He'd prepared a sizzling dinner for two, complete with candles and china for Frank and him. He knew that Mondays were particularly stressful for Frank and so after he came home from work, he whipped up a creamy pasta dish, dusted off an old bottle of wine and put on some linen pants and a tank.
All that was left to do was wait. And that's exactly what he did. He waited and waited. And when Frank finally got home, he simply said "You didn't have to do all this. I'm beat, babe." And he hopped into the shower.
An hour later, with no pasta and no sex, Frank was fast asleep.
Tanner called me and said he was coming over and fifteen minutes later he was knocking on my door.
"I don't get it, Mike," he said. "Why the fuck is this happening to us? I never thought this would happen to us."
"And I don't get why Will thinks he can do this to me."
"I mean, we've always prided ourselves in our amazing sex life. This is crazy."
"I'm finally happy, you know what I mean? It took long enough but I am."
"And now he just comes in late, goes straight to bed and doesn't even have the energy for a rub down."
"And now he just comes in here and demands I see him. He doesn't even acknowledge the fact that I'm seeing someone."
"What if he's seeing someone else?"
"He isn't seeing someone else," I chimed in on his situation for the first time.
"How can I be sure? It makes perfect sense. Long hours, no time for sex. It's how it starts, Mike. What if he's found another young hussy to roll around town with? I'm going to ask him."
"What and make him upset with you three months before your guys' commitment ceremony? Fuck no, I already bought my suit," I reasoned.
But I knew it wouldn't be that easy to talk Tanner out of anything. He had it set in his mind that Frank was cheating and he wasn't going to rest until he figured it out.
**The next week was a blur. I answered every phone call afraid that it was Will on the other line. I went out with Charles on Wednesday but I couldn't think of anything besides Jesse and Will. I had lunch with Tanner and although he and Frank had eventually found time to have sex in the past four days, he was still worried. And Beau was nowhere to be found... probably pre-occupied with his budding romance with Luke.
As for me, I was trying my best to keep busy. The upcoming would accomplish just that. On Thursday, I had a dinner with all 15 of my new advisees and on Friday, my date with Jesse and on Saturday, a swank soiree that Charles was throwing to usher in the new season... all in all, a busy weekend to keep my mind off of Will... hopefully.
In order to prepare, and to further keep my mind occupied, I called Charles and told him we were going to Manhattan's gay mecca- the Gold Gym in the Village where muscles and sweat were in abundance and clothing wasn't.
Charles' car pulled up to my building at 5 on Thursday, right in time to catch the after-work workout crowd and as usual Charles was dressed to kill. His biker-style shorts were tighter than sausage casing and left nothing to the imagination and his Body Armor t-shirt showed off every hard edge the man owned. I was just as turned on as I was relieved he wasn't wearing his usual baby-T that was baggy but barely came to his ribcage... a definite show stopper on the treadmill.
When we got to the gym, all eyes were on my friend and I got some remnant ogling just for being in his shadow. We started with weights, with no less than 10 guys coming over to see if we needed an extra spot.
"I swear, sometimes a guy just wants to work out," Charles said when we'd finally made it to cardio on the bikes. We were set for a ten mile course and then it was off to a cool down on the treadmill.
"Maybe if you weren't dressed like a prostitute, they'd leave you alone. You'll notice I don't have that problem," I said. Just as the words left, a cute young co-ed walked past our bikes and flashed us a million dollar smile.
"Excuse me," Charles said to the kid. "Come here." No please. No thank you. That was Charles. "Is there a reason you just cruised us?"
The kid looked dumbstruck. He was cute, but couldn't have been old enough to buy his own drinks. His blond hair was wet and curly and he was tall enough to start on any basketball team.
"I mean, here we are, two guys, sexy as hell, sure, but don't you think it would be distracting for you if every two seconds someone walked by, eye-fucking you while you were trying to work out?"
"I guess," the kid mumbled. I was embarrassed for him, but I couldn't help but laugh inside.
"Then why do you insist on walking past me with your `I'll meet you in the shower gaze?" Charles continued the assault.
"I wasn't, I was just..."
"You're saying you don't want to meet me in the showers?"
"Charles, come on," I tried to interject. I was quickly overruled.
"I mean, I do," the guy said. "But I didn't want to distract you from your workout or anything. I'm really sorry, sir."
The word sir threw me off. We weren't that old. This kid thought we were ancient simply because we weren't working out between class and work-study.
"Well then you're lucky I'm done with my workout then," Charles said stopping his bike. He got off and if the kid thought Charles was sexy peddling away, nothing could have prepared him for the sight of Charles, standing tall, toweling his glowing body off. Charles gave me a wink and walked off with the young blondie in tow.
