Chapter 50

“Well, well, what have we here?”

Ted turned and felt the color drain from his face. Chris was walking toward them with an older john with whom Ted had been on datesseveral times.

“Ted, I think you know my friendAndy. But I’m sorry, we don’t know your friend’sname. He is a friend of yours, right?” Chris said, using the code for a john.

Kenny innocently rose from his chair, smiled, and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Kenny. A little more than a friend. Actually, I’m Ted’s boyfriend.” He looked at Ted, beaming with happy pride.

“Really? Ted’s boyfriend?” Chris shook Kenny’s hand and looked down at Ted. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. How very…interesting,” Chris said, looking like a cat who’d cornered a mouse.

Ted sat as if turned to stone.

“Are you friends of Ted’s?” Kenny continued, naively looking from Chris to Andy.

This can’t be happening! Not now! Not before I go to Trace! Ted thought, frantically trying to break the spell that had immobilized him, so that he could stop Chris before the guy said too much.

“Oh, yeah, we’re friends all right,” Andy said with a laugh and a pat on Ted’s shoulder. “Real good buddies.”

“Well, you might say we’re that,” Chris said, giving Ted a look that clearly indicated he was up to no good. Chris returned his attention to Kenny and added with a wicked smile, “But Ted and I are really more like co-workers. Wouldn’t you say so, Ted?”

Ted nodded dumbly. Please don’t say anything else! Ted silently implored.

“Oh, you work at the same restaurant?” Kenny asked.

Chris laughed. “Are you still using that old line, Teddy?”

Ted cringed, having the same reaction he’d had when Trace had called him by the nickname his mother used. His separate worlds were colliding.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Andy asked. “You work for Escorts Inc. That’s what I pay you guys for. What’s all this shit about a restaurant?”

Chris asked, “Kenny is it? No, we don’t work at a restaurant.”

Kenny looked at Ted, puzzled. “Ted? What do they mean?”

“Oh, I’m sure Teddy will be able to clear up any confusing misconceptions he might have given you. I only wish we had time to stay and hear how he wriggles out of this one. Oh, by the way, Teddy, you were probably too busy to check your emails this morning but our shoot schedule has been changed. They want us at the studio and on the set at ten tomorrow, so I’d be careful tonight and don’t blow it all with Kenny here. You know how Trace likes us to be able to shoot those big loads.” Chris laughed and winked at Kenny. “Ta ta!”

Bastard! Ted thought, his mind in a panic.

Chris and Andy walked away laughing. It was Kenny who sank to his chair and now sat motionless,

Ted looked across the table at Kenny, dumbfounded and staring back at Ted.

Ted’s mind whirled as he scrambled to think of something he could say to explain away the damning inferences Chris had made, and to come up with something to diffuse and salvage the situation

“I don’t understand,” Kenny said quietly, looking sincerely bewildered. “I thought you told me you worked at a restaurant.”

Ted reached across the table and took Kenny’s hands in his. “I did…for a while. I should have told you this before. I was going to but I was afraid you wouldn’t want me to be a part of your life if you knew. Honest, I was going to quit this morning and it would all have been behind me and you never would have known. After last night I was sure I wanted you more than I needed this job.”

Ted looked at Kenny imploringly, hoping he would accept what Ted had told him.

“Ted, I still don’t get it. What did they mean by an escort service and the shoot at a studio?”

Ted saw the depth of innocence of this man. He was tempted to capitalize on that and come up with something that would sound logical to cover his ass without damaging his relationship with Kenny further. But he realized that would make him no better than Chris. He would be a hypocrite. Chris’s lies about his relationship with Aiden had been the reason Ted couldn’t continue their affair

Still holding Kenny’s hands, as if to hang on to him as long as possible, Ted began. “Since my stepdad wouldn’t pay for college I needed money. I got a job at a restaurant…that part was true, but that didn’t cover it. I was offered this job at Morrison Entertainment.” Ted paused, took a deep breath to gather his determination to come clean. “I’m a rent boy.”

“Rent boy? What does that mean?”

You dear, sweet, na?ve kid. It would be so easy to lie to you. Ted thought. “It means I go out with men for money.”

“Go out?”

“Yeah. I go out with them and…do whatever they want.”

“Have sex?”

“If that’s what they want,” Ted said, feeling very dirty.