First, thank you all for your awesome feedback on all my previous stories, both the public comments as well as the private emails. Your feedback is what keeps the artist in me going. The inspiration for this particular story came from one of the comments. Essentially all my stories are about a long and erotic chase between a gay man and a seemingly straight man. There are lots of hints, lots of tension, lots of missed opportunities, until eventually the two main characters act on their impulses and have mad passionate sex. One of the commentors requested the story to be written from the perspective of the straight character, and voila this story.

 

As usual, my stories are more about the chase and the sexual tension rather than page after page of meaningless sex. Read it till the end, it will be worth your while. The sex makes so much more sense once the characters have been well developed. This is not a sex story. It is a love story with lots of sexual tension and quite a bit of sex too.

 

The other inspiration for this story is Fire Island Pines. I have been escaping to this slice of heaven every summer for the past 20 years. It is where I fell in love, where I was proposed to, and where I plan to spend all my summers once I retire.

 

My stories don't explicitly mention safe sex. It is always implied that you should use caution and common sense in all your sexual encounters.

 

Comments, feedback, suggestions, inspiration are always welcome on the comment section or privately at DrThroat@aol.com

 

 

 

My Summer on Fire Island

 

 

Chapter 1: May

 

My name is Pat. Patrick. I am the middle child of a very typical lower middle-class family on the south shore of Long Island. With Irish and Polish roots, I have a very easily handsome face and good peasant stock that helped me look fit with minimal effort. I was never the smart kid in class. Always B or C average. Definitely not college bound based on grades. And my family did not have money to send me to college just for sake of going. I always knew that right after high school I would be going into the work force. In fact, the last 2 summers before graduation I had worked at a construction and contractor company, and as soon I as graduated, I joined them full time. All that physical labor and my good genes made me look buff and fit with minimal effort.

 

My love life was with Cindy. We were both in out Junior year of high school when we started dating. I was in the baseball team and she was a cheerleader. We lost our virginity to each other a few months later. We dated steady ever since then, and we were a good match. She also had no grades and no money. She worked as a supermarket cashier the last couple of summers in high school and then went to work there full time after graduation.

 

Cindy and I had a good easy life at the beginning. Each one of us lived at home with our parents as we continued our mediocre lives and our mediocre jobs. We hung out on the weekends with our mutual friends, most of them also people who were coupled up since high school and nobody went to college. Life was simple and good.

 

Then, it all changed. Cindy got pregnant just shy of our 20^th birthdays. Before I knew it, we had a shotgun wedding and moved in together as a new family. Then the baby came. Cindy took off 2 months to take care of the baby, but with our low income we needed her full-time salary to make ends meet. I tried to pick up extra shifts at work to pay for the daycare.

 

In the meantime, she never lost the last 25 lbs she put on during pregnancy. And it really bothered her emotionally although I didn't care much. I tried to be supportive. We were both exhausted all the time, and steadily we were not having sex as much any more. Then, yes, she got pregnant again. We had our second baby by age 23. She put on another 20 lbs after that.

 

The math just did not add up. Her job at the supermarket was not enough to offset the cost of daycare for 2 babies. Her parents had moved to Jersey Shore a while back, so they could not help on a regular basis. My mom had passed away already 10 years ago, and my dad was not one to look over 2 little babies. The only choice was for her to stay home, and for me to pick up as many shifts and overtime as I could.

 

And then there was the issue of sex. After she had put on so much more weight, Cindy never saw herself as a sexual being any more. Any attempt by me to have sex, even with lots of romance and adoration, was met with a quick and flat rejection. At age 24 I had suddenly realized I might not ever have sex again in my life. I was not the kind to cheat on her or go to hookers. And I could never leave her on account of this, even though sex is an important part of any relationship.

 

Many days I left early in the morning and came home after the kids were put to bed already. I had minimal contact time with them. That became my routine for the next few years. And no sex either. I had to resort to occasional jerk off at the port-a-potty at the jobsite, or here and there quietly in the bathroom when Cindy was sleeping. Life was not rewarding.

 

At one point I got the idea of placing ads for day workers instead of just picking up extra shifts at work at the same salary. You can usually make more money that way. I had experience with such a variety of handy jobs, I could potentially handle most things people needed to fixed. I placed an ad in Craigslist and then waited for responses.

 

I got a few responses from people in town and other towns nearby. The money was decent, but most of the jobs I had to do during the weekends when I was not busy with my regular job. Which meant even less time with Cindy and the kids. I had bills to pay, and every penny counted. In the beginning of May I got a Craigslist response from a guy on Fire Island. He introduced himself as Tyler Hansen. He needed his fence painted. He had all the paint and supplies already as a different handyman was supposed to get the job done for him, but he got stood up like 5 times and he was looking for a different handyman.

 

We agreed I would go there Saturday morning the weekend before Memorial Day and possibly get the job done. From the pictures it seemed like it might be a 2-day job. That Saturday I got on the Sayville Ferry to Fire Island Pines. It was a particularly warmer day than average for the season, although not peak summer weather yet. I had been to The Pines (as people called it in short) a few times on various company jobs.

 

The Pines is a 99% gay community. The rich gays with fancy jobs and fancier summer houses. And these houses changed owners like every 5 to 10 years. Then the next owner usually does some minor or major construction to make the property his. There were always projects on the island. I had gotten used to seeing the gay guys there and how they live and interact with each other in their own private haven. As an outsider, it was interesting to see a whole different world that existed just a short ferry ride across the bay.

 

All the previous times I had gone there was with the company, which did jobs Monday to Friday and I was always accompanied by the other construction workers. This was the first time I was going there on a Saturday morning, and all alone. It was a whole different vibe. Lots of young and middle-aged fit guys had packed their bags for a weekend of fun and excitement. And there was me, the lone straight handyman going there to meet someone to complete a fence painting job.

 

Due to the warm weather, I was wearing a worn-out cotton T shirt with lots of stains and holes, which fit very snug to my developed upper torso. I was also wearing my work shorts, equally worn out from years of use and washes. My hairy defined legs were on full display. All this was complemented with work boots, and a washed-out baseball hat. I had my toolbelt around my waist, and my toolbox just in case I needed more instruments as I had no idea what Tyler might have on hand. In retrospect, I totally looked like a cartoon of the Village People or some stripper dressed as construction worker going on a gig. All that was lost on me in those days, at that time. But I did see all the gay guys on the boat checking me with curiosity and possibly even lust.

 

I finally made it to Tyler's house. Fire Island is the kind of community that nobody locks their doors. There are no doorbells. The fence is mainly to keep out the deer, not people. People usually just walk into whatever house to drop in unannounced at their friends' houses. Still, I did not feel right walking all the way in. I opened the gate and started calling out Tyler's name.

 

Tyler walked out from the main house entrance. He could not have been more than 30, basically my own age. Yet he owned this house at the same age as me and here I was coming to paint his fence for him. Tyler was fit. Practically same height and body weight as me. I got my physique from working construction, he got his most likely from a proper gym with a high monthly membership. He was wearing a pair of gray sweat shorts and nothing more. Not even flip flops. His defined chest could have been a replica of mine. His face had an angelic innocent look. True to his last name Hansen, he kinda looked like he had Scandinavian roots.

 

He seemed very happy to see me. We shook hands. He showed me around the front fence, my project. I had seen the outside already, so he showed me the inside and where all the supplies were. He already had paint as well as primer, and all the rolls and brushes. It seemed like I would have to prime the fence that day and perhaps come back the next day to paint. Just to be clear, I reiterated our agreement on daily rate of $200 for a full day. He said he had the cash and he could give it to me right then or at the end of the job. I did not feel right taking money from him in advance. He seemed like the kind of guy who was good on his word.

 

Without too much more chit chat, I got to work and he went back inside the house. At around 10:30 I really had to piss hard. Normally at a job like this I would go to a corner in the yard and do my thing. But with him inside the house, I did not want him to think I was a savage. As much as I did not want to bother him, I had to use the bathroom. I went to the front entrance and gently opened the door.

 

"Hello, Tyler?" I said softly. I didn't know if he was in the middle of something or even napping.

 

He came out from one of the rooms and inquired: "All good?"

 

"Yeah, sorry, do you mind if I use the men's room? Sorry, nature is calling."

 

"Oh, yes, of course. Come in please. The guest bathroom is right down the hallway to your right. Please, make yourself at home." There was something sweet and genuine about him. His mannerism was definitely not from New York. He had the kind of nice guy aura people from the Midwest have.

 

I went to the bathroom and did my thing. When I came out, he had matching glasses of iced tea waiting for us on the kitchen counter.

 

"I didn't know if you were thirsty, or what is even your refreshment of choice. I took the liberty of serving us iced tea," he said.

 

"Oh, thanks." I walked up and took the glass. Truth be told, many of my coworkers and I sneak in Budweisers in the middle of the day instead of water. Most certainly we were not iced tea kind of crowd. But I didn't want to disappoint Tyler.

 

"You're finding everything that you need for the job?"

 

"Yeah, it looks like your prior handyman at least gave you a good shopping list for the project."

 

"Well, I'll be in that room over there most this weekend working on my project if you need me again. And please, most certainly take your lunch break at whatever time you want to. You can even come around and hang out by the deck and pool to rest in between. Make yourself at home."

 

"Um, what is YOUR project you're working on?" As soon as those words came out of my mouth, I realized that I might have crossed a line I shouldn't have. His private life was none of my business.

 

"I'm a screenwriter. I write for big movies in Hollywood. Working on my next project here in The Pines all this summer."

 

I was at a loss for words. My entire world consisted of other blue-collar people. Never in my life had I ever come across anyone with Hollywood connections. "Any movies I know?"

 

He named a few big-time recent movies; I had heard of all of them. "For that last one I won an Oscar," he concluded.

 

Wholly shit. It's one thing to see the Oscars on TV; it's another thing to have one those people in front of you serving you iced tea in his kitchen.

 

"Take your time, enjoy your iced tea." With that he turned around and went back to his office. He totally didn't mind leaving me all to myself inside his house. I took a few sips of the iced tea and went back to work.

 

Around 12:30 I decided it was time for the lunch break Tyler was assuming I should take. I had brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a single can of Budweiser with me in my toolbox. From being in The Pines in the past, I knew I couldn't afford one of the lunch places in town, and altogether peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were much more in my price range.

 

I looked for a place to sit near my job area to eat my lunch. But besides the walkway to the main entrance, the rest of the grounds were manicured with beautiful shrubs and flowers. I looked from where I was, and I could not see Tyler inside the house. I assumed he was still in the office area. I thought perhaps I should take him on the offer to go around and eat my lunch on the other side of the house.

 

I walked around the house on the outside and saw the deck area for the first time. There was a good size pool in the middle. There were chaise lounges on one side, and an outdoor dining set on the other side. On the far corner there was an outdoor shower, although it had no walls and was widely exposed to the outside. I went to the other far corner and sat on the ledge. I couldn't possibly just walk up and sit at his dining table. I knew my place in the world.

 

Just as I was about to take the first bite out of my sandwich, I heard the sliding door open and Tyler walked out with a tray of food and a glass of white wine. At first, he did not see me and sat himself down on the dining chair. As soon as he looked up, I was busted.

 

"Oh, hi Pat. Great minds work alike. Come, come over and eat your lunch with me."

 

"I'm sorry Sir, I didn't want to interrupt your privacy. You said I could come to this side, but I didn't think you were gonna be here too. I'll let you enjoy your lunch at peace. I'll go to the other side by the front gate and get back to work ASAP."

 

"Nonsense. Bring your stuff and sit with me. I could use the company instead of looking at that screen all day."

 

Reluctantly, I picked up my stuff and slowly, shyly moved in the direction of the dining table. More than feeling awkward having a random lunch with someone who had hired me for a day job, I was embarrassed for him to see what I had brought for lunch. He had healthy homemade salad with a portion of salmon on top. And a glass of white wine. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a Budweiser.

 

I sat down across the table. He looked over and coyly said: "Interesting choice of drink." At that point in time I wished the earth would open up and swallow me alive. I had never been more embarrassed in my life.

 

I needed to say something to show him that I had at least an ounce of a sense of humor. "Well, construction workers, you know." He chuckled at that.

 

We each took a few bites of our food in silence. I didn't know him or ever hung out with rich people. Or gay people. Or people who have been to Hollywood. I didn't know how to act. I just wanted to finish that damn sandwich of mine and get back to work. After a few more bites in silence, he asked: "Peanut butter and jelly is standard construction worker lunch too?"

 

"Nah, man. With two kids at home, and no kitchen skills whatsoever, that is the easiest thing for me to make as I left early in the morning." I didn't tell him the part that this is what was in my budget range.

 

We exchanged a few more sentences, nothing of substance. As soon as I finished my sandwich I excused myself and went all the way around the house to the front gate where I should have damn had my lunch to begin with. Somewhere around 3 PM he came out to the front again to catch up, maybe even to check on me. I had just a little more area to cover.

 

"Looks good," he said. With that, he placed another glass of iced tea by my work area without saying anything about it.

 

"Wait until it's done tomorrow." I said.

 

"Thanks for all your work here. I'm sorry if I interrupted your quiet time during your lunch break."

 

"It's cool, man. No sweat. I'm used to socializing with the other workers during our lunch breaks. That's our `guy time' together."

 

"I'm heading out to do some running. In case you're done here before I get back, feel free to use the restroom inside before you go. And I'll see you tomorrow."

 

He took a few steps toward town, but then turned around and came back toward me. "If you're used to socializing during lunch, then lunch is on me tomorrow. I'll make us both lunch. Don't pack anything to bring with."

