Forced Out of the Darkness (10 page)

As
Cameron made it to the second stairwell, he heard the doorbell ring.

“Hold
on, someone is at the door.”

“I
thought you said no one was coming over?”

“Hold
on a second. I don’t have plans for anyone to come over.” Cameron said.

“No problem.”

Cameron set the phone
on the counter and went back downstairs to see who was at his door. It was 9:45
pm and Cameron did not have any plans so he was not sure who could be at the
door.

“Who is it?”

“Open the door.” Said a
voice on the other side of the door.

“Who is it?” Cameron
asked a more annoyed than the last time. He looked through the peek hole and to
Cameron’s surprise, there stood Monti smiling on the other side of the door.

Cameron opened up the
door and asked, “What’s going on?”

“I did not want the day
to come to an end without seeing you.” With that, he pulled his hands from his
back with a dozen of fragrant red roses and said, “These are for you.”

The twinkle that came
to Cameron’s eyes as he smiled, was all that Monti needed to see. He knew that
Cameron was happy. Cameron took the roses and smelled them.

“I just wanted you to
know that someone thinks about you often, Mr. McNeil.” Monti said as he was
preparing to get back in his Jeep.

“You came all this way
to bring me flowers and then leave?”

Monti came through the
door; his head almost hitting the doorframe because he was so tall, took
Cameron into his arms and kissed him passionately. There was Cameron again,
standing in his foyer, speechless.

“I wanted to do
something for the man that has done so much for me. You will never know how you
have changed my life. I know we have only physically seen each other for only four
days but I feel like I have known you for a lifetime. I have not been able to
sleep for months. The first night I met you in person, I slept the whole night.
The next night, when we were apart, I slept ok but I could feel the
sleeplessness coming back. Last night, I slept so well I felt that I could run
a marathon. I just wanted to say thank you.”

“Man, you did not have
to do this, Monti. I appreciate it, truly I do.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Thank you again. Let’s
go upstairs.”

Cameron and Monti went
to the bedroom and turned on the television. They watched TV for about fifteen
minutes when Cameron’s phone signaled a text that came through. Cameron looked
at his phone and closed it. “Who texts at 10:30 at night?” Monti thought. His
insecurities were getting the best of him again. All kinds of thoughts were
running through his head. “Was he supposed to be meeting someone tonight?” “Were
they supposed to be coming here?” Monti was going to lose it when Cameron gave
not response to it. He had to think of something to say.

“Are you going to leave
those flowers out all night?”

“You know, you are
right. Can you excuse me while I run downstairs and get a vase to put them in?”

“No, no problem.” Monti
responded. This was the opportunity that Monti needed to put his mind at ease. As
Cameron, got out the bed and went downstairs, Monti got up and took his phone. He
opened the phone and searched through the messages. There was this message from
this Kat named Marcus. It simply said, “
had a great time, hopefully we can
do it again soon
.” “Who the hell was Marcus and why was he texting my dude?”
Monti thought. “Is he cheating on me already?” Monti decided that he did not
need competition so he deleted the text message as he heard Cameron coming up
the stairs. Monti’s thoughts started to get the best of him as Cameron returned
to the room with this lead crystal vase.

“I hope that these
flowers last till I get back from my trip on Saturday.”

“Did you put some
Aspirin in the water? They say that makes them last longer.”

“Hold on, I have some
in the bathroom.”

Cameron came back and
put some Aspirin in the water and set the flowers on the dresser.

“I know you have to be
tired, you have to be up early in the morning. You are staying here, right?”

“Yes, I can do that if
you promise to help me sleep tonight.”

“I thought you told me
I already did that?”

“Yes, you do. I just
wanted to make sure you were game for that.”

“Oh yes, I can handle
mine.” Cameron said as he took off his clothes and got into the bed. Monti
followed suit. They fell asleep. The next thing they knew the sun was peeking
through the windows and kissing them both on their face.

            Monti got up
and was happy to have had another night with Cameron and he didn’t have the
nightmares that disrupted his abilities to sleep peacefully. Monti went to the
restroom to relieve his full bladder and came back to kiss Cameron on his
forehead. He knew he had to get his clothes out of the car and get to work on
time this morning. It was getting close to the time where he would have to
leave to be at work on time. Cameron opened his eyes and Monti was mesmerized
again. “Damn, those eyes are gorgeous even with sleep in them.” Monti thought.
Monti ran down the stairs to get his work clothes out the car and came back.

            Monti
turned on the shower while he waited on it to warm up, he brushed his teeth. He
took a quick shower, changed and was back out the door in fifteen minutes. “Damn.”
Cameron thought. “I didn’t get a kiss goodbye. Oh well, maybe he was running
late. I am sure he will call later.” Cameron spent the morning thinking about
the status of this situation with Monti. He knew that he liked him and he
wanted to know more. He did not know how this was going to go. While thinking
about Monti, Cameron remembered he got a text last night so he got his phone to
respond back to it. He search and searched but he could not find the message. He
began to get upset because he knew he did not delete the message but he could
not find it. “Why would he go through my phone?” He thought.

            He didn’t
want to just jump in a relationship without thinking things through. He wanted
to have a conversation with Monti. Cameron knew this has only been going on for
about a week but he wanted to make sure that the two of them were on the same
sheet of music. He needed to clarify the nature of this relationship.

“Good Afternoon, Monti.”

