Gate C4

He imagined the king-sized bed was a landscape, and the sound of the air vent near the window was a gentle wind, blowing out of the east.

In an area somewhere between Gail and Marcus, he'd found a comfortable medium between hot and cold, too-firm and too-soft, sticky and clean. He'd found his spot on the landscape. And he was drifting off to sleep.

Finally.

His hamstrings were a little sore. Everything below the waist was spent. His hand and fingers were about eight inches from his face, and as he slowly breathed in and out, a melded fragrance of all four of them whirled in a thin mist around his nose.

There was Jack's kiss. There was Marcus' cologne, and the sweat on his neck. There was Gail - from where his face had spent a good half hour. And baby oil. And semen. And beer.

This is me, Ken thought. He was far away, on a distant continent, surrounded by a deserted horizon on all sides. No one to see him. No one to call out to him. Like a noble, wild animal.

"SHIT!"

He felt Gail shoot off of the bed next to him - somewhere in the western lands - and suddenly his eyes were open again.

"GET UP! It's SIX O'CLOCK!" Gail said with a low-grade fury to Marcus and Jack.

Jack's head snapped up after a time-delay. "Ughhh, fuck…"

Marcus slid out of bed. Gail was already in the bathroom.

"We're not gonna make it, Gail," Jack said. His flank rubbed up against Ken, who was getting hard again. He looked at Jack's crotch. He was completely soft.

And looking straight through Ken.

"We gotta be out of here in fifteen minutes," Marcus said, turning on a harsh overhead light, and flinging open a closet door. The shower started running.

Jack was up and in the bathroom within seconds. When Ken rolled over, all he could see was Marcus' naked ass and the sound of fast teeth-brushing nearby.

By 6:20am that Tuesday morning before Christmas - quite improbably -- there were three perfectly clean, shaved, perfumed and dressed United flight attendants, crew bags in hand, heading for the door of their Seven Corners apartment. Ken was hopping on one foot trying to get his pants up as shoes-coat-wallet-cellphone were being tossed at him.

"Can you get home on your own, dude?" Marcus said to Ken. It didn't appear to be a question.

"Uhhhhh….." The elevator doors started to close, and Ken didn't make it in.

And there he was. Alone indeed. In a distant place, and no one could see him….

——

Fit2betied: u know i'm not one to gossip…
DCBoynxtdr: haha…YOU? Of course not!
Fit2betied: but if you were to ask me something I would always tell the truth
DCBoynxtdr: always. no question.
Fit2betied: like if u asked me who I saw sitting outside my building waiting for a cab at 6:30am on the tuesday before xmas…
Fit2betied: …i would, of course, tell you the absolute truth.
DCBoynxtdr: LOL…omg who was it?
Fit2betied: isn't the guy who works with sean named "ken"?
DCBoynxtdr: *gasp*
Fit2betied: is that a yes gasp?
DCBoynxtdr: that's a yes gasp……
Fit2betied: well he was spotted on a bench, clearly in his clothes from the night before, making several calls on his cell before a cab arrived at 7:30
DCBoynxtdr: !
Fit2betied: yes. it is true.
DCBoynxtdr: whatever was ken doing out there??
Fit2betied: being very naughty i suppose….
DCBoynxtdr: who lives in your building?
Fit2betied: oh, you know. Any number of random whores.
DCBoynxtdr: LOL!
Fit2betied: it was funny - I had to look at him for a very long time to be sure it was him, since I really don't know him well.
DCBoynxtdr: oh really, Gladys Kravitz? I'm sure your eyesight wasn't the problem ;)
Fit2betied: well, it WAS early in the morning…. :)

Kevin's cell began to ring. It was Sean.

"Bonjour! I'm downstairs. Are you ready?" Sean said.

"I'm ready! Are you excited?" Kevin said.

"Oui, oui, monsieur!"

"All right, I'm chatting with John right now. I'll be right down."

DCBoynxtdr: sean's here! gotta run! see you in a few!
Fit2betied: tres bien…a bientot

Down in front of his building, Kevin threw his suitcase into Sean's trunk and slid into the front seat. Even though it was December 30th, they had Christmas presents to exchange.

"Open this one first, it's the lamer of the two," Sean said, laughing.

Kevin tore open the wrapping on the square box, and inside was the ticket to the Scissor Sisters concert Sean had picked up for him when he was in Mexico. Kevin gave him a kiss on the cheek as Sean was opening his - a card with a bow on it.

Inside the card was a small voucher for a "new trip to Brazil."

"I'm going to get another companion pass this year, and you need new clothes from Forum, so I thought…" Kevin said, as they embraced.

"This is so exciting!" Sean said, laughing. "I do need more clothes!"

Then, Kevin tore open his second present. It was a new Season Four DVD of Sex and the City - the one from his collection which, somehow, got blown away by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. Or, at least, it disappeared the night he brought it over to Matt's place for the hurricane party that quickly descended into a drunken orgy.

"Aww, thanks honey," Kevin said, giving Sean a kiss again, smiling. "Finally, my DVD shelf has closure on that terrible stormy night."

Within an hour, all three of them - Kevin, Sean and John -- were heading out on the Dulles toll road, on their last day in America in 2004. They arrived on schedule at the United check-in, and met Dane, who already had his boarding pass. They were through security, over to Terminal C and sitting at the Red Carpet Club within a half hour.

"No wonder he looked so disheveled at work," Sean said, nibbling a cracker. "You know, Ken does that more often than most people realize, I think."

"You mean he's a whore? Quelle suprise!!" Kevin said.

"No, I mean he goes out on weeknights and comes into work without having slept much and looking hungover."

"Does he get his work done?" Dane said.

"Yeah, pretty much," Sean said. "And it's not like everyone there is all manicured and well-rested looking themselves."

"Well, maybe all you hens shouldn't be clucking so much…" Dane said, wryly, looking down at his Blackberry.

Kevin and Sean looked at each other and smiled. Then, Kevin's cell phone beeped.

12/30 4:35pm
MESSAGE from
Roy
i am at gate c4
...where r u
guys?

12/30 4:36pm
MESSAGE from
Kevin
@ red crpt club
by C9. will be
at gate in 10.
where is e?

12/30 4:38pm
MESSAGE from
Roy
ok, im going 2
burger king. c
u in 10.no idea
on E yet. will
look for her

At quarter to five, they walked up to Gate C4 in time to hear their last names being called over the PA system. There was a long line of people at the entrance to the jet way, and the area was crammed with passengers. Kevin dashed up to the podium, and started giving their names.