 

"No, no, no, sir, I can't. That's way too kind of you and not needed. I'm glad to have my food in a little corner and not bother you."

 

"Nonsense. I'd love the company. See you tomorrow." And before I got the chance to object again he ran away leaving me at my post.

 

The whole rest of the time that afternoon I was filled with thoughts as I finished the last segment of the fence. What an interesting and peculiar character. I had seen Will & Grace on TV, but this was legit my first time interacting with a gay guy one on one this much. And the whole Oscars story was bigger than life.

When I finished all the priming of the fence, I did allow myself back into the house to use the bathroom. Even though he wasn't there, I felt like I was intruding on his private space. I made a dash to the bathroom and emptied my bladder. On my way back out, he still had not returned from his run. I paused for a moment to check out the house. There was an open space kitchen on the right side, and a dining room in front of it before you got into the deck. In the middle there was a generous sized living room, but no TV. There were two rooms on the left. The devil got into me and I walked in a bit further to see what's there. The room that Tyler came in and out of all day was set up like an office and gym. There was a desk as well as a stationary bike and several weight stations. The other room was a small bedroom.

 

I didn't want to risk getting caught snooping. I went to the front gate, gathered my tool box and headed out. Toward the end of the walkway I bumped into Tyler coming back from his run. He was sweaty, his soaked shirt was clinging to his defined torso.

 

"Lunch date tomorrow," he said as he kept running toward his home. I never got a chance to even say good bye, let alone try to get out of him making me lunch.

 

When I got home, I told Cindy all about Tyler. She religiously watched all these award shows, and she must have seen him at some point. She googled him and sure enough there was a picture of him in his tuxedo accepting his Oscar during last year's event. I didn't tell her he offered to make me lunch the next day. But we did watch one of Tyler's movies on-demand. I tried to pay extra attention to the words and dialogue, as that was all Tyler's doing.

 

The following day, Sunday, turned out also to be a warm and sunny day. Perfect for paint jobs. Upon arrival, I once again gently opened the gate and yelled out Tyler's name. He ran out, wearing the same pair of gray sweat shorts as yesterday. From his animated moves I could see he was freeballing it.

 

"Welcome back. Did you have a nice evening?" he asked.

 

"Yup, thanks. Looking forward to finishing this job for you today."

 

He went back in and I started my work. Around 11'ish he checked on me from the main door to the house: "12:30 good for you for lunch?"

 

I turned around. He was leaning on the front door with one foot over the other. "I really don't want to be a bother sir."

 

"Like I said, you are not a bother. And stop calling me sir. I'm guessing we're the same age. How old are you?"

 

"27."

 

"I'm 28. So no sir from now on."

 

He went back in without any further discussion. Just shy of 12:30 he came back of the main entrance and announced: "Lunch is ready!"

 

I put down my paintbrush and started walking on the ground to go around house and meet him by the deck.

 

"Where are you going? Come through the house."

 

I was never used to people being this nice to me. Specially people I had done construction and handyman jobs for. They always treated me like second class citizen. I was used to that. It had become my way of understanding my place in the world. But Tyler was treating me differently. He was treating me like a buddy.

 

I walked into the main living area. I had been here before, yesterday, when he was not there. But I made sure to act like I didn't know what the inside looked like. Beyond the indoor space, the deck door was open and two lunch place setting were already set up. We walked outside. He sat in his spot from yesterday, and I sat across from him the same spot as yesterday as well. We each had a large plate of salad with a piece of grilled chicken breast. He had a glass of white wine next to his plate, and there was a kitchen towel covering whatever drink he had placed for me. Once we both got seated, he picked that kitchen towel off and revealed what was underneath it, not without first making a humorous "Ta-Dah!" sound effect.

 

It was a can of Budweiser. He had gotten me Budweiser to go with my lunch. I looked at him and at the beer and we both burst out laughing. Probably the situation was not THAT funny to begin with, but the whole theatrics of it was just too much.

 

That was the best grilled chicken and salad I've ever had. Neither Cindy nor I were good cooks. And we never went to fancy restaurants. But this was awesome. Over lunch, as he sipped on his white wine and I sipped on my Budweiser, conversation came a bit easier than the day before. I shared with him that I was married to Cindy, and told him about our kids. I showed him baby pictures. I didn't tell him I was not getting laid any more. He in turn shared with me that he had separated from his boyfriend of 4 years about a year ago. Even though it was Tyler that had won the Oscar and was hanging out with the Hollywood types, it was the dentist boyfriend who had found the new fame too much to deal with. Tyler had been coming to Fire Island for a few years by then, but when he came into some money he invested it in buying this house. Admittedly it needed some work, but the bones of the house were very good. This was his first summer in the new house. The house needed to get some work, but Tyler had no timeline and was not in any rush. The main objective was to spend the summer writing his next movie script. He was only beginning now, but was getting a bit of writers' block.

 

Once we were done with eating, it just all of a sudden dawned on me that I knew how to conduct myself well in that situation. Yesterday's lunch was a complete embarrassment, but today's lunch flowed like two buddies catching up with each other. And the conversation just flowed naturally. I finished my Budweiser and bussed my own plate to the kitchen. Just as I approached the kitchen sink to start washing all the dishes and the mixing bowls, he told me it all goes into the dishwasher. He insisted I was the guest and that he could handle all that mess. On the one hand, helping with the dishes was the polite thing to do. On the other hand, perhaps it was a bit too `familiar'.

 

I thanked him again and headed to the fence to finish the job. At some point in the afternoon he came out to check in and make sure I was doing OK. Another glass of iced tea was unceremoniously placed by my toolbox. He asked me to come get him when I was done.

 

About an hour later I was in fact done. I went into the front door and called our his name. he came out from his office, still wearing that one gray sweat shorts and nothing else, including underwear. I took him to inspect the work. He walked around and he was in fact impressed. The fence looked brand new.

 

"I can't thank you enough for completing this project so fast. It is the first thing people see as they come in and now it looks perfect."

 

He put his hand in his right pocket and took out a roll of bills. Usually clients give me the money in an envelope, or they hold on to one end as I grab the other end. But Tyler did something I had never seen before. With his left hand he grabbed my right hand and made me open my palm up. With his right hand he placed the money in the palm of my hand and then made me close my fingers firm to hold it. Still holding my one hand with his left hand below and his right hand above, he stared me directly into his eyes and said: "Thank you." Except that this was no ordinary thank you. With his eyes he pierced mine. He tilted his head sideways as he said those words and made me understand that the appreciation came from the very essence of his being rather than some pleasant social exchange. He held on to my hand like that for at least 10 seconds before he let go. The whole time, I was frozen. I didn't know what to make of that exchange. Or of his mannerism. I was weirded out yet touched by his sincerity.

 

"Thanks so much for lunch, and most certainly for this generous pay. It will help my family tremendously."

 

"I wish you luck. Send my regards to Cindy."

 

"Thanks man." And with that I started walking away. A few steps in I turned around. He had not moved. He was still there looking at me walk away. I came back and asked: "If you don't mind me saying, you mentioned you had some other projects you needed to get done. I would gladly do anything you need fixing here."

 

"Great minds work alike. I was just thinking about what could be our next project. I hadn't given it much thought."

 

"I'm good with electric work, plumbing, wiring, painting, building, gardening, planting, even power washing. Whatever project you can think of."

"Tell you what, next weekend is the holiday weekend. Come back Saturday morning the following weekend and I'll have something lined up."

 

"Actually for me a 3-day weekend is perfect for catching up on any project that might take more than 2 days. I can be here all 3 days." I was just seeing dollar signs as I was hustling for more work.

 

"Fair enough. Come back this Saturday and let's see what I can have ready for you."

 

I was on cloud 9 the whole trip home. Not only I had $400 cash in my pocket, but I managed to book next the weekend too. Another $600. Once I got home I planted the cash in Cindy's hand and saw her joy as well. That was gonna help out our finances tremendously.

 

The following Saturday I showed up at the house. Once again, I gently opened the gate and announced myself. Tyler came out of the house and greeted me this time with a bro hug and an air kiss. I've seen the gays on the island greet each other like that. A bit European. It doesn't mean anything, that's their version of a handshake. I hugged back. I was happy to be there. And not only for the money.

 

That day's project was to fiddle with the shed doors for the garbage room right outside the gate, and the tool shed inside the gate. They were both getting stuck and needed some attention. I was glad it was gonna be an easy job. I could probably get it done in half a day, but told myself to stretch it to the whole day. A couple of hours into it he brought be his now-famous glass of iced tea and left it by my toolbox. At around 12:30 he appeared at the front entrance and announced: "Lunch is ready!"

 

I wasn't expecting lunch. Again. I fully thought that it was a one-time event last weekend. Nope, he had made us lunch. I was at a loss for words. I was not used to this kind of kindness. I was not used to clients treating me like their social equals. My peanut belly and butter sandwich and my Budweiser were both waiting for me in my bag.

 

"Coming?"

 

"I'm really embarrassed. I wasn't expecting this."

 

"Come, come, before it gets cold. I made us pasta. Hope you're hungry."

 

We went to the deck. This time the 2 table setting were set up next to each other, not across the table. His with his signature white wine, mine with another can of Budweiser.

 

The food was superb. But the company was divine. Sometimes you meet someone and you immediately feel like you've known them a million years. That was the vibe I had with Tyler. He was so easy going and unassuming, treating a blue-collar handyman with the same respect as he would treat his buddies. I shared how grateful Cindy and I were for the job, and relayed Cindy's gratitude. He in turn shared that his writers' block is still going strong a week later.

 

After lunch we bussed our respective plates back to the kitchen. Again, I jumped in to do the dishes, only to be told to leave it all and he would take care of it. Just as I turned left to leave the sink, he had turned right toward me. Our chests bumped into each other, our faces were 3 inches apart. There was a 3 second mutual stare into each other's eyes before he said sorry and allowed me to go around him. A bit of an uneasy moment after a most lovely lunch.

 

I went back to fiddling with those doors. This time he did not come to check on me in the middle of the afternoon. When I was finished, I went by the front door to say good bye. I heard TV sound, but I had not seen a TV in the living room or his office. It was coming from upstairs. I don't know what got into me, but I followed the noise to the second floor. I passed by two empty bedrooms with their doors open; both silent. I walked to the end of the hallway, I assumed to the master bedroom. The TV was showing some classic movie. Tyler was fast asleep on top of the covers, wearing his signature gray sweatpants. He was so far asleep that morning wood was popping a tent in his pants.

 

I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye. And I didn't wake him up. And most certainly a straight guy catching a gay guy with a boner in his pants is most awkward. Just then there was an explosion in the movie and Tyler woke up. It took him a few seconds to realize where he was. Luckily for both of us, he was oblivious to the boner down below.

 

"Goofing off instead of working on your next Oscar?" I said jokingly.

 

"I fell asleep as I was working," he corrected me.

 

"Whaaaaat?"

 

"Sometime when I am at a loss for finding the right words to write down, I watch old movies for inspiration. I don't know when I fell asleep." By then he sat up straight in his bed. The morning wood was disappearing, saving us both an awkward situation.

 

"Anyways, I'm all done here. I'll see you tomorrow?"

 

"Yes, perfect. I think for tomorrow maybe you can look into the pool heater shed's door." Just as I started walking away from his bedroom entrance he added: "And we have some company tomorrow for lunch, probably a dip in the pool. Nice guys. You'll enjoy meeting them."

 

There was something familiar yet odd about him saying WE were having company over for lunch. I was just the handyman. I didn't live there. Even though I was getting along famously with Tyler, there was no WE there. But on the other hand, I loved this new attention. Never in a million years did I think I would sit at a lunch table with rich people or gay people.

 

The next day I showed up at Tyler's as usual. This time I didn't bother announcing myself at the front gate. Instead I just walked in and went through the front door. Tyler was in the kitchen making himself coffee. He was wearing his gray sweat shorts again, and nothing more. He came over and gave me the bro hug and air kiss. Then without missing a beat he grabbed a second coffee mug and poured me a cup as well.

 

"You take sugar or milk in your coffee?"

 

"Nope, just black," I replied.

 

I swear, our bodies looked so similar to each other. If you swapped the heads, and his golden tanned skin for my Irish pink skin, it was the same exact body build. I took my cup of coffee and continued through the house to the deck to the pool heater shed. It took me longer than I thought to finish this simple task. But just shy of 11'ish I walked back inside to announce I was done.

 

"All good with that door. What else did you have in mind for me for today?"

 

"How are you with dicing and slicing?" he asked.

 

I didn't think I understood him correctly. "Slicing food," he clarified once he saw my confused face.

 

"I'm much better at cutting lumber than slicing tomatoes. I thought you had more handy work for me."

"You've worked hard enough. Now come help me here before these crazies show up half drunk already."

 

The man was paying me a good sum to be there. If he wanted me to help around the kitchen instead of out on the deck, so be it. He had me cut up all the veggies for the salad as he focused on scrambled eggs and bacon. I helped him set up table for 6 on the outdoor dining table. I had no idea what was going on but I was willing to go along with it. Sure enough, the `crazies' showed up as expected. First it was Cody and Andres. A couple of minutes later it was Dan and Dan. Everybody was wearing bathing suits, including Tyler who had managed to change somehow in the middle of all that prepping. I was wearing my signature beat up T-shirt and work shorts and work boots. Even in my dirty work clothes, I was way overdressed compared to everyone else.

 

Tyler made sure to introduce me to everyone. They had come with their appetites. Before I knew it we were seated at the table and lunch was served. The new guys were drinking rosé, Tyler was having his white wine, and he made sure to serve me my Budweiser. It was an interesting and rowdy bunch. Conversation focused on their summer plans and some gossip about people I had never heard of. Most of the time it was Cody that commanded the conversation, and the other guys followed in his cues.

