Paul gave the tiniest nod. I would have missed it if I weren’t looking so hard.
He didn’t look up. He could have been talking to the table. He said, “And you know what? When that happens, when I think that I’ve just zoned out and I find him staring at me… the look on his face?
“It scares me.”
“Holy mother of Christmas,” Freddy said when I walked back into the bar after having made sure that Paul got safely into his cab. By the time we had finished talking, Paul was a wreck, and I didn’t trust him to make it home in one piece.
“I know,” I agreed.
“That story had everything in it but the bloodhounds snappin’ at his rear end.”
“I know.”
Freddy peered into my eyes. “Are you OK?”
“I think I need to sit down.” It had been a long day.
Freddy got off his stool and steered me into it.
“And maybe a drink.”
Freddy handed me his beer. I downed it in seconds.
Freddy put his arms around me. The hug made me feel better than the beer had.
“That good?”
I nodded. “Thanks. You always seem to know what to do.”
“That’s what sisters are for,” Freddy said.
“Let’s go somewhere a little less creepy.”
This being New York City, the nearest coffee house was eighteen steps away. We sat in comfortable chairs and had some kind of frozen blended coffee chocolate thing with whipped cream and caramel.
We both got the largest possible size.
“So, what do you think?” I asked him.
“I think my headset almost melted in my ear,” he said. “That was a hot story.”
“Freddy!”
“Wel it was,” Freddy said. “The hunky older guy who holds you down and tickles you until you can’t catch your breath? Hel o! You’ve seen that Michael Harrington-you got to admit you could do worse than being straddled by that stal ion.”
I shook my head. “That’s gross. They were brothers.”
“OK,” Freddy admitted. “That part was kind of gross. But stil, Michael Harrington. He’s like Christian Bale in American Psycho. The yummiest sadist in town.”
“Do you think he could have kil ed his father?”
“My guess? He’s capable of anything.”
“That’s what I think, too.”
Just then, a dead-sexy guy in running shorts and tank top came in to order something. Freddy looked at him like a vulture spies a particularly delectable carcass.
“Could you excuse me a second?” Freddy went to the counter right behind the guy. Somehow, he started a conversation with him. I heard them both laughing and I turned away.
Two minutes later, Freddy returned with a scone and the guy’s card.
“What was that al about,” I asked.
“The runner? An old friend of my mother. I was just sending her regards. But back to business: Why do you think Michael is stil hypnotizing his brother?”
“It’s al about domination. That’s what he gets off on. His whole business, his whole life, is based on his fetish for control. Plus, when Paul’s in a trance, who knows what Michael does to him?”
We sat for a moment. Just when I thought Freddy was going to make another al usion to Charlie’s Angels, he surprised me.
“You want to talk about what happened with Tony?”
“Wow,” I said. “Do you know that Paul’s revelations were so shocking that I haven’t thought about Tony al night? Wel, not until you just brought him up, that is. Thanks.”
“Sorry,” Freddy said, looking concerned.
“Naw, it’s al right. I think I’m fine. If there were more time to think about it, maybe I’d be more upset.
Freddy gave me one more sympathetic look. “So, let’s not think about it,” he said, brightly. “Tel me how you left things with Paul when you took him to the cab.”
“Nowhere, real y. I think he felt better after he got al that off his chest, though. He told me he was thinking of coming out to his wife and getting on with his life. He said he thinks that’s what his father would have wanted. He sounded optimistic.”
“So, maybe he’l have a happy ending after al. As opposed to just having a ‘happy ending,’ which I think you probably spoiled for him when you brought the wal s of Jericho down on him at Sex-bar.”
“I suggested he avoid Michael for a while, though.
That guy real y does scare me.”
“Let me ask you a question,” Freddy said. “If Michael is doing crazy shit to his own brother when he’s got him hypnotized, what do you think he’s doing to his clients?”
I got a shiver. “I don’t know,” I answered truthful y.
“I bet it’s nothing good,” Freddy said.
“We have to stop him.”
“I agree. But how?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I’m going to figure it out.”
CHAPTER 21
Romeos at the Balcony
On the way home, I had the cab drop me off at the corner deli so I could grab some milk and a box of cookies. I figured if I were going to take a few days off, I could afford to gain a percent or two of body fat. Besides, I’d been beaten up and dumped today. I deserved to pig out.
Fuck it, I thought, standing in front of the Ben and Jerry’s assortment in the freezer case. I might as wel go whole hog.
I was trying to decide on which flavor of ice cream I wanted when my iPhone rang. I put the Bluetooth receiver in my ear and picked up.
“Hel o,” came the high, thin voice of Melvin Cuttlebeck. “We had a phone session scheduled for tonight?”
Melvin, my favorite wannabe S amp;M top. He was right. I had completely forgotten to put it in my calendar. Oh wel, he finished so fast we’d probably be done before I choose my dessert.
“Yes sir,” I said. “I’m ready.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I mean, ‘good boy.’”
He proceeded to rattle off a fantasy about restraining and torturing me. Of course, his version of torture ran along the lines of “I’m spanking your bottom now (but don’t worry, not too hard),” and “how would you like it if I gave you a real y dirty look?”
