RA Adventures: Revisited (Chapter 3)
By Sam Redwood samredwood@gmx.ca
About 20 years ago there was a touching series named RA Adventures. It was one of my favorites as a young gay man coming-of-age at the same time as the characters. I recently re-read the series, and began to consider how the story might have continued. Of course, this many years later, the original author's email address has resulted in bouncebacks, and I can't imagine that he has spent a lot of time thinking about this series in the intervening period. By chance he has, however, please reach out. I'd love to talk with you about the characters and where you might see them.
As for everyone else, similar to the original series -- this is not going to be a quick cum, so if that is what you are looking for, you might want to look elsewhere. And, of course, this story is a fictitious work that depicts sexual activity between consenting male adults, so if that is offensive or illegal in your area, you may wish to consider a different website.
Most days, Matt was responsible for getting the kids up, ready, and off to school. We had settled into a good routine after all these years. I was in charge of cooking, cleaning, and finances...and he was in charge of the kids, the yard, and recreation. However, Matt was responsible for supervising some clinical residents this morning and had to get to the hospital to supervise rounds. That meant Daddy Kevin was flying solo. Pushing-40-Kevin still hates mornings, and the buzzing of the iPhone alarm next to the bed was particularly obnoxious today. I reached over to poke Matt to prompt him to turn it off, and upon finding an empty space next to me in bed remembered that if I don't get up today, no one but Matt will emerge from the McReardon-Simpson household this morning. Hmm...would that really be the *worst thing, though? The comfy bed, cozy pillows...
"DADDY!" I heard, as small hands pounded against the door in rapid succession. Well, I guess *that settles it. I reached over to swipe the alarm off the screen, got up, and opened the door. I was greeted by two nearly-angelic looking faces, dressed, cleaned, and ready for their day at school. Matt obviously has them well-trained, and I made a mental note to thank him for that.
"Breakfast?" I muttered to them, and pointed down the hallway toward the kitchen. Dutifully, they proceeded. I pieced together a gourmet meal of instant oatmeal, fruit, and milk before heading back to the master bath to clean myself up and prepare for my day.
After feeling confident I've made myself presentable for one of the occasional days at the office downtown, I loaded up the kids in my convertable Camaro. It wasn't quite warm enough to drive with the top down, which the kids find to be the only redeemable treat of riding in my car. From their protesting, and the fact that they had to wake me up this morning, I suspected I was losing brownie points in the eyes of my children. Whatever, I can deal with that later.
The grade school is just over two miles from our home, on the same county highway as our own subdivision is located. Our oldest would be moving to a different school next year as he is promoted to a new grade, however the school buildings are actually directly across the highway from one another. We still had a few more years of easy drop-off and pick-up before things got tricky.
"Have a good day at school, and say hi to your teachers from me," I told the kids as they climbed out the opposite side of the car from me. Every once in a while I felt a pinge of worry for them. Having two dads in the inland mountain west still isn't entirely mainstream. Matt and I both made it a priority to be involved in the PTA so that we could have good relationships with the other parents and play a role in the school. Our state has funding challenges like most others, but the public schools here are actually pretty successful, and so far our family hadn't received any pushback. When our oldest was in kindergarten, he was taunted one day by a child who just didn't understand how he didn't have a mommy at home. The teacher intervened, and the other child's parents were mortified at the incident.
I drove away, heading for the interstate that would take me into downtown. Clint would be arriving in about two hours to meet with the property manager, and I had a project I predicted would fit exactly into that time.
The phone on the desk buzzed...it was the receptionist announcing Clint's arrival. I wound my way through the labyrinth of hallways to reception in order to say hi. Once I got there, I noticed that he was already chatting with the property manager. We all shook hands, and the manager made a remark about me being one of his favorite tenants and that Clint must really be good to earn a referral from me. Small talk made, I told them to just end the tour at my office and then Clint and I would head out for lunch, and excused myself from their shop talk.
