As Ted Biondi looked at the young man through the peephole of the motel room he was staying in, the 57 year old salesman enjoyed the gawky kid's fidgeting as he seemed to be trying to summon up enough courage to knock on the door.
He certainly looked like a geek, which was what Ted had him figured for when they spoke on the phone after Ted had read his ad on Craigslist, in which he claimed he was a 19 year old bisexual male looking for fun with an older man.
He probably was 19. although to Ted, the older he got, the younger 19 seemed to be. He was 19 once himself, but that was many years ago. Back then he was a college student bust trying to seduce the woman who would become his wife and endure a 26 year long sham of a marriage while Ted tried to hide his real feelings.
The kid raised his hand to knock again but then suddenly dropped it and turned away from the door as if to leave. Ted quickly opened it up before the kid got away, and when he heard the door open the young fellow spun around fast.
"Hi," Ted said jovially, making sure to hold his robe together as he stood in the doorway while cars whizzed by the front of the budget motel. "I was afraid you weren't going to show up. Come on in."
The kid took a tentative step toward the door, trying to look past Ted into the room, and when the older man saw what he was trying to do he stepped aside so that the kid could see that the room was empty.
"Nobody here but me," Ted said with a smile. "As for the room, I know it isn't much but times are tough and business ain't so hot these days."
The towhead, who at around 6' tall was almost a half foot taller than the husky older man, walked into the room, still looking around suspiciously as Ted closed the door behind him. The young man said he would be coming after work, and judging by the blue shirt that he wore that showed the logo of the major supermarket in the region, that seemed to be the truth.
"William," Ted said, reading the name on the badge on the skinny kid's chest. "Do you like William or Billy?"
"William - or Billy's okay," The kid mumbled, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Billy's good."
"Okay, Billy," the older man said. "I'm Ted. Nice to meet you."
They shook hands, and Ted felt the moistness on the lad's bony hand that disappeared inside of his own meaty paw.
"You're still scared, Billy?" Ted said after the kid refused his offer of a drink. "I'm not going to hurt you. Nothing is going to happen that you don't want to happen. You have a bad experience or something?"
"Yeah," Billy mumbled.
"Anything you want to talk about?"
"The other time I met somebody like this - when I went to the place, it turned out to be a bunch of guys," Billy said.
"Oh."
"They said they hated fags," Billy said, swallowing hard as his eyes welled up. "They did stuff to me. Bad stuff."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Ted said, looking up at the tall kid who was young enough to be his grandson. "Must have been horrible. I'm surprised that you would even try Craigslist again after that."
"I'm too young for bars, and besides, when you look like I do, it's better that people don't get a look at you ahead of time. I think older guys are nicer - they don't hurt your feelings like guys my age do."
"I certainly never try to hurt anybody - in any way," Ted said, putting his hands on Billy's bony shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "And just so you know, I think you're a very nice looking guy. A heck of a lot better looking than me."
"You're okay," Billy said, and smiled.
"Well I guess we're both okay then," Ted said, reaching out and putting his arms around Billy, who returned the hug after a brief moment of hesitation.
"Sit down here with me," Ted said as he sat on the edge of the bed and patted the space next to him, and for the next half hour Ted brought the lad out of his shell.
It was as if Billy never got to talk to anybody, for once Ted got him going there was no stopping him. He went from topic to topic, from baseball to movies to books with a breathless enthusiasm, and after a while it was obvious that his nervousness was gone.
Ted noticed Billy looking down for time to time, and it was then that he realized that his robe had opened a bit, unintentionally exposing his genitals.
"Oops. Sorry," Ted said while starting to close the robe before shrugging. "I didn't mean that. Obviously I wasn't showing off, because as you can see there isn't all that much to brag about."
"It's okay. It's cool," Billy said, glancing at the thick stub surrounded by a silver bush. "Never been with an uncircumcised guy before."