The Other Man

by D. J. Manly

  “Okay.” He smiled.

  “You think this is funny? Don’t you realise that I…” Charlie’s eyes filled with tears. He choked them back. “He may not have been perfect, but he was mine. Now, I’m going to end up alone, and you’ll probably get tired of him and…”

  “Kendal.”

  “So, he told you about me, did he?” He wiped his eyes.

  Aaron reached over to the table in the hall, and handed him a tissue. “No, your wallet fell out of your pants last night when I…”

  “You took off my pants?”

  “Well, I had to put them in the wash…you were sick...all over.”

  Kendal sighed. “Oh God. Well, I want them, and then I’m leaving. I just wanted you to know that Charlie and I had a life, and he just announced out of the blue that he was leaving me for you. Do you know how that feels, Mr. Radnor?”

  “Radcliff,” he said, “but it’s better than Ratcliff. And no, Kendal, I don’t know how it feels. I’ve never been lucky enough to find someone who wanted to spend seven years with me.”

  “Well, good luck with Charlie.” He brushed past him. “And he snores, you know, so be prepared for some sleepless nights.” He stopped. “Can I please have my clothes?”

  “They’re in the dryer. Do you want something to eat?”

  Kendal held onto his head. “No.”

  “Coffee?”

  Kendal glared at him. “I don’t want anything from you. Don’t you feel guilty?”

  “No,” he said.

  “Guys like you…when I was young, I would have done anything to look like you, to have all kinds of men falling all over me.”

  “What’s wrong with the way you look? I happen to think you’re pretty nice looking.”

  “Oh, don’t you…” He pointed at him, marching up to him. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  Aaron laughed. “Okay. That’s good to know.”

  Kendal tripped on the blanket. It fell off his shoulder, and he hastily yanked it back around him. “You think you can placate me with empty flattery. It may work in the bars, boy, but not on me.”

  “I’ll remember that,” he said smoothly. “Guess I’ll have to change my approach. So, tell me more about Charlie. I’m interested.”

  “Didn’t he tell you, or was his mouth full?”

  “Are you always so hostile?

  “Only when it comes to my life. I never thought I’d end up in the house of the other man. Is Charlie going to move in here with you? Do you own this place?”

  “Yes. Do you like it?”

  “When?”

  “When what?”

  “When is he moving in?”

  “He’s not.” He shook his head. “Kendal. I don’t know any Charlie.”

  “Come on, cookie…Charlie told me all about you.”

  “Cookie?”

  “Oh, my head,” Kendal said. “Where are my glasses? Do you know?”

  “Well, a bit of bad news there. You took them off last night, and they fell on the floor. Someone stomped on them.”

  “Oh no. They cost me a fortune.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Okay, you’re being too nice. Get my clothes. I don’t care if they are still wet. I want out of here.”

  He shrugged. “Okay. I’ll drive you…”

  “I’ll take a cab.”

  He turned and disappeared down a flight of stairs. Kendal waited for him in the living room. On top of the television was a picture of Aaron Radcliff dressed in fireman gear, receiving some sort of plaque.

  “Here you go,” he said suddenly. “Pants are still damp, but…”

  Kendal turned around and took his clothes. “Movie role?” he asked, motioning to the picture.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Is that a movie you were in? Bet Charlie got you a part in that rescue movie he’s working on. I’m sure you’d make a fine extra. Only thing, just remember what you had to do to get that part. Aren’t you ashamed?”

  “Ah, no. It’s not a role. I’m a fireman.”

  Kendal blinked. “Just perfect. Bet you’re in a calendar too?”

  “Ah,” he laughed. “Yeah.” He looked kind of embarrassed. “It’s all in good fun, for the children’s hospital.”

  “Figures. Can you turn around please while I put on my pants?” Kendall asked him, trying to put on his pants without losing the blanket.

  “Sure,” he said, turning his back. “So,” he continued, while Kendall fastened up his pants, “can I see you again sometime? We could have coffee or…?”

