Chapter Forty-Six
“Let's see … There's Emeryville, of course, the upstate lodge, the Napa winery, the Singapore condo, the New York apartment, the Munich house, that dump of a compound in Shanghai, the Argentine ranch, the Tasmanian … what is that place in Australia?”
“A house, quite a pleasant one, actually; my wife and kids liked Tasmania. Lots of water, no devils ...” the accountant answered.
“And it's used, on average, eight nights a year and never by Mark, right? So the cost per guest there is one hundred forty thousand dollars a night. Is that Australian dollars or American?”
“Australian, but they have traded pretty much at par for the last couple of years.”
“Historically it's over-priced.”
“The house?”
“No, the Aussie dollar. You could see it moving to eighty cents if the Chinese sneeze twice.”
“I thought you were kind of ...” The accountant let his voice trail off.
“A bimbo? A rent boy? A small time hustler with a big dick?”
“Jackson, there's no need to use names like those. I just mean ...”
“You just mean that I'm supposed to be an idiot?”
“You're making it hard, Jackson.”
“Oh please, I have zero interest in you sexually,” Jackson replied playfully
“What? NO!” the accountant sputtered. “That's not what ...”
“Ok, so to sum up, I'd like to see cost and market for all these places. I've got occupancy rates and operating costs from corporate communications. Can you have those by the end of the day?”
“Well ...”
“Sweet, I'll be waiting for them. Thanks, Milt.” Jackson clicked off and knocked on Mark's door. He had listed the properties and the costs associated with them. He listed the comparative costs for high-end resorts in nearby locations.
“That much?” Mark gasped. “That news could affect the stock price if it got out.”
“So I figure we could trim things a bit,” Jackson proposed.
“A bit! Bet your ass, a lot!” Mark used an intercom to postpone lunch with Li Ling. Jackson heard the familiar inflection in Mark's voice; he suppressed a smile knowing Li would not be getting his afternoon fuck that day. “This number, Jacks; I thought Argentina was cheap.” Jackson leaned close for a look and Mark put his hand familiarly on Jackson's back.
“That includes trucking water from the Andes. There isn't enough ground water to support the farm AND the cattle.”
“Farm? I thought it was a ranch.”
“You once admired the kitchen garden the cook was growing and things kind of got crazy from there. It's what you would call a truck farm now, except there's no market for the output. It just rots.” Jackson stood up and Mark's hand slipped down to his ass before he took it away.
“And the property in Munich?”
“I thought the company could transition to something smaller in town coupled with a getaway in the mountains, for bigger gatherings … on the Austrian side, on the water, maybe the Walchsee. Austria is cheaper - not much, unfortunately - but it all counts.”
Mark regarded Jackson with some pride. “See, I told you you'd like running the properties.”
“Yeah, the properties are going to be fun. It's you I miss.” The last comment was almost parenthetical and Jackson turned the talk back to business. “So, if you approve, I'll list these three for sale ...”
“Remember that week we spent in Argentina?” Mark sighed, not so easily turned. His eyes ranged over Jackson's body seeming to recall every inch of it.
“So, we should keep this professional, right? Could you sign this authorization, please, Mark?”
“Jacks … we had some good times. A lot of good times. Don't tell me you have forgotten.”
“No, I haven't. But we're passed that now. No sense stirring that pot.” He waited for Mark to sign the sale authorization. “Thank you, sir. I'll keep you posted on progress.” The 'sir' was not seriously deferential, but it reinforced Jackson's point with Mark. Jackson gathered up his briefing papers and walked to the door, knowing Mark's eyes were on his ass. It was still a fine ass.
Jerry got home from work in a great mood. The bonus announcement had been very promising the night before, but the details as Rory explained them the next day had been even better. Jerry's bonus was modest compared to what Tom and Heiko got, but it was a good deal more than he was expecting. He thought about getting a better house, but he didn't want to overwhelm Neil. He made a lot more money than Neil but he kept quiet about it. Fuck a big kitchen, he thought; I can't cook anyway. I'd rather live with Neil on a shack than live without him in some overpriced monster-house in the Hills. He smile got bigger in anticipation of getting home. And then his face fell. He felt cold terror as he walked up to the porch.
“Tim … is everything alright? Where's Neil? Is he ok?”
“Easy, Jer. He's perfectly fine. He's at Scalese's buying something – to eat, I guess. It's a grocery store last I noticed.” Tim smiled reassuringly.
