A Summer Love - 13. Chapter 13

November 23, 1991

“You ready?” I asked, standing by the door with my bag. Part of getting to know someone was getting to know the annoying things, and this was one of them. Max was so organized, so meticulous, that getting him to actually go somewhere sometimes seemed to take forever. Here I stood; ready to go, while he reviewed his packing checklist and the checklist he'd developed for leaving the condo on a vacation. “Soon you will have a checklist for when you fuck me,” I teased.

“I already do. But you can't see it. It's a secret, and if I gave it to you, you could take it to any other guy and you wouldn't think I was special,” he teased back. He walked up to me and kissed me. “I'm ready.”

“It's about time. What if there was an emergency or something, and we had to leave quickly?”

“Then I'd have to go through my checklist really fast,” he said, deadpan.

“I’m driving your car,” I said. “No way am I letting you crawl down the Drive on a Saturday.”

“Fine. Get a ticket. We'll be even later,” he said with a smile. He was so happy, so easy going. Other than his fetish for checklists, I was having a problem finding things wrong with him.

“Sometimes I think I'm too flawed for you. You are so perfect,” I said honestly.

“Hardly,” he said, chuckling. “Remember what you told me in the restaurant on our first real date? You said that you wanted to find someone who was strong where you aren’t and weak where you're not. It's working. You're really bad at checklists, and I don't speed.”

That really cracked me up. “So where are we staying?” I asked.

He got a little nervous. “I figured you'd want to stay at Stef's house,” he said.

“I want to stay with you, wherever that is,” I told him. Our first Thanksgiving together, trying to figure out how to handle the holiday with both families.

“I didn't know if you'd want to stay with my parents, but I think I should. I mean, I'm their only son, and they really love me.” He was conflicted.

“Do you want me to be there with you?” I asked.

“You know I do,” he said. I actually didn't know that, but I pretended that I did.

“How about a compromise? We will be there for six nights. Let's stay with your parents for three nights and with Stef and Greg for three.” He had the mind of an engineer, shit, he was an engineer, and I'd discovered that these logical, straightforward approaches usually worked.

“That sounds pretty reasonable. You can explain it to my mother,” he said.

“And if we only stay there, you can explain it to mine.” He looked at me curiously. “Stef,” I added. That made him laugh again. We got to the plane and tossed our stuff in, and got ourselves situated for takeoff.

“This is a bitchin' way to travel,” he observed.

“It is. Especially after we take off and I drag you back to that bed and fuck you,” I told him. He smiled.

“Again? You're going to wear me out.”

I rolled my eyes. “I have been able to cut back on my cardio routine at the gym thanks to you. You are an animal.”

“Rrrrroar,” he said, trying to sound like a tiger. The plane lifted off and once it finished its initial climb, I dragged him back to the bed and took off his clothes, then mine.

“You have trained me to be a better lover,” I said, as I ran my hands over his body.

“I've trained you? Shit, you could have written the Kama Sutra,” he teased.

“You have taught me to take my time and enjoy myself and the man I am with,” I said, ignoring the fact that he'd basically called me a world class slut. He wasn't trying to offend me.

“That's because I savor every moment with you,” he said to me sincerely. And then we made slow, passionate love, building up like a crescendo to a huge climax.

I got to lie on his chest this time, relishing the feel of his panting body beneath mine, inhaling the smell of his body odor. I loved his smells, all of them. Some guys were gross, with a rank, nasty odor. Not Max. Max was as sweet smelling as his personality. “Do your parents know about us?”

“Yeah,” he said, dodging the issue.

“What did you tell them?” I asked him.

“I told him that I was living with you,” he said nervously.

“So they think we're roommates,” I stated.

“I guess,” he said sheepishly.

“Are you ashamed of me?” I asked.

“Marcel, come on. You know better than that,” he said, a little pissed.

“Then why did you not tell them we are a couple?”

“Because they still want to think I'm not gay,” he said. “They never say anything, but they think it, I can tell. So I knew it would be a big deal if I told them I had a new boyfriend. They'd give me the third degree, and they'd give me shit about my excellent track record with men,” he finished up with palpable sarcasm.

