Italian Dinner

Disclaimer: These are my characters. I do not make any money writing this story.

Italian Dinner
Chapter Three

~*~

When I called the next morning to speak to Julian, I was both slightly disappointed and at the same time greatly relieved that he was unavailable, and that he would probably be unreachable for the rest of the day.

His secretary was very apologetic. "I'm sorry Mr. Black, but Mr. Consolata will be in meetings for the rest of the day, could I take a message? I know he was expecting your call."

I didn't leave a message, I said that I'd try him back tomorrow. I decided it was best to wait a day before seeing him again, lest I could get my head around what exactly I was going to do about this entire situation. For sure I had bitten off more than I could chew, and that was what the guys at the station had been joking about. Yeah, what exactly was I gonna do when Julian and I had formed a steady relationship and he wanted to move it into the bedroom? Was I prepared to make that leap?

I didn't know how to be gay; didn't know how to act or how to think, and I was even more pessimistic about learning. Yes truth be told that since my divorce I hadn't even so much as looked at another woman for fear of the same ill-treatment. Was my only solution to turn to men?

When I returned to the station, Swanson could plainly see that I was in a rut, and he looked both sympathetic, but also on the verge of laughter. He knew I was digging my own grave asking Julian out for that first date, hell all the guys did. And I knew that I was gonna hear a lot of jokes on my part about this. I wasn't very pleased. I didn't know what to do really, but like I said before I had started this little game, and I was going to have to play it to the very end if I wanted to nail the Consolata family for murder or any other crime.

My last resort, I decided, was to watch gay porn to get the gist of it all.

I didn't dare go to a video store so I just downloaded the fastest movie off the net. It didn't disturb me as I thought it would, mostly I felt conscious, like there was someone watching me watch gay porn. I watched it carefully, put off by the bodies of these "actors". I was comforted by the fact that if I ever did end up sleeping with Julian it wasn't going to be in a poorly lit jail cell and he certainly wouldn't have the hairy beer gut and baldness that I was seeing. Sex with Julian would have seemed glorious compared to what I was watching.

The act itself startled me; I knew moreless how it was done but I suppose in a way I didn’t think it was achievable. I could only watch a little further on and then had to stop. Despite the fact that I was at the start of a healthy erection (much to my surprise) I was creeped by the callous thoughts of bright red condoms, edible waterbased lubricants, and oozing semen spilling over skin and lips.

I wanted to be sick. I was aroused but didn't want to jack off, what was the point? Thinking of women seemed creepily inappropriate and thinking of men made me a little nauseous. Thinking of Julian brought nothing but questions. I was worried.

~*~

I called Julian the next day with my heart in my throat and invited him out for lunch. He said he'd love to get lunch but couldn't stay away from the office for more than half an hour. I suggested tacos and pop and a bench somewhere under a tree and he sighed as if to say "thank you".

When we met up I made the mistake of asking him about his day. He told me all about all the lawyers he was dealing with, how he wasn't cut to order them around and how if he got one more paper cut from all the folders and papers, he would slit his throat with the next piece of paper he saw.

I asked when Matteo was coming back and he said he didn't know.

"He called the other day to tell me our great-aunt in Palermo had passed away, and that was all!" he said nearly screeching. "He hung up and I spent another minute talking into the phone after him. Couldn't believe he just hung up." he sighed deeply and bit into his taco as though he was starving to death.

I hated that he was so stressed, it didn't suit him at all.

"And its worse at home." Julian sighed. "Go home for some peace and quiet and there's more lawyers there. Everywhere I go, lawyers! Lawyers! Lawyers! I hate lawyers!" Then he quieted and looked at me. "Sorry."

I hadn't caught on. "For what?"

"I hate lawyers but I don't hate you." he said and smiled.

I couldn't help but smile back, a piece of chopped lettuce dangling from the corner of my mouth. "I hate lawyers too, believe me."

We smiled at each other for a moment and I took a sip of my Pepsi. I snuck glances at Julian; he looked worn and defeated, and chewed his food over and over without swallowing until it must have seemed like wet mush in his mouth. I knew he was dreading going back to the office with only those lawyers to greet him.

Finally Julian swallowed and let out what I'm sure was a bottled sigh. "It sure would be nice if I could just get your advice on some of this stuff, half the time I haven't a clue what any of them are saying."

I opened my mouth to try and say something clever, but then I realized something. If I told Julian that I'd go back with him to the office, maybe he'd calm down a little and I could find out what was going on with this case, not that it was necessarily very interesting, but it was stressing the entire corporation, and it felt as though any day someone would just flip and have this prosecutor killed.

