Foolish Me Read online

“Don’t tell me you’ve already got a buzz on!”

  “No, but I’m feeling pretty good.”

  Nino brought the check, and I handed him my credit card.

  “I’ll get the tip, babe.” Wills left two twenties under his coffee cup.

  As we were leaving, we bumped into the asshole and his wife, who were also leaving. They’d been seated after us, and if they had finished when we did, they must have bolted down their food, which wouldn’t have done justice to the talents of Raphael’s chef. The woman rubbed her sternum and looked miserable. The man scowled at us until Wills noticed and returned his look, and then he grabbed his wife’s arm and scurried out.

  At the curb, I stuck two fingers into my mouth and let out a shrill whistle.

  “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “I’m a man of vast, unknown capabilities.”

  “You sure are.” A cab pulled up. “Nice work.” Wills grinned at me and got in, and I took the opportunity to admire his ass. Then I climbed in after him.

  “The Bee’s Knees,” I told the driver. “Do you know where it is?”

  “Sure thing. I been drivin’ a lot of guys there tonight, when I ain’t been drivin’ ’em to the Polk. You look familiar. Do I know you?”

  “No.” It was possible he’d driven me somewhere with a john, but the last thing I wanted was my past brought up in front of the man who was my future.

  “You sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Say, if you guys feel like making out in the backseat, I ain’t got no beef with that.”

  “Thanks, but I think we can restrain ourselves.”

  “Okay. I just wanted you to know I wasn’t one of them antigay jerks. Live and let live, I always say.”

  “That’s a good philosophy.”

  “Well… uh…. Nice weather for Valentine’s Day.”

  “Yes.”

  Finally he gave up his attempts at conversation. “You mind if I play some music?”

  “Not at all.”

  Surprisingly, he turned on a station that played classical music, and he began humming along to it.

  “Didn’t you tell me the Valentine’s Day Ball was at the Polk this year?” Wills asked in a soft voice.

  “Yeah. It’s in an okay part of town, but the ballroom is small, and their food isn’t anything to write home about. It’s gonna be interesting to hear what the buzz is tomorrow. I don’t think there’ll be any joy in Mudville. This Le Roi is going cheap, and the boys have gotten used to Charlemagne’s way of doing things…. Do you feel all right, babe?”

  “Sure. Why?”

  “You’ve been rubbing your chest since we got in the cab. You’re too young to have a heart attack.” I gave him a look. “You’d better be too young to have a heart attack. If you die on me, Matheson, I’ll kill you.”

  “I’m not having a heart attack, Theo.” He gave that half grin that made me want to jump his bones.

  “That’s good. So what’s with your chest? Indigestion?”

  “Oh.” He smiled. “Is that what your anxiety is about? No. Actually, I wasn’t rubbing my chest. It was the pendant you gave me, Theo. I’ve been touching it all day to remind myself of how lucky I am to have found you.”

  “You like it?”

  “I love it, babe. And I love what you had engraved on the back of it.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief and squeezed his hand.

  “We’re here, mac.”

  Wills paid the driver, and we got out.

  The Bee’s Knees was already crowded. Not only was it Valentine’s Day and they had a live band dressed in loincloths, wings, and quivers, but it was a Friday night as well.

  “I see a table over there. I’ll get it, and you get the drinks.”

  “Good idea. I think I’ll have a White Russian tonight. Strawberry daiquiri, babe?”

  “Sure.” Again I watched my lover’s ass as he made his way to the bar. Choice. Very choice. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw me watching him. A smile curled his lips, and he touched his chest.

  God, I was so lucky.

  And so happy I could have done backflips across the room to the empty table. Before I could turn and head for it, I noticed a couple who appeared to be on their way out approaching him. One of the men said something and extended his hand. He looked familiar, but as much as I searched my mind, I couldn’t think where I’d seen him.

  With him was another man who wore tinted, wire-rimmed glasses. The ultimate preppy, he was cute in a geeky kind of way, and he looked at his companion as if the sun rose and set on him.

