CH 80: MARCUS TUXEDO TUEDAY, THE EVENT

Just a few words or more about my current weight loss before I start

I’ve been discussing my recent weight loss here in the blog and with a few of you in exchanged emails. I do have some thoughts on that subject I’d like to talk about here. I don’t believe I’ve written much about my fluctuating weight over the years with you, or that often with Larry as well. That is something I’ve always felt was a private concern that didn’t need public airing. It became quite clear to me that my weight wasn’t an issue for Larry whatsoever, at any time in our friendship. What a guy, huh!

I have grown up dealing with being husky, or chubby kid many times, especially after some grief to deal with, but mostly because I was an Italian kid. It was, “God Bless him,” such a healthy child, “mongia,” eat a second helping. I can say that was essentially from my older family members, not from my parents that I remember. I know I’m not alone growing up that way. 

Well, moving on, or back in time, when I became a self-conscious teen about my chubbiness, I’d try to lose some weight but didn’t know how without taping my mouth shut. Like that was going to ever happen. The fact that I wasn’t athletic at all didn’t help me either. Not able to express my inner feelings or fears to anyone, resulted in me eating my sorrows away. It’s amazing to me that considering my buddies early history, that eating his sorrows away wasn’t his habit, too.

When I did learn how to drop some of my chubby weight, I’d eventually gain it back again anyway. I was told that was just ‘yo-yo’ dieting, makes sense if you think about it, up and down. As I matured into a young adult, I’d expected to always be a little chunky now and then, but never a thin guy. However, I did take some advice to go to a gym and try work off any extra weight and maybe exchange it for some muscle mass. I did just that and I lost weight, and after a couple of years of working out I did look a lot better than I expected. Although I never had the desire to overdo the muscle routine. Too lazy to get all muscle bound. I don’t know if it was lazy as much as having the time needed. I was in college studying and working part time, and happy that my weight was under control finally. Having pecs now instead of a chubby hairy chest was super cool and worth showing off. Well, I did and often. 

Even today, decades later, I tend to label Larry and myself, as a little thicker in the middle. A middle-age thickness if you will, certainly not middle-age spread! Haha. I don’t like the word ‘fat’ as much as he hates the word ‘skinny.’

Well, I’m a lot less thick in the middle now thanks to the Noom weight loss program. I’m not thin though, probably will never be and I don’t care to be anyway. However, I’m much happier than ever now, especially with Larry’s acceptance of my personal desire to lose the weight I gained, especially during Covid. If he had a real issue with my weight loss I’m sure I’d want to please him.

But that’s not all that I was thinking about as I’m writing this. Maybe this will only relate to guys with a history somewhat like mine. (If this stuff is boring the shit out of you, please skip down to the next bold heading and forgive me and move on.) So, I was thinking the other day after responding to an email from Michael about his wonderful 50+ pound Noom weight loss; it got me to thinking about a curious way my mind works sometimes. When I actually was what you might label as ‘over-weight’ (fat, but I didn’t say that here), anytime I saw myself fully dressed in a mirror, I wasn’t that aware of the extra poundage attached as long as I looked okay in clothes.

Any time my weight escalated, my clothes got upgraded to the next size larger, no problem. I formerly had a concern with conceivable ‘belt-overage’ of the stomach. In other words, looking like an Italian sausage link, no matter how tasty, is not a look I desired for myself. I’ve seen guys, (sorry no intention of dissing anyone here), where their pants fit teenaged sized hips with massive belly ‘over-hangage’. Don’t get me to talking about the shirts that never quite cover the bottom of a ‘overhanging’ gut. Maybe it’s just me that has a problem with this.

I found that sitting in a restaurant’s tight-fitting booth when in my plus-years was not as nice as sitting in a chair at a table, I’d ask for a table, no problem. I’d absolutely hated a seating hostess for not noticing that I’d never fit in a tight-fitting booth, so what’s her problem? Afraid to offend me offering a table instead; at least offer the choice to me first. Sometimes when I was really offended I’d just blurt out, “I’m too fat to fit in that tiny space give us a table.” I didn’t care who heard me. And I haven’t had a drink yet too, a good thing for them.

