Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
T he Stonewall, like so many other gay bars of its time, was situated in a little alley. There was a certain irony about the fact that it was also located right next to a Baptist church, and this made Charlie smile.
I bet the little old ladies just love that their church is right next to a gay bar, he thought, and then frowned. But maybe I’m not being generous enough, he thought. Maybe they are more okay with it than they’re willing to admit.
Even though it was still early they could already hear (and feel) the thumping of the bass from where they were standing on the sidewalk.
“You know, I’ve been coming to this place for years, and no matter how many times I do, I can’t help but think it’s a bit of a miracle that it still manages to stay open.” There was something earnest about the way that Jared said those words that made Charlie look at him and made him wonder whether, beneath that cynical and jaded surface, there was really a softer side to him.
“I know what you mean,” Charlie said. “The minute I turned eighteen I started to go to the gay bar in Morgantown, and it was like…a whole new world. For the first time I was around gay people, and I guess quite a few straight people, too. I didn’t really know what to do with myself, but I had a lot of fun.”
“I came here my first week of undergrad, still a shy little kid from the middle of nowhere, and it was life-changing. I finally felt like I was among my own kind, even as I also sometimes felt a little out of place.”
The bar was largely deserted at this time of night, except for a few older guys at the bar and scattered at a few tables here and there. Charlie sighed inwardly, because he’d been afraid that the place would be crowded if anyone got even an inkling that he was going to be there. The Stonewall wasn’t exactly the type of place that his fans would frequent, of course, but he’d been in the business long enough to know that there would still be people who would want to come and gawk at the celebrity just for the chance of being close to fame.
Even so, he was glad that Jared had recommended this, even if Sheri would frown at him for taking a risk. He hadn’t bothered checking his phone for the past several hours, because he knew that she was probably frantically texting him to make sure he hadn’t managed to get himself into any trouble.
They sidled up to the bar and ordered a couple of drinks–a gin and tonic for Jared and a Long Island iced tea for Charlie–and then turned to survey the rest of the place.
“When was the last time that you were here?” he asked. He had to lean in and almost shout in order to be heard above the music.
“I gotta be honest,” Jared said, shouting in his turn. “I don’t really like coming to the bars anymore. I’d rather just spend the evening at home.”
I’d like to spend an evening at home with you, Charlie thought but didn’t say .
“It’s okay,” he said, draping an arm around Jared’s shoulders, once again relishing the chance to touch the other man, “I don’t really like to go to bars very much, either. They’re always so crowded and full of vapid people, at least they are out in California. Not sure how it is around here, though.”
“It’s okay,” Jared said noncommittally. “Though sometimes you end up running into people that you’d rather avoid.”
He was looking at something else in the bar, and Charlie looked in the same direction. A tall guy in his thirties was standing there, sipping on some sort of purple confection and looking in their direction.
“Who is he?” Charlie asked.
“He’s my ex.”
Charlie knew rationally that he had no right or reason to feel jealous of Jared’s ex-boyfriend, but for some reason the idea of someone else being close to him in a romantic way made him feel all nauseous and fluttery. More than that, he was also confused about how someone could let Jared slip through their grasp.
“Do you want me to bump into him so he drops his drink?”
“I…don’t think that would be a very good idea. He’s one of those people who’s chronically plugged into social media, so unless you want everyone thinking that you’re some kind of rude asshole, I wouldn’t recommend getting on his bad side.”
“Oh.” Charlie shrugged.
So that’s how it was, was it? He felt even more tempted to go bump into the guy.
For a few more minutes they just stood there drinking in private, but it wasn’t long before the ex started wending his way over. Charlie felt his stomach starting to clench, because he knew this was probably going to get really ugly really fast.
“Well, well, well, who do we have here?”
When someone like Leslie Jordan said, “Well, well, well,” in that southern drawl it was charming. When this guy did it, it was like nails on a chalkboard.
“Hello, Paul,” Jared said without looking up from his drink.
“It’s good to see you too, Jared,” Paul said without missing a beat. “And who is this?” He took a very noticeable sip of his drink, and gave Charlie a look up and down. “Unless I’m very much mistaken, it’s Charlie Garrett, Romance Network star.”
Charlie took a deep breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth.
Stay calm, Charlie. You’ve dealt with assholes like this a dozen times before. This isn’t any different.
“Paul, knock it off,” Jared said quietly.
Paul actually laughed a little at that, as if he found it funny that Jared was actually challenging him.
“Someone’s certainly changed their tune about Charlie Garrett. I’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve said something negative about West Virginia’s golden boy. What was it that you said about him that one time? ‘He’s just a hack actor that no one would give two shits about if he wasn’t blonde and muscular and looks like he stepped out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog?’ It was something like that.”