"You're all together?" the gate agent asked.

"Yes, we…."

"OK here, hurry up, give me your boarding passes."

She took all of them and tore them in half, handing Kevin a stack of new ones.

"Here you go. Go ahead and board."

Kevin looked at the new boarding passes.

"Oh my God, guys. We've been upgraded! Let's get on."

They fought their way through the clot of people at the gate and walked onto the plane, taking their seats in the last two rows of Business.

And as they began to take off their coats, there was Elaine, walking back from First.

"Hello boys…"

"Oh my God, E," Roy said. "Are you behind this?"

She smiled. "Is everything in order?"

"How did you do this?" Kevin asked.

"They're very overbooked in coach, and..." --she was wearing a fantastic outfit, and her hair was up--"...I can be very persuasive," she said.

"Where are you sitting?" Roy asked.

"I'm up there," she said, pointing forward, "with a friend."

Kevin and Sean looked forward and saw a guy they both recognized, talking to the crew up in First.

"Isn't that Hottie Jack Finney?" Sean asked Kevin.

"Don't stare, it's not polite," Elaine said, smirking. "But yes, it's Jack Finney."

"That's the guy who lives in your building that goes to Roy's gym, right?" Sean said to John.

"Oh my," John said, leaning over. "Yes, that guy lives in my building."

"And yeah, he's the one who is always on the stairmaster," Roy said, leaning forward. "And never wears a towel in the locker room."

"He's a flight attendant," John said, "for United."

"Is he working?" Kevin asked Elaine.

"No, he's heading to Paris for New Year's, too. Lucky break, huh boys?"

"I'll say," Sean laughed. "Tell him thanks for the upgrades. In fact, I'll be sure to thank him myself at, oh, say 3am tomorrow on some random dancefloor."

"A great, big, wet thank you, huh?" Kevin said.

"OK, boys, I'll see you before we all go to sleep. You all behave now," Elaine said, turning on her heel and vanishing into First Class.

"Champagne, gentlemen?" asked a cute, blonde, female flight attendant with a Georgia accent and a jaunty hat on her head, holding a tray of five plastic flutes of Laurent-Perrier.

Kevin and Sean looked at each other, giant smiles tearing across their glowing faces.


[Posted: January 5, 2005] FEEDBACK PERMALINK

 

Frais

As soon as they entered the stuffy room, Dane opened the drapes and pulled the window open a bit. The cold air rushed right in.

The sound of a taxi arriving outside on Rue Amelot mixed with the smell of coffee roasting, and the scratch-scratch-scratch of the woman sweeping the gutter in front of the resto across the street. It was nine o'clock in the morning - as gray and wet as one expects when arriving in Paris on a December day. And it was time for bed.

"I have to unpack first," Kevin said. Indeed - he had to, or he wouldn't be able to relax.

"Okay," Dane said, laying down on the bed, in his usual way -- coat and shoes still on.

One floor above, about ten minutes later, Sean was fast asleep in bed as John slipped out the door and into the hall, where Roy was crouched down, tying his sneakers.

"Now where is this place again?" John asked quietly.

"It's called the King," Roy said. "I printed out a map before I left."

"And it's a sauna..."

"Well, it has a full gym, but downstairs it's a sauna, too. It's basically the cheap workout alternative to Waou, which is like €50 or something ridiculous."

John looked a bit skeptical. "Hmmm....okay."

And off they went into the Paris morning on December 31, 2004...

"Honey..."

"Hmmf?"

"Are you sure you want to come to La Scene tonight after the party?" Kevin was leaning on Dane's chest, eyes closing.

Dane's eyes were still closed, but he patted Kevin on the back with his hand.

"Well, I'm curious to see what it's all about, yes."

"Don't feel pressured to do anything you don't want to do."

Dane turned over and pulled Kevin closer to him. "I never do."

As they wandered out of the Rome Metro station and up to the street, Roy kept looking at the map.

"This doesn't look very familiar," Roy said. "But it has been six months."

John kept to himself.

And they wandered up and down the street a few times, looking for the entrance to the King-Sauna-but-it's-also-a-gym.

"There are machines and some free weights and two treadmills," Roy said. "I have two empty water bottles too, because they have a water fountain in the gym area."

"Is that it?" John was pointing to a non-descript door with a small plaque next to it that read, simply: KING.

"Ah yes," Roy said, still privately worried that nothing was looking at all familiar.

And in they went.

The attendant was unsmiling and answered "non" when they asked if he parled anglais. They each paid their €15, each got a key and a small towel, and turned to try and find their respective lockers across from the desk.

There was no rhyme or reason to the locker numbering system. The rows went from 11-21 odd only (11...13...15...17...) to 32-42 evens and then 1-10 in sequence. And so on.

Roy wandered around and around looking for 41, and as he did, he realized that nothing at all was familiar about the place. Nothing. And it was much smaller than he'd remembered. And it was completely empty --- except for one graying little man in a towel, sitting with his feet up on a couch in the next room, watching EuroNews on the TV and smoking like a chimney.

He suddenly began to panic.

"You know," he said haltingly to John (who was untying his sneakers very slowly and wondering what the hell to do next), "I don't think they have a gym in here anymore."

"Well, should I put on my gym clothes or....?"

"Uhhh...errrr...." --- a chubby older man walked very slowly by them and towards what appeared to be a shower stall, his eyes fixed on John --- "well.....I think we should probably check the place out first."

"Um, okay.....maybe just towels then. We wouldn't want to stand out."

The chubby guy slowwwwwwwwwwwly edged his way behind the shower curtain, like the slowest solar eclipse on record.

And then they hopped very quickly out of their clothes, into the towels, and away from the lockers.

John tried to figure out how to fasten the key contraption around his wrist. It was like a mini-fannypack, joined together with Velcro, and had a key attached. He unzipped the fannypack, and tucked inside was one regular-sized condom. Made in France.

"I guess lube is extra," John whispered. Roy laughed nervously.

They walked into the strange TV room, and saw a very narrow spiral staircase leading down into the floor -- a dark, scary hole in the floor.

"That is either the way to the gym..." (Roy knew full well by now there was no gym anyplace on the premises)

"...Or the entrance to hell," John whispered, giggling.

As they started down the very, very narrow spiral, Roy turned to John. He'd had enough.

"Listen - how about this... We passed a steam room on our way out to this spot. And there's really no one in this place. So why don' t we just go get a really good steam, take a quick shower, and get out of here? I obviously had the wrong place in mind."

