by Ariel Tachna
“Anchovies,” Lee replied.
“Anything you’d find at a picnic,” Michael retorted, laughing.
“No, I’m good with any sandwich meats, cheeses, chips, fruit, that sort of thing,” Lee said. “Water would be my beverage of choice.”
“For a day in the park, that’s the best choice,” Michael answered. “It’s not June yet, but I don’t expect it to be cool either.”
He heard the sound of a keyboard clacking. “They’re predicting clear weather, high in the upper 80s,” Lee said after a moment. “We’ll be warm, but not miserable.”
“And it’s always cooler in the park under the trees,” Michael added. “So I’ll see you Saturday at nine?”
“See you then,” Lee agreed, hanging up and leaving Michael feeling alternately elated and nervous. He wanted to see Lee again, to see if the incredible ease of the evening together in Hermann Park would recreate itself, but he feared it wouldn’t work out that way, that the magic of the shadows would fade in the light of day, leaving him with only a tarnished memory. Telling himself to stop being melodramatic, he pulled up the Brazos Bend web site so he could refamiliarize himself with the park, the better to impress Lee next weekend.
The weather Saturday morning was as clear and perfect as Michael could have hoped, although he suspected it would be hot before the day was out. He had a cooler stashed in his trunk with a selection of prosciutto, salami, and cheeses along with a crusty baguette and plenty of water. It wasn’t the most romantic picnic ever, but it was practical and tasty. As he pulled into the Meyerland shopping center parking lot at ten ’til nine, he looked around for Lee’s Prius, not seeing it yet. He was early, though. Getting out of the car, he leaned against the trunk, watching the cars go by on 610 and wondering what direction Lee was coming from. The card gave his phone number and web site, but not a business address. Lee arrived five minutes later, pulling in next to Michael and climbing out of the car. In deference to the heat, he wore a pair of hiking shorts and a thin T-shirt along with heavy hiking boots and a baseball cap. He looked good enough to eat.
“Have you been waiting long?”
Michael shook his head. “Five minutes maybe,” he said. “I didn’t want to make you wait on me. Do you need anything from your car before we leave?”
“Nope, I’ve got everything I need. Sunglasses and a cap,” Lee said.
They chatted about their week as they drove down 59 to the park, Lee relating the work he’d done for the orders from the con as well as two special orders he’d gotten since then. Michael talked about the new account at the advertising firm where he worked and how demanding his bosses had suddenly become because of it.
“It sounds like you needed today as a break,” Lee said.
“Yeah,” Michael agreed, rubbing away the tension that settled in the back of his neck whenever he thought about work. “I love my job, but the past few weeks have been crazy. I have to keep telling myself everything will settle down again soon. It’s the only way to stay sane.”
“It will help,” Lee said, “but really staying sane is about more than pushing back the meltdown. It’s about truly letting go and relaxing. We’ll do that today. You’ve vented. I’ve shared. No more talk about work. We’re here to enjoy ourselves and see the world through a kid’s eyes again.”
Michael thought that sounded wonderful. He paid the entrance fee at the park, waving aside Lee’s offer to split the cost. It was hardly expensive, and Michael liked the idea of treating Lee to the day. They grabbed water bottles, leaving the cooler in the trunk, and started down toward the lake.
“This was your suggestion. Tell me about the park,” Lee said as they walked.
Smiling, Michael gave Lee a brief history of the park, its founding and expansion, its conservation work and facilities.
“Now look around me and tell me what you see,” Lee prompted.
Michael grinned, pointing out a spider web stretched between the branches of one of the live oak trees that bordered the path they walked on.
“Do you know what kind of spider it is?” Lee asked, stopping to study the web.
“No idea,” Michael replied cheerfully, “but it’s a striking web. You rarely see one that big and perfect at the same time. At least I rarely see them that way.”
“No, you’re right,” Lee said. “Usually by the time they get to be that size, they’ve caught a fly or two, and there are holes or places where the spider has repaired the web. Those are interesting too, but they aren’t the even perfection of a fresh web.”
“I remember coming here with my parents when I was a kid and trying to see how many different kinds of birds we could see,” Michael said with a smile as they left the spider web and walked on. “I read somewhere that over three hundred species of birds have been spotted within the park. We never saw anywhere near that many, of course, but we got pretty good at identifying the common ones.”
“There’s a bench over there,” Lee said, pointing to a shaded rest area under the branches of a huge live oak tree. “Let’s sit for a few minutes and see what comes to visit us.”
“I don’t even know if I’ll recognize any but the most obvious anymore,” Michael warned.
“It isn’t about knowing every kind of bird,” Lee said, “but about taking the time to look around you again. You knew how to look as a child. Let that come back.”
“The best place for serious observation is the tower in the center of the park,” Michael suggested.