Why couldn’t al sadists be like Melvin? He’s so sweet that he taught me how to escape his own bondage devices. He indulges his fantasies without real y hurting anyone. Unlike a certain Harrington boy, I thought.
I left my microphone on mute, every once in a while coming back on to give Melvin an encouraging
“oh yes, sir, spank this bad boy’s tush,” or “oh, thank you sir, that hurts so good.”
I final y settled on Cherry Garcia and turned around to see the chubby but cute goateed young clerk was listening to my every word. He stared at me open-mouthed, his hands in his front pockets. I shrugged. He gave me a leering nod.
Sure enough, Melvin noisily reached his fulfil ment within five minutes. “Thank you very much,” he said formal y. “Sometimes after we talk, I can go a whole day or two without feeling il whenever I see my boss.”
“Glad to help,” I said. We disconnected.
“Wow,” said the clerk as he rang up my junk food orgy. “That sounded like… something.”
His forehead was beaded with sweat and his jeans made his excitement clear.
“It’s a living,” I answered.
“You into that stuff in real life?” he asked, looking at the bruise on my cheek.
“No,” I said, hoping he’d give me my change real y quickly.
He leaned over the counter and whispered, “I am.”
He pul ed the col ar of his shirt down to show me that he was wearing a dog col ar. “Woof!”
I nodded appreciatively. “Good for you.” I almost added, “Fido,” but thought better of it.
“Maybe one day we could get together,” he said.
I put my hand out for the change. He handed it to me, his fingers lingering in my palm for a second too long.
“I’m
kind of seeing someone right now,” I lied.
“Me, too,” he said. “But I think my mistress would like you, too.”
“Let me get back to you,” I said, thinking, doesn’t anyone have straight sex anymore?
I opened the door to my apartment, noticing that the lights and radio were on. “I’m home,” I shouted.
My mother emerged from her-my! — bedroom.
“Bubbie,” she said, “how was your day?” Then she looked at my cheek and gasped, “What happened?”
“Oh,” I said. “Would you believe a crazy man on the street just ran up to me and did that?” I took my wal et out of my pocket. “He didn’t even want my money. Just hit me and ran off.”
“Poor baby,” my mother said, taking my shopping bag from me. “Oh, look-ice cream!”
She never did suffer from an overabundance of maternal concern.
“Oh,” she said as we sat at the kitchen table eating ourselves into oblivion. “I think that bitch Dottie Kubacki had one of her friends cal here tonight.”
“What do you mean?” I mumbled though a mouthful of chocolate.
“I picked up the phone and this deep voice said,
‘Tel the whore to stay away from us or someone’s going to get hurt.’ Can you imagine her cal ing me a
‘whore’ when she’s the one fooling around with my husband? What a bitch.”
I was pretty sure the cal wasn’t meant for her.
“It was probably just a wrong number,” I told her.
“Or a prank cal. It doesn’t sound like Dottie’s style.”
“The woman almost shot you to death!”
“Yeah, but to be honest, she didn’t know it was me. And I was peeping into her window at the time.”
“I stil say that woman is capable of anything,” my mother grumbled.
Just then, a crashing noise came from the window. We both turned to look.
Gunshots!
“Get down!” I shouted at my mother.
“What?”
I threw myself in her lap, knocking both of us to the floor. “Someone’s shooting at us!” I cried.
Apparently, Michael Harrington wasn’t going to be satisfied with a warning delivered by phone.
“Ow!” my mother screamed.
“Mom!” I would never forgive myself if my mother got hurt because of my involvement with the Harringtons.
“My hip!” she moaned. “Ow!”
Shit, she’d been shot!
I looked at her. “I’l cal the cops,” I told her. I was about to crawl to the phone when I looked at her again. “I don’t see any blood.”
“Of course there’s no blood,” she said, standing up. “You just almost broke my hip with that meshuggana move you pul ed. Are you trying to kil me?”
“Get back down!” I shouted, pointing at the window where more bul ets struck the glass.
“Someone’s shooting at us!”
“Those aren’t gunshots,” my mother said.
They weren’t?
I listened again.
The sound was more of a tapping then a blasting.
Ooops. OK, maybe I did overreact. Had I taken my medicine today?
“Someone’s throwing something at the window,” she said. “Rocks or… pebbles. I haven’t heard that sound since…”
Hip hurting or not, she ran to the window like a schoolgirl. She flung it open and we heard him outside: “Don’t sit under the apple tree, with anyone else but me, anyone else but me, anyone else but me…”
My father’s singing voice was legendarily bad, but my mother’s face glowed as if she was listening to Sinatra.
I joined her at the window. My father was standing on the street in a white tuxedo and tails. He held a bouquet of blood red roses. A white limousine was parked on the street behind him, the driver holding the door open.
A smal crowd gathered behind my father. More street theater. These are the moments New Yorkers live for.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair,” my father cal ed.
My mother blushed and waved him away.
“Come on,” a guy who looked like a construction worker (and was actual y pretty hot) cal ed out to her.
