The Village

Seth’s Perspective

Ho - lee – shit. Zach was right, that WAS my dad and Best sitting in the corner of the restaurant eating sushi. “What the actual fuck?” I said in response as I thought about what to do. I don’t know why, but my first response was to call Eli who was at home with Riley keeping an eye on Petunia and Zoey.

“Hey, Seth. How’s Vegas?” Eli chirped into the phone.

I whispered into the phone as I watched my dad and Best having a great dinner just laughing and enjoying their time together. “We’re out to dinner and Dad and Best are sitting about seventy five feet away from us. Like, on a date!”

“NO FUCKING WAY!” Eli yelled with a laugh, “I totally called it.” I was in shock from seeing my dad in Vegas and trying to think of the best way to approach him without embarrassing him, and Eli was basking in being right… yeah that summed up our personalities pretty well. “Did he see you? Did you talk to him?”

“No! I called you. What should I do?” I said in shock and at a loss.

“Go say hi” Eli said, I could hear the amusement in his voice. We discussed my approach and what I should say before we hung up. He made me promise to call him after.

I took a deep breath and told Zach, “I’m gonna go say hi.” Zach nodded in response, I could hear him filling Victor and Rodney in on what was happening as I walked over to the candlelit table in the dark corner. The two men were smiling and engrossed in conversation, they didn’t even see me approach. I noticed Best’s hand on top of my dad’s as the two men leaned into their intimate conversation.

I got to the table and said with a smile, “Hi Dad” then looked at Best, “Hi Mr. Bestford, Happy New Year to you both.” The two men had smiles that were instantly replace with wide-eyed looks of surprise.

After a moment of silence my dad stuttered, “Um… S..S..Seth?! What in god’s name are you doing here?” Then he stood and hugged me, his smile returned but it was more of a confused, guilty smile than his earlier look. I explained about the board meeting, and that the other board members, including my brother Brad and his husband Scotty would be joining us the next day.

“What are YOU doing here is the bigger question. I thought you were in California” I said.

“We were for a couple of days, then we just wanted to go somewhere that we didn’t know anyone and could let loose, so we drove here for the rest of our vacation” he explained as Best looked on awkwardly.

“As a couple or as friends?” I boldly asked in a fact-finding tone trying not to cast judgment.

“Somewhere in the middle” Best interjected with the winning smile of a TV Evangelist.

“Why didn’t you just tell us what you were up to?” I asked as I gave my dad a playful punch on the shoulder.

“C’mon, Seth” Dad said. “I am still so uncomfortable with all this stuff… it took all I had to come out to you and Brad, I’m certainly not comfortable telling you about my… my… my exploits.”

 

That got a smile and laugh out of Best, “I’m an exploit now, am I? I quite like that” he joked.

“You and Brad are both so… so OUT and PROUD” My dad said. “I’m barely out, and I’m certainly not proud of how I handled coming to grips with my own sexuality by hiding and taking it out on my family.”

“Well you should be damn proud of the strides you’ve made in your self-acceptance, and what the two of you are doing to take down the church” I said. “Jesus Dad, just love yourself already, would ya’?” I realized I was a little bit intense and apologized. My dad actually seemed happy about my outburst. After that we just talked like human beings.

They told me how they were visiting friends of Best’s in Palm Springs over Christmas, then decided to come here for New Year’s. “I have a timeshare” Best said, “it’s about the only thing I got in the divorce, they had an opening in Las Vegas this week, and it was just a hop, skip, and a jump from Palm Springs so we booked it” Best said. He was actually a very likable guy.

As we talked, Dad looked over to our table and waved to the staring Zach then said, “Okay, I’ll say it… this is the most awkward moment of my life.”

I laughed and responded, “It shouldn’t be, Dad” although I didn’t believe my own words, it was awkward as fuck. “I need to get back to my table, but how about drinks with me and Zach after dinner?”

“I’d really like that, son” my dad responded, then I walked back to my table. I updated Zach and the others as we ate sushi, then subtly texted Eli under the table “holy shit, it’s them. We’re gonna have drinks after dinner.”

He responded, “You so better fucking call me tonight!”

