This story contains some explicit scenes of erotic love between males. If you are under age, or live in an area where reading stories that include sex between males is illegal, or if you're not into this type of story, please leave. The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at NJMcMick@yahoo.com.
The story is set in the fictional city of Trenton, New Jersey. Yes, there is a real city by that name, but other than being a state capital on the Delaware River, it bears little resemblance to the city in this story. While a few of the places mentioned may exist in reality, all of the characters and events are fictitious.
Chapter Eleven
Norman called Saturday afternoon to ask if we could alter our dinner routine a little.
"I thought it would be nice if we went out to eat for a change."
"Yeah, it would, but you know I'm on a tight budget, Norman."
"I'm treating, Jerry. I know you can't afford it right now."
"No way! You just gave me a ton of money. You can't take me out to dinner, too."
As soon as the words left my mouth I realized that he'd been feeding me every Saturday night at his house and I'd never felt guilty about that. I'd always thanked him but I'd never made any effort to reciprocate, not that I could have him over for dinner at the rooming house, but I should have been the one taking him out to eat now and then.
"It's not a big deal. Besides, you insisted that you're going to pay back the other money so I haven't actually given you anything. I missed your birthday so you can think of it as a belated birthday present."
I gave in. "Okay, what time?"
"I'll make reservations for eight. You can come over earlier if you want to play the piano, but no later that 7:45 in any event."
"Reservations? Remember, I haven't got anything nice to wear. It's jeans or nothing."
"I think nothing would cause quite a sensation at the restaurant, but nice jeans will be fine. Try to find something other than a t-shirt, though."
I had a clean polo shirt so I wore that with my less faded pair of jeans. I still felt very underdressed for a restaurant. If it was a chain restaurant he had in mind, like Red Lobster or Olive Garden, I'd be okay, except I didn't think they took reservations. Besides, I hadn't seen any of them in the city, only out on the highway near the mall. If there had been any nearby, I'd have tried to get a job at one.
I got to the house a little before seven. I did want to play the piano. When I'd started playing before our dinners I'd been very self-conscious because I was very rusty. Norman probably sensed it so he kept busy in the kitchen or somewhere else in the house, leaving me alone to play. But since we weren't eating in this time, he had nothing to do in the kitchen, so he stayed in the room with me and listened to me play. I went through the sheet music and found a few pieces by Gershwin. Aunt Aggie had liked him so I was pretty familiar with his stuff. I kind of got lost in the music, thinking of when Mom was teaching me and how every time I learned something new I couldn't wait to go see Aunt Aggie at the nursing home and play it for her. I barely realized Norman was in the room until he got up to gently remind me that we had to leave or we'd be late for our reservation.
Norman only drove about five minutes before he pulled into a parking place on the street in a slightly shabby neighborhood. It was old and a bit rundown, like most of Trenton, but here and there a building looked like it had recently been refurbished. He pointed to a storefront across the street from the car. Above the windows was a large sign that read 'Minho'.
"Min-ho? What's that?"
He chuckled. "That's what it looks like, but it's pronounced Mee-nyo. It's Portuguese."
We crossed the street and when I looked in the window at the dining room I realized that I had seen the place before.
"I came through this area a week or so ago when I was out job-hunting. I don't think this place was open."
"No, they're only open on weekends."
We went in and were greeted by a tall slim woman in her mid-thirties with long dark blond hair. She smiled when she saw Norman and kissed him on the cheek.
"Right on time, Norman. How was your trip?"
"A nice change of pace, Kate." He turned to me. "This is Jerry, the friend I was telling you about. Jerry, this is Kate."
I shook her hand as she looked me up and down, then she led us to a table. After we sat down I looked around the place. It was very small and only had about a dozen tables, some for two and some for four. They were all occupied. It looked like there was only one waiter and one waitress. The décor of the place looked Spanish, or what I imagined Spanish to be. Norman had brought a bottle of wine with him and he handed Kate the bag. She left us with two menus and took the bag into the back.
She was back a minute later with the bottle opened and a couple of wine glasses.
"We'll only be needing one glass, Kate."
"I thought so but I didn't want to assume." She smiled at me. "Just how old are you, Jerry?"
"Nineteen," I lied.
"You look younger, but I'm sure you get tired of hearing that. Or maybe not, since most gay guys I know want to look younger."
