by Ariel Tachna
“Where do you want to go? We can go back to the Italian restaurant you like so much, or we can try a new seafood restaurant that opened up in Ville-Marie near the Vieux Port.”
“You know that area is overpriced and aimed at the tourists.”
“I do, but I also know it’s gotten very good reviews from people I trust, and the prices don’t appear to be out of line with what they’re offering. But if you want Italian, that’s fine as well.”
“Your mother will want to try the new place,” Papa grumbled. “She always wants to try new places.”
Pascal smiled at his father. Those two sentences summed up the entirety of his parents’ fifty-plus years of marriage. “If it’s not up to your standards, you can blame me after lunch. Does Maman have the grocery list ready? We can stop on the way home if you’re not too tired after lunch.”
“We’re not invalids. We can go to the grocery with you like we do every week.”
Papa’s assertion wouldn’t stop Pascal from offering to go without them. He might say they weren’t invalids, but Pascal could see them growing more feeble as time passed. They’d celebrated his father’s eightieth birthday earlier this year, and his mother wasn’t far behind, and neither of them was in the best of health anymore. Even more concerning was his mother’s tendency to get confused and not remember where she was or when things had happened. The last time he’d visited, she’d asked him where Robert was. He hoped she would be clearer today because he wanted to tell them about Mathias, and that would be easier done without her thinking Robert was still alive.
“Pascal, you’re here early,” Maman said as she came out of the bedroom. She had done her hair and makeup and looked as beautifully put together as ever. Her eyes were bright and alert, making him hopeful he would be able to tell them about Mathias over lunch.
“Maman, it’s good to see you.” He almost teased her about being late rather than him being early, but she would reply that a lady was never late. “I was telling Papa about a new seafood restaurant some friends recommended. Unless you’d rather have Italian?”
“You know I always want to try new places. How else will I know what my options are next time?”
Papa harrumphed next to them, but he offered his arm to Maman. Pascal held the door open for them and made sure it locked behind them before following them out to his car. He tried not to hover too obviously. At least it was only September still. In another month, his mother would have to replace her heels with boots.
They chatted about inconsequential things as they drove to the restaurant, Maman telling Pascal about the latest doings of her bridge club, and Papa grumbling about how they spent all their time drinking sherry and gossiping rather than actually playing. Pascal remembered those games from when he lived at home. He didn’t know how things were now, but his mother’s friends had been cutthroat players once upon a time, no matter how much sherry they drank or gossip they exchanged. He hoped time hadn’t changed that.
When they had ordered and were enjoying their aperitifs, Pascal took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to tell his parents about Mathias.
“Maman, Papa, I met someone a few months ago.”
“You meet people all the time,” Maman said. “I love your stories from the restaurant. Who did you meet this time?”
“Hush, Marguerite, Pascal isn’t talking about someone from the restaurant, are you, son?”
“No, Papa, I’m not. Mathias lives in my building. He works at the BMO.”
“A banker. Very impressive,” Maman said. “How did you meet?”
Pascal wondered what she would say if she knew they’d met at Le Salon. “He was leaving for work one morning as I came back from a run,” Pascal said. “And then we ran into each other a couple of other times in the building and in the neighborhood. One thing led to another.”
Maman reached across the table and patted his hand. “I know how much you loved Robert. We did too. He was our son just as much as you are. But you’re too young to be alone for the rest of your life. I’m glad you’ve met someone. You should have brought him to lunch with you today.”
“I wanted to talk to you first,” Pascal said. “And things are… complicated. He’s younger than I am, and I wasn’t sure until recently that we wanted the same things out of a relationship.” He still wasn’t entirely sure, but he’d promised Mathias and himself that he wouldn’t let those doubts control him.
“Pssh, age is just a number,” Maman said. “And the best things in life are complicated. How did we not teach him that, Julien?”
Papa snorted. “We did. Then he lost Robert. It’s hard to hold on to that when you’ve lost the love of your life after only ten years. Next time you come to lunch, bring him with you.”
