The Long Road Ch. 01

After the movie they went out for a bite to eat. "You know, I really envy you guys." Jay commented.

"Why's that?" Tommy asked.

"I wish Kyle and I could cuddle and hold hands in public like you guys do." He said, wistfully.

"Why can't you?"

"It would cost me my job if I were to be seen showing any kind of affection to Kyle."

"I thought homosexuality was in the government non-discrimination clause."

"I don't know if it is or not, but it doesn't matter. My stupidvisor is so homophobic he'd do anything he could to get rid of me."

"That really sucks." Karin said emphatically.

"Oh, believe me, sucks doesn't even begin to cover how I feel about it. You don't know how much I wish I could snuggle up to Jay right now, or even hold his hand." Kyle responded with a deep, sad sigh.

"Believe me, baby, so do I."

"Have you ever thought about transferring to a different department or field office" Denise inquired.

"I have, but I don't have any grounds for the request. I can't tell them that I want to transfer out because my supervisor is creating a hostile working environment. I have no proof. Who do you think the higher-ups are going to believe, a supervisor who's been with the FBI for almost twenty years, or a lowly field agent who's only been there nine years?"

"You are not a lowly field agent. You were the one who cracked the case of my parent's murder. No one else could be bothered to follow the 'cold lead' as they called it. You're case closure rate is higher than most of them, from what you said."

Jay reached under the table and gave Kyle's hand a quick, grateful squeeze. "Thanks, baby, but that's just not enough to go to EEO with."

"EEO" Karen asked.

"Equal Employment Opportunity, they make sure that the non-discrimination policy is followed and resolve any problems between employees."

"But surely this would fall under their jurisdiction." Tommy chimed in.

"It's a catch-22. If I were out, then I MIGHT be able to file a complaint against him, but I'm not. If I were to come out, then I'd be fired and my security clearance would be revoked. Once a clearance is revoked, it's damned near impossible to get it reinstated. Having a security clearance revocation on my record would pretty much insure that I'll never get another law-enforcement job."

"Really, surely you could do something else rather than deal with that shit." Denise said.

"It's all I know. I went into the FBI Academy right after high school. It's all I ever wanted to do, other than spending as much time with my baby as possible." He gave Kyle a warm, loving smile, which was immediately returned."

"Aw, kiss and get it over with." Karin teased.

Kyle offered his cheek to Jay, tapping it with his finger. Jay looked around the pretty-much deserted all-night diner to make sure they weren't seen then moved in to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. Just as his lips were about to touch his cheek, Kyle quickly and unexpectedly turned his head so that their lips met.

The other two couples decided that this would be a good time to kiss as well.

Later that night as they lay in bed after making love, a very serious look crossed Kyle's face. "If you're that unhappy with the FBI, perhaps you should start considering another career."

Jay looked at him with surprise. "It's not that I'm unhappy with my job. I love my job. I just don't like having to hide who I am. It'd be hard to find another job that pays as well, and has the benefits."

"Baby, I'd rather have you take a lower-paying job and be able to be out than keep a higher-paying job and be unhappy."

"I know, but that would put an unfair burden on you financially. I can't do that to you."

"Just think about it." Kyle suggested as he snuggled closer.

Jay stroked his hair gently. "I will. I can't promise anything."

"Did I ask you for a promise?"

"No, but..."

"But nothing" Kyle interrupted. "I don't want a promise from you. I just want you to be happy."

"Okay, baby. Let's get some sleep."

Chapter 4

The following evening Bryan arrived to look over Jay's pictures and was totally amazed by them. "These are some of the best I've ever seen. Would you mind if I borrowed these? I'd like to show them to a friend of mine."

"I guess." Jay and Bryan spent the evening looking over and discussing each photograph in detail. Kyle grabbed his guitar and provided a soft music background for their discussion.

A couple of days later Jay received a surprise phone call. "Hello?"

"Jayson Williams, please." An unknown voice said.

"This is Jayson Williams."

"Hi, Mister Williams, this is Karl Jennings over at the art gallery. May I call you Jayson?"

"Sure."

"Bryan Clark was here earlier and showed me some of the most astounding photographs I've ever seen, and I would like, if you are willing, to showcase some of them in my gallery."

Jay was momentarily taken aback. This must be a joke. He thought to himself. He checked the caller ID display and indeed, the call originated from the art gallery. "You're kidding, right? Why would you want to exhibit my pictures?"

