Date: Sun, 18 May 2014 19:00:17 -0500 From: Ed Louis Subject: Weekend Fishing Trip - Return to St. Louis 8 This story is completely fictional. Any resemblance to any real person (s) is purely coincidental. The story contains consensual sexual behavior between adult men. It depicts unprotected sex, which I do not endorse for anyone, even partnered couples. Safe sex practices are always in order. If you are underage or object to the subject matter, please leave now. I URGE YOU TO DONATE TO NIFTY TO KEEP THIS SITE UP AND RUNNING. Later in the evening Gordy called to say goodnight. "I miss you Greg. This weekend was so much fun, spending time with you and getting to know your family." I told him I had enjoyed it, too. I told him what David serif about listening with the heart and not the ears. "He likes you, Gordy and Anne likes you, too." Silence. "You ok?" I asked. He said he was and that meant a lot to him. After a few more moments of silence, he said, "You never asked about what I did all afternoon." I told him I assumed he was with his mother and that I had not called the hospital; that I knew I would talk to him later. "Aren't you the least bit curious?" he asked. "Well, now that you are pushing the issue, yes, where he hell were you?" He started laughing. "I was at the hospital. Mother was very alert and asking tons of questions." "She is speaking much better and her strength is definitely improving." He told me Fr. Jacob came to see his mother. "She was just as surprised as me that he was a priest now." I asked why so. "Jake was another very popular boy in HS, tons of girls after him, I guess he was as popular as Jerry." "He decided in his first year of college that he wanted to be a priest and now he is." "How interesting, probably broke a lot of girl's hearts." I said. Gordy said he supposed so, but he, Jake, was happy with his decision. "He asked how I knew the Smith's?" "I told him you and I had a chance meeting, liked each other immediately and have become fast friends." "He is very intuitive and picked up on it, that you and I are more than just friends." I probably was glowing in the dark, was quiet, then Gordy said, "It's ok, Greg, he does not have a problem with it." "Well, that is good." I said with some hesitancy. I was thinking to myself, how am I going to face Fr. Jacob again, but I did not say anything to Gordy. Rather, I said, "I love you, Gordy, I wish I was with you right now, I could use those big arms around me." He asked me what was wrong. I told him I was anxious about tomorrow and how everything was going down. "Well, babe, try to get some rest and not worry about anything, what will be will be, and no amount of worrying about it will change it." "Ok, Doris Day, how about a chorus of 'Que Sera Sera'!" He burst into a few lines of the song. I was dying laughing, "Who told you that you could sing, that was awful, sweet, but awful." He acted indignant, "You think you can do better?" I said I could. "Ok, prove it!" I thought a minute then started singing: Love, look at the two of us Strangers in many ways Let's take a lifetime to say "I knew you well" For only time Will tell us so And love may grow For all we know Gordy was amazed, "You do have a beautiful voice, please promise me you will sing to me often, God! That was perfect." I could hear him trying to stifle a soft sob. "Hey, no crying, no matter how unconventional our meeting was, our love is growing, I am sure of it." We exchange tender goodnights and disconnected. The next morning, as I entered my office, I saw Patrick in his cubicle, which was surprising, he was supposed to be in Omaha with Tony. I called him into the office to find out why he was here. He said, "I tried to call you a couple of times over the weekend, but you never answered and I did not feel comfortable leaving a voice message." I asked what was up. He closed my door, took a seat, "Greg, I have had all weekend to think about my situation, discussed it thoroughly with SaraLee, and this is difficult, but, I am giving you my two weeks notice." He handed me his formal letter of resignation. "I guess the job offer was good then." I said. He said it was very good, too good to turn down, more money than he ever hoped to make here. "I did not give them an answer, I wanted to talk it over with my wife first." "it is a bit scary, since I have no experience with the oil industry, but my accounting background is what they are looking for." "Usually, they consider many candidates, but I was one of two they interviewed, and I guess my qualifications outweighed the other person's." I said I was happy for him, stuck my hand out to shake his. He was not smiling, almost regretful for having to take this big step. I said, "Patrick, you will do well, I am proud of you, you certainly deserve it." "I guess SaraLee is over the moon about going back to Texas." He said she was. "I also forgot to mention, this is a VP level position?me a vice president, unreal." This was the first time