Bidder Rivalry

by E. F. Mulder

  “You’re lucky.” There wasn’t a hint of sarcasm in Rudy’s tone, despite his relationship with his own father.

  “Yes. I was. I am…for the memories.”

  “How come you don’t have to wear boots?” Curtis asked their father.

  “Dads don’t wear boots—or dress shoes if they can help it.” He offered a wink as Gideon walked past.

  “I like these shoes.”

  “I know you do. You wear them more than I do. Grab my sneakers while you’re over there.”

  “Ted! You are not wearing sneakers to a concert.”

  “Dad was kind of glad I wouldn’t take his shoes off that day,” Gideon said. “He had two pairs of shoes, my dad did, sneakers and dress shoes. He was bound and determined to go to that concert in sneakers, and I was bound and determined to lie around sick in dress shoes.”

  Rudy squeezed Gideon’s hand on his chest.

  “Now, our boots—us three kids’—they stayed in the kitchen, but our regular shoes were always lined up on a rubber mat right beside the front door, where we took them off the moment we came in. No shoes on Mom’s rug!”

  Gideon listened for her laugh.

  “I wore Dad’s shoes on it, though,” he whispered. “Mom knew. But she never scolded me for it, maybe because they were practically still brand new, hardly ever saw the outdoors, those shoes.” Gideon let his smile fade away. “I wore them all the time for two days after the accident, day and night, except at bedtime, then I’d put them on the mat, where Mom’s, Curtis’s, and Beth’s sneakers were. I loved wearing my dad’s shoes before he died. I needed to wear them after. On the third morning…” Gideon took a deep breath. “They were gone. When I woke up late that Saturday, the shoes weren’t where I’d left them.”

  The tear that fell from Gideon’s cheek left a dark spot on Rudy’s gray sweater.

  “‘Where are Dad’s shoes?’ I asked. ‘Your father needed them back,’ Gramma said. I guess…I guess he was buried in them.”

  “Gideon.”

  “I bet he changed into sneakers as soon as he could, though.”

  “Probably.”

  “The Funn Family Christmas episode aired the day of their funeral…that same Saturday. I watched it right before I had to go. I’m on BuyBay a lot, mostly as a spectator. When the shoes came up, I had to try. I put them on the mat every night now, just inside my apartment door, with Mom’s, and Curtis’s and Beth’s. Thank you.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “But you gave them to me anyway. You’re amazing.”

  “Gideon!” It was Jacob. His sudden shout made Rudy jump.

  Not Gideon, though. “I’m used to hearing voices up here…though not quite so loud,” he said.

  “You up there, Gideon?”

  “Yes, Jacob.”

  “You okay?” Stefan asked.

  “I’m good, guys. Thanks. Rudy’s here?”

  “That ass-hat with the shoes?”

  Gideon fought back a grin. “Yes. We’ll be down in a bit. Tell Brett, okay?”

  “Will do. Happy New Year.”

  “You, too, Jacob.”

  “Happy New Year!”

  “Happy New Year to you, Stefan.”

  “They a couple?” Rudy asked. “The redhead and…”

  “Tight Levis and a T-shirt.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Maybe,” Gideon said. “I don’t know. Could be something new.”

  “Like me being an ass-hat?” Rudy took Gideon’s other hand.

  “They don’t know you like I’m starting to. When they do—”

  “Hey!” Rudy interrupted him.

  “Yeah?”

  “Your lyrics…Your song…The one line I read, something like…Strolling beside you, looking up into your eyes.” Rudy closed his, as if going back to that night to see the sheet music. “Walking behind you, every one of your steps makes two of mine…”

  “Whoa.”

  “What?”

  “It’s not something like that. It’s exactly that. You…you remembered it after one quick glance?”

  “Yeah. It kept singing to me. I felt a little bit of you through it. A dad thing…Now I get it.”

  “And maybe you saw some of what you wish you had…or what you did once, but not anymore. Have you spoken to your brother?”

  “Yes—as if we were acquaintances…shallow…meaningless bullshit.”

  Gideon looked out at the stars eavesdropping on their conversation.