“So, what do you think they will say when I fuck you and you scream like a whore?” I teased.

“I'm not sure how they'll handle any of this. They'll probably give you your own room,” he said, concerned.

“Can I sneak into yours?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Absolutely.”

“Then I do not care where they put me,” I said. “I guess I could make this really easy on you. I could go stay with Stef and Greg, and you could stay with your parents. Do you want that?”

I stroked his chest while he thought about it, and I could almost read his mind. He wanted to be with me, but there was a lot of conflict down that path. Would he chose me, chose to fight down that path with me, or would he take the easy way out? “No, I want you with me. They can deal with it,” he said.

“Then we will be together,” I said. “You mind if I call Stef and fill him in? I do not want him to get his feelings hurt.”

“He's a great guy. I don't want him to get his feelings hurt either,” Max said.

I dialed Stef's number, but got no answer, so I tried his mobile phone. “Hello?” he answered. The reception was pretty grainy, what with the signal going from the airplane through to his phone. The mobile phone was pretty cool, about the size of a brick, which he could carry with him. I needed to get one of those.

“Hey Stef, it’s Marcel.”

“You are on the plane?” he asked nervously.

“Yeah. I need to talk to you about this trip,” I said anxiously. “I want to be with Max, and he wants to spend some time with his parents. Would you be offended if we split our time between their house and yours?”

He laughed. “I think we have solved your problem, at least partially. I used your visit as an excuse to talk Greg into a cruise. We were going to head down to Mexico where it's warmer.”

“How does that solve our problem?”

“Max's parents are coming along. Greg invited them. He talked to Janet and she was thrilled. I think John is almost as big of a workaholic as Greg. Brad and Robbie and the kids are heading to Escorial for Thanksgiving, so I thought we could just celebrate on the boat.”

“That's amazing Stef. Just amazing. You are, well, I love you,” I told him. “When do we leave?” Max stared at me, beside himself with curiosity.

“Tomorrow morning. Do you want to stay here, or with the Grangers?”

“I think we'd be better off there, but I will talk to Max and make sure that's alright. I will buzz you back in a few,” I told him. He hung up cheerfully.

“What's going on?” Max asked.

“Greg invited your parents on a cruise to Mexico for Thanksgiving. The six of us are going to be in pretty close quarters for a week. We're leaving in the morning, so I figured it would be easier for us to just stay with Stef tonight, if that's OK with you.”

“That's perfect,” he said. “I'm fine with that.”

“That way your parents will get a chance to spend time with us on neutral ground and see how much I care about you,” I said, almost slipping and putting the word “love” in for “caring.”

We landed to find a car waiting to whisk us up to Malibu. I didn't expect anyone to meet us, since they'd be getting ready for tomorrow. Greg was actually waiting for us when we got there.

“Good to see you,” he said, giving me a huge hug, a long hug. The kind of hug where I let him drain his stress into me, where it dissipated.

“Max, welcome,” he said, giving a very surprised Max a hug as well.

“You seem awfully cheerful,” I teased. “Did you kill someone and eat their soul?”

He laughed. “Be nice to me. I'm trying to find more balance in my life, and fortunately, human sacrifices haven't been necessary.”

“It's really nice of you to invite us all out on a cruise,” Max said shyly.

“Your mother deserves it, and so do you. I think they're curious to see you two together, and I figured this would be neutral turf. Easier than being under their roof, at least for the first few days.” This was amazingly thoughtful of Greg.

“Do they know we're a couple?” Max asked, blushing. I saw Greg studying him, and knew what he was thinking. He was appreciating the same things about Max that I did. He really was adorable.

“Max, Janet and Stef talk.” And that was all he had to say.

Max looked at me nervously. “Max wants to know what they think of us being together,” I asked Greg, speaking for him.

“I can ask my own questions,” Max teased. “So what do they think of us being together?”

Greg laughed, really laughed at that. “I think they're happy for you Max. Although quite frankly, they'd be happy if you were with anyone but Lark.”

“That's over,” Max said firmly, and put his arm around me, making me giggle.

November 24, 1991

“Let's go!” Greg yelled from the door as we charged down the stairs. He wasn't yelling at us though. Stef was going through a list he'd scrawled.

