Andre and Chris - 6. Chapter 6

I was surprised by how quickly we slipped into domesticity. I was more surprised at how much we both seemed to enjoy it. I’m not talking here about the sex. I wasn’t surprised we both enjoyed that. What I’m trying to say is that we were enjoying the more mundane aspects of domestic life; of really living together. It seemed that agreeing to live together had relaxed both of us and we responded accordingly.

Each morning we had breakfast together before Andre headed off to work, both of us knowing we’d be back together that night. In the afternoon Andre would return home and we’d relax and cook dinner together. Then we’d enjoy being together as we did whatever, like check emails and social media, chat about what was happening, watch TV or a streamed movie, or as happened often, compete playing one of my many computer games, before showering and enjoying each other very physically in bed.

I decided to block Tuesday as my “only work-from-home day” so I’d be used to it when Skye started back at work.

When Andre walked in on Thursday afternoon, he was wheeling a suitcase. I looked at him curiously. “Don’t just stand there, Chris. Help me get the rest out of my car. I had a chance to go to Mum and Dad’s today and collect some of my stuff.”

“OK, we can put the suitcase in our bedroom and the rest in my workroom, and we can sort it from there.”

It didn’t take long to bring another suitcase and the boxes in from his car. We shared a wine as we moved Andre’s clothes from the two suitcases to the wardrobe, which then looked very full.

“What’s in the boxes?”

“Just random stuff. Not sure where we’ll put it. It can wait for now. How about dinner?”

We prepared dinner together and as we ate, we discussed having Michael and Jamie to dinner on Saturday.

“Jamie said they can be here about 6 pm. What are we going to cook?”

“I haven’t given it much thought apart from maybe one of my fruit flans for dessert.”

“Could we do that Italian dish? The one with the fancy Italian name. I enjoyed helping you cook that, and it tastes awesome.”

I teased, “Oh, you mean spaghetti with seafood. That one?” The punch on my arm was well deserved. “Basically, I think it’s a terrific idea! Why don’t we go Italian for the whole meal? Antipasto platter starter, the seafood main with salad and we’ll make Tiramisu for dessert.”

“I love it and looking forward to it. What if we have Italian wine as well.”

“Oh, absolutely. We can swing by Dan Murphy’s and pick up some.”

Jamie and Michael arrived early. Not that that mattered as we were fully prepared. We all greeted each other with hugs and kisses. I glanced at Andre and Jamie when Michael and I kissed and all they did was smile. I noticed them kissing as well.

I poured each of us a glass of Italian prosecco and we settled down to chat. I thought I’d start by clearing the air about my friendship with Michael being a possible threat to either Andre or Jamie. I had barely started when, smiling, Jamie stopped me.

“Chris, we know your friendship with Michael isn’t a threat to us.” He indicated Andre. “The birthday party worried both of us so much we’ve been talking We’ve discussed what each of you told us about your conversations at the party and what you said about your feelings for us. Chris, we now know your love for Andre is strong and the same with Michael’s love for me. We know now that you and Michael re-establishing your friendship isn’t a threat. If anything, it enhances the friendship between Andre and me.”

I looked at Michael and then said to Jamie, “Have you just told us that you two have been sharing information about us and what we have said?”

Andre smiled that devilish smile. “Of course. And we’ve told each other just about everything we know about you two.”

Michael nearly choked on his mouthful of prosecco. When he recovered, he spoke to me. “It looks like these two don’t keep any secrets from each other, so we need to be careful.”

Jamie wrapped his arms around Michael and kissed him. “I love you babe. You love me. Andre loves Chris. Chris loves Andre. You don’t need to be careful about what you say. But, there is more about you two that we would like to know more about.”

I tried to lighten the mood. “Well Michael, there goes any chance of using each other as cover for a naughty night out.”

Jamie laughed. “You’re not wrong Chris. But now I think about it, it might be the same for Andre and me.” We all laughed.

I refilled everyone’s glasses and suggested we sit at the table. Andre put the antipasto platter in the centre of the table, and we started to serve ourselves.

“Chris this place is nice and it’s cosy, but is it big enough for both of you?”

Jamie responded before I could. “Michael, they’ve only just started living together. They hardly need more than a bedroom. Do you remember how we were?” Michael did remember. He blushed. I noticed Andre was also flushed.

