© 2011-2015 Sheep. All rights reserved. Copyright protected. It is illegal to copy, post or publish without the written consent of the author. This story is NOT in the public domain
Chapter eighty-one
Previously:
We really needed to be at the loft where we could all be together. We were needy that night. Vlad and I got up to put more wood on the fire and clean up the glasses. Then we got Ryan and Jesse and took them into the shower and washed each other down, dried one another and brushed our teeth. We straightened out the bed and placed the top sheet over the bottom which was a wee bit saturated. Then we went into the other bedroom and gave everybody a goodnight kiss. We were in a state of bliss, and held hands with one another, the feeling of love connecting us.
I was still bummed at Jesse knocking me over. I wanted to get over it, to move on, but that scenario was proving hard to let go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a perfect night for cuddling and getting sleep. Things with Jesse seemed to be back on track. It was a cool night with friends to spoon with. The constant drone of heavy rain was somehow hypnotic. I was so happy to find out that Ryan played piano and was keenly interested in classical music as was our resident DJ, Vlad. Even with all the talk and his helping with the organ purchase, he didn’t tell me that he liked classical music. I recall getting very little grief when I played organ music on the audio system at the loft. After all, the organ and its myriad of speakers and pipework wasn’t like a guitar that you could take to a spare room to play. It needed the large space to speak properly. Sure, headphones were an option for practicing but it’s necessary to hear it sounding like a large pipe organ to sustain interest.
I slept for awhile but woke with my mind in overdrive. Needing to pee, I grabbed my bathrobe and took care of that, then had some milk and cookies after stoking the fireplace. I turned on my laptop and managed to download huge pdf user’s guides for both Hauptwerk and the Palace of Arts organ in Budapest, generally referred to as the PAB organ. In particular I was interested in computer memory requirements for this 149 stop organ and thought it would be a good idea to put the maximum memory in the computer now so it would be ready if we decided to get other sample sets. The PAB organ needs 32 gigs of RAM to have the polyphony equivalent to a 149 stop pipe organ with no compromise in quality. Polyphony is defined as the number of stops being selected, times the number of notes held per stop, including the duration release tails to sound, at any given time.
Another thing I wanted were SSD drives so the organ would load faster. An email to Tony was in order. I authorized him to install four 16 gig memory modules for $775 rather than the 6 gigs in the Mac Pro 8 core presently. That would leave four slots empty which could be filled at a later date with 64 gigs of memory if I wanted multiple organs loaded. I found a 960 GB PCI Express2 SSD that operates off of the PCIe serial port at astonishing speeds like 2 times faster than an ordinary SSD and 4 times faster than the fastest hard drive, with the added benefit of using SoftRAID, an Apple software RAID utility built into the operating system. What this means is there is redundancy when writing to this storage device. The downside is the high cost of $800 as opposed to under $100 for a hard drive. I provided a link to where he could get it. Installing is a snap-literally. There goes another $1600 I thought to myself.
I also wanted second touch enabled for the theatre organ. The actual console of the pipe organ has 5 keyboards with the top one just for the horizontal en chamade trumpets facing the audience. We of course would have only 4 manuals, like that was a hardship! I asked him about anything he could add to the console at this time which would make it operate even more like a pipe organ console that any organist could sit down at and make beautiful music, like adding more toe studs. I said that I was comfortable paying a couple thousand more to make it truly great.
The storm was reduced to a gentle rainfall and I felt like some body heat. I managed to get back in the gap between Jesse and Vlad. It felt like life in a waffle iron, very secure until Jesse moved away, but I fell asleep in a few minutes anyway.
It hadn’t happened since we all moved into the loft. Apparently I used to talk in my sleep but with all the happiness and feelings of love, it hadn’t happened for awhile. Unfortunately, it started again when I spooned to Jesse. My subconscious selection of words left something to be desired.
“I love you, Vlad,” I said, as I hugged Jesse and kissed his neck.
As you can imagine, the shit hit the fan.
“Fuck you, asshole,” Jesse said, as he pulled free of my arms, got out of bed and stomped out of the room.
I didn’t comprehend my faux pas until Vlad gently woke me and explained what happened.
“Oh crap, looks like another tense day. I better go and talk to him,” I said.
“Vlad just told me what I said. I’m sorry but I was asleep and....”
