Chapter 13

Suzanne and Andrew sat in the taxi on the way into Rome, holding hands and staring out at the world. For Andrew this was only his second trip overseas and the first in more than 10 years. Suzanne had been a couple more times than that but as with him, it was the first time away on her own without her family. They had left Edinburgh without having to blatantly lie to her parents although Andrew was sure her mother knew there was more to the vacation then they were telling her. That being said, they could have gone to a bed and breakfast 20 minutes outside Edinburgh for two weeks and the outcome would be the same. That Suzanne was being allowed to go on holiday with him was tacit acceptance of the nature of their friendship and relationship.

Heathrow was busy but they had time between flights and had arrived in Rome on schedule in late afternoon. The airport is out by Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber and they were now heading into Rome. Andrew had spent time with the travel agent deciding on where to stay while in Rome. This was pure relaxation for him, and he hoped Suzanne, and so he picked something quieter up by the Villa Borghese Gardens. This was costing him more but he did not care, he had worked hard for more than four years and was going to enjoy himself, not go crazy but still indulge. Given that he had fretted so much about having nothing to do just a month ago it seemed odd that Andrew was looking forward to two weeks of doing nothing; maybe it was the company! The most interesting thing was going to be living with Suzanne for two weeks. No break from each other, it was all day every day. They were both sure that it would be fine, in fact the togetherness of it was one of the great things of the holiday. The middle weekend they were getting out of Rome to a little beach resort down the coast so in Andrew’s mind they had three separate four day trips on this holiday. Monday to Thursday of the first week, the four day long weekend and then the Tuesday to Friday of the second week. The cab dropped them off outside the hotel, a nice independent hotel on the Via Veneto, and they checked in. The little old lady, who looked older than Andrew’s grandmother, smiled as they registered and Andrew tried not to look too proud. Suzanne looked gorgeous that afternoon, her hair swept back radiating barely constrained sexiness. He caught her eye and they both knew exactly what they would be doing when the hotel room door closed.

As well as spending the two weeks together they were both very intrigued by the thought of being able to fuck all the time. Beyond the immediate gratification aspect of it, there was genuine curiosity as to how their sex life would evolve. They were used to the infrequent but intense sessions where they fucked themselves into complete exhaustion. Even that night it wasn’t as if they were closing the door and not coming out until the morning, they were in Rome and a warm summer’s night stroll and dinner were planned. This was a chance for them to see what life together would be like. Andrew thought about all this as they walked up the two flights of stairs to their room on the 2^nd floor. Brian Campbell’s crash course on tipping got the bell boy out the room with an appropriate amount and Suzanne and Andrew were alone together for the first time in weeks.

“Strip.”

Andrew was startled out of his contemplation by Suzanne’s barked command.

“Come on, strip.”

He shouldn’t have needed to be told twice. Suzanne grabbed a cushion off the little couch and knelt in front of him, already caressing his straining cock.

“Your balls feel so heavy Andrew, do you have a big load waiting for me, are you going to drown me in your spunk?”

Further words were lost as Suzanne slipped the head of his dick into her mouth while massaging his balls with her hands. The unreleased buildup of the last couple of days churned away and within a minute Andrew popped, his load swallowed as Suzanne held him in place stopping him from shoving his hips forward. Once there was nothing left she eased the pressure but kept his dick in her mouth and within a minute he was hardening again. Oh the recuperative powers of youth!

Once Suzanne had him back to hardness, Andrew was pushed back on the bed and mounted without delay. She sank fully onto him and then lay across his chest, his arms instinctively holding her. That first fuck, on a beautiful August afternoon in Rome, was a drawn out, comfortable coupling, two people revelling in the situation. It started slowly, internal squeezes and occasional hip flexes before Andrew’s hands were drawn to her magnificent tight arse. As he squeezed and moulded her beautiful backside the pace picked up, Suzanne sitting up and moving her hips and suddenly all that was important was watching the beautiful woman on him have an orgasm. Everything Andrew knew about Suzanne’s body he used, driving her upward. Her nipples were insensitive and she always had him squeezing and pinching much harder than he was ever comfortable with, but today Andrew lowered his head and nibbled away at them, nipping and pulling, waiting for the moment when she finally arched her back and let the orgasm take her.