 

After lunch it was time for a pool dip. Tyler had me heat up the pool in advance. Cody and Andres jumped in first. Dan and Dan got totally naked before they joined the first couple in the pool. Tyler looked at me a bit uneasy.

 

"Join us in the pool?" he asked.

 

"You have been very kind. I didn't bring a bathing suit. I think I'll just hang out on the edge."

 

"You're sure? You can borrow one of mine. I'm sure we're about the same size."

 

"Nah, I'm good man. You go ahead and join your friends."

 

Maybe on an average day Tyler too would strip naked and jump in. I didn't know what was the norm there. But he jumped in with his bathing suit on. I took off my T-shirt and boots. I kept my shorts on. I sat on the edge of the pool and allowed my feet to dangle in the water. I brought my Budweiser to keep me company. The heated water felt so good. It was so inviting, but I felt safer where I was.

 

Eventually there was a collective migration from the pool to the hot tub. Dan and Dan were still naked. Once again I dangled my feet into the water, sitting on the edge and nursing my Budweiser as they shared more gossip. Tyler's ex-boyfriend also came up in the conversation. The other 4 guys professed that they hated him from day 1, but since Tyler was so in love, they all went with the flow. They all were ecstatic Tyler got rid of him, but that it was time for him to find someone new.

 

Later they came out of the hot tub and we all hung out on the chaise lounges, them drinking their wines and rosés, and me finishing another can of Budweiser. Dan and Dan were still naked all this time. And everyone was cool with this nudity. I was just never used to sitting next to naked guys for hours on end. Maybe an occasional shower in high school gym, but that was it. I never had another guy's dick in direct view for hours and hours. I tried to not look, but there was something taboo about sneaking a peak even though I was not into dicks.

 

Where I did not have much to contribute to the conversation, Cody more than enough compensated for me and everyone else in sight. The flight of thoughts and the way he bounced from one hilarious situation to the next was mesmerizing yet tiring all at the same time.

 

Eventually it was time for the crowd to disperse. Dan and Dan finally put on their bathing suits. All 4 guests gave Tyler and I hugs and air kisses on the cheek before they left.

 

"Waddup with that guy Cody? Does he have ADHD or something?" I asked Tyler as soon as the coast was clear.

 

He burst out laughing. "Yes, he's sure got something going on. Do you know who he is, by the way?"

 

"Am I supposed to?"

"He's the most famous instructor on Peloton. Huge fitness instructor."

 

"Oh, I've heard of Peloton, but know nothing about who's who or anything like that."

 

"He's their number one star."

"That's way over what is in my price range. I'm lucky to just have my regular bike still from high school."

 

It was time for me to leave as well. "I promise I'll have more legit work for you tomorrow." He gave me the now-usual hug and air kiss, although this time his embrace was just a smidge tighter and longer than previous times.

 

The next day was Memorial Day. I missed having a day off to hang out with my family, but was looking to make some pretty dough doing some mediocre tasks for Tyler. As I did the other day, I just helped myself into the house. Tyler already had an extra mug ready on the counter and served me my black coffee as soon as I walked in without me asking for any.

 

"What's the task today, boss?" I asked.

 

"You're up for sweating it a bit?" he replied.

 

"I'm here to do whatever task."

 

"Well, we're gonna start you off different today. Come, follow me." He went in the direction of his office/gym and I followed.

 

"We're gonna have you do your first Peloton ride with Cody before you start your day. You can do a quick 20 minute ride for your first ride."

 

That was a whole situation I did not anticipate. The stationary bike I had seen was in fact a Peloton, but I would never know the difference.

 

"Here, I left out a pair of bike shorts and gym socks for you to change into. You can use my bike shoes too. I usually do this without a shirt."

 

I didn't know what to say or how to react. It was so generous of him to let me do a fun ride, but I was there to earn an honest day's salary. I really did not want to disappoint his enthusiasm, but this is not what I was expecting on a holiday morning.

 

"I'll step out for a sec to let you change. Let me know when you're decent and I'll come back in to set you up." With that, he left the room and went out of sight, but left the door open behind him.

 

I was really dumbfounded. On the one hand, he had shown me more care and consideration than I ever got from anyone else. On the second day there he already got me Budweiser once he learned that's my drink of choice. He had a mug of coffee ready for me without asking. He made lunch for me every time. He had me hang out with his buddies and feel like an equal even though I was there to serve. Things that show you really know and appreciate a person. Things that Cindy and I stopped doing for each other a long time ago. On the other hand, I wasn't there on a summer camp. I was there to earn an honest living. Even though I clicked really well him, as though we've known each other for years and years, all this was new to me.

 

I took off all my clothes and put them to one corner. I was fully aware there was a gay guy around the corner and the door was wide open. No, he was not peeking in, I checked. I put on the bike shorts; perfect fit. We really did have the same exact physique. I put on the gym socks and the bike shoes. Once again perfect fit. Even our feet were the same size. I called him back in.

 

"Great. Now hop on the seat and click your shoes in the pedals," he instructed me. I had never worn bike shoes with cleats before. I had no idea how those worked. I thought maybe there is an easy snap or a magnet of some sort. After a few failed trials I realized I'm yet again embarrassing myself in front of Tyler. Without missing a beat, with no permission or formality, he quickly bent down next to my left foot. He grabbed my ankle with his right hand and the front of the shoe with his left hand, and guided the shoe in until it snapped tight. He went around and repeated the same grab and click motion on my right foot. Nobody had ever touched my ankles before. I didn't consider it to be a particularly erogenous zone, but it is an intimate zone usually not touched by another guy.

 

"There, you're all set in." He then stood next to me and had me make a Peloton profile on his account. He helped me browse the classes and found me a 20 minutes ride with Cody. The whole time we were there shirtless, and his broad shoulders rubbed on mine numerous times as both of us tried to navigate the on-screen menus. I even felt his breath on my chest a couple of times.

 

"OK, I let you to it. Ride `em, cowboy!" He left the room as the class started. Cody was non-stop chitchat as we kept changing cadence, resistance, and position. I was not one to do too much cardio in my days, so the class was a bit challenging. Five minutes into the class he brought me a large bottle of ice water as well as a towel for me to use.

 

About two minutes before the end of the class I happened to look at the doorway and there he was. Tyler was leaning on the door frame, hands crossed, mesmerized by my work out. He had a small grin on his face. He watched me huff and puff till the end of the workout.

 

Finally when the class was over, I said: "Your buddy Cody is just as crazy on screen as he is in real life."

 

"Yup, that's why we love him."

 

"Seriously, he is a handful. But he made the ride go so much easier. And I'm sorry some of the pop culture and gay references were lost on me."

 

I struggled to get the bike shoes off the cleats. He quickly jumped into action and knelt beside each foot to release me. Except this time my ankles were covered with salty sweat. He didn't mind at all. He handled me like a father would treat his beloved son on his first bike ride.

 

Well, I WAS sweaty all over. He offered that I could jump into the pool or take a shower in the bedroom next door. I chose the second option. I grabbed my work clothes and we went to the other bedroom. There were fresh towels already in the bathroom. He showed me around and left. I was still dripping sweat. I stepped in and got naked. I was acutely aware that the bedroom door was open and I also left the bathroom door open. I wanted him to know that even though he was gay and I was straight, I trusted him. I didn't need to hide from him. After the shower I put on my dirty work clothes and shoes and came out to the living room.

 

"Here, you could use a protein shake after that." He had made me shake all this time I was in the shower. After I sipped that baby real fast, I asked what work did he have in mind for me. It was already 10:30 AM and I had not done anything to earn my keeps. He told me that so many of the doors and closet doors were squeaking, and they needed a good oiling. Also all the smoke detectors needed brand new batteries. All the rest of the day I went from room to room and every hallway to hallway fixing all those items. Which gave me a much better familiarity with the inside of the house besides that one time I snuck up upstairs and caught him sleeping.

 

Once again around 12:30 he announced that lunch was ready. I had gone on a dare and had skipped packing my usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich with Budweiser fully anticipating that Tyler would feed me again. And I was right. The outdoor table was set up with salad and grilled shrimp. White wine for him, Budweiser for me. The place settings were in adjacent seats, with both of us getting the view of the deck. Several times my elbow rubbed on his as I was trying to slice my food. I'm sure it was all my bad table manners.

 

I was still working on the last few items around 3'ish when Tyler announced that he was going to a party and if I wanted to come along. I thanked him and said I would rather finish my work. He said he understood, but all the guys from yesterday's lunch were gonna be there and they would love to see me. I declined. With that he took out a wad of money, which was my salary for the 3 days, and planted it with both his hands in my palm the same way he did last weekend. I was nervous to ask, but I did inquire if he would like me to come next weekend and if he had more jobs that needed to be done. He said that of course he was expecting me to be there and he would come up with some of the more significant projects that needed to be done. Another bro hug and air kiss and he was off.

 

About a half hour later, I got a text from him. It was a picture of Tyler and Cody. The caption said that Cody was sending his regards to his number one fan. I got a chuckle and `liked' the message back. A couple of minutes later there was another text: "Wish you were here. In case you get done early and want to stop in, were are just 5 doors down on 832 Shore Walk."

 

I was in fact almost done. I finished the last smoke detector and headed out. I passed by 832 and paused for a second. I had no business going there to a party full of gay guys doing their thing. It was not my scene, and I had no business intruding. Besides, I barely knew Tyler and most certainly knew those other guys even less so. On the other hand, I had allowed myself to open up a certain degree of familiarity and comradery with Tyler that I have never developed this quick and this deep with any other buddy of mine ever before. There was a natural connection that drew me to let my guards down when I was with him.

 

Against my best judgment I decided to go in. I knew better not to walk in with my toolbox like that. With my great physique and stereotypical construction worker outfit I looked like one of those strippers showing up to do a surprise strip dance for some birthday boy. I left my toolbox and belt outside. This was Fire Island; nobody stole anything here.

 

This deck was bigger than Tyler's. There must have been at least 100 guys there. All in their bathing suits, and me in my work clothes. Tyler spotted me from across the deck and ran in my direction. There was a real sincere hug that ensued from his end, not the usual polite bro hug. He took me to his crowd that was seated on the other end. Sure enough Dan and Dan were there, this time wearing the smallest possible banana hammocks to cover their junks. And Cody was holding court with fans. Andres was off getting drinks for everyone.

 

I hung out with them for like a half hour before I had to go catch the ferry. They didn't have any beer, so I just had a diet Coke. I let them carry out all of the conversation, I was more like a fly on the wall. Tyler escorted me back to the exit and once again confirmed plans for next weekend.

 

As soon as I got home I slapped the fresh $600 in Cindy's hands. She was besides herself. I didn't tell her how easily I earned that money. That I did a Peloton class. That I hung out by the pool with a few naked gay guys. Or that I stopped by a gay party before I came home. I wasn't gay, so there were no ulterior motives. But being invited to hang out with a totally different caliber of people was kinda interesting and taboo all at the same time.

 

 

 

Chapter 2: June

 

On Wednesday I got a text from Tyler with a photo of a stack of cartons. The caption said: "get ready". I couldn't make out what was in the cartons from the picture. I played it cool and once again `liked' the picture.

 

The next Saturday morning I showed up as usual and let myself into the house. Tyler was in his office but as soon as he heard me, he quickly ran into the kitchen and served me a cup of black coffee. The task for the weekend was to assemble 8 new chaise lounges that had just arrived. I thought the old ones were just fine, but then again I was raised with the kind of mentality that you don't throw anything out until it is completely broken. The old chaise lounges were already removed by the delivery people. My job was to assemble these. Indeed, it was one of those high end teak wood units that came in a million little pieces and parts and took a while to assemble each. In fact I had barely finished the second of 8 when Tyler announced lunch was ready. Yes, pompous little me was fully expecting to be fed again and did not pack lunch. It had already become a routine in the past 3 weeks. I looked up and the outdoor dining table was not set as it usually was. I was puzzled.

 

Tyler was wearing a tiny white bikini swimsuit. He had a picnic basket on top of the kitchen counter. "The weather is too nice to stay here today," he said. "We're doing a quick picnic on the beach."

 

"Boss, I have a lot of work to do here. You go ahead and enjoy the beach, I'll stay here and finish up as much as I can."

 

"Nonsense, when we get back I'll help you and we'll make up for lost time."

 

"But I don't have a bathing suit or anything here. I'm not dressed for the beach."

 

"You can borrow a bathing suit from me, or you can come in your work shorts. Leave your shoes behind, we can go barefoot."

 

I relented.

 

"I'd rather stay in my shorts." With that, I took off my shoes and socks and my T-shirt and left them near my tools. We headed off to the beach. On the way out we grabbed two beach chairs from the tool shed I had just fixed last weekend. We set up camp on the beach.

 

Before I had the chance to sit down, Tyler took out a dopp kit and took some fancy suntan lotion out. "Here, you can borrow some of this. The sun is very strong today." He took a good squirt and then handed me the bottle. I squeezed a heavy squirt on my hands, and we both proceeded to oil up our respective faces, shoulders, chest, and abdomens. I needed another squeeze to cover the arms and legs. He saw me struggle with putting lotion in my mid back. Without asking permission, he put a healthy portion of the suntan lotion and proceeded to rub his hands all the way from my shoulders to the top of my shorts. He made sure he did not miss a spot. One finger went under my belt loop to cover the very top of my asscheeks with lotion. I didn't think he was doing anything sexual. It seemed a very matter-of-factly thing to do for his buddy with no innuendos.

