Nude Storytelling

Performing nude storytelling on the opening night of the fourth annual Nude Art Weekend. Muchmore's. New York, NY. June 3, 2016. Photograph by Joshua Iowa.

New York, New York. February 25, 2016. Photograph by Ames Beckerman.

Tenth Blogoversary

Ten years ago today, I posted my first story to this blog.

My blog began with long emails I wrote to my friend and drinking buddy Audacia Ray, processing my experiences with sex and dating after fifteen years of monogamous marriage. My marriage with my ex-wife Lucy had been characterized primarily by abstention; for half of our twenties and all of our thirties, neither of us had much of a sex life.

Suddenly, at age thirty nine, I found myself awaking like Rip Van Winkle to a transformed world. In my years as a devoted husband, I had moved to New York, the Internet had been invented and I written a book on sexual social history. I was prepared to launch my new sex life, though certainly surprised by the surreality of it all. For years, I had felt constrained and undesired. Now, I returned to the desires of my once-slutty youth, jump-starting my long-dormant bisexuality and group sex activities, emerging into my new discoveries of kink and BDSM.

When I began One Life, Take Two, I had no real conception of blogging—still a new phenomenon—conceiving of blogs as a sort of safe deposit box to preserve one’s writing online. Sure, it would be public, I knew, but no one could really find it.

I had assumed erroneously. My blog quickly became popular, drawing media attention and, to my greater surprise, offers of dates from people who enjoyed my writing. I’d had sex with people who though I was attractive, or smart, or funny, but to have offers from people who had never met or seen me, based solely on my writing, was astonishing. Soon, I was part of a network of fellow sex bloggers, many inspired by my own blog, creating community, education and, with great joy, the uncovering of the workings of my own heart. I fell in love.

In time, as the stories below relate, my blog was discovered by my ex wife, who immediately sued for full custody of our children, using this blog as the sole basis of her motion. I took down the blog and abandoned my online persona. Two envious bloggers, including an embittered former partner, used my absence to run a smear campaign against me. Finally, over a year after it began, the custody case ended with no changes to joint custody. I returned to blogging and documented the bizarre episode as Feverish, Sad Drama.

Still, my blogging remained intermittent. During the course of the custody case, my ex wife had outed me to my family, including our children and my parents. The smear campaign had further demonstrated the hazards of a public sex life; among other actions, the attackers had also outed me with absolute impunity. By the end of that period, in mid-two thousand nine, I was deeply involved in a relationship I had little interest in exposing to such scrutiny. I enjoyed the privacy and security afforded by a relatively private life.

Outing someone is a truly shitty thing to do. However, being out is exhilarating. My ex wife and the two smear campaigners clearly sought to do harm. In the end, they did me a favor: I was no longer constrained by the need to avoid public exposure. If I chose, I could appear in photographs, video, audio and on stage. 

This freedom led me to storytelling. After time on the stages of the Moth and elsewhere, three years ago I began to curate and host Bare! True Stories ofSex, Desire and Romance, based in New York and frequently appearing in other cities. My years of blogging proved a good training ground for encouraging others to tell their own stories and now, much of my time is spent traveling the East Coast, telling and listening. 

I've been fortunate for the wonderful correspondences, friendships and loves to enter my life since I first hit "publish" on this blog.

Every year on my blogoversary, I reprint the tale that began this journey: a remarkable weekend-long first date (if you don’t count the orgy at which we met). If you enjoy, read back to find other stories.

If you miss me here, find me at my accounts on Facebook, FetLife, OKCupid and Twitter. Follow Bare!, come out to shows to say hello.

For now, meet My Celia. Enjoy!

Photograph by Adrian Buckmaster. New York, July 5, 2014.

My Celia

It’s been over a year since the break up.

For most of that year, I have hosted sex parties in Manhattan. I suppose I will need to catch you up on how that transpired. I’ve made great friends and lovers at these parties, and yet I haven’t often had the feeling of falling head over heels for someone.

Until my Celia.

I met Celia at a party at my place last spring. She arrived late with a guy who comes sometimes. The regulars were already naked, well fucked and relaxed.

Celia sat on a bed and chatted with us. She was dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, worn backwards so that the logo was illegible. As we talked, Jane removed Celia’s clothes, and had soon stripped her naked. Jane kissed her torso as Celia leaned back, opening her thighs; we heard her gasp as Jane’s mouth reached her clit.

Being gracious like she is, Jane soon turned and offered me Celia’s body. I set to licking Jane's drool from Celia's labia.

As we fucked, as we did almost immediately, I decided not to stop fucking her. This is not the best form at a sex party, particularly for the host; one really should offer new guests an opportunity to work the room.

I doubt that Celia cared much for etiquette. She had gorgeous hazel-green eyes, focused intently on mine. I kept her gaze, noticing details at the periphery. Celia had a lovely face: aquiline nose, pre-Raphaelite features, framed in long black hair.

I was soon very curious to know more about the woman I was fucking, and so thought maybe we could take a break to chat.

"I would really like to talk with you," I said, meaning "Maybe we can stop and talk."

"Sure . . . what do you want to talk about?" she replied, as if I meant we should have a conversation while fucking. I was willing.

"So, where did you grow up?," I asked. I learned that she grew up in New England, she is an art student, and she would be working on a farm all summer. Within those first few moments, I gleaned that we had art in common, the sex was great, and I wouldn't be able to see her again for months.

I finally let her have sex with some of the others. Later we kissed, as intently as we had gazed. As she left, she stood in the door, giving me long, hungry kisses, as her date waited for her.

As it happened, she had an art show up, and as it happened, I was in the neighborhood the very next day. I was glad to see her art was good.

The summer passed.

Two weeks ago, I got an email from her, saying she was back in town and wanted to return to the sex parties. Cool!

I suggested we get together, and proposed we go check out the new Museum of Modern Art on opening day, as I had special tickets. It turned out she did too.

Later, we learned that the opening day was free to the public. So much for special access.

