9.11 - 20. Chapter 20

July 23, 2001

I followed my dad into the plane and saw Stef sitting there, smiling at me. “I didn’t know you were coming too! That’s awesome!”

“I am glad that you are pleased,” he said, then turned to my father. “And I am glad that you are doing better. Do not infect me with your germs.”

“I’m doing better,” Dad agreed, although he clearly wasn’t completely recovered.

“Why don’t you go back and lie down,” I suggested. “That way we can talk about you.” Stef chuckled.

“After we take off,” he said, as if he always followed FAA regulations.

“I appreciate you flying to Maui, even though you feel like shit,” I told him.

“It’s the least I can do, after you saved Robbie.”

“And how did you save Robbie?” Stef asked.

“Evidently the young man he fucked last year had such a good time he wanted a replay,” Dad said, trying not to sound bitter. It didn’t work, because we would have known he was feeling like that anyway.

“You are still bothered by that?” Stef asked. Whereas I was willing to leave my dad to stew about that on his own, Stef opted to pry. The plane taxied and took off as we were talking, but we didn’t even really notice: it was like a subconscious thing.

“I’m bothered because of all the shit that happened back then,” he said. “We were all so fucked up. I’m not mad at Robbie.”

“Does Pop know that?” I asked.

“Well if he doesn’t, it’s because he didn’t hear me the ten thousand times I told him yesterday,” Dad groused, making us laugh.

“Maybe you need to show him instead of just telling him,” I said with my slutty leer. Stef giggled while my dad rolled his eyes.

“I did that too, at least to the degree that I could when I wasn’t puking.”

“So how did Will save Robbie from this predatory twink?” Stef asked.

“The twink’s name is David Taylor. Will was spying on them, and saw David put roofies or some shit like that in Robbie’s drink,” Dad said, and gave me a really appreciative look. “Of course, instead of just trying to warn Robbie, he ran over and knocked the drink right out of his hand, creating a major scene.” He was giving me shit, but I corrected him anyway.

“First of all, I wasn’t spying, I was hanging out in an alcove, enjoying my post-orgasmic glow,” I said, totally freaking him out.

“Who did you sleep with?” Dad demanded. I ignored him.

“Second, I saw the twink throwing himself at Pop, rubbing up against him and shit. Pop was amazing. He just totally blew the dude off.” My dad smiled at that. “Then Pop was trying to talk to some other dude, and while he was turned away from his drink, that asshole poured shit in it.”

“And that is when you created a scene?” Stef asked, giving me shit.

“I started walking toward Robbie, but he picked up the glass and was holding it up to his lips just as I was getting there. So if I would have been really nice, and not created a scene, he would have drunk that shit. What should I have done?”

“Of course, then you assaulted the guy,” Dad said.

“I should have kicked his ass,” I growled.

“You did not?” Stef asked, as if he was surprised I would refrain from violence.

“No, I just reached into his pocket to grab the vial. I didn’t even grope him.” Stef chuckled. “So what’s going to happen to him?”

“What do you mean?” Dad asked.

“The twink. Did anyone call the cops?”

“No,” Dad said, looking at me like I was an idiot. “No one wants to make a big deal out of this. Pop doesn’t need people talking about how he was sleeping with a twenty–year-old guy.”

“The dude looked like he was twelve,” I said. Dad tried not to laugh at that. “So he gets off scot free?”

“No, this will cost him his career,” Dad said. I nodded. That was a pretty tough price to pay, but he deserved it. “You know I was teasing you, but I really do think you were terrific. I’m very proud of you. Thank you.”

I swallowed hard at that, at such sincere gratitude from him. “You’re welcome,” I said, and just looked at him to make sure he got how much him saying that meant to me, then I got more playful, to break up our intense mood. “So in return, you’re going to buy me a house and not give me shit about it?”

“That’s what I’m going to do,” he affirmed. “And I’m going to hang out for a couple of days to surf with you, if I feel better.”

“Awesome. Now go rest,” I ordered.

“In a minute,” he said. He handed Stef a sheet of paper. “Robbie asked me to give you this to review.”

