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Chapter Two
Mario had coffee ready for the crowd in the morning and was enjoying the Sunday newspaper when Peter wandered out to the patio and kissed his husband. Joaquin soon joined them; Mario asked the question they had all had in mind but were reluctant to ask.
"What are your plans now?" Mario was trying to be as gentle as possible; he knew from very tender personal experience how difficult it was to find your way along a lonely dark road after the loss of a lover.
"Actually, not much really; I have had a couple offers to sell the gallery, and I also have had an offer from the community college to teach art. I want to get back to painting again seriously; my favorite genre is the old California school of American Impressionists."
"Well I want to place an order for three large landscapes; I want to be the first in line to buy your work" Peter chirped.
"Three?" Mario gasped.
Peter explained: "One for our home here, one for the restaurant, and one as a gift."
"For whom?" Joaquin wanted to know.
"My mother in Sacramento; she had been an artist and dabbled in watercolors for a while before she met my father and has taken it up again after he died. I want her to see the beauty that I find in art."
Mickey wandered out to the patio at that moment with a coffee cup in hand; he looked sleepy still. Mario smiled and asked "Where is the Great Sam Stephenson?"
Mickey giggled; "Apparently, although I know you will find this hard to believe, he is sleeping off a hangover."
Mario and Peter both laughed; the Schilling men were prodigious drinkers; not alcoholics, just pleasant Scottish drunks who loved their booze.
Raj and Stuart came out looking ready for the GQ runway, or at least ready for the fashion show that was always the side-benefit of Sunday brunch in Malibu. They had recently given up their positions as the two most important staff of the Governor in Sacramento and were developing spectacular careers in the Los Angeles region, Raj as a partner in consulting with Ross and Stuart as a partner at the law firm with Mario.
Stuart had inherited a ton of money from his mother as well as his uncle Mason Taylor. He had sold the Idaho farm property that his mother inherited from her husband after his death and had received a small amount of money from Mason as well. He also was given half interest in the beach house in Malibu; he and Mario had an agreement about the sale of the house at some time in the future. He was not a profligate spender and had the old penurious sensibilities inherent in an eastern Idaho farm boy.
He also used the financial advisors that his Uncle Mason had introduced to him, the same people who managed money for the House of Saud. Whatever he had inherited had grown in a few short years to triple the original amount.
Neither he nor Raj had a financial need to work; they did so for the enjoyment of the work and the satisfaction of contributing to society. They were also silent financial partners in Peter's restaurant, D'Urban.
It was getting late in the morning, so Peter suggested to Mickey that he go and awaken the sleeping Sam; the rest of the group were all ready to drive to Geoffrey's for brunch.
Mickey asked if he and Sam could catch up to the group at the restaurant, so Peter, Mario and Joaquin drove together in Mario's old Land Rover which he had inherited from Mason, and Raj and Stuart tagged along behind in their new California-power-couple-BMW X5 SUV.
Stuart was mixing his make-your-own bloody Mary at the self-serve bar at Geoffrey's when Mickey and Sam wandered in; Sam still looked frazzled and not quite awake. Mickey ordered two Bellini's before even being seated; Sam clearly needed some hair of the dog.
Mario mentioned that they needed an extra seat at their table for Carlos, the Venezuelan who had lived with him and Mario years ago when he was a young college student.
When the waiter brought the Bellini's, Mickey placed both of them in front of Sam; that drew a loud laugh from the group. The brunch was buffet style, with seafood, naturally, this being Malibu, as well as "Nouvelle American" cuisine, whatever that was: to Raj it looked like typical California food.
He and Stuart were still exploring southern California, having just returned from a few years at the state capitol; they loved all kinds of food, and were always excited about discovering new places and sharing their experience with friends.
One place which they were telling the group about this morning was the restaurant in Pacific Palisades which was owned by old friends Tad and Mike, The Beachcomber; Tad and Mike were friends from the famous sex-party days sponsored by Mason at the Malibu house. Additionally, Stuart and Raj enjoyed a trashy old dive-bar on PCH a couple blocks from their house In Hermosa Beach.
