The Kicker

Chapter 8

Rudy

When I accepted the job at Harper and Associates, they immediately sent me a list of available apartments in the area. They also made arrangements at a hotel for me to stay at while I selected my new home. I was going to drive across the country right after graduating, my parents and sister were coming to Virgina to attend my graduation ceremony. I spent my last couple of days at Virgina Tech avoiding Ben and had blocked his number right after I left his room. He called Parker a few times, Parker had my back and told him he should have thought about me before he fucked another guy. Parker was truly a good friend, and I was going to miss him.

I went to the airport to pick up my family the day before graduation. I hadn’t seen them since Christmas, so we shared a lot of hugs and tears. My sister had just finished her first year of college and I was surprised at how grown-up she had become. It was even more evident when she introduced me to her boyfriend, a secret my mom had kept from me. He was a very nice guy and he seemed to get along well with my parents as they had met him some time ago. We all went out for a nice dinner, having the best evening that I have had in a long time.

After we finished eating, dad said, “so Rudy, I need to go to California next week, how about I ride along with you tomorrow and help you drive to San Diego?”

My eyes went wide, “I would love that dad, what about mom and sis?”

Mom smiled, “the three of will fly back to Chicago after the ceremony tomorrow. I need to be back at work on Monday.”

I wasn’t really looking forward to the long drive alone, so I was glad to have the company.

I laughed, “I was wondering why you brought such a big suitcase dad.”

He nodded, “plus I can help you find an apartment and get moved in.”

I smiled, “thanks dad, I really appreciate the help.”

I found my family as I was handed my diploma, I think it was the first time I saw my dad with tears in eyes. Both my parents looked as if they were ready to burst with pride as I walked across that stage.

Dad and I dropped Mom, sis and her boyfriend at the airport and loaded the last of my things in my car and headed west. We planned to drive until dark and find a hotel for the night and resume the trip early the next morning. As we got a couple of hours down the road, it dawned on me that this was the first time that me and dad had really been alone for this long and were able to have a father son talk.

He said, “I hope you know how proud your mom and I are of you.”

I kept my eyes on the road as tears formed, “yes, I do. I hope you know how much I appreciate all that you and mom did for me.”

Dad shrugged, “I wish we would have spent more time you kids, but at the time, buying that house and sending you to that private school seemed like the best thing to do.”

I said, “I know dad, and to be honest, I think it was too. I just hated to see you guys work so hard.”

He smiled, “I would have worked harder if I thought it would have benefited you and your sister.”

I gave him a quick look, “well now that you have us out of the house, just relax a little bit and spend some time with mom.”

He chuckled, “I promise, I will.”

We rode in silence for a while, dad seemed to be a bit uncomfortable.

He asked, “so, is there anyone special in your life?”

I knew it wasn’t easy for him to talk about this, I sighed, “do you mean, do I have a boyfriend?”

He nodded, “yeah, I guess that’s what I mean.”

I chuckled, “no, not anymore.”

He furrowed his brow, “not anymore? So, you were seeing someone?”

I took a deep breath, “yes, his name is Ben, but things didn’t work out.”

He asked, “why, what happened?”

I couldn’t believe it, but I spilled my guts and told dad everything. Other than with Parker, I had never had a talk like this with anyone. I give dad all the credit in the world, I knew this was hard for him and he just listened and offered his support.

After he listened to the whole story, he said the most dad thing ever, “well, if it didn’t work out, then it wasn’t meant to be. Something better must be coming your way.”

I laughed, “thanks dad, strangely, that does make me feel a little better.”

He continued his dad quotes, “for what it’s worth, Ben didn’t know a good thing when he had it.”

I laughed even louder, “you know what dad, you are so right, it’s his loss.”

Dad laughed, “yeah, what a bastard.”

We laughed and bad-mouthed Ben for the next half hour.

He said, “you know, Ben cheating might be the best that ever happened to you. It was for me.”

I asked, “what do mean, it was for you?”

He shrugged, “if I didn’t get cheated on when I was about your age, I would have never met your mother.”

I looked at him, “what?”

Dad nodded, “yeah, I was ready to marry Jenny Evans until I walked into the apartment that we shared and found her and my best friend going at it.”

I said, “seriously, what did you do?”

He said, “I took the ring back to the jeweler, went out and got drunk. I met your mom the next week and have been happy ever since.”

I smiled, “thanks dad, this talk has really helped me a lot. It was a great idea to drive with me to California.”

He put his hand on my shoulder, “yeah, I’m glad I did it too.”

