arriving tomorrow. What are you doing here now?” He sent them a casual smile; his tone
remained calm and even.
His mother sighed. “I distinctly told you we were arriving today.” She seemed to be in a
mood. She dropped her suitcase and kicked it into the wall with a fawn pump.
“It’s no big thing,” his father said. “We took a taxi. It’s good to be home.” He placed his
luggage at the foot of the stairs and patted Ricky on the back. “Anything unusual happen while
we were gone?”
Ricky smiled and shook his head. “Nope. Just the same old routine.”
Ricky’s mother placed her jacket on a chair in the hallway and walked into the living
room to inspect things. While Ricky’s father was telling him about the flight home, his mother
went up to the mantel and examined her putto. Her jaw dropped and she leaned in closer. Then
she lifted the putto from the platform and carried it into the hallway. “What happened to my precious putto, Ricky?” she asked.
Ricky’s face went blank and he shrugged. He gazed down at the glass angel in her palms
and said, “Looks okay to me.” This couldn’t be happening, not after all he’d been through that
week. The fucking putto looked fine to him. Had the woman gone loony?
She pointed to the angel’s chest. “There’s a small crack inside. I can see it plain as day.
My putto has been disfigured.”
“What happened to it, Ricky?” his father asked. He frowned and rubbed his jaw in
exasperation.
“I don’t know,” Ricky said. He couldn’t see a crack or disfigurement anywhere.
She handed the putto to Ricky’s father. She clucked and shook her heard. “I’m very
disappointed in you, Ricky. You’ve been playing with my putto and you’ve ruined it.”
Ricky remained blank, wondering if she knew how foolish she sounded. Chad was right.
It really did sound as if she was talking about her pussy. He took a quick breath and gazed down
at the floor, trying not to smile. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” his father said. “We’ll get a new one. Ricky will pay for it.”
“I’ll get a new one and pay for it,” Ricky said. He sent his mother a sincere glance.
His mother lifted a suitcase and headed for the stairs. She wasn’t buying his promise.
“And just how will you pay for it? My putto is worth a small fortune. You don’t find a putto like
this just anywhere. It’s not like you can just walk into any old department store and ask the
salesclerk about a putto like mine.”
Ricky tried hard to remain blank. But when his mother asked how he’d pay for it, he
remembered what Carson had said earlier that afternoon. He imagined himself naked, while he
posed in front of a group of good-looking men and Carson tossed hundred-dollar bills at him. He pictured Carson’s good-looking young helper pulling down his pants and mounting him from
behind while the beefy one pulled down his zipper and stood in front of his face. Behind him
stood ten more guys waiting in line. Ricky almost smiled; he almost got an erection. His lips
parted and the right corner of his mouth lifted.
His father saved him by saying, “He’ll pay for it by doing yard work.” Then he patted
Ricky on the back and said, “Your mother will be okay. I’ll take care of her putto. Now you go
outside and work on the yard. I saw some leaves out back as the cab pulled up to the house.”
* * * *
Ricky worked outside for the rest of the afternoon. With each leaf he raked, he went over
the events he’d experienced that week. Though his life could have been ruined more than once,
he’d managed to solve each problem and come out on top, so to speak. Though he wasn’t going
to an Ivy League school, he felt a sense of empowerment he’d never experienced before. When
he thought about everything he’d done with Chad, especially the scene on the subway, he
became so lightheaded he almost tripped over a rock and went face first into the pachysandra
patch on the far side of the pool.
By the time he was finished raking, he walked to the garden shed so he could put the
tools away like his father had taught him. Ricky’s father had always told him there was a place
for everything and everything had its place. Ricky didn’t want to piss his father off, so he made
sure he hung the rake on the proper hook, between the hoe and the beveled snow shovel. He
placed the green trash can on the right, across from the brown trash cans his father used for trash
pickup. The green can was only for yard work, not refuse. A mistake like that could cost Ricky. But when he shut the garden shed door, his father was standing to his right. He was
looking down at Ricky and frowning. He rubbed his jaw and said, “Is there something that
happened this week we have to talk about?”
Ricky’s body froze. “Nothing I can think of, Dad.” His face felt hot and his knees became
wobbly. Maybe his father had checked out the Porsche and found something wrong. Maybe there
was a dead fish in the backseat, or a lump of seaweed next to the gear shift. Ricky had done so
many things that week he couldn’t even begin to pinpoint exactly what his father was talking
about. So he just shrugged and smiled, hoping for the best.
“I just got off the phone with Ted Rogers,” his father said. He was still frowning.
Ricky gulped. Ah well, Ted Rogers from the Ivy League school.
“Ted just said, ‘I think Ricky is the kind of man we need at our school.’ He also told me
he hasn’t been this impressed or excited about an incoming student in a long time.”
Ricky blinked. “They accepted me? Ted Rogers wants me there?” Now he really felt
lightheaded.
“Not only that, but Ted has decided to waive everything else. You’re in, right now,
without any additional SAT scores or grades. Ricky, this guy was almost gushing into the phone.
He’s desperate to have you.”
“This is unbelievable,” Ricky said, with his voice trailing off. He wasn’t pretending either.
Evidently, Ted Rogers had been more than impressed with the events of that night, including
Rocco and Jocko no doubt. Ted hadn’t been joking around when he’d told Ricky men like them
had to stick together. But more than that, this was the first time in Ricky’s life when he realized
how gay men stick together and help each other out whenever necessary. Ricky felt privileged, as if he’d not only been accepted into an Ivy League school, but also accepted into a secret
society of people who were always looking out for each other.
