Poor Man's Son - 7. Chapter 6: The Real One

July 10, 2000

Chesterfield, MO

Gathan

 

“That seemed to go well,” Stef said as we took our seats in the plane.

“It seemed to,” Brad agreed.

“Whatever,” I said. “You were rock stars.” They smiled at me to thank me for my compliment, but I could tell they needed more. “Dude, you could tell by the looks on their faces when you started talking they were scared shitless. They thought you were there to tell them you were shutting down the plant and laying them off.” I turned to Brad. “You got up there and explained Triton’s business plan and how they were part of it, and important to the company. You told them they were not only going to keep their jobs, but they actually mattered.”

“You think they got that?” he asked, smiling.

“Duh.” I turned to Stef. “And you were just amazing.”

“I usually am,” he joked.

“Brad gets them on an even keel, makes them feel good, and then here you come on the stage, and they realize he was just the warm up act.”

“Great,” Brad said, pretending to be miffed. Stef chuckled.

“Not only does Triton send out their Chairman, but one of the richest men in the world takes time out of his schedule to make sure they know they matter, and to tell them why you invested in Triton in the first place. Dude, that was a home run.”

“I think we should bring you along more often,” Stef said.

“I agree, it will keep him away from my son at the same time,” Brad joked.

“I think you want me all for yourself,” I flirted. The plane’s phone rang and Stef answered it, since it was his plane.

“It is Robbie for you,” he said to Brad. Brad got this big grin on his face.

“I’ll use the extension,” he said. He walked to the back of the plane to talk in private.

“So you shared a room with Tony,” Stef observed, as soon as Brad had picked up the other line and he could hang up the phone. I knew he was dying to drill me about this. “He is very attractive.”

“Fucking hot, you mean,” I corrected.

“I could be persuaded to use those words.”

“You’re wondering if I fucked around with him? If your training paid off?” I joked.

“I think it is important to do summative assessments,” he said, sounding all academic like JP.

“And you think if I did, I’d tell you?”

“I do, since you knew you could trust me, and I would not use the information for evil.”

“We blew each other,” I told him. I saw him swallow hard as he visualized that. I told him all the details, reliving the whole scene, snickering to myself as I made him horny as hell. I was thinking I might just be able to talk him into sneaking off into one of the bedrooms to fuck when Brad came back, looking disturbed.

“What is wrong?” Stef asked.

“I’ll let you guys talk,” I said, worried that they’d want privacy, and reminding myself that I wasn’t necessarily invited to spend every waking moment with them.

“No, you can stay,” Brad said. “Seems that Robbie and I aren’t the only candidates to be the father of Jeanine’s daughter.”

“Jeanine has been busy?” Stef asked. Brad nodded. “And who else did she get busy with?”

“Cody,” Brad said. “According to Jeanine, it was after our tryst. Tiffany was pissed at her for fucking around with us, and she was pretty lonely. I guess Cody came home from a party hammered, they started talking, and one thing led to another.”

“Why does that bother you?” I asked him. “Hell, I’d do anything Cody asked me to do.”

Brad smiled at me. “That would be one of your better decisions. He’ll teach you how to really be a good top.”

“What makes you think I’m not already a good top?” I joked.

“So why does that bother you?” Stef asked, getting Brad back on topic.

“I’m not in charge of Jeanine’s vagina, so she can fuck whoever she wants. I’m just a little disappointed that it’s not Robbie or me.”

“It still could be either one of you,” Stef said.

“I know, I mean it’s not just the two of us.”

“You have an intimate relationship with Cody,” Stef said.

“You and Cody? Damn would I love to watch that,” I said, making him blush, and cracking up Stef.

Brad sat there, digesting things for a bit, while we just left him alone. “You know, you’re right, it makes no difference at all. I think I just needed to work it through.”

“And you will tell Jeanine this?” Stef asked, more of a prod.

“Yeah,” he said. “I have a phone call to make.”

