Outwitted - 1. Outwitted

William and George had been a couple for almost ten years.

They had met in the most ordinary way: while commuting to their respective jobs on the train. Their paths must have crossed many times before that morning, but never before had they found themselves in a seat across each other.

Although both were busy with paperwork and electronic devices, they had been making furtive glances at each other, being distracted from their work by a strange feeling of more than regular interest in the occupant of the opposite seat.

It could not be explained why they felt an interest in the other and why George started a conversation, something he normally never did with fellow train-travelers.

They found out their office buildings were quite close in the city and agreed to meet in a pub for a drink after work that day.

A drink became more than one, which lead to a date, then several more dates, then longer and longer stays at the dwelling of one or the other, until finally they decided to be practical and look for a house where they could live together.

They both terminated the rent on their dwellings.

As the combined income allowed them to afford a better home than they were able to afford on their own, they moved into something a bit more spacious and up-market.

The date they moved into their new house to share was April 1st.

Part of their agreement on moving was, that William would sell his car and that they would share George’s in future.

This seemed a wise decision at the time, because they each used their car mostly to drive to the train station on their way to work.

But after some time William regretted his sale, for having only one car between the two of them sometimes became a strain on their social life.

They either could get out when they both had the same destination, or the other necessarily had to stay at home when only one of them went out.

Although not a big problem, the topic of the luxury of a second car surfaced now and then.

George, being the one with the most initiative and imagination, had declared the date of their move a day for future celebrations, because they could not decide which day to celebrate their union. Should it be the day they met on the train (they were not quite sure about the date), the day of their first date (same problem), the day they slept together for the first time (remembered, but too private to explain to most other people) or some other date (but which one to pick as memorable enough).

So according to George’s suggestion April first it was.

On their day of celebration George always made it a point to think of small pranks to gently tease William, in addition to the small presents they gave each other.

It became a tradition and William looked forward to the innocent jokes George came up with every year.

William’s birthday was in the beginning of February and in the year they would be celebrating their tenth April first they threw a small birthday party at their house for some friends.

It was a lively evening and at one point William was on his way to the kitchen to fetch some more drinks, when just around the corner he heard George talk in a low voice to Francis, one of their close friends.

Not generally being an eavesdropper, William was intrigued by the way George was speaking, so he halted and just round the corner listened.

“… and so that April Fool prank this year is our tenth and I have to do quite a bit of preparation. I plan on making William think that I bought him a car, you know by giving hints now and then, but in the end I will present him with a model, like a Dinky Toys. I hope he will appreciate the joke.”

Francis started to make a reply, but William made some noises as if he was just on his way to the kitchen and Francis cunningly pretended to be interested in George’s recipe for one of the snacks he was serving that evening.

William could see the humor of the joke George was preparing, so he decided to play along and keep his eyes open for clues, that he was certain George was going to give him, so William would believe George was going to buy him a car for their tenth anniversary, instead of the usual small present.

The first clue came soon enough.

When William saw Sean, a friend of them who also attended his birthday party, a few days later, Sean mentioned that he had seen George at a car dealer that morning. William was well aware that Sean must have been instructed by George and pretended to be surprised and asked Sean some questions about what place he had seen George and whether he had seen what car George was interested in.

He got some information out of Sean, but thought Sean must have been told to improvise, for apart from the fact he had seen George at the dealer, not much else came out of the questioning.

Another clue came from Francis.

As he was the one George had revealed his prank to, William knew he was an accomplice and succeeded in keeping a straight face, when Francis told him he had seen George taking a test drive in a beautiful car.

William thought he might like to see Francis sweat a little, so asked him how he knew it was a test drive. George had their car serviced recently, so it could well have been possible that he had a car on loan from the garage for the day.

Francis was either a good liar or was well instructed by George, for he didn’t hesitate at all when he related that he had spoken to George later that day, and George had confirmed it being a test-drive.

At this point William could have easily put a pin in George’s balloon, by just asking George directly what he was doing at car dealers, as their car was quite satisfactory and didn’t need to be replaced.

He didn’t know how his boyfriend would be able to talk his way out of that. But he didn’t want to ruin his fun, so good naturedly he decided to just see what more deception was in store for him.

Another obvious clue was, that Benjamin, who also happened to be at the birthday party and worked at an insurance company, phoned him with some questions about their car insurance policy.

It made sense that Benjamin contacted him and not George, because he always took care of the paperwork in their relationship, but the sudden interest in the car insurance needed some clarification.

Benjamin made some excuse that it was his firm’s yearly update on clients, so William let him get away with it and answered the questions, meanwhile thinking that George took a lot of trouble to just play a prank on him.

Somewhere in March William and George were visiting the mall at the edge of the city because they both needed some clothes. As they didn’t go there often, there were a few other stores to visit if only to indulge their craving to spend some money now and then on things they didn’t really need.

While they were browsing through the bookshop George made an excuse, mumbling something like “April fool” and left William looking for some books he had read great reviews about recently.

When William had found what he was looking for, made his purchase and left the shop, he saw George coming out of a children’s toy store.

In itself that was odd, for there were no birthdays of nephews or nieces coming up soon, that would make toy shopping necessary.

His raised eyebrow was answered with: “You’ll see, you’ll see, April first is coming up.”

Making the connection with the overheard conversation between George and Francis a few weeks earlier, he just smiled, assuming the shopping bag George was carrying contained a miniature car.

When the first day of April arrived both George and William had a small parcel for each other, just like the previous years.

William insisted George should open his present first. After unwrapping his present, George held a small velvet box in his hands, which contained a delicate golden chain that he had admired when they saw it in the window of a jeweler’s shop some months before.

George smiled, let William put the chain around his neck and gave William a kiss that showed his appreciation.

Then it was William’s turn to open the small package. When he unwrapped the parcel out came a Dinky Toys cardboard box.

When he opened the box, the box contained, instead of a miniature car, a car key.

* * *

“So they were all in on the scam?”

William was sitting in the driver’s seat of a new car, that was parked just across the street of their house and to which George had lead him. The lock had miraculously responded to the key he found in the box.

George, in the passenger seat, nodded.

“Francis and I were very convincing, weren’t we? We just hoped you heard enough to get the wrong idea.”

“You certainly did. And you all overdid it so much, that I didn’t want to spoil your fun. What a fool you made of me this year. It’s an April first I’m not likely to forget. Thank you so much, Georgie.”

William reached over and drew George in for a deep kiss.

William turned the key and off they drove for their first spin in William’s new car.