by A. E. Wasp
“Aw, fuck,” Mikey said as Benny shot over both of them. He thrust in, muscles in his arms and legs rock hard, and froze as he came.
He collapsed next to Benny with a sigh. “Damn, I needed that.”
Benny was still trying to get his breath back, so he just patted Mikey on the chest.
Mikey laughed and kissed Benny’s shoulder before rolling onto his back to cool off.
“First time?” Benny asked when he could speak.
“Doing that? Yeah.”
“Well, A-fucking-plus. Good job.” Benny gave him a weak thumbs-up.
Mikey laughed. “I guess we have to clean up.”
Benny shook his head. “Don’t get up. I said I’d take care of you.”
“Fine by me.” Mikey snuggled deeper into the soft mattress.
Benny rolled out of bed and used his boxers for a quick wipe off, then he pulled his jeans back on with a grimace.
He left the hall light off as he walked to the bathroom and cleaned himself off. As he came out, a warm wet washcloth and a dry towel in hand, he almost tripped over Jasmine.
“Hey, baby. What are you doing out of bed?”
She has fallen asleep in the clothes she had worn to dinner. They looked rumpled and worse for the wear.
“I had a bad dream.” She looked down at the floor. “Are you still mad at me?”
“Nobody’s mad at anybody in the middle of the night,” he told her. “Your daddy’s sleeping, do you want to go downstairs and have a drink of water and then maybe put your pajamas on?”
She nodded, then reached out and took Benny’s hand. Her hand felt so tiny in his.
Benny tossed the wash rag and towel back into the bathroom. He figured Mikey must have heard Jasmine on the monitor. By the time they got back upstairs, he would have himself put together.
Benny got her a glass of water and convinced her to go back into the room to put her nightgown on. She was whiny, and limp, and wouldn’t dress herself. Benny was no expert, but she felt a little warm to him as he coaxed her into her pajamas.
“Do you think you can go back to sleep now?”
She shook her head, little dreadlocks slapping back and forth on her face. “I want my daddy.”
Benny didn’t feel he had the authority to argue with her, so he let her lead him to Mikey’s bedroom.
Mikey lay in bed under the covers reading a book. “Hey, sweetheart can’t sleep?”
“I had a bad dream,” she said, climbing into the bed.
“Do you want to sleep in my bed?”
Benny felt the question was a little unnecessary, as Jasmine was already slipping under the covers. “Good night, you two,” he said hand on the doorknob.
“No,” Jasmine whined. “I want Benny, too. Can Benny sleep here too, daddy?”
“That’s up to Benny. He doesn’t know what an octopus you are in the middle of the night.” Mikey looked up at Benny and smiled. “What do you say, Benny? Want to sleep with us?”
Yeah, he did. “Sure, why not? Let me go put my pajamas on, and I’ll be right there.”
“I like the candles, they’re pretty. And it smells good in here,” he heard Jasmine say as he headed towards his room.
chapter nineteen
Mikey came downstairs the next morning with a tie in each hand to find Benny sitting on the couch and staring at his phone in a daze. “You okay?”
“Called my mom.”
“No shit? How did it go?” He sat next to Benny, taking in his red-rimmed eyes and white-knuckled grip on the phone.
“She cried, yelled at me in Spanish – I only caught every other word, but some of them were words I didn’t think she knew – and then said she would be here on Saturday.” He smiled a small smile. “She asked about the baby and said to say hello, by the way.”
“You told her about us?” Mikey raised his eyebrows as he rejected the red tie and went with the silvery blue one. He flipped up the collar of his shirt.
“Well, not everything, obviously. Just that we had reconnected.” Benny stood up.
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Mikey grinned.
Benny cocked his head. “I hadn’t really thought about it before, but your parents would have told mine about the baby, right? Makes sense?”
Mikey gave the tying of his tie more concentration that it really needed, watching his hands wrap the ends around each other. “Well, yeah. Our parents are friends. Your mom and dad were at the – at Julia’s funeral.” Mike swallowed the lump in his throat, constantly surprised at how the past could ambush you when you least expected it. “I haven’t seen them since then.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“Don’t.” Mikey waved his apology away. “If I had to choose, I would rather have you here now.”