 

He then turned around and said: "Do my back." I was still getting over the shock of passively getting oil rubbed on my back by another dude. He was asking me to reciprocate and actively rub my hands all over his body. I had never touched another guy like that before. Not even in the most innocent and sexless way. It was something straight guys don't do. Straight guys rather burn to a crips than allow another guy touch them all over their bodies, even if for health reasons. I swallowed my pride and did the same for him that he had done for me. It was definitely different that rubbing oil all over Cindy's body; my only frame of reference. Tyler had broad shoulders, just like mine. His defined muscles felt much different than Cindy's feminine build. I made my way down to his bikini. Which brought me to my next dilemma: was I supposed to reciprocate and oil up the top of his asscheeks the way he did mine? At what point the whole thing would be too gay for my comfort zone? I built some courage and did exactly what he had done to me. I slid one finger under the elastic of his bikini and gently spread some suntan lotion underneath. I didn't know what I was doing and I think I accidently got my finger on the very top of his ass crack. I got nervous and pulled out without making a scene.

 

Tyler had made us turkey breast sandwiches with the most amazing dressing, with lettuce and tomato. White wine for him and 2 Budweisers for me in the cooler. As we ate our lunch, a parade of boys went up and down the beach. Those who knew Tyler came over and said hi. Tyler made sure he introduced me to everyone, and many polite handshakes were exchanged. Dan and Dan also stopped by, of course naked. They sat on the beach facing us, spread eagle. They were spread so wide I could see their assholes. Not the most appetizing scene during lunch. But they were carefree and that whole level of nudity was natural to them. At some point Cody and Andres also caught up and we recreated the crowd from lunch from last weekend.

 

The whole time I was enjoying myself, I was antsy to go back and finish my work. I knew I was not going to finish all 8 units, but I was hoping to get at least 4 done that day. Tyler was agreeable to go back once he saw what time it was. Sure enough, he made true to his promise to help out. He didn't know the first thing about how to hold a tool or even how to tighten a screw. But he was a good sport to always get whatever item I needed next so the process went smoother that if I were solo. Plus, I got to learn a bit more about him as we worked.

 

As we worked, he told me he was from Wisconsin. "You know, I think I'm related to Rose Nylund."

I had no idea who that was.

 

"Rose? Golden Girls?"

Another blank stare from me.

 

"Herring circus? Butter churning queen? St. Olaf?"

 

I was still clueless

 

"These are references from the TV series Golden Girls. I guess it is more a gay thing. Straight guys our age know nothing about it. Never mind."

 

I was sorry to disappoint him. He continued with the rest of his story.

 

He was always talented with words. His first script was snatched by a major movie theater. He preferred to live in New York even though most of his business was in Los Angeles. He had come to Fire Island ever since his first summer on the East Coast. Together with his ex and Dan and Dan and Cody and Andres they had rented the same half share house for a couple of years. Once Tyler split with his ex, he decided to make the investment in buying this house. The other guys stayed in the rental and found some other 2 random guys to take up the other room. Tyler initially felt guilty not offering his former housemates to rent from him or even stay for free. He just didn't want to be their landlord. He wanted them to come and go all the time, but only for shorter amounts of time.

 

I told him about my shotgun wedding and the two babies. I did tell him about Cindy putting on the extra weight and not feeling so sexy any more. I didn't tell him explicitly that I was not getting laid any more.

 

We finished a total of 4 of the chaise lounges by the end of the day. They were more complicated than I expected. There was the usual hug and air kiss and off I went back home. I told Cindy that my tan was from working outside. I didn't tell her I lounged on the beach for like 2 hours sipping Budweisers and having lunch with naked gay guys.

 

Tyler had been so kind to feed me and entertain me all this time. The following morning I decided to reciprocate a bit. When I walked into the house, he was on the sofa reading a book. As usual with his gray sweat shorts freeballing it. He jumped into action to go get me coffee. I put a package on the kitchen counter and proudly announced: "I got us bagels and spreads." I had stopped by the bagel store and picked up two bagels with some spreads. It was my turn to treat him a bit. We ate those together at the kitchen counter as we drank our morning coffee.

 

I got a couple of more chaise lounges assembled that morning. Tyler brought me a mid-morning treat of iced tea and a couple of cookies. I was looking forward to lunch so I could hang out with him some more. I really looked forward to our times together. Around the usual lunch time he came to my work area dressed in T shirt and shorts and flip flops. The lunch table was not set. I wondered what he was up to.

 

"I figured we do lunch in town today. Let's walk over to Cherry Grove; they have better lunch options."

 

I had been to Cherry Grove in the past. Most of the houses are older and many owners don't always renovate and renovate. Less construction needed there. I obliged. Tyler led the way and took me through the woods there. It is a short stretch of forest and sand. It is named the Judy Garland National Park. It is otherwise referred to as the Meat Rack, for what happens there all hours of the day and night. We didn't encounter any of that on the way there. I didn't want to acknowledge to Tyler that many of the straight construction guys have heard about the meat rack, and that some even go there to get a free blow job if their wives no longer provide that service for them. I had never been there myself.

 

Lunch at The Sand Castle was amazing. Good food and awesome views of the ocean. Most importantly, the company was superb. He didn't know anyone in Cherry Grove, so nobody interrupted our private time. Tyler and I cracked jokes and got caught up on some more life experiences. On the way back we walked home on the beach. Just like the day before, Tyler helped me out with the rest of the chaise lounges and I was done at a decent time. To break them in, we sat on the new chaise lounges for an hour, him sipping his white wine and me my Budweiser, shooting the breeze about nothing important at all. I never thought I would find a good friend in a rich gay guy, and so fast. But here I was. Hanging out with my new buddy.

 

On the way out, Tyler repeated his payment routine. I did confirm I was needed next weekend. I didn't want to take anything for granted. I was gonna miss him all week as I hung out with my other coworkers and my superficial friendships with them.

 

The following Saturday I showed up with muffins, Tyler served me my coffee. He had bought a series of handles and knobs for all the closet doors and cabinet doors of the kitchen. Admittedly they were rusty and needed replacement. I worked on those all morning as he was ticking on his keyboard in his office. He made us lunch in the kitchen, I was still working on the closet doors upstairs.

 

In the middle of the afternoon I heard someone enter the house. I was back upstairs after I finished the kitchen cabinets. Tyler hollered from downstairs that it was the massage guy. They were going to be on the deck, and that it would take about an hour. As in, don't disturb me unless something is urgent. Got it.

 

The masseuse had brought his own table. He set it up on the deck in the sun. I had never received a professional massage. I didn't know how the whole thing worked for some stranger to just show up and rub your body all over. I was a bit curious. From the upstairs bedroom window I quietly peeked to see what was going on. Tyler took of his gray sweat shorts and lay naked face down on the massage table. From what I had seen on TV and movies, I assumed a piece of towel should have covered his ass. But nope, this was Fire Island. No need to cover nudity here. This was the first time I had seen Tyler fully naked. I had seen him freeballing it, but never naked. His ass was firm and plump. He had a very strong tan line. I couldn't see the front as he was laying face down.

 

The masseuse was a decently handsome and a fit fellow as well. Kinda East European looks. He started with dripping a lot of oil all over Tyler. It made his skin glisten with all that sunshine on it. I replaced one more closet door handle and then checked on the action downstairs. The masseuse had moved the lower back. Another closet door and back at peeking. He was rubbing Tyler's calves, and applying pressure with his elbows digging into Tyler's ass cheeks. One more handle fixed, and the action was now on Tyler's ankles. Just then the masseuse whispered something into Tyler's ear. Tyler turned around and lay on his back.

 

A huge 8 inch boner was popping into the air! He was erect. I can't remember if I had ever seen some other man's erect dick before. But here it was. Tyler's boner in full display. Both Tyler and the masseuse carried out like this was a normal thing. Neither one paid any attention to it. By now I was glued to the action. I couldn't go back to work. This homoerotic scene, as benign as it were, had the full attention of this straight man.

 

The masseuse worked on Tyler's chest, then on his belly. Several times Tyler's boner knocked the back side of the masseuse's arm, but nobody seemed to care about it. The action went down to the front of the calves, the legs, the ankle. Then each arm had a firm rub down. Then, without a word being said or any indication, the masseuse grabbed Tyler's dick. He began to stroke him. First nice and slow, and then the pace and strength picked up. After a good five minutes, Tyler's mid-section tightened. Gobs and gobs of cum squirted all over his chest. The masseuse slowed down his pace and then released Tyler's dick. He picked up a towel that was already waiting on the floor and wiped Tyler clean.

 

I had never seen another man cum. Not even in high school did I ever have a circle jerk with any of my buddies. We all thought that would be too gay.

 

After a couple of minutes, while the masseuse was packing up the rest of his stuff, Tyler got up. He reached into the pocket of his sweat shorts that were on the floor and took something out. He handed it to the masseuse. I imagined that was the payment. The masseuse packed up the massage table. He gave Tyler a hug and air kiss as Tyler was still naked. The masseuse then walked through the house and left through the main entrance.

 

Tyler then went to the outdoor shower on the deck and began to clean himself from all that massage oil. The sunshine mixed with flying droplets of water landed all over his skin. He rubbed the oil off every single inch of his body, including his dick and balls. He then toweled off.

 

I was still upstairs, and made sure to step away from the window so Tyler wouldn't catch me. I pretended to be busy even though I was done upstairs. Eventually I heard the deck sliding door open and Tyler walked back in the house. Only then I dared to come downstairs.

 

He was wearing his sweat shorts again. He was pouring himself a cup of coffee. I came back into the kitchen. I had to pack all the boxes that the door handles came in and take them out for recycling. Tyler didn't say anything. I didn't say anything.

 

"That was some massage," I can't believe those words actually escaped my mouth. I was mortified as soon as I said it. I never had a good poker face, but this was just juvenile what I did.

 

Tyler got a chuckle. I didn't know if he thought I was talking the massage in general or about being jerked off. I didn't know if he even knew I was checking out that whole time.

 

"Yeah, he is the best one on Fire Island. You really feel relaxed once he's done with you."

 

There was a couple of more moments of awkward silence. For whatever reason, what I had seen had me on the edge of curiosity. "So, are all massages supposed to end like that?" Fuck! Damn! I just gave myself away that I was peeking in at the action the whole time. Sometimes I have no tact.

 

"Mmmmhmmm, looks like someone saw something more than they bargained to see." He gave me a playful fistbump on my shoulder. I looked down to the floor. I was so embarrassed for bringing it up. I had dug myself into a deep hole.

 

"That's Marcus. He's a professional trainer and a masseuse. He learned that he can make a boat load of money off the guys here all summer giving massages. He's the best masseuse I've ever had, and I've had a few."

 

I still had my head down looking at the floor. I couldn't bear myself to look at him after I had confessed to my transgression. "Oh, and he's straight."

 

"What?!?" I picked up my head and finally looked Tyler in the eyes.

 

"Yeah. He has a girlfriend back home. But he doesn't mind giving a helping hand here. It builds up his clientele. For him it's nothing sexual, it's more of a service. And the guys here always enjoy a good release after a nice massage. Everybody wins."

 

I was speechless.

 

"From your line of questions I take it you never had a happy ending at the end of a massage?" he asked.

 

It was me chuckling this time. "From your line of questions... whatever, I don't have a smart comeback. The honest truth is I never had a real massage. Sure, Cindy and I used to try to give each other massages back in the days. But that was just foreplay and we were fucking in like 5 minutes. So yeah, massages are out of my price range."

 

Tyler was taken back by my simple and modest life.

 

"And you know that saying `straight and narrow'? That's me," I continued. "Very narrow. Never been to prostitutes, never had a massage. Cindy is the only woman I've been with. Nobody else. And now that's come to an end too." I overshared. Wasn't planning on telling him I was no longer getting laid. But I also didn't know if he understood in all my barrage of words that Cindy was no longer having sex with me.

 

I went backing to finishing with all the boxes. I got ready to leave. Tyler gave me my hug goodbye, this time a smidge longer and more forceful than last time.

 

The whole ride back on the ferry I had images of naked Tyler. Because his physique was so similar to mine, and I had not got laid in such a long time, I had images of ME being serviced. Someone to jerk me off rather than me doing it to myself at a random bathroom at work. I was not into guys, but I could appreciate a guy being serviced.

 

The kids were sleeping by the time I got home. Cindy said that she really appreciated that I was working 7 days a week now to help with our bills. She also understood that basically I hardly saw the kids any more. But at the same time she was also having difficulty managing the kids all by herself 7 days a week. She asked if the following weekend she could go stay with her parents at the Jersey Shore. This way her parents could see the kids and she could get some help. Of course I was agreeable. I loved her and the kids. Whatever would make her life a bit easier.

 

The next morning I showed up with freshly baked chocolate croissants. Tyler and I devoured them with our morning coffee. Today was going to be clean up day. Due to years of neglect from the previous owner, there was tons of loose wood planks, garbage, dead bushes, etc. all under the deck and the house. I was more than glad to clean all that up and tidy up.

 

At 10:30 I was treated with a glass of iced tea and a chocolate truffle. At 12:15 I was done with one side of the house, so I thought it was a good time for a break. I just assumed Tyler had lunch ready for us, or getting it ready at that moment. I walked in and 2 plates were on the kitchen counter on a tray, but the outside was not set up yet. I looked over and Tyler was on his Peloton. I recognized Cody's voice as the instructor.

 

"Sorry, just finishing here. 3 more minutes," Tyler said. He was not wearing bike shorts. Instead he was wearing a pair of white bikini underwear, and nothing else. His entire body was wet with beads of sweat pouring all over him and hitting the floor. His face was drenched. His muscles were extra bulging due to all the strenuous activity. This time it was me leaning on the door frame and looking at him in admiration as he finished his routine.