Stef raised his eyebrow. “What prompted this?”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Will said he wanted to go to the board meetings, since he had so much fun stirring up shit at the last one,” Dad said, winking at me. “That’s a resolution adding him and Darius to the board of Anders-Hayes as non-voting members.”

I was so relieved they’d remembered to add Darius. “And what about JJ?” Stef asked.

“We can consider that when he’s an adult, and if he’s interested,” Dad said.

“See, maybe this emancipation thing wasn’t such a bad idea,” I said.

“As long as you don’t buy any more property,” Stef grumbled at me.

“Do you want a free hand to decorate or not?” I challenged.

Stef gave me a fake frown, signed off on the resolution, and handed it back to Dad. “Tell Robbie I think that was a marvelous idea, and smart politically, since I am unlikely to want to jettison a company that is providing my grandsons with valuable experience.”

“I’ll pass that on,” Dad said, as he took the paper and went back to rest.

“So whom did you sleep with?” Stef asked me as soon as he was gone. He was so funny. I described the guy without naming him. “You are talking about Hayden?”

“I am,” I said.

“I thought he was with Trevor?” he asked, amazing me by how in tune to the gossip he was.

“That’s how I met them,” I told him. “I had a threesome with them. At first, they just wanted me to blow them, but as soon as Trevor saw my dick, he made me fuck Hayden.”

“He made you?”

“It wasn’t a tough sell,” I joked. “Then he seemed kind of annoyed that Hayden was so into it, so I got him to fuck me while I fucked Hayden. That did the trick.” I was saying this calmly while I was laughing my ass off inside at how that visual was making Stef totally horny.

“So when you saw Hayden again, you opted to do a repeat performance, only this time with just the two of you?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I was pretty forceful with him, because he likes that, but he could have said no. I didn’t know until afterward that he and Trevor had some formal deal between them.”

“It is up to Hayden to live up to his own commitments,” Stef said authoritatively.

“I get that, and that’s pretty much the rule I’ve been going on, but my psychologist helped me see that it’s more than that. I like Trevor. I don’t want to hurt him, and if he finds out, this will hurt him.”

Stef eyed me appraisingly. “That is true. What happened to give you this epiphany?”

“My time in St. Louis,” I said. I told him all about Tony and Rick, and I told him about Mason.

“Perhaps we can help Tony out,” Stef mused.

“Dude, are you going to fuck him?” I asked. It said a lot about my feelings for Tony, or lack of them, that the thought of Stef doing that didn’t really bother me. At least not that much.

“That is not my plan, but I do not usually rule that out,” he said playfully, cracking me up. “I think it would be a good idea for him to talk to someone, a professional, to guide him through this thing.”

“Good luck getting him to do that,” I said. I didn’t see Tony agreeing to see a psychologist.

“I am not the one who can get him to do that. The only person who could probably accomplish that is you.”

“I don’t know if I want to go there,” I said, but I was thinking about it, and Stef saw that, so he left me alone. “I’ll think about it when he gets back to Paly.”

“JP is worried that you will not be back this fall,” Stef said nervously.

“He doesn’t seem worried,” I joked, since it was hard to tell what Grand was feeling anyway. He chuckled. “Why would he think that?”

“He is assuming that all of this conflict may convince you that it is more conducive to be in Malibu with JJ and Darius.”

I shook my head. “I belong at Escorial.” That got a big smile from him. “Besides, I don’t usually avoid conflict.”

“This much is certain,” he joked. “You have gotten into two fights in the last week. That is quite a record, even for you.”

“The fight with Kai wasn’t a real fight. We just bumped chests. It was kind of hot.” He laughed. “And the twink, shit, all I did was tackle him.”

“I am sorry the driver they had planned for you didn’t work out. We will try to find someone else.”

“I don’t need a driver. I’ll stay at the new place, and I’ll be just fine,” I said, recognizing my dependency issue even as I said that.

“I think it is unsafe for you to not have a way to get around,” Stef observed. I gave him a dirty look. “You must think of the benefits to the person who works for you. It is an ideal summer job for someone, especially a surfer like the young man who had initially been considered.”

“His name is Kai,” I said. “This way he can surf without worrying about me.”

“He does not have that luxury,” Stef said. “Scott Slater called to ask if you had reconsidered hiring him.”

