Tom and Luke Get a Family Pt. 06

Chapter XLVIII The reunion at Paradise Place

No sooner were the wedding festivities over, than it was time for both gay families to go to Paradise Place for the annual reunion that they had arranged the previous year. Dom's parents' home was new to the three children and Olivia. It had plenty of bedrooms, so there was adequate accommodation for a family of six. "It's good job that all our families are not short of cash," said Tom, "most parents would not be able to take three young children on trips round Europe!" Lord and Lady Wakefield welcomed them warmly. They had arrived before Dom and Sandro, who arrived the next day with Elizabeth and the twins. Bianca came from Paris and Massimo and Dorothea from Italy. Jon and David and Tommy and Eleanor made up the party. They stayed at the local hotel. Tommy and Eleanor announced that they were getting engaged, to the delight of all who knew Eleanor. Both she and Tommy were now teachers in Camford. With a young baby, Cathy did not feel able to come.

By now all five children were fluent in both English and Italian. Jon and David were delighted to have their three grandchildren and their twin great nieces together under one roof. They only saw Dom and Sandro's children once a month and the three Italian grandchildren once a year if they were lucky. They had intended to make regular visits to Italy during the summertime, but this had been frustrated by David's singing pupils, who were often entered for competitions, and in Jon's case by the political crisis around the Camford Men's Fitness Centre. They took the opportunity to tell Luke that, as only two family members were allowed at his investiture as a knight, they had decided to invite Cathy, but they still wanted Tom and Luke to come to the dinner that Jon was organizing after the ceremony.

In addition to his delight that his much loved partner was to be honoured by the Queen, Jon had something else, much less pleasurable, on his mind. Although the sex equality legislation specifically allowed sporting clubs to be single-sex, a group calling itself Women's Equality in Sport and Fitness was campaigning to get the facilities of the Men's Fitness Centre made available to women. In spite of a poll of all the members of the Men's Centre being 95% in favour of remaining all-male, the WESF had begun to picket the Centre. Jon and the Centre's board of management were reluctant to resort to litigation, which would be expensive and socially divisive. The case of the WESF activists had no grounds, because apart from the bar, all of the facilities at the Men's Fitness Centre were available at the Camford Olympic Pool and Leisure Centre, open to all. Even so, the local Member of Parliament supported the women's case in the hope of propping up his small majority.

Because of relatively high membership fees, the Men's Centre attracted relatively affluent undergraduates (and those on Edmund Heptinstall Scholarships) together with well-heeled commuters to London and academics and businessmen in Camford, a substantial minority of whom were of course gay. This led some local people to feel that the Fitness Centre was a recreational toy for wealthy businessmen and homosexuals, in spite of it not drawing any funding from public sources. The WESF had even managed to get questions asked in both houses of Parliament, although the government spokesmen replying had emphasized that no breach of the law was involved. The affair had dragged on for several years, and distracted poor Jon from the things that he really preferred to do.

One of the most enjoyable events of the reunion was a trip led by Jon to what was the only large area of woodland south of the river Thames that had been created and maintained by the Afforestation Trust. It was on the southern slopes of the North Downs and was now twenty years old, which meant that the trees were nowhere near fully grown, but still big enough for exploration on foot. The Italian children, more used to city life, were fascinated by the growing trees. "When we were your age, or maybe a bit older, our two fathers took your auntie Cathy and me round England and Wales in the summer holidays looking for places to plant trees. We slept in a motor caravan and our Pop cooked breakfast in it each morning!" Luke told them.

"Could we do that?" asked Giovanni. "Not really" said Luke. "There were only four of us then. But our family has six people and we would need two motor caravans!"

Chapter XLIX Luke in Antwerp I

Soon after Giovanni had started school, Luke received an invitation to direct, as a special guest, a new production of Antonio di Sicilia's opera Anna Veronica by Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp. He immediately went to Pauline and said, "You must be behind this invitation, Pauline!"

