In the light from the half-moon, Tommy Harris sat on a bench and stared at his own grave. When the moon is half to full, vampires like Tommy Harris may walk both in the day and the night but may only kill prey and consume blood at night. This day he had been watching and stalking some unemployed twenty-somethings selling drugs at a truck stop. He was tired of the bottled blood and was hungry for something real and substantial and hoped he might find someone truly despicable, evil, to feed upon this coming night.
Halack Cloven stood out among the four young men hanging around the truck stop. At one point he punched one of his buddies in the nose when he discovered his buddy had been shortchanged by one of the truckers during a transaction for some speed. He had punched another buddy in the balls when his buddy didn’t act quickly enough to retrieve more speed from his car that he wanted to sell. So Halack Cloven potentially fit the profile of someone that Tommy Harris enjoyed feeding upon, draining the life from, and killing.
Halack left his buddies and walked around to where a couple of truckers stood. His buddies got in their vehicles and left while Halack sold the truckers a new blend of speed that his supplier had cooked. With his pockets full of money Halack retreated from the truckers and back to his red Camaro. As he sped off to leave the truck stop Tommy Harris followed him. Oddly, Tommy followed Halack to the church and the cemetery where he, Tommy Harris, had been buried. It was from that very grave, on a dark and thankless night, Alicia Silver had raised Tommy from the dead.
At the church Tommy witnessed Halack Cloven give the money he had earned at the truck stop to a woman Tommy knew as a good person, who cared for foster children. Tommy was somewhat disappointed. That act of goodness made him less inclined to want to feast upon this handsome young man he stalked as prey. Tommy thought he might still kill Halack but for now he would hold judgement and wait.
At the church Tommy had noticed Maureen Bingo walking to the cemetery. Tommy left from following Halack to following Maureen who he knew was Billy Bingo’s mother. Hidden, sneaking through the trees behind her, Tommy reflected in memory of the old days and Maureen’s hell and how Billy had saved her. Tommy was shocked when Maureen came to his own grave and put flowers at his headstone. He watched her pulling some weeds from the cemetery lot and saw when she pricked her finger on a thorn. There was more blood than there should have been and some dripped on the white flower she had placed to adorn his grave. Tommy liked the site of her blood seeping into the flower’s white bloom.
Tommy felt gratitude that Maureen had cleaned his grave site up and had even put flowers on his grave. Tommy knew that Billy had gone so far as to try to kill Kane Bishop to avenge what had been done to him, his being murdered in the garage, and that affection also greatly touched Tommy. Tommy felt seeing Maureen at his grave and also knowing what Billy had done, somehow gave some meaning to his life. Tommy’s was a life that he generally considered had no meaning. There were times he wished that he had never been born.
After Maureen left from tending to his grave, with appreciation Tommy admired her work at his burial site. Tommy remembered the last time he had visited the site. Back then, nature had pretty much reclaimed it so that it looked like an overgrown, wild, dangerous, jungle. Thanks to Maureen his grave site now looked as though it had been brought back to civilization.
As a scary vampire, who now seldom walked with the civilized, Tommy sadly sat alone at the memorial to when he had died. Tommy felt the scar on his throat and remembered the cutting sensation of when he was lynched at the garage.
The vampire witch Alicia, who had raised Tommy from the dead, appeared next to Tommy. “What on earth are you doing here? You look just so fucking pitiful.”
“Just sitting. Why?”
“I’ve been getting some weird thoughts from you. I thought for sure I was going to have some fun with whomever you decided to kill but then your thoughts turned all warm and fuzzy over Billy Bingo and his mother. I tell you what, why don’t we kill Billy’s mother Maureen?”
Tommy stated, “No! You leave the Bingo family alone.”
“Don’t tell me what I should do. If I want to kill them then I will kill them. I am getting sick of your perverted desire to only want to feed upon and suck the life from evil people.”
Tommy said, “You do know that Billy Bingo is a witch, don’t you?”
“Hell, he does not know how to do shit. He does not have the kind of power that I have or Kane Bishop has. Hell, he does not even have the power that Linda Webster has.” Alicia paused. She thought a moment. “You know, on second thought, it might be even more fun if we kill Linda Webster. I’ve already killed her mother. We can torture Linda and make her cry and beg for her life. What do you think?”