We decided to meet at an exhibition by Barbara Nitke at Art@Large gallery, get lunch, and see the museum--which we knew would be hellishly crowded. Nitke’s photos have to do with sadomasochism (SM). While not into SM herself, Nitke has an empathic insight into the lives of those who are. There is a strong sense of intimacy and care in her photographs.

Celia was late for our date, which was fine with me. We saw Nitke's work together. Celia says she knew many of the images, having seen Nitke lecture at the Eulenspeigel Society, a New York based organization for those into SM.

(I catalogued those details—Celia already knew Nitke and the Eulenspeigel Society?)

We lunched, and talked about out first encounter. It was her first sex party, she said, and her moment with Jane was her first encounter with a woman. She liked it, but she was taking downers at the time, which she regretted.

I referred to this as a pretty unusual second date. She agreed: first sex, then a lunch date. We were doing it backwards. She says she is surprised that she feels so shy.

She talked about her gaggle of girlfriends, and how she makes nude films of them, but can't imagine sex with them--though she really wants to be bisexual, as it's hip (it is?) and of course, there are more options for sex if you are bi.

She opines that the MoMA is going to be crazy crowded, and maybe we shouldn't go. This leaves her with two hours to kill before her yoga class . . . what can we do? Well, I suggest, we can go to my place and kiss. She looks at me like she can't believe I suggested this. I can't believe it myself—I am really getting bold.

"Okay," she says, "but I really am feeling shy about this. Is it too early to drink? Do you have any bourbon?"

"A girl after my own heart." I actually said that out loud.

Soon, we are at my place, on my couch, sipping bourbon. Soon, we are kissing. Fully clothed. For a long, sweet time.

Soon we are nude, in my bed, kissing. Touching. For a long, sweet time. She is so into gazing, touching, kissing, and I am melting, melting, melting. As the time passes, and her yoga class approaches, I think it will be wise not to start fucking. But I do go down on her. And she cums. And she cums again as I kiss her and hold her very close.

I should mention that she does intense yoga five times a week. And she is a semi-pro athlete. She has a strong, lean body. When she held me firmly, she knocked the breath out of me. Mind you, I was pretty breathless.

I tell her to go, it's time. She declines to leave. We fuck. Like all the foreplay, it's slow, and intense. At one point, I'm on top of her, holding myself up with my arms at full length. She is about to cum. She sits up, putting her arms around my shoulders. She lifts her ass from the bed. She is clinging to me, hanging from my body in air, pushing herself down on me. She cums. I can scarcely believe she made my body work that way.

We are back to kissing, touching . . . she discovered my sensitive nipples, and slowly tortured them. Exquisitely.

I am laying on top of her, tracing a finger along her nose, her lips, her cheeks. I take a breath. "You are really beautiful," I say. "You don't have to be. I would be nice to you anyway. But it helps that you are."

She looks down at me. "Are you bi?" she asks. I say I am. "I do well with the bi guys," she says. Why is that, you think? "Must be my physique," she says, flexing a bicep that would give pause to Charles Atlas.

She said she was hungry. I went to the kitchen and produced Spanish rice, steamed shrimp, and fresh calamari sauteed in garlic. We eat nude.

As we eat, we talk about the Nitke photos. She mentions liking one in which a man is fully bound to a flotation board, adrift in a pool. I say that there was such a sense of risk in that position. She says she likes the feeling of being bound.

I recall how she came when I was holding her, on top of her, as she pulled me closer to crush her.

"I can bind you," I offer. She produces rope and ankle bracelets from her bag, saying they were intended for a possible film shoot later that night. I dig up handcuffs and other stuff. She is soon strapped to my bed on all fours.

I torture her nipples. I tell her I am going to verbally abuse her. "Yes," she murmurs. I ask her why, with all that we've been doing, she has not sucked my cock? "Are you bad at it or something?" I ask. She opens her mouth, wide. I feed her my cock, and fuck her face hard. She can take it very well, so I commend her. Then I slap her for making me wait for that.

We had already established that she is an ass virgin, and so I take her to task for this. How can I let her fuck my friends if she can't even do anal? So I move around and give her a hard spanking. I lick her hole, and blow air in her. She moans. She can't help but fart. I spank her for this, and do it again. "This will burn, but only for a second," I warn. I take a sip of bourbon, and blow it up her ass. I plug it with my thumb, and then a butt plug.

I fuck her pussy.

"Can you take candle wax?," I ask. Never tried it, she mumbles. I drip wax on her back and ass for a very long time. She squirms until I tell her to be still. (Later she asked: was I making too much noise? I can try to be less responsive. Oh no, I say. You did very well.)

In time, I release her and take her to the shower. I wash her body, and flake off the wax. We go back to bed and it's tender again. She falls asleep. I read.

We woke up entangled, touching . . . her fingers are never still when they can be caressing. We spend the morning in bed. There was a joy in this, so palpable, for me at least, that I had to take care lest blurting out, "I am so in love with you."

I had to remind myself, I really don’t know Celia so well. Not yet.

I make her breakfast—bacon, eggs, and her first helping of grits. We were both very sated. We talk about how she just broke up with her boyfriend, and she had broken with her other two lovers in the last month. I say I am hers, when she wants me. Her eyes fix on mine. “That’s right,” she smiles.

My friend Todd calls. He reminds me that we are going to fuck this woman from Texas that night. I had offered to host, and said I would line up some others to join us. I had invited Thomas, that was easy, but I was so busy with Celia all weekend, I didn’t do much more.

I asked Celia if she wanted to do a group thing that night. She pondered it but declined. She was already well sexed. So was I, really.

Around two or three, I kissed goodbye to my Celia. I had a gang bang in a few hours. I would spend that time in the thrall of my Celia, picking up flecks of candle wax, and writing to my friend Dacia about her.

Welcome to Gunnison Beach! Sandy Hook, New Jersey. June 22, 2014.

Valentine's Day

This story is also told on the “The Sweet Hereafter” podcast of Kevin Allison’s RISK! Show.