“Oh! Thank God. Every time I see you without seeing him, I think something's happened. Like you're here to give me the bad news or something.” The danger regularly faced by policemen wasn't lost on Jerry.
“I'm waiting for Rory. Neil invited us to dinner. Darren and Nicky are coming, too.”
In short order the group assembled and Neil put out the best Italian dinner that he could assemble from what Scalese's sold. The hearty red wine had come from a nearby drug store that had a better selection of wines than most of the expensive shops in New York. At least that's what Nicky said.
“Ok, so I can't keep a secret.” Neil stood with glass in hand, about to explode. He didn't make a toast, he just drank it all down. “Jerry and I are getting married,” he said as fast as he could get the words out and then he sat down and looked at Jerry for approval.
There was a five second pause and then the table erupted with simultaneous congratulations. After the flurry of comments and acknowledgments the room got quieter again. Jerry allowed that there were some practical considerations that needed to be worked out and Neil admitted he was scared witless half the time.
And then Rory spoke, “At least you won't have to worry about money.”
Another round of wine and the night ended. Jerry and Neil cleared away the debris of dinner. Everything but the glasses was plastic, so it wasn't a huge clean up.
“You didn't tell me you were gonna make a big deal out of it,” Jerry said as they sipped his wine.
“Do you mind? I mean they had to know eventually.”
“No, I don't mind. I guess my brain was ready to think of us as an engaged couple.”
“Well, that's what we are, aren't we?”
Jerry gave him a fruity, winey kiss. “Yeah; but, when it was just us, it was a manageable thing. Now the world knows, or some of it ...”
Jerry's phone rang. He smiled to Neil and put the phone on speaker. “Asshole,” Bernice exclaimed. “Why didn't you tell us? That would have made the bonus night two hundred percent perfect.”
“Many happy returns,” Cyril shouted in the background.
“That's not what he means,” Bernice explained.
“I know what he means,” Jerry laughed. After a few more words of thanks, he put his phone away and pulled Neil close. “I like making out on the sofa.”
“Jer,” Neil began, “Everybody's talking about this bonus. Just how big is it?”
“Well, it pays out over five years, so it's not so much really. And if I quit, I don't get it. So it's not really anything I can count on.”
“How much?”
“It depends on what the company's stock does.”
“About how much?”
“A million and a quarter. In stock. Not cash. If the stock goes down ...”
“A MILLION AND A QUARTER?”
“More or less … It's not really that much money, Neil.”
“It is when you're making fifty-two thousand a year.” Neil sipped his wine slowly. “Jerry, I put about three thousand to our monthly expenses – and you do, too. How much do you really make?”
“Eight thousand. I put the rest into a mutual fund.”
“We haven't had this talk before,” Neil said quietly.
“We never needed to. Together, fifty-fifty, we already have more than we spend so what difference does the rest make?” Jerry poured the last of the wine in their glasses.
“My genius partner is a millionaire,” Neil said with a sense of wonder.
“My genius partner is the best kisser in the world. Can we go back to making out?”
Neil glanced around the room. “Maybe Ann can see us.”
“So what? When did that ever worry you?”
“I thought we couldn't afford curtains.”
“If she likes watching, she'll be disappointed as hell if we put up curtains.”
Neil giggled and kissed his lover. “Want to give her a better show?”
“At least turn out the lamp over there.”
Even without the lamp, as piece by piece they shed their clothes, their skin glowed in the light coming in from the street and the brighter light coming from the kitchen. The play of light and shadow displayed the ghostly wantonness of Neil's eager touches and Jerry's kisses; no witness could have mistaken the invitation of Jerry's spread legs or the thrusts of Neil's fucking. Fleshy details were obscure but the passion and the climax were plain.
“That was amazing,” Neil sighed. “There is nobody like you, Jer. It must be that millionaires fuck better than us peasant folk.”
Jerry was still in the flush of his orgasm and pulled Neil against his heaving chest. “I told you you don't fuck me enough.”
Neil pulled back. “You're kidding.” He paused; there wasn't enough light to read Jerry's expression. “You're not kidding! … Are you? I thought you wanted it to be, like, special.”
“It is always special, Neil. Every time.”
Ann could barely breath as she watched her neighbors' passion ebb. Her hand almost vibrated on her clit. She had to sit when her climax came. She wondered what her life was becoming. Her voyeuristic sex was so much better than the real thing had ever been for her. No, that wasn't true, she decided. There was a boy, not her first - her third, as she remembered it. He was sweet and gentle and careful. But that was high school. And we only did it twice. And I'm remembering it as being better than it really was, she thought.
