The story below is a work of fiction, set in the format of reality. Any resemblances to real people, alive or in the hereafter, is entirely coincidental in nature. It is not meant to accurately reflect upon persons, in towns, cities, countries, nor governmental areas, which the story is staged. If a sexual scene involving male-to-male relationships offends you, then you should not read this story. Additionally, if you are under 18 years of age, in most state and countries, you are not allowed to read this story, by law. Check with your local laws regarding such. % Sexual safety matters. Remember guys, this is fiction. In real life, use protection.
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"For Sale By Owner" 32 wriTten by T. Chase McPhee
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Sitting across from each other at the small square kitchen table, the two townhouse residents enjoy their dinner.
"Hmm, I think I'm going to help you out more in the kitchen!" Alex says with a smile.
"I think I'm starting to like more than your hairy chest!"
"Yeah, but don't give up on it too soon."
Kyle says, "You get a lot of pleasure out of me tweaking your nips, don't you?"
Alex doesn't say anything, just sits there, forking up another piece of veal parmesan and placing it on his tongue, smiling as he's chewing. Knowing the answer, Kyle doesn't press for more. Next subject!
"I was thinking of getting a job," Kyle says out of the blue.
"But you don't need a job."
"I know I don't `need' one, but I'd like to have one, try pulling my own weight in the world. I'm not going to live by my father's purse-strings all my life," Kyle seriously says.
"I don't know how that works."
"Don't know how what works?"
"Having a rich dad. All I've ever known is struggling, sometimes from week to week to make ends meet."
"My point."
"Huh?"
"I know when my father goes he'll be leaving me an inheritance, but what happens if I spend it all?"
"How much do figure on getting?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Kyle offers, "He's worth about eight million."
"Dollars?" Alex swallows, followed by a chug of drink. For the life of himself, he can't begin to think what eight mil looks like.
"Yeah, dollars. I figure I'll get a cool million."
"A million dollars? Whew!" Alex says, "I can't even think of how I would spend half that much!"
"I'm sure not going to be like Knapp."
"Why?"
"All he can think of is spending money on cars, jewelry and guys."
"Well I don't need any of that stuff. I got my 1989 Chevy that mom bought me second hand from her cousin, the jewelry I don't need and I've got my guy."
"You mean you don't like the chain I bought you?"
"Um, you didn't feel it when you were playing with my chest?"
"I felt it."
"So, I wear it all the time. What does that tell you?"
"Sorry," Kyle replied.
Alex just smiled, his outlook telling Kyle he was forgiven.
"But getting back to the job, I figure I can get something part time."
"Why don't you just wait til you're going to the CIA. Maybe they can get you cooking gigs."
"I suppose I can do that."
"Yeah," Alex dwells on the past-mentioned subject, "We don't want to thin down the time we spend together.... or you'll be running after one of those hot boys at the CIA!"
Laughing, Kyle says, "Or you and Jim?"
"Nah. Not my type."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, besides I think he has the hots for one of the other guys who work there, Derek."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, Derek Estrada, deep cocoa skin, black hair, stache, glasses..."
"So, you've memorized the stats of the other guys at work, eh?"
"I'm a gay man. Of course I've checked them all out!"
"Oh?" Kyle's tone provoking, in search of details.
"Yeah. Derek's gotta be in his early twenties, Jim around there too, but the two other guys who work there, Phil and Ian, have to be in their mid-twenties."
"So, you're the baby?"
"Mr. Miller says to keep my eyes and ears open, says I can learn a lot from these guys."
"Oh? And in what way did he mean it?" Kyle asks, suggestively.
"They've all been working there for at least two years. Mr. Miller says Phil and Ian were with him when he started out, before he added the dining-room. At the time, the two were college boys like us."
"We haven't gotten our diplomas yet."
"Mines in the mail."
"What do you mean, `in the mail', Alex?"
"I told them I wouldn't be at graduation."
"That's absurd! Graduation is an exciting milestone in your life. You should go. When is it?"
"This Friday, in the afternoon."
"I'm calling Dominic and arranging a trip, right now!"
"I swear," Alex tried to stop him, "it's not that important."
However, Kyle was up, out of his seat, his fork next to his half-eaten piece of veal, not listening to Alex's pleas. Within three minutes he was back.