So, there’s this other side to this bizarre weight world of mine. Now that I have lost a goodly amount of middle acreage, if I look in a mirror fully clothed, I think I look, ugh, ‘fat.’ WTF! When I was actually ‘fat’ I never thought that! Now I go finding things to complain about myself. One of the subjects in my email to Michael was about the extra skin that goes with losing weight. What do I do about that? Well Larry thinks exercise, and lots of it, too. He might be right, but I hurt for a long time afterwards, and I don’t see anything disappearing yet. I know the drill by now, “No Pain-No Gain!” Screw that, I’m headlong to sixty by now, I don’t like unneeded pain! I’ve got enough natural old-fart pain already! See, I told you I go looking for stuff to complain about, right.

I guess you get the idea, huh?

I wonder if any of you guys that might have a history like mine, ever had these thoughts, too. So, here I am actually wearing trousers that fit and a shirt size or two smaller, and all I see in the mirror is a fat guy staring back at me. At least there is one plus factor that I did mention in the last chapter though, I can actually look down and see my dick without a mirror now. Haha, why am I laughing at that! That’s the best part of my loosing weight. Oh, you guys that never have gone through this shit have no idea how excited I was when I looked down to the scale one recent morning and had to pull my limp dick off to the side so I could see all the scale numbers to record. Really, I did! I laughed so fucking hard that you-know-who wanted to know what was so funny that he came into the bathroom to find out. So, I showed him! Don’t think I did that? Just ask him. He laughed a bit but probably didn’t understand why it was such a big deal anyway. I bet he never in his life gave a thought about not seeing his dick when looking down to his feet while naked; why not, there’s not an ounce of fat down there on him anyway. Do you have a good idea why I wanted to look more like him now. What a shame that Larry will never experience the joy I get every time I have to record my weight for the day. This is where I can put the ‘haha’ now. 

If this struck a familiar cord in you, let me know, okay? Anyway, I thought I’d start out part two of ‘Tuxedo Tuesday’ with a little bit of humor ala-Marcus, you’ll know why soon enough.

The morning after the celebration dinner and beyond

I think I wore out the younger guy last night, how about giving me a hand 🤚🏼 for the old guy, huh? Okay, it was nothing new, that happens sometimes. Not often, or you’d have heard about it more often by now. It’s not essential to the finishing up of the ‘Tuxedo Tuesday’ story though, just fun to brag about.

I did head for the kitchen without trying to wake up my hunky ‘sleeping beauty’ so I could put on the coffee and make some breakfast for us. Since I got into the Noom program I found that ‘Dave’s Killer 21 Grains and Seeds’ is the best bread in the important ‘green’ category and not used against my calories for the day. Yay, and it tastes fantastic with just some Land O Lake Canola and Butter spread, too. Only problem I have with it, is that it gets moldy fast even with Larry occasionally helping me eat the bread. So anyway, I took out some eggs to get to room temperature and made a slice of ‘Dave’s Killer’ toast for me while I waited for my buddy to arrive in the kitchen. It wasn’t long before he realized my warm body was gone and he went looking for it. Maybe it was the smell of fresh coffee brewing that wafted it’s way though the house, or perhaps he knew exactly where I’d be anyway.

If you thought we talked about anything other than the crazy dating strategy the wives threw at us last night, well, you’d be wrong. I’m sorry to say for the males living here, we were had, and big time. So do they have fantasies they like to act out, I guess! I mean, there was no harm intended, just a big shake-up of years of old behaviors. Actually, I told Larry it was fun having a female flirt with me, even if it was his wife; at least they are keeping the flirting in the family. 😜 I’m not going do a lot of speaking for Larry since he might like to put his perspective out there for you, too.

Personally, I think they were trying to tell us that the coming cocktail party will all be play acting. Okay, that’s not hard to figure out, we are all settled in with the living situation that pleases us the best for now. I know, the ‘for now’ can be scary one day. Again, I’d like Larry to chime in here, since he loves to write as much as me, I’ll let him talk about what’s in his head about this. I know at least one little fact; he still holds a grudge with Ellen on how she handled the separation with him. I don’t think it’s something that can’t get resolved easily though. After he’s seen how Lisa and I handled this, it might be grating him more that it didn’t go that way for them. 

Again, I’m sticking my opinion in here and he’ll let me know if I’m way off base. Lisa and I have a ‘business arrangement’ type of marriage. We still are good friends, and we respect the latitude we’ve granted each other to discover who we really are. But I don’t have a marriage of over 30+ years that’s breaking up. I’ll always be here for Larry and move mountains to make this easy for him. Looking forward, we will always need each other’s support; we have what I always wanted in a relationship and never quite reached in two marriages. I’m not going to blow this, no fucking way!

