The Inlet by Hankster

The Inlet
by: Hankster

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Chapter 5

They both ordered shrimp dishes. Kyle ordered shrimp scampi and Andrew ordered shrimp with linguini. Both of them delighted in soaking the fresh Italian bread in the sauces. They seemed to have the same taste in everything.

‘Here’s what I’ve been thinking,” Kyle started. “I live in a rented and furnished studio apartment. I guess I always knew my stay in Albany would be temporary and I never sought to rent anything or buy anything more permanent. If we drive to Albany tomorrow morning in both our cars, I’m positive that I can get all my stuff in the two cars. My books are an exception. I may have to pack some of those up and ship them.”

All the time Kyle was talking, Andrew was smiling.

“Did I say something funny?” Kyle asked slightly curious as to why Andrew was looking like a laughing hyena.

“Hell no,” Andrew answered. “You said something deeply profound. I live in a rather small two bedroom apartment with one bath. I use the second bedroom as an office. My folks have a large three bedroom apartment with a den and two baths on the Upper East Side. It’s where I grew up. Ever since I became a big wage earner, they have been begging me to switch apartments with them. They want me to scale up, and they want desperately to scale down so they can buy a winter place in Florida. This may work out well for us, like you and your new job did. Everything had to wait for the right time to be right for us. We’ll just move all your stuff down to me, and live among the clutter until we can make the switch. I’ll call my folks tomorrow. Besides asking about the apartment, they keep bugging me about cutting back on my hours and meeting some nice young man to share my life with. I owe it to them to give them the big news.”

“Yes, and I’d like to thank them for having had you just for me.”

“I know you are a hopeless romantic,” Andrew said, “but please don’t get mawkish on me.”

“Well, I do at least want to tell them what a wonderful son they raised.”

“OK, but keep it real,” Andrew said, and he squeezed Kyle’s hand under the table.

They wanted to get up about four or five in the morning to have a full day in Albany so that night they went to bed without having sex, but they wrapped themselves up in each other’s arms, kissing and fondling and crushing their cocks together until they fell asleep.

“If we fall asleep like this every night for the rest of our lives, I’ll be a happy man,” Kyle said as he dozed off.

“Amen to that,” Andrew agreed.

Kyle gave his landlady proper notice and didn’t have to pay any additional rent. She applied his security deposit to his final month’s rent.

“You were an ideal tenant,” she said. “I’ll miss you. I keep getting calls from college students asking if I have an empty apartment to rent. I’ll probably get stuck with some young hoodlum who’ll wreck the place with wild parties and boozing. Well, good luck to you in New York, Dr. Farrell.”

In about four hours they were able to load both cars with all of Kyle’s stuff and about half his books. During the time they were packing, Kyle ran down to a mail store and bought sturdy boxes for the excess books. By 2 PM they completed their work and there were five boxes to ship. They had to get a taxi to take them back to the mail store because both cars were loaded.

When that was all done, they realized that they had plenty of time to drive back to the cottage.

“Let’s not, just yet,” Kyle said. “I want to call a couple of colleagues, and say goodbye. You still have plenty of time to call your folks, but beyond all that mundane stuff, I want to sleep here tonight. When we are old and tottering, I want to be able to say to people, “Yes indeed, Andrew and I made love in every town and in every city we were ever in together.”

“OY, you’re more than a hopeless romantic. I’ll have to coin a new word for whatever it is that you are. For now, I’ll just call you a super romantic,” Andrew chided.

They sat in the emptied out apartment and Kyle called three colleagues. The conversations were short and it was obvious to Andrew that Kyle had not made any close friends in Albany. Kyle knew what he was thinking and said, “I told you. I always knew I’d be a short timer. I was waiting for you to rescue me.”

“Do you mean that you view me as your Prince Charming?”

“Damn right. Now call your folks.”

Andrew dialed but he got his parents’ answering machine. He told them that he had big news for them, all of it good, and to please call him back on his cell phone. He turned to Kyle and said, “You told Mike all about what’s going on with us. How come you haven’t mentioned calling your parents?”

Kyle looked distressed. “My parents don’t know that I’m gay. Mike has been urging me for years to tell them, but the timing never seemed to be right.”

“I don’t want to live life as your room mate Kyle. I want to be, I need to be, part of your family and I want you to be part of mine. You should tell them as soon as possible. Why don’t you do it right now before you get cold feet?”

Kyle let out a big sigh and called his parents in Rochester. His mother answered. She was so excited to hear his voice. “We just spoke to Mike,” she said. “He told us that you were starting a new job and moving to New York. That’s wonderful, son. Will you be staying with Mike?” She had no idea how far Manhasset was from CCNY in Upper Manhattan.

“No Ma, I’ll be staying with a friend. Mike lives too far away from the college. Ma, is Dad around?”

“Why yes. Do you want to talk to him?”