"I'm quite serious. As I'm sure Bryan has told you, and even if he hasn't, you have an amazing eye for detail and your composition is outstanding."

"Ah, thanks. What would I have to do?"

"Have them enlarged to eleven by seventeen inches and dry-mounted. Drop them off here to me and I'll have them framed and hung. Who knows, you might even make some money off them."

"Really, how would I do that?"

"It's not uncommon for gallery visitors to want to purchase something they like. The gallery will handle the copyrighting of the pictures for your protection, and will also negotiate sales of the photographs for a five-percent commission."

"Okay, when do you want them by?"

"Can you have them here by Tuesday of next week? The current exhibit closes on Saturday and that will give my staff plenty of time to frame and hang them."

"Okay, I think I can do that. Which pictures do you want?"

"All of the ones Bryan showed me, if possible, plus five or six more, if you have them."

"Sure. I'll get them enlarged and mounted then bring them over by Tuesday."

"Great, I'll see you then."

"Okay."

An hour later, Kyle came home from parent-teacher conference day. "Hey, baby, how'd the conferences go?"

"They went well. What did you do today?"

"Have you heard of the name Karl Jennings?"

"No, why, who is he?"

"He's the curator of the art gallery, and, coincidentally, the friend Bryan wanted to show my pictures to."

"Oh, really" Kyle asked, his interest piqued.

"Yep, He wants to set up and exhibit of my pictures."

"Jay, that's absolutely fantabulous! I'm so happy for you. Your dream is finally coming true." Kyle cried as he pounced on him, giving him a big hug and kiss. "When is the exhibit?"

"It's the week after next. I have to get the pictures enlarged and mounted and drop them off by Tuesday. He said I might even sell some of them."

"What can I do to help?"

"You've already been a great help by talking me into showing them to Bryan."

Opening day for Jay's exhibit finally arrived and Jay was a nervous wreck. He hardly slept a wink the night before. Having never even been in the gallery he was at a complete loss as to what to expect. The curator had assured him that all he had to do was dress nicely and show up. He was such a wreck that Kyle had to pick out his clothes for him. He had come out of the shower and was standing in front of the closet just staring.

Kyle finally decided to do something to help relax him. He took Jay by the hand and led him to the bed, pushing him down into a sitting position. Kissing him gently, he dropped to his knees and pushed Jay's legs apart. They locked eyes as Kyle took him into his mouth for a slow, sensual blow job. Kyle licked, sucked and nibbled on Jay's dick and balls until Jay shot a huge load down Kyle's throat. He collapsed back on the bed and sighed deeply. "Thank you, baby, I guess I really needed that." Kyle climbed onto the bed and lay down next to him. As he kissed Jay, he shared some of Jay's creamy white nectar with him, which Jay gulped down greedily, returning the kiss.

"Feel better now?" He asked, breaking the kiss.

"Yeah, I do"

"Good. Let's get you dressed. You have to be there in a half hour."

Jay raised his eyebrows quizzically. "I have to be there? Don't you mean we have to be there?"

"Of course I'm going to be there. Everybody is. But this is your day. Today is totally about you."

After Jay had dressed, he gathered Kyle in his arms and gave him a slow, deep kiss. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Whatever you did, keep doing it. We need to get going."

A hint of Jay's prior nervousness returned. "Do I look okay?"

"Any more okay and I'm going to start ripping those clothes off and have my wicked way with you. Here. One final touch" Kyle grabbed a bottle of cologne and gave him a couple of squirts. "There. Perfection personified!" He grabbed him by the hand and they drove to the gallery in silence.

They arrived at the gallery a half hour before the opening as they had been instructed, only to find all of the doors locked. After a few minutes of pounding on the main entrance, a guard came up to the door. "I'm sorry, but the gallery doesn't open for another twenty minutes."

"Its okay, Alan, let them in. He's the exhibitor."

"Sorry." The guard mumbled as he let them in.

"Mister Jennings, this is my boyfriend, Kyle. Kyle, this is Mister Jennings."

Karl extended his hand. "Please to meet you, Kyle. Please call me Karl." They shook hands.

"Same here, Mister Jennings, I mean Karl."

"Are you ready to see your exhibit, Jayson?"

"You bet!"

