In Bed With The Boss Page 0,62
“Don’t worry about him. He’s in good hands. I promise I won’t let anything happen to him.” He patted Toby on the back again and smiled. “You have nothing to worry about. I know this city better than anyone, and I know where to go, what to do, and how to do it the right way.”
Before Toby had a chance to back out, a cab pulled up and Bill helped Rosemary into the back seat. Bill shut the door so fast Toby barely had time to wave good-bye. As Toby watched the cab head toward the avenue, Bill placed his hand on Toby’s back and pushed him forward. “I think we’ll take a little stroll downtown. There’s always some kind of action going on down there. You’ll love it. We’ll be voyeurs tonight.”
The rest of the night turned out to be a crash course in how to be a homosexual male in New York without getting into too much trouble. Bill made it clear in the beginning that he wasn’t sexually interested in Toby…he said he preferred his men rough and dumb, with tattoos and scars, not handsome and smart. This made Toby laugh. After that, he stopped worrying but paid attention to every word Bill said.
Bill took him to quiet places down narrow staircases where men went to meet other men. The first bar in the West Village was in a basement so dark and smoky Toby almost tripped on a bar stool. It was a little like the places Toby had been to before, but different in a few fundamental ways. This one was more private, and the men were rougher looking and more serious. Bill laughed and said they had a back room there were all kinds of action happened every night of the week. He said he wasn’t into that sort of thing but some men liked it “sleazy.” He told Toby places like this were often raided by the police just for pure sport. They didn’t stay there long.
Bill used the word “rendezvous” a lot and talked about handing out fake phone numbers to strange men just to be polite. Then he took Toby to a few more bars and discreet hang outs and even showed him how to cruise the parks at night. According to Bill, if there was a dark section in a park surrounded by shrubs and trees, there were always men looking for other men. Bill went into detail about the dangers involved, and he warned Toby about catching venereal diseases that ran rampant. Though the diseases could be treated, the doctors who treated them always looked down on homosexual men, called them “sick,” and made them feel inferior.
While they walked and Bill spoke, Toby had a feeling he should have been taking notes. There was so much to absorb that he felt overwhelmed. Up until that night, his life had revolved around work, family, and his apartment. All he wanted to do was meet a nice guy like Richie and have a life. He had no idea it was all this complicated. One thing that really frightened him was when Bill made a point of telling Toby to always make sure he cruised a homosexual and not a straight guy. Bill said just one wrong look could be dangerous. Cruising a straight guy could land him in the hospital with a smashed up face and broken bones. Bill frowned and said he knew one guy who’d been killed after he’d cruised the wrong guy on the Upper West side, in Riverside Park.
As Toby became more comfortable with Bill, Toby asked general questions about meeting men and Bill was more than happy to answer them. When the taxi dropped Toby off at his building, it was after three in the morning and Toby had no idea where the time had gone. He shook Bill’s hand and said, “I had fun tonight. My head is spinning and it’s going to take a few days to process everything you’ve shown and told me, but I had the best time I’ve had since I moved to the city. I can’t thank you enough and I’m glad Rosemary introduced us.”
Bill tilted his head and smiled. He gave Toby his phone number and said, “Call me at the museum on Monday and we’ll get together for lunch. And I promise you, it’s really my actual number.” He looked him up and down and thought for a moment. “There’s going to be a job opening at the