Tom & Pete (Gay Romance)

Tom is introduced to Pete in the Top & Bottom (Gay Equality pub) by a mutual friend whose name isn’t important.
PETE (to himself) Gracious me, he’s lovely.
FRIEND: Pete, this is Tom ...
PETE (to himself) I don’t care what his name is. Sex! Now!
TOM (to himself) Wow! (to Pete) Glad to meet you.
PETE (to himself) Tall, slim, almost manly. (to Tom) Do you live near by?
TOM (to himself) Cute, or wot! (to Pete) Practically next door. Would you like to see my new bedspread?

Pete says he would like nothing more. To be continued ...

Back to the story of Tom and Pete. Scene: 20 minutes later, cigarette tine, though neither of them smokes.

PETE (to himself) He’ll expect me to go now.
TOM (to himself) How can I keep him here? (to Pete) Want to do that again?.

Pete does.

Scene: 20 minutes later.

PETE Do you have a boyfriend?
TOM No, but I’m open to offers.
PETE You’re not rich, are you?
TOM No, but the bedspread’s new.
PETE I have a cat.
TOM I love cats.
PETE I have a boyfriend.
TOM Oh
PETE But it’s my cat.
TOM That’s a relief. Do you believe in love at first sight?
PETE I do now.

Did they live happily ever after? Oh, they just met. Who would care? We don’t know them well enough to care. The scene is the same bar where they met five years later.

TOM Gosh! Five years. No regrets.
PETE We were probably too young. I’m only 26 and already an old married lady.
TOM But no regrets, I hope?
PETE You are wonderful. All our friends say so. Even I have to agree, you are wonderful.
TOM So, no problem then.
PETE Just sometimes I think life is already over. We’ve never had a holiday.
TOM We have no money, but we’re doing jobs we love, things we believe in.
PETE. Let’s go to the Canaries and have sex on the beach. We can max out another credit card.
TOM Okay. If that will make us happy.
PETE It will.
TOM I love you.
PETE.I love you more.

PETE (he is speaking to us, to you and me) We sat on a beach in December, getting an all-over tan on an island where it never gets cold. I was proud to be seen with him, so handsome, too smooth and young, too innocent for my tastes, I’m a sucker for bad boys and he’s not one, my mother likes him better than me, he dotes and if I frown he says “what’s wrong?” and I say “what could be wrong?” We are very happy really. We were. It’s just me.

TOM (he speaks to us) A fabulous holiday, we didn’t even spend much money. Sex on the beach. Sex in the shower. Sex in the tapas bar fully clothed, no touching. That was amazing! He has never been so happy, he tells me so, but three months later, on 3 March when I get home from work I read a note, he is gone, and I don’t understand. “There is no one else; we are too young to settle down.” Have you ever felt this desperate emptiness? His mother is upset but stands by him, “he is young”; my friends feed me whisky that makes me ill and I cry to them and to myself alone in our bed. There’s the cat. He’s my cat now.

(A few months later)

PETE Get off me.
LEON (annoyed) Something wrong with me? Bloody tease.
PETE I’m not in the mood.
LEON No wonder that boyfriend of yours threw you out
PETE I left.
LEON Yeah it was all too ‘stultifying’ for our little princess.
PETE I didn’t leave him for you. You said no strings attached.
LEON He works in the bookshop. I saw him yesterday.
PETE He’s the manager.
LEON Sexy. Boy next door. I’d do him.
PETE You’re not his type.
LEON Yeah, his type is Princess Tease. Poor sap.
PETE (taps number on his phone) It’s me .... I’m sorry. Can I come home?

(10 years later. The cat has died. There is a new cat.)

TOM How did we do that, you know in the tapas bar, without touching?
PETE We were in a palm tree paradise for the very first time, supercharged with wanting to rip each other’s clothes off, but we couldn’t touch, not like that, it would have been rude.
TOM We should try it
again.
PETE Sweetie, get a grip. We’re 37 years old.
TOM Is this true love?
PETE We take care of each other. So yes, true love.
CAT Meow.
PETE You’d better feed the cat.
TOM OK.

[Tom, Pete & the Cat are living happily ever after]