“I need to talk to both of you at the same time. Could you ask Dad to get on the extension, please?” He waited a long while and finally heard his dad, who sounded out of breath. “Hello sonny, it’s great to hear from you.”

“It’s great to hear your voice, Dad. Are you and ma well?”

“Stop stalling,” Andrew whispered to him.

“Hey guys, I need to tell you something. You know the friend in New York that I am going to stay with, well, he’s a lot more than my friend. We are in a committed relationship. This has been hard for me to say to you all these years, but now with Andy’s support, I want to tell you that I’m gay.”

“Well, of course you are, darling,” Katie Farrell said.

“I thought that with a PhD you’d be a lot smarter than you are, Dr. Farrell. We’ve know for years,” Warren Farrell said.

Kyle was speechless. “How did you know?”

“Dunno, just knew. You were always so different than your brother. I guess we had what to compare. Are you happy, son?”

“Daddy,” (Kyle became a kid again) “I am so happy that there are no words to describe how I feel. I know you never met him, but Andy was Mike’s room mate at Syracuse U. Mike wanted to get us together, but it never happened, and then we met accidently, without anybody fixing us up. It was preordained, Dad.”

“Preordained or not,” Warren said, “you are a couple now. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to know that you aren’t alone any more. Tell us about Andy.”

“First of all he hates to be called Andy by anybody else but me, so try Andrew. He’s a rich attorney, and he’s a year younger than I, and he expects to be made a partner in his firm within two years. For sure, I know Mike approves of him.”

“Can we speak to him? Is he there?”

“Yes, just a sec.” He turned toward Andrew and handed him the phone. “They want to talk to you.”

“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Farrell. It’s a pleasure.”

“Mom and Dad, please,” Mrs. Farrell said.

“Welcome to the family,” Warren added. “When can we expect to meet you?”

“We have so much to do in the next few weeks. After we plan a schedule, we’ll call you and set it up. Maybe you can come to New York and visit Mike and his family at the same time.” Andrew’s legal brain figured that would sweeten the deal, and get them to visit them instead of vice versa.

‘Sounds like a plan,” Warren agreed. “Please stay in touch and let us know what’s going on, you hear?” Andrew said goodbye to them and handed the phone back to Kyle. He told his folks how much he missed them and how anxious he was for them to meet Andrew, and even before he hung up, the Stanleys called.

After the usual greeting amenities, Andrew said, “I am about to make all your wishes come true.”

“Is that so?” his father asked quite doubtfully.

“First of all, I met my soul mate, someone to spend the rest of my life with. I want to be with him so much that I can’t possibly work the way I used to, and I know that will make you happy. Second of all, my place is too small for the two of us, so if you still want to swap apartments, we are all for it.”

“Wow,” Dr. Stanley said. “You sure know how to bowl over your aged parents in just a couple of sentences. What’s this Romeo’s name and what does he do?” Andrew detected a sound of suspicion from his dad.

“He’s not after my money, Dad. Kyle has a doctorate in English Lit. He has been teaching at SUNY Albany, but he just switched to CCNY. He starts teaching there at the end of June.”

“When will we meet him?”

“We are in the midst of packing his apartment in Albany and then we’ll probably go back to his cabin in the Catskills for a few days before coming home.”

“A cabin in the Catskills? Wow, that’s fantastic. Do you think we could borrow it sometime?”

“I don’t know. Kyle would like to talk to you, so you can ask him yourself.” Andrew handed the phone to Kyle. “It’s my dad.”

“Hello Dr. Stanley. Kyle Farrell, here.”

Kyle, if you call me doctor, I’ll have to call you doctor. Isn’t that pretty awkward to be calling my son-in-law, doctor? If you are uncomfortable calling me Dad and calling my wife Mom, then try Anna and Dave.”

“I think I’ll go with mom and dad. You can’t have too much family.”

“I agree. Now about your secluded cabin in the woods, do you…….?”

“No need to ask. It’s not big enough for all of us, but whenever Andy and I aren’t using it, you’re free to call it home.”

“Excuse me. Did you say Andy?” Warren was incredulous.

“Shit I forgot. I’m the only one allowed to call him that. He wants me to, for some strange reason,” Kyle laughed.

“I’ll consult my shrink on that one,” Dave said. “Kyle, I can’t wait to meet you.”

“Me too,” Anna chirped in. She had been on an extension the whole time.

“Before I hang up,” Kyle said, “I need to tell you what a fantastic son you raised. I also want to thank you for having him for me.”

“Stop it, Kyle,” Anna said. “You’ll make me cry.”

After they hung up, Andrew said, “You are quite the charmer, Dr. Farrell.”

