New Tricks

by Andrew Grey

  “Two,” Thomas said. “I don’t want to go all the way up there alone, so if you don’t mind, you can come with me. That is, if you’d like to.” Sure, he wanted to do something and didn’t relish the thought of spending the entire day alone, but he should have tried to find someone who he wasn’t having feelings for that he shouldn’t have. God, Brandon even made his thoughts convoluted.

  “It sounds like fun.” Brandon’s smile was genuine and warm.

  “Awesome.”

  “I can reserve two sets of tickets for the train. The other things we’ll have to figure out once we get there. When did you want to go?”

  “We can leave soon,” Thomas said. He’d made the invitation, so he wasn’t going to take it back.

  “I have the directions all set up in my phone, and I’ll get some water and a few snacks so we have things. I can go to Costco later tonight.” It was curious how Brandon rearranged his day but didn’t lose sight of the things he needed to do.

  Thomas got a jacket just in case, and Brandon brought a small cooler and followed him out of the house. They went to Thomas’s car and buckled up before heading out of town and into the mountains.

  “What are you doing?” Thomas asked as Brandon typed on his phone.

  “Letting Marjorie know we’ll be out of pocket for a while. She can probably text, but cell service is most likely a little spotty.” He was being a good assistant, but Thomas wasn’t sure how much he wanted Marjorie to know. “I’m not giving her any details, just that we may be unreachable.”

  Once finished, Brandon set the phone on his lap and gave him directions as needed. It took about an hour to get there, passing through some amazing mountain scenery.

  “Sometimes I forget how breathtaking it can be here,” Thomas said as he slowed down, taking a curve near a deep drop-off. “There’s nothing like this in New York.”

  “Nope.” Brandon smiled. “I always liked it here. As a teenager, I used to love to drive up into the mountains just to see what there was to see. I got to the top of Pikes Peak for a field trip in junior high. I had great teachers who thought enough to use the natural beauty around us in their lessons.”

  Thomas glanced over, his breath hitching at the beauty and pure joy in Brandon’s eyes. He turned back to the front, navigating the mountain road until they crossed into the old mining region with the town in the valley. Multicolored slag heaps from played-out mines colored the mountainsides around the town. They were a beautiful reminder of what was done to get at the gold in the Rocky Mountains. Thomas turned into the parking lot, and after paying, he found a spot and got out of the car.

  “Wow, this place is cool,” Thomas said half under his breath. “It looks like a step out of time.” He swiveled his head, trying to take it all in. “Do you want to wander through town?”

  “Sure,” Brandon answered, and they left the parking lot. The town did indeed look like something out of another era, with the old storefronts and saloons. “Oh,” Brandon said quietly. “They’re casinos. A lot of them.” He sounded disappointed. “I forgot that they went into gambling in a big way up here. There were a few of them that had been here a while, but I don’t remember this many.” He sighed, disappointment clouding his expression. “This used to be a really quiet, sort of living museum.” Some of the light went out of his eyes, and Brandon bit his lower lip.

  Thomas couldn’t help sharing some of Brandon’s disappointment. “Maybe we can go to the station and ride the train like we planned?”

  “Yeah.” Brandon gave himself a shake and led the way.

  The train station did look like something from the nineteenth century, and the brightly painted train pulled in, making Brandon smile. Thomas wasn’t supposed to get so wrapped up in Brandon’s reactions, but it was hard not to. Thomas was finding it difficult to keep his distance.

  “Let me take care of the tickets,” he said, approaching the window and giving his name. He paid for the tickets Brandon had reserved, and they waited in line for boarding, along with a throng of tourists. “Lots of people.”

  “It’s tourist season,” Brandon said, lightly bumping his shoulder. “That’s okay. For today you and I can be tourists and have some fun.” He was practically bouncing again, and Thomas couldn’t help but share in his enthusiasm.

  They boarded the train and found seats next to each other as the others filed on, filling the car. As they pulled away from the town and the casinos, they slowly wound up and through the mountains, where the abandoned and ghostly remains of gold-mining history passed outside.

