Hello again, amigos. Sorry for the long delay between chapters. I'm done with all my schoolwork now and am looking forward to some very boring holidays. I should find plenty of time to finish this tale in the next week. I'd like to thank everyone who has written me. I only see two or three more chapters left to finish telling this story. So here is the seventh installment. Some of you would like to see Steve get together with Adam. Some of you would like to see Steve get with Ryan. Well, one side ends up winning at the end of this chapter. Enjoy!
Working at the Club
Chapter 7
The next morning the hot sun combined with the weather from yesterday made it wicked humid. Just setting up the cart got me drenched with sweat. If I had another shirt I would have changed into it. I locked up and closed the cage and wiped the sweat from my brow. I walked out of the cage and nearly knocked Miguel off the back loading dock.
"Hey, Senor Steve, que pasa?"
"Nada, Miguel. Es mui caliente."
"Si, si."
"Is it too early for the ladies?"
Miguel looked down at his watch. "Hey, I tell you what. You come back, eh 2, 3 o'clock. We'll go in the back room for a quick screw. What you say?"
"Sounds like a date." I headed down to the snack shed for some good old-fashioned ice..
Ryan was there. Alone. Hmm, this would be interesting. I heeded Adam's advice and played it real casual.
"What's up?" I said non-chalantly as I entered the shed and opened up the ice bin.
"Hey dude. How are you?" He seemed pretty normal. The tone was not cold, but composed and somewhat friendly.
"All right, it was nice to have the day off yesterday. What did you do?"
"Nothing, watched movies, hung around the house." I went out to ice my cart. At least he was being civil. But there was still a distance between us and he was a little stand-offish. I dumped the first bucket over my merchandise and smoothed it out before heading back for a second.
"How's Adam?" Ryan asked me.
"Why, what do you mean?"
"I just mean how is he doing. With his dad and all that."
"Oh, he's... he's... he's uh, fine." Man am I dumb.
"Okay," Ryan said, nodding his head and sort of chuckling. "That's good to hear."
I looked at him and he looked at me. We both were waiting for the other to say something. Finally I put away the ice bucket and said, "Well, I gotta get to work. Those fuckers won't serve themselves."
Ryan smiled politely and said, "All right, talk to you later."
I got on my cart and roared off into the sunset, errr golf course. It hadn't been that bad I thought to myself. I stopped just before nine to make sure no one was teeing off. There was a foursome so I backed up off of the course. Way off of the course, if you know what I mean. No it hadn't been that awkward between us. But he hadn't apologized, either. And he hadn't tried to make amends or even admit his true feelings. Did this mean that it was over between us? Or had I not given him enough time?
I'm a pretty strong person. I don't get emotionally attached to someone too easily. I had "dated" guys up at school. Not seriously, but I had gone out with this one guy a couple of times. I was more interested in him than he was in me. But as soon as I realized he wasn't that into me I didn't try to force the issue. I got over him in a second and forgot about him. Heck, I'd been screwing around with Ryan for less time than I was seeing this other guy. Yet why couldn't I get Ryan out of my head? There was definitely something about Ryan. Just like there was Something About Mary. I mean the girl in that was attractive and all, but what did guys fall in love with? It was her attitude, her persona, her joie de vivre, a certain je ne sais quoi.
Ryan was the same way. He had the looks obviously. But it was his way of interacting with people. He was always smiling and making jokes and talking to you, whether you were a somebody or a nobody. He made you feel at ease and when you were with him you were guaranteed to have a good time. Everybody in the snack shed loved him, except the stuck up manager. But that guy wouldn't know class if it bit him in the ass (hey that rhymes!). Even when Ryan was hanging out with my friends he wasn't shy at all. He hung out with them like he had known them his whole life. My friend Deb had even asked me if he was single. And she is super picky about her guys.
The foursome came down the hill and I graced them with my presence. Mr. Andrews slipped me a $20 and made it known that they wanted to see me often, always with 4 cold Heinekens. I loved members that drank. Every time I got them shitfaced they kept me well-greased.
Thursdays were usually somewhat busy but this Thursday was packed. Everyone who would be playing in the tournament wanted to get in as much golf as possible before the start Saturday morning. Tournaments were actually a lot fun for me. There was a slower pace and most of my time I spend sitting in the shade making sure everything was going right. I looked forward to it. I did NOT look forward to the hours. I'd be working at least 40 hours this weekend and Monday.
I did a couple of laps around the course. I was eagerly looking forward to my date with Miguel. I was pretty busy and was getting stressed out trying to keep everyone covered. Plus the humidity was a bitch. Around 3:30 I came in and grabbed Miguel around the arm. "Let's go bitch," I said.
"Hey, I'll be right out gringo."
