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The Schuyler Fortune VI: A Throuple of Bums-6
Daniel's fears about introducing John to Liam were unfounded because the two talked together easily after the meeting ended ninety minutes later, but any thought he had of a relationship between the two vanished when he saw Liam one-on-one at his next visit.
"He's a nice guy, all in all. He says all the right things. What he says is appropriate. But something is just missing. His thought process might be coming out of a computer or something and it doesn't feel like he feel's anything about what he's saying."
Daniel had expected this reaction. Liam was smart enough to pick up on the damage John had sustained right away. John had advanced a lot but the breakthrough to his inner self wasn't complete. Not yet.
Daniel couldn't share anything about John with Liam for obvious reasons. His role was to facilitate. He was a patient guy (smiled for the fortieth time about the pun) and would simply wait for life to do what life does, for people to do what people do.
He still thought that a kind, warm-hearted guy like Liam might be able to accomplish what a platoon of psychiatrists could not.
After the next group meeting, Liam asked John if he would help him on a project.
"I need a wingman/photographer for a few days. I'm looking for a guy to hire on a job and I think you might be able to give me a second opinion."
"I've had a bid for the job by an HR consultant for $10,000 for the job but I'm looking for someone to advise me that is gay and sensitive to the kind of issues I'm trying to solve. We have partner loss in common. You are an intelligent guy, obviously, and I'll pay you for your time."
"Are you painting a house in the next couple of weeks?"
John didn't know how he could help exactly and said so but knew that the money would come in handy since he had not been working recently what with doctor appointments and Lord knows medications weren't cheap.
Their first meeting was in Central Park near the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"Let's just walk toward the southwest corner of the park. I'll interview and you video for a vblog. Here's the camera I brought. To record, you just push this, and the camera does its own white balance and focuses automatically. If you move, the camera has a stabilizer thingy. It has tons of capacity so just keep it pointed toward the person I'm talking to, not me. OK?"
"I'll try it."
The sun was warm as they walked along the side of a small lake. There were crowds of people until they reached the interior of the park where the flow thinned out a little. Liam kept looking and saw a thirty-something homeless man complete with unkempt appearance and a grocery cart. He didn't appear to be on anything and was seated on the ground near a park bench. "Hi, I'm Liam and my friend and I are doing a video blog about the homeless in Central Park. I'll give you twenty bucks to talk to us and answer some easy questions. Will you do that?"
"Where do I sign up."
Liam thanked the man and said it would take about fifteen minutes and handed him the twenty.
The short interview went well. The man went away delighted. Liam turned to John and asked for the camera. They watched the interview, made a small adjustment to the volume. Liam said it was a good recording, a great first start.
"He was a nice guy." John was speaking to no one in particular. "Too bad the job didn't pay enough to meet the mortgage."
"I can identify. A few months ago, I was working for the post office and found I'd inherited some money from a relative I didn't know I even had. The guy that fell off my boat was my lawyer and my lover. I can still see in my head the dark blood-stains in the sea water from those damn sharks."
John shuddered, then "Yeah, my partner didn't look so good either and my head keeps going back to that picture."
Liam nodded. "I'm trying to put new pictures in my head, but some pictures are pretty intense."
John's mind jumped a little. He had thought the precise same thought a week ago, but it hadn't developed in his head and it had slipped away.
Did other people think like he did sometimes?
The next homeless guy was young, perhaps twenty-five, doing pull-ups on some bars in the park, doing stretch exercises and whistling. Liam gave him the same offer and received the same "sure I'll talk" response. The same questions were asked as the camera filmed the interview.
John and Liam found that he had been kicked out of his home after coming out to his dad and brother in Brooklyn. The man said that there were resources for food and showers in Manhattan. His main issues all year around were extremes of temperature and security. He said that a lot of guys like him lived in spaces off the subway tunnels which tended to be warmer in the winter, but the security there and everywhere was dicey so keeping an eye on one's surroundings was critical as was making friends and networking within the group.
Some of the men helped look out for their friends, some didn't. Sometimes the exchange of sex (sometimes protected) and food bought some friends and a little protection.
Both John and Liam watched the video afterward and Liam started to be glad he had a place to live. They were both finding that exposure to different cultures and ways of survival can be powerful tools for better mental health.
After the fourth interview of the day, they began to droop a little; Liam invited John to get a sandwich and coffee near the Park. John hesitated a second and his stomach won that battle. He said OK and off they went.
Both ordered Italians, both declined onions, both drank coffee rather than soft drinks and for a while, John talked about the adventures of the day in a normal way. Liam noted the change and asked John if tomorrow would be OK to resume his search.