“If you’re really sorry and want to work this out, Vlad has to move! I’ll not be in the “also ran” category, mate,” he said.
“Jesse, I wouldn’t tell anyone to leave, especially someone who is terminally ill. Frankly, I’m surprised and disappointed that you would suggest that. Have you no compassion?” I asked, as I attempted to stroke his leg.
Once again this turned out to be a mistake. He grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm up behind my back. The pain shot through my body and I expected to see my arm ripped off. I slumped back on the couch in shock, holding my arm and groaning. Vlad and Ryan came in and tried to reason with Jesse but were met with indifference.
“Just because you hate me doesn’t give you the right to verbally abuse Ryan and Vlad. You need to apologize.”
“The Hell I will! You need to apologize to me for being such a whore! You told me you loved me but you left out the part about loving the whole bloody city.”
“It’s called polyamory, from poly meaning many and amory meaning love. I thought you understood that,” I said.
Jesse broke down crying. It’s the first time any of us had heard him cry. Ryan attempted to comfort him.
“Let’s go down to the bunkie. There’s a heater and a fridge with plenty of beer in it,” Ryan said.
The rain had let up. I turned on the floodlights so they could find their way down the path safely. Vlad sat beside me on the sofa with his hand on my leg.
“Im glad Ryan took him to the bunkie. He has been acting strange lately. I wonder if there is more to it than jealousy? Lets face it, we expected some trouble, but I never expected to be physically abused. I’m totally non-violent and that stuff really frightens me,” I said.
“Ryan can take care of himself and Jesse too, for that matter. I’m glad he got Jesse out of here for awhile before he did something he’d regret. The tension isn’t helping me one little bit. Thanks for standing up to defend me, Scott. It meant a lot.”
“Vlad, he was treading on thin ice suggesting that you should leave. If anyone needs to leave, it would be him, but it would hurt to ask him to leave. Let’s see what Ryan has to say when he comes back. In the mean time we could lay down and cuddle. I need someone to hold me right about now.”
Vlad spooned behind me and his hardening cock pressed against me, making the stress leave my body and mind. As wonderful as it felt, I rolled over and sucked face with him. This would not be a good time for Ryan to return, seeing his two “besties” fornicating.
We were drifting off to sleep when Ryan returned, wanting to be the hamburger in the bun.
“I think he was being straight up with me, saying that he’s on edge about things down under. Basically, we sucked back a couple beers, talked about all the weather we’d been having, then I put my arm around him and asked him what was really bugging him. That’s when he opened up. Jesse told me that his dad suspected his business partner had his hand in the cookie jar but he had to be devious to find out for certain. His partner took care of the finances for the business. They were waiting until he was away for a couple of days so that they could pull the hard drive from his computer, duplicate it, and give the copy to a forensic accountant. It could be a dangerous move because if the partner found out, the trust would be broken regardless of the audit’s outcome. He became suspicious after the partner bought a new Porsche for a high school graduation gift for his son while Jesse drove his mother’s three year old Holden sedan. They travelled extensively with the whole family to America and the U.K., and went skiing in the Alps.
We decided to return to the bedroom, with Ryan in the middle. I didn’t mind especially when he placed my hand on his straight up boner. We all fell asleep quickly, me and Ryan waking to a lighter grey sky with no rain. My hand hadn’t moved. I pointed to the kitchen, he caught on, so we rummaged around for at least some undies but got lucky finding our own clothing and tip-toed out so Vlad could get a good sleep.
Seeing the outside temperature was only 45 degrees F, Ryan got a fire going while I made coffee and got breakfast started, as I watched Ryan in his undies, crouched down while building a fire and showing off the curves of his powerful quads, great ass and beautiful pecs.
“I want to get as much work done today as possible so that in the morning I can drain the water system just before we go home. I need to put the tin boat in the bunkie but we don’t know how long Jesse’s going to stay there. I hope he gets out of the right side of the bed today. I don’t need anymore tension like yesterday,” I said.
“Vlad seemed to handle it better than you but he wasn’t Jesse’s punching bag. I abhor violence as you know from being bullied at school because I was little and a figure skater. I got them all -- homo, fruit, queer, fag, and some other names I’ve managed to forget. I was ready to say goodbye to life when that happened but Uncle Ted talked to me, telling me if I did that, they win. I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction so I toughed it out, worked relentlessly on my workout machine and got back into the skate club. The combination of those things plus swimming and the piano focused my strength, self control, and time management and I felt really good about myself. Ted was really impressed. He gave me $5000 towards my Mustang GT,” he said.
