FINDING DARIN
Part 9
It was a few minutes past eight and Darin was already in the office when Jake arrived on Monday morning. He was pouring his second cup of coffee when Jake opened the office door, carrying a small grocery bag and a few other items.
"Honey, I’m home," Jake called out, smiling. "You’re in early."
Darin retrieved another mug and poured Jake his first coffee. "Either that or you’re late," he chuckled. "I wanted to go over a few things before my meeting with Uncle Spencer," he added. "How was your weekend?"
Jake laid his cel phone and a paperback book on his desk and dropped his backpack on the floor as he took the coffee from Darin. "It was good," he answered, handing off the bag. "We went to dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday and then we caught ‘Angels in America’ at the civic theater."
"What’s that?" Darin asked as he took his seat and opened the sack. "Ooh, jelly donuts."
"It’s a really awesome play," Jake answered as he spooned sugar into his coffee. "I got three lemon and three strawberry."
"Can I have the lemon?" Darin asked. "Do I owe you anything?"
Jake nodded. "Please, all the times you bought lunch, it’s the least I can do. Enjoy," he added as Darin removed the pastries from the bag and placed them on two small paper plates. He handed one to Jake.
There was a soft knock on the door as Sheila opened it slowly. "Darin," she said, "There’s a Mister Stevens here to see you. He says it’s important."
Standing, Darin told her, "Send him in."
As she stepped aside, a rather small, heavy-set man wearing a gray suit entered the office. "Are you Darin Johnson?" he asked.
Darin eyed him warily, "Yes. Yes, I am," he answered. "What can I do for you?"
The man handed him a large tan envelope and stated, simply, "Consider yourself served." He then turned and exited the office, closing the door without further comment.
Darin stared at the door for a few seconds as Jake rushed to his side.
"What was he talking about?" he asked.
His hands trembling, Darin looked at the envelope he had been given. "I don’t know," he answered removing a letter opener from his middle desk drawer. In seconds, the envelope was opened and Darin removed the stack of papers inside. As Jake waited, he studied the first page. Finally, he broke the uncomfortable silence. "It’s a petition for divorce," he said quietly. "That bitch."
Jake was clearly shocked, "
She’s suing
you?" he exclaimed.
"She sure is," Darin answered. "Citing ‘Irreconcilable Differences’."
Jake picked up the first page and read the first few lines.
Flipping through some more of the papers, Darin read parts aloud. "Half the value of the house...ninety-nine Mercedes 320SL…antique bedroom set…oh, Hell, No!"
"What?" Jake demanded, laying the top page on Darin’s desk.
Darin shook his head. "She wants me to pay all court costs plus, now get this, give her two grand a month until she can ‘find suitable employment’. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay that bitch to sit on her ass for two
years."
Jake snatched the papers from Darin and read them carefully before offering, "You just might have to pay her more than that."
"Like hell, I will," Darin said, reaching for the phone. "I’m calling Aaron and see what he says."
Jake took the receiver from Darin. "I used to work for an attorney. She has a right to demand alimony if she wants to. The fact that she’s only asking for two years means she’s either very stupid or she has an attorney who’s not up on all the laws," he stated as he returned the papers to the desktop.
Darin slumped back in his leather chair, his mouth open. "But that’s almost two thirds of what I make a month," he said, staring at Jake. Finally, he removed the receiver from Jake’s hand. "I need to talk to Aaron. Have him look at everything and see what he thinks," he said punching a series of numbers on the keypad.
****
Aaron Banning maneuvered his green Cadillac through Monday morning traffic as his cel phone began to ring. With little effort, he flipped it open and switched a button on the receiver in his right ear. "Banning," he said, switching his left turn signal on and glancing quickly to the right.
"Aaron, it’s Darin Johnson," the familiar voice said.
"Darin, what’s up?"
"Are you in your office yet?"
"Not yet. I’ll be there in a few minutes, why?" He guided the car along the one way street, approaching the parking garage.
"I was planning on talking to you about filing divorce papers but," he paused, "I guess Janet beat me to the punch."
Stopping to retrieve the parking ticket from the automated machine, Aaron continued into the parking garage. "Who’s her attorney?" he asked.
"Larry Stabler," Darin answered.
"Okay," Aaron said, "I’m at the office now. I’ll call Stabler and see what he has to say and I’ll call you back in a bit."
"Okay, Aaron. Thanks."
"You at work?" he asked as he pushed the car’s door open.
"Yeah, I’ll be here all morning."
"Okay, I’ll get back to you in a bit," he said as he closed his cel phone and exited the car.
****
"Darin hung up the phone and turned to Jake. "He’s gonna call her attorney and see what he has to say," he said as he leaned back in his chair.
Sitting on the corner of Darin’s desk, Jake munched on one of the donuts and asked, "Are you okay?"
Darin exhaled. "Fan-fucking-tastic," he answered as he reached for the phone once again, looked at the clock and returned the receiver to its place. "He won’t be there for another hour," he whispered.
Jake sat silently for a few more moments. Pushing himself off the desk as he popped the last of his donut into his mouth, he said to Darin, "So, did you do anything special this weekend?"
