Catering with Benefits (2) - Second Course - 3. HAVE YOU LOST SOMETHING?

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Thomas’s Friday evening trips to Leichhardt were becoming regular and he was now spending every weekend at Jared’s home. The three friends were getting on well as housemates, but Andy knew his place and made sure to give Jared and Thomas enough space for their intimate times together. As was usual by now, all three would go out for dinner on Friday nights and then return to the house where Andy would go to his room leaving the rest of the house for Jared and Thomas.

This night the two sat in the lounge room for a catch up on what they each did during the preceding week. Thomas said “My estate agent has arranged for some apartment inspections tomorrow, will you come with me?”

“Yeah...sure” Jared said , but with a little hesitation.

“Good, I‘ll ask Andy in the morning.”

“Did you two have a talk about what he wants to do?”

“We did talk, and I assured him it was entirely his decision and that loyalty should have nothing to do with his decision. He didn’t indicate any preference though.”

“I’m pleased, I like Andy, he’s a really good guy and now a good friend. I’ll miss him if he leaves but understand if he does.”

“Now, I agreed to meet the estate agent at 10.00 in Chatswood so we should probably leave here a bit after 9.00 in the morning”.

“No problem, I’ll go and shower now and then the bathroom’s yours.”

When Thomas finished in the bathroom, he found Jared was sitting naked and cross legged on the bed. “What are you doing, meditating?”

“Sort of, I was sitting here thinking of you.”

“That’s sweet of you.”

“Now, sit on the bed like I am and look into my eyes.” Thomas took up his position and waited for Jared to explain what he wanted to do.

“Thomas.”

“Yes.”

“Thomas, I love you”

“And I love you too Jared.”

“Now that we agree on that, I have something to ask you”. Jared paused but Thomas said nothing.

“Thomas, I want you to move in here with me to share my house and share my life.” Again Thomas said nothing.

“Well, what have you got to say?” asked Jared and then noticed Thomas’s eyes were tearing up. Still Thomas did not answer; instead he leaned forward and kissed Jared, gently. As Jared responded to the kiss Thomas put his hands on each side of Jared’s head, pulled him tighter and kissed him more passionately. When Thomas sat back, Jared asked “Is that a yes?”

“Of course it is.”

“Excellent, now let’s seal the deal with a fuck.”

“I think I will give you a back massage first.” replied Thomas, “Now lie down while I get the oil”.

Thomas started on Jared’s shoulders and pressed his thumbs hard into his trapezium muscles. “Oh that feels good.” moaned Thomas.

“You’ve got a lot of tension there.”

As he massaged Thomas gazed at Jared’s back, starting with the broad shoulders, a strong back tapering to narrow hips and bursting out into a firm rounded butt. When his hands reached Jared’s glutes he said “Now live up to your name and flex these muscles for me.” Jared willingly obliged, knowing that Thomas really loved it when he flexed his muscles while he was massaging.

When Thomas finished his massage, he wiped the massage oil from his hands and spread water-based lube on his hands. He then put one hand between Jared’s butt cheeks and began entry to begin a prostate massage, as a special treat for Jared. But he paused when he felt something foreign in Jared’s hole. “What’s this, how long have you been into putting things up your arse. I thought that was my job.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Using his thumb and finger, Thomas managed to extract a small plastic wrapped object.

“Excuse me sir, but have you lost something?”

“Well how did that get there, I wonder?”

“Why is your key up your arse?”

“Actually it’s your key to your new home, now take it and put it on your key ring.”

“From one ring to another.”

“Sort of.”

“Thank you, but what if I had said no earlier.”

“I didn’t have a plan B.”

“What! a highly trained, experienced operative like you who must be ready for every possibility.”

“Unfortunately love does not come with a training manual; I’m just learning on the job.”

“Me too, and what a wonderful experience it is, especially learning together.”

Jared started to laugh, but Thomas failed to see anything funny in the situation. “What are you laughing at?” he asked Jared.

“At how foolish I was not to have a plan B. What if you had not put your fingers in first, but instead ploughed straight in with your dick? I wonder which one of us would have gotten the biggest surprise/”

“Or injury?”

“OK, now the passage is clear, what are you going to do?”

“Just you wait and see. Or should I say feel.”

***

At breakfast the next morning Thomas told Andy that Jared had asked him to move in.

“Wow, that’s great, now we’ll all be house mates full time.”

Then Thomas suddenly remembered his appointment with the estate agent. “Bugger, I forgot about my inspections; excuse me while I ring the estate agent”. After the call, Jared asked “So when are you going to move in officially. Shall we go and get your things today?”

“Not so fast, I want to tell Mrs. P, first and talk to the rest of the house staff. I will do that on Monday and bring over some of my stuff on Monday night”.

“Do you need help?”

“No thanks, I only have my clothes and personal items, some books and CD’s & stuff like that. I will be going to work every day so I can just bring some each day.”

***

In the two weeks leading up the premiere of Edward Listens, the station promoted it heavily on all other programs, including Max’s Music Room.

They say people don’t listen these days. Everyone is too busy pushing their own story and consequently do not listen to others. But here at 2GAYfm there is someone who is different. His name is Edward and coming soon to these airwaves will be the premiere of his brand new program called Edward Listens, all produced by our amazing volunteers . You will hear stories from our friends and we think you will be amazed at the stories to be told. All you have to do is listen.