“Ted impresses me more every time I see him. I’m so glad you overcame the name calling. Those assholes don’t know anything. You are the ultimate athlete. I never thought of men figure skaters as being anything other than incredible athletes who can show strength with grace and fluidity, making the lifts and triple toe loops seem effortless,” I said.
“Do you skate? It sounds like you know something about it?” Ryan asked.
“I watch it on TV when I can. Mum said that the Canadian skater, Kurt Browning was outstanding, and was the first guy to do a quad jump in competition. Have you done a quad?” I asked.
“I’ve landed a few but I’ll only try when I’m practicing. It’s too hit and miss with the emphasis on miss. I do better in points by combining two triples than a quad unless I land the quad perfectly which isn’t happening, yet. If you want to, you and Vlad can come and watch me fall,” Ryan said.
“I’d love to. Like I said, I enjoy watching but I don’t have the ankles for skating. I like looking at skater’s bums, especially this one,” I said, as I checked Ryan’s ass for muscle and roundness. He blushed beautifully, then hugged me and kissed my neck. We remained locked in each other’s arms, staring in each other’s eyes. Our lips met giving an almost electric feel that travelled to my groin. And his. Reluctantly, we came up for air and moved into the kitchen to fill our coffee mugs.
We talked about everything under the sun -- his home life, family, where he lived before he moved in with us, the encouragement from his parents to pursue his athletic endeavours, and the finances to make it all happen. He received an inheritance from a great aunt who was crazy about him which allowed him to buy his used Mustang, with money left over. He earned enough in the summer to pay his tuition. He told me how happy he was to take Vlad home and finally come out to his mom, and later to his Uncle Ted.
“Would I be too nosey asking about your background?” he asked.
“Only child, dad had a management job at one of the oldest banks but came from a family careful with money and he was even more careful because he had more. He was obsessed with the idea that I should become a financial analyst one day and tried to make me a Xerox copy of himself. He was heartbroken when I went into journalism instead of an MBA. I lost both of them this Spring in a car crash which turned my life topsy turvy, and I’ve been on auto pilot ever since. I don’t know what I would do without you boys -- you’re my family and when I see anything that might change the love and serenity in my life, like Jesse’s outbursts, I can’t bear it. You are all very special to me in your own way. James has been a friend, my only friend since we were kids. I was crushing on Robb all last year. When I found out his history, I moved him in with me that very day for his protection. Music is his life. When he found out he wouldn’t be able to sing for a long time, I suggested organ because I knew he was heavy into church music. Turns out he has played the pipe organ at his church and loves it. He thinks he is getting a single keyboard to practice on. He is also getting a monster of a digital sampling organ/pipe organ combination more than twice the size of the one in his church which will be in PH1 but hush, it’s a surprise. Vlad and I collaborated on it because we want nothing to come between him and being the best organist he can be. We think it’s an investment that will pay big dividends eventually. It’s also a good excuse to get me playing again. Mom got rid of our organ because she was redoing the living room and thought the organ made it look like a funeral parlour,” I said.
“You and Vlad make a cute pair. I get horny out of my mind just thinking of the two of you fucking,” Ryan said.
“So you really don’t mind when we get intimate? Be honest.”
“Not at all because it means we can do the same thing and nobody gets left out. It’s too bad that Jesse doesn’t see it that way. If he ever leaves you, don’t worry. Vlad and I would love a closer relationship with you. I know I can’t compete with Vlad’s apparent wealth but it doesn’t bother me,” Ryan said.
It was so nice having a long meaningful discussion with Ryan that the only way to finish was with an intimate kiss while we looked inside each other, liking what we saw.
Nobody was stirring, so I checked my email finding one from Réjeanne wanting to get together with me, and another one from Tony answering some of my concerns by adding 10 toe studs, more than doubling couplers, and adding more tabs. He said that the memory and SSD’s were on order and he should have them Tuesday.
The weather cleared up. Grey was replaced by large chunks of blue so Ryan and I uncovered the launch leaving its tarpaulin cover on the dock to dry in the sun. Jesse came out of hiding so I told him coffee was ready and asked him if he would like me to bring him one.
“Thanks mate but I’ll get it myself.”
