The Husband (2 page)

He dressed, left, and walked home to his apartment while keeping an eye out for Ben. But Ben was nowhere to be seen. He imagined Ben had gotten into his car and driven to one of the bars where he could pick up a trick.

As time wore on, the weather became a larger negative feature of his new home and he missed his friends back on Long Island. He continued to run into Ben, who persistently tried to get him into bed, or wherever, so he could get what he wanted. He didn't succeed. Finally, Adam decided he really felt miserable and, being an East Coast boy, quit his job, broke his lease, and headed back home.

His old apartment had long been rented, but he had friends, a straight married couple, who offered to let him stay with them in their house for as long as he needed to get back on his feet. As he saw Houston getting smaller in his rearview mirror, he became happier and happier and knew he had made the right decision to go back home.

* * * *

Three days later, he pulled into the driveway of his friends' house. He got out, stretched, and grabbed his briefcase, which contained money and other valuables, and headed to the door. He knocked, and Doris opened the door. When she saw Adam, she broke into a wide grin and quickly pulled him inside.

"It's so good to have you back where you belong, honey. Seeing you again is great! I feel like you've been gone for a year."

"Thanks, Doris, I'm glad to be back home. I really appreciate you and Jeff putting me up on such short notice. I promise I'll get outta here as fast as I can."

"Oh, don't even think about that. Jeff… Jeff. Adam's here!" she shouted to her husband.

A moment later, Jeff bounded up the stairs. Jeff was twenty-nine, an Italian man with black hair, brown eyes, and features that made him one of the most handsome men Adam had ever seen in his life. Jeff broke out into a big smile.

"Hey, boy, finally figured out you fucked up and came back home, eh?" Jeff asked.

He threw his arms around Adam and squeezed him.

"Thanks for allowing me to stay here with you and Doris. I'm lucky to have such good friends as the two of you."

"Enough fussing about staying here. My house is your house. Let me help you get your stuff out of the car and into the house and your room."

All three went out to the car and began the tedious chore of unpacking a car that seemed crammed full then moved all his stuff inside. They split up which things were going downstairs for storage, and which items were going into the bedroom and bathroom. Two hours later, and the job appeared pretty much finished.

"I better start dinner." Doris said. "I didn't realize the time had gotten away from me so quickly. You guys go sit down in the living room and catch up. Honey, you wanna beer?"

"Sure, hon, thanks. Adam?"

"I'll take white wine if you have some," he replied.

"This is an Italian house. Of course we have wine—both red and white."

They sat down and got comfortable as Doris brought in their refreshments. As Jeff sat there smiling, Adam couldn't help thinking how damn good looking his friend appeared in a very classical sense. There simply wasn't a single physical flaw in his friend that he could see.

"Adam? You look lost or far away… you okay?" Jeff asked.

"Oh. Long trip, just a little tired. To be honest, I had forgotten just how really good looking you are, my friend," Adam said as he blushed.

"He is good looking, isn't he?" Doris said as she came into the living room. "Later, we'll show you a painting over our bed, which a very good artist painted of the two of us."

"Lucky you. I'd love to have my portrait painted, so eventually when I'm old and wrinkled, I can look at myself and see in the painting what I look like now. But I doubt that will happen."

"Honey, why don't you show Adam the rest of the house since he hasn't seen the changes we did after his last visit?"

"Sure, come on, dude. Let me show you around the place," Jeff said as he got up.

Adam followed, staring at Jeff's ass neatly packed away in tight jeans. They headed up the four steps to the next level and down the hallway past Adam's bedroom and to Jeff and Doris's. He opened the door, and they went in.

"So whatcha think?" Jeff asked as he looked at the painting over the bed.

"The painting's breathtaking. Jeff, he captured Doris's beauty perfectly, and as for you… well, you look as good there as you do in person. God, you two make a good looking pair, you know that?"

"We might have heard similar comments somewhere before," Jeff said, laughing.

Adam felt something stirring in his pants as he looked at the painting, which showed his friends without clothes. Jeff held his leg in just such a way as to block what was between his legs, and Doris covered her bottom half with her hands but not the top.