Minutes later and Suzanne was once again lying on him, their fluids gently leaking all over his balls. These were the moments where their behaviour needed to change. Normally this was a respite, a chance for recovery but then a comment, a look or a touch would have them worked up in no time and they would be off again. But it was late afternoon, the heat of the Roman summer was starting to bleed off and they were a five minute walk from the Trevi fountain. Suzanne the mind reader spoke.

“I know, there is nothing I want more than to get you all wound up and let you ravish me but we should shower and play tourist.”

“I agree, tourist first, ravishing later.”

She giggled and climbed off him. The ensuite was an adventure, with inconsistent water temperature and pressure but they freshened up. While Suzanne showered first Andrew hauled the bags onto the bed and hung up his clothes, with Suzanne doing the same while he showered. This of course meant that she was still wearing nothing but a towel around her hair when he stepped out of the bathroom. Since they were in Rome, Suzanne backed away holding her fingers up in the sign of the cross to ward him off, all the while still standing there naked. Andrew’s willpower was going to be tested for the next 14 days!

When he looked back what did Andrew remember most about the two weeks in Rome? Suzanne. Thinking back to that trip, their tentative steps to adulthood, and all he thought of was Suzanne. All his memories of that trip, were memories with her in it. It is these memories and experiences that having the money allowed. He had no idea what the total trip cost and didn’t care. The time he spent with Suzanne was incredibly important at a formative stage of his life.

The first Sunday in Rome was an unstructured ramble around the centre of the city. It was from this that they got the idea of a guide, as there were numerous groups being led round the city. They had a map from the hotel and saw a lot of the sites on the east bank of the Tiber. But there was no structure and background, they tried subtly listening to some of the guides in the Pantheon to get some of this. It was when they got back to the hotel that they asked about a guide. Andrew asked the concierge for a young guide as close as possible to their age. This was a problem as all the guides were at least 30 and most were his father’s age or older. Eventually they ended up with an amateur guide, the concierge’s nephew, a third year student at University in Rome who they would meet on the Tuesday morning.

Monday was a lazy day of walking in the Borghese gardens, strolling the streets around the Spanish Steps and window and actual shopping. They had arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon and were sitting chatting, they even had their clothes on. Suzanne asked a surprising and unexpected question.

“You often tell me that I know nearly all your stories Andrew. Why do you not share all of them? Is it to do with the cancer or is it something else?”

Her request was innocent.

“They remaining stories mainly fall into two categories, stuff that happened during cancer treatment and things that happened afterwards that sound like bragging.”

Suzanne nodded but remained silent. Andrew thought about whether to respond for a long time before sighing and carrying on. He lay down on the bed and Suzanne slipped onto it beside him, instinctively knowing he would need her support.

“I was a lost little boy, sure I was 13 but I was a little boy in so many ways, and the autumn of 1978 was very difficult for me. When I was diagnosed with cancer everything was so relentlessly positive that I got a false sense of optimism, I was worried at first but everyone talked up the treatment, catching it early, all that sort of thing. So when first surgery didn’t work and then radiation started to drag on longer and longer it hit me hard. I don’t know if things have changed in terms of dealing with people but I got no honesty from the hospital staff or my parents, nothing but endless platitudes about surviving, the treatment was working, all that sort of thing. This was a low point for me and my whininess, I was a pathetic, moaning little shit. Sure I was fighting cancer but I was one of the oldest patients at the Sick Kids, right on the cusp of being transferred to the Infirmary for treatment as an adult. So for a couple of weeks or so in October that year I was impossible, and this is not over-humility, I saw nurses roll their eyes at my antics. It took me seeing children dying around me to break me of my self-pity. Sure I was fighting cancer, but I was still alive. Children’s cancers have high mortality rates and I saw a lot of children fade away before being taken to a private room or a hospice. I saw the children trying to be brave for their parents, and I saw the crippling agony on the faces of the parents. Looks that I could see on other people’s faces but I did not recognise on my own parents, it was there but I couldn’t see it. So the end of October or the beginning of November is probably the time when I started to think about death, my own death as a real and tangible thing as opposed to death generally. It was at this point that I spent a lot of time thinking about the Fates, and whether my worrying was pointless, if it was fated to be then what was the point of worrying. Not that this stopped me worrying but it gave me something to think about during the long days there, especially as no one would talk to me about it.

“When it was determined that I needed chemotherapy then I was transferred to an adult cancer treatment ward at the Infirmary, and because we were more than 15 years younger than anyone else there, I was put in the bed next to Faith. You know most of the next two months, I have told you about them before, about talking to Faith, meeting Leslie and all the things they did for me but I never really talk about the last 10 days. When I told you the first time I glossed over this part.”