John said he didn't know what Liam was looking for, but he would do the work since Liam was doing the paying. Liam laughed and wrote a check for the first $2500. and gave it to John. John looked at the check and tears appeared in his eyes, quickly wiped away with his shirtsleeve. He sniffed, shook his head a little, and put the check in his pocket.
Liam asked him if Schuyler park just north of Central Park at ten a.m. at the fountains would be OK.
John said he'd be there.
John's checking account was almost three hundred dollars overdrawn after the three overdraft fees were added in. The ATM took the check in and all of a sudden with that burden lifted and the prospect of another $7500. on the way, his head cleared some. He almost felt giddy. He could buy food and new socks and get his medicine...he came up with a list pretty fast.
He went to a decent Mexican restaurant that evening for dinner and ate well. He had a nightmare as usual that night, but it was Liam's face that kept coming up in the dream. He awoke at seven in the morning and couldn't remember his ex-partner's face until he found a picture of the two of them on a dresser.
At Schuyler park that morning, they sat on a bench at the fountain watching the kids play and people walking past. Liam said he thought this was some kind of a museum.
"Oh. This is the first time I've been here. What kind of a museum is it?"
"It's an art museum and they don't charge admission."
"What are we waiting for? I would like to see the collection." He was puzzled a little when Liam put on dark glasses before entering the museum. He thought about it for a second. "Everybody is entitled to a quirk or two." He giggled for the first time since...that day. He decided he was entitled to oh, maybe, fifty of them. He started making a list of the quirks to which he might be entitled but slowed down that train of thought when he came to 'sex'.
I not only deserve generic sex, I'm entitled to passionate sex, tender sex, rough sex, sex with men, sex with myself, sex in groups, sex outdoors, sex indoors, sex naked, sex clothed, sex when I'm laughing, sex when I'm crying, makeup sex, goodbye sex...he wasn't through with the list yet, but they were entering the museum.
John didn't care for the decor of the museum, thought it was a little dated but had not had a clue that the fabulous art inside existed outside of major museums. This place displayed art objects that the Prado and Louvre would have given their eye tooth to display. He didn't know that the Schuyler museum lent their pieces to other museums on occasion.
After the tour, Liam had seen enough to know that his future had to include John if John was willing. He paid John the rest of his contract by handing him a check.
John gasped and appeared a little stunned. "Are we done now?" Liam and John were now back at the fountain.
"John, if you think you might be ready for "we", I have to tell you that we both, as you know, have suffered loss of a partner. Neither of us want to repeat that.
At the same time, neither of us was remotely responsible for the loss and it isn't likely that two people with histories like ours would have the precise same misfortune twice. Would you like to come to my house and play for a while?"
"Sure. I'm up for that. Where do you live?"
"Here."
"There's more," Liam continued. I am partnered with a guy named Mateo who also lives here. Wait for this, now. Mateo is also partnered with his brother, Paulo. We are one happy family and love each other equally except Paulo and I don't have sex with each other for a variety of reasons, all good."
"Before you and I play, you have to know that Mateo is my primary partner. We are not married and won't be. The partner I lost, Ben, and Mateo and I were a throuple. Mateo knows that you exist but nothing about you otherwise. In our relationship we don't have to get permission to play but are required by common rule to play safe and to report any encounters within twenty-four hours."
"Neither Mateo or I have discussed forming another throuple. Ours had been a V throuple. If you and I play and it continues, we have the choice of forming a W or inviting a third again. This is a lot to hit you with and it can be complicated. For right now, I just want you and I to play. We both could use the comfort. I was tested last week and am healthy. Here are my results."
John said he had been tested three weeks ago and was negative. "I always play safe, I'd better be healthy."
They went back into the museum. This time Liam didn't wear dark glasses. Two naked men in an air-conditioned suite under the sheets, writhing, friction of 98-degree skin on 98-degree skin warming each, the emotional heat already on scorch, cocks hard, asses firm and rounded, kissing, peppermint breath, a mouth licking here and there, toes sucked, backs and asses massaged, cocks leaking a bit, and more kissing.
Then a mouth enveloping a cock with wet, warm heat, stimulating, almost intolerable pleasure in streaks, two giving hearts, lube to the palms to warm, spread on ass and cock.
Condoms on, fingers dilating sphincters, kissing, the touch of cock tip to entrance, trembling relaxation, gentle steady pressure, entrance, a brief wait, then an unparalleled fuck, Liam taking John's ass, both coming hard.
"I don't know what to say, Liam. That was so good. For a few minutes you owned my ass. I was happy to give it to you and I haven't been happy for a long time. That felt wonderful."