"It can be a problem when you look too young." It could be more of a problem if you were too young, but I didn't want to get into that.
"What can I get you to drink, Jerry? We have coffee, tea, soda."
"Coke would be fine, thanks."
She nodded. "Lisa will be over to take your orders in a few minutes."
I looked at the menu and was lost. There weren't all that many entrees, but the whole menu was in another language. "This isn't English, Norman. How am I supposed to know what these dishes are?"
"I'll order for you, Jerry. I think I know what you like by now."
A young waitress with short black hair came over to take our order. Norman seemed to know what he was doing. He ordered broiled chourico as an appetizer and paella for himself and picadinho for me. He wouldn't tell me what any of them were; he wanted it to be a surprise. I was surprised when a few minutes later Lisa came back with a brown ceramic serving dish that seemed to be on fire. When she got close I saw there was a large sausage on the plate. She used tongs to turn the sausage in the flames and in less than a minute the little fire died down and went out. She sliced up the sausage and put it on a small plate in the center of the table.
"This is the chourico. It's a spicy Portuguese sausage."
"How do you know this stuff, Norman? Are you Portuguese?"
"No, but I've eaten here several times. I love the food."
We split the appetizer between us but I think I took much more than half. Lisa cleared the plates and in a few minutes she brought out our entrees. Norman's was a small metal pot full of yellow rice with lots of different kinds of seafood in it - shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, lobster, and who knew what else. I was glad he hadn't ordered that for me. I liked shrimp, but the rest I wasn't too crazy about. Actually, I'd never had lobster or mussels so I was only guessing that I didn't like them. My dinner was a large platter piled high with little cubes of pork and potatoes, with slices of chourico, peppers and onions mixed in. There were also lots of black olives and some pickled carrots sprinkled through it. It was in a sauce that was absolutely incredible. Once we started eating all conversation ended.
As we were finishing up, a woman wearing a long apron came out of the kitchen and started moving from table to table, chatting a bit with the diners. She was just a little bit stocky and had short, thick black hair. Like Kate, she looked to be in her mid-thirties. When she got to our table, Norman stood up and kissed her on the cheek. I stood as well. We shook hands as Norman introduced her as Dora. She looked me over as Kate had. I wasn't used to being checked out by women and it made me feel a little uncomfortable. We sat again as Norman explained that in addition to being the chef, Dora was Kate's business and domestic partner as well. They were lesbians. I had never even thought of that. My gaydar wasn't very good with guys but apparently didn't work at all with women.
"Excellent meal as usual, Dora."
"Yeah, Dora, the pica-whatever was awesome."
"Thanks. You're absolutely adorable." She dragged a chair over from another table and sat down with us. "Norman says you have some experience as a waiter."
"Um, yeah, a little, I worked part-time for nearly a year at a coffee shop."
"Hmm, waiting tables or working behind a counter?"
"Some of both."
"Think you could handle a dining room like this?" She swept her hand around.
"Sure. It's smaller than the coffee shop. Why, are you looking for another waiter?"
"Well, we just started in August and right now we're only open on Friday and Saturday nights. Now that we're solidly established we'd like to add Tuesday through Thursday, but we need more help to do that. Lisa and Greg are college students who aren't interested in working any more nights."
"I think the menu would be my biggest problem. In the coffee shop the only food we served was bagels, muffins and pastries, so it was pretty easy. We did have nearly twenty kinds of coffee so that made it a little more complicated. But I don't even know what anything on your menu is. And I'd have to learn to do stuff like that flaming sausage we had."
"That's not a problem, Jerry. I could teach you the menu in no time. And we could have you work a couple of nights assisting Lisa or Greg. Do you think you might be interested?"
"It sounds really nice." I looked around again. The place had a warm, cozy feel to it. I thought I could probably be comfortable there. I'd probably find a bigger place to be intimidating. "What kind of hours would I work?"
"To start you'd just be working weeknights, but once you were comfortable with the job I could put you on one night each weekend as well. It would still only be three nights a week, though."
My hopes faded. Could I make enough money to get by in only three nights?
"What would the money be like?"
"That's hard to say. As with any waiter job, it's mostly tips, and that varies. Right now I think Lisa and Greg are making about a hundred dollars a night. Of course, there will be less business during the week, especially in the beginning until our customers all know we're open more nights. But you'll be on by yourself so all of the tips will be yours."