I rolled my eyes at Ryan getting a snicker back.
“At least he didn’t toss me to the ground. I should be thankful,” I said.
“It must be like walking on eggs, not knowing if what you say will send him into a rage,” Ryan said.
“I’d hate to antagonize him considering the turmoil he must feel with the unsettling news from down under, but the way he is acting, I might have difficulty with him being on the swim team. I guess I’ll just try to be nice to him and see how it goes.”
We went up to the cottage finding Jesse in front of the fire rubbing his hands together. I went over to him and started to massage his neck and shoulders. He tried to get out of the way of my magic hands but I persisted and he eventually calmed down enough that I gave him a kiss on the neck. His body tensed up as if it was saying ‘eww’.
“Would you like some OJ?”
“Okay,” he said, so I got him a glass.
“Thank you, Scott.”
I went into check to see if Vlad was awake. Jesse exhaled enough air to blow the windows out. I tickled Vlad which started him laughing loudly, which got some more of the guys up for the day.
I returned to the kitchen making a fresh pot of coffee and green tea for Vlad. I even put the plates in the oven to take the chill off of them. It would have been a perfect time for Jesse to come and help with breakfast but he was intent on staring at the fire and I didn’t want to disturb whatever thought process may have been happening in his brain.
I finished getting breakfast ready and served it at the table. Talk resumed after we ate, including with some contributions from Jesse. I told the gang that I wanted to store the tin boat in the bunkie, shutter the screen room, and everything we could do, leaving the winterizing of the plumbing until the morning. Danny reminded me that he had to get to his parent’s cottage this afternoon to help them do theirs and he would phone in the morning to make arrangements for a ride back to the city.
Jesse collected the dirty dishes and took care of cleaning the kitchen, politely refusing my help.
“You made breakfast, Scott. The least I can do is to do the dishes, mate,” he said, so I let him.
The guys intuitively knew what to do. I did some of the less obvious things like adding stabilizer to the tin boat’s fuel tank and gave it a quick run on the lake to mix it well and suck the stabilized fuel into the motor. Ryan helped remove the small outboard motor and took it to the bunkie after I ran it long enough to blow the water out of it. Robb was emptying the beer from the bunkie fridge.
The day had cleared up nicely with warm sunshine, no wind, and a cloudless blue sky. It was an ƒ16 day in photographic terms so I grabbed my cameras and Jesse. We headed back into the woods, found that large old felled tree where I got some good shots, but now I had my excellent full frame high-megapixel dSLR camera and a strobe.
“I honestly didn’t think you were ever going to finish my portfolio,” he said.
I put the equipment on the tree and wrapped my arms around Jesse. We kissed deeply, our tongues intertwined and I played with his beautiful ass as we ground on each other. I didn’t think this was going to happen again, but it was happening, and felt amazing.
“Shall we work on the portfolio or our relationship?” I asked.
“Screw the portfolio. I was clearing my head while I watched the fire this morning. I’ve been a real jerk. You could have me charged with assault. I am so sorry. I’m not like that. I cried myself to sleep last night in the cold damp bunkie hoping you would miraculously climb in beside me. Scott I want to have sex -- right here, right now, and I need you to be top. I need it rough. I need to be taught a lesson,” Jesse said.
We had each other’s clothes off in about ten seconds. I hadn’t thought of Jesse’s handsome beauty since he knocked me over. While my mind tried to get past that, my body was 100% ready. We hugged, kissed, touched, groped, and started with serious precum. I lubed his ass with his and he smeared mine all over my cock. I gave him a good tongue drilling and fingering. I’ll give him a good lesson but I wanted to preserve him for other times. Besides I loved Jesse’s fierce ass. He bent over and sucked me into his slippery mouth. I was a goner.
I don’t know why this came as a surprise to me. We had always been most compatible in bed, but I lubed him some more and gently penetrated the boy from Oz. Jesse wasn’t into gentle. Today he was a power bottom, while I was just there performing a service. Reaching back, he pulled me to him, repeatedly slamming his bum as hard as he could on my beer-can cock while I played with his. Needless to say, we didn’t last very long until our powerful orgasms became the death knell to our lovemaking session.
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
“I’m always hungry after a steamy sex session. Do you want me to make something?” Jesse asked.