Darin smiled as he thought about the restaurant on Sunday. He thought about sharing the details but decided against it. "Not too much," he said. "Just hung out at the hotel most of the day Saturday. Hey, you know Tony Gillette, don’t you?"
Jake’s eyes widened. "You mean your P.I. friend?"
"Yeah, that’s him."
"Woof, Daddy! He’s a hot hunka man candy."
"Man candy?" Darin laughed. "That’s a good one. Did you know he’s gay?"
"I thought he might be," Jake replied. "At least, I was hoping he was."
"You like him, do you?" Darin asked, leaning back in his chair as he bit into a donut.
"Oh, yeah. I’d do him in a heartbeat."
"What about David?"
"He can watch." Jake smiled, pouring more coffee. He turned to face Darin.
"What?"
"You’d do that?" Darin shook his head and smiled.
"Hey, somebody has to hold the video camera," Jake protested as he picked up another donut. "Probably not but I still think Tony’s hot," he replied.
Before taking another bite from his donut, Darin added, "You never finished telling me about when you guys met."
"Oh, that’s right. Where did I leave off?"
Darin thought for a few seconds, then said, "He told you he couldn’t come back because his life got…"
"Oh, that’s right. He said his life had gotten complicated." Jake shook his head as he remembered.
"Yeah, that’s it. What did he mean?"
Jake took a bite of donut and sat back on the corner of Darin’s desk. "I really didn’t have any idea at the time. I finally got hold of my friend, Sandy, and she gave me his sister’s number, in Santa Fe. I called her and she told me what had happened."
"What happened?" Darin asked as he took a sip of coffee.
"Well, he had been working overnights at this convenience store for about two years." Jake took another bite of donut then turned the donut over in his hand as the filling dripped onto his fingers. He quickly licked the sticky contents. "He had put in his notice and had only a couple nights to go," he continued. "Most of his stuff was packed and he was ready to move here. Anyway, just before shift change, around five thirty in the morning, this guy comes in and says, ‘Give me all the money,’ and sticks a gun in his face."
Sitting forward in his chair, Darin gasped, "Oh, my God! That must have been awful."
"The guy told him that as long as David did what he said, he wouldn’t hurt him," Jake continued.
"Did he give him the money?"
Jake nodded. "He gave him all he had in the cash drawer but the guy goes crazy when he realizes that it’s only about a hundred bucks." Jake took in a deep breath as he paused.
"What did he do then?"
"He just looked at David, brought his gun up and started shooting. David had activated the alarm and he could hear sirens so he knew the cops were on the way."
"That must have been terrifying for him."
"The first bullet hit David in the left shoulder and he fell to the floor. When the guy heard the sirens, he stepped up to the counter and shot again. That one got him in the lower back. He didn’t remember anything after that."
"Did they catch the guy?"
"He shot a customer who just happened to be walking in the door as he left," Jake sighed as he recalled. "Then he shot a cop outside before the cop’s partner shot him and killed him."
"That must have been awful for him. He’s okay now though, right?"
"His legs were paralyzed for a while. They couldn’t remove the bullet because it was too close to his spine."
"What about…?"
"Oh, that works just fine, thank you very much." Jake smiled and blushed. "He didn’t think it was going to though. He was on so much pain medication that he couldn’t get a hardon so, he thought he would never get one."
"So, how did he finally end up here?"
"His sister…you’d like her, she’s really sweet. Poor girl has absolutely no gaydar though. She keeps getting involved with guys who turn out to be gay. She thinks she turns them. I told her, ‘Nobody has that much power.’ But, she still thinks she…"
Darin cleared his throat. "Jake. Focus."
"Oh, right. Anyway, she heard about a doctor at a hospital in Amarillo who specializes in his type of treatment. She went to Atlanta to try and see if he could be transferred there. I went with her, for moral support as much as to try and talk him into coming here."
"Was he happy to see you?" Darin asked, picking up the last donut.
"Not at all," Jake said sadly. "He told me to go away and forget I ever met him. I told him it was too late for that and that I loved him. He said he didn’t want me to love him out of pity," he added.
"That must have been hard to hear."
"His doctor told us he’d probably be angry and try to push us away but, yeah, it was hard. I told him that I would love him no matter what. Even if he could never walk again, I’d be right by his side. From the moment I walked into that hospital room, I loved him more than I had ever loved anyone in my life." Jake paused, smiling. He popped the last bite of donut into his mouth and chewed slowly. "Oh, don’t get me wrong, I
had moments when I’d rather have pushed his wheelchair down an elevator shaft but, I still loved him."
Darin laughed. "So, how did you convince him to move here then?"
"His sister talked him into going to the hospital in Amarillo and then coming to stay with her," Jake replied. "I went to Amarillo every weekend and spent the entire day with him. I even helped him with his therapy. Finally, I guess he realized I wasn’t gonna go away and he began to let himself love me back. Once he got out of the hospital, he moved in with me and we’ve been together since. Finding out that he wasn’t impotent helped a lot too."
Darin dropped his paper plate into the wastebasket by his desk. "How did he find that out?"
