Foolish Me Read online

  I patted his hand. “Never mind. The man was obviously a philistine. What happened then?”

  “Doc said, ‘This is awesome, dude! What is it?’ and I said….” Wills had to pause for a second and clear his throat.

  “Don’t keep me hanging here, babe. What did you say?”

  “I said—” He cleared his throat again. “‘It’s a hickory daiquiri, Doc.’”

  For a second I sat there staring at him, my jaw hanging, and then I started to laugh. Wills was usually serious and rarely told any jokes. He laughed with me, obviously pleased I’d enjoyed his joke, and a few of the men nearby turned to look at him.

  I stopped laughing and scowled at them, and they looked elsewhere.

  “Did you really belong to a fraternity?”

  “Oh, yeah. I tended bar for them sometimes too, but mostly I helped the housemother with repairs and the gardening and such.”

  I sighed. I’d always wanted to go away to college and join a fraternity, but even if Poppa hadn’t… if we hadn’t quarreled, he’d have wanted me to be a fisherman. I’d liked going out on the boats with him, but that hadn’t been how I’d wanted to support myself.

  “Babe?”

  “You must have had the best time.”

  “It was fun.”

  “Do you stay in touch with any of your fraternity brothers?”

  “Not really. Michael….” He looked sad. He always did when Michael’s name was brought up. “Michael was the one I was closest to, but….”

  I didn’t want to hear about that stupid, idiotic fuckwad.

  He raised an eyebrow, and I realized I’d spoken aloud.

  “Sorry. He was your friend, and….”

  “That doesn’t mean I didn’t see him for what he was at times. He could be stupid and idiotic. And a fuckwad.”

  The band was playing “Someone to Watch Over Me.” I finished my drink and rose to my feet. “Dance with me, babe.”

  Wills closed his hand around mine, and we wove through the crowd to the dance floor.

  He put his arms around me and drew me close, and the music changed abruptly, although to something equally as soft and dreamy. We began to move to the music, and he crooned softly in my ear.

  Of course it was “Isn’t It Romantic?” “How do you manage to get them to play that song no matter where we are?”

  He rubbed his cheek against mine. “I can be very persuasive when I want, you know.”

  “Yes, I know.” I tightened my hold on him, and we continued dancing.

  Chapter 13

  “OUCH. OUCH!”

  “I’m sorry, babe. I’m trying not to hurt you.”

  “Well, that damned iodine stings.” I peered over my shoulder. We’d been making love on the rug in front of the fireplace and had forgotten about Miss Su. She’d wanted to join in this new game we were playing, and with an enthusiastic “Mrrow!” had jumped on my ass.

  And since I’d been braced above my lover, rocking energetically into his ass, she’d sunk her claws into me so she wouldn’t get thrown off.

  The results were coitus interruptus via kittenus clawsus—painful and not at all pretty. Wills had hurried me into the closest bathroom to attend to my wounds.

  “Miss Su is very sorry.” Wills was crouched behind me, still naked, and I glanced over my shoulder at him. He’d lost his erection when I’d yelped and yanked out of him, but he was half hard now. He planted a kiss on the asscheek that was unmarked.

  “Not as sorry as I am.”

  “You want me to take you to the ER?”

  “Oh, my God! Is it that bad?” I tried to see.

  “No. I just didn’t want you to think I was taking this lightly.”

  “Ass. Am I gonna have a scar?”

  “I don’t think so, but you’d better lay off the tanning bed for a while.”

  “Okay.”

  “Give it a second to dry. Then you can put your shorts back on. If you want to.” He blew on the last dab of iodine, and my cock twitched.

  I was about to suggest that we take it into the bedroom, closing the door on Miss Su this time, when his cell phone rang.

  “That’ll be work,” he muttered, recognizing the ringtone, and he bolted out of the bathroom to answer it.

  I put away the iodine, dropped the washcloth into the hamper, and went into the living room.

