Heaven Sent

Book One: Paradise of Misfortunes

Making New Friends

         Lou's mouth opened to reply to something that Liam had just said to him but suddenly froze as long slender legs carried a man that could only have been chiseled out of marble by none other than the gods above themselves, through the front door. Lou watched him walk into the middle of the bar and just stand there looking around a bit lost until he saw Lou. Lou knew right then and there, he was going to make this beautiful creature he just locked eyes with, his.   
    As his dream floated towards him, long brown curly hair flowing behind his head, in what seemed like slow motion. Everything else faded out around Lou. It was just like in the movies, only the fog in the air was cigarette smoke.  Emerald, green eyes were baring into his soul as Lou tried in vain to look away from them, but they just got closer. Drawing him in more. 
  "Um hello. Earth to Louis. Where'd you go dude?"  Liam then followed his gaze to what had Lou so hypnotized and just started to laugh. "Well, isn't he just walking perfection at its finest."
     "That he is", Lou said in almost a whisper. 
    The angelic figure walked straight up to Lou leaving only a few inches between them. Louis wasn't sure if he could actually feel his breath on him or if he was just imagining it. Either way it was turning him on.  The stranger hesitated for what seemed like hours, then finally stuck his hand out and said, "Hi, i'm Christopher."  Lou wanted to introduce himself in return but could only keep staring in awe. He almost fell to his knees off his bar stool when Christopher gave him his cockeyed toothy smile, that made two of the cutest prefect little dimples Lou has ever seen, pop onto Christopher's cheeks. 
   "His name's Louis and i'm Liam, nice to meet you, Christopher." Liam said politely as he took Christopher's hand and shook it. 
   "Um, is your friend, okay?" Christopher asked, concerned as he raised his eyebrows and pointed to Lou. 
Liam laughed and elbowed Lou, "Yeah, he just lost all his manners at the moment." 
  Lou popped out of his daydream from the nudge and stuck his own hand out to shake Christopher's. "Hhh hi, i'm Louis."
       'Oh, nice firm but gentle hands. Good god look at the size of them. His fingers are so long.'  Lou thought to himself, now staring at Christopher's hands.
    " Nice to meet you both." Chris said as he tried to pry his hand away from Lou's tight grip. 
    "So, Christopher," Liam said to get his attention, and try to break up the weirdness in the air. "You new to the neighborhood or are you just slumming out to the local hole in the wall, while passing through?"
  "Brand new, actually. Moved here last week for work."
 "Oh, where are you from originally?"
   "I'm from......"
  "Heaven." Lou whispered out a little too loud. 
   "Some may call it that", Chris laughed, "Others call it California." Chris stopped laughing and looked at Lou, who was staring at him again, then looked over at Liam, "You sure he's okay?", he asked him  kinda concerned this time. 
   "Yeah, we had him tested in school and everything, but they didn't find anything wrong with him." Liam nudged Lou, "Didn't we little buddy."
   "Hey, fuck off." Lou caught what Liam had said and playfully punched him in the arm. 
  "Ouch, asshole." Liam pretended Lou's punch hurt him as he grabbed his bicep.
  "Don't worry Christopher, he's safe to play with other boys." Liam making sure to emphasize the word 'boys', hoping Chris got what he was trying to get at. 
"Thanks, Li." Lou gave him a death stare that made Liam just laugh harder at his own joke. 
    " I like you two. Can i buy you both a round or two of drinks or shots and maybe hopefully, make some new friends finally? There seems to not be too many people in the area to choose from." Chris asked as he looked up to Lou.
  "You can buy me......". Lou lost his words as he got distracted again in a pool of swirling green colors.  
    "Oh, uh, um, yeah," Chris ran his fingers through his hair as embarrassment and disappointment washed over him. " I'm sorry i'm not into the whole, 'pay for sexual pleasure thing', and all that stuff. Even with how good looking the both of you are. I didn't know, um, that's what, um, you two were here, ah, for tonight. I have, uh, got to go. It was nice to meet you both. Ah, again i am sorry, to um, have bothered you." Christopher finally stopped fumbling over his words and turned to walk away.
 Liam nudged Lou, "You better stop that walking fantasy of yours or someone else is going to be leaving here with him and doing all the naughty things you already have playing through in your head with him." 
    Louis, realizing what had just happened over his words, jumped off his bar stool with the quickness and grabbed Christopher's shoulder, a little more roughly than he planned on, to stop him.  "A drink!" He almost shouted at him, "You can buy me a drink."
  "Oh!" Christopher said as he turned back around slowly, and his smile returned to his face.  " Drinks it is then." 