“You can stay here and make it. We’ll be back in the bedroom,” I said, leering at Stef. Brad rolled his eyes and dialed, while I grabbed Stef’s hand and dragged him off to fuck him. Damn he was fun. There was a way he moved his body, the way he worked with me, that was so sexy. He let me know that he was totally into it, enjoying every minute. I hoped that someday I’d be that good a lover. I was definitely better than I’d been just a few days ago.

We bounded out of the bedroom some time later, all pumped up from great sex, to find Brad sitting there reading some stuff and looking somber. “Dude, you are a major buzz kill,” I told him.

“Add it to my list of flaws,” he said morosely.

“Your talk with Jeanine did not go well?” Stef asked.

“It was fine, and I think she appreciated it, but then she lit into me about Will, and how he treats her like shit and doesn’t listen to her.” I didn’t know enough to comment on that, and Stef didn’t seem to feel like going down that road either. “When I talked to Will yesterday, he accused me of trying to control his life.”

“You are not getting along well with others,” I teased.

“No shit,” he said, exasperated.

“You and Will have a very tight friendship, but you are also his parent,” Stef said. “It occurs to me that at this stage in his life, that is bound to cause conflicts.” Even as I watched Brad react to that, I was thinking about what Stef had said.

“I can see that,” I chimed in. Brad looked at me, asking me to go on. “Dude, when you have friends who pry into your shit, and you don’t want them to, don’t you tell them to go fuck off?”

“Not in so many words,” Brad said.

“Right. When you pry into Will’s life, and he doesn’t want to tell you what’s going on, you pull out the parent card, and try to force him to.”

“So you’re saying I can’t be his friend and his father at the same time?” Brad asked me, really irritated now.

“No, I’m just saying you have to learn boundaries for those two parts of your relationship. When he comes home from a party shitfaced, you have a right to pry. When he doesn’t want to tell you why he’s arguing with John, you have to back off.”

“What if his issues with John are a sign of more serious issues?”

“Now you’re just trying to rationalize poking into his business,” I said. “How would you have reacted to that?” That made Stef laugh. “I think if you did that, tried to forget how old you are and remember back to a time when things worked right, and tried to put yourself in his situation, you’d get why you bug him sometimes.”

“Everything works just fine,” Brad said.

“Prove it,” I teased.

He ignored me. “You made it look so easy,” he said to Stef.

“Ah, but for me, it was easy, as I was not your father.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Brad said.

Stef smiled slightly. “My experience in dealing with you as an adolescent, and sometimes even now when you are acting like one, has been to let you think things through on your own. I have found that you usually come to the same conclusions I do if you are given time to fight back your emotions and evaluate the situation.”

“You don’t like it when people tell you what to do,” I interpreted. “I get the impression Will doesn’t like it either, but then again, we didn’t have a chance to get into S&M.” He gave me a dirty look which just made Stef and me laugh.

“So I should treat him like I would like to be treated?” Brad asked.

“That would probably be a good approach,” Stef agreed.

“Maybe it will be a good thing if this baby turns out to be Cody’s. Raising kids is a lot of work.” I had to agree with him. It sure looked that way to me.

July 11, 2000

Malibu, CA

Will

“Mmmm,” John moaned. I had my tongue buried in his cute ass, and he was loving every minute of it. I felt his mouth on my dick, and I was so keyed up I didn’t realize how close I was. Just feeling his lips envelop me sent me right over the edge and I blew my load right into his mouth. I moaned as I did, moaned right into his hole while I reached around and stroked his dick a few times. That’s all it took to set him off as well. When we were done, I scooped his cum off my chest and ate it, making him giggle.

“You’re a fucking blast,” he said.

“Duh,” I joked.

Our intimate interlude was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Pop says to get your asses downstairs,” JJ said rudely.

“Why?” I demanded.

“I don’t know, he said it, and I’m telling you. You want him to come up here and tell you himself, that’s fine with me.” I heard him stomp off.

“It’s probably my mom,” John said sadly. “I’ll have to go.”

“Stay here,” I told him. “It’s summer. You don’t have shit to do. Enjoy the beach. I promise I’ll blow you at least once a day.”

“At least,” he said, grinning. We got up and started pulling our clothes on. “You’re just hoping you’ll get me horny enough to let you fuck me.”

