Until It's Time To Go

by Connie Bailey

“What look is that?”

  “It’s hard to describe. It’s not exactly like you smelled a fart. It’s more like you’re expecting to smell one, if you know what I mean.”

  “Cut it out with the sweet talk. You’re making me blush.”

  “Glad to hear it’s still possible to make you blush.” Colby grinned, showing his pointed canines. “And now we should probably catch up with Laith.”

  “Shit, I actually forgot about him for a few minutes.”

  “A good kiss can make scrambled eggs out of your brain.”

  “If you’re going to quote from Pretty in Pink at least get it right.”

  “No idea what you’re talking about.” Colby put an arm around Isaac. “Come on. Let’s go find our godson before he owns this town.”

  “You said our.”

  “Yes I did.” Colby squeezed Isaac’s shoulders. “Are you going to need reassurance every two minutes?” He smiled. “Because if you are, I’m totally up for that.”

  “Yeah? Then it’s on.”

  Isaac and Colby renewed their physical relationship a few hours later, and Isaac gave more of himself than he’d ever given to anyone in his life. He stopped fearing what might happen and enjoyed what he was doing at the moment. Colby couldn’t have been more pleased.

  Epilogue

  “THIS is the best dinner I’ve ever had,” Laith said as he took a drink of his water. “I like the fancy-schmancy places you guys eat at.

  “That’s all him.” Colby pointed at Isaac. “I’m a backyard burger kind of guy.”

  “We’re celebrating our two-year anniversary and Laith’s callback,” Isaac said. “Lobster and champagne seemed appropriate for such an august occasion.”

  “I got cast in one play,” Laith said. “You don’t have to make such a big deal out of it.”

  “You’re still in acting school,” Colby said. “You got cast in a production of Henry V with several well-respected Shakespearean actors.”

  “I think I just have the right look, but I don’t really care how I got the part. I’m just glad to have a chance to learn from these people. I mean, Dame Beryl Jones! Can you believe I’ll be working with her? And Guy Hughes is directing.”

  “It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Isaac said. “Which is why we’re celebrating with you.”

  “Is my timing good?” asked the cheerful waitress. “I have the dessert menu if anyone cares to take a look. Or I could describe our selections for the evening.”

  “I want the key lime pie, please,” Laith said.

  “Chocolate decadence,” Colby said.

  “And for you, sir?” The young woman turned her high-wattage smile on Isaac.

  “Just bring me a spoon, and I’ll help them.”

  “The hell you will,” Colby said quickly.

  “All right then, I’ll have this.” Isaac tapped the menu.

  “What did you order?” Colby asked as the waitress walked away.

  “Never you mind. You’re not getting any,” Isaac said smugly.

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Colby said with a sly smile.

  “You guys better not act like this when you meet Cord,” Laith said.

  “Cord? Hang on. Who’s this Cord?” Isaac asked.

  “Just a guy I’m seeing. His mom named him after a character on a soap opera. I really like him.”

  “What happened to Jessie?”

  “That was ages ago.”

  “How can you call a few months ages?”

  “Jesus, it’s like you were never seventeen,” Colby told Isaac.

  “Mom says he was born old,” Laith said. “Anyway, when I started school here, I had to give up a lot of my online time, and me and Jessie kind of stopped hanging out, you know?”

  “It happens,” Colby said. “Sometimes I do a movie and I make friends on location knowing I’ll probably never see them again.”

  “But you keep on making those friends. That’s what I need to learn from you,” Isaac said. “That ability to keep trying, to make the effort instead of crawling into bed and pulling the covers over your head.”

  “Why does he insist on talking like that?” Colby asked Laith.

  “He’s a writer. They’re weird. Yeesh, Lightner, buy a clue if you don’t have one.”

  “Don’t get cocky, kid,” Colby shot back.

  “Stop stealing lines from Han Solo.”

  Colby shrugged. “Hey, it’s a good line.”

  “Did Uncle Zee give you lots of good ones?”

  “What?” Colby gave Laith a look of incredulity.

  “Did he give you lots of good lines in the new script?”