And maybe today I could get a good look at Santo Consolata. He had to be there, right? And if all the lawyers were there then wouldn't the chances be good that Santo was there?

I could hardly contain my excitement. I had to take a bite of my taco to calm myself down, looking at Julian as he slurped from his Pepsi. "Do you want me to come back with you? To the office, I mean."

Julian looked at me, his mouth full and his eyes wide and gleaming. "Really?" he mumbled through a mouthful of beef and tomatoes, before swallowing. "I can't even tell you how much better I would feel if you did."

I shrugged. "I hate to see you so frantic, and it infuriates me that your brother would abandon you at such a time."

He smiled at me once, and I knew that I was going in. Deeper and deeper into the belly of the beast.

~*~

Of course moments after we had arrived and Julian had introduced me to the how many lawyers sitting in the huge boardroom of the Consolata building, I immediately regretted agreeing to come back with him after lunch. There were eight suspicious pairs of eyes looking at me, most of them through coke bottle glasses, and their mouths curled downwards as if they were about to accuse me of being a police detective, that they knew their own blood-sucking brethren just by looking at them and I was definitely not one of them. So needless to say, I was nervous.

I sat next to Julian, sitting at the head of the table, and didn't smile when introduced to the lawyers that sat around me, frightened that I would give myself away. I sat down quietly, looking around the table at these creepy men shuffling papers and chewing on their ends of their fountain pens and picking the crud out from underneath their fingernails. They were all trying to get Julian's attention at the same time, handing him papers and making gestures with their hands and I watched Julian take it all in as though he was about to break down and cry at any moment.

Momentarily the phone rang and we had to swish papers out of the way so Julian could pick it up. "Yes Alice?" he paused. "Thanks. Matteo?"

I looked up and then hushed the other lawyers around me so that we could have some quiet during the phone call. "When are you coming back?" Julian inquired a little too eagerly. "A week-!" He was halfway out of his chair and then had to settle back down and bury his face in his hand. "Matteo I can't handle this by myself, it's your expertise, not mine. No I can't ask Santo to help, you know how busy he is..." Julian paused and sighed again shortly. "All right. I'll see you in a week." And he hung up the phone.

I scowled deeply, coming to dislike Matteo Consolata more and more. His family's business was in trouble and he had the gall to run away to Italy with his wife for a little over two weeks. Asshole.

"You should have just told him to come home." I growled before I could help myself.

Julian waved his hand as if it didn't matter any more. "It's all right." he said. But it wasn't, and we both knew it.

After the odd hush that came with the phone call had come and gone, the room was a fury of conversation once again. All around me came the jittering arguing of the lawyers, and Julian was trying to take in everything that they were saying to him. All I could do was sit there and watch it all happen, it was if they didn't speak the same language I did and I was trying to hear

The closest one to Julian opposite me was a small balding man with glasses and a nasal voice, who continued to shove file folders in front of Julian's face. "These are the prosecutor's effects; he has four business lawyers."

Julian took the folder and laid it down gingerly on the table. "Well I doubt Mr.Giovanni will have the same amount of promise that we have at our arms."

Giovanni...Giovanni...why was that name so familiar?

"Giovanni?" I heard myself saying. "As in...Victor Giovanni?" Yeah, that was it. I remember.

"The one and only." said coke-bottles ahead of me as he shuffled through more papers. I looked to Julian, who was intently studying the papers in the folder that had just been handed to him.

"The Victor Giovanni who got busted for fraud two years ago?" Ah, that's why it rang a bell. I remember seeing something about it at the station, a newspaper clipping titled "Billionaire Giovanni Arrested for Fraud" with a picture of this greasy looking guy shouting at a bunch of cameras. It was enough for me to want to read the article one during my lunch hour; turned out the married tycoon billionaire Victor Giovanni, who owned his own cement or whatever factory, had been working late and called for an escort to come to office, in which she did, and he paid her $3500 from the company payroll for a night of her company, which she was only too glad to accept. The guy got busted, don't remember how, but he was arrested and was in jail for fraud for maybe six months before his parole officer convinced the court that Victor Giovanni would not commit fraud again. The entire thing was very hush-hush, not a word of it was breathed to the outside world, due to very generous bribes. Interesting story, nonetheless, the guy was obviously a prick. Guess that's the reason why he's suing the Consolatas.

I looked up from my thoughts and discovered that every single pair of eyes in the room was staring at me in disbelief, and I could only stare back.

