"He's offered you what?"

"A job."

"Doing what, exactly?"

My mum was being her usual cautious self as my dad recounted the contents of Walker Hanson's second phone call to him.

"Well, he says he wants to take his oil company into the twenty- first century technology-wise: He has one of his employees running their computer systems at the moment and, good though he is, Walker needs him to do just his job, not that of an IT manager too."

"And he's going to fly us over and give us a house and a car?"

"Yes."

"Just like that?"

"No, not just like that. I suppose it's Dean we have to thank for this."

The thinking behind Walker's seemingly bizarre choice for a computer guy suddenly made sense: My mum reasoned that if she had as good as unlimited funds available to her, she'd do anything she could to keep her son happy. He didn't want to see Taylor and I split up.

"Well, what about the family over here?"

"How often do we see them, Fran?"

"I suppose. What could I do over there? I mean we'd have to sort out all sorts of bits and pieces. Emigrating can't be done overnight!"

"Walker says we just have to give him the go-ahead and 'his people' will take care of everything for us, even the packing!"

"So, we're just going to up-sticks?"

My dad wrapped his arms round my mum and gave her a hug.

"Remember twenty years ago? We used to just leap in the car and drive somewhere whenever we felt like it - do whatever took our fancy whenever we wanted too. I'm stuck in a rut here, Fran - it's a dead- end job and in all realism I don't have the wherewithal to set up the business without re-mortgaging the house. He's giving me a break. If you don't want to go, we won't go - things usually turn out for the best."

My mum sighed and looked around at the old Tudor house they had lived in for the last sixteen years and sighed.

"I'll miss this place,"

My dad smiled and kissed her. "I love you."

"MOM! Zac won't give me the Maple syrup!" whined Avie as the offending Hanson continued to squeeze extortionate amounts of the sticky liquid onto his pancakes.

"Zac, that's enough syrup - give it to your sister,"

"Almost. done." he replied as he tried to finish off the near- perfect geometric shape he'd been tracing with the bottle's excretion.

"NOW Zac!" snapped Diane, causing him to jump and send a string of syrup in completely the wrong direction. Gareth giggled at Zac's reaction.

"What's so funny?" he asked defensively as he relinquished control of the syrup bottle to his sister.

"You messed up," he grinned. "That looks really kack now!"

"Yeah? Not as kack as your face," he retorted.

"Knock it off, you two," smiled Walker over the top of his newspaper.

I was completely stuffed on pancakes, my body still not used to eating more than a half-bowl of cereal for breakfast.

"You eating that," mumbled my gorgeous boyfriend through sticky lips and a mouthful of pancake, motioning at the abandoned food I simply could not manage.

I shook my head 'no' and watched as he deftly lifted it off my plate, timing the drips precisely so that not a single one soiled the tablecloth and then proceeded to eat it. It was a simple action, but because it was him doing it, I was enchanted.

He noticed me looking and froze.

"What?"

"Just watching you," I admitted.

"Uh. OK," he smiled. "Why?"

"Because I like watching beautiful things," I smiled back.

"Oh please!" groaned Zac, shoving two fingers into his mouth and pretending to wretch.

Before the standard routine of Zac-suppression could be deployed, the doorbell rang. Walker looked up from his paper again, then at his watch and then asked me to answer the door.

Seeing as I was the only one not eating, it seemed only fair that I go and see who it was calling so 'early' in the morning and ambled out of the kitchen into the hall.

Two silhouettes were being projected onto the frosted glass by the early morning sun - somehow, they seemed strangely familiar. I dismissed the thought in my mind and opened the door.

My parents spun round to face the door as I opened it and smiled broadly as our eyes met.

"Mum! Dad! What are you doing here?" I smiled, giving them both a tight hug and ushering them into the house.

"Well, we were looking for our house but got slightly lost," smiled my mum.

"Huh?"

"David! Frances! Great to see you! Good flight I trust?" smiled Walker as he shook their hands vigorously.

"Hang on a second - your house?."

"Hi Mrs. Lidster, Mr. Lidster," smiled Tay as he joined us in the hall, hugging them both.

"Does someone want to expla."

"Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea?" interrupted Walker, evading my question.

"Tea would be good,"

"Two teas," added my dad.

"Do you know what's going on?" I asked Tay. He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled back.

"Dean, I think you should congratulate your father on his new job," smiled Diane.

"Huh?" Something strange was going on here, but by the smiles on everyone's faces it was a good strange. Being kept in the dark about things is one of my pet-hates, and I was getting more and more wound up by the second.

"You are looking at the new Director of Information Systems for my business," smiled Walker.

"You quit LanLogic? Cool!" I knew how much my dad had grown to hate the monotony and distinct lack of career prospects that that company had provided him with, and was genuinely pleased for him. "So we've moved over here? I mean, moved permanently?"

"Well, yes! You know what they say: 'A change is as good as a rest.'"

"But what about all our stuff? What's happening to the house?"

This whole thing seemed to be going a little to quickly to be practical and I still couldn't quite believe that they were serious.

"Well, when you lot go back to school next term we'll go over with you so that we can have time to get everything packed and so that you're not left in England 'by yourself'."

"So we're going back to school in England?" asked Zac, eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"Just for the rest of this term," affirmed Walker. "The headmaster seemed more than happy to have you back. Why I'm not quite sure," he smiled.

"We do have seats in the house, you know," smiled Diane as she realised we were just standing round in the hallway, my parents still with their coats on and holding a suitcase each.

"Kiss the boy to the left if you think you're the luckiest lad in the world,"

Tay leant up on one elbow and planted his luscious lips directly on mine, his hair tickling my upper chest in the way only his could.

He settled back down next to me and hugged me, his hot breath rumbling gently in my right ear.

"It feels so weird to be sleeping without Zac and Gareth," smiled Tay, the sound of his voice almost echoing around the bare room that we were sleeping in. Tay and I had decided to christen 'my' new house, just across the road from his. This arrangement was given the blessing of the Hanson parents as it greatly relieved the congestion in their house now that the young'uns were back and space was at a premium.

"What did I do to get you?"

"Huh?"

"I mean why did the powers that be decide that we should be together?"

"You know," said Tay, stretching his arms and allowing his left to come to rest over my shoulders, "the quickest way to end a miracle is to ask it why it is or what it wants."

"I spose so. Taylor?"

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

"Love you more."

"Like hell you do!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Too!"

"Not!" I yelled, digging my fingertips into his ribs causing the comforter to fly rather ungracefully into the air as his limbs began to flail around. Tay's hidden muscles very soon came into play as he managed to get on top of me and we rolled in a giggling heap onto the floor with a thump that reverberated around the all but empty house.

We rolled, wrestled and tickled until we were both breathing hard, the light but remarkable smell of our sweat making itself known to the other's nostrils. That universally beautiful blue-white glow of the moon was the only lighting available, but it was more than enough for me to pick out the silhouette of Taylor's beautiful face, coated in a delicate sheen of sweat. He gently lowered himself onto me, his dick making its presence known as it came into contact with my own.

"I've got you now," he whispered, the feintest of smiles on his lips.

"Always, forever."

"Dean?" asked a strange voice, one that I knew, but somehow didn't fit.

"DEAN!" the voice repeated. The room Tay and I were in started to swirl into darkness and I felt myself being shaken.

"DEAN!" yelled my dad for the third time. My eyes slowly began to open and a horrible reality began to dawn.

"We're here: better get your stuff before they send you back to France!"

I was on the EuroStar.

I was back where I started.


Back to Chapter Thirty-Two

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The Exchange is © 1999 by Dean Lidster. This work may not be duplicated in any form (physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the author's written permission. All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.

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