“Give da guy a break.”
“Come, fair lady, upon my glorious steed.” My father gestured towards the limo.
My mother blushed and put her hands on her cheeks.
A
fifty-something
African-American woman shouted at us, “Honey, if you don’t get your ass down here, I’m going with him!” The crowd laughed.
My mother turned to me. “What do I do?”
“Wel,” I said, “you could hop on the fire escape and climb down, but since you’re wearing white slacks, I’d probably take the elevator.
“Should I forgive him?”
“I don’t think you have anything to forgive him for, Mom. He never laid a finger on Dottie Kubacki and you know it.”
My mother smiled wisely. “You see, what he’s doing now? I think this is what I needed.”
My father began singing again “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do…”
My mother leaned out the window. “If I come down, wil you promise to stop singing?”
The crowd laughed.
“You cal this singing?” my father asked. More laughter.
“What I cal it,” my mother said, “is very sweet.”
This time, the crowed “awwwed.”
“I’l be right down!” my mother shouted and she skipped-actual y skipped! — to the door. “I might not be back tonight!” she tril ed to me.
“You better not be back!” I cal ed back to her.
“I love you,” she said.
“Love you too, Mom.”
I watched for a minute as my mother emerged from the lobby door and ran into my father’s arms.
Given that she had at least thirty pounds on him, most of it in the bosom, I was surprised he didn’t fal over.
The crowd cheered. So did I.
And not just because I had my apartment back.
My father watched as the limo driver guided her into the backseat. When he closed her door, my father turned to me. “Not bad for an old man, huh?”
“I’m proud of you Dad,” I said, my eyes for some reason fil ing with tears. Must have been relief.
“Your old man, you have to admit, he’s stil got it,” my father said. “Now, you won’t miss her too much, wil you?”
“I’l survive.”
“You’re a good boy. Thanks for looking after her.”
“Thanks for taking her back!”
My father climbed into his seat and the limo took off. The crowd dispersed, except for Construction Guy who stayed looking at me. I looked back. I’d guess he was maybe twenty-eight or twenty-nine.
Dark skin and dark eyes. Italian or Latino. Built like a tank.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” I answered.
“Pretty crazy family you got dere.” His accent was pure Brooklyn.
I laughed. “Yeah, wel, they’re the only one I have.”
“So tel me, cutie,” he yel ed up. “Think I could get you to throw down your golden locks, too?”
It was tempting. God knows I deserved something fun after the day I had. “It’s not a good time,” I said.
He pointed to my cheek. “I can see that.”
I chuckled. “Believe it or not, that’s the least of my problems.”
“Sounds like you could use a good massage.” He winked, grinning at the obvious lasciviousness of his suggestion.
That sounded good. “Some other time?”
“Real y?” he said. He grinned ear to ear. Damn, he was cute.
I realized I spent the past few years waiting for Tony or having sex for money.
It had been a long time since I dated an attractive boy just for the sake of a date.
“Sure,” I said, reassuring him as much as me. “I’d like that.”
“One second,” he
said. With a great leap, he jumped up and launched himself onto the railing of the fire escape. He pul ed himself up to the first floor landing. “I’l be right dere.”
Monkey-like, he climbed the metal structure, displaying a natural grace and limberness that belied his muscular build. In a minute, he was standing by my window.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.” Up close, he was a total snack. “That was pretty slick.”
“Wel.” He cocked his head, “I’m a pretty slick guy.”
“I’m Kevin,” I said.
“Romeo,” he put out his hand.
“You’re kidding.”
“What?”
“You just climbed onto my ‘balcony’ and your name is ‘Romeo?’”
He shrugged. “That’s what they cal ed me. Romeo Raul Romero.”
I bit my tongue. “That’s quite a name.”
“Yeah, my parents real y had a hard-on for de letter R, huh?”
I smiled. “It’s a very handsome name, Romeo. It fits you.”
“Ya think?” He leaned in closer.
“Uh-huh.” I leaned in a little, too.
Romeo planted one on my lips.
In the movie Norma Rae, Sal y Fields is being pursued by an unattractive but intriguingly-Semitic liberal activist played by Ron Leibman. Just in case his every characteristic and frequent use of Yiddish wasn’t enough to let you know he was Jewish, they saddled him with the name Reuben Warshowsky.
In any case, at one point Rueben expresses his sexual interest in her. She kisses him, explaining that if the kiss is good, the rest wil fol ow.
If she was right, then Romeo was real y, real y good.
I know, it seems crazy that after the day I’d just had I’d be standing by my window under a ful moon being kissed by a beautiful stranger who scaled my fire escape. But on the other hand, would I ever get a better excuse for acting a little crazy?
You know what they say: When God closes a door, he opens a window.
I just happened to be kissing a dark-skinned boy with biceps the size of my thighs through that window right now.
I pul ed away. “That was nice.”
Romeo raised his eyebrows. “It gets better.”
“I bet. One second.” I got a pad and pencil. “Can I have your number?”
He wrote it down for me.
First You Fall Page 20