Tommy stared at his master in disgust. “Killing an innocent. I don’t think so.” Tommy popped his jaw and revealed his fangs as his look of disgust transformed into a frightful grin. “Now, don’t reject this out of hand. Consider what I am saying. Why don’t we cause a jailbreak on death row. Imagine all those evil people freed for us to hunt down and torture and kill? Hunting those bastards and killing them could be a fun challenge.”
Alicia moaned, “There it is again! Your kinky obsession with killing evil people.”
Tommy rolled his eyes. “I just don’t see how you get off on killing good, innocent people. There is no challenge in killing God’s sheep.”
Alicia Silver stared at her slave. When she saw him take money to allow a bunch of men pretend they were gang raping him, she knew he was different. With Tommy there was the odd mix of vulnerable and tough bad ass that made him distinctly strange. She would have liked for him to have been more wicked and not so concerned about the people he considered good, but then again it was that odd mix which was the reason she brought him back from the dead to be a vampire and to be her slave.
Alicia cast a spell to cast their clothes into the wind and to the ground. Now naked they sat on the bench together. She reached over and played with Tommy’s cock. “Can’t I convince you that it might be both a challenge and fun to kill Linda Webster?”
“No.”
Alicia quickly stood and picked Tommy up into her arms and threw him down on top of his own body-less grave. “You know. I could kill you. Or I could cast you into the coffin I rescued you from. I could chain you down beneath the dirt. Imagine that you are trapped in that coffin and hungry for blood for hundreds of years or maybe even eternity.”
Tommy smiled. “I’d have my thoughts. I could dance in my fantasies through gardens and rivers and even in the clouds. My cock would still grow hard and I could still have my orgasms. You can’t hurt me. See, I know when I hunger, the hunger is not real. I know when I hurt; the pain is not real. It is all just in my mind.”
“You are my vampire slave. I control what is in your mind. I can make you hurt.”
“Try it.”
Alicia did try to make Tommy feel pain but she could not. “But you are still my slave.” Naked, Alicia jumped on top of Tommy. “You are still my slave. I control you through pain.”
“When I learned things, and you fell in love with me, things changed. Since then, you have not truly controlled me so much through pain as love.”
“I love no one.”
“You love me. It is now that love which binds me as your slave.”
Tommy rolled Alicia over on her back and began to fuck her missionary style. Tommy said, “I am as much in your head as you are in my head.”
Alicia enjoyed the feel of Tommy’s cock pounding her pussy though she would preferred to be the one on top. “You know that if we help people on death row to escape, then until we are able to kill them they might hurt good people. I could cast a spell where they would want to kill Maureen, Billy, and Linda. That should create a real challenge for you. You would have to kill the escaped convicts before they could kill Maureen, Billy, or Linda or whomever else I might decide I’d enjoy watching die.”
Tommy pulled his cock out of Alicia’s pussy and began to titty fuck her. “What makes you think those three can’t protect themselves. Such a spell would spoil my fun because surely each of them would kill the convict before I could do so.”
Alicia said, “Okay. You probably do have a point there. Also to make the game less complicated let us have just have one person from death row and one intended victim. Since there will only be one killer, the person the killer has to go after needs to be a true victim who isn’t likely to be able to protect themselves. What about having Linda’s son, Steve Webster as the killer‘s intended victim?”
Tommy nodded. “Okay, so the challenge is that I will make sure that the convict does not succeed in killing Steve.”
“That is the game.” Alicia thought a second. “I think to keep the police out of it, rather than an escapee let us have the killer legally freed. I will create a bogus DNA defense that will let the killer off. But here is the kicker, you can only go after the convict to drain their blood when they go after Steve to try to kill him.”
Tommy put his cock in his Alicia’s face. He beat his cock hard and shot his sperm all over her face. Tommy said, “No. Anytime they try to kill anyone then I have the right to feed on them. You are not going to pretend like they are only going after one person and then have them go after lots of people and say I can‘t protect the other people.”
Alicia spelled herself clean and attired in fresh clothes. She said, “Okay then, be that way.” She vanished, leaving Tommy naked.
Standing up, Tommy screamed, “What about some damn clothes? Please.”
