Nuff Rope

Chapter 11


 

Patrick stood on the mound of the baseball diamond. He needed one more out to get out of the inning, and out of the game. He had a runner on second that he had to keep an eye on. The other team’s best hitter was coming to bat. Patrick stared at the catcher absorbing the signs he was giving. He nodded in agreement. He positioned the ball and glove in front of his chest. His arm drew back slowly and then with as much force as he could muster he threw his best fastball.

The batter swung and suddenly the ball came straight back at him. He stuck out his glove hoping to catch the ball, but the glove caught just a piece of it. Patrick wasn’t quite fast enough to get it in position to catch the ball. And then he felt incredible pain as the ball glanced off his glove and hit him hard in the chest. He dropped into a heap of agony as he saw figures rushing around him.

“Patrick, Patrick, can you hear me? Are you all right?” his counselor who was acting as the coach for his team was asking.

“I … I’m okay,” Patrick said drawing in a sharp breath as the pain started to ease. “Did they score?’

The counselor smiled. This was a spunky kid he was dealing with. Many of the boys at the baseball camp would be weeping like babies and calling for their mommies. This kid was worried about losing the game. “No, Patrick, they didn’t score. The third baseman was able to get to the ball before the runner rounded third. You have runners on first and third. Do we need to take you out of the game?”

“No,” Patrick said emphatically. “I can finish the inning.”

“Are you sure? You’re probably going to have a nasty bruise.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, let’s get you back on your feet,” the counselor said. He offered Patrick his hand to help him up. Gingerly Patrick got to his feet. “Stretch a bit and see how your ribs feel.”

Patrick did just that. His chest felt sore but not unbearable. “I can do it,” he said.

The coach nodded. “The next batter is the guy you struck out with change ups last time. Do the same.”

Patrick nodded as everyone went back to their positions. With a glance at the runners Patrick threw the ball. The batter was way out in front of the ball. He swung hard, but it resulted in a ground ball towards second. The second baseman tossed it to first and the game was over.

Suddenly Patrick was surrounded by his teammates who were thumping him on the back and cheering his victory over the other team. They didn’t seem to realize that every thump on his back radiated to his chest and caused more pain. He was very glad when they finally stopped and everyone left the field.

“Good job, Patrick,” the coach said as he walked off the field with Patrick. “Come on over to the first aid office and we’ll check you out. We should get some ice on your ribs.”

“Okay,” Patrick agreed.

 

*****
 

“What are you doing?” John asked as Bobby got off the phone in their hotel room. They had been out all morning strolling around Manhattan and taking in the feel of the big, bustling city. After a delicious lunch at a deli they had returned to their hotel for a little alone time. They had just surfaced after a passionate round of lovemaking. Having showered they were thinking about how to spend the rest of the day.

“I just scored two tickets to tonight’s Yankees game,” Bobby said proudly.

John looked at his husband who was so excited. “You want to go?”

“Of course I want to go. This is the Yankees we’re talking about.”

“Okay then, Yankee Stadium it is,” John agreed.

Bobby knew that baseball wasn’t really John’s favorite thing. Bobby appreciated John agreeing to come with him to the ball game. He’d make sure they had a good time. “Have I told you how much I love you?” Bobby cooed in John’s ear, his hand rubbing across John’s bare chest.

“A time or two,” John said with a grin.

“I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love you … and Patrick.”

“I wonder how our boy is doing.”

“I imagine he’s doing just fine. He’s a scrapper,” Bobby said proudly.

“I wonder if they let him pitch.”

“If they know what’s good for them, they did.”

John smiled. “I’m sorry we won’t be there for most of his games.”

“Me too, but we have important things to do here in New York.”

“Like go to Yankee games,” John chuckled.

“Exactly. And spend lots of time in bed.”

“You know,” John said thoughtfully. “I think I might need another nap before we go out to dinner and that ball game.”

“Me too,” Bobby agreed, as they tumbled onto the bed.

 

*****
 

“How do you feel, Patrick?” the nurse asked.

The coach had taken Patrick to the first aid office to be checked out. Patrick was sitting on a chair with an ice pack on his ribs.

“I’ll be fine. How much longer do I have to keep this on?” Patrick asked lifting the ice pack away from his chest.

“Twenty minutes,” the nurse replied. “You have five to go.”

Patrick sighed and let his mind wander. He hadn’t really got to celebrate the victory of his team. The coach had whisked him away to this place while all his teammates went to shower and have refreshments. Patrick wanted to be with them.

