Tom and Lue Get a Family

[Parts 01 and 02 should be read first]

Chapter XXIV Arturo's monthly dinner

One day a few weeks later, Arturo came into Tom's lab. "Tom," he said, "with regard to next week's dinner, in addition to Alberto, I have invited Giovanni Estravini, the man from the academic office. He has split up with his boyfriend Angelo, who was getting too demanding in terms of presents, and has nearly bankrupted the poor man.

"I couldn't help hoping that Giovanni and Alberto might get on together. But be careful. Don't let yourself and Luke show too much affection for one another at the meal. It might distress Giovanni. He was very much in love and has taken the bust-up very badly. It didn't come as much of a surprise to anyone. Academics and models don't have much in common, except what they have between their legs!"

"It's the Carmen scenario again!" said Tom, "Falling in love with the wrong person. But don't worry, we'll be sympathetic to Giovanni, and maybe Alberto will take a fancy to him. Anyway, it will be a social and drinking evening, which will be good for them and a nice break for Luke and me. Since we got the kids, we have massively moderated our drinking, partly because Olivia and the babies often need to be taken somewhere by car. We're thinking that Olivia needs to learn to drive! We'll take a cab home on Wednesday."

The following week the four guests arrived about 7-30 pm, Tom and Luke having just had time to put little Giovanni and Bernardo to bed before leaving on the bus. Introductions did not take long, as Alberto and Giovanni Estravini were the only ones who had never met before. Arturo served them Prosecco before the meal, at which Isabella, Arturo and Bastian's housekeeper, had excelled herself. Two brace of roast pheasants afforded a totally different gourmet menu. The six of them managed to consume three bottles of Barolo, which proved an excellent accompaniment to the pheasant.

The seating had been carefully arranged so that Alberto sat next the Giovanni, and the two men seemed to get on well. Admittedly, Giovanni was a few years older than Alberto, but by less than ten years. Bastian had a number of interesting anecdotes to tell about the gay population of Trabizona, most of whom the boys now knew slightly from Arturo's twice-yearly parties.

After one of Isabella's superb desserts, over coffee, the music-making began. On this occasion, Tom and Luke had decided to reverse roles, Luke played the piano and Tom, rather ambitiously, helped by the wine, sang

Un' aura amorosa

from

Cosi fan tutte

to the amazement and applause of the audience, which made him blush. He went on to sing David's signature song

Dear, pretty, pretty youth

. Further research by Tom about this song had revealed that it was an aria from an opera by Purcell called

The Tempest

. The fact that they tended to sing mostly the same items on each occasion, with only the odd variation, never worried any of the audience, who were always by this time well under the influence! Tom did notice however that Alberto and Giovanni exchanged business cards, suggesting that they might have 'clicked.' Each of them sang an operatic number, with great gusto. They all agreed that it has been the most enjoyable night for some months.

Chapter XXV The Teatro Musicale reopens

Soon after this, in August, several months late, the repair work on the opera house was complete, and the by now well rehearsed opening items could be performed. Even though it was out of season and Luke was officially still on leave, Cornelio, Luke and Pauline decided to reopen at once, to minimize further losses. David had come back from England, and out of retirement from the stage, to sing the roles of Il Duca in

Rigoletto

and Nemorino in

L'Elisir d'Amore

, which alternated six nights a week for the first two weeks. It was a gruelling experience for him. It is not often that a singer alternates roles on successive nights. It was only his desire to see his son's productions get their audience back that he did it.

Cornelio was desperately anxious to make money to get his financially shaky, though artistically excellent, business back on track. Advance bookings meant that the first performance of each opera was sold out before the opening. In spite of several years without wig or costume, David excelled himself in each performance, and the supporting cast was equally good. The whole of the twelve performances were rapidly sold out, even though August is a traditionally dead season for repertory opera. At the end of David's two-week term, he agreed to three more performances of each opera, but spread over a further two weeks.

