Jacket Lost
It was the first time I'd worn the jacket and I'd lost it. I had other jackets, but when I'd gone out the day before, I'd decided this one would be best to wear, and I was right. The temperature in Paris was changing, and there was a great variation between late morning and mid afternoon. It was too nice out to want to go to indoor cafĂ©s. The Parisian way was to settle in outdoor cafĂ©s, drink coffee, leisurely read the paper, and ogle womenâor, in my case, menâas city life drifted by you.
I'd been transferred directly and unexpectedly from the Mediterranean, so most of the jackets I had with me before my goods arrived in Paris were lightweight. They weren't up to the slight chill in the Paris morning, and yet I didn't want to be the only one sitting inside a café for my morning break from my international export company job. I had sought out the Paris assignment because I also worked as a male model and Paris was the Eden of high fashion. I'd acquired a bit of a reputation for walking the runway, and Paris was a big opportunity for me.
The jacket had been just right for this weather. I'd had it for years and had only kept it for sentimental reasons, because most of those years I had been living in the tropics. The jacket was much too heavy for where I'd lived before now. It was a soft grayish-green wool, woven in an intricate pattern and with leather inserts of nearly identical color as side panels, elbow guards, and wrist bands. But it had come from my father, who had had it made in Oslo during his stint there as the military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Norway. It was much too nice to give to a charity organization in its nearly new condition. I knew my father must have carefully picked it out, as he was as style conscious as I was.
I always had assumed that someday I could put the jacket into service myself. I'd even bought an expensive cashmere neck scarf to go with it in a bazaar in New Delhi that was of a color I thought would match the coat and that, victoriously, had done so perfectly. I'm sure I could be considered overconcerned about style and clothing, but fashion was a major aspect of my life. I took great care with the grooming of my wardrobe and my body, and I'd always found it easy to fall in with men who appreciated the care I took with myself as well. I expected the same of them.
And now, after only one day of wearing the jacket around Paris to various offices and cafés in a flurry of activity in setting up my new life in the French capital, I somehow had lost the jacket. The day had warmed as it had progressed. There were any number of places I could have entered, wearing the jacket, and left, not feeling the need for a jacket. The worst part was that the jacket had had so little part of my life, other than sentimentality and being a timeless style, that I couldn't be sure I'd even recognize the jacket if I saw it somewhere other than in my closet or on the back of my chair.
Thus it was that, when I was walking past an outdoor cafĂ© on a Paris street near my apartment late the next morning, I did a double take when I looked into the cafĂ© and saw a jacket that very easily could be mine draped over the back of a chair. The young man seated in the chair caught my eye as I stood there, wondering and speculating, and gave me a smile. He was a beautiful young manâdark and sultry, with a day's stubble of beard that added to the sensuality of an athletic-frame European male, and with an infectious and teasing smile that went beyond his full-lipped mouth with dazzling white teeth and into his dark eyes. He was impeccablyâand casuallyâdressed and could well have been a model himself.
I stood there, gawking at himâor, rather, at the jacket, although he obviously didn't understand that it was the jacket, not him, I was staring atâfor a moment longer than needed for him to get the impression that I was interested in him. In hindsight, I could see that he was justified in thinking that I had been coming on to him from the beginning. In response, he turned in three-quarters profile to me in the chair, leaned back, and smiled again in a "what you see is what you get" fashion. And what I could see was very presentable indeed.
If I'd given him my full attention, I, of course, would have been interested in him. But my focus was on the jacket. Had I been in this cafĂ© yesterday? Yes, I think I might have been. Had I sat at that table? Yes, possibly. Could I just have left the jacket on the back of the chair when I left and no one had taken it away? Unlikelyâat least that no one would have noticed it as abandoned and taken it awayâbut not impossible, if the cafĂ©, one that was open twenty-four-hours a day, remained as busy as it often did.
The smile on his face broadened and he gestured to me, inviting me to sit at the table. The gesture refocused my attention on him more fully, and a couple of parts of me took noteâmy heart gave an extra bleep, and another part of me noticeably hardened. He was a beautiful young man, fully masculine, but totally sensual. His clothes fit him like a glove, including across the bulge at his crotch. There was a type of man I melted to lay under. This was such a man. I mostly went with older men, but occasionally I preferred a younger oneâwhen I was in the mood for vigor.
I accepted his invitation and sat at the table. In the blink of an eye, a waiter was at my elbow and I had ordered coffee. I would be there, with this dark and sultry hunk, at least as long as it took for me to finish my coffee. The young man's cup was refilled when my coffee arrived. He was willingly staying around too.
We couldn't communicate with each other in other than hand signals and the occasionally mutually understood word. He was French and I was American and had unexpectedly and on short notice been transferred to Paris. It would be monthsâpossibly neverâbefore I'd be able to converse in the language, although I did have a facility for learning languages and knew several. I'm pretty good at figuring the essential meaning of a word out when given in context of the situation.
We managed to maintain interest in each other and keep the interaction animated despite the language barrier, with some misunderstandings and, increasingly, at least one quite clear shared understandingâhe wanted to fuck me and I was quite willing for him to do so.
He was a university student, making that evident by pointing to a pile of books on the table, and saying the words "Sorbonne" and "
architecture
," the latter word pronounced differently in French and English, but perfectly understandable to me when he said it in French. I got across that I very much liked the jacket hanging on the back of his chair, but not that I wondered if it was
my
jacket. In turn, he admired my Gucci polo shirt, saying "Gucci?" with a question mark, and I nodded and smiled and said "
Oui
," which was about the extent of my French vocabulary at that point. I wasn't sureâat least thenâwhen he motioned, with a twinkle of his eye, the act of pulling the shirt over my head, that he was propositioning me. Not completely understanding, I smiled back at him and said "
Oui
."
That served as some sort of ice breaker and deal maker that I didn't immediately understand, but had no objection to when I did understand it. The conversation, such as it was, became more intimate, with touching, and lingering gazes, and him pointing to himself and saying "Jacques" and then pointing to me and waiting for me to say "Ryan."
This was followed with him smiling that million-dollar smile again, pointing upâwhich I only understood in reliving the moment as meaning he wanted us to go up to someplace privateâand popping his tongue in the side of his mouth. I didn't fully understand that, but I was getting the message. His hand went to my thigh, above the knee, and he looked dreamily at me. I didn't try to remove his hand, which told him all he wanted to know.
What I
did
fully understand was when he folded over the fingers of one of his hands to form a sheath and pointed at me with a quizzical look and a "
Oui
?" and then showed me the middle finger of his other hand, declaring "
Oui
," inserted that finger in the sheath formed with the other hand, moved it vigorously in and out, and popped his tongue inside his cheek again. He wanted to ensure that I was a bottom and was declaring himself as a top. I now understood what the popping of a tongue in the cheek meant. I was to think about how I found out and smile, every time I saw a Frenchman do that when a sexy woman passed him on the street.
What could I do but answer with the only French word I'd mastered. I said "