Ralph: Breaking free - 19. Rallying to the cause and relaxing with chowder

“He’s moved in!”

“No! The Dribble's moved in with you?”

Therese laughed, “No way. That’s turned into a drought. No, Ralph’s boyfriend.”

“Bloody hell. Randy Ralph’s back.”

“That was quick. But”, Dee’s brow wrinkled, “what you said about Ralph’s place being small.”

“Is entirely true. But it’s a necessity.”

Barb cackled, “What, Ralph not getting enough, and he needs it on tap?”

“No. The boyfriend’s accountant has embezzled funds and done a runner. Bloke’s company has lost everything.”

“But surely…”

“It’s a real thing, Barb. I read about it in the paper. Some bloke got into trouble with gambling debts.”

“Come on. A tinpot little firm”, Barb turned to Therese, “Sorry girl, but that’s what it sounds like.”

Dee sighed, “It’s not just one firm. There’s a whole bunch of them.”

Barb shook her head, “Poor sods. So, the boyfriend…”

“Has a cashflow problem. Ralph has gone into overdrive and is coming up with a business plan.”

“The boyfriend’s keeping the business going?”

“I gather. The move’s to save money.”

Dee looked puzzled, “Surely, they can get the money back?”

Barb laughed, “Come on, girl. Takes time. Big question is, what do Jane and Alisa think?”

Therese rolled her eyes. “They love it. Best thing since sliced bread.” She snorted, “I don’t know how he does it. “

“You going to live with it, girl?”

Therese gave a reluctant nod, “Playing nice. It’s either that or start banging on about him corrupting the girls.”

“Really. You want to go there?”

Therese shook her head, “No.”

Barb gave an ironic laugh, “Besides, if what you say is true, bet the twins would be furious if you stopped them seeing Daddy and his boyfriend.”

“I don’t know how he does it, I honestly don’t.” Therese sighed. “But I’m playing nice.”

“For the moment, girl. But you keep a watch and make sure things don’t get out of hand.”

---

The following week was all over the place as Ralph tried to keep up his support for Nolan whilst the two balanced competing schedules. On a typical day, Nolan worked early and late, classes generally first and last thing with some private appointments in the middle, meaning that his free time was just when Ralph was at his busiest.

After some negotiations, the bank came through, the new accountant (someone at the firm Ralph used) was working on the accounts whilst a solicitor who specialised in these matters was helping Nolan keep track of the case against the accountant and consider a civil case to try and restore some of the money.

That was if the man could be found, as police said that he had completely disappeared. Any civil case would take some time as it would involve multiple people, mostly other small businesses that had also been scammed. There was also Nolan and Verne’s business insurance, they were covered for something though working out quite what was taking a bit of negotiation. Luckily Verne was handling this aspect of things.

Verne popped up at odd times, usually during the day when Ralph would hear her voice at the door, and he would desperately try not to attempt to overhear. Not that there was anything private, Nolan would freely chat about everything, but Ralph felt that he needed to have some boundaries.

On Tuesday, Verne breezed in and out at lunchtime. This time Beth noticed the voice, floating down from the floor above. Ralph rolled his eyes and tried to get back to his lunch, but Beth shot up, insisted the Ralph come with her and dragged him upstairs.

Nolan and Verne were sitting at the table, going over some paperwork. Both looked up, surprised when Ralph appeared with Beth. It seemed that she had had an idea, and by the time the two returned to their lunch, Fitness for All’s GoFundMe page had been created. A friend of Carine’s had been involved in raising money that way for a community cause. Nolan was a bit uncertain, nervous of them putting themselves out quite so strongly, or as Verne wryly pointed out, being windy at blowing his own trumpet. Verne had laughed and informed them that she’d needed to push him from the beginning. Nolan had rolled his eyes at this, but Ralph suspected there was an element of truth there.

Verne decided that she would run with it, and that evening managed to round up a mate of her boyfriend who made videos and there was not only a GoFundMe page, but a video with Verne charmingly explaining their pickle and pointing out all the community-related classes that they were doing. Nolan agreed to make a follow-up video, whilst Beth happily did some promotional work for the cause.

It helped that on Wednesday, the local paper got involved in reporting the larger issue of the various small businesses who had suffered. Somehow or other, things were developing momentum.

