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, nor governmental areas, which the story is stages. If a sexual scene involving male-to-male relationships offences 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. This is fiction. Use protection, in real life.
"ROAD TRIP: can't keep a good man down" wriTten by T. Chase McPhee
%
"How long are they going to be in the hospital?"
On the return road trip, back home, Roberto had `a million' questions for his lover.
"Oh, Nicholas will most likely be released tomorrow. If he had his way, it would have been two hours ago!"
"Then he's not injured seriously?"
"No, thank God. He's got a sore gut, but nothing time would not heal."
"If he cares as much about Randy, as I do about you, I bet he's real worked up."
Anthony's hand slid to Roberto's thigh, rubbing it.
"I'm sure it's the case, but right now they've had to sedate him, for the exact reasons you are telling me about."
"Anthony?"
"Yeah."
"Y'know I don't care about how much money you have in the bank."
"Really?"
He called Roberto's bluff, though not with the usual humor.
"Of course. Is that what you think, Anthony?"
"No," he replied, this time lightening up a bit.
Returing his single word comment, with a grin, Roberto sought to get even.
"This is not a joke."
"I know it's not."
Convenient they approached a red light.
"C'mere."
A sweet kiss erased the dollar signs. A beeping horn set them in motion again.
"I don't feel like cooking anything up. How about a late night supper at Linguini's?"
"Sure." Roberto figured he'd get a dig in, "but I left my American Express card at home!"
It provided a good laugh, much welcomed.
"I suppose we're too late for valet parking," Anthony sumised.
Sitting there in the 4x4, waiting for either Guido or some other guy to appear, they decided to pull into their own spot.
"Hmm..."
"What, Anthony?"
"Just saved myself five bucks!"
"I think I have it on me," Roberto reached to his back pants pocket, "if you're short?"
Now out in the open, the financial matter become target for comedy material.
Eskridge, being spread out, but declining in population, news could spread quickly, depending on the person involved. As soon as they entered the Italian restaurant, the news smacked them in the face.
"Mario?"
Throwing his arms around Roberto, first in the door, the eighteen year old exclaims, "I'm so sorry to hear about Randy and Nicky."
Not used to such affection from strangers, Roberto isn't sure of what the response should be.
"We are too. Thanks."
If anything, the hug felt good! Passing off Roberto, Anthony gets a big hug. From there, as he exited the foyer and headed into the main lobby, Guido is next in line.
"Anthony! How's my Nicky doing?"
"Good."
With the use of Nicky', Anthony gets the feeling he's the only one calling Nicholas Nicholas'.
"Only good?"
"He's doing great," Roberto keyed them in.
"So, fill us in. What happened to him and that other kid, um...."
Mario fills Guido in, "Randy."
"I can't discuss it," Anthony replied. "Police business, you know?"
"Sure. No problem."
He could have given a lite sketch, but for now Anthony needed to unwind and get some food into his stomach.
"Ethan?" Roberto questions, seeing the eighteen year old in a suit, carrying a tray.
Mario offers help, seeing the large tray of food swaying. Guido fills them in, as he ushers them to a table.
"We had call outs. Mario mentioned his three buddies and..."
"Three?" Roberto questions.
"Yeah. Ethan, Sep and Dingy-zang, or something like...."
"Dingxiang."
"Yeah, that's it. Tough to pass him off as a `guinea', but in the kitchen, nobody sees him."
"Biased, Guido?"
"Hey, talk to the boss. I don't make the decisions."
"I thought he was in Italy?"
"I could get him on the phone, if you wanted to talk to him, Anthony!"
"No, forget it. What's the special tonight?"
"Hold on, let me get you a waiter."
"But I thought..."
Before Anthony could voice his opinion, Guido had vacated their side.
"I wonder if Guido fucked the new help?"
It made Anthony giggle, thinking about it.
"I don't know, sweetheart, which way Dingxiang leans, but it's definite Ethan would never bend over for him."
"And he wouldn't allow Sep."
"True."
Then Anthony deviates from the original theme of the conversation.
"I can't believe how well those two are getting along."
"Why, Anthony?"
"Well, it's been awhile for Sep."
"You're the one setting Sep up. You must've had `some' feeling they would make a go at it."
"Yup," Anthony thought, looking into air, "I did get a `vibe'."
"Vibe?"
"Right. Remembering how Ethan was back at the hotel and knowing Sep, I thought, `a match made in heaven'!"
"You think they are serious?"
"I think no less than you and I, sweetheart."
"You say some sweet things, Anthony."
