Chapter Twenty-Two

Robbie

“It was awesome!” Abi said for the third time since we had met up at a new tapas place.

Over plates of cheese, shishito peppers, prawns, kabobs, gyoza, and more, Abi had regaled us with stories of supporting small local “pop and pop” shops in the Castro. Then she described the parade and flipped through her phone to show us pictures of almost every float, including ours. At least I was in profile, just a seemingly naked guy in a tree with silly paw shoes and gloves.

It had been strangely freeing to be in public all but naked. At first it felt like I had burned with shame. The only people who had ever seen me that naked were Mother and Theo. I was always clothed any time I was in the presence of anyone else, and to be out with everyone looking at my body was at first very awkward, humiliating even. But as I watched the other men on the float, and even some people in the crowd, things had shifted. Pride wasn’t just a celebration of being gay. It was a celebration of life. Of freedom. We came together as one huge community and took joy in and with one another, supporting each other as human beings, and it didn’t matter what your body type was or who you were attracted to; it was all to be embraced. To be loved. In every respect, Theo continues every day to show me what it means to be alive, thriving.

I stared at the photo of Grizzly’s forest float. I guessed I was in the middle of tossing a headband because I had one arm extended, flexed, and was leaning against the trunk of the tree with a champagne glass in my other hand. I didn’t look like me at all. The man in the picture was strong. You could see the outline of my biceps, the ridges of my pecs, and the beginning of a six-pack abdomen. The curves of my hamstring and calves were also apparent as I gripped the tree. I knew my body had changed dramatically in the past year. But inside I still felt like a weak child. A child whose Mother was going to punish him if he didn’t obey. The obviously strong and very happy man in the tree was me…

“What’s up, sugar?” Theo interrupted my thoughts with a gentle caress. I so very much loved his hands! I looked down at his huge, powerful, meaty dark digits closed over my pale forearm and grinned, holding up the phone.

“You’re in the zone,” I pointed out, turning the picture so that he could see. Abi had captured Theo with his eyes closed. He usually closed his eyes when he was jamming to the beats he was setting up. He had admitted to me once that sometimes meant he was Interfacing with the digital music itself, riding the tides of sound and mentally manipulating them to fold together into the beats he wanted. I couldn’t tell if that was what he was doing in the picture, or if he was just enjoying the sound, but he wore a serene smile of someone who was in their element. The picture showed several men, but the two of us were wholly present at that moment, at one with the crowd who had come to rejoice.

I internally thrilled whenever Theo laughed his deep reverberation, and he peered at the phone and gently squeezed my arm. “You too, sugar. Maybe you should wear a jock in public more often.”

“Who says I’m not?” I countered, my faux-innocent blink melting into a wicked grin that caught him by surprise.

Abi giggled, reminding me that we weren’t alone, but also that I had somehow grown comfortable with my body and soul enough to make jokes and tease with others.

Theo caught me behind the neck, and I was pulled into him, his tongue easily violating my mouth and sharing the mixed flavors of dinner. I was immediately erect; my body was blissfully his to command any time. When he released me, I gave a half smile and side look, not even trying to hide my sensuous craving for him.

“My goodness, you two are such a gorgeous couple,” Abi said, and my smile switched to one of bashfulness.

“Thanks,” I replied, as Theo returned his attention to a kabob.

I advanced to the next picture and was startled when Abi asked, “So, when are you two going to get married?”

The phone hit the side of my plate with a clang and slipped to the table as I looked up, wide-eyed at the question. Warmth spread over my entire neck and shoulders. “What?” I sputtered.

“I totally expect to stand up for you, just for the record,” Abi pressed nonchalantly, punctuating her statement with a wave of a prawn before biting into it.

I shot Theo a bewildered look. Married? Me? Theo? To each other? The thought had never occurred to me. I’m not sure why. Chuck and Bob were married, and we knew several other couples who were.

“We’re not the marrying type, Abs.” Theo shot down the subject, and I felt a punch in the gut. In a matter of a few seconds something I had not considered, had not known was possible, had been snatched away before I could fully process it.

I forced a small laugh. “Yeah, can you imagine? Excuse me.” I pushed the phone over to Theo and went to the restroom.

After securing the door I took several deep breaths. Had I wanted to marry Theo? Absolutely, without a doubt. I already planned on being with him the rest of my life. But what did not the marrying type mean? Theo had once told me that he wasn’t the boyfriend type either. But here we were. It’s not that I had even tried to change his mind. Theo had defined our relationship. He had told me that we were monogamous for health sake, but if I ever found someone that I wanted to “bang,” I should just tell him. And he would do the same. I never would. I didn’t even look at other guys in that way. I knew that he did because occasionally he would point someone out as “hot” and I usually agreed because many men were attractive, but to my knowledge he hadn’t pursued anyone else. He had said that he would tell me if he ever did.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I splashed some water on my face. This was silly. Of course, Theo didn’t want to marry me. The whole concept was ridiculous, and I pushed it out of my mind. We had an amazing relationship and I counted myself lucky every day.