We made to San Diego, after we checked into the hotel, I made a quick stop to meet my new boss. After I filled out some paperwork, dad and I went to look at apartments. We found one that I liked and was in the area that dad felt was safe, I signed the lease. We went to dinner and dad told me to make a list of furniture and things that I needed. The next morning, he bought me a bed, a couple of chairs and a few other odds and ends. We made arrangements to have the furniture delivered and we started to set up my new home. There are still things that I would need, but I could get those over the next few weeks. Dad spent the first night in my new home with me, he left for his job the next day. We made plans for him to come back for the weekend, he was only working two hours away.

I started my new job on Monday, Harper and Associates was a consulting company. We took data provided to us by our customers and analyzed it and gave them recommendations on how to improve their efficiency and processes. By the end of the week, I knew I had made the right decision, I was loving every part of my job. I started to make friends with my coworkers and while I didn’t advertise my sexuality, I didn’t hide either.

After a couple of weeks, my dad had finished his work and headed back to Chicago, our relationship was the best that it had ever been.

A month later, I was all settled in my new life, I had all but forgotten Ben and it was time to work on my social life. I started with a couple of dating aps with limited success. I went on a few dates, but there were no sparks. Some of the dates were awful from the start, the first guy couldn’t even carry on a conversation and would only reply to any question I asked with one-word answers.

The next guy was simply a jerk, we agreed to meet at a restaurant, I arrived a few minutes before he did. I sat at the bar to wait for him, he walked in and was talking loudly on his phone. He paused his call long enough to see if I was his date and snapped his fingers at the waiter. He barked, “you can seat us now.” I mouthed, “sorry” to the waiter as he sighed and led us to our table. Before the waiter could even say anything, he said, “gin and tonic, and don’t be skimpy with the gin.” He motioned to me and said, "and whatever he wants.” He went back to his phone call. I again tried to let the waiter know I was sorry and ordered a vodka lemonade.

Mr. Personality ended his call, just as the waiter brought our drinks. He said, “just leave the menus, I’ll let you know when we are ready to order.” I felt so sorry for the waiter, but I could tell he had rude customers before, he nodded and said, “very good sir.” He turned to me and gave me a sympathetic smile. My date chugged half his drink and said, “ok, talk to me, what’s your story?”

I said, “well, I just moved to San Diego about a month ago…”

He rolled his eyes, “why would you ever move to a hell hole like this, I’m next in line for a promotion at work. The job is on the east coast, I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.”

He turned away from me and snapped his fingers again and bellowed, “I’m ready to order.”

The waiter sighed as he approached the table, my date said, “I’ll have the fettuccini alfredo, a garden salad with blue cheese dressing in the side. If you put the dressing on the salad, I will send it back.”

The waiter wrote down the order, he smiled as he turned to me, “and for you sir?”

I had had enough, I knew this wasn’t going well, I said, “I’ll just have the check for my drink please.”

The waiter had all he could do not burst out laughing as he went to the bar.

Mr. Wonderful looked at me puzzled, I said, “I’m sorry, I’m not feeling well, I think I need to call it a night.” He just looked at me as the waiter handed me my bill, I paid for the drink that I had only taken one sip of and gave the waiter an extra twenty for having to put up the jerk sitting across the table from me. That’s when I noticed the extra slip of paper under my bill, I glanced at it, and saw the waiter had scribbled, Zane and a phone number. The waiter winked at me as I stood to leave, I smiled back at him as pushed the paper into my pocket and left.

The next day, I called Zane and we set up a date to meet. We laughed about the jerk as I again apologized for the way he acted.

Zane laughed, “I see all kinds of people in my job, I could tell by the look on your face that it was your first date and that you were nothing like him. I loved it when you left him sitting there all confused.”

Zane was about 6’ tall and had a thin build, he had long blonde hair with blue eyes. He looked like a stereotypical “surfer dude”. He had his hair tied in a ponytail when he was my waiter, but tonight he wore it down and had a nice five 0’clock shadow. We had a couple drinks and a bite to eat, and we ended up back at my place.