  “But I’m….” Wills stood there, very naked, very gorgeous, and very unhappy. “I’m supposed to take my orders from— … No, I’m not questioning your authority, sir. I know Mr. Vincent is out of town, and that you’re— … But— … Yes, but— … Yes, sir. May I at least—” His eyes got that flat look, and his mouth became a grim line. “Very well, sir. I’ll pack a suitcase and pick up my tickets at Dulles.”

  I felt deflated. Even when he had the weekend off, there was always the likelihood that he’d be called in to work.

  “I’d better….” He glanced impatiently at the clock on the mantel. “If I’m to make the flight on time, I have to start packing now,” he snarled into the phone. “Yes. Good-bye, sir.” He flipped his phone shut. “Goddamned supercilious son of a bitch bastard.”

  “Wills?”

  “I have to go out of town, Theo. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it, babe. But… I thought Vince had left you in charge.”

  “I’m still a—low man on the totem pole. If Mr. Vincent isn’t there, and one of the… my superiors tells me to jump, I have to ask ‘how high.’” He stalked out of the room, barely giving me time to admire the taut, pale curves of his ass.

  I sighed, pleased that I was getting better at hiding how much I hated it when he went out of town, eased my shorts over my injured ass, and pulled on my jeans.

  His suitcase and a garment bag were on the bed, but he was in the bathroom, and the shower was running. It was a measure of his annoyance that he wasn’t singing.

  I went to the dresser and took out shorts and undershirts, socks and handkerchiefs. A few days’ worth should do. I hoped he wouldn’t be gone longer than that.

  The water turned off, and in a matter of minutes he came out, a towel wrapped around his waist. He tossed his shaving kit into the suitcase, jerked open the chest at the foot of the bed, and pulled out a tool belt and a pair of work boots. In addition to the underwear I’d placed on the bed, he took out more, as well as some jeans and flannel shirts. How long was he going to be gone? What was he planning on doing?

  And since when did computer techs dress like construction workers?

  Wills was swearing under his breath, steadily and in a flat monotone, and what I could make out shocked me, not because I hadn’t heard the words before, but because I’d never heard my lover use them.

  “Babe?”

  “I’ve got forty-five fucking minutes to pack and get to the fucking airport.” He was packing with less than his usual finesse.

  “Let me, babe.” Gently, I pushed him out of the way. “Your suits will get all wrinkled.” I put them into the garment bag.

  “Fucking idiots.” He stripped off the towel, put on his underwear, and shoved his arms into the sleeves of a button-down shirt. “They fucking screwed up, big-time.”

  I started to picture an entire building without computer access but was distracted by the sight of him with his shirttails just covering the curve of his ass, and the white of his shorts just visible beneath them. I lost my train of thought. Even though I’d bought him pale blue, green, and gray silk shorts, he always wore white cotton boxers when he went out of town.

  “Theo.”

  “Huh?”

  “I said I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.” He paused and looked me in the eye. “I will be back.”

  “Okay. Do you need a lift to the airport?”

  “If you don’t mind?”

  “Ass. Of course I don’t mind.” He’d be doing the driving. I’d just drive the Corvair home. “You’ll call me when you can?”

  Wills didn’t answer me, and he didn’t meet my eyes. He s
at on the bed and pulled on his socks, then stood and finished dressing. “Theo….” He ran a hand through his hair and gazed around the room, probably to see if he’d forgotten anything. “Dammit, I hate this shit. Mr. Vincent would never….”

  “Wills.” I put my arms around him and kissed him. “It’ll be okay. Just take care of yourself, all right?”

  “All right.” He held me, pressed his cheek against mine, then let me go so he could step into his shoes and I could put on half boots and a fisherman knit sweater. “We about ready?”

  “Yeah. Just let me bank the fire and get my jacket.”

  Wills already had his overcoat on when I entered the foyer. He handed me my bomber jacket, and I slid my arms into it.

  “Watch over Poppa, okay, Suzie Q?” He bent to scratch Miss Su under the chin.

  “Mrrow.”

