When Eric Malone was told by his parents back in 1976 that while they were very willing to throw him a party to celebrate his graduation from high school, it would be primarily an adult affair with relatives and friends of the family because they had no intention of sponsoring a melee full of drunken teenagers like had happened elsewhere in the neighborhood in recent years.
Eric feigned a bit of annoyance but didn't really care since he didn't have all that many friends and the ones he had were eggheads like himself who were hardly that type. Eric was interested in the guest list however, and when he asked his father who was invited Ed Malone ran down the roll call of aunts and uncles that Eric barely knew.
"That's it?" Eric asked when his father paused after a while, because there was a name that he hadn't heard that he was praying would be on it.
"Let's see," Eric's balding father said as he adjusted his glasses, and after mentioning some other faceless cousin Eric's mother Peggy chimed in.
"And Mr. Lennox of course," his bubbly Mom chirped, and then Eric nodded while trying to keep from jumping up and down to celebrate upon hearing that his old man's boss would be invited.
"Oh yes," a slightly annoyed Ed Malone said to his son as he rolled his eyes out of his wife's sight. "We wouldn't want to deprive your mother out of seeing Rock again."
"Oh you!" Peggy said in mock anger. "He's such a nice man."
"Sure."
"Your father!" Peggy said as she shook her head. "He thinks I have a crush on his employer."
"Well you just about swoon whenever we end up at a function with him," Ed Malone accurately noted.
"He's a handsome man. No doubt about that. Your wise guy father calls him Rock because I mentioned once that he resembles Rock Hudson. You know? The actor?" Peggy teased. "But I'm a one man woman."
"It'll give you a chance to wear that new bathing suit you got," Ed noted. "And who knows? Maybe he's bring his bathing suit too and you two can ogle each other all afternoon."
"Silly. Richard Lennox is not going to take a second look at scrawny old me," Peggy said. "Not when your sister is around showing off her stuff."
"Well, whatever you two decide," Eric said as he left them to discuss the matter, and on the way to his room the soon-to-be high school graduate tried to get his heart from racing so fast.
Eric knew his father's boss from Richard Lennox coming to a birthday party his Mom had thrown for his Dad's 50th a couple years ago, and while the teen had only seen the man a couple of times very briefly since then, that first day in the backyard was what resonated in Eric's memory.
It was spending that afternoon with Richard Lennox that made Eric figure out a lot of things about himself, and it had been a struggle not to keep from staring at the man who was about his father's age but bore little resemblance to his Dad.
Eric remembered over hearing his parents bickering that night when the two of them were cleaning up, and it was obvious to the boy that his Dad was a bit upset at the way he perceived his wife had been flirting with his boss.
"I was just trying to make the man feel comfortable - just like I was everybody else," Peggy had insisted, although Eric himself had noticed the way his Mom had been staring at the handsome man with the broad chest and muscles that made him look younger than he was. "Silly you getting jealous, just because I said he reminds me of Rock Hudson. I was kidding. Jealous at your age!"
"I'm not jealous," Eric's father had said, and it was obvious that the cocktails had an effect on him when he added when he thought his son was out of earshot. "Besides, he's not that way."
"You mean he wouldn't mess around with other men's wives? I'm not surprised," Mom had said. "He's a classy man."
"No, I mean he wouldn't screw around with any wives, or any women. Understand?" Ed had snapped, enjoying his wife's confused look. "He's - you get it?"
"Mr. Lennox?" Mom had said in a shocked voice. "He's... that way?"
"He is," Eric's Dad had replied, nodding toward his son who was picking up trash a few yards away to warn her to keep her voice down.
"Who would have guessed?" Eric recalled his mother saying softly as she learned too much about her fantasy man.
Eric had heard enough but pretended to have heard nothing, and as he moved around the perimeter of the pool picking up cups and plates he felt a shiver go down his spine.
"He's that way?" Eric whispered in an imitation of his mother as his parents went inside while his boy replayed the image of Mr. Lennox by the pool in his mind. "What would you think if you found out I think I'm that way too Mom?"
Eric had suspected that he was a little different all along, but until that afternoon when he pretty much fell in love with his Dad's employer he wasn't absolutely sure.
That was back then and now a couple years later Eric knew, only now when he would see Richard Lennox again he would not be a boy but a man, and even though he had no delusions about anything ever happening like he had fantasized non-stop since that day, like his mother he could still dream and here's how Eric remembers it going down.
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"I'm so glad it's a hot and sunny day!" Mom chirped to the company for the millionth time as she introduced another faceless relative to me, and while I smiled and was the ever-gracious nerd son my mind was elsewhere.