“Michael,” Lee scolded, “relax and look up at the tree over your head. There’s plenty to observe right there.”
Michael leaned back, bracing his hands behind him so he could peer up into the branches of the tree. A cardinal flitted by, followed shortly by a raucous blue jay. Michael chuckled at the noise, hearing Lee sharing his laughter behind him.
“Look over there,” Lee said softly, drawing Michael’s attention to the next tree. “It’s a hawk, I think, although I don’t know what kind.”
“A broad-winged hawk,” Michael said, recognizing the bird. “I don’t remember a lot of birds from when I was younger, but I remember that one.” He sat up and looked a little closer. “It looks like a juvenile. It’s small, and its feathers aren’t the right color yet.”
Lee smiled and rested his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “You remember more than you realize. Do you want to keep watching or walk on?”
“Let’s stay a little longer,” Michael said, looking around with greater interest.
They lingered for another half an hour, Michael growing more and more excited as he saw birds he had not seen in fifteen years or more. “Yes, I know, they’re probably all around me in Houston,” he added when he shared his excitement with Lee, “but now I’m looking again.”
“That’s the important thing,” Lee said, his hand sliding down Michael’s arm. “The past is done. You can’t change it now, but you can choose not to repeat mistakes you’ve made and learned from.”
“I thought that’s what I was doing when I avoided you at first at the con,” Michael admitted. “I saw the leather, not in the typical cowboy style, and I walked away rather than get sucked back in.”
“Back in?” Lee asked.
Michael nodded. “I dated a guy in college who was a real leather freak. It was kind of fun at first, getting dressed up, going to clubs. What’s the harm in a pair of leather pants, right?”
“I’m not going to argue that one with you,” Lee said with a grin, “but the leather pants weren’t the problem.”
“No,” Michael agreed, “I was fine with the leather pants. I was even fine with the occasional bit of role play. He tied me up a couple of times, which didn’t do all that much for me, but it did wonders for the sex because he was so into it.”
“There’s definitely something to be said for a partner who’s really into what you’re doing,” Lee said with a laugh. “It can make you feel sexy as hell. So what happened?”
“He talked me into going to a different clu
b,” Michael said. “An S/M club. I was twenty-one, barely old enough to drink. My boyfriend tried to style himself as a Dom, but he wasn’t any older than I was, and the real Doms descended on us like flies on honey. Nothing awful happened. I was obviously freaked out, too freaked out to give any kind of consent. One of the Doms realized I was way out of my element and took me to a back room. Of course that freaked me out even more at first. He gave me a stern warning about getting in over my head and showed me the back way out with the assurance that if I came back, he’d teach me a thing or two about respect. It’s not like I was abused or anything, but it was one of those experiences that leave a bad taste in your mouth, even years later. I decided I wasn’t going back down that road, and everything about your booth looked like that’s where it would take me.”
“So what changed your mind?” Lee asked.
“Watching you with the kids,” Michael said. “Kids are smart, a lot smarter than people give them credit for. They know when someone’s genuinely interested in them. They might have spoken to you the first time without prompting, but they didn’t stay and play with you simply because you were there. The image of you in your leather gear holding little Edward didn’t fit with the image in my head, but the image of you and Edward was real, which meant there had to be something wrong with the one in my head. Once I accepted that, I was ready to give you a chance, and you aren’t at all like my ex or any of what I saw in that club, despite the leather clothes.”
“I like leather,” Lee said again, “and I often wear it just because, but I also know my clients, and creating the very image you tried to avoid is what lures a lot of them in. If they think I’m part of that scene, or at least familiar with it, they’re more comfortable describing what they want, especially if it’s something more toward the fetish side. It’s a business decision that’s paid off for me more than once.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Michael agreed, swatting at a fly that buzzed around his head, “but it took Edward to make me open to the idea that it could be a business decision without being a lifestyle choice. That and seeing you in jeans instead of leather at the restaurant on Saturday night.”
“You don’t really expect me to believe your ex wore leather all the time,” Lee teased.
“No, of course not, but I’m not sure I would have given into the impulse to approach you if you’d still been in leather,” Michael explained. “The bugs are getting bad. Let’s walk and give them a less stable surface to land on.”
Lee rose immediately, catching Michael’s hand in his as they walked off the main walkway onto one of the smaller paths. “And now that you do know me?” Lee asked. “Will it bother you if I wear my leathers sometimes?”
“I don’t think it will,” Michael said, a thrill going through him at the thought of holding hands like a couple of teenagers. “A pair of leather pants at a bar doesn’t set me off. It was more the combination of nothing but leather clothes and all the gear in the booth.”
“I’ve gotten used to it because I make the stuff all the time,” Lee said, “but I remember what it felt like to be unnerved by all the restraints and floggers and the like. I usually keep them at the workshop anyway, so you don’t have to worry about them being around if you ever come over to my place.”