  I gave him the keys to the Corvair, and we hurried out of the house.

  Wills didn’t have much to say on the drive to the airport, and we arrived at Departures sooner than I would have liked. I slid over to the driver’s seat, flinching as I landed on the punctures on my ass. Wills removed his suitcase and garment bag from the backseat, and I told him again, “Eat your vegetables and get plenty of sleep. And come back to me in one piece.”

  “I will, babe. I’ll be fine. Make sure you take care of yourself too.”

  “Listen, give me a minute to park, and I’ll come in and wait with you.”

  “Thanks, babe. You don’t have to go to all that trouble.” He smiled, but we’d been living together long enough for me to be able to tell it was forced.

  “No trouble, Wills.”

  “There’s not enough time. But thank you.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Be careful driving home, okay, babe? Bye.” He walked to the sliding doors. Once there, he turned for a final look, his mouth once again a grim line. He didn’t smile this time or blow me a kiss, and he didn’t wave, just dipped his head. Then he was through the doors and gone.

  I’d never seen him like this before, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I decided to park the car and go after him anyway, to at least be with him until his flight took off, but by the time I found a parking spot and got to the terminal, his flight was already taxiing down the runway. I stood there watching until I could no longer see it.

  My eyes burned, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. Okay, you’re being a dope, I told myself. He’s only going to be gone a short time. Get yourself together and go home before you’re arrested for loitering.

  I returned to the hourly parking lot, paid the rate for the thirty minutes I’d been there, and drove to Highway 267 and home.

  I UNLOCKED the door and let myself in. Miss Su came into the foyer, her claws retracted and silent on the hardwood floor. I picked her up, and she made herself comfortable in my arms.

  “Daddy’s gonna be gone for a while, Miss Su.” I rubbed my cheek against the soft fur covering her head. “At least a week, puss.” But I really had no idea how long.

  It suddenly hit me. Except for the little bundle I held, I was alone in the apartment. Tim and Cris were in Savannah. Paul and Spike were in LA. Other boys were scattered throughout the country. No one would come knocking on the door wanting a fuck. No one would come in from a long night of being fucked.

  Wills had been gone other times. Why did this time feel as if, for the first time in twelve—no, it was thirteen now—years, I was all alone?

  Well, I’d never needed anyone to help me fill up my spare time. I’d be fine.

  “Mrrow.”

  “Are you hungry, puss?” I put Miss Su down, hung my jacket in the closet, and went into the kitchen to open a can of Fancy Feast for her.

  Wills and I had originally planned to go out to TGI Fridays and then catch a movie, but I didn’t feel like doing that by myself. I’d have called Vince, to see if he wanted to join me for dinner, but he was out of town.

  Okay. There was Connor. He was staying at the Harrison Hotel. He’d wanted to talk to me about something, but we’d been playing phone tag the past few days, and the last couple of times the call went directly to voice mail. We could talk over dinner.

  I called the front desk. “I’d like to speak to….” Shit. What name did I give? Connor? Bailey? “I’d like suite 1276, please.”

  “One moment please.” There was a brief pause, and it occurred to me that Connor’s “Daddy” might pick up the phone, in which case I was hanging up. I wasn’t that desperate for company. “That suite is unoccupied.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The party in that suite has checked out.”

  “But my friend told me he would be there until the end of the month.”

  “I’m very sorry, sir. As I said, suite 1276 is unoccupied at this time.”

  “Okay, then. Thank you.” I hung up. Oh, well. Connor had probably gotten tired of his “Daddy” and split, and whatever he’d wanted to talk to me about probably wasn’t that important.

  I thought about calling Charlemagne but dismissed that idea almost immediately. It would be opening a can of worms best left sealed.

  It looked like I’d have to pull on my big-boy pants and face the fact that I was going to be alone in the apartment for… for however long it was until Wills came back.

  And he would be back. He’d told me so.

  I went into the kitchen, put together a salad, made myself an omelet, and toasted some whole wheat bread. I poured a glass of wine, considered taking everything into the dining room, but decided against that too. I turned on the radio so there wouldn’t be utter silence in the apartment and sat down. And rose quickly.

