CH 25

Seth and Paul walked into Luke’s and Seth grinned over at Luke as he spotted him behind the bar and walked up to him. “Hey Luke.” Seth said sticking his hand out for him to shake. “Hey you two.” Luke said looking between the two as he shook Seth’s hand. “This is my friend Paul, Paul this is Luke Spencer.” Seth said. “Nice to meet you Mr. Spencer.” Paul said. Luke laughed. “Hey pal, its Luke OK? There are no old men in this bar.” Luke said. Paul laughed and nodded his head. “So can we have a couple of beers please?” Seth asked. “Sure thing, two beers, I’d say Corona’s coming up.” Luke said turning around. “Oh Seth.” Luke said as Seth began to fallow Paul to a table, Seth turned around and looked at him. “It’s nice seeing guys like you in this place, it livens things up.” Luke said with a wink. “Bartenders?” Seth smiled back at him. Luke laughed and raised his glass to him and gulped down the shot of alcohol.

“Man I thought that Gia was going to make me pry you away from her.” Seth laughed as Paul smiled at him. “Nah I think she was tired of me by the end of the day.” He said. Seth shook his head. “Never. You can never wear out Gia.” Seth said. Paul laughed and nodded his head. They looked over when the door opened and Seth smiled at he spotted Lucky walk in. “Hey Seth, I haven’t seen you in a while.” Lucky said as he walked up to Seth and shook his hand. “Lucky this is Paul.” Seth said. “Nice to meet you Paul.” Lucky said shaking his hand. “So how do you guys know each other? Work?” Lucky asked. Seth laughed. “Well I guess you could say work. I met him when I was bartending.” Seth said. “Oh cool, do you mind if I hang out with you guys for a while?” Lucky asked. “Well actually we’re on a date.” Seth said. “A date.” Luck repeated. He looked between the two and he suddenly blushed. “Oh I uh, didn’t know, well I guess if I would have thought about it, I mean it seems so obvious now.” Lucky stumbled. Seth and Paul laughed. “Hey man it’s OK, and you can stay if you want, if you’re cool with that.” Seth said. Lucky smiled. “Yeah I’m cool with that.” He said nodding his head.

Two hours later Seth, Paul and Lucky all sat with red faces as they wiped tears from their eyes. “And then this one time, Gia started making out with me, just to get a guy to leave her alone. God it’s tough being her friend.” Seth laughed. “Why did you put up with that Seth? How did Gia persuade you to do that?” Paul asked. Seth looked down shyly. “She would give me candy.” He admitted. “You would whore yourself for candy?” Paul exclaimed. Lucky busted out laughing. “It was red candy, my favorite.” Seth said. They all laughed again. “Now I’m going to call you candy whore.” Paul said. Seth laughed. Lucky looked between the two. He could see the obvious attraction between them and it felt nice to be in their presence. But he realized that he should let them be. “Well you guys, it’s been fun and although I could listen to Gia’s dating tactics and the whoring of her best friend all night, I think I’m going to get going. Leave you two to have some time to yourselves.” Lucky said, standing up. “OK man, hey it’s been fun. We’ll have to do this again some time.” Seth said. “Yeah.” Lucky replied. “It was nice meeting you Lucky.” Paul said smiling. “You too Paul, I’ll see you around.” Lucky said waving to them before leaving.

“So tell me more about yourself Paul.” Seth said. “Well I have one older sister, much older actually. She lives in California with her husband and two kids. I visit them about twice a year. Maybe you can come with me sometime? I would love for you to meet my little nephew’s.” Paul said. Seth smiled. “That sounds great, I’d love to go with you. So what about your parents? How did they react when they found out you were gay?” Seth asked. “Well my mom was very supportive, she kind of always knew, a mothers intuition I guess. But my father was hurt at first, you know I think he always wanted a football player son, someone tough and manly. He didn’t really talk to me much for a few years but this last year he’s gotten better. He’s talking to me now. He still won’t bring up the issue though. Like when Chris died, my boyfriend. He wouldn’t talk to me about it, but I had my mom.” Paul said. Seth nodded his head sympathetically. “So what about your parents?” Paul asked. Seth raised his head up a little. “I’ve never met my parents, they left me when I was a baby. My grandma raised me.” Seth said. “Oh really? I’m sorry.” Paul said. “Don’t be. I loved living with my grandma; she was the sweetest woman in the world. And she didn’t care when I told her I was gay, I’m not even sure if she really knew what that meant, other then that I was different. But she didn’t care; she loved me for who I was. She and Gia got along really well too. When she died, Gia helped me get through the loss, it made us closer.” Seth said. Paul smiled softly. “You guys are so close, I wish I had someone in my life like that.” Paul said. “Having Gia in my life is wonderful, but I need more then just Gia.” Seth said looking into Paul’s eyes. Paul smiled and reached over and took Seth’s hand within his and squeezed lightly.