“Yes, Papa.”
PASCAL LET himself back into his apartment after finishing the grocery shopping with his parents. They’d let him leave fairly quickly after that, amid calls for him to bring Mathias with him next time. He’d have to talk to Mathias and see if he’d be up for that. Meeting the parents was a big step, and they were still on shaky ground. He wouldn’t push, but after talking with his parents, he needed to make the offer.
His phone beeped as he hung his jacket up in the closet. He pulled it from his pocket, hoping it would be Mathias. They probably wouldn’t have time to see each other before Mathias had to go to the bar, but they could talk for a bit.
It was René. He didn’t grimace like he wanted to. He could always call Mathias after he’d talked to René.
Your boy looked happy last night at the bar. Did you kiss and make up?
Pascal rolled his eyes and texted back. If you saw him, you know we did.
Pascal’s phone rang almost immediately.
“Hello, René.”
“You dog,” René teased. “I haven’t seen a collection of hickeys like that in a long time.”
Pascal flushed. “He kept asking for more. I couldn’t say no.”
René snorted in amusement. “I repeat, you dog. Seriously, though, everything’s good now?”
“It’s better,” Pascal replied, because if he couldn’t be honest with René and Benjamin, who could he be honest with? René might be somewhere between irreverent and downright crude at times, but he’d stood by Pascal when he needed it most. “There’s a lot to figure out, and it’s stuff that isn’t just going to go away because we talked about it—the age difference and all that entails, for starters. But we did talk about it, and we agreed to give it a go, a real go. No more dancing around each other, hoping the other one is as serious about it.”
“I’m glad,” René said. “You’ve been alone a long time. And I get that you needed the time to mourn before you could think about trying again. I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to lose Benjamin. But you did that and moved on, except you didn’t. Fifteen years is enough time.”
“You’re starting to sound like Benjamin. Is he rubbing off on you?”
“Not at the moment,” René retorted. “He’s gone for a walk.”
Pascal rolled his eyes. That was more like it. “I’m trying. That’s the best I can say right now. I really am trying, and so is he. The rest is a question of time and seeing how things work out.”
“For what it’s worth, he really did look happy last night, and not the put-on, ‘let me flirt with everyone so I get a good tip’ kind of happy that so many of the waiters have mastered. He looked genuinely happy.”
That made Pascal smile. He knew all too well the façade waiters wore to improve the chances of a good tip. If his façade involved more sophistication and less sex appeal, it didn’t make it less of a façade. He had mastered the polite, friendly smile that he gave to pretty much all his customers except his ladies. To know that he’d made Mathias happy enough for that to break through his usual “see how fuckable I am” routine was a huge stroke to Pascal’s ego.
“Thanks for telling me. Go take a walk with Benjamin. I’m going to call Mathias before he has to go to work.�
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“Happy sexting.”
Pascal hung up and called Mathias instead of replying.
“Hello?”
Mathias sounded breathless, like he’d been running.
“Hi, Mathias.”
“Pascal! I didn’t expect to hear from you before I went to work today. I was going to text you before I left so you’d know I was thinking about you.”
“Is that why you’re out of breath?” Pascal teased.
“Well…,” Mathias drawled. “You have to know what thinking about you does to me. Especially right now, when every time I look in a mirror, I see your teeth marks all over my neck.”
“I’d apologize, but I don’t think you want me to,” Pascal replied in kind.
“Nope. You could leave more if you wanted.”
If Mathias were there, Pascal would be damn tempted. As it was, they didn’t have time before Mathias had to leave for the bar. “Next weekend.”
“You aren’t really going to make me wait until then, are you?”
He looked at the clock. “If you come up here now, you’ll be late for work, and Adrien will be angry with you.”
“Talk to me instead,” Mathias said. “Tell me what you’d do to me if I was there and we had time.”
