give me my angel

I bent down in an attempt to kiss him. He pulled me towards him. We fell on the floor, with me on top of him. Kissing each other as if we have never kissed before, we quickly undressed each other. Butt naked we started fondling each other and in Rene’s room we orchestrated our innermost emotions for the second time.

The difference this time was there was no stopping. We went all the way. There were no hesitations. No doubts. No second thoughts.

Just plain human pleasure.

Part 16

I smiled every time someone said it. They say it as if something is seriously wrong with you. It goes like – Hey...you look different...you've got that glow on your face!

I didn't reveal the reason I looked this way to people who commented on it. At times, I didn't really know what was happening to me.

I hadn't heard from El ever since Purple Parrot, and my relationship was growing with Rene every day...every second. It's wonderful how you can tighten the bonds with a person and keep doing it forever.

One uneventful night, Rene told me that his mom was arriving the next day. From what I heard from Rene, Mrs. Betty was a very nice woman, but I had a feeling that Rene was hiding something from me. And that made me quite tense.

The next evening I went over to Rene's home to meet his mom. I knocked on the door, and Laura opened it, grinning at me.

"Whatsup!" she asked.

"Nothing much... Is your mother home?"

"No. Come in."

I hung my jacket on the wall hook and turned towards Laura. "When is she coming?"

"Why are you so excited about my mom?"

I wasn't excited. I was tense!

"Ok. Where's Rene?"

"...Thanks for asking Jess. I'm fine. I hope you are fine, too?"

"Awwww...I'm sorry Laura honey," I said and hugged her. "It's just that I'm a little nervous about...you know...meeting your mom"

"You ought to be. She's one helluva scary woman!"

"What?"

"I'm kidding Jess. Just relax...she is just my mother. Not the Devil."

I gave an uneasy laugh and tried to relax.

Another knock on the door interrupted my relaxation process. Almost immediately the phone started ringing loudly.

"I think that's her," Laura said. "You get that Jess, and I'll get the phone."

I placed my hand on the door knob and hesitated for a second. I opened the door.

It was Rene. He dropped two heavy bags on the floor. Thud. The sounds of this house were making me crazy.

I looked behind him and saw nobody.

Rene looked at me and gave me a kiss. I moved away instinctively.

"Not now!" I told him.

"Why not? I just told her about you and you know what?"

"What?"

"She's happy I got rid of El."

"Well good for you! Where is she?"

"She's getting her luggage. Can you help her? She brings a bunch of crap every time."

"Yeah, sure..."

I walked towards Rene's car and Mrs. Betty popped from the rear. She didn't look at me.

"Rene...does this new guy do drugs?"

Then, she looked up at me and smiled oddly. "Who are you, young man?"

"Let me help you with that, Mrs. Betty," I said and took two really heavy bags.

As I walked back to the house I said, "I'm Rene – the one who doesn't do drugs"

I heard laughter behind me. For some reason, I was the embarrassed one.

Rene forced me to stay for dinner. I was glad Mrs. Betty was asleep. It was about 7 P.M. when she woke up. She walked straight to the kitchen without looking at any of us in front of the TV.

Rene looked at me and said, "She loves cooking..."

After a while, I walked to the kitchen. I felt like I had to talk to her for some reason.

"Hello there." Mrs. Betty said looking at me.

"Hi Mrs. Betty," I said.

"Don't call me that. Right now I would perfectly fit Betty of the Flintstones," she said jokingly.

I smiled.

"You can call me Liz."

"Okay, Mrs...er...Liz"

"Just Liz will do."

"Okay. Do you need some help?" I asked.

"You cook? I'm sorry, what was your name again...?"

"It's Jesse, but you can call me Jess like everyone else does."

"You cook Jess?"

"Yes, when you live alone you do learn a few things..."

"Your mother should be proud of you."

"Yes...she was" I said softly.

"Ohh...honey, I'm sorry."

"It's ok..."

I tried to help her but she insisted on doing most of the cooking and she was doing extremely well.

"Well, I live alone as well, and I've learnt a few things, too, Jess"

I smiled. "You sure have Liz."

"I'm glad Rene found a friend like you..."

Friend?

"Yeah...me too."

I wanted to kill Rene. What did he tell his mother?

"Rene told me you are pretty close with Laura, too, Jess..."

"Yeah...I am."

"Can I ask you a question?"

Oh no.

"How is my daughter doing?"

"She...She is fine. Don't worry, Mrs. Betty...she has changed now...changed for the better. She is just fine."

"Thanks...Jess. Something tells me you helped her too..."

"I might have, I don't know."

She smiled, "As I said before, I'm glad Rene finally found a sensible friend like you, unlike that other friend of his...what was his name?"

"Elliot?" I scowled.

"Yes...yes...that's him. The bas...uh... never mind."

So she hated El.

"So where do you live around here?"