"Yes, it was my idea. Di Sicilia is not available to direct it, and you were closely involved with him in the première, so I suggested to my old company that they invite you. I know that it will take you away from your family for at least six weeks, but you need to get yourself known outside Italy if you are to get on in opera production. None of the first cast is involved: all the principals will be new to the role, so you can use your own ideas as to how the singers should develop their roles. You will of course need to discuss your ideas with the conductor and the répétiteur, but you will have total freedom to create something new. You may want to use ideas for the role of Capes from your father's interpretation, or you may want to show Capes in a totally different light. The Danish soprano who is to sing the title role is young but very good. The tenor they have chosen is a very good German and I'm hoping that you may be able to persuade him to come and sing here. Moreover, the pay is good!"

"Pauline, if I were in this job for the money, Tom and I would be childless and living in a garret! It's a wonderful opportunity to take my mind away from mundane staff troubles and making sure that the vending machines in the foyer are kept filled up. Vittore can do that very well. I shall accept, providing that Tom and Olivia each come and spend a weekend with me during the rehearsal period. I'll take Tom to Leuven and Olivia to Brugge."

"You'll love Antwerp, and so will Olivia. The capital of Flanders is a very sophisticated city, and the shops really appeal to women. To be frank, I prefer Antwerp and Brussels to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, even though I am Dutch! Belgium is a wonderful place: the problem about it is the Belgians!"

...

Luke received a warm welcome in Antwerp. Fond memories of his father's visits lingered on among members of the chorus and orchestra, and the conductor, an enthusiastic Italian called Lorenzo, was easy to get along with. The producer was a Fleming called Josef and the répétiteur was a Dutchman called Behrend. Luke of course did have ideas about how the plot should be developed. He had not had any say in the design of the sets or costumes, but he was happy with the Edwardian pre-first-world-war style that had been produced. There was little point in moving a story set in the Edwardian age into the twentyfirst century. As it was a new production, there were to be three weeks rehearsing with the orchestra and chorus alone and then three weeks with the principals as well. The latter were frantically learning their parts at home. Luke explained that although his second Christian name was Dutch he could not speak the language, and it was agreed that at least until the arrival of the principals, all communication would be in English, the language of international opera. Although the chorus had been trained to sing in Italian, very few could speak it as a means of communication.

Like all men, Luke eyed up all the members of the chorus, women as well as men, and found that most were young and some of the men were very attractive. He found that many of the cast and some members of the orchestra would take their evening meal in a pleasant restaurant near the opera house, and two evenings a week, chorus and orchestra would spend a couple of hours in one or other of the excellent bars, of which Antwerp has many. Flanders is a beer paradise, and Luke was delighted at the range of superb beers on offer and spent much of his non-working time with chorus members in these bars. In particular, there was a gay couple with whom he got on very well. Although he seriously missed his darling Tom, his sweet Olivia and the children, he was glad of an opportunity to be alone and to reflect on his life, his faith and his prospects. Every Sunday he worshipped at the English Church and soon got to know most of the congregation, as well as the Chaplain.

Chapter L Luke in Antwerp II

The rehearsals progressed well and Luke was enjoying himself. After two weeks, Tom came for a weekend, which they spent in an upmarket hotel in Leuven. Leuven is a small town with a big university, which means that there were many places to eat and drink. Much of the men's time was spent in frenetic sexual activity. In the absence of Olivia and the children, they could relax without any inhibitions and between an early dinner and a late breakfast, they fucked like rabbits, as well as spending an hour early in the evening in the hotel swimming pool.

On the Saturday evening they retired to their room and made coffee. They slowly undressed one another, beginning by unzipping each other's flies and getting their cocks out. Luke then put his arm round Tom and kissed him passionately on the lips while fondling Tom's balls through his clothes with his other hand. Tom groaned in delight and got hold of Luke's dick. He felt it swelling as he enjoyed Luke's tongue in his mouth. After several minutes, he loosened Luke's belt and dropped his trousers and underpants to the floor. With his other hand he reached round Luke's body and cupped the hand at the base of Luke's arse-cheeks, across the cleft, all the time with his lips glued to Luke's.