  “Oh… um, yeah. It’s a great role. I’m going to have a great time with it.”

  “And you thought coming out of the closet was going to ruin your career,” Isaac said.

  “I was just lucky that Doogie Howser and Anderson Cooper took the plunge first. Once they were out, people realized being gay didn’t mean going to work in drag.”

  “It’s nice you can work together,” Laith said

  “Just barely,” Isaac said. “I’m kidding of course. I love working with Colby. It keeps me sharp.”

  “You’re so full of bullshit.” Colby laughed. “I love you.”

  “He loves me.” Isaac rolled his eyes at Laith. “Then why would he give me a kitten that was destined to rival the Goodyear blimp in terms of sheer size?”

  “You kept saying if you had a cat, you’d name it Falstaff,” Colby said. “I can take a hint.”

  “You love Falstaff,” Laith said. “Both of you.”

  “Well, what kind of gay couple would we be if we didn’t have a spoiled pet?” Isaac said.

  “Make up your mind,” Colby retorted.

  “I’m famous for not being able to do that very thing, and you—”

  “Holy crap!” Laith exclaimed as he saw their waitress approaching. “What is that?”

  “That is baked Alaska,” Isaac said as the head-sized dessert was set in front of him. “You can’t have any. Don’t even look at it.”

  “I’ve never seen you order that before,” Colby said.

  “Well, it’s February 1.”

  “And?” Laith prompted.

  “Today is Baked Alaska Day. You can Google it if you don’t believe me.”

  “Even you wouldn’t make up something like that,” Colby said as his spoon stealthily approached the meringue-covered ice cream.

  Isaac saw him, and their spoons crossed like swords.

  “Just a taste,” Colby said. “That’s all I want.”

  “With you it’s never just a taste, but go ahead and dig in, both of you. This thing’s the size of a bowling ball.”

  After dinner, they took a walk around the block to look at the theater posters before heading home. When they reached the first corner, Isaac gave Colby a significant look, and Colby starting lagging behind.

  “I need to tell you something,” Isaac said to Laith. “I don’t want it to be a big deal, but your mom thought it was silly to keep it secret anymore. I thought we had some pretty good reasons not to tell you, but she’s right. They seem silly now.”

  “Is this about my father?”

  “Yeah, how’d you guess?”

  “I’m not stupid.”

  “No, that’s true. You’re not stupid. You get that from your mother.”

  “Are you going to do that thing where you talk about twenty-seven other things before you get to the point?”

  “Probably.”

  “Then let me help you. Are you going to tell me that you’re my father?”

  Isaac stumbled, and Laith grabbed his arm.

  “Watch out,” Laith said. “The sidewalk’s uneven here.”

  “Thanks.” Isaac hooked elbows with Laith as they walked on. “So the big secret is no surprise to you?”

  “I didn’t know for sure, but I always kind of hoped you were my father.”

  “Really?” Isaac’s eyes filled with tears that he had to keep blinkin
g away.

  “Yeah. I like Mom’s story about living in the artists’ commune and how everybody slept with everybody and she didn’t know for sure who my dad was, but I never quite believed it.”

  “She was pretty wild in those days. Of course, we called it being free of societal constraints.”

  “That’s enough info about Mom’s sex life.”

  “Okay.” Isaac chuckled. “God, I was so nervous about telling you, and you just take it in stride.”

  “Well, it’s not like you told me you have a desire to dress up like Marilyn Monroe and come to my graduation.”

  “Don’t rule it out.” Isaac paused. “You know who Marilyn is?”

  “I think I’m insulted.”

  “Don’t be. I just thought she might be ancient history to you.” Isaac turned and gestured for Colby to catch up.

  “Everything cool?” Colby asked.

  “As cool as a polar bear’s balls,” Isaac said

  “I told you there was nothing to worry about,” Colby said.

  “Yes you did.”

  “You should start listening to me.”

  “I think you should, Dad,” Laith said.

  “What’s wrong?” Colby said as Isaac stopped suddenly.

  “Nothing,” Isaac said in a strained voice. “I’m certainly not choked up just because a kid I’ve known all his life decided to call me Dad. I don’t get emotional about that kind of corn mush.”

