At noon Bruce was on duty as Nathan passed the reception desk, carrying the bag of groceries, en route to his room.
"Got locked in a grocery store overnight?" he called out, grinning because he knew from the night clerk that Nathan hadn't used his room that night. Curiosity had moved him to check downstairs to find out if he'd been fucking in one of the Bourbon Street Pub back rooms all night, titillated at the thought that maybe Big Ralph had gotten to him, but he'd drawn a blank. He'd have given his left testicle to know what the hunk had been up to. All night humping on the beach? Maybe over at Saloon 1? The possibilities all were just too delicious.
"Nope," Nathan called back, turning and giving Bruce a glorious smile. "I spent the night humping a father and son and they gave me this nifty bag of groceries in appreciation."
Bruce laughed. "Good one," he called back as Nathan reached his door.
Nathan turned again before going in. "They serve lunch downstairs as well as breakfast?" he asked.
"You had your breakfast later than this yesterday, doll," Bruce said. "So, I'm sure you know you can get somethin' to eat down there now. You don't have lunch in that sack, though?"
"Ralph from downstairs isn't in this sack. I'm gonna let him suck me dry while I'm eating lunch. He's the best, you know."
Bruce kept his grin on his face until Nathan disappeared into his room, and then he let his jaw drop. Well, shit, he thought. I wonder if that's where the kid was last night. Ralph can really ream a wide one. Wonder if he got lucky. Don't think I want to know if he did, though. That back room of his. Bruce shuddered and turned to go through the reservations lists one more time.
Ralph gave a little chuckle when Nathan told him about the unusual coincidence of falling in with a father and son on the same day. "It's a problem, of course, especially with, as you've said, both of them hinting at something longer term. But I must say that you're quite something to get shackled up like this in just one day here."
"I'm writing it up as the mystique of Key West," Nathan said. "If I had something like this happen to me back in New York, I'd be tied in knots. In fact, I was tied in knots coming down here even without these new complications. Now none of it looks worth the worry. I think Key Westāand your adviceāhave me just going with the flow."
"If you trust my advice so much, why don't you go back beyond those beaded curtains over there with me and I'll show you one of the biggest, thickest dicks in the keys, and I'll do work with your body beyond anything you ever dreamed about."
They both laughed, but the look Ralph was giving Nathan gave Nathan some pause for contemplation.
"I think it's because you're such a fox, even down here in the keys," Ralph continued. "I think you could get away with almost anything as long as you were putting out. Still thinking of moving down here?"
"The father said he's planning to sell his house. Says he wants two million, three hundred thousand for it. What do you think? Would that be a good deal?"
"Where is it and how big is it? Does it have a pool and off-street parking?"
"It's on Georgia Street. Not the section here. Over on the southern side. 2,800 square feet he says. Four bedrooms and it looks like it's been in
House Beautiful
. He's a real fussy housekeeper. Nice swimming pool and lotus pond. A single carport, but enough room for another car to park behind it and be off the street."
"If it's got all that, it's probably a steal at that price," Ralph said. "Especially if it comes with the busy maid you've said the father isāand a son with more Kama Sutra moves than a behind-the-scenes Bollywood actress."
"That's certainly something to think about," Nathan said. And then he laughed.
"What?" Ralph asked.
"That's what I told both of them when they hinted that we could live togetherāthat it was something to think about."
"Before you decide on either of themāor both of them," Ralph said, "I suggest you try out what I was telling you about yesterday. What you have said about that first guy, the one who started you off, if you want to consider something like that again, you go on over to Saloon 1. Tonight would be good. It's a good night tonight."
"It's a thought," Nathan said.
"And if that don't scratch your itch, come back over here and go into the back room with me. I'll fuck you good that way. You want a taste of that original guilt you felt so that Key West can help you wipe that away, you come back to Ralph's cave. You needed to talk about all of this and work this out. You'll be fine. If you go over to Saloon 1, just go with the flow. Be open about what you want. This is Key West. This is what the keys can do for you; why you've come here."
"Thanks for the advice and the pancakes, Ralph. Pretty tired now. Think I'll go back upstairs and get some sleep before the band slips in here and starts banging around."
Yep, that's something to think aboutāgoing over to Saloon 1, Nathan thought as he climbed the stairs and ran the Bruce gamut again to get to room 21 and the queen-sized bed in the loft. He did his best not to think about the Ralph optionāor about that man who had initiated him so many years ago.
* * * *
Nathan had a hard time getting to sleep. Ralph had finally screwed right down to the foundation with him. Guilt. Was that what it was all about? Guilt over thinking too much about himself, his own fears and anger and frustration, that year that Howard was dying and not giving enough attention to Howard? Guilt about Glen dying in that motorcycle accident, which came after he'd left the apartment angry with Nathan? And, deeper than that. Guilt about that first lover and what they had doneāwhat Nathan had let the man do to him? Guilt about what he was willing to do in sex and didn't want to admit to?
Ralph told him that Key West could be the cure for that. And it had been for some of his guilty feelings. He had to admit that just opening up to possibilities, not keeping them bottled up inside him, was helping. Ralph told him to go to Saloon 1 and just let it all hang out. He'd had no intention of doing that, but now . . .
He drifted off into sleep.
The arrival and revving up of the band downstairs, in the Bourbon Street Pub, jolted Nathan awake. It already was dark outside. He padded out on the balcony overlooking Duval Street just in his shorts, and almost immediately the cat calls and offers to join him rose up from the crowd milling around on the street below. He smiled, waved, posed provocatively for themāsomething he wouldn't have done just two days earlierāand went back into his room.