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind going to the marina and getting us foot long wieners or sausages. You’re going to be throwing steaks on the barbie tonight so lets not mess up the kitchen now,” I said.
“Works for me,” Jesse said.
Before we got dressed I grabbed the camera and got some interesting nude shots and a few almost nude where a branch obstructed the naughty bits, but to make up for it, I took some extreme close-ups of his package. We dressed and returned to the cottage, bouncing the “lunch at the marina idea” off the group. It was unanimous. We would drop off Danny at his folk’s cottage after lunch.
“The launch will be crowded tomorrow morning when we leave the cottage, so if there is anything you guys don’t absolutely need tonight, take it with you now and load it into the truck,” I said.
Vlad finished with the chamois; the launch looked immaculate. Danny packed his overnight bag and laptop. Nobody other than me needed their laptop. If they had to communicate with the outside world they could use mine. I could do without most of the photographic equipment too. Vlad put his blaster in the pile.
Brad stuck to Danny like a magnet, helping carry Danny’s clothes down to the dock. I climbed aboard, ventilated the engine compartment while I checked the oil. Finding everything just fine, I fired it up and was treated to the burble of the exhaust. I hollered up to Vlad to bring my wallet and car keys, lock the cottage and get in the boat.
On the way, I took photos of all the boys behind the wheel, and Brad took a couple of the whole group. I let Robb take the wheel for most of the trip, even letting him take it into the dock. I spotted James talking to his mother and father and went over for a group hug. It felt really natural which made me feel good that we talked James into coming out to them. James handed me a business card from John, his school friend’s father, the builder.
“He is bringing the barge back now for another load of lumber. He just called to make sure that access wasn’t blocked.”
“James, we are getting foot long wieners. Would you like one?” I asked.
“June laughed heartily. “He was already a big boy when I quit bathing him, but not even close to a foot long,” she said.
Jimmy said, “Go for it, son. On the best day of my life, I never had more than 11....”
“You know what they say. Like father, like son.”
“June, Jimmy -- do you feel like a hot dog?” I asked.
“Thanks, Scott, but I’m trying to take off some weight and Jimmy’s doctor put him on a strict diet. If it tastes good, spit it out, so thanks but no thanks,” she said.
On that note we joined the gang at the grill and placed orders for 12” dogs even though I preferred their sausages. The 21 oz Porterhouse steaks for dinner will demand our full attention. As we ate, the barge slowly made its way around the bend.
When we finished, James dragged me to the barge to introduce me to John and junior, the contractor and his teenage son.
“Hey guys, I just got my dreamboat, the ’52 Duke mahogany and I need a house for it. I was thinking a four slip boathouse with a small cottage above,” I said.
“That your launch over there?”
“That’s the one. I bought it from Grant....”
“Then I know where your cottage is. It’s up high in the front, big deck, white dock, and a beach to the right of it. I was by there yesterday,” John said.
“I have a few questions. Where do you get rocks for crib ballast, what time of the year would you build it, and is it hard getting a building permit?” I asked.
“There are better foundation methods than cribs. We use screw-in piles. In simple terms, a pile can be defined as a large galvanized steel screw that is driven into the ground, dedicated to support your structure. It is torqued into the ground with a special small tractor. They are hot dipped galvanized so they last forever and can be adjusted if any settling occurs. For most jobs they can be installed in a day and construction can begin immediately. They can be installed winter or summer. Winter would be better. They meet code too although the first ones had to be certified by a geotechnical engineer who was on site. Now they accept signatures from the piling contractor. As far as a building permit goes, we have an engineer who will draw up plans to submit to the township. The hardest part is getting a leaching bed approved for the septic tank,” he said.
“Behind the cottage is a small hill which drops off away from the lake. Some blasting might be needed and crushed stone brought in. I guess we will need a holding tank behind the boathouse. I don’t know. I was just a kid when the other one went in,” I said.
“The other thing that might interest you is our latest job costing software. We scan floor plans, elevations and specs into it and it breaks the whole job down into tasks, prices the materials and the trade’s labour. Then it creates a report so big we don’t even print it out, and calculates a final cost, to which we add our percentages for overhead and profit. Our clients like it because they know what to expect before signing on the dotted line. It saves us from picking a number out of the air and adding a huge contingency fee buried in the price. You might find someone to build it for less but when he realizes he under-bid he will likely start to cut corners or fail to complete the job. We could start in January depending on the ice thickness for getting the trucks over the lake. Usually by February there is some heat in the sun so construction could start then. Here is my card. Please call me anytime to discuss the process. You can send sketches to my email. I see Junior has the lift of lumber dropped in the barge now so I must go. We need to get it to the site, unload it, stack it and tarp it ready for Tuesday. I hope I’ve answered your questions. If you want to see some of our work, James can take you for a drive by,” he said.
