If We Weren't Married

"This isn't the best timing, Alicia," Jerome Barkin said. He stood in the frame of the open sliding glass door out onto the patio and swimming pool of the house he shared with the movie star, Todd Lad, on the Mesa Verde Golf Course, in the Los Angeles suburb of Huntington Beach. Todd, his husband of nearly three years and, pushing fifty now, a good ten years older than Jerome, was stretched out on a pool bed in the altogether. He was still looking good, looking no older than Jerome did, as a matter of fact, despite his age. But then Jerome was a studio scriptwriter, not a star, so he didn't have to work at looking like a movie star. That he did so was due to naturally good genes.

"Is that why you haven't returned my calls for over a week?" Jerome's former wife retorted icily across the airwaves.

"I've been busy," Jerome answered. "We're heavily into rewrites on

South of Eden

and I have this anniversary coming up and a party to put on to celebrate it."

"Ah, yes, your anniversary with Todd Lad. The seventh, is it?"

"The third. You know it couldn't be the seventh, Alicia. We were still married seven years ago."

"I could have believed you were already married to him then."

"Don't be catty, Alicia. Tell me why you have been calling. What do you want?" She wouldn't be calling him if there wasn't something she wanted. She always wanted more. She'd made out better in the settlement than he had--mostly because she wasn't really that wrong about Todd. He and Todd had started up while he and Alicia were still married, and Todd was very much a public figure. So, to keep her quiet in the divorce, she'd made out extremely well. Even Todd had kicked in on that. Of course, it was Todd who was being protected by her silence.

And of course Alicia was calling him because she wanted something, although she didn't want it for herself and it wasn't something she approved of. She just never said no to the nineteen-year-old son, Jamie, who was the reason she and Jerome had had to get married at eighteen--far too young for either of them to have known who they were at the time. In Jerome's case, that was catastrophic, because when he realized who he was, it wasn't to be married to a woman at all. He discovered too late that he was gay.

Once again, he had to tell Alicia on the phone that the timing for what she was asking was just impossible. "We're in the middle of this anniversary thing, Alicia. This would be the worse time for Jamie to come to the West Coast." Alicia and their son currently lived in Atlanta's Buckhead suburb, where Alicia had a successful interior design studio and Jamie had been a star athlete in high school. He was in a community college now and had gotten the acting bug. And therein lay the rub. He wanted to use his connections in Hollywood to become a movie star. He's already enrolled in an acting school in L.A., and he wanted to come out and live with his father.

"You're his father," Alicia said. "It's time for you to take him for a while." Because of Jerome's situation, he'd been flying to Atlanta three or four times a year to see Jamie there. He had always tried to show up at the most important points in the young man's life.

"You got all of the money to support him, Alicia. And you're the one who didn't want him to be around me as long as Todd and I were together." As a matter of fact, Jerome didn't think it would be healthy for a nineteen-year-old boy to be living with a gay male couple either, even if they

were

married. Nothing would go wrong in relationships, of course, Jerome believed--but the way it would look to the outside world couldn't help but tarnish the world's view of Jerome's son.

"It's your turn not to be catty, Darling," Alicia said. "You don't think I want this to happen, do you? This is Jamie. You know how adamant he is about getting what he wants. He's got the acting bug. He's coming out to Los Angeles to go to acting school whether we support it or not."

"And he insists on staying here? With Todd and me?"

"At least until and unless you find him someplace else decent and appropriate to stay and cover the costs. I'm paying for the acting school. You can jolly well cover his living costs."

"When does he plan to come out to the coast?" Jerome asked.

"The day after tomorrow."

"That soon? Fuck. That doesn't give me enough time to find someplace he can move right into. You could have--"

"If you'd called me back last week, you'd have had more time. As it is, you can figure it out." She then gave Jerome the date, time, and flight number of his son's appearance and rang off. As soon as she was gone, another call was coming in--from the caterer for their anniversary party in three weeks' time, and Jerome didn't even have a moment to panic over having both his husband and his son living in the house together for even a day.