  “You got to be kidding! You’re a real player, aren’t you? What, you want to compare me and Charlie, or something? That’s disgusting.”

  Aaron lowered his head for a moment. When he raised it, he was trying to control his amusement. “Kendal. I don’t know your Charlie, really. I don’t know how come you think I do. I’m sorry you lost your partner after seven years, but if he didn’t appreciate you, well then, it’s his loss.”

  Kendal was speechless. There were really players out there like that, and they all looked like him, hunks with no morals. Good for Charlie. Let him get a taste of his own medicine. He wasn’t going to warn him either. “Please call me a taxi, Mr. Radcliff,” he said stiffly, buttoning up his shirt.

  “Okay.” He walked over to the phone, and dialled.

  “I’ll wait outside,” Kendal said.

  Aaron handed him a card. “Here. If you change your mind, and you’d like to have coffee sometime.”

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Kendal told him curtly, crumbled up the card, and shoved it into his pocket.

  “Well, it was worth a shot.” He smiled. “Goodbye, Kendal.”

  Kendal didn’t even respond. He walked out the door, slamming it behind him. He waited on the curb outside Aaron Radcliff’s house, hoping Charlie wouldn’t show up and see him there. It started to rain.

  A few minutes later, Aaron came outside. “It takes a little while,” he said. “Sure you don’t want to wait inside?”

  “No.”

  He opened an umbrella and handed it to him. “Maybe you could use this.”

  “Are you always so smooth?”

  “Ah, am I being smooth? Is that a good thing?” He smiled.

  Kendal scowled at him. “Answer me one question. Did you know that Charlie was in a relationship when you seduced him?”

  “I didn’t seduce him,” he said. “I told you, Kendal, I don’t even know him.”

  “He seduced you, I suppose. What in hell does a guy who looks like you want with someone like Charlie? He’s like me, simple, average and…”

  “You’re not simple and average at all. Why do you think that about yourself?”

  “I…” he stopped. “You know what I mean. Guys like you don’t go for guys like me.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” he said, moving closer.

  Kendal’s eyes widened. He took a step backwards, almost falling off the curb. The taxi pulled up right behind him.

  “Taxi’s here.” Aaron smiled.

  Kendal sighed in relief. He wrenched open the door, and hopped in, giving the driver his home address. He didn’t look up until they were around the corner and Aaron Radcliff was out of sight.

  Chapter Two

  “He’s a first class cad,” Kendal said, as he explained to George what had happened to him. “He was flirting with me. Can you believe it? He thinks he’s god’s gift, apparently just because he’s in the fireman’s calendar.”

  “He’s in the fireman’s calendar? Which issue?”

  “I don’t know,” Kendal snapped. “What difference does it make?”

  George rose from his table, and rushed into the bedroom. I have this year’s, and last’s. Don’t tell Andrew. He freaks if I even look at these things.”

  “Why? It’s not porn, and don’t show me, George, I don’t want to…a… there, that’s him,” he said, as George turned the pages.

  ‘Oh- My- God,’ George mouthed. “He’s freaking gorgeous. Look at that bl
ack hair, and those blue eyes. He could play with my hose any day.”

  “George!” Kendal glanced at the picture a moment. He was naked from the waist up. Wow, what a chest, what shoulders, and a great smile.

  “Listen,” George read, “Aaron Radcliff, twenty eight years old, recipient of Mayor’s award for extraordinary bravery while on the job.”

  “Good for him,” Kendal muttered. “Are you trying to really piss me off?”

  “What in hell would a guy like that see in your Charlie?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “So, he took off your clothes?” George wiggled closer to him.

  “No, yes, I guess so. Kind of. He asked me to have coffee with him.”

  “Yum… with him for dessert?”

  Kendal shook his head. “He wouldn’t admit to being with Charlie, said he didn’t even know him.”

  “Did you tell him that Charlie named him?”

  “He didn’t seem to care. He’s a little weird, has a fire truck over his bed.”

  “He’s a fireman, Kendal.”

  “Yeah, but over his bed?”