He finished the class and easily unsnapped himself from the cleats. "Why don't you take our plates out and set up the table as I go shower? Also get our drinks." He went upstairs and I went to the kitchen. Just as I had done last weekend, he left his bedroom door and the bathroom door open in his room. I could hear the shower all the way down.

 

I got things ready outside. Tyler came back down with a towel wrapped around his midsection. No gray sweat shorts. His hair was still mostly wet. We had our lunch like that. It was not a particularly large towel. With his wide stance, he wasn't hiding much under it. But then again I had seen him naked just yesterday. And even more, I was straight and was not looking necessarily to see him naked.

 

Over lunch I shared that the following weekend Cindy was planning on being away at her parents. Tyler shared that the following weekend he was expecting overnight guests. He had people come over for occasional lunch or dinner, and he had a share house for few years. But this was his first time people coming for the whole weekend to stay with him as the host in his new house. He was kinda excited and also a bit nervous being in charge.

 

And then it seemed like the most brightest light bulb went on in his brain. He enthusiastically turned to me and so proudly announced: "You stay here with us next weekend. No, hear me out. You're all alone across the bay. I will need help hosting. I have the extra bedroom downstairs. Just come Friday afternoon after your other job and we can all hang out. Saves you the trip all back and forth. And I can rely on you to help out if I run into a situation of any sort. Come on, pretty please?"

 

I didn't know what to say. Yes, I did happen to be all alone. But crashing his weekend with his buddies was a different thing. Do they need a straight boy crashing their weekend of gay fun? That would change the tone of the whole interaction. I then tried to reason with Tyler that perhaps it was not the best idea, more out of courtesy for him and his guests. Tyler was not having any of it. Finally I gave in, mostly just because I didn't want to disappoint Tyler. He jumped out of his seat and gave me another hug. He almost lost his towel in the process, but managed to salvage it the last second.

 

I went back to work after lunch. I was deep in thought about spending the whole weekend here. In a place much above my own social standing. With guys much above my own social standing. With guys who are into other guys. I was nervous, happy, and anxious all at the same time.

 

At some point later I thought Tyler had come to bring me another iced tea and a snack. But his hands were empty. "You worked enough for one day. Come with me to the deck." I followed him. We got to the deck and everything looked routine. I had no idea what Tyler had in mind. But I trusted him.

 

Just then I heard the front gate open, and someone walked in. That person walked through the house and met us on the deck. It was Marcus the masseuse.

 

"I asked Marcus to give you your first massage. A gift from me." Tyler announced.

 

I looked at Tyler, then looked at Marcus and the folding massage table and looked back and forth a few times. I was speechless again. That was very thoughtful of Tyler. A bit presumptuous, but in a thoughtful and caring kind of way. How does one respond to a situation like this?

 

"I'm gonna go visit a friend for a while and I will leave you guys here on your own. Enjoy your massage." He turned to Marcus, took something out of his pocket and handed it to Marcus. I assumed it was payment for the massage. With that he waved goodbye and left the house.

 

Marcus set up the massage table and his bag of oils and other good. "Why don't you take your clothes off and step into my office?"

 

"Um, sure." I had no clue what was proper massage etiquette. I took off my shoes and socks. I took off my T-shirt and work shorts. I hesitated a bit. I didn't want to take off my boxer shorts. I didn't feel comfortable getting naked in front of him. He was straight, I was straight, and if he was not going to cover my midsection, I didn't feel like flaunting my privates in the open. "Do you mind, can I, is it OK if I leave my boxers on?" Somehow my boxers were the last shred of dignity on me. After I had seen what he did to Tyler as the last act yesterday, I did not want him to have to repeat the same routine with me. My boxers were my chastity belt against any hanky-panky and I needed to hold on to them.

 

"It makes it a bit harder to massage your glutes, but I totally understand. The gay guys here have a different level of comfort with male nudity than straight guys like you and me. I just prefer you'd be as comfortable as you can."

 

I was so relieved that he understood my frame of mind. I climbed on the massage table and laid with my belly down, face down into the donut pillow in the front. That much I knew what to do. Marcus started by drizzling hot oil all over my back and legs and arms. He then proceeded to rub the oil gently until every inch of my backside was covered. There was a mesmerizing scent of eucalyptus and some spice in it. Then he started focusing on the back of my skull, the nape of my neck. With his muscular hands, he dug into all the neck muscles. He found the knots and softened them one by one. He worked his way to my broad shoulders. He first made worship-like strokes all over them, then started digging in. Those shoulders needed some love and attention. His touch was masculine, gentle, and sensuous all at the same time. I had no frame of reference for comparison, but this was the best feeling ever. I let myself melt in his hands. From there he worked his way down. His hands devoured my back, my spine, my traps. Painstakingly he worked on every muscle group one at a time.

 

It was time for my legs. He started on the right thigh. He went up north, under the rim of my boxers, underneath, to my glutes. He had both hands in my boxers, squeezing those muscles and relieving any tension. He was careful not to go near the crack of my ass. Just then I regretted not taking off my boxers. He then repeated the same on my left ass cheek. With both hands inside my underwear, he kneaded the dough of my asscheeks.

 

This time, I felt a tingle. He was working my asscheeks, but I felt a twitch in my crotch. I was getting aroused. My body was enjoying Marcus's sensuous touch, and my mind was getting aroused. Slowly I felt my cock swell. There was no going back now, I was getting a boner. My worse nightmare. The very same reason I insisted on keeping my boxers. And now I was developing a boner enjoying my very first massage. From another straight man.

 

All the mental games of thinking about dead cats and other ugly situations did nothing to suppress the boner. The more I tried, the more Marcus's hands on me felt sensuous. He worked my calves, and then my ankles. He worked the soles of my feet, and then massaged each toe individually. He even massaged the skin in between each toe. My boner could not have been more raging.

 

"It's time to turn over on your back," He gently whispered. I would have rather died than do that. As soon as I would turn over he would see my boner and I would be embarrassed beyond repair. But there was no going back. I just had to do it, come what may.

 

I turned around and laid on my back. I opened my eyes and sneaked a peek at my crotch. Not only was my boner making the most obvious tent in my boxers, but there was a huge wet stain of precum right in the middle. I felt so immature and inexperienced. There was nothing I could do at that point. I just hoped Marcus would overlook it as he was the professional between the two of us.

 

He started working on the front of my neck, relaxing my muscles for me. There was something magical about his fingers. He then went down to my pecs and chest. His hands made love to those bulging pecs, and he even tickled my nipples one at a time. He went down to my belly. Instead of digging in, his technique here was more feather-like. He swirled his hands all over by abs, toward my crotch. By now my boner was not only at full attention, but it was throbbing with each heartbeat. I could have easily come without touching myself. That's what 3 years of not getting laid can do to a virile 27 year-old.

 

From there he went to the front of my legs, my thighs. Luckily he did not go under the rim of my boxers inside. I would not last if he did. Instead he went south to my calves and the front of my ankles again. From there the massaged each arm thoroughly.

 

There was a slight pause. I did not feel his hands anywhere on me. My eyes were still closed. I didn't know if we were done or not. I was waiting for a clue from him. Just then I felt a light touch on the outside of my boxers, just very gently, just a hint, touching my boner on the other side of the fabric. Just enough to make me aware where his hands were.

 

I opened my eyes and looked down. His one hand was very gently, almost like an air-touch, going up and down outside of my boxers, acknowledging my boner and my still-wet precum stain.

 

He looked at me and smiled. "Do you want me to take care of this for you?" I was mortified. I specifically had left my boxers on just to avoid this very thing, but my dick had a mind of its own. He kept rubbing gently the whole time.

 

Finally I had enough strength in my voicebox to say something. "Nah man, we're both straight and I think I'd rather take care of it on my own."

 

"You're sure? That's part of the service. And I don't mind being a buddy when somebody needs one."

 

A short pause on my end. Just a slight wondering of `what if'. But I couldn't. I absolutely couldn't. Not from another guy. And not even from another girl. I was married to Cindy. Only she was allowed to be down there.

 

"Um, I can't. I...." I didn't know how to finish that sentence.

 

"That's OK. I respect you for that." Before letting go, he actually wrapped his hand around my entire cock over the boxers fabric and gave it a firm squeeze. He wasn't going to get to jerk me off, but he stole a tight squeeze of my manhood before letting go. Maybe he enjoyed those jerk offs as much as his clients did. I didn't know what was going on in his mind.

 

I can't say I felt violated by that last squeeze. My boner was begging for attention the whole time. My boner wanted a release, but my mind, my pride, prevented me from getting one. Marcus sided with my boner in that argument.

 

I got up from the massage table. I was oily all over. My boner had no plan to disappear any time soon. Marcus packed up, gathered all his stuff, and shook my hand good bye before leaving. It was so awkward shaking another guy's hand while sporting a very obvious boner. But then again that same hand had just squeezed my boner just a few moments ago. There were no secrets between us at that point.

 

Marcus left. Tyler was not back home yet. I was dripping massage oil. And I had a raging hard-on that needed a release. I was bursting with libido. If I had a sane frame of mind at that point, I would have gone to shower off in the bedroom downstairs, the same one I used last weekend and was promised to me for next weekend. But I took a dare. I had never taken an outdoor shower. Out in the open with my entire body exposed to the sun and the sky. I saw Tyler do that just yesterday. Today it was my turn.

 

I went to the open outdoor shower and finally took off those precum-soaked boxers. The water and the sun felt good on my naked body. This was a level of luxury and pampering I was not used to. My boner was still begging for attention. I didn't need to hold it back any more. I touched myself. And not for long. Streams of hot cum escaped my nuts through my dick all over the deck. I didn't care. I sprayed the whole area with my DNA. I left my mark on Tyler's deck. I felt such a relief after such a long and unexpected foreplay. My body needed that release just as much as it enjoyed the massage. I was spent.

 

Finally my good judgement came back to me. I washed off my cum from the deck. I dried off and started to put on my clothes. My boxers were too soaked from precum and massage oil to put back on. I just wore my work shorts and freeballed it. I put on my shoes. Just as I went to reach for my T-shit Tyler walked in.

 

"So, how was it?" He was so proud of himself.

 

"It was great, thank you," I replied. I didn't tell him I had a boner most of the time.

 

"How was Marcus?"

"He was awesome. Worth all the hype. But then again I had nothing to compare it to." I didn't tell him I had just jerked off on his deck and he might have caught me if he came back 5 minutes earlier.

 

There was a few more very suggestive questions from Tyler, and I responded to all of them with gratitude and praise. After one too many of those questions with the same not-so-hidden line of questioning, I replied perhaps with a more abrupt tone than I should have: "If you had some porn movie scenario in your mind that something more happened, then I'm sorry. Nothing happened."

 

Tyler was silent. I realized I was too harsh on him. He really did have the best intentions. Maybe it was all the fucked-up hormones in my body. Maybe it was the fact that a straight man touched me and I got a boner. Maybe it was that I had just jerked off thinking about that same massage from that straight man. None of it made sense.

"First of all, I have to say I'm sorry. I know you really mean well. You treated me with a gift I could never afford on my own. It was really special. I am very very very grateful for that. But, I just couldn't. Marcus offered, and he was really sincere about it. But I couldn't. I am straight, he is straight. I have a wife back home, he has a girlfriend back home. It just was not my cup of tea."

 

"That's alright. As long as you enjoyed the massage part of it."

"THAT, was stupendous."

 

It was time for me to pack my stuff and hit the road. Tyler said that the rest of the guests are coming Friday afternoon, so I could come then instead of my Saturday morning routine. That worked out well since Cindy was leaving for her parents first thing Friday morning as well. He mentioned what change of clothes I should bring. In fact, he suggested that for the rest of the summer the downstairs bedroom would be mine at all times. I could leave my toolbox there instead of carrying it back and forth. I could leave a change of clothes and even work clothes there. Tyler would be happy to wash any dirty clothes for me during the week.

 

On the way out the door, he gave me my payment for the weekend as he always did: with both of his hands holding my one hand. I got my now-customary hug. It was quite a bit tighter than last time. And I could swear it was not an air kiss. I think his lips actually touched my cheek. I couldn't tell for sure, but I think that's what happened.

 

The following Friday I loaded Cindy and the kids in the car early in the morning. I kissed them good bye. She was gonna come back Monday night. I didn't tell her I was going to spend the weekend at Tyler's.

 

The whole day at work I had butterflies in my stomach. I really had no business going to spend an entire weekend with Tyler and his friends. I was going to be the only straight guy and those gay guys deserved to have some privacy to do whatever they liked to do. But then again, Tyler specifically invited me to spend the weekend there. He said he needed help with hosting. I was there to help, not to hang out with people above my own social status. I told that to myself over and over again.

 

I took the 4 o'clock ferry to The Pines. Lots of guys coming directly from work with their fashionable casual Friday looks. And then there was me and my construction worker outfit. Sticking out like a sore thumb already. I did manage to pick up a dozen bagels and a few spreads for the morning. Tyler said I didn't need to bring anything, but I knew better not to show up empty-handed.

 

I walked into Tyler's house. From the noise level I could tell that at least some of the guests were there already. Tyler was in the middle of something, yet managed to come over to greet me. The hug was very casual, not tight. His head was even facing backward as he was still talking to his buddies. The kiss was definitely an air kiss, no flesh. I was a bit disappointed. He did walk me to my bedroom and showed me around. I unpacked my bag. I decided to freshen up with a shower before going to meet the housemates for the weekend.