 "I'm sorry. Please stay and let me actually take care of the drinks to make up for being an idiot towards you. " Lou said in an almost pleading voice to get him to stay. 
    As Louis pulled his chair out for Christopher, he gestured for him to sit down next to Liam. Christopher accepted it willingly and thanked him as he sat down. Lou ran around to the other side of the bar, "What will it be, mate?"  He asked Chris as he started to line up shot glasses along the bar top in front of them. 
    "Guinness, please", Christopher replied. 
    "Lovely choice", Lou said as he took out three mugs from the freezer under the bar and began to pour Chris his beer.
 "Liam, another?"
 "Yes, please." 
  When Louis finished pouring out Liam's Sam Adams and another Yuengling, for himself, he grabbed a bottle of Jägermeister and filled three of the shot glasses. He next picked up a bottle of Gray Goose Vodka and filled up the remaining three he had laid out. 
  "Wow he must feel really bad about what he said to you. He only breaks out the top-of-the-line good stuff for special occasions." Liam laughed and nudged Christopher. 
   "Don't think i don't know you come back here, from time to time, and help yourself. I should take it out of your check next time."
     Liam looked Louis right in the eye, with deadly seriousness and said, "Maybe if you paid me more i wouldn't have to sneak it." 
    "Maybe if you swallowed more, i would." 
    "My other customers don't mind that i don't."
     "Yeah, that's because i do, and they save their $20's for me." Louis said back to Liam just as seriously as he picked up a shot glass and downed it, "Cheers!"
    "So, you two are, uh, together?" Christopher gestured between Liam and Louis with his finger. 
"Ha! He wishes. Nah he wants my dick though. I just know it. Sometimes if he's nice to me, i let him pinch my ass." Liam said as he blew a kiss to Lou.  Lou caught his pretend kiss in his hand and put it in his pocket for safe keeping. 
      "One of these days you'll accept the fact that you are indeed not straight and will let me show you what it really feels like to have your brains completely fucked silly."
    " Damn, you say the most romantic things to me when you're horny." Liam blushed and downed another shot. 
    Christopher, who was just sitting back listening to all the banter between the two of them, raised his eyebrows and looked at Lou. Lou looked back at him and winked, as he handed him a shot and took another one himself.
   "We've been friends since elementary school."
     "Best friends!" Liam corrected him and downed another shot.
    "Sorry, best friends since elementary school." Lou corrected himself. "Between him and Niall, our other 'best friend', i'm not sure how i even still have enough money to keep this place open."
     "Oh, this is your place than?" Christopher sounded a little more shocked than he meant to. 
   "For the last five years, this hole has been home." 
  "Best shit hole in town though." Liam added as he downed another shot. 
 "You said you just moved here last week for work?" Lou asked Christopher out of curiosity,                "What type of work is it that brings you to the eastern side of the country?"
   "Business with Enchanted Woods."
  "That's the logging company Niall works for." Louis sounded a little surprised. 
   "Really? Small world. Hope he enjoys it?"
   "I guess he does." Lou shrugged his shoulders. "He never complains about the money he's making, and he always has some kind of story to tell us about what happened at work that day. "
     "Well, that's something good i suppose. I'm here to scout out new land to cut and clear up some paperwork that fell behind when...." Christopher stopped talking and downed two of the shots off the bar. "When a few, out of my control, incidents happened."  Christopher then finished his beer. 
       Louis and Liam could tell Christopher was getting lost in his own head for a moment and didn't want to intrude into a private situation any farther. Chris wanted to tell them how his parents both, a few months back, had died in a car accident, but he didn't want to come off as some sad rich guy who was only out to drop his sob stories for pity and brag.  They left all their businesses and money to Chris and his brother, Harry. Harry was already making plans to get married and start a family on the west coast, so Chris agreed to take over the east coast side of things.  He really did not have anything going for him any way in California. Party all night. Sleep with whomever. Snort and smoke whatever. But at the end of the day, he would still wake up alone. 
    The Properties they had were so far easy to deal with through emails and phone calls, when it came time for rent, maintenance, or any other problems that came up. As long as all the businesses were visited at least twice a year, things ran pretty smoothly on their own. Most of the businesses had nothing in common really, but Christopher's dad, Craig, could never help but to buy up whatever failing company that was about to go bankrupt, put some money into it, turn it around, and make the money up, and then some, for the money he spent by rebuilding them.
   There was the fishery in Vermont, the pretzel company in Pennsylvania, the cannery in Georgia, and now the logging company in West Virginia.