After they finished dinner, Dad and Best came over to our table. Rodney and Victor had just finished eating and said goodnight to us for the evening, Dad and best took their seats. We talked for a bit at the restaurant, then walked to a nearby gay bar with my dad and… well… I guess his boyfriend, kinda. Right? Oh my god this was weird!

Zach held the door open and my dad hesitated before entering. “Um, I have NEVER been in a gay bar before” My dad said.

“No shit?!” Zach exclaimed with a mischievous grin then made a motion for Dad to enter. “Well, welcome” Zach was loving this and the rest of us were as uncomfortable as hell. Drinks were nice. I talked to my dad and Zach talked to Best for a while, then the four of us had a conversation together, I really enjoyed myself. The dynamic was beyond anything I could have ever conceived as a scared little gay church kid with a homophobic zealot as a father. But there we were.

“Hey, Best said they went to Thunder From Down Under last night” Zach said trying to keep the conversation going.

“It was lame” Best replied with a smirk. I just looked at my father who turned red as a beet. I couldn’t help but smile.

Zach had had a few drinks by that time and was feeling good. “C’mon guys” he slurred. “The Uber’s out front.”

“Uber?” I asked.

“Yeah. If these men wanna see some naked men, then naked men they shall see. It’s Vegas!” slurred my drunk husband as he dropped some cash on the table and headed towards the door with his arm up yelling “To the strip club!”

“I’m game” Best said before he downed his drink. My dad and I just looked at each other in the most godawful awkward father son moment ever.

“Well, you wanted exploits” I said and we both laugh nervously as we followed our partners out of the bar and into the Uber. I sat in the front seat, Zach was in the back between my dad and Best, he and Best were laughing and singing in the Uber, both drunk as hell. The Uber ride was about fifteen minutes long and took us into a seedy part of town. The strip club was dark, dirty, and smoking with a mixed crowd of men and women ogling, grabbing, and cheering as the men paraded their G-string clad bodies from stage to stage, and table to table. Zach and Best were whooping it up and dancing with the damn strippers, Zach even bought my dad a lap dance. Yup. That’s what I fudging said! My husband bought my father a lap dance at a male strip club!! It was all so surreal. I could tell my dad was embarrassed, but Best and Zach cheered him on and he finally just let himself go and went with it. We ended up having a great time, with me being the prude of the group by calling it an early night. I had to be my best for the board meeting. We only stayed about an hour or so before catching an Uber back towards the strip. We dropped Dad and Best off at their timeshare, hugged goodnight and promised to spend some more time together before we all left town. Once they were out of the Uber, we called Eli and then got Brad in on conference as we rode back to The Resort, telling them everything. We were all in shock, but Eli put it best, “You both know how much better life got when you all finally got to be yourselves. We weren’t getting anywhere being pissed at him… I’m happy for the guy. And kudos to Zach attack for buying the old man a lap dance.”  Zach laughed and smiled a proud, drunk smile.

After I hung up with my brothers and told Brad I’d see him at the meeting in the morning, Zach said, “It was really nice hanging with your dad and Best like that.” I agreed, but I still felt weird about it all, I was still processing everything. When we got to our room, we decided to head down to the pool and relax before bed. We stripped, wrapped our towels around us, and headed to the spa area. Rodney and Victor were already lounging out when we got there, they had the same idea.  We hung out at the pool together for a while, It was a little awkward at first and the four of us kept our towels on, eventually, still buzzed Zach took his off (always the instigator), then Victor… I mean why not, the two of them were naked at the pool together all afternoon anyway… and yes, HE WAS FUCKING HUNG! Eventually, all four of us were lounging at the pool completely naked and comfortable around each other. Zach and I hit the hot tub for a while and Rodney and Victor disappeared into the steam room. It was so nice to just relax after such a crazy night that I almost fell asleep in the hot tub. When we finally decided to call it a night and go up to our room, Rodney and Victor were still in the steam room.