Breakfast actually was everything it needed to be that day, I’m not talking about the food, it was the company. One look at him looking back at me, and the whole world is at peace. We do more talking with our eyes than our mouths, always have. I feel sorry for those who have never experienced such a relationship. I fully expected my marriages to have this quality, no, didn’t happen, not for either. I don’t know why; it just wasn’t there. However, one or two first meetings with Mark so many years ago, and bingo, it was there, and scary that it could go so fucking wrong. I bet he’d say the same thing, we are so much alike.

Serious words needed about former rolls

As much as I’d like to stay here in reverie about how awesome we are together, it won’t solve whatever we will be facing very soon. So, the subject went to the need to spend a few hours making believe everything is back to as it was for years. Lisa is living here in her own house and Larry is still my good-looking next-door buddy used for ‘eye-candy’. Oh, you know I don’t really mean that, even if he is my personal ‘eye-candy.’ I find nothing wrong saying it that way, and I’d love to hear him call me his ‘eye-candy,’ that’s something I’d have a hard time believing though. Not that he might not think that, but I just don’t think I’m of that caliber.

We made a pact between us, that no matter what is needed of us during the cocktail party, we will eventually end the day in each other’s arms in our own bedroom together. Then we joked about ending the party early. As I said, joked; these things never seems to end. There’s always several that don’t get the idea, go home, it’s over now! I don’t see this one being any different. As it progressed though the morning I believe we really settled in on making this about Lisa’s party, one well deserved and not about how much we’d like to get into each other’s pants instead. Well, we do anyway, just later. 😘

A professional house cleaning service kicks us out for the day

I received the text from Lisa early in the afternoon about a professional house cleaning service that will be coming this week and to be ready for them. I knew that day was coming, and I am a bit ambivalent about it, too. However, it sure will free up the two of us to not worry about getting the place up to Lisa’s standards and take the day off to just mess around. Regrettably, it’s not boating weather though. I let Larry know that he needs to plan a day away from work soon so we can get out of the house for them. I hope you don’t think he threw a shit fit over that, haha. I think he was ready to close up shop right there and then. I don’t blame him, seeing me with nothing important to do must be difficult for him. Well, I have suggested that he give quitting a thought for himself. We know how to fill a day when we are together free of work. I completely understand what must be going through his mind after putting up with my shit when the reality of retirement hit my head hard.

Actually, it wasn’t days when I received the phone call from the house cleaning service. It will be in the morning and will take most of the day considering the amount of rooms to clean. The lady told me a squad of at least four but more likely five women will be here at 8:00am in the morning. They will bring everything needed and would prefer that we leave the house so they could have access to all the rooms. I told her that I didn’t think the whole house needed cleaning, perhaps just the main entertaining areas. She told me that my wife contracted them for the whole home and that she had prepaid for their service. Okay, I’m thinking, what do we need to hide from their view. Other than everything we touch but more specifically anything in the two bathrooms we use together. So, if you are wondering what I did for the rest of the day, maybe you should think a little harder. I was busy, Larry was back to work trying to clear his desk. Poor guy, not him, poor me! That was a lot of work!

Out for the day and shopping for a home theater ideas

That cleaning morning, we were out of bed very early took our showers together but were hands-off each other, sadly no time for shower play. We jointly made our bed before heading to the office to get dressed. I’ve been thinking now that Lisa has emptied one of the master bedroom closets, that we could transfer some of our hanging around clothes there. We could but walking through the house bare-ass naked is far more fun, though lately a lot colder.

Larry is a far more conscientious cleaner than me, so, this day is a real break for him. No complaints coming from him getting out of here. 

House cleaning the easy way!

Exactly at 8:00am give or take a minute on one of the clocks here, we heard the front door chime. That’s something we never hear; front door company is practically nonexistent at our place. One nicely dressed lady, perhaps in more business-like attire instead of cleaner-type clothing, greeted me and introduced the five-woman squad behind her as our home cleaners today. The lead woman turned to her cleaning squad and spoke entirely in Spanish to them. I’ll never quite understand how anyone can follow people who can speak a mile-a-minute as she did. There was a slight problem if I needed to communicate with her squad since my Spanish is limited to a small assortments of words such as: “¡Hola!, Enchilada, Pico de Gallo, many names for numbers, and some words I shouldn’t know.” Now I understand why they want us out of here. (I'm getting pretty loose using pictures of our place lately.)