Seeing that no clothes were being sent his direction, Tommy tried to vanish into an invisible ghost like form but Alicia had cast a spell so that he couldn’t. Neither could he turn into a bat. He was left standing human like in the cemetery, totally naked. Tommy screamed, “Bitch!”
Alicia echoed her voice back to him. “Do not ever think that I love you!”
Tommy laughed. “You know that you love me.” Then he stopped laughing when he saw who he believed was a police officer walking toward him.
Tommy told the man who he thought was a police officer. “My girlfriend got pissed about something and stole my clothes.”
The uniformed man did not say anything. He eased closer to Tommy.
Tommy moaned, “Come on, you don’t want to arrest me.”
Tommy saw the man had a strange look on his face. The man said, “Maybe I don’t. You are a good looking young man.”
Tommy thought to himself. “I could kill this man but Alicia would like that way too much.”
The man asked, “Do you like sucking cock?”
Tommy said, “I was here with a woman, not a man.”
Tommy walked closer to the man and saw that the uniform did not look right. The badge was totally wrong and the holster did not look right either. “What are you, like a security guard?” Tommy was pretty sure that the church and cemetery were very badly maintained and that it is doubtful anyone would hire security for the grounds.
“I am a police officer.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then run. I’d like for you run. All bare foot on this rough, rocky ground I’d like to see you run from me. I’d like to watch your pretty bare ass do a prissy run.” Then the man laughed as he pulled out a stung gun. “This has got quite a shock. It will incapacitate you long enough.”
Tommy asked, “Long enough for what?”
“It will drop you to the ground in a helpless mess long enough for me to tie your hands and to gag your mouth. I’ll first gag your mouth with some cloth. Then I will gag your mouth with my wet dick.”
Tommy smiled. “So you like raping men.”
“I do.”
Tommy giggled. “So would you describe yourself as evil?”
“Oh yeah, I am evil. I am so evil. I will fuck you long and I will fuck you hard. I will fuck you in the mouth. I will fuck you in the ass. Fuck. Fuck. I will so fuck you. You will cry. I will make you cry. I will lick your salty tears from your face. And if I like your tears I may even lick your eyeballs.”
Tommy’s eyes widen with a rather pleasant pleased look on his face. “So have you ever killed anyone?”
“Yeah. You should be scared. Really scared.”
Tommy walked up to the man and rubbed his stomach. With a giggle Tommy said, “I should be. I should be just so terrified of you.” Tommy did a fake shiver of fear and then kissed the man on the lips.
The man pushed Tommy back and then jammed his stung gun into Tommy’s neck. The man expected Tommy to fall to the ground but of course he did not collapse.
Tommy chuckled, “Ha, ha, ha. God, that feels so good. That gives me a tingle from the tip top of my head to the tip top of my dick. Oooh, it gives such a tingle to the head of my dick.”
The man stepped back away from Tommy. The man dropped his stung gun. Tommy opened his mouth. He revealed his fangs. In horror the man was unable to move as Tommy sank his fangs into the man’s throat. Tommy moaned, “That is some evil tasting blood. Evil blood. Yum so good.” Taking the man by the collar of his shirt, Tommy drank and drank. Then he dropped the man dead to the ground. “I will not resurrect you.”
Alicia appeared next to Tommy and looked down at the man. “You did not share. Now that hurts my feelings.”
Alicia spelled Tommy some clothes. Alicia said, “Of course you know that is the husband of the woman who Halack Cloven gave the money. It wasn’t for the foster children. You are such a naive dumb ass. They are the ones who cook the drugs for Halack.”
Tommy laughed. “Truth or lie?” Truth or Lie was a game they sometimes played.
Alicia shook her head. “Either believe me or not. I don’t care.” Alicia kicked at the dead man on the ground. “I thought for sure you would want to have sex with the man before killing him. He seems to be your type of dude.”
Tommy shrugged. “That dude is too ugly for me. Now Halack may be a different story.”
Alicia nodded. “Yeah, I read those thoughts. I am not sure I want you to raise Halack after killing him.”
“Just because I may fuck him does not mean that I will raise him.”
“If you like fucking with him, yeah, you will want to raise him.”
“So are we still going to do the convict game.”
“Hell yeah. I just have not decided which one yet.”
