Chapter 7

Dinner for 3

Part One

Steven Hyde sat on the white bench that was in the master bathroom. It was a misnomer to refer to this as a

bathroom when it was as big as Edna's living room, kitchen, and then some. He was buttoning up his gray dress

shirt. No way was he going take part in this whole Mommie Dearest thing. He had nothing against the

sexual/gender proclivity. It was stupid. Yes, Darren was a great director; at least he had a good work ethic. He

never saw any of his films, but he did put many hours in and Hyde could respect that. But even if Eric/a Forman

had nothing to do with this, putting on a private production of this play for Darren's benefit was an

ego-thumping exercise and his boyfriend, lover, friend (he didn't know which) was more down-to-Earth than that.

Darren used to be quite the player and there used to be many a party, no hard drugs allowed, but parties

nonetheless. When Darren started filming Noir Hyde found some photo albums in the study that were on the

brass and glass coffee table. His boyfriends who were always younger. The summer of 1980 was the summer of

Ben. He had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and he could pack a tight red Speedo. Darren didn't look any different

in the pictures. He was less gray, but his emotions were the same. There didn't seem to be togetherness with

Ben. The boyfriend before Hyde was named Rafer. He was quite striking with model precision features, a more

suave and sophisticated European version of Kelso, but probably without the doofus factor. But there didn't

seem to be many pictures of them together. Once again Darren's emotions looked the same. The parties died

down and Hyde wasn't in many photographs with Darren, partly due to his treasuring his privacy a little too

much. He hoped that Darren wasn't hoping for Hyde to be his date for the Oscars. This wasn't even counting in

the Eric quotient. Eric had many emotions, he could panic and be nervous and fully aware that he ruined things

while the destruction happened, but he could also be sweet and replace one's dead cat with a new one. Hyde

put on his custom made black leather boots (the one thing he allowed himself to buy with Darren's Centurion,

aka The Black American Express card) and walked over to the mirror and triple sinks. He could do without the

dusty pink marble. But that was Darren, he wasn't flaming and lisping like Ambrose with his too-tight and overly

trendy frocks, pink Mohawk, and singular dangling earring, but he wasn't in keeping with 100% maleness like

Hyde. He supposed that's what made his partner such a great director. Hyde put on his cheap Old Spice cologne

and straightened his silver bolo tie, knowing in the deep recesses of his mind that no matter what his feelings

were for Darren that this was all for Eric/a's benefit and nothing more.

Eric tried not to cry. No mascara was truly waterproof. No matter how much he stuffed his bra or how much

padding was in the bra before he stuffed, they were not real breasts. He put on his favorite Chanel lipstick and

looked at his transformation in the mirror. He still wore the black wrap dress, but made sure to give it a steam

from the iron that housekeeping supplied. He let his hands travel from his ankles to his thighs. Nothing beat the

feeling of sheer silky hosiery. The next step was to put on his black pumps with an asymmetric buckle strap and

to not keep the men… (his men?) waiting.

Hyde let out a smile after Darren kissed him as Hyde smoothed the shoulders on Darren's black blazer. He

couldn't deny that the man was attractive.

"D.R., are you done with the festivities downstairs?"

"Yes, Steveo. Let me phone the kitchen and tell them to bring up dinner before our Joanie arrives…"

your Joanie, MY ERICA….

"Make sure I get a bottle of Coke."

"Better than a vial of it. Although, I don't know why you don't like mineral water, Steveo. It's better for you."

"It has no taste…."

"Fair enough…." Darren pulled him closer.

Damn it if he wasn't starting to feel something for this one.

Why was Eric's heart beating so rapidly? It almost reminded him of Prom Night. He thought that, that night might

have been the evening he lost his virginity to Donna. He did want to experience what sex with a woman was

like. He loved feeling her up in the Vista Cruiser and imaging that her ample breasts were on his body. It was

supposed to be him in long jewel-toned colored dress dancing with Hyde as the whole junior class (plus one

sophomore Jackie) of Point Place looked on in shock and awe. When the door closed behind him he realized he

was out of the only guestroom that was even near the master bedroom. Wherever the other Cross 2 Bear

ladies were they weren't on this floor. His heels didn't click because of the red plush carpet runner. Red carpet.

Ha ha. It seemed a rather long walk to only go down a hallway, turn right, and go through the archway. Shit.

He wanted to run, but he knew he could only go forward. No one ever got anywhere in life by running away.

Hyde broke a crunchy breadstick in half as he heard Darren gush, "Aren't you the picture of lovely, Joanie…" He

kissed Eric on the cheek.

"Thank you." But Darren was right. Eric did look gorgeous, but that was hardly the point.

"What would you like to drink?" Darren directed Eric to the buffet station that was near the bar area. His room

was like one of those big luxurious hotel suites that he could only dream about. There were all of these places

before you even got to the bedroom area.

"Just tea."

"Honey, you can certainly have more than tea…"

Hyde needed to pour his Coke into a glass that contained ice and scotch.

"Well, maybe just a little cocktail." Eric glanced over at Hyde and winked, "You certainly didn't have to go

through any trouble for me…I bet the ladies are quite pissed off at me. I can do the show tomorrow."