I got a good night’s sleep and was at Jordy’s hotel by 7AM running through my presentation a few more times, the meeting started at 10AM. Rodney came early to double check everything, coordinate breakfast, etc. We interacted normally; our night of nudity didn’t seem to change things between us… I was happy as hell about that! It was about an hour before the meeting when Max showed up to run through his part of the presentation, it was his first time addressing the entire board in-person as the chairman and he was nervous. He had no reason to be. He looked awesome, was poised, and had a solid speech ready to go. I had known Max since he was a skinny little freshman, but now there was no mistaking that he was Chairman Of The Board… he wore it well. I ran through a couple of parts of my presentation with him, then we just hung out and shot the shit like the friends we were. I was telling him all about running into my dad when the others started to show up. I greeted everyone as they entered, grabbed breakfast from the buffet table, and started to mingle.

Scotty and Brad entered the room and cornered me “So what the fuck?!” Brad asked. “DAD is HERE?! IN VEGAS?!” I laughed at his disbelief and told him everything, repeating what I told him on the phone. “Do you think the four of us we should invite them out for drinks after our dinner with the board?” Brad asked. That surprised me… Brad had said that he had forgiven him and let go, but I was skeptical.

“Text him and see. I bet he’d love it” I said. Zach walked up behind me as we were talking.

“Yeah, Best is fucking awesome” he said, the two had bonded over drinks and male strippers. But then he realized that Best was one of Brad’s abductors and added, “Well, he’s cool except for the whole knocking you out, abducting you, and wanting to turn you straight thing” making Scotty spit coffee out of his nose in laughter. Even Brad smiled at that… it took a decade, but I believed Brad was finally at peace with it all. The four of us decided to invite them out, the text came from Brad and the invite was instantly accepted. I stepped away to get the meeting rolling, asking everyone to take their seats then introduced Max.

Max opened the meeting with a tribute to his grandfather, and thank yous to each of the board members for their contributions… we had an incredibly hands-on board and I loved them. They gave me total autonomy, trusted my decisions, but were always there for anything I needed.

I considered everyone on the board a friend, but today I was there as their employee and I wanted to impress them. Max turned it over to me and I went through the agenda, then introduced the video: “Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, we’re in Vegas so it’ll be a fun weekend, but first we have a day of business. Before we start, I wanted to remind you why we’re all here” Then I shut up, Rodney dimmed the lights, and the video started. One by one the boys told their stories, they gave their backgrounds (some happy, some awful), they talked about how they found The Village, How The Village helped them, and where they are now. The stories were all touching and real, but the last story was the most emotional.

A beautiful young man was center screen with a car dealership in the background. “Hi, I’m Taylor” the stunning young man-bunned man in the suit said. He opened with, “My mother was a wonderful woman” then paused, “She wasn’t well educated, and struggled to survive, but she always put me first. She loved me, and I loved her… she was my world.” The board was listening and smiling at the story, “and my father brutally murdered her with me in the room when I was eleven years old” the room gasped then went silent, you could hear a frigging pin drop. “After that my grandmother took me in, she was having her own issue with her daughter’s death and ended up killing herself with pills and booze, I was the lucky one who found her dead.” The room was choking up, we went from picturing the beautiful man as a happy child loving his mother, to a lost soul before he was even a teenager. “From there it was foster home to foster home, I never lasted very long in one place… I was a nasty little fuck that no one wanted around.” Our hearts were breaking as we listened to him. “When I aged out of the system, I left Philly and went to Atlantic City, I survived by selling myself. I was surviving and doing okay… until I wasn’t. I hooked up with the wrong trick. Long story short, he got violent, beat me, took my phone, my backpack, all the money I had saved, even my shoes. He kicked me out of his hotel room and security kicked me out of the hotel… I had nothing. I found a dumpster behind the hotel, curled up in a ball, and cried myself to sleep.” His voice wasn’t sad, it was surprisingly strong and confident as he told his tale. It was his history now, not his life.