“You need to teach Stef how to make checklists,” I said to Max. Stef looked at me curiously, and then ignored me. Finally he was ready and we were in the car, and as usual Greg sat there stewing.

“Ignore him,” I told Max, gesturing at Greg. “He's always grumpy when we leave.”

“I just don't see why we can't be more organized,” Greg bitched.

“Because the operative word there was ‘we’.” Stef said with a grin.

“Oh yeah? Well we were waiting for you, not me.” Greg said argumentatively.

“Did you remember your phone?” Stef asked. Greg looked at him, almost in a panic, until Stef reached into his travel bag and pulled it out for him. Greg glared at him, and then smiled.

“Fucker,” he teased. “Thanks.”

“You are welcome,” Stef said cheerfully. They were so good together. As if reading my mind he turned to us and put a hand on our knees. “You two make the cutest couple.”

Max blushed and Stef smiled at him. “Thank you. You two are cute too.”

I burst out laughing at that, and so did Stef and Greg, making poor Max think we were laughing at him. Stef reacted first. “That is so nice of you to say Max. It has been so long since someone told me I was cute. You make me feel so young.”

“He's an awesome guy, no?” I asked Stef, putting my arm around Max. He leaned down and gave me a kiss, and I turned to see a smiling Stef and Greg. We pulled up to the boat and hopped out cheerfully. I looked up on the deck and saw Pete smiling at me and felt like shit. He'd probably been looking forward to being with me on this trip. I waved cheerfully anyway.

“Who's that?” Max asked.

“That's Pete. He's part of the crew,” I said, then pulled him aside. “I had a fling with him after JP and I broke up.”

“That's going to make things weird for you,” he said, typically worrying about me first.

“He will deal with it. I can still be nice to him, and so can you, right?”

“Absolutely,” he said. Then his parents drove up, his father looking as tense as Greg.

“Maxwell!” His mother said as she rushed toward him. I giggled. Maxwell. He smacked me.

“It's great to see you Mom,” he said, giving her a big hug. Then he hugged his dad. They seemed like nice people.

“How nice to see you Marcel,” she said, turning to me. “I'm so glad that Max is staying with you.”

“I'm glad he is too. He's a great guy.” She raised her eyebrows and smiled.

I headed over to say hi to Pete. “Hey there,” I said.

“Hi,” he said, smiling sweetly. “That your boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“He's handsome, really handsome,” Pete said. “Don't suppose he's into threesomes?”

I laughed. “I do not think so. I hope this will not be hard on you?”

“Thanks for thinking of me,” he said sincerely. “To be honest, it would be great to be with you again, but you seem really happy, and that makes me happy.”

“Thanks Pete. I'm glad we're cool.” I felt Max come up next to me. “Max, this is Pete.” Max shook his hand and was really friendly, and that seemed to put Pete at ease.

We cast off and headed out to sea. The sea was rough, and that took care of Janet. She went below to try and manage her seasickness. Stef was really upset about that, but John didn't seem to let it bother him.

“I'm glad you found a good roommate,” he said to Max, while smiling at me.

“We're more than roommates Dad. Marcel is my boyfriend,” Max said boldly. I watched that impact John, watched him wrestle with that, struggling internally with the knowledge that his son was gay and that he'd found a nice guy to fuck him, and the basic societal conditioning that told him it was wrong.

“Well, that's nice too,” he said uncomfortably.

“It is Dad. He makes me really happy.” I just stared at him, amazed at his openness, his candor.

John tried to grapple with that gracefully. “And does Max make you happy too Marcel?”

“Yes. Most definitely.”

“That's good. That's good,” he said simply. “I'm just glad Lark is gone.” I saw Max stiffen up at that, and I started to understand why he was the way he was. He let his parents dominate and control him, just as Lark had.

“Marcel helped me with that. Lark even kicked him in the balls,” Max said playfully, shocking me.

“Hey, I got in a couple of good hits. His nose was bloody,” I objected. That made John laugh, although I'm not sure why.

“Well, it's about time you grew a backbone and got rid of that loser,” he said. I squeezed Max's hand, trying to tell him it was OK. “You need to take control of your life Max, and not let other people dominate you.”

