Setting up the new home was a work of love. Everything he bought had the same tag on it, `Ripley would like it'. Carpets, decor, furniture, pictures, it all mirrored the likes of a young university student, and if Ripley liked it, Tony did as well.
Excitement was mounting with Tony as the semester came to an end, Ripley would be home that day and he would have his love back with him for a few weeks.
Home from school, and he headed up the stairs to shower and change ready to greet his lover. Then he heard it, the sound of love making. He crept to the bedroom door and looked in. He wanted to die, there were two men on his bed, one obviously buried deep in the other one. He couldn't see either one clearly, but logically one was Ripley. Tony crept back downstairs and sat in the lounge in shock. When it truly hit him he just dissolved. The sobs wracked his body until he was almost convulsing. How could this happen? What had he done to deserve finding out this way? He thought his whole world had just collapsed and he wanted to die. In consequence he didn't hear the outside door open and close, or hear the body move through the house to stand in front of him. Nor did he hear the gasp of shock as that body crouched down and pulled him into a hug.
"What is it my love, what's happened?"
Tony pushed the body away and looked at it. It was Ripley, fully clothed and looking windblown. He also realised the face that had touched his own was cold. He must have come in from the street, so who had he seen in his bed. Gasping in buckets of air to his starved lungs he spoke.
"I thought that was you in our bed. I thought you were being made love to by another man."
It took Ripley a moment to click.
"Oh God, those idiots got the wrong bedroom. We've been home for hours and those two were so horny they wanted a screw."
Ripley laughed until he looked again at the devastation written across Tony's face.
"Oh my love, you thought it was me?"
Tony nodded, but he couldn't speak again.
Ripley shuddered, this man had totally come apart at the seams thinking that his love had been compromised.
"I told you I loved you and would do so forever. I swore I would never be unfaithful to you. I would die for you, now and forever. How could you think that was me?"
Tony looked guilty, like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but he couldn't speak. Ripley was shocked. He realised that Tony's suspicions had actually caused a trauma that had left him speechless. He left Tony and almost flew up the stairs, charging into his bedroom and almost screamed at R&B.
"Get dressed, get down stairs as quickly as you can after you've made this bed, open the windows, get the lubricant hidden."
Then he flew back downstairs and took Tony into his arms.
"I love you, I'm always going to love you, I'll never be unfaithful to you. Please my love, speak to me."
Tony smiled but still couldn't speak.
"Please Tony, you're frightening me."
R&B came into the room and saw the devastated look on Ripley's face and the almost vacant look on Tony's, streaked with tears.
"He thought that was me being screwed. You were in our bedroom. He can't speak. Help me get him up to bed."
Tony walked up like a zombie supported by Ripley and backed by R&B. They undressed him and put him to bed.
"Russ, stay with him, I'm going to talk to dad."
Ripley explained as quickly as he could what had happened. Tom realised immediately that this crisis was way out of their league to solve. His connections in government now paid off. He contacted a first class psychiatric unit who immediately dispatched an ambulance. Ripley wouldn't leave Tony's side so they were both bedded down in a psychiatric hospital just outside London. The next morning the head of section questioned Ripley and at the end smiled.
"You must be a very special young man to cause this kind of reaction."
Ripley blushed, but searched the doctor's eyes.
"Don't worry, I think you will find your partner will snap out of this very quickly. His love for you caused the trauma, but I'm sure he has realised his assumption was wrong, judging by what you have told me. I envisage that he will start talking to you within the next 48 hours. I would send you home today but your father would probably lynch me if I did."
Ripley was surprised and pleased that his father was now a power in the land, but even more pleased that Tony would be back to normal in a couple of days. He stayed by his side without a break, except for toilet purposes until he recovered his speech.
It was pitiful to watch Tony grappling with his non verbal communication. He looked with love at his man but wasn't together enough to even use sign language to ask for pen and paper. He just lay there and looked with love at his partner.
A soft voice brought Ripley back from his reverie, remembering priceless moments with Tony from the period before acceptance.
"I'm so sorry my love, I don't know why I would have thought that was you in our bed."
Ripley's whole being lit up.
"I should think so too. How could you even for a milli second believe that I would ever be unfaithful to you? What do I have to do to convince you, you are my life, I'll never be unfaithful to you if we live to be a hundred."
Tony cried then and Ripley was devastated. Taking his love into his arms he stroked him back to calm and then whispered.
