by Solet, Trina
"Still not tall enough," George said.
"Aah!" Al lamented even though he was a good distance away from the target.
As he jumped down with his father's help, he said "Broccoli" exactly as if it was a curse word.
Next they headed to Zack's office, which Al pronounced "boring". Mark had again noticed the way Zack treated him. There was nothing perfunctory about it. Mark was sure this was how Zack would show the office to a visiting friend. The other people working there had also not dismissed him as just the nanny though that was how Zack introduced him. Several of them he had to correct when they said, "So this is your nanny."
"Al’s nanny," Zack would say like he knew they did it deliberately. But Mark could tell that the people who worked with Zack liked him but didn’t take him lightly. There was always plenty of respect in their interactions.
Mark wished that he could have seen Mia, but she had gone to take care of some paperwork for her trip. She had booked him for lunch later that week when she would probably grill him about Zack.
Mark was glad he got to meet her boss though. Yuka hadn’t been very friendly, but he knew not to take it personally. Mia had often spoken about her. She called her intimidating, insanely talented, and scary. Adding to that, Yuka was a little severe looking with her hair pulled back, and she didn't smile. George had been a little terrifying. Tall, almost hulking, with his large frame and curly hair, he was all energy and broad gestures. He was kind of overwhelming but also seemed good natured and uninhibited. His designs, which Zack pointed out in the form or models and photographs, were very disciplined and balanced with traditional touches that probably put the more conservative clients at ease even if his demeanor didn't.
Zack's office was as Al had described it. There were shelves of binders, framed photos of structures on the walls. The furniture was more conservative than in the rest of the office. It was still modern but toned down. Mark guessed that he probably didn't meet with clients in there, and if he did, it was to reassure them that there was someone there with his feet firmly planted on the ground. There were pictures of Al on his desk, of course.
"See? Boring," Al said of his father's office.
"Well, your boring old dad is taking you to lunch at Jojo's. How's that?"
"Yey! Jojo's!" Al said. He was delighted while Mark was worried. From Al's reaction, he feared that Jojo's might be some kind of kiddie restaurant where everything was plastic and they served bad pizza.
It wasn't. It was a diner, but Mark could tell right away why Al liked it. Cheerful oldies were playing in the background and yellow vinyl booths were lined up on one side of the diner. A long counter with swivel chairs was on the other. Al wanted to sit at the counter and swivel, but Zack said they would take a booth. The main attraction for Al was the walls decorated with photos of giant foods with people holding them or standing next to them. There were giant fruits and vegetables, and also giant cooked foods like cupcakes, hamburgers, stacks of pancakes, cookies and pizzas. Al led Mark all around the place showing him the ones that impressed him and asking how long it would take to eat them. Now and then he would demand to be picked up so he could have a better look at the pictures higher up on the wall. By the time they went all around the diner, Zack was already seated and looking through the menu.
"Yes, they have normal food too," he announced just as Al and Mark sat down, Al sliding into the booth first.
"Let's have the big hamburger," Al said without pretending to read the menu.
"I told you, you can have the giant hamburger when you win the Nobel Prize or graduate high school, whichever comes first," Zack told him.
Al grumbled and kicked his feet under the table.
"Can I have the giant pickle then?"
"I told you it's just a pickled cucumber."
"Aren't they all?" Mark asked, but he was drowned out by Al insisting, "No, it's not. It's a real giant pickle."
"Fine, you can have it," Zack told him. Then he said to Mark, "You'll be taking most of it home with you. Giant pickle," he said while shaking his head.
Most of the food was what you'd expect on a diner menu with a few of the items available in giant sizes. Noticing the prices were a little higher than he expected, Mark looked for some cheaper selections.
"The Philly cheese steak is really good here," Zack recommended.
It wasn't one of the cheaper options. Mark saw the bacon mac and cheese, but it wasn't cheep either. He settled on soup and salad while Al tried to talk him into the giant hamburger in a loud whisper.
