Flux - 40. Chapter 40

August 4, 2002

Boston

Matt

There are times in my life where things are good, really good, and this was one of those times. It made me nervous, as if these good times would have to be paid back later with compound interest, but the last two weeks had been so shitty, I decided that I’d already paid for these good times in advance.

Wade and I had spent the entire day of our arrival in our room, fucking and reconnecting, and it had done much to make me feel better about us. I was starting to see how this relationship with Alex was working for him, and I was getting an even better picture of how I fit into it. It was almost like we were sharing Wade, and while that had initially worried me, thinking that I’d just be getting the scraps; I was learning that it wasn’t like that at all. All that time in college, when Wade had wanted to spark up another relationship, I’d been fanatically jealous, but this time I wasn’t. I think that’s because I realized that there were things Alex could give Wade that I couldn’t, and I definitely knew there were things I could give Wade that Alex couldn’t.

Even the HIV scare was looking like it might be just that. Wade had called Jack and made me talk to him, and he told me it was likely that I’d never be able to get an accurate HIV reading with an ELISA test. He told me that when I got tested again, I needed to tell them that. He’d been seriously annoyed with the lab, because they weren’t supposed to disclose the results of the ELISA test if it was positive without doing the Western Blot, but I’d calmed him down. He’d given me hope, and I was happy.

We were walking through the house with the new contractor Wade had hired. We’d come over here yesterday and found that not much had been done. Wade had been livid, in his own way, and had curtly fired the contractor, and then he’d gotten on the phone and interviewed a few other guys. He’d finally settled on this dude, a guy named Craig Fester, who was thirty years old with a wife and two kids, and very hungry for the business.

Craig had been making frantic notes as we went, and I almost snickered when I saw Wade looking at them to see how organized they were. They were pretty well done, which made Wade happy. We finally finished talking about all of the changes with him, and we went back down to the main level.

“Mr. Danfield, can you give me a few minutes to put together an estimate for you?” he asked politely.

“Certainly,” Wade said. He walked into the kitchen, so he could write on the counter, while we stayed in the spacious drawing room. “What do you think?”

“I like him. He needs the business,” I said.

“That’s my take on it too. Do you think he’ll be able to line up the crews to do it?”

I thought about that for a minute, and nodded. “He seems like a pretty together guy.”

“I talked to Tiffany on the phone, and she said she and JJ and the kids were going up to Escorial tomorrow. I was thinking about going out there to meet them.” I didn’t say anything; I just looked at him, since he hadn’t asked me to go with him. I was certainly welcome there, but I wanted him to tell me that he wanted me there. “I don’t know what your plans are, but I’d like it if you came with me.”

“You usually cum with me,” I said with a leer. “We’re that good.” That actually made him giggle, which was hilarious. Wade was not a giggly kind of guy.

“We are that good,” he agreed.

“I’m with you,” I said, and almost regretted it, because it sounded like I was making some kind of commitment, but he took it all in stride.

“I’m glad,” he said. “I was thinking that I would invite Alex too. That way we could show him around Paly.” He looked at me nervously, but I was relaxed about that now.

“I think that’s a great idea,” I said, and watched him beam with happiness. “I’d like a chance to hang out with him, now that I’m not ready to kill him for stealing you away.”

“I think he’d like that too,” Wade said.

“How are you going to work that when he’s here?” I asked nervously.

“What do you mean?”

“You can only be in one bed at a time,” I said.

He stepped in front of me and put his hands around my neck, then pulled me in for a loving kiss. “I’ll have to divide my time, but we both know which room I’d rather be in.”

“I think Stef’s planning to go to Chicago on the 6^th, so that doesn’t give me much time there anyway,” I said.

“I talked to JP, and he said Stef had decided to go out to Chicago later on. I think he had some big scheduling conflict,” he said.

“That’s news to me,” I said, “but it works. That way Will can jet off to get Zach, and we can hang out at Escorial.”

“I want you to know how much I appreciate the way you handled this, and the way you forgave me for hurting you,” he said.

“I think we talked about this, and we decided the guilt is over,” I said firmly.