"Come this way." As Karl led them though the gallery, the boys could not believe what they were seeing. All of Jay's photographs were beautifully framed and hung on the walls with great deliberation as to their location. Jay could not believe that his snapshots, as he called them, were actually on a display and that people were not only going to pay to see them, but perhaps even buy them. The thought was mindboggling. "Here's the program." He handed them each a folded pamphlet.

"Provincetown, A Pictorial Essay by Jayson Williams" was printed in an elegant script on the front. Inside, there was a picture of Jayson and a short biography, along with a list of his paintings and a sale price. Jay's eyes bulged out of their sockets as he saw the pricings. There wasn't a single on under seven hundred-fifty dollars. "Karl, these prices have been printed wrong. The cheapest painting is seven hundred-fifty dollars. It should be seven dollars and fifty cents."

"No, the prices are printed correctly. If anything they're priced a little on the low side."

Kyle spoke up before Jay could. "You're kidding right?"

"No, I'm not."

"Nobody would pay that kind of money for a photograph from a rank amateur." Jay replied in a self-effacing way.

"You'd be surprise. Actually, there are a couple of photographs I'm considering for my home."

Jay shot a stunned look at Kyle, who returned an equally stunned look.

A disembodied voice spoke up. "The gallery will be opening in two minutes."

"This is it. Are you ready?" Karl asked the obviously nervous Jay.

"No, but let's do it."

The first people through the door were, not surprisingly, Tommy, Andy and Bryan. Kim was on duty at the hospital and would join them later. Champagne and hors d'oeuvres were passed as a ton of people, in Jay's estimate, wandered through the exhibit, several stopping to talk with Jay about the pictures, several of them asking questions Jay could only respond to with "It just caught my eye, so I took a picture of it."

Kyle stood by his side, the unmistakable look of extreme pride and love battling for supremacy over his face. After a couple of hours he excused himself and started wandering through the exhibit when a photograph he hadn't seen before caught his eye. He took a closer look then groaned when he recognized the subject of the photo. It was one of his paintings. As he stared at the photo in disbelief, a museum employee walked up to the photograph and placed a "SOLD" tag on it. "Excuse me, Miss. This photograph has been sold?"

"Yes sir."

"Can you tell me how much it went for?"

"It went for twenty-seven hundred dollars, sir."

"Thank you, Miss." He excused himself and sought out Jay, only to find him talking with Karl, the curator.

"Hey baby. So how do you like the exhibit?"

"Its fine, but I have one question. When did you take a picture of my waterfall painting, and how come I never saw it?"

"I took it the day you gave it to Kim and Bryan. I didn't know it was in the stack of pictures for the exhibit. I didn't check it, nor did I check the enlargements. I'm so sorry baby. I would not have used it without your permission. I was just curious to see how a picture of a painting would turn out. I never would have included it without your permission. You know that."

"Jay, I'm not upset. It just took me by surprise. Normally you show me all of your pictures. Did you know that you just made twenty-seven hundred dollars off of it?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"No. I wouldn't kid about something like this. Congratulations." He said, sincerely. "I thought you were only joking about people buying them. So, how does it feel to have made a big chunk of change?"

"I don't know. It hasn't happened yet."

"Ah, baby, it just did. I'm not kidding. Come see for yourself." He took Jay by the hand and led him to the photograph. Jay's eyes popped out of his skull when he saw the 'sold' tag. A few moments later, the assistant curator approached Jay and handed him a check.

"Here you go, Jayson. Congratulations on your first sale."

Jay looked at the check. "I'm afraid there's been a mistake. This check is made out to me. It should be made out to Kyle Matthews."

"Excuse me?"

"This picture, which was never intended for the exhibit, is of one of his paintings."

Karl, overhearing the exchange, spoke up. "You painted this, Kyle? It's breathtaking. You have a great technique."

"Thanks." He said quietly, blushing furiously. He hated to be praised or recognized for his 'doodlings' as he called them.

Jay turned to Karl and held the check out to him. "Karl, by rights this should be Kyle's. Actually, it should probably be refunded to the customer. I didn't have his permission to include it in the exhibit."

"Hmm, that might be a problem. If the customer paid in cash, we may not know who they are, and they may insist on taking possession of the photograph.

"Karl, I have no problem with it being in the exhibit. What I don't understand is why anybody would want a photograph of a painting, especially a painting that's not very good. It's just doodling."