“Is that an invitation?” Michael teased.
“If you want it to be.”
Michael stopped on the path, turning to face Lee as he reached for the man’s other hand. “I want it to be.”
Lee’s smile flashed across his face, stealing Michael’s breath much as it had the first time he saw it. He had leaned forward to kiss Lee a second time before he even realized what he was doing. This time, though, he didn’t pull away immediately and neither did Lee.
Lee’s lips were smooth against Michael’s, not even a hint of stubble on his upper lip, making Michael wonder how carefully the other man had shaved that morning. His lips were warm and supple, returning the kiss eagerly without demanding more. Michael appreciated the restraint even as a part of him wanted to see it crumble. He didn’t want to rush, though. For one thing, they were on a path in a public park in broad daylight. Not exactly conducive to anything but bug bites and getting caught. More than that, though, he liked the idea of spending the day with Lee without constant sexual tension between them. Drawing back slowly, he squeezed Lee’s hands. “Let’s finish our hike. We have a picnic waiting for us.”
The picnic went over exactly as Michael had hoped. When they had packed up the leftovers, all five bites they couldn’t eat, Lee had shown no interest in rushing back to Houston, so Michael suggested they hike some more. They’d ended up wandering the park until nearly dark. “I’ve got some steaks at the house,” Michael said as they started back to the city. “We could toss a couple on the grill and watch a movie or something if you don’t have anywhere you have to be.”
“I think that sounds wonderful,” Lee agreed, which was how they had ended up sitting on Michael’s couch, steaks and sodas on the coffee table, and Raiders of the Lost Ark playing on TV.
“I can’t believe you want to watch this,” Michael said as the opening credits rolled.
“I can’t believe you have it and don’t watch it at least once a week,” Lee retorted. “Come on. Harrison Ford all dusty and sweaty and doing the hero thing? It’s like a wet dream come to life.”
Michael flushed a little. “He was my first crush.”
“Good taste,” Lee said. “Mine was Johnny Depp.”
“Donnie Brasco?” Michael asked, trying to think what movies might have been out at the time Lee was fourteen or fifteen.
“21 Jump Street all the way,” Lee said. “I saw it in reruns, but I was so in love with him.”
“They’ve both gotten even better with age,” Michael said. “It gives me hope.”
“Hope for what?”
“That I’ll still be able to catch a man’s eye when I’m their age,” Michael replied.
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” Lee assured him. “They still look good, for sure, but it’s character that holds the eye, not looks. That’s what all the good ones, the ones we follow for years, have. It’s true for actors, but it’s also true for friends and lovers. The ones we stay with are the ones with depth, not the ones with pretty faces.”
“The pretty face doesn’t hurt,” Michael joked.
Lee shook his head. “That face,” he said, pointing to the screen as it showed a close-up of Harrison Ford, “has never been pretty. Attractive, handsome, chiseled, drop dead gorgeous, but never pretty. It’s the interesting faces that catch our eye and the interesting characters that hold our attention.”
Michael had to admit the truth in that statement when what had caught his eye about Lee was the way his smile changed his face from average to stunning. Lee’s flustered expression when Michael told him that was too adorable for words, so Michael settled for kissing him instead.
“I thought we were watching the movie,” Lee said, his voice slightly breathless, when they parted.
“We are,” Michael said, putting his arm around Lee’s shoulders and relaxing against the back of the couch, “but don’t tell me you never sat on a couch with a boyfriend and made out while you watched a movie.”
“Maybe once or twice,” Lee chuckled. “So is that what we are now?”
“I thought it fit,” Michael said. “We’ve had two dates, a handful of very enjoyable kisses. You’re sitting on my couch watching a guilty pleasure movie with me. What else would you call it?”
Lee grinned. “Perfect.”
Michael grinned back and settled in to watch the movie. It didn’t take long before he was caught up in the action. It didn’t matter that he could recite half the dialogue with the characters because Lee could recite the other half, it seemed, and so before long they were cracking each other up with their imitations of the characters.
“Do you have the others?” Lee asked when the first movie finished.
“Do I have the oth
ers?” Michael scoffed, pulling out Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. “Of course I have the others.”
“Good. Put it in while I stretch my legs for a minute,” Lee said. “We’ll make a marathon of it.”
Michael grinned as Lee went down the hall to the bathroom. He couldn’t remember when he’d had such an enjoyable day. Everything seemed fresh again, even a movie he’d seen a hundred times. It made him wonder what else would be fresh with Lee involved.
When Lee came back, Michael took his turn in the bathroom, lingering a moment to swipe a damp wash cloth over his neck and under his arms to get rid of the worst of the sweat from their day spent outside. He had no idea what the rest of the evening would bring, but he didn’t want to be too disgustingly sweaty if Lee showed any interest in more intimate activities.