Clarity of Lines (7 page)

Cooper smiled. “And it’s gonna be freakin’ awesome!”

* * * *

The concert itself wasn’t too bad. Though I didn’t want to admit that to Cooper. I was by far the oldest person there from what I could tell, but Cooper didn’t seem to notice. I watched him dance and sing almost every word, I watched him get pushed and shoved and he never stopped smiling.

He loved it.

And that was what I went for.

My ears rang when we got home, and even when I woke up the next day. Cooper swore the only thing to get rid of the ringing in my ears would be to give him a blow job. He tried to reason that the sucking and swallowing motion would help pop the inner ear. Either that, or make him breakfast. He was pretty sure either would work.

Or both.

The little shit.

He left my apartment on Sunday afternoon and when I got to work on Monday, I got a text from him saying if I still had ringing in my ears, he could come past the office, I could suck him off then buy him lunch and that might help.

I typed out my reply.

It didn’t help for breakfast or lunch yesterday. Why would today be any different?

Maybe we need to do it two days in a row. Just to be sure. For medicinal research purposes, of course.

Of course.

Is that a yes?

No
, I replied.
Aren’t you supposed to be working?

Very productive morning. Apparently two blow jobs yesterday was good for creativity.

I laughed at my phone.
Will I see you this week?

Maybe Wednesday?
he answered.
And I’ll stay over on Friday before we leave for Chicago.

Okay. I’ll just sleep in my big bed alone…

Are you pouting?

Yes. And looking at my draughting board, imagining you bent over it…

Jesus, Tom…
That’s not fair.

See you Wednesday. LY.

There was no immediate reply, but after lunch my phone beeped and I smiled when I saw his name.

No more sexting at work. I’ve had a hard-on all day.

That’s a shame,
I replied,
because I ordered a draughting board to be delivered to my place this evening.

His response was almost immediate.
I’ll be there after work.

I chuckled to myself, threw my phone into my drawer and spent the next few hours getting some work done. I did actually order a new draughting board and asked for a six o’clock delivery to my apartment, so by five-thirty I was finishing off some financials when Jennifer buzzed me.

“Sorry to interrupt you, Mr Elkin,” she said. “Sofia Elkin is on line one.”

I groaned, and Jennifer simply asked, “Would you like me to take a message?”

“No,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll take it.” I pressed the blinking button. “Sofia?”

“Yes, Tom,” she answered. “I didn’t want to call your personal line. I hope that’s okay?”

I repressed another sigh. “That’s fine. What are you calling for? Is everything okay?”

This time she sighed. “Yes, everything’s okay. I just wanted to speak to you. I’m sorry I called by on Saturday unannounced.” Then she said, “How was the concert?”

“It was okay,” I told her. Then making a point of calling him by name, I said, “But I wouldn’t tell Cooper that. He’d make me go to another one.”

“Right,” she said quietly.

Sofia was quiet then, so I prompted her, “You said you wanted to speak to me?”

“Well, I just wanted to speak to you…without him being there…”

“Him?” I asked, failing to keep the bite from my tone. “You mean Cooper?”

“Tom, please don’t be mad,” she said. “I’m trying here.”

“Well, you can start by calling him by his name,” I told her.

“Can I see you over the weekend sometime?” she asked. “Without Cooper being there? Is that okay?”

She was unbelievable. “I can’t this weekend,” I said. “We’re going to Chicago.”

“Oh.”

“So Cooper can introduce me to his parents,” I told her. “And the weekend after that, I’m taking him to meet my mom and dad, Sofia.”

There was a long silence, then she said, “You’re really doing this, aren’t you?”

I wanted to tell her that I was
with
him, that I loved him, but I didn’t. There wasn’t any point. Instead, I told her, “Sofia, in the last five years I’ve spoken to you a handful of times, and now I’ve finally found someone, you’ve called me three times in two weeks. Sofia, you can call me about Ryan any time, day or night, but if you’re trying to cause problems then I think the calls should stop.”

There was complete silence.

So, to soften the blow, I said, “How about I give you a call in a few weeks and we can go out for coffee? I want you to get to know Cooper. I want you to see how wonderful he is, but you never will until you stop seeing him as some kind of threat.”