“I have control of my life Dad. No one dominates me, not even you,” he said, and nodded to Greg and Stef, then headed down to our cabin. I followed him.

He sat on the bed, distraught. “I'm so proud of you,” I told him.

“For what?”

“For standing up to your dad. That was cool. You did so well. I will bet that's the first time you've done that,” I said.

“Well, not the first time,” he said, “but it is pretty rare.” He sighed. “My mother is worse. She has this way of throwing barbs that are coated in sweetness.”

“And I think you will handle her just fine too,” I told him. “You know, you seem so strong, so dominant, it makes me want you to fuck me.”

He grinned. “See, and I was so tired of being strong and dominant, I was hoping you'd fuck me.”

“Well, there's only one solution,” I said, as I kissed him. “We will have to fuck twice.” So we did.

November 25, 1991

“I'm so sorry I didn't stay up last night,” Janet Granger said.

“You were sick. No one expected you to hang around,” Stef said reassuring her.

I sat there, eating breakfast with them. Max was still getting ready. His methodical getting ready system, I thought with a smile. “What are you smiling about?” Stef asked me.

“I was just thinking about Max, and how he takes so long to get ready,” I said.

Janet laughed, but studied me carefully. “He's always been that way. Even as a little boy, he'd have these precise habits, routines, for getting ready. It was so cute.”

“You telling them all my secrets?” Max said, coming into the room and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“I don't know all your secrets,” she said. “You didn't wear that orange shirt I brought you,” she said, disappointed.

“I felt like wearing this one,” he said. I knew him well enough to feel the irritation emanating from him.

“It will look so good on you,” she said, almost a plea.

“Mom, I can dress myself,” he said firmly. She raised her eyebrows and stared at him, obviously pretending to be hurt.

“Well if you don't appreciate my gifts, I just won't shop for you anymore,” she said, pouting.

“Mom, that's fine. Don't shop for me.”

“You never used to be this difficult,” she observed.

“I'm tired of other people running my life. The shirt you got me is nice, and I'll wear it, when I want to. I don't need you to dress me.” She got up after he said that and huffed off. Max looked at Stef and me, desperate for support and validation.

“You know Max,” Stef said, “the more I am around you, the more I like you.” He winked at Max and rushed off to do something.

“I'm proud of you. You get more confident, more assertive every day.”

He grinned at me, and then leaned in to kiss me. “I know whom to thank for that,” he said. He was in the middle of kissing me again when John walked in.

“What did you do to upset your mother?” he demanded.

“I didn't want to wear the shirt she told me to wear,” he said simply.

“Was it that big of a deal Max? Do you always have to be difficult?”

“You think I'm difficult?” Max asked him. “Just because I don't want my mom to dress me up like I'm still two years old? That's fucking ridiculous Dad.”

“After all we've done for you, you could be a little bit nicer,” John observed acidly.

“I'm being nice; I'm just not going to let you control me. I'm going up on deck,” Max said, storming up.

John looked at me, frustrated. “Is this your doing?” he demanded.

“Max has grown more self-confident, more assertive, since we've been together. I think it is great, watching him take control of his life. I am surprised that you do not.”

“I expect to be treated with respect,” he said gruffly.

“No, you expect to be obeyed. You are still trying to control him. You are lucky that he is an amazing man, and he will forgive you for it,” I said, looking at him boldly. Then I got up and went on deck to find Max standing at the stern, looking at the wake.

“You should be looking forward, not back,” I told him, joking.

“I should be. Forward I have you. Back, all I have is them trying to run my life. I should have told you about them before we came out here.” He was really disturbed.

“I am not bothered by them. On the contrary, I am so proud of you, of the way you stick up for yourself. And I'm here behind you, one hundred percent. Let them be mad at you, let them rant and rave. They will get over it.”

“So you're behind me 100%?” he asked with a leer. “You weren't last night.”

“No, I was not,” I said. I remembered how he'd fucked me, and how much he'd gotten into it. “And I am so glad that I was not. You were an animal.”

“Come on,” he said, taking my hand, “how about a replay?” I smiled at him and followed him back to our cabin.