Thursday night was the only one where the two of them could have a meal together at a normal time, and alone. Nolan announced that he would cook, and he appeared laden with groceries and with a beaming smile, just as Beth and Ivor were leaving.

The house was too small, but Ralph liked having Nolan around. Even with his crazy schedule. Someone to chat to and to cuddle. It took him back to the early days with Therese, chatting late night, but then there had been the twins, the stresses of having two babies, and then Therese’s need to return to work so she did not feel trapped at home. Ralph had understood, but somewhere along the way his pleasure in their shared intimacies disappeared.

“Do you like tofu?”

Ralph was wool-gathering on the sofa, supposedly doing paperwork, whilst Nolan pottered around the kitchen area, checking where things were.

Ralph pulled a face, “Well, it’s not the most exciting thing, but yes. I sometimes cook it for the girls. Beth’s Carine came up with Tofu Tikka Teriyaki the other day.”

Nolan looked over his shoulder at Ralph, rather comically in fact, “And how was it?”

Ralph shrugged, “Don’t know, I never tried any, but Beth swore it was good. I was going to get the recipe for the girls.”

“So, if I did a sort of chowder with tofu and made plenty, then it would be OK for the girls tomorrow?”

Ralph grinned, “Sure. But you don’t mind cooking?”

Nolan gave an embarrassed laugh, “I never normally get the chance. The kitchen in the flat was minimal, so there is not much scope for experimentation.”

“And my kitchen is big? Hardly.”

“You didn’t see mine, so yes. This is big by comparison, and you have everything in terms of pots and pans.”

Ralph sighed, “You have Mother to thank for that. Despite knowing that my cooking skills are limited, she insisted on buying me things.”

“Perhaps she hoped that having a complete set of pans and mixing bowls would encourage you to cook.”

“As if”, Ralph rolled his eyes. “I almost didn’t cook because she was keen that I acquire the skills in my newly single state.”

“What changed?”

“The twins. The need to have wholesome, tasty dishes for them and not break the bank.”

“You can buy stuff though?”

“True, but it starts to mount up. It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve had what you might call something like a disposable income.”

“Sorry, I assumed the business…”

“Oh, the business is going fine but there have been times when I’ve had to hold back on my salary until a big payment came in, and when you slice off Therese’s maintenance, then there’s not much left.”

“Oh, it seemed…”

Ralph jumped up and went over to Nolan and hugged him from behind, the man stopped his chopping but didn’t put the knife down, “’WebIdeal’ is doing well, but the mortgage on the house for Therese and the twins is bloody expensive and Therese won’t countenance a move. She says the house is ideal for the twins.”

“And isn’t it?”

“Fuck knows. Usually with Therese, when something’s ideal, that means it fits her view of things. The twins might have different ideas, but I try not to go there.”

“Things difficult?”

“Not so much. But the twins are developing quite strong personalities.”

“The football?”

“And the vegetarianism thing. I don’t want to give Therese any further ammunition, give her an excuse to accuse me of influencing them. Like the football.”

“Was that your idea?”

“Bloody hell. No. But she immediately assumed it was. Luckily sense prevailed, and she realised that my interest in football wasn’t that great, it wasn’t something I’d push the girls into.”

“But a new house might be different.”

“Yep. If they moan about the house to her, she’ll look for reasons to blame me.” Ralph shrugged, “We get on OK, and can at least talk, but she does rather assume that I’m the root of the problem.”

“I still can’t believe you’re not that keen on football. Perhaps you ought to come along to one of our Sunday matches.”

Ralph stared at him, “To watch or to play?”

“Play of course”, Nolan’s eyes danced, “I’m sure you’d find it fun. Tell you what, you do that, and I’ll do something you want.”

Ralph’s eyes widened, “Shit, I was supposed to get back to Morrie with some dates.”

He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of white wine and poured them a glass whilst Nolan continued his cooking.

Nolan looked up at Ralph briefly, “Football, Morrie, are they connected?”

Ralph looked a bit abashed, “Well, it was the ‘you doing something for me’ thing.”

“And…” Nolan stared at Ralph, head on one side.

Ralph took a deep breath, “I mentioned about me doing a photo shoot for Morrie.”

“Wearing some of his gear, yes”, Nolan laughed.

“Well, we talked about you doing it as well.”

