Chapter 67
Spent, Benjamin slid off the counter and onto the floor. Ty knelt down beside him, pants open, underwear pushed down below his balls, his own jism marking Benjamin’s jeans where they pooled between them. From far away came the sound of pounding—the music? Someone at the door? “Fuck it,” Benjamin sighed. He didn’t have the energy to talk above a whisper.
Tenderly Ty eased an arm around the back of Benjamin’s neck and pulled him close. “Come here,” he murmured, kissing at the sweat already drying on Benjamin’s brow. The musk of Benjamin’s scent was on his breath and when they kissed again, on the lips this time, the taste of himself took his breath away. The pounding grew louder—definitely someone at the door. Into Ty’s mouth, Benjamin breathed, “They probably think we’re killing each other.”
With a laugh, Ty teased, “Let them think what they want. I’m not through with you yet.”
THE ENDOffice Visit
As an English professor at Richmond College, I was as excited as my students were about the end of the semester. I had a few precious days between my last exam and my first summer course, and I planned to spend the mini-vacation with my lover, Lee. A pediatrician, Lee worked days at the clinic and, since I usually taught class at night, we rarely seemed to have time for each other anymore. But he’d promised to duck out of the office early on the day of my last exam, and I couldn’t wait to finally have him all to myself.
Unfortunately, when I pulled into our driveway, mine was the only car in front of the small townhouse we shared. My anticipation turned sour, and I felt the first stab of annoyance with my less-than-punctual lover. “You said you’d be here,” I muttered as I parked. I could almost hear Lee’s patient reply, Curt, please. I said I’d try.
That wasn’t good enough. This time off was supposed to be for us. I don’t know how many times I tried to stress that to him. But, for a pediatrician who divided his attention between a private practice and an emergency care facility, downtime seemed to be a luxury he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—afford.
Inside our house, the phone sat on a small table in the hall. I snatched up the receiver and punched in the number to Lee’s office without looking at the buttons. A ring, two, before an automated system clicked on, an emotionless woman’s voice droning in my ear. “Thank you for calling the Riverside Family Care Practice, located on—”
I hit zero for the operator and waited. The phone begin to ring again, longer this time, four rings, five.
“Come on,” I breathed, getting angrier by the minute. I caught a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror—disheveled hair barely presentable, a scruffy shadow of a beard that I forgot to shave off this morning, thick glasses that made me look more like a nerd than a scholar. I forced a smile that my reflection threw back, but it looked out of place beneath my angry brow. In my mind I chastised Lee again. You told me you’d be home by now.
Finally, a live person answered. As live as they got down there this late in the afternoon, anyway. “Help you?” she asked, and I pictured a bored nurse, phone wedged between her shoulder and her ear as she filed her fingernails.
Keeping my voice even, I said, “Dr. Liu, please.”
“I’m sorry,” she replied, sounding anything but. “He’s busy at the moment. If I could have your name…”
A new girl. Most of the nurses who worked with Lee knew when it was me and patched right through to his office.
“This is important,” I told her. “Tell him it’s Curt. He’ll know.”
“He’s with a patient right now,” the nurse said. “I can take a message—”
My response came out harsher than I intended. “You can tell him Curt’s on the line,” I snapped, and before she could argue, I added, “He’ll take the call. I’ll hold.”
No answer to that, just a frustrated growl and then Celine Dion started to croon in my ear as I was put on hold. I held long enough to hear the end of the song as well as a traffic report and a run of commercials for furniture stores and used car lots and the weekly specials at the grocery down the street. In the back of my head I began to wonder if maybe Ms. Snit didn’t just park me on infinite hold. Maybe she had no intention of even telling Lee I was on the phone for him. A new song began to play in my ear and I told myself if I was still on hold by the time it ended, I’d hang up and call back again.