Silver and Gold (7 page)

Geoff smirked back at him. “Yeah, you big crybaby. C’mon, man up!”

“We are so gay,” Jesse joked.

“Yeah, well, I am anyway.”

“Yeah?” Jesse raised his eyebrows as they started eating.

Geoff shrugged. “The only people I’ve been interested in since my divorce have all been men.”

“Multiple men? So, the one young hottie this week, aaaand…” he drew it out encouragingly.

Geoff flushed. “Well, it was actually two young hotties.”

“Two?” Jesse asked incredulously. “Since last Friday?”

Geoff wished he had never brought it up. “Well, one was a pickup that went really wrong. And no, I’m not giving you details.” He took a bite, more to collect his thoughts than because he was hungry.

“And the other?” Jesse was relentless. He hadn’t changed a bit, and Geoff knew from experience he’d be better off just spilling now and saving himself the headache.

“The other is a friend of a friend.”

Jesse just cocked a brow and waited.

The waitress ended up taking their check back as they added a couple more beers to the tab, followed by some pie and coffee, as they visited for hours. Geoff ended up talking endlessly about Abe and even related the whole embarrassing Troy story. They had a laugh over Geoff wanting to color his hair, although Geoff was still a little chagrined that Jess didn’t have any grey in his yet. Jesse for his part told Geoff about his two boys, Jake and Josh, going on and on like the proud dad he was.

They walked out together and stood in the now dark parking lot next to their cars. Jesse took a step that brought him just inches from Geoff. Geoff recalled that they had been the exact same height when they were together, a perfect fit when they kissed. In the years since, Jesse had gained a few inches on Geoff. He looked up at his first love and felt a small shiver go through him. With the camaraderie of the past hours, it felt almost like old times, felt
right
, familiar in so many ways. They had known each other so well, and Jesse looked almost exactly the same.

He swayed forward, closing the gap, and Jesse ran his hands up Geoff’s arms to gently hold him in place as their lips met in a chaste kiss. They both kept their eyes on the other as they came back together for another taste, then another slightly deeper kiss as Jesse stroked his way through Geoff’s lips, taking the lead as he always had in the past. The taste hit Geoff first, a memory that he hadn’t even known he had. They wrapped their arms around one another, together from head to foot, kissing fully before Jesse raised his head to take a breath.

He looked at Geoff with a sad smile. “I guess coming back to the hotel isn’t happening.”

Geoff searched his feelings one more time to be certain, shaking his head in response. He gave Jesse another hug, harder this time, an acknowledgment of what had been lost between them. “I’m sorry.”

Jesse hugged him back, and Geoff could feel his chest heaving against him. He pulled back, alarmed, thinking that Jess was crying, and gave him a shove when he saw Jesse’s grin instead.

“You jerk. I thought you were crying.
Again.
” Geoff met Jesse’s eyes as he teased him, and felt the bonds of deep friendship snap into place. Suddenly, he realized this was the rightness he had felt before their kiss. “Friends?” he offered seriously.

“Yeah. Friends.” Jesse gave him one last hug, adding, “For what it’s worth, I saw the look in your eyes when you spoke about Abe. Don’t let the whole age thing stand in the way, okay? Sometimes you have to fight for what you want, even if it looks impossible on the surface.”

Geoff smiled regretfully at the reminder of what they’d had and lost. But he didn’t feel the same longing and bitterness any longer. He felt like he’d truly come to terms with his past. Now, he needed to work on his future.

Chapter Seven

Geoff
paced nervously in his office as he waited for Abe to answer the phone. Cursing as he got voicemail again, he wondered what to do now. His grand plan for coming back early was hitting a huge roadblock since he couldn’t even get up to Abe’s floor. Geoff stopped pacing for a moment. Maybe Abe was still out of town? He wasn’t at the salon.

He hit on the solution.
Kim.
She always knew everything. Dialing, he was shocked by her icy tone as she answered.

“Yes?”

“Hi, Kim, it’s Geoff.”

“
Yes?
” she repeated without a change in her tone.

“Uh,” he was thrown for a loop. “Are you feeling better?”

“That’s not what you should be worried about,” she answered cryptically.

Geoff pulled the phone away from his ear to stare at it in puzzlement. “Kim?”

She sighed and asked dutifully. “How is your vacation going?”