A while back, New York City gyms wised up and decided to install private steam rooms because stopping the mansex in the village was an impossibility. And into one of those private steamers went Charles and the co-ed. No words were exchanged. The kid knew exactly what was expected of him and as soon as both of them were inside, the door closed and the steam rising, the blonde cutie was on his knees.
While I finished up my workout with 500 jump ropes, Charles was working out the one part of his body that required no gymnasium equipment and the kid was getting a mouthful for it.
"Yeah, kid," Charles said, guiding the younger man's head up and down his cock. The kid came up for air, looked up at Charles and panted "you're so fucking hot sir."
Evidently, the word sir was enough to get Charles going on another level and before the kid knew it, he was swallowing rope after rope of Charles hot cream. He must have enjoyed the taste because he drank it all up, much to Charles amusement and delight.
"That was good kid," Charles said turning off the steamer and toweling himself off. "Why don't we go to my place and keep it up."
"I have somewhere to be. My name is Justin," he said. While Charles stood there putting his gear back on, slightly annoyed by the kid's audacity, the kid took one of Charles' fingers and traced his number onto the still steamy glass door.
"What makes you think I want that?" Charles asked. The kid, bold as ever, then took Charles hand and moved it to his own confined bulge. Charles felt one of the biggest cocks he'd ever come into contact with.
"I just thought you might want to see what else I can do," Justin breathed. Charles did. He memorized the number... he'd be keeping it for future reference.
**While Charles and I were working out, Tanner was sitting at Frank's office, trying desperately to clear the air.
"I didn't want to have to come down here, Frank, but this is the only way I could get your attention," Tanner said.
"What's the matter?" Frank asked.
"In the past seven days, we've only had sex twice, Frank. Sunday and yesterday," Tanner said emphatically.
"I've been tired and busy, Tanner. You know that."
"I do know that, but we always said we wouldn't become one of those couples." After a pause, Tanner confidently moved forward. "Are you cheating on me?"
"God no," Frank said immediately. "What makes you think that?"
"It was just a... I didn't really think that." He definitely still thought that.
"Look, Tanner," Frank began. "I didn't want to tell you until it was a certainty, but I'm up for partner."
"What?!?" Tanner screamed. "Are you serious? Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't want to tell you unless I got it. They pick next week and the workload until then is intense. I have to prove I'm cut out to be partner."
"Of course you are, Frank," Tanner assured. "You should have just told me. This is great!"
And that was that. Tanner was satisfied, went home and cooked yet another uneaten romantic dinner.
**As for me, I spent the evening schmoozing with my students. They were each wide eyed and young, ready to take Manhattan by storm. I made a brief speech about responsibility, college being harder than high school and the best years of their lives. And while I was standing at the head of the table with my glass raised, my eyes stumbled across something I hadn't expected in a million years. Sitting at the last chair to my left was the cute blondie that Charles had just hooked up with that very afternoon.
After dinner while everyone on my advisee list were mingling, trying to get on my good side and trying to make quick friends, I walked to the other end of the table and shook the guy's hand. He simply smiled at me and I recognized him from his photo as Justin Stiles.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice me," he said. He looked a hell of a lot cuter without buckets of sweat covering him.
"Well this is a coincidence. I hope my friend's behavior this afternoon didn't give you a bad impression of me," I said.
"In no such way," he replied. "You're friend's behavior was stellar. And my impression of you was formed by that glamour shot of you in the student/teacher handbook."
"Oh, that old thing?" I joked.
"Yeah that old thing," he said. "That's going to be the wet dream of every closeted English major this semester."
"Don't say that." I pretended to blush. "Science majors will like it too."
"Oh I'm sure," he said laughing. "I'm Justin."
"I know," I said. "Good luck with the beginning of classes next week, Justin." I assumed that Justin and Charles' romp in the steamer had been a one time thing. Charles didn't usually do the repeat thing, but in true Charles fashion, I was in for a surprise.
"I assume I'll be seeing you at your friend's party on Saturday night," Justin said.
"You're going?" I asked, taken a back.
"Oh definitely," he replied to my surprise. "And I won't be dressed as one of the cabana boys. See you then, teach..." and with that he walked away.
**That night I called Beau because I hadn't spoken to him since my emergency meeting on Monday. I was used to going days without seeing him. He lived a busy life of leisure, especially when he was with someone. I figured he wasn't in any desperate need of money, but I decided to give him a call anyway.
"You won't believe this guy, Mike," he said, referring to his new squeeze, Luke.
