“The hot girl with the other two people,” Kenny said. “You have to do me a favor.”
Evan’s head went up. “What kind of favor?”
Kenny did not answer him. Before Evan had a chance to ask another question, the three people Kenny had been talking about stepped into the restaurant and stood behind them. Evan took a quick glance and saw a nice-looking young woman with long blond hair, another young woman with brown hair, and a tall young man wearing a brown leather sport jacket. He didn’t think any of them were all that special. And they looked overly prepped, trying hard to be cool, as if they’d just hopped off a bus from New Jersey.
While Kenny stood there sending furtive glances to the young blond woman, the head waiter returned and said, “We have your table.” Then looked over Kenny’s shoulder and spoke to the tall guy in the brown leather sport jacket standing behind Evan. “I’m afraid there won’t be any more tables for at least a half hour. We’re extremely busy today.”
Without missing a beat, Kenny interjected in a move that reminded Evan of Jeffery when he wanted something he thought was important. Kenny said, “How big is our table? Can you seat five there?”
Evan’s jaw fell. He had no idea what his son was doing.
The head waiter said, “I’m sure we can. No problem.”
Kenny turned to the young blond woman and said, “You’re welcome to join us. My brother and I don’t mind.”
Evan grabbed Kenny’s arm and squeezed it hard. He glared at him and said, “Your brother?”
The blond girl asked, “Are you sure there’s room?”
Kenny sent Evan a look and smiled at the blond girl. “Yeah, man. We have plenty of room.”
Evan rolled his eyes. He knew words like “man” and “dude” were interchangeable nowadays. It was evident that Kenny wanted Evan to pretend they were brothers so he could get to know the young blond woman. So Evan shrugged and said, “That’s fine. But we can’t stay long. We have that party to go to later tonight.” Although this was not something Evan would ever have thought of doing, he found it amusing to see how eager his son was to get to know this young woman. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to play along for a little while. He would simply sit quietly and observe the younger people.
The head waiter escorted them to the back of the small narrow restaurant. On the way, Evan leaned into Kenny and said, “I’m going to get even with you, you little shit.” He wasn’t really angry. Evan didn’t want to bruise his ego just when he was beginning to explore his own sexuality. They’d already had the dad/son talk about the facts of life and Evan knew Kenny wasn’t shy about anything. Even though Evan had explained there were benefits to abstaining from sex and waiting for the right person to come along, hoping his son wouldn’t start having sex too soon, he knew in reality not many young people paid attention to this advice. In fact, they’d been ignoring this same advice since the beginning of time.
Before they sat down, Kenny said, “I’m Kenny and this is my older brother, Evan.”
The blonde said, “I’m Candy.” She gestured to her two friends. “This is Lorraine and Grayson. We’re students at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and we’re hanging out in the city for the day.”
Kenny flashed a huge smiled and squared his shoulders. “We go to NYU. We live downtown in Alphabet City.”
In a deadpan tone, Evan sighed and said, “I’m older than my brother. I’m in grad school.”
Before they sat down, Grayson stepped up to Evan and pulled out his chair. This set the tone for the duration of the meal and Evan had never been so uncomfortable in his life. He soon learned he wouldn’t be able to sit quietly and observe. While Candy and Kenny talked about school, Lorraine giggled and she tried to flirt with Kenny, too. Both young women seemed so interested in Kenny, and Kenny seemed so interested in them, everyone forgot about Grayson and Evan sitting at the back of the table. No one even heard Grayson lean over and ask, “How long have you been out? I just came out last year, dude.”
Evan gulped and said, “I’ve been out for a while.” On the one hand, he admired the way Grayson seemed to so comfortable talking about being openly gay, but on the other he felt creepy sitting there with a guy in his first year of college. But more than that, he wondered how Grayson had been able to tell he was gay. Most of the time no one knew, at least not at first. These younger kids nowadays seemed to have extra hidden radar or something.
Evan grew even more uncomfortable when handsome young Grayson dropped his napkin on purpose, bent down to get it, and grabbed his ass under the table when the other three weren’t looking. Evan remained solid and even. He wanted to pretend it never happened. He reached down and removed Grayson’s hand from his ass and smacked him gently. But it didn’t end there. Grayson continued to stare between Evan’s lips and eyes. Grayson felt up Evan’s legs, his arms, and even put his arm around him at one point. By the time the waiter handed them the check, Evan wanted to stand up and kiss the waiter for saving him from this aggressive young gay man who didn’t seem to have any boundaries.
Before anyone else could say a word, Evan stood up, took the check from the waiter, and said, “This one’s on me.” Then he handed the waiter the full amount in cash, with a generous tip, and glanced down at his son. “We have to get moving now, little brother.” He gritted his teeth because young Grayson was feeling up his leg and no one knew it. “We’ll be late for that appointment we have with Mom and Dad.”
Kenny shrugged and stood up. He clearly didn’t want to leave yet, but he must have noticed the serious tone in Evan’s voice.
Candy asked. “Are you guys free later tonight? There’s this party we’re all going to in Chelsea and you can come along.”
That’s when Evan took control. Not only was he too old to be getting felt up by a horny freshman in college, he thought Kenny was too young to be meeting a girl that much older than he was. Kenny was still in high school. It was fun while it lasted; Kenny got a chance to pretend. But enough was enough.
Evan grabbed his son’s arm, pulled him away from the table, and said, “Thanks for the offer, but we really can’t. Mom and Dad are taking us out to dinner tonight before they leave for an extended tour of Japan. It was nice meeting you, though.” Then he yanked Kenny out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk, and hailed a taxi.