Page 3 of Mama’s Boy

Saturday

He always threatened to get a crew cut but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Well, he liked what he saw at the grocery store, don’t fuck with success.

The doorbell rang. He peeked out the blinds and saw Rowan waiting. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door.

“You’re just as cute as I remembered,” Rowan said as Chase invited him inside. Chase’s answer to all compliments was a blush.

“I put some water in a small cooler. I can drink a lot of water on the beach.”

“Thanks, I was going to stop to get some more water but I didn’t want to be late.”

Thank God he decided to come here instead of getting the water. My nerves wouldn’t have stood him being late . Chase picked up his cooler.

“Let me get that.” Rowan put the small cooler under his arm. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I just have to lock up the house.” Chase picked up his keys, locked the deadbolt, and followed Rowan out the door.

When he peeked out the curtain, Chase hadn’t seen the car. It was a black Audi A6. Nice ride .

Rowan opened the passenger side door for Chase and put the small cooler in the trunk along with the two towels.

He got into the driver’s seat and looked at Chase.

“Hello,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to this since I called you.

Between one thing and another I don’t get out that much and since I don’t do clubs anymore, it’s difficult to meet people. ”

“I know what you mean. I don’t do clubs either and writing is a solitary profession.

Even when I meet other authors online, I’m not really involved in their lives.

It’s nice to speak to a human rather than someone else on the other end of a computer.

” Rowan grabbed Chase’s hand. Chase blushed but moved his hand closer to the console.

They took Route 71 through Deal, Asbury Park, and Bradley Beach, and made all the lights, arriving at the beach parking lot in Belmar in about twenty minutes.

Chase got out of the car to help with the big cooler Rowan brought.

They balanced the smaller beverage cooler and the towels on top and made their way across the boards to the lifeguard’s station to get them each a beach pass.

“Can I pay for the passes, since you provided lunch?” Chase asked Rowan.

“No, I asked you out. I pay today. You can pay next time.” Rowan took his wallet out of his cargo shorts and paid for the passes. Together they picked up the cooler and went down the two steps to the beach.

Can I jump up and down now, there’s going to be a next time?

“Do you like to be close to the water or nearer to the boardwalk?” Rowan asked him.

“It doesn’t matter. Unless you have flip flops, walking on hot sand is walking on hot sand.” Chase laughed.

“Then we’ll sit closer to the water. Do you swim? I can’t believe I invited you to the beach and never asked if you swim.” They hit a spot on the beach that was about ten feet from the water at high tide and spread out their towels and sat down.

“I swim. My dad made sure I learned. We lived in New York so I learned in the city pools. It’s a lot different on the beach when you’re fighting waves and undertow.

” Chase got a faraway look in his eyes. “When I graduated from high school my father was ill. He wanted me to go away to school and I was accepted at Brown and Cornell, but I opted for Monmouth because it was away, yet still close enough that I could drive up to the city if I needed to get there in a hurry.”

“I’m sorry about your dad.”

“He died when I was nineteen of an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. At least it was quick. Mom was the problem. I came home every weekend. I wanted her to move down here but she refused to leave their apartment.” Chase pulled sunblock out of his shorts and started to apply it to his face, neck and arms.

“After I graduated with my Masters in English Literature and Creative Writing, she finally broke down and bought herself a condo in Ocean Township. I lived with her until I found my writing niche. I could have gone off on my own with the money my grandfather left me, but she wasn’t ready to be by herself yet. ” Chase shrugged his shoulders.

“I moved out when I saw I was making her too dependent on me. I had enough from my writing and my grandfather to put a sizeable down payment on my house but I stayed close. Little did I know that she was caught in a cycle of dependency. You must have brought me luck last week because she finally agreed to take driving lessons and now it looks like she may have a crush on the instructor.” Chase took off his shirt.

Rowan laughed out loud. “Made redundant because of a driving instructor, did you check him out?” Rowan grabbed the sunblock and put it on his back.

“Thanks, I burn.” Rowan was rubbing the lotion on Chase’s shoulders in sensuous circles. Chase pulled a towel over his board shorts. He was sporting serious wood.

Chase took the sunblock from Rowan. “Turn around and let me get some of this on your back. You don’t want to burn either.”

“Thanks. Maybe later I’ll get us an umbrella. I have two beach chairs in the trunk, but they were too much to carry with the cooler.” Rowan turned his back to Chase.

Chase poured some sunblock in his hand. The man had an amazing back. He wasn’t muscle bound but muscles on his back rippled as Chase applied the lotion. He put the cap back on the tube. “If you give me your keys, I’ll go get the chairs. You’ve done everything else.” Rowan tossed the keys to Chase.

“Go for it. We’ll take it back in two trips.”

Chase couldn’t get over the beautiful car.

It was way out of the league of his Prius.

He popped open the trunk and immediately saw the two low-slung beach chairs.

He took them out of the car and closed the trunk, easily carrying the chairs back down to the beach waving his pass at the guard on the way back in.

