Dreamspinner Press Year Nine Greatest Hits

by Michael Murphy

  David studied Gray for a moment before answering, “All right. I’ll go out to dinner with you. But I’m not moving back in. We need some time apart. And I need to see if you can do what you’ve said you will.”

  “Dinner it is,” Gray said with a smile. They were alone in the classroom, seated in two desks that they had turned to face each other.

  “I love you, babe,” Gray said suddenly. “Please know that I’ve not said that often enough, and clearly I’ve not shown that at all lately, but it’s true. It’s the bedrock on which I’m built, on which I exist. I know that the White House has been beyond rough on you. You need to know that the only reason I’m able to do this is because of you. If you were not the stabilizing force that you are in my life, I wouldn’t be able to do half of what I’ve done since I first met you.

  “When we discussed me running for Vice President, it was with the assumption that I’d never become President. I mean, really, how often in the last hundred years or so has that happened? Not very. I don’t think anyone could have predicted what happened actually occurring.”

  “I know I certainly couldn’t have. You had a rough, nontraditional start. No argument. But that also seemed to put everyone around us a little off balance.” David nodded without looking at Gray.

  “From everything I’ve heard and read,” Gray continued, “being the spouse of a President is a miserable, thankless, nonpaying job. The women who have fulfilled that role have had a tough time. Your job is equally tough in a completely new way because there is no male predecessor you can talk to for advice.”

  David smiled a bit at that thought. “I do like mentoring,” he said.

  “And you’re damned good at it, just like you are a phenomenal teacher.

  “I started this conversation to apologize for completely missing what was happening with you. You have my permission to smack me on the head to get my attention if I ever do that again. And you’re right, by the way. I do get totally wrapped up in what I’m doing. I stick one toe in the water and before I know it, I’m in water up to my neck and not sure how to keep my head above water.”

  Gray paused, glancing away from David for a moment before asking the big question. “Are we okay?”

  “No, but I think we at least have some hope now. You really impressed me today.”

  “Good.” Gray beamed with delight at David.

  “It worked. I still don’t understand how you cleared such a big chunk of your day on such short notice. I was impressed.”

  “Me, too, when I heard you teach.”

  “I love what I do.”

  “Without any question, it is crystal clear that you love what you do, and you’re damned good at it.” Gray smiled at David. “Have you covered everything on your list?”

  “I can only think of one other thing,” David said.

  “All right, let me have it,” Gray said.

  “Once you’ve courted me, wooed me, and persuaded me that you are serious about taking better care of yourself, assuming I come back, which is not a given, you need to be prepared because I’m going to want sex—lots and lots of sex. We have months of lost time to make up for. You need to be prepared to spend hours with your legs wrapped around my shoulders. You might want to start doing exercises to tone up your leg muscles so you can spend time bouncing up and down on my hard dick. You also might want to have the Secret Service look into buying lube in those fifty-five-gallon drums that porn studios buy.”

  “I don’t know. That could be a deal breaker. I’ll have to think about that one.” Gray snickered. “Dr. Hammond, you are a tough negotiator. Did I do okay today?” Gray asked.

  “You did incredibly well today,” David reassured him. “I just want to see if you can keep it up.”

  “No problem. It’s still up. Do you want to feel?” Gray asked, spreading his legs.

  “That’s only one of the things that needs to be kept up. You know very well that what I’m talking about is whether today was a fluke or the start of something new.”

  David was surprised when Gray dropped to his knees in front of him and looked up at with sad eyes. “Please, David, I love you and want you to come back to me. We’re only strong when we’re together.”

  Chapter 17—Getting Reacquainted

  WHILE GRAY was on his overseas trip, David heard that one of the visiting international physicians who was there for a semester had to leave suddenly to return home. On a hunch, David called him and learned what he had hoped to be the case—the man had an apartment leased through the end of the semester. When David asked if he could move in, both men found solutions to problems. The international visitor had someone to take over the lease so he wouldn’t have to pay the rent out of his own pocket, and David had found a place besides a hotel to stay.

  He looked at the place that night and moved in the next day. He wanted to talk with Gray first about the idea, but Gray was overseas and unavailable, so David had to make the decision on his own, and he decided that day to move out of the hotel and into the apartment.

  Moving was not complicated for David—all he had were clothes in a couple of suitcases, and he was able to just put them in his office during the day and take them to the apartment that evening. The rental of an apartment gave him—and Gray, although Gray didn’t realize it yet—some much-needed breathing room to properly handle their delicate dance of reconciliation.

  Having a furnished apartment wasn’t all that much different from living in the hotel. One thing he had not figured on, though, was that, given the proximity to the campus, a lot of students also had apartments in the building.

  His second night in the new place, his cell phone rang. He had been anticipating this call from Gray.

  “Hello?”

  “David, I heard you haven’t been back to the White House to stay. Why continue to pay to rent a room by the night when all that space is available over there?”

  “Hi, Gray. How are you doing? How’s your trip going? Where are you tonight? I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

  “Sorry,” Gray told him. “I’ve been running on overdrive all day, so I just kept going in that mode. Sorry. Hi, babe. How was work today?”