  “The slag heaps,” Brandon said, pointing.

  “Yeah. They dumped the dirt just outside the mines,” Thomas said, and the recorded narration told of companies who came in to work the old slag heaps in search of missed gold, sometimes finding gold themselves. “It’s so peaceful out here.” Thomas took a deep breath of the mountain air as some of the years of built-up tension glided away.

  The train car rocked a little, and Brandon lightly bumped him. He turned, and their gazes met once again. Brandon blinked, his thick lashes framing his incredible blue eyes. “Yes, it is. It’s like job searches and appointments, meetings, and all that other stuff doesn’t exist. At least for a little while.”

  “What kind of job were you hoping to get?” Thomas asked. “I know being an assistant wasn’t your ultimate goal.” He swallowed hard, realizing he was getting the benefit of someone as organized and capable as Brandon only until he found another job.

  Brandon chuckled and turned to look out the window. The train traveled along the side of a mountain, the peak on one side and a ravine with the creek on the other. It was a stunning view, but Thomas barely noticed it as the sun caught Brandon’s hair, setting it alight in an almost golden halo.

  “I was hoping to get a job in the film or entertainment industry. Not as an actor or anything, but I have some experience—good experience, with results—and I was hoping it would get me noticed.” Brandon shrugged, but Thomas could tell he was covering up for a disappointment that went deeper than he was letting on.

  Thomas put his arm around Brandon’s shoulder, and Brandon turned away from the view to look at him. Those eyes…. Thomas could get lost in those eyes, as big as the mountain sky and twice as beautiful. “You are going to find a great job, and someone is going to snatch you right away from me.” He flashed a smile of his own even as his gut clenched slightly at the idea, but he had to be reasonable. “Sometimes it takes a little luck, but perseverance almost always pays off.”

  Brandon leaned against him for a second and then straightened up again. “Thanks, Thomas. I keep trying.” He sighed and leaned forward, and Thomas let his touch slip away. If that wasn’t welcome, Thomas certainly wasn’t going to press. He’d probably stepped over the line anyway.

  “Sorry,” Thomas muttered and pulled his arm back, setting his hands in his lap.

  Brandon flashed his blue eyes in his direction. “What for? It’s me who should be sorry,” he said softly. “I was leaning against you and….” Brandon’s eyes grew heated for a second, and then his lips curled upward and his expression grew animated. He laughed quietly.

  “I don’t understand what’s funny,” Thomas grumped, then wished he hadn’t.

  “Us.” Brandon’s laughter died away. “You were apologizing for having your arm around me, and I was apologizing for leaning on you.” He blinked, leaning a little closer. “And I liked both of them. They were nice.” He sat back, and it was Thomas’s turn to be confused, but only for a second, as Brandon once again leaned on him when the train began making a large loop through the old gold fields.

  The recorded narration continued, but Thomas barely heard it, his attention riveted on everywhere Brandon touched him. His heart beat faster and he grew warmer by the second. He could simply move away and bring this gentle intimacy to an end that easily, but frankly he was afraid to move in case Brandon realized what he was doing. It felt so good—too good—being touched in such a simple way, rocking s
lightly along with the train as it made its way slowly along the tracks.

  “Yes, they are.” Thomas expected guilt and recrimination to creep in. They always did, especially if he thought of Angus, and he did… way too damn much. But not this time. Sure, he thought about his ex for, like, two seconds, and then joy, happiness, and contentment washed in. He deserved those and let things be for now.

  The train ride took an hour, and once they were back at the station, Thomas didn’t want to move. The others filed out, talking and laughing, rehashing the trip and what they liked best. Neither he nor Brandon moved for a full minute, and then Thomas slowly got to his feet, the fantasy over. He blinked and walked down the aisle, letting Brandon go first. They stepped off the train and out to the exit. People laughed and talked, scampering around him, and Thomas stood in the middle of the path, not moving.

  “Thomas,” Brandon said as he tugged lightly at his arm. “We need to get out of the way.”