What Jerome knew that Alicia didn't unless their son had fessed up to her in the last month, which Jerome thought unlikely, was that Jamie had come out to Jerome. His son was gay, and after any time living here with Jerome and Todd and then coming out as gay, Jerome knew that Alicia would climb right up the wall and accuse him and Todd of turning her precious boy. Jerome didn't care if the boy was gay. Good on him for having discovered that much earlier than Jerome had and for being so reconciled to it. But it didn't help the situation one bit--not when he was coming here.

The timing was definitely off. An anniversary party was coming up, which would be predominated by other gays; Todd and he were having a bit of a difficult patch as it was--Todd was showing boredom with the monogamous aspect of marriage--and Jamie was dropping in on them no doubt expecting to start a whole new life out from underneath Alicia's thumb and progressed Jerome had no idea how far into a gay lifestyle.

There were so many ways this could go wrong. Jerome didn't even want to contemplate how it could go wrong with his relationship with Todd. But he couldn't put that out of his mind. If only Todd didn't have a roving eye for younger men.

* * * *

"Hadn't you best get dressed. We're already late for the studio party."

"I don't really feel like going, Jer. I think I'll skip this and just do an early to bed."

That didn't sound a bit like Todd Lad, the original party boy. Jerome had found the movie star, only in shorts and sandals, by the barbecue pit on the pool terrace of their Mesa Verde Club house, still lingering over dinner with Jerome's son, Jamie, who, in a Speedo, looked like he'd just come out of the pool. They were drinking beer, sitting close together, laughing, and looking at their demolished steak plates. Jerome had eaten dinner with them--indeed, he had fixed dinner for them--but had moved on more than an hour and a half earlier.

Jerome had met his nineteen-year-old son at the appointed time at the airport, but he almost had failed to recognize him. Jamie obviously was intent on making a stab at this acting thing, after years of not showing much interest in anything but football, basketball, soccer, and tennis, which had sculpted his body beautifully. He hadn't even shown interest in girls, despite being a heartthrob even in his most sloppy and sweaty phases. Of course, now Jerome knew why there had been a lack of interest in girls. He was still wondering if Alicia knew Jamie had declared gay. Maybe she did and that's why she'd cut the apron springs and sent him out to California.

He had certainly cleaned up to the part of matinee idol now, though. He'd always been a well-muscled kid, from his athletic activities, but Jerome decided he must have added bodybuilding and a physical trainer--maybe one of Alicia's guys she turned to when turning away from Jerome--to his routine. Now he had a magnificently cut body for his age. He'd also frosted his hair and had started to pay attention to his wardrobe. Jerome had been skeptical of this plan to come out here and go to acting school, no less because Jamie hadn't seemed to apply himself to anything other than sports up to this point. But seeing him arrive in the airport put Jerome on notice that his son had arrived on the California scene as well. Everyone gawked at him at the airport as if he already was a movie star.

And, as far as application, Jamie surprised Jerome there too. He'd already made all of the arrangements with the acting school--or perhaps Alicia had--which was within a short scooter ride of the Mede Verde Club house, and by the way he latched into Todd when they got back to the house, the young man obviously already had a plan to use the established movie star to help him break into the movies as well. Todd had helped by going as gaga over Jamie as everyone had done at the airport.

For the two weeks Jamie had been there, settling in, the two--the aging, established action thriller movie star and the young wannabe one as well--had become inseparable, with Todd uncharacteristically staying out of the social whirl when he usually was the center of it and, when he couldn't avoid going out with Jerome, taking Jamie with them as well.

Jerome could see where this inevitably was going and he tried to stop it, spending a good deal of his time trying to find other living arrangements that he could afford and that would entice Jamie to move on, but thus far that effort had just pulled him away from where the other two were making up to each other.

Todd and Jerome did have an open marriage, but it was more open for Todd than it was for Jerome, and Jerome had had hopes of it toning down to just the two of them as they both got older. That's what the coming anniversary party was supposed to bring to Todd's mind--the commitment they had declared.

Todd had claimed that was what he wanted as well, and he'd been moving in that direction until Jamie appeared on the scene. Jerome hadn't figured out how to prevent this situation from flaming up until it was too late to do so. He tried talking to Todd, but the man was into denial and said he was just helping Jamie because he was Jerome's son. And Jerome believed that Todd just didn't see through Jamie--didn't see that Jamie was using him to get what he wanted out of Hollywood. He was obviously cultivating the older actor to latch on to his Hollywood network.

