Officers' Boy
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 6

After I got home from the beach, I cleaned up and took my “date” clothes to work so I could change after my shift.  I had told Mom some of us were going out for dinner to celebrate our new freedom from high school.  I hated lying to her, but it was an easy way to cover for my dinner date with Racer, or Rafe.  Syl let me off a couple of minutes before 7:00 so I could freshen up a bit before Racer arrived.  I changed into a loose Hawaiian shirt with blue Irises on a black background that went well with my black skinny jeans.  I waved goodbye to Syl and stepped through the door into the sunny parking lot. 

Racer’s Wrangler was parked at the end of the lot, so I strolled as nonchalantly as I could up to the driver’s door.  When I was still a few feet away, Racer looked toward me and smiled.  He tilted his head toward the passenger door and said, “Get in.”

I tossed my backpack into the tiny back seat and slid in beside him.  “Good to see you again,” he said and squeezed my left hand.  He was dressed in tight jeans that stretched across his thighs topped with a medium gray tee that showed off his well-developed chest and arms.  We made small talk about how it felt to be out of school as we drove over surface streets to the historic area called Ybor City (pronounced EE-bore), which was the main cigar-making area in Tampa back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  We parked in one of the parking garages and walked a couple of blocks to a rather cool place called Streetcar Charlie’s Bar and Grill.  I’d been to Ybor quite a few times but hadn’t eaten here.  Being a Monday evening, the place was only about half full, but I noticed the patrons were all men except for one table with two guys and two girls and one with three rather masculine looking women.

When we were seated, Racer said, “I thought we’d feel comfortable in here.”

Glancing around I noticed two guys Dad’s age sitting in a booth.  They were leaning across the table, smiling broadly, and looking very focused on each other.  Oh, my, I thought, they’re holding hands!  In a public restaurant.

Looking back at Racer, I smiled and said, “Did you bring me to a gay restaurant?”

“Guilty as charged,” he grinned.

While the waiter took our order, two good-looking guys in their late 20s or early 30s with a somewhat older guy who was also very handsome came in and sat at a table not far away.  What caught my attention other than the fact that all were good looking and had military haircuts was that they all took specific notice of me.  When they sat down, they spoke enthusiastically to each other and all looked at Racer and me at the same time.  I blushed because I felt something sexual in their look.

When the waiter withdrew, I called them to Racer’s attention.  He glanced at them and then back to me.  “They’re some guys from the base, I think.”  He held my hand on top of the table!  My heart fluttered and my cock throbbed.  “Do they bother you?”

“Oh, no,” I said truthfully.  “It’s just that other guys don’t usually look at me quite that way.”

“It’s nothing to be concerned about,” he smiled.  “Men who like men are more open about appreciating a hot guy like you when they’re in a so-called gay environment.  They’re admiring you.  That’s all.”

“They’re probably wondering what a hot guy like you sees in a kid like me,” I said.

He laughed loudly.  “Shit, Eric, they know exactly what I see in a guy like you.  Try beauty, great bod, and brains.”

“You’re very kind, Racer.”

“Thanks for noticing.  I do try always to be kind.  But I’m also truthful, so don’t discount my compliments as just kindness.  I’ll never tell you something I don’t feel.”

For the next little while, Racer told me some things about his work.  He’d come back on Saturday from an interesting several days at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, where he was attending a refresher course about the military navigation system in the Middle East.  He couldn’t give me any details, but I found this glimpse into his daily life quite intriguing.  Since his degree is in Electrical Engineering, he was quite interested in our Physics project.  He asked some great questions I wished he’d asked me before we wrote our final paper.  Adding answers to those questions would have been a great addition to the report.  I couldn’t help but think he could be a big help as I entered my freshmen engineering courses in the fall.

Racer told me he lives in a house on River Road overlooking the Hillsborough River.  It’s owned by one of his Air Force friends.  There are two other officers living there, too.

“So,” I asked, “are you dating anyone?”

He laughed before he said, “Other than you?”

Damn!  He’s dating me?  Hallelujah!  I wasn’t quite sure how to answer him, so I just nodded.