  Wills grinned at the first man and shook his hand. His expression when he turned to the second man was cool.

  I’d ask Wills about it when he got to the table. I turned and bumped into someone who was passing by. “Whoops. Sorry.”

  “Sweetcheeks?”

  “John?” I never forgot a face, even though it was five years since I’d seen the man who’d been a client as well as my real estate agent.

  “My God, it is you! You’re looking fabulous! How have you been?”

  “Good, thanks. And you?”

  “Marvelous!”

  “You know this man, John?”

  John turned pale and swallowed. “Yes. He’s a… a business acquaintance.”

  “You must be—” I started.

  “Bradley! This is Bradley.”

  I cut a glance at John, and he gave a weak smile.

  “—a friend of John’s.” I switched my words smoothly. “Bradley. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Theo.” I held out my hand.

  “He called you ‘sweetcheeks.’” He barely shook my hand and released it as soon as he could.

  “An old nickname.” I studied Bradley carefully. A couple of inches shorter than John, he had strawberry blond hair and pale-blue eyes.

  His brows beetled. “And how do you know John?”

  John’s eyes were panicked. He was average-looking, but Bradley was breathtaking. Bradley couldn’t be that insecure in his relationship, could he?

  I remembered John telling me that his partner hadn’t believed in paying for sex. I also knew that Bradley was the first relationship John had ever had with a nonprofessional. It made sense that he’d want to keep that aspect of his past securely in his past.

  “He was my real estate agent.”

  “Yes, I was his… uh… I helped him find his house. Years ago. A lot of years ago.”

  “You never told me.”

  “It was before we met. A long time before we met. There was no need to mention him.” John’s expression couldn’t have been guiltier if he’d tried.

  “I was under the impression that John hadn’t come out until after his father passed away, a number of years ago, yet you don’t seem surprised to see him with a man.”

  “Bradley, this is a gay bar. It might be stereotyping, but I’d expect anyone I saw in here to be gay, or at least bi. And besides, I have very good gaydar.”

  “Then you and John never….”

  “No. We were never lovers,” I said.

  John cleared his throat. “So, er… how did things turn out with the house… uh… Theo? Are you happy with it?”

  “Very much so. I wound up having one of the fireplaces opened.”

  “Really?” For the first time, he grinned. “That must have made Walter very happy.”

  “Yeah. Walter got to say, ‘I told you so.’” I turned to my former client’s lover. “The house had fireplaces up the yin yang, but they had all been sealed off, and my architect thought it would be a good idea to open every one of them.”

  “That sounds expensive.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  He glanced around. “Are you here alone?”

  “No, I’m here with my—” I looked toward the bar, but guys were standing two and three deep, and I couldn’t spot Wills. “—my boyfriend. He’s getting our drinks.”

  “You’ve got a boyfriend, Theo?” John didn’t seem to notice that Br
adley was abruptly much more relaxed.

  “Yes. We’ve been together since last spring.”

  “That’s marvelous! I’m so happy for you!”

  “John and I have been together for almost five years now.” Bradley slid an arm around his lover’s waist, and a smile brightened John’s face.

  “Good for you. Would you like to join us?”

  “Thank you for asking—”

  “—but we were just on our way home. I have an open house tomorrow.” John sighed. “Although I don’t know why I’m bothering. That Dashwood bitch will only steal the sale from under me anyway.”

  “But that doesn’t mean you have to make it easy for her, Johnny.” Bradley stroked his arm. “Sooner or later she’ll do something that will guarantee her license is pulled.”

  “I live in hope. She’s already been barred from one community in Alexandria.”

  Wills arrived just then. His eyebrow rose when he saw I wasn’t alone. “Friends, babe?” He handed me my drink.

  “John is an old acquaintance of mine. He’s the one who found the house for us. And this is Bradley, his partner.”