Jerome was too upset with his son about this to talk to him. Instead, he took advantage of all of the parties the three went to to direct Jamie toward someone he could use to more success than Todd. Maybe then he'd leave his dad's husband alone.

Of course there always was the possibility that Jamie was doing this to punish his dad for, in his eyes, abandoning him. But Jamie was, in fact, easily redirected to other gay men at parties, and had become, even in just two weeks, a slut with them, so there was hope that Jerome's redirection scheme would work.

But he ran out of time, and Jamie being a slut attracted, rather than repelled, Todd's interest.

Jerome went to the studio party that night, but he didn't stay long. People kept asking where Todd was. Some even asked where Jamie was, showing how quickly the young man was settling into the Hollywood scene. All Jerome could think of was what the two might be doing instead of coming to the party.

He went home early. And he found what the two were doing. Jerome and Todd didn't sleep in the same bedroom, but Jerome found Todd wasn't in his bed. Todd, Jerome found, was in Jamie's bed. Todd was on the bottom, on his back, holding his legs raised and spread. Jamie was kneeling between the older man's thighs and was giving him a vigorous missionary fuck.

Jerome stood in the doorway long enough to establish that both his husband and his son knew he was there and had seen that they were fucking. Then Jerome pulled back, went to the pool terrace, going by the refrigerator en route and pulling a six-pack of beer, and sat out on the terrace, smoking, and looking at the beginnings of a dawn. He drank two of the beers, but no more. Did he want to try to save his marriage? Did he want to try to save some sort of relationship with his son? Should he start to close out on the plans for the third anniversary bash? Should he just toss it all in and let happen what was happening?

What did he want out of life? He'd gone into the marriage wanting a more stable life as he aged. He wouldn't have tried a formal marriage otherwise. He knew Todd wasn't quite there yet, but he'd believed the movie star was close enough that he'd get there. Todd already was no longer getting the stud movie roles he'd had for years and he wasn't a good enough actor to move into more mature roles. Jerome had seen a gestalt coming for Todd and would devastate him if he didn't have some place to retreat to. Jerome loved the man. He'd intentionally maneuvered to provide this retreat--he hoped in a way that Todd wouldn't realize it had been done and retained his dignity.

It was time to pick a direction. Would Jerome fight for the marriage, blow it up, or just let happen what would happen--let both husband and son form their own futures?

He planned and dozed. When he woke, he checked out Todd's room but found his husband and his son in Jamie's room, Jamie still stretched out between Todd's legs. Jerome made his own breakfast, made a few phone calls that garnered successful results, packed a bag, and left the house. He took the blue metallic Bentley Continental GTC GT convertible. He had every reason to believe that would do the introduction trick.

* * * *

"I'll take this one, Eddie," twenty-two-year-old Travis Robinson said, coming out from behind the car valet's podium at the entrance of the venerable and iconic Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island in San Diego and moving quickly out to the driver's side of the blue Bentley Continental convertible in time to open the door for the handsome and fit fortyish man in the sexy white cotton shirt with the dip in front almost half way to his navel, showing a hard-bodied chest with a curly matting of hair. He gave the man a snappy salute and said, "Welcome to the Hotel del Coronado." The man smiled back as he exited the car.

"Of course you'll take that one," Eddie said under his breath. "You snap up all of the jazzy cars." Eddie had no idea how Travis did it other than he apparently had great family connections. Travis was interning in hotel management and was rotating through a lot of the jobs at the historical Hotel del Cornado, one of the last surviving and largest of the Victorian wooden beach resorts, opening in 1888. Jerome flashed Travis a toothy smile as he came out of the Bentley.

"Thank you, young man. My, they do give a good welcome at the Coranado, don't they?" he said, making clear he was referring to the handsome young car jockey holding the door for him. A twenty-dollar bill was palmed in his hand as he extended it to Travis. Travis twitched a bit when he took the man's hand and found Jerome's thumb folded until, holding the twenty, and rubbing against Travis's palm as the hands gripped. Travis knew what that signaled in some quarters--and certainly in the gay crowd he ran with in San Diego during his internship at the hotel. Travis was studying for a Master's in hospitality management at San Jose State, which he figured was a good career pick for a gay guy and more assured than trying to break into his father's business in the movie industry.

