Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:33:03 -0800 (PST) From: Tom Thomas Subject: The Start of Something 5 Disclaimer: This story is entirely fictional. Any resemblances to reality including: names, physical descriptions, actions, and events are purely coincidental. This story WILL contain explicit sexual contents regarding consenting adults, I'm pretty sure soon. If it is illegal for you to view such material, I suggest you stop reading now. If not, I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did writing. The Start of Something 5 T. Vincent I didn't quite know how to respond to his presence. I stood there, squinted my eyes, and pretended to smile. Why am I always late? No, wait, that was the wrong question. Why was he waiting for me? I inquired, "Why were you waiting for me?" "You said last week that you were going to meet me here." I did? He took it seriously? I said, "Then why did you say it was a surprise?" He raised his eyebrow, "I'm here aren't I?" What the hell kind of answer is that? I mean, fair enough, I didn't expect to see him here but I also didn't expect to see him waiting for me. He was as handsome as I remembered. Actually, he was a bit hotter since he wasn't wearing jeans. He tucked his shirt. I liked that. Why was he so dressed up? "Am I too late?" He asked me. "Well, yeah. We're both over ten minutes late. Why didn't you just go in?" I irked my head towards the entrance. He didn't care. He smiled and shook his head, "No, am I too late with you?" Duh!? "Well, you should've have gone in and gotten seats. Now you really are too late, with me!" "No dummy!" He just called me stupid! "Am I too late in having a chance with you?!" What? I felt like the dummy he interpreted me to be. Why did he want a chance with me? I wanted a chance with him so desperately. But why would he want one with me? Am I dreaming? I didn't want it to be a dream. But maybe it would've been better had it been. I could avoid looking like an idiot or getting hurt or both. What if he was playing a mean joke? It felt like my worst fears again. In high school, when I was a freshman there was a junior football player I had a huge embarrassing crush on. Anyways, he and his buddies hatched a vicious plan to "beat the fag." He told me he liked me and wanted me to kiss him after school in the parking lot. I was 14 years old and desperate for any kind of attention from a peer. That "confession of love," coming from an upperclassman, at the time was the most amazing piece of attention I've ever gotten. After school, I met him and his friends. He told me to close my eyes and pout my lips, so I did. What happened next was a fist directed toward my lips and two other fists toward my eyes and temple. I fell down clutching my face and tasted my blood. He and his buddies simply walked away and all I heard was his taunts, "I wanted you to kiss me alright faggot. Kiss my fist you fucking faggot queer-ass pussy." I lay in the parking lot bloody and in pain. I didn't cry. I just felt stupid. I picked myself up and hurried home. Immediately, I ducked in my room the moment I got home and went to my bathroom to clean up my face. I stared at myself in the mirror and at that moment I told myself that eventually, just eventually, I won't have to put up with all this crap. I promised myself never to be that vulnerable and exposed to anyone else, ever. After having endured another two years of taunts and beatings, I was free of that bully. That bully's name was Eric. But this Eric in front of me wasn't him. I didn't want this Eric to be a bully. But he was saying things that felt like that bully. Why would Eric want to hurt me? Did he want this "chance" so that I could open up opportunities for him to punch me or kick me or kill me because he found out I'm a queer? I was scared to give him that opportunity. "Why do you want a chance with me?" My memories overtook my emotions. But I didn't think Eric realized, he just smiled when I displayed any form of sentient behavior, "Because I like you. Because I've liked you for a while." For a while? How long is a while? Since you've first hatched a plan to kick my ass huh Eric? I felt my face boil and my eyes watered. Eric's expressions changed. I didn't even know why there were tears. I didn't know if these were anger or resentment or hate. He didn't know whether I was crying out of happiness or sadness. He grabbed me, pulled me into his chest, and embraced me with his arms. His arms were so warm and welcoming. He was still my Hunk Zimmermann. I felt calmer in his arms. Things didn't matter that much. It surely wasn't awkward that two men were standing in a lobby hugging; at least to me. "If just the word `like' could make you this emotional, I wouldn't mind seeing what your reaction is when I would tell you I love you." He didn't hit me. He held me tightly as I rested my head on his shoulder. I stopped crying. I was sure at this point he must've thought I was the weirdest, most emotionally unstable person ever. I did care what he thought. Still, we just stood there in the lobby, with him holding me and rocking back and forth. He softly spoke, "Well, I guess