"By myself? Right from the start?" I was less sure this was a good idea.
"You won't be entirely alone. Kate will be here with you. And I'll be in the kitchen."
"I'm under twenty-one. Is that going to be a problem with serving drinks?"
"We haven't got a liquor license so there won't be any alcoholic drinks. Lots of customers bring their own wine like Norman did tonight, but Kate can serve that. Look, why don't you think about it and talk it over with Norman. He has our home number and can let us know what you decide. Don't take too long, though. We're ready to go with this as soon as we find a waiter."
As soon as she'd gone back to the kitchen I turned to Norman.
"You set this all up. Why didn't you tell me what we were doing here?"
"I wanted you to see the place first before I said anything. If I'd told you before we came you'd have been nervous and looking at everything differently."
"Yeah, I probably would have. I really like this place but I'm not sure the money will be enough. If I was working weekends it would be, but who knows what it will be like during the week."
Lisa brought us each a small plate with something called flan on it. It turned out to be custard with caramel sauce and was really good. We discussed the possibilities of the job over dessert. I was playing with numbers in my head as we talked, something I'd been doing a lot lately. If I had one good night on the weekend and two terrible ones during the week, I could probably scrape by. Three terrible weeknights, though, wouldn't work, except I had that check coming from unemployment and that might help out until business picked up.
By the end of the meal I'd made up my mind.
"I think I'd like to try it. Norman, but I need another favor from you if I do."
"Another favor?" He slapped his forehead in a hammy gesture. "Now what?"
I pointed to Greg, the waiter. "I'm going to need clothes like that to start working here. Can I borrow some more money against my unemployment check so I can get them?"
"No problem, Jerry, I'll put it on your tab. I'll even take you out to the mall one day next week to do some shopping."
When we got up to leave I told Kate of my decision. I think she was surprised to get my answer so soon but she was pleased. She hugged me and went to get Dora. She was gone a few minutes and when they came out they had everything arranged. They wanted me to come in the next weekend and learn the ropes from the other waiters. I'd get paid a little more than the regular hourly rate since I wouldn't be making any tips those nights. Then a week from Tuesday I'd start the job for real.
I got a little nervous hearing them talk about it and seeing how excited they were. Norman must have sensed that because he reassured me all the way home. He drove me right to my rooming house so I saw the route I'd have to walk to get to work.
The next several days flew by. All the fruitless job hunting I'd been doing had made time drag, but now I had something to look forward to. Monday morning I called the unemployment office to tell them about the job and when I'd be starting. My check hadn't gone out yet but they said the paperwork had been approved, so when it was mailed, probably later in the week, it would cover everything I was due. Wednesday Norman took me to the mall for shopping. I bought two pairs of black pants, three white dress shirts, a black bow tie, black socks and comfortable shoes. When I added up the bills I thought I might as well just give the unemployment check to Norman when it came. There wasn't going to be much left.
After shopping, Norman told me about part two of his plan to improve my life. He had spoken to a guidance counselor at the high school where he used to teach. She was an old friend and she would know what I had to do to get a high school diploma. He offered to make an appointment with her and drive me over to the school. I was becoming a little overwhelmed by everything he was doing for me. I appreciated it, but I was starting to feel a little helpless. And I wasn't sure I wanted him to be with me at a meeting with the counselor. There was no way I'd be able to keep my age a secret once I started talking about how far I got in school and when I quit.
"Maybe later, Norman. Right now all I can think about is the new job."
"I understand, but you don't want to keep putting this off, Jerry."
"I know, I know. I've already put it off too long and I promise you that as soon as I get settled in the job, you can make the appointment for me."
So we left it at that. I wasn't sure how long he'd let me stall on this, but I'd drag it out as long as I could.
By the time Friday arrived I was getting really tense. I was beginning to think I'd made a mistake. I'd never waited tables in a real restaurant. What if I couldn't handle it? And I didn't have a clue what any of the food was. If it was American stuff I could at least pronounce it. Kate and Dora must have anticipated my nervousness because they asked me to get there a couple of hours before opening. I got dressed up in my new clothes and walked to Minho, arriving about four o'clock. Kate gave me a tour of the place, showing me where everything was kept and explaining how they did everything, from setting the tables to serving the food to cleaning up.
"I know it's a little overwhelming at first, but it will all become second nature to you in no time."