John craned his head a little -- wanting to at least get a glimpse of Hades, since he'd come all this way and was so close. But it was too dark.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

They scurried back to the steam room, stepped in and sat down. They were alone, and it was very, very steamy.

Roy sighed. "Oh, okay, this is nice."

"Yeah, it's relaxing after the cold outside."

Long silence.

"So, did you ever talk to that guy Jack Finney who was on our flight? He goes to your gym, right?"

"No, actually," Roy said. "I haven't ever actually talked to him. I've just....looked at him. A lot."

"Well, Sean and Kevin and I have this theory about him..."

"Oh really?"

They were starting to sweat.

"Yeah, see...You know that guy Ken who works with Sean?"

"Oh yes, I know Ken."

"Well, you didn't drive out to Dulles with us so you missed the story. The Tuesday before Christmas, I saw Ken at 6:30 in the morning doing the walk of shame out of my building."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. He was clearly coming out of someone's apartment in there, and wouldn't you know it, Jack Finney lives in my building."

"That's right, you told us that when we saw him."

"Well, Sean and I discussed it on the flight over, and Kevin concurs. We should probably ask Jack about it when we inevitably run into him tonight at this club we're going to after midnight."

"Ask Jack if he slept with Ken?"

"Yes."

"What for?"

"Well, basically....." (he wiped sweat off his face) "....when you see someone you know doing the walk of shame out of your building like that, I mean. You have to find out, right?"

"We do?"

"Well, we don't have to. But it's just too funny a coincidence."

Another silence.

"It was all Kevin and Sean's idea really." (John wondered if he'd said something wrong.)

Find your sukha, Roy thought to himself. Think of the karma of this. Don't become like Ken.

The steam room door swung open, and the distinctive outline of the chubby older man appeared through the clouds and mist......sans towel.

*Sigh* "You know, I think I'm good for a shower now. You?" John said.

"Yeah, let's go."

It was ten thirty as they each munched on a crepe, bought from a street stand on the way to Republique.

"There's a store that's open," Kevin said. They needed to show up at Herve and Alain's door with a bottle of champagne for the occasion.

They stepped inside, and in the middle of the aisle of wine were a bunch of bottles of Veuve Clicquot. Perfect!

Kevin grabbed one off the shelf -- they were €33 each -- and brought it up to the counter to pay.

The cashier spoke in French to Kevin (who barely understood any).

"[something] [something] frais?"

Kevin looked a bit bewildered.

"[something] [something] frais?" The cashier pointed to the bottle.

"Uhhhh..." Kevin said. "Y-yeah, I know it's French."

The cashier sighed, made a gutteral sound in the back of his throat that could have been an Arabic swear word, and yelled in French to someone in the back.

Dane and Sean burst out laughing. Dane (who spoke elementary French) walked up to the counter with a cold bottle of Veuve from the fridge in the back. Kevin immediately knew then what had happened.

"Je suis desole, monsieur," he said, laughing to the man. "Merci beaucoup pour...." and he trailed off.

The cashier smiled and rang up the purchase. Kevin was fire-engine red. An Irish face can never conceal a blush. He took the bottle in his hand, and his change.

"Bonne année," Kevin said...perfectly.

"Bonne année!" the man said back, cheerily.

They crossed the street, passed the arch, and were in front of Herve and Alain's apartment in moments -- dialed the code, stepped in, and rang the doorbell.

Herve answered. Kisses and introductions all around. And then Steve appeared in the doorway. Kevin gave him a hug and a kiss, and introduced Roy and John, who hadn't met him before.

There were laughs, kisses and bonne années as they made their way into the party in what was undoubtedly one of the most beautifully designed loft apartments in all of Paris.

Kevin had spent a long, rollicking weekend there in June when Steve turned 30. And many of the same characters from Steve's large group of friends were again in attendance. There was Suzy -- the marvelous Suzy -- and Jeremy and his cute boyfriend, Ludo. And Luis, Gil, Laurent and John. Frank and Craig. There were many new people Kevin hadn't met before, and houseguests for the weekend. And there was champagne everywhere.

And as the party went on, and midnight drew closer, Kevin sat on the couch between Suzy and Steve. They were each talking to other people...in French, in English. It didn't matter. He sat there, only a few hours in Paris, ready for a weekend of unknown adventures with all these people, beginning in just a few hours at La Scene Bastille.

And he looked over at Sean standing next to Jeremy and Gil, talking to John (from Paris), and John (from DC) was talking to Craig, and Dane was talking to Gil. Roy laughing about his adventure with John to the King -- when he meant to go to Universe Gym near the Louvre.

Different parts of himself whirling and mixing together. Alain had wonderful music playing. There were two or three empty bottles of Veuve on the coffee table in front of him. Suzy held Kevin's hand against her as she spoke to Frank, and put one leg up across his lap to nudge Steve, who was laughing at something Luis said he just got in a texto on his mobile, and his face was all lit up.

Kevin's heart began to pound.

It was like a dream...

 

[Posted: January 6, 2005] FEEDBACK PERMALINK

Pearl, then Home...

When midnight came, Paris was more subdued than usual.

Roman candles lit up the Champs-Elysées, and the crowds cheered and kissed, but the black drapes hanging over the trees, interspersed with the traditional lights, was a reminder that this was not a typical New Year's Eve. The joy of the occasion would be unbowed. But remembering what had just passed, and appreciating the value of life, was in order.

The world was literally thrown off its axis only a week earlier.

In the quiet happiness of many, many parties scattered all over the city, most didn't talk about it. But it was there.

Roy circled the room, kissing everyone, even the people he didn't know.

Kevin kissed Dane, and held onto him for a second or two longer than usual. And held Sean tightly a moment later. He was remembering New Year's Eve a few years earlier, and the same sense of urgency about life. No longer a jarring urgency this year, though. Perhaps a more serious one.

The lighting in Herve and Alain's apartment was low and soft, and the various levels of the many rooms, all opened into an atrium at its core, were humming with hugs and kisses.

The music started up again soon enough, and they were all back to their conversations. The catching up. The gossip, the picture taking. The champagne. And the desserts.

And as with all good times, the clock whizzed along and it was eventually time to move on. Herve, Alain and Steve would be sleeping in, as would Gil, Laurent and John (from Paris)-- it was only Friday, and there was a clubbing buffet ahead all weekend. Folks could grab a plate and gorge themselves if they wanted to. Some were going to be savoring their selections.