we're too late for the opera. Let's go to dinner instead." "It's not an opera Eric. It's a Beethoven concert." I had to correct him. He withdrew his embrace, "Well, when someone asked you a question, you're supposed to answer them." He still had his hands on my arms. "Well, what is the answer Troy?" I blinked and sighed and was about to answer when I got cut of, "If you say yes then I'll be very sad. But if you say no, I'm taking you to dinner." I stood there staring at him. I didn't exactly know what to say. I wished Jesse was here to answer for me. Eric pulled out a handkerchief and wiped my eyes. "If you won't say anything, I'm gonna kiss you." I smiled and shook my head, "No." "No? No to which part? No to the kiss or no to the..." He fiddled with my shirt. "No to both." With that he smiled brightly and put his arm around my shoulder and led me towards the door. "Dinner it is. I hope you like sushi." He still had his arm around my shoulder when we made it outside. He pulled away, looked around for something then proceeded to walk. "We're walking?" I know it was downtown and all but still, I wasn't aware that there was a sushi place around here. "Well, not to the restaurant. We're walking to my house so that I can get my car and drive us there." "You live around here?" "About 3 blocks away. I was going to drive here but I figured if you turned me down, I can do the sad walk thing home. But if you didn't I was gonna walk around with you and brag or something." Sad walk thing... brag... I have no idea what Eric is talking about. "Why don't I drive us? My car is in the parking lot." "Okay. Lead the way sexy." He slapped my butt. I was definitely not used to this level of forwardness. But somehow, it didn't feel vulgar. It just felt nice. We drove to a sushi restaurant that was about ten miles away. On the way there, we passed his house as Eric pointed it out to me. It was a small community on the cusp of the downtown district, hidden away by big oak trees and ponds. Wasn't what I would call old money but definitely money. From what I remembered, one of the CEOs of my company has a house in there. He didn't exactly live in it but rumor has it he would take his prostitutes there. I hope if Eric took me there people don't think I was a prostitute. "So, um, you're gay?" I wanted to make sure. Eric nodded his head and smiled, "Yes. But, let's save that conversation for dinner." Well, he sure cut things short and quickly. I wanted to talk more in the car but I guess Eric wanted to have materials for dinner. It was dinner, not stand-up comedy. It wasn't as if we were going to run out of things to talk about. So, breaking the awkward silences, I decided to tell Eric about my boss's prostitutes. I figured it didn't break any confidence and it was just prostitutes. I pulled into the parking space of the Japanese restaurant and we made our ways to the table. Eric insisted that we got a booth, something about it being easier to talk about dirty stuff. What dirty stuff were we going to talk about? Eric took the liberty of ordering everything. I felt sort of dominated at one point, so far as feeling like a son on a date with his dad. Daddy... I could get used to calling him that. I hope he wasn't thinking about sex... because I was. We took sips of our sakes and he smiled at me. "So, I'm ready for any questions you might've had. If not, I'd like to ask a few." "Yeah. So, you're gay?" Of course that would be my first concern. "Yes. I'm gay." He was grinning. I didn't think it was that funny. "Okay, so what did you mean when you asked me `Am I too late?'" "Ah, well. I've been seeing you at the symphony for a while now." "For how long?" What was he telling me? "About five months now. You're one of the reasons I went to the symphonies." I wrinkled my forehead and thought about more of what I could ask him. But he continued, "Anyways, I saw you many times but I never felt like I had a great opportunity to come and talk to you. Well, I was also sort of on the hinge about your sexuality. I thought maybe you were just straight... or a widower." My mouth was open, "How could you not tell?" He shrugged his shoulders, "That's a difficult thing to tell. I'm not very accustomed to determine." I'm not sure about that, "I mean, come on, dead people can tell." He brushed me off, "That's beside the point. Anyways, I was very unsure. It's not easy you know. I don't handle rejection that well." This was coming from a guy who wanted to do the "sad walk thing." "So, then why are you asking me now?" "Well, I was sure when I saw you on a date with that guy. I was pretty jealous of him that night. That's why I wondered if I was too late." OH! "If I missed my chance to ask you out and you and that guy had gotten together, I would've been pretty sad. But if I'm not too late, then now's the chance for me to well, have a chance with you before someone steal you." Steal me? "And well, here we are. Our first date." Somehow, this felt like a blind date. "I like you. In fact, I had a crush on you." I thought I'd let him know. