their hair and painted their fingernails black. After that, Ricky made a few more stops at places
where he thought he’d be able to attract more clients. He sold his business model with a smile
and a smooth tone, asking them to keep this all on the down-low and promising them they’d have
the best time of their lives. And he told them all the same thing before he left: to spread the word
on the social networks that there was a big party at Ricky’s house that night for guys only. He
told them to say it was a party revolving around sports and to mention they had to bring cash to
enjoy the festivities. By doing this online, he was hoping to attract every horny high school jock
in the county, not to mention guys from the community college.
By the time Ricky pulled into the driveway three hours later, it was dark outside. There
were cars lining both sides of the street, every light in the house blazed, and the front lawn was
stippled with young guys he’d never even met. Groups of young guys mingled and horsed
around near the lamppost. On the front walk, Ricky watched guys with nervous frowns enter the
house while guys with huge confident smiles left. It was after eight by then, and in spite of the
large crowd there wasn’t as much noise as Ricky had expected. There wasn’t any alcohol or loud
music, and everyone seemed to be speaking in low, conservative voices. Before Ricky entered, he saw the divorced guy from the house next door staring over the
hedges. His car door was still open and he was wearing a gray business suit as if he’d just
returned from work. He didn’t know Ricky was watching him; he was too busy staring at all the
commotion in Ricky’s yard. So Ricky smiled and walked up to Rocco on the front steps. Chad
had put Rocco in charge of the front door, acting as a bouncer of sorts. He was wearing a tight
black muscle shirt and jeans ripped in strategic places that showed off his bulky legs and a good
part of his groin just below his genitals.
“Hey, Rocco,” Ricky said.
“I’m Jocko. Rocco is inside with a client.”
Ah well, they
were
identical. They even dressed alike. Ricky put his arm around him and
turned him toward the house next door. “I’m Ricky, Chad’s business partner tonight. See that
guy in the business suit over there? The thin, geeky-looking blond guy?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll get Leyland to watch the door,” Ricky said. “I think if you go over there and have a
little chat with him we’ll get another client. Charge him double.” He figured he’d make up what
he’d lost with the free show he’d given him the other night.
Jocko smiled and adjusted his T-shirt. “I’m on it, boss,” he said.
Ricky watched him jog down the front lawn and turn left. Ricky had a feeling his creepy
closeted gay neighbor would love this more than peeping out from his second floor window and
jerking off in the dark.
Inside, the house was just as active as the front lawn. There were young men everywhere
he looked. And there was a long line of young men that ended at the top of the stairs and started
all the way out on the rear deck off the kitchen. Ricky rubbed his palms together and smiled, thinking of all the money they were going to take in that night. Then he crossed into the dining
room where Leyland was talking to Glen and he asked Leyland to guard the front door for a
while.
After that, he sidled through the main floor, searching for Chad. He hadn’t seen him since
he’d left and he wanted to know how things were going on Chad’s end. Chad wasn’t in the
kitchen or the dining room, and he wasn’t in the living room. But when Ricky went into the
small library that Ricky’s father used as a home office, he saw Chad sitting behind his father’s
desk, staring down at the desktop, counting money and punching numbers into a calculator.
Ricky walked inside and closed the door, then knocked on the desk and asked, “How are we
doing? Will I make enough to pay for the car?” Ricky wasn’t greedy. He only wanted to get a
semblance of his life back and put all this furtive business behind him.
Chad’s body jerked and he looked up. “We are going to surpass all the numbers we
predicted, Ricky. I can’t believe you know so many guys with money to spend. You’ll have
enough to fix your father’s car and maybe get yourself a
brand
-
new
car before the night is over.”
Chapter Sixteen
“There’s a guy outside who says he wants to talk to you,” Leyland said.
Ricky stood in the library as Chad counted the money. He gazed down at stacks of cash
with one hand pressed to his throat and the other to his hip. “Who is he?”
Leyland shrugged. “He said his name is Rogers. He said he had an appointment with you
tonight to talk about school.”
Ricky’s head snapped up and his stomach wrenched. This must be the guy from the Ivy
League school his father had mentioned on the way to the airport. With everything that had been
going on, Ricky had completely forgotten about this interview. He grabbed Chad’s arm and said,
“I need to use this room. This is a matter of life or death. This guy is here to interview me to see
if I qualify to get into his college. This is the college my parents have been planning on,
the right
school.
”
Without even so much as a stagger, Chad slowly gathered up the cash and placed it in a
strong box. He locked the box and set it in a bottom desk drawer. Then he stood and stretched his
arms and legs. “I’ll go out and see how things are moving along. I haven’t checked on what’s
going on out there in an hour.”
When Chad and Leyland exited, they turned left and went to the kitchen. Ricky turned
right and headed for the front hallway. The first floor was jammed with so many people
murmuring at low levels, the entire house seemed to echo with a huge, even hum. He passed a
woman with long platinum-blond hair and a line of cleavage that had to be four inches long. She
was talking to two young guys Ricky had never seen before. She laughed and rubbed their shoulders, and they gazed into her eyes with solemn, lovesick expressions. The two guys
standing behind them were counting money and digging into their pockets for loose change.