  George laughed. After a few minutes, he said, “You want more tea?”

  “No.”

  “Has Charlie called at all?”

  “No, but he needs to come and get his stuff, so guess I’ll hear from him then.”

  “Are you going to tell him what happened?”

  “Mr. Macho probably already has.”

  George hugged him. “I’m sorry, Kendal.”

  “Me too,” he said, looking at Aaron Radcliff’s glossy calendar pose, “how in hell am I ever supposed to compete with that?”

  * * * *

  Kendal went back to work, and came home every night to an empty house. He was considering getting a cat. Charlie hadn’t called about his stuff, and Kendal had packed it all into boxes and stuck it in the garage. He was getting fed up. Two weeks later, he searched for that card Aaron Radcliff had given him. He found it, still crumbled up into a little ball on the counter in the laundry room. He must have left it there when he took it out of his pocket before he threw his laundry in. If anyone would know where Charlie was, that tart of a boyfriend of his would.

  Kendal picked up the mobile and punched in the number.

  Aaron picked up on the second ring. “Hello,” he said.

  “Now you listen,” Kendal said, “I want you to tell that no good boyfriend of yours that his stuff is here, and if he doesn’t come and pick it up soon, I’m going to throw it in the dump.”

  There was silence, then, “Kendal?”

  “Who else? Is he there?”

  “No one is here, except me. I’m surprised to hear from you. I was thinking about you the other night.”

  “Really? I’m sure.”

  “No, I was. I was thinking that it was too bad you were drunk that night I undressed you.”

  “You are…unbelievable. Is Charlie there with you now?”

  “No. Kendal, he’s not. How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t know this guy called Charlie.”

  “Yeah, right. Well, just pass on the message.”

  “I will, if you meet me for coffee.”

  “What?”

  “Meet me for coffee?”

  “Now?”

  “Why not?”

  “What about Charlie?”

  “What about Charlie?”

  “Are you going to tell him?”

  “No. Why should I? Coming, or not?”

  “Where?” Kendal sighed.

  “Coffee shop downtown called Café Dreams on the corner of Vine. You know it?”

  “Yeah. In an hour?”

  “Sure. See you,” he said, and hung up.

  Kendal loaded a few boxes of stuff that belonged to Charlie in his car. He might as well give them to Aaron while he was at it. He was tired of playing these games.

  * * * *

  Kendal was lucky enough to find a parking spot right in front of Café Dreams. He parked the car, and walked around to the trunk. He was just about to open it when a deep voice behind him, said, “Hi Kendal. What ‘cha doing?”

  Kendal turned around to come face to face with Aaron Radcliff. “I brought some of Charlie’s stuff. I thought you could take it with you. You do have a car, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but I’m not taking this guy’s stuff.”

  “Why not?”

  “First of all, I don’t have any room for it, and secondly, I’ve been trying to tell you, I don’t even know this guy. Now, come on inside, and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee, and you can tell me about this Charlie guy that you seem obsessed with.”

  “I’m not obsessed with him,” Kendal snapped, following Aaron up to the counter. “How would you feel if your lover just up and left you after seven years for someone who looked like you?”

  Aaron passed him a look. He ordered two cups of coffee. The young girl behind the counter couldn’t stop staring at Aaron. She spilt the first cup all over the place, and had to pour another. “Cream and sugar is there,” Aaron hooked his thumb in the direction of the small containers sitting on a counter nearby, as he made his way to a table.

  “I don’t take any,” Kendal said, accepting the coffee. “What’s it like to have people fall at your feet everyday?”

  He looked up from his cup. “Huh?”

  “That girl, she spilt the coffee all over the place and…”

  “Some people are all thumbs.” He smiled.

  That smile. Oh my God. Kendal cleared his throat.

  “So, tell me about Charlie. Where did you meet?”

  “At university. We fell in love there. I thought we’d be together forever.”

  “It was a good relationship, then?” He took a sip of his coffee.

  Kendal shrugged. “Sometimes. It was you know…ordinary…but comforting.”

