Elroy sat up; he wished he had popcorn.
"I don't think you should come back," Kyle said. "I'd never feel the same walking around barefoot again in front of you. I'm sorry, but I think you should leave now. I hope we can still be friends."
Lev glanced at Elroy and asked, "Is he serious?"
Elroy folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. "What do I know?"
Kyle crossed to the door and opened it. "I'm always serious about these things. You deceived me, Lev. I thought you were better than this."
After Lev Godwin left, Kyle went to his bed and sat down. "Well, Elroy, I guess you were right about him. He really is just like everyone else and all he was interested in was sex."
Elroy had never seen such a dismal expression on Kyle's face. If he didn't know better, he would have thought someone had died that night. "You wanna go out for coffee or something? I can get dressed fast."
Kyle lifted his hand and said, "No, thank you, Elroy. You've already done enough for me tonight. I want to go to sleep now. I'm exhausted."
"What did I do?" Elroy asked in a defensive tone. "Lev is the one who lied to you, not me."
"Don't pretend. I know you orchestrated this whole thing. You wanted me to walk in here and find Lev in bed with you. I'm not an idiot."
Elroy frowned. He saw no point in denying this; it would only make things worse. "I didn't plan the foot thing. He did that on his own. I swear on my life. Are you mad at me?"
Kyle laughed. "Actually, I'm not mad at you. If Lev had been the man I thought he was he would have turned you down. He didn't have to get into bed with you. You didn't force him into bed with you. And you didn't force him to do those things to your feet."
"Of course not," Elroy said. "I would never force anyone into bed with me. And I'd never force anyone to suck my toes." He wanted to laugh again, but held back.
"But you knew he couldn't resist you," Kyle said. He glanced down at Elroy's feet and made a face. "Or your big old feet."
"That's true."
"And I have to admit you were right about Lev all along."
"You sure I can't get you anything?"
Kyle turned out the light next to his bed and started to undress. "I'm fine. I'm just tired, is all. It's not the first time I've been disappointed by a guy and I'm sure it won't be the last."
Elroy felt a pull in his stomach. When he heard the disappointed tone in Kyle's voice he wanted to get out of bed and hug him. "Would you like me to get into bed with you tonight? I promise no sex at all. I'll just hold you. I won't even try to kiss you."
"On one condition," Kyle said.
Elroy thought for sure Kyle would reject him again like the many times he'd rejected him in the past. "What condition?"
"Go take a hot shower and get Lev off our body," Kyle said. "Make sure you scrub your feet well. And put on clean socks before you get into bed."
Elroy jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. He took a hot shower, brushed his teeth, and put on clean white socks. By the time he came out of the bathroom, Kyle was in bed. He was on his side with the black comforter that had stars pulled up to his shoulders. Elroy climbed into bed and snuggled up beside him. He wrapped his arms around him and kissed the back of his neck. "That's not a sex kiss," he said. "That's just a goodnight kiss."
Kyle laughed and said, "Goodnight, Elroy."
Elroy snuggled up closer and held him tighter. "I can't guarantee I won't get wood tonight." He felt his dick getting harder.
Kyle patted his leg and said, "But I can guarantee you won't do anything with it."
"How can you be so sure?" Elroy asked. His dick was rock hard and pressed up against Kyle's ass.
"Because I'm not like the other people you've been with," Kyle said. "I'm not the married man, I'm not the guys you meet at clubs, I'm not the guys you cruise at those places you go to, and I'm not Lev Godwin begging to suck your toes. That's how I know for sure."
"I see."
"Go to sleep, Elroy."
Elroy took a quick breath. "You smell good. What cologne is that?"
"I don't wear cologne," said Kyle.
"Do you still love me?"
Kyle reached for Elroy's hand and held it. "I'll let you know tomorrow."
That was good enough for Elroy. It was before eleven o'clock and he hadn't gone to bed this early since he'd been a child. But he knew he wouldn't have trouble sleeping that night, not as long as Kyle was in his arms.
Chapter Seventeen
"Let's get out of here this weekend," Elroy said. "I'm bored." "It's Thanksgiving," Kyle said. He was in his bed, wearing the same old gray sweatsuit, playing a game on his phone. He didn't even bother to look up.