“A cop found me in the middle of the night and woke me up. When he saw my battered face and the dried blood on my dirty clothes, he took me to the local hospital where a male nurses sympathized with me. He took special care of me while I was there and talked to me a lot. He asked a lot of questions, I was guarded with my answers but eventually broke into tears and told him enough for him to surmise I was gay, homeless, and had literally nothing and nobody. He made sure I was able to spend a couple of nights in the safety of the hospital. On my last morning there a social worker came by my room. I don’t know all the intricate details, but calls were made and the social worker somehow connected with The Village. After I was cleaned up, the social worker brought me some clean clothes and drove me to North Carolina where I’d be safe. That’s when my life changed forever. I moved in with an amazing couple who trusted me… a little too much maybe, things were great. But I started turning tricks behind their backs so I could save money. I got caught, but The Village gave me a second chance. Eventually I was able to move into Harrington House in my very own apartment. But I screwed up again” he skipped over the part about Elliot and Cam (two former board members) hiring him for sex… I was happy about that. “But even after I screwed up, The Village helped me, they helped me find a job and a home, they kept counseling me and made sure I was able to make it on my own. I moved out of Harrington House, but I wasn’t on my own. The Village isn’t a charity, they’re my family. Finally, I didn’t feel alone, I felt loved for the first time since my mother was murdered.” On the screen, Taylor broke down but the camera kept rolling. The meeting room was dark and quiet except for the quiet sobs of the board members. Taylor looked at the camera, eyes puffy, face read, and crackled out “Thank you all for actually giving a shit about a forgotten guy like me.” That did it. We were all choked up as the screen went black.

Just as I was expecting the lights to come up, Taylor was back on the screen. The redness was gone from his face and his eyes were bright. “Me again” he said with a smile. I had no clue what this was, I hadn’t seen this footage before. I looked over at Rodney who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, smiling, looking at me as though awaiting a reaction… then he just waved by wiggling his fingers at me. “Seth, Max, and the other Village people always say, “pay it forward.” There was a chuckle from the crowd at the reference to us as ‘The Village People.’ The camera pulled out and you could see Taylor was leaning on an old Jetta. He wasn’t at the dealership anymore, I recognized Daddy James’ shop in the background. “The dealership I work for just had what we call a Push, Pull, Drag sale where we took almost any car in on trade. That means we had a bunch of old cars that were probably going to junk, or take to auction and sell at a loss. I had an idea.” He said to the camera, “what if we donated them to The Village for villagers who needed cars, or just to fix up and sell for profit? So, I called Daddy James’” Brody and Dylan’s bearish mechanic of a father stepped into the picture with a big ole smile on his bearded face and waved. The board chuckled at the familiar face.

“Hey Y’all” Daddy said getting a laugh. Most of the board knew him personally, and all knew his name. He generously donated his talents, his connections, and car parts to The Village. He fixed up cars for villagers, kept them on the road, and even taught several how to work on them. “I’m workin’ with Taylor, Rodney, and a bunch a good ole boys from The Village to fix up these old junkers.” The he pointed to the Jetta and said “This is the first one we finished and she’s a beaut! Take a bow boys!” The camera shifted to a group of villagers including Mason, Colton, Maverick, and several others. “She used to look like this” Daddy said as a before picture of the wreck flashed on the screen, “now thanks to all these guys, she’s ready to roll” the camera focused on the shiny old car. Like every other vehicle that man touched, it looked brand 2new. “She’s ready to assist a villager, or be sold at auction, whatever Seth needs to do with her… I got eight more just like her” he said as the Camera worked its way down a row of eight cars, all older, but salvageable. “The boys n’ me promise to get ‘em all on the road for The Village.”

Then Taylor chimed in “My boss talked to a couple of other dealers in town and they agreed to donate too. We call it cars for queers even though Rodney told us we couldn’t” Then all the guys on screen shouted, “Pay it forward!” and the room echoed with clapping and cheers as the board members all stood and applauded Taylor, Daddy, and the boys. I just looked at Rodney, I had no clue any of this was going on. He walked past me on his way to the mic and whispered, “They swore me to secrecy, Taylor wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Hi everyone, I’m Rodney, the case worker for The Village, I think I’ve talked to all of you on the phone at one time or another, and met you this morning. Taylor and Daddy James came to me with this idea last month and wanted to surprise Seth and you all with it at the meeting. I have a handout with the details so you know who the dealer donors are and the inventory so far. I’ll disseminate more details through Seth as they become available.” Damn, Rodney and the boys did all this on their own.

The rest of the meeting was productive, but mostly boring except for a visit from Jordy (The Majority stakeholder of The Resort, and owner of several hotels including the one we were at) announcing that the hotels would be donating 10% of year end profits to The Village, and that The Resort was doubling their pledged giving. I was doing all the math in my head and grinning at Max. This, Was. Huge. In just one year we were a strong, financially stable nonprofit to be reckoned with. We were beating the odds and helping these guys.

