The Crew by Hankster

The Crew
by: Hankster

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Chapter 3

The crew was too excited to do much work all during the next week. They managed to do what they had to do and delayed anything that they thought could be delayed.

On Monday Foster called both contractors and made an appointment with one of them for 9 AM on the following Saturday, and the other at 11 AM.

Jeff made an appointment with his banking contacts for 2 PM that afternoon and when he told Michael at lunch, Michael insisted on going with him. After he made the appointment with the bank, Jeff called his dad, Tucker. He told Tuck what was going on with the purchase and what plans they had for enlarging the facility. He also stressed that there would be four bedrooms and only three couples purchasing the property. He told Tuck that he was certain that nobody would mind if they used the place whenever they could, just as they used his and Jim’s condo.

Tucker immediately called Brian’s office and told him what was happening. He was excited for the boys, of course, but thinking about being able to use the cabin more often put a bulge in his pants so he asked Tuck if he wanted to take a longer lunch hour today than usual. Tucker could never say no to his beloved Brian.

At two o’clock promptly, Jeff and Michael arrived at the office of Roger Allen. Roger was the senior loan officer at the bank. Senior or not, Rog was only three years older than they. He was a handsome, athletic guy. You knew he was all man, in fact, a man’s man, whatever that means. His wife had once represented their state in the Miss America contest. He had three strapping sons all destined to be MVP on some athletic team. Rog knew that Jeff and Michael were gay. When he first began to do business with them, together or individually, he was guarded, and definitely uncomfortable. Once he realized that they were not going to attack him and take his virgin ass, he began to relax. He also began to respect their business acumen and their honesty in being open about their sexual preference. He especially got a kick out of Michael and the jokes he made about his ‘gayness.’ In a short time he became gender blind, and never thought of them as anything but good business associates. They had certainly brought a lot of business his way.

Roger motioned for them to sit. “What’s going on gentlemen?” he asked. To which funny guy Michael responded, “You don’t know us well enough to call us gentlemen.” Yuk, Yuk. Jeff told Michael to cool it and then he turned to Rog and told him about the cabin, it’s peaceful seclusion, it’s serenity, it’s fishing, and on and on.

“You really like this place, I gather,” Roger quipped.

“You might say that,” Michael responded and laughed.

Jeff went on to explain that the cabin and four acres of forest were being purchased by six working professionals for $30,000. He told Roger about the proposed expansion, which the architect, one of the buyers, put at about $17,000. And finally he said they figured the new furniture and some replacement pieces would cost another $5,000 for a total of $52,000. They were going to put $10,400 down and wanted to mortgage the remaining $41,600 which all six were willing to obligate themselves to so there was little risk to the bank.

Roger listened intently and was very much jealous. He loved his wife and kids, but supporting them and seeing to their needs, did not include a country getaway. He also had visions of the six gay men in orgiastic coupling and he felt it in his groin. He roused himself from his reverie and asked for the address of the property. Then he took a small pamphlet from his desk and looked up the nearest branch office to the property. He called the loan officer at the branch and asked him to please get an appraisal on the land and structure as soon as possible. There was a long period of silence while Rog listened intently. He thanked his associate and hung up.

He turned to Jeff and Michael and told them that they could only be awarded a mortgage which was no more than ninety percent of the appraised value of the property, but with so many solid signatories, he could give them an unsecured loan for the balance.

“Now,” he said to Jeff, “get out your pencil. “John, the loan officer at the branch out there, told me that he got a call from a realtor named Dan Harriman, a week ago. Dan told him that the property was going on the market and asked him for a bank appraisal which Dan paid for. Now hear this,” he said dramatically. “John said that property values out there have been steadily rising, but in the last two years they have seen a tremendous boom out there caused by city folks buying land and putting up vacation homes. I’m glad you guys are sitting. The bank already has the appraisal on file. They have valued each of the four acres at $6,500 each, and they appraised the cabin, as is, at $41,000. Check me Jeff, but isn’t that $67,000? Ninety percent of that is $60,300. I hereby approve your request for $41,600. In fact, why not make it an even $45,000 and get better furniture.”

Jeff and Michael jumped up and clasped Roger’s hand. They were beaming.

“OK, here’s what I need. I want full name, address, date of birth and social security number of all six buyers. Give me the telephone number of the realtor. I’ll need to know the bottom line on the closing statement so I can send him a bank check for the mortgage amount. I’ll send another bank check, made out to all six of you for the balance of the $45,000. Who should I send that check to?”

Michael answered, “Send it to Jeff. He’s officially handling the accounting and I’ll make Jim audit him” Everybody laughed at that.