"I live in a rented place with a friend...just around the corner on Main Street"

"Main Street...Ohhh...Rene used to go to school over there..."

"Really?"

"Yes, he did. If I'm right, he studied there for some two years..."

"He never told me!"

"Well there are many things you can find out from a mom, you know."

I was getting evil ideas.

"I bet you can tell me something embarrassing about his childhood?"

Liz thought for a moment and then had an evil grin on her face.

"Actually, there is this one thing...back when we were in Ottawa, his father used to go ice fishing. And once, he took Rene along with him. I warned Rene that he would get bored, but you know how kids are. Once they got there, the little fishing pro got bored within ten minutes. His father had gone out only for a second from the cabin and when he came back he was shocked at what he saw..."

"What? What did he see?"

"Rene was naked and he was sitting on the floor as if he were stuck to it..."

"What? What was he doing?"

"Apparently, the intelligent boy was thinking of skinny dipping in the small hole in the ice...I guess it was big enough for him..."

I couldn't help laughing loudly, "How old was he?"

"He was eight at that time, and I'm glad he didn't jump into the water! He was just too frozen to move."

I imagined Rene naked and frozen on the ice...

"What's going on here?" Rene came in.

"Nothing, I was just telling him about the ice fishing story" Liz said.

I laughed again.

"MOM! Not that story again! You know I was young..."

"...and incredibly stupid" I completed, with a chuckle.

"OK boys; stop it now, dinner is ready. Lets eat!"

We prayed, and then ate one of the most delicious dinners I have had in several years. I complimented Liz on the wonderful food, and she modestly told me that my help added that extra something. I knew Laura and Rene were making faces.

Before leaving, Rene dragged me to his room.

He kissed me for a second or two.

"Okay what was that for?" I asked him.

"I don't need your permission to kiss you..." he said.

"Then, I should have the same privilege!" I said and kissed him back.

"We're acting like a couple of horny teenagers, aren't we?" Rene quipped.

"I would prefer to say two gay lovers who adore each other."

"Yes but we're still horny...so how is she?"

"I think she's pretty cool...I mean, is there anything she can't do!"

"Actually now that you asked, there is something..."

"Really? What?"

"Jess...my mother... will never accept the fact that I'm a homosexual."

"What? But you told me she..."

"Yes, she does know. But, I didn't tell you how she handles it. She loved me like hell, and it took me years to figure her out. But, she had a strange way to showing her love. She will never openly say that her son is gay, but I guess somewhere deep inside she knows."

"She is ashamed?"

"No, just because she can't openly accept me doesn't mean she is ashamed of me. It was just a rude shock for her. She had no clue that this was coming her way. Whenever she talks about my relationships, she always uses `normal terms'."

Now things were making sense.

"So that's why she referred me as just your friend?"

"Yes. Things happened too fast that she just didn't catch up. The divorces, Laura's problems, she had gone through a lot of shit. I don't expect her to go around proudly stating that her son is gay. I know that she knows and we are okay with that. And that's all that matters."

"Does that mean I can't refer you as my boyfriend in front of her?"

"Well you can...she will feel odd for a moment, but then she will recover quickly, as if everything is just fine."

"You know...that's really weird, but that just makes me like your mother even better."

Rene smiled at me. "I'm glad you like her. Now I've seen enough of you today, go home!"

"Fine! Good night, stupid boy who went skinny dipping in Antarctica!"

"Shutup, and fuck off from here"

"Haha..."

When I came back home I found out that Leon had finally called Will. Apparently things were back to normal there and she was back to normal as well – which meant studying 24/7.

I lay on my bed and started to think. I was beginning to live again. Things were so perfect that it all seemed so surreal.

Then, the phone rang.

I knew who it was. It had to be El.

"Hello?"

"Hello...is this Jesse?"

"Yes."

"Jesse...this is Liz."

"Liz!"

"Yeah...I just wanted to make sure you reached home safely...I got your number from Laura"

What?!

"Well I guess I did" I said.

"Yes...you did...well hope to see you again soon..."

"Me too, thanks for the dinner again. Good night Liz –

"– Jess?"

"Yes...Liz?"

"I'm worried about Rene, and I really don't know what to do..."

"Why? What's the problem?"

"Ever since I came, I've been asking him about the job offer, but he just doesn't give me a plain answer..."

"Job offer? What job offer?"

There was silence on the line.

"Jess...Didn't he tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

I was sweating now.

"Jess...you know how my job is, right? I have shows everywhere. I was doing this show in the UK and met some people I knew... and pulled a few strings."

"You are killing me, Liz...can you get to the point?"

"Jess, I hate to be the one to break this to you...Rene has been offered this excellent job in London. It's one of the best design firms in the UK..."

"Is...Is...he taking...it?" I asked every word coming out of my mouth with great difficulty.

"I've two tickets to London for next week Jess..."

To be continued...