“No.  I’ve only been here a few months and haven’t met any women I’m interesting in.  So, I guess you’re the only one I’m dating.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that.”

“Yeah,” he grinned.  “I need to remind you that I do like women, too, so I don’t want you to expect we’ll get married or anything like that.”

He was gently pouring cold water on a dream I had not truly recognized.  “No,” I said a little sadly.  “I know you won’t be satisfied with just me.”

“You have to always remember that we’re fundamentally different, you and me.  Where you know you’re only attracted to men, I know I’m mainly attracted to women, but enjoy a nice guy sometimes, too.”

“How do you meet guys?” I wondered.

“Now that DADT has been overturned, it’s pretty easy.  Guys who enjoy sex with other guys let it be known with a look or gesture or by what they share.  They also know others, so once you meet one you might get to know several.”

“Do you go with men sometimes just for sex?”

Racer took a long drag on his Heineken and smiled.  “Let me answer that by telling you about my housemates.  One of them, Michael, identifies himself as gay but the other two, Bob and Tony are like me.  They date women, but like sex with men, too.  They’re both divorced and will probably get married again one of these days.”

“Do you have sex together?”

“Fair question.  The answer is a bit complicated.  All of us, including Michael, the gay one, are tops, so we aren’t too compatible sexually.”

“Tops,” I reflected.  “That means you want to fuck the other guy, right?”

He nodded.  “Obviously if two guys both want to top, but neither wants to bottom, sexual options are rather limited.”

I nodded, “I guess so.  It’s more complicated than I thought.”

He chuckled.  “It’s not too bad when you know what you like and find a guy who likes the other.”

“So, if you all like to top and not to bottom, that doesn’t sound very compatible.”

“We mess around a little bit, sometimes.  Blowjobs and frottage can meet some of our needs.”

“I definitely know about blowjobs, but what’s frottage?” I asked.

When Racer explained it to me, I understood easily.  It made sense that even without fucking there were some things a couple of “tops” could do to have fun.

We had a lovely dinner with great food (my Key West shrimp was fabulous), great service, and great conversation.  The three military guys left before us and stared at us as they walked by our table.  It felt very odd to me, though it didn’t seem threatening.  All three were handsome and sexy, so to be stared at by them was flattering.

After dinner Racer drove to the Bayshore, where we parked a block from the bay and walked back to the long bayside promenade.  The night was beautiful with a slight breeze that took away the lingering heat from the summer day.  We strolled a couple of miles along the bay, enjoying the skyline of downtown Tampa from a fishing pier just beyond the south end of the promenade.  Several times, Racer put his arm across my shoulder as we walked.  I loved the contact and the warmth I felt from his body.

“I’ve heard this is the longest unbroken sidewalk in America,” I said.

“Interesting,” he responded.  “We should come down here to ride sometime.”

“I’d like that!”  What I liked most was that he was talking about a future that included both of us.  I understood his need for a woman, but I could reasonably hope to be ‘friends with benefits’, couldn’t I?  “Guard your heart,” I heard both Roger and Sylvia say in my mind.

Back at the car we kissed for a couple of minutes before he drove me back to Starbuck’s and my bike.  As we got close to the store, I said, “I had a great time with you tonight, Racer, uh, Rafe.”

He smiled.  “Me, too, Eric.  Do you want to get together again?”

“Very much!”

“What would you like to do?”

“Get naked!” I practically shouted.

He laughed.  “You seem to be clear about what you want.”

I laughed, too.  “I am.  Can we manage to be alone together somehow?”

“Probably,” he nodded.

After some awkward conversation about me getting away from Mom and Dad, we decided he would take me to a gay resort hotel in St. Petersburg on Saturday after work.  I was so excited by the idea of spending the night with him at a hotel, I almost dropped a load in my shorts.  We shared a deep, meaningful kiss at the side of the parking lot before I got out to retrieve my bicycle and pedal home.  As I rode north on Central Avenue, I had a constant big grin on my face after the best date I’d ever had.

To be continued...

Posted: 05/06/2022