I was reminded that they would prefer that we vacate the home until at least 4:30pm or 5:00pm. We were ready and willing to leave, get some breakfast and coffee since we didn’t have time to make any at home. We headed for Rocklin; another city close to home for us for a favorite breakfast place we go to often. I took all the back roads instead of a more direct route, I figured we need to fill the day with stuff to do. Besides, what’s wrong with driving with your best buddy at shotgun anyway.

The place you can find us sometimes is called the Granite Rock Grill on Pacific Street in Rocklin. They have the nicest waitresses, and the food is pretty damn good. It’s nice being greeted and recognized as a regular there and being told we were missed at times. That’s special in my book. Unfortunately, their huge portions are not suitable for Noom style eating. But I’ve learned how to pick the right foods and I’m not afraid to leave some food on the plate; so not the old me. I love the marble rye bread there and now I tell them only one slice when I’d rather have the normal two. Covid has changed the look of the place and they’ve taken away the jars of home-made blackberry preserves, or orange marmalade preserves and give a little plastic cup instead. I get why, but it removes something special from the place. 

We spent well over an hour there slowly eating (nibbling for me) and drinking their bottomless coffee. I think I emptied my bladder twice to Larry’s once before leaving that morning. We talked about wondering if we would notice a difference from our own cleaning style, of course there will be no difference. Haha! And we wondered how many things we like to be left were we put them, not moved to someplace else. My former housekeeper did that all the time, pissed me off! I resisted the thought of what might be taken from us and quelled that thought immediately.

We also discussed shopping for our theater room chairs and TV or projector. That was a perfect day to do that, and we decided to visit RC Willey’s giant home store in Rocklin, we were eating there in Rocklin anyway, so why not. We both decided not to get crazy and buy the first thing we see, mostly a normal thing for me, but I have learned well from my buddy, too. For him everything is ‘measure twice, cut once’. I have no problem with that thinking at all. Since my style would be ‘measure once and cut and then recut and then buy more since what I cut is not going to be good enough;’ get the idea. Besides I’d hate finding out the next thing I look at would be better than the one I just bought. 

Well, we did spend more than a couple of hours taking up a couple of sales people’s time but got a shit pile of good info to work with. Unfortunately for them we left without buying anything. But we did get some quotes that will be honored for a while if we choose to come back and buy there. Right now, we have some needed construction to change the floor level of the intended theater room first. We definitely decided that it should be theater style with an elevated platform in the back of the room so the chairs in front won’t block any view of the screen. What is still out in ‘deciding-land’, is it a big screen TV or projection style. I’m leaning toward 4K or 8K with Dolby Vision or whatever is the coolest new thing, and of course we both are into surround sound in a big way. That means sound proofing the room if we are smart. I just hope what we are planning won’t make the room shrink down too much. Getting the closet removed will open a few square feet though. 

However, today’s shopping was as much guy fun as it can get. I can’t imagine in which universe would either of us get to have this much fun if we were still married and fearing our wives wrath. Moreover, I’m letting Larry be the lead on this project, he is well qualified to design and pull off what needs to be done. And I know he’ll measure way more than twice on everything. I have one thing I will keep for myself, the cost. Larry is providing everything that needs to be done without cost. I can’t compete with that, but it’s going to add to the value of the house. I can make sure we don’t cut corners to save a buck and screw up a good thing. I can’t wait to see how this turns out. Part of me is a little afraid that if this room is way, way cool, that we will spend too much time in there instead of the more fun places around here that we’ve claimed for ourselves. We may need to create a rule for using the room.

I really don’t want to create another heading, so, let me say upon our return home after a fun day just doing shit that was fun. The house cleaning was done and we could come home again. I can’t say how great everything looks, at least not yet. But it sure smells good, or is that just clean, or no man smell? Probably because we clean as needed, not the entire place at once. We’d need a team, not just the two of us. I’m going with, it’s a nice thing that Lisa thought about doing this. Now we need to keep the party crowd contained to only the front of the house!

Open bar needs and bartender search resolved

One of the bartenders that night.

An important job we tackled was hiring bartenders and bar backs for the event. The caterers were only hired for creating appetizers, not the bar as well. The appetizers are important, but try to throwing a cocktail party as BYOB, haha. Maybe while we were college students, not maybe, that’s what we did often.

We always have an open bar with quite a complete selection available. The bar area was previously designed very well to serve a large crowd, its a permanent part of the great room and is not used by us unless for a scheduled party. I’m not concerned about leftover alcohol though, this crowd will see to that for us.