While Mickey was piling oysters Rockefeller on his plate, and Sam was piling grilled oysters and clam strips on his, Carlos arrived and was warmly greeted by Mario and Peter and Stuart, with hugs all around. Mickey was saying they ought to create a new tradition of getting the group together once a month for Saturday night supper or Sunday brunch, and rotate between houses or restaurants. Carlos was puzzled, and asked Mario to fill him on what he missed so far.
Peter thought that sounded fun, and suggested they try Tad and Mike's as their first stop. Mario insisted they try Peter's restaurant D'Urban in north Malibu on the second stop; Stuart volunteered their home in Hermosa Beach, and wanted everyone to try authentic home-style Indian food, thinking that he and Raj and Raj's sister Aneth could do the cooking.
Joaquin turned to Mickey and asked "Perhaps this is too early, but I am wondering what you and Raj have planned for the consulting firm now that Ross is gone?"
Mickey volunteered, "Let me ask Raj to field that question."
Raj smiled, and turning to Mickey, thanked him for the lead-in, and replied to Joaquin, "We have a partnership document which the three of us, Ross, Mickey, and myself, executed a year ago, and it provides for succession in any case of death or dissolution of the partnership. Mickey and I have a lot of heavy lifting to do to pick up Ross's projects with his client base, and because Ross was the expert in international finance, and because his clients were mostly corporations, we are going to need to search for a new partner to fill that position."
Stuart already knew all of this, and in fact had had discussions with both his husband and Mickey on the topic. Stuart's practice at the law firm was in corporate law, and so he was already keyed in to names and talents that might fill the needs of the consulting practice of his husband.
"In addition, of course," Mickey volunteered, "there is a payment from the partnership life insurance policy for you, Joaquin, and we are happy that Ross had the foresight to make provision for that for each of us."
Joaquin was not poor; he and Ross had invested adequately, although Joaquin was not completely up-to-date on their holdings. He knew that Ross had followed Mason's lead and had benefited from the financial advisory firm that Mason and Stuart and the House of Saud had used. Joaquin had also inherited cash and stocks from his father and grandparents, as well as land and a vineyard in Spain.
"So after selling the gallery then I can paint in peace knowing that I will not die penniless in my old age" Joaquin joked.
They all laughed, knowing the truth was the opposite; no one at this brunch table was going to die penniless. While it is a cliché that gay men are all rich because they do not have to spend money on children and college tuition, etc., the reality is that most gay men work hard and have to make the same financial struggles as the general population.
Prior to the Obergefell v. Hodge decision of the US Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, gay men in America did not benefit from all of the financial perquisites granted to heterosexual married couples by federal law: benefits of tax treatment, inheritance, property, credit and banking, and medical decisions, to name a few. Now, all of the gay men at this brunch table could have the same treatment under federal law as their heterosexual neighbors: as a legally married couple under California law, Joaquin had received the benefits of all of Ross's estate since Ross had no children.
Mario, likewise, had inherited from Mason: the beach house in Malibu, the cars, the cash and investment portfolio, the art collection. Mario had worked hard over his career as an attorney, and had helped to build Baylor, McLean and Garza into a major presence in the legal community in Santa Monica.
Now that he was contemplating full retirement from the law firm, he was happy that the federal and state laws would provide him and his husband Peter Schilling with the benefits of a stable marriage in the same way as it did for heterosexual couples.
By early afternoon, the group was splitting up and going their separate ways: Joaquin home to the condo in Beverly Hills he had shared with Ross for years; Raj and Stuart to the art and jazz festival in Manhattan Beach on their way home to the bungalow in Hermosa Beach; Sam and Mickey were going back to Mario and Peter's home to spend time drying out on the beach.
Mario and Peter were going north to drop in at D'Urban, the restaurant which Peter had started with his business partner Simon Robertson, the chef from South Africa, and then were driving further north toward Oxnard to the various farmer's markets that proliferated on the weekends. Carlos was joining Sam and Mickey and was going to go surfing for a few hours.