Frank rang up for a fleet of account cabs, and people started cleaning up around the place, then grabbing their coats. By 2am, the crowd was in the street and climbing aboard: Kevin, Dane, Sean, John (from DC), Roy, Frank, Craig, Suzy, Luis, Jeremy and Ludo...and assorted others from all over.

It was a short ride to "Pearl" -- the Friday night party at La Scène-Bastille that was also the New Year's Eve party for the Marais crowd.

["It's La Scène-Bastille, don't forget: backwards accent on the first e and a hyphen..." Roy said, again and again, pointing. -THEBUZZ]

The space was a medium-sized theater, with a proscenium stage opposite the entrance, where the DJ was grandly placed, and doing his thing. Lights were twirling, and people were out on the floor already. But it clearly had just started a little while before.

"Here," Kevin said, handing his and Dane's entrance tickets to Sean, nudging him toward the bar. "Get our avec-une-conso's..."

"What do you guys want?"

"Diet Coke," Dane said.

"Water," Kevin said.

Some of the them still had a buzz from the champagne, others had been chugging Coke (a-cola) for over an hour to cleanse the palate, as it were. Kevin wasn't patient. He got his water and took the plunge. Sean was enjoying a flute of champagne.

Suzy, Frank and Craig were thinking about getting onto the floor, when the winner of the Most-Wretchedly-Overplayed-Track-of-2004 came on, and dissuaded everyone for a moment.

Kevin and Suzy, simultaneously: "God, I hate this song..."

"At least they're getting it out of the way," Suzy said. "I don't want to hear it again. Ever."

Sean and John were oggling two Euro boys standing in front of them, discussing their asses with Jeremy, who had person after person coming up to him to say hello.

"So what do you think?" Kevin asked Dane.

"It's nice," Dane said. "Interesting space."

Dane was sincere --- and yet sincerely not a clubbing kind of guy.

When he first started dating Kevin, they both went through the usual stage of listening intently to each other's news of the day or the weekend without any negative comments. And Kevin would tell him about where he and Sean and Matt had been out, who they'd run into, where everyone else went after, who made out with whom, who did what else, and so forth. Their previous New Year's Eve in Fort Lauderdale at a gay nudist resort. Their adventures and escapades from which they'd bring stories (and occasionally guest stars) back to Heather House (and/or the pool) that previous summer in Rehoboth.

Then, maybe five months into their relationship, Dane said something to Kevin about not always being so interested in "the latest news from Partyland." Kevin understood what he meant. And it became more clear over time that Dane was much more the bottle-of-wine-nice-dinner-with-group-of-friends-and-conversation kind of guy. More emotionally tied to culture of a different sort: theater, world music, art. He'd done some club scene stuff in his 20s like everyone, but he was turning 40 in 2005, and he'd felt for a long time that such things were far behind him.

And that Dane was much more an introvert all his life, while Kevin was very much the extrovert. They'd each ordered their lives around this theme. Dane's cultural tastes were much more spectator-driven; Kevin's were active and experiential. Dane would lead a group of friends to the fifth row of a Broadway show, then to an out-of-the-way gem of a restaurant for dinner. Kevin would grab them all by the pant-waist and drag them out to the middle of the dancefloor. And fly them halfway around the world to do it.

But Kevin also loved the Broadway shows and the dinners and the wine, and was also big on conversation. He loved their museum-and-tapas weekend in Madrid the previous September. He wanted to make a special trip back to Pittsburgh to see the rest of the Timecapsules exhibit at the Warhol Museum.

He wasn't so sure about how Dane felt about the mis-en-La Scène.

But the point was: he was there. He came. Without expectations of any kind.

It takes a little while for the soup to heat up, as someone once said of clubbing. You don't just go flying in through the front door and jump onto a box with your shirt on the floor someplace behind you. (Not unless you're Frank, who was/will be a go-go boy in the previous/next life...he was on stage, pants buttons open, arms in the air, on top of the world.)

So, they mostly stood at the bar and said hello to people, chit-chatted some more, looked at the men and waited for the pot to heat up. They waited to "feel it" -- in whatever way each of them would.

And the music came up a bit in tempo, and it began to engulf everyone on the beachheads around the floor. One by one, they were washed into the mix, and started to move-wade-swim-dive through the waters. It was 3am.

Which was when the heat reached the limit for Dane. And John (from DC). They said their good-byes.

"OK, I'm ready to get going, and I think John is going to come with me," Dane said to Kevin. "We're just a short walk to the hotel from here."

"Already?"

"Well, it's three o'clock, dear."

"It is??"

"Yeah, I think you'd better get out there and start dancing..."

He kissed him a few times, smiled, and slipped away, John behind.

Sean and Kevin wandered out and found the rest of the gang, close up against the stage, underneath Frank. They started to dance, and then looked at each other.

"I can't believe I'm here!" Sean said loudly to Kevin across the narrowing space between them --as more and more people came out onto the floor.

"I know!" Kevin said, his hand on Sean's shoulder. "This is so exciting for me to have everyone together in one place like this!"

Sean smiled and was dancing a bit more with the whirling energy around them.

"I just wish Matt was here!" Kevin said. "He would sooo have loved this!"

Roy then danced over to them.

"This is so great!!" he yelled.

"I know! Isn't it??!" (Sean)

"But Matt really should be here too!" (Kevin)

"Yeah! Oh well, right?" (Roy)

"Saay laaa veeee!" (Kevin)

They all laughed, and just with that, the music popped and their hands went up in the air. Sean's shirt came off.

"Are you guys fully supplied?!" (Roy)

"Um, yeah I'm fine...I'm set!" (Kevin)

"I'm OK, alcohol for me!" (Sean)

"Tell me if you change your mind!" (Roy)

"OK!" (Sean and Kevin)

Wham! The music popped again, and a phenomenal beat was being hinted at just over the horizon. Shirts were coming off in bunches. The room was hot. The floor was filling to capacity. It was 3:15.

Everyone was starting to feel it.

And Kevin nudged Roy...

"Look who's here!"

And there was Elaine, on a box. Frank on one side. Jack Finney on the other.

Roy, Kevin and Sean all screamed out her name -- she didn't see or hear them.

foom..foom..foom..foom...The beat was building. The lights were flickering to it.

Fingers pointed up at the DJ and spun in tighter and tighter circles. The whole place leaned forward toward the stage, like they were about to bungie-jump off the planet.

And in the tiny wake-effect between a second ago and the second about to occur, where the music - the lights - the piels of joy would explode for the first time of the evening - in that fleeting, tensile heartbeat that is stretched to a glorious limit -- Kevin, Roy and Sean screamed: "ELAAAINE!!!"