We shook hands, and he was off.
“Well, that was intense. I learned more in five minutes talking to John than I’ve gathered since thinking about a boathouse. Is there any way you could get away for a half-hour to show me his work? I’m really impressed with how knowledgeable he is but the proof is still in the final product. I’ll want to talk to a couple of his clients to see if they recommend him,”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll check with dad,” James said.
**
Our first stop was to drop Danny at his cottage. Brad clung like glue to Danny, realizing they wouldn’t be able to sleep together tonight. His parents greeted us on the dock.
“I think the boys have managed to get some meat on your bones, son,” Mrs. Lillie commented as James spiked me in the ribs with his elbow.
There were just too many smart-ass possible come-backs for a line like that but we all bit our tongues as Danny turned in the boat with a smirk on his face while we all contained our urge to say something.
“Dad, I don’t think you met Brad yet. He lives next door and is on the Gymnastics team. He says he is pretty good on the rings and I have no reason to not believe it,” Danny said.
“What time are you guys going back to the city, Scott?”
“We want to get an early start. We only have to drain the water system in the morning. I figure on ten o’clock departure. If that is too early, James will be driving down on Monday. We can co-ordinate by text in the morning,” I said.
Danny grabbed his bag and climbed out, and James got behind the wheel and took us to a new cottage recently completed by John and his team. It was fabulous and quite large compared to ours. Next, James showed us a boathouse about the size I wanted. It had a one story cottage, or more likely staff quarters above the boathouse. It would be a big improvement over our cottage but the cottage looked like a million and probably cost as much. The workmanship appeared to be first rate on all the buildings.
Finally, we had a look at the work they were doing presently. We got out as there weren’t any boats there so I could look at the work up close. Their work was comparable to Josh and Jeff’s workmanship. The jobsite was neat and orderly, which spoke volumes about their attitude toward quality. As we had been gone 45 minutes, we took James back to the marina.
“When’s dinner?” he asked.
“Does 6:30 work for you?” I asked.
“Yeppers. Get the shower ready for me. Today I worked like horse and smell like horse,” he said, sniffing his armpit.
Vlad sat behind the wheel and took us back to the cottage.
Jesse carried his stuff to the cottage. It was my cue to store the tin boat. It wasn’t a big job as there were double doors on the bunkie, and two guys could carry the boat in. We all grabbed a beer and sat on the deck, enjoying the afternoon sun. Brad and Ryan even peeled off their shirts.
I went inside and phoned the twins. Aaron answered and went crazy hearing my voice. We had only been apart for a couple of days, but I knew in my heart it wouldn’t be possible to be apart from Thanksgiving until Christmas -- about 10 weeks.
“How is your job, sweetie?” I asked.
“I’m learning so much but I see better ways of doing things so I send notes by email to myself. I’ll fermez la bouche until I know why they do things the way they do. What are you doing Scott?”
“Getting a thrill with the launch. It rained cats and dogs for two nights but the boat cover kept it dry. I’ve had a chance to really get to know Vlad. We’ve become very close but Jesse is jealous for no reason. I just want him to accept Vlad and Ryan the way we did with you and Adam. One minute it’s on then he changes instantly and knocks me to the floor or almost breaks my arm. I’m afraid of him. He slept in the bunkie last night after a fight,” I said.
“Maybe he’s confusing the care you give Vlad for love,” he said.
“Could be. It’s like walking on eggs. Anyway I hope to meet with your mom and aunt on Monday. Jeff and Josh had the mega-house project put on hold for the time being so they need work. I need a boathouse but found a good contractor living on the lake so Jeff and Josh can be available to do your mom’s project. Also, I’m joining forces with Vlad in a business venture so we will be able to offer your aunt a good rate on a mortgage, thus removing one more obstacle to the project. At this rate, it might be ready for occupancy before Christmas,” I said.
“Oh great! We could re-unite with our cousins at Christmas time. That would be so hot. How are the wedding arrangements coming along?” he asked.