“Okay,” she said quietly.

“Sofia, I want you in my life,” I told her honestly. “I want us to be friends. I do. I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry for that. I truly really am. But if you fight me on this, on Cooper, I will choose him.”

When she didn’t reply, I told her I had to go, but I’d be in touch in a few weeks. I put the receiver in the cradle, closed my files, shoved my laptop into my satchel and left.

* * * *

Needless to say, the new draughting board was impressive.

So was Cooper.

He eyed the new addition to the living room somewhat cautiously. He bit his bottom lip and walked over to it, touching it reverently. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s a nineteen-twenties antique,” I explained. “Solid oak, cast iron, adjustable… unbreakable.”

He stared at it for a while, his fingers running along the timber. “It’s indestructible, right?”

“Sturdy as hell,” I answered.

Without another word, Cooper simply disappeared down the hall only to return with a bottle of lube and a condom. He put them on the edge of the dining table near the draughting board and looked over at me with mischief in his eyes, then he stretched up slowly and grabbed the top of the board.

“You’re ambitious,” I told him. “It’s that Gen Y thing that gets you into trouble.”

He spread his legs and lifted his ass. “It’s a horny thing,” he said gruffly. “But I didn’t offer myself, in my fantasy,” he said quietly. “You…
took
me.”

I walked over to him and pressed him against the draughting board. “Like this?”

He moaned his response, so I reached around him and undid his belt and pants, sliding them over his hips. Then I undid mine. I rubbed my naked cock along the crack of his ass, smeared us both with lube, then when he heard the tear of the foil packet, he lifted his leg onto the bottom wooden brace.

“Please.”

When I pushed into him, I slid my hands up his arm to the top of the draughting board and gripped my hands over his. And I fucked him. Just like he wanted me to. Just like how he groaned, begging me, pleading with me.

Afterwards, when we’d collapsed into a sticky, sated mess on the sofa, I said, “So, you really like the new draughting board?”

He looked at me and waggled his eyebrows. “Yeah, I happen to love antiques.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing he meant me, and he burst out laughing.

“You’re such a little shit.”

“You love me.”

I deliberately didn’t say anything, so he dug his fingers into my ribs. “Say it! Say it,” he said, laughing.

“Yes, I do,” I barked out with a laugh. “I
do
love you.” He grinned victoriously, so I added, “You little shit.”

* * * *

On Saturday morning, we’d checked our luggage in at the airport and sat down for coffee before our boarding call when Cooper pulled out his cell. He scrolled for a number and pressed call.

“Mom?” he asked. “Yeah, we’re just at LaGuardia now.” I could hear his mother saying something, then Cooper smiled. “Yes, Tom’s here with me,” he said. “Actually, Mom, you’ve met him before.”

I put my coffee down.

“Yes, you have,” Cooper told her. “Remember my friend from high school, Ryan Elkin?” Then he added ever so calmly, “Well, Tom’s his dad.”

There was silence for a moment, and Cooper looked at me unapologetically. “No, I’m not joking…yes, because I want you to meet him…” He was quiet then, while his mother obviously spoke. I could hear her voice through the phone.

“No,” he said with less of a smile. “We’ve organised a car. We’ll just see you at your place,” he looked at his watch, “in about three hours.”

He clicked off the call and I asked him, “Couldn’t wait to tell her?”

He shrugged and sighed. “Now she has three hours to get used to the idea before we walk in the front door.”

I sipped my coffee. “True,” I conceded. “But over the phone?”

“I know my mother,” he said. “Three hours. First hour, she’ll be livid with me for dropping that bombshell. Second hour, she’ll be mad because, well, you’re older than my dad, and by the third hour she’ll have had enough time to calm down.”

I laughed at his blasé comment. “‘She’ll be mad because, well, you’re older than my dad’,” I repeated, shaking my head. “Jeez, Coop. Thanks.”

He chuckled. “Don’t sweat it, babe. She’ll be fine with it…when she gets used to it.”

“
Don’t sweat it, babe
?” I echoed. “Is that some Gen Y thing for ‘it’ll be fine’?”

“Yes,” he said seriously. “You should take notes, old man.”

Ignoring that, I asked, “And your dad? How will he take it?”

