Note: I hope you will enjoy this. More will be posted as it is completed. Thank you.


“You’re at C? Did you find a hotel yet?”
“That's where the reservations desk is and no.”
“Let me park. I’ll meet you at the reservations phone.”
“Fine. You do that.”

Tom snapped shut his cell phone and turned his Outback toward the lower ramp to the parking lot at the C terminal at Newark. If the rain hadn’t slowed traffic on the Turnpike he would have been there sooner. Not that Tom wanted to be there sooner or even at all. His was an appointed mission; a mission of good planning. Rob always planned well and when the call came a week ago telling Tom of Corey’s death in Iraq, it was Rob who had phoned with the news. It was Rob who helped Corey’s wife and parents plan the funeral. It was Rob who decided that Tom would collect Evan at the airport and host him for the funeral weekend. After all, Rob probably thought, Tom and Evan were such good friends. Such good friends. How could Tom say no without explaining what he didn’t want to explain? Not even to Rob.

The parking lot wasn’t crowded and Tom pulled in. ‘Somewhere,’ he thought, ‘in that building, is Evan.’ Would he look any different? Bald? Fat? Recognizable at all? Tom tried to consider that objectively but as he looked himself over in the mirror, his heart told him what he didn’t want to hear but knew anyway. He would always know Evan. Combing his short chestnut hair as he got out of the car, adjusting his tie and slacks, he hesitated and considered taking off the tie, making himself more casual, more comfortable. He chose not to.

Evan reached down between his legs and pulled the duffle bag closer to the hotel desk. While the clerk was efficient and more polite than Evan imagined New Yorkers... no, New Jersians should be, his efforts to find a room were going nowhere. Rob had warned him that during PC Expo there wouldn’t be a room anywhere near the city and besides, why not stay with Tom? Tom wouldn’t mind. “Maybe you guys could cook-up an act to cheer everyone up after the reception?” Ha ha ha. ‘Fuck that,’ thought Evan, ‘and fuck Rob too.’ Hi-my-name-is-CRYSTAL wasn’t much use either. ‘Fuck her as well.’ He lifted his face from the monitor with all the red blocks on it and scanned around the desk for the manager. ‘A wonk, a wonk, a dork, a rental car agent, Tom--- looking straight at him.

For a slight skip of the mind the desk, the people, the incessant noise, the oily smell, all just faded into a haze of gray as Evan looked at Tom for the first time in over ten years. He was still Tom. His hair was still tousled. The goatee was gone, replaced by a jowl cut beard that accentuated his sharp jaw line. He had gained a little weight, maybe now a 34 where once he was a 30, but clearly he had been working out, staying in shape. The navy suit he was wearing looked good on him. Maybe Tom was actually taking care of himself for once? Evan didn’t ponder that long as he looked into Tom’s cold brown eyes and at once knew he had been recognized. This was the moment Evan dreaded and as Tom approached him, the loss of words were quickly replaced by the absurdly cheery Crystal at the desk, “I’m very sorry. I wish there was more I could do. I couldn’t find any open rooms anywhere. As I said, the convention has booked all the rooms in our system. Do you have an American Express card? They may be able to find you a reserved room.”

“That won’t be necessary. Thank you miss.” Tom’s voice was a little deeper than Evan had remembered. He’d lost that slightly higher boyish tone younger men had, “He’ll be coming with me.”

“For now.” Evan picked-up his duffle and brought it across his back. “So where did you park?” He hadn’t meant to be so rude, imagined that he could be at least civil when the time came. The words though, couldn’t form and Tom stiffened a little while his face turned to the door.

“Over here. Is that all you have?” Evan nodded. “Then follow me.”

Walking to the car Tom had wished he had been friendlier, said something kinder. A flash in his brained imagined them hugging each other, but quickly Tom exorcised that thought, remembered, and led Evan across the road. He hadn’t expected Evan to look any different. Evan was always the Californian golden boy with his sun-bleached blond hair and winning smile that had warmed Tom in a way that had nothing to do with weather. Despite being a little shorter, Evan had always worked hard to buildup his body, an effort Evan had once told him, to be bigger than he was, to compensate for his lack of height. Flash again and Tom remembered the nights long ago when they would return to the dorm after parties, too drunk and to eager to share hurried secrets they would never speak of when sober, each wondering if the other had forgotten in the next morning. It was one of those nights when they first-- ‘No. Leave that. Forget that. Not now.’ Checking behind him, he caught Evan looking for oncoming traffic and Tom’s eye lingered just a second longer and he saw that Evan’s swimmer’s torso had changed to that of a burlier working man. His hair was thinner, with deep bare temples carrying a scant blond forelock, but he looked the same. His face hadn’t really aged much. Filled-in perhaps; not aged. The eyes, not brightest blue, but steel gray blue, the steely eyes he.. “It’s right here. The red Outback.” ... the same steely eyes that had pierced him as surely and deeply... Tom hesitated, closing his eyes tightly ... as surely and deeply as once had Evan’s cock.