His ribs were sore, and Patrick knew that tomorrow he would probably be very stiff. He had wanted to cry when the ball hit him. He had almost blacked out. It had hurt so bad. If his dads had been around, he would have cried and let them look after him. But they were in New York. They were probably having a good time. He didn’t want to bother them. He could get through this on his own.

Patrick’s mind went to the time he broke his arm when he fell off a horse. Everyone had taken such good care of him, especially Bree. He would like Bree to bring him some lemonade right now, and then she could sit with him and maybe draw a rainbow card to tell him to get better soon. Thinking about Bree, Patrick had to fight back tears.

He wondered how she was doing at soccer camp. He hoped she wouldn’t get hurt like he had. She could call her daddies if she needed to. Her fathers weren’t in New York. They were at home. Patrick shook his head and told himself to stop with the self-pity. His Uncle Brian always said that self-pity made his dick soft. Patrick giggled to himself. He wasn’t sure what that meant but it sounded awesome.

Patrick looked at the clock. “Time’s up,” he said to the nurse who was filling out some kind of form.

“Right. Let’s see your chest.”

Patrick set down the ice pack and lifted his shirt. “It’s turning purple,” he said.

“Come back in an hour and we’ll put another ice pack on it. I think you’ll be fine.”

“Me too,” Patrick agreed as he headed out the door.

 

*****
 

“Matt, bring the whipper snipper over here,” Brian said as he stood up from the garden he had just finished weeding. “Trim the edge.”

“Sure,” Matt said, and proceeded to cut the grass along the edge of the flowerbed. He had been using the riding lawnmower to cut the entire lawn, while Brian was working on the flowerbeds.

Brian stretched his aching back. He had been working since early in the morning with one brief break for lunch. He had just about had it. He watched Matt trimming. The man had worked hard cutting grass, but he didn’t seem to know a lot about gardening.

“Matt,” Brian called as the man switched off the machine. “See this edge,” he said pointing to a spot which Matt had just trimmed. “Don’t get so close. We’re trimming the grass, not scalping it.”

“Okay,” Matt replied.

“I’m serious. If you want to work for us, I expect things to be done right. I can see that you’re not afraid of hard work, and that’s a good thing. But working hard and working expertly aren’t necessarily the same thing. Do you understand?”

Matt frowned and looked at Brian. Matt needed this job, and he was prepared to work hard, but this guy wanted perfection. “I don’t know if I can live up to your standards,” he said slowly.

“Sure you can,” Brian informed him. “Take pride in your work and follow my instructions. I think you can be good at this job.”

Matt was surprised. That was the first positive thing Brian Kinney had said to him all day. Matt had watched his boss work right alongside him. Brian wasn’t a shirker, even though he was the boss. He worked hard and he expected Matt to do the same. “I was beginning to think that nothing I did was good enough.”

“I didn’t mean to give you that impression,” Brian replied. “I think you have potential. Where did you work before?”

“I was with a company north of Pittsburgh. They’ve gone out of business.”

“Shoddy work?”

“No, the owner retired.”

“You didn’t want to take it over?”

“I would have liked to, but I didn’t have the money.”

“I see,” Brian said. “Matt, I’m prepared to offer you this job, and I can see you being on your own in a week or two.”

“You mean it?” Matt asked.

“I do. But tomorrow I need to see how you are with the gardening aspect of this job. Your grass cutting is coming along pretty well, just watch the trimming.”

“I will,” Matt replied, “but…”

“But what?” Brian asked with a frown. That usually meant there was a problem.

“I’m not sure I know much about flowers and … weeds.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t think I can tell the difference,” Matt admitted.

“Between weeds and flowers, you mean?” Brian asked in surprise.

“Yeah.”

“But, didn’t you say you worked for a landscaping company?”

“Yeah, but all I did was cut grass and lay sod. I never worked in the gardens.”

Brian heaved a weary sigh. He knew this had been going too well. He thought he had found the man for the job. Now it looked like he would have to start tomorrow with somebody else.

“I’d like to learn though,” Matt added quickly.

“Do you intend to stick with this? I’m not going to spend a week teaching you, and then have you bail on me,” Brian warned.

“I wouldn’t do that, Mr. Kinney. I want this job, and I think I could be good at it. I just need to know what to do.”

“Then I’m the man to teach you,” Brian said clapping Matt on the back. “Let’s go. I’ve had it for today.”

“Sure, Mr. Kinney.”