Pascal swallowed hard. Despite René’s comment, this hadn’t really been his plan when he called Mathias, but now that Mathias had brought it up, he couldn’t think of anything else. “If we had time….”
“All the time in the world.” The longing in Mathias’s voice hit Pascal hard, stirring an echoing need deep in his gut. He didn’t know what kind of vacation time Mathias had at the bank, but they needed to use some of it—rent a cabin somewhere and run away for a long weekend so they could be alone without the constant worry of watching the clock or juggling schedules. A stretch of unrelenting solitude with nothing to do but be together and make love.
“It wouldn’t be here. We’d go somewhere romantic. Somewhere away from all the demands of our schedules so we wouldn’t have to look at the clock for days,” Pascal said. “All we’d have to worry about was eating when we were hungry, sleeping when we were tired, and making love when we were awake.”
“It sounds like heaven.” Mathias’s voice had gone breathless again.
“We’re in a cabin,” Pascal said, more than happy to elaborate on the theme if it made Mathias sound like that. “There’s a fire burning to keep us warm, blankets and cushions from the couch piled into a nest on the floor, and nothing between us but the firelight turning your skin gold.”
He closed his eyes and let the image play out in his head. He hadn’t taken his time to properly appreciate the picture Mathias made while naked when they’d first had sex. Mathias had been too eager, and Pascal had been afraid to slow down enough for his better judgment to kick in. He’d gotten enough of a glimpse for his imagination to fill in the details now of toned muscles, still slender with youth, exactly what he needed to draw him out of the doldrums of his life. Mathias would reach for him, and he’d go willingly into his arms.
“I’d snuggle in the pillows and pull you down next to me,” Mathias said.
Pascal shivered with desire at the image, so close to what he’d had in his own mind. “You wouldn’t have to ask me twice. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but right there with you.”
“Not even in me?” Pascal could hear the coquettish smile in Mathias’s voice. He groaned low in his throat and headed into the bedroom. He wouldn’t survive this conversation fully dressed.
“We’ll get there, but remember? We have all the time in the world. If I want to spend hours just nibbling on your neck, I can.”
“I won’t last hours,” Mathias gasped.
“Then I’ll just have to get you worked up again,” Pascal replied.
“You like knowing you can make me come more than once.”
“Guilty as charged,” Pascal replied, because hell yeah, he liked it. It was already a huge thrill to know that Mathias wanted him the way he did. To be able to keep that going past his first orgasm… it made Pascal feel like the world’s best lover.
“Don’t stop.”
Pascal wasn’t sure if Mathias meant the phone sex or something else, but he found he didn’t care. “I won’t. I’ll nibble all over, little teeth marks on every spot I can reach. And when I’m done with that, I’ll start over with my tongue, just to see which you like better.”
Mathias’s moan carried through the phone, going straight to Pascal’s cock. He shed his pants and rubbed his erection through his underwear. He didn’t want to rush, but they weren’t really at their woodland retreat, and time was passing.
“Your tongue,” Mathias said. “Definitely your tongue.”
“Anywhere in particular you want it?”
“Anywhere you want to put it,” Mathias replied hoarsely.
“That wasn’t what I asked. Where do you want it?”
Mathias moaned again. “Rimming me. Flip me over, pull my ass in the air, and eat me out until I can’t even hold myself up.”
Pascal’s stomach lurched at the image. He wanted that. He needed that. “The next time we’re together. And then, when I’ve got you sloppy and loose for me, I’ll roll over and sit you in my lap. You’ll look so good riding me.” He slipped his free hand inside his underwear and stroked himself firmly. He hadn’t asked what Mathias was doing while they were talking because he could barely handle the conversation and the pictures in his fevered imagination. Adding images of Mathias jerking off or with his fingers in his ass would shatter what little control he had left.
“I’ll never keep myself upright,” Mathias said around a moan.