What am I going to do when Brian comes home … if he ever does? Five to seven years. And there was that incident that delayed any chance of parole. Fighting! So unlike Brian. Why would he get into a fight? That prison was supposed to be practically a country club. Minimum security. No violent criminals. So Brian's fight meant he would do at least five years and it had been only a little over three. More than half way, but what lay ahead?
Brian, of course, felt the fight had been absolutely necessary. He had to respect himself and he needed others to respect him. Otherwise, his sentence would be five years of victimhood. Despite the relative ease of a prison that wasn't much different from a military boot camp - so much easier than a maximum security facility, victimhood was still victimhood, a daily denial of humanity, a daily subservience, and the psychological disgust of letting yourself be used over and over.
When Brian first arrived he was assigned an upper bunk in a dormitory-like room of a dozen bunk beds. The man in the lower bunk was an uninteresting nobody, a repeat offender named Donald who couldn't stop committing covert crimes of theft, burglaries of empty homes.
After two weeks the routine began to assume boring sameness. Work, eat, and sleep came and went. The exercise periods were just another form of work for Brian. Donald was creepy in the shower, always checking Brian out, but the looks merely creepy. Brian ignored it and otherwise he tolerated the looks. The inmates were non-violent criminals so the prison lacked the drama of sensational movies and television. As far as Brian knew there were no rapes, no knifeings, no gangs. There were some pressures, but those were fairly subtle. The boredom was the hardest part.
On Mondays they changed the bed linen. Donald surprised Brian on his third Monday by saying, “Why don't you take the bottom bunk? I like the openness of the top – you know, no towels hanging down drying.” So with a nod, they swapped positions and made up their new bunks.
Two nights later Brian lay in the bottom bunk with their towels, damp from showering hanging down from the upper bunk rail. The towels afforded a sense of privacy, not actual privacy of course, but there was the feel of a solitary peace behind them. So far, Brian had resisted even thinking about sex in any form. He had heard sounds in the night but did his best to ignore them. This time he could hear the rhythmic squishing of masturbation. He tried to put it out of his head, but resistance is futile, as the Borg says. He felt his own erection growing; he held his dick cupped in his hands as it grew and forced its way through his fingers. A little - he could rub it a little he decided. A little comfort wouldn't hurt. Soon he was stroking as quietly as he could. He tried to minimize his motions, Just concentrate on the tip he told himself.
Before he could react, Donald leapt from the upper bunk and stuck his head into Brian's space. “I can help you with that,” he offered. “You'll like it.”
“Fuck, no,” Brian hissed. “Get back in your bunk.”
Once he was certain that Donald was back in the upper bunk, he rolled on his side and tried to sleep. He had to endure the rocking motion of the bunk and the quiet but obvious sounds of Donald's orgasm. Then he became aware of some kind of sex going on in the adjacent bunk. He wrapped the pillow around his head. Eventually he slept.
In the morning Brian issued a warning to Donald. “Don't try that shit again!”
“What are you talking about?” Donald shoved him away.
That was lesson one in Brian's prison sex education. Nothing happened. There was no sex in prison. In the morning it was all washed away. At least it was never talked about. Every night, however, it was again obvious that half the room was fucking, sucking, or jacking off. Three nights later, Brian gave in to the demands of his erection and began stroking himself as quietly as possible. He heard Donald's bare feet land on the floor. Brian remained lying on his side, facing away and waited. He held his cock and waited for Donald to walk to the toilet; but nothing happened. He refused to turn over to look. Slowly he began stroking his cock again. It felt so good. He sighed almost silently and relaxed, enjoying the solitary pleasure. Fuck Donald, Brian thought. Then he felt something on his ass - just the zephyr of a touch. He rolled over and shoved Donald away. “I told you to stay the hell away!” Brian shouted.
A cautionary warning came from an adjacent bunk. “Fuck him, suck him, or deck him. Just shut the fuck up about it!” Laughter came from two other bunks; but the warning wasn't enough.
Two nights later, when Donald tried it again, Brian burst out of his rack and decked him. The fight caused an uproar and brought the guards. In a bureaucratic procedure designed to minimize the matter for the convenience of the prison administration, Brian was charged with fighting and injuring another inmate without cause. Unprovable sexual assault did not constitute proper cause. The finding cost Brian two things. His first possibility of parole was delayed and he was moved to a more restrictive environment, a regular cell.