“Ryan’s mom has everything under control. We bought Robb a little keyboard so he can play some organ music, I’ll take photos and a video and you guys will be there with Olivier.”
“That reminds me, we decided he should fly in from Paris on the Friday afternoon and Adam and I and hopefully Chris will drive up after school. Don’t wear him out before we get there,” he said, with his unique giggle.
“Love you Aaron.”
“Loves ya times two, Scott!”
**
Everybody did busywork. The vacuum sucked because it really didn’t. Jesse was sweeping. Ryan and Vlad were shuttering the screen room while Robb and Brad gave the kitchen and bath a heavy-duty cleaning. The carrot cake muffins with the maple cream cheese icing screamed “Eat me” every time I looked in the fridge so I substituted a beer. Jesse saw me open it and had a hurt look on his face so I gave it to him. Apparently, that was the right thing to do. I asked the bathroom crew if they wanted one and they both accepted as did Brad. Vlad passed but got a can of V8 out of the fridge to wash down the Noni juice after I got the beer. We inhaled fresh air on the deck in the late afternoon. It was nice to be away from the smelly vacuum.
The sound of James’ boat ended our quiet enjoyment. I headed down to the dock to molest him but I greeted him instead.
“Got away early. Dad figures he can hold down the fort with mom and I didn’t do anything to change their minds. All the more time with my buds,” he said, as he gave me a hug.
I ran my hand up under his shirt to feel his clumpy ab muscles, which was so easy to do. It was akin to skiing moguls only on a smaller scale. It was a pity we didn’t come out to each other years ago.
“I see some lofties drinkin’ beer. Let’s join the party. I’m always mooching booze from you so here’s one for the bar,” he said, as he handed me a bottle in a familiar purple velvet bag.
Jesse met me and took shot orders from everybody including Vlad.
“Here’s to what is normally my worst time of the year, cottage closing weekend, although it’s normally Thanksgiving weekend in October.”
I gave all the guys a hug and kiss and hoped my new life with guys whom I really loved should mark an end to the impending loneliness which invariably enveloped me. James recalled how I went into a depressed state on closing weekend but now we were living together and even sleeping together. We smiled, most of our teammates were very positive about it. Jesse finished his shot and slammed the glass on the bar and refilled it. Then Vlad hugged me, and exchanged kisses.
“A toast to Scott who has given me a new lease on life and I’m lovin’ it.”
We sucked back the smooth Seagrams; Jesse filled his glass to the brim again and went back outside, giving me and Vlad the hairy eyeball as he passed.
“Vlad is making a very special starter tonight, and Aaron made a special dessert,” I said.
I don’t know if any of the other guys heard Jesse outside muttering to himself, “Vlaa-aad did this, Vlaa-aad did that, the sun shines out of Vlaa-aad’s ass.” I had had enough. Putting band-aids on the problem wasn’t fixing it. It had been one drama after another this weekend.
“Robb, could you help me prepare dinner? Perhaps a slab of cow meat might mellow us out?” Vlad asked.
I was doing everything to avoid a confrontation so I turned on the big old AM radio spinning the dial to 890 KHz WLS - Chicago and picked up “Begin the Beguine”. I had a love-hate relationship with that piece, a favourite of Dad’s which I learned on the organ to make him happy. It’s written in 9/8ths time signature. The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat, so 9/8ths would be 9 beats in a 8 note measure. It’s as discombobulated as swimming the fly.
Since the cottage was clean, I decided to photograph it. I thought it would be helpful to have if I decided to do a re-design. James cornered me in the bathroom.
“Are you ignoring Jesse?” he whispered.
“Was I that obvious?” I chuckled.
“Now about that shower ....” James added.
“Glad you remembered.”
I was downloading all the photos to my laptop when Jesse poked his head in the door.
“Do we have to listen to that crap?” he glowered.
“Not at all. You’re welcome to find something else, mate,” I said while attempting to give him a lateral hug which he avoided.
“Time for dinner in about 10 minutes,” Vlad said.
Jesse took the steaks from the fridge to the side porch and started the grill. Vlad had rice and veggies cooking. I found the brandy for Vlad’s saganaki and gave it to him. I took my laptop to the screen room to be as far from Jesse as possible. James came out and put his arm around me. We had a conversation without words which was understood perfectly.
to be continued ...