  “Everything went well. The students I have in my one class are so young and new and eager still. It’s infectious. I feel so much younger being surrounded by them.”

  “You are young.”

  “I’m over forty now. I think that pretty much qualifies as no longer young. I’m pretty definitely now middle-aged. I’m no longer sitting on the edge able to see equally well in both directions. I’m sadly no longer young, as much as I’d like to deceive myself that I am.”

  “You’ll always be young to me, babe.”

  “Sure, because you’re older than me. And God knows you’re no longer young.”

  “Thanks, babe. I love you too.” Gray laughed.

  “Just calling it like I see it,” David said. “So how was your day?”

  “Long,” Gray moaned.

  “Spoken like a true middle-aged man,” David observed.

  “Bite me,” Gray shot back.

  “I don’t know if I remember how to,” David confessed. “The idea sounds like something we might potentially consider exploring to see if it might be appealing.”

  “I know. We’re going to take care of that when I get back.”

  “Don’t you mean you’re going to be a gentleman and take me out on a date first? And don’t even think that I’m going to put out on the first few dates.”

  “It would be nice if you did,” Gray said.

  “So would peace in the Middle East, but that’s not likely to happen either.”

  “So you’re going to leave a desperate man… desperate?”

  “What’s it that they say? Always leave them wanting more?”

  “Hasn’t it been long enough already?” Gray asked.

  “Way long enough, but I need to find out if you’re able to do what you’ve outlined. I’m not strong enough to go through all of this agai
n.”

  “You don’t trust me?” Gray asked.

  “You, I trust. You distracted by being President, not so much.”

  “Well, I plan to do my best to live up to everything I told you about before I left.”

  “Good. I look forward to the days ahead, then.”

  “You decided to stay in the hotel? Why?”

  “No, I’m not in the hotel anymore. The hotel was simply too expensive as a long-term option, so I’ve had to make alternate plans.”

  “Oh? Go on,” Gray said.

  “I’ve taken over the lease on an apartment near campus. The leaseholder needed someone fast to be able to cover the cost. I needed a short-term rental, so it seemed like a good fit.”

  Gray’s voice was quiet. “That sounds… it sounds like a long-term thing. Are you thinking of this in that way? How long do you plan to live there?”

  “I don’t have a timetable. It’s a month-to-month rental, but I needed something affordable so we could take our time. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on you too fast.”

  “So I’ve got to get busy and woo you, is that it?” Gray asked.

  “I figure a couple of months should be a good measure of how you’re able to do with putting your plans into operation. I need to see some follow-through before I decide if I should find something more permanent for housing.”

  “A couple of months? Please, not that long,” Gray pleaded. “Well, babe, hold on to your seat because you’re about to be wooed by the best.”

  “Don’t hurt yourself, old man,” David joked.

  “Bite me,” Gray told him.

  “Maybe in a few months,” David reminded him, “but not on the first few dates.”

  “So does that mean you’re going to make me wait a month or more to see you naked again?” Gray asked.

  “At a minimum,” David cautioned, his tone of voice serious.

  Gray was quiet for a moment before switching subjects. “How do your neighbors like living next to an old man and his Secret Service detail?”

  “Me they seem okay with. But honestly, I think they’re a little freaked by the agents. You know the agents can be fairly intimidating at times.”

  “Oh yes. I’ve watched them look at someone fiercely and seen the person practically crumple.”

  “They do have special training and abilities in intimidation,” David agreed. “At least it assures me that there will be no loud parties.”

  “Well, there is that,” Gray agreed with a chuckle.

  THE NEXT morning, when he got to his office, David found a single long-stemmed red rose in a crystal vase sitting on his desk with a note attached: “Consider the wooing to have begun. Gray.”

  David smiled. Even someone who had been married forever still liked to get flowers, still liked to know that their spouse loved them enough to think of them and to do something special. His mood from that single red rose was extraordinarily upbeat that entire day. Since Gray finally had a cell phone, David made a point of texting him to tell him thanks and to send him a photo of the rose, which truly was beautiful.

  The following day, another rose appeared, this one pink. The next day the rose was yellow, and the day after that a white one before returning to the classic red. The next day he didn’t get a rose, but he did have a date with Gray that evening for dinner, so he anticipated the man showing up with a rose. He wasn’t sure Gray should have committed to dinner that night, since he was just back from Europe and his body was on European time, which meant he’d feel exhausted and like he should be asleep during the time they were together.

  That evening, David quickly showered and changed his clothes in preparation for his date. A neighbor had stopped in to use his microwave for five minutes, which was when Gray arrived. David chuckled when his neighbor, a student, knocked on his bedroom door and had a very stunned look on his face.

  “Door, um, um, there’s a door for you. No, shit!” he said shaking his head. “There’s someone, there’s someone… at the… at the… door to see you. It’s the fucking President, dude. Holy fuck! He said you’re expecting him,” his neighbor said excitedly.

  David smiled and said, “Okay. I’ll be right out. Can you talk with him for a minute, entertain him until I get there?”