We had a great dinner with the Board after the meeting, then we were on vacation for the next two days.

Father Westin’s Perspective (Yeah, that’s what it says)

I had never been that nervous in my life. ‘C’mon West, it’s just dinner with your boys and their husbands’ I told myself. I felt a hand on mine.

I heard the voice of my best friend, Barry Bestford… AKA Best, “This is a good thing, West” he said from across the table as he held my hand. “Your boys are extending an olive branch. That’s further than I’ve gotten with my son Benny.”

Yeah, maybe it was. But I had been a shitty father, I mean SHITTY! I was a closeted, bigoted, homophobic zealot who took my misery out on my family. In the early years I turned to religion to find a cure for my homosexuality, instead I just found excuses and hid behind god. When the kids were younger, I even had a mistress, because men were the kings of their castle, and that’s what kings did, dammit. We called it “family Values’ (Such crap, my gay sons value their families more than we ever did). Thanks to the church, I could justify anything; cheating, knocking my kids around, treating my wife like a servant… anything except sleeping with men, the church was clear that god would not allow that. It took losing my kids to realize how wrong I had been, but by then I had brainwashed my wife so well that she saw them as the enemy instead of me and reconciliation with my kids just wasn’t in the cards, so I missed out on a decade’s worth of my kid’s lives’. My loyal wife passed all too soon, THAT’S when my family began to forgive me and I began to forgive myself. The process was taking time, but I was down a good path. I was even blessed to spend Thanksgiving with my children and grandchildren… that was a dream I had given up on. Then, Best and I decided to get away from gossiping mouths and prying eyes for a while, we went to Vegas to get away and explore a little without fear of judgment.

Best was the only other person in the world who could understand exactly what I had been through because he went through it all too. His wife wasn’t… well as brainwashed as mine. She didn’t tolerate the BS and left him, and when we tried to bring our sons home for conversion therapy, that was the last straw. His wife and son cut him off completely. My kids cut me off too and the courts took my two youngest kids out of my house, however, my wife stood by me… I owed her for that and continued to play it straight out of respect. When she died, I decided to be honest with myself, and now I was working on being honest with the rest of the world.

Through it all, Best was there. We both went to court appointed therapy and eventually came to accept who and what we were and left the church. We both regretted so much of what we had done and decided to try to save other families from what we had put ours through… long story short, we took down our church and a couple of its affiliates, we had built a reputation, other members who saw the light and wanted out would find us. We were trying to do good. To right our unrightable wrongs.

There was always an attraction between us, but we never acted on it, however, I had plans to change all that on this trip… we both did. Before Vegas, we visited friends of his in Palm Springs and shared a bed for the first time. Nothing happened, but I woke up with his arms around me… it felt nice. Right. We got to Vegas a couple nights ago, last night we were out having a nice romantic dinner and who do we run into? My son and his husband. IN VEGAS?!! What the hell were the odds? BUSTED, so much for getting away from everyone. To my surprise My son Seth and his husband Zach took us out to my first gay bar for drinks. Then Zach talked us into going to a male strip club… he bought me a damn lap dance! The whole thing started out so awkward and ended up fun. My son was accepting me as I was, and his husband was pushing me to experience the things I came to Vegas to experience. Now, we were waiting to meet them, my other son Brad, and his husband Scotty for dinner. I never saw any of this coming.

By the time my sons showed up at the steakhouse, I was so nervous I was shaking… this was a huge deal for me. Both of my sons had married good men who loved and supported them. They were both living the life I wish I had the guts to live myself. The four of them came up to the table and we wall hugged, then I introduced them to Best. They had met him at the church when they were younger and had seen him at my wife’s funeral but didn’t really know him, I was glad he was there with me. When I introduced Best to my son in-law Scotty, Best said “Oh, the one who broke your nose?” It was silent at first. A decade ago, when we tried to bring Brad and Best’s son Benny home for conversion therapy, I tried to see Brad in the hospital and Scotty punched me in the face and broke my nose. Our group went silent at Best’s comment, well until he added, “I wish you would have punched me too; it might have knocked some sense into me.” Then they laughed. They laughed! Can you believe that? We were laughing about it… I never thought I’d live to see the day when we laughed about my most horrid mistake.