“Hey Cam, how are you?”

“I am doing well here. I
was calling to see what you had planned the rest of the day?”

“Nothing much. I needed
to go to the gym and had nothing planned after that.”

“Do you think you could
swing a 5:30 pm movie, followed by dinner? I want to go see Basic Instinct 2,
you ok with that choice?”

“Sure man, you know I
will make time to hang out with you. It is 3:00 pm now. I’ll cut my workout
short and meet you there.”

“I will meet you at the
Star Theaters in Southfield at 5:15 pm, cool?”

“Great.”

“Monti, may I ask you a
question?”

“Sure ask me anything.”

“Something has been
bothering me. Did you go through my phone last night?”

“No, why would you
think I’d do something like that?” He lied.

“I got a text from a
buddy of mine last night. When I went respond to it this morning, it was gone.”

“No, I didn’t see your
phone. Plus when would I have had the time to do something like that?” Monti
said trying to deflate Cameron’s thoughts.

“I don’t know when but
I just know it is not there. But if you say you didn’t do it, I just have to
accept it.” Cameron knew Monti had done something but could not prove it. He
decided to put a password on the phone from now on because he did not want
Monti going through his stuff again. It wasn’t that Cameron had anything to
hide but violating his privacy was not something that Cameron would accept.

“So, I’ll see you at
the movies?” Monti asked cautiously.

“Yes, see you there.”

            Cameron
hung up the phone. He was upstairs packing for his trip the next day. He went
to Amsterdam about 6 times a month so it was like a second home for him. He had
to stop by the store and get some items to restock his overseas locker. Cameron
loved Amsterdam and Europe in general because of the free spirit that many
Europeans had.

            Cameron
remembered talking to a Dutch guy he met in Amsterdam one day. They were
talking about how gay people in the United States were so far behind in gaining
their rights. Cameron was frustrated at the state of the American public. His
buddy told him, “there is no need to be upset; America is just a baby. It has
only been around here for about 200 years which is nothing compared to the 700
years that Amsterdam had been in existence.” This made sense to Cameron and he
knew that he had to be patient.

            Cameron
finished packing and looked down at his watch to see that it was 4:47pm. He had
to get out of the house to meet Monti at the movies.

Chapter
Sixteen

s
hameful
d
arkness

Monti and Cameron came
out the movie theater and were talking about the movie as they made their way
to the restaurant for dinner.

“What did you think
about the movie?” Cameron asked.

“It was ok. I found it
hard to see Sharon Stone naked at fifty years old.”

“Are you sure it was
because she was fifty or was it because she was a woman?”

“Being a woman doesn’t
bother me. I still like women. I just like guys more.”

“You are bisexual?”
Cameron asked a little confused.

“Yes, but I prefer guys
because they don’t have all that other drama.”

“You mean to tell me
that you only like men because of the drama? Gay men have drama too. What do
you mean by that?”

“No, not only because
of the drama aspect. I am attracted to guys but I like a masculine guy who is
cool in public and all that. I like those non-clockable guys.”

“You do know I am an
openly gay man, right?”

“Yes, I know about that
but you are just sexy as hell. You are masculine and feminine at the same time
and it is sexy. You ain’t one of those faggotty guys who think they are woman
and have to be mad at the world.”

“I know right. Why do
women always seem like they are mad at the world for no reason.” Cameron said.

“Cameron you know they
mad because they can’t find a man. Then they see you and me and are mad because
we are two sexy men that don’t want them.” They both laughed knowing that there
was some truth to Monti’s statement. “I can’t wait for them to bring our food
because a brother is hungry. I did not eat because I knew we were going out to
eat after the movies.”

“I know, me too. Monti
tell me, what is this that we have going on? What do you want out of this? Where
do we go from here?”

“I want a boo. I want a
guy to call my own. I don’t want to share him. I want to grow old with him. If
it ever becomes legal, I eventually want to marry him.”

“You want to get
married? How do you plan on doing that as a DL guy?”

“If I am with the right
guy, I can work on being out of the closet at that time but that is just a goal
I have.”

“You want to get
married to say you are married or because you are in love?”

“Because I am in love
with the guy I am with. They have to be up front and honest. No cheating and be
committed to me only.”

“I feel you.” Cameron
said in agreement.

“I am really feeling
you Cameron. You seem to be cool peeps with none of that extra stuff. You are a
church going guy who stays to yourself. You don’t go out and get into that faggotry
stuff.”

“Are we seeing each
other?”

“Yeah, something like
that. I am seeing you exclusively right now, because I want to see what this
can be. What about you?

“I am cool with seeing
where this goes. I am not dating anyone else seriously.”

“That is cool. Question
for you…because we are seeing how this goes, when are you going to delete your
Adam4Adam account?”

“When we become
partners and are in a committed relationship, I will have no problems doing
that.”

“That is where this is
leading. I am going to be committed to you so I hope you will be with me also.”
Monti said. Monti chose to ignore the demons he was facing. He wanted to stress
Cameron’s fidelity but didn’t want to address his secret midnight rendezvous.

“Let’s see how this
pans out. If we ultimately end up making a commitment with each other, I will
delete my account.” Cameron stated.

“Ok, cool.”

The two of them ate
their dinner and enjoyed light conversation. The night was coming to an end
when Monti asked, “When you get back on Saturday, can you come over to my
place?”