Touches

A Touch of Glamour-1

A Touch of GlamourTUDOR DROPPED HIS bags at the foot of his bed and stormed into the small bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He fumbled with the little hotel soap and managed to get it unwrapped. He then used it to wash his hands and splashed a little water on his face. He gripped the edge of the sink tightly and looked into the mirror. He was still frowning, his lips pressed tightly. All he wanted right at that moment was to storm back out and bash Radu’s face in. The little bastard was driving him insane.

It had been a shock the first time, in Chicago. Radu had wondered into the room, all tense and sweaty, and then had slumped on the bed, mentioning something about what a relief the twin beds were. Tudor had simply rolled his eyes and shaken his head. But it kept happening, and by Washington DC, the little sales rep had driven him insane. He’d never come out at work, he’d never seen the point. The rumor mill, however, was working 24/7, and everyone suspected it after five years with the same company. Radu’s homophobic reaction and crazy comments were nothing new to Tudor, but being exposed to it all the time was a bit much.

Tudor would have liked to tell him that if he’d been a woman, she’d be so far out of Radu’s league she’d be the stuff his most optimistic nighttime dreams were made of. He sighed instead and quietly stepped out of the bathroom.

“I’m going for a walk. I need to find a place to eat,” Tudor said, searching through his backpack for his camera.

“I’m coming with,” Radu replied, jumping off his bed and wiggling his overweight body closer to Tudor.

Oh, great, no peace ever. Tudor looked at him intently. He was beyond used to Romanian mentalities by then. There were amazing, accepting people everywhere, and he’d learned to cope. Being tall and strong had helped a lot. More often than he liked to remember. Radu was, however, testing all the restraint and patience he’d built since his early teens: standard frightened male, thinking that gay men would f**k anything as long as it had a c**k. It wasn’t his looks, which were far from stellar, that made Tudor cringe with disgust, it was his malice and constant putting down of his peers and subordinates.

When he’d said yes to the business trip across the USA, his best friend, Magda, was supposed to join them. She was the marketing director of the company and she had made the arrangements for the trip. Tudor was going to be the tech consultant, and Radu would have been there to sell stuff if needed. Unfortunately, months before the trip, Magda had discovered she was pregnant and refused to travel, so he ended up stuck with the person he disliked most in the company.

With a noncommittal grunt, Tudor turned around and walked toward the door. Radu could follow or not, he didn’t much care. He went straight to the reception area and asked if there was a place to eat nearby. They were exactly five minutes from Times Square, so he expected fancy, expensive, and not necessarily the best food ever. The guy at reception was their first guardian angel in this city and told them about a nice little diner down the street from the hotel. Tudor moaned his approval and saw the teen swoon a little. He thanked him with an unnecessarily wide grin, just to make him feel good about himself and headed through the door.

“So we’re eating greasy diner food?”

“Radu, most of your lunches at work are either KFC or McDonalds. Don’t tell me you’re suddenly worried about your health and what goes into your mouth.”

“Well, no, but I’d expected you to be… you know?”

“Be what?” Tudor said, stopping in his tracks and shoving his hands into his jeans’ pockets.

“You know!” Radu insisted, a sleazy grin twisting his face. “All about health and your looks.”

Tudor chuckled and shrugged, then continued toward the diner he could now see. He licked his lips in anticipation—diner food was one of his many, many very guilty pleasures—feeling a tingle of delight in his gut. On his last trip to the US, he’d eaten every meal of every day in a diner, until he was so sick of the stuff that he needed a break. A short one, half a day, to be exact, and then he’d started it all over again until he went back home.

“No, seriously. I did not expect you to eat anything that was not healthy and tasteless,” Radu whined as they were shown to a booth in the rather large diner.

“That’s because you have misconceptions about a lot of things,” Tudor hissed through his teeth. “Healthy food does not mean tasteless. It just means healthy. And while I do work out a lot and generally take care of myself, I pretty much eat anything. I just don’t indulge often in all the crap you gulp down every day.”

“Is that because the boys wouldn’t want you anymore?” Radu asked, grinning wolfishly, as if he’d finally gotten an official come-out speech. For a second, Tudor worried if they had some sort of betting game at work, something like how many days it would take for him to either come out or kill Radu. Then he realized they surely did, most likely on both counts.

“Well, I do enjoy being attractive, it makes it easier to get whoever I want into my bed. That’s not the only reason why I prefer healthy food though. I’d been on the school’s volleyball team throughout high school and have been taking karate lessons since secondary school. I just got used to eating like that.”

“So you’re a black belt and can kill me with your fork or something?”

“I don’t need any weapon to kill you, Radu,” Tudor said, lowering his voice and smiling sweetly at him. He was delighted to see Radu’s eyes pop out and his breath hitching. Yeah, fucker, you should be afraid.