"Take me home, show me how much you love me, let me show you how much I worship your body, how much I worship you."
Transport was arranged, the head of section sent them on their way wondering at a love that strong.
At home, Ripley didn't even stop to admire their new home, he just took Tony straight to bed and gentled him into the most passionate love making session he could remember. And then they slept.
The next morning Ripley was awake early watching his lover. He eased out of bed after a while and went exploring. He was totally enamoured with what he saw and realised even more the great love Tony had for him. Everything shrieked of Ripley. He went back to the bedroom to be greeted by a very worried look from a wide awake lover.
"I thought I must have dreamt last night happened when I woke and you were gone."
Ripley sat on the side of the bed and stroked his love.
"I'll never leave you again if you say so. I can do an Open University degree and be here for you every day."
"I thought I had lost you, I love you so much."
Ripley nodded. If he had doubted it before, he certainly didn't now.
"I know. Would you like some breakfast?"
Tony nodded.
"I'll go and shower before I join you."
Ripley got up and left, his mind still working on the knowledge he had garnered in the last forty eight hours. It made him shudder. Tony had been the strong one, Tony had weathered all the storms and protected him and R&B. Surely he couldn't now become the one needing protection and reassurance. Over breakfast Ripley began to realise why Tony had been so fragile. He was near to breaking point with his workload. He was English Department Head, President of the LGBT Society, and a very active president at that. He was the school counsellor, and with the pressures kids were under nowadays he had a full schedule there. On top of that he had just spent months searching out things for the house and sorting decor etc. The guy had to be on his knees nearly, and then to be presented with what he thought was infidelity, well. Ripley realised he was lucky to have got Tony back so quickly.
"You must be mad Lover, that workload would break the back of an elephant. You have to ease off, get rid of at least one of your jobs. You can't keep this up Tony or you'll be no good to anyone, you'll be too damned ill to look after yourself, never mind a school full of kids."
Tony sighed, he knew Ripley was right but who could he shed jobs to?
"Ok, I know you're right. I only have another week before we break for Christmas. I'll try to find someone to take over either the Society or the counselling."
Ripley smiled. "I'll come in and help until the end of term. Running the society for a week will be interesting. I must go round to see mum this morning , but I'll be in school this afternoon."
R&B were on the doorstep soon after breakfast and were delighted to see Tony getting ready to leave for school. They greeted him enthusiastically, planted big sloppy kisses on his lips, apologised for causing him grief and watched him go.
"Wow Ripley, that guy is amazing, and to love you so much must be an awesome experience."
"Yes, but I'm not sure I like the responsibility that places on my shoulders. I know Tony is grossly overworked, but even so, to disintegrate like that shook me up."
Russ looked at his lover and said, "Would that happen to you in the same circumstances?"
Brewster thought about it and nodded. "I think so, I can't imagine my life without you and catching you making love to someone else without my knowledge would probably destroy me."
Russ looked at his lover and his best friend with one of love and concern.
"We are quite a foursome aren't we? Lucky as all get out to have a love so deep, but you're right Ripley, it's an awesome responsibility.
Ripley left the boys at the house, knowing what they would be doing for the remainder of the day. Unfettered loving was something they had never been able to enjoy before, but Tony and he had decided the boys could virtually live with them during the holidays if they wanted to. After all, it was Tony's remote love for these two that had brought him his own deep love. He went to see Tom and Ann, catching his father before he left for another few days away in the big city.
"Hotel living must be getting quite tedious Dad, mustn't it?"
"Don't do it anymore Son. I have the use of a government flat when I'm in town, and I'm not away as much as I used to be. I do quite a lot of my work on computer or video conferencing from home."
Ripley was quite impressed, before Tony and he became public property his dad had barely been able to switch on a computer, never mind actually use one, now he appeared to be totally at home with them.
"That's great Dad, does that mean we'll have you all over Christmas?"
A grinning dad replied in the affirmative before rushing off to catch his train.
Mum and he had a long chat about his life at University before he walked to school to see what he could do to help Tony. Term exams were finished so senior classes particularly were on a much reduced study programme, so when he walked into the society's room it was quite full. Ripley was surprised at how comfortable it looked, and how well laid out for its purpose it was.
"Wow, you guys live in the lap of luxury here don't you?"
Of course, they all knew Ripley and greeted him enthusiastically.