Karl turned to Jay. "Is he always this self-effacing?"

"No, usually he's worse."

"The truth be known, and I'm violating gallery policies, I'm the one who bought it. It's very unique. I've seen photographs of photographs many times over, but I've never seen a photograph of an oil painting. Kyle, by any chance is this painting for sale?"

"No. I gave it to my sister and brother-in-law for a Christmas present."

"Would you consider doing a commissioned painting for me?"

"Perhaps some other time, but today isn't about me. It's about Jay." He grabbed the check out of Jay's hand. "I'll make sure this gets deposited into his account." He told the curator as he took a pen, wrote "For deposit only" and Jay's savings account number on the back which he had memorized, as Jay did his, in case of emergencies. There was no way he was going to deposit in into his savings account, nor their joint account. Their individual accounts were Christmas savings accounts into which each of them deposited a small amount each month. The bulk of their salaries went into their joint account. He folded the check and placed it into his wallet. When Jay started to argue that the money was legally his, Kyle countered his argument with "Are you going to give the money from sales of your photographs to each and every subject of your photograph? How are you going to track down the owner of the ocean, the trees, the skies..." he ticked off each point on his fingers. "Regardless of the subject, the photographs are your copyrighted property. Therefore any proceeds from the sales are yours and yours alone."

"What about your painting?" Jay argued.

"Who's painting? I don't see my name on it, nor do I see any copyright notice. How do I know you didn't just see it hanging somewhere out in the open and just took a picture of it?"

"You know it's your painting." Jay replied with a little heat.

"I may have painted it, but I didn't copyright it. Therefore, you had every legal right to take a picture of it and sell that picture. You're an FBI Field Agent. You know the law. If it will make you any happier, I'll sign a release form for you. In fact, I'll do one better." He took out his cell phone and activated the voice memo recording. "Karl, stand witness. I, Kyle David Matthews, do hereby grant Jason William Edwards the exclusive right to photograph any painting I have or will produce. Furthermore, I grant him the exclusive right to sell said photographs and use the proceeds as he sees fit." He turned to Karl. "Karl Jennings, as curator of this Art Gallery, have you witnessed what I just said?"

"I have."

"There. It's over and done. No more discussion. You have guests to get back to."

Jay looked at Kyle with resignation. This was an argument he wasn't going to win, so it would be in his best interest to concede gracefully. He drew Kyle into a gentle hug. "I love you so much." He whispered into his ear.

"I love you too. Now get back to your guests." He broke the hug, turned Jay and gave him a gentle push towards the main part of the exhibit. Grinning at Karl, he followed him and remained by his side until the exhibit closed for the evening.

As the boys sat at their table in an all-you-can-eat buffet one of the other diners approached them. They both stood. "Excuse me, but aren't you the Jayson Williams who as an exhibit at the art gallery?"

"Yes, ma'am" He replied shyly.

"I'm Tisha Jones, Owner and Managing Editor of 'About Town' magazine. I'd like to discuss the possibility of you coming to work with us. Would you be able to stop by my office on Tuesday afternoon?"

"I guess so. What time?"

"Whatever time is convenient for you."

"Okay sure."

She handed him her business card. "Here's the address. See you on Tuesday. Enjoy your meal." She turned and left as the boys sat back down.

"That's awesome, Jay. About Town magazine is a huge magazine, and your photographs are going to be in it! I'm so proud of you, baby."

"Whoa. Put the brakes on, Kyle. There's no guarantee anything is going to come out of the meeting."

"Just the fact that the owner of a major magazine is interested in your work is awesomely awesome. We need to celebrate. Let's head out to the club after dinner."

"You mean you want to celebrate this without getting your brains fucked out?"

"Of course, but that will come later." He grinned evilly.

"Okay. Let's finish up and head for the club."

The following Tuesday afternoon Jay entered the executive offices of About Town magazine. He approached a secretary. "Hi, I'm Jayson Williams. Tisha asked me to stop by today to see her.

"One moment please." She picked up the phone and dialed. "Tisha, there's a Jayson Williams here to see you."

"Okay, thank you, Pam." A moment later, Tisha opened the door. "Hi, Jayson, Please, come in and have a seat. Can I get you anything?"

"Some water would be great. Thanks."

She handed him a bottle of water out of a mini refrigerator. "So, Jayson, how's the exhibit going?"