After a little more pleasant conversation, we headed to my bedroom. I was lying on top of him as we started to kiss and pull at each other’s clothes. As he dropped his underwear, I got a good look at his body, he wasn’t as muscular as Bo and he had a little more hair than Ben, but I liked what I saw. I scanned down his body, he was very tanned, save for his mid-section, it was clear he spent time at the beach. His pale ass was covered with the same blonde fuzz that covered his tanned chest and legs. His six-inch cock was nestled in a trimmed patch of blonde pubic hair that topped two plump nuts that just begged to be sucked. We resumed our make out session as we stroked each other’s erections. We soon moved so that we could get a taste of each other’s manhood. He was as delicious as he looked, his precum sent my tastebuds dancing. Zane fondled my balls and worked his way to my waiting pucker. When his finger reached its target, it was as if he pushed a magic button. My legs spread wide as a deep moan left my mouth. That was all he needed to hear, he immediately rolled me on my back and started to rim me. This was not his first rodeo, Zane definitely knew what he was doing. I held my legs up in the air as my eyes rolled back in my head and Zane worked his magic on my hole. I began to stroke my cock as he slobbered all over the entrance to my love tunnel. I gasped, “just fuck me already.” He looked up from between my legs with a wide grin. He kissed me as he slowly pushed in until he was balls deep and I was in heaven. I wrapped my arms around him as Zane started to push in and out, hitting my love button with every thrust. I felt my nuts tighten as my breathing quickened, he was pushing me past the point of no return. I shuddered as my aching pole released a load unlike anything I had ever felt before. The contractions of my ass muscles sent Zane over the edge, and he was filling me with his creamy white swimmers.

We held each other as we came down from our orgasmic high. We cleaned up and I invited him to spend the night, Zane graciously accepted. We started spending all of our free time together, it wasn’t easy with me working days and him working nights, but we made the best of it.

To make things even harder, I was starting to travel to do site work with our customers. We would call and facetime whenever possible. After I was in San Diego for about four months, my boss wanted me to go out of town for extended stay. I was assigned a big project that would require me to stay at their location for at least six months. At the same time, Zane was offered a restaurant manager job in San Francisco, I could tell he really wanted the job. We tried to do the long-distance thing, but soon our call and text frequency had decreased to weekly, then tapered off even more.

My project was going to take a lot of my time, so I threw myself into work, and I tried to keep busy to move on from Zane. Since I was going to be at my new assignment for so long, the company rented me an apartment, it would be less expensive than paying for a hotel. I agreed because I was sure it would be more comfortable than a hotel room and would seem more like home.

The Aztec Paper Company made wrappers for frozen foods and was having trouble tracking their inventory of their raw materials. We were hired to find out where all the waste was occurring. They were located in Sante Fe, New Mexico and I was going to be staying at the Sierra Vista Apartment building. I arrived in Sante Fe the second week of September and started my work and getting into a routine. A few days into my stay I started to frequent Carlos’s Cantina, a bar and grill that was across the street from Sierra Vista. By my third night in a row at Carlos’s I was becoming friendly with Mario, the bartender and a few of the other regulars. After I left Aztec’s office I would stop at Carlos’s for dinner and a couple of vodka lemonades. I would sit at a back table and pull out my laptop and get in a couple of hours of work before I showered and went to bed.

The following Sunday, I did my laundry and did a little work as I waited for my clothes to dry. When I had the last load folded and put away, I decided to go Carlos’s for a bite to eat. It was after seven when I walked in, I took my usual table as I again pulled out my laptop to work. Mario brought me my drink and took my food order. I was just getting started on my work when I saw him walk in. I watched as he walked to the bar and Mario set a bottle of beer in front of him. I had seen him in the bar a couple of times in the last week, and couldn’t help but stare at him, he was gorgeous. He would usually sit at the bar, order some food, and have a couple beers. Today when he walked in, several people clapped and cheered, I had no idea why. As he made his way to the bar, almost every table congratulated him and were telling him, “Good job today.”

He had a very sexy smile and his shoulder length hair flowed as he walked to the bar. Although his hair was a little darker, it reminded me of Zane’s, his athletic body reminded me of Bo. He wasn’t as tall as Bo, but his shoulders were broader, and his chest was bigger. He looked my way as he took his seat at the bar, I quickly looked down at my laptop and started to type. I glanced back up and saw him talking to Mario, and I’m not sure, but it seemed like he motioned toward me as they spoke. A few minutes later, I saw him take the last drink from his beer. Mario set another bottle and a glass with another drink in front of him. I took the last sip of my vodka, and he picked them up and walked toward me. I swallowed hard as he stopped in front of me.

He smiled, “hi, Mario said you were ready for a refill, do you mind if I join you?”

My throat was suddenly dry, I croaked, “thank you, sure, please have a seat.”

He held out his hand, “I’m Leo.”

I shook his hand, “I’m Rudy, nice to meet you.”

 

 To be continued…