"So we've started hanging out at rehearsals. He's leaving Company tomorrow and doing a stint in Wicked, but this past week has been great," he said. I interrupted, mentioning his rule about dating co-stars (the term stars being thrown around loosely).
"I figured I could make an exception since he's leaving the show soon. Plus, we aren't like having sex during rehearsals."
"Just heavy petting," I joked.
"You're such a perv!" he said, probably as red as a tomato. "Our relationship isn't like that. He's sweet. And he knows EVERYONE in the village. You won't believe the gossip this guy can dig up."
He guy sounded like your classic bitchy Queen of Manhattan. They were a breed to be feared as well as respected because they had the power to ruin ones reputation as well as build it up.
"He's given me all the smear on Becket and boy am I glad I'm done with that cock sucker. I mean really, he lived with his parents until just recently. Can you believe that?"
I said something supportive, but I couldn't help but be nervous for my friend. When he and Luke inadvertently split, would Beau be the object of vicious gossip? I certainly hoped not, told Beau to be careful and that I'd see him at Charles' on Saturday and hung up.
Before going to bed that night, I checked my messages on the answering machine I should have thrown out as soon as voicemail was invented- but if I still I had my plug in phone, I still needed my archaic machine.
As you might have guessed, the only message of consequence was from a persistent Will. It went something like this: I know you're used to guys giving up you Mike, but you aren't going to get rid of me that easily. I've spent the last year thinking about you every day and I love you and I know you love me too. I don't know what you've got with this fellow you were with the other night, but it can't be like what we shared. Remember the long nights, the talks, the feeling of our lips together while we slept. Mike, I miss you and I know you'll give me another chance... don't wait too long and end up wasting another year.
I was furious. I was confused. It sounded so god-damned sincere it made me sick. How could he do this to me? Not now. Now while I was happy. It took me a moment to realize I was crying.
I couldn't think that night, so I went to bed. I didn't sleep well at all and woke up twice in the middle of the night wondering who I could call. I knew any one of my friends would be up to talk in a minute, but it wasn't talking I wanted. I wanted to be with someone.
I finally called Jesse at two a.m. and he knew something was wrong.
"What's the matter?" I noticed him whispering. "What time is it?"
"I'm sorry to call so late," was all I said.
"Are you alright? Do you need me?" he asked.
I suddenly felt really stupid. Why was I doing this? Because of a little voice message from my ex. How about growing a pair, Mike, I thought to myself.
"No, I'm fine. I just had too much to drink tonight and I've been calling everyone I know. I'm sorry," I said. He said something and then chuckled before hanging up. I went back to bed and didn't wake up until I needed to the next morning.
**The next day was my date with Jesse but I was still plagued by my phone call from Will. I needed the three opinions so I spent much of the morning on the phone when I should have been doing lessen plans for classes that were to begin on Monday.
Beau was up first.
"I think that is the most romantic thing he's ever done for you," he said. "He obviously loves you, Mike, and I think love always deserves a chance."
"Ok, so if Becket said he loved you, you'd give him another go?"
"Becket is a liar so no. Will just made a mistake. I'm not saying you should. But I am saying that I would given the circumstances."
Next was Charles who was surprisingly easy to reach these days. Apparently I caught him on his way back to his office from the office gym. This partner thing was working out for him.
"Look, you obviously want to fuck him, so do it. And I'd suggest you do it soon before you and Jesse get too serious and wind up having a DTR and going exclusive."
For Charles it was simple- the separation of sex and feelings. And for me it usually was too, but I don't think I could manage that separation with Will.
"Look, you're instinct is going to kick in. All I'm saying is if he stays in this close proximity to you, he's either going to drive you crazy or you're going to have the urge to jump his bones. I don't want you to go crazy, Mike."
Tanner was last and what he had to say was as predictable as a made-for-TV-movie.
"He's just going to hurt you again. I would cut him off completely, Mike. You don't want to be where you were a year ago two years from now, do you? And you're doing so well with Jesse. Come on, don't be stupid. Let Will go."
That evening, I once again joined Charles at the gym to relieve stress. When I got home, I had over two hours to kill before Jesse and I met up for drinks and then some dancing. In that time, my mind went a million and one places and I settled on the one thing I didn't think I would do yesterday.
"Are you busy?" I asked the person on the other line. They said no and they'd be over in 5 minutes and ten minutes later, Will walked into my apartment.
**Thanks for continuing to follow the story of Mike and his boys. I hope you enjoyed it. Please send me your feedback at heavensforlife@aol.com. And also check out my other story on Nifty They Say.