"Lucky artist," Adam said, almost without thinking.

"Lucky how?" Jeff asked.

"Well, lucky in that he got to do a painting like this. The cost must have been very expensive, no?" Adam asked.

"We don't know. The painting was a present from Doris's mother last Christmas. She seemed just a little shocked when she saw it, not expecting we'd be without clothes. Anyway, let's go downstairs, and I'll show you my office and where you can work. I built walls that separate the office from the laundry room and the television, which I have down there for work."

Adam looked at Jeff in the painting once more and followed him out of the room. They went down the small set of steps and then down into the lower level, which had carpeting. Up in one corner, attached to the wall, a television tuned into on-going stock reports and financial news blazed away. They entered through a door, which revealed Jeff's office. Computers, phones, and fax machines were all set up, along with a couple of office chairs.

"Okay, here's your work place to find a job or figure out what you're gonna do. You can use this phone and the last numbered line. The others are for my business. So, you like?" he asked with a warm smile.

"You did a really nice job putting all this together. This whole area's nice and comfortable down here, and you get to work at home. But, do you have difficulties being with Doris like twenty-four, seven?"

"Nah. She goes out most of the time during the day after taking care of the house. She heads over to her mother's and spends three or four hours or so there and then comes home when dinner time rolls around. So, we still see each other a lot, but there is a break. I think all couples need some room, don't you?"

"Ahh, yeah I guess," Adam said.

Doris appeared to everyone to be not only beautiful, but very high maintenance, which she never denied. She was just the type of woman Jeff loved.

"Come on, you had to have gotten laid like crazy down there in Houston, right?"

"Not really. I spent a lot of hours working, sometimes twenty hours a day if there were security issues. I had chances to get laid, but I turned most of them down and accepted only a couple just to keep my sanity."

"Does Craig know you're back in town? He's the guy you were dating pretty steadily before you left for Houston, right?"

"Yeah, we dated for about five months before I left. Actually, he has no idea I'm back. Our relationship started to get serious, and I knew the job I left for would more than likely be offered to me, so I didn't wanna get in too deep with him and then dump him."

"Well, dude, you should call him. You two guys were great together."

"Yeah, maybe I'll give him a call tonight, but I'm afraid he'll be super pissed at me still or, worse, dating someone else by now."

"Dinner's ready, guys." Doris shouted from upstairs.

"Let's go eat. She can still cook like a miracle worker," Jeff said with pride. "You'll see."

* * * *

After dinner, they sat together watching television in the living room until Adam began to yawn. Jeff and Doris seemed to understand Adam had to be tired from the drive.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed," Adam announced.

"Sure, there are towels in the closet in your bathroom, so you should have everything you need," said Doris.

"Thank you. I'll see you in the morning, and thank again for letting me stay here a while."

Adam quickly took a shower. The bathroom was located off his bedroom so it enabled him to dry off and climb directly into bed naked. He could just hear the television faintly and began to think how Jeff looked in the painting. The more he thought about it the heavier he breathed. He pushed the covers down below his dick and began to jerk off. He fantasized about what sex would be like if he let Jeff take him any way he wanted. Before long, he climaxed and cleaned up with tissue from the nightstand.

Feeling less agitated over his attraction to his friend, he could now go to sleep and dream about being a pirate sacking cities in the Caribbean and stealing away cute young men for duty at sea as pirates and matelots.

The next morning when Adam woke up, he dressed and went down to the kitchen expecting to find both of his friends, but found neither. Instead, he found a note telling him Jeff could be found down in his office and Doris had gone shopping. The coffee was on, and he poured himself a cup, drank a small glass of orange juice, then headed down to the office.

When he entered the office, he found Jeff on the phone, apparently with a broker buying stock, and he sat down at his part of the counter desk. He looked over again at his friend and noticed he had on a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. Casual dress came in number one as the main advantage of working at home, aside from not having to drive to work. His legs were muscular from his football days, and before he got too involved in looking, Adam turned to his computer and turned the PC on. He began his job search using the computer to read job sites and newspapers.