They gave their orders to a nice waitress with a friendly smile who happily chatted with Al about giant food before getting to Mark.
"No. Sorry. I'm vetoing that," Zack said when he heard Mark's selection. "I'm having a Philly cheese steak with fries. And while I'm having that, I can't be watching you eat a salad."
"I thought you were all for eating healthy," Mark said to him.
"Not when we eat out and not when you have an ulterior motive. We talked about this. We shook on it, man. Now order something decent," Zack urged him.
"You mean Mark can't order what he wants either?" Al asked for clarification since he had trouble following what his father was saying to Mark.
Mark looked at Zack for the answer to Al's question. Zack looked sheepish, almost like he might cave and let Mark order for himself, but instead he switched tactics. "This is hardly an expensive restaurant. Please order something else otherwise I'll feel guilty for dragging you out here. OK?"
Damn, he got him. Now Mark had to give in.
"I thought I might have the bacon mac and cheese," Mark said reluctantly.
"There you go. Now you're living," Zack said happy to get his way.
Chapter 13
Zack was ready to send Al to bed, but it looked like he was busy. He and Mark were looking for something in the living room.
"Is this it?" Al asked.
"No. It's a white paper," Mark said.
Zack saw that Al was holding up a junk mail circular for an office supply store.
"Are you helping?" Zack asked Al.
"Yes."
"It's the thought that counts," he told Al then asked Mark, "What are you looking for?"
"I had a paper with an assignment on it."
"Did you draw on the back of Mark's paper?" Zack asked Al, who was his number one suspect.
Al denied it, but Zack didn't believe he would know even if he did. He made Al bring all his drawings.
"I bet he did something with it," he said as Al went off perfectly happy to share his many drawings with an unwilling audience.
"Maybe it was you," Mark said as he flipped sofa cushions.
"No. It was Al. I'm the good one."
Al came in with an armful of drawings eager to show them off.
"Not there," Zack said after he examined them. "I’ll look in the trash."
Before Zack had to do anything so drastic, Al spotted the paper.
"Dad will help us," Al announced.
"With what?" Zack said as he went back into the living room and saw Mark down on his knees next to a cabinet trying to fish something out from underneath with a wire hanger.
"Al found the paper. It slipped under here. I've been trying to sneak it out with this hanger, but I'm just mangling it. Maybe we could move it?" Mark asked, getting up.
"Oh yeah. Check these out." Zack flexed his arms. "Out of the way."
Al and Mark both moved away from the cabinet.
"I just meant Al. This is a two man job. Give me a hand. This thing is heavy," Zack said to Mark
Mark pretended to look disappointed.
"I saw you flexing. I thought I might see some kind of manly feat of strength or something," Mark said.
"Get over here and help me."
"Lift with your legs!" Al told them.
They both laughed and almost dropped the thing. Zack noticed how strong Mark was then tried to put it out of his mind. Even after the paper was rescued and the cabinet was back
in place, Zack couldn’t stop thinking about Mark’s muscles. Zack wanted to run his hands over Mark’s body, feel every muscle flex and harden. He tried to get the thoughts of Mark doing heavy lifting out of his mind the only way he knew how. He ducked into the bathroom and spent some quality time with his dick in his hand. Mark certainly kept his hand busy.
Mark was at one of his classes. Zack had noticed his laptop on the couch but didn’t think to move it somewhere more secure. Even when he heard Al making a lot of noise in the living room, he didn’t worry. Earlier, he had seen Al stomping through the house chasing PJ while growling. He figured this was just more of the same. Then there was a thud, and things got suspiciously quiet. Zack got up from his desk and went out into the living room, expecting disaster. Mark’s laptop was no longer on the couch. It was on the floor at Al’s feet.
"You want to make a confession?" Zack asked.
"It was an accident," Al pleaded.
"Accidents happen when you’re not being careful," Zack told him.
"I was playing," Al said like that was any kind of excuse.
