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" 37 wriTten by T. Chase McPhee
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Walking in, Alex tries the doorknob again. He doesn't readily see Kyle walking towards the front door.
Turning, Alex almost butts into Kyle, saying, "The door's unlocked."
"Yeah, I know. I left it open when `Carlos'," he annunciated, "got here."
"Already?"
"You're late, Alex."
Looking at his watch, Alex realises the truth, saying, "Oh yeah."
"Where's Derek?"
"Where's Derek?" Then scratching his head, Alex says, "Oh yeah, Derek... well Derek's not coming."
"Obvious. Did you happen to think about calling Carlos and telling him that?"
"Carlos? Call him? Oh yeah. I guess I got so busy at work. I forgot," Alex replies, an edited smile begging for forgiveness.
Kyle stands there, shaking his head, returning the smile.
Detecting something else, Alex questions him, "Why? What happened?"
"I brought Scott home to have dinner with us."
Still not making any connection, Alex stood there, a looking of wanting more of an explanation.
"You built up Carlos pretty good on the phone this afternoon, didn't you?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Alex replied, "I told him a few things about Derek."
"Like?"
"Stuff like how affectionate Derek could be, how he could like more than a handshake... how..."
"That explains it, then," Kyle says.
"Explains what?" Alex asks.
"Well, when I let Carlos in he immediately goes over to Scott, addresses him as Derek, hugs poor Scott, kisses him on the neck... you can imagine the rest."
"Damn... and it's all my fault. I bet Carlos was so embarrassed. He must hate me."
"I don't think those are the choice words," Kyle says, letting Alex suffer with his thoughts.
"Betcha he's really steamed, huh? And poor Scott. Must've been quite a surprise, having a gay man waltz in the door, hug and kiss him."
"I don't think Carlos, nor Scott are too terribly angry at you."
"You're talking in rhymes, Kyle."
Taking Alex by the hand, he leads him into the livingroom. There, on the sofa, sits Carlos and Scott, a few inches apart.
Right away, Alex is on Carlos, saying, "I'm sooooo, so sorry, Carlos!"
"Don't be."
Skipping over the comment, Alex offers, "And Scott, I'm really sorry about the misunderstanding."
"It's not a problem," Scott says. Then as a prearranged joke, Scott says, "Isn't it alright for a gay man to hug a straight guy?"
"I... I suppose so."
Alex didn't see the nod Kyle gave to the two, signifying the joke was over. Leaning together, the two kissed on the lips.
"But...."
It's then Kyle let Alex in on the secret, but not before the trio of jokesters laughed their asses off at Alex's reaction.
In their bedroom, Kyle accompanying Alex while he freshens up, talks about the deceit.
"You got me good and I tell you, I deserved it," Alex told Kyle, as he stripped down.
Lying partially on the bed, his knees bent at the side, lying back, shirt hiking above his dark brown fuzzy navel, Kyle says, "I guess it taught you a lesson."
"Sure did. Whew! I'm never bothering with Derek again. After he hooked up with the guy from Ecuador, I warned him that I wasn't dabbling in his love life any longer."
Getting up, walking over to Alex, kissing him, his hands playing over the sweaty bod, Kyle says, "It wasn't only your fault."
"If you say so," Alex said, only glad to share the guilt.
Kyle gave Alex a fake punch in the gut, more a slap of his hand on against bare stomach, saying he was staying clear of the matchmaking business.
"Yeah right," Alex replied, heading for the shower, wondering when the `next time' would be coming along.
Left alone on the sofa, Scott confided in Carlos, "This gay stuff is all new to me."
Smiling, Carlos said, "I had a date once with a guy, while I was a senior in high school, but we didn't fool around or anything."
"Maybe it's why I stayed away. I figured a guy knowing a guy was all sex, well it's not really my idea of getting to know a guy."
Carlos liked where Scott was headed with this. "Y'know, I feel the same."
"Really?"
"Tell you something. I was a little ashamed of myself, when I dated that guy."
"Oh?" Scott questioned, for more knowledge.