“Why is he so interested in what happens to Kai?” I demanded. Stef looked at me and I sighed. “I promised I wouldn’t tell Dad what happened, but I’ll tell you, as long as you don’t say anything to anyone. Except maybe Grand.”

“I will maintain your confidence as I always have,” he said, mildly irritated. I ignored his attitude and told him how I interrupted the encounter between Scott and Kai. Stef shook his head sadly. “He has always had a problem with morals, but I am disturbed to hear how predatory he is.”

“Yeah, that bugs me too. That’s why I’m worried that he’s calling and talking to you guys about Kai. I told him the dude was off-limits.”

“I am assuming that when we talked he did not have an erection. In that case, his motives may have been more pure,” Stef said, remembering that I’d told him that Scott was boning and horny when he was threatening Kai.

“What makes you think a dude talking to you wouldn’t have an erection?” I asked, winking at him.

“Well of course you raise a good point,” he joked, cracking me up. “It is just a feeling, and I usually trust my instincts.”

“So did he call you to ask if we’d hire Kai?”

“He did, which I thought was pretty bold considering how poorly Kai treated you,” Stef said, annoyed.

“Yeah, but after I saved him from Scott, he gave me an amazing blow job, so we’re pretty much OK now,” I said, raising an eyebrow. He gave me a disapproving look. “What? You taught me everything I know.”

“You make me question my own slutty ways,” he grumbled.

“Why? You seem like such a happy person. What’s wrong with the way you live? You enjoy sex. It energizes you. Why shouldn’t I enjoy life like you do?”

“For some reason, your libertine behavior seems more problematic than mine,” he said. “Probably because you are so young, from a biological standpoint.”

“I think we should have this conversation in front of Grand,” I joked. That got a frown, because he knew that Grand would laugh at Stef and call him a hypocrite.

“Instead, perhaps I will just review my attitudes internally.”

“A wise choice,” I agreed. “So if I don’t hire Kai, he has to do some shitty job?”

“I do not want you to feel pressured to do that,” Stef said.

“I don’t think that was an answer to my question.”

“Scott thinks he has a lot of potential, and he thinks that you are good enough that you would help him push himself. It would be good training for him,” Stef said.

“I’ll call him when we land,” I said.

“You are sure?” Stef asked.

“He’s packing eight inches,” I said to Stef.

“Perhaps I should learn to surf,” Stef said, really making me laugh.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:00, California time. That meant it was 7:00am in Hawaii. “Can you hand me the phone?”

“Who are you going to call?” he asked as he handed me the phone.

“Kai. I’ll just go ahead and call him now.”

“It is awfully early,” he noted.

“He’ll get up early to catch the waves,” I said. Hardcore surfers like Kai got an early start. “This way I can catch him before he hits the water.”

“I will defer to your judgment on that,” Stef said. I pulled out my cell phone to get Kai’s number and punched it into the phone on the plane. It rang four times before he answered.

“Hello,” he said, sounding groggy.

“Hey,” I said cheerfully. “It’s Will.”

He didn’t say anything for a bit, but I heard him yawning, and knew he was just trying to wake up, and he was probably trying to remember who the fuck I was. “Did you get a new phone?”

I smiled, since that meant he’d programmed my name in, and it didn’t pop up on his caller-ID. “No, I’m in the plane.”

“The plane?”

“Yeah. I’m on my way back to Maui,” I said.

“Cool,” he said, and sounded much more animated. “You want to hang out? Maybe surf?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “I hear you need a summer job.”

“That’s the plan, according to my mom,” he groused. “I’ll probably bus tables at Mama’s.” That was the local restaurant: Mama’s Fish House. I’d found out that they actually had cow there, so it was on my list of places to try.

“Hours suck,” I guessed. “That will cut into your surfing time.”

“No shit. It is what it is,” he said resignedly.

“You could work for me instead,” I offered.

“Dude, I don’t know. Are you sure? I treated you like total shit.”

“Yeah, but you gave me an amazing blow job to say you were sorry,” I flirted.

“I’m not the only one who knows how to suck a cock,” he said, but softly, so no one would hear. “That why you’re hiring me?”