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him the stalky details of what I did after I first met him. He smiled, "I like you too and I have a crush on you too." Our eyes met. Somewhere in my mind, it was as if a window had opened and now the air was free to flow through. Hunk Zimmermann's gaze seemed like he was trying to peek through my windows. "So, tell me about you Troy because I know nothing about you, except that you're cute." He winked, "How old are you?" "Oh, I'm 25. How old are you Eric?" Finally, I pulled out my mental checklist and started. "I'm 32." "Are you from here?" I was making sure that by the end of the night, I would discover everything about Eric. "Well, I moved here about seven months ago. My father is about to be retiring and he wanted me to take over the business. It was a pretty good idea since he has a lot of regular clients and that way the transition would just be smooth. He was worried about giving his lifetime business to a stranger." "So, on that subject, what do you do?" "I'm a vet." What the hell kind of vet looked that hot (at least to me)? "So, do you like it here?" "It's okay. I don't have many friends here but I do have family so it helps. And now I have a new friend." "Hunk Vet" winked again. "Oh, yeah, I remembered. You went to the symphony with your brother." "Yeah, I hang out with my brother a lot. How about you? Any siblings?" "No, I'm an only child." I felt that comfortable churn in my stomach settling. Heric Zimmerman was such a pleasing person to be around. He and I continued our conversation about family until our food arrived. Heric Zimmermann ordered a lot of sushi and proceeded to pour me soy sauce. He picked up (by hand) and piece and fed me. Who would object to that? The patriarch of a family of four stared at us. Having noticed his gaze I quickly devour the sushi and turned red. Hunk Vet did not know how to use chopsticks. "Your father must be in his 60s huh?" I wondered. "Yeah, he's about to turn 65. How did you know?" "Well, I was just wondering because you're only 32 yet you have a niece playing in the symphony. Chances were your brother is much older than you, so, your father must be pretty old." "Ah. My my, such deductive skills." He grinned, "You're absolutely right. The brother that you met is 44. He is the oldest. My niece I think is only 19. She's very musically inclined so they accepted her to the symphony pretty early." "I wished I grew up with three brothers like you." If I had brothers growing up, maybe they could've protected me from the bullies. "Yeah, I'm fortunate that I have three brothers. We're pretty close." "So, does your family know you're gay?" I asked as I fed him a piece of sushi. He didn't look too ecstatic about my question. "Well, they've only recently came to terms with it." The only thought in my head at this point was `Please! Not another divorced one.' Heric Vet didn't hear my thought, "I've been single for about seven years now and about six years ago I realized that I was gay." Well, that's not a bad realization. He sipped his drink and continued, "My wife died from complications during my son's birth and so for the past seven years I've been a single father." Normally, my reaction to anyone who'd told a similar story like this to be `AW!' But for some reason, the knowledge that Vet Zimmermann was a single father just turned me on even more. In fact, it made him really sexy. I regained my thought processes before they wandered since I really was interested in his story. "I had just finished veterinarian school when Natalie and I decided to have a child. We were high school sweethearts. We decided that it was the right time to start a family. I was about twenty-five then. Who would've thought in this modern-day and age that birth complications would be more dangerous but it was. I lost my wife." He reached out and held my hands. I had to put down the piece of sushi. It felt like he was about to shut down. I didn't want him to have to bring up painful memory. I didn't like seeing him hurt. "At that point, my child was the most important person for me and I gave up my social life for him. I'm not boring you am I?" "No. Quite the opposite. I'm very glad you're telling me all of this. It's good that you're comfortable enough to tell me all this. But, go on." I stroke his palms. It was the mother's turn to gaze at us. I shot her some dirty looks for disturbing our conversation. "Well, a year after my wife passed I was going through a difficult time. I had to work and take care of my son. Being a single father was very difficult. Very challenging, but I wouldn't regret it ever. My son is very important to me. And luckily, my wife's sister was still my neighbor and she helped take care of my son. Well, during that time, I did something sort of stupid but." I was definitely intrigued. I perched up and leaned in as if he was going to whisper me some deep dark secrets. I was sure they weren't big secrets. "How stupid?" Vetmann continued, "One night I was hanging out with my sister-in-law's husband watching the kids. She had gone out of town to visit relatives. After Jack and I put the kids to bed, we popped a few beers and watched TV. Well, you can imagine, it's late at night, there's bound to be a