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Benny & Ray 96 Time Flies Dee Gilles Rated R

I met up with Maria in the hotel lobby. She walked toward me with a big smile on her face.

"Hey, Tommy Boy!" she said.

"Hey, you! Long time no see." I gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Ready?" she asked.

"You bet. It's nice out. You wanna get out?"

"Sure! Lead the way."

"I'm starved," I said. "Lunch is on me."

"Great! I was hoping you'd say that!"

Maria Moretti was the only reason I agreed to come to this week's conference hosted by the Illinois CPA Society. That, and yeah, I guess I needed a crash course in this year's new tax laws, but mostly, it was to see Maria. Last time I'd seen her was last May, and here it was February already. Time flies.

We headed down Michigan Ave and took the short walk to the Savoy. I loved the Savoy; it had great sandwiches at killer prices. I hated overpaying for mediocre hotel restaurant food. Sure, I had a pretty big disposable income, especially since I started sharing a condo with Bruno last month, but that didn't mean I liked to waste money.

Maria and I chatted about nothing in particular as we made the short walk. It was a mild day for late winter. The sky was a crisp azure, the sun intense. I pulled my sunglasses out of my coat pocket and put them on. It had been unseasonably warm all week, and so Maria and I only wore light jackets. I had broken out the Armani that I bought on sale last fall, a nice charcoal gray short jacket with a graphite sheen to it. Maria looked great. She had grown her hair out past her shoulders, and she looked like a kid again.

We linked elbows as we walked. I loved Maria. If she had been a gay man, or I'd have been a straight man, we would have married each other. After a moment, I pulled her close to me as we walked and wrapped my arm around her shoulder

Once at the Savoy, we got settled in at a small table for two in the window, and placed our orders. We both got old-fashioned root beers in frosted mugs.

"So how's big Ton'?" I asked. "Still working for that guy under the table?"

"Nah, he finally got something legit. Our cousin Al's father-in-law was looking for somebody. Nice little outfit. He mostly does HVAC, which he likes. No more fixing leaky pipes and snaking out toilets."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Dirty work, huh?"

Maria shrugged, dipping her straw in and out of her sudsy root beer. "Yeah, but plumbing pays well. It's paying for Raphy's school. I can't believe how expensive it is. Wish I could have talked him into going to school in state. It's gonna be a long four years of bills." She shook her head.

"How's he like it out there?"

"He loves it. He didn't even want to come home for Christmas. I thought I was going to have to fly out there and drag him back. He's made some friends, he's gone to all the basketball games, and most importantly, he's doing really well in his classes. He made the dean's list!"

"Cool! Staying out of the casino's?"

"Oh yeah. That's not his thing, thank goodness."

"How's the other kids?"

"Everybody's doing okay. Paul finally got on with the K-9 Division, and he's ecstatic. He's starting in a couple of weeks. He's looking forward to working with the dogs. Donny's screwing around in school like usual, barely scraping by. He's so smart, but he never brings a book home, and won't do homework." She dipped her head down and pointed toward her scalp. "See this gray hair?"

I chuckled. "Yeah."

"Donny. And see this gray hair over here? Marissa."

"Yeah, kids are tough. I don't know how you do it. God bless ya."

"Well, it has gotten a little easier. You know, I actually finished a book last week?"

"No kidding."

"First book I've read and actually finished in about ten years, "Silas Marner?"

"Oh yeah. I think we had to read that in high school. I don't think I ever finished it. I got the Cliff Notes and fudged my way through the test. That kind of book doesn't seem like your cup of tea, though. I thought you liked mysteries and spy stuff."

"Yeah, but Ben talked so highly of it, so I asked him to loan it to me. It was pretty intense. Sad. You wanna borrow it?"

"Nah. But if there's a movie version of it, maybe I'll check it out."

"I don't know that there is."

"So how's Mrs. Fischer doing these days?"

"Over the moon. She and Damon bought this house up in Edgewater. You know the Bryn Mawr district?"

I nodded.

"They bought this huge house overlooking Lake Michigan. The view is unbelievable, Tommy, you oughta see it."

"Oh! Very chi-chi, no?"

"Oh yeah. And... they're going to do a total kitchen and bathroom remodel."

"Nice."

"Damon's gott'er working at the Toyota dealership with him."

"Doing what?"

"Selling cars."