“Yes….” Nolan gave a slightly embarrassed shrug, “I was rather hoping you’d forget and what with the problems with the firm and all…”

“I’m supposed to get back to Morrie with dates when we can do a shoot. Thanks to Beth, Ivor’s duty bound to do it as well.”

“Is he OK with it?”

“Well, he’s not thrilled, but I think underneath he’s a bit tickled to be asked.”

“And you’d like me to do it as well…”

“Some of the gear is relatively modest, and you don’t have to sit there, legs akimbo, showing the world the goods, after all.”

Nolan laughed so much that he had to stop cooking, turning the heat low. “I’ve never thought I had enough to warrant display like that.”

Ralph leaned over and kissed his ear, “I beg to differ.”

“You said that on the shoot you attended, one model did it bollock naked?”

“Yes, but that was for his personal use, not for Iverson’s. Morrie’s got some sense; the website might have to be behind an over-18 barrier but there is a limit.”

Nolan continued laughing, “You want people to buy stuff and not spend their time having a wank.”

“Christ, I do not want to think about folk pulling up photos of thee and me as wank fodder”, Ralph took a big slurp of his wine.

Nolan stared at him, and Ralph wondered whether the man was going to say no. It would have been a shame, because Nolan was trim, with the sort of body that looked achievable, nothing overdeveloped. Finally, Nolan nodded, “OK. I’ll do It on two provisos.”

“Which are?”

“Morrie pays for part of the session for photos for our use.”

Ralph looked at him, intrigued, “Go on.”

“A few of me in training kit, we can use them for the GoFundMe and other stuff.”

“There might be gear in Iverson’s catalogue you could use.”

“Even better. And we do some of you.”

“Me? What for, I’m not on your sport team.”

Nolan laughed, “No. These would be just for us. Of you, without anything on.”

“Bloody hell, bollock naked?”

“Yes”, Nolan’s eyes danced with mischief.

Ralph drew in a breath, “Would have to be careful where I kept them, wouldn’t do for the twins to be finding them.”

“Not good if they reported back to Therese about seeing Daddy in the altogether, with his willy showing.”

Ralph laughed, nervously, “Not good at all. And you’d still want me to come to football?”

“Yes. There’s a game on Sunday.”

Ralph shook his head, “You’ll regret it. What about the girls?”

“I’ll message the guys and make sure there’s a couple of wives or girlfriends to help. Some of them volunteer on Saturdays so the twins might know them.” Ralph made to speak but Nolan ploughed on, “And if there’s a problem with the girls, then that’s a good excuse for you to dip out.”

Ralph laughed but agreed.

They chatted idly whilst Nolan finished the chowder and set it to cook, and Ralph started washing up. They were going over details of their schedules for the weekend, working out when both would be around, when Ralph looked over at what Nolan was doing.

“The last I heard, fish wasn’t vegetarian.”

“My cunning plan.” Nolan wiggled his eyebrows, “I’ve bought this smoked trout and plan to put that in our chowder for tonight.”

“Whilst tomorrow we can have the boring version.”

Nolan sniggered, “I’ll have you know that it isn’t boring. Anyhow, that’s it for 20 minutes.”

Ralph looked at him, leaning on the counter, tidying up, and immediately decided what they were spending the 20 minutes doing. He moved over, put his hands around Nolan’s waist and started unfastening the man’s chinos. Nolan’s ‘what’ was stifled by Ralph’s kiss, and despite some clumsiness, Ralph soon had Nolan unfastened. Quickly, before Nolan could object, Ralph had the man’s trousers and briefs down and was applying himself to Nolan’s pert, pink bum.

The chowder nearly burned. However, it proved very tasty. Ralph said jokingly that Nolan could certainly come back again, and Nolan had gone a bit pink and said that he’d enjoyed cooking in Ralph’s kitchen.

Meal over they retired to the sofa, still with a bit of wine left in the bottle.

“Where do you want to sleep at the weekend?”

“Here, I’d hope”, Nolan looked startled.

“No! I meant, do you want to risk sharing with me, or would you feel more comfortable downstairs.”

Nolan rolled his eyes, “I don’t think downstairs would exactly be comfortable, and frankly, I’d like to stay with you, if that’s OK. As long as the twins remember to knock.”

Ralph gave a dry laugh, “They’re only nine, let’s hope they remember.”

“And keep ourselves well-covered with sheets.”