few dirty shows on. Jack and I started talking about sex. He asked me how my sex life is going since and whether or not I was even ready." In my head, I wondered how Hunk's sex life was too. I kept nodding my head as he relayed his tale. "I told him I hadn't had sex with any women since my wife. He felt and expressed the fact that I should've hopped back on the wagon. Mind you we've had a bit to drink. I didn't really want to since I had a child to worry about. But I figured a one-time thing is okay too. I had been incredibly stressed. Well, Jack asked me if I thought about getting remarried. I told him I don't feel right with another woman. It wouldn't be right to Natalie. So Jack asked me if I would feel okay with another man. Well, at this point, this part may be blurry to you, since it was blurry to me. We did drink a lot so the details were not that great. This was my recollection. Jack stood up from the sofa and went over to me. He stood in front of me and leaned down and grabbed my head. Before I knew it he started to kiss me." My eyes widened. Hunk Vet's story was definitely intriguing me. So I had to interject, "Did you kiss him back?" "I think I did. I must have. I had to admit, while I didn't remember much, that sensation was very vivid the next day. Vivid enough at the time to spooked me. But, that wasn't the good part Troy." I hoped so too. "Jack dropped to his knees and started to unbuckle my belt. Well, okay, never mind, it wasn't that good of a part since this is when my memory got hazy. I'm not sure if I pushed him away and passed out or we did something and I passed out. But nonetheless, something happened." I laughed, "You were scared at that point?" "Yes I was. Never in my life had I thought about homosexuality. But that kiss I had with Jack was so intense. Anyways, I remembered waking up on his couch was freaking out about it the next morning. Jack pretended nothing happened. So one night, we were watching the game and I decided to confront him about it. I asked him why did he kiss me and you know what he said?" Hunk Vet has good stories but he was lousy at telling them. "He said, `Wanted to do more than kiss you.' And got up and stood in front of me again like last time. Now, this time, there wasn't much alcohol. I wised up and decided to confront him sober. Jack definitely wasn't drunk. He grabbed my head and leaned and kissed me again. I didn't stop him of course." "Of course. So, did you guys have sex?" "No. We never had sex. Well, I guess we did. Oral sex. Right after that kiss, Jack told me he was going to finish what he was doing the other night. He unbuckled my pants and started to blow me." If we weren't in public, I would probably unbuckle Eric's pants and blew him too. "You didn't stop him obviously." "Well, I didn't know how to react. And, it was probably one of the best blow jobs I've ever gotten. But then again, before him, I've only slept with one person." More than I've had. "Well, after that day, I started feeling incredibly guilty and confused. But Jack didn't care. He sort of continued to further his advances. Eventually, Jack and I started fooling around a lot more. We never had full blown sex or anything but we did a lot of oral. I kind of enjoy giving oral sex a lot." Why did he add that little tidbit? "I started becoming more attracted to men and we were becoming fast friends, at least to his wife. Now mind you, looking back on certain things I was pretty sure I had always been gay. But there was never any stimulus that sparked it for me. I guess all it took was another guy. After a while, I realized that I was gay and that Jack had a pretty good point." "Oh?" I tilted my head. "Well, he was right. I would never felt the same feelings I felt about Natalie with another woman. But I would with another man, namely you." His comment made me incredibly red. I wasn't pale or anything, in fact, I was pretty dark skinned. But still, I felt as if someone took a can of red paint and splashed it all over me. And Eric could see all of it. He smiled and resumed eating. I was sure he picked up on my embarrassment; he just ignored it. I wasn't sure how I felt about Eric. I knew more about him now than I had. I knew how he felt about me. But did I really have any feelings for Eric? It was simple when he was just a crush. But, in life, how realistic is it when your crush reciprocated? And then when it occurred, how simplistic is it for you to comprehend? Up to this point, all thoughts of Eric were naïve, lusty, high school boy crushes. There wasn't an expectation that he would've emerged and pronounced his affection. Then again, this sort of pessimistic, one-viewed train of thought was that which kept me from ever realizing another guy. Maybe it wasn't the fact that I had a crush on Eric. From what he said, clearly he had a crush on me first. I must have done something right. "You're been awfully quiet." He tapped my arm. "Oh, sorry. Just thinking about you." "Dirty thoughts?" He changed from serious to pervy really quickly. For the first time in a long time, I was able to honestly answered `No.' "Maybe." I joked. "Wanna come home with me then?" His devious