Sweet Dreams-18 Alex…………and Adam.

Chapter 18

It was the morning after Hunter and I got together for the second time but really it was more of or first time and it was just fucking amazing. More than amazing it changed me I think maybe.

Maybe…

I was almost mad when she told me that she was going shopping with April and her and Jen had talked this through and then I don’t know…

Hunter is so not like these people and so not full of shit that when she tells me something she tells me something even if it’s something that I’ll hate. She’ll say it.

And she makes me think.

Like just that I might have been not exactly giving April a fair shake? I guess it’s like I might have been calling emotional blitz plays on her for a long time.

Like Hunter said.
She stayed.
She didn’t have to, and still she stayed.

And then there’s Hunter herself, of themselves but it’s more her. I just can’t see or process Hunter as a guy. Even when we made love there was nothing guy about it. I don’t think…I mean I don’t really know much about gay sex and stuff but everything with Hunter is just different.

I’ve had a lot of sex and not just with Jen, I’ve really been around and stuff and there’s been times where the sex was amazing. Where it was like being in love with them but only it wasn’t.

The times that I’ve been with Hunter it’s so unlike anything I’d ever known before and there’s this part of me that knows that I’ll never have this with someone or anyone else. I’ve seen the look of pleasure and orgasmic rapture that I know what it looks like when things are really, really good.

But Hunter…

Once we got passed the first clumsy and passionate parts of being together and making love there was this Joyful expression there in her eyes and right down into her soul.

When have you ever been with someone and they look at you not just with love but with Joy?
I’m still wiping my eyes from feeling that.

It’s why when she asked me to go to the country club and try to spend some time with Adam.

I’m not doing it out of any reason to reconnect with him or any of that I miss my Daddy crap. The fucker wasn’t even there even when he was there. Just as long as I was there to be his trophy kid and make him seem like he was a success.

Yeah I’m still mad and angry and hurting. But I’m still doing this for Hunter.

It’s almost an unfamiliar drive. I’ve long divorced myself from this part of my life and I can feel myself tense up as I drive to the gates and show my I.D. and the guard raises the gate saying. “Great morning Mr. Donavan to play a few holes isn’t it.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice day. You have a good one okay?” Yeah I talk to “The Help” I really don’t like this place. You want a good example of why? I’m driving a 2011 model black Dodge Charger and as I pull up to the club and the valet takes my keys my car is one of the cheapest ones here.

You can almost smell the scent of money here over the over uses cologne and perfume. I’m not really dressed to play either. Black slacks and shoes, and a black t-shirt and my varsity jacket.

The valet calls over a caddy who takes my golf bag and we head to the pro-shop and the actual golf club part of the country club. I’m getting looks and getting stared at and then it happens the Richie-rich- press. People Adam knows and some only by acquaintance are intercepting me in this socially acceptable kind of way and they shake hands with me and they introduce themselves or re-introduce themselves and invariably their wives who are introducing me to their daughters.

Which led to the question I was really happy to answer. “We don’t see you here enough Alex, what brings you here today?”

I smile and say. “Hunter, my girlfriend asked me to come and spend some time with Dad today.”

There’s this bubble bursting moment for some of the girls and their mothers that serves them right. But there’s a few dogged ones holding onto the bone.

“Hunter? Not Jennifer?”

“No not Jennifer, we didn’t click, Jen was just too superficial and Hunter’s way more honest and down to earth, I guess that’s why we’re living together.”

I almost laugh at the looks. “Excuse me everyone I see Dad over at the bar.”

I leave them and head over to where Adam’s having a morning drink with some of the other elites. I belly up to the bar myself catch the bartenders eye. “I’ll have what he’s having.” And nod my head towards Adam. He turns at the sound of my voice. Stares at me then gives his nod to the bartender who pours me a drink. I take a sip of the Jameson’s and look back at him.

“I’m surprised to see you here this morning Alex, you don’t come here anymore.”

“Hunter’s going shopping for tonight with April, she thought that you and I should get together.”

“Really… why?”

“I think she wants us to be closer.”

“Oh so this is her sucking up to me?”

“No, I think she see’s the way we are as something that should be better than what it is.”

“Why?”

“She had a really, shitty homelife.”

“Well, there’s a lot I don’t know about her then isn’t there.”

“You mean you haven’t been able to dig up.”

“You have to be careful Alex, you have to be. I don’t like the fact I know so little about her.”

“Why…Dad, you’re not with her.”

“I don’t know her motives…yet.”

“She doesn’t have any.”

He just shakes his head and then he’s shaking hands with some of the men that just walked up and then he introduces me into the round of shaking hands. Mostly lawyers and I think there’s a city council member and a big named real estate guy.

“So could you gentlemen use a sixth?”

Dad looks at me. “Definitely….we haven’t golfed together and played since you were twelve.” He looks surprised.