It’s a lot of work tending bar during parties of this size. We’ve held smaller parties, which I prefer and I don’t mind tending bar myself. Years ago I’ve had Larry play bartender sometimes just so I could have him here with me. He never knew that was the biggest reason, too. Not that anything ever happened between us back then other than make me happy to be around him. But not this time, not for this party, he’s my partner even though he’ll be masquerading as Ellen’s married partner during the cocktail party. I have no advance idea how this will roll until it does. (I actual do you know, spoiler alert, shit happens.)

I called in a guy I trust who can handle this kind of crowd and he will be sure that we will have black tie people working the night. I was given a check list of what needs to be available, most of which is already in the house anyway. He suggested a beverage list to use, and I will see he has it there. I swear if BevMo doesn’t send me a Christmas Card or present, I might decide to find another outlet. When did booze get so expensive. Man, I’m starting to sound like Larry now! It’s a good thing my crossover SUV was big enough to haul this bounty back home. Once it was home I let my guy know and he was over in less than an hour to set up everything to his liking. This time I’m especially happy I chose him well. I don’t think I’d have purchased enough without his guidance. Check off getting the bar ready for the happy crowd. On to the next job.

Neighbors not happy with the return to huge parties again

I contacted our closest neighbors and let them know about Lisa’s promotion and cocktail party and the expected parked cars. Of course, a few decided to invite themselves to congratulate her, why the fuck not, huh. Some actually said they’d open their driveway gates to get some cars off the street for us. Hey, that’s worth a couple of drinks and an appetizer or two, right? Let’s check off this chore too. Actually, I bet some are convinced there’s something strange going on at our place. I wonder what that might be. Could it be that Lisa’s BMW is always headed to Larry’s place, oh and how about that big ass diesel truck of his always headed for my garage. Do you think that might be it? Haha, yeah, that’s probably it. I wonder if anyone will buy the act we will be playing for the crowd. We better be Oscar ready actors. Or not. Personally, I like the ‘or not’ more.

The cocktail party day and caterers problems/opportunities

The dreaded day arrived, and my stress level rose exponentially. And all we must do is look great, like little formal penguins at their side! What’s the grief, huh? Just everything as far as I’m concerned. Larry is not having a problem, at least not yet, and is well aware of my possible mood swings. Bless his big heart, he’s going to try and snap me out of it, come ‘Hell or a high Water.’ He’s my good buddy and knows way too fucking much about me now. I can’t hide anything from him anymore, well, I shouldn’t anyway. I bet he woke up knowing what he was going to face with me. I’ll give him his due credit though; he did calm my nerves; I didn’t expect it was going to start with my penis nerves though. Okay, I just threw that in there to be funny for you. Although it’s not too far off track though. Really, he knows how to calm me down better than I do. Coffee helps sometimes although today maybe not the best beverage, plus a quick light breakfast and heart to heart conversation fixed everything for a while.

I don’t know why I overreacted though since we knew the wives had this totally covered for us. Why I thought they’d shirk the responsibility, doesn’t really compute. Everyone to be involved will deal with Lisa and Ellen. Nothing new here, I should have expected no less from them. However, we need to get our fucking asses out of their way, or we will be very sorry men. Get out of the wives way is not unknown by either of us. We scrambled out fast. I’m happy to tell you my stress level became non-existent immediately. Of course, look who I had at my side ready to get us the fuck out of there.

Dressing for the cocktail party and acting our old roles was strange 

Two of the several caterers prepping appetizers 

We were texted that it was safe to come back home now and warned not to screw anything up please. At least there was a please in the text. We were ready to come back but knew it wouldn’t be our place for hours. The caterers took up residency in our kitchen and the Butler’s walkthrough pantry. (I've always thought our kitchen was fairly large until you see several chefs crowding the space. You have seen my kitchen before with just Larry or me in it, that's when it looks big, and it is for two!) 

The great room was looking awesome with everything in the wrong place and lots of side tables that weren’t there before. And the bar area was now set up for the night. There was a lot going on and I was thinking maybe we need to get the fuck out of here once again. The family room was left for us, and my babe took my arm and led me to the North West wing to our bedroom. And as we were walking there Larry whispered a plea in my ear, “Please tell me our bedroom is off limits to everyone”. It better be. There’s always someone wanting a grand tour of the place. “Not tonight”, I said hopefully!

Once we got through the double doors of the bedroom, Larry backed up to the doors and locked us inside and then grabbed me like he meant to all day. Oh, I let him do that big time, too! We needed that quiet and sane moment since it might be the last for hours. Amazingly, it wasn’t a horny moment just I need you buddy moment for a great big calming hug.