“I know that Jared has had a rather dubious attitude about my professional output,” Charlie said, "so unless you have something else you’d like to add to our conversation, I think there are a lot of other places in this bar you could be.”
Charlie felt a little warmth in his chest when he saw the admiring look that Jared gave him.
See? I can be selfless, too.
Paul, however, was one of those people who wasn’t easily discouraged from being an asshole.
“Let me give you a piece of advice, Charlie Garrett,” he said. “This guy right here is one of the most depressing people you’ll ever meet. He’s so busy finding reasons to be unhappy that he never bothers to look up and enjoy the world around him.” He gave a bitter little laugh. “Trust me. I spent a good amount of my time trying to get him to snap out of his misery, and he just didn’t want to do it.”
And with that he was gone.
“Don’t pay attention to what that asshole has to say,” Charlie said. “He was clearly just trying to get under your skin.”
If the strained look on Jared’s face was anything to go by, it had worked, and Charlie gave Paul what he hoped was a particularly venomous look.
Just try that again, he tried to say with just his eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about him, if that’s okay,” Jared said. “I didn’t come to the Stonewall to deal with my past.”
Charlie shrugged. He might have just met Jared today, but he could already tell that Jared wasn’t going to do anything he didn't want to.
As the night wore on more and more people came into the bar, and Charlie loved the feeling of being among other queer folks. Even as his eyes wandered across the room, however, his eyes kept finding their way back to Jared sitting beside him. He seemed to be withdrawing more and more into himself, and Charlie’s protective urge was getting stronger by the minute.
You’ve got to make your move, Charlie, he thought. If you don’t, the rest of this evening is going to be a bust, and neither you or Jared is going to be happy about that.
“I assume that they have drag shows here?” he asked.
Jared gave him a look that told him plainly that that was a very stupid (and very straight) question to ask.
“Charlie, it’s a gay bar. What do you think?”
“I don't know. You’ve sort of clammed up, so I figured I had to break the ice somehow.”
That managed to get a little bit of a smile out of Jared. Charlie felt a tightening in the region somewhere behind his heart.
“And what time is this drag show?” he asked.
Jared rolled his eyes but still looked at his watch.
“In fact, it’s about ready to start.” He jerked his head to the side. “It’s in that room over there.”
“Are we going to go, or are we just going to sit here drinking alone the whole night like a couple of sad old drunks?”
“I don’t know about you, but I sort of always saw myself as one of the old queens nursing a Manhattan at the bar in my old age.”
“Well, you’re not going to be nursing a drink tonight. You brought me here to have fun, and that’s just what we’re going to do. We’re going to have fun. ”
A few minutes later they were right in front of the stage waiting for the show to start. All of a sudden the lights went down, the music went quiet, and then the most stunning drag queen that Charlie had ever seen came strutting out onto the stage.
“Hellooooo, Stonewall!” she shouted into the mic, her voice blaring out. “How y’all doin’ tonight?”
There were some cheers throughout the room, but that wasn’t good enough.
“I said how y'all doin’ tonight?” she said louder, holding the mic out. This time the shouting was more exuberant. Charlie felt himself buoyed up by the sounds of so much queer joy.
“Boy do we have a show for you tonight,” the drag queen continued. “And we hope you have as much fun as we do!”
And with that the show began. The queens at the Stonewall might not be as elaborate in their costuming as the ones in LA, but Charlie still admired their acrobatics and their commitment. He smiled and walked up to the stage several times with tips, and once or twice he thought that one of them recognized him (though fortunately they didn’t say anything).
Jared cheered right along with the rest of them each time a new song came on, but he was clearly too shy to actually go up and tip the queens, no matter how excited he was to see them. He even let out a little squeal of glee when the last of the performers did a rendition of Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like a Woman!” It was clear that, for him at least, it was just like being back in college all over again.
After one of the final performances, Charlie turned around and saw that Jared had disappeared. He had an irrational thought that he’d gone home, but a quick perusal of the room revealed Jared sitting in a booth by himself, a guarded look on his face. Charlie looked around to see if Paul was lurking nearby, but there was no one. With a shrug, he walked over and slid into the booth next to him. “It wouldn’t hurt you to get out there and dance, you know,” he said. “Though you don’t strike me as the dancing type.”
Jared gave him a level look. “You’re right about that. I’ve never liked dancing, even when I was a young gay.”
Charlie let the music wash over him again, savoring the feeling of being just another gay at the bar, not “Charlie Garrett: Star.”
