After some time together with Helmut, I went out with him on Miami Beach to look for other men to share together. Our routine was fairly consistent: we woke up together, perhaps had sex, then went out to restaurants. Evenings were spent at clubs in full predatory mode.
That night in a club just on Washington Avenue on Miami Beach we both found Neal, a fit guy who was shaped with a lean musculature after being an equestrian for years. Neal was drinking a Long Island Ice Tea, which I also bought for Helmut and I. Getting him drunk took another highly-alcoholic drink, after which Helmut and I took him in a cab to the Marina, to Helmut's yacht for sex. Shamefully, my opening line was: “hey, how's tricks?” He replied: “Not doing much at the moment. You came in with a friend, yeah?” I explained that I was horny as hell, and I wanted to hook up at my friend's. He agreed to come with us.
However, Helmut saw Neal's furry body, and he declined to join us. Neal was too drunk to perform and excused himself. The following day, I received a dozen red roses and an invitation for dinner, just Neal and I. Helmut could see my surprise shining on my face. It's possible that he knew then that I was happy to have a suitor with a romantic streak. I must have hurt Helmut, but he didn't show it. I think I resented that.
The following night I had a wonderful first dinner with Neal. He was very detached and even nervous, as if he'd never… Well, he confirmed I was his first male sexual partner. Up until the night at the bar he was going out with two Argentinian sisters. Dog!
He was renting a flat on the beach, just off the club strip, on Michigan Avenue. We went there and had furious kissing, all throughout the amazing sex.
As much as I loved Helmut, he had been attached to a younger man he also met at a club, and I didn't see longevity in our relationship. I didn't know if I was ready for someone new, but I didn't care.
For the next six years, Neal and I went from his coming out to his parents to living together. In the second year we formed a women's manufacturing and wholesale business, after Neal saw my fashion designs. My time as a wardrobe stylist inspired me to create fantastic clothes. I fell for him so hard, despite his verbal and physical abuse.
Neal loved me desperately, so he and I paid an attorney to process a National Interest Waiver, after our first opportunity to outfit actresses and models as extras in a dream sequence filmed on a runway, in which the Director suddenly asked of me to dive at the end of the sequence into the pool on which the runway was built. The Chief Costume Designer wrote a glowing letter of recommendation. Two more signed character recommendations by retailers we worked with guaranteed my Permanent Residency. My student visa had expired after I finished my College education, and I am ashamed to share that I remained in the country illegally. After paying monstrously high fees, the approval of my Residency changed my life forever.
© Text: Orlando Barahona
© Photo: Mahdi Abdulrazak/Flickr
Creative Commons License This work by Orlando Barahona is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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