Kyle took Andrew to his favorite restaurant in Albany for dinner; Burger King. Then they went back to the apartment to make love. They were so anxious to touch each other that they decided to play sixty-nine, so they wouldn’t have to decide who would ‘go first.’ They hadn’t done that yet, and Kyle pointed out that in their dotage they would remember that the first time they played sixty-nine was in Albany, NY.

“You’re the literary member of the family,” Andrew pointed out. Why don’t you start a journal? It might get published someday like the Mad Housewife or Anais Nin. You can call it Andy and Kyle.”

“Terrific idea,” Kyle said enthusiastically, “but I think I’ll go with Kyle and Andy. I’ll want to back track to the day you moored to my dock, and I’ll have to include the saga of Carl and Joey. What do you think has happened to them?”

“Nothing good, I’m sure. Now why don’t we assume the position?”

The lovers managed to delay their orgasms for almost an hour, and when it was over, Kyle said, “I don’t think I could ever get tired of sucking your cock. Your ass is pretty good too.”

“Wow! What happened to your florid literary style? Your ass is pretty good? My personal Cyrano can do better than that,” Andrew said. He grabbed Kyle by the back of his head, pulled him toward him and kissed him passionately until they both fell asleep.

When Andrew woke the next morning, it was still dark, and he was alone in the apartment. He jumped out of bed and turned on the lights. There were two notes from Kyle on Kyle’s pillow. The first said that he had gone to McDonald’s to get breakfast for them so that they could get going as soon as they ate. The other was a love poem, obviously from Kyle, but attributed to another great poet.

Why Did My Love Choose Me?

By Cyrano de Bergerac

I lay awake at night thinking as hard as I can.

I try to remember what beau geste deed I did

To earn so many Brownie Points

From God.

Whatever valorous act did I do to deserve you?

I’m really not that good, magnificent or saintly

To earn so many Brownie Points

From God.

My beloved, you are far too good for me.

Whatever made you choose and desire me

To earn so many Brownie Points

From God?

I muse and meditate. I try to solve the riddle.

At last it’s clear to me and I know why I have

Earned so many Brownie Points

From God.

You took one good look at my enormous cock.

You ogled its size and girth, and desired me.

And now I know why I have

Earned so many Brownie Points

From God.

LOL

CdB

Andrew laughed until his sides hurt. He ran to the bathroom, peed and brushed his teeth. He was dressed before Kyle came home. When he came through the door, Andrew attacked him, smothering him with kisses. “This poem is too funny to ignore. Please put it in your journal.”

“Done,” Kyle said.

The lovers stayed at the cabin through the Memorial Day weekend. Early Tuesday morning they discarded the perishables, leaving it for the garbage collection. They turned off the water and the electricity, locked up the cabin and got into separate cars. Kyle followed Andrew to Manhattan and to their brand new life. Although the arrangement was temporary, they spent the rest of the week organizing the apartment and making love. They didn’t tell anyone that they had returned early.

“I’ll go crazy when you go back to work on Monday, “Kyle lamented. “What’ll I do?”

“Well, for starters you can begin your journal, and you can hang out with Scott. I love you to pieces, but I don’t want to shackle you with vows of monogamy. If you want to play with Scott, it’s OK with me, but let me know about it,” Andrew said.

“You’re very sweet and I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to do any playing with anyone but you. However, how about I call him and we arrange for the three of us to have dinner together this Saturday evening.”

“Terrific idea,” Andrew said. “We can go to my friend Freddie’s place for a lot of reasons. The food there is great; I haven’t seen Freddie in a while; and word will get back to Sam that we were at the restaurant. He’ll see that we are acting like we are not suspicious of anything, or at least that we are oblivious to his having had any involvement in the matter of Carl and Joey.”

“Great idea! You think of everything. I want you to be my lawyer,” Kyle joked. “By the way, I’ve been wondering. How did you ever become good friends with the nephew of Sam Gardini?”

Andrew’s first grade class in Upper Manhattan had twenty-five students. Most of them came from broken homes, and these kids had only one parent. Three of the kids had two mommies and one kid had two daddies. Andrew, and only two other classmates, had two parents, a male and a female.

At the first open school night, Mrs. Chessman told Anna Stanley that Andrew was a rarity. Anna thought that she was referring to his academic achievements, and she beamed with pride until Mrs. Chessman added, “Yes, it is such a rarity these days for a child to have two parents, a mother and a father.” Well if that made Andrew unique, so be it.

Andrew was a very shy youngster, and at recess on that first day of school, he stood alone in a corner of the school yard and did not join the other students at play. Mrs. Chessman was not one to allow her students to shirk their duties. She walked over to Andrew, took him by the hand and led him to a group of boys playing “Johnny on the Pony.”

“Freddie,” she called to one of the boys waiting to mount the ‘pony,’ “why don’t you show Andrew how to play the game and see that he joins in?” Freddie walked over to Andrew and Mrs. Chessman walked away.