  “So it’s okay for me to call you Dad?” Laith asked.

  “Yeah.” Isaac took a long, shuddering breath. “It’s okay.”

  “And I can be Dad 2,” Colby said enthusiastically.

  “We’ll see,” Laith said and then laughed at how quickly Colby’s face fell. “You’re so gullible.”

  “It’s one of things I love most about him.” Isaac chuckled.

  At the entrance to the car park, Laith paused. “I’m thinking you two wouldn’t mind if I stayed in town tonight. Cord kind of threw together a little celebration for me.”

  “Want us to drop you off at his place?” Isaac asked.

  “A ride would be great,” Laith said. “Save me the taxi money.”

  “There, you see,” Colby told Isaac. “Laith doesn’t mind us getting a look at where he’s going. We could probably even say hi to… Cord if you wanted to.”

  “Don’t make fun of his name,” Laith warned.

  “What’s there to make fun of?” Colby asked innocently.

  “His last name is Roberts, and one of the teachers told him he should use the stage name Robert Cord, but Cord said fuck that.”

  “Literally?” Isaac asked.

  “No, he didn’t say ‘fuck that’ to the teacher, Grandma.” Laith sighed. “I’m eighteen now and this school isn’t like high school, you know. Everyone is treated like an adult. If someone swore in class, no one would even notice.”

  “You swear like a sailor with Tourette’s,” Colby said, bumping Isaac’s shoulder with his.

  Isaac grinned sheepishly. “I know. I know. What is this thing that comes over me when Laith’s around? Why do I turn into a snooty old maid mother hen?”

  “Hang on a second while I sort out the analogies,” Colby said.

  “I kind of like it,” Laith said. “Shows me you care.”

  The valet arrived with the car, and Laith gave directions to Cord’s house. Amid a maze of housing developments, they located the decades-old split-level and pulled into the driveway behind a late model Honda. The front door opened, and a redhead with the compact physique of a bantamweight boxer came across the postage-stamp lawn. After introductions, Isaac and Colby drove away, Isaac waving until it struck him he might be embarrassing Laith. Laith raised a hand and waved back before following Cord into the house.

  “He’s a good kid,” Colby said as Isaac faced front in the passenger seat.

  “Yeah. It really makes me wish I’d been around more while he was growing up.”

  “He’s still growing up. So are you.”

  “But he’s almost a man, Col.”

  “So that’s the time you get to have with him. Make the most of it. Don’t mope around whining about time that’s already gone.”

  “Janelle says the same thing.”

  “I know. We talk about you all the time.”

  “Of course you do.” Isaac made a conscious effort to stop worrying about Laith. Scooting closer to Colby, he put his head on Colby’s shoulder. “What else would you talk about?”

  Colby turned his head to kiss Isaac’s forehead. “You’re the center of my universe,” he said. “And I love you more every day.”

  “To my everlasting consternation.”

  “Just roll with it.”

  Isaac ran his fingers up Colby’s inseam. “What do you think about stopping at that motel?”

  “The one where we hooked up the first time?” Colby grinned. “Hell yeah!”

  “Let’s see how fast you can get us there without killing us.”

  “You’re on!”

  Isaac knew he’d never be the spontaneous type; it just wasn’t in him. But he also knew that Colby liked being spontaneous, so he made it a point to do something out of the blue every once in a while. Like making a reservation at the hotel where they’d first slept together, ordering flowers, and arranging for champagne and strawberries from room service.

  “I know champagne and roses are terribly cliché,” Isaac said when he and Colby entered the room. “But I am wearing a red leather thong to provide a little kink.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You will.” Isaac smirked. “I don’t look so bad in it either. Two years of exercising is finally paying off.”

  “I’ve noticed. I feel like taking a shower. Why don’t you get undressed and join me with a couple of glasses of bubbly?”

  Colby made the appropriate shocked and delighted noises when Isaac entered the bathroom with a rose clenched between his teeth, wearing nothing but the thong. Setting the champagne flutes on the sink, Isaac did a bump and grind he’d been practicing for weeks in front of his mirror. He was not prepared for Colby’s reaction of leaping from the tub to attack him, but he rolled with it, as he’d been advised.