At my side, Julian looked as though he was about to cry. "...What?"

"Oh yeah, paid a hooker with the company payroll money. Someone found out, contacted the IRS, and well..." I shrugged and smiled, thinking about how stupid the guy really was. What, did he just forget that there were cameras everywhere in the office?

One of the lawyers a little further down the table had his hands stretched out on the table in front of him, as though he needed support during a heart attack. "Are...are you SHITTING me?!"

Another lawyer leered at me. "How do you know that?"

I opened my mouth to tell them I was a cop, I saw it at the office. But then I had to think quick to shut myself up and think of a story. I was looking at them all, everyone was staring in disbelief. "I uh...have a friend who's a cop." Yeah, that would do, despite the fact that my throat feels as though its closed up. "Yeah, he talks."

"Jesus Christ," muttered the guy beside me before slamming his fists on the table. "This is PERFECT!"

"With that confidential information we can nail Giovanni with fraud and win over the jury's favor!"

Coke-bottles opposite me was shaking Julian's shoulder. "We can get the IRS involved. Julian, this case is in the bag!"

I looked at Julian. He just stared at me, and for a moment I was positively frightened, because it looked as though his feelings had been terribly hurt, or he had discovered I had been lying to him all this time about being a lawyer. Christ, his eyes said it all, they were wide and accusing. "Adrian...can I talk to you in the hall for a second?"

I swallowed and tried to answer but Julian was already out of his seat. All around me the blood-sucking lawyers were babbling with each other like a bunch of chickens about what I had just revealed to them about their enemy. All the guys had big, malicious grins on their faces.

I moved to join Julian out in the hall, my heart thudding as I discovered I had crossed the line and now Julian had me all figured out, like he knew I couldn't have possibly gotten that kind of information without being a cop.

Shit. My heart was in my throat when I followed Julian out.

~*~

I bit down on my lower lip and wanted to bury my hands in my hair but stopped; I couldn't let myself go that easily. If Julian was about to accuse me of lying to him about being a gay marital lawyer, I couldn't go down without a fight. I had come this far, I had to keep going or the Consolata case was going down.

I spun around as soon as I heard him close the door. I had to get a jump start on this, he needed to know that at that moment I was a mere marital lawyer who had a cop friend who was a big gabber. "Julian, I-"

I was silenced...by the clamp of Julian's mouth on mine. I had hardly noticed him lunge at me, wrapping his arms around my neck and pressing his lips into mine. I froze for a moment, very surprised, and wasn't sure what to do.

Luckily I didn't have to. Julian pulled away, he was grinning and his eyes were beaming. "Oh my god Adrian, thank you! You're amazing, this is exactly the break we needed!"

Again he launched himself right at me, and this time I was able to catch him. I couldn't help but laugh slightly, seeing Julian this happy in this building seems about as impossible as a snowstorm in Los Angeles, and yet it was happening. Julian was in my arms and he was happy. My arms came up around him and rested on his shoulders. I didn't know if I was quite ready to take this to the physical touchy-feely stage just yet.

But apparently I wasn't going to make that decision. Julian leaned up on his tip toes and kissed me again, harder, on my mouth. I felt myself pausing, unsure what to do, but luckily it was over as soon as it had come.

"We're gonna win, Adrian. I know we are! No jury will side with a man guilty of fraud in lawsuit over a business deal. This case is over!"

I grinned, I was happy to see him so happy. It suited him, the cheerful look. I noticed just how big and brown his eyes had become, how very sweet his smile was, and suddenly I was too aware that his arms were still around my neck, as though he were waiting for me to make the next move.

And at that moment...right when I thought I would have to result to thinking about the porn movie for reference, something came over me, and I wanted nothing more than to kiss the Consolata boy in my arms. I looked into his eyes, big and brown and full of happiness, and I peered at his lips that had been on mine twice already, and had felt good and tasted sweet. I looked and took in Julian's looks all at once. Like this, in my arms, and this happy...Julian was radiantly beautiful.

And I wanted nothing more than to kiss him.

Still looking into his eyes I leaned down and touched my lips to his very gently, as though I were only too afraid they would be burning hot to the touch. But they weren't, they were soft and smooth and tasted sweet, as I mentioned before.

I suddenly discovered how different this was than kissing my ex-wife, how her chapped lips would always brush uncomfortably against mine, and how she insisted on pushing her tongue down my throat with the taste of tobacco lingering on her taste buds. Kissing Julian was like kissing a virgin, almost. Sweet and soft and brand new.

