Christmastime at Papa Lee's

by N. J. Nielsen

  Malcolm, his dad, put money in his account at least once a month, but it wasn’t enough for him to be able afford to rent a place to live. He still slept in the same rundown room Abe had taken him to the first week he’d been forced out of his home. Abe had taught him how to survive on the streets. He had also taught him how to blend in with the rest of society without projecting himself as homeless — someone to be cussed at, ignored, and definitely not tolerated. He missed Abe a lot. His friend had been murdered, and his body was found in the drainage system by the park. The police said Abe had been drunk and drowned. No one believed him when he said Abe never drank at all. He was a teetotaler. If he ever had coin in his pocket, he bought boxes of tea to indulge in his one vice. Abe was one of the reasons Casey drank tea.

  Casey’s thoughts came back to the present as Marty sat down opposite him. He stared across the table into those chocolate brown eyes and felt himself growing hard. Thank God the table covered him.

  “You should eat before your food gets cold,” Marty said quietly as he took a sip of his coffee.

  “I don’t mind. I’m kinda used to cold meals,” his gaze dropped to his plate and studied his food as he tried not to pass out from his own stupidity. Great, he would scare the man off before he even had the chance to get to know him. He thought maybe Marty was about four years older than him. He couldn’t be much older than that.

  “Hey, look at me.” Casey jumped slightly when Marty reached across the table and lifted his face until there gazes met. “Eat.”

  Picking up his fork he cut off a piece of pie and began to do exactly what Marty ordered, and his stomach thanked him for it.

  “How old are you?” Marty started off the conversation, and Casey didn’t know whether he should be honest or not. Maybe Marty would think him too young to spend any time with, but Abe had always told him the truth was best whenever possible.

  Swallowing, he finally decided to tell the truth. “A friendship based on lies is predestined to fail,” had always been another of Abe’s favorite sayings. “I’m nineteen. I turn twenty on December twenty-sixth.”

  “Holy crap! If you’re only nineteen then I’m nine years older than you. Are you sure you want to be seen with such an old fogy like me?” He raised one eyebrow questioningly as he smirked over his coffee.

  Maybe Marty meant his words as a joke, but somehow Casey got the feeling Marty really wanted to hear his thoughts on the whole age thing. Taking a deep breath, he answered as honestly as he could. “You don’t look old to me, and besides, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. You seem to be a very good person, and I don’t mind being seen with you.”

  He got a calculating look in return. “In that case, do you want to have dinner with me tonight? Oh wait, I can’t. I’m on closing tonight.” He frowned.

  Oh my God! Casey almost had a heart attack when Marty asked him on a date. He was going to have to think of something fast, some way to let the guy down without actually rejecting him.

  There was no way in hell Casey could afford to eat out anywhere, not when he was having trouble trying to scrape together enough money to live by every month, especially if his stepmother ever found out his father was still giving him money. She would put a stop to it quick smart.

  “I know.” A grin lit up Marty’s face. “I know you might be sick of this place already, but you could come back here later and I could cook for you. We could have dinner while I’m on my break.”

  This was a much better plan, though he would have to be honest and tell Marty he couldn’t afford to eat here twice in the one day. “I’d love to have dinner with you, but the truth is I’m pretty much strapped for cash right now, and I—” his words were cut short when Marty spoke.

  “I asked you on a date, and I wasn’t expecting you to pay. I’m kinda old fashioned when it comes to dating.”

  “Dating?” Watching the blush creep over the other man’s skin was kind of heartwarming.

  “Yeah, you know, in the whole ‘let’s grab something to eat while we get to know each other thing.’”

  “Okay. What time should I come back?” He nervously fiddled with the edge of his plate as he waited.

  Marty’s blush deepened. “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. We have a break room at the back of the kitchen where you can hang out for a while, unless, of course, you have something better to do on such a miserable day. If that’s the case, you can come back around seven. I should be due to take my break by then.”