If the signaling was only suggestive--the thumb rub in the palm and the big tip--the look the handsome man who drove a Bentley convertible gave Travis was quite clear.

"I'm Jerome, in San Diego looking for a good time. Perhaps I'll see you around," he said. "What's your name, young man?"

"Travis. I'm Travis Robinson. You might see me around. I'm interning here, trying out all of the jobs. I'm working on a hospitality management Master's." He obviously wanted to exhibit himself as a young man with ambition and on the move up.

Jerome's smile broadened. It had been a gamble, but he got it right on the first try. "Be good to my car, Travis. I'm very good to those I enjoy--young men as well as cars."

There it was, and the young man hadn't flinched.

"Of course, it's a beautiful piece of machinery, Mr.... Jerome."

"And so are you, Travis. So are you," Jerome said as Travis slipped behind the wheel, Eddie took Jerome's suitcase, and Jerome proceeded into the hotel reception area.

And see Travis, Jerome did later in the day. The older man was stretched out on a lounge bed on the Coranado beach, looking mighty fine for his age in a skimpy swim suit, when Travis, himself dressed in just swimming trunks, an open beach shirt, and sandals, and looking great for any age, wafted by, taking drink orders.

"Ah, doing beach duty?" Jerome asked. "Travis, isn't it?"

"Yes, this is my afternoon stint, Mr...."

"No mister," Jerome said. "Just call me Jerome."

"May I get you something to drink, Jerome?"

"Yes, a Corona beer, if you please." He handed Travis a fifty, once more holding the young man's hand a bit longer than necessary and folding his thumb underneath. That indeed was a signal both men understood. The folded-under thumb declared a seeking top. If the receiver folded his hand over it in a sheath, he was declaring as an accepting bottom. If he moved the sheathed hand on the thumb he was ready to go. Smiling, Travis sheathed the hand but didn't move it.

"I'm be right back with your beer and your change," he said.

"Keep the change, Travis," Jerome said. Travis smiled and saluted him.

And then later that night, Jerome saddled up to one of the smaller piano bars in the Del Cornado, to find that Travis was serving as the bartender there. He acted surprised, although he wasn't in the least surprised.

"Jerome. You found me in yet another rotation job in the hotel," Travis said. "If I was suspicious, I'd have to believe you were following me around."

"And you'd be right there. I find you extremely attractive and attracting," Jerome said. "I've followed you around today. I'm a lonely man tonight."

"What can I get you to drink?"

"How about a scotch rocks? And one for you too."

"Why, thank you," Travis said. When he returned with the drinks, he handed one to Jerome and saluted him with the other. Jerome dropped five one-hundred-dollar bills on the bar top, reached up, took the glass out of Travis's hand, and took the young man's hand in his, once more folding his thumb under the palm.

"I don't wish to be a lonely man tonight," he said.

Smiling, Travis sheathed the thumb and moved his palm on it in a rubbing motion.

"What time to you go off duty tonight?" Jerome asked, and Travis told him.

Two hours later, in Jerome's hotel bed, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with the window open to the breeze and the gauzing curtains billowing in and out, Jerome, stretched over Travis's naked body, the young man's chest and cheek pressed against the mattress and his eyes focused on the window, his mouth hanging open in reaction to Jerome being hung and expert, rose and fell on the young man's raised ass, fucking him in long slides to the cadence of the wind's playing in the window curtains.

Travis was earning every dollar of the fee Jerome was paying him to sheath his thick, long cock and to accept the three strong flows of the man's hot cum. Travis was fully prepared to accept this as yet another job that went with hospitality management. This was very much managing hospitality.

* * * *

"So, where did you go for three days?"

Todd Lad had come home from the studio to the Mesa Verde Club house in Huntington Beach at 7:00 p.m. after a day on the studio lot to find Jerome home and eating his dinner in an otherwise empty house. The housekeeper had left after serving his dinner. Jamie wasn't there and there was no evidence in the bedroom he'd been occupying that he still was there. For that matter, Jerome didn't find any evidence that Jamie had moved into Todd's room, and, yes, he had checked that out.