At the end of the hall, Ricky saw Rocco and Jocko at the bottom of the stairs, with his
next-door neighbor between them. The neighbor was smiling at Rocco, and Jocko had his palm
on the small of the neighbor’s back. As Ricky approached them, he saw his neighbor take a
business card from Rocco and ask, “Are you two boys always available together?” Rocco
winked at Ricky and told the neighbor, “If that’s what you want, buddy, we’re always available
to see you either together or separately. But it will cost you double.” The neighbor’s back was
facing Ricky. He wasn’t paying attention to anything except the twins. He leaned into Jocko’s
side and said, “No problem. I’ll pay double. I’ll give you guys a call later this week and we can
set up something at my new place on the other side of town.” Then he shook both their hands and
went out the front door with his head held high and a light step that Ricky had never seen before.
Ricky should have been pleased. But there was a man in a dark business suit, carrying a
black leather briefcase, standing near the stairs. The man was staring at Rocco and Jocko,
rubbing his jaw. He looked down at the tear in Jocko’s jeans and blinked. He was a tall, thin man,
with wavy brown hair, a dimple in his chin, and a thin upper lip shaped like the letter M. He
looked as if he was in his thirties, but could have been pushing forty. He reminded Ricky of Joel
Stein, a bent-over-backwards humor columnist from
Time Magazine
. There were three tall
blondes in miniskirts and tube tops to his left, and a redhead and a brunette in similar outfits to
his right. When Rocco looked at the man and nodded, the man’s face turned bright red and he
looked down at his black leather oxfords to avoid direct eye contact.
Before Rocco had a chance to approach the man, Ricky stepped up and reached for the
man’s hand. “I’m Ricky Daley,” he said, forcing an endearing smile. “You must be Mr. Rogers.” The man extended his arm and shook Ricky’s hand. “I’m Ted Rogers. I hope this isn’t a
bad time,” he said. He looked around the house with one eyebrow higher than the other. Then he
pressed his palm to his chest and took a quick breath.
Ricky laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “We’re just having a little get-together, is all.”
He reached for his elbow and said, “Let’s go into the library where we can talk. It’s quiet in
there.” This wasn’t good. Ricky’s father would murder him for sure.
They pushed their way through a group of guys wearing red and white baseball uniforms
near the hall closet. Mr. Rogers noticed them all, with pinched lips and darting glances. Ricky
led him into the library and stopped short when he saw Chad setting up a cot next to his father’s
collection of rare dictionaries. Ricky smiled at Chad and sent him a complicitous stare. “Could
we please have a few minutes alone? We have some important business to discuss.” Though he
wanted to fall across the desk and stop breathing, he forced himself to remain calm and cool,
hoping to put Mr. Rogers at ease. How could he have forgotten about this interview?
Chad tilted his head. “I was just getting things ready. We’ll need another room for
clients.”
Ricky clenched his teeth. He smiled with pinched lips. “Not now, Chad, please.”
Chad shrugged and walked to the door. “I’ll see you later, Ricky.”
When Chad was gone, Ricky gestured to a club chair beside the fireplace and he sat down
on a small settee across from the chair. With the library door closed, it was quieter than Ricky
had imagined it would be. He smiled at Mr. Rogers and folded his hands on his lap. Mr. Rogers
probably hadn’t heard about his suspension yet, or about his being kicked out of the
entrepreneurial project. Ricky wasn’t going to mention them. He was hoping that maybe if he
was accepted into this Ivy League school fast, the incident with Nurse Cunt wouldn’t matter. He knew people were rejected from colleges all the time. But he’d never heard of a college
accepting someone, then rescinding the offer a month later.
Mr. Rogers opened his briefcase, set it on his lap, and pulled out Ricky’s file. As he
looked over the information, he made small talk about the weather and Ricky’s general plans for
the future. He spoke with a calm, gentle tone that almost sounded glum. He remained neutral,
without offering Ricky any signs one way or the other. Ricky looked him in the eye like he’d
been told to do by his school counselor. He smiled and kept his voice as animated and positive as
possible. When he told Mr. Rogers he wanted to major in business and his favorite
extracurricular activity in school was the entrepreneurial project, Mr. Rogers just stared down at
the papers on his lap and nodded. Ricky moved to the edge of the settee and said his ultimate
goal was to become CEO of a large company, but that he was interested in studying law, too. He
tried to sound eager, but not unrealistic.
When Mr. Rogers finally did look up at him, he smiled without showing his teeth. “I’ve
been going over your records with great care, Ricky. You have good grades and a nice record in
general.”
Ricky smiled. This sounded more like good news than bad. Then the door opened wide
and Chad walked in with another cot. “I’ll be out of here in a second,” Chad said.
Mr. Rogers lowered the papers and stared at Chad with a deadpan face.
Ricky’s head dropped and he rubbed his eyes. “I told you we need privacy. Could we
please have a few more minutes alone?” His voice remained friendly, but with an edge so Chad
would get the message.
While Chad lingered, setting the cot next to a tall bookcase, Mr. Rogers flipped a few
papers in the file and began reading off Ricky’s list of accomplishments. He spoke faster now, and didn’t seem interested in waiting for Chad to leave the room. As he rattled off Ricky’s
accomplishments, Chad looked into Ricky’s eyes and listened. Chad even tilted his head and
winked at Ricky to offer him moral support. And that was when it occurred to Ricky that he felt
more for Chad than just a strong emotional attachment. He cared more about Chad than he cared
about getting into an Ivy League college or pleasing his mother and father. He also realized he
was in love with Chad, and nothing Mr. Rogers could do, or anyone else could do, would change
it.
The corners of Ricky’s lips lifted slowly. It was impossible to look at Chad without
smiling. When Chad turned and slipped out of the room without, Ricky took a deep breath, sat