Towards the end of this period, he summoned Jon to join him, and they both moved into the guestroom, David having been staying in an hotel until then, because his movements were rather incompatible with the lives of young children. Jon arrived just in time for Bernardo's first birthday. They were both thrilled to be present at the birthday of their fourth grandchild, who by now was crawling around actively and occasionally tried to pull himself up on his legs. Giovanni, who could now manage short sentences, would even speak to Nonno Davide and Nonno Giona in a few words of English. He was still being very sweet and protective to his little brother.

Olivia was still enjoying motherhood, but was glad to welcome visitors, even though, as always, there were no women among them. Jon brought news to Luke about his brother-in-law Dom, who had had to take time off work to visit his grandfather at Getheringthwaite, who was on his deathbed. "Sandro will join Dom for the funeral when it eventually happens, but Dom's father will take care of all the other formalities," Jon said.

At the end of what would probably be David's last ever stage performance, Cornelio threw a party in the theatre's rehearsal room, with delicious snacks and what seemed like unlimited Prosecco, to which all the cast and backstage crew were invited. Tom and Luke brought Olivia along, as Costanza had very kindly agreed to look after the boys. A lot of photographs were taken.

Chapter XXVI Should Luke attempt fatherhood?

Soon after Jon and David had returned home, Luke asked Olivia if he could talk to her. They went to her room. "Cara Olivia, I don't know whether you want another baby, but if you do, I would like to be the father." Luke astounded himself with this request, but it did not come as a surprise to Olivia.

She smiled and said to him, "Do you think you could manage it? I don't mean getting me pregnant, I mean successfully fucking me! You might have to try a lot of times. Are you man enough to persevere if you don't enjoy it?" She was secretly teasing him, because he had given himself away earlier when she had embraced him and he had got a hard-on. Besides, although she had not said anything, she knew that what she had said to Tom would work with Luke as well.

Luke blushed. "I do love you, you know, dolce Olivia, and I'm sure that if you want another child, you'll give me any help I need. I've never fucked a woman, and I had difficulties the first time with Tom, so if, and only if, you want a baby, I will do my best!"

"Oh, Luke, you are sweet, but you're a much more complex person than Tom. You know that you want to fuck me, otherwise you wouldn't have asked! But you're just as good a man as Tom, so if he can manage it, so can you. It's not a very ladylike thing to ask, but I would love to see you naked! I bet your body is quite different from Tom's!"

"Olivia! You still haven't answered my question! Do you want a third baby?"

"Dolce idiota! Of course I do. Why would I have teased you if the answer was No? That would have been cruel. We will try and make a baby, and I guarantee that you will enjoy it!"

Chapter XXVII Luke and Olivia's first attempts

Time went by, and winter turned into summer. Giovanni was now going to nursery pre-school three mornings per week. Bernardo missed his brother, and after a few months, he too was allowed to go to nursery. By now he could walk and could say a few words in both Italian and English.

Toilet training had been facilitated by teaching them to use the bidet as a urinal. It was just the right height for a toddler, although the lack of a fly on young boys' trousers still made it necessary to pull them down! Most boys are taught to use the toilet by their mothers and begin by sitting on it. Only when they get to school age do some boys learn to pee standing up. The men were determined to bring their sons up as men, peeing standing up from day one.

Being older, Giovanni was the first to learn to urinate standing, but he then tried to help his little brother to do the same. At first, he was spectacularly unsuccessful. Bernardo would stand at the bidet with his napkin round his ankles, and manifestly produce nothing, but the minute his napkin was pulled up, he would release a big stream of hot urine into it!

Luke's mother telephoned to say that the Marquess of Wakefield had died, aged ninety, and Luke's brother Sandro's partner Dom was now Earl of Batley. "If Sandro had been a girl, he would now be a Contessa!" she said, slightly regretfully. "But at least their daughters are now Lady Anne and Lady Jane Overton-Mascagnoli. Dom is considering becoming a self-employed IT contractor," she continued. "If he does he will save tax and be able to fix his own working hours and places of work. That would enable him to waste less time on travelling."

Luke and Olivia's attempts at conceiving another baby did not prove easy, mainly due to Luke's difficult working hours. By the time he got home at 11 pm, Olivia was tired and Luke was exhausted. After a frustrating month, which neither of them enjoyed, in spite of Luke successfully overcoming his fear of impotence, they decided that the only way to success lay in making love in the afternoon. So after a very light lunch, Tom and Costanza would take the boys out to play in the park, or would take them out to lunch at their neighbourhood trattoria, and stay away from the house for two hours to give Luke and Olivia some privacy.

