Chapter 8 #2
I snorted. “Get that look off your face; it’s nothing bad.
But you’re here because the guys here agreed that you being here wasn’t going to be a problem for them.
There was the stipulation that you wouldn’t go into the group therapy sessions; that’s our biggest thing.
If you want a one-on-one session, no problem.
There’s also keeping quiet about who you are; that’s a big one.
We mentioned you were interested in how this place functions for your upcoming studies. ”
“I can do that,” Jude said with a shrug. “I don’t…wanna be Dad’s kid here, anyway. Feels like everyone would treat me differently, and I don’t want that.”
“Good, then it won’t be a problem,” I said with a shrug. “Otherwise, everything else can be covered on the tour. How hungry are you?”
“Kind of starving, actually,” he admitted.
“Good, we’ll get you something from the cafeteria,” I said, telling him what the normal food hours were, that the food served was never the same unless someone had a restrictive diet, and that he could always see what the meal plan for the week was on the panel in his room or on any tablet connected to the system.
“But don’t worry, there’s always snacks and stuff in the cafeteria as well, so you don’t have to wait between meals.
Which is what we’ll be doing because someone slept in and probably doesn’t want to wait until lunchtime. ”
The growl of his stomach was answer enough, and I told him to get ready.
That apparently required him to shower and fix himself up, and I didn’t know if that was just the fastidiousness he had gained from his parents or if he thought there was someone he needed to impress.
Either way, it let me go through messages in the system waiting for me, so that would be less for me to deal with later.
It wasn’t my first one-on-one with Jude, but it was the first in a while, and I liked it.
He had always been a bright kid, and he hadn’t dimmed with age and experience.
He took to what I told him with ease and seemed to absorb it quickly, and he asked some pretty solid questions that actually made me smile as I showed him the facilities.
“Are the hot springs…are you supposed to be naked?” he asked hesitantly after I’d shown him the gym and locker rooms and led him toward the entrance that would take him to the springs. No one was in them, but the steam filled the air pleasantly as we stood there.
“No, we have bathing shorts that are allowed in the springs. Just rinse you and your shorts off before getting in,” I told him with a shrug.
“I’d probably be the odd man out with shorts on, huh?” he asked wryly.
“Probably,” I said with a chuckle. “But like I said, the guys here know a little about you, so they know you’re young. They won’t be surprised if you’re a little…not into being naked around a bunch of guys.”
“Well, no, it’s not…” he said and then shrugged. “It would be a little weird, but I guess I’d adjust pretty quickly.”
“That’s up to you,” I said. “I’d offer to join you so you feel less awkward, but that somehow seems more awkward.”
“Probably,” he said, and I thought he looked startled. “That’s…that’s okay. You don’t have to do that.”
“Well, if it’s worry about my nakedness, then you want to avoid the springs while I’m in them, the locker room while I’m changing, and since you don’t have access to my room, you don’t have to worry about that part because I’m not worried about being naked around here,” I said, gesturing. “C’mon, there’s more to see.”
There was the Observation Room at the tallest part of the resort, its quiet seclusion a popular place for the guys to sit and relax with nothing bothering them.
There were the activity rooms where mostly yoga classes went on, but they were also used if the guys wanted to drag out board games where they could be as loud and competitive as they wanted.
“What are they loudest about?” Jude asked as I explained the multifaceted aspects of the rooms.
“Uno,” I said with a snort. “And this is our medical wing. Which is just a fancy word for a small clinic, well-equipped though, and if you ever need medical whatever, that’s the place to go. Also, if you want condoms and lube, that’s always popular.”
Now he looked surprised. “Wait, what?”
“You’re in a resort full of men,” I said, and then realized it was a resort full of men who typically erred toward being attractive, which was…strange. “Adult men, safe is better than sorry.”
“I just…they’re all guys.”
“Gay and bi people exist, Jude.”
“I know that! I just…didn’t think it would be such a thing that you had to hand out condoms…and lube.”
“I keep telling everyone there’s something weird about this place, but no one, not even your dad, listens to me.
I don’t know if this place just attracts gay and bi men, or if it makes guys realize they’re gay or bi, but it happens often enough that putting out bowls for people to grab what they need was a lot easier than trying to hand them out,” I assured him.
