down between Chad’s legs and grabbed his crotch. To his surprise, Chad had wood in his pants.
Ricky hadn’t expected him to be aroused. Ricky just thought he’d get a good cheap feel. He
rubbed it and said, “You’re hard.”
Chad reached down and grabbed his ass with both hands. He looked into Ricky’s eyes
and kissed his nose “You’re hot. I told you that last night. You’re making me hard. For some
reason, you make me feel different than the others, Ricky. But I can’t let that get in the way of
business. I’m sorry.”
Ricky squeezed his dick and kissed his chest. For reasons he didn’t quite understand
because he was too young and inexperienced to know better, he felt a sense of empowerment
he’d never experienced before. But his instincts kicked in and he started to manipulate Chad by
taking control from the bottom without even knowing what he was doing. He knew Chad’s ego,
and he knew it needed to be stroked just as much as his dick needed to be stroked. He spoke
softly, almost a whisper. “I can pull down my pants again. I can get down on the floor on my
hands and knees and make it fast.” He licked Chad’s chin. “I only want to please you, Chad. I
hate to see you leave with this guy so excited.” He was talking about Chad’s dick, pulsing in his
hand.
Chad smiled, then released Ricky’s ass and stepped back. After he adjusted his erection,
he said, “I don’t mind waiting for you while you go to the bank, baby. You’re a sweet little thing.
I trust you.” Ricky thought about pursuing the seduction. He had a feeling he could get away with it,
too. Though Chad was acting all tough and businesslike, his face was flushed and he had trouble
looking Ricky in the eye. But it wouldn’t have been fair. Ricky had called him, he’d worked for
his money, and he deserved to get paid.
“I won’t be long,” Ricky said. Then he lifted his chin and took a few steps forward. He
wanted to see what kind of reaction he’d get, so he kissed Chad on the mouth one more time.
When Chad wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer, he ran his palm down the back
of Chad’s head—he’d always wanted to do this to a man. There was something between them he
couldn’t understand or explain. And when he felt Chad’s tongue against his, he decided to give
him six hundred instead of five hundred even if he never saw him again.
* * * *
Ricky didn’t have school that day. The entire school district was off for some kind of
yearly teacher function. But he knew the bank would be open. All he had to do was go to the
safety deposit box and cash in one bond. There was a stack of them. These bonds had been gifts
from his parents. They’d been saving them for years so he could use them for college, or to buy a
car, or for some other important life event. Ricky didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. While all his
friends had been going out on dates and experiencing normal puberty, he’d been sitting home,
playing cards with Leyland. This event with Chad was an important life event and worth every
single penny.
When Ricky left the house, Chad was sitting outside next to the swimming pool. It wasn’t
a hot day, but the sun was strong and Chad said he wanted to get a little color. But when Ricky returned with an eager step and a huge smile, hoping Chad would fuck him one more time, Chad
wasn’t next to the pool and the house was empty. Ricky frowned. He was carrying almost a
thousand dollars in his wallet and he couldn’t wait to pay Chad. He even checked the kitchen and
the rest of the first floor. He jogged up the stairs and checked all the bedrooms. But there was no
sign of Chad anywhere, not a note on the kitchen counter or a message on the bathroom mirror.
The waste management truck pulled up outside the house and made a few clanking noises.
The yappy little dog across the street barked and the truck went into reverse and made those
annoying beeping sounds. Ricky went downstairs and plopped down on the sofa in the living
room. He pulled out his wallet and stared at the thick wad of cash in the insert. Then he looked at
the coffee table to see if Chad had left a note. But there was nothing.
So he sat back and closed his eyes, wondering what had happened and why Chad hadn’t
waited for him. He yawned and thought about going upstairs to get a little more sleep. He’d only
had about four hours and his eyelids felt heavy. But while he was sitting there, a strange feeling
passed through his body. Something wasn’t right; the house wasn’t the same. He opened his eyes
and sat up. He looked to the right and stared at the hallway. The tall clock was still ticking and
nothing had been moved. Then he looked straight ahead into the dining room. His mother’s
baccarat candlestick holders were still on the table and nothing looked out of place there either.
He took a quick breath and told himself this was just his imagination running overtime.
Everything was fine: the house was the same as he’d left it. But then, just as he was about to go
upstairs, he glanced around the living room fast. And when he looked up at the mantel over the
fireplace, he felt the same hard thud in his stomach he’d felt when Dawn the she-male had
showed up at his doorstep.
His mother’s crystal putto was gone. The gilded base was still on the mantel, but now there was a huge gaping absence
between the two candlestick holders. He stood up and crossed the room. He ran his hand across
the gilded base and clenched his fist. Then he looked up at the ceiling, shook his head, and said,
“Thank you, Chad. You’re a real prince charming.”
Chapter Seven
After Ricky paced the living room for a half hour, mentally kicking himself for being
naïve enough to leave a total stranger, no less an escort, in his home alone, he called Leyland’s
cell phone so he could tell Leyland what has just happened to his mother’s prized possession.
Ricky kept punching the furniture and kicking the rugs. He didn’t care about the putto. The thing
that left Ricky’s head pounding was that Chad would betray him this way. He thought there was
something between them. He’d never felt this way about anyone or anything. There were many
ways people can fake affection, but not with a kiss. It was the penultimate magic of the entire
intimate experience. And Ricky found it hard to believe Chad had been faking when he’d kissed
him.