And she saw them.

Boom.

The place lifted up. Hands, heads, feet, eyes, smiles, screams, shirts, sound, music, lights, confetti, balloons, wild fury and hopes-- everything had whirled into a ball and blown apart like the first roman candle going off over the city.

For Kevin, it was the international sound of the starting gun, one which every clubbing athelete -- no matter what his class -- yearned with every fiber of himself to hear.

For Sean, it was like the start of the first ride at Disney World [or in this case, EuroDisney], and he just wanted to put his hands up and scream his head off.

For Roy, it was frightening. Wonderful, without a doubt. But frightening. He didn't feel the pill yet, and didn't know the person he'd gotten it from. And like usual, he was afraid of himself from this moment on, where he was certain to lose control.

It was 5am.

"Ça va?!" (Luis, smiling)

"ÇA VA!!" (Kevin, hands whirling in the air)

Suzy, Sean and Craig were sitting on the edge of the stage, taking their first break of the evening, swaying from side to side and chatting...Laughing...

Then Sean leaned over and tapped a guy on the shoulder. He recognized his t-shirt.

"Hey are you Brazilian???" (Sean)

"Non, are you?" (Hot guy)

"Your shirt is Brazilian!"

"Oui! It is....how do you know??"

"My pants are from Forum! I went to Brazil earlier this year with my friend Kevin....He's out there on the dancefloor...right there.....!!"

"No, I am not, but I love Brazil!"

"Me tooooo!!"

And the hot guy gave Sean a kiss on the mouth...

Elaine danced over to Kevin, through another in a series of four escalating tracks that had brought a whole new mob of people onto the floor.

"How are you?!!" (Elaine, checking on him)

"I'M GREAT!" (Kevin, arms going around her)

"We're going to Home Deluxe soon!"

"What time is it?!" (Kevin)

"Five!"

"So early!"

"I know, but we'll see you there, okay?"

"Okaaay!"

"You're gonna be okay, honey?!"

"I'm won-der-fuuul!!"

She slipped over to Sean to ask where Roy had gone to. Kevin just closed his eyes and kept dancing, and lost sight of her completely.

He'd open them to spot Craig hopping by smiling broadly, or to see Frank point down at him from the stage (his pants now open and sliding down off his hips). Or Luis and Jeremy and Jeremy's boyfriend all smiling and waving...



... A few minutes later (or was it an hour?) Suzy came up to Kevin.

"We're going to Home now!" (Suzy)

"Really??" (Kevin)

"Yes! So let's go!" (Suzy)

"OK!" (Kevin)

Suzy, Frank and Craig were gathering. Jeremy hugged and kissed all of them, and then turned to Kevin.

"We're going to wait!" (Jeremy)

"Oh yeah??" (Kevin)

"Yeah, it's too early! And it'll be very crowded and lots of straight people there. Just too difficult. And this DJ coming on right now is fantastic, he's going to be spinning at Home Deluxe later, too!"

"Oh, OK! I'll stay!" (Kevin)

"OK good! We'll go over around 8 or so I think! We'll see them there!" (Jeremy)

Meanwhile, Sean hopped off the edge of the stage to say goodbye to Suzy, and told her he'd been looking at a boy "a few buttcheeks down" to the right. She wished him good luck, and with Frank and Craig and a collection of others, she was gone.

Sean saw Kevin and the others a few layers in, and began dancing towards them, when he felt a hand slipping under his thigh, between his legs.

And he was pulled backwards slowly.

He turned and saw a blond guy behind him, smiling. It was the guy one buttcheek over from the guy he'd been looking at -- the friend of the guy in question.

"Ça va, bonne année.."

"Uhhh..." Sean responded. The guy was kinda hot. "Bonne année..parle anglais?"

"Yes, I do. Happy New Year..!"

"Thanks you too!" and the guy kissed Sean on each cheek, like everyone had for the last 24 hours.

"Where are you from??!" (hot guy)

"I'm American. I'm from Washington, D.C.!" (Sean)

"I am [name that Sean didn't quite catch - sounded like Johann]..."

"Sean!"

Roy was standing next to the light-master's box, right at the entrance to the main room, facing the stage across the sea of people. His drenched shirt was tucked into his pants on the side. His skin was feeling soft. Mushy. Wonderful.

He couldn't stop moving. Swaying. Bobbing his head. It didn't matter. He had to move. It was a kind of sukha of motion. If you kept going -- you found inner peace.

So he kept going. And as Roy was motivated by fear of losing his sukha all too often, an instinctive pulse went through his head, and the little demon argued that if he stopped moving, something terrible would happen. He would be enveloped -- in fear. In loneliness.

But for a change -- for a glorious reason tonight -- Roy had the calm totality of mind to say "fuck it" to the little pulse. The little demon. He just thought of Kevin. Of Elaine. Of Paris. Everything positive.

Of happiness.

It was all around him in that instant -- in the air, on the floor, coming out of every speaker. He hadn't come all this way to feel anything but happiness. Not at this moment. Not standing on the apex of the world, out at a multitude of beautiful, happy people. Not in the middle of Paris.

To him, it was a beautiful wilderness in front of him. He was falling away from his mountain redoubt, somewhere deep inside his mind -- just falling away from it, and down into the lush green wilderness around him.

He clenched his fists on both sides of his body, swaying his hips from side to side -- closed his eyes, eased his head back -- and once again just let go.

Sean walked over to Kevin and Jeremy, who were engaged in a conversation about the white balloons nestled in a net above the dancefloor.

"Hmmm, those must be the pearls..." (Jeremy, dryly)

"Hey, this is Johann!" (Sean, to Kevin)

"Laurent!" (Jeremy)

"Jeremy!" (hot guy...apparently not named Johann)

"Suzy knows him, too...!" (Sean, into Kevin's ear)

"His name is Laurent apparently!" (Kevin)

"Oh well, I wasn't looking at his nametag...I was looking at his chest..." (Sean)

[Laughter]

"Listen, he asked me to leave with him.....should I?" (Sean)

"Um......YES!" (Kevin)

[Laughter]

"You say, je obey..." (Sean)

As Laurent drove around Bastille and off in the direction of Montmartre, he slid his hand onto Sean's thigh and smiled at him.

And behind Sean's smile was the thrill of the ride he was now on.

Here I am, he thought. I'm in Paris for 24 hours. It's 2005. I've gone out into the night alone with a beautiful man I just met, in a city I've never been to before, where they speak a language I don't understand.

And I'm loving every minute of it...