I pulled from him and stared at him. He was looking up at me, redness had spread itself across his cheeks but he couldn't hide his shy smile, as though this was the moment he had been waiting for since the day we met. I thought about the porn video I watched, those disgusting hairy bald men kissing each other, eugh, nothing turned me off so.

Yet, why was kissing Julian making my blood a little hot?

Suddenly...I couldn't help myself, but staring at Julian who looked up at me like a beautiful, innocent god...I wanted to kiss him again. And I did.

Only this time it was feverishly, as though I was drowning and needed his lips to breathe from. I took his face in my hands and kissed him hard on his lips, far too delighted when he began to kiss me back, pulling me closer into him so that my body would mesh against him. I stumbled, losing my balance and pushed him up against the closed door to the board room, where the lawyers were still talking and plotting away while we had a mad snog session right outside their door.

I pressed myself into Julian's small body, kissing him as though I couldn't get enough of him. And truth be told, at that minute I couldn't. He was sweet and endearing and nothing like that horrible porno that I felt myself needing to kiss him more and more. So I did. I felt his fingers wind up into my hair and let my black locks swim through his white fingers, before pulling just slightly on them, not as a warning, but almost as a boost.

My hands left his face and traveled down, to the point where they reached his delicate throat, and I felt my fingers twist in the collar of his suit and pull anxiously. Julian's lips were so delicious, I could only imagine at this point how the rest of his body must have tasted.

I can't explain to you how strangely natural this felt. It was like kissing a woman, although if I was kissing a woman I would have worked the breasts quite a bit with my hands. But Julian was delicate and beautiful almost like a woman, so the need to kiss him and the act itself felt far too familiar and just plain natural.

I was pressing Julian right up against the door, and I heard him moan through the kiss, so I backed off a little and broke the kiss. He fell back against the door to catch his breath and to stare at me as though he had never seen anyone so handsome in his entire life.

He moved to kiss me this time, my fingers twining in his collar and wanting to taste the chords of his throat -- when I heard a noise that sounded like the clearing of one's throat, and it had not come from either Julian or myself.

We broke away, and off to our right just in front of us stood a sharply dressed brown-haired man with a thick goatee, observing us unintentionally. I just about had a heart attack when I saw him; where the hell had he come from? Did he just materialize out of nowhere?

But Julian recognized him."Oh Chris, hi."

"Am I interrupting?" Chris said, sounding very bored and bothered, and eyeing me like I was a homeless person about to touch and spoil his good suit. "This your new squeeze, Julian?"

"Oh." Julian straightened himself, stepping away from me. "Sorry, Chris this is Adrian Black. Adrian this is Chris, my cousin."

I nodded. I decided not to smile; he obviously hadn't been impressed with the scene he had stumbled upon, there was no need to make it any more awkward by giving him a big goofy smile when we met for the first time. I just nodded to him. "Hello."

This 'Chris' character literally sneered at me. "How do you do?" but he didn't give a shit. He turned to Julian before I couldn't even decide if I wanted to answer that or not. "Julian, since you've stirred the blood-suckers, you might want to have some food ordered, we could be here all night."

I scowled. I didn't like this Chris character. Too much like Matteo for my liking.

Julian, sweet as he was, just nodded. "All right, I'll be right in.

Chris gave us both a look, as though he was lukewarm about leaving us alone in case we wanted to make out some more. He gave me one last chilly side-glance, and then he moved to go into the boardroom through another door. We were alone again once we heard the door open and close.

I turned to Julian. He was already smiling up at me. "Thank you, Adrian. With that little tiny bit of information, you really saved us."

I smiled, and before I could say a word, he leaned up and kissed me again. I succumbed to his sweet kiss, and when he pulled away he said the very thing I had been hoping to hear. "Can I see you tomorrow?"

"Uh..." suddenly it felt as though I had been dropped back on earth on my head. Who was I? Where was I? What did I do for a living? I cleared my throat and came up with a quick lie. "My workday's a mess but...we could get dinner?"

He grinned, showing off a perfect pearly smile. "Dinner would be great."

I told him I would call him, and I told him I had an appointment to get to on the other side of the city so that I could quickly leave and let Julian and his surly cousin see to the lawyers. Julian let me go, but not before giving me one last kiss before going back to the boardroom. A kiss that I wanted only too much to start and never finish.

Later that night, when I was safely at home, I trashed the porn video I downloaded. I wasn't going to need it any more.

~*~

Next chapter: Adrian invites Julian to his flat for a quiet late dinner...*wink*