“You could be right Michael. It’s only two bedrooms and living by myself I’ve tended to spread across the whole house with the second bedroom being my workroom. Andre brought some of his things over during the week and I’m wondering where we can put them. We can’t leave them in boxes. This can’t just be my place it has to be our home and include Andre’s things.”

Andre kissed me. “Thank you.”

I kissed him back. “We probably need to find a bigger place.”

“Or you could stop working from home. That would give us another room. You could get a shop front.”

We had just about finished the platter and the prosecco, so I suggested an Italian Pinot Grigio while Andre and I prepared the main course. As we moved to the kitchen Michael and Jamie followed with the wine. They watched as we boiled the spaghetti and cooked the already prepared sauce and raw mixed seafood. As a flourish I returned the drained spaghetti back into the hot saucepan and tossed it with olive oil, crushed garlic and some of the water from boiling the pasta. Andre placed the bowl of salad on the table.

It was only minutes later that we were back at the table with our glasses of Pinot Grigio and serving ourselves from the bowls of salad, spaghetti and seafood.

As we were all eating Andre asked me how Michael and I knew each other. I looked at Michael who shrugged “Jamie hasn’t asked me, so I haven’t said anything.” Andre hadn’t asked me either. The two of them had set this up. They had planned to have us to talk about our past in front of both of them. I looked at Andre and Jamie. Neither revealed any suggestion of collusion but I could detect that they were curious without being concerned. That was good, but I didn’t think Michael, or I had anything to be ashamed of. Embarrassed about maybe, but ashamed of, no.

“Are you going to tell us how you met or not?”

Jamie’s question directed my attention. I looked at Michael who was obviously letting me answer. “That’s easy we met in early high school, Year 7.” I looked at Michael. “We were what twelve nearly thirteen years old?” He nodded.

“We were friends from the moment we met. We were almost inseparable.” Michael smiled and nodded. ‘We spent time at each other’s homes. We took an interest in each other activities. We had sleepovers.”

Michael added, “Chris wasn’t a footballer. He didn’t play but he was still prepared to join us for football practice and come to watch our games."

“So, you were boyfriends from Year 7?”

“God no! It was, what, nearly three years before we actually knew we were both gay.” Again, Michael nodded.

Jamie nearly exploded. “You two were that close for what nearly three years and didn’t know you were both gay?”

Michael put his arm around his lover. “Jamie, remember we were young and there were things that make coming out difficult.”

“Like what?”

“He was a star player in the school AFL team. Except to me of course he was the star player. Think about how that makes coming out difficult. How many footballers, or star sportsmen for that matter, have you seen come out as gay? Certainly, far fewer than who are actually gay.”

“Yeah, I get that about coming out publicly, but how about to each other?”

I looked at Michael and he answered before me. “Fear of losing the most important friend I had.”

“Thanks Michael. That’s exactly how I felt.” We reached across the table and squeezed hands.

After a pause Andre asked, “So how did you find out you were both gay?”

Michael and I released our hands and smiled. Again, he was leaving it up to me to answer the question.

“We obviously weren’t old enough to use grinder or other hook up apps but there were some places where gay school kids could go for some quick and hopefully anonymous sex. The closest had a few guys I recognized from school, so I avoided that and sometimes went to a park in the next suburb. It had a toilet block and a bush area as well as the open field. I’d ride my bike over, head into the bush area, hook up with someone for something quick, like a hand job or a blow job, and afterwards ride back home. It made a change from masturbation.”

Jamie looked knowingly at Andre. “Yeah, we had a few of those places too. Didn’t we Andre? Remember that one at Umina?” Andre returned the knowing smile and nodded in agreement. I wondered if maybe they have a joint past we would like to know about.

I continued. “One Friday afternoon after school I parked my bike and walked into the bush area and there was Michael. It only took a nanosecond for both of us to realize what was going on. We raced to each other, embraced and kissed.” I looked across at Michael who had this dreamy happy smile filling his face.

Almost dreamingly he commented, “I still remember that first kiss. It’s up there with Jamie’s first kiss.” He paused and came back to us. “Anyway, I suggested we go back to my place. My parents would still be at work and my sister at uni.”