  “I was dying to tell him everything about this place…everything about you…how I felt, how much I was into you. I didn’t. I’m not brave like you, Gideon. I don’t know how you keep going.”

  “You are brave, ass-hat.”

  Gideon loved to hear Rudy laugh.

  “You came back here…twice. Way, way, up here.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Rudy said.

  “We could go down to the bar.”

  “This is way less scary than that.”

  Rudy was brave, though. After a little more kissing, they headed down. New Year’s songs being few and far between, Gideon played a bunch of Christmas ones, and took more spontaneous requests.

  “That is amazing.” Rudy was impressed. “How you play just by ear.”

  “How about you sing while he plays, Ass-hat?” Jacob’s smirk was devilish.

  “So that’s really going to be my name?” Rudy whispered in Gideon’s ear.

  “Until they think of something worse,” Gideon predicted.

  The gang came up with some pretty filthy tunes for Rudy to sing. In fact, Eileen Googled dirtiest song lyrics ever, then ran down the list of results, calling them out to him one at a time. Many of the songs were rather obscure. Gideon would plunk out a rather basic melody once Denise handed over her phone, so Rudy could sing along with “Darling Nikki” or Missy Elliot’s “Work It.”

  Rudy was game. He might have blushed once or twice, but he never refused, even going balls to the wall on “I Touch Myself.”

  “Guess how many of those performances we filmed for social media?” Denise teased.

  “How many?” Rudy asked cautiously.

  “Every single one…ass-hat.”

  “Okay you guys, be nice,” Gideon pleaded. “We’ve kissed and made up.”

  “Several times,” Rudy added.

  “We’ll just hold onto them, Gid.” The pat Jacob offered Rudy on the shoulder was as loud as a mousetrap when sprung. “In case he breaks your heart.”

  “I think their teasing means they like you,” Gideon said.

  “They like me?”

  A peanut pinging off Rudy’s forehead indicated it might take a while to get all the way there. Dot’s smirk indicated she was proud of her shot.

  “They will…pretty soon.”

  It was after two by the time Gideon closed the lid on his piano and the year 2016. While he was picking up chairs and helping Brett clean up, he caught part of a conversation between Rudy and Kurt.

  “Thanks again for getting Gideon outside.”

  “No prob, bro.”

  “I had to ask someone new…someone who wasn’t here the first night I came in.”

  “Yeah. I heard about that.” Kurt’s grin was adorable.

  “I bet. Gideon thinks it was angels that got him up to the roof, so don’t say anything, okay?”

  “You got it.”

  Gideon smiled. He raised his eyes upward. “Even if,” he whispered. “We know.”

  “What’s that?” Rudy asked, dragging a trash can toward the back door.

  “Just happy you’re here.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Work’s done, so…” Gideon looked around. “Should we head upstairs?”

  “Your place?”

  “Yes,” Gideon said. “If you want…”

  “Very much.”

  “It’s no Graceland.” Gideon picked his wig up off the top of the piano. He never had put it back on. At this point, everyone knew he wasn’t really Elvis anyway. “B
ut my palace awaits.”

  “As I alluded to before, I haven’t kissed that many men over the past two decades,” Rudy admitted as they paused on the stairs. He’d kissed Gideon at least twenty times in one night by then. “I never really wanted to.” They stopped to kiss again. “Like I also said earlier, sex is one thing. Kissing…that’s something else. It’s funny how that night we sang…kissing you was what I thought about most.”

  “Same here…at least at first…or at second. I really liked your shoes, and I did think about f…about other stuff. I guess we’re both a little bit shy in some ways. A guy can fake sex, but both people really have to be involved to make kissing work.” Nearly every syllable had their lips touching still.

  “A guy can fake sex?”

  Gideon laughed, right into Rudy. “Not tonight.”

  They rushed the rest of the way up, suddenly more eager. Gideon paused at the door, though, with his hand on the knob. “Something wrong?” Rudy asked.

  “I’m nervous,” Gideon confessed before turning the key. “It’s been a while. I’m not at my goal weight. My underwear is pretty basic.”

  Rudy took his hand. “I won’t look until you take them off.”

  “And then there’s…You’ll see, and you might change your mind when you do.”