“Dude, you so want me,” I said, cracking him up.

“You’re fucking huge,” he said nervously.

“So. I’ll bet that makes it better when you get used to it. Let’s ask Stef for pointers.”

“He’d know,” John agreed. We stampeded down the stairs to find Robbie, Claire, and my mom waiting for us.

“You ready to go?” Claire asked John.

“Can John stay with us for the week?” I asked.

“This isn’t a good week,” my mother said.

“Why, what’s going on?” I asked.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she snapped.

“Fine, then I’ll go back with them. Grandmaman won’t mind if I stay at Escorial.”

“You need to stay home,” she said firmly. Now she was really pissing me off. I’d just worked things out with John, and she was fucking it all up again.

“Why?” I demanded.

“Because I said so,” she snapped.

“That’s not good enough.” We were both really mad now.

“I’m your mother, and if I say that’s how it is, that’s how it is,” she said. I knew my face was turning red from being so angry, but Claire, John, and Robbie looked really uncomfortable. I’d learned that it was really bad manners to have guests not feel relaxed in your home, so I decided to end the standoff and put a spoke in her wheel at the same time.

“Don’t worry dude,” I told John. “I’ll come see you after my dad gets back.” The implication was that he’d override her. Now she was so worked up, steam was almost coming out of her ears.

“Sounds good,” he said. We fist bumped, I gave my aunt a hug and a kiss, and escorted them out.

When they were safely on their way, I tore back into the kitchen. “What was that all about? You get off these days by messing my life up?”

“I will not be treated disrespectfully by you,” she said imperiously.

“Respect is a two way street, Mom. Just when I think we’re doing good, you go and pull some crap like this on me.” We stood there, glaring at each other, when Robbie broke the ice.

“I’m hungry. Let’s do lunch,” he said to me.

“Cool,” I said. I gave her a final dirty look and followed him out to his Ferrari. It was the fucking bomb. He fired it up and drove down to Santa Monica to a nice restaurant, one that made me feel underdressed in shorts, a polo shirt I’d picked up at Malibu Surf Shop, and some flip flops. I tried to surreptitiously sniff my pits to see if I reeked after my last awesome round of sex with John, but as close as I could tell, I was alright.

“I’d like you to try and be patient with your mother. She’s having a tough time of it.”

“Why is that?”

“Tiffany moved out last night,” he said. “Your mother’s pretty upset about it.”

“I don’t blame Tiffany. Maybe she can take me with her,” I said, sounding like an immature teenager.

“I’m not sure if I blame her either,” Robbie said sadly. “It’s tough when you find out that your partner cheated on you.”

“Dude, do not give me that guilt trip shit,” I told him. “You make Dad happy. You fucked up. You worked it out. And now you totally love each other.”

He gave me the same grin he gave my Dad, the one that always worked on both of us. “We do.”

“Did you mess around on him?” I demanded.

“No,” he said all indignantly.

“Then don’t worry about it. You’re like this walking bag of guilt. You’re lucky Dad thinks you’re cute enough that he puts up with it.”

“Yeah, that’s how it is,” he said. I really enjoyed spending time with Robbie. He was so easy to be around, and normally he was totally laid back. Some of my friends have a hard time getting what their parents saw, or see in each other. I never had that problem; I totally got why he and my dad were perfect for each other. He changed the topic. “I heard the two of you had some issues.”

“Had?” I asked. He ignored me. “He’s just trying to get into my shit.”

“He loves you, and he’s worried about you.”

I gave him my frosty look. “If he was worried about me, why didn’t I get to go stay with John?” In other words, why didn’t you back me up? “He’s not worried about me; he just wants to know what’s going on.”

“It’s a parent’s job,” he said whimsically.

“Dude, that is so not it and you know it. If I don’t set up some boundaries for him, he’ll be running my life and I won’t have any control over it. Tell me I’m wrong.”

He looked at me, smiled, and then laughed. “So anyway, he said you worked things out.” That made me laugh too.