* * *
Billy Bingo’s older sister, Bess Bingo, continued to live in New York. She had tried living with Hutch Cassidy, widower of Clarice Harris Cassidy, but right now she was living on her own and trying to keep her checkbook balanced.
Hutch loved Bess but it was not easy for him to maintain a relationship with her. He knew about Billy Bingo as the Legman and he knew that Billy had killed George Destone. He knew secrets he could not share with Bess and at times that made him uncomfortable. At times Bess continued to dwell on her love for George Destone and during those periods it greatly bothered Hutch that he could not tell Bess what a despicable man George Destone had been. He kept quiet to spare Maureen Bingo and Mary Aghar from having to further suffer the evil that was George Destone. He would not risk hurting Maureen Bingo by telling Bess how George had blackmailed and raped her mother, Maureen, as well as how he had blackmailed and raped Mary Aghar. Also Hutch felt he could not tell Bess that her own brother had killed George Destone. Beyond concern for Billy Bingo and the victims of George Destone, Hutch was not entirely certain that Bess was capable of believing George Destone, the man she thought of as the love of her life, was truly evil incarnate.
Hutch knew that Bess was hurting for money. She was currently writing e-books to sell but she was not having much luck. Hutch told her that if she could better establish herself as a writer by being published in magazines that might help her e-book sells. Hutch had a friend who owned a magazine with circulation that was dropping and was badly hurting for better content to increase sales. His friend had an idea that if they could come up with a person on death row who they could exonerate with DNA evidence then that might give the magazine some much needed publicity. They hoped that some in the media would latch on to the story and then the magazine would receive mention in various media and other venues so as to help improve circulation.
Hutch’s friend was aware of college kids who had managed to free a few people from death row. His friend felt that surely there were others innocent on death row who had not yet been cleared and freed. Hutch thought his friend had a good idea and mentioned Bess as a writer to his friend.
So Bess was hired to begin researching people on death row. Her job was to begin writing articles about people on death row while at the same time hoping to find at least one innocent, and hopefully likeable person, she could fully exploit for the magazine’s “Death Row” feature. It was hoped that she would be able to make a case that one of the death row inmates had been wrongly convicted.
There were between 3,200 and 3,300 people on death row across all jurisdictions in the United States. Just in California, there were 704 people on death row. Bess decided that should be the starting point in doing her research.
Bess was allowed access by way of computer to all of the files of the men and women on death row. Of the 704 people in California on death row, 19 were women. So Bess decided to look through the files on the women first since she figured they would be the more likeable and compelling cases so as to ignite public sentiment and draw readership. Bess was horrified as she looked through the files and discovered that the majority of women on death row in California were so sentenced for the most unthinkable of crimes: the murder of children. There were a couple of women who had murdered adult men but they were not the kind of women who would elicit any sympathetic thoughts and the cases were pretty much open and shut. There was one case where a woman had murdered another woman. At first Bess thought the case did not make sense. Then when she looked closer at the case file she discovered the woman, with a male accomplice, was in fact a serial killer of women.
Feeling disgusted by what she had seen while doing the first of her research, she slammed her computer closed and stood up and began to pace the floor. She called Hutch. “Honey, I know you were doing me a huge favor with this but I don’t know whether I can do the articles on any of these people, much less try to prove any of them are innocent. All I have seen with my first look at the files are cold blooded, vile, monstrous killers, and these files are just on the women in California on death row. Looking at all these evil women has made my skin crawl.”
“I’ve got some time. Would it offend you if I looked through some of the files with you and see if I can find any case that might have potential.”
“No. If you have the time I most certainly could use some help and maybe some perspective. There was this one woman that at first I thought might be a good starting place but then hell, she was not only in love with a serial killer but she was helping him to kill the women. How could any woman fall in love with such a monster?”
Hutch ignored the question. “I will come over and try to help. If it looks like my friend’s idea was stupid we will tell him and see if we can come up with some other series of articles for you to write.”
“Thanks.”
“See you in a few hours.”
“Cool. Bye.”
“Bye.”