“Are you hungry yet? It’s still early for lunch but I brought two containers of banana strawberry Greek yoghurt and some fruit.”

“Yoghurt and fruit sound wonderful.” Rowan dug through the cooler and brought out the yoghurt, two plastic spoons, and the fruit.

Chase positioned the two chairs facing the ocean and they settled in for their day.

“To answer your question, I did check him out after she said he was going to help her pick out a car. He’s sixty-two and retired.

He still owns eight car dealerships but his son manages them now.

It speaks well of him that he was able to step down and let his son take over without looking over his shoulder.

He started the driving school to keep busy.

” Chase brought out two bottles of water and gave one to Rowan.

They lay soaking up the sun for about thirty minutes.

Chase watched Rowan’s throat as he gulped down the bottled water.

He wondered if that is what he’d look like swallowing dick.

Stop that. You’re not ready for that yet.

As cliché as it sounds, I want him to respect me in the morning, and he won’t if I put out tonight.

Chase looked at the water and decided it looked inviting. “Do you want to hit the water?” he asked Rowan.

“Sure, you go ahead, I’ll put our wallets in the car, I already put the valet key in the cooler.” Rowan was back in less than five minutes and like two kids, they ran into the waves holding hands.

They stayed in the water for about a half an hour until they both thought it was time for the umbrella and the beach chairs.

Although the sun was hot, this early in the season the water was cold.

They draped their towels over their backs until they warmed up and then reapplied the sunscreen.

Chase went back to the boards to rent the umbrella with a twenty he stashed in his shoe.

He put up the umbrella while Rowan began to unpack their lunch.

“I brought a little of everything.” Rowan took a small tablecloth out of the cooler and four rocks.

Chase cracked up laughing, “No wonder the cooler was so heavy.”

Rowan smiled. “I hate it when the wind is up and the tablecloth flies around spraying sand on the food.”

Rowan brought out crackers, brie and grapes from the cooler.

Next, were club sandwiches with a couple of small bags of chips.

The sandwiches had ham, Swiss, turkey and bacon just like Chase liked them and the tour de force was homemade brownies with raspberries and a can of whipped cream.

“Would you like some unsweetened ice tea? I have sugar and Sweet’N Low. ”

“That sounds great. I’ll take the Sweet’N Low,” Chase said happily.

They talked throughout the morning and early afternoon sharing life stories.

Rowan told Chase about his father in Albuquerque.

“I had to convince him to retire. He’s perfectly happy out there and is even seeing a nice widow.

But before he decided to leave, he drove me nuts.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my dad but he thought he could hang out with me because my two brothers were married and he didn’t want to get in their way.

” They finished their sandwiches and Rowan plated the brie which was nice and runny.

“He thought because I was gay it didn’t matter.

I was having a bad time back then. My best friend, Marty, and I had moved in together and tried to be lovers.

I was working eighty hours a week and all I could see were the dollar signs.

I had no free time and what little of it I did have, Dad took up with father and son outings, leaving Marty as the third wheel.

Marty finally had enough and moved out. Thank God we were able to salvage the friendship.

Our being lovers was never a good idea. He found a good guy by the name of Stewart.

Stewart still looks at me strangely because Marty and I managed to stay friends. ” Chase spread brie on a cracker.

“I’ve never had a serious relationship. I’ve gone out with guys for six months or more but never felt the need to take it further and live together.

Eventually, they drifted away to someone who wanted to make a commitment.

Lately though, I’m tired of the clubs and want to be able to stay home with someone, read a book, cuddle on the couch.

I work about six hours a day, writing, and another hour doing edits on submitted works.

Half the time I don’t know what to do with myself. ” Chase sighed.

“That is when Mom isn’t calling me to do one fool thing or another.

Last week she called me to help her deadhead the flowers she planted beside her walkway.

They have plenty of flowers there on the grounds.

Why she insisted on planting more is beyond my comprehension. She seriously needs something to do.”

Chase spread brie on another cracker and fed it to Rowan. Rowan took a little of Chase’s finger in his mouth as he put the cracker on his tongue. I think he likes me . Chase moved his hair out of his eyes.

“I like your hair,” Rowan told him. “I’m glad you don’t use gunk to keep it in place.”

“I’ve tried, but it always looks like I dipped my head in an oil vat. Every once in a while, I get the urge to try to style it, it always turns out greasy, so I end up washing it out.”

Rowan touched his hair. “I like it this way.”

Chase blushed.

“Why do you blush whenever someone pays you a compliment?” Rowan brushed Chase’s hair out of his eyes.

Because I’ve learned not to trust them . “It’s the damned English skin, if I feel the tiniest bit embarrassed I turn pink like a girl.” Chase hung his head to hide his face.

“Don’t hide from me. I want to see what’s going on behind those beautiful green eyes.” Rowan touched the back of Chase’s neck and brought him in for a light kiss.