"Thank you for taking me inside of you, John. I felt at home there and my cock was entirely happy. My brain too, I think."
"Let's go get something to eat." They both needed more energy after the expenditure.
They left the museum and walked downtown on Fifth Avenue, then over a block to Park Avenue, found a nice hotel and ate at their restaurant.
"I have an idea, John. I'm trying to think of how I want to bring this up to you so please chew on that and be patient with me here." Liam was struggling to formulate.
"We both found out this week that we work well together and today we found out that we play well together. Neither of us can say we know each other well and certainly aren't to the L word yet, because to use that word ya have to actually know the person. What I'm trying to say is that I'd like to continue to get to know you, John."
"Liam, you are a breath of fresh air. You are so open with me and because of that I can be transparent with you. I had a hard fall after, you know, and I'm better, and I'd like to let my barriers down some too. I guess we 'de-barriered' in bed today a lot; oh God, that was so good!"
"At the same time, my head is still a little skittish about approaching the fenced-in boundaries that I've built up. Can we take this slow?" John was considering the possibilities and trying to avoid crashing and burning, kind of like a new driver on a real fast race-track.
"Sure. Let's take it at a comfortable speed for both our sakes."
Liam talked to Mateo that night about John and reported their encounter. Mateo sounded a little put out. He said they didn't have a throuple anymore and Liam didn't have to tell him every time he fucked somebody.
That night Liam thought a lot about what he wanted to do with his life and he decided he could make the decision better without the museum walls and the same shower where he and Ben had so many great times together. He thought about Paulo's reaction and decided that Paulo was a professional and might welcome change if it was for the better.
The next morning after breakfast he called a real estate broker for high-end properties to make an appointment.
"I want a penthouse overlooking the city on a very high floor." The broker raised her painted eyebrows and replied, "Join the very long line." He stood and left her office without speaking another word.
The next broker was a forty some year-old man, trim, average looks with intelligent eyes who listened to Liam and said that he had several properties like that in mind. "How much are you willing to spend?"
"I inherited a very large fortune, mine to spend. Shall we begin at twenty-five million." This time the broker raised his eyebrows too.
"We ought to find a shack on top of some building for that," the broker grinned.
"Ever onward then. Will you call me?"
"If you're that well off, I ought to marry you. My husband should be expendable for a price. Just kidding. Why wait? Let's make a phone call or two and go see what hovels are left still out there after the Saudis came in last year."
"I know some of the Russian oligarchs have been making noises as if to unload."
"Do you insist on the top floor?"
Liam answered that he did, indeed, insist for the price he was about to pay.
"That narrows the field a little, perhaps, but you did say you were dripping money from every pore."
"Some pores drip other stuff, but yes, I've enough to buy several penthouses."
"Oooooooh. You must be a big boy."
"That's for me to know..."
"and me to find out...story of my life, this 'finding-out' business." The realtor sighed.
"If you enjoy finding stuff, my cock enjoys playing finders-keepers mostly without the keepers ending."
"The realtor took his suit jacket off and laid it on his desk. Then he removed his shoes and socks, keeping his eyes and serious face on Liam's. He took off his shirt and suit pants and lastly his briefs. He knelt in front of Liam, calmly unzipped him, found his prize and took it in his mouth. Afterward, swallowing and wiping with a towel, he asked if Liam had that kind of thing in mind or whether he'd overstepped his bounds.
"Yep, you overstepped all right. Thank for overstepping. Having a talented mouth like that, you must have your pick of gentlemen."
"Yeah, but there's a wide range of men in the world, all unique and I'm as choosy as Lucrezia Borgia."
"Your cum is sweet and kinda fruity," the realtor said, "not too salty, not too strong. It would go well with one of those gourmet vanilla bean ice cream cones on Coney Island."
Liam giggled. "I guess we could try that sometime but I gotta have a place to live. We can't go to Coney Island today. Besides, 'cones on Coney Island'...? Really?" He giggled a little. Liam had never been there.
The first enormous penthouse took up the entire top floor of a scraper on Park Avenue, which listed at $69 million.
A top floor penthouse further downtown in an older building with parking, 3 spaces included, a gym, a pool, a sauna, 24-hour room service included, full-time doorman, and the New York Public Library with the lions in front wasn't far away, hadn't sold at an asking price of $26 million.
The unit had a gourmet kitchen with granite countertops, brand-new appliances (Sub-Zero and Gaggenau), and plenty of storage.
"I'll think about this one overnight. Call you in the morning. You're a peach, man." Liam was in a very good mood.
