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When You Least Expect By Josh Blake
Chapter 37
The following weekend found Braden and me back in Chattanooga at the Bed and Breakfast. This time, we brought Austin and Lucas along. Austin was going to sit down with Rose and Dorothy and look over all the books for the business and see what he was getting himself into. Mom and Jack came along as well. Rose and Dorothy hadn't seen Jack in quite a while, and they wasted no time in doting over him. He remembered his two "aunts" and wasn't shy around them.
"Do you really think you can help us?" Rose asked as Austin reviewed some of the statements and records she had kept.
"I do," Austin said. "I see several areas where we can make some improvements and get business up. You're doing well enough, but you're really not tapping into the full profit potential."
"Tell us some of your ideas," I said.
"Yes, please. After all, you're really going to be working for Josh, not us," Rose said.
"The first place I see is with the marketing aspect. You really aren't doing much marketing. People drive up here and see the sign, or they hear about the place from word of mouth and that's it. We need a full presence on social media. That's all of them. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even TikTok."
"What's a TikTok?" Dorothy asked.
"It's a form of social media. It's very popular with younger people," Austin explained.
"Oh. I don't want the place to be overrun with partiers," Rose said.
"It won't be," Austin said. "We also need online booking. Right now, everyone has to call you to book a stay. Not everyone wants to do that. We can set up a website and let people book through it."
"Well, that all sounds fine," I said. "Rose, Dorothy, do you agree?"
"Yes, I think it all sounds just fine," Rose said. Dorothy nodded in agreement.
"What else? Is there anything else we need to do?" I asked.
"I do have some other ideas, but I think we need to focus on this for now," Austin said.
"What other ideas?" Rose asked. "I want to know."
"Okay. For starters, I think we should hire a chef. Not right now, but later on."
"But I do all the cooking," Rose said.
"Yes you do," Austin said. "And your cooking is phenomenal. But I think that we could do even more if we had a chef. Right now, the only people who eat here are the people who are staying here. They get to experience your cooking, but no one else does. People come up on the mountain and they get caught up in the heritage of the place. They expect to have a good, Southern meal somewhere. I think if we expanded and had a restaurant in addition to the bed and breakfast concept, we'd draw a lot of folks in. They come up here and visit some of the attractions, then they come here to eat."
"That's an interesting idea," Braden said. "Would you run the restaurant totally separate from the bed and breakfast?"
"Yes and no," Austin said. "We would have to expand. There's just not enough room here for that. The restaurant would serve meals to those who are staying here. It would still be included in their stay. The difference would be that they could eat basically whenever they wanted to, not just when Rose is serving breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Plus we serve anyone who wants to just stop by for a meal at Rose's Kitchen."
"Oh, Rose's Kitchen. I like the sound of that," Rose said.
"That's just one idea," Austin said. "I like having your name somewhere in it. Rose's Mountain Café is another name I thought of. But we can talk about names later. I think we need to make the other changes we talked about right away, then think about this idea for later on down the road."
Everyone agreed with Austin on his suggested improvements, and he assumed management of the B&B. Since he was still taking classes back in Mississippi for the time being, some of his management took place by phone. He came up on weekends to take care of necessary business.
In order to relieve some of the workload from Rose, we hired an assistant to help her out. His name was John, and while I only had eyes for Braden, I have to admit that he made me drool a little. Braden agreed that he had the same effect on him.
John was a 25-year-old college student from the nearby Tennessee town of Soddy-Daisy. His skin was like a rich caramel and his big brown eyes were easy to get lost in. He kept his hair trimmed short. It was obvious that he worked out frequently. He dressed professionally in black pants that perfectly hugged his sculpted ass and a white button-down shirt that equally accentuated his pecs and all of the other muscles in his upper torso. While he hadn't given off any vibes concerning his sexuality, at least not yet, he was a beautiful example of the male form and gave all of us something to admire.
"I do declare," Rose said, "That may be one of the sexiest men I have ever seen." We were sitting out on the front porch one warm summer afternoon.
"Not thinking of switching teams on me are you, Rosie?" Dorothy asked. She had been seeing a speech therapist, and her speech was greatly improved.
"Of course not, darling," Rose said. "You know you're my only love." Rose gave Dorothy a quick peck on the lips and stroked her hand which was holding a glass of lemonade.