 

Tyler introduced me to Jason and Jason. The got married last summer right here on the beach and they had their reception at the Community Center. They looked madly in love. The other couple was Jeff and Mark. They've been together 2 years and counting.

 

That group had not seen each other for a few weeks and they were catching up both on their own individual lives as well as gossip about all kinds of other guys. I helped myself to a Budweiser from the fridge. I sat down and absorbed all their stories.

 

About 6:30ish there was a bit of a commotion. Turned out people were getting ready to go to Low Tea. I had no idea what that meant. Mark told me that it was the happy hour hang-out in town. I had passed by the Blue Whale before as the ferry pulls out, but didn't know there was a nightly ritual of the entire town hanging out there all at the same time.

 

I wasn't sure it was my place to go. I offered to stay back and start working on dinner. Tyler insisted I was going with him and everybody else. I didn't think my redneck outfit was fancy enough to go hang out, but then again everybody else was also dressed super casual.

 

Well, Low Tea was packed! Wall to wall of guys and guys and guys. Many in tank tops. Many shirtless and sweating. Many in all kind of drag or just gender bender clothes. You saw the whole spectrum there. I had never been to a gay bar before.

 

Tyler and the group bumped into all kinds of friends they knew from Fire Island as well as from the city. Every single time Tyler made sure to introduce me to everyone. He never referenced I'm his handyman, or that I was straight.

 

From there everybody migrated en-mass to Pool Tea. At like 8, the Low Tea crowd dispersed, and group by group everybody walked behind the hotel to the pool area. Better music. And more people dancing than just drinking and socializing. They said DJ Mike Borowski was spinning and they all loved his music.

 

After a good 45 minutes there, Tyler said that he and I should go home and start with dinner preparations. I was happy to be finally be of some help. Upon arrival, he gave me a series of tasks of cut this, slice that, and set the dinner table. He asked if my grilling skills were any good, and I told him I was a master griller.

 

I grilled the steaks and Tyler took care of the rest. The rest of the guys trickled in. Dinner conversation mostly centered around people's recent vacations to exotic places I've never heard of before. At some point the conversation did turn around to be about me and my family. I shared a bit about Cindy and I, and the kids. The seemed genuinely interested, and very courteous to my storyline. Then the conversation went back to what everybody was gonna wear to the underwear party. I had no idea what that was either.

 

Turned out the underwear party happens in Cherry Grove every Friday night. Some promoter guy Daniel Nardicio had rented out the whole Ice Palace bar and pool at Cherry Grove every Friday night. Guys have to wear underwear to the party and there is a clothing check at the entrance. And then someone blurted out that there is also a backroom where people go to get some action. All this was very new to me.

 

For the next 20 minutes, the 5 of them argued back and forth if it were a good idea for me to go to this party or not. Tyler was the one who didn't think my `virgin eyes' were ready for this. Jason and Jason on the other hand insisted that since I was there for the weekend, I should be getting the whole experience and go see how people party. Jeff was more worried that if I did go, did I have the right underwear for the venue.

 

Tyler, being the host, won the argument. The other 4 guys went into their respective rooms to get ready. Tyler and I got to clear the table. I firmly planted myself at the sink, to wash the pots and place all the dishes in the dishwasher. Eventually the other 4 guys emerged from their rooms. Jason and Jason were wearing matching multi-colored jockstraps. Ass hanging out and all. Mark was wearing a sold black jockstrap with black socks and black boots, all that garnished with black leather harness. Jeff was wearing a lace G string and flip flops. It was not hard to see his junk through the lace, although perhaps the shadow of the night gave him some cover. They all had a `roadie' shot and off they went. They were gonna either walk through the meat rack or on the beach to get there; their outfits were not fit for taking the water taxi over.

 

Tyler and I were all done with the dinner table and all was clean. He handed me a Budweiser and he had his glass of wine. We went to the living room and sat on opposites ends of the sofa facing each other. Neither one of us said anything. Total silence. It felt even more silent after all of them had left.

 

"Let's go to the party. You and me," I said.

 

"What?"

 

"Yeah, your friends are there and I can't hold you back from hanging out with them."

 

There was some more back and forth, but I won. We were going. Tyler went up to freshen up, and he said I could do the same. He came back shirtless. He said it is a nice night out. Even though he was planning on taking the water taxi over, we could leave our shirts at home.

 

The water taxi was packed! It looked like the whole town was going to the underwear party. Tyler and I got seats toward the back. We were squeezed against each other. His naked ankle touched mine. His naked knee touched mine. His exposed thigh touched mine. His exposed arms squeezed against mine. His broad shirtless shoulder was pressed against mine. That was the most skin on skin contact I have had with Tyler.

 

The line to get into the underwear party was like 15 minutes. We did our clothes check. I didn't have any fancy underwear or anything. I took off my shorts and was left in my straight boy loose boxers I had worn all day. It was definitely not fresh. Tyler, to my surprise, was wearing a pair of hot red jockstraps. He was in it to win it. His exposed ass was plump, and his lack of a tan on his asscheeks compared to the rest of his body drew all the attention to his moneymaker. He was fine, even if I was appreciating it from the perspective of a straight boy.

 

We walked into the venue. There were like 400-500 guys there already. Many were dancing. Nobody was wearing boxers; I was the only one. Nobody was even wearing plain whities tighties. Everyone had invested some time and money in whatever tiny piece of fabric they should wear to advertise their goods.

 

Tyler took me toward the bar area. Luckily, we found two adjacent barstools and planted ourselves there. They did not have Budweisers, I had to settle for Amstel although the taste was too rich for me. Tyler took his usual white wine. We started chatting. Mostly being catty about what this guy or that guy was wearing. Or some random gossip he had about someone dancing with so and so. Two more white wines and two more Amstels, and we had loosened up a bit.

 

I noticed the music pace had picked up. The dance floor was packed. Tyler's exposed asscheeks on the barstool started picking up the rhythm of the beat. He was enjoying the music, but was stuck chaperoning me.

 

Never in a million years I thought I would be hitting 3 gay bars in one night, and then be surrounded by a sea of guys with G-strings and jockstraps, and actually enjoy the company.

 

"Let's go, you and me," I repeated my decisive declaration from when we were still at home.

 

"Oh, you want to go home?"

"No silly. The dance floor."

 

"But, there... there are no girls here for you to dance with or nothing."

 

"When in Rome..." I remembered that phrase from high school, although I couldn't remember the source.

 

"Except this is more like Sodom than Rome!" That was a good comeback line from Tyler.

 

"Nah. I'm good with that. You, me, let's hit the floor."

 

I grabbed his forearm and dragged him with me to the middle of the dance floor. Grabbing his hands would have been too gay, but the forearm was a safe zone. He did not miss a beat to start dancing. The boy was flying. Me, on the other hand, when you mix `white boys can't dance' and `straight boys can't dance', you get a disaster. And that's exactly what I delivered there. I was way out of my zone, but did not care. I wasn't necessarily dancing WITH Tyler, I was more dancing NEAR Tyler. Back in high school boys paired up like this to approach the girls and get into their dance groups.

 

You know what, I was actually enjoying this. I couldn't remember the last time I had gone dancing at a bar or club. Probably before Cindy got pregnant the first time. Like when I was 19. I had danced at various weddings, but certainly at no bar at 2 in the morning.

 

I had initially seen Jason and Jason and Jeff and Mark around, but at that point in time I could no longer see them around. Then I noticed a huge fabric curtain separation between the main area and some other section in the back. I wasn't that dense, I figured that was the famous back room they were talking about. The devil got into me and I turned to Tyler.

 

"Let's go. You and me." Third time I had used that line.

 

"I can go home anytime you want."

 

"Silly, you're gonna show me what happens behind that curtain."

 

Tyler's jaw just dropped to the floor. "I don't think that is such a good idea for you."

 

A few exchanges later, Tyler agreed. It was him this time who grabbed my forearm and took me in the direction of the backroom. The place was really dark, but once you stayed there a bit your pupils could accommodate. There were some guys just hanging out. Some were just making out. Further down a few guys were on their knees blowing some other guys. I had only gotten blowjobs from Cindy before, so I did not have much to compare to. But there is some urban legend that gay guys know how to suck dick much better since they have a dick too and they know how to pleasure one. And these guys were going to town.

 

Behind that there was a massage table. Except that there was a twink on his back with legs up in the air, and there was a massive hunk fucking the shit out of him. There were 10 guys standing around and watching the action. Tyler and I become numbers 11 and 12. The action was fierce. Eventually the hunky guy pulled out and shot his load all over the guy he was fucking. Everybody was happy with the show. Tyler and I wandered around some more. With his asscheeks out for grabbing, a couple of guys approached him for some action. He refused. Nobody approached my me and my sorry boxers, which was just fine.

 

We eventually bumped into Jason an Jason. They were spit-roasting some random dude. The taller Jason was feeding his cock into the guy's mouth, as the shorter Jason was fucking him from behind. As they saw us, they enthusiastically waved hi to us, as though we had bumped into them at the grocery isle of the supermarket. They then continued to give their conquest their full attention.

 

Tyler decided I had seen enough for one night. I would have concurred, although no words were exchanged. He grabbed me by the forearm and took me out of the back room. Without saying a word we went back to the clothes check area, got dressed, and got ourselves a water taxi ride back.

 

"So, your eyes are burning?" he asked, jokingly.

 

"All good, man. Can't wait to go back to work Monday and tell all the buddies I went to a gay orgy."

"You are NOT!"

 

I burst out with laughter. He did too. "Nah, what happens on Fire Island stays on Fire Island." That one I had heard from a couple of construction guys who used to tell stories of going to the meat rack to get random blowjobs from gay guys. They were the ones who told us gay guys can suck dick better than any of our wives.

 

"Indeed it does," Tyler exclaimed.

 

We made it home. Tyler gave me a firm hug good night, and his lips indeed touched my cheeks for that kiss. That, I was sure of this time. And his naked torso, still sweaty and sticky from the dancing, rubbed all against my naked torso, equally as sticky.

 

I headed to my room to get ready for bed. I was brushing my teeth when I heard the deck sliding door open. Under the cover of the darkness inside the house I poked my head out to see what was going on. Through the windows I could see Tyler on the deck. He approached the outdoor shower and turned the water on. The moon and the clear night were casting enough of a light on him that I could see everything. He took off his shorts and his red hot jockstrap and got naked. He got under the water, taking an outdoor shower in the middle of the night. He washed his hair, his shoulder, his chest, his belly. He washed each leg and each arm clean. His physique was just perfection.

 

Just when I thought the show was over, he grabbed his crotch. In no time he had a hard on. He began stroking himself. His head titled back as his pelvis arched forward. It couldn't have taken him more than 30 seconds before his pelvis gyrated multiple times, squirting hot cum all over his deck just as I had done the time before. He looked satisfied. Even after cumming, he kept rubbing his two hands all over his own body. After a few minutes he turned off the water and grabbed his towel.

 

I did not want to get caught, nor was I going to make the mistake of blurting out I had seen him cum. I quickly jumped into my bed pretending to be asleep this whole time. I heard the deck sliding door open and close. Tyler's footsteps told me he went up the stairs into his room. I did not hear a door close.

 

I would have loved to stay awake and ponder on what I had just seen. Of all the sex acts I had seen that night, Tyler's quick solo was by far the most memorable. Not that I was into that. But all the sex in the backroom of the underwear party was just action. Tyler's jerk off was full of passion and eroticism, even though it was a solo act. Alas, I fell asleep.

 

With construction worker hours and two kids, I just could not stay asleep late. I woke up at 8. Everyone was still sleeping. I was still sticky from last night. Seeing the coast was clear, I went back to the crime scene where Tyler had showered last night. I took a fully naked outdoor shower knowing nobody was looking. I have to admit, outdoor showers were really a new level of pampering. I then came back to my room and kept myself busy on my phone.

 

Tyler woke up around 9. He came downstairs and I greeted him. I had already brewed a pot of coffee and sprang into action of serving him his cup as soon as I heard his footsteps. He was back in his gray sweat shorts freeballing it.

 

We got the breakfast of bagels and spreads and some fruit salad ready for the rest of the crew. Eventually they all work up. Jason and Jason came out of their room all cheery. They were acting all in love and once again finishing each other's sentences. It was as though the whole world had not seen them fucking some random guy together last night. Like nothing happened.

 

Everybody praised the Long Island bagels I had brought, even though they each had emotional trauma of eating that much carbs. We were all invited to go over Dan and Dan for pool and lunch. People showered, put on their bathing suits, and hit the road. Short Jason was wearing tight trunks, everybody else was wearing bikini bathing suits. I had my one and only pair of bathing suit: a green and blue billabong surfer board shorts that went all the way down to my knees. Once again, I stood out like a sore thumb.

 

When we arrived, there were a few people there already. Dan and Dan were naked already, and two other guys were naked hanging out as well. 3 other guys had their bathing suits on. I looked over at the bar and there was a selection of white wine and rosé, and one single six pack of Budweiser. It was so touching that Dan and Dan remembered that was my drink and they made sure they had some on hand.

 

People hung out, recounting some of the shenanigans from the prior night and who hooked up with whom. Lunch was hamburgers and fries. The 4 naked guys stayed naked during lunch, the rest in their small banana hammocks. And me with my shorts down to my knees.

 

After lunch it was time to hit the pool. One by one people jumped in. Tyler took off his bathing suit last second before he jumped in too. I joined the rest of the group. There was a lot of splashing of the water, but I could make out the general shape of Tyler's package though it all. I had never been in a pool with naked guys before. I didn't know what was the etiquette of how not to stare and how not to rub against one as you moved around.

