Lion's Lair - 6. Somethin's Gotta Give

Clayton and I have now been dating a little over three weeks. And gotta admit, it's surprised the shit out of me how remarkable the dating experience has been. Yeah, it's been that good.

It's certainly caught me off guard how much Clayton occupies my thoughts. Of course we now talk daily, and in the last three weeks we've been out on probably six, seven, maybe eight dates – – hell, I don't remember how many even though they've all been fun. And fun isn't exactly the term – – maybe… satisfying? Hell, it's different from anything else I've ever done when I've gone out with guys.

The first date after that incredible evening of fine dining then out on the dock watching the meteor shower was my turn to take Clayton out."Ryan, I hope you aren't going crazy over this dinner date," Clayton kidded me as we made plans for that Tuesday night. "I just lucked out with a nice restaurant, and the meteor shower was a nice plus."

"Nope, don't worry. I'm on a budget, and this is just a cheap steak at one of the chain steakhouses. I'm OK in admitting I'm on a budget – – I know I'm going to be getting my legs soon, and although the bulk of those costs will be covered by the military, I'm sure I'll have expenses that I just haven't anticipated. I'm just trying to be a little careful with my money. But, I promise it'll be a good steak. And, I'll do my best to make sure the company is interesting as well."

Clayton chuckles, "I'm absolutely certain the quality of the company will be superb. That's never been in question. So wherever you want to go is fine with me. And the budget isn't a factor in determining the fun we have, so no worries." We finished the call by finalizing meeting at the restaurant, since it's halfway between his place and mine.

The dinner, of course, went well. We both had New York strip steaks, the service was good, and we chatted as though we've known each other far longer than we have.
After dinner, we had another drink at the restaurant, before parting ways for the evening. It was a Tuesday night, and we both had work starting early the next day. The date was good enough that I didn't feel cheated by the shorter time frame. And yes, of course we traded some hot kisses and friendly gropes in the parking lot before we parted ways.

The next date, Friday, was Clayton's call. We ended up going out and doing pizza and a couple beers, and then catching a late movie. Who knew Clayton likes sci-fi? Guess I shouldn't have been surprised – – the movie was about a marooned astronaut, and was a good story, bringing both science and engineering into the plot. Obviously Clayton would be right at home with the engineering and science part. Shouldn't have been surprised.

Again more hot kissing, more friendly gropes, then we headed our own way. Fucking nice evening, but it's keeping me sexually frustrated; enough so, I stayed hard pretty much the whole evening. Especially in the movie when he's holding my hand, and casually lets it drop onto my thigh almost at my crotch--certain I missed out on lots of the movie just because of my hard dick diverting attention from the screen.

Hell, he had me hot enough I went home that night and beat my meat like it owed me money--twice. Yeah, he's getting to me.

And we've kept trading dates back-and-forth ever since. It's been fun; I'm learning a lot about the man Clayton, although he never talks about his family or early years.

This past Sunday's date was something of a first – – it's the first time that we've been invited as a couple to any kind of social event. Joe and Rex decided to host a crawfish boil at their house, and invited Clayton and me earlier in the week when we were at the bar. It sounded like fun. Plus I've never had crawfish. Guess there's a first time for everything, and it does sound kind of exotic. Hell, the most exposure I've had to 'em was using 'em as bait to catch catfish in ponds or slow-moving rivers.

Clayton stops by and picks me up at my place, and we headed over to Joe and Rex’s house. They've got a great place; I found out later that it's an old rooming house built in the early 1900s that's been restored to a single-family residence, so it's big. Their property takes up a damn half-block in the historic district, and has a separate two-car garage with what looks to be a little guesthouse in back.

Clayton pulls up in front and parks on the street. There's a brick-paved walkway that leads up to wide front steps and a big front porch that covers the front of the house. Off to one side there's a plywood two-by-four ramp, newly built but unpainted.

An older lady opens the front door, waves, and says in a loud voice, "Everyone's already in back. Go on back, make yourselves at home." I found out later that she's Joe and Rex's housekeeper, Ms. Shelton.

We follow the brick walkway around the side of the house to the backyard. There's a large brick patio there, and a number of folks that we know from the bar are already chatting and relaxing.

