It took exactly 24 hours to get up the nerve to call him. I was going through old photo albums of the old days. Days with my friends, days when I was gonna change the world, days I don't even remember except when I look through... old photo albums.
And there are so many of him and me. At a meet... at my 24th birthday party... at that bar in "Hotlanta. On a trip to Key West.
It was dawn, our mouths were raw from razor stubble burn. We couldn't sleep. We'd had sex about thirty times, in every possible way and still we couldn't get enough. Out of the blue, he rolls over on top of me, tickling me with his tongue in my ear... and says, "let's go to Key West".
And we did.
We stayed in the "Tennessee Williams" suite, had champagnet and escargots, made a major purchase of oysters and moved on to very dry Bombay Martini's -- all on his Dad's Amex. The 36 hours must have set Old Man Fitzgerald back about three grand...
And we took pictures.
Pictures for us then, and for me now. Looking at Mark, at the way we looked at each other.
"Hi," he murmered back.
I got right to the point, "I -- Mark, this is a business call actually. I'm -- I'm in a bit of a bind at work -- uh, I'm being harrassed by the owner's son and a friend told me to talk to a lawyer about a suit... can you help me?"
He grew instantly official, attentive, while the area under my belt grew instantly bigger. I loved the way he "did law" almost as much as his breaststroke in the pool.
He offered excellent advice, offered to handle this himself. He gave me all the right things to do, about documenting Rudy Marinaro's advances, told me to make copies of the cassette tape Rudy put in my car...on and on...
He warned me how gross this can get, courtrooms full of homophobic judges and lawyers, families hurt, my name in the paper, possibly. On and on...
The whole time we spoke I gazed at the picture from Key West. I couldn't completely listen to what Mark had to say, to advise.
Finally, out of the blue --
"Mark. Remember Key West...?"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Finally he spoke. "...I'll always remember Key West, Andrew. Always."
