The Pretender Ch. 06

"Oh, probably 15 minutes or so."

"That's enough time. I'll be ready. I just have to put on a shirt, comb my hair and probably put my sling on."

"See you soon."

Daniel had enough time to get ready and wait outside before James pulled up in front of Daniel's apartment. Ben was riding shotgun and rolled down his window.

"Hey you! Need me to open the door?"

"No, I got it. The arm doesn't hurt anymore, I just think the bruise looks terrible, and the sling covers it up."

"Nice."

"Eh, less questions I have to deal with."

"So you're okay with Mexican food?" James asked.

"Yes, definitely... So how have you guys been, anything exciting going on?"

"Not really. Just the usual going to work, going to school." Ben replied.

The men arrived at the restaurant, and once they were sitting, Ben asked,

"So did you learn a lot talking with my Dad?"

"Yeah, I did. He really has me thinking about what it means to be gay, and to still be religious. It's a bit of a slippery slope, and it may take me sometime to really digest it."

"I understand that. I guess because I had such a liberal up bringing, I never had to experience it, but I've watch a lot of kids go through it."

"What exactly to you mean by a liberal upbringing? I mean I know that Michael said nobody ever told you that it wasn't normal to like boys, but that's just odd to me."

"So, it's a bit of a funny story, but my grandparents are hippies. Like the total free love, commune living, no money, dirty hippies. And Dad when he got to a certain age, decided that wasn't for him. He wanted more structure, and a more normal mainstream life, so he asked to go to a public school. My grandparents weren't thrilled, but understood the reasoning he gave, and sent him to fifth grade. Dad loved it, and made friends pretty quickly. Well, he sleeps over at a friend's house, goes to church and gets his calling. Man, I can just imagine my grandparent's faces when he told them. It probably was more like what it should have been for me coming out!"

"That's crazy! But, how did that work out for you?"

"Well, see after a while of living mainstream, Dad missed his parents, Mom was sick, and I was still young, around 4 years old. So his options became finding someone to care for Mom and me, or he could have his parents watch us. So that's what he decided. He did want to instill some of the values of the commune in me anyway, so it worked out well. I got to experience all different types of couples, interracial, gay, lesbian, open marriages from a young impressionable age. And my grandparents always said, 'love is love' and 'make sure the person you choose to live the rest of your life with is your best friend'. They never imposed a gender on those specifications. So when I got to puberty, it was natural in the commune to date who you were attracted too, and people there were open minded, so it never was a question to me. I preferred men, and that was okay with everybody."

"Wow. So you were raised as a religious hippie... I think most people would find that as contradictory as the Christian gay..." Daniel laughed.

"Exactly. More people laugh about that then when I tell them I'm a religious gay.

"Haha, that's true." James said.

Their food arrived, and the men were silent as they dug in.

After the first few bites, Daniel asked,

"So how long have you guys been together?"

"Almost five years. I took Ben's grandparent's advice and am living with my best friend." James said.

"That's awesome. I always believed if you could stand to be around a person for more then 15 minutes without wanting to strangle them, it must be love."

"Hahaha. That's the truth. I usually can get to 20 minutes..." Ben teased James.

"You're lucky I love you." James said, as he leaned over for a quick kiss.

Daniel smiled at the exchange. It was very familiar to how Michael and he interacted with each other. He realized then that he should call Michael tonight, he missed him, and wanted to tell him about his talk with Hugh, and lunch with Ben and James.

Michael and Westley arrived back at the hotel late after a harrowing c-section both men helped with. Westley had gotten to perform the surgery, and Michael was on 'puppy catching duty'. The owner of the dog had picked her off the street, and had no idea she was pregnant until the puppies started coming. The dog's owner was a good pet owner otherwise, but had just gone through a health concern with her other dog and was short on money. So when the hospital owner offered a price break in allowing Westley and Michael to run the case with supervision, she'd agreed quickly, knowing that the dog and her pups were in good hands, and she was more then happy to give them a learning experience. The surgery had gone extremely well, and all five of the mixed breed pups had survived under Michael's observation. Of course he had a lot of help from the technicians, but he was allowed to make the recommendations for resuscitation, and got to handle one pup on his own. There was no better feeling then escorting a new life into the world. The adrenaline high was crashing by the time they got back to the hotel though, and a light late dinner from room service was all they wanted to do tonight. During dinner, they fell into a more comfortable silence, now that Michael was used to Westley's quiet personality. Both men ended up sitting on the couch, watching the movie Up. Michael felt himself drifting off to sleep, but the next thing he knew, Westley was leaning on him, snuggling in. Michael realized Westley was pretty much asleep, but was a little shocked at how forward the man was in his sleepy state. Michael was hard pressed to wake the man up when it felt so good to cuddle with someone. He hadn't really been able to cuddle much with Daniel, because often enough Daniel had some mental block to allowing himself to enjoy being held by another man. He felt a bit guilty nestling in with Westley, but at the same time, his brain kept telling him to go for it, it wasn't like Daniel would find out, and if he was honest with himself it may take Daniel a long time to come to grips with his sexuality, and he may never accept it. Westley seemed like the type of guy Michael could have a good relationship with, and if it wasn't for the possibility of Daniel, he would take advantage of the situation they were in. Did he want to wait for Daniel, give up his prime years for a man that he might never have? Was he strong enough to hold out for Daniel?