This happened for five successive days every month for several months. If the boys had been older, they would have asked why they were being taken out, but as it was, they just enjoyed the break from routine.

Finally in desperation, Luke arranged to get a week off work for the time of Olivia's ovulation the following month. He was owed holiday time because of the August reopening of the theatre. Leaving Giovanni and Bernardo in the care of Tom and Costanza, they took the plane to Sicily and booked in at an hotel in Taormina. They walked in the gardens, visited the Greek amphitheatre, swam in the hotel pool, had leisurely meals in the open air, and generally behaved like a honeymoon couple. Every night they washed one another under the shower, sprayed themselves with Storing pour homme, and slept in the same bed. Sometimes they made love at night, sometimes first thing in the morning, sometimes both! In general they had an excellent time, though Luke sometimes wished that he was fucking Tom rather than Olivia.

From the moment that Olivia had seen Luke naked, she had fancied him. It was not just his beautiful brown skin and his slender figure, but mainly his giant tool that caught her fancy. Unlike Tom, whom she had never sucked off, she really fancied a mouthful of Luke's meat. So when they got into bed, she would prick-tease him with her mouth before gently guiding his hard dick into her cunt. Giving birth to two babies had stretched her considerably, and she enjoyed being penetrated by Luke's big dick, which filled her much better than Tom's more usual-sized tool. Luke too enjoyed the fact that penetration was much easier with Olivia.

Their repeated attempts at conception, which can be a source of distress and frustration to many married couples, actually brought Luke and Olivia closer together. In Sicily, they were totally relaxed, without a care in the world. Each night at the childrens' bedtime they connected by Skype and wished them goodnight before enjoying an excellent dinner in the hotel. Much refreshed, they flew back home to an enthusiastic welcome from Tom and the two boys.

Chapter XXVIII Olivia's third pregnancy

The Sicilian holiday paid dividends. Olivia's next period failed to arrive, and two weeks later the doctor confirmed that she was pregnant, and a few weeks later, an ultrasonic scan revealed that she was expecting a baby girl. All three of them were over the moon. Tom was particularly happy that his darling Luke had proved his male functionality. Luke felt eternally grateful to Olivia for helping him to prove his manhood. Olivia's joy was two-fold. Firstly she had cemented the bond joining the three of them together, and secondly she was delighted to be expecting a girl.

Soon after the confirmation of her pregnancy, the three of them met in Olivia's bedroom to discuss their future sexual relations. The boys made it clear to Olivia that they loved her as a person, not as a baby-making machine. They told her very firmly that whenever she wanted sex, even during her pregnancy, they would be happy to oblige, but that it was important that she got rid of any female modesty about waiting to be asked. "If you want one of us to make love to you, you must ASK! We're not mind-readers, and we are rather wrapped up with one another, but if you want a fuck, just ask! We now know that we can do it, and if you don't want any more babies, we are happy to use a condom when your periods start again. After all we always use one when we fuck one another." That was as far as they were prepared to go in talking to Olivia about man-man sex.

They were much more reticent about publicly revealing Olivia's pregnancy this time. Only Ben and Leonora and of course Costanza were told until Olivia got so big that they could not keep it secret any longer. Of course they told their parents. Dorothea was particularly delighted, because although the baby was notionally and legally her fifth grandchild, it was in reality her first biological grandchild. That year they spent Christmas with Olivia's parents, who were now totally reconciled to their daughter's distinctly unusual domestic situation, were delighted by their two grandchildren and treated Luke and Tom as sons-in-law. They were very happy to hear of Olivia's third pregnancy, and thrilled to have Olivia and the two children under their care until New Year's Eve, although the men of course had to go back to Trabizona because Luke was working.

On New Year's Eve they collected Olivia and the little boys and drove to Dorotea and Massimo's for the holiday. Bianca was there with her new French boyfriend. She cheered up a little when she learned that the author of Olivia's bulge this time was Luke and not Tom! Gérard, Bianca's boyfriend was very taken wiith the children and spent quite some playing with them. He seemed a nice enough man, whom Luke and to a lesser extent, Tom were able to talk to in his native language.