Kevin and Roy were dancing.......Kevin and Roy were on the coat check line with Jeremy.

"How you doing, baby?" (Kevin, not needing to shout)

"I'm great, how are you doing, baby?" (Roy)

"I'm fantastic..." (Kevin, smiling)

And coats were on, and they went out onto the street in search of Jeremy's car.

It was 8am, and the sky was turning purple.

Kevin put his arm around Roy and kissed him on the cheek.

"So, what are your New Year's resolutions this time around?" (Kevin)

"Ohhhh...well....." (Roy)

"Anything at all?"

"I think, number one of course, is to have more fun."

[Laughter]

"OK, check." (Kevin)

"And, the second one is...." Roy really reached for the courage to say it, but it only took a grain. "...to stop giving a shit for once. To finally stop giving a shit."

"That's good to hear." (Kevin, tightening his arm around Roy's shoulder as they walked.)

"I mean, you know....We care so much about such bullshit. Am I right?" (Roy)

"You're right."

"...I know I do. And it is so stupid. It just ruins everything..."

"Yes it does..."

"I mean, you don't have to be Elaine to be happy, right?"

"Of course...."

"We can just be ourselves and be happy..."

"And who's to say Elaine is so happy all the time?"

"She isn't, I know she isn't. She's just like the rest of us..."

"Isn't Suzy fabulous by the way?"

"OH MY GOD I love Suzy.."

"I love Suzy too..."

"And Steve is really fantastic. He's so funny. I can see how you guys are friends. I wish he'd come out tonight..."

"He might be at Home Deluxe. We'll see...."

Roy threw his arm around Kevin's waist as they walked in unison. Jeremy, Ludo and Luis walked several paces ahead, looking for the car.

"I love you, Kevin....You know that right?"

"We're in the I-love-you stage already?" (Kevin, laughing...)

"Yes we are, but you know that I love you right?"

"Of course I do. I love you too."

Home Deluxe was mobbed when they arrived at 8:30am.

Ludo got them past the line and straight into the club by saying hello to the guy at the door. Once inside, it was clear that every waiter, waitress, bartender and bar-back from every other club in town was there. And so were a large group of straight people, sitting at the tables by the bar at one end. It looked a lot like Lulu's London crowd.

Home Deluxe was blessed and cursed with being a fantastic afterhours club. It made it popular -- and therefore drew the straight crowd. It was also around the corner from Le Queen, which was emptying out (and similarly popular)...

But where every other club in town mixed the lights, the go-go boys, the confetti, the drag queens and the music altogether into a stew, Home Deluxe was tilted heavily in one direction: the music.

No grand light show. No go-go boys, not even this special evening. Just a DJ booth, and a packed-in crowd ready to dance some more.

And they were all there -- Suzy, Frank and Craig. An assortment of their friends and acquaintances from Pearl that migrated with them. Elaine was there, too, but it seemed she'd shed herself of Jack Finney and was with a tall, built black guy now. And she seemed busy...

The sets were electric - everyone was on the dancefloor, and no one from the group stopped dancing. Kevin and Roy got separated at about 9:30, and Kevin was drawing further and further into himself -- on the dancefloor the whole time -- as the evening began to wind down for him.

When the lights came up at noon Kevin could only see Frank and Craig. Suzy had left at 11 (and he reckoned that he should have gone with her).

Roy was not in sight -- perhaps he'd left with Elaine. (Unlikely)

The coat check was a nightmare, but of course that was no surprise. It was Paris after all -- not the capital of organization.

Frank called up an account cab as they made it out onto the Champs-Elysées in the blinding sunlight. They all had sunglasses on. Kevin bid them both farewell -- "see you later today" they all giggled -- and slipped away, back to the Marais.

To the hotel. To the bed. To Dane.

[Posted: January 8, 2005] FEEDBACK PERMALINK

 

 

Confession

It was night on January 1 when Kevin finally realized where he was.

It was a quiet, darkened hotel room.

It wasn't a 2nd class Italian train compartment, running between Metro Center and McPherson Square, which he was sharing with an indian chief who was smoking a pipe.

No. He was in Paris. It was January 1. It was already nighttime.

"I'm awake."

About a minute later the phone rang.

"Time to wake up...." (American...flew here with him...name escaped him)

"What time is it?" (Kevin)

"It's 8:30." (??)

"Ohh, okay..."

"We're going to dinner. Wanna come?"

"Um..." (Kevin turned on the light, and felt okay) "I'm not so hungry actually, but I'll get up."

"How much time do you need?" (Oh yeah, it was Dane.)

"Where are you?"

"We're at Opéra," Dane said. "Finishing up our day."

"The boys with you?"

"Yes...except Roy. "

"Where is he?"

"Not answering his door, so either asleep or not around."

"Hmm. OK..."

"So we're heading back that way. Get in the shower, honey."

"OK." (hangs up)

(rolls over)

Dinner at Chez Jenny on Republique was, well, a bit ironic. They'd strolled past the place -- a bit of a touristy French restaurant -- the night before, and it was packed with large groups of middle-aged people having dinner close to midnight (probably from the nearby Holiday Inn) in all sorts of flashy, tacky outfits, with icebuckets on the tables and champagne bottles upside down in them. Kevin had made a bitchy comment, like "what a comedown, New Year's Eve at Chez Jenny."

And there they were, the next evening.

The menu was basic, but up to the challenge. They were given English menus. When asked if he parled anglais, the waiter replied with a curt "non."

But as John and Sean ordered items in English, as written, the waiter said "oui, oui, oui..." And got all the orders perfect, even when they said something completely in English.

"It wouldn't be a trip to Paris without the rude waiter, now, would it?" John said.

They shared with Kevin all they did that day -- seeing the sites, going to the Museum D'Orsay, visiting the Pompidou Centre, going out for lunch. It sounded like a nice day.

Sean also shared, in tasteful fashion, about his evening (and morning) with Laurent - a party promoter for Le Queen who had a fabulous apartment with a view of Sacre Coeur.

"So we get inside this place, and it's really awesome," he said, eating his steak. "And I sit down on this cool couch of his, and he pours me a glass of pear juice..." (Kevin swooned: "Ahhh, so...French!") "...so we're looking at a scrap book of pictures and flyers from all these events he has done at the Queen, and I sort of ran my fingers through his hair as he was talking. And he literally stopped in mid-word and said, 'maybe we should move this upstairs...'"

(more swooning)

"That is so romantic," Kevin said, smiling broadly (still a little lightheaded). "And yadda yadda yadda, you got back at 1:30..."

