The Boy Who Came in From the Cold (4 page)

“All right, all right! Break it up. Break it up,” said Mr. Martinez. “Son of a bitch, you’re gonna be fuckin’ in the hall in a minute. Get inside.” The large man laughed and started down the hall. “Lover’s spats!
Chrrrrrrist.
”

When the building manager was gone, Gabe let Todd go. The young man fell back, breathless. “Jeez, man! You sure know how to take advantage of a guy, don’t you?”

Gabe blushed. It had been a shitty thing to do. “Sorry.” Then, to his surprise, he noticed his cock wasn’t the only one to respond. The front of Todd’s jeans was telling a very different story from the one Todd had told Gabe.
Well, well, well. Interesting
. “Sorry,” he said again. “I shouldn’t have done that. But you were an ass.”

He opened the door wider, and when Todd didn’t move: “Are you coming in, or are you just going to stand there?” Gabe asked quietly.
Todd gulped visibly, looked up and down the hall, and finally nodded. Gabe stood aside and the youth passed him, then let out a quiet gasp. “Wow,” he said. “Nice place.”

“Thank you,” said Gabe. “Why don’t you sit down and stay awhile? I’ll go put something on. You caught me in the shower.” Without waiting to see what Todd would do, he padded out of the room and down the hall to get dressed. He could feel the kid’s eyes on him, which was doing nothing to make his erection go down.
Does Todd even know he’s watching me?

Gabe dried quickly, pulled on some sweats and his 2CUTE2BSTR8 shirt and, not bothering with socks, returned to the living room. Todd was still standing there, looking around the room as if he had never seen anything like it.

Maybe he hadn’t? Gabe hadn’t bought any cheap shit. He shopped for top-of-the-line furniture, modern without being wild. Pieces that would look good for years and not tacky because they’d gone out of style. Three walls were painted a light blue-gray and the fourth a much darker shade, providing a dramatic backdrop for the furnishings: A black leather couch and two deep and comfortable chairs in a color that matched the darker wall. Coffee table and end tables of black lacquer, like the small table by the door, and a matching buffet against one wall. A large industrial piece of art, metal gears and cogs with a clock, dominated one wall. The lamps were metallic and industrial looking as well. A fireplace in the original white and black marble was the centerpiece of another wall, above it a painting done in an impressionist style. He’d liked it the minute he saw it. It reminded him of Claude Monet’s “Boulevard des Capucines,” a painting he’d fallen in love with when he wasn’t much more than a kid. He couldn’t resist the piece, especially when he discovered it was done by a local gay artist. What could be better than that?

Then there was his sixty-three-inch flat screen TV. Why go small? If he was going to watch television, why not make it as enjoyable as possible? The area rug, drapes, blinds, and lampshades offered a splash of red and cream, keeping the room from being too cold. It was a man’s apartment, no doubt about that. He had even had the hardwood floors redone, though they weren’t his and he had no intention of living his whole life in the apartment.

“Sit down,” he said, and Todd jumped, spun around. Lord, the kid was jittery. “You okay?” Gabe asked him.
Todd stared, not saying anything, then finally shook his head, dark-brown eyes big and sad. “Not really,” he said. He ran fingers through thick dark-brown hair and sighed deeply.

“Let me have your coat,” Gabe said. “And sit down. Relax.”

Todd pulled off his coat, handed it over, and almost flinched when Gabe took it.
God. He needs to calm down.
“Would you like something to drink? Coke? Ice tea? Beer? Glass of wine?”

“I’m only twenty,” Todd said and sat down on the end of the couch farthest from Gabe.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Gabe said and offered him a smile.
Be careful. You could say that kind of thing was what got you into trouble last time.

Gabe’s expression must have helped because Todd gave a half smile in return. “Whatever you’re having,” he said.

 

“Well, I’ve been planning on opening a bottle of wine I’ve been saving for a special occasion. Why not tonight?”

 

Todd’s mouth turned into a straight line and he nodded.

Gabe hung up Todd’s coat and paused, realizing how lightweight it was. Not a goose feather or bit of quilting between the layers.
Shit, the kid
must
have been cold.
He went into the kitchen, which he’d also had redone, even stripping the cabinets and replacing the counter. Tracy thought he was crazy for doing it.

“You already pay rent. Why fix up the place?”
“Because I live there, Tracy. I want to enjoy living there.”

“I don’t know why you just don’t buy a house,” she said. Tracy was a statuesque brunette with a tendency to wear red. She called it one of her two power colors. She certainly got the attention of the men around her, clients as well as co-workers, gay as well as straight. “Get something really nice in Hyde Park or even Brookside. Make improvements that’ll benefit you and not the owners of that building.”

“They’ve let me skip rent on quite a few occasions with what I’ve done to the place,” he’d told her.

 

“Not equal to what you’re spending I bet.”

“You’re missing the point,” Gabe said. “I like it there. I like having mostly gay neighbors. And it tickles me thinking of the prize somebody’s going to get when they get my apartment after I leave.”

“They’re going to defecate a brick is what they’re going to do,” she replied. “Hopefully, it won’t be wasted on some lesbian who can’t appreciate it.”

“Now Tracy….” Defecate. Not shit.
“I can just see some gay boy’s face. Mother skeeter! When he walks in, he’s gonna think he struck the jackpot.” She grinned. “It’ll be Christmas, no matter what month they move in.”

