I received a lot of requests asking to find out more about my rivalry with my cousin, Tommaso - I described how it all began in 'Cousins. Rivals. A Wrestling Story'.
I'm sorry it's taken so long to put up, I couldn't decide whether to mention how it ends. It's also very long and rough, because I've written it while getting ready for a party and don't have time to make it pretty. I hope you enjoy, let me know if you have any more questions or comments. I'm always interested to hear if guys have had similar experiences.
Anyway, this story takes place almost a year ago - which is over ten years on from that original cousin clash in Italy.
After that, although we both moved to London to pursue our careers, Tom and I didn't really see each other, except maybe once a year at family occasions. As usual, these were opportunities used by both ourselves and our parents to assert our achievements and general posturing over the other. We would use these events as a chance to scope each other out.
"How much are you earning now?"
"Are you still lifting weights?" and so on.
The acts of one-upmanship were petty as hell. For example, I had a large graduation photo on my grandparents' wall - so he bought an even larger frame for his, and on and on it went. As I'm sure is the case in a lot of Mediterranean families.
This rivalry, while obvious, consisted solely of these more subtle acts as we entered adulthood. We never spoke of the near-naked fight all those years ago that became a little too real - until Tom's 29th birthday, on Halloween.
We were in a restaurant with all our relatives, including the Don, our grandfather. It was of course a birthday celebration first and foremost, but by complete coincidence I had also received a *massive* promotion that week. It was an exciting new job, and it was all anybody could talk about - how I now earned the most, and I would have all the girls after me.
Tom was sat opposite me on the long table. I could tell he was annoyed, but seemed relatively at ease, leaning back and flexing his arms behind his head. We'd both been on the receiving end of this over the years and knew how to disguise our frustration. I saw him squeeze Francesca's hand, next to him - the girl I had liked back in school. Believe it or not, they had stayed together all this time (though very much in the Italian sense - Tom slept around).
Then he let me have it. He stood up and rang his glass. "I want to take this opportunity to announce that Fran and I are engaged!". This was the ultimate trump card. The family erupted in a cacophony of congratulations. Tom slumped back down and shot me the most shit-eating grin. He was one of the few people in the world who knew I was bi, and I could never hang on to a girlfriend for long.
I felt totally humiliated. We were full-fledged adults now, and there was nothing to do but say "Congrats," which instead I aimed at Fran. Damn, she was still gorgeous. Besides, I couldn't exactly slap the guy around at the table - we're not the Jersey Shore kind of Italians.
The meal wound on, and I took the opportunity to speak to Fran, and learn a bit more about her plans for the wedding. I was giving her my cutest smile and laying it on thick - I'd had a few beers by this stage. Suddenly, I felt a force under the table. It was Tom's leg, pressing against mine. I had to turn back and face him in order to keep on my chair and push back. Neither of us moved, but the table started to shake a bit with the force.
Thankfully nobody noticed. We broke it up and laughed it off. "Did you miss leg day dude?" I was suddenly thrown back to that holiday, and how that fight had started about the same girl, in exactly the same way. A tentative test of strength, hidden from view, and masked in the conviviality of family.
I got up to go to the bathroom, trying to conceal the bulge that was inadvertently making itself known through the suit pants I was wearing.
In the bathroom, I splashed my face with water and took stock in the mirror. Within a couple of minutes, as suspected, Tom came in too. In the long bathroom mirror, you could see that we were still practically twins. The same height, but more built and rugged now - around 80kg - and our physiques were both on show with shirts that were probably a little too fitted. That was another annoyance - without fail, we always seemed to come to parties dressed the same.
"Aren't you going to congratulate me dude?" he asked as we faced each other.
"Sure," I said as assertively as possible.
We took some tentative steps towards each other, then I slapped my arms around him in a big hug. We laughed, but neither of us let go. In fact, we were squeezing harder.
"Haha, I thought you'd like to be my best man," he laughed in my ear, as we shuffled slightly in this weird dance.
"C'mon, I'm already the best man!" I laughed back, somewhat breathlessly as Tom forced us closer together with his meaty arms.
We looked each other in the eye and smiled, making light of it all, but when we returned to resting our chins on each other's shoulders, I know we were both grimacing and squeezing as hard as we could. Neither wanting to let on that this was a serious test of strength, our version of Hercules vs. Samson, and that we were putting all our power into it.
Suddenly Tom pushed me backwards into a cubicle, pressing me against the wall, and locked the door behind him.
"You're still the weaker man," he whispered as we negotiated the tiny space and resumed the bear hug.
It was so small we had to be face-to-face the entire time, there was no room to break it up. We were starting to sweat in our tight shirts as our barrelled pecs and tight abs were sliding against each other, the thin material barely disguising our very prominent nipples. The smell was of sweat mixed with the Acqua di Parma cologne that we both never failed to receive as a birthday gift from the Don.
I broke my bear hug and clawed his chest, taking an ample pec in each hand. He growled and released his hold after a few seconds.
"Ah, you little bitch!"
We shuffled around a bit as he yanked my tie and grabbed my throat with his other hand, and pressing his face up nose to nose laid a whacking punch on my abs. I'm proud to say I managed to keep my face steely through the pain of my mid-section, on fire.