  “I don’t think so. I want to be with you, Gideon. I really do.”

  “Okay.” With a deep breath, Gideon turned on the light just inside. The ones on the shelf came on with the switch, too, immediately illuminating Gideon’s rather odd collection. “This is it. We’ll be doing it in every room.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Your mouth will be in the bedroom, your hand in the bathroom, one foot in the living room and one in the kitchen. I plan on putting every one of those body parts—and several others—to good use.”

  Rudy snickered. He got it.

  “Happy New Year, Priscilla.” Gideon went to the kitchen first, to sprinkle in fish food like confetti, all the while keeping one eye on Rudy to catch his reaction to the myriad of shoes.

  “Yes. Happy 2017.” Rudy echoed the sentiment, even as he stared straight ahead at the shelves.

  Gideon explained it the best he could, coming back to Rudy’s side. “I really don’t know if it’s some sort of psychological manifestation of grief, or if I…if I just like feet.”

  “Ah.”

  “I put yours in there…see?” Gideon nodded toward the suede boots as he took off Frank Funn’s shoes and set them on the mat. “You can have them back, of course.”

  “We’ll see. Should I take off the ones I’m wearing?”

  “You’re staying?”

  “Of course, I’m staying.” Rudy took Gideon’s hand.

  “Loafers…British tan with a tassel. How about you wait and take them off in the bedroom?” Gideon led him that way.

  “Whatever makes you happy.”

  Gideon spent a great deal of time with his mouth at Rudy’s bare feet. “You have hair on your toes.”

  “I have hair all over.”

  “I noticed.”

  “Am I not supposed to have it on my toes?” Rudy shuddered slightly when Gideon took the biggest one in his mouth.

  “There’s not a single part of you I would change.”

  A little timid at first, Gideon relaxed some as Rudy started to hum something. What was it? He stopped what he was doing a moment to play “Name That Tune.”

  “Hmm, hum, hmm-hmm-hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

  Was it “Here Comes Santa Claus”? Yes. Yes, it was.

  “Already?” Gideon asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind.”

  When Rudy took charge—just like with the online bidding, domination went back and forth—he was slow and deliberate, pausing to ask if Gideon was okay, mostly with just his eyes, sometimes just the brows. Rudy asked aloud at Gideon’s back, before bending him forward to enter him. By then Gideon was excited and at ease, rubbing himself where he was hungry for Rudy’s cock. He’d tasted it, the salty flesh and sweet precum that came with fast, tight hand strokes and a slow, warm mouth. It was firm and thick, and Gideon wanted it up in him.

  He inhaled with a hiss when the tip pressed past the tightness of his ass. He gripped the rungs of his wooden headboard, backing up his lower half, rubbing his own swollen dick on his pillow next to the condom wrapper as Rudy slid in and out, and then thrust upward with force.

  Gideon came with his hard-on in Rudy’s hand. Rudy finished inside him, quite noisily, which got him to wondering, “Do goldfish have ears?”

  “They can hear vibrations.” Gideon made motorboat sounds behind Rudy’s lobe. “I bring her to bed most nights…there…on the nightstand, so she doesn’t get lonely. Leaving her out in the kitchen was probably a good idea.”

  “But now you want to go get her?”

  “Is that weird?”

  After at least a dozen more kisses, the two fell asleep, their legs intertwined, their hands clasped, and Priscilla beside the bed where she belonged. They’d gone out to get her together, after Rudy, shy once more, had insisted on wrapping himself in the top sheet.

  * * * *

  Gideon awoke around eleven on New Year’s morning. “We’ve slept half the day away,” he said, waking Rudy with kisses down his naked torso.

  “It’s a holiday.” Rudy moaned as he stretched. The covers displaced, the thick golden hair atop his morning wood became visible, and then the delicious dick as well. “We can sleep all day, if we want.”

  “The parade’s on.” Gideon slapped some bare flesh. “Get up.” As tempting as it was for him to lie there, he moved.

  “So bossy.” Rudy smacked Gideon back, twice as hard, right on the ass.

