Boys Will Be Boys - Their First Time (10 page)

The doorman announced his name into a metal speaker
,
and Noah walked through the brown lobby toward the elevator. He pushed a button for the
tenth
floor and rode up to meet his new room mates.

All three were home. Mike, the
thirty-three
-
year
-
old, was the one who answered the door. Noah hoped his name wouldn
’
t be a bad omen.
“
Hey man, did you have any trouble finding the place?
”

“
No, none at all,
”
said Noah. Mike looked more like
twenty-three
than
thirty-three
, with short blond streaks, a painfully thin waist and a chest and arms that seemed to pop from the tight white
T
-shirt he was wearing. His low-rise jeans with a three
-
inch zipper were as tight as the skin on his tanned face, and Noah liked that he wasn
’
t effeminate in any way. The small, square entrance hall of the apartment, covered with the most exquisite wallpaper of sage green ferns he
’
d ever seen, rang with sophistication Noah had read about in magazines. The gray marble floor complimented the sage ferns
,
and Noah actually touched the walls to see if the ferns had been hand painted.

“
I
’
ve never seen wallpaper like this,
”
he said to Mike.

“
Thank you,
”
Mike replied,
“
I
’
m an interior designer, and a collector of vintage Florence Broadhurst wallpaper. She was a lively character from
Australia
, who didn
’
t begin to design wallpaper until she was in her sixties. She was murdered in her warehouse in the l970s
,
and the crime was never solved.
”

“
It
’
s spectacular,
”
Noah said, gazing at the walls,
“
Where did you find it in such condition.
”

“
I didn
’
t find it,
”
Mike said,
“
The whole place was already papered; that
’
s the reason I bought it. Originally I
’
d planned to live in The Village, but when I saw this wallpaper I didn
’
t have a choice.
”

“
Spectacular,
”
Noah said.

“
C
’
mon in and let me introduce you to Randy and Angelo,
”
Mike said, taking Noah
’
s bags and placing them off to the side on the marble floor.

They crossed into a spacious living room with a tall ceiling, also papered with a famous Broadhurst design that included beige, blue and silver foil geometric shapes. Very l970s and now considered
“
retro
.
”
Two guys stood from the black leather
sofa
with chrome trim (Noah knew there was a famous designer name attached to it, too, but couldn
’
t recall exactly what it was
,
and he didn
’
t want to sound stupid) and extended their hands. Randy
’
s hair was black and short with a turned up wave above his forehead. He wore lose fitting kaki shorts that stopped just below his knees, exposing slightly bowed legs covered with more black hair
,
black sandals on his large feet. His handshake was wilted; a large hand that felt more like a wet sponge than human flesh. Mike mentioned Randy practiced law with a small firm uptown. Then he introduced Angelo, certainly the
twenty-two
-
year
-
old in the group
,
a light skinned
black man
with hazel eyes and a warm, friendly smile who didn
’
t look a day over sixteen. He simply wore a white
T-shirt
and blue and white stripped boxer shorts; his legs thin and muscular with short ankle socks covering his feet. Mike said Angelo worked in the garment district, but didn
’
t go into detail. Where Noah could have recognized that both Mike and Randy were two trendy gay men living in
New York
, he would have had to wonder about Angelo
,
who seemed so straight and un-gay he stood out much too clearly from the other two. When he shook Noah
’
s hand it almost hurt.

After the formalities, Mike walked Noah to his new room; a small antiseptic rectangle with a full
-
size bed, a beige wood 1930s dresser in remarkably good condition and hardwood floors that clicked when he stepped on them with his new hollow heeled black leather half boots. The bed popped with fitted white sheets, two beige pillows and a white duvet cover. So unlike the rest of the wallpapered apartment; the white walls c
al
med Noah
’
s senses.

“
I like that everything is so neutral,
”
Noah said,
“
simple, solid shades of beige and white. This is perfect, too.
”

Mike shrugged his shoulders when he opened the closet.
“
It
’
s not much, but compared to other NY co-ops
,
it
’
s not all the bad either.
”

Noah peered inside
.
T
he closet resembled a meager bookcase with a door. No pole that ran from end to end
,
just a row of four hooks on the back wall where you could hang clothing in short, compact stacks
,
m
aybe three or four jackets to a hook, if that.

“
You know,
”
said Noah, putting his index finger to his bottom lip,
“
this is fine, too. I
’
m not a huge clothes horse
,
and I can make this work.
”

“
The rest of the apartment is pretty self-explanatory,
”
said Mike,
“
living room, dining area, kitchen
…
but there
’
s a really great terrace off the living room. Semi-private, with a great view, where you can sunbathe in the nude if you want.
”

“
Semi-private?
”

“
There
’
s a teenage boy in the building across the street who likes to watch us and beat off, but he
’
s harmless
…
kind of cute in a way,
”
said Mike.

