Clarity of Lines

by N. R. Walker

  When she didn’t reply, I told her I had to go, but I’d be in touch in a few weeks. I put the receiver in the cradle, closed my files, shoved my laptop into my satchel and left.

  * * * *

  Needless to say, the new draughting board was impressive.

  So was Cooper.

  He eyed the new addition to the living room somewhat cautiously. He bit his bottom lip and walked over to it, touching it reverently. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s a nineteen-twenties antique,” I explained. “Solid oak, cast iron, adjustable… unbreakable.”

  He stared at it for a while, his fingers running along the timber. “It’s indestructible, right?”

  “Sturdy as hell,” I answered.

  Without another word, Cooper simply disappeared down the hall only to return with a bottle of lube and a condom. He put them on the edge of the dining table near the draughting board and looked over at me with mischief in his eyes, then he stretched up slowly and grabbed the top of the board.

  “You’re ambitious,” I told him. “It’s that Gen Y thing that gets you into trouble.”

  He spread his legs and lifted his ass. “It’s a horny thing,” he said gruffly. “But I didn’t offer myself, in my fantasy,” he said quietly. “You…took me.”

  I walked over to him and pressed him against the draughting board. “Like this?”

  He moaned his response, so I reached around him and undid his belt and pants, sliding them over his hips. Then I undid mine. I rubbed my naked cock along the crack of his ass, smeared us both with lube, then when he heard the tear of the foil packet, he lifted his leg onto the bottom wooden brace.

  “Please.”

  When I pushed into him, I slid my hands up his arm to the top of the draughting board and gripped my hands over his. And I fucked him. Just like he wanted me to. Just like how he groaned, begging me, pleading with me.

  Afterwards, when we’d collapsed into a sticky, sated mess on the sofa, I said, “So, you really like the new draughting board?”

  He looked at me and waggled his eyebrows. “Yeah, I happen to love antiques.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing he meant me, and he burst out laughing.

  “You’re such a little shit.”

  “You love me.”

  I deliberately didn’t say anything, so he dug his fingers into my ribs. “Say it! Say it,” he said, laughing.

  “Yes, I do,” I barked out with a laugh. “I do love you.” He grinned victoriously, so I added, “You little shit.”

  * * * *

  On Saturday morning, we’d checked our luggage in at the airport and sat down for coffee before our boarding call when Cooper pulled out his cell. He scrolled for a number and pressed call.

  “Mom?” he asked. “Yeah, we’re just at LaGuardia now.” I could hear his mother saying something, then Cooper smiled. “Yes, Tom’s here with me,” he said. “Actually, Mom, you’ve met him before.”

  I put my coffee down.

  “Yes, you have,” Cooper told her. “Remember my friend from high school, Ryan Elkin?” Then he added ever so calmly, “Well, Tom’s his dad.”

  There was silence for a moment, and Cooper looked at me unapologetically. “No, I’m not joking…yes, because I want you to meet him…” He was quiet then, while his mother obviously spoke. I could hear her voice through the phone.

  “No,” he said with less of a smile. “We’ve organised a car. We’ll just see you at your place,” he looked at his watch, “in about three hours.”

  He clicked off the call and I asked him, “Couldn’t wait to tell her?”

  He shrugged and sighed. “Now she has three hours to get used to the idea before we walk in the front door.”

  I sipped my coffee. “True,” I conceded. “But over the phone?”

  “I know my mother,” he said. “Three hours. First hour, she’ll be livid with me for dropping that bombshell. Second hour, she’ll be mad because, well, you’re older than my dad, and by the third hour she’ll have had enough time to calm down.”

  I laughed at his blasé comment. “‘She’ll be mad because, well, you’re older than my dad’,” I repeated, shaking my head. “Jeez, Coop. Thanks.”

  He chuckled. “Don’t sweat it, babe. She’ll be fine with it…when she gets used to it.”

  “Don’t sweat it, babe?” I echoed. “Is that some Gen Y thing for ‘it’ll be fine’?”