  Thomas nodded and made his way down to the sidewalk. “Have you ever been in the middle of a crowd of people and felt utterly alone?” he asked just above a whisper.

  “Yes. Definitely. Most of high school. I have friends and my grandma. My mom and dad aren’t part of my life very much. They don’t accept the fact that I’m gay, and refuse to have much to do with me. I don’t fit in with parts of my own family.” Brandon shrugged. “I know moving to a new place is hard, but you’ll meet people. It will happen. It just takes time. Ask your mom and dad. They know everybody, it seems.” Brandon smiled, but Thomas shook his head.

  “That isn’t it. I have friends in New York, but I can still stand in a room there and be completely alone. I’m the boss—I see hundreds of people a day, and yet it’s mostly just business. We meet, come to an agreement, and they go back to their lives and I go home.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true. You said you have friends. So call them and talk to them,” Brandon offered, and Thomas knew he wasn’t making himself plain. It wasn’t his friends or his business associates or even his parents that were the problem; it was him.

  “There’s nothing they can do for me.” Thomas took a few more steps, then realized he’d already said way too much to someone he’d only met two days ago but already felt like he could say just about anything to. “God, I’m going crazy.”

  “No, you aren’t,” Brandon said from behind him, and Thomas whirled around, not realizing he’d said that out loud. Brandon walked up to him. “You’re trying to find a new direction in your life, and that’s not easy for anyone.” He took Thomas’s hand right there on the street. “Finding a new way takes a leap of faith and some of that perseverance you were talking about before.”

  Thomas coughed, his throat dry. Dammit, how had Brandon gotten so damn smart and observant? “It’s a pain in the ass is what it is. I had a life I understood that was reasonably predictable in its own way. I was calling the shots, controlling things in my life.”

  Brandon started down the street, and Thomas walked after him. “So? Things are different now. This isn’t New York. It’s Colorado Springs. People here are different, but I think you’ll find they’re a whole lot easier to get to know.”

  “Okay,” Thomas agreed. That was probably true. “But I’m not talking about that.”

  Brandon stopped on the sidewalk. “I know what you’re talking about. You of all people should know that you can do any damn thing you put your mind to. You built buildings in New York, for God’s sake. You can do anything you want to do.”

  Anything except shake the loneliness that had been with him for a long time. Thomas had just ignored it and gone on working, and now, after making this move, he had more time and couldn’t ignore it anymore. “That’s enough of this.” This topic was only adding to his depression, and he’d come here hoping for some fun. He led the way down the street. “We’re here, so let’s have some fun.”

  “We could go down in the mine,” Brandon offered. “They have one where you can go a thousand feet underground and see the gold veins and stuff like that. It’s supposed to be pretty cool.”

  “You’ve never done it?” Thomas asked.

  Brandon paused. “Nope. We were supposed to do it when I was in school, but I hate enclosed spaces, so I asked my mom to send me a note and one of the teachers had to wait up top with me.”

  “If you don’t like enclosed spaces, then why offer to go?”

  Brandon shrugged. “I didn’t want you to be disappointed if that was something you really wanted to do.”

  Thomas rolled his eyes. “Come on. Let’s be real tourists and see what souvenirs they have. We can buy a bunch of crap and send it back to Marjorie and Blaze. They’ll think I’ve gone off my nut.” He found he liked that idea.

  Brandon laughed. “What does Marjorie like? Does she collect anything?”

  Thomas shook his head. “Nope. She’s a pretty no-frills, uncluttered kind of lady. At Christmas she brings in a small Christmas tree that she sets on one of the filing cabinets. That’s the only decoration she brings in of any kind. She’s amazing, don’t get me wrong, but in New York, space is a premium so….” He shrugged.

  “Okay. Then how about we try to find the tackiest souvenir possible to send to her?” Brandon’s suggestion made Thomas grin.

  “Awesome. We can each send her one and see which she complains about most.” That left them both cackling as they headed into the first shop.