"Not home?"
"Oh, he was home. Dom's talking it over with Devon and he'll call me back."
"I might have to work, if Mr. Miller says I'm on the schedule for Friday."
"Then you just go and get yourself `off the schedule'!"
Alex smiled. He's never seen Kyle in such a dictatorial mood, fighting for something so strongly, which he thought was no big deal.
"And you better call your school on Monday and tell them to hold your diploma there."
"I think they already mailed it."
"Then you'll take it back on Friday, hand it over to them and wait for them to present it to you!"
"Yes, your highness," Alex mocked Kyle's style.
"When I'm right, I'm right," the eighteen year old said, digging into his veal parmesan.
"Um, when is your graduation?"
This put Kyle into a compromising position, as he replies, "Same day as yours."
"Oh?"
"Same time. In the afternoon, but yours comes first."
"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Alex quizzes him.
"I know your friends and family. You don't know any of mine."
He didn't like Kyle's weak logic, telling him, "That's the sorriest excuse I've ever heard."
"It's true. Besides there's nobody in my school whom I'm real close to, like you and Devon are. I'm even closer to Devon than anybody I've ever known in school," Kyle explained.
"Really?"
"Really and believe me, you ain't missing anything knowing any of my family. Except you already know what a loser Knapp is."
"Are they all like him?"
"I'd say Knapp is the worst."
"But at Eden you two seemed so close."
"Don't buy the `I'd do anything for my bro' shit. It's only been like that in front of people. Knapp can be a real actor at times."
"Wow! This is all news to me," Alex says, pushing his stomach back from the table.
"I don't know if I could have taken living here another year, if Knapp wasn't staying in Asbury Park."
"But he's not, so don't look so down," Alex said caringly, leaning back up to the table, reaching across with his hand, taking up his lover's hand.
"I know. Sometimes thoughts of the past do that to me."
"Don't think about them. You have a new life ahead of you, with school, new friends and me!"
Kyle smiles, asking, "Ready for a banana split?"
Helping to clear the table, both bend over the trash, using their forks to scrape the excess sauce off their plates.
Kyle says, "Thanks."
"What? For scraping my plate off?" Alex jokes.
"Yeah. Right."
While Alex loads the dishwasher, Kyle gathers the makings for the delectable delight, taking the ice cream out of the freezer, choosing two of the bananas from the fruit bowl, searching in the cabinet for sprinkles.
"Oh, almost forgot!" He says, going in the fridge and taking out the heavy cream.
"You mean we're going to have real whipped cream?" Alex asks.
"You're kidding, right?"
Then it dawns on him `real cooks use real food'!
"At home mom made real whipped cream once in a while. For our birthdays, she would ask us each if we preferred butter icing or whipped cream on our birthday cake. I would always pick the whipped cream."
"I like both, but there's nothing better than yellow or chocolate cake, topped with cream. Of course sometimes you don't have a choice."
"Right. Everybody doesn't like whipped cream," Alex says.
It wasn't the reason Kyle was thinking of, but he admitted Alex being right, not saying furthermore on the subject. Just as they were about the sit for their dessert, the phone rang. Kyle picked up. After a brief conversation, he sat down again.
"Dominic?" Alex inquires.
"Yup."
"What does he say?" Alex asks.
"'Says he'll drive us all out to Lake Quinn for the graduation and..."
"Cool!" Alex interrupted. "What else?"
"Dom says he has a hitch on his SUV. He says if we can get a U-Haul-it, we can fill it with yours and Devon's things. What do you think?"
"I think it's a cool idea. It's been awhile since I've sewn anything."
Kyle could see the excitement on Alex's face.
"All we have to do is box up some junk in the basement and it's yours."
After swallowing a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, Alex says, "Are you sure we don't need the room?"
"We've got plenty of room. Our room, Knapp's old room and there's the smaller bedroom, which doesn't have the personal jon. I would say we have plenty of room."
Alex gloats, "I never thought I would have it this good, going into my first year of college."
After the brief description of the roomy townhouse, Kyle knew what Alex meant but with the look on his face, coupled with his statement of suggestion, "How do you mean that, Alex?" It left it open-ended.
"Both ways!" Alex exclaimed, getting Kyle's drift.