“I don’t remember the ride back, except that I was on an emotional high and think we did it in record time. We went straight to Michael’s room, and we had the most meaningful and satisfying sex either of us had ever had up to that time.”

“I suggested Chris stay the night. We regularly had sleepovers at each other homes, so it wasn’t unusual, and our parents agreed automatically. It was the first time I sleep with someone, in the sexual sense. I think it may have been the first for Chris as well.”

“Yeah, it was. We were so inexperienced then but that didn’t matter. Holding each other naked in bed was just so unbelievably awesome.”

“So, you became boyfriends?”

I sighed and looked to Michael for support. He reached across the table and again gently squeezed my hand. “No, we didn’t become boyfriends. We talked about it and agreed that if we decided we were boyfriends we would end up being too obvious and everyone would know very quickly. We’d be outed as gay and as boyfriends and that would include to Michael’s jock mates. Also, we thought we needed to experience other gay guys.”

Michael clarified, “not that that really happened until uni.”

“So you became what? Friends with benefits?”

I growled. “No. Not really. We may not have been boyfriends, but it was much, much more than just ‘friends with benefits’.” This was bringing back fond memories of that time and it showed.

Michael noticed. “Chris is right. We agreed not to be boyfriends as in committing monogamously or being open or with public displays of affection. But the sex brought our already extremely close friendship to another level. I think that’s why at the party the shock of seeing each other again caused us to reconnect as if the years in between hadn’t existed.”

Andre and Jamie looked at each other. They had looks that were mutual communication between them. “OK we can see and understand your emotional bond. But who did you end up telling?”

“Obviously, as we’ve said, we didn’t want to go public. We did tell our parents. They were cool with it. I suspect they had already guessed as some of our very close friends had.”

Michael laughed. “You’re thinking about the end-of-school AFL party.”

I smiled. “Yes, I am. Why don’t you tell? It’s really your story.”

“Fair enough. After the end of High School, Year 12, and after the VCE exams the school football team decided to have a farewell party. The captain’s parents agreed to host the party at their house, and they told us we could take our girlfriends. Jason, the team captain, came up to me and said I should take Chris to the party. I was stunned but he just grinned and said that if we weren’t boyfriends we should be. He added that the whole team agreed.”

I continued. “We went to the party as a couple, our first time ever, but the big surprise was Craig, another AFL team member who arrived with his boyfriend. Nobody knew about him!”

“It turned out that when Craig heard that we’d been invited as boyfriends, he thought ‘what the hell,’ he’d take his boyfriend.”

“The team were great guys, and the party was, well hard to describe. It was the first time we’d been openly gay at a party of school peers. Having another gay couple there helped. We had so much fun because we could just be ourselves and be open and relaxed about being gay. The team and their girlfriends were just so accepting.”

Andre and Jamie were lapping this up. Their interest in our past was genuine rather than voyeuristic.

“So, what happened after you left school?”

“Uni of course. We were at the same university but in different faculties and no shared subjects. We’d made a point of having drinks together with friends on Friday afternoons. We were both totally open about being gay at uni.”

“We still got together when we could and over weekends for the next two years until Michael and his parents moved to another part of Melbourne. We were also dating other guys.”

“For a while we tried double dating but that was complicated when our dates thought we were more into each other than we were into them. To be honest for some of them that was true enough. There was a period when we each had steady boyfriends and we all went out as two couples. That lasted for what, more than a year.”

I agreed, “Yes, it was my final year and started at the end of the year before that. It was a fun and interesting time. I’ll add that we never had sex together when either of us were dating. We stayed in touch and close friends until I finished my degree. It didn’t take me as long as Michael’s medical degree, so I started working and he was still busy studying. Then I had this chance to work in Silicon Valley.”

“I was still doing my degree and qualifying and that’s when we gradually lost touch. In fact I thought Chris was still in Silicon Valley.”

At this point, Andre noticed that we had finished eating and said he’d clear the table.

I stood up. “I’ll give you a hand.”

“No. I’ve got this, but you can pour some more wine.”

I looked at the empty glasses and opened another bottle and refilled everyone’s glass.

Andre had reset the table for dessert and was placing the Tiramisu on the table when I asked Michael, “How did you end up working in Gosford? I would have thought your grades would get you into a Melbourne hospital without any problems.”