“I’m certainly looking forward to that listeners and you don’t have long to wait. The premiere interview will follow this program. Now to get you in the mood here is the full sixteen minute version of Ravel’s Bolero. Do you know this started out as a ballet score? Maurice Ravel had agreed to write a Spanish-flavoured ballet score for his friend, the Russian dancer Ida Rubenstein. He had long toyed with the idea of building a composition from a single theme which would grow simply through harmonic and instrumental ingenuity. When he was composing he asked a friend ‘Do you think this has an insistent quality? I’m going to try to repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can.’ Well I think he certainly achieved that. Boléro was given its first performance at the Paris Opéra on November 20, 1928 and although Ravel considered Boléro one of his least important works, it has always been his most popular.”

***

Following Max’s Music Room, Edward’s program premiered his interview with Juanito, but his real name was not used.

“Hello listeners, I am Edward Williamson. Welcome to our first program that we call Edward Listens. In weeks to come we will search Sydney and beyond for interesting people to interview. We want to give anyone with an interesting story to tell access to air time here on 2GAY fm. This is your station, and we want to give you the chance to hear members of your community tell their story, not only in their own words but in their voices.”

“I will be your interviewer, but prefer to be called the introducer, as you will not hear much of me during the interview. My task is to give our guests the opportunity to tell their story at their own pace.”

“Now, that’s enough from me. Let’s get on with the program by introducing our first guest,

Tonight we will be listening to a sex worker from Darlinghurst. For this purpose we will call him John.”

“Thank you for agreeing to talk with us on 2GAYfm”.

“Thank you for asking me, actually this is my first time on radio. I hope I am interesting enough for your audience”.

“John, how long have you been a sex worker and how did you get started?”

“Almost a year now. I came to Australia 18 months ago and found it difficult to get work that paid well. While I was studying accountancy, I used to work in a 7 Eleven store back home and was told that I would have no trouble getting the same work here. That was true, but the long shifts and low wages meant I didn’t really make enough to survive. The management has a scam running where they pay the workers the correct wage and then you have to pay back some of it in cash. That means you get lower wages but the books show you were paid correctly. They told me that’s just how it works here, but I’m not sure. So while still working there I looked for something else. One evening I was walking down Darlinghurst road and noticed all these guys standing by the wall opposite the park. I wasn’t familiar with how guys meet here in Sydney and thought at first they were just waiting to meet guys for sex. I think you call it a beat. But when I approached a guy that looked attractive to me, he made an offer and then told me how much it would cost. That was when I realised he was a rent-boy. When I said I wasn’t really interested in paying for sex, instead of sending me away, he told me that was OK and we continued talking for a while. It was a quiet night so every time a likely client came by, I walked away so I did not spoil his chances; then if the client walked on I went back to talk to him. We got on well and agreed to meet up later for a drink. We talked about his work and he agreed that if I wanted to try it, he would fix it up so that I could have a spot on the wall without being hassled away by the other boys. Apparently it’s a competitive occupation with the best spots fiercely protected. He told me how to protect myself and also fixed me up with a house that has rooms you can rent by the hour. It pays a lot better than 7 Eleven and I can work my own hours. So far I have been lucky and have not been subjected to any violence. I make it clear on the street what my rules are and I don’t deviate from that.

“Tell me, what are your rules John?”

“I don’t do bareback, I don’t swallow cum. I won’t do it on the streets or in cars. I only have clients at the designated house.”

“So where to you service your clients?”

“I use rooms in a house set up for this purpose. We rent the rooms by the hour from the owner and pay a fee for using the room. The management of the house has no connection with our business as it is illegal in this state to manage prostitutes. They must be free agents.

When I take my client to the house we approach the receptionist who allocates a room according to the needs of the client, and gives me a key. Then the client must pay me in front of the receptionist as a witness so there is no misunderstanding later. I pay for the room and we then proceed to the room and conduct business in private. On the wall of the room is a small panel with three lights to advise me how much time I have left. When the green light comes on I have used 30 minutes of my hour. When the orange light comes on, I have 15 minutes left and when the red light comes on, only five minutes are left. If we don’t vacate the room then I am charged an additional hour. The cost of hiring the room also includes cleaning, linen and security, if needed. I think the presence of a uniformed security guard in the foyer deters clients form misbehaving or becoming violent. There are a number of panic buttons in the room. It works well as many of the boys keep what they do from their families, so they don’t want to take a client home. It also means we have some protection in the house. It is well run and clean but we are all individual operators, we don’t work for anyone other than our client.”

“This all seems very well set up and safe.”

“Yes, it costs more than using my own place so the net income is less but provides the highest possible safety for both me and the client also.”

“Is that important to clients?”

“Yes, they can feel safe that they won’t be charged extra or even worse, that they may be attacked or robbed. The security is for the protection of both parties. I make it clear to my clients that I charge a little more for this protection and they are usually happy with that.”

“How long do you think you will continue to do this work?”

“It’s not my preferred occupation and I will only continue as long as the pay is good and until some better opportunity arises. Some of the boys say you can only do it until you lose your looks and attractiveness. I hope I don’t have to do it for that long.”

“What other work would you like to do?”

“I was studying accountancy before I came here and I hope to continue with that when I can.”

“That’s very different.”

“Well any other job is very different to this. It’s not an occupation that offers a natural progression up the ladder.”

“Thank you John, for being so honest with me and our listeners. I wish you well for the future.”

“Thanks for the opportunity Edward.”

“Thank you listeners, please come next week for another interesting and revealing chat with a man that describes himself as a pain lover. Now it’s good night from Edward Listens.”