He leaned in, pressing his body against mine, and kissed me again, then whispered in my ear. “I hope we’re done here soon. I want to get to the airport, get on a plane, and fuck.”

“OK,” I said, smiling. I’d forgotten how Wade was when he was in another relationship. When he’d started dating Sean, it had just fired up his libido, and we’d ended up having more sex than we had before he was hooking up with Sean. And now with Alex, he was doing the same thing.

“Um, I’m sorry to interrupt you two,” Craig said as he came into the room. We both looked at him, trying to figure out if he was disgusted by seeing us make out, but he was smiling and blushing. Not that we weren’t.

“Not a problem,” Wade said. He kept me there, in front of him, until our erections deflated enough that we could turn around and talk to Craig.

“This is a big job. It’s going to cost $250,000, assuming there are no cost overruns, and there always are.” He paused. “I didn’t include the price of more expensive materials either, so if you guys pick out a really exotic stone for the bathrooms, and things like that, it will cost more.”

“That’s fine,” Wade said. It was funny to see Craig get a little shocked when Wade didn’t bat an eye. “How long will it take?”

“Six weeks,” he said.

“I can’t do that,” Wade said. “I need to have this place done by the end of August.”

The guy looked really stymied by that. “Can you do that?” I asked.

He thought about it, and got resolved. “I can, but it’s going to cost another $25,000. Rush jobs are expensive.”

“That’s fine,” Wade said.

“No, it’s not,” I said, intervening. Wade looked annoyed with me, and Craig was confused. “If you get it done by August 28^th, we’ll spot you an extra $25,000 on top of that.”

“An extra fifty grand?” Craig asked, smiling. “Done.”

“I’ll be in California, and then traveling around,” Wade said, “but you can reach me on my cell phone.”

“That’s fine, Mr. Danfield. I just need you to sign off on this work order, and on this paper approving the estimate.” Craig made quick notes to add in the $50,000 bonus if the work was done by August 28^th. Wade scanned the papers, and satisfied himself that it was what we’d agreed on, and then wrote Craig a check to give him some working capital.

“Keep me posted on your progress,” Wade said in a friendly way. “I’d appreciate an update on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If you can’t reach me, just leave a message. Or better yet, e-mail me.”

“Yes, sir,” Craig said. He got Wade’s email address; we shook hands with him, and then got into our car for the drive to the airport.

“You just burned through another $25,000 of my money,” Wade said, pretending to be annoyed.

I shrugged. “Stef has guys swarming all over our building in Chicago every day, because he overpays them. I’m guessing that it’s worth $25,000 for you to have Riley here, and to keep JJ mollified.”

“That’s a good guess.” My phone rang, and I looked at the number and got a really apprehensive look on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s the clinic,” I said with dread. “Matt Carrswold,” I said as I answered. The nurse identified herself and the clinic.

“Mr. Carrswold, I have some information for you, but I’ll need your access code.” I gave her the code, trying not to stammer as I did. “The Western Blot results came back, and they were negative. Despite the ELISA positive, we can now conclude that as of the test date, you are HIV negative.” I just stared at the phone, so happy I was dazed. “Mr. Carrswold?”

“Yes, thank you. Thank you very much,” I said. Wade could tell by my huge smile and my words that it was good news. “I’m negative! I’m negative!”

He gave me a massive hug, and we just held on to each other, so happy that I didn’t have ‘it’. “I’m so glad,” he said. “I am so glad.”

I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes, and I could see that they were watery, and they were happy. I mentally kicked myself for all the times I’d doubted that he loved me. He did, and there was no question about it. “I have a call to make.”

“To who?”

“Will. He can be my messenger.” I dialed his number, wondering if I’d get him, since with the time lag, it was the middle of the night in Hawaii.

“Hello,” he said.

“You don’t sound very tired,” I teased. “You must have been awake.”

“I am awake.”

“It’s the middle of the night,” I said.

“Then maybe I was getting laid.”

“Were you?”

“I was,” he said. “Kai came up to spend the night.”

“Awesome,” I said. “Wade and I are flying out to Escorial, and he’s going to have Alex fly out and meet us too.”