smile was so cute. "Very funny mister. I was just thinking about you and what you said a while ago." "Okay. Yeah, I said I feel..." I stopped him immediately, "Yeah, about that, how do you feel about me?" He blinked and chuckled. I continued, "What sort of feelings?" "Do you want to go get some desserts after dinner and come back to my place?" Well, that was good to know that you... wait... HUH?! "HUH?!!" He sure was determined to get me to his house tonight. "Well, I could answer all of this now. But I don't want to." Fair enough. "Besides, I want to get to know you more. The reason I asked you to dinner was to get to know you." Okay... I guess that was somewhat reasonable. "How about this Troy?" He stroked my hand. "We go get dessert, come back to my house, have a glass of wine and I'll answer any questions you want. But in the meantime, we talk about you?" He extended his pinky. My next question was going to be `Why go back to your place?' but I was sure he wouldn't answer. This was pretty unfair. In the car he told me to save the conversation and now he wanted me to wait until we get to his house. He sure knew how to steer a guy. My pinky encircled his and he spoke again. "And! If you hold my hand when we go to get dessert I'll let you play with my dog." What kind of a deal was that? I was going to ask what kind of dog, but I was sure the answer would be some smartass comment. He forwarded his other pinky and snaked it to my other finger. I promised him and wondered, `How many more of these deals would I have to encounter and would any of them be in my favor?' We spent the rest of dinner talking about me. All about me. Heric Zimmermann wanted to know everything about me. I hated talking about myself. Our bill came and Hunk Vet immediately snatched it away from me. I really hated it when people pay for me. Don't they know I have money? Hell, when I was the "poor, struggling college student" (not really) I wouldn't have minded friends picking up a tab now and then. But now that I'm older, responsible, financially stable, I can sugar daddy a guy damn it! Jesse used to tell me I was too young to be a sugar daddy and too old to be a boy toy. He called me a sour Twinkie. Literally, sour as in aged and Twinkie because well, Asian boy with a little white in him. That nickname started a few rumors at the club when I used to go out with Jesse that I had a sour "twinkie." I hated Jesse for that. Quickly as Vet Zimmermann snatched the bill, I tried to steal it. He hid the bill and pursed his lips, "I got it. Just sit back and look cute or something." I didn't want to sit back, "Well, I don't feel comfortable having you pay for my food." "Our food." Seriously?! "And besides, it was my fault that you missed the opera." Hunk Vet slipped his credit card. "Symphony!" He rolled his eyes and tilted his head. Zimmervet was clearly more comfortable with me than I was with him. He signed the ticket and we headed out. Heric Zimmermann suggested that we pick up a cheesecake and head to his place. We head to my car as he was directing me to a bakery when his phone rang. "Hello? What's wrong? Okay. Be there in ten minutes." I have never had a phone conversation that vague. Wait, wrong point, be where in ten minutes? Hunk Zimmermann turned to me, "Two choices. Come with me to my office then cheesecake. Or come with me to cheesecake then my office." `What the hell kind of choices were these?' I stared and squinted at him for a bit, "Those are horrible choices." He laughed, closed the car door, and told me to drive. Hunk Vet seemed pretty comfortable making choices for me. We drove back towards the direction of his house. Hunk Zimmermann directed me to the bakery. He held my hand the entire time in the bakery as we chose which flavor. Zimmervet picked out a cheesecake, some chocolate covered strawberries, and fresh bread. Sometime tomorrow I was going to feel very guilty for eating all of these things. A few blocks from the bakery Eric directed me in the driveway of an office. It was an animal clinic called "Paw-Pals Veterinarian Clinic." Kind of a cheesy name but at least now I knew where we were "going to be there in ten minutes!" So, this was his family business. From the outside it definitely did not look like a "family business." It was a huge clinic. Maybe it was partly rented. Getting out of my car he grabbed my hand and led me towards the door, "Remember our deal? Still want to play with my dog?" This question at 9:30 P.M. in an empty parking lot sounded incredibly perverted and was pretty much sexual. I followed and thought the whole time that the moment we got in his office he was going to whip out his dog. He unlocked the door and led me inside, "I didn't expect us to come here tonight. I got a call from one of my interns about an emergency." I guess responding to emergencies was part of the job. This place was quite big. Hunk Zimmermann was entering his security code and checking log sheets while I started to wander around the reception room. There was a wall full of photographs; each one had a staff member posing with a pet and its owner. An older gentleman with grey hair not unlike that of