We planned a quiet Valentine’s Day. It fell on a Thursday and early the next morning, we were getting into a car with a married lesbian couple to drive to Washington, D.C., for Dark Odyssey Winter Fire, an annual weekend-long kink event at which I’d be presenting.

Kay always joined me for these events, often acting as my “demo bottom,” meaning I’d use her body to demonstrate whatever technique was being discussed. Of course, it was also an opportunity to display her nude beauty, always a real crowd pleaser. Our easy banter and comfort with one another made us appear like a magician with his assistant—a sleight of hand in which the audience is largely unaware that only the assistant’s collaboration insures the resulting magic.

I had heard of an organization offering HIV tests as part of a study. Not only were the tests free, each participating subject was reimbursed twenty-five dollars. We were due for testing anyway, so I proposed to Kay that we each get tested and regard our combined fifty bucks as Valentine’s Day mad money; we could have our fingers pricked, get the results, enjoy an early dinner on this study and get to bed by midnight.

She laughed that this wouldn’t exactly be our most romantic Valentine’s Day. We’d set that bar pretty high four years prior when I took her to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, then to her first sex party and capped off the night with a pre-dawn dinner at White Castle (which, in case you don’t know, puts on a very nice Valentine’s Day).

I noted that the organization targeted gay men. I sent an email to ask if the study was available to bisexual men and women who have sex with men who have sex with men. No one had asked that before, I was told, but yes, we were both eligible. I made reservations for our Valentine’s Day date.

I was waiting in the lobby when she arrived from work. “These things always make me nervous,” she said as we took the elevator. “I mean, I’m not worried or anything, but still . . .”

“It’s anxiety provoking,” I agreed. “I’m not worried either, and you get results in about twenty minutes, but that’s a tough twenty minutes.” She knew this; we’d accompanied each other to get tested many times. We’d even taken her sister to her first testing. I took her hand. “And remember, honey: fifty bucks.” I rubbed my fingers together. “That’s a lot of White Castle.”

She shook her head. “I’ve found a cheese restaurant. Leave that to me.”

We signed in and waited briefly in a small room filled with posters, brochures and bowls of free condoms. I stuffed my pockets with condoms, as I always do. Kay swatted my hand, as she always does.

A man emerged from an office. “Jefferson and Kay? Hello, I’m Herbierto. I’ll be your counselor and conducting your tests today. Would you care to step into my office?” We gathered our coats and followed. He offered us chairs in a small room and began to sit. “Well, this is refreshing. I have to say, we rarely get male-female couples.” He stopped mid-sit. “I’m sorry, that was presumptuous. Do you identify as male and female?”

“Yes, that’s right,” laughed my beautiful, femme, long-haired girlfriend.

“I appreciate being asked,” answered her bald, bearded boyfriend.

“Well, one can’t be too careful, right? Okay, so I’m going to ask some questions, just very standard intake before testing, and then we’ll do the tests themselves. Have you been tested before?” We had. “And do you want to get tested together?”

“Sure, we’re each here to get tested,” I replied.

“No, I think he means, do we want to get our tests done at the same time. Together,” Kay said. “Is that what you mean?”

“Yes, I’m sorry if that was confusing,” Herbierto said. “Some couples do, some couples don’t. If there’s any concern or preference, of course we can do it separately.”

“There’s no concern,” Kay said, looking at me. “Right?”

“Oh, no, right. I’ve just never been asked that question. Sure, we can do it together.”

“Okay, good. I’m going to make notes as we talk and you’ll sign these forms.” Herbierto’s copper bracelets jangled on his desk as he wrote. He ran through standard questions I’d heard for over twenty years, Kay for about five. We’d both been tested in the previous year. Neither of us used intravenous drugs. Neither of us had any immediate health concerns. Neither of us feared we’d put ourselves in danger if we had a bad result. We both understood the testing procedures as Herbierto described them. We volunteered that we were in an open relationship. “Oh, that’s interesting,” Herbierto noted, scribbling. “Do you have other regular partners, or many, or . . .”

“We each play with other people at parties and stuff, but honestly,” I said, looking to Kay for confirmation. “Not that much lately.” I hadn’t realized it until then, but we rarely had sex with our friends at parties. Not like we used to.

“I’m seeing one other guy, for about a month,” Kay volunteered. “We only play safe.”

“Yeah, and I guess I’m dating two other women,” I added. Only two? Was that right? 

The discussion led to our revelation that we go to orgies and that the next day, we’d be off to a kink event. Now we all let down our hair a bit; Herbierto knew about such things, and so we felt comfortable talking about them. In time, we moved to the lab for the tests.

The tests are simple. We’ve done them many times. A finger prick to each of us and we were sent to the waiting room. We had twenty minutes of anticipated undue anxiety. I held her hand as we talked about the cheese restaurant she’d discovered, keeping our minds on the night ahead. It wasn’t yet eight. We’d be there before nine.

Herbierto called us back into the lab. Kay and I sat next to one another in folding chairs. 

“Okay, so I have the results to give you. One of you is nonreactive and the other is reactive.” He looked at me. “Jefferson, your test is reactive.”

My mind numbed. “What . . . what does that mean?” Kay asked.

“It means that your test came back nonreactive to antibodies to the HIV virus, meaning HIV isn’t detected. Jefferson’s test came back reactive, meaning antibodies to HIV are detected.”

She looked at me and then to Herbierto. “Is there any chance that’s wrong?”

Herbierto shook his head. “Everyone wants to think that, but these tests are ninety-nine point eight percent accurate. ELISA tests—that’s what they’re called—are the most often used because they’re reliably accurate. So what I can do now is try the test again.”

“Yes. Do that,” Kay said. She turned to me. “Baby, what’s happening?”

I shook my head. “I just . . .” I had nothing to say.

“Jefferson?” Herbierto stepped toward me. “Are you going to be okay taking the test again?”

