Foolish Me

by Tinnean

  I ran my fingers over the curve of his ear and tugged the lobe. “You’ll never have an excuse to forget our anniversary.”

  “As if!” He paused in scattering kisses up the length of my neck. “That’s five months away, though.” It was almost the end of March now.

  “Is that too long an engagement for you?”

  “Yeah, but I guess we’re going to need the time to get everything organized.” He sighed and let me go.

  “Yeah.” I bumped my shoulder against his. We were really doing this! “Let’s get the table cleaned off. We’ve got work to do.”

  In the kitchen, I put away the leftovers and prepared a pot of coffee, and Wills loaded the dishwasher.

  While the scent of my favorite coffee filled the kitchen, I readied a tray with the coffee things, then took a platter with the baklava I’d made earlier in the day from the fridge and put it beside the tray.

  “Wills, why don’t you get pens and a couple of notepads? I’ll meet you in the dining room in a few minutes.”

  “Okay.” He grinned, and I wanted to yank down the jeans he wore—not the 501s. If they had been, in combination with that grin, we never would have made it out of the kitchen. He knew, too. That grin deepened, and he winked at me. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  “Take the baklava, will you?”

  “Sure thing.” He dipped a finger into the honey I’d drizzled over the pastries and sucked it off, making sure I was watching. “Anything else I can do to help?” he asked innocently.

  “Get outta here, hot stuff. I’ll be with you as soon as the coffee is ready.” I watched his ass and licked my lips as he sauntered out of the room. Contemplating the plans I had for that ass later, sans a condom, I waited until the coffee settled, then placed the pot beside the cups and saucers on the tray.

  There were two yellow legal pads on the table, and Wills was munching on a pastry, already scribbling down names.

  “You’re the best cook, babe,” he mumbled around a mouthful.

  “I know. That’s why you’re marrying me.”

  “Among other things.”

  “Don’t I know it!” I put a coffee cup and a dessert plate at his elbow, pulled out the chair next to his, and sat down. Before I began to write, I put a pastry on my own plate and licked my fingers clean of the honey. “Is Vince going on my list or yours?”

  “Um… probably yours, since he’s been your friend longer than he’s been my boss.”

  “Okay. I’ll put down ‘and guest.’ What?” He had a strange expression on his face.

  “I never thought I’d see his name in conjunction with ‘and guest.’”

  “Any idea who he’ll bring?”

  “You make it sound as if it’s a done deal that he’ll come with someone.”

  “Sure, why not? I found you. Why can’t he have found someone? What about that cutie we saw him with on New Year’s Eve? What was his name?” He opened his mouth, then quickly closed it, but I kept rambling on. “Y’know, I just remembered something. When I went after you on Friday, the security man in the lobby….”

  “Sanford?”

  “Um… yeah, that was his name. Anyway, he seemed really surprised when I said I was Vince’s friend. What’s up with that?”

  “Mr. Vincent is the original lone wolf.” Wills regarded me thoughtfully, as if trying to decide how much he should tell me. “No one at the WBIS knows anything about his private life. In the five years I’ve been there, as far as anyone knew, he had no private life.”

  “Everyone has a private life.” Even we rent boys did to some degree.

  He shrugged and turned back to his list. “Go ahead and put down ‘and guest,’ Theo, but until Mr. Vincent shows up at our wedding with… someone, I have no intention of speculating about it.”

  “But….” I shut up. Vince had never talked about it, and if he’d wanted me to know, he would have. I wouldn’t tease Wills about it. “Okay, babe.” I went back to my list.

  It didn’t take me long to finish. Poppa had asked me not to tell the rest of the family or contact any neighbors. It wasn’t a problem since I hadn’t been in touch with anyone from home for so long. I nibbled on the baklava, licked more honey off my fingers, then peeked at Wills’s list. It had already reached thirty, and that was just the adults in his immediate family. There were still second and third cousins, both once and twice removed.

  “It’s too bad about your other grandparents. Are you going to send them an invitation?”