  He slipped on his shoes and then grabbed his jacket and walked out into the living room. His neighbor was still looking shell-shocked as he stood cautiously a few feet away from Gray. It was indeed Gray who stood just inside the front door. David introduced his neighbor to Gray and gave the young man a moment to bask in the glory of meeting the most famous man in the United States.

  Introductions complete, he leaned in, gave Gray a quick kiss, and said, “Right on time, babe.”

  David’s neighbor had recovered from his shock and asked, “What? Don’t I get a kiss too? I opened the door after all,” he said with an impish smile. Had Gray told him that he could have a kiss, the neighbor would probably have keeled over on the spot.

  “Sorry,” Gray said. “My kisses are reserved for only one man.”

  “So,” his neighbor said curiously. “You two know each other?”

  Both David and Gray turned to the young man and nodded. David spoke first. “Um, you do know that we’re married, right?”

  “You and me?” his neighbor asked playfully. “Dude, you should have told me.”

  “Um, no. Gray and I are married.”

  “Okay… then… what the fuck are you doing living here?”

  “Right to the point,” Gray said. “I like that in a man. David is living here because I was a horse’s ass, and he rightfully got mad at me. But he’s giving me a chance to make up for being an idiot.”

  While David’s neighbor nodded approvingly, Gray handed David a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses, wrapped with a gorgeous red bow.

  “Oh, Gray, they’re beautiful.” Instinctively David stepped forward and kissed Gray on the lips. Gray’s arm came around David’s shoulder to hold him for a minute.

  “Dudes, there are impressionable youngsters present,” he said while playing at shielding his eyes from the kiss.

  “Then I guess we need to do it better,” Gray said, wrapping his arms around David and drawing him in for a repeat kiss.

  “Give me a minute to find a vase to put these in,” David said after the kiss. He discovered that flower vases were not among the few things in his kitchen, but he found a pitcher to place the flowers in. Gray then took him by the hand and walked him out to the waiting limo in front of David’s apartment building.

  “Where are we going?” David asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  “I know I’ll see, but why can’t I know now?” David asked.

  “Because I’m not going to tell you.”

  “You know, sometimes I just hate you.”

  “No, you don’t,” Gray told him confidently. “You might get totally pissed off at me, but you don’t hate me. It’s not in your nature to hate anyone easily.”

  When David saw the limo stop in front of his favorite restaurant in all of DC, he instantly flashed back to the night they had planned to go here for dinner only to have some crisis du jour get in the way. He’d felt so bad about that. “Oh, no. He’s going to still be pissed,” David said.

  “Let me worry about that,” Gray told David.

  An agent opened the door and gestured for them to exit the car and move directly into the restaurant.

  “I’ve missed this place so much,” David said softly. “I’ve missed so much that we had to give up when we moved into the White House.”

  “I keep forgetting… no, I keep not realizing how much you gave up when we moved. I’m sorry again to be so horribly lacking in empathy toward you and what you were going through.”

  David looked at Gray and smiled, softly saying, “Thank you. And I understand that you were busy because you’d been thrown into the deep end of the pool.”

  The owner of the restaurant greeted them at the door with huge smiles, warm welcomes, an
d hugs. Partly because he knew them and partly because it was great for his business to have the President of the United States dine at his restaurant, the owner pulled out all the stops to give them a good experience.

  The food was outstanding. The wine pairings were simply spectacular. The ambiance was great. It felt like getting in touch with a part of their past that had somehow slipped away when they weren’t looking. For three hours, they talked, they posed for pictures with the owner and the staff and a couple of the patrons, they talked some more, they enjoyed their meal. Their meal was great, but the conversation was the best. David felt like he was visiting with an old friend he hadn’t seen in forever, which made him unbelievably happy.

  At ten o’clock, Gray looked at his watch and announced, “Shall we head out?”

  “Yes, let’s,” David told him.

  Once they were back in the car, before they moved, Gray asked, “Do you want to come over?”

  “Not on the first date,” David told him. “What kind of a person do you think I am, anyway?”

  “The best kind.” Gray told the driver to take them back to David’s apartment, but in the back of the limo, before he would let David go, he insisted on a good night kiss that turned so hot that it curled toes on both sides. Gray slipped his hand down to David’s crotch quickly, gently gliding his fingers over David’s erection, and then moved his hand onto David’s back.

  “Yes, it’s there,” David assured him.

  “Just checking. I had this nightmare that… never mind.”

  “No. What? Just say it.”

  Whispering with David lying mostly on top of him, Gray said, “I had this nightmare that I didn’t do it for you anymore. You’d said I was looking older, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get you… you know.”

  “Hard? Fired up? Horny? Ready to hump you? Any of those?”

  “Yes, any of those would work,” Gray confessed, looking embarrassed.

  “Well, I hope you found evidence that put that fear to rest.”

  “I found something to give me momentary comfort.”

  “Only momentary?” David asked.

  “When you’re back in our bed, and we’re… showing each other how horny the other one makes us… then I’ll be sure.”