  “John.” Wills offered his hand. “Bradley. I’m William.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you.” John looked from me to Wills. “Theo says you’ve been together since last spring.”

  “Yes. The best eleven months of my life.”

  “What a sweet thing to say! And you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day on the town.”

  “Any excuse I can get to show him off,” I murmured.

  Wills blushed and took my hand.

  “We’d better go, John. You’ll need to be fresh for tomorrow.”

  “Well, it was nice meeting you, William. Theo, it was a pleasure seeing you again.”

  We shook hands all around, and with promises to stay in touch—which I had a strong feeling would not be kept—they left.

  I followed Wills to the table, which, miraculously, no one had taken, and sat down heavily. “Phew.”

  Wills removed his suit jacket and hung it on the back of his chair. The vest he wore contrasted nicely with his white shirt and emphasized his narrow waist, and eyes were drawn to him. He didn’t seem to notice, though. He just stood there, looking serious.

  “Okay.” I sighed. “Ask me.”

  He sat down across from me and took a sip of his White Russian. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, he had to turn up here?”

  “Kind of. It was against the odds, never running into anyone I’d… you know….”

  “I know.” The drink left a moustache of cream on his upper lip. He licked it off, and I lost my train of thought. “I thought things looked a little tense for a time.”

  “Huh?” I blinked. “You mean you could see that from the bar?”

  “I’ve got excellent vision.”

  I sighed again. “The last time I saw John, which was about five years ago, he told me Bradley didn’t approve of paying for sex.”

  “Ah. So you’re that little smile John will occasionally have on his face that Bradley will always wonder about.”

  It was my turn to blush, but I shrugged. “Are you… are you upset, babe?”

  “Did he ever ask you to leave the business?”

  “Keep me, you mean? He wanted to set me up in an apartment.”

  “But what about the house?”

  “It was before then.”

  “Ah. So he was a long-term client. Did you take him up on his offer?”

  “No. He wasn’t out at the time….”

  “If he had been?”

  “You were never interested in my past before. What’s up?”

  “Just because I didn’t ask doesn’t mean I wasn’t interested.”

  “Why now, then?” Although I was afraid I knew. It was one thing for him to know intellectually that I’d been a rent boy, but it was another to have the evidence of a past client shoved in his face.

  “It just occurred to me….” Okay, here it came. I braced myself. “We missed out on meeting in Florida. We could have missed out meeting last spring. If you’d moved in with him, you wouldn’t have bought the house. If you hadn’t bought the house, Mr. Vincent wouldn’t have moved into the attic apartment. If he hadn’t moved into the apartment, become your friend, gone to the hospital when Paul was beaten… I never would have met you.”

  “Oh, babe.” I reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “John is a good man. He never hurt me emotionally or physically, and I liked him, but….”

  “But you didn’t love him.”

  “No.”

  Wills turned his hand under mine, and we were palm to palm.

  “Who were those two men who stopped you by the bar?”

  “Hmm? Oh, just a couple of men I know from work.”

  The light went on. “That’s where I saw him before!”

  “Excuse me?” He released my hand and sat back in his chair.

  “In your company’s newsletter.”

  He straightened. “What?”

  “Yeah. It was folded up in your suit jacket when you came home sick from work last month.” It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen it since then.

  “Oh.” He relaxed.

  “Yeah. There was a picture of your secretary.” For the longest time I’d had no clue he had one.

  “Ms. DiNois. She’s about a thousand percent better than the woman I had last spring.”

  “Tell me about her.”

  “She could never get my coffee straight. Oh, you mean Ms. DiNois.” He grinned when I kicked him lightly under the table. “Well, she does get my coffee straight.”

  “As long as she knows you’re not!” I muttered.

  “Theo, she’s involved with someone else.” I opened my mouth. “And no, I’m not going to tell you. It’s not my business.”

  “I wasn’t going to ask,” I said loftily. “What I was going to say was that the newsletter mentioned she sang ‘Santa Baby.’”

