As if your vote is my applause, please vote.
*
Jeff receives a public blowjob at the bar and Ken meets Roxanne.
Revised, rewritten, and Continued from Chapter 01:
Successful enough to afford any vehicle, Jeffrey owned several cars, but preferred driving his BMW, tanzanite blue, Alpina B6 coupe. He said that it was one of the best cars he had ever owned and he had owned them all, Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Corvettes. He said that he's too old for pure sports cars and wanted something more luxuries and something that would impress his clients at the same time, which is why he bought the Alpina.
Jeff based his claims that the BMW Alpina B6, is not a true sports car because it has a backseat. The backseat is best suited for small children. With a horsepower claim of 600 and torque at 590, if the Alpina wasn't an all-out sports car, Ken didn't know what was. Even with its heavy 4,750 weight, nearly as much as a Bentley Super Speed, the car still manages a sportscar 0-60 time of 3.3 seconds.
Prompt to meet Ken, they sat at a table with a view of Newbury Street. Even though Jeffrey's office was close enough to Newbury Street that he could have walked to the restaurant, especially on such a nice, sunny, Spring day, he preferred driving his car. Somehow, gifted in that regard, as if God was always watching out for him and moving all obstacles from his path, he found a parking space in front of the restaurant.
Instead of using quarters, he used Chuck E. Cheese tokens. After taking his nephew to Chuck E. Cheese, a playground restaurant for kids, he inadvertently inserted a token instead of a quarter. He discovered quite by accident that Chuck E. Cheese tokens would not only fit the meter but also give him two hours on the meter. Further, the tokens jammed the meter and stop it from counting down his time. Even though he could well afford to park his $140,000 car in any parking lot, he preferred sticking it to the city by using Chuck E. Cheese tokens to jam the parking meter.
The two friends sat talking about cars with the same enthusiasm as they had when they talked about cars in high school. Nothing changed except they both could afford whatever automobile they desired now. Even though Ken was as wealthy as Jeffrey, if not more, he preferred negotiating the city streets on his custom made, recumbent bicycle. There they sat as if still teenagers naming every exotic sportscar from Japan to Germany to Italy and to America. Jeff always had something interesting, insightful, and informative to add about each vehicle.
"Now that we've been talking about cars for more than an hour," said Jeffrey with a pause and looking at his watch. He sat back in his chair and took a slow sip of his beer before looking up at Ken. "I know the perfect car for you," he said with a smile. "I'm ready to make my recommendation on which car you should buy."
Ken could hear the drumroll of suspense as Jeff took a longer sip of his beer while scanning the room for available foxes. Always distracted by long, leggy women, he was always looking to sexually score. He focused upon a beautiful and sexy brunette sitting across from them at the bar. He smiled at her and she returned his smile while slowly crossing her long, sexy, shapely legs. Having built up the appropriate amount of suspense, as he always does with everything he says and everything he does, in the way that he does in a courtroom with a jury, he awaited Ken's reaction before speaking.
"Okay, Jeff," said Ken. Jeff looked from his friend to look at the attractive woman. "Jeff!" Ken hated playing games. Impossible for him to compete with someone who looked like her, he hated being in competition in trying to dissuade Jeffrey's attention away from the sultry, sexy woman. "So, which is it the BMW, the Porsche, or the Audi? I'm dying to know," said Ken with the same enthusiasm he once shared with Jeff over expensive automobiles when they were kids growing up in the same neighborhood in Boston. "Jeff," said Ken grabbing his arm.
'Knowing Jeff, surprising him and catching him off guard, he'd probably suggest that he'd buy a Corvette or a special version of the Mustang, a GT 500', thought Ken. With Jeffrey a snob when it came to fine, fast automobiles, Ken supposed that his friend didn't think him sophisticated enough to drive a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Porsche, or a BMW Alpina B6.
Jeff turned to look at Ken and smiled his ever present self-confident, smug smile, something he never showed his clients but always showed his adversaries. Albeit without the smugness, he gave him the same smile that he gave the jury when talking to them as if they were all close friends instead of total strangers. With Jeffrey always so relaxed and Ken always so nervous, jittery, and high-strung, he talked to him in the way that he talked to the jury as if they were sitting his living room having a beer or sipping coffee. He talked to Ken as if he was someone on trial for murder and Jeffrey was his lawyer trying to calm him and assure him.
"None of those," Jeff answered quickly before looking away from Ken to watch the leggy woman slowly uncross and cross her legs again.
