I Said Yes

We didn’t have time to take the water taxi, so I dialed up an UBER and we were on our way. We decided to have a smoke before we went into the building so I asked him…

“What the hell was that all about this morning?”

“I just wanted to see if you would actually do it…and you did…Don’t over-think it…I was just playing around…”

“Playing around and then left me hanging!”

“Ha-ha…you are a grown ass man…you could have finished…ha-ha”

“Right…Ass”

“Hey…I have been trying to just get you to loosen up a bit…and I don’t mean in THAT way…I am having fun trying different stuff…aren’t you?”

“Well yeah…I guess but…”

“You know if there is something you don’t like or are uncomfortable with you can just say so…like you did the other night…I respected that”

“I know…it’s just all so weird to me”

“You mean it’s weird stuff…?”

“No, weird that I am kind of liking it…ha-ha”

“Well then…my work is done…sort of…now it’s just about finding out your deepest, darkest fantasies…ha ha ha ha”

“Right…you are a freak…!”

“But you love this freak right…”

“Yeah Yeah”

So, it became clear that his goal in life, at the moment, was to get me to loosen up when it came to sex. I knew there were times that he liked it in the bed, sexy and sensual…slow and sensual…lots of foreplay…the massage thing… in the shower…but this side of him was a little out of left field (at least to me). I mean hot tub sex, at Diane’s…or at the hot springs…was different in my book…that was not risky and everybody has done that…but in the parking garage…in the public bathroom…naked and jacking off in the back yard…all that stuff was way outside my comfort zone…at least it used to be…I mean…I did, after all, go along with it all and I had to admit I was a bit curious about what was next.

Saturday’s agenda was much the same as Friday with two exceptions…The awards banquet was in the evening and Chef Rob was going to be doing this really cool food presentation that people are going to be talking about all over the center…and flocking to the booth to check it out and get a taste. When we first talked about it, a few weeks before the event, I thought it was going to be a pain in the ass considering what would need to be done and the practical part of a small space to prepare it and serve it. We did manage to get a little extra room and an extra table by being located on a cornier so that helped. I was really looking forward to this….

Chef had purchased a 75 lb. round block of parmesan cheese. It had been cut (with a ban saw) in half so we had two big-ass rounds of cheese. Think 37 lb. checker pieces…that’s what the round looked like. A small camp stove was set up at the back of the booth with 2 large pots of boiling water where fresh pasta (spaghetti) would be constantly cooking. We took some of the hot water and placed it in the center of the cheese round and started a “melting process” where there would be an indentation in the center of the round. After several minutes you started to see the round take shape…like a huge bowl. We would constantly take a small shaver to enlarge the size of the center until you could place hot pasta in the center. By taking the strained pasta and placing it in the center of the “bowl” the noodles automatically picked up the melted parmesan…you would then throw it on a small plate…sprinkle a little more fresh parm and some chopped basil and Voile … It is hard to describe, on paper, so one gets the picture…but it was a really cool idea. One guy cooking pasta and the other guy constantly working the noodles into the parm wheel and serving. Over time the “bowl” gets larger and larger as the cheese melts and comes off on the pasta…it became quite a spectacle as the crowd grew around both corners of the booth. We had a hard time keeping up…I had to pull Corey in to help serve so he and I were both serving and cooking pasta and Chef was doing the cheese wheel…and with Chris trying to keep up with pouring wine samples no one really had time to talk anything up…we were constantly bumping into each other behind the tables…though it was clear Corey and Chris didn’t mind that part…for two guys trying to be so discreet…they were really obvious…at least to me.

Needless to say…Chef’s Cheese wheel was the hit of the event that day. We kept track of people by counting out plates ahead of time. We used all 300 we had put out and had to break out another sleeve of 150 so, in about a 4-hour span, we served 450 small plates of the parm noodles. That is a pretty wild number to come out of a booth…camp stove and cheese wheel…so we were all very happy and complimentary of the chef for the idea. The afternoon rolled by…I had seen Michael a couple of times though we kept missing each other’s chance for smoke breaks. This was his busy day with several panels and meetings, and he was part of the committee putting on the awards banquet that evening. I thought to myself, more than once during that day, that I really missed seeing him throughout the day…but we were all so freaking busy it was probably for the best. About 6 pm I got a text from Michael asking if I could sneak away for a bit…of course…what immediately came to mind was that he had something up his sleeve…found a new spot…or it was a trap. I laughed to myself…then texted him back saying yes…he responded by telling me to meet him out front…I let the guys know I was going to take a break…got a smart-ass comment from Corey…and then I headed out. Michael was waiting out front and asked if I wanted to run across the street to the little Irish pub and get a quick drink…perfect I thought…I was ready for that. We wandered into a cool little spot called O’Reilly’s and bellied up to the bar. The place was fairly busy but not crazy…. Michael ordered two shots, a beer and a cocktail for me…

“I heard your food presentation was over the top today” (Michael)

“Yeah…it was pretty crazy over there…Rob did a great job with the presentation”

“Even Diane came up and told me it was awesome” (Michael)

“Yep…she stopped by a couple of times and brought groups of people each time”

“Well, cheers to you…sounds like it was the hit of the show so far”

“What have you been up to…haven’t seen you buzzing around at all”

“Just meetings…boring meetings…and these baby winemakers are driving me crazy…”

“Well…everybody has to start somewhere…you did”

“I suppose…they are just so needy” (Michael)

“You must be teaching that in your panels…ha-ha”

“Fuck off…I am NOT needy” (Michael)

“Really…who told you that?”

“Whatever” (Michael)

“I am just saying…ha-ha”

“Hey…I wasn’t the one whining this morning about being locked out” (Michael)

“Seriously…you are going with that? What possessed you to pull that little prank by the way?”

“I told you…I was just trying to see if you would do it…you are so strait-laced sometimes it makes me wonder what you WILL do…ha-ha” (Michael)

“I think I have proven, at least in the past few months…that I am starting to think outside the box…”

“Oh, I know…but as impressive as it is…I think there is more…” (Michael)

“Oh yeah…like what”

“You will see, you will see”

And there was that evil grin. I knew, at some point soon, I was going to want to have a conversation with him. This was all starting to…well I didn’t know…I couldn’t put my finger on what I was thinking at the time. When we first met, I got the impression he was way more discreet and “vanilla” than me. I knew, from that first night at the hot springs, that he was a bit of an exhibitionist…but hey…that was skinny dipping and like I thought before…we all had done that much. The parking garage and the public bathroom made me wonder more…was he testing limits (Mine and his) or was he going slowly to see how far he could push…or pull me. I knew I was a bit naïve about male on male sex…other than what I had read or seen on various porn sites (yes, I had looked) I wasn’t really sure where he was going…what his experience was…I mean I had thought we kind of talked about that over time…but I was starting to wonder…but what I did know was that he was having a lot of fun…at my expense so to speak, and was really starting to test my limits. Funny thing was…even with thinking about it all and wondering where he was going with it…I had to admit, at least to myself, that I was enjoying it.

It was time to head back across the street. We were a few minutes from having to move towards the awards banquet/dinner, so we needed to round up the guys and head upstairs. Before we got inside Michael grabbed my ass and pulled me into a monster kiss…it had been a little bit since I had had one of those from him…he also reached down and rubbed the front of my pants…ya know…just to remind me I guess. We pulled apart…I straightened myself up…meaning I put things back in place so not so noticeable and we went inside to grab the guys. I had not attended this function in years past but Michael and Diane both made it a point to tell me I should be there. It would be a good opportunity to schmooze and network, so I went willingly.