They headed for the truck.

 

*****
 

“So what’d ya think?” Ken asked Stacey after the meeting. They were in her office going over their notes.

“About the client or Gus?” Stacey snapped.

“Both,” Ken replied calmly, nonplussed and used to Stacey’s “A” personality. His Simon had a similar personality, that is, until Ken worked a little magic to transform it into an “A-”. Simon had learned to lighten up over the years.

“I think we won the account, in spite of the screw up with the boards.”

“You can’t blame that on Gus, the boards were not in the correct order to begin with.”

“Maybe,” Stacey conceded. “Heads will roll for that one. But they were so obviously marked; you’d think he would have noticed that something wasn’t right.”

“Stacey, the boy was nervous.”

“My point exactly, Gus is a boy. I don’t care who his parents are. Since we decided to participate in the intern program I only wanted seniors. They have a certain maturity that the underclassmen haven’t developed. Hell, more than half those kids have no clue what they want to do with themselves, let alone work in advertising. Did you know what you wanted to do with your life at Gus’ age?”

“Sure I did. I wanted to be Andy Warhol, live in a fabulous New York loft and have beautiful blond twinks throw themselves at me every night.”

“My point,” Stacey snarked as she gestured in the air with her index finger, adding an invisible point to her score.

“Honey, give him time to settle in. He’s trying.”

“No, he thinks he’s trying. He also thinks he knows more than he does.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because Gus reminds me of me. You forget that I came from Pittsburgh. I came to New York thinking I’d take the advertising community by storm, but I learned fast that there were a thousand other kids out there who had a hell of a lot more experience. I had to learn all over again. It’s not always going to be easy just because he’s Brian Kinney’s son.”

“I know that. All I’m saying is to give him a chance and don’t penalize him because of his father. Gus might be a little cocky, but it isn’t just because he’s Brian’s son. He’s almost nineteen and all nineteen year-old boys think they know everything. It’s just the nature of the beast. Take my word for it, as a father that’s barely surviving teenaged boys.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Stacey said calming down.

“Can I send him in so you can discuss how the meeting went?” Ken said as he stood to go to the door.

“Sure. Personally, I’m not sure I want this client. I get those potential ‘pain in the ass’ vibes from him.”

“So do I but I also get those potential ‘millions and I can retire early’ vibes from him as well,” Ken said with a straight face, making Stacey laugh.

“Out!” she said making a go away gesture with her hand. “And send in the beast.”

“Yes, m’lady,” Ken said with a dramatic bow.

“I’m surrounded by drama queens,” Stacey murmured to herself as she looked back at her notes.

In the break room Gus was wearing a hole in the carpeting, pacing back and forth. “I screwed up. She’s gonna tell my dad and he’s gonna take away my Jeep,” Gus mumbled as he paced. Being the only one in the room he wasn’t getting any sage advice from the water cooler. “What am I going to do?”

“First you're going to calm yourself down then we’ll take it from there,” Ken said as he walked into the room.

“Uncle Ken, I mean Mr. Mann, I mean...damn, I don’t know what I mean.”

“Here, drink.” Ken handed Gus a cup of water. “Sit!” Gus plopped into a nearby chair. “Do you know what you did wrong?”

“I assumed the boards were in the correct groupings before I placed them on their easels.”

“That’s right. And what happens when we assume?”

“We make an ass of you and me?”

“Right again. And the next time you’re setting up a conference room with display boards…?”

“I check and check and double check that they’re the right boards and in the right order.”

“Very good, Mr. Kinney. Now, Ms. Manning is waiting for you.”

“Yes, sir,” Gus said, looking like a condemned man taking that last walk. He got up and slunk out the door.

“Drama queens,” Ken mumbled as he made himself a cup of coffee.

 

*****
 

“Ladies, this is the equipment cart!” The assistant soccer coach pointed to a huge wheelbarrow filled with balls and protective padding. “After practice, return all your equipment to the cart,” the coach said.

The girls were getting a tour of the camp and of the soccer field. The head coach had a big silver whistle hanging from her neck and wasn’t afraid to use it.

“Listen up! We break into four practice squads and then later into two teams. Our first game is in two days.”

“I hope we’re on the same squad,” Bree whispered to Meghan out of the corner of her mouth.

“Me too,” Meghan whispered back as the assistant coach gave them a warning glare. The girls became quiet, giving their undivided attention to the coach.