"This was in Jersey, at a gay club. He drove us out there, from Manhattan. We each had a couple of beers in us. When we came out of the club, we stood in the cool summer air and talked. Manuel sat on the front of his car while we talked. I kept getting closer to him, til I looked into his eyes and wanted to kiss him."
"In his eyes?" Scott questioned the feeling he's never experienced.
"Um, yeah. When a guy meets a guy, suddenly this feeling could come over him. What I was experiencing is this warmth and it wasn't the beer. I looked deeply into his eyes, then I wanted to kiss him."
"And you did?"
Taking a sip of the beer he worked off now, he replied, "Right. But the part that got me in trouble, was pushing Manuel back. He lay down on the hood of his car, like he was in bed. I started kissing him, until one of the bouncers from the club came out and busted us."
"Could be embarrassing," Scott figured.
"It was. I could feel myself turning red."
"What about Manuel?"
"I think he was too. On the trip back to Manhattan, we didn't say much. He had the radio blasting and we covered some songs. As he dropped me off, there was his hand saying goodbye. He never called me again."
"Doesn't sound like a happy ending."
With a quick shrug of his shoulders, Carlos reported, "You live and learn. Like tonight, I learned I better have the right person standing in front of me before I greet him!"
"I liked your kiss," Scott confided in him, adding, "even the fake one we did in front of Alex."
"Strange thing, I liked it too," Carlos spoke truthfully.
"Do you want to look into my eyes?" Scott said, taking his glasses off.
Giggling, Carlos apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh."
Sitting there, not saying a word, Scott put on a little, tender smile.
"How should I put it..." Carlos tried to explain.
"A kiss is not a thing you do, just to do?"
"Yeah. Sort of," Carlos replied to Scott's philosophy. "It's a feeling and two guys have to work at trying to get up to that level," he measures with his hand, as if a plane taking off, "and then once two guys are feeling it, it happens."
A little vague on what Carlos was driving at, Scott anyway acknowledged he was getting it.
Through dinner, the talk centered around Carlos and Scott, their interests, which led to the music and cooking schools, then Scott leaving the room to fetch the flyer the `speedo-guy' had tossed in his car window.
"Cool!" Carlos said, holding the rainbow colored flyer, "my friends Jake and Claude are looking for a bike club to join. We can invite them to come with us."
"I don't think so," reality hit Scott like a ton of bricks.
"No?"
Kyle sensed what Carlos was feeling. Like himself, knowing Scott a very short time, he felt a strong connection of friendship with Scott. But he also knew Scott was unsettled about his immediate future and mentioned going to Jersey to visit his sister, then he didn't know where after that.
"Um, I think I missed a lot here, but what seems to be the problem?" Alex asks, wiping his mouth with his napkin.
It seems, with Kyle and Scott looking back and forth at each other, they held all the answers.
Flat out, Kyle says, "Well, you see, when we went to register today, apparently Scott hadn't received the letter from the school announcing a tuition hike."
Putting it as subtly as Kyle could, both Carlos and Alex sighed an anxious reaction, "Ohhhh?"
With the delightful menu in their stomachs, the chatter passed around during the course, Carlos deluded into thinking he would be given time to get to know Scott. Neither wanted anything serious at the moment, but friendship and dating would be a good start. Now Carlos' thoughts dimmed, with talk of Scott leaving for Jersey.
"Unfortunate," Alex put it.
"Very," Carlos added, not able to take his eyes off Scott.
Silence prevailed, until Alex brought up, as he did this afternoon at The Coffee Bean trying to work out Mr. Miller's problem, "So what are we going to do about it?"
"Nothing," Scott remarked, swishing his wine around in the glass, holding it almost in his lap, watching it coat the inside, a few bubbles appearing.
Being blunt, for whatever he was feeling, Carlos asks, "So how much do you have?"
"Huh?" Scott asked, distracted from the sloshing wine to Carlos' inquiry.
"How much money do you have?"
"About $2500. Nearly not enough," Scott said, his feelings hitting an all-time low.
Kyle spoke up, "You registered for almost the same courses," he said about Scott, revealing the obvious, that he was checking out Scott, as they registered. "Your tuition would come to about the same as mine, $3,850."