"Food will be ready in a few minutes, what would you guys like to drink?" Joe is already in place near the cooler of beer, but prepared for whatever we want to drink, since there's a small table set up to one side with a variety of liquors and mixers on it. Clayton and I each get a beer and start mixing with the crowd.

After saying hello to everyone I roll over to where Rex is standing. He's in front of an oddball contraption which has a propane bottle connected with a flexible gas line to a round burner. The burner looks like a round footstool and is maybe a foot or foot-and-a- half above the ground. There's a big-ass stainless steel pot, maybe a 2 1/2 feet or 3 feet high and as big around, seasoned water boiling away on top of it. Rex is using a boat paddle to stir the pot's contents. I commented on the nice set-up he had.

"Yeah, Joe made this for me last year just before Thanksgiving, and I've used it a lot. It's great to have for frying turkeys, boiling shrimp, crabs, or crawfish." I notice the neat linear welds of the legs to the side--yup, Joe is an accomplished welder.

"I just put the crawfish in, and it'll cook for a couple of minutes, then I'll add everything else." Rex smiles as he continues to stir the pot. "We're probably talking 15 to 20 minutes for everything to cook, and then a rest period. Maybe 30 minutes after that. Do you think you can wait 45 minutes or so till we serve?" He’s smiling as he says it, and I know he's gently kidding me, since he knows I've never eaten crawfish.

"You've got plenty of beer, right? I think I'll make it just fine." Rex smiles as I have another slug of beer. "Just remember, you'll have to show me how to eat these, since I've never eaten them before."

"Not a problem – and you're going to love them." Rex is confident of either his cooking or just the nature of the food itself.

Rex dumps a couple of big bowls of whole mushrooms, half ears of corn, and new potatoes into the spicy boil, turns down the heat to a simmer, and puts a lid on the pot. "Won't be long now," as he walks over to grab another beer.

While we're waiting, I'm watching Clayton. He moves with ease from one small group of people to another, and it's obvious they're as comfortable with him as he is with them. Friendly laughs and big smiles, along with a few pats on the back, and friendly hugs envelop him as he moves from one group to another. He's laughing and joking with everyone, not in a big way, but it's obvious enough that everyone's glad to see him.

The beer has hit, and my bladder suddenly feels like it's about to explode. "Where can I find a bathroom?"

Rex smiles as he points to another new, but unpainted ramp off to one side of the back porch. "If you go up there inside the back door, then the first door on the right, there's a half-bath there. If that's not arranged properly for you to use, feel free to go through the kitchen toward the front of the house. Our bedroom is on the ground floor, and the bath there should be large enough that you'll be comfortable." I nod and smile as I roll toward the new ramp. Rex is always friendly, and still talks in that italics thing I'd mentioned to Clayton when I first met Rex.

Joe meets me at the base of the ramp. "I need to go in, get the garlic bread and round up the kids, so I'll show you where everything is. And, let me know how I did on the ramp; if there's something I need to do to make it better, tell me. I got these built Thursday night, and want to make sure I did it right. Rex tells me y'all are going to be over here regularly, so I want 'em to work well for you. And yes, Rex does have a sixth sense about these things, so if he says do it--well, I do it." He smiles, maybe a little chagrined by the idea that Rex gave him a "honey-do" item.

I'm surprised––Joe and Rex went to all this trouble just to build ramps for me? What great guys, I'm impressed--and honored--beyond words.

The half-bath works fine, and as I roll out after washing up, I hear Joe yell, "Kids, get cleaned up. Food's almost ready." There's a flurry of footsteps overhead on the hardwood floors, and then sounds like the house is being torn down as laughing kids race down the stairs. There's immediately a rush of kids surrounding me in the kitchen. They're obviously hungry, ready to eat, but curious about me.

Got to meet Joe and Rex's housekeeper; their two boys and their daughter, plus one of the neighborhood boys. They all introduced themselves to me, and the boys immediately surrounded my wheelchair, quizzing me about it, did it go fast, was it easy to operate, what it's made of, and so on.

The little girl came up, smiled, and held my hand. "Where are your legs?" All with that total innocence of a 7- or 8-year old child."I had an accident and lost them."