We have this habit, or at least I passed it on to him of storing all of our clothes in our office closet and tall dresser of drawers. It’s just habit since it was the only closet I had for myself with Lisa unless I took over one of the other unused bedroom closets. Why do that, I had a walk-in closet and suite bathroom in the second master bedroom that I use as my office. I could shower and shave and trim my beard there, splash on some after shave cologne, and dress (or not). Since my office has direct access to the pool area, that’s another good reason to keep my clothes there. Well, if you’ve given any thought to this, we are taking sanction in the master bedroom and we need to get dressed for the night on the other side of the house. Not a major problem normally, but we will need to navigate through the house and kitchen bothering a group of very busy caterers or get there from outside the family room and trek all the way to the office deck and hope I left the office door unlocked, yeah right, it’s double locked. So, use my house keys, yeah right, they were left on top of my office desk. Small stupid annoyances, but they add up fast. It’s nothing, but I wrote it here because it happened and its fucking annoying to give up our privacy even for a few hours. Nevertheless, we got dressed without bothering the group of caterers as we passed by them in the kitchen and then headed out of the office door back outside to the family room to await the arrival of the wives.

At least today the wives are attached to their right husbands and in their new cocktail dresses were a knockout. The only awesome looking people were Larry and me in our formal wear. Oh, don’t believe that, we looked better! Hahah. For a couple of women in their early fifties, they looked gorgeous, really the hottest they’ve ever been. Perhaps the changes we are all going through is responsible. But you can’t downplay properly used makeup and designer dresses. Lisa looks like the person she always wanted to be, maybe Larry and I do now, too.

I thought they might want to spend a little time in the family room with us waiting for the arrival of the first guests. They had other ideas and they didn’t mind bothering the caterers and the bartenders. I never gave much thought until that night exactly who made our cocktail parties so successful over the years. My little time spent on the bar, really not a big thing. No question, if I moved up in my company instead of retiring, I’d need to rely upon her skills more than I ever thought I would. Good thing we know how to remain good friends. I’m not saying much about Larry right now so if he wants to write his side about the party it will be more accurate.

Lisa’s prying coworkers make the situation somewhat difficult

An example of one of the many sliders.

Moving the clock up to party time, I hoped that the strangeness of our current living arrangements wouldn’t be a noticeable factor. Larry and I hung with our wives to greet the early arrivals. Those were the regulars guaranteed to never miss a cocktail party opportunity with us. They also grab all the available parking as well, a smart move for them. We have allowed them both of our driveways to be used as usual and a few of the neighbors as well. If we need or run out of anything, it will need to be delivered. The party is growing every quarter-hour.

The hired wait staff was working the room with small plates of their full day of labor intensive appetizer creations, which were a full step above and beyond anything we ever served before. As fast as the plates were handed out, there was staff collecting the empty plates to be cleaned and refilled. I am so impressed with how they are handling themselves, and thought, too bad there won’t be any more grand cocktail parties here. And then a thought rushed my brain, unless Lisa wants to do this again. As the thought rushed my brain, I bet the thought drained the blood from my face. Damn, what makes me think this house will be free from her wanting to do this again. We need to talk!

One thing unknown to most if not all of these early arrivals, is my current status at my former firm, as in, nil, none, zilch; yeah, I should have figured that work might be a topic. Also, a co-worker and friend of Lisa and Ellen may have suspected that there was something not right with the four of us, maybe though conversation at work, who knows. She had zeroed in on something about us right away, maybe it was our body language. The scornful look I was getting from her was more than alarming. Oh, I have a feeling we will be hearing more from her tonight after the liquor kicks-in solid; I can take that check to the bank and cash it! I can only hope it’s just a feeling. 

Sushi on a stick just one example.

Lisa and I didn’t work out a ‘Plan B’ at all, maybe if we were still seeing each other daily we would have; however, I’m sure we both figured that wouldn’t be needed. Well, it wasn’t much later and before the room began to really fill with people I don’t remember at all, that another woman that we do know cornered Larry, and it wasn’t to flirt, although I don’t know why not! I would. Although I couldn’t hear anything being said, but their body language spoke louder. And it doesn’t look friendly between them.