  “Damn!” I’d forgotten about Miss Su’s inadvertent assault earlier. I’d have to be careful about sitting for a while. Grumbling under my breath, I stalked into the living room to look for a pillow and then went back to eat my lonely meal.

  I offered Miss Su a piece of the omelet. She sniffed daintily, then sneezed, shook her head, and turned away.

  “Don’t you like the provolone cheese I added?”

  “Mrrow.”

  “I bet you wouldn’t say that if Daddy were here!”

  She looked over her shoulder at me, blinked, and continued out of the room, her little stub of a tail as high in the air as it would go.

  “Well, that just means more for me,” I called after her. I finished my dinner in solitude, trying to think what to do to while away the time until Wills called.

  Going out, to the movies or dancing—why, if Wills wasn’t with me?

  The cable company we subscribed to offered hundreds of channels, and there was crap on all of them. I didn’t feel like watching a DVD, not even The Big Chill, or reading, or looking at porn online. Without Wills, what was the point?

  How lame was this? He had only been gone a few hours.

  I loaded the dishwasher and changed the litter in Miss Su’s litter pan. The apartment was already spotless, so there was no need to clean it.

  I couldn’t call Tim. Saturday nights at his pub were some of the busiest times.

  I couldn’t call Paul. He was working the three-to-eleven shift.

  The ladies downstairs were entertaining, and if I showed up, one of their clients might think I was available.

  It was tax season. I didn’t usually like to work on the weekend, but I might as well.

  A FEW hours later and still no phone call from my lover. Well, that flight home to me before Christmas had taken ten hours. I had no clue where he was going, so he could still be in transit. Or there could be a problem with his hotel reservations and he could be hashing it out. Or he could have been hauled off to troubleshoot the problem as soon as he landed. Or….

  I decided to call it a night. In the morning it would be one day closer to him coming home.

  I slept on Wills’s side of the bed with his pillow in my arms.

  It wasn’t until the next morning that I spotted the chain with the charm I’d given him on Valentine’s Day, lying on his night table. It was cool in my hand when I
picked it up, the warmth of his body long gone from it.

  There were probably a dozen reasons why he hadn’t taken it with him, the most likely one being, in the rush of dressing, packing, and leaving, he’d simply forgotten it. But… he hadn’t taken it off since I’d put it on him two days before; he even showered with it on.

  I worried my lower lip, then put it back on his night table and went to feed Miss Su.

  THE NEXT morning, while I was shaving, I saw it: a gray hair in the middle of the red at my temple. I couldn’t pull it out. If I did, it would spawn the population of a third-world country in revenge.

  I peered closer and realized I had lines flaring out from the corners of my eyes.

  Oh, Jesus. It was happening! I was twenty-eight, my hair was turning gray, and my face was wrinkled. I was getting old!

  I chewed on my lip. I needed to get my hair trimmed. I’d ask my stylist about coloring my hair. As for the rest….

  Maybe Wills wouldn’t notice?

  I went back to shaving. I’d worry about it another day.

  EACH TIME I tried to reach Wills, I got his voice mail, and it was the same for Vincent. By the middle of the week, I’d grown beyond concerned. Sure, he was a guy, but stuff could happen to guys.

  The phone rang, and I bolted for it. “Wills….”

  “Mr. Bascopolis?”

  I felt deflated. “Yes.”

  “Good morning. This is Barbara from Dr. Keith’s office. I’m calling to remind you of your appointment to have Tiramisu spayed.”

  “Oh, yeah…. Thanks for the reminder.” I’d forgotten all about it. Wills and I had talked about it, and since I had no plans to show her and eventually breed her, we’d decided it was the best thing healthwise to have her spayed. He told me he’d take the day off, but now I’d have to do it alone.

  “It’s at eight tomorrow morning. Please remember not to feed her after six tonight and to take up her water bowl before midnight.”