I nodded. “Yes, let’s do another.” Herbierto pulled on gloves, unwrapped a test and pricked my finger. Kay followed him to watch it be processed as Herbierto explained the steps and showed her how to read the results. I sat in my chair, arms resting numb in my lap.

The test results were the same: reactive.

I was then given another test. The Western Blot test required smears of my blood on a card. The card would be sent to another lab. Those results would be back in one week.

Herbierto took us down the hall to meet with the project director. The two of them explained that I would need to come back in a week to hear the confirmation result of the Western Blot test. At that time, they would begin to walk me through the steps of treating my HIV.

However, at this time, we needed to address Kay’s situation. We had had unprotected sex within the previous forty-eight hours. Therefore, she needed to immediately begin a regimen of post-exposure prophylactics, which would require prescriptions they were unable to provide. They would accompany us, now, as we walked to the emergency room at Mount Sinai, where she would be tested again and given medication.

We gathered our coats and waited as Herbierto and the director went through the steps of closing their office. We were the day’s last clients.

“Oh, nearly forgot.” Herbierto stepped behind the reception desk and made notes in a ledger. “Here,” he said, placing it on the counter. “Sign here and initial here. I need to give you each your twenty-five dollars for participating in the study.”

“This is the hardest twenty-five dollars I’ve ever earned,” I said, scribbling my signature. 

Kay and I held hands as we walked to the hospital with Herbierto and the director. It was a cold, clear night. We passed couples with flowers and red balloons.

Herbierto took us to the reception desk in the emergency room and explained our situation, adding that it was time-sensitive, as we had recently had unprotected sex. Kay filled out forms as the four of us sat waiting. Soon, Kay was called back. I was allowed to accompany her. Herbierto and the director offered to remain in the waiting room for as long as it took.

We sat with a nurse and Kay was once again interviewed about her medical history and our sexual activity. We were then brought to a bay and told to wait. Kay sat on a bed.

We were now alone for the first time since meeting for our tests. Kay began to cry. “Jefferson, I don’t understand. How is this happening?”

I sat next to her, pulling her head to my shoulder. “I don’t know, girl.” I kissed her head. “This is so hard to believe.”

“Is there something you’re not telling me? Please, tell the truth.” Her words were soft.

“No. There’s nothing.” It was true. I couldn’t recall anything that had happened since my last test that would have put me—us—at risk. “There’s no . . . I’m being truthful . . . I can’t think of anything.”

She sat back. “But you would tell me if you did. You’d have to.” 

I rested a hand on hers. “I would.”

She slumped forward. “What if I have it, too?”

I felt my own tears, now for the first time. “Baby, no, that would be the worst. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“For now. I have to keep getting tested.” She brushed the hair from her wet cheeks. Her words faded into tears. I held her hand to my lips. We sat quietly. 

Time passes slowly in an emergency room. Eventually, a nurse in red scrubs came to us. Once again, Kay was interviewed about her medical history and our sexual activity. Blood was drawn. We were told to wait.

It was about eleven. We agreed that there was nothing more that Herbierto and the director could do that night. We could manage. I went to the waiting room to let them know. Both offered to stay longer, but if we were sure we’d be okay, they’d go. They both hugged me and implored me to call if we needed anything.

Kay’s test came back nonreactive. She was given prescriptions and samples of her medications. She was to take them twice daily for three months, when she would be due for the first follow up tests. She swallowed two of samples and signed some forms. We gathered our things and left by midnight.

We walked past the darkened park and closed shops. We knew we should eat and, in a curious way, we were determined to have our Valentine’s date. The cheese restaurant was closed, as were most in the area. I knew of a place near St. Mark’s with nice ambience. We arrived to find that at this hour, it was a hookah bar with a limited menu. I suggested we get away from the cloying smell, but she was hungry and tired, so we stayed. Over hummus and wine, we relaxed.

“It feels weird to just be sitting here, like nothing’s happened,” she remarked.

“It does. I mean, happy Valentine’s Day.” I raised my glass. “Not our most romantic, but certainly momentous.” She laughed and clinked her glass. “Now, let’s talk about anything other than the elephant in the room.”

As we talked, we realized that we were due to meet our friends in a few hours to drive to a kink event where I would be presenting. “We can’t do that,” she said. “It doesn’t seem right and I can’t stop myself from crying every time I think about this. Not that I’ve stopped thinking about it.”

I had to agree. There was no way I could spend a weekend presenting on sex and kink having just learned that I’m HIV positive. Not only that, some of my presentations involve hands-on interaction. While I always used gloves and barriers for these, I would need to tell my demo bottoms of my new status. I wasn’t ready to do that. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone.

We returned home. I wrote to the event organizer to regretfully withdraw from the roster. I texted our friends to say we wouldn’t be able to join them; we could pay for gas as promised so that they weren’t stiffed. My excuse was an unspecified “family emergency.”

The event organizer replied the next morning that all was understood and to be well.

Our friends replied with concern. Are you and Kay all right? Are your kids okay? Don’t worry about the gas money; what’s going on?

I replied that I appreciated their concern, and thank them for it, but this is all I can say for now. They understood and offered love. They’d be with us when we needed them. I asked them to pass on word to our friends that we were sorry we’d be missing them.

Kay and I now had a three-day weekend in which to adjust to the news.

I could tell that I was numb. I didn’t feel denial—I was sure this must be true—though I didn’t understand how it could be true. I didn’t want to think about it. I knew I would have to, once I met with Herbierto again to go over treatment possibilities, but that was six days in the future. I still had this remaining time in which no one had to know my status, and I didn’t have to acknowledge it with every choice I made. 

For now, I wanted to make coffee, as I always did, and to spend days with my beloved, as I always did, and to avoid sex with her, which would be alien and saddening.

Kay responded differently. Her mind raced with questions. How did this happen? What would she tell Jed, the friend she’d just started dating? What would this mean for us? Would we now just be friends, or roommates? Would she get sick? If not, would she find someone else to be with, though she loved me, and wanted me to know that, but what if . . . ?