Dinner that night was tense. The Grangers didn't say much, they just glared at Max. Max seemed to resent their attitudes even more than they resented his, so he made a point to ignore them. That left Greg, Stef, and me to carry on a conversation. We all went to bed early that night, which didn't bother me one bit.

November 28, 1991

We'd anchored in a little bay near Cabo San Lucas yesterday and had used our Zodiac boat to go ashore and spend some time on the beach. It was hard to believe it was actually winter here. The cruise had been long and leisurely, with Stef insisting that we stop into Cabo on Tuesday so he could do some shopping. Our plan was to have Thanksgiving dinner, then start our trip back to LA tonight.

The tension on the boat had subsided, but it was still there. It seemed that the Grangers could not believe that their son would rebel after all of these years, that he would not simply do what they told him. And I caught their looks, unpleasant looks, looks that said they blamed me for this new development and they weren't happy with me for it. They simply weren't willing to give up control of their 27-year-old son. For me, it was simply irritating. I made him happy, I helped him become stronger and independent, and I helped him dump the man they hated.

Max knew the tension was there too, but he ignored it like I did. If anything, it made our connection stronger. That worried me a bit. What if he was just clinging to me as a surrogate to his parents? What if he relied on me to provide the same kind of control that they did?

I stared at the beautiful water and the beach that I'd been to this morning, and searched myself for the answer. It didn't take long. That simply wasn't true. I didn't control Max; I didn't try to make decisions for him. If anything, I was too damn patient with his plodding pace. I loved Max. I knew that now. I'd known it since the day he moved into my condo. I hoped that he loved me too, but I also knew that he had to be the one to say it, to make it official. It was like it was part of this whole process, of him breaking the umbilical cord.

We had an early dinner, around 2pm, both because it was traditional, and because we needed to head back in the evening. The crew did an amazing job and put together the ultimate Thanksgiving dinner. Greg had insisted that the three of them join us, which was such an awesome gesture on his part. When he was calm and relaxed like this, he could be so thoughtful.

“At our house,” John Granger said as dinner wound down, “we like to go around the table and mention something that we are particularly thankful for. I wondered if you'd all be willing to indulge us by participating.”

“Well that sounds like a marvelous idea,” Stef said. “I hope you will allow me to go first?” He was always the perfect host. “I am thankful that we could all be here together, of course, but I am most thankful that Greg took the time to stop working and enjoy himself.” He turned to Greg. “You are a wonderful man, and I just love it when you relax and leave the stress of the office behind.”

“And I am thankful for you,” Greg said lovingly. “You watch over me, take care of me, put up with me, and you love me. You are everything to me Stef.” Even John Granger looked touched.

Max was next. He swallowed hard, steeling his nerves. “I am thankful for Marcel. When he first talked me into dating him, he told me that he had spent his life looking for the one man who could be his partner, who could complete him as a person. He told me that he thought that person was me, and asked me to give us a chance to see if I was.” He swallowed again. “I didn't really believe that bullshit at the time. I'd never thought that love would come my way, only more rejection and pain.” The Grangers cringed at the sadness in his voice. “But I figured that Marcel was worth a chance, and I took it. And it was the smartest move I ever made.” He turned and looked at me, love blasting from his eyes. “Marcel, I don't know how you feel, but I know how I feel. I'm convinced that you were right, that you are the man for me, and that we belong together. You are my soul mate, and I love you, one hundred percent, completely.” A tear fell down his cheek. I glanced at Stef to see him bawling like crazy now.

He stared at me, waiting for a response. I smiled at him and took his hands in mine. “You are so full of shit,” I said. He looked like I hit him, but my smile told him I was playing with him. He knew me so well. “You know how I feel. I've been in love with you since our first date at the J-Bar. I knew you were the one for me when we took our first flight out here together. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I was the one for you.” He leaned in and gave me a big kiss, and everyone at the table clapped for us, even the Grangers.

The rest of them, including the Grangers, all honored us by telling us how happy they were for us, but the meal ended on a funny note, thanks to Pete.

“Well, I'm thankful that I got to sleep with Marcel before he found the love of his life,” he said playfully, and made everyone laugh.