Marilyn looked directly into Penny's eyes, and relaxed, trying to loose her normally cool demeanor. Maybe today was the day to break it off. This just might work to her favor.
"Good morning, Will," she said.
"Noontime around here, Ma," he said gruffly.
"Well good afternoon then," she replied, matching his gruffness with a catty tone. Marilyn heard the bell ring, and stepped back, as Penny took in trades, and processed purchases.
"How's dad?" He said.
"Oh you know your father. Not much changes with him," Marilyn replied.
"You said the last time he spoke he had an infection?" He inquired.
"Yes, they took care of that. He's as healthy as a horse." Marilyn backed up.
"I see you've got another book out. Chris and I read it. He liked it, I was sort of hot and cold over it," Will replied.
"Oh," Marilyn took interest, "what didn't you like?"
"I'm not sure if it's a clear representation of a gay male life. I can see you're trying to stretch out your writing boundaries and that's great. Are gay men that promiscuous, though? Not that I know all that many, mind you," he said.
Marilyn rolled her eyes, "well I think that probably some are, and some aren't. So how is your roommate, anyway?"
Will coughed into the phone, "Chris is fine ma, fine. He got the lead in a local production of Romeo & Juliet for the summer Shakespeare festival."
"How wonderful," she replied, warmth in her tone that he was unused to, and suspicious of.
"Yeah he's real happy about it," Will replied. He did not inform her that Chris was rubbing his neck and shoulders and listening to every word. He shivered as Chris licked the back of his neck softly.
"So Ma, how's it going?" He said.
"Quite well, quite well indeed. The bookstore is finally turning a reasonable profit, and things are showing signs of improvement," Marilyn said, her eyes glued to the bounce of the hemline at Penny's skirt. "How are things over there? You find a girlfriend yet?"
Will opened his mouth to speak. Chris had been walking him through this for a while now, and he had mustered his courage to out himself. Marilyn interrupted him:
"When am I going to get a grandchild anyway?" She demanded.
Will's mouth snapped shut and he growled, "I don't know, maybe never. I don't like kids, Ma, you know that. Never liked being a kid, and don't like them now."
"Nonsense, you'd make a wonderful father," she said.
Will licked his lips, and then heard over the receiver Penny's singsong voice telling a customer how much she liked the sundress she was wearing.
"Who's that?" Will asked.
"Oh, that's just Penny," Marilyn said.
"Who's Penny?" Will inquired, putting his mother on the spot.
Marilyn swallowed the saliva in her mouth, "she's a girl I hired for part time work, in the afternoons. She'll give me some more time to work on my writing and other projects."
Penny tilted her head, looking at Marilyn.
"She's very cute," Marilyn said. "If you ask nice, I'll fix her up with you."
Will inwardly groaned, "no thanks, ma. I'm pretty comfortable the way I am."
Penny glared at her, and Marilyn pursed her lips at her. Penny flushed as Marilyn spoke, "you sure? She's adorable."
"Yeah, sure, Ma, just send her right out. I'm sure Chris would love to chat her up. Maybe they can exchange makeup tips or something," Will growled at the phone. Chris went from rubbing his shoulders to a short nip on the neck.
"Why don't you get to the point?" Chris said, whispering into Will's ear.
Will nodded.
"Ma, um, Chris and I are going to be having a little gathering here in September, and we'd like you to come up. You have store help now. You don't have any excuses."
Marilyn wanted to scrunch her face up and growl at him ferociously, but with a store full of people and more coming in, she had little choice but to be polite and cheery, "oh you do know I hate flying."
"Ma, this is important, look, I'm trying to tell you something here," Will elevated his voice, trying to make himself heard over the din. He heard his mother say something to a customer.
"Will, I've got to go, I really do, Penny's getting swamped, we have the end of the month sale this weekend and it's crazy.
"Look ma, this is important. I need to tell you something, I'm," Will spoke in rapid tones.
"I love you boy, give me a call at home in the next couple days, we can chat then." She said, and hung up the receiver.
"Gay," Will replied to the dial tone.
***
Chris continued to rub Will's neck.
Will's massive shoulders sank and he hung the phone up on the receiver. He turned to his boyfriend, his big eyes lidded with tears, "I tried, Chris, I really did. She hung up on me. She just tramps all over me."
Chris wrapped his thin, wiry arms around Will and softly nuzzled him, "Its okay lover. It's all right."
Chris led him to the couch where Will stretched out, putting his massive bearded face into Chris's lap. He felt the gentle touch of Chris's chiseled nails through the massive mop of his chestnut hair. Will cried softly.
They were a couple of opposites, both inside and out.
Chris was tall, thin, lithe, with blonde hair, and steel blue eyes that could pierce someone's soul with a single critical look. He was overly effeminate, and his close friends occasionally called him, "Pristopher" even to his face, even though Will never could. Chris had embraced his homosexuality as a child, prancing about dramatically. In school, he excelled in speech, and the arts, while his scores in math and language left him wanting. While he couldn't create literature, he could make it better. He won a scholarship in theater to a local collage and it was there he met Will in 1979.
Will was shorter, stockier with a scraggly beard, moustache, and was the stereotype of the gay male, bear. He hid his queerness from himself, and everyone else. He tried dating many women in college trying to figure it out, but being so socially inept, each of those relationships collapsed within weeks. He was a structural engineer, and enjoyed numbers and logical answers to problems. He had issues with his own emotions, and many thoughts about the world around him, yet kept an impassive, taciturn demeanor.
They met in collage, as assigned roommates, and after Chris survived a vicious gay bashing, Will took it upon himself to watch after him. They became housemates, after college. One night, Will got a phone call from Chris to pick him up at a bar where his boyfriend had dumped him. When they got back, Chris realized that Will loved him, even if Will was not willing to admit it at the time.