Hunk Vet's greying temples and thick square glasses appeared in the majority of these photographs. He was Eric's father. There were many resemblances. There weren't as many photographs of Hunk Vet compared to his father but there were quite a few. I couldn't help but smiled at this wall. Eric looked so handsome in these pictures. There was one where his father had his arms around Eric's shoulder and a few dogs around them. That picture caused a warm, happy feeling inside me to well. I continue to wander around the reception. It appeared that this was a pretty nice, welcoming clinic. I rarely wander to this part of the city so I would never have guessed it was here. "Hey." He grabbed my shoulders and turned me around, "I'm really sorry for this. I promise I'll make it up to you. Normally my father would handle something like that or another doctor. But I know this dog the best and so I felt compelled..." I interjected, "No, it's fine. I don't mind. Besides, I really like this place. It just feels nice." I smiled at him. It felt like it was the first time tonight I smiled at him. He reciprocated. His cell phone rang again. "I'm here. Are you almost here? Five minutes? Okay. See you here in a bit." "So, what exactly is the emergency?" I playfully tapped him on the chest. Just to see how far I can go. "My intern's dog is sick and she was worried. I'm gonna check on her real quick. She'll be here in a few minutes but in the meantime, I promised you a dog." Again, this just sounded really pervy in my head. He gestured toward one of the room and we headed there. He opened the door and a lot of animals started making sounds. This must be the kennel. He opened a cage and immediately this huge Labrador ran out and jumped on his and licked him. Can't say I wasn't jealous (of him, not the dog). The dog must've sensed it and made a beeline for me. It circled me and sniffed my every crevice. Hunk Vet walked over and petted me. No, not the dog. ME! He walked behind me and embraced my hip with one hand and caressed my torso with the other. His chest leaned on my back. He rested his chin on my shoulder and peered over. "This is Troy." The dog appeared to respond to me pretty well. It panted and jumped on me. Vetmann shoved it off, "Ha ha, she likes you. This is Leche." "Like coffee?" I turned so that my cheek touched his. He smiled, "No. Like milk. This is the office dog. We've had her for a while. She calms the other pets. She's very docile but also playful and extremely friendly. Oh, Kayla is here." The door alarm buzzed. Hunk Zimmerman withdrew his embrace, knelt, and rubbed Leche's head, "Keep Troy company. Show him around or something." I was sure that the dog understood none of that. He stood up and pecked me on the cheek. I blushed. He left and I heard a voice and a whimper. Obviously, there was an emergency and I didn't want to bother anyone. I walked around the kennel and saw a few animals resting. They didn't look so good so I didn't want to disturb them either. Leche started to chase me around and out of the room. I laughed and ran and stopped abruptly in front of a young woman who I assumed was Kayla. She smiled, "She's so silly. I'm Kayla how are you?" She extended her hand and I shook it, "I'm Troy. I hope your dog feels better soon." "Thank you. Eric is giving her some medicine, she should be fine." She didn't seem to wonder who I was. Why push it? "Excuse me real quick, I'm going to check on the animals." Leche led me around the clinic and eventually to a room that was presumably Heric Zimmermann's office. Actually, I wasn't sure if I was wandering or the dog led me; felt like the latter. I sat down at one of the chair while Leche head for a bowl of water. I was going to look around then I felt a familiar touch. He kissed my neck, "Ready for cheesecake?" I nodded. Kayla decided to stay at the office longer and look after her dog and the other animals. We said farewell to Kayla and Leche, got in my car, and headed to Eric's place. "Eric, what's your last name?" The thought popped in my head. "Bennington." What? NO!!!!!!! WHY GOD? WHY? How the hell was it Bennington? I was sure it was Zimmermann... Then again, I had no good or reasonable indication whatsoever that it was Zimmermann. While I was recovering from nomenclature disappointment (which for no apparently good reasons caused me continued anger) Eric elaborated, "Eric Lee Bennington. Actually, Dr. Eric Lee Bennington. And what's your last name mister?" "Weber." He looked confused, "So you're half." "Yeah, half Thai and other half German/Italian whatever." "Want to be Missus Dr. Eric Lee Bennington?" He grinned. "Only if you change your last name to Weber." I jabbed him. He caressed my hand, "Dr. Eric Lee Weber. Nah, sounds too medical for me. How about Bennington-Weber?" I laughed and felt Eric's hand massaged my shoulders. This was definitely a pleasant drive. Suddenly, my phone rang. I looked and saw that it was Cam. Who? Shit! To be continued... I welcome all comments and criticisms about my story. In fact, they're one of the reasons I enjoyed writing. Send your thoughts, questions, and/or intrigues to supercoolguy999@yahoo.com.