* * * * *
Sometimes, especially in the way that Jeff lavishly lived a lifestyle as if there was no tomorrow, he imagined Jeff as F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby reincarnated in the 21st century as a successful lawyer instead of a bootlegger. As if he was an unnoticed fly on the wall, instead of his best friend from childhood, Ken imagined his role as that of the lowly Nick Carraway in Fitzgerald's novel. No matter what they had planned, Ken always took a backseat to the women, the trips, the adventures, and the lavish affairs and events in Jeffrey's life.
The epitome of an eternal bachelor, in the way that Ken did early in his life, he could never see his best friend getting married and having children. Unlike Ken who was always so careful, cautious, and never reckless, especially with his research and experiments, Jeff enjoyed living fast and easy on the edge of life. When he wasn't practicing law, he was attending cocktail parties and rubbing elbows with Boston's powerful, influential, and elite. Boston still had plenty of families with real, old monied wealth and political influence and power.
Because Jeffrey was so charismatic and good-looking, many of those Brahmin families hoped that he'd take a romantic interest in their debutante daughters. Some of these women, once elegantly beautiful, had long since passed their age of maturity, their prime, and/or had been divorced or tarnished with scandal in some way. It's not easy for an aristocratic woman of good social standings to meet an eligible, untethered, young man of good social standings, someone who wasn't after her wealth, her position, and/or her property. Those in that position of power and wealth were more looking to make a political, social connection than they were a marriage.
A term coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. that he gave to the highest-ranking caste of wealthy, educated, elite members of Boston's social society of the 19th century, the undercurrent of old money, wealth, power, and influence still controls everything in this country. One may think that it's the politicians who have all the power and the influence but it's those with deep pockets behind the scenes who make the politicians dance to whatever music they want by financial supporting their campaigns. Those in office have learned the hard way not to give a deaf ear to those with vast amounts of money to contribute to their campaigns in exchange for continuing to support their causes and their personal agendas.
"Here's to dear, old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod, where the Lowells speak only to the Cabots, and the Cabots speak only to God," was a quote made in 1910 at a Holy Cross alumni dinner about Boston's blue bloods.
Unlike Ken, Jeff enjoyed living alone. He enjoyed living in his two-bedroom, luxury condo that overlooked Boston Harbor. He enjoyed coming and going as he pleased with apologies to no one. Then, there the exotic cars he bought, the expensive trips he took, and the lavish parties he attended and gave. A married man with children couldn't do any of those things. Burdened with responsibilities, a married man with children would have his wings clipped and his testicles confined to just one woman. In the way that Ken enjoyed being faithful to one woman, as if needing sex as his validation of being desired and wanted, Jeff needed a continual and a constant variety of women.
Nonetheless his faults, he was a good friend and a good man to know should Ken ever have trouble with the law and need a well-connected lawyer. As if Jeff was his mother, it was because of Jeff's constant nagging and continual urging that Ken returned to MIT to graduate and earn his Master's degree a year later. A waste of his time and his money, convolutedly, he only returned to school to please his friend. He only returned to school because he thought, perhaps, his life would be more like Jeff's life, charmed, privileged, and fortunate.
Only, his life wasn't anything like Jeff's life. Instead of feeling confident about the law and about his job as a lawyer, Ken was always filled with self-doubt and failure, especially when one of his experiments didn't work. Where Jeff always had his law books to reference to, Ken was continuing treading new ground with his robots, robotics, and artificial intelligence. As a trial lawyer, Jeffrey went where many had gone before him and, conversely, Ken was inventing things that had yet to be invented.
Yet, having a bachelor's and a master's degree from MIT opened doors that would have otherwise remained closed. Having an advanced degree from MIT allowed him access to the inner circles of those scholars who conducted research and experiments all day, every day. In the way that those few privileged who graduated from Harvard Business School were invited to join the inner circle, the exclusive, private, men's fraternities, and uppity, country clubs that dotted Boston and the world, Ken was invited to rub elbows with scientists and researchers. Moreover, those who passed out grants, no matter how giftedly smart he was, would never give a multi-million-dollar grant to a quitter and a college dropout.
* * * * *
Jeffrey enjoyed another slow sip of his beer without removing his eyes from the gorgeous woman. He delayed answering Ken to further build the suspense. Driving Ken crazy, Jeffrey stared at him in the way that he stared at those who challenged him in a court of law.
"None of those?" Ken looked at his friend as if he was nuts or pulling his leg. Now, forget about him suggesting that he buy a Corvette or a lowly Mustang, Ken figured that Jeff was going to suggest that he'd buy another bicycle or a motor scooter. Ken couldn't help but feel affronted by his friend. Even though they had known one another most of their lives, as if they now lived on opposite ends of the universe, Ken didn't understand Jeff in the way that Jeff didn't understand Ken. "What do you mean none of those?"