* * *
Hutch made some calls to some lawyers he knew in California. He asked them if they knew of anyone on death row in California who might be innocent and with a little time and review of the DNA evidence could be proven innocent. The answer he got from all the lawyers was pretty much the same. “Yeah, there are a lot of people on death row in California and the police do screw up quite a bit, but it is not that easy to get a person sentenced to death in California.” They made clear that they seriously doubted focusing on California was a good idea.
So Hutch decided to check on the death row cases in Alabama and Georgia. Having been raised in Georgia, Bess did not fully realize the degree that much of the nation has a blind bias against the South. Hutch also grew up in Georgia but he had learned and understood the degree being Southern had at first hurt him in business. His road to success in business, even with the help of his then lover David Jenkins, did not begin until he made the decided effort to lose his Southern accent.
Hutch glanced through the files of Georgia Death Row Inmates. There were 94 people on death row in Georgia. Hutch didn’t even consider the idea to narrow the search to women because he figured for a woman to get on death row, her crime had to be pretty awful as Bess had discovered. After glancing through the Georgia files Hutch called Lawyers he knew in Georgia. Each lawyer pointed to one man in particular who they believed might be innocent. His name was Kyle Kingsterone who had been convicted of killing multiple people as a serial killer.
When Hutch got off the phone he pulled up the file. There were already some college kids working to get Kyle’s conviction over turned. The college kids working on the case were June Ross, Sissy Devlin, and Howard Bing. Howard was the nephew of Hutch’s friend, Raymond Bing. Hutch did a print out of the file and drove over to Bess’ Apartment.
Drunk, nude, Bess greeted Hutch at the door. Without a stitch of clothes on, she leaned against the door jam in a sexy pose. With a liquor bottle up to her mouth, she spastically hand gestured Hutch inside. She lowered the bottle to her side as Hutch entered her tiny Apartment. She staggered from the door and closed it behind him. She touched the file Hutch held in his hand.
Her drunken, slurred voice altered between sensual soft and obnoxious loud as she spoke. “Talking to you on the phone made me so horny. I miss having sex with you.”
Hutch threw the file down on the desk behind where Bess was standing in the small living room. He kissed Bess on the lips. Hutch moaned, “I’ve missed you. Why can’t we make this work?”
Bess reached into Hutch’s pants and played with his dick. As she threw her liquor bottle back over her shoulder straight into the garbage can Bess said, “Love should not have to be work. Just fucking. Lots of good fucking.”
Hutch laughed as he kissed Bess on the breasts. He ran his tongue up her neck and kissed her behind her ear. “I think we were doing pretty well in the sex department.”
Bess giggled with a devilish grin and then licked her lips. “Yeah.” Bess slapped at Hutch. “You. You. You get naked. I want to see you naked.”
Hutch began to take off his clothes. Hutch asked, “Are you going to regret this in the morning?”
“Hell no. I thought we agreed that when I moved out that we would remain friends with benefits.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t sure you were serious.”
“Of course I was serious. Course, considering I am broke it might be more advantageous if instead of being your friend with benefits I were your slutty whore who you paid a thousand dollars for benefits.”
Naked, Hutch stood before Bess. “We can play that.” Hutch counted ten one hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and placed them on the end table next to the couch. He then sat down on the couch and spread his legs. He played with his already hard cock. “Whore. Suck my dick. Suck it like you are starved for it.”
Bess got down on her knees to suck his dick. Then Hutch stopped her. He pulled her up into his arms. He kissed her. He whispered in her ear, “You know it is going to be all right. Why don’t you give up this place and move back into my place.”
Bess cuddled in Hutch’s strong arms. “Because you love Clarice more than you can ever love me. I think maybe that you even love my brother more than you love me.”
“What? Where the hell did that come from?”
“I heard you talking about Billy in your sleep. You even have a pet name for him. The Legman.”
“You know there are things about your brother that you do not know.”
“I know that he is bisexual,”
“I am not talking about that. Your brother and I never had sex. I was with David Jenkins back in those days. I was a whore and I guess in one sense I will always be a whore. I mean with David it started out about money. David loves dirty sex of all kinds but our relationship became more.”
“I understand your relationship with David. I don’t understand your relationship with my brother. But then why should I. I don’t really fully understand Billy.”
“It is complicated. We were in a gang and…”
“Billy was in a gang.”