  The clock on the wall above the kitchen door told him it was now half-past three, and he really didn’t look forward to going back out into the freezing cold. “If you help me carry this to the break room, then I’ll stay there, if your family doesn’t mind.”

  “They won’t.”

  Together they carried the plates to the break room, dropping the empty ones on the counter to be washed later.

  Chapter Two

  Seven o’clock came and went without Marty coming back to eat with him, and Casey got the feeling he’d been forgotten.

  When he was finally ready to leave, Marty rushed through the door.

  “Sorry about this. The guy who was supposed to wait tables for me tonight up and quit. I’m run off my fricken feet out there. Maybe we can do this another time.” Disappointment seemed to color his words.

  Casey stood and walked over to Marty then placed a hand on his arm. “Would you like me to help out for tonight? I might be slow, but I could at least clear the dishes while you serve them.

  That’ll free up part of your night.” He hoped Marty took him up on his offer, because he really didn’t want to have to go back to his cold nest. Being gone from it for this long, he wasn’t sure what nasty surprises he would find once he got back there. Best to go back in the daylight hours; it was scary in the dark.

  “Why didn’t I think of that?” Casey couldn’t help the chuckle which broke free as Marty slapped himself on the forehead.

  “You’re brilliant.” Casey didn’t have time to prepare himself before Marty grabbed his face and planted a kiss straight on his mouth. “Come on; I’ll get you an apron. We put a call in to Sonny, but he went out of town to his in-laws — he’s using them as taste testers and can’t get back. Mom and Dad are at their anniversary dinner, and we don’t want to disturb them.”

  The way Marty babbled when he was nervous was kinda cute.

  Taking off his coat and hanging it over a chair in the break room, Casey was glad he had always washed and kept his clothes clean.

  Abe always said, “Just because we’re homeless doesn’t mean we need to live like a slob. Good hygiene is a very big must in the whole blending-in thing.” Today was a bonus because Casey was actually wearing one of the newer long-sleeve T-shirts he bought from the thrift store. The black polo shirt with the café logo on the front pocket made him blend right in with the rest of the staff. He made sure his hands were extra clean before he grabbed the dish tub to be used for clearing tables.

  § § §

  The hours passed in what seemed to be a blink of an eye.

  Casey brought the last load of dishes in and began cleaning them off to be placed in the dishwasher as the staff slowly filtered out for the night. Soon he found himself alone with Marty. When he turned from the task he was doing, he saw Marty leaning against the doorframe watching him.

  “This wasn’t exactly the awesome date I had planned for us.”

  Marty absently ran his fingers through his curly hair. “Would you like me to cook you something here and now, or can I persuade you to come home with me and have some soup and grilled cheese sandwiches? I know, not the gourmet feast I promised, but we can get to that next time.”

  “Grilled cheese sounds perfect.” Casey took the apron off and threw it in the hamper in the break room. Slipping his arms into his coat, he followed Marty out through the kitchen and into the parking lot behind the café.

  The beep of the little blue Beetle unlocking was loud in the cold night. “She isn’t
much, but she’s all mine. Let’s hope she starts after sitting in the snow for this long.” As Marty got in and started the car, Casey took the scraper and scraped the snow and ice off the windshield. At least it wasn’t too bad tonight. In the coming weeks, it would get much worse.

  Catching his bottom lip between his teeth as he climbed into the passenger seat, Casey had to wonder if he was going to be able to afford to buy a new blanket from the thrift shop. It wasn’t as bad in summer, but winter was the time most homeless people lost their lives due to lack of warmth.

  The drive to Marty’s place was slow going due to the weather and black ice which seemed to cover the surface of the road.

  Once they pulled up in the drive, Marty’s parents called them over to the main house. Apparently Sonny ended up phoning them and spilling the beans about what happened. They sat around the kitchen, and Casey listened as Marty filled his parents in on what had actually taken place with the waiter, John, who up and quit because one of the customers accidently spilled a drink on him.