  “Yes,” he said seriously. “You should take notes, old man.”

  Ignoring that, I asked, “And your dad? How will he take it?”

  Cooper put down his coffee and said, “I’m thinking not very well.” He looked down at the table and for the first time since I’d met him, he looked…uncertain.

  “Cooper, I’ll be there with you,” I told him quietly. “If he… We’ll be there together to talk to them.”

  A voice over the loudspeaker called our flight, and we boarded the plane. Cooper said he wasn’t nervous, that he was okay, but the closer we got to Chicago, the tighter he held my hand.

  Chapter Nine

  Cooper was amazing. Yes, he was nervous but after we’d collected the rental car, I asked him if he’d like to check in at the hotel first. He shook his head. “Nope, wanna get this out of the way.”

  That was Cooper. Jump in with both feet and tackle it head on. One thing was for certain, when he made his mind up, there was no point trying to persuade him otherwise.

  He was remarkable like that. Some might argue that he was more foolish than courageous, but at just twenty-two years of age, sometimes I thought he was light years ahead of me.

  And then other times, he was a twenty-two year old fucking kid. Like driving, for instance. Claiming I didn’t know where his parents lived, he took the car keys then proceeded to drive, according to him, like he stole it.

  Twenty minutes and fifteen old-man-with-a-heart-condition jokes later, he pulled the car into the drive of his parent’s house. It was a large, double-storey house on manicured lawns with well-kept gardens. Cooper’s parents had obviously done well for themselves since moving to Chicago.

  Cooper exhaled through puffed cheeks and looked at me like ‘here goes nothing’, opened the car door and got out.

  I followed him, and he waited for me to step up beside him at the front door until he rang the doorbell.

  Meeting his parents was, for the lack of some profound, life-changing word, weird.

  His mother, Paula, opened the door as if she were expecting some other younger Tom, and Cooper’s joke of dating Tom Elkin was just that. A joke.

  When she saw me, she stared—just stared—before she even remembered to say hello to her son. She kissed his cheek. We walked in and met Cooper’s father, Andrew, in the living room. I’d met them both, maybe once or twice, when Cooper and Ryan had been at school, and they hadn’t changed one bit.

  Cooper and I sat down on the sofa, his parents sat across from us, and still not a word was spoken.

  Just awkward stares, coupled with awkward silences.

  But then a kid walked in, who I realised must have been Max, Cooper’s younger brother. He was seventeen years old and going through what Cooper called an ‘emo’ phase. He had longish black hair swept over half his face and there was a nose ring on the half I could see.

  Max stopped when he saw Cooper, looked at me for a long second, then back to Cooper. “Dude,” he said slowly. “He’s old.”

  I looked at Cooper, Cooper looked at me, then both of us burst out laughing. Even his mother tried not to smile. His father on the other hand didn’t look so impressed.

  Cooper stood up and gave his little brother a bit of a hug, then tried to touch the nose ring, but Max dodged him easily. “Nice silverware,” Cooper said.

  “Thanks,” he replied quietly.

  Cooper roughed up his brother’s hair. “Do the girls like it?”

  Max pushed Cooper and tried to smack him up the side of his head. “Like you’d know.”

  “Boys,” Paula chast
ised. “Cooper, you’ve been here for thirty seconds. Leave your brother alone.”

  Cooper walked over to where I was sitting, and he sat down, a little closer to me this time. Max stood behind his parents, Cooper made a face at him and Max flipped him the bird.

  “Cooper,” his father said. “Can you be serious for a moment? I think we have some…issues that need discussing.”

  Cooper took my hand. “Mom, Dad, this is Tom. Yes, he’s older than me, but we’re together, and we’re serious.”

  His parents both stared at him, then turned their attention to me and it was my turn to talk. “I know you’re thinking this is wrong, or that it can’t be real,” I said calmly. “And believe me, I don’t think we were expecting any of this either, but the fact we’re both here must tell you we are serious.”

  “You’re old enough to be his father,” Paula said quietly.

  “Yes, I am,” I answered simply.