 

After a long soak, some got people out of the pool. Dan and Dan and Jeff and Mark went to hang out by the chaise lounges. Tyler got out and motioned for me to follow. He never put his bathing suit back on. Here he was, naked, sitting with his friends and having a perfectly normal conversation. There is no such concept of nudity in the straight world. One thinks that as soon as you have a group of naked (and horny) people, an orgy would surely erupt. Much like the underwear party last night. But this was different. It was a whole bunch of gay guys who love dicks and ass. But they couldn't care less if their friends' dicks and asses were on full display. I couldn't imagine my construction buddies and me sitting naked in someone's backyard and guzzling beer. But here nobody was sneaking a peek. Nobody cared. There was something liberating in it all. But I couldn't resist. The few times I could I tried to look at Tyler's package. It was taboo and sinful. I don't know why I was drawn to look at it.

 

Eventually we got back home. People needed a disco nap. Then we repeated the cycle of Low Tea, Pool Tea, and get home for dinner. I grilled the chicken, Tyler roasted some veggies. For some reason the guys were drinking more than usual. By the end of the dinner, the other four declared they were going to Sip N' Twirl and possibly to the Pavilion afterward. Tyler was a bit too tipsy to go out or to even help with the table.

 

I did all the cleaning myself. Tyler had fallen asleep on the sofa, where I had left him. I tried to gently wake him to take him to his room, no sign of life. I tried to stand him and support him with his one arm around my shoulder so we could climb the stairs. No luck. Finally, I put one hand behind his back and one hand behind his knees and lifted him in the air. Luckily, I had enough strength to support his weight.

 

Just then he opened his eyes just slightly to see what was going on. With both arms he embraced my neck to pull himself closer. At least he was helping. I took him up to his room and laid him down in the middle of his bed. I took off his shirt and his pants for him. He was wearing a pair of cute Andrew Christian underwear. I pulled out the blanket and covered him. I gave him a fatherly rub on the back of his scalp.

 

"Thanks, buddy," he whimpered under his breath with his last ounce of strength.

 

"Sweet dreams." I stood by the doorframe and admired the site for a few minutes before I left. In a matter of just one month, he had become the most meaningful friendship I have ever had. Yet we came from such opposite ends of the spectrum in term of sexuality and social status. It is just amazing when you meet someone and you have an instant bond with them. It felt like I had been friends with Tyler for like forever, but it was only a month.

 

The next morning I woke up early again. I repeated my routine of glorious naked outdoor shower while the coast was clear. I went back to my room and kept myself busy with my phone. By 10, I had exhausted all possible distractions on my phone and was feeling antsy.

 

I went to the kitchen and started working on breakfast. I made a large bowl of pancake batter. I made fruit salad like yesterday. I made fresh bacon and thought just the smell might wake up everyone. Nope.

 

By 11 there was still no sign of life. I made a large pancake. I plated in on a dish. I added some bacon and fruit salad on the side. I garnished it with a flower I found on the deck. I poured 2 cups of coffee, and added just a bit of milk to one as Tyler liked it. I put it all on a tray.

 

I remembered just a month ago I was too nervous and shy when Tyler asked me to join him for that first time at the lunch table. And here I was, fully comfortable in his kitchen, making him breakfast in bed as a surprise. We had come a long way in just a short period of time.

 

I carried the tray upstairs. I paused for a second at the door to his room. The morning light was coming in strong and had cast a glow in his room. Tyler was asleep on his side facing the door. The morning light, the white sheets, the serenity of his sleep, all made him look like an angel.

 

Just then he must have sensed someone there. He opened just the one eye farthest from the pillow. He saw me holding a tray. He closed his eye and then proceeded to give the biggest grin from ear to ear. Still with his eyes closed, with one hand he tapped the mattress in front of him, as in `come and sit here'. I understood the clue.

 

I approached his bed. I put the tray down, and sat on the edge of the bed. With his eyes still closed, he sensed I was there. He opened both eyes and looked at me and the tray. The blue of his eyes were a perfect match for the clear skies just behind outside the window. He took both arms out and gave himself a nice stretch. He got out from under the covers, and sat himself leaning on the bed's headboard. He was still in his cute Andrew Christian underwear. Another huge ear to ear grin. He seemed so happy, and he had just woken up.

 

He saw his cup of coffee with milk in it. He picked it up and took a sip. I picked up my cup as well.

 

"Good morning," he finally said.

 

"Good morning."

 

"Here, come sit next to me here."

 

I obliged. I had never been in bed with another buddy, specially one who was still in his underwear. Where I come from, people think that's too gay. But here, the rules were different. Nobody cared about your societal norms or inhibitions. You were free to show friendship, care, or even affection in whichever manner you wanted. I sat next to him. Once I got comfortable, he moved more near me until our shoulders touched.

 

He then took his plate of food and utensils off the tray.

 

"Ummmm, this is good." He was referring to the hot pancake he was taking a bite of. He took another and another bite. I was sipping on my coffee next to him.

 

"Did you eat already?" he asked.

 

"Nope, I was waiting."

 

Without missing a beat, he cut off another piece of pancake with the fork and knife. He pointed the loaded fork to me and brought it up to my face. He wanted me to take the bite. I couldn't remember the last time I was spoon-fed by some, let alone a guy. That would definitely be considered gay where I come from. I looked into his eyes, leaned forward, and took the whole bite into my mouth. I had not only had a piece of pancake, but some of Tyler's saliva that might have been on his fork. We were at that level already. The whole rest of the time he took one bite for himself and spoon-fed me the other bite, until we finished the pancake. I was just like a baby who waited to be fed. I obliged with every bite. He threw in a few pieces of fruit salad in between the pancake bites. At the end, he took a strip of bacon and brought it to me. Instead of handing it to me, he hand fed it to me bite by bite. I had shared his breakfast without moving a finger. He fed me the whole thing.

 

Eventually the food was finished and our coffee was gone. We heard some rumbling outside. I took the tray and went downstairs. The other guys were all up and helping themselves to coffee I had made. It was time to make the rest of the pancakes.

 

Breakfast was amusing. Some stories about some guy at the Pavilion who was making a scene. They had to call the cops on him.

 

I wasn't briefed on it, but apparently this afternoon's party was gonna be at Tyler's. They were expecting a bunch of guys for drinks and a pool dip. I made sure I cleared the breakfast table real good. I was there to help, after all. I took instructions from Tyler how to set up the outdoor bar and snacks area. By mid-afternoon some guys showed up. Mostly same crowd from yesterday's pool party, plus a whole bunch of new people. Before you knew it there were 50 guys there. I didn't think Tyler expected as many. No sooner than Dan and Dan walked in through the door that they get fully naked again as was their custom. A few other guys also were naked as they got in and out of the pool.

 

I didn't know most of them. And I was not there to socialize, I was there to help. I made sure the bar was well stocked with ice and fresh rosé the whole time. Tyler was off entertaining. I saw him in the pool talking to his one ginger guy for quite some time. Then the two of them came out of the pool. The ginger grabbed Tyler's hand and escorted him all the way inside the house. I could see the 2 of them going up the stairs holding hands. The door was closed behind them.

 

On the one hand, I was glad Tyler was gonna get some action. It was his party and his house, and he needed some relief. On the other hand, I was a bit uneasy about it. I was just developing a close friendship with him, and now he was off with some random stranger. True, what this stranger was giving him, I couldn't. But still. Just this past morning Tyler was spoon-feeding me pancakes in his bed. And now he was gonna get manhandled in the same bed by some guy he didn't care about as much. I was happy for him, I was not happy for me.

 

A half hour later they came out. A quick kiss on the lips and the ginger took off. Eventually the rest of party slowed down as well. It was Sunday afternoon and most people were going back to the New York. I got into high gear to clean up all the drink cups and garbage around the deck. I cleaned off the bar as Tyler was saying good bye to people leaving.

 

The rest of the housemates were taking the 6 o'clock ferry. I kept looking busy as they were getting ready to leave. I wanted just a little bit more one-on-one Tyler time after everybody else was gone. Eventually it was just Tyler and me. Truth be told, all the cleaning had been done by that point. Tyler pulled out a Budweiser for me and poured himself another white wine. We went and sat on the new chaise lounges to enjoy our drinks. We talked about all the silliness of the past weekend. All the characters and all the stories we learned. It was a good decompression from the rest of the weekend.

 

It was time for me to leave as well, even though I could just stay there for ever and ever. I left my toolbox in my new bedroom. I packed my bag. I was not going to need my bathing suit for anything else on the mainland, so I left that behind as well. I went to the kitchen and grabbed the two large bags of garbage in one hand and two large bags of recycling in the other hand. Tyler came over to give me his usual good-bye hug. Somehow with my own bag and 4 other bags in my hands we managed a hug. Yup, lips on my cheek.

 

Tyler had my payment for the weekend. But my hands were too full. After a brief moment of contemplation, Tyler reached over and stuffed the money in the front pocket of my pants. He put two fingers in my front pocket to push the money all the way in. I had never had another guy's hands inside my front pocket, just an inch away from my cock. Again, where I come from that is too gay.

 

I was on cloud 9 the whole ferry ride home. I reached in and saw that Tyler had paid me for 3 days, not just 2. An extra $200 for Friday. I was gonna keep that part for myself rather than hand it over to Cindy. She didn't need to know I went over Friday night and stayed all weekend.

 

The next Saturday I showed up at Tyler's as usual. A nice welcome hug and kiss on the cheeks. I had picked up one bran muffin and one blueberry muffin for us. I didn't know which one Tyler liked better. He suggested we eat them half and half. I agreed. We ate them by the kitchen counter with our morning coffee.

 

I went to the downstairs bedroom, the one assigned to me, to get my toolbox I had left there. The bed was nicely made with clean sheets. On it, there was my Billabong swim shorts, also washed and neatly folded. There was a single Hershey's Kiss right on top of it. I ate that one piece of chocolate so fast. My heart was melting how he took care of little details like that.

 

Tyler was wearing his gray sweat shorts and nothing more, as he usually did at home. I decided that since I was going to work indoors all day I was going to remove my T-shirt as well. He didn't say a thing when I walked out shirtless.

 

That day's task was to disassemble the old benchpress in his gym area in his office and assemble a fancy new one he had ordered online. The old one was stationary, but the new one let you do multiple angles. I loved this kind of work.

 

This was also the first time I was gonna be working in his office/gym while he was probably gonna work on his movie script. I promised myself I was going to keep the noise to a minimum and not bother him. I started on the old unit. He came and sat himself in front of his desk. He opened some file that could have been his movie script. I wouldn't know how to tell one from any other file.

 

As I worked a bit more, I snuck glimpses in his direction. One time he was on Facebook. Another time on CNN. Another time he was he was on some travel website.

 

By 11:00, I was done with disassembling the old unit and I had taken everything to the curb. It was time to open up that huge box with the new bench. Just then Tyler announced: "This script is not going anywhere." He walked out of the office/gym. I continued to work. I heard some pots and pans. I assumed he was gonna work on lunch instead.

 

Sure enough a bit after noon he came to announce lunch was ready. We had a lovely lunch. All this time in the kitchen he had made homemade pasta and homemade sauce from scratch. It was divine. All that accompanied by my Budweiser and his white wine. I learned that he was having a bit of a writers' block all this time. He had some story line with a good start, but no climax and no resolution.

 

I did want to get back to the benchpress and finish it before the end of the day. It had a million little parts and the instructions were horrible. As I worked, Tyler came back into the room and sat on his desk chair. Except this time as opposed to fiddling on his computer, he turned around and faced me. He looked at me as I worked. I worked and he kept just looking.

 

"What???" I finally said.

 

"What what?" he answered with a snark.

 

"You're sitting there just looking at me."

 

"Do you blame me? It's not every day I have a shirtless hunk in my office fiddling with manly instruments."

 

"Tyler, you're lucky I like you a lot and I like your sense of humor. Any other straight handyman would walk over and beat the crap out of you."

 

"But you're not any other handyman. You're Pat. Just last week you made me take you to the back room of the underwear party. Then you sat in my bed and I spoonfed you pancakes you had made for me as a surprise. So now ogling from across the room is too gay?"

 

"Don't you have work to do?"

"Writers' block."

"Then come over here and make yourself useful."

 

He was at least good for reading the instruction and handing me the next piece I needed. As we assembled the bench and put all the weights in the right places, our hands and shirtless shoulders rubbed against each other several times.

 

Finally the unit was done.

 

"Should we do a test drive?" Tyler asked.

 

"Sure."

 

I let him go first. He laid down on the bench and I spotted him from above his head. He did a few reps. It was my turn, he stood over the top and I did a few reps. It was time to switch again. I increased the weight for him. He was struggling but he didn't want to let me down. We switched again. Yes, in fact the higher weights were more challenging than I thought. Tyler had to lean a bit more over my head to spot me.

And there it was. As he was spotting me, I could get glimpses of Tyler's cock and balls as he was freeballing it in his gray sweat shorts. He had cut those off shorter than most straight guys would do, and from this angle underneath it wasn't hard to see his manhood. Not that I was looking. But there it was. Just inches from my face.

 

By then he had broken into a light sweat. As I was trying to concentrate on my reps rather than the view, a mesmerizing aroma of musk hit my nose. It wasn't mine; it was his. The musk from his ballsac was coming out of his pants and hitting my nose. I had never smelled something like that before. I had ever been this close to anybody's crotch except with Cindy. And truth be told, she smelled like tuna. Not pleasant. But this musk coming from Tyler was animalistic, exotic, and intoxicating all at the same time.