"If I was about thirty years younger, I'd take a run at him," Mom said. She was sitting in a swing on the other end of the porch sipping a glass of sweet tea and fanning herself with a copy of "Southern Living" magazine.
"Jesus, Mom. Don't put that picture in my head," I pleaded, laughing.
"Don't lecture me, young man. Not after the stuff I put up with from the two of you," Mom said.
Braden and I were sitting together on a wicker sofa. His right hand was in my left. I picked up his hand and kissed it. Braden blushed. Everyone laughed.
John appeared on the porch.
"What's all the laughter about? Did I miss something?" John asked.
"No, but we missed you," Mom said, smiling. She batted her eyes in a flirtatious manner.
"Dear God. Take me now," I mumbled. Braden was laughing so hard he was about to fall out of his seat.
"Please forgive my mother-in-law," Braden said. "She doesn't get out much." Braden was still laughing.
"I'm flattered," John said. "Ms. Patti, any man would be lucky to have you as his woman."
I was so embarrassed I was ready to crawl under the porch and hide.
"What I really came out here for was to let you all know that dinner is ready," John said.
"How nice," Rose said. "I have to admit, I was skeptical about having someone else do some of the cooking, but it's pretty nice to have someone tell me that dinner is ready for a change."
"Ms. Rose, I can't guarantee it's as good as your cooking, but I did my very best," John said.
John really did do his best. We entered the dining room to find a spread of shrimp fettuccine alfredo, garlic bread, asparagus, and Caesar salad. The food was superb.
"Where did you learn to cook like that?" Dorothy asked. She slurred her words a little
"Mostly from my grandma," John said. "She was a real good cook."
"What happened to her?" Braden asked.
"She died back in 2020," John said. "She was a victim of the pandemic. We all got it, me, my mom, my brother, and my grandma, but she just wasn't strong enough to fight it. The rest of us got better."
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "We lost a lot of good people to that virus. If only people would have listened and got the vaccine, we might not have lost so many."
"I still miss her," John said. "She was just one of those people who would light up a room. When she was there, it was like everyone was drawn to her. She made you want to be around her. She never met a stranger. And if you came into our house a stranger, you left as family. Because that's just how she was. She made sure you left with a full stomach, and you knew you were loved."
A tear escaped John's eye and ran down his cheek. He quickly brushed it away.
"What was her name?" Mom asked.
"Her name was Carol," John said. "But to family, which was pretty much everyone she knew, she was Big Momma."
"I wish we could have met her," Mom said. "If she was anything like you, I can see that she would have been a great person."
"She was the best," John said. "Anyway, who's ready for dessert?"
John disappeared into the kitchen and emerged a minute later with a huge homemade banana pudding!
"I hope you all like banana pudding," John said. "This was Big Momma's recipe. She made it to take to church and every time we had a dinner at the house."
"Like it? Braden said. "It's only my favorite dessert ever!" We all laughed.
"You can't be from the South and not like banana pudding," Rose added. "I think it's a rule." Everyone agreed.
John's Big Momma's banana pudding was a hit. So much so that we all agreed that when the restaurant portion of the business was expanded in the future, Big Momma's banana pudding had to be on the menu!
After dinner, Braden and I took a walk.
"After all that food we just ate I feel like I need to walk for a day," Braden said.
"I know," I agreed. "But the food was excellent. You know, John may be a good candidate for the chef position when we expand the restaurant."
"But he's not a chef," Braden said. "He's good, don't get me wrong, but he hasn't had formal training."
"So what," I said. "We'll get him some training. I think when we get Austin up here again and let him taste of some of John's cooking, he'll agree."
Braden and I finished our walk and sat down on one of the benches in the backyard area where we had our wedding a few short years ago.
"It feels like a lifetime since we got married here," Braden said. "One kid already in school and another on the way. It's hard to believe things turned out the way they did."
"You're not regretting anything, are you?" I asked, putting my arm around him. Braden leaned into me.
"Not a thing. If I had it to do over, I don't think I'd do anything different. Well, maybe I'd jog by your house sooner and wearing shorter shorts," he laughed.
"Your short shorts always did get my attention," I said. "Maybe you should wear them to baseball practice sometime. I'm sure some of the guys on the team would enjoy that view."
