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That’s the way it went for the first few days at least. They were cordial to one another, keeping their distance as far as opinions and personal discussions. After the day was through, Eli went to his suite, and Lee went to his.
Mars was curt with him, but he had his moods, too. Lee didn’t care as long as he did his job efficiently. Things went on as normal, if not a little more hectic, for making up for the things he’d put off to head to Mexico.
As he settled into his bed at night, he closed his eyes, picturing the way the Masters in that room held Eli’s attention. The way his body flushed with excitement, the mewling sounds he’d made. If only he could command a man like that.
He’d never really commanded anyone. Oh, his boyhood friends, those that were further down the food chain, he supposed, but even they knew he was all bark and no bite. Everyone did, including his father and all their important friends.
Then, some new talking point came out that had Eli in a tizzy. Lee had started the day normally, coffee and bagel, some cantaloupe too, and he was enjoying his morning. He was casually looking through his phone at voicemails and texts when Eli walked into his room without knocking and slapped a stack of papers down on his breakfast tray. “What the living fuck is this?”
Keeping from rolling his eyes, barely, he picked up the stack and saw right away what was bothering Eli.
“They’re going full throttle on gays and trans.”
“You knew?”
Lee had heard talk in a couple of the cocktail parties he’d attended but didn’t take it seriously. They’d stopped focusing on that even before gay marriage was legalized except for the fringe.
“No, Eli. I mean, not really.”
Reading through the memos for the day, he felt his stomach tighten. They were bearing down on alternative lifestyles, it said, bringing the focus from several things they were planning, keeping the public either going after the LGBTQ people or defending them.
He felt sick, felt his world splitting in half again.
“Lee…you can’t go in public and do this. You can’t.”
There was little choice. “Eli, please. We’ve been getting on just fine. Let’s not start this. You know I have to stick by my party. This is my party.”
“Using this to get people’s attention from other things? Letting them be distrustful of all teachers so they can kill the education system?”
It was one of the things his party had wanted from the start of public education. “They want it funded by the states, and even then, more so by the separate counties. Why is that so bad?”
“Why? When some of those counties are so poor, the kids wouldn’t learn much? When some places would teach religion instead of reading and writing? Lee, you have got to realize, they want their own kids educated and the rest, the poor, can scrape along and become labor.”
“Yes, Eli.” Lee turned to him but couldn’t look him in the eye. “People have stopped having so many kids, so we need the kids to be born, and then we need to keep them at a level where they build things, work in stores, and fix roads. If everyone has a great education, where does the labor force come from?”
As Eli’s eyes widened, he saw his own words being thrown back at him. Even though he’d never physically worked a day in his life past exercise and sports, he understood what he was saying.
“I can’t believe you. I really thought there was more to you than that.”
He allowed Eli to stay behind at the house because he’d asked. He was going to head into a couple of meetings of his committees, which came to nothing, as the things they were voting on were no-brainers.
When he got home, however, he was wrung out like he’d been in constant debate. He dragged himself to his room, closing the doors to Mars, who was following him, asking if he needed anything.
In his sitting room, on the thick glass coffee table, there was a stack of books. He groaned loudly as he went to the sofa and fell back on the cushions, seeing the top book a children’s book about the damn penguins. “Eli, you’ve been busy today.”
He picked the book from the top of the pile and looked at the cover. Two penguins, male, if he knew anything about the book, one bending his head over the other and between them was a brown baby penguin.
The reading of it wasn’t needed. He knew by looking at it, the happy family of penguins, two daddies as good as any family with a mother and father. He believed it, sure. If he could wish his life differently, he’d be with a guy already, maybe have a couple of kids, one biological of his own and one of his husband’s.
That was a dream he kept locked away in the deepest parts of his soul. And that soul got blacker and blacker, the longer he stayed in the world where he lived and worked.
“Did you read them?”
Lee came out of his thoughts and looked over to see Eli there. “Yeah, uh, no. I’ve heard of them, and…I get it, Eli. There’s not a fucking thing I can do about it. If I went against the grain, they’d replace me.”
Eli moved closer to him, and Lee looked away before he closed his eyes completely.
Soon enough, he heard the click of the door closing, and he started to breathe again.
And then, he started to read…