“I guess so. We still have to have the big make-up scene when he gets home, where he tells me that he was just watching out for me, and he and I have the same conversation you and I just had. Then we cry and hug and tell each other we love each other.” I took a bite of the pasta I’d ordered. It was pretty good. “I thought gay was supposed to mean happy. Instead, everyone’s a drama queen.”

“You telling me you don’t love your father,” he joked.

Only that was something I didn’t joke about. I looked at him as seriously as I could. “I love him more than anyone else.”

His smile softened and he nodded. “Me too.”

“So I don’t see why just because Mom totally fucked up her relationship, she has to try and fuck mine up too,” I said. I was dropping f-bombs pretty regularly, but I’d learned that when I was alone with Robbie, it was OK. I think it made him feel better; like I was really letting myself go, letting my shields down with him.

“You and John have a relationship?” he asked.

“Cute,” I said, trying to backtrack now that I’d totally blown my own cover. “I guess you’re going to run tell Dad that.”

“Only if you want me to,” he said.

I sighed. “Don’t tell him. I need to have that talk with him myself. And don’t tell him you know, or he’ll be pissed that he didn’t find out first.”

“Know what?” he asked, smiling at me.

“Darius said he got so cool from watching you,” I told him, and watched how happy that made him. “Personally, I don’t get it.”

“Darius is a smart guy,” Robbie said sagely.

“So unless I want to run away, it looks like I’m stuck here for the next few days,” I said somberly.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he told me.

July 11, 2000

Dallas, TX

Gathan

As good as the meeting in St. Louis had gone; this meeting in Dallas looked like it was going to go just the opposite way. There was latent hostility on the faces of the workers, and an air of tension in the crowd that went beyond just the fear of them losing their jobs. I’d made that big talk about loyalty, but as I stood there next to Stef, I decided that maybe I’d been wrong. My first impression was that they should fire the whole lot of these assholes.

I could see a couple of the workers off in the corner making fun of Stef and Brad, pretending to swish around like gay guys. Brad and Stef pretended to ignore it, but I could tell from Brad’s coloring he was pissed off.

“The plant manager did not deign to come into work today,” Stef observed.

“A courier is delivering his termination notice this afternoon,” Brad said coldly. “He won’t have to worry about it in the future.”

“Dude, we should just go,” I told them.

“We came here to do a job, and we’ll do it,” Brad said firmly. Stef smiled at me.

Brad got up and started speaking, only his tone was different here from in St. Louis. In St. Louis, he’d gauged the crowd and picked up on the fact that they wanted to be part of the company, they were just afraid. Here, the motivation was anger, not fear.

“Since the acquisition of Omega’s defense electronics business, we’ve seen remarkable improvements in all of Omega’s former plants except this one. The quality of the products produced here is unacceptable, the general attitude is horrible, and the cooperation is non-existent.”

“You came down here to fire us and take away our jobs!” shouted one guy in the back.

“Quite frankly, unless you can turn your plant around, that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Brad said. “As it is, you’ll start seeing changes immediately, and starting at the top.”

“You won’t meet production goals without us,” another guy said.

“With the acquisition, we have excess capacity. And to be candid, the products that come out of this plant have the highest fault rate anywhere, more than three times the next worse plant, and it’s worsening. So the productivity you speak of is non-existent, since most of what you produce is useless anyway. I’m not here to motivate you, or encourage you. I’m here to warn you. You’ve got about two weeks to show some amazing improvements. If you’re not going to do that, then this plant will close.”

“You’re giving us two weeks?” one lady asked, incredulous.

“I agree that it sounds like a long time, when all you really have to do is get up in the morning with a decent attitude and put a little pride in your work,” Brad snapped. “In the meantime, we’re cutting back to one shift.”

“One shift?” another lady asked, worried.

“One shift. We already have more than enough crappy products. The only reason we’re keeping that shift operating is to give you a chance to show us you can do better.”

“So who gets the hours? Will it be based on seniority?” an old guy asked.

“Seniority will play a very small factor,” Brad told them. “We’re going to reward those who do well, and let those who don’t go.”

“I’ve spent 25 years at this company!” objected one old timer.

“Then you should know your job well, and be good at it,” Brad said calmly. “In that case, you have nothing to fear.”

