Chapter Sixty-One
Mike double-checked that he had cut and chopped everything needed for dinner. Feeling satisfied and more at ease, he stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower. Everything is as ready as I can make it.
After showering and blow-drying his chest hair, he pulled on a purple polo-style shirt and black shorts.
It was comfortable, and he realised that Jamie had never seen him in civilian clothes.
He’d either been in uniform or PT attire.
And while Mike was comfortable with that, he had decided that maybe Jamie would appreciate him making the effort to dress up.
* * * * *
“And just what are you wearing?” Joesph had been sitting, working on his laptop. “Oh, no, you don’t! Go back to your bedroom. I’m coming,” he said, jumping up from the chair.
“What?” Jamie stood, frozen in place. “What’s wrong with this?”
“Oh, honey, please.” Joesph turned Jamie around by the shoulders. “Yes, this is nice, but you need... nicer.” Joesph pushed Jamie into his bedroom.
“I don’t have time for this,” Jamie complained, sounding whiny, like a spoiled teenager.
“You do have time, now hush.” Joesph went to Jamie’s closet and pulled out the purple button-down shirt and the pair of black skinny jeans Jamie had gotten on his shopping excursion. “This. And those nice black boots that you hardly wear.”
“I don’t wear them because they hurt my feet.” Jamie started to pull off the new polo shirt. “Do you think it’s okay if I get so dressed up for a casual dinner? I mean, I don’t want to come off as too... eager?”
Joesph held out the new shirt. “No, I don’t think that, and you want to make a good first impression. And it’s not like you’re going to be walking or hiking, so wear the boots.”
“Uh, it’s not like we’ve never met.” Jamie took the shirt that he thought he’d never buy.
“This is your first real date.” Joesph was holding the jeans and looking at Jamie’s underwear. “Hmm... Let me think, here.”
“What?” Jamie asked as he buttoned up the shirt. “We did go out to dinner that one time.”
“Do you have some other type of briefs?” Joesph scowled. “Yes, you did have dinner out, but he’s invited you into his home, and he’s cooking for you. Put in some effort.”
“Now it’s my underwear that concerns you?” Jamie huffed. “I think I have a pair of regular briefs if that’s what you mean. Okay, valid point.”
“Show me.” Joesph nudged Jamie over to the dresser.
Jamie pulled open the top drawer where he dug around. “Here.” He showed Joesph the white Calvin Kleins.
Joesph rolled his eyes. “Gawd, you are so boring sometimes. How are we even friends?” Then he sighed. “Okay, change into those. I am going to buy you some sexy underwear. I think you just lost an entire stack of princess points!”
Jamie stared at Joesph for a few seconds. “Not all of us are all that concerned about our underwear.”
“You should be. Now hurry up.”
* * * * *
“Candles.” Mike stood close to the small dining room table that sat between the kitchen and the living room. “Would that be too much?” He adjusted the folded napkins for the umpteenth time. “Naw... too much. Maybe...” he looked around the small living room. “Just forget the candle, numbskull.”
He looked at his watch nervously. Mike went into the kitchen and checked, once again, that he had everything lined up to make his not-so-famous Denver omelette and fresh asparagus. “Damn it, why am I so nervous?”
* * * * *
Jamie stood at the door of Mike’s apartment, holding the bottle of Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label champagne.
He raised his hand to knock on the door.
.. and stopped. Am I ready for this? What if.
.. And then he remembered what Joesph said about getting into his own head.
“Here goes nothing,” he murmured and knocked three times.
Mike slung the door open. “Uh, hi.” He looked at Jamie and started laughing. Jamie opened and closed his eyes several times and joined in.
“Was there like a memo or something?” Jamie asked. “Did Joesph put you up to this?”
“Come in,” Mike said, holding the door open as he stepped aside. “No, I didn’t get a memo. Maybe it’s that great minds think alike?”
“At least I chose black pants, not that I have black shorts,” Jamie said as he entered and offered the bottle of wine to Mike. “I hope you like champagne?”
“I do.” Mike looked at the bottle in his hand, already chilled. “Wow, you know your wines. This is a good one. Did you know they use at least forty per cent pinot noir in making this, and it ages at least three years?”
Jamie laughed. “No, I didn’t know that exactly. I do know that it’s a good champagne.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know as much about wine as I should. My father keeps telling me I need to, though. Even offered to take me on a wine trip.”
“That’s an offer I wouldn’t refuse. I’d go back to France in a heartbeat. Although next time I’d like to do the cheese caves. They have fabulous cheeses.” Mike looked at the bottle again. “And this will go great with dinner!”
“Okay. What’s for dinner?” Jamie tried to peer around Mike.
“I’ll open this, but...” Mike turned towards his small kitchen. “I’m afraid I don’t have proper champagne glasses, so a standard white wine glass will have to suffice.”
“You’re killing me here,” Jamie said. “What are you cooking?”
Mike pulled down two glasses from a cupboard next to the refrigerator. “Omelettes. Denver omelettes to be precise.”
“Okay, I can’t wait,” Jamie said as he took the wine glass with the champagne. “You know, there is a movie about a restaurant in France that focuses on making an omelette.”
