The Preacher’s Son

by B. D. Anderson

  “My goodness, this seems like old times!” his mother said, looking over the food on the table.

  Jeremy grinned. “We will all have to go to the gym directly after breakfast and work all this food off.”

  “Either that or have a coronary,” his father said, looking at the table and shaking his head.

  “Now, Pop, it’s not every day that I’m home and can cook for you guys. Forget the political correctness of eating a fiber bar and let’s pig out!” Jeremy exclaimed happily, taking the warm syrup out of the microwave.

  They assembled in the dining room and stood in a circle for prayer. Tara was asked to give the blessing.

  “Lord, thank you for a wonderful birthday. Thank you for this food that my brother has fixed for us. Help us not to have a coronary like Dad said, and help us to get some exercise when we’re finished. Amen.”

  Jeremy laughed. “Little Bit, you’re something else!”

  CHAPTER 7

  APOLOGIES AND GOOD-BYES

  After breakfast, Lana and Tara cleared the table and volunteered to do the dishes.

  Aura took the trash bag out of the trashcan in the kitchen, which was overflowing, and walked it out to the garbage can at the back fence.

  She turned around, surprised to see that Daniel Ferguson had followed her outside. She braced herself for a verbal attack. He opened the lid on the garbage can and took the bag of trash from her.

  “I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday,” he said after closing the lid. “I was way out of line. I can see that you love my son and that he’s happy.”

  Aura smiled, pleasantly surprised. “Don’t worry about yesterday. I mean, a lot has happened since then.”

  “I realize now that I was wrong,” Daniel said. “I know that Jeremy loves you, and I accept that. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that I am 100 percent on board with this marriage… I mean, this is all new to me… but I get more accepting of it every day. I can see that you two love each other.”

  Aura looked at him, crossing her arms. “There’s no more doubt in your mind about Jeremy being gay? You’re now convinced that our relationship is real?”

  “After watching your little display at the bottom of the steps last night, I have no doubt,” he replied dryly and then laughed at her shocked expression. “I was in the den. Don’t be upset, that was the best day of my life! Any doubts I had about you and my son were quickly dissolved.”

  “I don’t know what to say… this is embarrassing,” she said, turning from him. He grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to face him.

  “Don’t be embarrassed. Seeing the two of you made me a happy man. All my doubts were laid to rest. A man in love can’t help himself sometimes. You can’t be mad at Jeremy for expressing his feelings. That’s the way it was meant to be.”

  They walked back toward the house and saw Jeremy and his mother standing on the deck watching them.

  “Aura and I were just bonding,” his father said, grinning.

  Jeremy looked questioning at Aura, who gave him a smile.

  “Oh really?” he asked, sounding doubtful.

  “Your father can be quite a charmer,” Aura replied, teasing as they approached them.

  “Do you two really have to leave now?” Jeremy’s mother asked.

  “I’m afraid so, Mom,” Jeremy replied. “We have to check out of our rooms by noon, and we have a plane to catch at three.”

  “We all have been happier since you’ve been here,” his mother confessed. “Please don’t stay away for a long time. Come back home as soon as you can. When will you return?”

  “I have to go to Florida next week for a Chaz promotion,” Jeremy said. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small notebook. “I can come back the week after next I think,” he said, smiling.

  Aura looked at him. “Are you still carrying around that notebook? Why haven’t you put that stuff on the Blackberry I bought you? I think I’ve just wasted my money.”

  “Don’t be mad, babe!” he said, kissing her. “I haven’t changed my old phone over yet. I just figured my old one out and got comfortable with it. I promise you that I will put everything on the Blackberry; you just have to teach me how to use it.”

  Aura rolled her eyes. “He’s not the most computer literate person, it seems,” she said to his mother.

  “Well, babe, not everyone can be smart like you. You know she was in the top of her class in college and graduated with a 4.0 average? I’m marrying me a smart woman,” he said, looking at his father. “I know I’m a little weak in the area of education.”

  “Well, son, a smart man gets a wife who can help him with his areas of weaknesses,” his father said, looking at his wife. “I know I did.”

  They said their good-byes, and Aura pulled off into the traffic. “I have to stop by Barbie’s for a minute,” she said. “I forgot that Auntie has something for me to take back to my mom.”

  “Well just remember that we have to be at the airport by two,” Jeremy said, looking at his watch.

  They stopped at the Radisson and quickly checked out and loaded their things in the car.

  “It won’t take us that long to get to Dillon,” Aura said, pulling out of the hotel’s parking lot.

  It took only thirty minutes to reach Dillon by driving the back roads and avoiding the vacationing traffic coming to Myrtle Beach.

  They pulled up to Barbie’s house, and Aura quickly parked the car. “I think I’ll stay in the car,” Jeremy said. He didn’t want to deal with any more of her crazy relatives unless he absolutely had to.

  “You can’t do that!” Aura protested. “They’ll think you have bad manners. Come on. I won’t be long. I promise.”

  Jeremy reluctantly got out of the car and followed her to the front door.

