Attraction - 14. Chapter 14 – Togetherness

“Mom! Please try and understand. I would be meeting them for the first time myself. How can I bring you along?”

“That’s your problem Mr. I am your mother and your Thanksgiving Holidays are mine. You can go meet them on Christmas for all I care.” Easy for her to say, Christmas was the time I usually spent with Dad’s family. Typical!

After ignoring her calls all day, I had finally picked up while waiting for the flight to SFO. The guarantee of having to hang up before take-off provided the requisite security cover. We had been having this conversation for the last two days. Kent wanted me to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Cara was bringing Trevor. It was a big deal in their family apparently. My mom hadn’t baked a turkey in seventeen years. I had proposed to take a few days off earlier in the week to spend with her but she was having none of it.

“Mom! Please!"

“You had skipped last year too. I am not going to let you shortchange me again.”

“I was sick last year. You refused to come and meet me.” My voice had gone up at the injustice of her accusation. A few people turned to look. Damn it. Why couldn’t I have had a normal mother?

“Don’t you yell at me boy. I let you not come last time because it was a genuine reason.”

“You mean this time around it is not a genuine reason? My need to be with my boyfriend is not genuine enough for you?”

“I am not saying that. All I am saying is, you can be with both of us. Why don’t you bring him over to meet me?” Like hell I would. “Have you thought about that? No. Because you don’t care about my wishes. That’s why!”

Boarding was announced and I wound the conversation up without getting anywhere with Mom. She demanded that I call immediately as I landed. Yea right! All through the flight I kept wondering what the solution to this conundrum was. The only idea that looked feasible was to have her come to San Fran, put her up in some hotel and spend the day with her while doing dinner with Kent’s family. Shit, I was to meet his family. The whole concept was nerve wracking in itself. I had parked it in one corner of my mind to obsess upon later. Finally, they announced landing. I'd be with Kent after eighteen and half days.

Every time I came out to the arrivals I would hope to find Kent’s towering form and go running into his arms, dropping my bag on the way, as they showed in movies. He would lift me off my feet and twirl around and we would kiss hungrily. Sigh! Instead I would ring him which gate I was at and in the file of pickers-up his car would come to stop in front of me. We would do our kissing, him lifting me, et al. It just wasn’t as they did in the movies.

On the drive back, he noticed me ignoring my Mom’s persistent calling so even before he could tell me how his day had been, I had to explain how my mother dearest was being a pain in the ass. He seemed to find it funny.

“Don’t you dare laugh at me. She wants to meet you. I promise you won’t be laughing if I let that happen.”

“What’re you talking about? I want to meet her.”

“What? Why?”

He turned to look at me incredulously for a moment before returning his attention to the road.

“Why would I want to meet my boy-friend’s mother? Do I have to explain the reason?”

“But I have told you how she is. You don’t want to meet her.” I kept shaking my head to drive home the point. I could not let this colossal disaster happen. He would surely run away as fast as his feet would take him if he ever came within touching distance of her. “I am telling you, she’s a piece of work.”

“All parents are weird.”

“Then mine are super weird. If you want I’ll let Jenny explain my Mom to you.”

“Fine! We’ll figure something out. We are not going to spend the holidays apart though. That’s not an option." he said with finality. Switching gears he asked, "Speaking of, how’s Jenny?”

“She’s fine, is not showing yet. I told you about the morning sickness right? Last two days I haven’t received any abusive texts so it seems things have settled down a bit.”

“That’s great. So the guy is playing it cool still?”

“Yea… It's not like she has any expectations from him.”

“That’s weird. I mean, I understand his situation, being young and all that. But I feel just because she’s got a stable life and career, he shouldn’t be washing his hands off like this. I mean, if I were in that situation -”

“You would be going down on one knee, yea I know. Thankfully you aren’t.”

Kent frowned but did not reply. He was not going to alter his stance. I was happy for not being the only one with a dislike for Boy Toy now.

“Where’re we going?” I asked looking outside.

“It’s Hank’s birthday. They're at a bar. I promised to make an appearance with you before we shacked up in my room.” Hank was Kent’s suite-mate. I was tired but the idea of a few drinks to unwind sounded good. “That’s not a problem right? I didn’t get a chance to check with you.”

“It’s fine. You know I like Hank. Did you get him something?”

“I got him a 49ers sweatshirt and tickets for the game on Thanksgiving weekend.”

At the mention of the holiday my phone rang again. I pressed ignore which Kent noticed.

“Was that your mom?”

“Yes.”

“Why don't you just talk to her?”

“Because, I have nothing new to say. I’ll call her tomorrow after getting a good dose of you. She’ll be easier to handle.” I had said it in a matter of fact way but Kent started glowing at my remark.

He retained his smile all the way to the bar. When Kent asked for my hand as we walked in, I shook my head. This was a straight joint and I would avoid the drama if I could. Kent accepted my stance reluctantly and to mollify him I walked right by his side, brushing my hand against his. My boyfriend’s lovely face couldn’t hide the pleasure that gesture gave him.

Sure enough, as I had imagined the joint was full of young college students, men posing like pigeons and tarted-up girls hoping to throw themselves at the stud who’d turn out to be their meal ticket. Alright, maybe that was too cynical a take on the people there. I did not have any incentive to be nice. Because, an aforementioned Tart was hanging onto Kent’s bicep as he was coming back to our table with drinks. Kent, I could see was answering her questions politely –‘You go to Stanford? How nice! Are from around here? Do your friends mind if we joined you guys? Your party looks like fun, we’re getting bored.’

Soon our table was buzzing with girl chatter and Hank the birthday-boy was putting on a show for their benefit. Seeing how crowded the botth was the three girls, Tart and her posse, had had to squeeze in. Hank had done the gentlemanly thing and taken on one the blondies on his lap. The one who had broached this merger was eyeing Kent in the hopes that he would offer her the same courtesy. Now my boyfriend wasn’t dumb so he stretched his free hand and put it over my shoulder so that I was leaning into him in a fashion that no straight buddies would. Shock registered in Tart’s eyes.

“You’re gay?” She squealed. Hank and the other guys turned at the voice. They were watching out for trouble. Great friends.

“Yes” Kent answered genially. “Jon here is my boyfriend.” He gave me a peck on the cheek to drive the point home.

Her face twisted some. “That’s so cool.” She said unconvincingly.

“Thanks.”

Everyone else went back to whoever they were chatting up and for the rest of the time we were there, the Tramp kept glancing our way to make sure she was not being tricked. She must have received plenty of evidence. When we finally dropped on Kent’s bed, our bodies were too worn out for any hanky panky. Good thing that we got the biggest thrill from just being next to each other.

Best of all though, was morning sex. My eyes opened to the sight of Kent’s light green ones staring at me as his head bobbed up and down on my crotch. God! What a sight to wake up to. He stopped momentarily to declare the solution to my Mother situation. “We’ll go and meet Mom and Dad today, see if they can do lunch or something. First meetings done, we can ask them if they’re Ok with your mother joining us for the Thanksgiving dinner. I think they’d be fine with it. Problem solved.”

There were too many things about this solution that I knew were going to do my head in, but my shrewd lover continued with his ministrations and all the worries got lost in the fog of lust. Was I getting manipulated? Who gives a fuck?