"He had started getting feeling back in his right leg first. One day, when I was there, he was sitting up in bed and was trying to pee into the plastic bottle thingy."
"It’s called a urinal," Darin corrected him as he rose to get more coffee.
"Oh, yeah. He kept saying he was having trouble peeing and I asked him if he wanted me to help him. Finally, he agreed and I pulled back the covers. I saw right away what the problem was so I just sort of… ‘gave him a hand’."
"Right there in the hospital?"
"Well, I closed the curtain first. I’m not a total exhibitionist. Let me tell you, it had been almost eight weeks since he had had a sexual release. I’ve never seen anyone shoot that much. Under different circumstances, I’d have been so turned on. Well, I was still pretty turned on. David’s not exactly small, if you know what I mean." He blushed. "I think that was when he started to change his attitude toward me. He told me later that he didn’t want to be with me if he couldn’t make love to me."
Darin shifted in his seat. "And, now? Is everything okay?"
"Oh, he still has some trouble with his left leg but, he’s learned to deal with that."
"So, when did he move in with you?"
"I had to have handicap rails and a wheelchair ramp installed before they would let him leave the hospital but, with the help of his sister and our friends, everything was installed and ready by the time he was released."
Jake tossed his own paper plate into the trash and stepped into the bathroom to rinse his hands. "I know David doesn’t really believe this but I would have stayed with him even if he was never able to perform again."
"That’s pretty remarkable," Darin responded. "Not too many guys would do that. I’m not sure I could."
Wiping his hands on a paper towel, Jake added, "It’s not always easy though, especially since he’s a top."
"Top?" Darin asked confused. "I’m think I’m gonna need an ‘english to gay’ dictionary," he added.
Jake chuckled and patted Darin on the shoulder. "We’ll cover more terms in our next lesson," he said as he thought for a second. "For lack of a better term, a top is kinda like, well…he’s the one who…uh. Hmmm."
Darin let out a hearty laugh. "Well, this is a first," he said as he continued to laugh. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen you speechless before. I like it."
Jake picked up his coffee and turned to walk toward his own desk. "You’re a bitch and I hate you," he said as he pouted.
"Oh, come on now," Darin pleaded, "How else am I gonna learn this stuff?"
"The same way I did," Jake said as he plopped himself into his chair. "On the street."
Darin rolled his chair toward Jake’s desk. Making his best ‘puppy dog’ face, he said, "Please."
"No," Jake insisted. "You’ve hurt my feelings. And after I gave you donuts and everything." He smiled then.
Pushing his chair back behind his desk, Darin picked up the phone once again. After punching several numbers, he waited as he heard ringing in the line. Finally, he heard the voice mail greeting, "Hi, you’ve reached Brady’s voice-mail, I’m not available but if you leave a message, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can."
Upon hearing the familiar tone, Darin said, "Hey there, it’s Darin. Just thought I’d catch you before you got to work. Guess not. I’ll try again later. Bye."
Jake had moved back toward Darin’s desk. "That sounded interesting. Was that the guy from Redfield?" he asked.
Darin smiled and excused himself as he stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.
Picking up the stack of papers on Darin’s desk, Jake, once again, sat on the corner. Slowly he flipped through the papers as he listened to the sound of Darin peeing. Hearing the toilet flush, he waited for Darin to return.
Wiping his hands on a paper towel, Darin picked up the coffeepot before returning to his desk. "More?" he asked Jake.
"No, I’m good," Jake answered as he continued to scan the legal documents.
As he returned to his seat, Darin said, once more, "Please tell me, oh wise teacher." He put his hand on Jake’s right leg.
Jake smiled once again as he pushed Darin’s hand away. Laying the bulk of the stack onto the desk, he stated. "A top is…well, he’s the one who does the…well…"
"Jake," Darin said softly, "You can use adult terms if you need to. We’re both big boys."
Jake giggled. "Okay, if you insist." He blushed again. "You know, I can tell my mother some of the most embarrassing things but, for some reason, this is hard for me to say to you."
Darin smiled. "Just say it."
"Okay, the top is the one who does the fucking and the bottom is the one who gets fucked," he said quickly. He diverted his gaze toward the floor as his face flashed crimson once more. He studied the papers in his hand.
His eyes grew wide as Darin understood. "Oh, I see." He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. "So, I guess I’m a top then," he added as he placed his hands behind his head. He closed his eyes and thought about the night he spent in the little trailer home in Redfield. He recalled the way the younger man had slipped the condom onto his erection and the smile on the boy’s face as Darin had slowly slipped inside him and how his strength had been matched as he made slow love to his new friend. His heart ached when he remembered the tears streaming across the handsome face as he slammed the door to the trailer and how his own tears had betrayed him as he drove toward the exit. He longed to hold that young man in his arms once again and to kiss away his pain.
Jake tapped him on the shoulder. "Did you see this?" he asked, pointing toward the bottom of the last page.
He hadn’t even looked at the date. As he studied Janet’s signature, his eyes widened. The papers had been filed the previous Wednesday.
TO BE CONTINUED