  The aroma of brewing coffee was in the air as Gideon showered. Rudy was holding a cup when he got to the living room with his clothes in his hand. “The parade isn’t on until tomorrow, because New Year’s came on Sunday this year.”

  “Oh yeah.” Gideon dropped his towel and started dressing.

  “We could have slept some more.” Rudy watched.

  “You’re a morning grump, aren’t you?”

  Rudy chucked a dishtowel from the fridge handle. “Maybe. Hey. As long as we’re up…” Rudy walked over to where Gideon was putting on pants. He wrapped his arms around from the back and walked Gideon toward the counter between the two rooms. “How about we drive over to my house?”

  “Priscilla’s never been to Arizona.”

  “She’ll love it.”

  “You’ll have to put on clothes,” Gideon said. “And let me put on mine.”

  Rudy was naked, no longer worried about Priscilla getting a good look, apparently. “What a waste,” he said. “If I have my way, we’re just gonna take them off again.”

  * * * *

  If able to speak, Priscilla would have said “Holy shit!” upon entering Rudy’s house. Gideon was thinking it the whole time, as Rudy gave them a tour that lasted ten minutes—and that was only the downstairs! The Christmas decorations were pretty, but it seemed as if Rudy didn’t even bother to notice they were there. He didn’t point anything out, like “I brought this from home when I moved,” or “This is from my very first Christmas here.”

  “So, should we take Priscilla up to the bedroom,” he asked at the stairs, “or…do you think she’d watch?”

  “Oh. She might be nervous down here by herself.”

  “Okay. We’ll find her a place where we’re out of her line of vision.”

  Rudy’s bedroom was as grand as Gideon imagined it would be. Everything was cream colored—monochromatic and lush—almost like a winter wonderland.

  “What’s that room?” Gideon pointed to a pair of huge doors. “Some sort of unbelievably luxe, spa-like bathroom?”

  “That’s over there.” Rudy pointed to the other side of the room. “The shower is huge, and there are jets in there that will make you forget about any man you’ve ever been with.”

  “Is that a challenge?” Gideon a
sked.

  “Any man up until last night. This,” Rudy reached for the pewter door handle, “is my closet.”

  It was bigger than Gideon’s apartment.

  “And…you’re really going to like what’s hiding behind door number two.” Another sliding panel parted to reveal an entire wall of shoes.

  “Oh my God.”

  “It’s a lot of shoes.”

  Gideon concurred. “It’s a lot of shoes.”

  “I could hardly say anything about your collection, your…”

  “Fetish?”

  “Obviously, I’ve been trying to cure loneliness and anger with things.”

  “Oh.” Gideon was still studying the individually lit cubicles, each one with two sandals, two loafers, two sneakers, two slippers, or two boots.

  “Don’t forget, I’m still a work in progress,” Rudy said.

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “I’m working on it…harder than ever…and I hope you’ll stick around.”

  Gideon tore himself away from the majestic sight before him when Rudy took his hand. “I still want this to be about starting something, Gideon. Every day for the whole year, and the year after that, if we’re lucky—if I am—I want to make a memory, to find things out, and learn more about you.”

  “I like that, Rudy. Yes. I want the same thing.”

  “Good.” They kissed. “Good.” Rudy sighed as if relieved. “Okay then. Now that we’re looking at a possible future…right now…in the present…do you wanna fuck in here…with the shoes?”

  Gideon swallowed hard when Rudy kicked off his, then pulled off his socks and handed them over—socks worn twice now. “More than I’ve ever wanted to fuck anyone anywhere,” Gideon said.

  “Then let’s get you out of those clothes.”

  A funny thing happened. Gideon forgot to be self-conscious once he was naked and hard. Actually, he was hard before he was naked. The smell of leather was always a turn-on.

  “One more thing.” Rudy reached for a drawer up high and came out with a set of handcuffs similar to the ones attached to the Elvis Sing-Along bar rail. “As retaliation…or in tribute to our first date—”

  “Oh no you don’t.” Gideon snatched them. His short burst of laughter sounded dorky and loud even though the closet was more than spacious. It was enough of a distraction, however, that before Rudy knew what was happening, he was once again manacled, this time to the closet rod.