  “I don’t know.” He sighed, and his smile was filled with regret. He’d called them that morning when he assumed they’d have gotten home from church, but had wound up talking—if it could be called that—to his uncle instead. “I wish Uncle Tony hadn’t objected to Grandma and Grandpa being there.”

  That fuck had done too good a job putting up a barrier between his parents and their grandson.

  “Y’know what? We can still go down and visit them. Your Uncle Tony isn’t likely to slam the door in your face, is he?”

  “No.” But I could see Wills wasn’t certain about that. “Well, at least Aunt Maria said she would come to the wedding. That kind of surprised me.”

  It surprised me too. She was a nun, and I would have thought her order frowned on same-sex relationships. “She does know I’m a guy, doesn’t she?”

  “Yeah, I made sure she understood… she’s the oldest, you know. She wasn’t happy when I told her Uncle Tony didn’t want Grandma and Grandpa there, but she won’t say anything to him about it.”

  I understood. His uncle was, for all intents and purposes, the head of the family now. I ran a palm up and down his back. “The next time we go to Florida, we’ll stop in Naples. And if you think it would be better for me not to go with you….”

  “Never. If I go, you go.”

  “Okay, but if you decide it will be easier to tell them I’m just a friend who came along on the trip, that’s fine with me.”

  “Is it, Theo?”

  It wasn’t, but he didn’t need added stress. “They’re old people, and for a couple of days I can fake it.”

  “Fake what?”

  “That I’m not head over heels in love with you.”

  “Theo, I’m not ashamed of what we have together.”

  “I know that. I’m making a sacrifice for you, hotshot,” I teased, not wanting him to realize I was serious. I cuffed his shoulder. “Accept it gracefully.” I glanced farther down his list. “Who’s Angelina? Oh, your Uncle Tony’s wife. Do you think she’ll come if he won’t?”

  “I don’t know. Aunt Angelina is still on Long Island.”

  “She’s not with him in Florida?”

  “No. She wanted to be close to her children and grandchildren—they all live on the Island—so she kept the house out in the Hamptons. It would have been nice if we could have been closer, but after my mom died…. I ran into Cathy a couple of years ago at the Smith Haven Mall. She’s the cousin who’s my age. We had lunch, and she caught me up on all the family news.”

  “You recognized her?” I remembered him telling me his uncle had basically cut off all contact with Wills and his father after his mother had died.

  “Yeah. It was like looking at a picture of my mom.” His smile was filled with nostalgia.

  “Are you inviting those cousins too?”

  “And their husbands, although Cathy wasn’t married at that point, and her brother wasn’t dating anyone—she told me he was more involved with his motorcycle. But going on the assumption they’ll both bring someone, that’ll probably be another nine or ten. The worst they can do is say no.”

  I toyed with the hair that grew at the base of his skull. Why let them use distance as an excuse? “Y’know something, Wills? We could have the ceremony and reception on Long Island. What do you say? That’ll make it easy for Grandma and Grandpa Matheson.”

  “Really? You wouldn’t mind, babe?”

  “Nah. It’s gonna be mostly your family anyway.”

  He leaned into
my touch. “I’m glad your father is coming to the wedding.”

  “I was sure Ma and Acacia would come, but it really surprised me when Poppa said he’d be there.”

  What he’d actually said was, “Of course I will be there, Teodore. But give you away, my son? This I will not do.”

  “I’ll fly them in,” I told Wills.

  “Sounds good. Um…. Do we want the little ones coming?”

  “Your cousins’ kids? Your call, babe, but I don’t have a problem with them.” Not the Matheson ones, at any rate. They’d been cute and fun when I’d met them last year, and although I’d never had the opportunity to interact with kids before, I’d enjoyed spending time with them.

  “Okay. We’ll invite them and let their parents make the final decision.”

  “We could always have the ceremony earlier in the afternoon, if you like. That way they wouldn’t be all worn out and out of sorts. Or maybe we can find a reception hall that has a room where they can crash if they need a nap.”

  “You’re a sweetheart.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Thanks, babe.”

  I cleared my throat and squeezed his hand. “I love you so much, Wills.”