"Yeah," Scott replied, "I have about half, plus I'd have to pay for the little room my mom arranged for me to rent. A half cousin."
"Room?"
Scott then unfolded some of the plans his mom had layed out for him, as far as staying in the city, which would have him commuting to the house in Brooklyn, incurring traveling costs as well. "Of course she left it up to me to find a job, suitable to my hours." He seemed to be diggging himself deeper and deeper into anxiety. "Maybe it's just as well I take a year off and work." They all could tell Scott was an unhappy camper, sitting there, making his baked Alaska look like a melting glacier with his spoon as he stabbed little crevasses into it.
"I know my father was looking for somebody experienced, to work the bakery section of our store. I suppose your cooking experience, plus some ambition and the fact I know you, would give you a fair chance of snagging the position."
At first Kyle and Alex paid keen attention to Carlos, his well-meaning attempts. Then they shifted gazes to Scott, as Carlos dumped the idea in his ballpark. Alex tried helping Scott along, by saying, "I think it would be a good start for you."
Then, Kyle, a light bulb going on in his head, asked Alex, "Um, can I see you in the kitchen for a moment?" As soon as they walked through the doorway Kyle pops the question, "Alex, what do you think about Scott staying in Knapp's room?"
Cleaning his teeth with his tongue, or maybe part of the thinking process, Alex thought it over, finally producing, "I dunno. You just met the guy today. What do we know about Scott? He might turn out to be a thief or something?"
"Alex, get real. You saw for yourself Scott is a nice guy. He's shy, introverted, not a guy that's out to steal your watch."
"I really don't know, Kyle. I suppose we could take a chance. I mean, Scott can't be all that bad, if he's from Pennsylvania!" Then getting serious, Alex asks, "What about rent?"
"I was thinking about it. Let's leave it up to him to mention. As for food, you saw how he eats."
"Like a bird," Alex answers.
Then, taking both of Alex's arms in his, shimmying his stomach up to Alex's, Kyle says, "I think we're doing a good thing. From the moment I met Scott, I thought of him as a good person."
"Also," Alex adds his two cents, "I think he's getting along good with Carlos. What do you say?"
"Let's just say Carlos is the `fringe benefit'!" Kyle jokes, with laughter.
As they enter the dining area, they hear Carlos saying, as his hand is laying flat on Scott's, "Don't worry about it. Things will come together. I know they will. You just have to trust your friends."
It put a little smile on Scott's face knowing, the first day he's in New York City, he's already made three friends. Another aspect of knowing them, Scott felt relieved he could give in to his sexual inhibitions and not worry about hiding he's gay, which is something which taunted him throughout most of his life.
"If it's okay with you guys, I told Scott we could take a walk over to the market, before my father closes up?"
"Fine with us," Alex says.
Kyle inserts, "Maybe we can make it to the hardware store, before they close and make some keys."
"I can take care of the dishes," Scott offers, Carlos helping by picking up the four wine glasses, assembled in his hands.
"Everything goes in the dishwasher," Kyle says, seeing they already helped themselves to clearing the table. ""Push the button in on the side of the door. It'll lock behind you, when you leave."
As they leave, Alex says, "Whew! Feels good not to handle another dish. Boy, were we busy today. I felt like I was carting dirty dishes to the washing station all day." As they walked, Alex poured out the issues of the day, Mr. Miller with the chip on his shoulder and the reasons behind it, his idea, Jim's idea, the guys bawking over his $200 tip, plus all the other happenings.
"Would be cool if you could design waiter fashions for The Coffee Bean. Can you imagine what Stephen would say when he came in next time?"
"That's what I was wondering."
"Sure, I'd bet he'd like your creative work."
"No," Alex says, "not about the new waiter's look. I meant does Mr. Braddock make The Coffee Bean his regular pit stop?"
"Call him Stephen."
"I feel funny doing that. I hardly know him."
"He left you a $200 tip. Wouldn't you call that knowing him a bit personally?"
"No. He only left me a $100 tip. I didn't tell you. He had Afon Hasteras with him."
