So they spent the next few minutes watching the river in silence. A couple of older men passed by and smiled at them. One was walking a large black standard poodle on a pink leash and the other was carrying a bag of groceries topped with dark leafy vegetables and greens. They were bickering about whether or not pizza sauce was different from regular spaghetti sauce and neither of them was willing to give in.
The one with the poodle turned to Jase and said, “I’m trying to explain to my know-it-all partner here that pizza sauce is totally different from spaghetti sauce, and he’s not getting it. Would you please explain it to him?”
“Ah well,” Jase said. He sat up and squared his shoulders. He lowered his voice as if he were testifying in a courtroom. “They are two completely different sauces. Pizza sauce is much spicier than spaghetti sauce.”
“I’m not so sure,” Luis said. He sat up and leaned forward. “I think they are the same. They just taste different because they put more herbs and spices on top of the pizza before it goes into the oven.”
The guy carrying the groceries lifted his chin and said, “That’s exactly what I said. You don’t have to have a special sauce just for pizza. Spaghetti sauce will do just fine.”
“There’s absolutely no difference whatsoever,” Luis said, reaching out to shake the man’s hand.
The guy walking the poodle looked at Jase and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess we can’t win with these two.”
Jase smiled. There was something adorable about these two guys he couldn’t resist. “I guess not.”
The guy with the poodle jerked his head toward the guy with the groceries. “Wait until you two have been together as long as we have. I’ve been trying to educate this one for the past forty years and he never listens to a word I say.”
The one with the groceries smiled at Luis and said, “That’s because I’m always right and he’s always wrong.” His tone was lighthearted and his eyes were twinkling as if he knew a secret he couldn’t tell.
Luis poked Jase in the arm and laughed. “Exactly,” he said.
Then the guy walking the poodle rolled his eyes and said to his partner, “Let’s leave these nice young men alone now. You’re talking too much again.” He turned to Jase. “He never stops talking.”
The one with the groceries smiled. “Someone has to talk, because he never says a word.”
The guy with the poodle just shrugged and started walking. The guy with the groceries nodded to Jase and Luis and followed his partner. He carried the grocery bag close to his stomach and he walked like a duck, with his legs spread wide and his feet going east and west.
Before they were out of listening distance, he turned to this partner and said, “I’m talking too much? You’re the one who started talking to them. I didn’t say a word. I was just minding my own business and you had to start carrying on about pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce.”
When the older guys were gone, Jase smiled and said, “They’ve been together for forty years. That’s a lifetime. Hell, I’m forty years old now. If I’m ever going to be with someone for forty years I’d better get moving.”
Luis hesitated, and then he stood up and said, “It’s getting late and I have an early flight tomorrow. We should get back now.”
Jase lowered his leg and stood up. A dark feeling passed through his body. “I think it’s safe to walk again. I’m soft now.”
“And you’d better keep it that way, too,” Luis said. “Because if you get hard again, you’re on your own.”
* * * *
When they reached their building, they both pulled their keys out at the same time. Luis held his up and said, “I’ve been very good about my keys lately. I make it a point to take them everywhere now so I don’t have to wake up poor Mr. Gordon.”
Jase smiled and gestured to the door so Luis could use his key. “Then be my guest.”
But Luis put his keys back into his pocket and pushed Mr. Gordon’s button. “Let’s just torture him tonight for old time’s sake. I’ll never be able to do it again.”
A minute later, Mr. Gordon buzzed them in. He was standing at the top floor looking down. “I was sleeping,” he said, shaking his fist up and down. “This is the last straw. If this happens again, I’m calling the police. I’ve had it. I need my rest.”
While Mr. Gordon shouted at them, Luis and Jase laughed all the way up to the fifth floor.
When they reached Luis’s apartment, Luis asked, “Would you like a nightcap?”
“Sounds good,” Jase said. He was hard again. His dick was ready to burst through the waistband of his jeans and all he wanted to do was pull down his zipper and set it free. He wasn’t sure how Luis would react, but he was going to try to seduce him one more time that night. He knew it might be a mistake. But he couldn’t help the way he was feeling. He had to kiss him again; he had to spread his legs and fuck his hot little ass just one more time before he left New York for good.
However, when Luis opened the door and switched on the lights, two large men in dark suits grabbed him from behind. They pulled Luis’s arms behind his back and slapped handcuffs on his wrists. The little dog yelped and ran into the bedroom. Jase just stood there, unable to move, with his eyes bulging from their sockets. Before Jase had a chance to say a word, a third man in a dark suit on the other side of the door grabbed Jase’s arms and handcuffed him.
“What’s going on?” Jase shouted. “What the fuck is this?”
The guy in the dark suit standing behind Luis pulled a badge out of his pocket and said, “NYPD.”
Luis looked back and forth a few times. “What’s this about, officer?”
“We’re taking you to the station,” the cop said. “We have reason to believe you’ve been involved in a large narcotics ring with a man named Derrick Stutsman.”
“Derrick was dealing drugs?” Luis asked. “That nice little old man? Why, I only went to look at real estate listings with him. I had no idea he was a drug dealer.”
“Turns out that the nice little old man was dealing drugs by leaving them stashed in empty apartments all over the city in your dirty sweat socks,” the cop said. “He’d leave them there, and his accomplice would pick them up later.”
Luis and Jase looked at each other. Luis shrugged his shoulders and smiled.