Ricky had to speak to Leyland. Leyland was his best friend, and he’d been the one who’d
piqued Ricky’s interest in all this male escort business in the first place. Ricky figured Leyland
might be able to help him find a solution to the problem. When it came to less-than-noble acts,
Leyland usually knew what he was doing. And he was always fearless about doing them.
But this wasn’t like cheating at cards, shoplifting a CD, or figuring out how to buy beer at
the local liquor store. When Ricky met up with Leyland at the mall and told him what had
happened, Leyland just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Too bad, man. I feel for you. I know
how much your mother loves that tacky angel.” Then he rubbed his palms together and asked,
“Tell me all about what happened last night. Did this Chad guy pork you? I want all the details.”
His eyes were bulging and he was biting his bottom lip. They were walking from the food court to the exit. Leyland had just downed four corn
dogs and he was wiping grease from his chin and smelling his fingertips. Ricky grabbed
Leyland’s jacket and shook him. “That’s all you can say? You’re the one who talked me into all
this. You’re the one who invited a she-male to my house. You’re the one who said I should stop
worrying so much and start saying, ‘kiss my fucking ass.’ And all you want to know about is
what happened last night.”
Leyland sent him a blank stare. He licked his fingers and wiped them on his jeans. “And
you listened to me? I wasn’t serious. Half the time I’m so full of shit I don’t even believe myself
when I’m talking. I didn’t tell you to hire another escort and leave him alone in the house. You
did that. You wanted to get porked and you got it.”
“I have to get that angel back,” Ricky said. Leyland was right. Ricky couldn’t blame him
for what had happened last night. “And I have to get it before my parents come home.” When he
thought about how his mother would react to the missing angel, the thud in his stomach returned
and he felt a little lightheaded. “I’ll give Chad the cash. But I want the angel back. It’s worth one
hundred times more than the amount of cash he wanted.”
“Just tell your mother the house was robbed while you were out,” Leyland said. “You’ll
never find this guy again, and the whole town will be better off without that ugly fucking angel.”
“That won’t work. Nothing else was touched. It doesn’t even make sense to me. I have to
get it back.”
“How are you going to do that?” They were outside now, walking toward the mall
parking lot. Leyland’s mother had dropped him off and Ricky was giving him a ride home.
Leyland leaned into a large concrete-and-pebble waste container and folded his arms across his
chest. Ricky stopped and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Are you coming with
me?”
“Sure. When?”
“Right now,” Ricky said. “Let’s go.”
“I can’t do it now,” Leyland said. “I have math homework, and we still have to come up
with an idea for the entrepreneurial project.” His tone became softer, far less bold and obnoxious.
He sounded more like a twelve-year-old than an eighteen-year-old.
“Thanks, buddy,” Ricky said. He turned his back and started walking to the car. He
couldn’t believe his best friend would abandon him this way, so he stopped walking and looked
back. Leyland’s back was still against the waste container and his arms were still folded across
his chest. Ricky leaned forward and gaped at him. “Are you coming or what?”
* * * *
They returned to Ricky’s house and Ricky started making phone calls. Leyland back
tracked on the computer (he’d deleted the number from his cell phone), found Dawn’s phone
number, and Ricky called Dawn first. He left a message on Dawn’s voice mail and begged Dawn
to return his call. Dawn was his only hope of finding Chad. Ricky knew if he called Chad
himself, Chad would never return his call. After all, Dawn had been the one to recommend Chad
in the first place, and Ricky figured that if Dawn knew Chad even slightly, Dawn might know
where Chad hung out in New York. Ricky assumed these escort types all traveled in the same
circles. They crossed paths often and followed the same protocol.
By the time Dawn returned Ricky’s call, Ricky was ready to open the liquor cabinet and
pour a tall glass of vodka. It was after six in the evening and Ricky had given up almost all hope of ever finding Chad or his mother’s angel. But Dawn not only returned the call, he sounded
upset, and sympathetic to Ricky’s situation. He told Ricky he ran an honest, upscale business and
he never mistreated his clients by stealing from them. Discretion and trust were two key
ingredients and he despised other escorts who didn’t hold the same set of standards. Then he told
Ricky he didn’t want to get involved and he didn’t want Ricky to use his name, but he mentioned
a few places in Manhattan where Ricky might run into Chad.
Though Ricky and Leyland didn’t know anything definite, when they hung up with Dawn
they jumped into the Porsche and drove to Manhattan. This was the first time Ricky had ever
driven in New York and he probably should have taken his mother’s minivan. For some reason
he couldn’t explain, he was feeling bolder and stronger now. After being with Chad, he wasn’t
worried about little things like dented fenders and the expression on his father’s face if he knew
Ricky was driving the Porsche. As it turned out, driving in New York wasn’t much different
from driving in New Jersey. It just looked worse than it really was.
They parked at an indoor garage across the street from a large midtown Manhattan hotel.
Then they went into the hotel bar area and sat at a table near the entrance, between two tall
potted palms in massive porcelain urns, where they could see everyone coming and going
through the main lobby without appearing conspicuous. The grand lobby was virtually empty at
that hour and it wasn’t difficult to see who was coming and going. Ricky kept his head held high
and his expression blank. Before they’d left the house, Ricky had put on a white dress shirt and a
dark sport jacket and he’d made Leyland dress the same. Ricky wanted to appear older than
eighteen. Iit must have worked, because the young redheaded guy in his mid-twenties who