"I'm sure they would," Braden laughed. "But I don't want that kind of attention."
"You know what I've been thinking about?" Braden asked. "That woman and her kid in the mall a few weeks ago. We never called her. Maybe we should while we're in town."
"Seriously?" I asked. "I thought we were going to let that go. We didn't want to get involved, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember, but what if it was Jack and he needed someone to look out for him? I hope someone would."
"Our son will never have to worry about that," I said. "Even if something happened to us, he has a support system."
"We do need to talk to Austin and Lucas about our arrangement if something happens," Braden said. "I'm assuming that's who we'd want to raise Jack and the baby."
"Absolutely," I said. "I wouldn't trust anyone else. Mom is too old to handle them on her own, and your parents are enjoying retirement."
I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. I unfolded it to see "Celia 423-555-0987" written on it.
"I guess we could call her," I said. "See if she wants to set up a lunch date or something. " I held my phone and dialed the number.
"Hello?" answered the voice on the other end.
"Celia? This is Josh. We met at the mall a few weeks ago."
"I'm sorry, you have the wrong number," she said and ended the call.
"Did you dial the right number?" Braden asked.
"Yeah, see?" I held up my phone to show him the number I dialed and the paper with the number written on it.
"Oh well. Either she gave us the wrong number, or she decided she doesn't want to talk. Either way, we tried," Braden said.
We sat outside watching the evening turn to dusk and then to night. As it was summer, the insects were loud and chirping in the trees around us. Suddenly, my phone started vibrating. The phone number started with the local 423 area code, so I answered.
"Hello?" I said.
"Josh? This is Celia from the mall. I'm so sorry about earlier. I was with my husband and I couldn't let him know who I was talking to. He's gone to work now. He works the night shift at the Volkswagen plant."
"That's alright. I understand," I said. "My husband and I are in town for the weekend, and we just wanted to check in on you and Asher. How are things going?"
"Things are okay," she said. "As good as they can be, I guess. I worry about Asher all the time. He's only fourteen. This world is hard enough to survive in when you're normal. It can be so cruel to anyone who's different. Not to mean that being gay isn't normal, but you know what I mean."
"I know exactly what you mean," I said. "People like Asher's dad think it's their right to treat people like us like shit," I said.
"Have you guys ever been harassed before?" she asked.
"A few times," I said. "Nothing as bad as when we were in the mall that day. Unless you count the time I got shot and almost died."
"YOU GOT SHOT?" She yelled into the phone.
"Yeah, it's a long story. I'll tell you all about it sometime," I said.
"Momma, who got shot?" I heard a boy's voice say in the background.
"Nobody, baby, go back to your room. I'm talking to someone," Celia said.
"That must be Asher," I said.
"Yeah, it is. Let me make sure he's back in his room. I don't want him to know about this yet."
"I understand," I said. "Listen, it's late and I'm sure you want to go to bed too. We are here for a couple more days. Is there a time that you can meet us and we can talk more about things?"
"Ryan is working the night shift for the next two weeks. He leaves for work at about 7:00 and works until 8:00 the next morning. I should be able to meet you guys tomorrow night. I just have to come up with a reason to tell Asher I'm going out."
"Why not just tell him the truth?" I asked. "Bring him with you. He can hang out with some of the other folks here while we talk."
"That could work," she said. "I'll call you tomorrow around noon. I have to go to the store so I can call then. We'll work it out then."
We said our goodbyes and Braden and I headed in for the night.
Once in our room, Braden and I ended up naked on the bed in a sixty-nine position. Braden had my cock in his mouth and his was in mine. I was probing Braden's hole with my finger, causing him to moan around my cock.
"Babe, I need you to fuck me!" Braden said, a little loudly.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"What the hell?" I said. "Who's bothering us this late?" I put on a robe and went to answer the door. Braden just pulled the sheet up over himself.
I opened the door to find John standing there in a white robe that was a stark contrast against his darker skin.
"You know your room is right on the other side of mine, right?" he asked. "If you guys are going to make this much noise, the least you could do is invite me to join in."
John pulled the sash of his robe causing it to fall open, revealing his naked body and one of the biggest cocks I've ever seen.
The next chapter in this series will be published soon!
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