“Duh,” I joked.

“So what do I have to do if I work for you?” he asked.

“Meet me this afternoon and we’ll talk about it,” I said. “We can do lunch.”

“Where?”

“I’ll call and let you know,” I told him.

“Alright,” he said, but I could tell he was happy. He was probably happier about having an easy-as-fuck summer job than about seeing me, but I was determined not to be a total wet blanket about it.

We hung up and I found Stef staring at me. “So you decided you like him?”

“Eight inches,” I said simply, making him chuckle. There was more to Kai than his dick, and Stef knew that too.

We landed in Kahului this time, and found Steve waiting to pick us up in his Lexus. “I think they were hoping you’d back out so they could pocket the ten grand and list the house again,” he told us. “They got a back-up offer for 2.2 million.”

“Sucks to be them,” I said dismissively. We did the walk-through, where we went through the house and made sure it was still in good order. It was. Besides, there wasn’t much they could fuck up, since the main house wasn’t even finished. After that we went to the title company to sign all the papers. My dad pulled out a cashier’s check, and titled the place in a trust I didn’t know about.

“Maybe I can take you guys to lunch?” Steve asked. Dad told me his share of the commission on this would probably be around sixty grand, so he could afford to be generous.

“Sounds good,” I said, taking the lead. “A friend of mine is going to join us.”

“That’s fine. Where do you want to go?”

“We can go to Mama’s,” I said. He raised his eyebrow to challenge me, since I hadn’t wanted to go there when he’d suggested it before. “They have cow. I checked.” He drove us to the restaurant while I called Kai and told him to meet us.

Since we were early, there wasn’t much of a crowd. We got a great table with awesome ocean views. Stef looked around skeptically, since he generally opted for more upscale establishments, but Dad didn’t let it bother him. Steve ranted about what he thought was good on the menu, and was just transitioning from salmon to ahi, when Kai walked in.

I waved at him and he walked over. Damn he looked good. Long hair wasn’t very popular on the mainland, but on him, it made him look exotic. Besides, it wasn’t ridiculously long; it didn’t even make it to his shoulders. “Hey Will,” he said in a friendly way.

“Kai, this is my grandfather, Stefan Schluter, and my father, Brad Schluter.” Kai shook hands with them in a friendly but slightly shy way. He was too cute for my dad to stay mad at, and Stef hadn’t been mad at him in the first place. I saw Stef glancing at his groin and I almost started laughing.

“Hey Steve,” Kai said.

“Kai,” Steve said, and seemed slightly nervous. That was strange. Kai sat down next to me, since that’s where I’d saved a seat. Stef was on his other side.

“You out here for a while?” Kai asked.

“We are only here until Wednesday night,” Stef answered, making us chuckle since Kai wasn’t talking to him.

“I’m here for a while. We bought a house here,” I said.

“Which one?” he asked.

“That one,” I said, pointing up at the headland.

“That one?” he asked. I nodded. “That house is the bomb.”

“It is,” I said. “Wanna check it out when we’re done with lunch?”

“Sure,” he said with a shrug.

“Did you plan to stay in the new house tonight?” Stef asked.

“Absolutely,” I said. I was so stoked to have a place this close to the surf. Not that I hadn’t had that before, in Malibu, but I hadn’t had a place this close to my favorite beaches. “You want to stay over and keep me company, then hit the waves in the morning?” I asked Kai.

“I have to be home from six to eleven on weeknights,” he said. “I can hang with you before and after that.”

“Works for me. Do you already have a job?” I asked, assuming that was what he was doing.

“No, it’s just personal stuff I have to do,” he said, which was weird. Steve’s expression was strange, a mixture of nervousness and concern. “Is that alright?”

“Yeah, I can work with that,” I said, even though those would be the hours I’d probably want him around the most. “As long as we do something fun on Friday or Saturday.”

“No problem,” he said, giving me the sexiest look.

Dad chimed in after that to talk about money. “We can pay you two thousand each week that Will is here and you have to lug him around.”

“You should hold out for twenty-five hundred,” I told Kai, just to bug my dad. It worked. He got annoyed, while Stef just smiled.

“Two thousand is fine,” he said, and was clearly thrilled.