I then spent an hour in the kitchen with Dora. She went over the menu with me, teaching me how to pronounce everything and explaining what each of the dishes was as she got the kitchen ready for the dinner crowd.
"How did you ever find out about food like this and how to cook it?"
"I was born in Minho, a province in northern Portugal, hence the name of the restaurant. My parents came here when I was little so I grew up American, but my mother taught me to cook."
"Is Kate Portuguese, too?"
"No, she's an all-American mutt. I did meet her in a Portuguese restaurant ten years ago, though."
They turned me over to Lisa when she got in. I basically just tagged along behind her all night, watching everything she did, trying to remember everything she said, helping her out while trying to stay out of the way. Kate was right, things did become routine pretty quickly. The place was busy, but with so few tables Lisa and Greg had no trouble handling it. As soon as the first round of customers started to leave they were replaced by newcomers. I estimated that over the course of the evening Lisa (and I) served about thirty people. So did Greg. I could see that the weekend tips were very good.
Saturday night I was teamed up with Greg. I was glad they had assigned me to Lisa the first night because Greg intimidated me a little. He was about six feet tall and really built, wide shoulders, a nice chest, slim waist and hips. He was also very good-looking, with short black hair, blue eyes and a square jaw. He was a good waiter and was friendly, but I was pretty quiet all evening, just watching and learning and trying to help out. By the end of the night I felt comfortable with the menu and the restaurant and felt I was ready to fly solo on Tuesday.
It was a slow start. Kate and I kept each other entertained most of the evening because we only had six diners all night. We had a few more on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was a pretty discouraging week. At least I was able to handle the 'crowd.' But the money really sucked. I only made half of what I needed to scrape by for the week. Fortunately, my unemployment check finally arrived on Wednesday. I took it over to Norman's house and he cashed it for me. After deducting what I'd borrowed from him I only had a little over two hundred dollars left, but that would be enough to cover the rest of my living expenses for a few weeks until business picked up. Kate and Dora assured me business would pick up. They'd sent out a notice on their mailing list and posted the new hours at the restaurant, so it was only a matter of time before word spread. I just hoped it wouldn't be too much time, because my unemployment nest egg wouldn't last forever.
I did enjoy working at the restaurant, though. I liked Kate and Dora a lot. I didn't ever see Lisa and Greg, since they only worked weekends. The place wasn't a gay restaurant, but it wasn't quite straight, either. There were several gay customers, but not quite the majority. And I'd figured out that both Lisa and Greg were straight by listening to them the two nights I was training. So it was more or less a gay-friendly restaurant. Everyone was welcome and everyone felt comfortable to be themselves.
Business was a little better the second week and I had to use a little less of my savings. It was the third week I was really looking forward to, though, but that had nothing to do with work. It was Thanksgiving week. The holiday itself meant nothing to me, but my date with Marcus was the night before. It felt like I'd been waiting years for this date. I hoped that Marcus had been waiting as eagerly, but I'd be happy if he just remembered we had a date. I'd made sure to ask for the night off from work right at the start. I lucked out and Lisa wanted Friday night off that weekend, so we switched nights. That would help me financially, too, since the restaurant was closed on the holiday so I was only working two nights that week.
I was a nervous wreck getting ready for the big date Wednesday evening. I tried on everything I owned, which really didn't amount to much -- two pairs of jeans and three non-t-shirts were it, if you didn't count my work clothes. Once the money got better at work I was going to have to do some shopping. At ten to eight, there was a knock on the door. I opened it and there was Marcus with a beautiful smile on his face. I felt shy (even more than usual) and grinned hesitantly as I looked into his eyes. He stepped into the room, kicked the door shut behind him and took me in his arms, locking his luscious lips onto mine. The kiss must have gone on for five minutes. What was it about his kisses that just blew me away like that? His hands roamed up and down my back, finally coming to rest of my ass. He grabbed one cheek in each hand and pulled me up and into him. We finally broke apart and he gazed into my eyes.
"If I don't make love to you right now I think I'll die."
"Well, we don't want that to happen."