"Bueno!"
I walked out to the cart. I had already mixed up two Absoluts and Ruby Red's on the course, away from suspicious eyes. Miguel met me in the cage a few minutes later.
"Shit, what did you make?"
"Absolut and Ruby Red,"
"You sure you mixed it right?"
I looked at the cup. I guess I may have gone a little overboard. There was just a slight trace of pink, just enough to give it a color. "Drink, up bitch. It'll put hair on you chest."
"Yeah, like I need any more of that," Miguel retorted. Miguel took a deep sick and coughed as the strong concoction hit the back of his throat. "Oh shit, man, this shit burns!"
"Just pretend its tequila. How's your amiga?"
"Oh, shit. Let me tell you," he started. I groaned, what had I just gotten myself into? Miguel heard me and asked, "Hey you asked? You don't want to hear none?'
"I think I've heard it all, Miguel."
"Well, let's talk about you. Oh wait, we can't. You're pathetic and single."
"Not anymore," I stated. "Well, sort of."
Miguel raised his eyebrows. "You finally found some chic who's not afraid of hairy palms?"
I flipped him off. "Well, its sort of complicated. She's not really, well, she's not sure whether she likes me or not." I took a long swig from my drink.
"Hey, you like someone or you don't. Love is different. But, liking someone is pretty simple. You do or don't."
"Tell that to her," I said.
"Hey, baby I would. She work here?"
"Yeah," I said before I had a chance to think. Shit! Now he would want to meet her.
"Hey no way, who is she?"
"Oh, you don't know her," I stumbled.
"Bullshit."
"Well, she actually doesn't even work here anymore. I forgot."
Miguel raised an eyebrow. He took a sip from his cocktail and looked at me suspiciously. "You're lying."
"No, I'm not," I said defensively.
"Don't play me with me, baby. Its easy to tell when you're lying."
"Oh is that so?" I asked.
Miguel looked down at my waist. "Whenever you come in off the cart and you say you have no beer left, and you always do by the way, anyway, you always hook your thumb inside the waistband of your shorts. You're doing it now. I always know when you're lying."
I looked down. Sure enough I had just hooked the thumb inside my waistband. "That doesn't mean anything."
"What about the time you and Bruno cracked up those golf carts out here and when George asked you said they were like that before? You did it then."
"I do it a lot," I said. "It's my trademark stance."
"No, only when you lie. Its obvious. Now who's the girl."
"You don't know her."
"So she either works at the pool or she works at the tennis courts. Those are the only people I don't know."
"Maybe she's a member?" I threw in.
"No rich member's gonna date dirt like you," he cracked at me. "Why are you defending her? You're not that bad of a guy to date. Hey I'd date you if I was a girl or gay."
I slapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks for the compliment. I think."
"Yeah, yeah. Now come on, who is it?"
"No one."
"Why you all weird? I tell you everything about my baby. We're amigos, you can talk to me. Give me her first initial."
"No," I said, pretty sure there weren't any girls down there with that initial.
"All right, then let's stop dancing around the bullshit. Give me his first initial."
"What!" I said. I tried as hard as I could to keep my face from showing my horror at what he had just said. "I'm not gay!"
"Steve, your thumb."
I looked down, sure enough it was in my waistband again. I yanked out and held my hands in the air. "Okay, you ready this time? I'm not gay and my thumb is no longer in my waistband."
"You think I care? We're friends. Shit, if you spoke Spanish I'd bring you home for dinner with my family. I like you, Steve, even if you are gay."
"Well keep it on the DL then," I said, lowering my voice.
"The what?"
"The DL, the down-low. Keep it quiet, I wouldn't be really comfortable if it got around to George or some of the members."
"Hey, baby, I won't tell nobody."
I took another long swig of my drink. "Thanks, Miguel," I said laying a hand on his shoulder. "You're a good friend. If you weren't hispanic I'd take you home to meet my family," I joked.
"Oh shit, you die now!" he yelled. He twisted me in a headlock until I took it back. Finally he let me go after I threatened to pour my drink down his pants.
We drank in silence for a minute until he said, "So you going to tell me who you're banging?"
"I can't. He doesn't want anyone else to know, either."
He looked at me for a bit before finally saying "You can trust me, I won't say anything about you and Ryan."
My mouth dropped open and I just stared at him dumbfounded. "How the hell did you know?"
He smiled widely and replied, "I didn't. I just guessed. But you pretty much confirmed it for me." He laughed.
I shook my head. Why was I such an idiot! "Shit, Miguel. You can't say dick about this. He would absolutely kill me if he found out you knew." I couldn't believe Miguel had tricked me. That bastard had some pretty good tricks up his sleeve.
"It's between me, you and the walls, amigo."
