An Italian boy in Camford Pt. 04

"Oh, Tom, that would be so nice. I'm fed up of being alone in the evenings and the weekends."

"I should warn you that three or four nights per week, you'll have to eat my cooking, often at 11 pm! Maybe that will deter you! But most other nights we go out to a trattoria or ristorante. And I should warn you that we drink a lot!" Tom put both his arms round Leonora and kissed her. "Cheer up!" he said. "And one more thing: think seriously about abandoning your vocation to a religious life. Although the inmates of a convent are never alone and are well looked after, I think that you would be happier married to a nice man and have nice children. You can serve God just as well as loving wife and mother than as a nun shut up in a convent. I think you would make a good mother. If Luke and I could find you a nice man, we would do it, but it might be better if you yourself looked around a bit more. Luke told me that you have had boyfriends in the past, and you still have a good fifteen years to find a man who loves you and have babies with him. Also, and this may shock you a bit, a lot of gay men want babies! In a few years time, when we are both in steady jobs, Luke and I want to start a family, and rather than adopt, we will be looking for a sweet girl to be a surrogate mother for us! Not that I'm asking you to fulfil that role! You need to find the right man now."

Leonora by now was visibly happier. She kissed Tom affectionately and began to eat the rather nice lemon cakes that Tom had given her with the coffee. At 10-30 they took the tram to the Teatro Musicale and entered the restaurant next door. Luke was waiting for them with a bottle of Soave, of which he had poured himself his first glass. He was surprised to see Leonora, and kissed her warmly, but only after kissing his boyfriend. He felt that pang of jealousy again, although he knew that it was stupid. He poured them each a glass of wine and they ordered their food. Tom explained Leonora's sudden arrival and Luke said, "Oh, you poor girl. Stay as long as you like, or as long as you can put up with Tom's cooking!" Secretly, he was not keen on having a woman in the house for any length of time, but he knew that he was being irrational.

"He may say that, Leonora, but ask him when was the last time that HE cooked a meal!" said Tom. The three of them spent a pleasant evening and went home on a late tram. "We usually go swimming on Saturday mornings before breakfast. Do you swim?"

"Yes, but I haven't got a swimsuit with me."

"In that case we'll skip it for this week, but make sure that you have it with you next Saturday. Instead, we'll go out to breakfast. We know a place nearby where you get a good breakfast. Many Italians seem to breakfast on a cup of coffee."

It was about one o'clock before they got to bed. Leonora slept much better than she had expected. She had feared that there might be a lot of noise in the boys' bedroom, but the boys were too tired to do anything but fall asleep, and in any case, as they had found when buying Tom's piano, the walls of the flat were pretty soundproof!

Nine o'clock the next morning saw them eating breakfast in a small trattoria round the corner from the apartment. They agreed to take Leonora for a walk in the park, followed by a trip to the cinema, finishing in time for Luke to get a quick sandwich before going to work at 5 pm. Tom started to prepare the meal for much later in the evening and said to Leonora that she could either do some academic work or watch television. After the materials for supper were ready Tom asked her what she would like to drink. He poured her a Campari-orange, and sat beside her with his arm round her, while they watched television. At 10 pm, Tom started cooking the pasta, and at 10-45, Luke came home. After a quick glass of Prosecco, Luke said grace, and both boys made the sign of the cross before sitting down. Leonora realized that the boys' religious faith meant that she was quite safe living with these two men. It was not unreasonable that she should fear male approaches: after all more men are bi than exclusively gay. After a two-course meal with a bottle of Chianti, they had a quick cup of coffee before they all went to bed at midnight. Leonora was impressed by Tom's cookery skills.

Chapter Twenty-three: Easter in Nice

Leonora's lectures had finished and there was another month until her exams. The following week, they all went to Leonora's flat in Bologna in Tom's car and collected most of the things that Leonora would need during the next five weeks, and took them back to their apartment. It was agreed that Leonora would live with them rent-free, with a modest contribution towards her food, as she did not want to give up her flat, and certainly did not want to tell her parents that she was moving in with two men!