"Some?"
"You know what I mean!"
Getting off the hook, the two look up at their waiter.
"You're new around here."
"My name is Giancarlo. I will be your waiter for this evening."
As always, Anthony introduces himself, adding, "And this is Roberto."
In his own opinion, Anthony thought his sweetheart got the bigger smile!
"Escargot?"
Roberto darn well knew what it meant and immediately wrinkled up his nose.
Anthony continued, right on, "Um, on second thought, skip the escargot and bring on the antipasto."
It put a more relaxed tone to Roberto's lips and nose, setting it back to rights, on his face.
"So, what are you having?" Anthony inquires of his sweetheart.
"You."
More than a hand to his hairy forearm, Roberto leans in as Anthony tugs on his sleeve.
"When we get home I'll let you feast!"
Licking his lips, Roberto retreated to the use of the menu. Still, with little knowledge of Spanish and none of Italian, he needed somethings translated.
"Yeah, that's it. I'll have the penne."
Of course, Roberto used a different word, which made Anthony wiggle his eyebrows. When Giancarlo returned, Anthony placed an order for two veal parmesans.
"Hey Gianni, you're girlfriend's on the phone!"
"Be right back with your order," he exclaimed, quickly grabbing up the menus.
"I guess `the phone call' tells us a lot about Giancarlo!" Anthony guessed.
"Maybe."
"True," Anthony replied, thinking maybe `bi'.
After all, everyone in their life wasn't gay, nor straight. Although Anthony one time joked with Mrs. Linguini, once, regarding her possibly being transgendered, it proved unfounded. The Toricelli's and Linguini's go way back. After all, most of the interiors of Linguini's establishment had been designed by Anthony's father.
"It feels sooooo good to relax," Anthony voiced the opinion.
Stretching his arms above his head, Anthony loosened up. It made perfect sense to Roberto, to dig his fingertips in, midsection, for a tickling tease.
"Oooooh... hee hee hee," Anthony belched out.
Immediately he closed up his abs, to the taunting humor.
"Ooooh, don't... I'm so ticklish, especially `there'!"
"Hmm," Roberto toyed, "I'll have to remember."
Of course, next time he would be teasing Anthony, it would be with tongue and lips, not fingertips!
"My compliments!"
Giancarlo had returned, bottle of chianti in hand.
"Oh, you didn't have to do that, Giancarlo."
"It was rude of me to put myself before a guest."
"Nah!" Anthony swatted the offense away with his hand, "Don't think anything of it."
However, Roberto pursued, "So, what's with your girlfriend? Got a hot date tonight?"
"Girlfriend?" Suddenly, Giancarlo got the connection. "Oh yes, my girlfriend... my girlfriend hee hee hee... nothing."
The two lovers exchanged glances, but changed the subject back to their order, seeing Giancarlo not wanting to become engaged in conversation, over it. Departing, the Italian waiter went to put the order in, returning.
"A thousand pardons."
Right out of Anthony's hands, Giancarlo takes the bottle of wine.
"I bet you are thinking what a klutz I am!"
Of course, he meant not uncorking the wine, Anthony having already porked the opening of the bottle with the corkscrew.
"I know it's none of our business," Anthony started in, "but is something wrong, Giancarlo?"
"Wrong? What makes you...." his voice suddenly broke off, realizing the attitude attached. "No... I mean... I'm sorry... oh boy..."
"Um, let me handle the wine?"
Roberto offered to uncork the bottle, Giancarlo doing a job of gnawing at the cork, with little success of extracting it. He reluctantly handed the bottle over to Roberto.
"So, what's on your mind, Giancarlo?"
"Everything... I mean... it's my problem."
This time, he was nice about it, relaying the reason for his clammy attitude.
"Listen, you sit right down here now and...."
"But..."
Anthony had left his seat, placed his hands on Giancarlo's shoulders, making him take up space at their table, in the extra chair.
"No buts..."
"But Guido... he...."
"He what?"
He made it known to Anthony and Roberto, Guido's badgering, some sort of tricky conniving, blackmale, be it. A certain bit of information to Giancarlo's family, his father would think it damaging to his character, enough to disown his inheritance.
"And what would this `bit of information' consist of?"
"Okay, look..." Giancarlo rubbed his sweaty palms together, readying to give up his secret, "my father can never know of this, or else..."
Roberto's mentality was way ahead of Giancarlo, ready to spring the information from the tip of his tongue, "That you are gay?"
"You know? Knew? I mean... you're not..."
