Marianne walked in the street door just as we walked out. Her cool grey eyes took in our rosy cheeks and rumpled clothes, and branded me a liar. I'd pay later, I knew, but at the moment I didn't care.
Two,’ I said and held up a victory sign, our private code for a long lunch.
'Looks like you had two already,' she called after us from the door. That's how I knew she was angry.
We walked to a shabby, basement-level restaurant in Little Italy. White fairy lights festooned the age-browned murals. Plastic flowers graced the tables. Early or not, the place was suspiciously empty. I didn't understand why Sean had chosen it until the waiter came to take our order.
'We'll have two double scoops of gelato, one lemon and -' Sean squinted at me as though reading my aura '- one raspberry.'
For a young man, he was mighty dictatorial. Unfortunately, raspberry was my favourite, so I couldn't countermand him.
The rich, fruity treat made a perfect post-coital snack. We traded bites from each other's dishes like an old married couple. The analogy summoned a shiver of foreboding. I knew I shouldn't be getting so comfortable.
'I don't know where to start,' he said.
'Why don't you tell me how you and Joe met?'
His smile said the memory was sweet. 'We had a class together last year - Firm Appreciation. Joe didn't know me from Adam but I noticed him straight away: that blue-black hair, those eyes, that skin. I wanted to lap him up the minute I saw him, but he was off in his own little world. I couldn't tell with him, either. Was he gay, straight, or somewhere in between? All I knew was he was sexy, as if God turned up the voltage when he made Joe.'
I tucked another sugar-tart spoonful into my mouth and let it melt. Sean rubbed his jaw. His faint stubble was a shimmer of gold beneath his skin. "That day, the professor was screening Blue Velvet. You know, the one with Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rosellini?'
'I've seen it.'
"Then you know it's pretty hot. We had a break
between reels, so I went to the men's to take a leak. Everyone else stayed to suck up to the prof - or so I thought. I went in. I saw an empty cubicle. I had a half-hard now, 'cause of the film, and was thinking: do I want to jack off or would I rather wait? 'Cause if I do it now, I'll have to hurry and waiting can be good unless you lose the edge altogether.
"Then I heard it, a little noise in the next cubicle. I know this noise, of course. I'm a master of the silent public wank myself. I don't know if you've heard it, but a fist makes a tiny shishing noise as it pumps a cock, especially if you've got a little sweat and juice to slick up the skin. Fucking your hand has a rhythm, too, like sex, only it's one person's rhythm instead of two. You can slow down or speed up whenever you like. It's sexy as hell to listen to. Plus, you can learn a lot about a guy from the way he does himself.'
Sean reached across the table and took my hand as though he knew the precise instant my sex overflowed. His thumb circled the sensitive cup of my palm.
'This guy has done this before, I thought. His strokes were real sure, real steady. He knew what he liked. He wasn't in a hurry, but he wasn't dilly-dallying, either. And he was breathing through his mouth so he wouldn't make much noise.
'By then, my half-hard was whole hard and then some. I started to take it out, thinking I'd give this guy some silent accompaniment and then I thought: Sean, babe, why not introduce yourself? Maybe you'll meet someone you like. At the very least, you'll get a good laugh. So, as quietly as I could, I climbed on the seat and peeked over the wall. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was him, sexy old whisky eyes. He looked up, turned beet-red, then burst out laughing.
'"Hello there," I said, as suave as you can get when you're standing on a toilet. "Like some help with that?" He thought about it a minute - the longest minute of my life - then says, "Sure. Come on over." Well, I didn't need more encouragement than that. I nipped inside
and knelt up facing him on the throne. He still had his dick in his hand. He was still hard. In fact, he was harder than he was a minute ago. "What now?" he asked. My heart just about stopped. "You've never done it with a guy?" He said he'd thought about it lots of times. What about girls? I needed to know. "Once," he said and he made this face, as if it wasn't worth mentioning.
'I could read his whole sexual history in that one word. Good kid, good girlfriend. Probably met at church. His hormones raged. Hers didn't. She gave it a try — 'cause she loves him - but neither of them knew more than Peg A fits Slot B. Naturally, the whole messy business ended in disaster. Nobody had fun. Afterwards, they couldn't look each other in the eye. They broke up. Good kid started wondering if something was wrong with him. He'd been daydreaming about guys lately. Maybe he was gay.'
Sighing, Sean lifted my hand and kissed it. He didn't seem to notice my palm was sweating. 'Finding Joe was like a sugar addict getting his own sweet shop. Horniest guy I'd ever met and a virtual cherry. Never had a decent orgasm he hadn't given himself. I felt like whatsit, the real My Fair Lady guy.'