“So you guys worked things out?”

“We did,” I said, and couldn’t stop myself from sounding almost giddy. “I need you to do me a favor.”

“What?”

“When you see your dad, tell him I got my other test back, and it was negative.”

“You’re negative?” he asked, and I could hear the excitement growing in his voice.

“I am,” I confirmed.

“Dude, that is the best fucking news,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said. I hung up and called JP to let him know, and even though he was much more sedate, I could tell that he was pretty fucking happy too.

We drove up to the plane and got out, even as the pilots took our bags. “We’ve got a flight plan for Palo Alto, Mr. Danfield,” the pilot said.

“Excellent,” Wade said, and climbed up into the plane.

“Dude, you just asked me about this, but you already had it all set up,” I accused.

He shrugged. “I was betting you’d say yes.”

“When does Alex get in?”

“On August 6^th,” he said.

This was a chartered plane, so it didn’t have a sleeping compartment, but it did have a big bathroom. As soon as we were airborne, Wade led me back there. “Someone is horny.”

“I am so fucking horny,” he said, and his voice was so lusty, so urgent, that it just fueled my libido. He dropped his pants, and he was already hard as a rock.

“My turn,” I said, handing him the lube, even as I dropped my pants and leaned over the sink.

“No condom?” he asked.

“Let’s celebrate,” I said, and then got worried that I was pushing him to do something he didn’t want to do. “But only if you want to.”

“I want to,” Wade said. And then he fucked me, and even though we were in the bathroom, I could tell that he was putting everything, all his feelings for me, into it. And it was just as terrific as it always was.

August 4, 2002

Maui

Brad

I lay on my back panting, with cum all over my chest, while Scott smiled down at me. “I think you liked that,” he said, being cocky.

“I think you’re right,” I said. “You’re really good. In fact, you’re so good; I’m trying to figure out if you’re better at fucking or surfing.”

He gave me his shit-eating grin, sucking up my praise. “I think I’m good at both.”

“You would,” I said, teasing him.

“See what you missed out on all those years?”

“I didn’t miss out on anything,” I told him. “We’re good like this because of what we’ve learned along the way.”

“Or maybe we’re good like this because we like each other.”

“That can’t be it,” I said, and we both laughed. There was a knock on the door, and before we could say anything, Will burst in. I jumped under the covers, and got cum all over the sheets, which would have annoyed me if they didn’t already need to be changed. Scott just lay there, sprawled on his back, with the condom still on his deflating dick. “Here,” I said, holding up the sheet so Scott could get under there with me.

“He likes to look at me,” Scott said, but he covered himself up with the sheet anyway. Will blushed about three shades of red when he said that, but I figured I’d find out about that later.

“Here’s the way this works. You knock, you wait until I say ‘come in’, then you come in,” I said to him, fully venting my irritation.

“I just got some important news, but if you don’t want to hear it, I’ll just tell you in the morning,” he said, and made to walk out of the room. He was such a little shit, especially since he knew most of my weaknesses.

“Fine,” I said, stopping him. “What is this news that’s so important?”

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “If it’s important news, we fly back to Escorial today. If it isn’t, we can stay here for as long as you want.”

“Even beyond the 8^th?” I asked. That’s when Zach came back.

“Even beyond the 8^th.” That meant it was really important.

“Fine. What’s this important news?”

“Matt called. He got the results of his other test back. He’s negative.”

“He doesn’t have HIV?” I asked, just to confirm it.

“Nope, he doesn’t,” he said. I smiled at him, and I was so happy I almost couldn’t express it. It had been devastating to think that Matt had that disease. After I’d found out about Kevin, Cody, and Alex Danvers, I’d boned up on the current issues with HIV and AIDS, and I’d gotten more relaxed about it. In my younger days, if you got HIV, you were a dead man. It was only a matter of time. Now it wasn’t like that, but it was still bad news. I was euphoric that Matt had dodged the bullet this time.

“I’ll call the pilots and let them know we’re leaving at nine,” I said.

“Sorry I interrupted you,” he said to me, then walked up and gave Scott a really nice kiss, one that was way beyond friendly. “You’re hot.”