  “She did, and if I recall correctly, her version was almost as sultry as Eartha Kitt’s!”

  “So you remember.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Going by what it said in the newsletter, you were so smashed you were having a riveting conversation with a coat.”

  He’d just taken a sip of his drink, and he slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from spraying it over the table. “Sorry. Someone spiked the punch. I don’t normally drink that much.”

  I handed him a napkin, and he blotted his lips. “I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you. But you didn’t drive home in that condition, I hope.”

  “No, the company had transportation available.”

  “Was that why I had to drive you to pick up the Dodge on Christmas Day?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But you didn’t seem drunk on Christmas Eve.” He hadn’t even smelled of alcohol.

  “Someone else saw to it that I had plenty of black coffee—”

  “That just means you’re a wide-awake drunk. Sorry.”

  “That’s okay, babe. I’m not surprised you and Dad get along. He feels the same way. Anyway, I’d managed to sober up some by the time I was ready to leave.”

  “Well, I’d never have known.” I frowned, but I could see he was uncomfortable talking about it. “Hey, as long as you didn’t drive, it’s no biggie. I’ve had too much to drink myself on occasion.” Which he probably remembered from last spring, when I’d made such a fool of myself. I decided to bring the topic back to the guy he’d talked to earlier. I racked my brains. It made me crazy when I couldn’t remember where I’d seen someone before. Finally, “I’ve got it.”

  “Got what?”

  “The guy you were talking to. He’s Dev Howard, and according to the caption, he’d been kissing someone in the closet. Did they ever find out who it was?”

  “No, but I did.”

  “And? Don’t make me twist your arm, Matheson.”

  “It was the guy he was with tonight.” He
smiled and changed the subject. “How’s your drink?”

  “Excellent. I’ve always had a preference for sweet drinks.”

  His eyes took on a faraway look. “When I was in college, I used to tend bar for my frat house.”

  “You did?”

  “Mmm-hmm. You’re not the only one with vast, unknown capabilities, babe.” He ran his fingertips over the back of my hand. “For a while I thought about becoming a professional bartender.”

  “Wearing just a bow tie and snug black pants, and nothing on your torso?”

  He flushed. “I hadn’t considered that, but….”

  “Never mind, I’m sorry I put that thought in your mind. You were saying?”

  He grinned and crossed his legs, his ankle resting on a knee. “One of my fraternity brothers was premed, and we always called him ‘Doc.’”

  “You’re going somewhere with this?”

  “Yep.” He drew a pattern on the table, peeking at me through his lashes. “Well, this frat brother had a thing for walnut daiquiris.” He looked too innocent. Was he setting me up for something?

  “Okay.”

  “One evening he came in, really wiped out from classes and labs and everything. ‘Let me have my usual, dude,’ he said. Have I ever told you how much I hate being called ‘dude’?”

  “No, I can’t say you have. I’ll make a note of it.”

  “That’s why I love you.”

  “Among other reasons?”

  “Many other reasons. Yeah.” He uncrossed his legs, leaned forward, kissed me, then licked his lips and smiled. “I love the way strawberry tastes on your mouth.”

  If his kiss hadn’t made me hard, his words would have. I shifted in my seat. “Go on with the story.”

  “Where was I?”

  “‘Doc’ had come in for a drink after a hard day sweating over a dissecting table.”

  “Right. So I said, ‘I’m sorry, Doc. We’re all out of walnuts. I’ve got something else, though, if you’re willing to give it a try.’” I could see he was biting back a grin. “‘Sure,’ he said, so I mixed it for him and put it down on the bar. Doc took a sip. He was really cautious at first, because he wasn’t sure if he would like it. He wasn’t a very adventurous kind of guy, y’know?”

  “Wills!”

  He raised his drink to his mouth, but I could still see the grin on his face. “Anyway, he got this shit-eating grin on his face, and he finished it off in a couple of gulps. He didn’t even take the time to savor it, which kind of ticked me off. I’m a good bartender.”