"So, is this what Guido holds over you?" Anthony asks.
A hand to the waiter's shoulder, shows the caring attitude, rather than ridicule. After all, what would Anthony hold over his `gay brother'?
Looking down, into his lap, Giancarlo states, "Right. If I don't play his game, he'll tell my father. I know he would not be too keen to know such information."
"How much is Guido getting out of you?"
Anthony had pieced things together way ahead of all the information. He already knew of Guido's affection for betting on the horses. He wasn't surprised of Giancarlo's intimidation, nor the reasons for such.
"Almost all I made, plus..."
The six foot two Italian moved uneasily in his seat.
"He fucks you?"
Roberto came out with it, clearly stated.
"I suppose it's building up to it... geesh! I'm sure not looking forward to it."
"What's kept him from following through with his threat?" Roberto questions.
"He says he's... I...." Often stuttering, getting hung up on the words, Giancarlo says, "That wasn't my girlfriend on the phone."
"Boyfriend?" Anthony guesses.
"You guessed it. He has a good friend from work call, the teller next to him at the bank. She's a good friend of ours."
"But if you are gay, then what makes anyone think a female is calling you."
"That's it. They think I'm bi, including Guido. Everything is so screwed up," Giancarlo reported, both hands in his palms, hiding him from the world.
A reassuring hand let's Giancarlo know he's not alone in this.
"Why don't you go back to work and tell Guido I want to see him?"
Roberto looks to Anthony, wondering what he has up his sleeve.
"But he's going to know I..."
"Tell him I have a complaint about the wine."
"Alright, but you won't mention anything about...."
"Oh, you bet I'm going to, but don't worry, Giancarlo," Anthony relayed to the twenty-six year old, "after I'm through tearing him apart, you can kiss your troubles goodbye."
"No, please...."
Upon his plea for secrecy, Roberto affirms, "Believe me," he adds his hand to Giancarlo's greasy palms, "my Anthony knows what he's doing."
A slight crease grazed Giancarlo's lips, "Alright. I trust you."
After he left, Anthony asks, "Hmm, there's something about your face."
"My face?"
"Yeah. Guys find peace. But then again, it's the same thing I saw in you, my whole time in `captivity'."
"Same thing? What thing?"
Staring into Roberto's eyes, Anthony assures the man, two years his senior, "A certain light... trust, reassurance... I'm not sure how to explain it, but it's there."
"I'm not sure I'm following you, but... doesn't matter. Knowing you love me passes any explanation."
"Ahem!"
Guido, standing there detected something amiss. He scratched his head, wondering what was up.
"Giancarlo said you had a problem with the wine? So, you don't like the wine, I can get another vintage?""
"Pull up a chair, why don't you?"
He helped himself to Giancarlo's seating. Now Guido showed concern, venting the collar of his white shirt, loosening the neat bowtie. Sooner than later, he decided for himself this wasn't about the wine. Or else, why would Anthony have tipped the glass, as if to offer cheer, taking a sip.
Roberto seconded it, but wondered what Anthony had up his sleeve.
Getting directly to the point, Anthony spelled it out, "Nice fellow Giancarlo, eh?"
"He does an adequate job."
As when Giancarlo had the `hot seat', Guido rubbed his hands together, a wet feeling, not dry and gritty.
"I'd say damn decent, but there seems to be something `troubling' about the young man."
"Troubling? Not that I've noticed."
Looking around, Anthony made certain no one was about. It pays to get there an hour before dinnertime, in more ways than seating availability. His hand went right to Guido's shirt, the two buttons below his bowtie, wrapping the works up in a neat ball, as his hands made it into a handle. A handle, to draw the short Italian's body closer to his. He pulled Guido towards himself, his ear available for the listening. Without as much as a few words, drove Guido into an insanely apologetic mode.
"Noooo...no.... I get it... please... I beg of you."
Letting Guido relax, Anthony states, "So whatever hold you have over Giancarlo will be forgotten?"
"Whatever you say Anthony. Please, I beg of you don't," Guido looks to Roberto, as if he represents the whole world, "don't tell anyone.... my family... Shit!"
He excused his profanity to Roberto, as if asking for forgiveness of that too.
"You will not tell anyone, will you?"
"Like I said. Apologize to Giancarlo and...."
"Apologize?" The culprit gulped.
"Sure. I think it would be fitting. Smooth things over? Or, I could give your father a call and..."
"Noooooooooo... you can't.. you musn't..."
"My secret is safe, except for my lover here," Anthony nods to Roberto.
"You told him?"