His father put his arm around him and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m proud of you. I
knew you’d get into
the right school
, Ricky. I knew this interview would cinch the deal. It’s like
I’ve been telling you all along. Sometimes you just have to relax, be yourself, and say kiss my
butt.”
Chapter Nineteen
On Sunday, Ricky met Chad at a restaurant in New York for brunch. Chad said he
wanted to get together with Ricky in a real restaurant in broad daylight, so they could have a real
date like normal people. He said he wanted to start a new chapter in their lives; he spoke about
hope and promise and spending more time together.
Though they hadn’t been apart for any length of time, they’d spoken every night on the
phone since they’d last seen each other. For Ricky, a second without Chad felt like a lifetime.
When he closed his eyes at night, he tried to pretend Chad’s hairy legs were wrapped around his
smooth legs and Chad’s erection was poking the side of his body. And Chad told Ricky he hadn’t
been able to stop thinking about him. He said he couldn’t sleep or eat. He missed holding Ricky
so much he even coaxed Ricky into talking dirty so they could have phone sex together before
they hung up and went to sleep. The phone sex made Ricky laugh. They used trite expressions
pilfered from bad porn films. Ricky referred to Chad’s dick as a dangerous, throbbing monster.
When he told Chad he couldn’t wait to drain his come sacks, Ricky nearly fell off the bed
laughing.
When Ricky drove into New York on Sunday, he blasted the radio and smiled. After he
parked, he walked down the street with a bounce in his step and nodded at passersby. He wore
his brown tweed sport jacket, a crisp white shirt, and jeans to the restaurant. When the waiter led
him to a table for two in the back, Chad stood and set his napkin on the table. Chad wore his
black cashmere sport jacket, the one he’d worn the first night Ricky had met him, and a white
dress shirt with a wide, open collar. He remained standing until Ricky sat down first. After the waiter placed their orders in front of them, Chad started talking about how
much fun he’d had working with Ricky. He said he’d expected to make money, but never that
much money.
Then Ricky smiled and looked into Chad’s eyes. “I have to ask you something.” His
expression turned serious and his voice grew deeper. “Were you being honest when you said you
thought you loved me, or were you just working me?” He knew he was blunt, and it might not
have been the right time or place to ask this question, but he had to know. Ricky now realized he
was in love with Chad. He hadn’t been sure at first; he’d never experienced this kind of love with
anyone else. All he knew was that when he thought about Chad, he felt a clutch in his stomach
that made him feel different than he’d ever felt before. When he was with Chad, the world
seemed like a much nicer place.
Chad lowered his fork and gazed into Ricky’s eyes. He sat back and his chair and tilted
his head to the right. He nodded first, then said, “I do love you. I don’t just
think
I love you
anymore. And I think we’re good together.”
Ricky smiled. “I love you, too. Being without you these past few days made me realize
how I feel about you.”
“What do we do about it?”
“I’m not sure,” Ricky said. “I heard you quit working for Carson. Did you do that for
me?” They hadn’t discussed this on the phone. Ricky wanted to wait until they saw each other in
person.
Chad nodded. “I did it for you and for
me
, Ricky. I’ve been wanting to quit for a long
time. You gave me the inspiration, I guess. After I met you, it didn’t feel right.” This made Ricky smile even wider. He wasn’t sure how he would have reacted, or if he
would have been able to take Chad seriously, if Chad had remained working as an escort. “I
think there are a million things you’d be good at doing. You’re a smart guy.”
“But you’re biased,” Chad said. “I’m not sure I can take your opinion seriously.”
Ricky leaned forward and reached for Chad’s hand. He didn’t care who was watching. He
held it tightly and looked into his eyes. “I am biased. You can’t blame me.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’m in love with the best-looking, smartest, strongest guy in the world.” Ricky
meant it from the bottom of his soul. He wasn’t just stroking Chad’s ego. “I think we’re both
going to be very successful.”
Chad leaned forward. Their faces were almost touching. “I think so, too.”
“When I go away to school, we won’t be able to see each other as often,” Ricky said. He
was fishing now. He’d told Chad about being accepted into the Ivy League school, and Chad had
congratulated him. But he hadn’t said much about them being apart for any length of time. Ricky
looked down at the table and pouted. “If two people are in love, they shouldn’t be apart for long
stretches of time.”
Chad wiped his lips and shrugged. “They say absence makes the heart grow fonder,
pardon the cliché.”
“Fuck that,” Ricky said. He sat up and squared his shoulders, wondering why Chad
wasn’t concerned about being separated. The thought of a separation made his stomach ache.
“Calm down, Ricky,” Chad said. “I’ve already thought about this. There’s no way I’m
getting into an Ivy League school. But I’ve been checking out other colleges near where you’re going to be and I’ve been thinking about moving up there and taking a few courses in criminal
justice.”
“
Criminal justice
?” You could have knocked Ricky over with a feather.
Chad shrugged. “I’ve always been interested in criminal justice. I don’t know if I have
what it takes to be a lawyer. But I could be a cop.”
“As long as we’re together, you can do anything you want to do.” Then Ricky asked,
“Are you serious about moving to New England or are you just playing with me?” He wanted to
be sure he’d heard right.
Chad shrugged and looked down at his plate with an innocent face. “Yeah, I’d like to be
near you. I want us to be together.”
* * * *
After lunch, they spent the rest of the day walking around New York. It was bright and