“Fine. Nice, I guess. That’s why I’m calling, actually. I’m back in town, and I’ve been trying to reach Abe—”

“You’re in town?” she interrupted, surprise coloring her tone. “I thought you weren’t coming back until after Christmas?”

“I decided to come back early. Uh, do you know if Abe is still out of town?”

“Why?”

Defensiveness stiffened his spine. “Do you know or not?”

“Listen, Geoff. You’re just lucky I’m even speaking to you. Now, give me a reason to tell you.”

“Whoa! What?”

“I’m hanging up now.”

He knew she would, too. “Wait! Okay, I just really want to see him. I, uh, have a Christmas gift for him.”

Silence, as if she was thinking about it. “Just a second,” she cautioned. Then she put him on hold.
What the fuck?

He sat there obediently waiting, feeling foolish, straightening up as she came back on the line, only to ask for more information. “Where are you? Your house?”

“The office,” he answered quickly, then click, he was back on hold again.
Damn it!

He gritted his teeth and tried to wait patiently. Geoff was starting to rethink how much she deserved that raise when she came back on again.

“Go wait at the private elevator. And Geoff, if you screw this up, you can find a new assistant.” She hung up, leaving him sputtering in shock.

Still unsettled by that exchange, Geoff walked to the private elevator, reaching it just as it opened. “Abe, hey.” The sight of his lover standing quietly in the compartment made his heart soar. He entered the elevator and stepped close, pulling him into a hug.

After a moment of stillness, Abe returned the hug briefly, before sending the elevator up to his floor. He led the way into his apartment, turning to Geoff just inside the door with an inquiring look. “You’re back early.”

Geoff pulled him close again, needing to feel him in his arms. “I missed you. I wanted to come back and maybe spend Christmas together. If you, uh, don’t already have plans.”

Abe smiled finally. “Nothing carved in stone.” He ran his hands down Geoff’s back to cup his ass lightly. “How much did you miss me?”

Geoff could feel the press of Abe’s erection nestled against his own and rotated against him. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you the whole time I was gone.”

Abe’s smile fell just a little, but before Geoff could ask why, Abe backed away and started to undo Geoff’s jeans. Geoff gasped when Abe reached in to caress his hardened length, lightly stroking in a teasing touch before dropping to his knees before him and engulfing him in his warm, wet mouth.

Geoff threw his head back, his hands automatically going to run through Abe’s hair, gently urging him on as he set a sweat-inducing pace. Just as Geoff reached the edge of reason, Abe pulled off, and the coolness of the air hitting his wet cock made him jerk in surprise.

Abe undid his shoes and quickly stripped him from the waist down as Geoff pulled his mock-turtleneck over his head. The contrast between his nudity and Abe’s fully clothed state struck him as utterly erotic. He reached for Abe to pull him to his feet, and what happened next came as a complete shock.

Suddenly he found himself on the wrong side of the front door.
Holy shit.
Abe had enticed him a couple steps toward the door by leaning on the wall next to it, and when he eagerly approached him, it only took a tug on the door and a quick shove for Geoff to be standing in the damn foyer—stark naked.

“Abe!” He pounded on the door. “Let me in! What the hell?”

“I wouldn’t pound so loudly if I were you. You wouldn’t want to disturb my neighbors.” Abe’s voice sounded a touch smug even muffled through the door.

Shit!
That was a good point. “Abe,” he said urgently, covering his rapidly wilting hard-on with his hands as best he could, glancing frantically around at the elevator and the other three doors, “Please let me in. Whatever’s wrong, we can talk about it. C’mon, Abe, please? Damn it! Let me in!”

“Does this seem familiar at all?”

Geoff’s eyes narrowed.
Kim. Oh, she was so fired.
“Yes, unfortunately, but at least that time I had some damn pants on! Open the door, Abe.”

“You know what else she told me?”

Geoff sighed in frustration, his erection a thing of the past, wondering what the chances were of him getting down to his office without running into someone. He answered only to try to hurry this along. “What else did she tell you?”

“About you calling him Jesse. And about your e-mail from the guy. Tell me, Geoff.” Abe’s voice was stone cold. “How was he?”

Shock and guilt washed over Geoff like a wave.
Abe knew about Jesse
. “Listen, Abe, it wasn’t like that. We didn’t—”

“Maybe not, but you wanted to,” Abe interrupted bitterly.