We drank in silence for the next couple minutes. I still couldn't believe I had just allowed myself and Ryan to be "outed." If anything could screw up the thread of a relationship that I had with Ryan it would definitely be this. But I trusted Miguel. He was a really nice guy and he seemed sincere in his promises. And after all the times he had opened up to me about his girlfriend he owed me. I was always helping him sort things out.
"So seriously, how did you know about me and Ryan?" I finally asked him.
"It kind of just fit. You guys are always horsing around out here. I didn't even think he was gay but I had to get you to spill your guts somehow."
"You are one wise mother-fucker," I congratulated Miguel.
"So you having problems with him?"
I looked down at my watch. "I'm not trying to get out of this conversation but I do have to be getting back on the course. Anderson wants to see me before he finishes on 17. We can finish this later?"
"Yeah, sure if you need to go. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, you know."
"No, it'd be nice to get another opinion," I finished.
"OK, we'll talk later. Adios!"
"Adios," I said as I drained the last drops from my drink. I jumped onto the cart and roared off. The vodka had given me a pretty nice buzz. Maybe that was why I had slipped up. Well, it was too late to do anything about it. I guess I'd have to let it play out. I trusted Miguel, in any case.
I talked to Ryan a few more times. Every time I'd approach the shed Adam would slip away to leave us alone. I hoped Ryan didn't notice this. He didn't seem to. Ryan acted pretty normal. He was polite but not overly friendly. Maybe Adam was right. He just needed time to settle things on his own. I hoped that by next week we'd be back together with this whole incident completely forgotten about.
By the time 5 o'clock rolled around I was pretty antsy. I wanted to get out of there. I looked around for Miguel to chat with before I took off. Unfortunately, he was too busy to take a break so we made plans to meet tomorrow. Anyway, I really was anxious to leave. The kid down my road was throwing a party. I love bars and all, but nothing beats the summertime kegger. $5 for a little plastic cup. And then you wait around the keg for fifteen minutes fighting with the crowd to get to the tap. And by the time you're halfway through with your beer, you've got to get in line again and redo the whole process. Plus, I could walk home so I didn't have to worry about drinking and driving.
I did a last call around 7:30 and quickly put away all my stuff. George was working the dinner shift so he chatted with me a bit before I could get out of there.
"Hey dickhead, how's it going?"
"Good," I said.
"How'd you make out today?"
"Pretty damn good. Anderson kept me in the green today."
"Good. Are you all set for the tournament this weekend?"
"Sure, Brad's working with me?"
"Yup. And if you need anyone else Bruno and Chris will be around most of the weekend. Plus I'll be there on Saturday morning to help get everything set up."
"Okay," I said.
"You've just got to make sure you keep everything iced down and stocked. Don't forget to keep track of everything you put out. I know how much beer I have but you've got to keep a list of all the other stuff."
"Yeah, I know, George." We'd been through it a hundred times already.
He rattled on for another five minutes about all the details for the weekend. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. This would have been my third year of handling these tournaments, I knew how they went by now! But, George just went around in circles no matter what. I was sure I'd get these same exact instructions tomorrow night, and then about four or five times during the course of the weekend. This guy needed to up his tranquilizer dose, or something.
Finally I broke away from him and headed home. The cars were already lined up on the street from the party. I had a cold hamburger that my dad had cooked for me since I was about an hour too late for dinner.
"Hey, you doing anything tonight?" I asked Adam.
"No," he said. He was lying in the bed, reading.
"You want to go to a kegger?"
"Who's having it?"
"No one you know," I said.
"I don't know. I'm kind of in the mood to stay in, tonight."
"Come on, it'll be fun. It's right down the street anyway."
"How far?"
"About a 30 second walk," I answered. He pondered it for a moment before I said, "You got no choice. You're going. Get ready, I'm leaving in 20 minutes."
"All right," he said. I ran and jumped into the shower. I thought about stroking it a little bit, I was pretty horny. There were going to be a bunch of guys there, most of them cute. But I decided against it, I wanted to get down there before nine. I threw on a pair of jeans and an orange A&F t-shirt. Adam was wearing jeans as well and a nice button down shirt. His hair was gelled and his cologne was driving me crazy.
"What kind of cologne is that?" I asked.
"Curve."
"Damn that's nice. I'll have to borrow it sometime."
"Sure, you could use a good cologne."
"Yeah, I don't usually wear it."
"I know," he said, cracking a dry smile.
"Fuck off!" I retorted. We walked down the road in the darkness. I could hear the party about hallway down. I thought about telling Adam about Miguel's discovery. I decided against it. He'd probably just get nervous that I'd slip up about him.
