So Gage didn’t object when Jase suggested they all drive back to New York earlier that day than usual. Jase said he’d heard the extended weather forecast and they said it would rain this way for the next two days. Hunter smiled and said he could work on a school project back in New York. Jase said he had a few important meetings on Monday afternoon for which he could prepare. Gage wasn’t sure what their pattern or routine was, but he didn’t object when Jase suggested they go back to New York early. Gage had to figure a few things out, especially what he was going to do with Luis. He had a feeling his twin brother was seething inside that kinky, dirty jail cell.
At five in the afternoon, they all piled into Jase’s big truck and drove back to New York. Gage didn’t say anything aloud, but he kept checking his seatbelt and gripping the seat all the way back to the city. Though Jase had turned out to be the sweetest, most unpretentious man he’d ever met, especially for a billionaire, he wasn’t the best driver. He drove down the highway in the middle of two lanes. He barely stopped at stop signs. When he entered a highway, he didn’t yield. He just plowed right into the middle of flowing traffic while everyone behind him honked their horns and flipped him the bird. While they were rounding the curve at the Lincoln Tunnel, Jase told Hunter to look back to see if there was an opening to change lanes. Gage wouldn’t have depended on a little kid to help him drive. Gage would have turned all the way around himself and looked. But Hunter seemed used to this. He turned, checked the traffic behind them, and said, “Okay, Dad. But hit the gas hard because there’s a big truck coming.” Gage reached up to hold the handle above his head and closed his eyes. When Jase hit the gas and switched lanes, the guy in the truck behind them honked his horn with three aggressive gestures.
After they parked the car in the garage, Jase mentioned Gage’s hair on their way back to the town house on 95th Street. “Did you do something to your hair? It looks lighter.”
Hunter was walking ahead of them, holding the end of Camp’s leash. Gage shrugged and said, “I think it’s a new shampoo I’ve been using. It’s supposed to put highlights in your hair.”
“Ah well,” Jase said.
Gage was curious, so he asked, “Do you like it lighter? Or do you like it without the highlights?”
Jase smiled and sent him a cautious glance. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets and said, “I like your hair any way you have it. It always looks good.”
Gage smiled. “That’s very diplomatic of you.”
Jase’s eyebrows went up. “I know a trap when I see one.”
When it was time for dinner that night, Gage suggested they order Chinese takeout. They were all in the kitchen. Hunter was working on a school project and Jase was reading The New York Times. Jase and Hunter looked up at Gage as if he’d lost his mind, and then they exchanged glances with their mouths open.
“What’s wrong?” Gage asked. These two certainly did have peculiar reactions to normal suggestions.
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Jase asked. “Friday was pizza, Saturday was fast-food takeout, and now it’s Chinese. Maybe I should call the doctor tomorrow.”
“I just have a little cold,” Gage said. “No need for a doctor. Why do you ask?”
Hunter sat up and said, “The last time we wanted Chinese you refused. You said the MPD would kill us all.”
Gage blinked.
Jase laughed and said, “Not the MPD, Hunter, the MSG.”
Gage rolled his eyes. There didn’t seem to be an end to Luis’s finicky eating habits. Then he said, “Well, one night won’t kill us. Jase, you get the menus and figure out what you want. I’m going upstairs to take more aspirin.”
After dinner they watched a little TV, but the only thing on that was halfway decent was Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice. And since Donald Trump had come out publicly against gay marriage, Jase flatly refused to watch. He folded his arms across his chest and said, “I know I’m not the most political guy in the world, and I do have mixed feelings about what side of the fence I’m on most of the time. But I know that civil rights and all issues LGBT are important to me, and I refuse to support anyone who will not support gay marriage, especially Donald Trump. First, I could buy him and sell him ten times over. Second, after all the marriages and divorces he’s had, he should be the last one speaking out on marriage in any capacity. And if you ask me, he should be banned from marrying again. Trump gives marriage a bad name, not gays.”
So they watched a few reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, then went to bed early. Jase put Hunter to bed that night because Gage wasn’t feeling well. When Jase walked into the master bedroom afterward, he tried to climb on top of Gage one last time that weekend. Gage was on his side of the bed, reading a magazine about organic food—it was the only magazine he could find in the house. He wore Luis’s black sweatpants and a clean white T-shirt. Jase didn’t even drop his pants. He just climbed up on the bed without warning and shoved his crotch in Gage’s face. Then he smiled and said, “I’ve heard this is a good cure for the common cold.” He swung his hips and rubbed his crotch against Gage’s lips. “All you need is a little bit of this every four or five hours and plenty of liquids.”
Gage closed his eyes and shook his head. This time he laughed and said, “Get on your own side of the bed and leave me alone. I’m not in the mood and I don’t want you to catch my cold.” For added effect, he coughed a few times and cleared his throat.
Jase climbed off the bed and stripped down to his underwear. He was wearing a silky, paisley pair of boxers that night and the outline of his semi-erect dick was visible. When he turned, Gage could see it shift left and right. And though it looked like a nice dick, he felt nothing sexual toward Jase. In fact, the thought of having sex with his brother-in-law made him want to get out of bed and sleep downstairs on the sofa.
Gage slept well that night, in spite of having to push Jase off his back four times. In the morning he went downstairs and found Jase and Hunter already in the kitchen eating breakfast. The entire kitchen was white with stainless steel, and the wicker kitchen chairs were a pale shade of sage. Jase had given Hunter an odd-looking cereal, with bran and nuts and dried fruits, which Gage assumed was something organic Luis had purchased at a health food store. Jase sat across from Hunter at the white table, sipping a cup of black coffee, going through his briefcase. He was dressed casually for the office, in a pair of beige slacks and a light blue button-down shirt. Hunter wore navy slacks and a white polo shirt with a school emblem on the right side of his little chest. As usual, Camp sat in front of Hunter’s chair, looking up at Hunter, waiting for Hunter to drop a piece of food.