  John hadn’t even taken into consideration the customer was only nine years old. By the time John had finished throwing his hissy fit, the poor child was in tears and his parents very apologetic.

  Listening, he could tell Marty was furious at the way John had carried on.

  “Now on top of all that now we have to go about hiring a new waiter, someone who doesn’t mind working the late or early shifts.” Marty huffed, “We were really lucky Casey was still there and could help out.”

  Catherine Lee kept looking at him, and he couldn’t work out why until she finally spoke. “Have you had much practice working as a waiter, Casey?”

  He fidgeted nervously in his seat for a moment, and again he decided on going with the truth. That way nothing could come back and bite him in the ass at a later date. “When I was younger, I’d go and stay at my aunt’s house, and Aunt Katie had a diner where I’d help out over the summer…but she sold the diner after Mom died, and I never got to go back.”

  “By any chance would you be looking for a job?” she asked with a serious face, and he knew she meant what she was saying.

  If he was going to work for this family, then he would need to come clean with them about everything.

  “I’d love to take you up on the offer of a job, but before I do, I think you need to know about my life.” He clasped his hands in front of him and hung his head, hoping his story wouldn’t scare them away from the job offer; though if his confession did, he would walk away. He would hate never having the opportunity to eat at the café again, because he wouldn’t be able to sit there at the same table and think about what might have been. He smiled at the tabletop when Marty reached out and covered his thigh with his hand in comfort.

  “After my mom died, my dad was very lonely. Then he met my stepmother, Astrid, and let’s just say she’s no fan of mine. When I came out three years ago to my dad and Astrid, Dad was shocked and maybe a little disappointed, but Astrid hit the roof and threw me out. She said she wasn’t having a ‘pervert’ like me around my younger stepbrothers.”

  “You’ve been out of the home since the age of sixteen?” The sad confusion in Marty’s eyes tore at his heart. “Where have you been living?”

  “The first week I was freezing my backside off down near the skate park and trying to find a hole to crawl into for the night when I met the most amazing man I’ve ever known. Abe was this old man who had no home but didn’t look like it. He took me in and shared his home, if you can call it that, with me. He taught me how to live on the street without looking like I did.”

  “Where’s Abe?” Catherine asked.

  Tears trickled down Casey’s cheeks, and he knew he was probably screwing everything up, but he couldn’t seem to stop everything from tumbling out of his mouth. “Abe was murdered about three months ago. The police thought he was drunk and drowned, but he didn’t. They didn’t believe me when I told them he didn’t drink at all. His father was an alcoholic, and because of that Abe never touched the stuff. They only saw him as some old bum, but he wasn’t! He wasn’t like that!”

  Casey didn’t fight it when Marty moved and wrapped his arms around his shoulders and drew him toward his chest. He sobbed for the loss of the father he had and for the man who had taken his place. The soothing circles Marty rubbed over his back made him feel the safest he had for a very long time. When he final pulled away and sat up again Catherine had placed a mug of green tea in front of him. She gently squeezed his shoulder before sitting down at the table again. He could have sworn he saw tears in her eyes as well.

  “Casey, son, where have you been staying since Abe was murdered?” Graeme Lee asked. His voice was a little rough, but Casey didn’t think Marty’s father was angry at him.

  “Abe had a small spot down in the warehouse district where he called home. I’ve been staying there. If I get there early enough, I’m safe. If it gets too late, I stay somewhere out in the open with a lot of people. I feel safer when there are other people around. My dad, well, he puts money into my account when he can, but I can’t expect him to keep giving me money. Astrid will put a stop to Dad helping me out if she ever finds out.”

  Casey jumped as Catherine’s hand came down on the table.

  “From tonight on, you’ll stay in Sonny’s old room and from tomorrow — well, tonight really — you’re taking the job John conveniently left vacant. Mind you, I still can’t believe he reacted so badly over a little spill. There’s got to be more to it than that.”