"No shit! Francesca?!"

"Yeah. And she's pretty good at it, it turns out."

"Well, get the fuck out of here. Next time I need a car, I'm going up there."

They finally called our number, and I went and grabbed our sandwiches. I had pastrami on rye, and Maria had roast beef on wheat. We had fresh coleslaw, and split a large order of fries. We hungrily dug in for a few minutes before resuming our conversation.

I licked my fingers of mustard and said, "So you'll never guess who came into the office the other day."

"Who?"

"I'll give you three guesses."

"Tell me!"

"No. Guess!"

"I dunno, Tommy, give me a hint."

"Okay...how `bout this? He's a blast from the past."

"That could be anybody."

"Okay...he's from the neighborhood."

"Ummmm. How `bout Sal Rosario?"

"Nah... I think I heard he moved to L.A. or someplace, anyway."

"Oh. Well. How `bout George Gustavo?"

"No way. You're way off."

"Tommy, just tell me."

"One more guess," I teased.

She sighed and threw up her hands. "Alright....Chrissy Cristoforo?"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong. Vinny Cipriano."

"Get out. How'd you two connect?"

"Well, he started his own antique and vintage collectible shop up the North Shore, and he was looking for somebody to handle his financials. He was searching in the Yellow Pages, found my name, and decided to drop on in."

"Antiques, huh?"

"Mmmm hmmmm." I slowly shook my head up and down meaningfully. "Oh yes, girlfriend. He finally came out!"

"Hah! I thought so!"

"Oh, I knew so!"

"Oh yeah?"

"We did the nasty in high school. You know. When I was into" -I brought my hands up to form `air quotes'--"straight boys."

"I thought you were still into straight boys."

"I've given that up," I said, grinning. "I swear I have."

"Yeah, right," said Maria. We split a pie a la mode for dessert, reminiscing about old times.

VVVVVV

Ray returned from his stint in the Army in the summer of 1979. His brother Paul had just split for college and Ray showed up at my apartment, duffel bag in hand, a couple of months later and completely unannounced.

"Man, I need a place to crash for a couple weeks," he said to me with no preamble. "The old man and me's not getting' along too well."

"La mia casa la vostra casa, my man. Come on in," I said. At the time, I was living in a cheap little rundown place on Oakley Ave with two other roommates in a two bedroom apartment. I had the smaller room, and the other two shared the larger one. I was a sophomore at Northwestern.

I moved aside in the doorway and let my buddy in.

Ray came in, sighing gratefully. "Thanks. I owe ya big time."

"Think nothing of it. So what happened?"

"I just can't deal with him anymore, Tommy. Now that Pauly's not around, I think Pop just needs somebody to pick on. You know, I been riding around the German countryside in the tank for a couple of years...can shoot a mole off the enemy's ass from a mile away, easy. You'd think I'd get a little more respect around the house when I come home from serving my country."

"Yeah, I hear ya."

He plopped down on the couch. "Your roomies won't mind, will they?"

"I'll square it. Don't worry about it. I was just about to meet them down the street for pizza, as a matter of fact. Wanna come?"

"Sure," Ray said.

He ended up staying with us for three months. We had a blast. I was working an internship that semester, so I had plenty of time to bum around and stay up late with him. I helped Ray catch up on two years of American culture he missed. We listened to records, watched a lot of TV. We went to the movies at least a couple of times a week. We saw, "Meatballs", "Rocky II", "The Amityville Horror", all that stuff.

My roommate Jeff waited tables most nights, and my other roommate Josh was usually at the library studying, and so Ray and I usually had the place to ourselves. We didn't waste any time getting into it; Ray fucked me the next night after he moved in with a couple more bags. Before Ray went into the service, we'd never done that. But when he got back, he seemed to be a pro at it. I don't know what happened while he was overseas, since I definitely did NOT want to know those details, but thanks, Uncle Sam, for making a man out of Ray Vecchio!

We started hooking with some of the guys from the old neighborhood and going to the disco. It wasn't quite as fun as it used to be back in high school when I made fake ID's for everybody or we'd just plain ol' bribe our way in, but still, it was pretty frikkin' fun.

I was still faking it back then, pretending to be straight. Only Ray and a couple of other guys I went to school with knew that I was into guys. The guys from "around the way" were totally in the dark about that; I could play pretty butch as a matter of survival.

