In Bed With The Boss Page 0,41
Bronx. and he’d wound up falling in love with the boss. He’d only been twenty-one at the time. His boss had been thirty-one, married for ten years, and had three kids. This guy promised Richie that he’d tell his wife, he’d get a divorce, and he and Richie would move away to California together and start a new life of their own. Richie believed him, every single word. Richie let this guy do things to him in bed he’d never let anyone do before. Richie had even gone to the library to research Los Angeles to find out where the best places to live were. And then the guy’s wife followed them to a small hotel on the Grand Concourse one night, with her brother, who happened to be a New York City police officer. And while Richie was on his knees, naked with his boss’s huge dick in his mouth, the wife’s cop brother broke the door down and he beat the hell out of them both. That ended Richie’s love affair, his perfect nose, and his career in the restaurant business.
The second time it happened had been with the politician at city hall. Richie had been twenty-three at the time. And now he was twenty-five and he should have known better then to repeat the same mistakes. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Brad Lindsay’s handsome face and his strong hands. When he was with Brad, something inside him ignited and he had trouble concentrating. Though he knew this was wrong because Brad was married, he rationalized it by comparing it to his own circumstances. Richie had once been engaged to a woman because he thought it had been the right thing to do. He was eighteen years old and still denying that he was attracted to other men. His family forced him to get engaged; they complained that he didn’t date women like his older bother and said it was time for him to get a girl. They also added that if he didn’t get a girlfriend people were going to start thinking he was a “fag” or a “goddamn fucking queer.”
Richie didn’t think he looked like a queer or a fag. He was tall, dark, and had smooth olive skin. He had strong features and walked with a heavy step. He did a lot of heavy lifting in the maintenance department and he’d built up muscles without even trying but he believed what he was told. He got engaged to a neighborhood girl, Rosie Paganan,o and he played the game for as long as he could. And when he couldn’t take it any longer, he wound up breaking off the engagement and moving out of his mother and father’s house for good. He moved into a large apartment building in Parkchester, with two other guys who were just like him that he’d met at a bar.
Richie knew what Brad Lindsay’s life was like. He knew why Brad had gotten married. He suspected Brad had been pressured into marrying a woman just as he had, because Brad didn’t know what else to do. Richie knew how difficult it was to kiss a woman and make love to a woman while dreaming about a man at the same time. The only difference between them was that Richie had seen other options and Brad hadn’t.
When Richie climbed the front stoop of the strange townhouse in Manhattan, he stepped into the vestibule and buzzed apartment number forty-two. He glanced down at the small flower arrangement in his left hand and smiled. He’d never gone anywhere in his life empty-handed. And even though this was a cheap bouquet from a corner grocery store he’d passed on the way, at least it was something pretty.
The intercom clicked and Brad asked, “Yes?”
Richie leaned forward. “It’s me. I’m here.”
“Come on up.”
It was one of those walk-ups, on the fourth floor. But Richie didn’t mind. He took the steps two at a time without stopping to catch his breath once. When he reached the fourth floor, he turned left at the top of the steps and glanced at the numbers on the doors. There was a middle aged woman with short curly blond hair standing outside apartment number forty-four. She was holding a bag of groceries and trying to unlock her door.
Richie noticed the apartment next to hers was forty-two, so he stopped and said, “Let me help.” Then he took the keys, opened the door for her, and smiled.
“Thank you so much,” the woman