One Sunday they all went to see the Mascagnolis. Normally, Tom and Luke went via Bologna, and they attended the English Church, where they sang in the choir. There was a mass at exactly the same time in the Cathedral, so Leonora attended that and they arranged to meet in a café afterwards for coffee, before continuing to the Mascagnolis', where they arrived slightly later than usual. Luke had warned his mother in advance that they were bringing a female guest, but it was nonetheless a surprise to Luke's other family when they turned up with a girl. In particular, it was clear that Bianca was definitely not a happy bunny.

When she was alone with Tom she said to him, "Why did you bring that girl here? Luca and you are mine. I don't want to share you with her!"

Tom replied, "Cara piccola Bianca mia, she has not moved in with us permanently. She has some important exams coming up in a few weeks. She needs quiet for her work and we are both out all day. But she is lonely and needs companionship in the evenings and weekends. And when she gets her degree, she's going into a convent! So you will not see much of her. In any case, she will be going home to her parents for two weeks over Easter, when Luca and I will be visiting his other grandmother in France. Remember, Bianca, you are not a little girl any more. You will be fifteen soon, and you need to start behaving like a young lady." He then put his arms round her and kissed her gently, and she smiled happily.

Luke had talked to his boss Cornelio about a holiday break over Easter, and Cornelio had agreed to give him ten days off over the holiday period. It would be Mrs Singleton's eightieth birthday later that year, but it fell during the busiest period of the opera season, and Luke knew there was no chance of getting time off then. Both boys were looking forward to seeing Jon after more than a year. Luke had had to work over the previous Easter, and Tom had been reluctant to go to Nice and leave Luke on his own. They knew that Bianca would be welcoming her brother at home for Easter.

They saw Leonora on to the train to her parents' before getting ready to leave for France. On the Wednesday before Easter, they got off the train at Nice Ville station, and took a cab to their hotel. This year, they were the first to arrive, and having unpacked, they telephoned Mrs Singleton. "How nice to hear from you both!" she said. "I've made advance arrangements for your nude swim. Come over here and bring some decent clothes, because after I've had a good stare at you both in the pool, we're going out somewhere fancy for a meal. So no tatty jeans and T-shirts!" She had booked a table at a Michelin two-star restaurant, and they had a very enjoyable evening, and the old lady seemed more restrained in her embarrassing remarks. The boys told her that Luke was terribly sorry, but was unable to come to her eightieth birthday celebration, but that they wanted to take her out for a meal the following week before they left.

The next day, Jon, David and Cathy arrived. Cathy was about to sit her final exams at Camford, and was hoping for a job in the IT industry. The four men spent the afternoon in the hotel pool, and while they were enjoying a quiet drink at the poolside after a half-hour of energetic swimming, Tom took Jon to one side and said to him, "What is the situation with Sandro?"

"He has told me in confidence about his sexuality, but I can't tell you what he told me."

"He's gay, isn't he?"

"How do you know?" asked Jon.

"He telephoned me in November to ask my advice, because I'm not a blood relative. I'm not sure that I said the right thing. He said that he was unsure of his sexuality, but there was a man with whom he was going swimming, who had kissed him. I told him that if he fancied the man in question, he should try a blow-job!"

"I guessed when he asked me to buy him some Storing pour Homme toiletries for Christmas!" said Jon. "Since then, I've talked to him, and he doesn't want to come out in Camford until he has talked to his parents. He wanted to take his boyfriend, Jack, with him to Italy at Easter to meet his parents. I advised him that that was not a good idea, that he needed to talk to his parents first and not bring as a guest the guy who was fucking him until he knew his parents' reaction. He then told me that Jack was not actually fucking him at present, that they had so far confined themselves to blow-jobs, but it's obvious to me that he is deeply in love with Jack Meredith."

"What's this guy like?" asked Tom, "I'm interested because Sandro is Luca's brother."

"He's ravishingly beautiful! He would give even a straight man a hard-on! He's tall, muscular, slim and fit with beautiful naturally blond curly hair. His Ph.D. supervisor tells me that he is a brilliant chemist, and even after only six months is making rapid progress in the lab. When he was an undergraduate, he was a speed swimmer for Imperial College, and got a graduation medal for the best student in chemistry. If Sandro really is gay, he has an excellent taste in men!"