They had no more incidents during their late lunch, but during the walk through Times Square, and then toward Central Park, Radu kept pointing out guys that he considered attractive and asking if Tudor would go out with them. It was mostly twinks that looked way too young and far too taken with their own appearance. Not that there was anything wrong with being a little shallow when you were that young, but Tudor just happened to prefer men his own age, so that he could have things to talk to them about. He was a total geek, but the idea of having the latest app and the current fashion icons as the sole conversation topics made him dizzy.

“Look, man, this has gone old ages ago. If you want to know if I am gay, just come out and ask.”

“So are you?” Radu asked without missing a beat.

“Yeah, I am,” Tudor said, then raised one finger stopping Radu’s words as he saw the other man opening his mouth. “If your next question is to ask me out, don’t bother. You’re so not my type!” He clapped Radu’s shoulder and walked away.

Radu quickly caught up, laughing like a mad man. “I knew it, man, I so knew it!”

“Congrats, genius. Almost everybody knew it. There are rumors flying since the first Christmas party at the company when I brought my friend from college to network. It’s not like I’m hiding or anything. I go to the one and only gay club in Bucharest once a month and I volunteer at Accept to help us gays be all happy and poop rainbows. Or as the rest of the world calls it, be treated like a normal human being. What part of all that still leaves you wondering?”

“But you never said… ” Radu started, still grinning.

“Why should I? We’re not friends, and it’s not like we’re required to clarify our sexuality on our first day, is it?”

“I think people have a right to know,” Radu said with a determined nod, his jaw set.

“Why? It’s not like I’m contagious,” Tudor shot out, clenching his fists and praying for patience.

“I dunno, I just think it should be required.”

“I also think homophobic pricks should be court ordered to counseling, but it does not mean it will always be done,” Tudor said and sped up, making Radu almost run to catch up.

“So, do the bosses know?” he asked breathlessly when he finally caught up with Tudor who had sat on a bench and was enjoying the warmth of the day.

Tudor chuckled, remembering to what lengths the company had gone to recruit him. They’d wanted him as their lead software developer and he’d squeezed them till he was satisfied. The issue of his sexuality had been hashed down with HR and the CEO. Any attempt to make him hide it or treat him differently because of it, and he’d walk away in a heartbeat. It paid to be that good at your job.

“Yes, they all do. No one seems to care though,” Tudor said and shrugged.

Throughout their walk in the park, Radu continued his efforts to come off as a total douchebag and determine what Tudor’s type was. As he was sitting on a bench, exhausted by the effort it took to not kill him with his bare hands, Tudor heard a familiar sound. He’d heard it before in a video about gay men and their dating habits. It was the sound of a Grindr notification. He grinned widely, his body finally relaxing and figuring out he could satisfy Radu’s curiosity while making him uncomfortable at the same time.

He’d never had Grindr installed. Tudor had always found it easy to find interested men because of his volunteering and clubbing habits. He’d been part of Accept since he’d started college and it had been twelve years since then. He had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in Bucharest’s LGBT community, so an app would have been redundant to date locally.

That however did not mean he hadn’t heard of the app. Or that he did not feel tempted to see how things worked in New York City. Tudor was curious as hell and was wondering how he’d handle conversations that started with d**k pics. Without even thinking, he pulled out his phone and downloaded the app. He installed the paid version of Grindr, just to make sure he got everything, the full experience and such. He knew he’d delete it once they went back home, so he wanted to fully immerse in his Big Apple experience.

“What’s that?” Radu asked, trying to see the screen over Tudor’s shoulder.

“A gay hook-up app. It’s called Grindr,” Tudor said, although he knew full well that was not all it was. Then again, he was in New York and he was dying for a night of clubbing that was not limited to one club. Plus, there were places with go-go boys and he’d never experienced that in person. His other trip to the US had involved a lot of training and he’d barely had a couple of hours for sightseeing.

“Want to help me select some shirtless and d**k pics?” Tudor asked, smiling innocently. It turned into full-on belly laughter when he saw Radu retreating quickly to the end of the bench, almost falling off in his haste.

Tudor finished creating his profile, then placed the phone back in his pocket and motioned for Radu to follow him as they returned to the hotel. It was getting late and they still had to get dinner and go over the presentation for the next day. It was going to be a long and tedious training session at the offices of their biggest distributor on the East Coast.

As they were walking through Times Square, Tudor noticed one of the ads on the huge screens. It was a musical, The Phantom of the Opera no less.

“Oh, man, I am so buying tickets online when I get back to our room,” Tudor said shaking his head, then finally moved from where he’d suddenly stopped to get the details.

He’d seen an old version of The Phantom when he was really young. He couldn’t tell if it had been a movie or a recording of a Broadway show, but he’d been enthralled by the story. Gerard Butler’s version might have had something to do with his renewed passion, but who could blame him for that one? Besides, Magda had wanted them to see a show together, and then made him promise he would go even without her. In all honesty, he hadn’t required extensive convincing.

“A musical? Are you f*****g crazy? Why would you want to go through that?” Radu asked, looking genuinely shocked.