Best, Scotty, and Zach were joking and laughing while me and my sons engaged in awkward small talk at first. It didn’t take long for our three companions to engage us, and soon we were all having a great time. The awkwardness seemed to vaporize and there I was with my two sons, their husbands, and my… well, my boyfriend, I guess. After 58 years on this earth, I finally felt right. I was being me… Bradley Westin Sr.

After dinner, the six of us went to another gay bar for drinks. If you count the male strip club (which wasn’t technically all gay), that was my third gay bar in two nights. I was surprised at how different they all were. The crowds were different, the atmospheres were different. The strip club was shady, but the other two were nice places full of people who were just being themselves. I was in awe of it all.

That night when Best and I got back to the condo I decided to take a shower to get the smoke and grime of Vegas off me before bed. After a night with my out and proud sons and their husbands, after seeing all those people just being who they were, I was inspired to make a bold move. “Hey Best, I’m going to take a shower. Would you like to join me?” I asked my longtime friend.

Best shot me a sly grin, “Really? Are you sure?” We had discussed sex. We both wanted it, Best was a little more experienced and told me that I was in control, he wanted to be sure I didn’t have regrets. Neither of us saw this as a one-time experiment, we saw it as a jump from friendship to relationship… one we couldn’t turn back from. Best was a good looking man, in his mid- to-late fifties like me, lean, toned, in good shape… as was I. If I had to categorize us, I would call him a mature jock-type, and myself more of a silver-fox. We were both attractive and in decent shape.

“As ready as I’ll ever be” I responded. “I feel good about myself for the first time in a long time” I said. As I took off my shirt, then dropped my pants and stood there in front of my companion in just my boxers.

Best grinned, then stripped down to his briefs and said, “I’m going to make you feel even better.” Damn. He looked so hot standing there, we both stepped forward and embraced. His naked, hairy chest felt so good against my smooth, hairless chest as we kissed. We had shared kisses a few times before, but they all felt so tentative. Not this time. I kissed him with passion and commitment and he responded in kind. His strong arms wrapped around me, his bare skin touching mine, and his hardening manhood grinding against mine. I was so hard; I don’t ever remember being that hard with a woman. After several minutes of kissing and exploring each other, we made our way to the bathroom. I turned on the shower, while the water heated up, we kissed some more and pulled down each other’s underwear. There I was, naked with another man for the first time… all my fears, guilt, apprehensions, doubts, WHATEVER were gone. I was in the moment and it was right. Absolutely right! Why the hell did I fight this for so long.

Before we even got into the shower, Best dropped to his knees and grabbed my manhood in his hand. His grip was firm and strong, it felt amazing. I looked down and he looked up, smirking as he licked my shaft for the first time. A shockwave went through me, nothing had ever felt so incredible, so right. The bathroom filled with steam as Best took me in his warm, sensual mouth. I had never in my life had a blowjob before. I had been with several women, rarely any foreplay, always in the missionary position, and NEVER oral sex. I could feel Best’s tongue snaking around my steeled girder as he awakened a renaissance in me, new feelings, new sensations, the real me. I was excited beyond speech, I couldn’t thank him, or encourage him, or even warn him when I shot my load down is throat. It just, just… happened. I could feel my rod pulsate as the creamy liquid-sin escaped me with spurt after powerful spurt. At first, I counted, but lost track after seven spurts as my brain slipped into a state of euphoria: pleasures of the flesh. The steam bellowed around us and the air was flush with the sounds of running water and Best’s gulping. My ears were pounding, my knees were buckling, and Best was holding me up by my butt cheeks as he swallowed every drop of me.

When I recuperated, we took a shower, then made our way to the bedroom where I returned Best’s kindness (with some guidance from him) and we explored the wonders of man on man sex. We were up until the dawn trying everything! I exploded three more times that night… at 58 years old, I came 3 times in one night! I had never been more excited; It was an amazing night that bonded the two of us in ways unimaginable.

After almost six decades of life, I gave into the pleasures of everything I was taught to be wrong and finally felt right.

 

To be continued…