I also went over the things that were different in the summer season, as I had already done with the rest of the guys at Arete.
He perked up at the idea of hiking and a possible camping trip.
I didn’t know how much fresh air he could indulge in out in Massachusetts, but the idea of doing so here seemed to appeal.
If only for his sake, I was going to have to make sure those things were something he was included in.
“And now that lunchtime is officially starting,” I said after checking the time. “Let’s get you introduced.”
It was…difficult, to send him into the sea of guys and not interfere.
I was especially wary when Clay, of all people, was one of the first to approach.
He gave me a dirty look when I frowned at him.
He shook Jude’s hand and chatted for a bit before dragging him over to talk to Cade and a couple of the other guys.
I knew right then, with how hard it was to restrain myself, that it was a good idea Marc had stayed out of the entire thing.
I didn’t think his heart could have handled watching Arete’s biggest man whore chatting up his son.
A clicking tongue beside me made me jump, and I turned to see Luka eyeing me. “What?”
He looked at Jude, who was eating as he talked. “Really?”
“What?” I repeated, frowning at him.
“Really?”
“I’m just going to keep saying what until you manage enough English to make your point.”
He rolled his eyes. “Just some random soon-to-be-student who wanted to see how practical psychology and therapy could be applied in a group, communal setting?”
“I’m not sure if I should be impressed or concerned that you remembered almost verbatim what I said,” I told him with a cock of my head.
“Someone who looks remarkably like someone else I know…hmm, who could it be?” Luka asked, tapping his chin.
“He looks like no one any of the Guests need to worry about, and the staff, I would hope, especially my Guides, would know to keep their mouths shut if they spotted a coincidental resemblance to someone they may or may not know,” I told him pointedly, glad he’d waited to say that after no one was paying attention.
“And you let him go off with Clay?” Luka asked doubtfully.
“Clay is many things, but he’s not going to try to poach Jude, especially when he’s barely eighteen,” I said and wrinkled my nose. “Right?”
Luka thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “Probably not. But, uh…you realize all bets are off if Jude is the one who—”
“Well, you see, I’m going to do my best not to think about that, and I’m definitely not going to pass that idea along,” I said, my eyes drifting in the general direction of Marc’s office.
“There’s a reason I’m the one doing the tour rather than…
someone else. Least of all the fact that it would be more obvious with them standing side by side. ”
“It really would,” Luka said with a snort. “Well, I guess I should go welcome him. Am I supposed to play dumb with him?”
“Yes,” I said immediately. “And if any Guide starts asking questions, you tell them to shut up. And he doesn’t get any different treatment, got it?”
“Trial by fire and then thrown into the deep end, I got it,” Luka said with a laugh and walked off.
Jude met my eyes for a moment, and I gestured to show I was stepping out to make a couple of calls. He wasn’t as good as his father at hiding what he was thinking, so I could see he was nervous, but he accepted it with a nod of his head.
It was halfway through the second ring when Marc picked up. “Everything okay?”
“I’m afraid that the men got together and decided it was time.
They’re currently carting him off to burn him with an effigy of us as a virgin sacrifice,” I told him as I opened an error report that had automatically been sent to my inbox and frowned.
“I guess we’ll see if he’s actually a virgin when God decides to either bless them or strike them all down for the grave insult of a bad sacrifice. ”
“Hilarious,” he said sarcastically, but I would bet his shoulders were easing as he slumped slightly in his chair. I wondered if now I would be able to run my hands along those broad shoulders and find the knots of tightened muscles and work them out.
Or if I was supposed to behave myself and never initiate anything like that with him again.
“He’s fine; he got the tour, he’s having lunch, and hanging out,” I said, glancing back through the doorway before turning my attention to the error report.
I could have sworn we’d already patched that issue…
well, at least it was only causing the automatic toilets to need to be manually flushed rather than straight up altering the status of rooms. That bug had been a nightmare. “He’s on board with the entire plan.”
“And what’s…his plan?”
“His plan? Is not to have a plan.”
“I…what? Wasn’t he supposed to be coming here for—”