When it came time to devour the maraschino cherry, each held it by the stem and fed it to the other. It, the cherry, seemed to have a different texture to it; as if giving a loved one a perfect rose. Alex then picked up his dish and drank the rest of the leftover ice cream and chocolate sauce from it.
"Look at you!"
"What?" Alex asked innocently, the conglomeration sticking to his upper lip, going along with the smile of his lips.
"You're such a slob, y'know?" Kyle said, wrapping his index finger in the cloth napkin, then reaching across the table, dabbing off the excess creamy mixture. "Don't smile," came Kyle's order.
Instead, Alex frowned, his eyebrows pointed down and together. It made Kyle laugh, but he went about his business gleaning the upper lip.
"Y'know?" Alex said, sitting back, eyes still intent on Alex's mouth.
"I look good enough to kiss?" Alex responded.
"That too," Kyle said, adding, "I think you would look good with a stache."
With the surprise information, Alex rubs his finger along the place addressed. This morning when he shaved it was smooth as silk, but now it suffered from the 5 o'clock shadow as did the rest of his face.
"Hmm... you think so?"
Kyle shook his head up and down.
"Maybe I'll start one tomorrow, if you..."
"What?" Kyle asks, with the lull in their conversation.
"Hmm.. I think maybe you would look good in a goatee."
"Really?" Kyle asks, feeling the afternoon stubble on his chin.
Alex bursts out with, stretching arms high above his head, "I don't believe I have to go to work tomorrow!"
"Well don't forget to ask for Friday off."
"Actually," Alex took to licking the last bit of sweetness off his spoon, "I bet Derek will cover for me. He's a real sweetheart."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Out of all the guys working at the Coffee Bean, I think he's the nicest."
"Too bad he's hooked up with Jim."
"Oh?" Alex asks. "Why's that? Want him for yourself?" he jokes.
"We've been over that, remember?" Kyle silences Alex's thoughts.
"Right." Alex goes on to say, "Well, I don't know for sure Derek and Jim are seeing each other."
"Because," Kyle rambles on, "if they aren't in a relationship, by the way you talk about him, he might show an interest in Carlos, if we could get them together?"
"Playing matchmaker, Kyle?"
"Hey, why not? Carlos is a real sweetheart, too."
"Yeah," Alex says, "he is a good guy, isn't he?"
"And good looking?" Kyle builds on his image.
"Hey, the same height, I think too!"
"Really?" Kyle shows more interest. "I gotta see this Derek guy."
"Sure. Come by the cafe tomorrow. Around one. He's on the late shift."
"So? You know Derek's schedule, eh?"
Alex cocks his head to one side, saying, "Like we've been over this?"
"Yeah. I know," Kyle tells him. "I only mentioned it as a joke, okay?"
Alex knew he was busting Kyle's ass, in a kidding manner, adding, "I couldn't help seeing four other guys' schedule, while looking at mine."
Kyle let the subject drop dead. He diverted back to the subject of Carlos. "Would be nice for Carlos to meet somebody."
"But maybe's he's not ready to meet anybody."
"True," Kyle retorts, "but it wouldn't hurt to have both of them over for dinner."
"Um, wouldn't it look kind of funny if I invited Derek over for dinner, having known him for just a week?"
"I don't mean right away, Alex. Maybe in a couple of weeks, after you get to know him better, plus make sure he's not attached?"
"I read you. But now we've talked it over, I really see where Derek and Carlos would be nice for each other."
"Then," Kyle tells him, "make it your business to be snoopy!"
"I'll try. I don't want to make it obvious."
Seemingly, as the conversation began to get stale, Kyle got up, took both dishes and placed them in the dishwasher.
"How about a DVD?" Kyle recommends.
"It's still light out. We could go for a walk?" Alex suggests, looking over his shoulder, out the small kitchen window.
"That's cool," Kyle says.
Once again, Alex stretches his arms straight above his head, bending his head back, making a loud sound. Kyle stares over to him, as he rocks back on two chair legs, to the place where his tee shirt has hiked up, displaying his tummy trail swirling around his navel, then dipping into his shorts. Landing back on all four legs, Alex smooths his shirt with both hands over his pecs and abs.
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Copyright 2007 T. Chase McPhee This story may not be sold, nor made part of any collection, without prior consent from the author.