Dinner with Lauri

It was my ex, Lauri's birthday, last Tuesday, so I went over to his parent's place for a big wog dinner. He's in Australia, with his current boyfriend, for a few weeks. There were the parents, the uncles and the aunties, the brother's and the sisters, nieces and nephews and the friends, gay and straight. I so love those big, wog family get-togethers, they are really cool. Big and noisy and food forever. English and Italian; conversations where one person is speaking one language and the other person is answering in another.

The food was cooked outside in the kitchen in the garage and on the BBQ and laid out in side and we all ate on a big long table in the garden, between the vegi patch and the rabbit hutch. Everybody chatting, laughing and drinking, into the night.

Lauri and I got caught smoking a J when his mother and other gusts came out the front. His mother's only reaction was to call us cheeky boys. I love his mum, she's gorgeous and she always loves to see me. Then we smoked it with a few of the rels standing around, admiring the olive tree and the lemon tree and nobody seemed to care. Wog families are so carefree when it comes to some things that Aussie families would freak out about... and then they're weird about other things that Aussie families wouldn't care about. I think that's why I love my time with them, different values, different ways of living.

It's such a big, extended family, loving, melting pot, Lauri and his family. I told him he was lucky and he replied, To think I was embarrassed by them for so many years.

We ate, we drank and we all sang happy birthday. Lauri, of course, had three cakes, the prodigal son, after all, returned. His birthday is such an occasion, he just loves it.

Towards the end of the night when the guys had had plenty of wine, they started saying that nephew Carlo - Lauri's sister's 17 year old son - was definitely... I'd never thought that before, I've known him since he was four, after all. Then I caught his eye catching mine and he smiled and he kept looking, as I deliberately looked at him. He was coy and sweet and blushed a little, but mostly he smiled and sparkled. Yep, I thought. How about that? I reckon he is one for our team. Cute Carlo, who'd have thought? It had never crossed my mind before.

Then I realised he was looking over at me all the time, after that. What beautiful, big, brown eyes, he has. What a cute smile. So I kept catching his eye and he kept looking and smiling and looking away and looking back. Whenever I spoke, he seemed to be inordinately interested in what I was saying.

The siblings and the guys were the last to leave.

As we were all leaving, Carlo was standing in front of me, as we waited for everyone to get their shit together and say good bye. I was bad, I couldn't help myself. I ran my eyes down Carlo to the bulge in his shorts and then back up again. He blushed and instinctively moved his hand in front of his pants and then blushed and smiled and his eyes looked at me with a burning intensity, fixed on me. I smiled and he smiled in acknowledgment, we connected there and then, standing between the garage and the side gate, as the other's chatted in the distance. Then his mother came out with his sister and said, Come on lets go and Carlo left, looking back at me until he was around the corner of the house and out of sight.

When I got out the front, he announced, to me, proudly that he was driving his mother's new Honda. I smiled and said great and his eyes stayed locked on me. I smiled and said good bye and he did to. He waved enthusiastically, as I drove off.

Silly hey, but I couldn't get the smile off my face, as I drove away. I wondered if he had his uncle's big... well, you know what I wondered... probably, I thought, and then I smiled even more.