Hustler at the Capitol
By: Kenneth Kirk
(© 2022 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

kkirk@tickiestories.us

Chapter 5

I thought about my plan for a couple of days before deciding it would work out quite well for me if Mike was good with it.  The next night I grabbed a light dinner immediately after work and then got to the Capitol about 6:45.  I circled a couple of times rather quickly but didn’t see Mike, although two other cute guys waved at me and smiled.  I wasn’t sure of the protocol but reasoned that if I did not respond they would assume I wasn’t interested.  So, I abandoned my Texas upbringing to always be polite and acted as if I hadn’t seen their waves.  As I came around the building on my third pass, Mike hailed me from the lawn as he walked toward the building.

He waved and smiled at me as I stopped the car to wait for him to reach me.  This time he went directly to the passenger door (he was approaching from that direction after all), so I reached across the long bench seat to pop the door open.

“Hey, buddy,” he said as he reached across to pat my knee.  “You doin’ okay?”

“Yeah,” I answered.  “You?”

“Couldn’t be better.”

“Coffee?”

He nodded.  “Absolutely!”

We drove to the dinner and took seats at the counter again.  Elise saw us and immediately brought two empty mugs and the coffee pot to us.  Mike smiled at her, pointed at the cups, and nodded. 

She poured and welcomed us.  As the cups filled with the dark liquid, she asked, “Menus tonight or just coffee?”

“Just coffee,” Mike answered quickly.

She departed and Mike doctored his brew to his liking.  As he stirred in the sugar and cream, he looked sideways at me and said, “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

“I hope it’s alright,” I said nervously.

“Oh, sure,” he said before taking a test sip.  “I just hope you’re okay.”

I nodded enthusiastically.  “I just had something to, uhm, suggest.  If that’s okay.”

He looked a bit puzzled but nodded.  “Of course.  We have no secrets.”

I realized how true that was and chuckled.  “That’s true.”

“So, what’s your suggestion?”

“Well, I, uh…”  This wasn’t as easy as I had rehearsed.  I sipped my coffee to delay while I organized my thoughts.  “Okay, Mike.  Uhm, I’m new in this part of the country and really looking forward to exploring the area.  And you need to get to Salt Lake.”

He was staring at me with a bit of a distant look.  Was I going too far?

I’d gone this far, so I took a deep breath and continued.  “What if I took you to Salt Lake?  Could you go sooner and quit working like this?”

He still stared as his brow furrowed as if he was getting angry.  “Are you shitting me?”

I lost my nerve.  Quickly I said, “I’m sorry, Mike.  That’s none of my business.  Don’t be mad.  I didn’t mean to intrude or anything.”

He held up his palm toward me in the universal “stop” symbol.  Then, thank God, he grinned.  “No, Art.  I’m sorry.  I’m not mad at all.  I’m just so shocked you would come up with this idea.  Are you really serious?  You’d drive me all the way to Utah?”

I was so relieved I had to take a moment just to calm myself and answer the question.  “Oh, yeah!  It’d be fun.  You’d be helping me do something I want to do anyway.”

“It’s an interesting thought,” he muttered more to himself than me, I think.  “How would it work?”

“Well,” I grinned.  “I checked my Rand McNally Road Atlas for routes to Salt Lake City and Sandy.  Two routes leapt out as obvious possibilities.  First, we could go due west on I-70 to Utah and then northwest on US 6 to I-15 and a short distance north to Sandy.  Or we could go north from Denver on I-25 to Cheyenne and west on I-80 to Salt Lake and then south on I-15 to Sandy.  Either way is less than 600 miles.”

“Hmm.  I could help with the driving, I guess, but you’d have to drive all the way back by yourself.”

“It’s a long drive alone, yes, but I wouldn’t do it all in one day.” 

We each took a sip as we thought about it.

“You can take some vacation?” he asked.

I shook my head.  “No.  I haven’t been there long enough.  But if we leave after I get off on Friday, say 7:00, we could drive all night, alternating when we get sleepy and arrive in Salt Lake before dawn, I think.  I could spend 4 or 5 hours looking around and then drive a couple of hours back toward Denver before stopping at a camp ground.  Then I could easily drive the rest of the way on Sunday and be back for work Monday morning like nothing had happened.”

He grinned.  “You’re quite the planner, aren’t you?”

“Sometimes a good plan makes life a little easier.”

“That would work, wouldn’t it?” 

I thought I could hear the beginnings of enthusiasm in his voice.  “Sure.  And I have a new tent and sleeping bag Mom and Dad gave me for graduation.”

“Yeah?  That’s cool.”  He finished his coffee.  “When could you go?”

The ever-vigilant Elise was back in seconds to refill his cup, smiling at him as she did so.  To be fair, she also gave me a warm smile as she refilled my cup, too.

“I could go any weekend.  But, there is one particularly good option.”

“What’s that?”

“If we could go on Labor Day weekend, we could do the driving during the day to enjoy the beautiful country and camp out a night on the way.  I could still get back on Monday afternoon and be ready for work on Tuesday.”

I thought I detected a twinkle in his eye as he nodded and said, “A little vacation in the mountains.”