"Play more carefully. Mark probably has very important stuff on there. What if he flunks his class because of you?" Zack wasn't worried about the laptop itself. He could just buy him a new one, a better one. He was dying to do that anyway. But Mark might lose all the files on there.
"Sorry," Al said mournfully.
"A sorry doesn't fix everything," Zack told him.
"Sorry!" Al said at full volume this time.
"A really loud sorry doesn't fix everything either."
Al waited worriedly for Mark to come home. When he did, Zack told him, "Better check your laptop. Al knocked it off the couch."
"You're telling on me!" Al complained looking scared as Mark went over to open up the laptop and check it over.
"I shouldn't have left it there," Mark said.
"Al needs to be careful with other people's stuff," Zack said in a stern voice and also gave Mark a look. He wanted to let him know that this was about Al learning an important lesson and not about Mark taking responsibility for Al's carelessness.
Mark got the message. From where he was standing, Zack could see that the laptop started up OK, but Al couldn't see that.
"Al, if it's broken, you'll have to buy me a new laptop," Mark told him.
"Dad will buy it."
"No, Al. Your dad didn't break it. You'll have to buy it."
"But it's expensive," Al whined.
Seeing a perfect opening, Zack jumped in.
"That's why you have to be careful with other people's expensive things."
Since Al looked properly chastened, Mark looked at the laptop screen gravely. After a dramatic pause, he announced, "It looks like it's OK. This time."
"I'll be careful," Al promised.
As he walked past Zack with the laptop under his arm, Mark asked, "Happy?"
"Yes. You are a natural," Zack confirmed though his grin said as much.
He then addressed himself to Al.
"That was a close call. You got lucky this time, mister, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Al agreed.
"Go write the sorry. A big one," Zack told him.
"Not a big one," Al protested.
"Yes, a big one," Zack said.
Al went to the kitchen. When he was done, he showed off his handiwork first to his father then to Mark as he came back from his bedroom.
"Is that the laptop?" Mark asked when he saw the drawing on the back of the sorry. "And is PJ there for a reason?" he asked when he saw what passed for a cat in Al's drawings.
"I was chasing PJ when I knocked down the laptop."
"Should PJ write a sorry?" Mark asked.
Al shook his head.
"PJ is illiterate," Al said.
Mark laughed and looked at Zack since it sounded like something he would say about a cat.
Though Al was on his best behavior for the rest of the evening, Zack still sent him to bed a little earlier than usual that night. Of course Al argued with him about it, but he finally seemed to accept his fate but only grudgingly.
"Now go get ready for bed," Zack said to him and sent him on his way. Then he heard Al grumbled something that made him call Al back.
"What a nerd," Al had said as he headed for his room.
"What? Wait. Al, where did you hear that?" Zack asked fully expecting Al to say that he heard it from some kid at Little Rainbow.
Instead Al said, "Mark."
"Mark?" Turning to the guilty party sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap, Zack pointed an accusing finger. "You? You Judas! Why did you teach him that?"
Mark only shook his head at first because he was trying not to laugh.
"I didn’t. But he might have heard me say it on the phone," Mark admitted. Then seeing Zack's look, he quickly added, "I didn't say it about you." Mark put up his hand like he was going to take a pledge, but Zack was still skeptical since Mark was smirking the whole time.
That reminded Zack that he had heard Mark talking on the phone earlier. He wasn’t eavesdropping, but he did hear that Mark was arranging to meet some friends later. Zack wondered if Mark wanted to have them drop by but couldn’t because Zack had made it a rule that he couldn’t have friends over. Zack didn’t love the idea of having Mark’s friends coming over, but if Mark lived here then he should be able to have friends visit him. Having made his decision, Zack groaned inwardly and went to tell Mark about it.
"My own child is calling me a nerd because of you." Zack pouted as he sat down next to Mark.