  “I’ve been telling you John’s been a problem for a while, Cathy,” Graeme said quietly. “We have to think of this as a good thing…and not a catastrophe.”

  When Marty stood up, he pulled Casey to his feet, and Casey couldn’t find the energy to argue with him.

  “It’s getting late. We’re gonna head up to the apartment.”

  Casey said good-night as Marty took his hand and led him up a flight of stairs. The snow had started falling again at some stage since they got to the Lee residence, and it was freezing.

  Casey was freezing; he thought his balls might drop off from the intensity of it all. After being tugged into the apartment, the wall of heat which met them was welcoming. His teeth slowed their chattering as the warmth permeated his very core. Marty led him over to the sofa and told him to sit.

  He didn’t know how long he’d sat there when suddenly Marty sat beside him and handed him a mug of tomato soup and half a grilled cheese sandwich. “Eat. You can share my bed tonight, and tomorrow we can set up the other room for you. I’m too tired to make it up right now,” he said around a yawn and then grinned.

  “I promise we’ll only sleep. I won’t try and molest you.”

  By the time they finished their late supper, it was almost one in the morning. He followed behind Marty as he showed him where the bathroom was and found him something to sleep in.

  Stripping down to take the first real shower he had in what seemed like forever felt fantastic. The heat hitting him washed away the ache of sleeping rough and in the cold. He wanted to wash his hair but knew it would never dry if he did, and reluctantly he finished washing and shut off the water. The towel he found sitting beside the tracksuit Marty had given him was thick and luxurious and felt soft against his body.

  Taking but a minute to dress, he walked back out into the hall and headed toward the room where he could hear Marty moving about. He stopped outside the door, his breath catching in his throat as he watched Marty pull off his jumper and shirt. The pale skin on his back looked so smooth that Casey wanted to be brave enough to walk over to the older man and trace his fingers down the curve of his spine. If he was braver, he’d be in there right now trying to claim this beautiful man. What stopped him was the thought of Marty believing he was only doing this to get the job at the café. Even though he wanted and desperately needed the job, he also knew he needed someone to see him for the man he was on the inside and not the hopeless case he portrayed outwardly.

  “Hey, a
ll done.” Marty smiled as he pulled his shirt in front of his chest as if he was hiding away. Casey wanted to knock the shirt aside and tell the man he had nothing to be ashamed of, that his body was perfect the way it was, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk. Well, at least not about that.

  “Yeah, all done. Thanks for the clothes; I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me.” His gaze dropped to the floor.

  He could lose himself damn fast if he ever got the opportunity to be in the other man’s arms. Would Marty even still want to pursue a relationship with him now that he had been offered a job working in the café? Or would he be pissed off how his mom had offered up his spare room as well? Would he now think Casey was trying to take over?

  “Get into bed. The left side is yours,” he grinned cheekily, and it lessened Casey’s fear somewhat. “In case you are wondering, I always sleep on the right side of the bed.”

  He fought the smile wanting to break free. “Good to know.”

  As he climbed beneath the thick quilts covering the bed, he heard the fading chuckles when Marty closed the bathroom door behind him. Who knew his first time being in bed with another man would be to actually sleep and not to fool around? This was another thing he was thankful to Abe for, as the older man had taught him to be able to survive on the streets without selling his body for money. He didn’t think he would have ever survived as long as he had if he had sold himself.

  The off-key singing coming from the direction of the bathroom reminded him of his dad. More though, it reminded him of how his dad was before his mom died. After her death, everything seemed to change. His Aunt Katie had told him how his dad wasn’t meant to be alone. None of the Chambers men were. They were always happiest when they had someone they loved standing by their side. Up until now, he hadn’t found the person for him. Then again, he hadn’t really been searching too hard; he was too busy trying to survive in the world on his own, which was kind of difficult seeing as he’d never even finished his schooling… Something he had always regretted.