I listened as she worked out these questions, replying, over and again, I know, it’s hard, we’ll figure things out as we can. I’m sorry I’m not in a place right now to come up with answers to these questions, but we will. I’m sure counseling will help and that was my next step. She understood, but her mind raced.

Whereas I felt resigned to powerlessness, she couldn’t rest with that. She busied herself on websites, learning more about symptoms, treatments, options.

I felt I already knew all I wanted to know about HIV. I had ended my primary education on the virus in nineteen-ninety-two.

When Lucy and I moved to New York in nineteen-ninety, one of the things I most happily anticipated was reuniting with my high-school boyfriend, Donnie. He’d moved to the city just after graduation, and I’d visited him often over in the intervening eight years. Now, we’d be able to visit frequently.

He and his boyfriend Chris helped us to move into our new apartment, a fifth floor walk-up on York Avenue. Always thin, Donnie seemed emaciated. He nonetheless insisted on carrying our air conditioner upstairs on his own.

Not long after, I met my high-school girlfriend Debbie for coffee. As we parted, she said she was going to visit Donnie in the hospital. “Oh no, what happened?” I asked, knowing the answer, hoping her answer would be better news. Maybe he’d only been hit by a bus.

“Jefferson, Donnie has AIDS.”

I knew that. I knew that.

I joined Debbie on her visit. Donnie was sheepish when he saw me. “Honey, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you yet.” He threw up his hands. “Surprise!”

“Well, you sure got me this time.” I sat next to him in bed, resting my head on his shoulder.  

Over the next two years, I was one of a handful of friends who helped Donnie to die. Because I resembled him, I collected his benefits when he was hospitalized. We made his medical decisions when he was unable. We took shifts so that he was rarely alone. We helped him to walk until he was no longer able. He died with Chris by his side, as I took a cab in a vain attempt to outrace death. The last time I touched the young man I loved, who had been the boy I loved, it was through a vinyl body bag.

At age twenty-seven, I had had enough of HIV.

Now, I was the infected boyfriend of Kay, age twenty-eight.

The next day, Kay found a clinic that offered the RNA test for HIV. The test is more reliable than ELISA, the finger prick test that we’d been given, but less commonly given due to its exorbitant cost: typically, upwards of five-hundred dollars.

The clinic Kay found charged three-hundred dollars for the test. She was going to make an appointment. “Do you want me to make an appointment for you, too?” she asked. “I’ll pay for it if you can’t.”

“No, thanks, baby. I’ll get my confirmation this week. No sense wasting the money. Besides, I don’t think I can take hearing the news again.” I understood Kay’s desire for more information. My diagnosis gave me more information than I wanted. Hearing more about it was soon to become the focus of my life.

Kay’s appointment was scheduled for the following day. We spent that day as we normally would—minus sex—regularly commenting on how odd our normality felt. I fielded texts from friends at the kink event. All expressed concern for our “family emergency.” On most weekends, no one would notice if we simply laid low. On this weekend, I had been booked to make a public appearance and our absence was observed by many.

On Saturday morning, we picked up our CSA, dropped it at home, and walked to get Kay’s third HIV test in as many days. I waited at a Dunkin Donuts as she went into the clinic. She soon returned with the results.  She was negative, confirming the nonreactive result of the ELISA test. We hugged outside the doughnut shop, relieved at this more definitive return. 

We decided that we should go ahead to fill the prescriptions, as that had been the treatment when Kay first tested negative. We could discuss this with Herbierto when I went in for my result.  

This result was good news, of course, if perplexing: I was HIV positive and my partner of five years was negative. Did this mean Kay might have been exposed much more recently than my most recent negative result? If so, did that close the window even more on the activity that caused my exposure? I didn’t want to raise this with her, but I racked my brain for possibilities and found none.

We didn’t want to discuss this with anyone until we’d had time to process it ourselves. Kay didn’t have a pending date with her new boyfriend Jed, so she didn’t need to bring it up yet. I’d planned to be at the kink event and had no dates planned, either. At one point, I questioned how I would raise this with my kids.

“What if you didn’t?” Kay asked.

Her reply seemed to be formed in a language I didn’t comprehend. Of course I would tell my kids, and all my family. I’d be obliged to tell my sex partners, present and future, if ever I had a new sex partner, which I preferred not to think about.

I never really considered withholding this from my kids. But the thought that it was possible—that doing so could spare them worry—reminded me how much treatment had changed since Donnie died two decades ago. His diagnosis had been a death sentence. Now, treatment had advanced so that people have lived with HIV in good health for several decades. I was forty-nine. If HIV causes my death in three or four decades, well, then that’s how I’ll die. I would’ve lived a full life.  

Having tested negative allayed Kay’s fears, yet nothing seemed fully resolved. She’d keep taking the prophylactics, keep getting tested, for months. She remained anxious. “I know, I shouldn’t think this,” she said. “But you’re older. You already have kids. I want that, too. I want kids, but if I’m sick . . .” I had no answer to that. My greatest fear was that I’d infected the woman I loved, denying her the life she might’ve lived.

But for our overriding fixation on HIV, the weekend progressed as any other. We watched movies. We putzed around the apartment. We went out to a nice dinner at our favorite local restaurant, enjoying the romance we had been denied on Valentine’s Day. On Monday, Kay returned to work, leaving me alone for the first time since the diagnosis. It was a relief, in some ways. “I’m sorry, you‘re spending so much time comforting me,” Kay had said. “I should be comforting you!” I replied, truthfully, that taking care of her helped me. I felt better and, through her feelings, more connected to our new reality. Now, I was alone with my own feelings. 

I kept drifting back to Donnie. I remembered how often he apologized for putting us out with all the time and effort his care required. We told him to stop being foolish, we loved him and this is what love does. Yet it did envelop our lives and psyches. My time was divided between Donnie, school, work and my girlfriend Lucy. There were times I had to participate in major medical decisions—Donnie’s need for pain relief, his dread of becoming addicted to morphine, his apparent lack of understanding that any possibility of addiction would be dealt with by his imminent death. There were times I had to ask my boss for long lunches so I could race to feed Donnie’s cat, not facing my own lack of understanding that Donnie was never coming home. It was possible that I would be putting those who love me through similar demands, extraordinary and mundane, echoing Donnie’s lament of helpless apologies.