“Well then, maybe we should sink a few buckets of balls before we hit the course?” I suggest.

I notice Dad looking at me again. He nods then claps me on my shoulder. “That’s a good idea Alex, you might need to knock some rust off.”

We stare at each other for a few seconds. Then we move to the driving range where were get several buckets of balls all getting picked up and carried by our caddy’s. I really don’t like how servant like the whole thing is or the whole country club thing, the staff just seems like they have to kiss ass just to have a job. I can imagine a person getting fired of they displayed an original thought or didn’t kow-tow just so.

Dad/Adam’s right and I am rusty. I hate the fact that he’s right, and he’s enjoying it. It’s something that you don’t forget that much though and I’m a decent enough athlete that I’m soon sending balls out where I want them drive after drive. I get some pointers from him….normally this is where I’d be leaving….as if this really is him being a father, a dad after all the shit he’s done and pulled.

I’m having a can of coke while waiting for my next turn and take out my phone and look through my pictures on it of me and Hunter. There’s only a couple of them, I want more, I want a lifetimes worth.

“I’m doing this for you…”

I look to see him smoking and watching me, looking at my phone and the picture of me and Hunter together when we were outside on the blanket napping at lunch. Hunter’s sleeping and curled into me sleeping like an angel.

“Our turn?” I ask him. He nods and we get back to it and it takes a lot to be here and get through this but I do, I even take the tips and pointers he shows me and use them, no fighting, no back talking…no remarks and Adam’s having a good time by the time we’re on the course.

I look him and the other gentlemen. I take a page from my girls book or what I think she’d do. Well not here but maybe a pool hall someplace. “Play as partners gentlemen.” There’s general agreement. “Then how about we make it interesting? A hundred dollars a hole?”

There’s some grinning and one of these smug assholes says. “He’s a real go getter Adam a chip off the old block.”

Instead of the comments I could have said I smile. “I’m a Donovan, if there’s no challenge it’s not worth it.” I look at Dad/Adam…. “Right?”

There’s the look in his eyes and he nods. “Absolutely son.”

It’s a tight game, like in pool we’re playing to alternate who’s hitting the ball. Dad’s short game is better than mine but he plays everyday or every other day. I drop the stuff between us and listen to him tips on the course, he’s played it enough he knows all the in’a and outs.

I look at the others while crouched and looking at where I might send the putt and he’s pointing out the lay of the terrain and even the way the grass is going. “So who here are you trying to get goodwill out of.”

“The councilman, he knows several judges. It’d be nice if we didn’t piss him off.”

“Listen it’s cool by me…dad…it’s just changes the game…we’re not playing golf now are we?”

“Like I told you Alex games aren’t games, not even football, they’re tools…opportunities.”

“Yeah I know, go to college and get a scholarship and succeed, succeed, succeed…”

“No, dammit. You’re good at it, talented and have been ever since you touched a football. But this is Michigan, Detroit and people here need a hero, sports gives them that, you take state and the city remembers you, fans remember…you get to college ball and play here…they’ll love you for not leaving. You go NFL and you can write your own ticket.”

“I don’t want to be a football player, this…this is all your idea.”

“See…that’s why I don’t trust her Alex. You’d have been better off with Jennifer, she would have kept you on track. She’d have been greedy enough to…Hunter…I don’t know her game and that’s dangerous…You’re fucking…you’ll have her knocked up if you’re not careful.”

“Hunter stopped your crap and she doesn’t kiss your ass.”

“I don’t trust her.”

“You don’t trust any woman dad.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Not even April?”

“……………………………..............Let’s just do this okay, we’ve got other stuff to do.”

Huh? He changed the subject.

We end up losing the game and dad forks over the bet money to the city councilor and we head home driving each our own separate vehicles and there’s a lot going through my head. He drew the line at April, he more or less laid out my life plan but some of it sounded almost…like he gave a shit about the city? The state?

It’s kept me distracted while getting dressed and I’m still mulling the day over when he calls me and says the limousine is ready.

I’m quiet through the drive and so is dad even though he smokes three cigarettes and has a scotch on our way to pick up the girls.

We’re early or they’re a little late but it was well worth it. I look up at Hunter as she comes out of the salon and she’s breathtaking. A bit of out flare or some thing like that moves her hair from her face, and her face looks perfect, flawless, and I’m drawn to her lips, to her eyes…bluer than blue with hints of grey. I have to take a deep breath just to keep steady.

God I’m getting hard just staring into her eyes…

Modest pumps, short…black dress, great dress…I’ve seen her in short skirts before but the way a dress fit’s a girl and hugs and makes her just so…I see Curves on Hunter that complete the picture of her in my mind that even I couldn’t fully see until now.

There’s a lot of stuff I could think, or do or say but I step up and take her hands and stare at her deeply in the eyes and the first thing that comes out is…

“Ow……………………my heart.”