Momentarily Luke escaped from his grasp and undid Tom's belt and dropped his trousers, leaving Tom's prick sticking up above the waistband of his underpants. In a single move, Luke knelt and pulled Tom's underpants down and took his rockhard cock into his mouth, and cupped his hands on each of Tom's hairy arse-cheeks. It was wonderful to feel the hard, lumpy, veiny cylinder in his mouth as he nibbled Tom's retracted foreskin. "Oh, Luke, that's wonderful!" said his partner, and Luke proceeded to enjoy Tom's manhood for several minutes, before dragging him to the bed, where they completed the undressing and pushed back the covers. They lay side-by-side facing each other's feet, and began sixty-nine. Several minutes of bliss followed as each enjoyed working on the other's cock with silence compelled by concentration on synchronizing each other's reactions, a silence only broken when Tom emitted a noisy fart.

Luke took Tom's cock out of his mouth for a moment, giggled and said, "You're a windy bastard, but I love you!"

"It was you who taught me not to be bashful about farting!" replied Tom, taking Luke's cock out to answer. They renewed their assault on each other's mouths with renewed vigour and in a few moments first Tom, then Luke shot his load into the other's mouth. They then withdrew and lay for a few minutes swallowing each other's spunk, the flow of which was diminishing after several previous ejaculations.

However, after consuming the coffee, Tom said to Luke, "I want to shag you NOW!" Luke lay on his back and opened his legs. Tom opened the lube and started applying it to Luke's hole and stretching it gently. He then put Luke's ankles on to his shoulders and gently pushed his berubbered prick into Luke's man-cunt. Luke lay there with a welcoming smile on his face.

"Fuck me HARD!" he said, and Tom obliged. For several minutes Tom worked his tool vigorously up Luke's back passage, until, sweating with exhilaration as well as exhaustion, he filled the condom inside his partner. He gently withdrew his cock as it rapidly lost hardness, and collapsed on the bed beside his man.

"It's only been a couple of weeks, but I've missed you!" said Luke. "And, to be frank, it's wonderful to get you to myself for a couple of days. Although Olivia and the children have made me the happiest man in Europe, I would never have married Olivia if I had not met you! She has given me your child as well as my own. That is something special. And Giovanni is turning out to be a gifted boy, for whom neither of us can claim credit!"

Tom had come for three days, and Luke took most of Monday off. He reckoned that Stefan could manage that day's rehearsal. The theatre was presenting Offenbach's La Belle Hélène at the same time that the rehearsals were in progress, so Luke and Tom got a couple of free seats on the Monday evening to watch a sparkling and funny performance. Early next morning Tom left for Brussels airport to fly back home, having enjoyed himself enormously. The children were very glad to see him. Giovanni in particular since he had started school was always very affectionate to his three parents. He was beginning to realize that growing up means spending less time with your parents.

Chapter LI A worrying visit from Olivia

Three weeks later, Olivia flew to Antwerp via Brussels for her weekend with Luke. They spent most of the weekend in Brugge, but did not see as much of the town as they might have done, because Olivia was almost as hungry for sex as Tom had been. She had become very good at arousing Luke. She would slide down beside him in bed and take his cock into her mouth and work with her tongue and jaws until it was rock hard. After that Luke would enter her cunt gently and start to fuck her. She would grab him tightly and push her belly hard against his while kissing his neck and shoulders. "Harder, Luca, harder!" she would whisper. She obviously wanted it very much and knew exactly how to encourage him. On the Saturday night, they fucked twice, and again on the Sunday.

By the time that Olivia left on the Tuesday morning, Luke was slightly weary, but exhilarated as he went into work. By now, he was really enjoying straight sex, and no longer considered it as a necessary duty to get a family. In spite of his postcoital exhilaration, however, one thing made him extremely uneasy. After a delicious night in bed together, Olivia had told him over breakfast that she was seeing Tom's research student Roberto. "He's only a couple of years younger than I am!" she said, "and he's really sweet."

"What happens if he falls in love with you and wants to get married?" asked Luke.

"He's too young and has a career to build. He won't want to commit until he's in a job."

"Are you having sex with him? I know that that's an intrusive question, and you are perfectly entitled not to answer it," said Luke anxiously.

"Luke, I am very fond of you and Tom, and I won't conceal anything from you. Yes, we have had sex a few times, but I am still on the pill."