“I’ll get all the property information I need from this Dan Harriman, and I’ll have all the papers ready for signature tomorrow afternoon. Do you think you can muster the troops and get everyone up here for signing tomorrow at 4:30 PM?”

“That’s not a problem,” Jeff answered, “but we don’t call ourselves the troops. We refer to ourselves as the crew.”

“So be it,” Rog answered. He stuck out his hand and said, “OK guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The next day, they all converged on Roger’s office and signed all the papers. Ron suggested that they celebrate by having dinner out this evening at a really good restaurant. They decided on a new French restaurant nearby that was receiving rave reviews by anyone they knew who had been there. Rog told them that he had taken his wife there on their anniversary, and they had enjoyed the place immensely. That sealed it.

Rog shook each of their hands as they left and wished them all well. Jeff told him that as soon as he got the check for the mortgage, he would deposit it in a new ‘cabin account’ at this bank. He thanked him also for his confidence in the crew, and for his exceptional speed handling their application.

The next morning, Dan called Michael and told him that he had received all the papers back from Los Angeles. He was aware that they had received a mortgage commitment because he had just spoken to Roger Allen, who told him he would express the check from the bank so that they could close that weekend when the crew was there. They set the closing in Dan’s Office for Saturday at 4 PM. Michael made the late appointment so as not to interfere with Foster’s interviews with the contractors. As soon as he got off the phone he called the others and told them they had to have checks with them for the closing on Saturday. The reaction was a universal whoopee.

This time when the crew packed for the weekend, they made sure they had appropriate clothing. They knew how important it was for the Fishers that they all attend church together on Sunday morning and they didn’t want to disappoint. This weekend would also take them into October. The Fishers general store would close for the winter in two weeks.

During the past week the weather had changed drastically. Indian summer was over, and it was much colder. There would be no swimming this time and since there was no heat in the cabin, they also packed warmer clothing and warm sleeping bags. Ron and Foster had tipped them off that two guys in one sleeping bag was really cozy.

Nobody had a car that seated more than five persons so they decided to go up on Friday evening with two cars. Jim and Jeff split up. Jim drove with Michael and Jerry and Jeff with Ron and Foster. On the way up Jeff said that he was close to having to trade his car. It had a lot of miles on it from running from client to client. He told Ron and Foster that he would trade in for a seven seater mini van. This way they need only use one car going to the cabin and start to economize.

They stopped first at the Fishers who were expecting them. Of course Josie had a great meal ready for them for dinner. She made a healthy salad followed by not so healthy grilled pork chops with sweet potato fries. For desert she served apple cobbler with coffee.

When he had finished eating, Jeff stood up and wrapped his arms around Josie in a bear hug. He thanked her for all of them, and told her she couldn’t do this every weekend because she would spoil them. “Anyway,” he said, “when the addition is finished we’ll make our own meals.”

When they got up to leave, they all kissed mom and pop Fisher good night, and the Fishers told Ron not to rush in to the store the next morning. They weren’t expecting much traffic in this weather.

At the cabin, they made a big ceremony of taking the key from under the mat and opening the door. They brought in the weekend gear they had taken with them plus the box of food that Ron had taken from the store.

“Michael said, “Look we’ve got to stop taking stuff from the store without paying. It’s not fair to Ron’s folks.”

“I tried to pay them guys but my dad said that he owed me much more for all the days I worked the store for him so that he could take a day off. I argued, but he wouldn’t give in.”

Michael said he had a surprise also. He went to his car, opened the trunk and took out a little space heater. It’s not much he said but we can all huddle in the living room. They set the heater up and in time the living room was toasty. The refrigerator still held beer from the previous weekend and Ron had brought a couple of six packs. After they unpacked they all got cozy in the living room and opened a can of beer each. They sat silently for a pretty long time, and then Jeff said, “I love you guys. Thanks for being in my life.”

Jim didn’t want to show the guys that he had started to cry when Jeff said that, so he jumped on Jeff and started to wrestle with him. Bam, in a flash, the six of them were wrestling on the floor. The wrestling turned to kissing and fondling, and thank goodness the heater was doing its work, because little by little clothes were being shed. Bodies became entangled without regard to who belonged to whom. Laughing and giggling they formed into a daisy chain on the living room floor with the coffee table in the middle of the circle. They purposely made sure that the cock in their mouth was not their partners. The noise stopped when they began sucking in earnest. They each came within a two minute period swallowing every drop they could, and keeping the living room floor perfectly clean.