“We’ll go with the twenty-five hundred,” Dad said. “Your job is to basically lug him around, and help keep him safe.”

“By safe, he means condoms,” I joked. Stef chuckled, my dad frowned, and Steve’s weird look got even more intense.

“You can explain to Kai later why we are worried about your safety,” Dad said firmly. He meant he wanted me to tell Kai about my kidnapping in Paris, which was fucking embarrassing. He thought it was important so the person with me would know about potential threats, even though there probably weren’t any. I so didn’t want to do that, but I knew this was a big issue for him, and I was learning to pick my battles.

“I’ll do that,” I said. He stared at me, stunned at how easily I agreed.

“You will?” he questioned.

“I will,” I snapped, since now he was implying that I wouldn’t do what I said I’d do, and because now he’d made it into a big deal. We finished up lunch and split up into two groups. Dad, Stef, and Steve were heading back to Kapalua, but they walked us out to Kai’s car. With every step we took, I could feel Kai getting more and more nervous.

He walked up to this old Toyota Corolla that was pretty rusted. That was pretty common if you had an older car and lived by a coast, at least according to the shit they told us in Malibu. “It’s a piece of shit,” he said. “Sorry.”

I looked at him and smiled. “Yep, it is,” I agreed, making him laugh. “I don’t give a shit. Here, put my bag in the trunk.”

“Trunk is rusted,” he said, tossing it into the back seat. “This is safer.”

“We’ll get something better for you to drive while Will is in town,” Stef said dubiously. “We should have a car on the property anyway.” We hopped in and he started the Toyota up.

“Runs good,” I said.

“Almost two hundred thousand miles, and it’s still going,” he said.

It took us almost no time to get up to the house, since it was so close. I punched in the code, glad that it worked, and we parked in the drive, not the garage. We were both worried the Corolla would leak oil on the floor. I showed him all around the main house and told him what Stef was going to do to it. “This place is amazing,” he said, and was almost breathless.

“This is where I’m stuck for now,” I told him, showing him the guest house.

“This décor is called Hawaiian tourist,” he said dourly. I laughed, because that totally described it.

“Yeah, we can tackle this when the other house is done,” I told him. It suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t have any bedding, or linens, or kitchen shit. “We need to go shopping,” I said.

“For what?”

“Sheets to sleep on, towels for a shower, food,” I said. “You know, important shit.”

“Let’s go,” he said, shaking his head at me. “We’ll surf tomorrow.”

“First thing in the morning,” I said, more of a promise. We got in the Toyota and went to a local shopping center. It was kind of weird, because I thought I’d be all horny, trying to get his pants off as soon as we were alone, but this dude just relaxed me and calmed me down. Instead, I was all into shopping, and surprisingly enough, so was he.

“What about these?” he said, picking up sheets for the bed.

“Two hundred thread count?” I asked, with raised eyebrows. I tossed in the thousand thread count sheets instead.

“Waste of money,” he said.

“Dude, feel the difference,” I demanded, and made him check them out.

“Alright, they’re nice, but still too damn expensive.”

“You’ll thank me tonight,” I said.

“You think I’m that easy?” he asked. “Oh, you were talking about the sheets.”

I chuckled. “Yeah.” We wandered around, buying more shit for the kitchen. “So why were you such a dick to me at the beach?”

“I had a rough night the night before, and I was in a bad mood,” he said.

“Happens to me too,” I said. “But what about all that shit about it being your beach. I mean, seriously?”

“Sometimes it seems like there are fewer Hawaiians on this island than anyone else,” he grumbled. “Gets frustrating when I surf.”

“I wasn’t bugging you when we were surfing,” I said.

“Look,” he said loudly, showing off his frustration. He lowered his voice before continued. “The dude that fucked me over the night before looked kind of like you. He had brown hair and green eyes. I don’t know. It just triggered something.”

“Are you with anyone?” I asked.

“Dude, this is pretty personal shit,” he said.

“The stuff I bugged you about before was pretty personal. If you’re with someone or not, that’s not a personal question,” I said firmly.

“I’m not with anyone,” he said.