“I wanted to become a surgeon. That can be a bit of a closed shop in the capital cities, so I looked around and sent out some applications. Central Coast Health were the first to respond. I thought I’d be here for a few years and then use my experience and head back to Melbourne. But as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men . . . . I met Jamie and that changed everything. Also, it turned out I like working here.” He put his arm around Jamie and gently pulled Jamie towards him. They kissed.

Andre served out the Tiramisu, momentarily stopping the conversation. Jamie broke the silence with “Wow, this Tiramisu tastes fantastic. This has to be home made. Did you make this Andre?”

Andre was beaming with pleasure at Jamie’s response. “It was another joint effort with Chris.”

“I noticed how well you two work together in the Kitchen. You’re going to be a hard act to follow when we invite you to dinner at our place. It’s hard to believe you’ve only just started living together. How long have you been dating?” Michael asked.

Before either of us could answer Jamie did. “They didn’t really date! Andre told me they flirted for a year and then basically started living together.”

I looked at Andre who shrugged. Michael looked at both of us. “Different! But then Jamie and I didn’t waste much time before living together. But Chris I still don’t understand how a computer expert who so easily landed a job in Silicon Valley ends up here in Gosford. What happened with Silicon Valley?”

“Long story, short answer. I loved the work and the people I worked with, but I got homesick.”

“Homesick takes you to Melbourne. It doesn’t bring you to Gosford.”

That was so true. I paused. Was I going to reveal what really happened to bring me here? Could I relive the emotional hurt? I looked around the table. These were true friends. They all loved me. I could be honest with them, and they would support me.

“Too true. That was because of what I thought was love.” I hadn’t disclosed this to any of them and instantly I had their interest and full attention. Especially Andre’s.

“Again, long story short. I got involved with a guy when I returned to Melbourne. He was a photographer. Actually, quite a good photographer. Mainly landscapes and some portraits along with things like weddings for the money. He was attracted to this area because of Ken Duncan’s photography.”

Jamie added “Yes, Ken Duncan is famous for his landscapes. There’s a Ken Duncan studio and gallery on The Entrance Road.”

“He did some research on the area and wanted to move here. I could work from almost anywhere at that stage and without knowing anything about the area agreed and we moved here.”

“And?” Questioned Andre. He obviously wanted to know the rest.

I took hold of his hand. “And he was nothing like you. After a while I discovered he was not only having sex with other guys in a big way but also totally using me. It all blew up one night when we had a fight and he left.”

I thought Michael had been paying more than usual attention while I was talking. I found out he had been. “Was this about two years ago?”

“Yeah, that’s about right. About two years. Why?”

He carefully asked. “So, you were in a relationship with Xavier?”

My mind raced. How the hell did he know about Xavier and me and what else did he know about Xavier? The silence in the room seemed to stretch on forever. Andre was staring at me wanting an answer. Instead I looked straight at Michael. “How did you know?”

“Didn’t really until you just confirmed it, but things just fell into place.”

That confused me. “What things?”

“Well, I remember there was a Friday night when I was on duty and Emergency called to say they had a guy who needed some stitches. He had a black eye and a bad, deep cut above his eyebrow. Reported he’d had a fight with his boyfriend. I got called down because it was on this guy’s face, and I had a reputation for doing small, neat stitches or gluing that reduced scarring. I’d like to think I still have that reputation. Anyway, when I get there it’s Xavier. He didn’t appear to recognize me, so I started checking him out and administering a local before stitching. I asked if he was going to tell me or the police who did this to him. That’s when he looked directly at me and said, ‘I’m certainly not going to tell you’.” Michael imitated the way it was said with an emphasis on the “not” and the “you”.

“I didn’t understand at the time but obviously he did recognize me and because of my friendship with you, he wasn’t going to say anything to me. I must say, you did a good job on him, but it’s not like you to be so physical.”

I felt Andre squeeze my hand in support as I continued. “That night he pressed every one of my buttons and I ended up really out of control. He wasn’t sorry about what he had done and didn’t make any attempt to apologize. In fact, if anything he was proud of himself and completely unconcerned about my feelings. He rubbed my nose in the fact that he was having sex with other guys. He called me a loser who just played with computers like a kid.”