“I know,” Scott said.

“Got him all fired up for you again,” Will said as he winked at me, then he left us alone.

“Sucks that you have to leave so soon,” Scott said.

“I’ll be back,” I promised.

August 5, 2002

Escorial

“When does Alex get in?” I asked Wade, as we rode across the Stanford lands. He was riding Gunpowder, and I was on Charger. It seemed like they hadn’t been getting much exercise, so we’d run them pretty hard, but it still didn’t seem to settle them down all that much.

“His flight gets in tomorrow. I think it lands in the early afternoon.”

“He’ll barely get to see Will. He’s leaving on the 7^th to go to Claremont to pick up Zach.”

“I think that an evening is probably enough for Alex to spend with him,” he joked.

“That’s probably true,” I said, laughing. “You seem to have worked things out with Matt. Does that mean things aren’t good with Alex?”

“No,” he said firmly, then smiled. “They’re great. Great with both of them.”

“I’m impressed. I was never able to pull that off.”

“As a matter of fact, you were,” he said, correcting me. “You had a pretty intense threesome going on with Robbie and Kevin at one time. And with Cody too, if memory serves.”

“True,” I said, “but that seems different than what you have.”

“Maybe it is.” We rode on, while he chose his words. “Alex had given me the answer to making this so easy on all of us, but I was so fucking infatuated with him, and so blinded by it, that I completely fucked things up.”

“How did he do that?”

“He told me that he wanted to be together, and that we’d be exclusive, but he gave me a pass to fuck around with Matt.”

“That’s pretty surprising.”

“It is. But I think it will work just fine. Alex doesn’t really have a very active libido, so I don’t think he’s all that upset about someone else helping take care of me. And as long as Matt has part of my heart and part of my body, he’s pretty happy with things too.”

“But are you happy?” I asked him.

“Oh yeah,” he said, cracking me up. “I really fucked Matt over these past few weeks. I’d known I’d been awful, but when Will called me on it, he really made me see how bad I’d been.”

“He has an annoying way of doing that,” I grumbled.

“He does,” Wade said, chuckling. “So I came over here, we fucked a whole bunch of times, and Matt told me that basically he’d forgive me for being a douchebag with Alex if I’d forgive him for all the shit he’d pulled after 9-11.”

“That sounds like a fair deal,” I said, more to spur the conversation on than anything.

“I talked to David about it,” Wade said, referring to his shrink. “He said that he thinks one of the reasons I’m so happy is because that simple deal has let me put my guilt behind me, and it’s let Matt do the same thing. And it’s taken away my anger at him for all the shit that he did.”

“I’m really glad that you’re so happy,” I said. I wasn’t sure how this whole relationship was going to work out, but it seemed like Wade thought it would be fine, and he was a pretty smart guy.

“Matt says he’s waiting for something to fuck things up, because we never really get to have smooth sailing for long.” In a twisted way, that was funny, and it made me laugh. “I’m a little nervous about Alex coming out here. I’m hoping that goes well.”

“I thought you said it was good?”

“It is good, but sometimes shit can happen here,” he said, referring to Escorial.

“This much is true,” I agreed, and chuckled with him.

He looked at his watch. “I need to get back. Tiffany, JJ, and the kids are supposed to be here soon.” We reversed course and headed back to the house, and got there well before the group from Malibu arrived. I took that opportunity to escape and go take a nap.

I’d set my alarm for 6:00pm, to give myself time to take a shower and get ready. It wasn’t Sunday, when dinners here were more formal, but it was a big deal, since we’d all been travelling, and we’d all ended up converging here together. I walked up to the dining room early, and it was a good thing, since I spent a lot of time greeting everyone. Claire and Jack were here, and so were Tiffany and JJ. Mother and Frank sat at their end of the table, while JP and Stef sat at theirs. Will was here, along with Matt and Wade, and even John and Marie had come up.

“We have quite a gathering tonight,” JP said, smiling contentedly. He liked to have big dinners, so this was a banner day for him. “It will be a large group tomorrow as well. We will lose Will, but we will gain Lord Bridgemont.”