“The Hundred-Foot Journey,” Mike said, smiling. “I enjoyed that movie. However, I hope you don’t judge this like Helen Mirren did. I’d never make the cut, I’m afraid.”
“I promise not to judge yours as harshly.” Jamie held up his glass, and Mike clinked his to it. “Cheers.”
Mike took a sip, closed his eyes, and swished the wine around in his mouth. “Oh, that is good,” he stated as he opened his eyes. “I may need to get a few bottles of this to keep on hand. Not sure when I’d need them, but it is good to be prepared.”
“Were you a Boy Scout?” Jamie asked, mischievously.
“Yeah, I was, actually,” Mike chuckled. “Guilty as charged.”
Jamie shook his head. “I’m not even the slightest surprised.”
“I think that’s when I first started to notice boys.
” Mike set his glass down and turned on the stove.
“I had already noticed girls, but after one summer camping trip, I knew I had an attraction to both boys and girls. That was really confusing to me. I didn’t know anything about sex, much less sexual orientation or that bisexuality was even a thing. ”
Jamie leaned against the opposite counter as he watched Mike start to cook. “I never thought of it like that. It would be confusing. I knew I was attracted to boys before I even came to live with Mamaw and Papaw. I never said anything to anyone about it till I was fifteen.”
“Who’d you first come out to?” Mike asked, glancing over his shoulder as he sautéed the vegetables and ham in a pan.
“My best friend, Sarah.” Jamie took a sip of his wine. “I thought she would have a problem since she was such a churchgoer. I was surprised when she hugged me and said that it was okay. That we could ogle the boys together now.”
“Have you seen her since you’ve been back?” Mike asked.
“I have. And then I found out she married one of the guys who bullied me in school.” Jamie shook his head. “That was a bombshell I didn’t see coming.”
“Tell me,” Mike said as he cracked eggs into a bowl.
“There were two of them, most of the time.” Jamie watched Mike.
“The one I ran into. He works at a fish place where I got the shrimp for the shrimp and grits. He was... actually, very nice. Apologized. I was shocked. Then I found out the other guy is in prison for shooting a cop. That didn’t surprise me. ”
“Wow.” Mike used a wire whisk to mix the eggs and cream. “I’d have been surprised too. You know that he married your best friend and then apologized.”
“He even said he’d have me over to dinner. That hasn’t happened yet. But Sarah knows what’s going on in my life right now and hasn’t broached the subject, although she does text me to check in on how things are going.”
“Think she will? Have you over for dinner?”
“I think so.” Jamie watched Mike as he poured the egg mixture into the pan; its slight sizzle told him the pan wasn’t quite hot enough. “What about you?”
“I didn’t really get bullied. I mostly blended in, kept my head down, and did what any boy was supposed to do, I guess.
My mother is a teacher, and if I’d gotten into any trouble, she would have come down on me hard.
My father is an accountant.” Mike smiled over at Jamie.
“Now, I love my dad, but damn, he is so boring. I can predict what he’d say most of the time on just about any subject. ”
Jamie laughed. “So, you got your sense of humour from your mother?”
Mike thought a moment as he lifted the sides of the eggs in the pan. “I’d say I got most of my personality from my grandmother. My mom’s mom. She could do just about anything and was really funny. My mom would often frown at some of the stuff she said.”
“I guess that’s something we have in common then.”
Mike added the cooked ham, veggies, and then cheese. “You could say that.”
“When did you... like, come out? Is that a thing when you’re bi?”
“I suppose it’s a little like coming out.
” Mike looked at Jamie, his eyes seemed troubled.
“I mentioned it to my mother once when I was on leave... I was stationed in Japan at the time. I think she was shocked more than anything. Kept saying I couldn’t be bi.
She’d known I was in a short relationship with a girl there. ”
“And?” Jamie asked.
Mike put a handful of asparagus into a steamer basket on the stove. “It took her a while, I guess, to figure out what being bi meant. She’s not stupid at all, but I think it caught her off guard more than anything.”
“Have you had a lasting relationship with another guy?” Jamie felt he was testing Mike, which he was.
“Only once. It lasted for a few months. He was a marine.” Mike turned out the omelette onto a plate, put it in the oven, and began the process over again.
“I thought I was in love with him. Not sure I really was.” Mike shrugged.
“It ended when he was transferred out. We kept in touch for a while, but it dwindled down to nothing. I knew I wasn’t in love with him when it barely hurt. ”
Jamie didn’t say anything for a while, watching Mike as he made a second omelette. “I would find that kinda hard, I guess. The moving away part.”
“Yeah. It wasn’t easy. It’s never easy.” Mike took a sip of his wine.
“You make friends and then you have to leave. But that’s part of it.
I think I’ll retire at the twenty-year mark or if it looks like I’d get transferred again.
I don’t want to do that again. I think I may call Columbus home. I like it here.”
“Really?” Jamie asked, slightly surprised. “You’ve been in since you were eighteen, right?”
“Yep.” Mike picked up the plate he’d pulled from the oven. “It’s chow time.”