“
Oh well,
”
Noah said, but he was already thinking about how to put on a show for the horny little guy.

Mike handed Noah a key to the apartment, and Noah handed him a check for two months rent. And then Mike explained that he and the other guys were meeting some friends in
Brooklyn
that afternoon to work on some sort of fundraiser, but would be home for dinner. He invited Noah to join them around seven, as sort of a welcome dinner, and Noah gladly accepted.

It only took a half hour or so to unpack, so he decided to take a walk over
to
The Park to see if he could get a job waiting tables as soon as possible. Taking the elevator down to the lobby, nodding at the doorman as he headed toward the street, Noah couldn
’
t believe that he was actually now living in
Manhattan
. Tenth avenue streamed with gay men
–
some walking dogs, some walking hand
-
in
-
hand, most stopping to stare at his ass while he passed by. Dick for the taking as far as the eye could see. It wasn
’
t the prettiest section of the city, with trees and cute little shops, but the energy in
Chelsea
suggested newness and excitement; as though it had all been very carefully planned out ahead of time.

Though the fat, bald manager of The Park told Noah there weren
’
t any openings, he did lead him back to his office, beyond the busy waiters in black and white outfits, for a brief interview just in case one of his staff quit unexpectedly. The dark atmosphere, harsh and sophisticated, portended urban doom. There were more rusted bars and chipped concrete tables than Noah could take in at a glance; filled with a muffled sound of voices mixed with the clinking and clanking of dishes. The hapless lunch crowd appeared gay and straight; some sitting at the bars, others off to the side at small round tables. Waist-high, shelf-like areas lined the walls where people could stand and drink and talk; fast music with a techno beat banged against the concrete so loudly you had to shout to be heard. But this wasn
’
t a cruise bar; just a place to eat and congregate before or after cruising. Next to the manager
’
s office were two outsized glass doors that led to a conservatory type eating area that looked as though it would be awkward at best, and very moist on a rainy day.

After the interview
,
Noah walked the neighborhood. He came close to getting picked up by a middle
-
aged guy with short gray hair and tight jeans who
’
d taken his Boston
bu
ll
terrier
to the little doggie park on
Tenth Avenue
. When the horny guy noticed Noah
,
he began to casually wet his lips with his tongue, slowly and cautiously sliding long fingers across his crotch. Though Noah would have enjoyed a quick fuck, he realized it was after six
,
and he didn
’
t want to be late for his first dinner with his new roommates. Actually, he was tremendously curious about the three guys; clearly they all shared the same bed, but there was something peculiar going on there; they were all too much alike
–
no sense of balance.

He thought of stopping at a bakery to buy dessert, but then thought twice when he remembered how fit the guys were; men who clearly didn
’
t eat cake. So he opted for a bouquet of white roses at the Korean Grocery instead. He decided to be cautious; watch and learn how urban gay men interacted with each other; and not to make any mistakes that might make him look foolish.

That night, before dinner, the three men toasted their new roommate with martinis
.

“
J
ust a small, informal cocktail hour,
”
Mike said,
“
to show you how glad we are to have you here, Noah.
”

There was a small rectangle of pate, surrounded by neatly sliced wedges of dark bread, set out on a crystal dish on the glass coffee table. Angelo nibbled, and Noah tasted, but it was a waste of food. Though Noah felt left out, the guys did their best to include him. By eight o
’
clock
,
they went to the dining section of the living room and on a two inch thick glass table, with Noah
’
s white roses perfectly arranged in a
Waterford
crystal vase, Mike served large Caesar salads with grilled chicken and capers on white Wedgwood plates. There were black leather placemats and black linen napkins with thin gold threads running through them. The guys spoke about their day in
Brooklyn
, and Noah mentioned his interview at The Park. Nothing about this place reminded Noah of his mother
’
s Quaker lace table cloth spread over his grandmother
’
s old mahogany table; the black linen so unlike the paper napkins he was used to placing on his lap. Not to mention the thought of eating dinner at eight. Why his mother wouldn
’
t think of putting the meatloaf on the table later than six.

After dinner (Noah cleaned his plate; the others left half) three went back to the living room for Port; Angelo cleaned the table
as
it was his turn that night. Now, Noah wasn
’
t exactly off the turnip truck, and he did have a good education with a degree from an outstanding university, but he wasn
’
t quite sure about the Port. So when Mike offered it to him in a small crystal wine glass
,
he accepted gladly and sat on one of the black lather chairs that faced the sofa.