Since Larry was targeted, I’m very concerned about Ellen and what she might have said to her closest friends whom I’m sure were invited here as well. My attention was diverted quickly from those I had been talking with to several feet away where Larry was standing. As I’m writing this and trying to make cohesive sense of it all, I do remember scouting the room often to try and catch a glimpse of where Larry was. Talk about giving away our possible relationship. I certainly wasn’t doing that to keep track of Lisa once we parted to work the room. I have no idea if this is only in my mind though.

I excused my inattentive self from those I was with to make my way over to Larry. I will only know what was being said between them until I get it from Larry, but it was escalating in the worst way, and my mind told me to get him away from there, now!

What in the world is happening, as if I haven’t the vaguest idea at all. Larry is looking very upset and that’s not how this party started moments ago. From what little I could hear as I approached them, was she trying to blame him for the breakup of his decades long marriage to Ellen? I hope not, but Ellen is not Lisa, nothing like Lisa, and Ellen loves her wine and that can loosen lips easily. I was quick to wonder if she knew anything about our current relationship but quelled the thought for now.

Larry turned a bit and saw me coming up to them. He told her he needed to talk to someone about the bar or something like that, and he stormed off in the direction of the bar and our bedroom wing of the house before I reached him. I was cool enough not to chase after him while she was watching him and stopped to shake a few hands and offer my welcomes before I headed to join him. My stomach was rumbling, and I don’t have a lot of soundproofing left in my belly now. I could feel my stomach tighten and I needed to do whatever I can for him. Fortunately for me, Larry knew I was headed his way and he slowed down a bit in the long hallway path to our master bedroom wing. There’s no way she should know the route to our bedroom (I hope), as I caught up to him, we were well out of sight and range of anyone’s hearing.

Larry at the double doors of our bedroom. 

We entered the room and again he locked the double doors behind him. The first words out of my mouth was, “Do you want to hit something? Hit me if you want to. What the fuck was going on between you two?” He looked at me like I was a crazy piece of shit and said, “Why would I want to hit you? I’d like to knock her fucking block off though!” I told him that was a bit extreme talk about a woman, maybe there was another way. He grabbed hold of me, and I could feel his body trembling, “Babe, calm down okay, you are scaring me, lets sit and talk a bit.” He told me he’d be okay soon and I better go be with our guests. And he’d join us in a while, “Besides you don’t want her to see us together.” I had to ask, “Is that what this is about.” “What do you think!” “Oh brother, we need to talk babe.” “No, you need to get out there, like fucking now! I’ll be okay, I just need to calm down.” “Babe!” “Don’t fucking babe me, we are fucking good, get your fucking ass back out there. I fucking love you, it’s done, okay!” “Fucking, Okay!” Man, if there ever was a i time the word ‘fuck’ was needed outside of our regular ‘guy-speak,’ he found it. There is a lot of power in that little four-letter word at times. Damn, this is not the way this night was supposed to go, and it’s just starting. Hopefully, it’s over, this is supposed to be Lisa’s celebration. (Now you've seen more of our living space, not too many have gotten this far into the house though.)

Keeping guests contained to the great room only was challenging

Just part of the crowd density that night.

There was this fear that some of our lady guests would love a tour of the home by Lisa personally, it’s happened at times in the past, perhaps since this is such a large gathering that would not happen. It was a hope and part of it was accurate, that Lisa was occupied and not able. No problem, some just started to wander off on their own. Thankfully the wing of the house that has our office and weight room can only be reached through the kitchen and family dining area. The caterers politely chased them away from the very busy kitchen, thank you, thank you, thank you! However, it became an event of elusive curious guests, and they were headed down hallways. I caught some and directed them to either of the bathrooms in case that’s what they wanted to use or not. Ask me how much I love large cocktail parties filled with people I hardly, if ever, have known. I bet you know the answer. Really, the free liquor and outstanding appetizers aren’t enough? Apparently not. Well, to be realistic, the house does give off a vibe that suggests there’s so much more to see than the great room, what is hidden from their view. Wouldn’t they love to know, huh! 🤔

Saying long goodbyes to the guests; so, go home already

Larry contained his anger and was soon back out in the crowd but separated himself from Ellen completely. I greeted many of the men in the room that I knew and some that I didn’t know. It’s typical for the sexes to separate after the liquor kicks in, we do not allow smoking in the house, and many of the men there smoke cigars but not that night. It’s cold out and smoking cigars would be done near the pool, but I’m not interested in that kind of cleanup in the morning.

I got a few questions asked about business, typical unneeded questions to answer and let them know business hasn’t been better. Of course, it is, I’m not working and over the funk, how could it not be better. I never once admitted to retirement that night, it was Lisa’s night, period. Except for busybody old ladies.