Hyde smirked internally.

"Don't you worry about them. Steveo, why are you so quiet?"

"He's just being Zen. Did Steven tell you that we grew up together in Point Place, Wisconsin?" And that was

after just one sip of the gin and tonic with a twist of lime in a textured glass.

Forman!

But Darren had a bit of Zen about him and wasn't going to go on about his boyfriend keeping secrets. They

didn't have that kind of relationship. Hyde didn't know why this was bothering him so, but it was.

"No, he didn't…."

The phone on the bar rang and Darren went to answer it giving Hyde the perfect opportunity to ignore Eric's

rather nice perfume and whisper in her ear.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing…"

Darren hung up the phone. "Joanie, Steveo, I apologize for this, but when the head of one of the studios shows

up unannounced, I have to see what he wants. The staff should be bringing up dinner shortly, feel free to start

without me."

Eric watched as Darren and Hyde exchanged a kiss before the older man left the room.

"Now why are you acting so rude?" Eric asked

"You want to start with the questions, Forman?" Eric hated being called by his surname when he was in the

clothes. "Was it any of your business?"

"How was I to know you didn't tell your boyfriend the basic information as to where you were from?"

Hyde walked over to the bar to make himself a drink. He wanted to be sober at least until the first dinner course

was served. He wanted to be at his best for Eric/a, but she didn't seem to be appreciate any of his efforts in doing

so. The private interphone system rang and although he didn't want to Hyde felt compelled to answer it.

"Hello? Yeah. Okay. Thanks."

"You're always so terse."

"And this is new to you? For your information dinner is about to be ready."

"I'm not hungry." Eric crossed his arms and wished that he had real breasts to be able to push them up just to

see if Hyde would still be angry or if would he pick her up and place her in bed for a night of lovemaking?

"So now you are going to pout? You know who you remind me of at this moment?"

Normally in the scheme of the present Eric wouldn't have minded being compared to Jackie. She had beautiful

hair, skin, and her clothes! Eric was always secretly envious of her before she even locked lips with Hyde. Since

Eric rarely saw her at school in the early days, he always looked forward to seeing her arriving in the basement

to see what perfect-little-outfit she had on. He envied the fact that society okayed Jackie and the rest of the

female population to be pretty...but god forbid if he wanted - and needed - to do the same.

"Don't say it…"

"Actually, you're worse than Jackie…because she didn't know ANY of this. You know about me…"

"Only because of a chance meeting, honey."

"Whatever and don't you call me honey in that tone. Regardless of how long, you know about me. And I don't

know what you're trying to prove."

"I think you are jealous that your boyfriend has a crush on me."

Hyde let out a laugh. "Jealous?"

"Are you deaf?" Eric felt the need to keep his hands busy and went to check out the tray of appetizers that

were on the bar.

"You know what, Steven? I think your little safe bubble popped."

"Be careful, Forman…your male voice is showing."

Unintentional or not that was certainly an arrow to the heart. Eric put down the plate that only had 1 thin

crackly wheat cracker and a piece of cubed cheese on it.

"Fuck you…" Eric hoped the tears wouldn't come. He cried enough lately.

Hyde couldn't respond and Eric cleared his throat as the French doors opened and the staff brought up their

dinners.

"Mr. Roberts will be upstairs shortly."

Hyde said his thank yous and Eric sat on the sofa in the small TV area. It was there that he saw from another

archway view a set of closed French doors that must have lead to the bedroom area. This wasn't how the night

was supposed to go. Hyde wasn't the type to offer up apologizes so Eric felt he better say something.

"Are you hungry?" Hyde asked coming in to view.

"Not really. Listen, Steven, I'm sorry, okay? Can we just sit together?"

Hyde sat down there was no room on this sofa and there was many a time when he and Darren..."I'm sorry

about what I said about your voice." That was tied into his gender and sexuality that Hyde knew especially as a

gay man that, that was a cheap shot to make and never mind that it was to Eric. His best friend. Whatever

happened to those days? When Hyde would sit in his claimed white chair from Mrs. Forman's very first kitchen

chair and table set as Eric would sit on the battered old beige sofa and Hyde would wonder what tasting him

would be like? The cross-dressing did not matter and it slightly bothered Hyde on why it didn't matter. He

couldn't judge anyone even Ambrose-the-Queer. But why was Eric in the female form so attractive? Without

thinking he put his arm around Eric/a and whispered, "Is this what you want?"

"Yes. Is my voice back to where it should be?"

"You're perfect," Eric thought that wasn't true at all, "you're just so perfect…"

Eric wasn't about to go into detail about until he had breasts he wasn't perfect by any stretch of the

imagination. But it was wonderful when the rugged Han Solo kissed the fair Princess Leia as they stretched out

on the rather small, as Kelso would call it, the seat of love. One of Eric's dreams came true as Hyde kissed him

soft and tender, yet with just little hints of roughness that had Eric wanting even more. Eric was about to take a

risk and that's when he noticed Darren watching them.

Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffy. To be continued...

Also thanks to my regular reviewers. You guys are great!