Kyle thought to himself, "Afon Hasteras... Afon.... nope don't know him."
"Well now' I do'!"
"Oh? Who is he?"
"One of the professors at the Fashion Institute."
"Cool! I wonder if you'll get him as an instructor?"
"Don't want him, thanks!" Alex bluntly replied.
"Why not?"
"Why? Because I don't feel like battling to make him stay out of my pants!"
Stopping, Kyle swung around in front of Alex, his jaw dropping open, not saying anything.
"Yup, it's true," Alex continued.
"But... how... how do you know for certain?"
"I sense it. The way he talks... the way his whole mannerism dictates it. Plus, the $100 tip he left `under' his plate. Very sneaky."
Getting the point, Kyle says, "Then if I were you, I'd try to avoid him."
"Exactly my sentiments," Alex replied.
"You don't need bad influences like Afon Hasteras screwing up your career, Alex."
"Tell me about it."
Entering the hardware store, Alex presented the key to be duplicated, sliding it round and round the circular keychain to remove it. "Let's see. How many do we need?"
"One for Scott and one for me. One plus one is two!"
"Don't get smart!"
The two exchanged smiles. As Kyle paid attention to the guy grinding the keys out, Alex floated around the store. Near the front window, he looked out, spotting two guys on bikes, cruising down the opposite sidewalk.
"I just saw Jake and Claudio," Alex said, coming back to Kyle.
"Here?"
"No. On the street with their bikes, in their Spandex!" Alex reported, wiggling his eyebrows.
Speaking of this afternoon, Kyle says, "I didn't tell you what happened to Scott and I in the car."
Backing up his story, Kyle began with the visit to Penn Station, the incident with cop, adding the cop's waist-high appearance, him stripped barechested, what he perceived as the police officer's slight bulge, using the excuse as a warning' as probable notion to calm his crotch down, then Scott's tardiness reporting back to the car, Scott stripping to his waist in prime time traffic, ending with the flyer tossed on Scott's lap by the Adonis on wheels.'
"Sounds like you two had quite the afternoon!" Alex ends with a toothy smile. "So, how does this all tie in with Jake and Claudio?"
"Oh, the flyer was from the Gay Pride Center. The `speedo-guy' on the bike is the leader of a bicycling club, Scott talked about at dinner. He was wondering if we had an interest."
"Um, how would he know' you had an interest' in something gay?" Alex asked.
Kyle then told Alex about what Scott said, implicating his gay sexuality, but not realizing it. Also, he added, "Don't tell me you never noticed my little rainbow care bear in the back window?"
"Rainbow care bear?"
"Yeah, he's pink and has a rainbow sash from his right shoulder to his left leg," Kyle describes the caring creature.
"Is he trying to hide `something'?" Alex makes the joke.
"Yup. `It' was sooooo big, I almost had to add extra material to the rainbow!"
"Maybe you should get him a boyfriend... breed'em!"
By this time, they had each other far to the left of the original subject and laughing. Paying for the keys, they left, deciding they were too thirsty for the walk home. They weren't far from Guerra's Foodmarket, so hiked up Park Ave. and hung a right onto E. 70th St.
"What's that?"
"What's what?" Kyle questions Alex.
"The sign over there," Alex nods towards a metal sign, spelling out, "The Frick Collection?"
"You know I really don't know?"
So, instead of stopping at Guerra's they walked right past, following the direction of the sign, as if the yellow brick road.
"Interesting," Alex said, as he read the introduction on the front of the building. "I'd like to stop by when they're open."
"So, you like art, do you?"
"It goes hand in hand with designing, I'd say," Alex highlighting the distinctions between the two.
"Hmm... I didn't know you were that smart!" Kyle said, after hearing the wordy dialogue.
"So, what did you think I was? Dumb?"
"Nah. The first thing that drove me to you was your good looks!"
"Hmm," Alex thinks, finally coming up with, "at least I knew what that cop felt like, looking at your hot bod!"
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Copyright 2008 T. Chase McPhee This story may not be sold, nor made part of any collection, without prior consent from the author.