I saw him smile. After he left, I called Nathan to see if I could meet with him before we went to Bill Shillings office. He came right over. I showed him Patrick's letter of resignation. He immediately wanted to call Patrick in, offer him the management position and see what we could do to keep him. I said, " Nathan, it is a done deal; they offered him a huge salary and his position is VP level, can we offer that?" Nathan looked shocked. "No, I didn't think so; his position will be equal to Shilling's." He looked dejected, "So, what do you think you should do now, who are you going to recommend to replace him?" I pulled out my staffing charts I had worked on last Friday. "This one is moot, since Patrick is leaving; this is my secondary chart, you and Shilling are not going to like it, but I insist it is the best alternative." He looked at the chart, "Matt, really? He was on our chopping block." "Yes, he was, but if you recall, I was not happy with that and as you so deftly reminded me, it was my show, this is what I want and is the only solution that is acceptable." He then asked if maybe we should keep Bob or Carl? "No, I can't imagine a good working relationship with either of them, jealousy that I was promoted rather than either of them, no, the original plan to send them packing is the only option." "Well, it is your show, all you have to do is sell Schilling on it." he said. I said that was not a problem for me, "Shilling can either support me, let me run my department as I see fit, or he will be looking to replace another person." "You are serious?" he said. "Absolutely, without any hesitation." I answered. "Ok, let's go to his office, he is expecting us." The presentation went without a lot of problems, a few questions, then Bill said, Ok, Greg, it is your ball game, make it work." He said since we would have an open position, with Matt moving up, who did I see assuming his position. Without hesitation, I said, "Kathleen." "She is not the strongest player, but I think with the right encouragement and direction, she could be excellent." "What about Richie?" Nathan asked. "Personally, I like Richie, but he is just a good ole boy, more concerned about hunting and fishing than he is with work." "I have walked by his cubicle many times and he is on the phone talking about boats, guns, fishing?you name it." Carl let him get away with that for years. "If he had worked for me, well, he would already be gone." Bill said, "You surprise me, Greg, I always thought you were too easy on your people, appeared to be their friend, rather than a boss." "I want you to know, I had serious reservations about promoting you to Nathan's job." "However, I see you have put a lot of thought into this plan and are strongly confident in the people you want working for you; I admit I was wrong about you." He stuck out his hand to shake. "Nathan, you can go now, I need to speak with Greg alone." After Nathan left, Bill related his expectations and dropped the bomb, my salary would be more than doubled. "Don't you say anything to Nathan, you will be making considerably more that he does presently." I was totally in shock, but I did my best to conceal it, when what I wanted to do was cartwheels all over the office. My next question was, "When is this all going to happen?" "Most likely today, but I want you to present this to Matt and this is the salary you can offer him." he said as he pushed a note with an amount written on it. "After you have done that, I will have Bob, Carl and Richie come in individually, lay the news on them, give them their severance papers, then escorted out." "Then we will have a general departmental meeting to announce the changes." "You ok with that?" I said I was. I went to my office, called Matt's extension, told him to casually come into my office, I needed to talk to him privately. Matt came in, I told him the plan, offered him the job, which he readily accepted. "Now, Matt, keep a lid on this until it is announced this afternoon." He said he would, then he asked, "Why not Patrick?" I told him Patrick had tendered his resignation and would be leaving to accept a job in Houston. He was surprised. "He has told me many times he wanted to get back to Texas, so I guess this is a good thing for him." "Greg, I owe you so much, you have no idea." I said he owed me nothing but hard work. "Make me look good, Matt, I wouldn't have made this move, if I did not believe you could handle it." He stood up to leave, I reached to shake his hand, but he pulled me into a hug "Thanks." I said that he and I would talk about the job and his professionalism later. He looked at me blankly. "Elliot." I said. He shook his head in understanding, then left. My phone rang, it was Gordy. "Mom has been transferred to the rehab facility." I am just leaving there, heading over to interview for the counseling job." I wished him good luck and told him I loved him. He asked how things were going. "Not as bad as I thought, Patrick resigned