She looks at me with a puzzled look on her face, not understanding how you could lose your legs. I think she originally thought I'd "misplaced" 'em, but she figured out that they were removed after just a couple of seconds. "Does it hurt?"

"No, it doesn't. And the chair helps me get around just fine. Later on, I'll be getting some new mechanical legs so I can walk again."

"Oh. OK." My simple answers must've satisfied her because she smiled, patted my thigh, and continued to hold my hand.

"All right kids, y'all go on out; we'll be eating in a few minutes." Joe's a little red-faced; he obviously heard the exchange between me and his daughter. "Hey, look man, I'm really sorry…"

"Joe it's not an issue. She was just curious and it was all innocent. It's really no big deal. And besides she's such a cutie, she can get away with damn near anything."
Joe nods, and then smiled. "Yeah, she's a cutie, and they're all great kids."

We head out, and everyone gets seated around folding banquet tables covered with layers of newspaper. There's another table set up with garlic bread and coleslaw off to one side along with assorted cookies and a pound cake. I guess that's the buffet for the side stuff.

While we were in the house, Rex drained the crawfish and the vegetables, and with some help from Joe proceeds to dump the contents of that big pot among the three tables. Immediately everyone starts reaching and grabbing, ready to enjoy the now-red, fully cooked crawfish.

Once I announced that I didn't know how to eat crawfish, everyone suddenly demonstrated how to do it. Within 10 minutes I was comfortable enough I was able to quickly separate the tails from the body and pop those tender little morsels in my mouth. It's kinda the texture of lobster, but because of the "boil", this was far spicier. I’m not brave enough to suck the heads, though.

We kept eating the crawfish and everyone had an extra plate off to one side just to throw the remains. There were also a couple of rolls of paper towels for us to cleanup as we stuffed ourselves. Since you eat 'em with your hands, it's messy as hell. And, we had the other food and bread on a separate plate, so we went through the paper towels pretty quickly.

Lots of crawfish, along with the other food that we had, plus everyone running back-and-forth to keep the beer refilled made for a fun, great afternoon that had us all stuffed.

After we finish the meal, the kids all went back upstairs to pick up their game on the Xbox, and we sat around chatting. It was really nice to get to know people better in such a laid-back non-bar environment; I found myself really relaxing. We ended up staying drinking and chatting for a couple or three hours after the meal, just kicked-back and enjoying everyone's company.

That date, along with the ones before, made me really notice a couple of interesting things about Clayton. I also learned a couple things about myself.

Clayton moves with incredible ease among people. He's friendly, always making everyone comfortable, always capable of small talk about whatever the topic. And during the conversation, he's not only listening, but watching everyone--to the point that if someone isn't in the conversation, he'll turn to them and say something to get 'em involved. He's as surefooted as a cat, socially.

But, it goes further than that. People not only like him, but he seems to innately command their respect. We go out to dinner and people move out of his way, as though he's a major public leader. Restaurant staff aren't just nice to him; they fuckin' defer to him. Almost like royalty or somethin'. He's definitely the top cat, always nice, always comfortable with himself, loaded with presence.

So yeah, he's a good guy, he's smart, he's packed with social skills, he's got charisma. And doesn't hurt that he's a damn hot man.

The other thing is there's a real comfort level between us I really can't explain and it's just so…well, easy. Natural. And truth be told I'm developing really strong feelings for him.

Shit, be honest – – you're in love with the man.

Yeah, I'm as surprised at that as anyone. I've always played the field, but, fuuuuck, this is the first guy I've ever even remotely considered for long term.
He's always shown me respect. He doesn't hover over me as though I'm an invalid or something--he'll let me do all I can on my own, but I always know he's there if I need him. Like today at Joe and Rex's, he didn't hang on around me. Oh, he'd do an occasional introduction with someone I hadn't met but then he'd move away, letting me get to know 'em on my own terms.

And yeah, we kissed long and hard at my place, but he's got me so fuckin' horny, there’s not much I wouldn't do with him. And even though it's been a couple of years since I've fucked, I know this isn't just all about sex with us--it's, well...more.

The fucker's driving me crazy. Something's gotta give.