It was too soon to reveal my diagnosis. It was possible to keep it secret, to a point. I could spare my family some anguish. But my life has been too public for anything to remain fully discreet. If I told one person about my HIV, I might as well have told everyone. Gossip travels fast. The secret would be out.

Pondering my work as a sex educator—particularly in the immediate light of having canceled my presentations at a kink event—I felt it would be wrong to keep my status private. If my goal has been to be open and talk honestly, then I would be cheating myself by denying the truth to others. Perhaps my future, then, would be in educating myself and others that HIV doesn’t have to mean the end of one’s sex life.

I regretted facing the inevitable decriers, those who say that bisexual men are the highest risk in transmitting HIV between homosexuals and heterosexuals. That argument has been around since the beginnings of the AIDS crisis. It’s pernicious denigration, no worse for being untrue, and sex-positive advocates work hard to correct such stereotypes and misperceptions. And yet here I was, the very embodiment of that idea. I had publicized my bisexuality and hypersexual behavior, and now, I had HIV. I was living proof that my life and writing are unsafe examples. In this, my work may have done more harm than good.  

Weekday routines focused us somewhat on getting through the days. We did our work, ate our meals, slept wrapped in one another. There were times we stared unproductively at blank screens, felt uninspired to cook, lay awake, talking.

Kay wept. I remained numb. We were waiting for the next step: the confirmation of my status.

Herbierto contacted me to confirm an appointment. It was a time Kay couldn’t join me. We would’ve preferred otherwise, but Herbierto said this was all they had and the appointment would take time. Kay and I would meet when she was off from work.

When I arrived, Herbierto ushered me into the lab and offered me a seat. He leaned against a counter.

“I’ve been doing this since I was thirteen and I’ve never seen this. Jefferson, your Western Blot came back negative. You do not have HIV.”

I was stunned. Of the swirl of questions taking form in my mind, the first I asked was, “You’ve been doing this since you were thirteen?”

Herbierto laughed. “Yes, I was a young activist and went into medicine to help people with HIV. Did you hear the rest of what I said?”

“Yes. But is it possible it’s a mistake?”

“No, it’s not. It’s even more definitive than ELISA . . .”

“And that was, what? Ninety-nine point eight percent accurate?”

“It’s a good test. But what it does is test for antibodies to the virus. Western Blot tests for the virus itself. A false positive with ELISA is very rare, though it does happen. Usually the subject’s immune system is in flux, like maybe they had a flu shot or they’re pregnant.”

“I haven’t had a flu shot,” I said. “And I’m pretty sure I’m not pregnant.”

“Sometimes, very rarely, it just happens.” He sat next to me. “This must be very confusing.”

I shook my head, disbelieving. “I had HIV for a week. But you’re telling me I don’t have it anymore.”

“That must’ve been a rough week. Yes, now we know you don’t. Now, just to be thorough, we’re going to run an RNA test . . .”

“Kay did that last weekend. It came up negative.”

“Good, I’m so glad. I hope it gave her some peace. We don’t usually run it here, because it’s expensive, but you’re a special case.”

“I look forward to an end to being special.” Herbierto ran the test. It confirmed my status: negative. We went to talk with the project director, to go over all the results and discuss how I felt on hearing them. I was urged to call if I had any questions or needed anything else.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Herbierto said as I prepared to go. “You get another twenty-five dollars for participating in the study.”

“This is the happiest twenty-five dollars I’ve ever earned,” I smiled, signing the ledger.

Outside, I called Kay. “I have good news and good news,” I said. “I’m negative. And they gave me another twenty-five dollars.”

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed.

“I know, right? We made a combined seventy-five dollars.”

“Jefferson, I can’t believe this. This is such good news. So unbelievable! Are they sure?”

“They are so sure. They ran Western Blot and RNA and just kept telling me. I’m negative.”

“Where are you? I’m leaving work. I’m so happy! I love you! God!”

That night, Kay and I had a second Valentine’s Day dinner. I thanked her for the roughest week of our lives. “I can’t believe how well you handled this,” I said, holding her hand.

“Yeah, by crying all the time,” she laughed.

“Sure, that’s natural. But honey, we went through all this, and none of it made sense. Yet you believed I was confused and not holding back information . . .”

“Well, I did doubt you. I mean, how is it possible?”

“Understandable, but . . . you let there be trust. When it was impossible.”

She squeezed my hand. “Because I love you.”

“And you never once, in all that, said we were finished.” I kissed her hand. “I have never, never felt this safe with someone. I love you.”

That night, we finally made love.

Finally, I cried. 

Jefferson's Half Century Orgy Tour

January 17, 2014 marks Jefferson’s fiftieth birthday. To celebrate, during the month of January, he’s performing and hosting shows, as well as organizing sex and play parties in each of four cities that are home to Bare! True Stories of Sex, Desire and Romance: Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Some of the sex and play events are private and some are open. Bare! is open to all, limited only by the age restrictions of the venue.

In addition, Jefferson will continue two traditions. In January, he will seek to be blown by a different cocksucker of each year of life, plus one to grow on—meaning fifty-one cocksuckers. He will also give away at least fifty-one orgasms. To apply to take part in either or both traditions, contact Jefferson.  

This schedule will be updated as it is completed. It also indicates Jefferson’s whereabouts for those interested in booking him for shows, events, classes and private dates.

January 1-5: New York

Saturday, January 4: Booked, private date.

January 5-12: Boston

Monday, January 6, 7-9pm, $5: Bare! True Stories of Sex, Desire and Romance, Middle East Corner, 472-480 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617)864-3278. Featuring Chris Connolly, Diana Valentine, your chance to bare all on the Bare! stage, more!

Wednesday, January 8: Booked, private date.