“Not exactly. See, there were some of us who were having our lives ruined by the people who ran the gang. David Jenkins helped me a lot but the truth is your brother saved all of our asses including David Jenkins.”
“Billy was so much younger than the rest of you all. How could he have saved you all? I mean David Jenkins is rich. He gives orders left and right to the people who work for him. How could Billy have saved all of your asses as you say?”
“Look. I don’t know how we got this far on this subject because this is something I really do not want to talk about. Billy is your brother. Just love him and respect that he is a lot more than your kid brother. Do you really need to know the details?”
“I do love him. I guess I don’t need to know whatever that it is that you are not telling me but I am glad you told me as much as you did.” Bess though a moment. She held her head. “I think I am sobering up. Fuck.”
“Your ten minute drunks have always confused the hell out of me.”
Bess lay back on the couch and Hutch eased on top of her. Their lovemaking was slow and gentle and restful. When they climaxed there was no dirty talk. There was just a loving embrace and the soft words that flowed from both of their lips at the same time, “I love you.”
Bess and Hutch both got dressed. Bess fixed some coffee while Hutch again looked over the file he was about to show her. They both sat down at the table and Hutch handed Bess the file on Kyle Kingsterone. Hutch told her, “People are saying he is innocent. There are even some college kids already working to get him released. It is not exactly what Dude (Hutch’s friend who owned the magazine) planned but I say rather than doing articles on other convicts you should focus on this one. Then we will see if we can get another subject for a different type of article approved by Dude.”
Bess nodded. “Yeah, the more I looked at the files I was browsing the less I wanted to interview or have anything to do with any of those people. I say lock them up and throw away the key.” Bess eyed the file that Hutch had given her. “A serial killer. I don’t know.”
Hutch said, “The thing is that he does not fit the profile of a serial killer. There is not clear pattern to the people that he was convicted of killing or was suspected of killing. There were women and there were men. Two of them were black and three of them were white. There was a teacher, a construction worker, a nurse, a stripper, and a police officer.”
Bess asked, “So how was he linked to all of them?”
“There was a police line up where people had seen someone strange in the area before each of the killings. He was identified in one of those line-ups but other people were identified in other line ups. The main thing that got him convicted was that his DNA was found at the home of the stripper who was killed.”
Bess said, “What about the other victims?”
“There was no DNA that linked back to him and later the DNA found at the home of the stripper was highly contaminated. Also she was the last victim and the first police officer on the scene was later found to have planted evidence in another case. That officer had access to his DNA that had been collected from the suspect before it was found at the crime scene.”
Bess asked, “Besides the contaminated DNA what was the most striking evidence that caused the jury to convict him?”
“The eye witnesses. Even in the line ups where someone else was identified, the person who was identified favored him. He did not have alibi for any of the killings. But probably most of all, the judge allowed in a confession that was beaten out of him. He later recanted that confession.”
Bess said, “So the case was hanky and problematic but he could still be guilty as hell.”
“Yeah, but you can build him into a sympathetic character. For the article or articles you need to believe he is innocent.”
Bess looked at the picture of him. “He is a handsome devil. That will make it easier to make him likeable. I have to tell you though, in my gut, I think the police and the jury may have been right to convict him. I’d be lying if I said that thought does not scare me.”
“I can call Dude and tell him you have decided he should hand the article off to someone else.”
“Yeah. Let the college kids who have already been working to get him released write the articles. I will be glad to meet with them and help with their articles. Call me a coward but I really do not want to have anything to do with this guy.”
Hutch smiled. “Okay. That is good idea. The college kids can write their articles on what they did from their perspective and then you can write another piece on them that will probably give the subject matter a bit more balance. I will talk to Dude in the morning. I am sure he will go for it.”
“Aren’t I awful. You hand me a way that I might be able to advance my writing career and I…”
“No. I am glad you put being careful ahead of any thirst for success. I’ve already lost one woman that I loved to a killer. I don’t want to risk history repeating itself. I was not thinking that dealing with these convicts or this convict in particular might put your life in danger. Shit. I am glad you have the good sense to know you need to be careful.”
* * *
Steve Webster and Bobby White lay naked in bed together. They weren’t sure where their relationship was going or even if they had a relationship but things had slowly changed from where they would just hook up for casual sex. They had developed a closeness that was both comforting and bothersome to both of them.