“He’s a real lord?” John asked.

“Yes; he’s an Earl,” JP explained.

“What do we call him? Do we have to call him ‘my lord’?” Marie asked.

“Like I’m doing that,” JJ said. I zeroed in on him, and correctly discerned that he was in one of his shit disturbing moods.

“He wants you all to call him Alex,” Wade said. “He said that’s appropriate when he’s in America, where there are no titles.”

“Did you finally start working on the house in Boston?” JJ asked Wade. He was really being rude, and there was no excuse for it. I looked at JP and saw his eye twitch in irritation.

“I just came from Boston,” Wade explained calmly. “The original contractor had dropped the ball, so I hired a new guy.”

“Well if it’s not done by August 15, I’m not moving to Boston,” JJ said, and folded his arms. “And don’t expect me to be nice to your English boyfriend. You spent all your time over there, chasing him around, when you didn’t get anything done on the house.”

Tiffany cringed, because JJ was putting her into a tight squeeze, but JJ’s bitchy mood had finally annoyed JP. “When Alex comes to visit, you will treat him with the utmost respect and courtesy,” he said to JJ.

“I’ll be nice to him here,” JJ said. “Boston is another story.” I looked at the dynamic, and realized that I’d been oblivious to what was happening with JJ and Tiffany’s move to Boston. I’d only looked at it from my own perspective, and I’d been fine with it because it was close to New York, so I could visit them when I was out there. But JJ had clearly been power tripping over this, and he’d been all but blackmailing Wade. If he didn’t go to Boston, it was unlikely that Tiffany would, and that meant Wade wouldn’t be around Riley. That infuriated me, that JJ would be such a bitchy diva that he’d try and keep Wade and Riley separated.

“JJ, I know you’re going to like Boston,” Tiffany said. She was good with JJ to a point, but she tended to give him a pretty free rein, and didn’t hold him accountable for his diva behavior. I chided myself as soon as I thought that, because it wasn’t her fault. I hadn’t given her or Wade any authority over JJ, so now he was all but controlling their lives.

“When is your next competition?” I asked. It was funny how everyone at the table except JJ seemed really annoyed that I was seemingly letting him get away with being a total ass.

“It’s in Oberstdorf, Germany, from September 4^th through the 7^th,” he said. “That’s the competition for the Nebelhorn Trophy.” He looked at us like we were idiots for not knowing what that was, but I’d vaguely remembered him doing that last year.

“I can’t go to that one,” Will said.

“Neither can JJ,” I said. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “You can skip it.”

“What?” he asked, outraged. “You can’t do this to me! You can’t ruin my career. I have worked my ass off to rebuild my reputation.”

“You are behaving like a spoiled brat, and you’re being rude to other family members. You’re not treating Wade or Tiffany with respect, when they do nothing but try to accommodate you. So you can skip this next competition, and maybe that will focus your attention on your behavior.” I said that with real anger and venom, and that had shocked everyone but JJ.

“You totally ignore me and what I’m doing, and then you suddenly come breezing into my life and fuck up my career! You don’t know what I’m doing. You don’t care!”

JP looked at him, with that calm but condescending expression. “I will thank you to watch your language at the dinner table.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t even be here,” he said, and stood up to leave.

“You will sit down, and you will be polite, and you will eat with us, or I will cancel your whole goddam season,” I said. He glared at me, and then sat down in a huff. “You give me a bad time for not being around, but you pointedly avoid us. And when you are around, you are so prickly; it makes us glad when you aren’t.”

“JJ, you’ll be fine missing the Nebelhorn,” Tiffany said soothingly. “But you won’t be fine if you miss more than that.”

“You wouldn’t do that to me,” he snarled at me. “You wouldn’t destroy my whole career.”

“If your career makes you an asshole, which it is obviously doing, then I will happily end it,” I said firmly. It was funny, because if I’d taken this kind of approach with Will, there would have been massive fireworks, and he’d already have stormed out of here. Darius wouldn’t say anything; he’d just glare at me until I got tired of ranting at him. But JJ was the least mature of them, and I’d learned that if he was going to act like a child, I had to treat him like a child.