I was stopped by Michael’s surprised laugh. “You guys need to know that in high school Chris was developing apps and created a combat game that we all played. He actually made us all buy a copy from him. He was, is, a computer genius.”

I smiled. “Thanks Michael and for the record they all did buy a copy of that game but back to Xavier. He kept on at me telling me I should be grateful that a sexy creative genius like him even paid me any attention. When he told me in detail how he was just using me and didn’t have any love for me, well that was when I exploded and started hitting him.”

I stopped and took a breath. I was becoming emotional, and my tears started. Everyone was looking at me. I wiped my eyes. “Sorry, I thought I was over all that.”

Andre put his arm around me and pulled me towards him. I relaxed into his embrace as Michael said “Chris you don’t have to be sorry. He was an arsehole. I’m now surprised it was only a black eye and a badly cut eyebrow.”

“I’m sure if you had examined him more thoroughly, you’d have found more bruising.” They all laughed which relieved the tension.

“So how did he get to the hospital?”

“When I saw all the blood, I calmed down a bit and said we needed to get him to the hospital. I gave him a pad to hold over the cut to stop the bleeding and drove him up in his car. It was parked behind mine in the drive so was the easiest. I parked and walked him to Emergency and asked if he wanted me to go in with him. He shouted angrily that he never wanted to see me ever again, so I handed him his car keys and watched him enter emergency as the glass doors slid open and closed behind him. I walked to the taxi rank at the station and caught a taxi home.”

“So that night about two years ago, we were both at the hospital. We were that close to each other and didn’t know.” I could see a sadness in his eyes.

Jamie asked. “So that was the last you saw of him?”

“Yes, in a sense, the last I saw of him, but sadly it’s not the end of the story.” The three looked at me expectantly.

“I received a message from him telling me to pack all his things so a friend of his could collect them. He had friend in capitals to make a point. His list included a few things, including my computer system, that were definitely not his. I was happy to get rid of his stuff so started packing it into boxes. After I’d packed his clothes in one box and his photography equipment in two large boxes, I realized how little in the house was actually his.

“He had been using my computer set up for his photos. I have top-of-the-range photo editing software and printers. I needed to download all his photo files onto a portable hard drive to send to him. It was when I was checking his portrait photos that I noticed that as well as the “artistic’ nudes, you know the ones sans genitals, there were also some full-frontal photos and then some of him having sex with guys. There was something about those photos that didn’t seem right, but at the time I couldn’t put my finger on what that was. They did however, show he was a size queen.”

I saw a grin pass between Andre and Jamie. I was learning to read their mutual looks.

Almost laughing I commented, “I’m sure you both know I’m the same size as Michael. Above average but certainly not size queen fantasy material.”

They both looked embarrassed and turned red as Michael shook his head, “When you said earlier that you shared just about everything you knew about us, I didn’t expect it to include cock size?”

Before he could continue Jamie quickly changed the subject. “So, Xavier was into doing porn photos?”

“That’s what I thought until his young ‘friend’ arrived on Monday night to collect Xavier’s things. Everything was straightforward until I mentioned the photos. Then his body tensed with panic written all over his face. I quietly asked him what he wanted to do with them. Even though they were digital, he asked about the ‘originals’. He obviously didn’t understand digital photography. I said that as far as I could tell that I had Xavier’s cameras and the “originals” on the camera memory cards as well as the digitally enhanced copies. I asked what he wanted to do about them. That’s when he asked if he could have them and then broke down and sobbed and started telling me why he wanted them and what was going on. It turned out he was straight but after the “straight” photo session, Xavier had suggested taking some more sexually explicit naked photos, suggesting they could be for his girlfriend. He then, with the help of alcohol and probably drugs, initiated sex with him. He took more photos and then used those photos to blackmail him into having more sex with him.”

Jamie was horrified. “So, he was basically raping this straight guy, and then using the photos to keep him compliant.”

“Not just that guy.”

“What!”

“It turned out that it was the same story with other guys he had the sex photos of. We managed to discretely identify and contact the others. Interestingly they were all straight, aged around nineteen or twenty and in relationships. One had already been to the police informally. He didn’t make a statement because he was told, probably correctly, that Xavier would have said it was consensual and it would be his word against Xavier’s. Basically, it wasn’t long before a group of them had a solicitor and were ready to go to the police. I think the solicitor was at your birthday party. Obviously, they didn’t want to be publicly identified as adult sexual assault victims. The police and prosecution understood and said they would do what they could. Interestingly it went to court in Newcastle as blackmail cases, with only the judge seeing the photos. That helped limit how much information needed to be made public.