  “Age isn’t an issue,” Cooper said quickly. “Not for us. It’s never been an issue.” Then he said, “Well, in the beginning it was a little weird,” he admitted, “before we got together and I was attracted to him, and I kept thinking ‘Oh my God, he’s forty-four’ but then I realised it didn’t matter.”

  I looked at him and squeezed his hand.

  “It didn’t matter?” his father asked.

  “No, it wasn’t his age that I was interested in,” Cooper told them. “It was the fact we’d spend hours talking about anything and everything, like I’d met my intellectual match.”

  I couldn’t help but smile, and his admission of exactly how I felt reinforced to me that this was worth it.

  His father looked at the both of us, like we didn’t understand the obvious. “I’m sorry, Cooper, but it does matter.”

  Cooper’s reply was a very serious, “Not to me.”

  Then his mother asked, “Just exactly how did this all come about?”

  I retold the story, sans intimate details, of how we’d met, how we’d worked together, how it was then that I saw Cooper to be a person who was strong minded, smart and free-thinking.

  Cooper’s father glared at me. “You took advantage of him while he worked for you?”

  I didn’t have time to speak, before Cooper sat forward on the sofa and spoke through gritted teeth. “He didn’t take advantage of me!” He almost spat the words. “Jesus Christ!”

  “Cooper, don’t swear in this house,” his mother chided him.

  Cooper ignored her. “So what you’re saying is,” he said, “you think I don’t have a mind of my own, that I can’t make my own decisions and that I’m some easily led kid? Is that what you think?”

  “No,” his mother said weakly, but his father stared at me.

  They didn’t think he was a naïve kid, they thought I was some sexual predator. I gave Cooper a small smile and squeezed his hand again. “It’s not you they have a problem with.”

  “You think it’s Tom?” he asked, looking at his parent’s incredulously.

  “I think a forty-four-year-old man should know better,” his father replied coldly.

  “No,” Cooper said flatly, dropping my hand to hold up both his index fingers. “No. Dad, you’re not implying Tom should know better, you’re implying I don’t have the ability to see what’s in front of me.” He was angry, and his jaw bulged when he spoke. “Like I don’t know what’s right for me, like I’m some dumbass kid. Yes, Tom’s a grown man, but you need to see that I am too.”

  “You’re twenty-two years old,” his father said. “And you’re our son. We’re allowed to be concerned. I don’t think you have the perspective to see it for what it is, Cooper.”

  “I can’t believe you have a problem with this,” Cooper said, shaking his head.

  “I can’t believe you thought we wouldn’t have a problem with this,” his father countered. “Quite frankly, Cooper, I can’t see us ever not having a problem with this. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s right.”

  Cooper scratched his head, like he couldn’t understand something. “You told me you’d accept me, all of me. You both said that. When I came out to you, when I finally admitted to you I was gay, you told me you’d love me, no matter who I wanted, or who I fell in love with.”

  He stood up and walked to the back door, but then turned back around. “But what you meant was that you’d only accept me, if I fell in love with someone my own age. Or what? Someone that wasn’t a guy?” he asked. “Oh God, were you still hoping me being gay was just a phase?” he asked, clearly upset. “Well, guess what? It’s not a phase, and neither is this,” he said, motioning between him and me. “I am in love with him.”

  His parents sat there, stunned at his outburst, and when they never said a word, Cooper turned on his heel and walked out of the back door. I stood up, not excusing myself, not caring, and followed him.

  He was walking across the yard to the pool. “Coop, sweetheart,” I said and he stopped and turned around. He had tears in his eyes.

  “Can we go?” he asked. “I think I’d like to go now.”

  I put my hands around his neck and pulled him against me. “Sure,” I told him. Not that I thought leaving was the best idea, but he needed me on his side right now.

  He nodded against my neck. “I just want to go.”

  “Okay,” I whispered.

  “I thought they’d be okay,” he mumbled. “I thought they’d be kinda mad, but then they’d see I was happy and they’d be okay.”