Bobby flipped channels on TV while Steve began to play with his own cock. Suddenly a picture of Jane Wilifar, an old girlfriend of Steve’s, fell off the dresser.
Bobby screamed, “What the hell? Do you have ghost?”
Steve said, “I don’t know. I had a strange dream about Jane last night. I don’t really remember the details but just remember that she was in the dream.”
Steve’s cellphone rang. He answered, “Hello.”
“This is Jane. I know it has been like a year since we have talked or e-mailed or anything but I started thinking about you. Do you mind me calling?”
“Of course not. You know I will always think the world of you.”
“Are you in a relationship?”
Steve asked Bobby, “Are we in relationship?”
“Hell no.” Bobby mumbled to himself, “If you have to ask, no.”
“I guess not. How about you?”
“No. I was and then, uh, ah, shoot, he dumped me. It was kind of weird.” Jane paused a moment. “I have this function I have to attend. It is my brother’s wedding here in New York. Would you mind coming to New York and being my escort?”
“In New York. When will the wedding be?”
“It will be in one week. I guess my calling you is kind of short notice.”
“No. Actually, right now is a good time for me to travel. I see no reason that I should not be able to make it to New York to attend the wedding with you. It will be fun to see you and catch up on shit and stuff.”
“Cool. I’ll call you and give more details about the schedule as soon as I learn the plans for sure. My brother knocked the girl up and so it is all kind of short notice. Bye.”
“Okay. Bye.” Steve closed his phone. He turned and stared at Bobby. “You are acting angry.”
Bobby said, “I’ve decided that I am going to accept the job offer from my Uncle. I am going to move to Hotville.” Bobby bounced out of bed and raced into the bathroom to take a shower. Steve could hear Bobby talking to himself. “He is still in love with Billy. He is still in love with Jane. I am just casual sex. What the hell am I doing here?”
Steve walked over and listened closely at the door. He thought he heard Bobby crying. Steve screamed through the door. “Love! I am not even sure I know what that four letter word means but I have feelings for you. I am just not sure I want to be in a relationship and the last time we had this discussion you made it very clear to me that you wanted to keep your options open.”
Bobby opened the door. He hugged Steve. Bobby said, “I know. I know. And I doubt I can be totally monogamous any more than you can. I just… I don’t know. There is a part of me that is starting to want more than just sex and laughs.”
“Are you ready to come out of the closet?”
“Well part of what I will be doing for my Uncle and with my cousin Mikey is running a gay bar. My father is the one who talked my Uncle into offering me the job so maybe I wasn’t as far in the closet as I thought. I wasn’t sure I wanted the job but I think I am ready for the change.”
Steve laughed. “I didn’t realize. You are maturing.” Steve thought a second. “What about your mother and your brothers? What do they think about it?”
Bobby shrugged. “I do not really know. They do not really want me to move to Hotville but as far as working with Mikey, I am not even sure they fully know he is bisexual.”
Steve said, “Well, you know my mom has business interest in Hotville. We do decorating jobs for the Sloth family. Just because you are moving to Hotville does not mean it is like you will be moving to some foreign planet. I will be going there and you can be coming back to Atlanta. Please do not push me away.”
Bobby laughed. He kissed Steve on the lips. “Shit. You know you are like a drug and I am an totally addicted to you. As long as you do not push me away, I will never push you away.” Bobby massaged Steve’s chest. “You know, if you go to New York and have sex with your old girlfriend, that is okay. I do not know why I was feeling all jealous. And I totally dig Billy Bingo.”
Steve said, “Billy is all broken hearted over Rachel marrying Dirk. What if we get him to go to Hotville with us when we go down to scout you out a place to live.” Steve could not quite read Bobby’s face. “Or we could just go, the two of us. Or did you want to go by yourself.”
“My Uncle Keith and Mikey have invited me to live at the White Mansion.”
“Oh. So will I be welcome there.”
“I don’t see why not.”
“I don’t have to go there. It is not like I am poor. I can rent a room.” Steve stepped away from Bobby. “So you are not going to need help buying furniture or moving or anything?”
“Shit, I can pretty much fit everything I own in a suitcase.”
Silently Steve walked away to get dressed and Bobby closed the door to take his shower.