waited on them didn’t even flinch when Ricky ordered two vodka martinis. Ricky knew the redheaded waiter was gay the moment he opened his mouth to speak. It
wasn’t because he was overly effeminate or walked with a swish. Ricky knew this from the look
in his eyes and the way he smiled at Ricky when he asked what they wanted. And when he
placed their drinks on the table and said, “If you need anything else, just yell and I’ll come
running,” and stared at Ricky’s lips, Ricky had no doubt about it.
Ricky smiled and said, “Thank you.” The waiter was cute, with pale green eyes that
sparkled when he smiled. Ricky flirted shamelessly and enjoyed doing it.
But Leyland wasn’t as quick to pick this up. He poked Ricky in the arm and said, “Do
you think he’s
gay
?” His face had flushed and he kept looking over his shoulder to see where the
waiter had gone.
“Definitely,” Ricky said. “And he’s a top.” Ricky would have bet his life on this. He
could see it in the guy’s eyes and by the way the guy was looking between his legs. He lifted his
glass and took a sip. Neither of them drank often and they both knew how to sip and make it last
for a long time.
“I think so, too,” Leyland said. “And did you see what was going on between his legs?
That guy’s got the dick of death packed down in those tight black pants. And I hear redheaded
guys in particular have nice dicks. I’ll bet it’s big and thick, with a nice red bush.”
Ricky laughed. Though he tended to be crude, Leyland was usually right about these
things. “I’ve heard that, too.” Ricky had always been the one to worry and he’d always depended
on Leyland’s aggressiveness, and it was beginning to dawn on Ricky that he knew how to take
control and handle things on his own. This, Ricky now realized, was because Leyland was still
speaking from inexperience. If it hadn’t been for Chad, Ricky would still be just as
inexperienced. But what Ricky had done the night before had changed him somehow. Thinking about the things he’d done with Chad lifted his eyebrows and squared his shoulders. He couldn’t
actually describe it, but he was a man now, older and wiser, as if he’d taken a crash course in life
and crossed an invisible line of no return.
While Leyland continued to follow the waiter around the room with his eyes, Ricky kept
his back straight and his eyes focused on the main entrance. If Chad was about to walk through
that door, Ricky wasn’t going to miss him. About a half hour after the waiter set down their
drinks, sure enough, Chad ambled into the hotel with a man twice his age. Chad was still wearing
the soft black sport jacket and the cream-colored slacks he’d worn the day before. The older guy
had salt-and-pepper hair, a ruddy complexion, and he was wearing a dark business suit with
narrow pinstripes. His shirt was pale blue and his tie red, which quirked Ricky’s eyebrows. If
there were two color combinations that made Ricky’s stomach turn, they were red and pale blue.
Ricky kept his head straight and his eyes on Chad. They stopped in the middle of the
lobby, directly across from where Leyland and Ricky were seated, and they were talking about
something serious. Chad’s eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were pinched. Though Ricky
couldn’t see the older man’s face, the older man was talking with his hands a great deal and his
arms were flailing in all directions.
Ricky poked Leyland and said, “He’s here.”
“Where?”
Ricky nodded to the lobby. “Standing over there, talking to the old guy with the gray hair
and the pinstriped suit.” Ricky frowned. The old guy had to be at least forty.
Leyland sat up and faced the lobby. When he saw the two men standing there, he pressed
his palm to his chest and said, “That’s Chad? The guy in the black jacket? The one with the dark
hair and the strong chin?” Ricky nodded and continued to watch them.
Leyland took another sip of his martini and leaned on the table with his elbows. “He
looks like a fucking professional hockey player, like those guys you see on the six o’clock news
being interviewed in the locker room.”
Ricky smiled. “That’s good old Chad, all right.” He could still taste him. He looked just
as good from a distance as he did up close.
Leyland moved closer. He looked around to see if anyone was listening and asked, “Did
he pork you? Does he have a big dick? Did you suck him off?” He couldn’t take his eyes off
Chad. He was gawking and his mouth was half open.
Ricky shrugged. “Yes, yes, and yes,” he said, answering all of Leyland’s questions.
Leyland grabbed his sleeve. “Give him the fucking angel.”
Without moving his head Ricky said, “Huh?”
“He’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” Leyland said. “Give him the fucking angel, the
car, and the deed to the house if he wants it. He deserves it.”
While Leyland rattled on about Chad’s good looks, Ricky continued to stare. He clenched
his fists beneath the table and tried willing Chad to look at him. All this concentration must have
worked, because Chad eventually turned his head slightly to the right and gazed in Ricky’s
direction. He didn’t smile; his expression remained stoic. But when he locked eyes with Ricky,
Ricky felt a strong sensation pass through his body. The sensation ran from his groin up to his
temples, leaving him warmer and slightly out of breath.
Leyland grabbed Ricky’s arm. “He’s looking right at you.”
“I know,” Ricky said. He remained expressionless as well. Then, just before Chad and the
older guy started walking toward the elevators, Ricky lifted his hand and nodded at Chad. When Chad was out of sight, Ricky’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. He picked up his
drink, finished the last swallow, and said, “Let’s go home.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s go.”
“We came all the way into the city for
this
?”
Ricky frowned. He’d planned on confronting Chad. He’d planned on chasing him down,
cornering him, and doing anything he had to do to get his mom’s angel back. He’d had even been
prepared to fight Chad if that’s what it took. He wasn’t leaving New York without that angel in
his hands. But when Ricky saw Chad standing there, talking to a man twice his age, and when he
saw Chad’s defeated expression, his legs froze and his body didn’t want to move. Seeing Chad in
this vulnerable position tugged at Ricky’s heart in a way he couldn’t have predicted an hour
earlier. The dull thud in his stomach became a sharp twist. The only thing he wanted to do was
get up, run over to Chad, and put his arms around him. But Ricky knew this was impossible.