Andrew spent a long time talking to Suzanne about the fateful day, January 26^th 1979, pardon for him, a death sentence for Faith. She cried as he told her about the meeting after the news and his attempts at comforting Leslie.

“No wonder you are so close. That is horrific.”

The final week brought fresh tears from them both. Then it was decision time, could Andrew talk about the day that more than any other in his life defined who he was.

“I have never told this story to anyone, only my parents and Leslie and her parents know about the last time I saw Faith. But I have never talked about it to anyone. Faith died on Sunday February 4^th 1979 in the evening, but I went to the hospice the day before in the morning. It was the most upsetting and horrible thing I ever saw.”

Andrew had to stop for a second to compose himself and Suzanne held his hand as he continued.

“That day defines my life, Suzanne, like no other ever will. I watched a girl who I had known for only two months be tortured to death. She was on the highest allowable dose of morphine and she was thrashing around in the bed. Despite the morphine her body was in utter agony, it was awful. It is the only thing that gives me nightmares. Often the night before I go for my regular checkup I will have this nightmare. But it is also the fundamental and core thing that drives me forward. I know that I am not a normal teenager, but I could never be normal after that day. I had already started working on the goals from the day after my release from hospital, Saturday January 20^th 1979. The three of us had mapped out the goals for my life, there was a plan and I made a promise to Faith in front of Leslie and we both made a promise to her about staying in touch. I don’t know how long I would have kept that promise, I would like to think nothing would be different than it is now, but I am honest enough to know that things and people change. After that day there was never any doubt, it was because of that Saturday that I had a focus, an enemy, because to me cancer is a living thing that must be destroyed. So for the last nearly five years this has driven me forward. It is the nucleus of who I am and I have never told anyone about it.”

Suzanne lay on Andrew and they cuddled in silence, needing the contact with the other.

“I am sorry that I pried, I should have known that there was a reason for not talking about it.”

“Don’t be sorry, it is good to talk about it sometimes, especially to the people important to me. Given that Leslie and Julian are a serious couple I presume she will tell him the story at some point, although from her perspective. It is the missing piece to understand the sometimes manic drive that I have. But it also brings us to the second part of the secrets. There will be less tears but in some ways, it is more unbelievable. As you well know, I don’t do anything half-arsed any more. I set up my first computer company in December of 1979 while I was in 3^rd year.”

Suzanne’s eyes widened.

“Yes, I know, a company, I couldn’t even be a director of my own company until I turned 16 and I had to have my Dad or Leslie sign everything for me until just last June. Leslie is the other Director and Mhairi Connelly, my lawyer, is the Company Secretary.”

“Are you serious, you have a company and a lawyer Andrew?”

“Wait, it gets a lot worse. Julian and I worked together that winter but legally he worked for me, it was my company that was getting paid. Then the two of us created a company together and sold some software. In fact we sold a lot of software, nearly a million pounds worth, so that after tax we had about a quarter of that each.”

Suzanne was looking at him like he was an alien.

“No wonder you never let me pay for anything.”

“I know but there is one final piece. Leslie is doing business at university and she joined Julian and me as the business brains behind our third company. And yes, I know how ridiculous this all sounds, three companies by the time I am 18 but it is true. In fact we might have set up the third company before I was 16. It doesn’t matter. We developed some software and sold a few units to the British Government. A regional government in Germany decided to buy the software, but only if the company was German so we sold the rights to a German company but only to sell it in Germany and Austria. We then sold the rest of the rights to two other companies for the other countries in Europe and Canada.”

Suzanne knew by the way Andrew was talking that there was more to this.

“How much Andrew?”

“After all the fees, about £36m altogether. The company was owned 70% by a charitable trust we had set up for the purpose of funding cancer research and then 10% each by the three of us. We have a trust with £25m or so and the three of us have the rest. As you can imagine I didn’t really want this known at school, so I never talked about it. I don’t want this known at all. I am not sure how many people really know how wealthy we are. Not many more than 10 or 12. That is why I wanted to treat you to a nice holiday, I never actually get to do anything with the money.”

“You mean to tell me that my best friend is a millionaire?”

Andrew nodded.

“Yes, I am.”

Suzanne lay on Andrew’s chest for a long time looking at him. When she spoke her voice was quiet.

