I moved in with Harry two days after his seventy-first birthday. He'd flown to the West Coast to visit his daughter. To celebrate making it to seventy one, he told me with a grin. He was supposed to be gone a week. But he called me from San Francisco and asked me to pick him up at the airport the next morning. He sounded upset and a little down.
When we got his luggage and into the car, he kind of collapsed on the passenger seat. I started the car and we drove out onto the freeway to campus. Harry lived only a couple of blocks from campus. "You came back early I guess. Something wrong?"
He skidded around under the safety belt, so he could look at me, I guessed. "Sort of. That's why I asked you to pick me up. So we could talk." He paused and I waited. Silences between us had already become something we both sort of liked. "I mentioned you to Deborah. I guess she got the wrong idea. She's upset. Called her brother, my son Dan. You know, I mentioned him I think."
Harry had even showed me pictures of the two. Dan was a hunk. Tall, well-built. Nice smile. Harry sighed again. "Anyway, they both got upset. They seem to think I've suddenly become a doddering old fool who's being set up by some thieving sex-pot." He shook his head. "I'm so sorry. I wanted us to become a family, I guess. All four of us. I don't know what happened exactly. I guess I really blew it."
This was not good news to me. My heart lurched and my stomach started to hurt. I realized I was developing more than just fondness for Harry. What had started as sort of a sex project of my own, you know, what would it be like to be intimate for a while with a man old enough to be my grandfather? "So, where are we, Harry? Do you not want me to move in? I don't want to cause a rupture in your family. I care too much about you to do that."
Harry sat up like he'd been goosed. "No no! Nothing like that. Damn it! I'm doing it badly again. I haven't changed my mind at all and I hope this wrinkle won't put you off. I just want you to know going in that things with my kids are not copasetic."
We talked some more, even after we got to Harry's house. And in the end we agreed Harry was still sensible enough to make his own decisions. And maybe Dan and Deborah would come around in time. I wasn't so sure about that, but I wanted to be with Harry and he obviously wanted to be with me so what the Hell? The future would take care of itself.
Two days later I gave my notice at my apartment and started moving out. The first things we moved were all personal. My toys, my clothes, my books, like that. Harry had insisted I have private space as well as the run of the place, so I had a lovely large second floor bedroom. It connected to the bathroom that also connected to his larger bedroom on the other side. His room was almost a suite. There was a big walk-in closet as well. I sat down on the bed in my room. It was a comfortable double bed but I didn't care. I didn't plan to spend much time in it.