Geoff sank bonelessly to the floor, his back against the door. Even with the barrier between them, he could feel the pain in Abe’s voice, picture the hurt look on his face.

 “Abe,” he began helplessly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what I wanted. And I wasn’t expecting to meet you when I did. You have to believe me, though, nothing happened. We talked. I… told him all about you. Went on and on, really.” He scrubbed one hand over his face, willing Abe to believe him. “I was worried that I was too old for you, that I’d look foolish chasing after you.” He paused. “Jesse told me that I shouldn’t let you get away. He could tell from how I talked about you that I….” He stopped, scared to death to put himself out there.

“You what?” came the soft question from behind the door.

“Please, Abe, can I say this face-to-face?” he begged, jumping to his feet as the door fell away behind him.

Abe stood there with his eyes full of tears. Geoff reached for him, but when Abe backed away, he let his hands drop to his sides. Not missing the opportunity to get out of the hallway, he walked quickly past Abe into the living room.

“Okay, Geoff. We’re face-to-face.” Abe encouraged, his eyes round pools of pain.

Geoff swallowed with effort. “I fell in love with you. You were right there in front of me, and I had to go looking to recapture my youth before I realized it.”

Abe regarded him so silently that Geoff’s heart skipped a beat.
Oh God, I’m an idiot. He doesn’t love me.
Crushed, he sank to the couch in despair, covering his face with his hands. “I’m sorry. Shit, I guess that wasn’t what you wanted to hear.”

“I guess it’s a little hard for me to believe. Last time you were here, I was someone that you could just boink to practice on for the main event. You couldn’t be bothered to find out how old I really am,” Abe continued, the bitter tone back. “After all, ‘we just fell into bed together’ and were ‘busy with other things’.”

The pieces finally came together for Geoff with an almost audible click in his head. “You heard my conversation with Jess. Oh shit, Abe, I wasn’t talking about
you
. I was talking about… well, what Kim told you. Baby, I’m so sorry.” Geoff got up and crossed to Abe, holding him by the arms and bending slightly to peer directly into his eyes. He watched as hope began to overtake the pain, and Abe offered him a tremulous smile.

“Truly? Not me?”

“No way, Abe. You are much too precious to me. I could never even think about you like that, much less talk about you that way. I love you.”

“I love you too,” came the heartfelt reply, and Geoff’s heart soared anew.

He let out the breath he been unconsciously holding and pulled Abe in for a deep, passionate kiss that quickly escalated as they both frantically tried to find a way to get close enough to soothe the last of the misunderstanding. Feeling that nothing short of crawling inside Abe’s skin would do, Geoff herded Abe ahead of him to the bedroom.

Hands shaking with need, Geoff helped Abe remove his clothing and bore him to the mattress, absorbing the feel of the beloved form beneath him for a few precious moments. He pulled back and Abe watched him with lidded eyes as Geoff hastily slicked on a condom and made quick work of prepping Abe before sinking into him with a moan of satisfaction.

“Ah, babe, love you.” Now Geoff couldn’t stop saying the words; he would never stop convincing Abe of how much he meant to him. They came together tenderly, foreheads touching in relief and reunion, passion heightened by their new bond of love. Abe arched beneath him, meeting his deep forays with strength before throwing his head back and coming, pulling Geoff over with him. Geoff heard himself call Abe’s name as release took him, love suffusing his being, ringing with the certainty that he was where he belonged at last.

*  *  *

Afterward
, they lay together, exploring, hands making up for lost time as they relearned every nuance of their beloved. Geoff loved the feel of his legs caught in Abe’s, and he played with Abe’s hand, tangling their fingers before circling his wrist, gently stroking with his thumb. Which reminded him….

“I have a gift for you.”

“I have one for you too. But it’s not Christmas yet,” Abe lectured teasingly.

“I want you to open mine early. Please?”

“Well, far be it from me to disappoint a begging man.” Abe laughed, wiggling free.

They walked into the living room naked, and Abe flipped on the gas fireplace as Geoff tracked down his jeans and pulled a small box from the pocket. He returned to the couch in front of the fireplace to find Abe waiting, holding up the corner of a throw to invite him under, the gift he had seen under the tree last week on the table in front of them.