Gabe smiled at the thought. He wasn’t sure what Todd’s sexuality was; he suspected the young man didn’t know himself, despite his denials. Todd sure seemed to be dazzled by the apartment, though. Would a straight kid even have noticed? Todd was acting like Alice in Wonderland. It was sweet. Speaking of which, would Todd want the Schwartzbeeren he’d been planning on opening, or would
it
be too sweet? Should he just play it safe and go with a merlot? Or would that be too dry? He started to ask and then remembered a teenhood of Boone’s Farm cheap wine. Sweet was the order of the day, he suspected.

Gabe opened the bottle, poured two glasses, and returned to the living room and handed Todd one of them. Todd reached for it, and Gabe saw the young man’s hand was trembling. Not a lot, but shaking all the same. Nervous? Something far worse? He hoped the kid wasn’t some kind of addict, although his instincts told Gabe it was nerves. He had to help the kid relax. “Music?” he asked.

Todd gulped again. “Whatever you want,” he said, his voice actually cracking.

Gabe stifled a sigh and went to his sound system, turned it on. It was already set to a soft jazz station, and he thought that should soothe the savage beast. He joined Todd on the couch, and once again the boy cringed.
What the hell?

Then it hit him. Todd thought he was going to have to have sex with Gabe.
Well, shitfire
.

“Todd,” he said softly. “Drink your wine. Relax. If you’re tired, I’ll make up the couch now if you want.”
Todd’s brown eyes widened. “Couch?” he asked.

Gabe nodded. “I don’t have a guest bedroom, so the couch will have to do. I’ll put a couple of blankets on it. It’s really quite comfortable.”

“I-I don’t understand. I’m sleeping in here?”

For just a moment, Gabe thought Todd was going to cry. “Sure, Todd. You can sleep in my room if you want. It’s a king-size bed, plenty of room, but with you being straight, I figured you wouldn’t want to share with a ‘queer’.”

Confusion filled Todd’s face. “I-I don’t… I’m sorry about calling you that.”

“I’ll forgive you this time. In the meantime, I want you to unwind. I’m not paying for you. You told me you’re not for sale.” He gave Todd another reassuring smile.

The confused look came back. “But I figured… since you let me in….”

Ah, sweet boy.
“I don’t take advantage of people. Especially not people in trouble. I’m sorry about the offer downstairs. I just thought—”
“I was a whore,” Todd muttered.

Gabe’s heart sank. “Todd, I’m sorry about that. I fucked up. So tonight I’m giving you a place to stay. Get your head together. That’s it.”

With those words, Gabe watched the tension run out of Todd, saw his shoulders lower, his posture relax. A smile flickered at the corners of his mouth, but Gabe saw that tears still threatened. What had this kid been through?

Todd sipped cautiously at his wine, and then smiled for real. He took a bigger taste. “Gosh,” he said.
“You like?” Gabe asked, taking a drink himself.

“Yeah. I do.”

 

Gabe held his glass toward Todd. “Then let’s drink to getting out of the cold.”

 

Todd nodded and clinked glasses with him, though misunderstanding still shimmered across his face.

Talk to him
. “Where’re you from, Todd?”
“Buckman.”
Buckman?

“It’s a little town a couple of hours from here. Lived there my whole life.”

 

“And now you’re in Kansas City?”

 

“I had enough of small-town life. I wanted to find myself. Saved up and got out of there.”

“What’s wrong with where you’re from?” Gabe asked. “Well,” Todd said with a snort. “If there’s a bright center to the universe, Buckman is the town farthest from.” Todd looked away, stared out the double glass doors that let out onto the balcony. The

snow was still falling furiously. He looked back. Gabe could see a battle going on there on Todd’s face as he tried to decide what to say. Gabe nodded encouragingly at the kid.
“I left because my parents are crazy,” Todd said finally. “My Mom…. She… I… I left because I have an alcoholic stepfather who… who….” Todd stopped talking a moment, then continued. “I figured it would only be a matter of time till I got a job here, but it’s not that

easy. Not one that pays for shit or will give you enough hours to even pay for the electricity. I wanted to go to culinary school. Cooking, you know?”

Gabe nodded. “Cooking, huh.” Now that was a surprise.

“That’s not working out so much. And when the little savings I had was gone—boom!—I was out in the cold.” Suddenly, there were tears springing to his eyes. He wiped at them angrily with the heel of his hand.

“My old man beat me,” Gabe said and placed a hand comfortingly (or at least he hoped so) on Todd’s knee. At least the kid didn’t flinch. “Until I got big enough to hit back. He never laid a hand on me again.”

“Well, I can’t beat up my mom. And my stepdad could break me over his knee.”

 

Gabe watched, saw the muscles in Todd’s jaw clench, a quick tremble, as Todd struggled desperately to fight back the tears.

“You know, man, it’s okay to cry.” He squeezed Todd’s knee. “I’m not crying,” Todd shouted, and then suddenly the tears came. They were pouring out of the kid. Gabe moved closer to Todd and put an arm around his shoulders, but that seemed to only make him cry harder.

Gabe stroked the boy’s back. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “Let it out. Let it all out.”

The intensity of the emotions almost frightened Gabe.
What do I do?
He scooted a little nearer to the boy—taking a chance, not wanting to scare him—and pulled him a bit closer. There was a moment of hesitation, and then Todd seemed to just surrender. It was as if Todd