Thursday, January 9, 6:30: StoryClub, ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 576-1253. 

Friday, January 10, 8pm. Boston Boy Party. All-male and male-identified sex party. Applications accepted. Contact Jefferson for details.

Saturday, January 11, 9pm-3am: Private sex event.

Sunday, January 12, 9pm, People's Comedy, ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 576-1253. 

January 13-19: New York

Monday, January 13, 8-10pm, free: Foreplay! A SexyStorytelling Open Mic, The Delancey, 168 Delancey Street, New York, New York 10002. Guest storyteller: Cammi Climaco! Poly Cocktails concurrent on the roof.

Tuesday, January 14, 7pm: Bukkake Social Club, Midtown East. Private sex event. Applications accepted. Contact Jefferson for details. 

Friday, January 17: Jefferson’s birthday! 7pm Bare! True Stories of Sex, Desire and Romance, Sidewalk Cafe. 10pm-4am: Private sex event. Applications accepted. Contact Jefferson for details.

Saturday, January 18, 8pm-5am: Private sex event.

January 19-20: Philadelphia

Sunday, January 19, 8-10pm, $10: Bare! True Stories of Sex, Desire and Romance, L’Etage, 624 South Sixth Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (215)592-0656. Featuring James Bradford, Monica Day, Rachel Fogeletto, your chance to bare all on the Bare! stage, more!

January 20-24: New York

Tuesday, January 21, 7pm, Bukkake SocialClub.  Private sex event. Applications accepted. Contact Jefferson for details. 

January 24-25: Washington, DC

Friday, January 24, 8pm-3am, open. $25/$35: Jefferson’sHalf Century Orgy DC, Speakeasy, 2375 Lewis Avenue, Rockville, Md 20851 (202)538-7963. RSVP required; see the FetLife page for more.

January 25-26: Philadelphia

Saturday, January 25, 8pm-3am, $35: Jefferson's Half Century Orgy Tour: Waxed. Private sex party featuring gourmet cooking, storytelling, DJs and wax scene. Applications accepted. Contact Jefferson for details.

January 26-31: New York

Monday, January 27, 8-10pm, free: Foreplay! A SexyStorytelling Open Mic, The Delancey, 168 Delancey Street, New York, New York 10002. Guest storyteller: William Mullin!

Tuesday, January 28, 7pm: Bukkake Social Club.  Private sex event. Applications accepted. Contact Jefferson for details.

Blackout

I was at work in Greenwich Connecticut, outdoors, talking on my cell when a co-worker emerged from the office. “We just lost the power and it’s Friday afternoon anyway, so we’re all going home.” I shouted back okay, and turned back to my phone, “We’re leaving work early. Keep me company on my ride home.”

“Yes, darling, of course. Of course!”

I retrieved my briefcase from my darkened office, said goodbye to my scurrying co-workers and walked to my car. I pulled my Volvo into the snarled traffic of I-95, picked up my phone and called May. “Well, we have plenty of time to talk. I’m barely moving. I guess everyone is leaving work early.”

“Oh darling, wonderful, we have so much to talk about. I can’t believe I’m finally seeing you tomorrow. It’s been so long!”

I had moved out of our home on Independence Day, a little over a month prior, moving into an apartment my father-in-law owned in Manhattan. I fully expected to be returning to our home in Yonkers eventually, once Lucy got over a rage that was now in its fourth month. She was calling for a divorce over a business trip I had made. I was confused, angry, bruised. Fifteen years, three kids and all that we had shared, and she was ready to jettison it all to win a fight.

If she was saying we were “finished,” as she so often had before, this time I would go. But this time, I resolved, I was going to have sex. Fifteen years of sexless monogamy capped by months of anger and the silent treatment had, I felt, given me permission. One day, when we were back together, I would’ve had some time in my life she wouldn’t know about, a secret: when you told me we were “finished,” I believed you. I was free to do whatever I wanted. So I got laid, finally. And now I have those memories as I masturbate, alone and secretively.

Only thing was: how?

My friend William was supportive. He’d call me from Toronto to encourage me to go out, go dancing, hit a bar, meet someone. Faced with the reality of pursuing his suggestions, my resolve usually dissipated. No one was going to want me. I had no idea where to start. “You should call May,” he suggested. “She thinks you’re hot.”

“May? From college? What makes you think she thinks I’m hot? She hasn’t seen me since Reagan was president.”

“Trust me, I know. I talk to her every weekend.”

“You do? How’s that?”

“Phone sex. Every Saturday morning, while my wife walks the dog, we talk. Our favorite fantasy is a threesome with you.”

William and I had been friends for a long time. There was a time he was in love with me. But, he was straight and scared to do anything sexual. Instead, he crashed my first dates with Lucy to watch and masturbate as we fucked. This went on until Lucy put a stop to it, thinking it creepy. Apparently the idea still appealed to him, if only in fantasy.

“So what’s your idea? I’ll call her and she’ll want to screw me?”

“Sure. Or you know what? Use Friendster. We’re both on it.”

I’d never heard of Friendster. William explained that people could sign up, meet people; it was an online thing.  I demurred, saying I didn’t want to pay for a dating site. William explained that it was free and made me write down the URL.

That night, I was drinking alone, again, watching television. I decided to look up the website. I fired up my iMac, dialed into AOL, pouring a drink as the computer farted and belched. I had mail. I typed in the URL and looked around the site. It was free, it looked easy. I started a profile. This took time as I filled out titles of my favorite films, books, music, losing myself in the pleasure of listing things that pleased me. I wasn’t sure how to add a photo. I hit send and stared at my inbox for a while before deciding to watch Letterman.

The next morning, I had a note from May. “Meow. William says you boys were talking about me. Can you talk? Call me.” She gave me her number. I replied with mine. I was just out of shower when my phone rang. A voice was laughing.

“Jefferson, oh my God, I haven’t seen you in years. Are you still in New York?”

“Yeah! I hear you’re still in DC and working at the museum?”