He pushed himself off the couch and moved in front of Benny, standing so close Benny was forced to look up to meet his eyes. The circles under Benny’s eyes weren’t from emotion but from lack of sleep. Sharing a bed with a four-year-old guaranteed a restless night. The third time Benny had woken him up by trying to find a comfortable position around Jasmine’s pointy feet and bony elbows, Mikey had chased him back into his own bed. Benny had never done well on short sleep, and Mikey doubted that had changed.
The memory of last night lingered, and Mikey couldn’t resist dropping a short kiss on Benny’s mouth. A thought hit him, and he straightened up, expression troubled. “Wait? Did you say this weekend?”
Benny nodded. “I think she was close to quitting her job and coming sooner, but I told her Saturday was fine. They can have my bedroom, I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Julia’s parents are coming this weekend.”
“Oh shit.” Benny ran his hand through his hair. “They weren’t planning on staying here, were they?”
“God, no.” Mikey look around the living room at all the unpacked boxes shoved into corners, the furniture jammed into every open space and wondered when the last time anybody had vacuumed was. “I have so much work to do.”
“It’s going to be fine,” Benny assured him. “I’ll ask Jay-Cee for Friday afternoon off, and I’ll clean this place so good you’d think it was field day.”
“I’m sure that would be encouraging if I knew what field day was.” He was going to be late if he didn’t get out the door. He headed towards the kitchen, yelling up the stairs for Jasmine to get a move on.
“Field day,” Benny said, filling up two travel mugs of coffee and a sippy cup with milk for Jasmine, “is inspection days at the barracks. You’re worried about your in-laws? One night, my buddies and I stayed up all night clearing the whole place. We used fuckin’ Q-tips in the corners. Took all night, shit-faced on cheap-ass bourbon.”
“Curse. Actually two curses. Wait, three,” Mikey interrupted. Benny had asked him to point out every time he said some non-Jasmine appropriate word. He claimed he didn’t even register them anymore, which Mikey believed. Constant exposure to Benny’s Marine-enhanced vocabulary was beginning to make him immune as well. Pre-Benny, he hadn’t known how many ways you could use the word fuck, either by itself or in combination with other words.
“Sorry.” Benny glanced over his shoulder to see if Jasmine had snuck up behind him. “Anyway, so we cleaned the place until you could literally eat off the floors. Fu – stu -,” he sighed in exasperation. “Our lovely NCO gets so pissed that he couldn’t find anything to bust us on, he went over to the fuck-ugly lamp in the corner, unscrewed the fucking light bulb.” Benny’s coffee sloshed in the cup as he flung his arms wide to emphasize what a jackass the NCO had been, “Then the dickhead sticks his fucking fingers into the fucking socket!”
Mikey shook his head at the hopelessness of his curse-monitoring attempts, especially during any Marines story time.
“Finger comes out black. Boom! Failed field day.” Benny flung his hands out in exasperation.
Mikey stepped back quickly as coffee sloshed over the edge of Benny’s cup. “That was like twelve
curses. Two in a row I think. The same two.”
“Sorry! Sorry. I’ll put like five dollars in Jasmine’s therapy jar.” He sipped his coffee, sighing as the hot liquid hit his tongue. “My point is, don’t worry about the cleaning. I’m an expert.”
“Okay. If you say so.” Mikey checked the time and hollered up the stairs again. “Jasmine, let’s go!”
“You look hot today,” Benny said, running his fingers down Mikey’s tie. “Why all suited up? Going into court?”
“Yeah, attending with Kevin in a juvenile case.”
“He taking you along to sway the judge with your hotness?” Benny tugged at the tie.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly why.”
Jasmine came down the stairs, mostly dressed and partially awake.
“Okay,” Mikey said. “Let’s get this day started. It’s going to be a busy week.”