They began to crawl around like male dancers in a modern ballet, until each of the partners was in the arms of his own partner. The partners cuddled and fondled themselves, but occasionally a hand would reach out and touch the couple lying next to them. They lay that way a long time until Jeff realized that Jim had fallen asleep in his arms, and he suggested that they turn in.

Ron and Foster said that the living room was too warm for the sleeping bags, but they would crash here and sleep on top of the bags. The others went to the rooms they had used last weekend. They didn’t close the doors for two reasons. First, some of the warmth from the space heater filtered into the bedrooms, and second, they didn’t need to. Each couple cuddled naked in one sleeping bag and that was warm enough.

Fortunately, they did not wake up at the same time or the bathroom could not have handled the traffic. One by one they did there morning things and washed up. It was too cold to shower. Ron made coffee and toast with butter and jam for breakfast. He told them that he knew of a nice little diner up the road where they could have lunch and of course he suggested Joey’s for dinner. They all agreed.

After breakfast, they cleared the table and Foster spread out the blueprints for the addition that he had meticulously drawn up during the week. Promptly at nine the first contractor arrived. He was overweight and constantly puffed when he talked trying to inhale more air. But he was very business like. He and Foster reviewed the plans down to the last detail. When he was through he took out his estimating pad and worked up a detailed estimate of $18,200. Even though his huffing and puffing annoyed Foster, he was impressed with the man’s professionalism. Before he left Joe Torrance of Torrance Construction Company, gave each member of the crew his business card.

“Well, that’s somewhat higher than I thought, but not too far out of line,” Foster said, clearly disappointed. The men sat around gabbing while waiting for Randy Jones of Jones Construction to show up. They wished they had more time before his visit which was now only a half hour away. They all wanted to play games like last night, but they had to wait.

About 10:45 Randy knocked at the door. A contractor who was fifteen minutes early, really impressed Foster. His experience was that you were lucky if they bothered to show up. All six feet, five inches of Randy ducked through the door. He was built like a football line backer, and couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. Foster was afraid he wouldn’t have the right experience for the job, so before he even showed Randy the blueprints, he interrogated him about his background and credentials. It turned out that in spite of his youthful appearance, Randy was twenty seven. He had been working for his father all through his school years, since he was twelve. His dad recently retired and he had taken over the business. Foster was satisfied and he opened up the blueprints and spread them on the table.

He and Foster talked for almost two hours and Randy asked every imaginable question. He not only wanted to know about the physical structure, he wanted to know about the men who would be using it so he could custom build to their needs. Foster was more than impressed and prayed he would give them a good estimate. Finally, he took out his estimating pad, and a calculator. He began to gather the numbers and when he was through, the bottom line was $16,500.

“I do a lot of the work myself so I can keep the costs down,” he explained.

Foster said, “We’re closing this afternoon at 4 PM so how soon could you start and when can you finish?”

“It slows down this time of year, I could probably start by mid week and this place would be ready for your use for the Christmas holidays. Actually,” he added, “I might even have it for Thanksgiving but I don’t want to hang my hat on that.”

Foster said, “All those in favor say aye.” The ayes had it.

“Where’s your closing at?” Randy wanted to know. “I can work up the contract and bring it to you there for signature and I’ll need at least 10% to start the job. You can hold back 20% until we get the CO. I’ll ask for progress payments as I go.”

“Fair enough,” Foster said.

“It’s a deal,” Jeff said. He figured that he would advance the check and get it covered Monday morning. “Do you know where Dan Harriman’s office is? That’s where we’ll be at 4 PM.”

“I’ll be there.” Randy answered.

“Hey Randy,” Ron said. ”We’re going to Rosie’s for lunch. Would you care to join us?”

“I sure would,” he said. Then I gotta rush back to my office and get the contracts ready. I’ll have it ready before you leave Dan’s office.” He said ‘Dan’ like he knew him well.

The crew had to take two cars and Randy drove his truck to Rosie’s for a quick getaway. On the way over Foster called Joe Torrance and told him that they wouldn’t need his services and thanked him for giving them his time.

After they ordered sandwiches and a drink, curious Michael asked Randy if he was married:

No!

Did he have a girl friend?

No!

Where did he go and what did he do for relief? There was nothing subtle about Michael.

“Are you asking me all this because you’re all gay?” he asked Michael.

“Absolutely not. I speak only for me, not the other guys. I’m just nosy,” he assured Randy.

“Well,” Randy said. “I’m a very private person. Maybe someday I’ll tell you all about me, but for now let’s drop it.” Michael didn’t have much choice, now did he?

To be continued...

Posted: 06/27/08