"And how's the famous undergrad getting on"
Ripley grinned at the speaker and replied, "You mean infamous don't you?"
He grabbed a coffee and sat down with a group of gay boys the year behind him, so now upper sixth.
"We have Mr. Forrester to thank for this Ripley. He paid for all the furniture out of his own pocket."
Ripley knew, he just hadn't seen it looking this good.
"Are you still together Ripley?"
"Are you kidding, we'll still be together when we're getting around on Zimmer frames."
The boy concerned looked with envy at this totally happy gay friend.
"I hope I find a love like that one day."
"You will. It will get easier to find a mate as sexual orientation becomes less of a big deal. Russ and Brewster, Tony and me, were just very lucky to get it right first time." Ripley was grinning as he continued, "Think of the fun you can have though while you search for Mr. Right."
The others all laughed, some of them thinking about the sexual romps they had enjoyed already.
"Haven't you guys played around at uni?"
Ripley shook his head as he looked at the questioner.
"No, R&B have each other all the time and I've never even considered the idea of being unfaithful to Tony. I love that guy more than my life."
Tony had walked in just in time to hear the last sentence.
"I hope that guy you're talking about is me."
Both pairs of eyes lit up at the sight of their lover and several of the others noticed it. One of the wags grinned and said, "Good morning Sir, Ripley was just telling us about all his sexual conquests at Uni."
Tony grinned and replied, "Well , what did he talk about after that ten second story?"
"Ten second story, Sir?"
"Yes, about that, how long does it take to say, 'I don't ever screw around at Uni'?"
Nobody had a reply to that, particularly after Tony had sat down beside Ripley and given him a hug.
"So, how many of you have plans to see each other during the holiday?"
Two boys, sat next to each other raised their hands. "We do Sir, our parents are ok with our sexuality."
"Well done Lucas, are you and Terry a couple then?"
Lucas blushed a little and Terry grinned, replying for both of them.
"Loosely Sir, we enjoy each other's company, but we are taking things slowly."
Tony nodded and came back. "I'm pleased about that, I know open relationships are still a little difficult but you know you can always come to me to discuss any problems."
Ripley watched the interplay and realised all of these boys admired Tony and were very relaxed in his company. `I still can't believe how lucky I am to have this man', was his thought. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Epilogue
Ripley and R&B graduated together and returned to their home town to work.
The two boys parents had remained anti gay making it impossible for them to stay at home.
When they were established in their jobs, having lodged with Tony and Ripley in the interim the discussion turned to a permanent home for them. Tony had given this some thought and expounded on it.
"If you buy a house between you it would probably not be a lot bigger than this one. Ripley and I will probably move up the property ladder a little now that we have another income. We are all very close friends and lovers and that hasn't changed in five years so why don't we pool our buying capacity and purchase one grand house with all the amenities we want instead of settling for second best."
That came out of the blue so all three younger men had to think about it and discuss it. Tony disappeared to make drinks while they talked it over. When he got back they were all grinning.
"We like the idea Tony. Where are we going to look and what are we going to look for?"
He dropped on the table between them details of a house for sale not far from where they were now, but it had more grounds.
"That house has four bedrooms. Two of them en-suite with a third bathroom between the other two. On the ground floor there's a large lounge, dining room and kitchen. There's a large study and a downstairs cloakroom. The loft, if converted would give us a lot more space if we ever felt we needed it. There is an excellent conservatory and room in the garden for a decent size swimming pool which we could cover and heat for all round year use if we wanted to. We could add a small gym and a hot tub if we wanted to as well. I've had it all costed and we could manage the repayments on the mortgage easily from our combined salaries, so if one of us lost our job we would still be safe."
Ripley just looked with his jaw nearly on the floor. Brewster was not much different. Russ spoke.
"You wanted this to happen didn't you, and this is the plan you devised expecting us to want it as well."
Tony grinned.
"Yes, I know how much we all love each other, it just seemed so logical giving us the opportunity to live in luxury even though we don't earn mega salaries yet."
They went to look at it together and a little more than a month later moved in.
Tony eventually became headmaster of his school. Ripley did his doctorate and became a lecturer at the local university and the other two both plumped for the financial world, one in banking the other in stock broking. The only lovers they ever had were in the house they bought together.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That's the end of another story. If you enjoyed it please let me know, and I will happily send you the index to all my stories in nifty Prolific Net Authors, and of course, the pictures of the main characters in this story.