He pulled my shirt out of my jeans and up and over my head in one motion. As we fumbled with each other's belts he toed his sneakers off. In seconds we were naked and he backed me against the bed, kissing me as we gingerly fell back onto it. He reached into the drawer of the nightstand and found the condoms and lube. He quickly applied some lube to my pucker and fingered me a bit, getting me ready for his tool. I could see there wasn't going to be much foreplay and I didn't care. I needed him in me as much as he needed to be there. He removed his fingers and lifted my legs up over his shoulders, then placed his sheathed dick against my hole and pushed. Aside from a brief sharp pain when that mushroom head of his popped through my ring, it was all pleasure as he slid into me. He never once took his eyes off mine. When he was all the way in he wiggled his hips around a bit so I could get used to the feel, then slowly began to fuck. He picked up speed and was pounding my ass in no time, hitting my nut, driving me wild. I grabbed my dick and started pumping it. I could tell this wasn't going to be a marathon love-making session. It was more like a sprint. We were both so horny for one another that we just needed to get to the finish line.
I felt that familiar tingling sensation in the head of my throbbing dick and pumped harder, lifting my ass up to meet his thrusts as much as I could. As I began to shoot all over my chest, my ring clamped down on his dick, grabbing it, trying to milk his juices from it. He groaned and I felt him pulsing inside me, six, seven times. He lowered my legs and lay down on me, kissing me once again as his cock slipped out of me. We rolled over onto our sides and looked into each other's eyes.
"I'm really sorry, Miah."
"Sorry? What for?"
"I didn't mean to just walk in here and practically rape you, but I've been looking forward to being with you for so long, and then when I saw you I just lost control."
"Well, there's nothing to apologize for. I wanted it as bad as you did."
"Yeah, well, we'll take it slower next time."
"Any way you like, Marcus."
We just lay in each other's arms for a while, not saying anything. It was strange, we hadn't seen each other in two months but we didn't have anything to say just then. Talking could come later. Just then it felt good to be touching.
"This isn't much of a date, so far. Are you hungry, Miah?"
"I'm always hungry for you, but if you mean food, yeah, I could eat a little something."
"C'mon, then, let's get cleaned up and go down to the diner."
Once we were out of the bedroom, we talked non-stop. Back in September we'd filled each other in a little on our families and background. This time we mostly talked about what we'd been doing since then. He told me about school, I told him about my first job, the fire and then my new job. I didn't mention the part-time job in the park in between. There was a slight pause in our conversation as we shoveled food into our mouths. We'd worked up quite an appetite with our little bit of exercise in the room.
"So I guess you're spending the day with your family tomorrow?" I asked as the waitress cleared the empty dishes.
"Yeah, it's gonna be a full house. What are you doing for the holiday? You don't have any family in the area, right?"
"Right, I'm gonna be with my friend, Norman."
"Hmm, Norman. Should I be jealous?"
I laughed. "Nah, he's just a friend, a very good friend. What about Friday? You wanna get together and do something?"
"More family for me during the day. My grandmother is coming up from North Philly tomorrow and Friday we're taking her back home. How about Friday night?"
"I'm working." I laughed but I didn't find it funny. "Our schedules just aren't fitting together."
"What time do you get off Friday night? Maybe we could do something afterwards."
"During the week I'm done by ten, but it'll probably be at least eleven on Friday."
"Okay, how about meeting me at Buddies at midnight?"
"Sounds good to me."
Marcus insisted on paying for our meal. It wasn't very cold out so we walked around for a while and talked some more.
"How about Saturday? I know you have to spend time with your family and you probably want to see friends while you're home, but I'm free all day and evening if you want to see more of me. Since we're not meeting up until late on Friday, we probably won't be going back to my room afterwards."
"So you're saying that if I want to fuck you again I'll have to make some time for you on Saturday? Not a problem, Miah. My family'll be seeing plenty of me tomorrow and Friday. And my friends will probably be at Buddies on Friday. We can be together all day Saturday and then do something at night, too, if you like."
I smiled. "Yeah, I'd like."
It was after eleven when we got back to my rooming house. I knew if we went up to my room one thing would lead to another and Marcus might end up spending the night. I'd get in trouble with Lucille and he'd have a lot of explaining to do to his parents. He knew that also, so he just stopped at the foot of the stairs and kissed me goodnight there.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Miah."
"Thanks, you have a good holiday, too."
"Remember, Friday at midnight, Buddies."
"No way I'm gonna forget that. And don't you go making any other plans for Saturday. You're all mine all day."
I was smiling and humming as I went upstairs to get ready for bed. At least for the weekend, I had a boyfriend.