  “Comforting? What in hell is that?”

  “You wouldn’t understand. People like you got to have the Fourth of July in bed every night.”

  “What’s wrong with the Fourth of July? And why do you always refer to me as ‘people like us’, like I’m some sort of alien species or something.”

  “You are, in a way.”

  “How so?”

  “You see these people in here?”

  “Yeah?”

  “There’s not one of them that hasn’t thought about how handsome you are, even that old straight guy in the corner. And half of them want to go to bed with you.”

  Aaron laughed.

  “What?”

  “And wouldn’t you be surprised if there were people in here thinking about how handsome you are, and wanting to go to bed with you?”

  “Yeah, and I bet there’s not a one.”

  “You’d lose that bet,” he said, meeting his gaze.

  Kendal swallowed. “Okay, there you go again. Are you going to tell Charlie to come and get his stuff, or not?”

  “I would, if I could. Does Charlie hang out at Contact by any chance?”

  “That’s where you met, didn’t you?”

  “No. Did Charlie ever actually tell you that we met?”

  “He told me he was leaving me for you. That was clear enough.”

  “What’s he look like, your Charlie?”

  “Come on, now you’re laughing at me.”

  “No. Got a picture?”

  “Sure.” Kendal took out his wallet, and showed Aaron a photograph. “There. Remember now? It’s over, isn’t it?”

  “What’s over?”

  “You and Charlie, already?”

  Aaron sat back in his seat. “I know that guy.”

  Kendal gave him an ironic stare. “Yeah, tell me about it?”

  “He used to hang out with these movie set people. Pretentious lot.”

  Kendal narrowed his eyes. “What are you trying to tell me now, Aaron?”

  “You know that’s the first time you’ve ever said my name. It’s nice. Say it again.”

  Kendal blushed. “Stop it. Answer the questi
on.”

  “I’ve seen him in the club, but I’ve never spoken to him. I wouldn’t have. I dated a guy from the movies once, and he was an asshole. I stay away from that crowd.”

  Kendal’s mouth opened. “Are you saying that Charlie left me for…a…I mean…for you, and he didn’t even know you?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t know Charlie, but I’m thankful to him in a way.” He leaned forward.

  Kendal narrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”

  “I would have never met you.”

  Kendal was speechless. A guy like Aaron Radcliff could never seriously be interested in someone like him. It just didn’t happen. He stood up, scraping the chair back. “I got to go.”

  Aaron stood up too. “Why?”

  “I…I need to talk to Charlie.”

  Aaron nodded. “I guess now that you know he really didn’t cheat on you with me, you might take him back?” He was looking into his eyes, waiting for an answer.

  “I don’t know. I need to talk to him, that’s all. Thanks for the coffee.” He rushed out of the coffee shop, and got into his car. He wasn’t sure what was going on anymore. Did Charlie set him up for something? Did he just lie to him to get out of their relationship?

  When he got home, his machine was flashing. He pressed it on. The voice said, “Kendal, it’s Charlie. Call me. I miss you. We need to talk.” He rattled off a phone number and hung up.

  Kendal got a piece of paper and a pen and scrawled the number on the paper, then he stood there staring at the phone. After a few seconds, he picked it up and dialled.

  * * * *

  Charlie shook his head, cradling the hot cup of tea in his hand. He was sitting at the kitchen table, Kendal was standing at the sink, watching him. “Guys like that are rotten in their heart. I should have known better, Ken. I don’t understand how you met him. Tell me again?”

  “I told you. I thought you were going out with him, and I was upset. I got drunk. I made an idiot of myself, then, he finally got it through to me. He doesn’t even know you. Why did you lie to me?”

  “I didn’t lie. I fell in love with him, from a distance. I thought we’d get together. I was planning on asking him to dance, but he’s a snob. He doesn’t even look at guys like me and you, thinks too much of himself. He has a different one every night, I’m sure. I’m sorry, honey. I want to come home. I’ve made such a big mistake. Guys like us are totally out of his league. He was in a calendar for Christ’s sakes.”