I walked back to my office, feeling a familiar warmth stir up within me. Decades of friendship and thousands of miles still couldn't put my feelings toward Clint to rest. Memories flashed back in my mind, even back to that first time I really noticed Clint in the shower in the old dorm. Damn, was it really nearly 20 years ago? So much had changed, so much of it good, and yet Clint still had a way of raising my emotions way above my own head. I am glad for where things are, and I am so happy with life. I'm allowed to take a few minutes to imagine what *could have been, right? What could have been if I took Clint up on his offer of choosing me instead of Chris?
But, of course, every choice is a renunciation. My own father preached many sermons on that. If Clint hadn't demonstrated the kind of courage to jump into something unconventional with abandon, I could never have done the same with Matt. His college girlfriend, Michelle, and he parted ways when Matt went to study in Germany. When Matt came back and was applying for medical schools, it was the same time Clint was applying for law schools. Clint and I were still roommates in the apartment back in the South, and Clint and Matt had a few late night study/cram sessions preparing for their standardized tests. One of those nights, Matt and I wound up in the living room talking for hours into the night long after Clint had gone to bed. Midway through the conversation, I caught Matt looking deep into my eyes again, the same vulnerable look he had given me years before at the ocean condo. He caught me doing the same thing, and he moved on top of me and began to kiss me deep.
I gave myself into the kiss, pushing away all the other chatter in my mind, all the questions I had, all the concerns that had stopped us from doing this again...all of it was pushed away as I let myself feel the emotions flood over me. I felt an electric jolt between us each time his lips met mine, each taste of his lips on my tongue, the feeling of our stiff rods pushing against our clothes toward each other. We had tender sex that night -- twice, and I knew that I was in love. In fact, it was only six months later when we got engaged...of course, it wasn't for many years later that we could finally get married, at least in the eyes of the law. Our engagement was and marriage has been fairly nontraditional, but the love and companionship has been like from an old storybook.
I don't know exactly how long I was lost in thought, but the sound of knocking on the door brought me back to reality. The hallway walls and doors are all glass, so I immediately recognized that big smile plastered across the face of my best friend as I waved him in.
"Kev, bro, it's like we're roommates again!" he said as he waved his new keyfob toward me.
"Congrats, man!" I said as I stuck out my hand for him to slap. "I might have to come in more often than once a week!"
"Well, it's your buy for lunch when you do," he said, the grin getting bigger.
"I don't know about lawyers, but us consultants usually need to use lunch time for drumming up *business, so unless you're letting me bill you those hours for lunch..." I said, trailing off.
"Oh, is that how it is? Get a fella all excited and leave him hanging?" Clint responded. We both laughed.
"What are you in the mood to eat," I asked.
"Well, whatever it is, we're going to have to be quick," he responded, fishing his vibrating phone from his pocket. "This is the courier with all my files, and I'm going to need time to set up and call some clients. Hold on," and he answered the phone.
While Clint was talking, I mimed my way through ushering him out into the hallway, through the reception area, and onto the street. I knew of a Mexican restaurant with good street tacos that was only open for lunch and would suit us well. His phone conversation wrapped up just as we were about to walk in.
"Sorry about that," he said as he walked past me holding the door open.
"I know how moves go," I responded. "I didn't realize you were looking for a space to start today."
"Well, a couple clients came with me as I left, so I don't have a lot of time for transition," he said. I nodded, and we paused our conversation since it was time to order. We placed our order to-go and walked back to Clint's new office making simple chit-chat on our way back.
As Clint waved his keyfob to unlock his new office door, we walked in. It was far more impressive than mine...a corner office with a panoramic view of the state capitol and mountains surrounding our valley. His was a dedicated office, whereas mine was a "hot desk," meaning I shared the space with a few other people and simply had a locked filing cabinet dedicated to me. It had a large desk with a storage armoire, two bookcases, and a table with four chairs around it. Very suitable for a budding law practice.
"Ooh-la-la," I said as I looked around the room. Clint was still beaming.
"It's great, isn't it?"