"If anything does go wrong and you get pregnant, you know that Tom and I will look after you and the baby. We love you too much to discard you. And the children love you. All our lives would be shattered if you left us. Have you told Tom yet?"

"Yes, he was very upset. He said that it was difficult for him because he knew us both very well and he feared that things could not end happily. Roberto couldn't join our family unit if he married me because as I just said, he has a career to build. But I could never leave the children!"

"Are you going to stop having sex with us? I can't see Tom being happy if both he and Roberto were fucking the same woman. He gets jealous every time I look at a man!"

"Luca, I really don't know. We've just had a wonderful weekend together, and I still love you both. Personally, I don't want anything to change. I would like just to add Roberto to my portfolio of men, and carry on as before."

"But that's unfair on Roberto. Even if he has no plans to marry just yet, he is not going to be happy to share you with two other men, one of whom is his doctoral supervisor! You and he have to decide on your relationship. Maybe it's just casual sex on his part. That would make it a lot easier, because we can look after you and help heal any emotional wounds if you were to split up. You know that Tom and I have both made career sacrifices in order to get a family, and while we have both had offers of jobs back home, we would never tear you and the children from your Italian background and move to England until at least ten years from now. When I get back to Trabizona, you, I and Tom must get together and decide what to do. It might best for the two of us to give up sex with you, at least until you and Roberto decide what to do. After all, we have each other. That would clarify the situation. What do the children think of Roberto? I know they liked Carlo."

"They just think of him as another of Tom's colleagues."

"It would be best for the moment if we kept it like that. Don't give the children the idea that he is special to you. I don't know where or when you and he have been fucking, but don't let the kids find out!"

That night, Luke contacted the family on Skype and talked to each of the children, telling them how much he was missing them. His deep love for them had led to the great tenderness that he felt for Olivia. The next day he contacted Tom at work via Skype and they agreed to suspend sleeping with Olivia unless she specifically asked for sex. They were in effect asking her to keep the fact that she had regularly slept with both of them secret from Roberto. Although Luke and Tom were now confronted with the scenario that they had envisaged several years before, the reality of the situation did not make it any easier to deal with. Indeed, they had not envisaged a situation in which both of them, even if not in love with her, felt a deep affection for her as a person, and not just as a mother. Luke was obliged to throw himself into his work in order to keep his worries at bay.

Chapter LII The première of Anna Veronica

Luke was rather apprehensive about his production. This was his first direction job on the international scene. He was happy with the chorus and the lead soprano, but he had had a tough job with the tenor who seemed unable or unwilling to enter the part of the character Capes fully. Capes in the story was a middle-aged married man, and Ann Veronica was more than ten years his junior. In contrast to the usual operatic scenario, it was the female who was the most heavily smitten, and the Danish soprano Birgitte Olsen conveyed this beautifully. The tenor however was a stolid German called Steinmeyer, and it was difficult to get him to identify with a character who was more intellectual than emotional. However, he had an excellent voice and Luke just hoped that this would outweigh his shortcomings as an actor. He resolved that in any future production he was involved, he would insist on being involved in the choice of artists.

Conductor and orchestra were fully prepared for a score that was totally new to them, and all was ready to go. There were to be eight performances of the opera, spread over three weeks. Publicity had been good, and the first three performances were fully booked. At the dress rehearsal, Luke actually intervened at the point where Capes is showing Ann Veronica how to dissect a salamander, and told Steinmeyer to show more emotion towards the girl.

The première was a great success. The audience applauded enthusiastically, and at the post-performance party, Luke went round and congratulated all the cast personally. Steinmeyer's performance had been good and Luke shook his hand. The champagne flowed abundantly, and everyone, even Luke, went home happily.

Next day, Luke bought the Flemish newspapers. His Dutch was non-existent, so he had the reviews scanned and E-mailed them to his father. David translated them and replied in a return E-mail. De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws were very enthusiastic. The local Antwerp newspaper De Scheldebode was also positive. The day after the last performance Luke flew home, having agreed an engagement in two years' time to direct Bellini's Norma, with the promise to involve him in the design and casting.