  Aura walked up to the door, and again it opened before she could even knock.

  Barbie stood in the doorway, “Cuz! Come on in,” she said. She turned to Jeremy, giving him a sideling glance.

  “Hi, handsome,” Barbie said, winking at him.

  “Hi, Cousin,” he responded, grinning.

  “I see I’m going to have to keep my eye on you two,” Aura teased, laughing.

  “Mom’s in the kitchen,” Barbie said, leading the way. She grinned at Jeremy. “Dad’s at work, so you don’t have to worry about him.”

  They walked into the kitchen and found Barbie’s mother sitting at the table.

  “Oh good, you’re here,” she said, looking up at them.

  “I have this package for Beanie,” she said, referring to Aura’s mom. “Can you stick it in your suitcase?”

  “What is it, Auntie? You know I have to go through security! No weapons or liquids allowed,” Aura reminded her.

  Her aunt rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to worry. I just have some recipes and some old coins that I found that our father left for us. I’m sending her share and didn’t want to mail them.”

  “I’ll stick it in my carry-on bag,” Aura said, taking the package from her.

  Her aunt stood up. “I know you have a plane to catch. I hope you two will be back soon. I can’t wait to come up for the wedding!”

  Aura hugged her. “Don’t worry. We’ll let you know as soon as we set the date.”

  She turned to Barbie. “Where’s your brother? Where’s Bobby Lee?”

  “At work where he needs to be,” she replied.

  Barbie’s mother hugged Jeremy. “I hope you are as pretty on the inside as you are on the outside, boy. You’d better treat my baby right.”

  “I will,” Jeremy said, laughing.

  “I bet the two of you will make some pretty babies,” Aura’s aunt said. “Maybe there will be more than one model in the family.”

  “I don’t think so,” Aura said. “I won’t be one of these parents running around putting the
ir children in beauty pageants.”

  Barbie walked them to the door. “You two be safe and call us when you get home.”

  “We will,” Aura said, walking to the car.

  “Well that was painless,” Jeremy said as they pulled off.

  Aura laughed. “We know how to act civilized sometimes.”

  Jeremy sat back in the seat on the plane and closed his eyes. He was glad that his relationship with his father had taken a turn for the better. For the first time, he could say that he was sorry to have to return to New York and that his visit home had been a pleasant one.

  “I’m so glad now that I went home,” he said to Aura. “I’m glad my father and I have reached an understanding. I never would have thought that it was possible.”

  “Why in the world do you think that your father thought all this time that you were gay and hiding something like that from him?” she asked. “Did he ever try to talk to you about it when you were younger and in high school?”

  “No, he used to try to get me involved in sports, and he was always trying to tell me things that a man should do,” Jeremy said. “I wasn’t going to go to the prom, and he nagged me so bad about it that I ended up taking my cousin Nikki. He was not pleased.”

  Aura was intrigued. “Why didn’t you take someone from your class? I would think that you were popular. You certainly are good looking.”

  “I didn’t date back then. I mean, I was really shy, and I went to this party in my junior year after a game. One of my friends set me up with this girl. I didn’t want to tell my friend that she was the last person in the world I wanted to be with.”

  “Why?” Aura asked. “Was she ugly or something?”

  “No she was quite beautiful, but I overheard her and her friends in the gym one day talking about the guys they had been with… ones that were no good in bed, how big they were and all that. I didn’t want to be a part of their quality audit. I mean, I was still a virgin then. I could just imagine them sitting around talking about my inexperience and laughing and joking about it.”

  “So what did you do at the party?”

  “I mean, I talked to her and danced with her… but I wasn’t going to do anything else with her. Needless to say, she had other ideas, and when I didn’t cooperate, well she told my friends that she thought I was gay or something. The guys knew better and thought that I was just trying to act like a holier than thou Christian. They knew who my father was. After that party, they didn’t want me to hang out with them because they thought I was judging them for what they chose to do. It wasn’t even like that.”

  “God, Jeremy!” Aura said, rolling her eyes.

  “You know there’s that double standard, Aura. Guys aren’t expected to hold onto their virginity; in fact, it is seen as a total turn off to some people.”

  Aura leaned over and kissed him. “Not to me.”

  “I wish I’d met you back then,” he said. “It would have saved me a whole lot of grief.”

  “Sometimes you have to go through something to appreciate something else,” she said. “You want to talk about it?”

  “About what?” he asked.

  “About the women you’ve been with,” she said softly. “I love you, you know that. But I’ve got to ask you… are you sure you’re okay? I mean… have you checked yourself out lately?”

  He looked at her. “Yes, I’m fine. I get regular checkups. Chaz requires that. Plus, I’ve always used protection. I have never had sex without a condom. There’s not much to tell except to say that having sex the way I did was a big mistake, at least for me. Having grown up in church, having a father as a minister who preached to you, some things just get ingrained in you, and when you go against it, it bothers your conscience.”

  He looked at her, his face sad. “I met a girl while I attended community college. She and I were friendly. After my first year, she point blank told me that she wanted me. She offered ‘no strings attached’ sex, and I took her up on it.” He looked away.