"Yeah, be sure that you can come down the hallway and meet with us plebs from time to time," I responded. We were interrupted by a knock on the glass door. It was one of the receptionist staff alerting Clint to the arrival of the courier. Apparently his new phone wouldn't be working until tomorrow. I congratulated Clint again as we made our way opposite each other down the hallway.
I had been working for a while when I saw the iMessage alert in the corner of my laptop screen. It was from Matt telling me that he was able to finish supervision earlier than expected and would be able to pick the kids up from school. I quickly typed out a message back to him thanking him and sending him a kissy emoticon. Not long after, I looked up to see Clint knocking on my door again. I noticed it was after 6pm; I had lost track of time altogether having been freed from the need to bring the kids home from school. I waved Clint in.
"Didn't think you would still be here," he said.
"Matt was able to get home earlier than he planned," I replied.
"Got any dinner plans? Chris and the kids are having a night together."
"Not really," I said. "But you have to pick and treat me to dinner since I got lunch."
Clint chuckled. "I guess that's fair." I grinned in response.
"I just have a couple things to wrap up here and one more email to send off," I said. "I'll pack up and meet you in the lobby in 10 minutes?"
"Sounds great," Clint said, and walked back down the hallway.
I sent a quick message to Matt telling him Clint and I were getting dinner, and he sent back a message telling us to have fun. I finished up my work and packed my bag, noticing Clint was already in the lobby.
"Hurry up," he said, almost bouncing on his feet. He had loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. Together with his strong jaw and sculpted upper body, and his black hair arranged just right on his head, it really was a look that got me going.
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "You pick dinner?"
"Yup. I'll drive, we'll come back by here," he said. We took the elevator to the underground parking and walked toward his silver Audi A8. He opened the trunk and we put our bags in the back before climbing into the vehicle ourselves.
"Where are we off to," I asked.
"It's a surprise," he said, looking over at me with a smile. I rolled my eyes in response.
"Aren't we getting too old for this," I asked, raising my eyebrow.
"Aren't *you getting too old to keep asking questions to which you know the answer?"
I laughed. I didn't really have another response to make. Clint backed out and started driving out of the parking garage, onto the roads, and south out of town. We had rolled down the windows partway; it was a gorgeous spring day, and the crisp, cooling air felt good to the skin. It reminded us of the changing season, an invitation to get lost in the beauty of the place. Of course, I started to drift off to sleep. After a while I felt the car stop and Clint was rubbing on my arm. I turned and looked at him.
"We're here," he said.
I looked outside. It was the parking lot for one of my favorite hiking trails, overlooking a beautiful reservoir and a perfect place to watch the sunset. Clint reached into the back seat behind me pulling out a pair of jeans, light sweatshirt, and hiking boots. I was wearing my jeans, polo shirt, and Red Wing boots that I normally wear as work apparel, so I was more prepared.
"Oh, this is so sweet," I said, looking over at him and smiling. He smiled back and pushed the trunk release button. "Go in my bag and pull out the sandwiches I ordered while I was waiting for you," he said. I got out of the car and retrieved the sandwiches while Clint had a quick change. I stretched and deeply breathed in the clean mountain air. We had climbed about 1,500 feet above the city to get to this point, and while our air quality isn't ass bad as other places in the west, it still was noticably cleaner than down below.
"Thanks for this," I said to Clint, as he walked back to me and took a sandwich. We walked up a trail about 15 minutes before it came to a little clearing with some rocks perfect for sitting on and overlooking the reservoir. It was a special place for me, and I had been here many times before...by myself, with Clint, with Matt, with my kids, and with Chris. We unwrapped our sandwiches and began to eat, still just enjoying the comfortable silence and one another's company as we looked toward the water and setting sun. After eating and setting the wrappers to our side, we both just enjoyed the vista, and after a while I felt Clint's hand covering mine.
I turned to look at him, but he kept looking ahead. I scooted slightly closer to him and laid my head on his shoulder. He turned his head enough to kiss me on the forehead as we both looked out across the valley.