Kevin and Mikey sat on a bench outside the courthouse under the blinding blue sky, Mikey’s legs stretched out far in front of him, black shoes shining in the sun. The courthouse was one of several government buildings surrounding Civic Center Park; a pretty stretch of grass and flower-lined walkways that got heavy use on summer weekends from the many fairs and festivals Red Deer organizations put on.
Cocooned in his silver-gray suit and sunglasses, Mikey felt ready to take on anything, even Julia’s parents. They still had fifteen minutes to wait until the building opened, and Kevin was playing a word game on his phone. It felt like a good time to ask him about Benny’s situation.
Mikey sat up straight, pulling Kevin’s attention from the phone. “Can I ask you about a personal situation?”
“Of course,” Kevin said. He locked his phone and slid it into his jacket pocket.
“Did Vincent say anything to you about what happened at his place last night?”
“No. Nothing.” Kevin looked concerned. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”
“Yes. Well, mostly. Everyone is physically okay. Well, that’s not actually true, but no one is in immediate danger.”
Kevin smiled slightly. “I’m glad that’s the case, but it still sounds like something is going on.” He plucked his suit jacket off the bench and stood up. “Let’s stroll a bit, and you can tell me. These stone benches kill my old butt.”
As they walked past the flower beds filled with yellow and brown daisies and pink and purple larkspur, Mikey filled Kevin in on everything he had learned about Benny. To his surprise, he found himself spilling many of his doubts and concerns about their relationship as well.
Kevin was four inches shorter than Mikey and almost fifty years older, and Mikey found himself liking and respecting the man more and more the longer he knew him.
Their walk brought them back to the courthouse just as the mechanical church bells across the street rang out nine o’clock. “That all sounds like a lot to handle, son. I’ll make some calls, see what we can do for your feisty Marine. Meanwhile, you hit up Google and start searching.”
As they went through the double glass doors, they emptied their pockets and pulled off their jackets to move more quickly through the metal detectors and security scan.
“You should also give Dmitri a call. The two of you should really go out for coffee, get to be friends. I think you would be good support for each other.”
They pushed their gray plastic tubs holding their jackets and keys and wallets down the rolling belt and through the scanners. Kevin checked his schedule one last time. “Courtroom 4B today.”
They waited at the elevator with a few other people. “You know, Vincent and I had our own issues to work out. Trust me, he wasn’t always the quiet man he is today. You don’t come out of two tours of Vietnam unscathed. The years after were pretty tough, too.”
The doors dinged open. “When did you meet, sir?”
“Stop calling me sir,” Kevin insisted getting into the elevator. “We met in the summer of ‘77, in New York City on the night of the blackout. Ever heard of it?”
Mikey shook his head.
“Crazy, crazy night. Maybe one day when you’re older, or I’m drunker, I’ll tell you the whole story.”
The doors opened, and they followed the crowd out, Mikey holding the doors open for Kevin. “I look forward to that.”
“Crazy night,” Kevin repeated heading towards the courtroom.
Despite Mikey’s wishing that somehow time would stop, Saturday morning dawned like a postcard for Colorado; alpenglow painting the faces of the foothills pink and gold, a gentle breeze bending the heads of the prairies grasses, waves rippling across the fields like a green ocean, and the rivers running fast and bright.
Mikey noticed none of it as he feverishly moved through the house, straightening the already straight cushions and wiping down spotless countertops.
Benny stumbled down the stairs into the gloomy kitchen; the sun not yet risen enough to clear the darkness under the trees in their yard. “Dude. What they hell are you doing? It’s like six a.m.” He got a good look at Mikey as he flipped the overhead light on. “Not that I object to you cleaning in your underwear. I might actually pay for that. But, really, everything’s good.”
“I have brunch with the Youngs today. I just want everything to be perfect.”
“That’s five and a half hours from now.” Benny grabbed Mikey as he tried to slip past him. “Hey.” He backed Mikey against the fridge and kissed him, not stopping until Mikey’s body relaxed under his hands, and his mouth dropped open and let Benny in. “Better?” Benny asked, hands still closed over Mikey’s arms.