"Sure. I know it wouldn't occur to you to tell your lover, if you had one, to unveil all your secrets to. After all, Guido. As long as I've known you there's only two things you love. Yourself and fucking a virgin ass!"
Not saying a word, Guido tried hiding the shame of Anthony's words. There was no where to run and hide, except under the table, but he didn't escape to the location.
"We have an understanding?"
"Yes, but please don't..."
"It'll be our little secret."
Again, Anthony made sure he made known, the deep dark secret of Anthony and his would remain within the trio.
"And Guido," Anthony called him back, after excusing him, "thanks for the free dinner, on you?"
Roberto burst out laughing after Guido left.
"It must be something terrible! Guido isn't a guy whom I would say scares easily?"
Anthony went right to the heart of the matter.
"Guido sunk all the way in before he found out the kid he was porking, was sixteen and not eighteen."
"No waaaaaaaaaay! How do you know about this?"
"He told me."
"Told you? Right out?"
"Nah. After a coupla bottles of wine and a chase and a half."
"He told you he raped a kid?"
"Not in those words, but to that effect. Yep. When I mentioned it the next day, he tried talking his way out of it, but I already had it set in my mind the truth. It's come in handy a coupla times."
"You have used it before?"
"Sure. Giancarlo isn't the first guy I've gotten off the hook, in regards to Guido."
"Too bad you couldn't have gotten the sixteen year old off the hook."
"Yeah. But the kid wanted it."
"According to Guido," Roberto inferred.
"Might have been the case, if I didn't meet the kid myself."
"You met the sixteen year old Guido raped?"
"Sure. The idiot, Guido that is, hired the kid. Then he built up the bonus points, hiring a kid under age. Oh, don't you worry. I've got plenty on Guido."
"Anthony, I'm worried."
"About what sweetheart?"
"Guido."
"Guido? What's troubling you?"
"He wouldn't like, come after you, would he?"
"Nah! Like Nicholas, we go way back. There's little I don't know about Guido, other than him more or less being a loser."
Then right out of the blue, Roberto changes subjects. Not before sitting there in silence.
"What?"
"Nicholas."
"What about him?"
"You love him a lot, don't you?"
"Is that what you're worried about?"
"Worried about?"
"C'mere."
Anthony, as he held Guido, his fist crunching up the white shirt, he holds his lover at bay, but for a different reason. It's a short show of affection, as their lips meet.
"I know you love Nicholas, too."
"Of course I do."
"No, it's not love' love, but it's love'."
"Huh?"
Across Anthony's face, the puzzlement shows.
"Want to run that by me again, sweetheart?"
It then dawns on Roberto, he doesn't go around calling Nicholas his `sweetheart'.
"Never mind, Anthony."
"No. Go ahead. What's on your mind?"
"On my mind?"
"Yeah. Something about Nicholas and me, has been bugging you."
Roberto blushes. It's obvious, all too certain he has been harboring something, pertaining to the past, linking the present.
"I know this is going to look like I'm jealous, but I'm not."
"Oh, I see."
"You do?"
Folding his napkin in half, Anthony let it drop to his empty plate. He took a sip of wine.
"Like I said, Nicholas and I did sleep together, made love, but then we both discovered we weren't right for each other."
"Two tops in the same bed," Roberto justifies.
"True, but not the only reason. I'm not sure how to put it, but we both just made up our minds we weren't right for each other."
"Oh?"
"What's the look for?"
Roberto had only `smiled'.
"I can see."
"You can? Mind explaining it to me?"
"Sure. It's easy. You two are both the same!"
"The same?"
"Sure. It's not tough to see you in Nicholas."
"Me in Nicholas? How so?"
"Every way. He's tough, can take it, yet can be as charming and kind. Yep. You did a good job `raising' him."
"Raising him? Hah! Now that's a new one."
"True. Think about it. A lonely kid being picked up on the side of the road. No place to go and somebody plucks him out of his lonely existence and shows him the way."
"Wow! That's deep! I think you should forget the cooking and become a shrink!"
"Do you think so?"
Taking Roberto's hand, Anthony fills him in, "You can become anything you want to be, but there's one thing I wouldn't allow you to become."
His look announces Roberto's quest for info.
"Anything other than mine!"
"That's so sweet," Roberto returns. "You're such a good man, Anthony!"
%
Copyright 2006 T. Chase McPhee This story may not be sold, nor made part of any collection without prior written permission, by the author.
The more you stretch, the more you can fit in... 'spread' happiness! TCMcP.....