We'd go to these discos and stay until they'd kick us out at two a.m. It was a bunch of us. Me, Ray, Big Ray, Vinnie, Jimmy, Tony, Bobby. Sometimes we'd have girls with us, but most of the time we went stag, and the guys picked up who or what they could. We'd dance to Donna Summer, The Village People, and the Bee Gees. Ray's favorite song was Rod Stewart's "Do You Think I'm Sexy." Every time that song'd come on the radio, he'd turn it up, and sing in that awful voice of his that could make dogs howl.

We'd drink, getting a pretty good buzz on. We handled it. But as time went on, Ray began to get more and more messed up. It was funny at first, and then it was sad. A couple of times he even passed out. I'd get Big Ray and Jimmy to carry him up two flights of stairs to our apartment, and dump him on the couch so he could sleep it off.

In September right after his birthday, Ray applied to get into the police academy. He got through his papers and all that, and then it was just a matter of whiling the time away and waiting to hear back from them as to when he could start his training. In the meantime, he got a job at Sal's Garage, doing mostly painting and detailing. He'd go hustle in the streets with Big Ray and Bobby, playing craps or shooting pool or what have you. For a guy who professed to hate his dad so much, it seemed to me like Ray was working pretty hard to be just like him. Go figure. Hey, I kept my mouth shut; Ray's business was Ray's business.

Living with Ray was one of the best times of my life. On the nights we didn't go out, we'd just stay in and order pizza. We'd watch "Dallas" or "The Dukes of Hazzard" or "Alice" or whatever, maybe smoke a little weed. And we'd get each other off with our mouths, our hands when we had the place to ourselves. God, we were so horny for each other. We'd do it once or twice a day when we had the opportunity. Ray was a fantastic lover. He had magic hands.

In October, I asked him if he wanted to be my guy...like always and forever. Like maybe we could get a place of our own together. He turned me down flat. I was devastated. Shortly after that, he started at the academy, signed a lease on his own little studio apartment, and moved out.

And we didn't see each other for a long, long time.

VVVVVV

Twenty five years later. We are middle aged men, sitting across from one another at Scarpetti's. Ray has just told me some great news, that he's getting promoted to Sergeant. And here's where it gets weird. He's going to be working with Angie. He's going to be on second shift, and she has the first.

"You don't mind that?" I asked him.

"Nah. We actually got together at her house the other night over coffee and talked about it. We're cool. Her husband's a good guy. You should see her little girl. Big beautiful eyes like a doe. Six years old already. Time flies," he said. "And get this. She's going to St. Leo's."

"Get the fuck out."

"Yeah. Started this year. Guess who her teacher is."

"Not Mrs. Sinclair."

"Oh yeah."

"She's still alive? What is she, like a hundred and six now? She was old when we had her."

"Actually, she's going to be retiring this year, Ange said."

"Wow," I said.

"Yeah," Ray replied.

Ray and I split servings of Pasta alla Puttanesca and Osso Buco. I had a glass of wine and Ray had club soda with a wedge of lemon.

"So listen," he said as he sliced his veal, "Me and Benny's having a birthday party for Carie on Saturday. Wanna come?"

I shrugged. Kiddie parties really wasn't my thing, but if Ray wanted me there, then, sure. "Can I bring Bruno?"

Ray sighed, and took a long time replying. "Yeah, sure."

"Don't you wanna meet'em?"

"Sure, Tommy. Yeah, yeah."

I grinned at him. "You don't wanna meet'em, do you? Whatsa matter? Jealous?"

"I didn't say that."

"'I didn't say that'", I mocked. "You're cute."

"Tommy, I'm not jealous."

"Sure, Ray. Sure you're not."

"I'm not." Ray flagged down our waiter. "Hey, could I get a G and T over here?"

"Should you be doing that?"

"What are you, my ma?"

"Just lookin' out."

"I got it, Tommy."

The waiter bought Ray's gin and tonic after a few minutes, and I ordered another glass of Chianti.

After a while, I asked him the question that had been on my mind for most of the night, like what he was doing out with me, when he had a stud at home.

"So what's Ben doing tonight?"

"Working." Ray said.

"Oh."

There was a long silence. I waited for Ray to say more, but there was no more information forthcoming.

Ray gulped down his drink, and flagged the waiter down for another. I got a strong sense of dj vu.

FINIS