  The lady behind the counter turned to them both as they giggled their way into the shop. Thomas passed the samples of gold-bearing quartz and bottles with gold flakes to go to the racks of souvenirs.

  “What on earth is this?” Brandon whispered and held up a dolphin bottle opener that said Cripple Creek on it.

  Thomas laughed and held his side. “What does a dolphin in the water have to do with Cripple Creek? We’re at seven thousand feet.” He shook his head. “That’s definitely a contender.”

  “Yup.” Brandon held on to the opener and continued looking. “Or maybe this?” It was a glass in the shape of a hunk of stone. “A rocks glass?” he quipped, and Thomas’s chuckle returned.

  The lady behind the counter turned to give them both dirty looks.

  In the end Brandon bought the rocks glass, and Thomas left with a package of bacon bandages.

  “I don’t get it,” Brandon said when Thomas showed them to him.

  “Marjorie is vegetarian, but she loves bacon. She has been largely vegetarian for as long as I’ve known her, but she eats bacon because she can’t bear to give it up.” Thomas tossed the package in the air and caught it. “What’s next?”

  “Food?” Brandon suggested.

  They’d eaten the snacks Brandon had packed in his pockets while they were on the train, and Thomas was starting to get hungry. They went into one of the saloons and sat down at the rough table. The server, wearing period garb, brought menus, and they ordered some nachos, which came served on a tin plate.

  “They really need help with their authenticity,” Brandon whispered.

  “Yeah, but can you imagine what the food would be? Beans, beans, beans, and jerky. That would be a really interesting menu.” Thomas was kidding, but it made Brandon smile again. He could become addicted to those smiles and would work to see them more often.

  They ate, and drank plenty of water, which Thomas needed to remember to do until he got used to the altitude. Thomas paid the bill when it was presented.

  “What else?” Brandon sat back in his chair. “Authentic or not, they were good.”

  “Do you feel lucky?” Thomas asked, turning to the casino across the street. “We could see what Lady Luck has in store.”

  “I don’t know how to play any of the games, and slots are a real waste of money.” Brandon shrugged. “I never had the inclination to play.”

  “I’ll teach you. There are games that require skill as well as luck.” Thomas started across the street and into the Double Eagle Casino. He looked around. It was small compared to Vegas, with a number of slots
and a few tables. “We can try our luck at blackjack. We don’t need to spend a lot.”

  Brandon clearly wasn’t so sure, but Thomas ambled up to one of the tables with two empty seats. He pulled out a hundred and got chips, then passed half of them to Brandon. “Just have fun.”

  “You sure?” Brandon asked.

  “Yeah.” Thomas shrugged and placed a ten-dollar bet. Brandon bet five, and the dealer dealt the cards.

  “Blackjack,” the dealer said when Brandon got an ace and king. He was paid, and they continued playing.

  Thomas lost and placed another bet. This time the dealer went bust and both of them won. The next few hands were pretty abysmal, and they lost, their stacks dwindling.

  “Maybe we should go?” Brandon offered, and Thomas nodded. He bet everything on the last hand and got a blackjack. Brandon won as well, and when they gathered the chips, they were five bucks ahead. Thomas cashed them in before they left the casino.

  “Did you have a good time?”

  “It was fun. But I always had to work too hard for my money to be able to gamble with it. I know it sounds dumb, and if you look on it as entertainment and are careful, it can be fun. But I was always too worried about losing what I had, so I never played.”

  They continued down the sidewalk, passing a candy store that smelled heavenly of chocolate. Thomas veered inside and inhaled the delectable scent, his mouth watering. “I have a weakness…,” he confessed to Brandon. “Chocolate is like my kryptonite. I don’t have it in the house much because I’ll sit down and eat it all at once.” As he drooled over the chocolate case, Brandon pointed to a bag of caramel corn.

  “This is mine,” Brandon said, and Thomas grinned as he placed a large bag of caramel corn on the counter and got some mint meltaways and coconut clusters. He paid for all the naughtiness, and they left the store. It was getting late in the day, and they decided it was time to head back.