Although Elroy had plans for Thanksgiving with his extended family, the thought of spending the entire weekend at the family home made him nauseous. There wasn't enough weed on Earth to get him through four days with Aunt Hilda, Uncle Fred, and those two ridiculous teenage cousins, Delbert and Oliver. These relatives didn't live on the estate; they only visited on holidays and it had become family tradition for them to be there every Christmas and Thanksgiving. Elroy's mother and father had started this tradition years earlier, and now that they were both gone his relatives wanted to continue it for reasons that passed him by. Elroy owned the estate and they all worked for him. He didn't speak to them more than once or twice a year. He could have told them not to come, but they always seemed so excited about sucking up to him and spending the weekend on the estate, he didn't have the heart to say no.
Elroy crossed to Kyle's bed and sat down. "So what? Just because it's Thanksgiving doesn't mean we can't do something fun. We're young, dumb, and full of come. We should be exploring life, not sitting around eating dry turkey and too many carbs." This idea had popped into his head earlier that morning.
Kyle put the phone down and sent him a blank expression. "You said you had plans. You said you were going home to spend the weekend with family."
Elroy looked up at the ceiling and shook his hands over his head. "If I have to spend the entire weekend with that bunch, I'll lose my mind. Seriously. You don't know what they are like, dude. My aunt and uncle are always kissing up to me because they know my father left everything to me. And my cousins, Delbert and Oliver, bite their fingernails and stare at my dick. It's creepy, man. Don't make me do this." He got down on his hands and knees and started begging in an exaggerated way. "Please, please don't put me through this."
Kyle remained staid. "I told my mom and the stepdad I would be home this weekend."
Elroy noticed he wasn't totally opposed to going away for the weekend. "Just tell them you have a huge exam on Monday and you have to study. Tell them anything. Let's just get the fuck out of here and have some fun." Another reason he wanted to get away had to do with his ongoing relationship with Ricky, his married lover. He'd already informed Elroy they wouldn't see each other again until after Thanksgiving.
"But it's only Monday," Kyle said. "We have classes this week."
"Fuck them," Elroy said. "We're doing great. We can miss a few classes."
"Where are we going?" Kyle asked.
Elroy hadn't thought it through completely. Then it dawned on him and he jumped up from the bed. "Palm Beach. I have a house down there, a huge house I never use. If we leave right now we can be on the beach by this time tomorrow."
Kyle thought for a moment, then looked up at him and smiled. "I do like road trips. And I've never been to Florida."
It didn't take more convincing than that. In less than an hour, they were packed, in the car, and heading south on the interstate. In Rhode Island, Elroy phoned his uncle and said he wouldn't be at the house for Thanksgiving because he had an exam on Monday that was too important to ignore. He spoke with a deep serious tone, and he almost cried. Elroy didn't have to ask permission; he just didn't want to answer any questions. In Connecticut, Kyle phoned his mom and said he'd taken a part-time job that weekend working in campus security to make a few extra dollars. Elroy could see he hated to lie; it made him break out in a cold sweat and his hands literally trembled. He told Elroy his mom would never have believed a study excuse. She would have told him to bring his books and study at home. So Kyle had to come up with the one thing his family would never dispute or question: making money.
When they reached New York, Elroy wanted to stop and spend the night in Manhattan. He also had an apartment in Trump Tower he never used. This road trip had seemed like such a good idea when he'd thought of it, but now that Elroy was actually in the car he was bored. As a rule, Elroy despised road trips almost as much as he despised men with little dicks. He usually took the company jet to Palm Beach-or anywhere, for that matter. But if he had taken the company jet that week, everyone would have known he wasn't at school studying. Driving down south had been his only alternative.
"We can spend the night in New York in my penthouse," Elroy said. "We can go to dinner, go to a few clubs, check out the action, and we'll be on the road again first thing in the morning."
Kyle seemed content in the car. He'd been eating junk food since they'd left Harvard and he wanted to continue without stopping for anything. Elroy noticed he had this ability to forge through anything without showing the slightest sign of discomfort. "I've never been to Florida. I've never been south of Boston. And I'm not sure I like the sound of what you have planned in New York. I have a feeling it will wind up being a night of sex, booze, and drugs."