"Yes." (smiles) "I got his email, too. I'll write him when we get home. He said he'd be stopping in at Confession tonight, so maybe we'll see him there."

"So," Dane said, "Kevin. What happened with Roy last night?"

"I don't know. When the lights came up at Home Deluxe, he was gone. My guess is he left on his own. He does that often."

"Does he know his way around?"

"Yeah, he's been here before, a few times actually."

Dane was clearly wondering if Roy was even in his hotel room sleeping or not.

"I left a note under his door with Steve's cell number on it," John said.

"OK, that's good," Dane said.

They rounded the corner and ran past the arch to see Steve standing on the sidewalk.

"I'm so sorry we're late, the restaurant was slow..." Kevin said, in a rush.

"It's fine, everyone has gone ahead on the last Metro, so we'll have to take cabs," Steve said.

"I'm sorry, honey..."

"It's fine..." Steve said, smiling "....Hello, by the way!"

It was funny to see Steve in the role of the relaxed, non-plussed person dealing with people who were a half-hour late, and Kevin being all rattled and apologetic and stressed about it. It was a bit of a reversal.

Kevin felt a bit ashamed of his demeanor. Maybe it was the physical state he was in after the first night, and still not completely out of the fog in his head. He didn't quite know what to say or how to handle himself this evening, unlike the last. There seemed to be a general sort of nervousness and awkwardness hanging over him -- uncharacteristic of him most times, but not a new thing. Steve picked up on it, but didn't say anything. They didn't seem to have any time to really talk on this trip so far. It must have been a little preturbing.

"By the way, Roy called me," Steve said. "He needed directions to the club, so I sent him there on the Metro. He should have met the rest of them on the way."

"Where was he?" Dane asked.

"He was in the Marais somewhere."

"He never came back to the hotel after Home," Kevin said.

"He sounded okay."

Getting to Cabaret Sauvage, where "Confession" would be happening, was not an easy task. It was in the 17th Arrondissement -- practically in the suburbs. None of them had ever been there before this night. The cabbie drove back and forth along a bridge before Steve spotted the little handmade signs in the entrance, the ones that all the "frightened gay boys from the city" needed to guide them to the party, as Steve joked.

The space was built, apparently, as a sort of dinner-theater children's circus of some kind. It was a round, sunken space in the middle, with a step-up to a raised level all around, where there were booths and tables. The lights mounted high up on the ceiling seemed to compete with wires and other circus equipment. The DJ was on a stage platform at the back, behind a video screen that was displaying all sorts of interesting things.

While New Year's Eve was a bit of a city-wide spectacle, with parties and club nights and all sorts of things going on everywhere, pulling people in all directions, Confession was the party of the evening in Paris on January 1. People even skipped La Demence in Brussels to stay for it, even though most had never been.

True to form, everyone from the entire gay Paris nightlife was there. People Kevin hadn't seen in a long time were inside, gathered with the rest of Steve's friends. There were stories of new romances, new jobs, new trips around the world. New directions in life.

And there were new people. A big English guy named Andrew. A young, rail-thin Israeli club kid named Iyab, who came with Frank and Craig. And Suzy, Jeremy, Ludo and Luis.

Plus, Steve, Alain and Herve were all there together -- rested and ready. As were Laurent (Steve's friend), Gil and John (from Paris).

"Well, hello there," Kevin said to Roy, who was in a different outfit.

"Hey," Roy said.

"What happened to you? Dane was worried about you."

"And you weren't?" (smiling)

"Oh honey, I never worry about you."

"It was quite a story actually. Shall we get something from the bar?"

They went to the bar with their tickets in hand for their free drink. Sean was greeting people there, when the bartender leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"Vôce é brasileiro?" (bartender)

"Uhh...." (Sean, bewildered, looking at the guy for a second, smiling...) "No, je suis Americain....Wait a minute..."

The bartender smiled broadly. "You remember?"

"You're the Forum t-shirt guy from last night!"

"Yes! How are you?"

"I am well, thank you," he said, heavily accented. "You had fun, yes?"

"Yes!" Sean said, hopping on his heels.

This is so fucking cool, Sean thought. Hot guys just reach out and pull you to them by the thigh, or reach across the bar and kiss you. I love Paris!

Roy and Kevin got bottles of water and walked over to sit on one of the blocks on the edge of the dancefloor. Sean said he'd be right over. The music was going, and a few had already gone out to the floor, including Suzy and Frank. But it wasn't critical mass yet. It was 12:45am.

"So, what happened?"

"Well, I was trying to get close to Jack Finney."

(Kevin laughs) "No way! Really? Was he even there?"

"Yeah, he was there with Elaine, but she'd gotten bored with him I think. She was after this black dude. Anyway, he was dancing alone on a block down at one end of the place. You remember, the end by the bar?"

"Where all the straight people were, the tables..."

"Yeah, that's right."

"I was at the opposite end all night."

"Well, I tried to get his attention somehow, to see if he'd do one of those 'oh wow, aren't you from Washington?' kinda things..."

"What for? Were you after him, you little whore?" (smiling)

"Actually, I wouldn't have minded it," Roy said, laughing. "He's so hot...."

"So, did he see you?"

"That's the thing, no. He looked right at me a couple times, but he didn't see me. And what's funny -- I normally would have felt like he was dissing me right away. Whether he was or not. It would be the easiest explanation. But last night, something was going on in my head. Either it was the pills or it was Paris or it was me. I don't know..."

"It was all of them, so it was you."

"I gave myself a minute for a change, you know...I stopped being so tight assed to the point of always assuming the worst. And I could see his pupils were enormous..."

"He was high, I bet."

"He was. He was very high, I could tell. He was carrying it off well, though. But I imagine he couldn't really see anything very well."

"You looked really great last night, by the way, so it couldn't have been a diss."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," he laughed. "And you know, I was dancing right near him, and I thought about what it would have been like if the same thing was happening at Cobalt instead of in Paris."

"Really?"

"And I thought about it for a long time. And it would have been terrible. I would have felt this stupid sort of high-school thing, like he was too hot for me, so why should I bother, but that made him all the more hot to me and made me want it even more....bla bla bla...."

Roy took a swing of water.

"But here, in Paris, at Home Deluxe.....there was no such thing, no such feeling," Roy said, looking off into the smallish group on the dancefloor. "There were easily a hundred hot guys all over the place, and maybe a dozen different reasons why any one of them would or would not be attractive to me by the end of a night together, or vice versa. Know what I mean?"

"I think so."

"Like, people here just fundamentally don't give a shit, you know?"