   The biggest money maker, and the one Chris took advantage of the most, was the fleet of yachts they owned and charted out, in both Florida and California. They catered to the rich people in the summer and winter months, then to their snobby entitled kids during spring break.
   Enchanted Woods was the last company to be purchased, only a few weeks before the accident. So, things still needed to be updated, machines and equipment replaced or fixed, and tons of paperwork to look over. 
             "Shot?" Louis asked Chris.
   "Not sure if i can handle another one so soon, but i'll take another beer please. "
"Gotcha!" Lou said and gave him a quick wink. 
     "Liam," Christopher turned to him after thanking Louis for his next beer. "Do you also work here?"
  "Liam's the bar's bitch boy, " Louis said laughing. It was his turn with the jokes now. "He mops the floors, cleans the bar and kitchen, fetches cases of beer from the basement, and when needed, he bounces people out of here on their asses. Niall helps out here also some nights too. He does sound for the bands we have here every week and will jump behind the bar to help out on busy nights when he can." 
    "Sounds like you have a great bunch of friends, Louis." Chris said not realizing it made him sound a little jealous.
     "Yeah, he does." Liam winked again at Lou and downed his beer. He then looked at Christopher and said point blank, "We'd kill for him too if anyone tried to hurt him." Chris almost choked on his swig of Guinness he was just about to swallow.  
   Lou reached over the bar and started to pat his back. "You, okay? " 
 Chris nodded his head yes and cleared his throat a few times. 
  "Liam. Stop scaring my customers. You know you damn well don't want to work tonight."
  " True, because then i'd have to drive all the way to the station to pick up the ambulance, drive it all the way back here, then all the way to the hospital, then back to the station, then back to here, and then there's all this paperwork i have to fill out. I hate doing paperwork. I'd rather just have another shot, please." 
 Lou grabbed the Jägermeister off the shelf behind him and poured him and Liam another shot. 
   "CHEERS!" they both yelled and downed them.  
   "EMT,  an interesting choice of profession. Most emotional/ stressful job out there i think."  
 Liam shook his head in agreement. "I'm also a town firefighter as well." Liam said with pride. 
    "You have to be a wreck after work, and then you come here to work more?"
    " Well here i get to at least watch people who i think will be a problem, before they actually become a problem, i have to go and deal with the aftermath of. But Lou and Niall are pretty good at cutting people off when they think they have reached their limit of alcohol." 
    Lou gave his own bright smile of pride over Liam's fond words.
     "Besides. it has its adventures. Just last week i saved a cat out of a tall tree and delivered a baby. Pregnant women in labor are the best. They never hold back their cussin' and don't care who sees all their stuff.  But when you hear a newborn cry for the first time, it's just an amazing feeling." Liam's eyes brighten up as he thinks about it. 
         "I haven't seen pussy close up in years now."  Christopher just lets out and kinda lollies to the side. The alcohol is finally catching up to him.
   Liam and Lou just bust out laughing looking at each other.  
   "Alright mate, i think it's time to switch to a little coffee. What do you say, huh?"
   "Yeah, i have to get going anyway. I'll grab some on my way back to the hotel." Christopher went to stand up, but Liam caught him just before he fell over and almost hit the floor. 
  Liam looked at Lou, "Back-room time?" Lou shook his head in agreement, "Back-room time!"
  Liam picked Christopher up in a fireman's carry, over his shoulders, and started to walk towards a closed door in the back of the bar.  No matter how hard Christopher tried to wiggle out of his hold, Liam only held on tighter. 
  "Are you two going to kill me? I don't want to die. Please, i am too young to die. I heard about how they eat people in West Virginia. You won't like the way i taste. I eat shit for food. Please let me go!" Christopher was literally begging for his life. 
     Liam put him back down on the floor just outside the door. 
"Please, i can pay you. Don't kill me." He was almost in tears now. 
"You okay to watch the bar for a little bit, mate?" Lou asked Liam. 
"Yeah, go do what you need to do. Tammy and i can watch the bar."
      Lou turned the doorknob and pretty much shoved Christopher into the room behind it and shut and locked the door. 
    With his back to the room, facing Louis, Chris got down on his knees and started to beg for his life again. "Just.... Just name your price and i will get it for you."
    Dirty thoughts started to run through Lou's mind, seeing him like this, on his knees and begging.  He quickly shook them out of his head for now. "Look mate, get up."  He said to him, pulling him up to stand. 
 "Please." Christopher said with so much desperation in his voice, Louis almost felt sorry for him. 
He grabbed onto Christopher's shoulders and turned him around to see the inside of the room.
 "Where's all the chainsaws and butcher knives?" He asked as he looked around confused.