When I returned to dinner, Abi and Theo were in a friendly debate over the crucial differences between prawns and shrimp, and I resumed my quiet observation. In general, I preferred to stay on the sidelines and listen to their banter. It was like they were cousins too, and from the start never seemed to have that awkward stage of getting to know a person. Well, at the very beginning I’m sure that Theo had wanted to kill Abi and thought that she was part of the group trying to breed me off. But after that, it was like they’d known each other all their lives. But I also knew that was one of Theo’s personality gifts. He could start talking to anyone about anything, and they immediately warmed to him. I guess the main difference with Abi and him was that with strangers Theo usually deferred to their point of view. It wasn’t as if he agreed with it, only validated their experiences. With Abi he debated and argued, but never in a mean way. I wondered if that was just his way of ingratiating himself to her. Maybe instead of polite validation, she needed banter? Or maybe I was overthinking.

After dinner we headed to the club. It was still early because Theo needed to set up, so I showed Abi around. We started on the top level, third floor, where we had helped carry some stuff up for Theo.

“This floor has two separate dance areas each with a separate bar,” I pointed out as I led Abi from the larger area where Theo was stationed to a smaller, more intimate space with dark leather seating and a small stage for a live singer or DJ. “The restroom there is probably the best one for you to use as it’s a single and you won’t have to fight guys to get in.” What I didn’t tell her was that the rest of the restrooms would be filled with guys giving each other rim and blowjobs.

She groaned. “Oh, you don’t have to tell me. It’s why when we get our forever home Jason and I are definitely having separate bathrooms.”

I had no clue at all what she was talking about but was certain that we were not discussing the same thing, so I just moved on and led her down the large antique wooden spiraled staircase that connected all three floors. We stepped off onto the landing of the second floor, which was laid out very much like the third, with the exception of a small booth to the side that had a kitchen behind it. “They sell pizza by the slice throughout the night, which is actually really good,” I explained. “Oh but avoid any of those curtained area as those are the VIP rented booths.” I gestured. The VIP areas were generally where guys had full-on orgies, but I figured Abi didn’t need to know that much information.

“Oh that’s cool! If I ever bring Jason up here, it might be cool to get one.” She grinned, bouncing around through the open floor and dodging people walking around in T-shirts that read “staff” on them. She rolled her shoulder, winking and making me wonder if she knew exactly what went on in those private booths.

As we wandered down from the second floor, Abi marveled, “This place is huge.”

I agreed. “Yeah, the Snake Pit has three separate floors with five different dance areas, VIP areas, and bars throughout.” I illustrated my point. “That is the main bar.” I nodded to the one that extended across the entire spans of the building. “That is the absinthe bar,” I explained about the smaller one.

“Ooo,” Abi cooed and skipped over to investigate the attractive display of green bottles that I knew would be illuminated once they turned the overhead house lights off.

“Each floor usually has a different type of music. Tonight”—I gestured to the stage on the first floor—“they’ll have a band or some show.”

She giggled happily, the sound contagious, though I was already wired on Theo’s blood. The energy in the Snake Pit was always high, and by midnight it I knew it would be packed with men of all shapes and sizes dancing, making out, flirting, and generally having fun.

I was a fan of the DJ booth because I usually took a breather behind it. Since the one that Theo was always in was raised above the dance floor, I could stay hidden from the crowd. I could also give Theo blowjobs while he was spinning, something both of us really enjoyed. Thinking about a repeat of the night before made me smirk. There was just something about being on my knees before him that sent jolts of arousal through me every time.

Abi turned and we started back across the floor toward the elevator, an alternate route up, when she paused mid-step to openly check out a waiter who walked by wearing skintight, blue sequined shorts and a matching fanny pack.

“Yeah, I think there’s some live band tonight,” I went on and pointed out a flyer on the wall. “The Order of the Split Skull?”

“Never heard of them. Oh hey, that looks like a single bathroom too,” she said, nodding to the door with the sign for disabled.

“Oh, yeah,” I said and ducked my head in, having never paid attention. Sure enough, a single room with bars on the wall and a higher toilet.

Abi ducked past me, pushing me back to lock the door. “I’ll be right back.”

I was checking out my phone when I was startled by a man very close behind me asking, “It’s Rob, right?” I twirled around, almost running into a cute, small, blond bartender with strange contacts that made his eyes look like a cat’s. The first floor was quiet with only band members doing sound checks on stage.