“Is there anything I can do to convince you to get out there and cut a rug?” he asked. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to get Jared out on the dance floor, other than that he genuinely wanted to see how he would look, out there being a little vulnerable for once. He’d managed to get him to soften up a little, but he knew that there was still a lot the other man was holding back.
“Well, you could start by not saying ‘cut a rug.’ That’s a bit much, even for a geriatric millennial.”
Charlie nudged him gently. “Come on. Do it for me? Please?” He flashed his smile and was satisfied when he saw Jared’s resistance beginning to crumble.
“Ugh, fine,” Jared said. “Just don’t blame me if I end up making both of us look foolish.”
They both made their way to the dance floor, swaying along to Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night.” Soon they were dancing next to one another, their bodies growing hotter and hotter by the moment. Whatever Jared might say, he had a natural sort of rhythm that, strangely enough, seemed to perfectly complement Charlie’s own.
Charlie knew that he shouldn’t be thinking like this, knew that this weekend was going to go by far too quickly, knew that Jared was probably not even thinking about anything remotely romantic, but he couldn’t help himself. He wore his heart on his sleeve and he fell hard and fast. It didn’t hurt that Jared was very attractive and, at this exact moment, grinding up against him, the friction of their two bodies producing the expected results.
He wrapped his hands around Jared’s waist, and felt that familiar thrum of pleasure and desire race up his arms and settle into his chest.
For a second he just lost himself to the rhythm of the music and their bodies, but then he looked up and his heart froze.
For a moment, he couldn’t quite believe what, or rather who, he was seeing: it was the guy with the protest sign from earlier in the day. He was dressed in the same clothes as earlier, though fortunately he didn’t have his sign. He was trouble, though, of that there was no doubt.
Charlie tried taking a few deep breaths to calm himself and get the anger to go back down, and to an extent he succeeded. However, he couldn’t help but be aware of the protester moving through the crowd. He couldn’t tell whether the guy had come here deliberately to resume their quarrel or if it was just an accident, but he knew which one he was interested in. He wanted to teach the guy a lesson.
Don’t do it, Charlie, he said to himself over and over. Sheri told you to stay out of trouble.
However, the guy came over to him, and all caution went right out the window.
“So, it’s you again,” Charlie said, pushing Jared gently behind him. “What are you doing here?’
The man cocked his head to the side, almost as if he was really considering what Charlie was asking.
“You know, I wasn’t sure that I’d find you here, but I know that you people always tend to gather at the same place, so I figured it was a good bet.”
“Do you want to take this outside?” Charlie snarled, acting like a total dude-bro and not even caring.
The other guy just shrugged. “Why bother going outside?”
It was at that moment that Jared decided to be a hero.
“Look, I don’t want to get in the middle of anything,” he said, pulling away from Charlie and striding up to the other guy. “But you’ve been making a nuisance of yourself this whole day, and I think it’s time that you get out of here and find something better to do.”
Charlie almost admired Jared for this, until he saw the ugly light that flickered in the man’s eyes.
Before he could say anything, he gave Jared a shove that was just this side of rough.
In that moment all of Charlie’s training at keeping his emotions in check, all of the admonitions from Sheri and the powers-that-be at the Romance Network to be on his best behavior and not to let his anger and frustration run away with him, went right out the window. Suddenly this guy was every homophobe that had disrupted his efforts to do something good for West Virginia, every hater who’d left a nasty message on social media, every executive that had said something vaguely (or not so vaguely) homophobic.
He didn’t think about what he was going to do; all he could do was feel irrational anger that this asshole would lay a hand on Jared. Before he knew it, his fist was connecting with the guy’s face, sending him crashing to the floor.
Suddenly the entire bar went quiet: there was no music, no chatter, nothing. Everyone was looking at them, and Charlie felt his anger draining away, leaving behind a sick feeling in his stomach.
“What did you just do?” Jared hissed. “What did you just do ?”
Charlie looked at where the homophobe lay sprawled out on the floor. There was no denying the look of vicious glee on his face as he rubbed his jaw. He’d set the trap and Charlie, always willing to look before he leaped, had fallen right into it.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” he managed to stammer out, even though he wasn’t.
Jared rolled his eyes, but Charlie could have sworn that he also looked like he was a little impressed, too.
This is going to get very ugly, very quickly, he thought.
In fact, the several patrons were already fleeing toward the exits, while others were holding up their phones. This included Paul, because of course he wasn’t going to let this opportunity go by. He had his camera up and was recording every horrible second of this, his eyes alight with malicious glee.
Great, just what I needed. A jealous ex making this situation even worse.
“Don’t worry, bigshot. I’m not going to press charges,” the homophobe said as he got to his feet. He gestured at all of the phones held up in their direction. “I think you’ve done enough damage to yourself.”
Well, he thought, fuck.