Richie asked, “Do you want coffee? I made a fresh pot for Brad.” He seemed so happy and so carefree.
“No, I’m Fine,” Toby said. He wanted a highball.
“I never talk to Brad unless it’s really important,” Richie said. “He’s very discreet. The last time I saw Brad was here in this apartment, and we made definite plans to meet here on Christmas Eve. And I’m on vacation this week, so I haven’t seen him in the office. They said because I didn’t take vacation for the past two years I had to take it this week. If I didn’t, they said I’d wind up losing the vacation days. So I figured I’d better.”
“So that’s why I haven’t seen you around,” Toby said. “I just figured you were busy working on another floor or something.” There were times when he didn’t see Richie around and this wasn’t unusual. He glanced at the dining table and saw a small gift wrapped box with a huge red bow. Richie must have been planning to exchange Christmas presents with Brad.
“No, I’ve been on vacation since Monday.”
“I think you’d better come over here and sit down on the sofa,” Toby said.
Richie turned and faced him. He walked into the living room and tilted his head sideways. “Why? What’s wrong? Did something happen to Brad?”
“Ah well.” Toby glanced down at his shoes and rubbed his jaw. “Why don’t you sit down.”
“He’s dead,” Richie said. “I knew it was too good to be true. I knew something terrible would happen. Oh my God. How did it happen? When did it happen?”
Toby lifted his arms. “He’s not dead. Please, just sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit,” Richie said. “If he’s not dead, what happened?”
Toby hesitated for a moment. He turned and started to pace the room. “Well, I’m not sure how to tell you this.” It wasn’t fair that he had to be the one to do this, especially on Christmas Eve.
“Tell me what?”
Toby stopped pacing and turned to face him. He shrugged and said, “No one knows about this yet and I’m not sure they ever will. People at the office only know a made up excuse. The only reason I know about it is because my best friend, Rosemary, who lives next door, is a doctor at St. Vincent’s.”
“He had a heart attack?” Richie asked. “I knew it was too good to be true. Oh, poor Brad. He was working so hard. I was worried something like this would happen.”
“It’s not that,” Toby said. Richie had not idea how hard Brad had been working…on everyone. With the double life he’d been leading it was a wonder he didn’t have a heart attack. “Sometime last weekend Brad’s wife caught him in a compromising situation. Evidently, she’d been following him around for some time. And last weekend she followed him to a park downtown and caught him in the bushes with a couple of guys. She beat the hell out of him pretty badly with a baseball bat.” Toby didn’t go into details. He figured it was kinder not to mention that Brad’s wife had caught him getting gang banged by four guys, of mixed races, next to a cypress. Brad had been on his back, with his legs in the air, begging to get fucked, when the wife stormed in with a baseball bat and beat the hell out of him. The guys took one look at her and ran away. Someone called the police, and Brad’s father-in-law had to fix things so the incident would stay out of the newspapers. No one at the office knew anything about it. The bosses said Brad was out that week with a severe head cold. The only reason Toby knew all this was because Rosemary had been the emergency room doctor when they’d brought Brad in on a stretcher. And his dazed wife had been rambling about what had happened to Rosemary in the hospital until her father arrived and took her away. There were no charges pressed and none of this would ever reach the newspapers. But from what Rosemary told Toby, Brad would be out of commission for quite a while.
Richie plopped down on the sofa and processed what he’d just been told. A minute later, he looked up at Toby and said, “I don’t understand. He told me I was the only one. He said he was going to divorce his wife so he could be withme. There must be some kind of a mistake.”
Toby sat down in the arm chair and sighed. He wished he’d been able to take one swing with the baseball bat at Brad, too. “I’m sorry. I wish I hadn’t been the one to tell you.”
“Are you absolutely sure there hasn’t been some kind of a mistake,” Richie said, glancing at the gift on the table. “We were going to exchange gifts tonight. And why was he out cruising the park? Maybe he was raped. I hear that can happen.”
Toby sent him a long, serious glance. “He wasn’t raped. Do I have to spell it out for you? He was screwing around in the bushes in a public park.” He hated to be the one to tell Richie all this, but now he felt it was his duty to finally be honest. He only wished he’d done this sooner. “And I’m sure this wasn’t the first time either.”
Richie sent him a glare. “What do you mean?”
“Brad has been seeing more than one guy for as long as I’ve known him,” Toby said. “He’s been using my apartment four and five nights a week to fool around. He’s probably slept with half the guys in New York by now.”
“You’re lying,” Richie said. “I would have known. I know Brad’s no saint and he flirts all the time, but this is ridiculous.”
Toby frowned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be the one to tell you.”
Richie hesitated, then said, “Wait a minute. You knew he was fooling around all this time and you never said anything to me?”
Toby shrugged. “How could I?He’s my boss. I didn’t want to lose my job. And just so you know, this hasn’t been easy for me either. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to put a stop to all of this. Do you think I liked Brad using my apartment this way? I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t afford to quit my job. And I didn’t want to be the one to hurt you.”
Richie stood up and started to pace the room. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. He’s been lying to me all this time and you never said anything. And here I am thinking he’s going to leave his wife. How fucking stupid could I be?” He smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm and kicked a chair.
Toby stood up and walked over to him. He grabbed him by the arms and said, “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you after the New Year. I swear I was. I wasn’t going to let it continue. I got a new job and I’m leaving the agency next month. I hate fucking advertising and all that goes with it. I was going to put a stop to the arrangement I had with Brad and I was going to tell him to go fuck himself. I swear I was. I wouldn’t lie about that to you.”