“Yes, you will,” Pascal replied. “Because you know I want you to. I’ll meet you halfway. It’ll feel so good. We’ll come in a matter of seconds because we’ll both be so close. Are you close, Mathias?”
A hiss of breath answered him. “Say my name again.”
“Mathias,” Pascal repeated. “Sweet, sexy Mathias with the tight ass and big eyes. Smart, sexy Mathias in his business suit and tie.” That was a thought to explore next time…. Mathias out of his suit pants with his shirt unbuttoned and his tie loose around his neck. “I dream about you in that suit.”
Mathias cursed sharply and cried out. Pascal closed his eyes and imagined what Mathias might look like when he climaxed. He’d made the mistake of taking Mathias from behind the last time so he hadn’t been able to see Mathias’s face. He wouldn’t do that again. He stroked himself a few more times before spilling over his hand. He lay there on his bed, listening to the sound of Mathias’s breathing and wished he’d asked Mathias to come up so they could see each other. Even if it had been rushed or left them more frustrated, at least they would have been together.
“We have to figure out this schedule thing,” Pascal said. “I want to see you more often.”
“I could tell Adrien I can’t work on Tuesdays anymore if you can make that your day off consistently,” Mathias offered. “It’s always a slow night. I wouldn’t lose too much income that way, and it would give us one night a week where neither of us had to rush off anywhere.”
“I’ll talk to Simon. It might be too late for this week, but I’ll have him put it on the schedule starting next week,” Pascal said.
“It’s a date.” Pascal could hear Mathias’s smile in his tone.
“I can’t wait.” He’d have to plan something special, whether it was this Tuesday or next, so Mathias would know how much Pascal appreciated the effort. “If René and Benjamin come into the bar tonight, don’t let them hassle you too much. René can get a little… overbearing in his teasing at times.”
“They were perfect gentlemen last night,” Mathias replied.
Pascal doubted that, but at least they hadn’t bothered Mathias enough for him to complain about it. “If you say so. Be safe and have a good day at the bank tomorrow.”
“I will. Let me know about Tuesday night after you talk to your boss.”
&nbs
p; “I’ll text you as soon as I know.” He didn’t want to hang up the phone and break the connection between them, but time was passing, and now he needed a shower before he went to the restaurant. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
The phone beeped to tell him the call had ended, but he stayed where he was, savoring the happiness of the moment.
Chapter 18
MATHIAS WOKE up before his alarm on Saturday morning despite having been at Le Salon until way too late Friday night, but he hadn’t seen Pascal in a week. They were supposed to meet at nine. Pascal wouldn’t tell Mathias what he had planned for the day, only telling him to dress warmly because they would be outside for part of the day. It wasn’t miserably cold yet, only nippy, but Mathias had misjudged how the cold could seep into his bones before, and he didn’t want to spend the day wishing he had another layer on.
He bounced out of bed with far more energy than usual after such a short night, but he wanted to know what Pascal had planned. He ate and dressed and was ready to go by a little after eight with no idea how to fill the remaining hour. Glancing at his phone, he debated texting Pascal to let him know he was ready early, but he didn’t know how long it took Pascal to get ready, and he didn’t want to wake him.
Less than ten minutes later, his phone buzzed.
I couldn’t sleep. Come up whenever you’re ready. I hope I didn’t wake you up.
Mathias grinned. I’ll be up in five.
What a difference a week made! The last time he’d been ready early, he’d looked for excuses to delay so he wouldn’t appear overly eager, unsure as he’d been of his reception. Now he pulled on his shoes, grabbed his jacket, and was out the door before a full minute had passed.
He knocked on Pascal’s door and waited impatiently for him to open it. “That wasn’t five minutes,” Pascal said with a smile as he opened the door. Mathias stepped through and straight into a kiss. He’d reply later.
Pascal gathered Mathias into an embrace, returning Mathias’s eager kiss with tenderness and teasing. How did he invest so much into such simple contact? Mathias supposed he’d learn someday. For now, he’d enjoy the hell out of it.