That night he dreamed of falling down a long hole in the ground into a patch of asparagus. He woke sweating, took a shower, walked down the hall, met a sullen Mateo in the hall who just grunted "hello" as he passed by and found someone to rustle up some food at 2 a.m.
By morning he knew. He went to visit Paulo. "I'm going to move to the country," he told Paulo. "I'll call ya with my new address. I'm ending things with Mateo. He's a dear and I think our relationship has suffered from Ben's loss and Mateo's artist temperament and my own 'lost' feeling. We're not close now. Ben was our glue in some ways."
Paulo listened carefully. "Mateo and I will always have the bonds of being brothers and growing up together. You are absolutely right to make a clean break now. Mateo's mental health is still OK but...let us address our relationship.
We have a personal bond, I hope, and a business relationship.
You and my brother and Ben were lovers and although I knew and approved, some nights were tough for me knowing that it was your cock inside of him instead of mine.
I have dealt with the jealousy and longing probably longer than was good for me.
On the other hand, as long as it was your cock, I got to savor the idea that your cock was mine, plunging deep into my brother's ass, loving his body, and I would come just thinking about that.
I have developed great feeling for you, Liam. You have guessed that I will not miss that torment. I will miss thinking about your cock and mine being one. The thought makes me hard even now."
"On the business end, your capital has increased a great deal under our office's management and I hope we can thread our way to continuing that. It can be done with you living anywhere on the planet regardless.
You already have the technical equipment to check on your fortune and nothing will give me more pleasure than to continue to grow your money for you."
"What do you think, Liam?"
Liam told him that would work just fine and asked if the fees would change. Paulo told him that nothing had changed. The fees would remain gratis since the money and stock had originally come out of the Schuyler trust.
Liam called the realtor the next morning and told him his buying plans in Manhattan had changed. "I'll look you up next time I'm in town.
He went to Mateo's room and knocked. The door was answered by a man he'd never seen before, constricted pupils, reeking of alcohol, staggering. Liam pushed past him to find Matteo passed out on his bed naked with blood between his legs.
Liam called an ambulance and Paulo in that order and asked the house security to have the man arrested on possible rape charges and asked for a sexual assault inquiry to the police and to the emergency room physicians.
Liam then went to the front door and asked for his pickup to be brought around.
From his room he brought his suitcases filled with as many important things as he could. He brought his backpack and iPad Pro and chargers for both including the ceramic charger.
He had his wallet and passport and birth certificate, his folder of important information. He asked a footman to have everything else packed up and stored for his return or sent to a forwarding address if he sent one.
In Joseph's office, Liam thanked Joseph for his hospitality and informed him that his suite would be empty within four weeks. "Your uncle was a great friend of my grandfather in their day," said Liam. "He would be very proud of you and Paulo. Please convey my best to James next you see him as well."
Liam loaded his pickup and drove up Fifth Avenue, eventually made it across the George Washington bridge and headed north. He used his cell to call John and let him know he was OK. "I'll be back, buddy. I'm just taking a break for a bit." He called Leo and repeated the message.
He was homeless. A bum. A rich bum come to that. He took stock. He had family. Leo and Greg, two living fathers. No sisters. No brothers. Mother out of the picture. An ex, dead. An ex, living but dead to him. A stockbroker brother of that brother who was fond of him and possibly his business.
A super-wealthy man, Joseph Schuyler, acquaintance actually, who counted him as family. A damaged guy with no home who liked him a lot with whom he had lost partner syndrome in common named John.
He parked the truck in a rest stop along the freeway and got out to walk a little.
Time for a change, he thought. He wasn't looking for a woman. He wanted a man and was out on the prowl.
The image, a video actually, of a black tomcat walking along the top of a fence came into his head. In his head he dreamed or sensed forward motion, awareness of his surroundings, amplified hearing, the ability to jump, another set of legs, the ability to move quietly through all terrain, awareness of small movements and a hunger for meat and quiet water
It was as if he were seeing and feeling through the tomcat's eyes.
A long journey through a town, into the woods past mice and birds, noting them, under and over logs now, into bracken and then he stopped, smelling meat and smoke, heard a mating call, moved in... a gorgeous tawny male cat licking itself after a meal. He tentatively moved closer to the meat, the other cat just looking since it was sated.
Biting, inhaling the food, swallowing some water then looking up into the eyes of the cat who stepped up and touched his noses with his own nose, nuzzled his ass and sniffed. He raised his tail...and woke up.
Liam had been so tired he had actually fallen asleep at a picnic table. His cock was hard as nails and pounding. He was hungry and thirsty. He patted his back pocket. Wallet there. A starling strutted past the picnic table looking for crumbs.
