Coda 02 -A to Z

Really.”
    Behind him Angelo waved goodbye and left the store. Tom put an arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Really, Zach, I’m sorry. We had a meeting, and I couldn’t get out of it, and the battery on my cell phone died. And I know I should have called yesterday, but I was just so busy.” His hands gripped my ass and his lips were against my neck. “I’ll make it up to you, Zach. I’ll take you out tonight.” I could feel his partially erect cock, pressing against my hip. He looked into my eyes. “I can’t stand to have you mad at me, Zach. Please tell me you forgive me.”
    Part of me wanted to stay mad, but that part of me was definitely losing.

    He kissed me, slow and deep, and it was incredible. I was so attracted to him. I couldn’t stop myself from wanting him. He broke our kiss and looked into my eyes again. “Say something, Zach.”

    “You’re forgiven.” I smiled at him. “This time.”

    He smiled back, that amazing, sexy smile that made me weak in the knees. “Good.”
    We had dinner and then went back to my apartment. We didn’t waste any time talking. I unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it off of him. His chest was covered with coarse, brown hair. Just below his right collarbone was a round mark, about the size of a quarter. I might have thought it was a birthmark, except I knew I had never seen it before. It was a hickey.
    “Who gave you this?” I asked playfully.

    “Must have been you, baby,” he said as he started undoing my pants. Apparently I was “baby” again already.
    “I think I would remember,” I laughed.
“I haven’t been with anybody else.”
    The fact that he was obviously seeing somebody else didn’t bother me as much as the fact that he was lying about it. At this point in our relationship, there was no reason to expect that we were being exclusive. I would have been seeing somebody else, too, given the chance. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the real reason he had stood me up two days earlier, and his dishonesty bothered me.
This time I insisted he wear a condom.
    “We already did it without one once, Zach. It’s too late now.” I bit back my irritation. “I want you to use it anyway.”
    “Come on, baby,” he groaned. “You know how much better it is without.”

    “I don’t mind wearing one at all if you want to bottom,” I said.
    Something flashed across his face—fear or disgust—it was hard to tell, it was there and gone so fast. He shook his head and took the condom from me. “Whatever you want, baby.”
    It was a little better than the first time. At least he lasted more than a minute. Still, it wasn’t exactly earth-shattering.

    Afterward we lay side by side on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “Can we get together sometime this week?” I asked.

    “I might be able to come by tomorrow night.”

    That wasn’t what I meant at all. “I was thinking more along the lines of dinner.”
    “I doubt it, Zach. We’re really busy right now.” He must have sensed my disappointment, because he rolled over and kissed me. “You’re right. We don’t get to see each other enough. I’ll check my schedule first thing tomorrow and give you a call, okay?”
    “Sure.” I wasn’t sure if I should believe him or not.

    “H OW ’bout Casablanca ?”
    It was the start of Angelo’s third week, and he was quizzing me on the movies I had actually seen. So far I was about three for eighty.
    “No.”
“That one’s kinda cool. That’s where lots of sayings come from. ‘Here’s lookin’ at you kid’ and ‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world’. And ‘Play it again, Sam’, except nobody in the movie ever says that exactly.”
    I was going through an inventory list which Angelo was making for me. To my surprise he was turning out to be the best employee I had ever hired. Hell, he was a better employee than I was. He was still working on reorganizing all of the movies, making the inventory list—his own idea—as he worked. He certainly was enthusiastic about it. He kept finding movies that made him as excited as a kid on Christmas. Most of the time, I hadn’t heard of them. Even more surprising than his work ethic was the fact that he was great company. We got along really well. It didn’t seem like we had much in common, but somehow it worked. I hadn’t told him yet that I was gay. That was the one thing I was a little worried about.
    “How ’bout Oliver! ?”
“You mean that Disney