Jeff hung up, swiveled around, and said, "Morning, buddy, sleep well?"

Jeff's smile lit up the office even more than the lights and sun coming through the window high in the wall.

"Sure did. In fact, I slept later than I had intended to. Now, I need to get to work finding a job."

"Did you ever call Craig last night?"

"Oh! No, guess I felt too tired; calling him slipped my mind. I'll give him a call on his cell phone when I go upstairs to get a second cup of coffee."

Jeff smiled and went right back to work. A half hour later, Adam got up and went back upstairs, poured his second cup of coffee, and got his phone book from his bedroom. He went back down into the living room and dialed the number as his stomach knotted up.

"Hello?"

"Craig, this is Adam. How are you?"

"Adam! Wait, you're calling from a local number. Where the hell are you?"

"Long story short, I moved back home and arrived in Long Island last night. I'm staying at Jeff and Doris's house until I get back on my feet. Are you still pissed at me?"

"You mean for leaving me and almost breaking my heart? You fucker, of course I'm still pissed at you! Why are you calling?"

"For one thing, I wanted to let you know I am back for good and to see how you were," Adam said with some trepidation in his voice.

"Are you expecting to just pick up after you dumped me? You know, dinner, movie, fuck? Is that what you're after?"

"Look, Craig, I missed you terribly, and I owe you for being an asshole. Let me make all this up to you, please?"

"How do you know I'm not seeing someone? Do you think I just sat around pining over you? And another thing, why the hell didn't you call me?"

"I didn't call you so the break between us might be easier for you. I figured, if we were talking to each other every day or something, our separation would be all the harder to take. I thought breaking off totally would be cleaner."

"That's a fucked up excuse for leaving me worrying if you got out there okay, if you liked your new job and all. Now you just wander back on in and expect… what? What exactly do you want?" Craig asked. He sounded like he was holding back tears.

"My God, I had no idea you were so hurt over my leaving. I have to make this up to you, even if we don't become boyfriends. Please, let me start by taking you out to dinner, okay?"

"Fuck you!"

Craig hung up. Adam slowly replaced the receiver and fought back his own emotions. If he had known how deeply Craig had apparently felt about him, he would never have moved the way he did. And in the end, all the disruption served no good purpose.

"You okay?" Jeff asked at the top of the stairs.

"Oh, ahh, yeah."

"You talk to Craig?"

"Yeah, I sure did. He is livid over me moving and now coming back. He's hurt, and I had no idea he considered me more than a close friend. That's how I viewed our relationship. He just hung up on me after telling me 'fuck you'."

"Whoa. Well, give him some time. Let him get used to the idea you're back and that you're obviously interested in resuming your relationship if he'll have you back. This situation is tough, buddy, but you two may work it out yet."

Adam got up and gave his friend a hug and breathed in the aroma of the Polo cologne Jeff wore so well. Jeff consisted of solid muscle and classic male beauty, and yet, he failed to realize just how hot he appeared to others. Jeff had to be one of the most secure individuals Adam had ever met when the topic of conversation concerned his sexuality. He knew without doubt that he was straight, and he wasn't the least bit threatened by someone else being gay. If anything, he seemed flattered by the effect he had on Adam whenever Adam made a direct comment on Jeff's beauty and took it as a compliment.

* * * *

Unknown to Adam, Jeff and Doris had briefly discussed Adam's living with them. They both surmised the attraction Adam probably felt towards Jeff from past associations between the friends. She wanted to make sure her husband wouldn't be uncomfortable with a gay guy living with them. Jeff recalled something Doris had said that shocked him.

"Honey, if letting him do something with you intrigues you at all, and you wanna experience that kind of sex, you have my permission. I know you're not gay or even bi-sexual, so I wouldn't feel threatened in the least. I've read it's not uncommon for straight men to wonder what sex would be like to have a guy say, blow them. Now, another woman, and I'll cut your dick off, mister!"