Cooper put down his coffee and said, “I’m thinking not very well.” He looked down at the table and for the first time since I’d met him, he looked…uncertain.

“Cooper, I’ll be there with you,” I told him quietly. “If he… We’ll be there together to talk to them.”

A voice over the loudspeaker called our flight, and we boarded the plane. Cooper said he wasn’t nervous, that he was okay, but the closer we got to Chicago, the tighter he held my hand.

Chapter Nine

Cooper was amazing. Yes, he was nervous but after we’d collected the rental car, I asked him if he’d like to check in at the hotel first. He shook his head. “Nope, wanna get this out of the way.”

That was Cooper. Jump in with both feet and tackle it head on. One thing was for certain, when he made his mind up, there was no point trying to persuade him otherwise.

He was remarkable like that. Some might argue that he was more foolish than courageous, but at just twenty-two years of age, sometimes I thought he was light years ahead of me.

And then other times, he was a twenty-two year old fucking kid. Like driving, for instance. Claiming I didn’t know where his parents lived, he took the car keys then proceeded to drive, according to him, like he stole it.

Twenty minutes and fifteen old-man-with-a-heart-condition jokes later, he pulled the car into the drive of his parent’s house. It was a large, double-storey house on manicured lawns with well-kept gardens. Cooper’s parents had obviously done well for themselves since moving to Chicago.

Cooper exhaled through puffed cheeks and looked at me like ‘here goes nothing’, opened the car door and got out.

I followed him, and he waited for me to step up beside him at the front door until he rang the doorbell.

Meeting his parents was, for the lack of some profound, life-changing word, weird.

His mother, Paula, opened the door as if she were expecting some other younger Tom, and Cooper’s joke of dating Tom Elkin was just that. A joke.

When she saw me, she stared—just stared—before she even remembered to say hello to her son. She kissed his cheek. We walked in and met Cooper’s father, Andrew, in the living room. I’d met them both, maybe once or twice, when Cooper and Ryan had been at school, and they hadn’t changed one bit.

Cooper and I sat down on the sofa, his parents sat across from us, and still not a word was spoken.

Just awkward stares, coupled with awkward silences.

But then a kid walked in, who I realised must have been Max, Cooper’s younger brother. He was seventeen years old and going through what Cooper called an ‘emo’ phase. He had longish black hair swept over half his face and there was a nose ring on the half I could see.

Max stopped when he saw Cooper, looked at me for a long second, then back to Cooper. “Dude,” he said slowly. “He’s old.”

I looked at Cooper, Cooper looked at me, then both of us burst out laughing. Even his mother tried not to smile. His father on the other hand didn’t look so impressed.

Cooper stood up and gave his little brother a bit of a hug, then tried to touch the nose ring, but Max dodged him easily. “Nice silverware,” Cooper said.

“Thanks,” he replied quietly.

Cooper roughed up his brother’s hair. “Do the girls like it?”

Max pushed Cooper and tried to smack him up the side of his head. “Like you’d know.”

“Boys,” Paula chastised. “Cooper, you’ve been here for thirty seconds. Leave your brother alone.”

Cooper walked over to where I was sitting, and he sat down, a little closer to me this time. Max stood behind his parents, Cooper made a face at him and Max flipped him the bird.

“Cooper,” his father said. “Can you be serious for a moment? I think we have some…
issues
that need discussing.”

Cooper took my hand. “Mom, Dad, this is Tom. Yes, he’s older than me, but we’re together, and we’re serious.”

His parents both stared at him, then turned their attention to me and it was my turn to talk. “I know you’re thinking this is wrong, or that it can’t be real,” I said calmly. “And believe me, I don’t think we were expecting any of this either, but the fact we’re both here must tell you we are serious.”

“You’re old enough to be his father,” Paula said quietly.

“Yes, I am,” I answered simply.

“Age isn’t an issue,” Cooper said quickly. “Not for us. It’s never been an issue.” Then he said, “Well, in the beginning it was a little weird,” he admitted, “before we got together and I was attracted to him, and I kept thinking ‘Oh my God, he’s forty-four’ but then I realised it didn’t matter.”

I looked at him and squeezed his hand.

“It didn’t matter?” his father asked.