this morning." "The bomb is about to be dropped on 3 people, so I am laying low, bound to be some hard feelings." I told him about the meeting this afternoon, but I chose not to mention the huge salary increase. No need to make him feel inferior and he would feel that way, I was sure. I told him to call me after his interview. The afternoon meeting was tense, but everyone accepted the changes, at least on the surface it appeared so. There were a lot of questions about job security, to which I replied, I had no answer. "Things these days change in a millisecond, so I suggest we all work hard, make ourselves indispensable." I smiled, but few smiled back. I asked Patrick and Matt to come back to my office. "Patrick, sit with Matt, tell him where you are on your work." "After he is satisfied, go ahead, pack up and leave, you will be paid your two weeks and any accumulated vacation, etc." "I will call HR to let them know to start the process, they will call you at home as to when you need to come in for your exit interview and sign the proper paperwork." "Any questions?" Neither of them had any, we shook hands and they left. I put my head on my desk, exhausted emotionally. My phone rang, Gordy again. "I got the job if I want it, it is really not very good money, but the benefits are good." I asked him what he thought. "Well, I need to move back here so I can take care of Mom, but just as important, I need to be near you." "I am going to call my boss to set up a meeting with him, to tell him of my issues and hopefully, I can get a transfer here, if not, then I will probably take the job." I said I was sure he would make the right decision, but to please, take me out of the equation. "We can work something out, but your decision has to be what is best for you." He said he knew that. "You are in the equation, no matter what, I can't take you out of it." I asked what time I would see him. He asked if I could stay the night with him. I said I would, but I had to go home, check on things, then I would see him later. "Why don't you come for dinner, I am sure the family would love seeing you." He hum hawed around, but finally agreed. We disconnected. I called Mother. She was delighted. "When are you going to have him stay the night here, Gregory, it's not like we don't know you two are fucking each other." "Mother, cut it out, it's comments like that make me not want him to stay over." "You really have to stop this behavior, it's not funny and it's beginning to get on my last nerve, so KNOCK IT OFF." I said emphatically. "Well, truth is truth, and it is not like we can hear you, your bedroom is on the main floor, at the opposite end of the house, ours are upstairs." she said. "Mother it is not something I am going to discuss further." "When I am ready, you will be the first to know, quit pushing me!" She said I frustrated her. "By the way, you know David has a game tonight." I thanked her for reminding me and I definitely would be going. Oh, that woman! She is going to be the death of me. I swear, if she could, she would be in my bedroom directing us like we were in a porn movie. That ridiculous thought made me burst out laughing. Looking at the clock, soon it would be time to leave, but first I had to call Tony, I am sure he had already heard about the changes, however, he still needed to hear it from me. And, I needed to know if he wanted someone to come out to Omaha to work with him. After talking with Tony and him saying he could handle everything by himself, I packed up to leave. I said good evening to everyone, then left. I think tomorrow I am going to order lunch for everyone. The company would probably not pay for it, but I did not care, it would be my treat. I would spend most of the day speaking with everyone individually to let them know my vision of how the newly restructured department would function, and to hear their views. I wanted everyone to feel they were an important part of this well-oiled machine. I could not wait to get home. This had been such a stressful, yet productive day. I was still amazed at the salary I was going to be paid. "Dear God, please don't let me fuck it up." I prayed. Walking into the house, Mother said Gordy had called and was on his way. David was watching TV. I gave him a squeeze on his shoulders, asked about his day, then said, "Do you have any homework?" "All done." he replied. He is such a good kid, I don't know why bothered to ask, I already knew the answer. "Do I have time for a quick shower, Mother?" She said I did. I went to my bedroom, stripped, put my clothes away, got in the shower and i suddenly felt relaxed?the first time today. I knew I would have to hurry, Gordy was on the way and Mother would be mad if I wasn't present when dinner was on the table. As I was bending over to dry my legs and feet, I felt a little breeze from behind me, a big hand grabbed my ass, and felt a finger run up my ass crack. I was startled, turned around to kiss my man, a long, passionate, tongue