Since this was the first official day of camp, the itinerary was slightly different, the coach explained. Their day would start out with breakfast then warm up, so the girls were to dress in their practice uniforms for breakfast. After practice the girls would have some time to relax, change and then go to lunch. After lunch there would be other activities which included arts and crafts. Bree was especially happy about that. The whistle blew again and the assistant coach took over, calling names off the list on his clipboard.

 

*****
 

“Come in!” Stacey called out at the hesitant knock on her office door. Gus entered looking like a naughty puppy with its tail between his legs. “Sit.” Gus sat.

“You want to tell me what happened this morning and explain to me why we looked like a second rate ad firm.”

Gus took a deep breath, praying to the gods at large that he could explain himself logically.

 

*****
 

“Todd, didn't I give you the day off?” Brian said as he walked into the garden center. He spied Todd behind the counter taking inventory of some of the more expensive seed packets.

“I believe you told me to get some rest. Well, I got some rest and now I’m here doing what you hired me to do,” Todd replied waiting for the Brian Kinney blow up.

“Well all right!” Brian surprised Todd with his answer. “Can we talk?” Brian said as he raised his arm to drape over Todd’s shoulders. The odor that only Justin could love hit Brian in the face so he quickly lowered his arm.

“Sure,” Todd answered walking off to the side of the counter where they could talk in private.

“That new guy, Matt, he shows potential but he’s not a flower guy.”

“Flower guy?”

“You know, flowers vs. weeds. He’ll wind up pulling up the daisies and leaving the dandelions,” Brian explained.

“What about keeping him a grass guy?” Todd asked, quickly catching onto to the Brian-speak.

“I think he’d be great as a grass guy, but he needs to learn to pay attention to detail.”

“The edges?”

“Yup.”

“Brian, most people aren’t as picky as you are.”

“Be that as it may...and shit, I hate saying that expression. It’s something my grandmother would say, if I had known my grandmother.” Brian shook his head. “I think I was out in the sun too long without a hat. The reason why I got involved in this business is because I wanted to hire people who are just as picky as I am. Attention to detail gets us more business.”

“Yes sir!” Todd said with a mock salute. “I’ll keep that in mind and put Matt on lawn detail.”

“Just keep in mind that he’d like to learn about the floral and landscaping part of the business. Maybe send him to classes over at the junior college. I’m always seeing ads in the paper about landscaping courses.”

“Really? I never noticed.”

“That’s because I’m the ad man and I always look at the ads in the newspaper. If Matt is serious about learning about flowers, I’ll sponsor him.” Todd was flabbergasted, but then Brian had sponsored Todd’s move and helped him to find a suitable home. Todd was finding out all sorts of things about this Brian Kinney. “But if he fucks up, he’s out,” Brian said as he turned to leave the center, done for the day.

“Now that’s the Brian Kinney I know,” Todd murmured to himself as he returned to his inventory of exotic seeds.

 

*****
 

“Well, well, well, look who’s wandering the big city streets, back from the sticks. I’m surprised you remembered your way around.”

“What do you want, Wayne?” Ray had gone to the bakery to pick up treats for after dinner. Bobby had paid well, so Ray had some extra cash burning a hole in his pocket. He used some of it to buy a new computer game and then he ran to the bakery to buy some of Gus’ favorite cupcakes. He had just enough time to get home, change and then get to his dad’s office.

“You look good. That country air must agree with you,” Wayne said as he moved in closer to Ray. “Shit, you’re hot.” Wayne’s eyes did an inspection of Ray’s body.

“And you’re still delusional. Wayne, be honest with me, other than kissing and maybe a hand job, have you ever really been with a guy?”

Wayne studied Ray’s eyes before answering. Wayne shook his head no.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re good looking and smart and I want to fuck you.”

“You want to fuck with me, you mean. Wayne, I have a boyfriend. We really care about each other; I don’t fuck around. I don’t want to fuck around.”

“He’s rich, right? I don’t have as much money as he does, right?”

“Money has nothing to do with it. Gus is smart, very talented and he makes me laugh. I can relax with him, joke around with him or do nothing except maybe lay back in a field and stare at the sky.”

“Shit, man, you’re twenty years old and you sound pussy whipped. Since when did you turn into a wimp? When I first met you, you were ready and willing to fuck anything with a dick.”

“That was then. Now the only dick I’m interested in belongs to Gus. I gotta get to work. Nice knowin’ ya, Wayne.” Ray took a quick look at the traffic light then sprinted across the street leaving a pissed off Wayne in his wake.
 

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