  “My father was always questioning me… wanting to know if I had a girlfriend. Why didn’t I have one? I was beginning to think something was wrong with me. I knew the rumors that were going around. I knew they weren’t true, but I kept wondering why even my own father felt that I wasn’t ‘man enough.’ I guess I had something to prove to them and to myself. The thing is, it didn’t make me feel more like a man at all.”

  He paused a moment and then continued.

  “When I called home to tell my father about the huge contract that I signed with Chaz, hoping that he would see that I was a success, all he could do was question my sexuality. That really hurt. I made up my mind that I would just sleep with whatever woman was willing. I had to find out for myself that sleeping with different women didn’t make me feel more like a man. After I got the contract and my father still was ashamed of me, I was so angry with him that I wanted to prove to the world that I was the sexiest, horniest man alive. It was all a fraud. My actions only led to more misery. I wasn’t happy at all.”

  He looked at Aura and took her hand. “I then prayed and asked God to forgive me. I didn’t want to continue down the path of misery I was traveling. I asked him to send me a wife and lead me to the church he wanted me to attend.”

  Aura smiled at him. “I’m glad he sent you my way.”

  “I just regret that I can’t come to you pure the way you are coming to me,” he whispered. “I am so sorry.”

  She leaned over and kissed him. “Once you’ve prayed and asked for forgiveness, the past is over. He doesn’t hold that against you, and neither do I.” she said. “From what you just told me, I feel that in a way you still are untouched. You say you’ve never had sex without a condom. Well there’s no need for them once you and I are married. It will be a totally new experience for you. There will be nothing between us. There are things that we will share together intimately that will be uniquely our own. So don’t beat yourself up about your past. In some ways, you are just as much a virgin as I am.”

  Jeremy leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. For the first time in a long time, he felt total peace and happiness. All he wanted was for the two of them to get married and start their new life together.

  CHAPTER 8

  THE UNBELIEVING PUBLIC

  Aura had taken the entire week off after they returned from South Carolina and decided to just relax.

  They had told her parents and siblings the good news of their engagement, and Aura was thinking about setting a date.

  Jeremy had a photo shoot to do before he was to go to Florida, so she knew that she would not be able to spend a lot of time with him before he left.

  She read in the newspaper that Chaz was having a big promotion at Macy’s, and she recalled Jeremy mentioning it. She decided to go down to the store to see if Jeremy could slip away for a few minutes and the two of them could have lunch together.

  She caught the train down to Herald Square. There was a large crowd, and she didn’t know if she would even be able to get close enough for him to see her. She walked in the store and saw a large poster hanging from the ceiling of Jeremy lounging on a bed in his underwear. He stared at the camera with a seductive smile, a bottle of Chaz cologne in his hand.

  She decided to go to the women’s department to look at the wedding dresses. She saw in petites another large poster of Jeremy dressed in jeans and a white shirt that was open. A sexy-looking blonde, also in white, was in between his legs, lying back against his chest. He was looking at her seductively with his mouth slightly parted.

  Aura stared at the picture for a moment.

  “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” a voice said, startling her.

  Aura turned, and her eyes met those of the tall blonde woman that was on the poster.

  “That’s you, isn’t it?” Aura asked, surprised.

  “Yes it is,” she said, smiling. “As you ca
n see, I’m a very lucky woman.”

  “What do you mean?” Aura asked, raising an eyebrow.

  She nodded at the poster. “Well, the two of us work together, but we’re friends too.”

  Aura looked at the poster again, fingering her engagement ring. “I see,” she said.

  Jeremy had never mentioned being friends with this woman. She wanted to find out more.

  “So, you and he are an item, you say?” Aura asked.

  “Well not exactly. You never know though,” she said. “Things could always change. Are you here for the photo signing? He’ll be signing photos for all the women who buy one hundred dollars’ worth of Chaz products or clothes. He’ll be stationed over here, and I’ll be in the men’s department.”

  “Thanks for the info,” Aura said, smiling. This woman wasn’t fooling her. For a moment, she was worried that she was some woman from Jeremy’s past. However, she felt that this was not the case with this woman. She walked over to where she saw the empty desk. A long line had already formed, waiting for Jeremy. The sign said that he would be there from one until two.

  She looked at her watch and realized that he would be out in less than ten minutes.

  She walked around the store, and in a few minutes she heard some squeals coming from the section for petites.

  She walked back over and saw Jeremy dressed in the white outfit that he wore in the poster.

  She stood back as he walked back and forth for the crowd. He really was something. It was hard for her to believe that he was really hers.

  “Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming and supporting Chaz,” Jeremy said into the microphone.

  More squeals erupted, and people began taking pictures.

  “Are you married?” someone yelled out from the audience.

  “Not yet,” he replied. More squeals erupted.

  Jeremy had not seen her, and Aura stood back watching him work. He took several pictures with women buying the products, signed publicity photos, and chatted with the customers.

  As two o’clock approached, Aura walked toward the table to let him know that she was there.