We walked around the house into the backyard. I started looking for some familiar faces. Adam was a little apprehensive about not knowing anyone.
"You can meet my friends, tonight," I told him, trying to make him feel at ease. "They all know I'm gay and are cool with it if you want to come out to them."
He shook his head. "No, I'll stay closeted for now, thank you."
"All right," I said. I wasn't going to pressure him. I saw Tom, the guy who was throwing the party. He was a year below me. We weren't that good friends but we didn't hate each other. We just didn't hang out that much. "Tom, how are you?" I asked.
"Steve, what's up man!"
"Who's selling cups tonight?"
"Look for Stav," he said.
"All right, thanks man."
"No problem, buddy. Have a good time tonight." I started to wade my way through the crowds, with Adam following close behind. It wasn't easy since I knew just about everyone else. I'm not saying I'm popular. Its just that my town is small and everyone knows each other. Finally, I found Stav and purchased two cups. Next I spent twenty minutes waiting in line for a beer. After filling them up I handed one to Adam and told him to follow me. Eventually I saw Pat and headed over to him. As usual, we were segregated away from everyone else. Pat, Jay, Jeff, and Kevin were there.
"What's up guys," I said. We exchanged greetings and I introduced Adam as a friend from work. I hadn't seen any of them since we went out on the lake a couple of nights ago. Where's Scott and Ted?"
Pat put his fingers to his mouth and imitated smoking a joint.
"Capiche," I said. "What about Woody?"
"He's coming here eventually."
We talked for a few minutes and then Pat and I volunteered to go fill up a beer for everyone. We walked over and waited in line.
"So how's the beach?" I asked Pat.
"Same old," he replied.
"You've been getting enough sleep there."
"Yeah, I manage to get in a couple of naps in between all the administrative stuff." He had the sweetest job as a lifeguard. I hated him for it. "Hey, isn't' that your friend?" he asked. I turned around in the direction he was pointing but there we were in a big mob standing around the keg.
"Who?" I asked.
"He's over there by the pool. That guy you brought to the Hatch with us."
Ryan! What the hell was he doing here? I scanned around the pool and had to stand on my tiptoes to see over the throng of people. I finally spotted him talking with a guy I didn't know and some other dude who worked in the bag room at the club. Holy shit, I thought to myself. It really is a small world. "Yes, I believe it is." I desperately wanted to see what he was doing here. I had mentioned I was going to a kegger tonight in New Fairfield. Would he have tried to find out where I would be and come here to meet me? I hoped. We finally filled up. We went back to our little group.
The usual conversations continued and I kept trying to get Adam involved, yet at the same time I kept an eye out for Ryan. He hadn't seen me yet, and I didn't want to go and talk to him in front of his friends. I wanted him to be alone. After a bit, the beer had its effect and Adam was starting to get tipsy and comfortable around my friends. I also got a little bolder so I excused myself and said that I was going to freshen up my cup for a seventh time. I walked towards the keg and started looking around. No sign of Ryan or his friends. There were some people inside the house and I did a lap around looking for him, but only finding old friends from high school. I made my out of the house and around the back. I turned the corner of the house and almost ran right into Ryan.
"Whoa, Steve, what are you doing here?" he asked me surprised. He swayed from side to side as he stood there and I could tell he was shit-faced.
"I should ask you the same thing," I replied. "This is my town, after all."
"I came here with Mike." Mike was the guy from the club's bag room with whom I had seen Ryan talking before. "How do you know Tom?"
"He lives right down the road from me. Don't you know I live right up this road?"
Ryan looked around him, with a puzzled look on his face. "Shit, I never put two and two together. These roads all look the same to me."
"You feeling all right tonight?" I asked.
He smiled a devilish grin and said, "I'm definitely feeling all right enough to."
"Enough to what?"
"To be staying at your place tonight," he smiled broadly.
I looked down at my feet and grinned like a dopey little kid. Shit, here we go again. "So," I started looking right into his eyes, "are you going to be sleeping on my couch or sleeping in my bed?"
Ryan glanced around him. The back of the house was deserted and the only sounds were from far away. He leaned towards me and took my head in his hands and embraced me in a deep kiss. I opened my mouth and our tongues danced over each other. I put my arms around his waist and pulled him in close, our stiff cocks rubbing against each other. I could feel the warmth from his dick rubbing against my stomach. I grinded with him and we passionately kissed for what seemed like a lifetime, but was only a couple of seconds before he broke away the kiss. "I'm going to be sleeping on your stomach," he said. He looked down at the ground then back up to me. He wore a serious expression now. There was a single tear in the corner of his eye. "Steve, I do like you. I'm sorry for acting like a jerk."
TO BE CONTINUED.............................As always, comments are always welcome at h_2_t@hotmail.com.