“What’s your next competition after that?”

“I’m not telling you. If I do, you’ll just cancel that one too!”

“When is his next competition after that?” I asked Tiffany.

“The New England Sectionals, in early October,” she said.

“I think I’ll just stay in Malibu, away from you,” JJ spat at me. “Then I’ll do the Pacific Sectionals.”

“You will not do the Pacific Sectionals, because you will be in Boston,” I said firmly. “And it’s quite possible that you won’t get to do the New England Sectionals, if you keep this up.”

“Missing that one would damage him,” Tiffany said nervously.

“Then he had better modify his behavior so he gets to participate,” I said, talking to her, but staring at him. “You have amazing talent, but it has made you into a complete asshole,” I said, now talking to JJ. “I have no problem trading your skating career for your improved behavior.”

“If you end my career, it won’t change a thing,” he said. “I can be just as bad if I’m not skating.”

“I guess we’ll see if you make the decision to find out,” I said. “I’ve made the call on Germany. That’s your punishment for being a real jerk. But since you pointed out that I won’t be around you on a constant basis when you’re in Boston, I’ll leave it up to Wade as to whether you participate in the New England Regionals, or any of the other competitions beyond that.”

JJ sat there dumbfounded, and looked at me, then at Tiffany, and then at Wade. JJ had been holding this over Wade, threatening to really mess up his life, but I’d just upset his entire strategy. The power structure in Boston had completely changed. “I think that is a very good decision,” JP said. “Wade has excellent judgment.”

“Yeah, really excellent. Like when he hired that first contractor,” JJ said sarcastically.

“You can leave this table,” I said. When JJ was fighting like this, he tended to be focused on what he was doing, and he tended to ignore the reactions of everyone else. Now that he saw them, he seemed surprised to find less than supportive looks from the others at this table. He looked earnestly at Matt and Will, since they’d be the most likely candidates to stick up for him, but they sat there placidly, refusing to intervene.

“Fine,” he said, and stood up, tossed his napkin on his plate, and marched out of the room.

“I’m certainly glad you dealt with that before Alex gets here,” Claire said. Of course she’d be the most nervous about appearances.

“Hopefully that will make your home life a little more pleasant,” I said to Wade.

“He’s just agitated about the uncertainty over this move to Boston,” Tiffany said, trying to come to his defense.

“Bullshit,” Will said. “He’s just trying to control your lives in Boston, and he’s trying to make sure everything there revolves around him.” Will and Tiffany locked eyes, until Tiffany finally nodded, accepting that Will was right.

“I don’t want to hurt his career. I’ll do everything I can to help him,” Wade said. It was impossible not to hear the sincerity in his voice. “But he’s been holding this move over my head, threatening to keep Tiffany and Riley in Malibu, and it’s made the whole thing a lot more stressful.”

“Perhaps this conversation will help to change that,” Stef said. It was the first thing he’d said, probably because he’d been seriously annoyed with JJ, but at the same time, he felt a real affinity for him. They’d grown much closer with their shopping expeditions.

We didn’t talk for a bit, we just focused on eating, and letting the confrontation with JJ fade from our immediate memories. “I’d like to ask you a favor,” Wade said to me.

“What?” I asked, but in a friendly way. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for Wade.

“I’d like you to reconsider letting JJ go to Germany, pending his good behavior from this point forward.” Our eyes locked, and we read each other so well. He was proposing a classic good cop-bad cop pose, and he was hoping to use the trip to Germany as a carrot to elicit a better reaction from JJ.

“I will leave that decision up to you, then,” I said, giving him what he wanted.

“Do you think you’ll have the house done by the end of August?” Tiffany asked.

“Matt helped me hire a new contractor, and kept me from being a tightwad, so I’m almost certain it will happen,” he said to her with a smile.

“We need to make another modification to the plans,” she said.

“Dude, that may mess things up,” Matt said to her.

“Well that’s just too damn bad,” she snapped. “I need another bedroom on my floor.”

“Why?” Wade asked.

“Because I’m pregnant,” she said.