Mikey nodded, knocking some hearts and a new take out menu onto the floor as he did. “Damn it.” He bent down to pick them up.
Benny palmed his ass as he did, eyes drifting to the freezer. “Oops,” he said. “Might want to take these off.”
Mikey straightened up and looked where Benny was pointing: the collection of erotic magnetic poetry words stuck to the freezer. Among the arrangement of words were hot stuffed men and dancing-ly fabulous queen.
“That’s pretty gay,” Benny commented.
“I will kill you,” Mikey said through gritted teeth, picking off the small magnets one by one.
Benny kissed his shoulder. “Aw, don’t be that way, my dancingly fabulous queen.”
Mikey shrugged him off.
“Seriously,” Benny said, rubbing Mikey’s back gently. “The house looks great. They aren’t even planning on coming here, are they?”
Mikey’s shoulders dropped, and he sighed. “I have no idea what they are planning. That’s what makes it so scary.”
Benny turned Mikey around to face him, then took both his hands in his own. “I know. It’s very scary. But I think you need to hear them out. Vanessa’s going to be with you, right?”
“No, she couldn’t make it. She’s out of town again.”
“Well, I’ll be only a phone call away. Kevin said not to be too worried, right?”
Mikey nodded.
“Okay. So let’s worry a little less compulsively. Go put on a movie Jasmine would hate to watch. I figure we have an hour before she wakes up. I’ll make some coffee, and we can sit on the couch and watch things blow up. Okay?”
Mikey smiled. “Can we watch America’s Next Top Model?”
“I still can’t decide whether how much you love that show makes you more gay or less gay.” Benny pulled the coffee out of the cupboard.
“Still bi.” Mikey filled the coffee maker with water. “You’re just jealous because I can enjoy the show on more levels than you can.”
“Stop flaunting your bi privilege and kiss me. I’m all insecure now. How can I compete with nineteen-year-old Tansy from Oklahoma and her grandma who makes all her dresses out of grain sacks?”
“You’re an idiot.” Mikey started the coffeemaker and bumped his hip against Benny.
“And you love me. What does that say about your taste in men?” Benny shook his head sorrowfully.
“Very bad things.”
The coffee
pot gurgled, the scent of coffee filling the kitchen as outside the first sunbeams of the morning slid between the trunks of the pine trees, as Mikey went upstairs and put on some clothes.
chapter twenty
Standing on the crowded front porch of the little yellow house turned Cajun restaurant, Mikey watched George Young coloring with Jasmine and tried to get his bearings. George had folded himself onto the small table the restaurant had put out to keep children amused while they were waiting. He looked perfectly at peace, exchanging colors with Jasmine or one of the other children at the table.
Neither Mikey or Benny had ever been to the restaurant George had suggested. The few time Mikey had eaten out with the Youngs, the restaurants had tended to be formal affairs, with white tablecloths and silent waiters who popped out of nowhere to whisk your plate away while you were still swallowing the last bite of food. Mikey figured this would be more of the same and had dressed accordingly.
Looking around at the lively groups of people sitting at picnic tables under bright yellow umbrellas or lying stretched out on the grass in fluorescent lycra bike shorts while they waited good-naturedly for an open table, Mikey felt seriously out of place in his suit and tie. At least Jasmine wouldn’t mind. She’d been more than happy to put on her best dress and fancy red glitter shoes.
“Have you been here before?” a woman in yoga pants and a Fat Tire beer t-shirt asked Julia’s mom, Frances. Even Frances had dressed more appropriately than Mikey in her floral printed dress with a small cropped sweater over it. She hadn’t even worn pantyhose. Mikey had never seen her so dressed casually.
“No,” Frances replied to the woman. “This is our first time in town. We’re visiting our grandchild.” Frances pointed to George and Jasmine.
“Oh, she’s so cute,” the woman said. “But look at you and your son –”
“Son-in-law,” Frances corrected.
“Sorry, son-in-law. You’re both gorgeous.”
Mikey would never get used to the lack of boundaries people had in this town, and he never knew what to say when people said things like that to him. “Thank you?” he said.