“I heard there had been a deal with the prosecution, and he pleaded guilty. He received a heavy fine, had to surrender all the photos and was prevented from using any copies and given a suspended sentence with five years good behaviour.”

Michael said, “That sounds very light for what he did.”

“At the time, that’s what we all thought but we didn’t know what was going on in the background. It turned out the police and prosecutor knew that the Victorian police had been gathering evidence on him for similar offenses, except that in Victoria it also included underage males. As far as I know he’s still in jail in Victoria.”

The room fell silent until Jamie softly commented. “Sometimes karma can be an awesome bitch.”

Michael also spoke softly. “He gained a bad reputation including as a user while you were in the States and nearly all of us avoided him. You wouldn’t have known that when you came back and obviously, he latched onto you. Also, from what you’ve told us, he probably had some reasons to leave Melbourne.”

Andre put his arm around me and pulled me into a loving embrace. As usual we melted into each other. “Is that why you spent a year assessing me? You must know now that I’m nothing like that and you’ve got support from all of us.”

I sighed. “Maybe. Yes. It was why I didn’t jump you straight after that party. I knew even then; I wanted a solid relationship with you and I also knew I needed time to be sure it would be. But then it became fun flirting until Beau and Skye were married and had William.” I gently poked him in the ribs. “And don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy our flirting.” He squirmed and giggled.

“You don’t know Andre’s brother, the gorgeous Beau.” It was Jamie talking to Michael. “At school he was sex appeal on two legs but straight. Straight like in the shortest distance between two points. No deviation. And his only interest was Skye. At school I used to fantasize about being in bed naked with him.”

I saw that devilish grin spread across Andre’s face. “Chris’s done that. Been in bed naked with Beau. They’ve even showered together.”

I was wondering if Andre knew more than he’s seen, but the look on Jamie’s face took everyone’s attention. It was priceless. “You have to be fucking kidding me. I can’t believe that super straight Beau would ever be naked in bed with another guy, far less a gay guy.”

“Well, he was. I know because I was there, naked in the bed as well. Oh, and also in the shower.”

Andre was enjoying this as Jamie sat there wide-eyed and jaw-droppingly speechless.

Michael however joined in the fun. “Are you telling us you had a threesome with your brother?”

I laughed. “No! The bastard actually slept in the middle so we couldn’t do anything sexual.”

Jamie started giggling. “Cockblocker Beau! That certainly wasn’t in my fantasy.”

By now we were all enjoying the story however Jamie’s look made it clear that Andre would be in big trouble if he didn’t tell him more later.

Michael and I looked at each other. “I suppose we’ll just have to get used to nothing about us being kept private.” He was smiling. He didn’t mind.

I wasn’t so sure about myself as I nodded and suggested some more wine. Everyone agreed. The dinner was a success in bonding the four of us together. The bond between Michael and I was still as strong as ever. Then there was the equally strong bond between Andre and Jamie which also stretched back to school days, and may also have had a sexual component. And importantly there were the bonds binding Michael and Jamie and Andre and me. It sort of dovetailed the four of us together.

As I finished pouring the wine Michael asked. “What are you doing over Easter?”

After glancing at Andre, I answered. “Not sure. Nothing fixed in, but we’re thinking about going to Melbourne so Andre can meet my parents. Why?”

“Well, we arranged leave for Easter and we were thinking of visiting the Hunter Valley like you did and thought you might like to join us.”

Jamie interrupted. “I think all of us going to Melbourne is an even better idea. Michael, we’re overdue visiting your parents and in between the parent visits we can have our own gay fun in Melbourne.”

Andre supported the idea. “We can all book into a hotel and have a fun Easter together.”

“Yes. That way we can all visit the parents. I know my parents will want to see you again Chris, and I want to see your parents again. We can visit without being tied down.”

I put my hands up in surrender. “OK, OK, Easter in Melbourne it is. Andre, Jamie, how about you two book the flights and hotel. I can see this being an Easter to remember.”