“Yeah.  It’d be a lot of fun, don’t you think?”

“Yes, of course.  But I’ll need to save up so I’m ready to go back that soon.  When is Labor Day?”

“It’s 3 weeks from this next Monday.  So we would leave 3 weeks from Friday.”

He thought for a moment as he took a long, slow sip.  “I think I could have what I need by then.”  He took another sip to drain the cup.  “Uhm, could we wait until Saturday morning to leave?  That way I could work Friday.”  He looked at me with a wry grin and a wiggle in his eyebrows.  “I always make a lot on Fridays.”

I laughed.  “Hell, Mike, you’d make a bundle every night if the night was long enough!”

He gave an appreciative nod.  “Fridays and Saturdays are longer nights because the guys are out later.”

“But, yes, we could leave Saturday morning and stop that evening whenever we feel like it.”

“You know what?” he said with definite enthusiasm.  Without waiting for a reply, he continued, “When I was a kid, we used to go camping on the banks of Green River just off the interstate in the tiny town of Green River.  It’s a couple hundred miles from Sandy, I think.  We could get that far on Saturday.  Oh, that would be really cool.”

I laughed at his exuberance.  He sounded like a 10-year-old instead of an experienced hustler.  I waited a moment to see if he had more to say.  When he didn’t, I said, “Does that mean you’re ‘in’?”

“I want to be,” he said, “but I gotta figure out if I can have enough money to go that soon.”

“I get it.”

“Listen, I’ll figure it all out.  Maybe you could come over to my place on Sunday and we can make final plans.  That is, if it looks like I can go.”

I felt a twitch in my crotch at the suggestion I come to his place.  “That would be great.  What time should I come?”

“How about 3:00?”

“Great!”

“If I’m gonna make all this money, I have to work.”

“I understand.”

I put a $5 bill on the counter and we left.  On the short ride to the Capitol, Mike was animated and talkative.  When we got back to the street by the Capitol, he reminded me of the address of the shabby hotel where he stays and his room number, thanked me for the coffee, and leaned way over to give me a good-night kiss before getting out of the car.

For a guy who isn’t gay, I thought, he doesn’t have any problems with physical affection.

*********

That night I slept fitfully as my subconscious brain kept feeding me fantasies about the upcoming vacation with Mike.  I had to beat off twice during the night, but still didn’t sleep well.

Nevertheless, I was happy the next morning as the light of day brought a little more logic to my thinking.  I knew the drive to Salt Lake would be a lot of fun because Mike and I seemed to get along really well and, besides, who wouldn’t enjoy sitting beside him all day and sleeping beside him in a tent?

I knew it was also a good-bye trip which gave me some conflicting emotions.  On the one hand, he was the only person in my life who knew the real me and, therefore, in some real sense was my closest friend.  On the other hand, he was a transitory person who would pass through my life in a matter of weeks and then likely have no further connection with me.  Still, in these few weeks, he did have a profound impact on me.  I felt that impact would be considerably stronger by the time we said our good-byes in Utah.  This wasn’t a forever friend, but he was a wonderful friend for the here and now.

As I thought about Mike, there was one more thing I wanted to experience with him if he was open to the idea. 

*********

I didn’t want to wait until our planned get-together on Sunday to talk with Mike, so on Wednesday evening, I drove to the Capitol shortly before 7 pm.  Mike was clearly a little surprised to see me, but also seemed very pleased.  So, he climbed into the car and we had our usual time at the nearby coffee shop.  Elise was nowhere to be seen, so we were served by Gertrude, a plump grandmotherly woman with heavy makeup and a ready smile. 

“Mike,” I started after Gertrude had poured our coffee.  As he looked over at me, I was momentarily lost in his handsome face.  “Uhm,” I hesitated.

He chuckled.  “Hey, dude, you have to learn once and for all that you can say anything to me.  Stop being so nervous and just spit it out.  Okay?”  His smile was incredibly inviting.

“Yeah, sorry.”  I took a sip and then set my cup down, swiveled a bit in my chair so I was facing him, and said quietly, “You were the kindest, sweetest guy when we were together the first time.  When you, uhm, showed me about oral sex.”

He nodded, smiling.  “I’m glad you felt that way.”

“Sure, I did.  So, uhm, I wonder if you would also show me, uh, about, uhm…”

“Anal sex?”

I blushed and nodded.  “I would like to experience that for the first time with you.  Because I can trust you.”

He reached for my arm, which he held for a few moments.  “I’m honored that you feel that way, Art.  Are you really sure you’re ready to take that step?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of weeks now and I really would like to know what it is like before, you know, you go to Utah.”

“Well, in that case, I think we ought to set a time for it.”

I was overjoyed.  “You mean you will?”

“Yes, I will.”

We each drained our cups.  Mike lifted his to show Gertrude we needed more.  In a moment she was there taking good care of us.

When she walked away, I said, “When would be a good time for you?”

“How about when you come over on Sunday?” he asked.  “That way, we would not be rushed.”

“Oh, I like that idea a lot.”

We debated a bit and decided on 2:00 on Sunday at his room in the Capitol Arms.

To be continued...

Posted: 02/11/2022