battling kiss. I was instantly hard. "Gordy, we can't do this now, dinner is almost ready." "God, I want you so badly." I said breathlessly. He stopped, looked all up and down my naked body, "I want you, too, how soon can we leave after dinner?" I explained about the soccer game and that I had to go, never missed a game. "You have to go with us, too." I said. He said he wasn't sure about that. "Wait and see, I guarantee you David will ask you to go." He smiled, "I really like that kid." By the way, I asked, "What did he say to you when we picked you up yesterday?" Gordy said that was between him and David. "Oh, come on, I am dying to know." He just laughed. "Hurry up, put on your clothes and control that monster, don't want to have that poking out when you go to the kitchen to eat." "Fuck you, you made me hard, I should make you blow me to get rid of it." He roared, "In your dreams, GAS man, now get a move on it." He walked out of my room, leaving me standing there naked and frustrated. I dressed and started saying Hail Mary's, anything to lose this erection. Dinner was wonderful, as usual. If I keep eating like this, I am going to have to buy new clothes. I needed to start working out and running again. I asked if anyone had talked to Anne today. Mother said she had, "She is ok, glad to be back at school." "I still think is is stupid for her to live away from home, when Wash U is not that far." I said that is what she wanted, to be independent. David got up to get ready for the soccer game. Gordy said he guessed he would go home. "Thanks for dinner, Marian." He headed for the door just as David came back down stairs. "Where are you going, Gordy?" he asked. Gordy said he thought he would go home. "Fuck no you aren't, you are going to watch me play!" he said, then quickly putting his hand over his mouth, realizing he had just said 'fuck' in front of me and his grandmother. "Oops, sorry!" Mother looked at him very sternly, "I will let it slide this one time, young man, but if I so much as get a hint you are using that kind of language again, you will be taking a bite of that awful hand soap your dad uses to clean grease off his hands." "Sorry, Grammy, I won't do it again, I promise." "Come on, Daddy, Gordy, I don't want to be late." "Can I drive?" We all piled in the car, I sat in the back seat, since I am smaller than Gordy. The game was exciting, but ended in a tie. Andie was indeed a very good goalie. Gordy walked over to speak to the coaches, while I talked to some of the parents. Everyone wanted to know who the big guy was. I said he was a family friend and dropped it at that. I said goodbye to everyone and headed to the car. "You know the coaches?" I asked. He said they went to the same HS, "It was good to see them; this weekend has been like a HS reunion, first Jerry, then Jake, now Logan and Chuck." He had a big smile on his face. On the drive home, David asked Gordy if he was staying the night. Both Gordy and I were caught off guard. Gordy said, "David, I don't think so, why do you ask?" David thought a minute, "Why not, you know you want to, so why not?" "Look, how can your relationship grow if you are always apart, especially at night, missing the important things, like does he snore, is he a restless or a sound sleeper, how does he wake up, happy or grumpy, does he sleep naked other than when we have sex." "If I were old enough to have my girlfriend stay over, I would, without hesitation, so why not you." I pulled over, turned around to face him, "David, you make some valid points, but our situation is entirely different." "When we are ready, we will take the next step, until then, this discussion is closed, ok?" He hesitantly said ok, "But, just FYI, it is ok with me, all of us." I pulled back into traffic and headed home. I was still rattled about David's comments, but proud of him at the same time. I still had a lot of things to sort out. Sooner or later someone was going to notice we were together a lot and put two and two together. I did not know how to handle that, yet. In the garage, David hopped out, started for the door, stopped, went to Gordy's side of the car where Gordy was standing. "Gordy, I really like you, but I warn you, he is a tough nut to crack, maybe you should run for your life!" He quickly gave Gordy a hug and disappeared. I was watching Gordy's body language and could see, now was not the time to talk. "Come on, babe, let's have a beer." I said. He refused, said he was going home, he had an early day tomorrow, needed to arrange for his Mother's things to be moved from Richland Woods back to the house, take the house off the market and call his boss. I said ok, I would see him in about an hour. "No, Greg, not tonight, I need some alone time to work some things out." "It is not all about you, you know, I need to think about myself for a change; I am not running away, just need to take a step back and decide what is best for me, for both of us." "You need to do the same