  A flush stained his cheekbones, and he brought my hand to his mouth. “Let’s get this finished and….” The door chimes sounded. “Who the fuck…? I’ll get it.”

  “I’ll come with you. I could use a break.”

  He went into the bedroom and got his gun. I still couldn’t tell if it was Butch or Sundance. “Just stay behind me.”

  “Wills?”

  “No one has the key to the front door, and the ladies downstairs would call first.” He squinted through the peephole, then placed his gun on the console table. “It’s Mr. Vincent.” He opened the door.

  “Vince. I wasn’t expecting to see you. Would you like a cup of coffee and some baklava?”

  “Thanks. You make good coffee, Theo,” Vince said.

  “I’ll get another cup.” I started to leave the foyer.

  “His baklava is good too,” Wills assured him, and I blushed at how proud of me he sounded.

  “You’ll try it, yes, Vince? I’ll get a dessert plate too,” I called over my shoulder as I hurried into the kitchen. I took a cup, saucer, and plate from the cupboard and a teaspoon from the silverware drawer. Miss Su was lapping delicately at her water bowl. “We have company, puss. I don’t think you’ve ever met Mark Vincent. Would you like to?”

  “Mrrow.” She trotted along at my heels.

  “Make sure you behave, all right? Don’t go dipping your paw in the honey.”

  “Mrrow.”

  We entered the dining room just as Wills said, “You won’t mind if I check.” He took a black plastic case from Vince, gripped my upper arm in passing, and left the room.

  “What’s Wills going to check?”

  “The video. I thought you might want it.”

  “The—” The cup rattled in its saucer, and I put it down on the table. “—the video?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why would I want it? To remind Wills of the kind of life I’d lived?”

  Vince had never been a touchy/feely kind of guy, so I was surprised when he rested a hand on my shoulder. “It’s better you have the tape than that it’s out there for anyone to make copies of it.”

  “I… I guess you’re right. But the thought that he’s looking at it….”

  “You both need to be sure.”

  I fisted my hands to hide the tremors in them. “You never told me how someone in your company got hold of that, Vince. I mean, it’s hardly a threat to national security.”

  He poured the coffee himself and took a sip. “There’s nothing like coffee from freshly ground beans.”

  “Vince….”

  Miss Su stood on her hind legs and rested her front paws on his thigh. He gazed down at her and smoothed a hand over her ears. “Hello, cat.”

  “This is Tiramisu. We call her Miss Su. Wills gave her to me for Christmas.” I was rambling, but anything to take my mind off what Wills was watching.

  Her muscles bunched, and then she was in Vince’s arms. He cradled her and continued stroking her head.

  Wills returned, the tape in his hand and his mouth grim. “It’s the tape.”

  Vince observed him coolly for a moment, then nodded. “You’ll do.” Was he pleased because Wills hadn’t taken his word for it?

  I opened my mouth to ask, then shook my head. I didn’t want to know anything about that damned tape.

  Vince sat, settling Miss Su on his lap. “Do you know a rent boy named Connor?” he asked me.

  “Yeah. He was with us for a little while a few years back, but then he moved on.”

  “Did you ever mention my name to him?”

  “No. Paul and I might have talked about you in his hearing, that’s possible, but truthfully, it’s so long ago….”

  “Did you run into him recently?”

  “Just before Valentine’s Day.”

  “He was with an older man?”

  “Yeah. Vince, why the third degree about Connor?”

  “The man he was with had the tape.”

  I sat heavily, feeling cold. “Was that why he thought he recognized me? Of course, that had to be why.”

  “Connor said he was going to give you the tape.”

  “When?”

  Vince shrugged. “He said he tried to set up a meeting with you, but you kept putting him off.”

  “He told me he wanted to get together with me, but he didn’t say why. It was the middle of tax season, and I was busy. When I did try to get in touch with him, he’d checked out of his hotel.”

  “When was that?”

  I thought about it. “It wasn’t the end of February. I remember being surprised he was gone because he’d told me he was staying until the end of the month.”

  Vince nodded. “That’s what he said. He freaked and ran.”