“I ain’t afraid of nothin’,” he said.

“That’s excellent. You’ll all get a furlough until next Monday. That will give the new management a chance to get familiar with the plant. You’ll be notified later in the week about your work schedules.” Normally I’d think Brad was being a cold, heartless capitalist, but I got what he was doing. These people figured he’d come down here and they’d rake him over the coals and demand a bunch of concessions from him. Instead, he was telling them they were doing a shitty job, and they were lucky they were employed. Texas was a right to work state, and that gave him a pretty strong hand.

“You’re not talking, are you?” I asked Stef by whispering in his ear.

“I would not waste my time,” he told me as he looked at the crowd disdainfully.

Brad finished speaking, and we stood up to leave. Stef left first, flanked by his guards who were eying the audience warily. After they passed, I saw some odd movement in the front row. There was a man there that looked angry, the same kind of dull anger I’d seen in guys like my father, the kind of anger that said they were mad about their lives but blamed everyone else except themselves. He reached into his pocket and I instinctively knew what he was going to do.

Everything moved in slow motion after that. I moved to put myself between Brad and the guy, and then watched, horrified, as he pulled a gun out. Without really thinking, I lunged through the air at him at the same time that he leveled the gun at Brad. I heard the loud noise as the gun went off, felt a searing pain shoot through my arm as the bullet hit me, and then I landed on him, knocking him down and knocking the gun out of his hand.

He tried to push me away with his hand on my face, but I was so pissed off I bit him, making him squeal in pain. Then I was pulled off him gently by one woman who had a handkerchief out and was trying to stop the bleeding. It looked like the bullet had hit my arm, the fleshy part near my bicep. It hurt like hell, and I felt dizzy, but it didn’t look life threatening.

Other people had tackled the guy, and tied him up. Even though I was so mazy that I felt like I was going to faint, I had to smile because they ‘hog-tied’ him like at a rodeo. How appropriate.

“How are you?” I heard Stef ask nervously.

“Just a flesh wound,” I said weakly. “Don’t worry; I’ll have my strength back in no time.” I saw him try not to laugh at my stupid joke.

Then the cops were there, and an ambulance. There was a period of chaos as they came in and took over, but then order reigned as they began to interview and dismiss people. While that was going on, an EMT was working on my arm. I personally thought the lady with the handkerchief had done a better job of it, but what did I know?

I saw them untie the guy that shot me and cuff him, making him do the perp walk through the employees on the way out of the plant. I saw one of the newly promoted managers making notes about who was smiling at him supportively, and who looked at him like he was scum. And then they put me on a stretcher and wheeled me out to the ambulance. I was going to argue about that, but I figured that it wouldn’t do any good. That’s the way this shit worked. If you were the victim of a gunshot wound, there was going to be a full report, and that meant a medical examination.

I’d kind of planned it out in my mind that I’d ride alone to the hospital, so I was kind of surprised to find Stef sitting with me as we started moving. “You could have just ridden in the limo,” I told him.

“You do not want my company?” he teased. “Besides, there may be traffic, and this will be faster.”

“Got that right,” said one of the EMTs.

“That was very brave of you,” Stef said. “You saved my life.”

“Well, actually I didn’t. The gun was aimed at Brad,” I told him.

“So you would not have taken the bullet for me?” he asked. I wondered yet again at what an amazing guy Stef was. Here I was, totally forgetting about my pain and dizziness, all because this guy was cracking me up.

I pulled him close to me. “I’ll take anything you want to give me,” I whispered in his ear, making him giggle.

We pulled up to the hospital and they wheeled me out and into a room. Stef was with me the whole time. Finally, they left us alone for a bit.

“So Bradley owes you his life,” Stef said with a raised eyebrow.

“You think now he’ll let me fly out to Cali and fuck his son?” I joked. We were still laughing when the doctors came in to probe me some more. After that, the cops came in to take a statement from me. There was a man there looking on grimly, an attorney Brad had gotten on short notice to represent us in this whole thing. I let myself relax after that. If Brad was that resourceful, he’d be able to handle changing the flight schedules and hotel reservations. It was unlikely we’d get out of Dallas today.