"I'll get Luca to ring him tomorrow, and find out what has happened in Italy. What did you think about this guy? Did you feel that he was just playing around with your nephew, or that he wanted a relationship?"

"I couldn't judge when I talked to him, because at that stage, Sandro had not told me that they had had sex, albeit as it turns out, only one or more blow-jobs. My main concerns are twofold, first that I don't want Sandro to get hurt, the second that I don't want Massimo and Dorothea to blame me for Sandro's gayness and accuse me of leading him astray!"

"If anyone's to blame for leading him astray, it has to be me, because I advised him to try a blow-job. But most teenage boys want to be blown by a boy or a girl at some stage in their adolescence, and he is after all, nearly twenty, and I would not call Massimo and Dorotea over-protective parents. If Sandro's parents blame you, I am willing to take the blame for encouraging Sandro to try having it off with his new friend. Do you think we ought to discuss it with David and Luke?"

"Yes, but not when Cathy is around." It wasn't difficult to lose Cathy. Jon proposed that they all went for a beer, and she said that she had other things to do. The hotel had, to their surprise, a stock of Belgian beer, so they did not have to drink rubbish beer. They found a quiet corner of the bar and held a male family conclave, while drinking Duvel, a high alcohol, but delicious, golden ale. Jon explained to Luke and David how he and Tom had evidence that Sandro was gay, to the extent of him asking for, and getting, Storing pour Homme as a Christmas present! By now it was Holy Saturday, so Luke offered to ring Sandro there and then and ask his brother if he had yet talked to his parents. He dialled Sandro's mobile number, and after a short delay, it was answered. "Ciao, Sandro, è fratello tuo Luca. Are you alone?"

"Si," replied Sandro.

"Have you anything to tell me about yourself?"

"Luca, I've just told my parents that I'm gay."

"What did they say?"

"Oh, Luca, it was awful. Mamma burst into tears and Pappa looked like thunder. I don't know what I'm going to do. What if they tell me that they don't want to see me again? That's what happened when my boyfriend told his parents!"

"Did you tell little Bianca?"

"Yes, she's nearly fifteen after all. She was sweet about it. She said that it wouldn't make any difference as far as she was concerned. She said she loved you and Tom, and wasn't going to stop loving me if I was going to be like them."

"Sandro, I've got my two fathers and Tom here. We had already guessed that you were gay, after you asked for the Storing pour Homme! You are always assured of a home, Sandro. Dad and Pop will let you live with them in Camford or Ixton, and in Italy, you can live with Tom and me. But it won't come to that. When your parents get over the shock, they will still love you. Be nice to them, don't sulk, and do jobs around the house when you are asked. And ring your Uncle David or Jon or Tom or me, whenever you need to talk. NEVER feel that you are alone and have no-one to turn to for help."

"Can I talk to Uncle Jon, please?"

"Of course, I'll pass the phone over to him."

"Ciao, Sandro, è Giona. Are you OK?"

"Si, bene. My parents are upset, but I can't help it. I'm in love with Jack, and I want everyone to know it!"

"Sandro, that is not the right way to do it. You don't know whether he is in love with you. Unless your attraction is mutual (you know what mutual means?) you can't go telling the world about your love. Of course, you had to tell your parents some time that you're gay, but if this guy lets you down, you will have upset the two people who are best qualified to help you. Being gay is still a hard choice of lifestyle, and you must not make things worse for your parents or yourself by rushing into proclaiming your gayness. If Jack does not feel the same way as you do, you are going to be very upset. There are a lot of men who go around attracting young boys, and then dropping them after they have deflowered them. To Jack, you may be just another boy conquest. Another arsehole to add to his collection!

"Of course, that's the worst-case scenario. I know Jack, and he is an incredibly attractive man. I can understand you falling for him. From what I have heard, he is a model Ph.D. student, so he is not a rotten person, but he might not understand the dangers of the emotional damage he can do to boys like you. Go and talk to your mother alone, and be nice to her. She has had a shock, but she loves you very much, and she's not going to reject you now. Then go and talk to your father. He is an incredibly noble and forgiving man, he has been a loving father to you all your life, and when he's got over the shock he will forgive you. And always remember that you have four men here who all love you and are praying for you and your parents."

TO BE CONTINUED