"Sorry," Mark said but he didn’t sound sincere.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any sympathy, Zack moved on to what he needed to tell him. Hearing that he could have friends over, Mark joked that he would throw a wild party immediately. Zack couldn’t leave it at that though. He had to make it clear that Mark couldn’t bring dates home. Mark probably wouldn’t do that anyway. He had good judgment. Even so Zack felt he had to make sure and say it anyway, he hesitated over the words.
"Friends only though. No dates. No one sleeps over," Zack looked away. He wasn’t sure what kind of look Mark might give him. Because of his true motive, Zack felt like he had no right to say that to Mark. But Mark accepted it, and they both pretended that it was for Al’s sake. While that was part of the reason, there was no doubt in Zack’s mind that he couldn’t handle seeing Mark with anyone else. Just the thought of it made him crazy. It wasn’t just jealousy though. It was fear that was gripping his heart. He didn’t even have Mark the way he wanted him, and he was still deathly afraid of losing him.
Chapter 14
These days Mark and Al were both seeing Zack off as he went to work in the morning.
"Who is my good boy?" Zack said as he kissed Al's face before he left.
"Me! And Mark too," Al told him.
Zack gave Mark a look but didn’t say anything. Mark always had to convince himself not to read anything into those looks. It wasn’t easy though. If Mark had seen any other guy looking at him the way Zack looked at him, he would have gone right up to him knowing that the guy wanted him. But, really, he couldn’t imagine that same look on anyone but Zack. If it wasn’t just wishful thinking, Zack’s look said a lot more than "I want you." It said everything Mark had ever wanted to hear. It promised sex and love and everything good in life. It was too bad Mark had to put it out of his mind. Thank God Al was there to take his mind off Zack.
They were sitting on the floor in the living room with a map of the world in front of them. Mark was teaching Al a little geography and telling him where different animals lived. That’s what started Al about first grade. He wanted to know if it was really different from kindergarten, that kind of thing. Mark tried to be both accurate and reassuring with his answers. Then Al said that Miss Avril wasn’t going to be his teacher any more. He looked sad about that. And next thing he knew, Al was asking questions about Mark.
"Are you going to live with me and Dad forever?" Al turned and look
ed at him.
"No," Mark answered simply and honestly.
"Why not?" Al's question was a little petulant.
"People don't live together forever."
"Why?"
"They just don't. When you grow up, you won't live with your dad either," Mark tried to explain. But Al just didn’t believe this last piece of information.
"Yes, I will."
"No. And you won't want to," Mark assured him.
"I will too," Al said without any doubt.
"You'll see."
Al frowned not believing it. No, it seemed impossible that this little guy would grow up into someone who would want to leave home and live on his own. Mark could imagine that Zack wouldn't find it easy to let him go. Thinking about a child leaving home, Mark couldn't help thinking about himself and his own parents. He was sure that Al would never know the feeling of being unwelcome in his own home, the lost feeling, the fear, the loneliness of it. But Mark couldn't dwell on that. For now at least, there was this place for him.
Here Mark felt welcome as well as needed. He could have managed somehow even if Mia hadn't arranged for Zack to hire him. With that, Mark had even more to thank her for.
Now that he was older, it was different from when Mia first took him in. That was a truly desperate time. She and Frank had let him live with them for three years. Knowing that it wasn't always easy for them to have him around made him even more grateful to them. But Zack was different. To him, Mark wasn’t a charity case. It was strange though that Zack never showed any signs of Mark being in the way. When Zack's eyes searched for him and found him, he looked happy. Not as happy as when he saw Al, of course. The look he gave Mark was a look almost of relief. It said, "Thank God you're here." If he really felt that way, it was odd. Even before Mark came along, Zack had been doing fine with Al and everything else that Mark now helped him with. And Zack could have easily made other arrangements for Al over the summer. Mark was glad he hadn't done that and that, for some reason, Zack found him necessary in his life. It was a good feeling, a feeling Mark craved. Of course there were all those other cravings too that Zack brought out in him. Sometimes Mark wondered how close he was to the edge. Maybe just the brush of Zack’s fingertips might set him off, send him rushing at Zack to reveal his naked desire for him.