“Yes, it’s boring but I love the people I work with.” She paused. “I hear you and Lucy split up. I’m sorry.”

“Well, thanks. I’m not sure what’s going on, but . . . yeah. Thanks.”

“What are you doing now?”

“Oh, I’m working at a museum in Connecticut. It’s nice. Boring, like you said. I’d rather work in the city, but those jobs are, like, filled for life.”

“No, I mean, what are you doing right now?”

“Oh, you mean at this minute? Getting ready for work. I just got out of the shower.”

She laughed. “Please tell me you’re naked.”

I laughed. “Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I am.”

“William says he told you we talk about you.” She laughed again. “He’s so funny. He always cums when I tell him I’m sucking your dick.”

I sat down. Lucy hadn’t sucked my dick in fifteen years. May was so direct, like this was easy. Her voice was pretty, soft, melodic.

“Jefferson?”

“Yeah?”

“You there?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

“When do you leave for work?”

I looked at the clock. “Usually about now. It’s like a two-hour commute.”

She laughed. “You’re cute, you really are, baby. Will you cum for me before you go?”

I realized I was already stroking myself. “You mean, while you listen?”

“Yes, I’ll listen. I’ll talk too, if you like.” Without waiting for an answer, she began to tell me what she wanted to do with me. This had nothing to do with William, she told me. She wanted me.

She moaned as I came. My heart raced. “May, my God, that was hot. Wow.”

“Hmmm, so hot baby. Can you do it again?”

I wasn’t sure I’d ever had two simultaneous orgasms. When Lucy and I fucked—which was rare—I never came. I’d get her off and she’d stop. My orgasms were private and perfunctory, in the shower as she dressed for work.

I laughed nervously. “I doubt it, May.”

She purred. “Would you try? It gets me off to hear you cum. And my kitty is so wet for you right now.”

I came a second time. A third. I stood shaking, the phone to my ear, my spent cock in my hand. “May . . . “

“Thank you, darling. Now, you should probably take another shower.” She laughed. “Me too. I’m going to be late for work! What time are you home?”

“About seven, seven thirty.”

“Call me then. Got to run. I love you!”

“I love you,” I replied, instinctively, and she was gone.

I called her that night at seven thirty. We talked until two. The next morning, when I signed on to AOL, a text message popped up. “Meow.”

Within days, we had a date. I had said, longingly, late one night, my cum during on my belly, that it was a shame she was so far away. “Darling, I have a car. I’ll see you Saturday.”

Just a few days prior, I had no prospects. Now, in a few days, I had a date with someone who truly desired me. Who said she loved me. And a beautiful girl; at least, she had been fifteen years before, an Asian girl with big tits, long colorful extensions in her hair, always with a camera, photographing bands. I hadn’t known her well then, but apparently, she had noticed me, too.

What if, in nineteen-eighty-eight, we’d acted? What if I’d married her instead of Lucy? My head was awash.

I told William about our date, thanking him. “You’re so lucky,” he whined. “God, you’re so lucky.”

Now, with our date set for the following morning, she kept me company as I sweated in traffic. Traffic was always bad, but this was unusual. I saw a guy in a suit, hitchhiking. “Baby, something’s going on. I’m turning on the radio. Hang on.”

“Baby, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just want traffic report or something.”

NPR reported that the entire Eastern seaboard was without power, with no cause yet determined. I explained this to May. She gasped, then said, “If I can get to you tomorrow, I will. Don’t worry about that.”

Actually, my first thought was terrorism, but I appreciated the assurance.

Traffic signals were down on the Sawmill Parkway. I decided I should probably sit out the traffic at the house in Yonkers, or maybe even stay over. Lucy and the kids were camping, so I’d have the place to myself. I’d have plenty of time to get to my apartment Saturday before May arrived.

I pulled onto our street to find a block party underway. The neighborhood kids were chasing each other over the lawns. Jim saw my car and waved me down. “Thank God you’re here. We have to drink all this beer before it gets warm!”  He handed me his sweating Carona as I parked.

My neighbors had assembled in his backyard, as he had the biggest grill. Refrigerators and freezers had been emptied into a spontaneous party as kids marveled at their orders to eat as much ice cream as they could stomach.

I took off my tie and settled in with friends, thinking about the weekend ahead. I had been so unhappy with the separation. Now, for this time, I could feel so much love and potential.

“Daddy!” My girl Lillie ran through the kids. “Daddy, why are you here?” She jumped into my arms.  

“I’m here to eat ice cream! What do you think?” I kissed her. “Why are you here, little Lil? I thought you were camping.” Her brothers came up behind her, beaming. Lucy was behind, her face contorted.

Lucy took Lillie my arms. “Go play, sweetie,” she said, her voice quaking with sparse control. She turned to me and hissed, “Why are you here?”

“The blackout. There were no lights and traffic was awful . . . “

“I just drove in. There’s no traffic now. You should go. No one wants you here.”

Lucy’s rage was building. I needed to avoid a scene. I put down my beer, thanked Jim and the neighbors, kissed my kids and walked to my car. I cranked it, rolled down the window, left.

The drive into the city was quiet.

There were no lights in any buildings, just the occasional candle in a window. Now and then, I passed stoops and parks with revelers, acting as though we’d all been given the night off to party.

I parked near my apartment, took my briefcase, locked the doors. I jotted the car’s location in my parking diary so I could remember where I’d left it.

My building’s lobby was full of elderly residents. Some social workers were there, dispensing water and juice. One told me cots were on the way. I offered to help, but they had the situation under control.

I instinctively pushed the elevator button, waiting a few moments before realizing the futility.

I used my cell phone to light the stair as I walked up.

The apartment was bathed in moonlight. I called May, relating what had happened with Lucy. She offered sympathy saying she’d make it all better tomorrow.

When my cell phone died, I used the old rotary in the kitchen to call her. I sat on the counter, listening, talking until we decided to get rest. We had a big day ahead.

The next day, I had the best sex I’d had in my life.  

Abby Winters

Madison Young