The parole delay was devastating. It meant that Brian would perforce do his minimum sentence – five years instead of three. It meant that prisoner life was his life and it awakened him to the fact that he had better learn to adapt. He couldn't close his eyes and hold his breath for five years.
The good news was his roommate. Lex was a virtual copy of Brian. They were the same age and liked the same things; they had the similar backgrounds, they committed almost the same crimes, and they had both punched out their bunk mates. After Lex told the story of his amorous bunk mate's subsequent dental work that caused a whistle when he talked, Brian laughed and felt at ease for the first time since he heard the big doors slam behind him. He could laugh about it for the first time; there was a bitterness in the laugh, but it was a genuine laugh. There was just one matter remaining but it was solved, too. On the second night of their shared sleeping arrangements, they both pretended to ignore the other guy's masturbation.
Porn can be exhausting work. Ty was glad to get into his bed after long hours at the studio, even if those hours had been physically enjoyable. His sex session with Jeff had been easy enough although the exigencies of making porn meant that he didn't get to come when he wanted to and he didn't get to do it the way he liked.
“Was I ok?” Jeff asked from his bed, separated by a shared headboard from Ty's.
“Yeah, you were fine.” Ty answered and then heaved a sigh.
“I didn't want to hurt you or freak you out or anything ...”
“You didn't.”
“I was afraid my dick might be too big.”
“Seriously?” Ty laughed, implying that Jeff's size was nothing to be concerned about..
“Yes, seriously.” Jeff sounded a little offended.
“Thanks for the concern. You were fine.” Ty made amends. “Are we gonna talk all night? Because I was thinking about hiking early tomorrow.”
“I like to talk after a fuck.”
“Yeah, but that was hours ago.”
“But we didn't get to talk hours ago. And there was some stuff I wanted to ask you. This is embarrassing.” Jeff fell silent.
“What? Go ahead. Ask.”
Can I get in bed with you? It's easier to talk that way.” Jeff climbed in with Ty. “I mean we spent the whole day making love. We're not exactly strangers.” They shuffled their bodies around in a bed too small for two and ended up cozily entangled.
“You're naked,” Ty said.
“Well, yeah. You know I sleep that way.”
“Yeah, but … So what did you want to ask? Now that we're so close.” Ty's remark was friendly, not arch.
“Well, I know you kinda had a thing for me ...” Ty didn't say anything so Jeff continued. “And we fucked all today ...” Ty still remained silent. “So … is there any unfinished business left? For you, I mean?”
“Me, no. You're the one with the erection.”
“Yeah, that's why I'm a good porn actor,” Jeff laughed, backing his hips away from Ty's body. “I mean do you still have a thing? Did today make it any … I don't know what to call it.”
“Am I now worse off? Hopelessly in love with you? Is that what you mean? The answer is no. My itch has been scratched. It went away.”
“Great!” In his enthusiasm, Jeff gave Ty a tiny kiss on the cheek. “So can we be friends?”
“We are friends.”
“I mean 'better' friends - now that that stuff is over with?”
“Are you holding my cock?” Ty asked amused by Jeff's illogical concerns.
“Sorry, it's a small bed. I didn't know where to put my hand.” Jeff moved his hand to Ty's thigh. “You're not the only one with a hard on.”
“You don't know what to do with your hand so you jack me off?” Ty laughed harder.
“I wasn't exactly jacking you off ...”
Ty kissed Jeff and said, “Yes, we can be 'better' friends.”
“Good, 'cause I was worried things might get weird. Don't need weird things with my roomie.”
“Are we gonna … mess around?” Ty asked not sure where their coziness was going.
“We don't want to do that,” Jeff said decisively. “Do we?” he asked more uncertainly.
“No, I guess not.”
“Ok, so tell me about hiking. You do that a lot? Where do you go?” Jeff snuggled closer, despite their dueling erections. They talked for a while and then fell asleep in the cramped closeness of Ty's bed. In the morning Ty fucked Jeff.
Of course they fucked. It's what twenty-year-olds do - ones who sleep together. Ty liked it and Jeff liked it so much he sighed, “Why couldn't I love you instead of Dormeyer?”
“You're in 'love' with Dormeyer?”
“Hopelessly.”
“Is it mutual?” Ty got out of bed.
“I don't know. Maybe. Mostly, he treats me like shit.” Jeff stared at Ty's nakedness, drinking in the form standing beside the bed. “And you're so much better looking than he is!”