There was no reason for him to be a foot away from me, and I took a step back, smiled, and held out my hand. “Robbie. I’m sorry, have we met?”

He took my hand in both of his, squeezing. “Not really. I know that you’re Theo’s new pet. You two have been together a while, haven’t you?”

He didn’t let go of my hand, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Also…pet? “Umm, well, yeah. A year now.” That wasn’t technically true. We had only been together since September. But my birthday was in two days and that would be a different type of anniversary.

“I always took him for a love them and leave them kind of guy,” he mused.

I gently tried to pull my hand away, but he wasn’t letting go. Indeed, he had started massaging my palm in a not-welcome way.

“So, you guys into threesomes?” he asked, his tongue darting out of his mouth to swipe his lips.

“What’s going on here?” Abi interrupted. She had changed into the gold corset from the night before and caught her hair back into a high ponytail that still hung down to her shoulders.

I guess she had startled the man, too, because he let go of my hand which I immediately put behind my back in case he thought about capturing it again.

“I…” My cheeks glowed with embarrassment, even as I reasoned that I hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Hello,” the man whose name I still didn’t know greeted her, though I noticed he didn’t reach for her hand. “Was just wondering if Theo’s new piece here liked to share. He’s had me before, you know? I wouldn’t mind an encore.”

I swallowed as dinner threatened to come up. I knew that Theo had…enjoyed the company of many, many men before me. But I hadn’t actually met any of them. “Oh,” was all I could manage.

“Beat it, asshole,” Abi said. Her tone suggested she might hit the guy. “Theo and Robbie are a thing now, and I don’t care how much you lust after them, they’re exclusive. You got it?”

I guess he was as caught off guard as I was because the guy took several steps away and nodded, his hands coming up in supplication. “Yeah, yeah. No worries.” He turned and scuttled off.

“You okay, Robbie?” Abi asked, slipping a protective arm around me.

I wasn’t sure how to feel. Annoyed that my older cousin just had to fight one of my battles? Relieved that the guy had gone away? Jealous that Theo had had sex with that guy?

“Yeah, I’m good,” I managed, though at the moment I felt anything but good. I decided to go on with the tour, pretending nothing had happened. “So, I’ll be hanging on the third floor with Theo, but don’t mind going from dance area to dance area with you. The armband that Theo got for us will give us unlimited drinks throughout the night, so you can go to any of the floors and drink for free.”

“That is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever had,” Abi said with a giggle, holding up her bright-orange armband.

“Pretty cool,” I agreed, my eyes drifting over to the man who was standing behind the bar talking to the bartender. “Let’s go check and see if Theo needs anything.”

★

Abi, Theo, and I hung out and talked for a couple of hours. He walked her through the setup of all his equipment and how he went about mixing (both magically and nonmagically).

Abi and I enjoyed some “sweet, strong, girly, fruity drinks,” as she put it, and Theo had a Coke. He doesn’t often drink alcohol when he’s working. By 9:00 p.m. when the doors opened, we were both tipsy and being incredibly silly with each other. Because it was Pride, and this was the most popular gay night club, the place was packed in a matter of minutes as the line that had been held at bay outside stampeded to get in.

We started on Theo’s dance floor, and soon Abi had me going from level to level to people-watch and dance. I got lost in the moment, dancing with my cousin as she plied me with strange concoctions. I knew Abi had gone to a month-long intensive summer mixology course so that she could pick up some extra money and not rely so much on Maggie and the small trust fund that she had when she turned eighteen. In the past she had described working various festivals and the occasional show. “So, all that education is really so I can show off my mad mixology skills to friends or challenge the occasional bartender when out and about.”

And challenge she did. There were five bars in the Snake Pit, and soon all eight bartenders who were working that night knew Abi. We were on the first floor when the band started playing. Abi and I had gone to the bar, where there was a long line forming. She yelled something at me that I didn’t quite catch before flashing a grin and diving under the bar flap. I saw her whisper, or maybe scream, right into one of the bartender’s ears. He nodded, and then she started taking orders like she worked there.

“What are you doing?” I shouted.

“Helping out!” Abi laughed, before turning to the next person in line and asking what they wanted.

I shrugged and pointed upstairs to indicate I was going to go hang with Theo, and she nodded and waved me off. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but figured if Abi was having fun, that’s all that mattered. I climbed into the DJ booth and slipped my arms around my man, resting my head against his broad back. He handed me back a headset with mic, and I put it on and told him that Abi ditched me.

“That’s great, sugar. Want to suck my cock?”

Did I ever? I slid down to take position under the DJ console.