Unlike many mothers-to-be, Olivia suffered neither nausea nor heartburn during her pregnancy and still found time to play with the boys. Because the cooking was being done by Costanza and Tom during her pregnancy, and the two toddlers still had a couple of hours sleep in the afternoons, she had a little time to herself, to reflect on her life. Both at school and as a university student, she had had very few female friends. She got on much better with men, which was why she had sought Arturo's help when she found herself pregnant the first time.

She felt that she had really landed on her feet by adopting the solution that he had recommended. To her, life with two different, but loving and considerate men was an ideal existence. She had no desire for a younger lover or a husband. Because of their family and personal wealth, there were no financial problems, which wreck many happy relationships and she had Costanza, who did a lot in the house. The men also did a lot of chores like the laundry. They took her out to the opera or to the cinema, and they all ate out at the local trattoria with the children at least once every two weeks. While she enjoyed sex, she did not feel a deep need for it as the men did. While the prospect of undergoing labour a third time did not exactly fill her with joyful anticipation, she was glad that her and Luke's joint efforts had not been in vain!

Chapter XXIX Introducing Rachel

A few weeks later, Tom had to spend a week in Camford, in connection with his collaborative research. After much discussion, they agreed that he should take Giovanni, who was now nearly five, to England with him, and squeeze in a weekend with Tom's sister and her family. The little boy was thrilled to be travelling without the rest of the family, and was now old enough to appreciate the fun of being in an aircraft. They went from Heathrow Airport by train to Paddington and from there via underground to Kings Cross station, where they caught a train to Newcastle-on-Tyne, the home of Tom's sister Liz.

Giovanni was very excited by train travel, and kept chattering away in Italian as he looked out of the window. Tom tried to get him to speak English without much success. Liz and her husband Aidan Satterthwaite were delighted to see the two of them, and Giovanni was introduced to his cousin Anne, who was now about seven. Liz was expecting another baby, and had a bump not unlike Olivia's. Giovanni knew at once what a big belly meant and, realizing that he had to speak English, said, "Are you going to have a baby, auntie Liz?" Liz smiled, kissed him, and said that she was. Anne was very taken with her little cousin and played with him a lot.

By the time that Giovanni had got used to the fact that no-one except his father would understand anything he said unless he spoke English, they were back on a train heading for Camford. Giovanni was fascinated by his visit to the train toilet, and kept asking to be taken to the toilet far more often than necessary!

In Camford, they stayed of course at Octavia Avenue with David and Jon. Tommy was living in college. Caterina Fabioni or one or other of Tom's 'fathers-in-law' looked after Giovanni each day while Tom was occupied in the Chemistry Laboratory. Some evenings, Jon cooked, other evenings Caterina cooked, and some evenings they ate at the Venezia. At home, whenever Giovanni addressed Tom or his grandfathers in Italian, they replied in English, and he slowly began to realize that in England you spoke English! However, at the Venezia, Giovanni was allowed to speak to the waiters in Italian, and in fact they spent the evening talking Italian. It was good practice for Jon, who rarely spoke it in his everyday life.

The research team in Camford had a new member, a Ph.D. student called Rachel Ellison. She was an attractive, tall dark-haired girl with a first in chemistry. Several of the techniques that she needed to employ in her work had no-one in Camford using them.

Since she needed to learn the methods, Tom suggested that if funding could be found, she should come to Trabizona to learn them, as Tom's group were experts. It was agreed that she should seek departmental and college funding for a six-month stay in Trabizona. "My research student uses these techniques on a daily basis," he told her, "and he and I could teach you all you need to know. It probably wouldn't take the full six months, but you could spent a little time seeing Italy. It took me a long time to settle in Trabizona, but I love Italy now."

"It will take a few months to get the funding organized," she replied. It was agreed that Rachel would work on other aspects of her project until the funding was in place, and would start in Trabizona at the beginning of the Camford Pentecost term, so that she could work on through the summer and so complete the six months. By the time she arrived, Luke would have been a father for quite a while.