  “Maybe they need some time,” I said quietly. “They love you. They just want what’s best for you.”

  “You’re what’s best for me,” he answered, with his face still buried against me.

  “Did you want to go?” I asked. “Or did you want to stay and try and sort this out?”

  He sighed. “I want to go.”

  “Okay,” I said again. “Whatever you want.”

  Cooper pulled back from me and took my hand. He led us into the house, but never stopped. “Tell Max I said goodbye,” he said to no one in particular and walked right past his parents to the front door.

  I stopped him. “Just give me one minute,” I said quietly.

  He frowned, and said. “I’ll see you in the car.” And not even looking at his mom or dad, he walked out.

  I turned to face his parents. His father looked angry and confused, and his mother looked lost and utterly miserable. “He wants to leave,” I told them. “He’s very upset. Maybe it’s not my place to say, and you can hate me all you like, but please don’t lose him over this. Don’t cut him off because of me.”

  “It won’t be our doing,” his father said coldly.

  I smiled, despite that he was implying I would be the cause of Cooper losing his family. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how stubborn Cooper is, or how driven he is. Once he sets his sights on something, he stands his ground until he has it. By the same token, he won’t stand for something he doesn’t agree with, and he most certainly won’t be walked over, and he won’t be misled by anyone.”

  “What exactly are you saying?” Cooper’s father asked.

  I looked at them both. “That you raised an incredible son.”

  My words threw them, but eventually Paula asked, “What would you do? If it was your son? If it was Ryan who was dating someone twice his age.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “If he was happy, if it was what he wanted, then I’d tell him I loved him, knowing I’d be there for him if it fell apart.”

  Cooper’s father scoffed. “Of course you would.”

  “All we can do is love them, and hope they make the right choices,” I said, with my hand on the door handle. “Unconditional love is exactly that. We don’t get to choose.”

  I opened the door wider but before I left, I said, “We’re staying at The Peninsula, on the eighteenth floor. Don’t let him go back to New York thinking you don’t love him.”

  I walked out to find Cooper in the passenger seat of the car, instead of the driver’s seat. I g
ot in and pulled the car out onto the street and headed towards the city. Cooper was quiet and stared out of the window for the trip to the hotel, and even after we’d checked in and went up to our suite, he was still quiet.

  He sat on the bed, and it was then he asked me what had been said between me and his parents while he’d waited in the car, and I told him every word. His face fell and he frowned. “It wasn’t supposed to go like that,” he said. It was heartbreaking to see him so upset. I pulled him against me and we lay back and while he snuggled into me, I stared out over Chicago for I don’t know how long.

  When it started to get dark, I asked him if he wanted something to eat. “Or we can go out?” I suggested. “We can find whatever food takes your fancy, or if you want to get drunk, we can do that too.”

  “Can we just stay in?” he asked. “I’m sorry, I’m not really in the mood to do anything.”

  “Don’t apologise,” I said, kissing his forehead. “Of course we can stay in. We can get room service.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “I can run you a bath. The spa is huge.”

  He finally smiled. “Maybe later.”

  I ordered us dinner, which he only picked at, and he declined the bath, opting for a hot shower, then he climbed into bed. I joined him, he slid into the crook of my arm, nestled into me and fell asleep.

  I lay there, staring at the ceiling, with an awful lot to think about.

  I wondered if I should back off from Cooper, if I should urge him to choose his family over me. I certainly would never make him choose. But I had the perspective of both sides—as the boyfriend, and as a father. It angered me that his parents wouldn’t even consider the idea of Cooper and I being together. Maybe they were hoping I’d be the one to call it off with him, knowing as a parent, I wouldn’t want to be the cause of such a conflict.

  And, well, that just pissed me off.

  I wondered if this would change things between us. I wondered, if his parents did give him an ultimatum, who he’d choose. As a parent, I wondered who I’d want him to choose.

  I couldn’t imagine leaving Cooper. I knew we’d only been together for a few months, but I loved him. I adored him—this incredible man who, for some reason, seemed to love me just as much as I loved him.