thing, so I will call you tomorrow." He turned to walk away. I was momentarily lost for words. "Hold up, Gordy." I said. He stopped, looked at me, no smile on his face, "So what brought this on?" I asked. "Greg, I don't want to talk about it tonight, I may say things I don't mean and I don't want to do that." "You know when you say things that you really don't mean, the words are out there forever, and no matter how sorry you are, you can't take them back." "I do love you, always know that and believe it." he said then walked away. I was too stunned to speak. What brought all this on? Was it the refusal to ask him to stay the night, what? I was wracking my brain. Inside, I sat in my recliner, thank goodness it was quiet so I could think. The light bulb in my brain came on?we had been together at the game, surrounded by parents of kids on the team and I did not introduce him to anyone, hardly talked to him, virtually ignored him. Shit! He thinks I am ashamed of him. Was I? I know he must have felt I was, that he was not in my social set, he mentioned that once before. Damn! Suddenly, I was a little boy again, I needed my mommy! I went to her room, knocked on her door, "Mother are you still awake?" She said she was, to come in. I fell into her arms and started crying. She asked me what was wrong, but I couldn't talk. I really did feel like a little boy again. After a period of time, I told her what was wrong. "What am I going to do, Mother, should I go over to his house and try to work things out?" She said I should leave him alone to his own thoughts and maybe in the light of day, things would be clearer to both of us." "Gregory, you have to prepare yourself for things not working out as you want them to." She said she really liked Gordy, but there were major differences. "He has always been blue collar, you are an executive, quite a difference, even though you many not feel it, he does." "Did you tell him of your promotion and the big salary you now command?" I said he knew of the promotion, but not the money. "Good, don't tell him, that would really make him feel he is beneath you, why I bet on a good day, he probably doesn't make 30K per year and even without your raise, you are already making 3x more than that." "But Mother, it should not matter, money has never been an issue." "We came from humble beginnings, you did not have the resources to send me to college; I paid every cent the scholarship did not cover." "I could not even come home for the summers, I had to work." I was sobbing again. She said she understood, and she was very proud of me. "You have such drive, ambition, such commitment to your work, but Son, you know nothing about having a personal life." "Outside of your love and devotion to your children and to me, what do you have, nothing; you never put yourself out there." "Then along comes someone you are attracted to, you jump in with both feet." "You think you are in love, which you may be, but most likely it is not there yet." "You want to be in charge, call all the shots, but, baby boy, it doesn't work that way, it's a 2 way street." "My comments to you have been shocking, you even said it yourself, 'Who is this woman, who has taken over my mother's body', right?" I laughed. "But honey, the comments I made were to rattle your cage, to make you think and prove to me, it's not all about sex." "From your reactions, I think you realized it wasn't and it did make you think long term." "That is what's bothering you, you don't know how to fit Gordy in your life, other than the bedroom." She asked me if Gordy was my first. Usually, I would tell her to mind her own business, but I felt I needed to tell her. "No, he was not the first and I am not going to tell you any more." "Did you think you loved this person?" Oh my God, she is reading my mind. I softly said, "Yes, but it was different, an impossible situation." She asked if it was over, or did I still have some feeling for this person. "Yes to both questions, but it is over, I promise you, it is over, I can't revisit that part of my life again." "And, no more questions, please, Mother." She said she was done. "Now, you came in here, seeking comfort and advise." "Let Gordy have his time, he will decide what he needs to do and when he wants to talk, he will call you." "I love you, Son, always, it kills me to see you so unhappy, but be patient, Que Sera Sera." I started laughing, which puzzled her, but I did not explain. "Thanks Doris Day!" I said, kissed her and went to bed. Mother had helped me, at the same time had me questioning everything I had done, everything I had said first to Patrick, now to Gordy. God! What a fucked up mess I am! Comments and suggestions are always welcome, keep 'em coming! A big shout out to my very furry friend, for your insightful comments and the big bear hugs you send. Smile. REMEMBER TO DONATE TO NIFTY. YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS ARE NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.