Most of our guests were in it for the short-haul, get liquored up, stuff some appetizers in and hope for a to-go box. They were that good! And I have no idea what most were or called, but man, there were many different ones served and they were delicious! Lisa found the best caterers ever this time. However, as I expected, the early arrivals are the last to leave. Fortunately, that woman Larry had a problem with was no where to be seen, thank you very much! But there still was this weird feeling I was sensing from Larry and Ellen. This night wasn’t a good one for them and the charade we were to pull off may not have worked. Lisa and I are so used to our relationship in crowds that I think we pulled off what she wanted. As hosts of these ridiculously large parties, we are hardly seen together. I know how to schmooze the crowd and play the perfect host. Larry and Ellen have attended our parties quite often, but tonight was unfortunately different for them. There’s a lot to discover yet, but my gut feeling is this would be the last large cocktail party this house sees from us. Hopefully that’s the truth, too!

Saying the final goodnight to our wives, we’re exhausted

Thankfully, it was Lisa that pushed to end the party for the hangers-on crowd. Ellen started the yawning, probably for real, which is very catchable. She did not seem to be upset with Larry being at her side now, as I was with Lisa in the foyer of the house. We either cheek kissed or shook hands with everyone as we escorted them out the front door one-by-one. 

It was well past midnight and we still needed to see the caterers and bartenders out. 

The bartenders and helpers only had to straighten up their area; the cocktail glasses, all of them will be collected and fill the dishwasher several times and Larry and I will face that tomorrow. The small dishes were handled by the caterers before they left, thank you guys! As the caterers were parting company with us, Lisa was given a large gift box of appetizers they created just for us. That was so very cool of them, I didn’t expect that and I’m putting Noom on the back burner until our portion of them are eaten. Actually, Lisa said please leave them a couple and they’d pick them up tomorrow. Feel free to take most of them for ourselves and thanked us for our part of the party. I have a feeling Lisa doesn’t know much about the Larry and old busy body thing, I’m not sure exactly how much Ellen might know as well. Time will fill us in I guess.

I asked them if they’d like us to walk them home next door and were politely declined but thanked for offering. We stood at the open door with our arms around each other and watched their departure until they turned to the left headed for their house before we locked the door. Larry thought maybe we should do a reconnaissance of the rooms for passed out guests, I laughed but we did check anyway. We’re good, no one found.

Finally, it’s our time alone

I fully expected to have this full-blown evening, ‘pun mostly intended,’  to end with us going full-blast horny on each other until we were exhausted and fell asleep in each other’s arms. Well, that’s not totally untrue, at least the in each other’s arms part. If you got this far into my chapter thinking the above was going to be true, perhaps I made you fall asleep and you skipped the nasty parts. If you know the two of us as I think you do, you know how difficult this night was. However, we did make it through the night.

Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll look back at this night and understand how this could happen and why it did. Our circle of business friends are if anything, conservative, and some are religious zealots to boot. Any type of gay or bi lifestyle probably will always be a target for them. Oh, we are so Hell-bound and all those like us, too. I wonder if anyone of them gave a thought about Ellen and Lisa in their scenario? 

Any desire I had for a night of passion was replaced with a night of compassion and tender caring. And for all those nights where we fell asleep in each other’s arms, that didn’t change one bit. I bet he loved not getting poked in his balls by me for once or had to find a better spot for my dick. Haha, I needed to laugh here, mostly because we are over all this now as I’m finishing the chapter for you.

I’m happy that I didn’t need a part three chapter; I bet you are, too. You certainly can expect something from my buddy soon enough though. I truly hope he’ll be totally cooled off by the time he starts writing. Larry, as you might suspect, could just explode his vitriol or, downplay everything as he should try anyway. But I don’t want him to bury this either, that’s not a good way to end something like this. It’s never gone, always there nagging at your gut. Not unlike the years we buried our needs for each other trying to move on not acknowledging it at all. 

I hope I gave the ‘Tuxedo Tuesday’ story a proper stopping point leaving Larry a chance to give us the rest of the story. This might just be the beginning and future expectations for our rest of the story.

Thanks for living this with us; it’s always something, huh!

Love you guys,

Marcus

Here is a link to Larry’s part of the Tuxedo Tuesday story, a really good read I think. (Better late than ever, huh?)

https://brosgonerogue.blogspot.com/2021/11/larrys-17th-post-my-tuxedo-tuesday.html#more