Freddie really scared Andrew. He was at least three inches taller than he and much, much broader. His eyes were so blue they were translucent. His face was covered with freckles and his head was matted with the thickest fire red hair that Andrew had ever seen. But when Freddie spoke to him, all the fear left him. Freddie’s voice was soft and reassuring and made Andrew feel less threatened.

“I hate this game,” Freddie said. “It’s dumb and you could break your back. Here, come with me.” He led Andrew around a corner. “Mrs. Chessman can’t see us from here. “ Without regard to dirtying his trousers, Freddie sat down on the concrete and leaned against the wall.

“My name’s Freddie Grant. What’s yours?”

“Andrew Stanley and please don’t call me Andy. I hate it.”

“That’s funny. My name’s Alfred and I don’t mind being called Freddie at all,” Freddie retorted. Andrew ignored him. “Where do you live?” he asked Andrew.

“On E 86^th at the corner of Second Ave.”

“Is that an apartment building?”

“Uh huh,” Andrew nodded.

Then in the smuggest manner, that only a six year old could manage, Freddie announced, “I live in a town house on First and 84^th. Would you like to come over sometime after school and play with me?”

“I’ll have to ask my mother, but I’m sure she would let me, if your mother lets you,” Andrew said. He was really excited at the prospect of having a friend.

“I ain’t got a mom,” Freddie stated very matter of factly. My folks died in a car accident last year and now I live with my uncle. He’s my only relative, and I’m his only relative. My mom was his big sister.”

“I’m sorry,” Andrew mumbled.

“Don’t be. Me and my Uncle get along just great.”

Not knowing what to say, Andrew blurted out, “Me and my folks get along pretty good also.”

“You said your last name is Stanley. My doctor’s name is Stanley. Any relation?” Freddie asked.

“Yup, maybe, he’s my dad, I think.”

It actually turned out that Freddie went to Andrew’s house first. School had been in session for two weeks when they decided to arrange a play date for Friday afternoon. When Anna called the Grant residence, she was surprised that someone answered, “Gardini residence.” She asked to speak to Mr. Gardini to see if it was all right to give Freddie cookies with his milk.

“Oh, I’m his nanny and it’s perfectly all right. Freddie talks about Andrew all the time.”

“I’ll get him home before dark. Don’t you worry,” Anna assured the nanny.

The following Friday Andrew went home with Freddie. When they got there, Freddie’s Uncle Sam was at home. He was in his study with the door open so Freddie waited until he was finished with his call before walking in to introduce Andrew.

Uncle Sam was obviously very angry. He yelled into the phone, “Fucking lawyers. They’re all the same. It won’t do any good to fire this one. The next one will be worse.” He slammed down the phone and the boys came in. Even before Freddie could introduce his uncle to his best friend, Andrew said in childish innocence. “Don’t be upset Uncle Sam. When I grow up, I’m going to be your lawyer, and I’ll be a good one.”

Sam could not stop laughing. He scooped up one boy in each arm and twirled around the room with them. He twirled and twirled until he was too dizzy to stand. He put the boys down, and collapsed on a chair.

After that, Sam took Andrew everywhere he took Freddie. They went to the zoo, ball games, museums and even musical theater. Freddie particularly enjoyed the fine restaurants Uncle Sam took them to, because he secretly yearned to be a chef. The boys were so close to Sam that when they were teenagers, they came out to him even before Andrew told his parents. Sam Gardini and Freddie Grant were Andrew’s second family.

“And you have been friends ever since you first met?” Kyle asked.

“Yup. Remember I told you that I whacked off with a friend in high school. It was Freddie. We have never touched each other. We grew up like brothers and unlike Carl and Joey, we can’t imagine doing each other.”

“Yuck, the thought of doing Mike is a yuck also,” Kyle agreed.

Kyle called Scott and they made arrangements to meet at “Freddie’s Surf and Turf” on Columbus Avenue on Saturday evening at 7:30 PM. When the date was set, Andrew called Freddie. The phone was answered by a reservationist, and she took the reservation. She did not hesitate to put Andrew through to Freddie when he asked to speak to the big kahuna. She was aware of their relationship, but she erroneously thought that it was sexual.

“About fucking time you called,” Freddie chided Andrew. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going on vacation? I maybe would have gone with you, and we could have gone cruising together.”

“Trust me, there was no place to cruise, and the experience was a bummer. I told Uncle Sam about it, and I’ll tell you when I see you Saturday evening. We’re coming for dinner.”

“Who is ‘we?’ ” Freddie inquired.

“Someone special I want you to meet, and his boss. You better be kind to us on the check. They’re school teachers and don’t make a helluva lot of money.”

“Special for you, babe, I’ll give you a 10% discount on the 100% inflated price.”

“Very funny! Seriously I can’t wait to see you and give you all the news. I love you.”

To be continued...

Posted: 11/13/09