They came from two different worlds that would never meet.
So the next best thing was to get out of that hotel and go back home to figure out what he
was going to tell his mother about the putto. Maybe there was still time to find one just like it.
Ricky stood up and left a twenty-dollar bill on the table. He smiled at Leyland and said,
“Let’s go.”
Leyland gulped down the last of his martini and followed him out the door with a
swagger in his step. He complained all through the lobby and out on the sidewalk about leaving.
He didn’t understand why Ricky wasn’t going after Chad to get the angel back. Ricky didn’t say
a word. He knew if he tried to explain his feelings to Leyland it wouldn’t have done any good.
He wasn’t even sure what he was feeling. All he knew was he couldn’t do anything to hurt Chad. Confronting Chad about the stolen putto would have been far more difficult than dealing with his
mother and father. Ricky’s mother and father would survive the loss and they’d either replace the
putto or find something similar, and just as stupid, for his mother to obsess about. But Ricky
wasn’t so sure about how Chad would survive.
When the parking attendant drove the Porsche to the end of the garage, Ricky handed him
a ticket stub and reached for the keys. But as Leyland was about to open his door, a deep voice
from behind said, “Ricky, is this your car?”
Ricky’s eyes opened wide. When he turned, Chad was standing next to him. “It might be
my car.” He wanted to play this cool. “Why do you ask?” He felt like a character in an old black
and-white movie.
“I need to talk,” Chad said.
Ricky folded his arms across his chest and said, “Then let’s talk.” He was stunned to see
Chad had followed him outside. He wasn’t going to confront Chad about the putto that moment.
But he also wasn’t going to let the incident slide altogether.
Chad spoke fast, with a hint of panic in his voice. “Let’s talk in the car.”
Ricky motioned to the door. “By all means, get in and we’ll talk.” Then Ricky sent
Leyland a glance.
Poor Leyland was standing beside the passenger door with wide eyes and an open mouth.
When Ricky nodded at the backseat, Leyland opened the door and pushed the front seat forward
without asking any questions.
Then Chad and Ricky jumped into the car at the same time. Ricky switched on the engine
and Chad locked the doors from the passenger seat. “Would you do something for me?” Chad
asked. “You want me to do something for
you
?” Ricky asked. “You’ve been playing with my
mom’s putto, and that wasn’t nice.”
“Her
what
? I never touched your mother.” He lowered his eyebrows and sent Ricky a
curious frown.
“The crystal angel you took. It’s called a putto. I want it back.”
“Fine,” Chad said. “I’ll get the angel for you. Just drive now. We have to get out of here.”
Before Chad could even finish the sentence, the older man in the pinstriped suit crossed
the street and started waving at them. He walked fast and pointed at the Porsche. “Chad, get out
of that car and get over here. I’m not joking anymore.”
Ricky ignored the man. This guy meant nothing to
him
.
Leyland’s eyes grew wide and he gripped the seats. “Ricky, start the car and get moving.
This guy looks like trouble, seriously.”
Ricky ignored Leyland. But when the guy reached the car and started banging on the roof,
Ricky shouted, “Hey, asshole. Get the fuck off my car.”
“Get out of here,” Chad said. He didn’t shout. But his voice went higher.
Leyland grabbed Ricky’s shoulder. “This guy isn’t joking, buddy.”
The guy banged on the passenger window and said, “Open the fucking window, Chad.”
“Get the fuck out of here, Carson,” Chad shouted.
“We have to leave right now,” Leyland said.
Ricky wasn’t ready to leave. He wanted an explanation from Chad.
But when the guy pulled a gun from his pocket and waved it in front of the window,
Leyland pointed and said, “This guy’s not playing, Ricky. Get the fuck out of here.” Ricky turned, hesitated for a second, then looked back and forth. There weren’t many
people on the sidewalk and the street was empty. So he put the car in first gear and sped out of
the garage, leaving the guy standing on the sidewalk waving both arms above his head.
When they were a couple of blocks away, Ricky slowed down and asked, “Who was the
asshole with the gun?” Ricky was from the suburbs; if people had handguns they were kept in
locked safes.
“He’s my boss,” Chad said.
“This is my best friend, Leyland,” Ricky said. “Leyland, this is Chad.”
Leyland just nodded and smiled. He was still gripping the seats, his face had reddened,
and there were beads of sweat dripping down his cheeks.
“Nice to meet you, Leyland,” Chad said. “Hope you don’t mind a little excitement in
your life.” Then he reached forward and turned on the radio. He didn’t seem the least bit upset
anymore. His hands were stable and he sat back in his seat and smiled.
“Where are we going?” Ricky asked Chad in a low voice.. Though he didn’t resent Chad,
he wasn’t too thrilled about this new state of affairs Chad had gotten him into.
“Don’t know,” Chad said.
“Are we heading in the right direction, at least?” Ricky asked, with a hint of sarcasm.
“Just keep driving.”
This sounded like an order, and for some reason Ricky couldn’t explain, it made him
clench his teeth. “This guy, the one you said is your boss. He’s really your pimp, isn’t he?”
Chad looked at him and sighed. “Wow,” he said. “You’re brighter than you look, Ricky.
You figured that out all on your own.” Ricky let that one go; he knew he’d sounded stupid by asking. He pulled up to a red light
and stopped. A huge black SUV pulled up beside them on the right and the driver lowered the
window. It was Carson, Chad’s boss. He’d been following them and they hadn’t known it. He
pointed the gun and said, “Pull the fuck over now.”