“You never changed, the money really hasn’t changed you. You made tens of millions of pounds last year and I couldn’t tell you when. I saw you every morning and I have no idea when during the year it happened. That might be the most remarkable thing about this. I am almost afraid to ask but are there any other secrets?”

“The only things that you don’t know are some of the details of my private life, I have only told Leslie that. Or at least I used to. As I have gotten older I have not talked about it so much. The only other things would be what I have bought with some of the money.”

“Let’s leave them be, I appreciate the discretion with regards to the women in your life and I don’t need to know about your personal possessions. So the three of you gave away £25m to fund cancer research?”

Andrew nodded.

“Julian’s idea as well, he suggested that we set up a trust to own 70% of the business and that the three of us held the rest. I think that is the first moment that Leslie started to fall for him. I mean Leslie and I have this very intense, personal connection with cancer and with Faith. Julian does not have that and yet he gladly gave up more than 20% of the company. He is the amazing one. The Trust can wait, once Leslie graduates next year she is going to take over the running and then we’ll see.”

“Why did you tell me now Andrew? Just because I asked?”

“I am glad that you did ask because it allows me to tell you the truth, to stop keeping secrets. It has been a strange couple of months for me. I am going to Cambridge because I want to, I think it will be a great experience for me and I can’t wait. But in other ways it is shattering a carefully constructed existence that I have spent four years creating. I am not going to regularly see the three most important friends that I have, you, Julian and Leslie. By moving, a lot of the support network I have is gone, friends, family and mentors alike. Then on top of it, I am a little lost in terms of making a difference now. In four years I have helped create a trust that will fund cancer research in perpetuity. With careful management it could be still be running in 100 years with our grandchildren as the trustees. That seems an odd situation to be in as an 18 year old. This summer is the transition from boy to man and I am struggling to cope with parts of it. All of these things play a part in it. As for why I told you everything, you are my friend.”

They didn’t just stay in bed but after an early dinner Suzanne and Andrew spent three hours fucking themselves silly. It was a much more typical Edinburgh fuck session for them with brief rests before they couldn’t keep their hands off each other again. Suzanne was magnificent.

Tuesday saw them revisit most of the main tourist sites in the ancient city, but this time with a guide. On the first day it was just Antonio but on the other three days he brought along his girlfriend, Vittoria. Suzanne and Andrew bought lunch and dinner for them and it was great to hang out with a couple of university students and hear about life in Italy, how similar their frustrations were, and yet how other things were very different. The days in between were spent relaxing, walking in the Borghese gardens, a lot of talking and far more shopping than Andrew was anticipating. By necessity they passed the Trevi Fountain every day, as they walked around the city. They made sure to see all the main sights, just trying not to overload everything. They did history and culture every other day where they had a plan and relied on Antonio and Vittoria for assistance with the language, the tickets, the queueing, all the things that can stymie you the first time in a foreign city where you don’t speak the language. They walked for hours most days, which given they were eating out every day was probably for the best. The four of them hit all the main sights without going crazy. They were two teenagers playing grown up, alone with no supervision for the first time in their lives. Were they themselves? Or were they playing a role? They could have gone to a beach resort and just relaxed but Rome was the right mixture of interesting and unique history and art, lots of bars, shopping and eating out. Andrew looked back on that first visit to Rome and thought about the sights they saw and wondered if he really appreciated them or rather thought he should appreciate them. Two things stood out and they were hardly a surprise; the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum.

Vittoria and Suzanne got on well together which allowed Suzanne and Andrew some time apart when they went round the sights, even 20 minutes of alone time made Andrew appreciate Suzanne more when they met back up. Antonio escorted them to make sure they were not harassed. When they got to the Colosseum Andrew was unexpectedly moved by it so wandered off on his own for a while just soaking up the atmosphere. There are many things in life that disappoint, the reality of something is sadly much less than how it was built up in your mind, the Mona Lisa was, for him, a prime example. The Colosseum was the other way round, Andrew was not prepared to be so taken aback by it. The stories of the events in the amphitheatre seemed very real when he stood there looking down into it. However much was fictionalised or exaggerated there was still an ominous air to the place. When he caught up with the other three his mood lightened and they got some wonderful pictures before moving onto the Forum. But as he left the ancient structure, he was glad to leaving. It had been a darker experience than he had ever anticipated. The following week it was the Sistine Chapel that moved him, but in completely the other way.