  “Fuck you’re sexy,” Colby mumbled as he kissed his way from Isaac’s lips to his nipple. “Hello, Lefty,” he said as he sucked the puckered bud into his mouth. Reaching down, he massaged Isaac’s leather-covered crotch as he divided his attention between both nipples. “Thanks for indulging me like this.”

  “I love you,” Isaac said. “And I want to make you happy.”

  “Hmph, if you have breath to talk, I’m not doing this right.”

  Colby maneuvered Isaac to lean against the counter and slid down to his knees. Like a big cat, he rubbed his cheeks against the hardening ridge under the leather pouch, nuzzling and nipping at the tender skin of Isaac’s inner thighs. His hands crept around to cup Isaac’s ass, fingers digging between the cheeks parted by the thong.

  “Two years of doing this every chance we get and you still make me feel like a junior high kid making out for the first time,” Isaac said breathlessly. “How do you do that?”

  “I love you, and I want to make you happy.” Colby’s voice was a bit muffled as he tried to get his tongue under the edge of the thong.

  “You make me very happy,” Isaac said.

  “Same goes for you. Ah, fuck it!” Colby yanked the thong down and dove on Isaac’s hard cock.

  “Shit!” Isaac gasped as Colby took his full length.

  Colby’s chest swelled with each gasp and groan he elicited from his lover as he went down on him. Sucking the stiff shaft into his mouth, he let it slide out of the tightened ring of his lips, repeating the action to a languid tempo.

  Isaac clutched at Colby’s water-beaded shoulders and tugged at the damp blond hair as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through him. “Jesus!” he hissed when Colby ran his teeth along the fat vein on the underside of his cock. “Are you trying to kill me?”
/>
  Colby pulled off Isaac’s dick and looked up at him. “Too rough?”

  “Too good.” Isaac sighed. “Come up here and kiss me, Actor Boy.”

  Grinning, Colby rose fluidly to his feet and leaned in to kiss Isaac. “I used to think sex was putting your cock in a hole until you shot your wad,” he said when their lips finally parted.

  “What’s changed?” Isaac couldn’t resist saying.

  “Watch it, grumpy old man, or you could be left with a set of balls the color of Paul Newman’s eyes.”

  “Mind if I use that line?”

  “For crying out loud, could you turn your brain off for five minutes and just fuck me?”

  “Doubtful,” Isaac said, “but let’s give it a try.”

  “Once, just once, I’d like to fuck like animals.”

  “How could you forget that camping trip in Colorado?”

  “Oh yeah.” Colby grinned carnivorously. “Naked on the grass with the sun shining on my ass. Now that’s the way you do it.”

  “You weren’t the one that sat on the anthill.”

  Colby laughed and then abruptly sobered. “Poor baby,” he said, turning Isaac around so he could kiss his butt cheeks.

  “My balls got the worst of it,” Isaac hinted.

  “True.” Colby nosed Isaac’s sack, licking, kissing, and sucking until Isaac’s knees gave out. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s continue this in the shower.”

  “Hang on.” Isaac picked up one of the glasses and downed the champagne in one gulp.

  Colby drained the other glass and pulled Isaac into the tub. “Enough foreplay,” he said. “Give it to me hard. I want to feel you for a week.”

  “Let me grab the lube.”

  “Screw that.”

  Isaac got on his knees behind Colby, out of the spray, and pulled his cheeks apart. Burying his face in the cleft, he licked his way down to Colby’s hole. He was gratified by the way Colby tensed and cried out when his tongue stabbed at the crinkled opening.

  “Oh, fuck yeah!” Colby groaned. “Damn, that feels good.”

  Isaac worked up a mouthful of saliva and spat, using his finger to work it into Colby’s hole. Colby shivered and pushed back against the intruding finger, which was instantly withdrawn. Ignoring Colby’s protest, Isaac tongued the quivering port until his lover was moaning as he leaned against the tiled wall. Only then did Isaac insert his forefinger and thrust gently.