  “Why didn’t he just fucking tell me he had that tape?”

  “He didn’t, actually. It belonged to Alfred Honeycutt.”

  “Who?”

  “Honeycutt.” Wills spoke quietly. “The man who was keeping Connor? I’m sorry, sir.”

  “Not your fault, Matheson. Shit happens.”

  “Wills?”

  “A job I was given before I was assigned to Mr. Vincent. It… went nowhere. Now I know why.”

  “Then Vince is right: it wasn’t your fault.” I hurried on before he could beat himself up more. Did he do that because he was Catholic? We’d never talked religion. Maybe we should, but not now. “Okay, so the tape belonged to this Honeycutt dude. That still doesn’t explain why Connor didn’t tell me about it.”

  “Couple of reasons. He didn’t want to blow a good thing, and he was jealous.”

  “I can understand the not-blowing-a-good-thing thing. His ‘daddy’ had bucks, and as far as I could tell didn’t have a problem spending them.” I remembered the Cartier watch Connor had said he wanted, and which the man had bought for him without blinking an eye. “But what was Connor jealous about?”

  “The one thing you had that he didn’t think he’d ever have: your relationship with Matheson.”

  Yeah, that made sense. It was what every rent boy dreamed of and few achieved, although for a time it had seemed he’d had it. But…. “What did he freak out about? Why did he run? How did he find out Wills works for the WBIS? I never mentioned him by name.”

  Vince shrugged. “To answer your questions in order: Connor freaked because he realized who his sugar daddy was. He ran for the same reason. As for him finding out Matheson’s employer, he didn’t know, but Honeycutt did.”

  “Who the fuck is this Honeycutt?”

  “He liked to see himself as a player. Having said that, he had resources he could call on—” Vincent gave me a flat look. “—and that’s all you need to know, Theo. According to Connor, Honeycutt wanted you—he was positive you were the boy from the tape—and he was royally pissed when you tore up his business
card. He managed to get Connor to give him your address—he wasn’t above doing a little arm-twisting—and with that it didn’t take him long to dig up what he needed to know.”

  “That’s illegal! Isn’t it?” They both ignored me.

  “Blackmail, sir?” Wills asked. “His silence about Theo’s past in exchange for…. He doesn’t need money.”

  “Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have liked more if he could get it. But no.”

  Wills’s lips tightened. “Theo in his bed?”

  “But that’s stupid!” It was more than stupid, it was idiotic. “You know all about my past!”

  “Honeycutt didn’t know that, but blackmail wasn’t his intent, although the end result was still supposed to be you in his bed. It was more for revenge, to get at you through Matheson.” Vince stopped petting Miss Su, picked up a piece of the baklava, and took a bite. “He knew Davies from college.” He scowled, and I wondered if he’d bit down wrong on an almond and hurt his tooth.

  “But Mr. Davies isn’t my department head. He couldn’t fire me!”

  “No, but I could. And no, Theo, I wouldn’t.”

  “Jesus.” I shivered and stared at him. “Who’s Davies?”

  “He’s Director of Public Relations,” Wills said. “He doesn’t like Mr. Vincent or me, and last year he tried, unsuccessfully, to nail me for something that happened when I was out of town. That photo on my desk of us kissing, babe?”

  “The grainy one?”

  “Yeah. He had that taken.”

  I felt cold. “He has us under surveillance?”

  “Not anymore,” Vince growled.

  I remembered what happened to the man who’d hospitalized Paul, and I wondered if this Davies would wind up charred to a cinder because he’d “tried to open Vince’s door.” I swallowed, pushed Davies out of my mind, and got back to the question at hand.

  “But why would Honeycutt think he’d get me just because Wills was out of a job?”

  “The way he saw it, Matheson wouldn’t be able to afford you, so he’d be completely out of the picture.”

  “What? That’s… that’s….” I had no words.

  “Mrrow.” Miss Su butted Vince’s hand.

  “I’m eating, cat.”

  “Sorry, sir,” Wills said. “She’s usually better behaved than that.” But it was easy to see Wills had something on his mind.