"Well, I don't know about that..."

"Not totally, of course, but not like the way we seem to. There's so much more...I don't know...fraternity here. People aren't meant to feel inferior to each other the way we are at home."

"I don't feel that way at home..."

"But come on, Kevin, you know what I mean..."

"I guess I do."

Short silence.

"But is it so much an American thing," Kevin asked, "or is it more a Roy thing?"

Another short silence.

"So, what happened next?" (Kevin)

"Well, so I opened my eyes after all this and was face to face with these two French guys who said hello. They asked me if they'd met me at Crash in London, and I said no, I'd never been there. So then I remembered that I'd met one of them here, in Paris, at the Queen I think, maybe a year or so ago. It was October maybe? No idea. But I remembered him very well. We made out the time we met. He was an amazing kisser...."

"Well, so is he still?"

(The dancefloor was gathering strength.)

(laughs) "Well, that's the thing. We danced for a while, then we went over to sit down and the three of us kissed for a while."

"Wow, really?" (smiles)

"Yeah, and it was funny cuz you'd think that would be all awkward and hard to choreograph, but it wasn't at all. It all sort of happened naturally, you know?"

"Interesting..."

"So, we did that for a while, and we held hands and sort of touched and hugged and kissed some more. I mean, I know I was rolling, but I wasn't so much at this point. I really wasn't all that high. But I was really into it, like it was this extremely exotic behavior on my part, to be just kissing and touching, on a club couch, with two guys. You know? Something that after just a little bit of thought sounds like the most natural thing in the world! And it seemed so exotic -- so out of the usual practice for what I'm used to back home. Nobody ever does that in D.C."

"How long did you stay?"

"We left around 10, and just walked out, got into their car and drove back to the Marais. This one guy, Ben was his name, he went into a little store on their corner to pick up bread and milk and some jam. It was closed, but his uncle runs it so he just knocked on the door and they let him in."

"So cool..."

"Yeah, I mean, who do we know in D.C. who lives on the same block as his uncle's store??"

"We don't know anyone, but there are lots of people like that I'm sure. Black people."

"Exactly, we don't really live in D.C., Kevin. We are in some settlement that is in the middle of D.C."

"Okay, okay...bread and jam...continue..."

"OK, so I go upstairs with Frederic, the other guy. We are holding hands on the walk upstairs to their place, and we get inside and we kiss a little, but it's not like a hook-up. You know? It's like I'd been there a million times before, and was being treated like I belonged there or something. He was so comfortable with me. It was effortless. I was just amazed."

"Did you eat?"

"Well, I wasn't hungry, but Ben made some coffee and poured some juice and told me I had to taste this marmalade he had, so he put some on his finger and ate it, then put more on his finger and put it in my mouth. It wasn't some overdone, Jayne Mansfield Hollywood move like some guy would do back home. It was natural."

"And was it good?"

"It was delicious." (smiling broadly) "And so I was really aware of how comfortable I was feeling with them. Like...." he paused for a minute "...Like, Kevin...I've spent years, and thousands of dollars trying to be at peace somehow in my mind. I've dealt with all sorts of insomnia and anxiety and who knows what, in this complicated struggle just to calm down and relax and be just a person in the room. Someone like everyone else more or less, you know? Free of all sorts of terrors about what people think of me, or how I look, or whatever....And here I was, without quite knowing how, feeling completely at peace. With two total strangers. A situation where I'd normally fear them, or not trust them entirely. But I did. I even felt really romantic feelings for them as the morning went on. Seriously!"

"Did you have sex with them?"

"Not really," Roy said. "We sat at the table with our shirts off. Frederic took his off because he said it smelled of cigarettes, and then he took mine off, and threw them both in the washer. And then Ben stripped down to his underwear. And we had breakfast like that! And just talked about them, and me, where we are from and all. It was lovely!"

"It sounds wonderful. Sean had a little romance last night, too."

"With a French guy?"

"Yeah."

"See, I should talk to him, too."

"Trade notes." (smiled)

"But we ended up in their big, incredibly comfortable bed. We kissed and cuddled for a long time, but then we went to sleep. And we slept forever it seemed."

"No sex?"

"Well, I'm getting to that..." (Roy smirked) "...So we slept until, like, six o'clock or something. I woke up and Frederic was up - I think he'd just taken a shower and was watching TV in the other room. So Ben and I started fooling around a little, and then he took me to the shower and we had really slow, very sensual sex in the shower."

"What did you do???" (Kevin *always* asked.)

"We blew each other," Roy said, awkwardly, thinking it sounded so trite, "but that's not all, I mean. It was so.....amazing, I can't explain it, Kevin. We did more than that, but didn't do everything. But how it all went was so...incredible."

"Really?"

"Yes, and it seemed that Frederic was fine with it, and wasn't really into joining in per se, so he didn't go rushing in there to make sure he was involved and all. He was just relaxed about it."

"He didn't give a shit, as you said..."

"Exactly! In that way I meant when we left the other place last night..."

"Your New Year's resolution..The second one..."

"Right!!"

"Or, actually, both of them..."

(Both Kevin and Roy laughed loudly)

"Right...And *bang*, this happens...And it seems so clear to me why I have cared way too much about such bullshit for too long in my life. These guys don't worry about that at all."

"Well, we don't know what they worry about..."

"Right, and I'm not saying their way of life is necessarily for me either, but it was such a great experience. I just wanted to spend the whole weekend with them, you know? I was completely smitten. I'm just all in love sitting here talking about them..."

"Aww...Sound like it might be for you after all..."

"They speak English with the most adorable accents, and so quietly and carefully like children, you know? And Ben is suuuuuch a great kisser. Oh my God. And Frederic has such a great chest and stomach, such a man, but he's so gentle and kind....And they had to catch a train," Roy said. "They were going to Brussels for La Demence tonight, so they dropped me at the hotel and we all kissed for a while in the car. It was very cute. And they gave me all their information and numbers and emails..."

"That's wonderful, honey. You met a couple!" (Kevin laughed)

"I did! Who the hell would have ever thought you'd hear that from my mouth, but yes..."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised. You are, after all, the one who usually does what everyone else won't do."

"Yeah, but the guy who swallows the goldfish isn't the one who also ends up in a menage-a-trois in Paris..."

"Hey, this one did."

"Bonsoir, mis amis!!" Sean yelled, hopping onto the block next to Kevin, slipping his arm around Kevin's shoulders.

[Posted: January 11, 2005] FEEDBACK PERMALINK

And then, the revoir...