“Yet,” I said playfully, and raised my eyebrows. He got really nervous when I said that, and I remembered Dr. Anderson’s words. I didn’t know if this guy was gay, or bisexual, or what the fuck he was. All I knew is that he sucked cock. He may not be into me at all, and even if he was, I’d made him pretty uncomfortable. “Dude, I was joking. Your job is not contingent upon you fucking me.”

“It’s just me, being weird,” he said. “I’m sorry. When I come back tonight I’ll try not to be a dickhead.”

“It’s all good,” I said. He helped me unload all the shit, but he was getting pretty uptight when it got to be around 5:30.

“Go. I’ll finish making beds,” I said.

“Thanks. I’ll see you around 11:30.” I nodded and spent most of the evening putting shit away and organizing things. I got lucky in that they hadn’t cut off the internet at the guest house yet, so I could plug into the Ethernet ports and surf just fine.

My phone rang, pulling me out of my web trance. “Hey,” I said cheerfully.

“Hello,” Stef said pleasantly. “Is Kai there?”

“Nope. He comes back at 11:30.”

“I heard some interesting information about him,” Stef said seriously. “He has a reputation for being a hustler.”

“Who told you that?” I demanded.

“Steve told us, but Scott said he has heard rumors of that as well,” Stef said.

“Scott Slater recommends him, and then says he’s a rent boy?” I asked.

“He merely acknowledged there were rumors.”

I thought about that. “So?”

“I am not sure having a hustler drive you around and watch out for you is the best decision,” Stef said.

“First of all, we don’t know he’s a hustler,” I said firmly. Stef knew that I was being pretty serious when I put things in ordinal numbers. “Do we have proof?”

“No,” he said. I was sure that my dad was in the background, totally pushing this conversation along, but he knew that Stef would handle me better.

“Secondly, even if he is a hustler at night, what about that makes him a bad person for me to be with during the daytime?” He said nothing. “Jeff was a hustler once. I’d trust that dude with my life.”

“That is an interesting observation, but what if he is part of a group of unsavory people?”

“They call them gangs, Stef,” I said sarcastically. “You think that because he sells his body, someone is going to put a cap in me?”

“You do not have to be rude,” he snapped, because I’d called him on so many different things, but in a subtle way.

“So what are you saying?” I asked.

“We are just questioning whether he should be the one watching out for you,” he said, using the term ‘we’ to presumably include my father.

“You can question all you want. I’m happy with him. He’s easy to be around, and seems like a nice guy. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt,” I said firmly.

“You are sure you are being objective about this?” he asked cautiously. I knew what that meant. He assumed that I was focused on fucking this dude, and not on his job qualifications. He was being cautious because he knew this would really piss me off, and he was right.

“I’m not sure you and Dad are being objective and fair about this,” I said, my teeth clenched.

“If he is a hustler, you should at least worry about being safe,” he said, referring to STDs. That was actually a good point.

“Have you talked to Grand about this?” I asked.

“Why would I talk to him about this?” he asked in response, knowing damn well what I was referring to. I was accusing them of being very unfair, and was threatening them with a logical jury.

“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll call him.”

“I feel as if you are threatening to tattle on me,” he said petulantly.

“Why would you feel that way?” I asked him, as if I were Dr. Anderson, then I realized that I was being unnecessarily bitchy with one of the most important people in the world to me. “Look, I’ll keep this in mind, but it’s not changing my decision to have Kai work for me.”

“I see,” he said. “We will talk to you in the morning.”

“Sleep well,” I said. As soon as we hung up, I called Grand.

“I need your help,” I said, as soon as he answered the phone.

“Indeed?”

“Dad and Stef heard a rumor that the dude driving me around is a hustler,” I said. “No proof, just a rumor. They think I should fire him.”

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s bullshit,” I said. “Even if he is a hustler, he seems like a good guy.” He asked me to replay my conversation with Stef, which I did.

“I would like to think about this,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said.

An hour later Stef called me back. “I understand you talked to JP,” he said, sounding like a kid who’d been scolded.

“I just wanted his perspective,” I said.

“We will see how Kai works out,” he said, caving. I almost laughed, but didn’t. “We will see you tomorrow. Plan to drag yourself out of the water at 2:00.”

“You got it,” I said.