He looked around and saw his pickup in the lot, doors closed. He got up and walked to the services building and walked through the double set of doors.
The usual lot of children begging their moms for fast food mostly. Except for the thirty-something guy looking at him from over there by the map on the wall. Steadily.
Like Liam was dessert. With a raised eyebrow, tentative smile, tongue licking his lips, one hand adjusting his crotch a little. His clothes a little worn, face of an angel, blonde hair more honey colored, longish, 5 ft maybe 9 inches, trim, tanned, backpack on. Liam laughed at him.
Liam, a little hungry and dazed moved closer until a service building guard hustled over.
"None of that, Mason, how many times have I told you, none of that here. Use the facilities, then leave. Leave I tell you or I'll call the cops again."
"I'm his brother. I came to pick him up and take him home." Liam heard the words sail right out of his mouth to the ears of the guard as he snapped the guard's photo with his iPhone..."
The security guard reached for the phone.
"Put your hand down or I'll break it. I've a legal right to take pictures in public places with or without your permission."
"Mason, he answered to that name, "let's go, mom has supper waiting."
Liam and Mason turned, left the building and piled into the pickup. Once in, Mason turned to him.
"Thank you for the rescue in there, I'm....
"Mason...., I heard."
"Anyway, you can let me out anyplace, but thank you for the rescue."
"Do you want something to eat?"
"I'm starving."
"We'll stop at the next town. Hopefully there's a cafe there."
"I can't afford..."
"Yeah, you'll eat. I need company. We both need food. I buy the food. You provide the company."
"Where do you live?"
"I, uh...don't have a place right now."
"What's your story, then?"
After the divorce from my partner, he got the house. My employer got wind it was a 'he' and fired me."
They can't do that."
"It's a big company in a small town. They do it. Who has lawyer money?"
"What did you do for them?"
"Controller."
"So you kept track of their books day to day, wrote checks, made sure there was enough cash to operate and pay bills from day to day, watched the foreign currencies, knew where the accounts were?"
"You sound like you know business?"
"Not well. I read a lot."
"What type of business?"
"Manufacturing. They made airplane parts, knock-offs they sold as original equipment parts for airlines. OK quality, I guess, but not original specs by any means. Geeze, if people knew some shit, they wouldn't fly."
"Want your job back."
"Wouldn't go back for love or money."
"What was up with your partner?"
"That's personal."
"Buying you dinner is personal too."
"He slept around on me. I came home. He was in bed with a high school buddy of mine moaning as the guy's huge cock slammed in and out."
"Ouch, that had to hurt. The shock, I mean."
"Still does some but time heals all wounds."
"Are you healthy?"
"Doctor said so Tuesday after looking at my HIV test. It's been six months now since..."
"Here we are."
The Pioneer cafe didn't look like much on the outside, but the food wasn't too greasy, and the waitress was friendly. The outrageous tip Liam left helped and when Liam slipped it into her hand, her eyes widened.
"Where is a safe, clean place for two brothers to bunk tonight around here."
"There isn't a motel in a hundred miles of here. My sister Jean has a mother-in-law cottage in her back yard. She would put you up and force a huge breakfast down ya if you show her a bill like this."
"Supposing you call her and ask for us and give us the address and directions..."
"You're on, um..."
"Liam and Mason Markham, ma'am."
"Just Susan, ma'am is my mother."
"Thank you, Susan."
Jean told them, "you'll have to sleep together in the queen bed, but 'you being brothers and all, it won't hurt you'. There's a shower and here's a bar of soap and two towels. The sheets are clean. I cleaned the bathroom so good you could eat off the floor."
"I'll ring the cowbell on the back porch in the morning before breakfast. Just get ready and walk in the back door. Are you allergic to anything? They both replied at the same second, 'asparagus'. Liam's head whipped around, and he laughed at Mason. "I'd forgotten."
Jean seemed weirded out a little for a second. "I don't ever serve that for breakfast anyway... Waffles and strawberries is what I had in mind. You know, scrambled eggs and milk and orange juice and country potatoes and cinnamon rolls with raisins, homemade."
"Oh God," whispered Mason, "we've died and gone to heaven."
"No," said Jean, "this isn't heaven." I read about that in National Geographic and I happen to know for a fact there's not a palm tree or beach with turquoise water within ten miles of here."
They laughed again.
"See you boys in the morning. Holler if you need anything."
"Oh, Mason hollers in his sleep. Don't answer that bell or you'll be up all night."
"OK, got it." Jean laughed and repeated it slowly while pretending to scrawl slowly on an imaginary clipboard, underlining the last word twice: "If. Mason. Hollers. Ignore."
"Got it."