 

It was time to switch again. The whole time I was spotting him, I wondered if my crotch too was releasing scents that would end up in his nose. I didn't know. I didn't dare ask. And then it was my turn again. Once again, I laid down on the bench, and Tyler came extra close to spot me. I didn't think he knew he was on full display. But that musk! That scent! I was hypnotized on so many levels from the sights and the smells. If I weren't straight, I would pull off his pants right then and there and lick off every gland of his crotch releasing his musk. I was drawn to it like a moth to a light. But it was coming from Tyler, another man. It wasn't coming from the woman that I took a vow to spend the rest of my life with.

 

I was so happy when we were done. I was not myself. I had no idea what had come over me. All this not getting laid had fucked up my mind royally. I was not well.

 

I left a bit earlier than usual, which was not a big deal since I had finished my daily task. The whole ferry ride home I had visions of Tyler's cock and that intoxicating smell that was coming off of it. Luckily the kids were home and still up and they distracted me.

 

The next day I showed up with scones. We ate those with our morning coffee. A few of the screen doors needed replacement. Tyler had asked in advance and had ordered the screen mesh in advance. Once again, I had decided I was going to spend the day shirtless.

 

Over lunch I shared that Cindy and the kids had a great time with my in-laws in Jersey shore. Plus, Cindy finally had some help with the kids. She had told me that since I was going to spend more weekends here on Fire Island, she was going to do more weekends with her folks as well. She really admired that I was working 7 days a week and was really grateful for all the extra money, but she also needed help.

 

Tyler said that whenever `the old ball and chain' happen to be away, I should just come Friday afternoon and stay the whole weekend. That was very generous of him. In fact, the following weekend, which was July 4^th weekend, she was planning to go away again. Of course, I was invited to go with her, unless I had work to do and needed to stay behind.

 

"Oh, I wouldn't want to come in between you and your family. By all means, if you need to go away, enjoy your holiday. But if you want to hang out here, I am sure we can find some more projects to make it worth your while. And it's a 3 day weekend, so if you come Friday that would be 4 days' worth of pay."

 

I contemplated for a little while. $800. Tax free and off the books. That was a lot of money for doing really easy jobs here. Plus, I would get to hang out with Tyler. The decision was made. Tyler had a cheerful look on his face.

 

When it was time to leave, we went through our routine of me getting paid and a hug and kiss goodbye. Except this time Tyler was more playful.

 

"So, do you want me to give it to you in your hands, or stuff it down your pants like last time?"

 

I decided to be playful too. "It's not every day you get paid as though you're a stripper."

 

That was all the permission he needed. He shoved the money in my front pocket as I leaned my pelvis forward for him, and he used his two fingers to go deep and shove the cash all the way in. As a straight married man, I was playing with fire. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

 

He came in for the hug. Just when I though he was going to release, he lowered his right hand and pinched my left asscheek. "If you're going to get paid like a stripper, then you might get groped like one as well."

 

He pulled away. The look on his face was cheerful, seductive, and triumphant all at the same time. I had crossed too many lines with Tyler already.

 

 

 

Chapter 3: July

 

Once again, I loaded Cindy and the kids into the car Friday morning and saw them off. It was going to be a half day at my regular job. I was at Tyler's by 2 PM. Jason and Jason and Jeff and Mark came later. We all got our rooms from last time.

 

The Pines was packed that weekend! It was possibly the busiest weekend of the summer. Low Tea and Pool Tea were both happening at the same time, and there were wall to wall shirtless gay men.

 

Dinner back home was full of excitement. All those guys were planning on doing The Invasion the next day. I had no idea what that was. It was the day that 400-500 people get dressed in drag and come over the boat from Cherry Grove to The Pines. These are not drag queens by profession, but the average gay doctors and accountants and engineers. It is a tradition that started back at the nation's bicentennial. Some drag queen from Cherry Grove was refused service at The Pines in 1976. So she decided to rent out a water taxi and `invade' The Pines with bigger number of drag queens. It has been a tradition to recreate that `invasion' ever since on July 4^th. All the guys were excited about their outfits. There was no fucking way I was getting into drag.

 

The next day was more chaotic than usual. There were wigs and dresses all over the place. High heal shoes, glitter, make up, hair spray over everything. As I was the only one not getting dressed, they all made me help them with this and that task. Tall Jason had me squeeze him into his corset. Mark asked me to help him glue his eyelashes on. I had no clue what I was doing. The only part that I enjoyed was when Tyler asked me to put nail polish on his fingers. That was 10 minutes of relative quiet, just Tyler and me. I got to hold Tyler's hands in mine to do a task, which made it less gay than holding his hands outright. Yes, I was putting nail polish on him for a drag outfit, but just go with the story.

 

As the only one not dressed, I was the one taking photos of the group. A sorry sight, but they all thought they looked glamorous. As long as they were happy, who was I to judge?

 

We took the water taxi to Cherry Grove. More and more interesting outfits. Some people were very creative, some looked like they just slapped a dress on and showed up. Lots more pictures taken by yours truly. Only people in drag could get on the invasion boat. I bid them all farewell. They told me that if I get back to The Pines now, I could get a spot watching the boat pull in. Well, it was quite the sight, as they promised. I was able to get good video of Tyler coming off the boat.

 

Later that day it was once again Low Tea, Pool Tea, and we even went to Sip N' Twirl. Just masses of people everywhere. The next day was a lazy morning around the pool. By middle of the day they all started getting ready to go to another couple of parties. The first one was a Hats & Heels party. As usual, I had no clue what that was although the name could be self-explanatory. Everyone has to wear women's hats and high heel shoes. No way in hell I was doing that.

 

Tyler gave me the biggest puppy eyes and I finally relented. I was going to go along. It was not full drag, just some shoes. They had tons of extra hats and shoes at the party itself. Nice house on the bay. I tried to look for the shortest possible heels. I found one with maybe like a 2-inch heel. I almost fell over the first time I stood up, and provided much laughter for everyone else. I was cursing under my breath. The way I walked in those heels and the silly hat I had to wear, I am sure I was quite a sight. I played along, all because Tyler made me.

 

We then went to IndepenDance. It was a July 4^th party. Wall to wall shirtless guys and club music. Not my favorite party. Later that night, Low Tea and Pool Tea all over again. After dinner we went to Showtunes Sundays. They played famous movie or Broadway show tracks, and people randomly acted out the dance moves and the scenes. This was actually more fun that I thought, although I hardly knew some of the numbers they played.

 

Since July 4^th was on the weekend, the observed holiday was on that Monday. An extra day off. The rest of the housemates left after lunch. I was in no rush to go home. Tyler was in no rush to get rid of me. I suggested maybe we could go for a walk on the beach. I was 3 PM, but the sun was out strong. Tyler wisely suggested we should apply suntan lotion before going. We each applied to own fronts, faces, legs, and arms.

 

Without asking permission he then attacked my back with a wad of that lotion. He covered every single inch. He touched every part of my back. He once again did his routine of sliding one finger under the elastic of my bathing suit to lather up the top of my asscheeks. As if on cue, he then handed me the bottle of the lotion and turned his back to me. I repeated the same ritual of covering his entire backside with both my hands. I, too, slid my fingers under the elastic of his waistband to cover the tops of his asscheeks. I was doing that part more for me than for him. I enjoyed being able to touch him.

 

The walk on the beach was lovely. He ran into quite a few people he knew. I had already met them here and there at some of the previous parties.

 

Later that day, when it was time to leave, he didn't repeat the same question like last week. He just went ahead and helped himself into the front pocket of my shorts with a wad of cash. I surely had not helped out enough that weekend to earn $800, but that was the deal. Instead of pinching my ass this time as we hugged good bye, he lowered his head and gently rested it on my shoulder for just one second. When he let go, he didn't look at me. He gazed onto the floor and went back in quietly. I wasn't the only one who was sad I had to leave.

 

Next Saturday I showed up with 2 almond croissants. Our two cups of coffee were already served and ready for us on the kitchen counter when I entered the house. Back in my bedroom, my Billabong bathing suit was washed and another Hershey's Kiss was on top of it. My heart felt another rush.

 

The task for the weekend was new outdoor speakers. I had to run the wires from the AV cabinet, under the house, run wires all over the deck, and install 8 speakers. It was going to take both days for this. We had our usual lunch. Then I got back to work.

 

Mid-afternoon I was on a high ladder on the deck installing one of the speakers on the side of the house. I heard the front gate open and close, and then the front door open and close. I assumed it was one of Tyler's friends coming to visit. Although, he didn't bring anyone out to introduce me as he normally would. I just kept working.

 

I heard some noises from Tyler's bedroom window, the one facing the deck. I was right there on the other side of the wall installing a speaker. The devil got into me and I peeked in.

 

This random dude and Tyler were both butt naked on his bed. The dude was bent over doggy style, and Tyler was fucking the shit out of him. Neither one saw me. I was hypnotized. I had seen Tyler's boner during the massage, I had seen his naked ass at the underwear party, and I had seen him naked at the pool party. I had never seen him have sex with someone. He was good. He had an awesome bang in his pelvic thrusts. The dude was totally feeling it. Tyler then reached over the grabbed the dude's hair and pulled his head back, arching his neck and back. He whispered something in the dude's ears. I don't know what he said, but the dude starting really getting into it. Tyler was pounding, and the dude was gyrating his pelvis with absolute pleasure.

 

Tyler then pulled out, his dick erect and sticking out. With one hand he flipped the dude over and started fucking him missionary. The dude's leg were up to the sky. Tyler leaned on those legs and pushed himself all the way in. Each one of the dude's legs was over Tyler's corresponding shoulder. The action was hard and fierce.

 

The whole time I was leaning over the ladder and looking in from the corner of the window. Luckily Tyler never looked up, or else I would be busted. That's the last thing I needed. Eventually both Tyler and the dude shot their loads. I quickly pulled away from the window. I just froze where I was. If I continued to work and made noise, they would know I was there the whole time. I just stood there, on the highest step of the ladder to see what would happen next. I heard the front door open and close, and then the font gate open and close. The coast was clear. I was able to continue with my work, although I could not for the life of me concentrate any more. I had seen too much.

 

A few minutes later, Tyler came out on the deck with a Budweiser and his white wine.

 

"Time for a break," he declared. I was in no condition to continue to work. But I was also in no condition to sit next to Tyler and just chat. Lost between a rock and a hard place, I followed his lead.

 

He was wearing his gray sweat shorts again. We sat on the chaise lounges. At first the conversation was rather routine and trivial. I was relieved. I needed that ice breaker.

 

Out of nowhere he asked: "So, how did you like the show?"

 

"Wha...?"

 

"The show. 10 minutes ago. Upstairs. Me and my Grindr hook up. Don't be acting so innocent Mr. Peeping Tom."

I was soooooo busted. Once again, I hoped the earth would open up and swallow me whole. I had committed a transgression against Tyler and there was no way I could get out of it. Yet, he didn't seem to be mad. He wasn't lecturing me. He just wanted to talk about it. I bent my head down in embarrassment. I couldn't bear to look at him.

 

"Buddy, it's OK. This is Fire Island." And with that he started tickling my chest and belly. I wanted to laugh at the tickles, but I was still too embarrassed to take any action.

 

He got up from his chaise lounge and sat on the edge of mine. With one hand he grabbed my chin and lifted my head up. He made me look him in the eyes. "It's OK," he repeated.

 

A single tear came out of the angle of my right eye. Tyler saw that. He wiped it off for me with his hand.

 

It took all the strength in my body not to burst into a cry. "Dude, I'm so sorry. You have been nothing but kind to me. You have been generous with your house, with your friends, and also with work for me to support my family. And this this how I repay you." I wanted to tilt my head down again, but he held my chin firm in his hand. He made sure we continued the gaze.

 

"Like I said, a little curiosity is fine. This is Fire Island. Things like that happen all the time. I don't mind at all. Maybe I'm actually glad you saw that. Hopefully you'll have less inhibitions going forward."

 

That's when I started to open up. About how my entire life I had no prospects. About how I had married the one and only woman I've ever had sex with. How we had 2 kids when we were still kids ourselves. About how Cindy had stopped to be a sexual being and would not even allow me to see her naked, let alone have sex with her. About how this summer had been so transformative for me on so many levels. And I owed it all to Tyler and the generosity of his heart.

 

As he was still sitting on the edge of my chaise lounge, he came in for a hug. I hugged back. He rested his head on my shoulder. But this time he did not let go of the hug and did not let go of where his head was. I reciprocated with my head on his shoulder. I don't know if we stayed like this for 5 minutes or 30 minutes. I lost track of time. I didn't want to let go. He wasn't letting go either. I felt an immense sense of safety there with him. I wished for that moment to never end.

 

But eventually we had to come up for air. With that same hand he cupped my chin again and looked me into the eyes with his piercing blue eyes. "It's OK. You're going to be OK. It's all going to be OK." He reassured me. He then let go of his hand on my chin and instead ran it through my hair.

 

With that, he finally got up. I looked at my watch and it was late. It was time to go home. Our good bye hug by the door was longer that previous times, but not as long as the one just before on the deck. Both of us rested our heads on the other one's shoulder. What a pure bliss.

 

Sunday I showed up with donuts, we had them with our morning coffee on the kitchen counter. My one hand was resting on the counter. With his free hand, he ran his fingers over the back side of my fingers a few times. I let him touch me sensuously like that. It was just an innocent touch between two new best friends. And nothing on Fire Island was too gay. You do whatever you are comfortable with. And I was comfortable with Tyler running his fingers on mine.

 

I got back to the speaker project. During lunch I hinted that Cindy and the kids were going away next weekend again. I was not as innocent any more. I had learned to drop a hint.

 

Tyler turned to me enthusiastically. "Next weekend it's going to be you and me. The whole weekend. No guests, but also no work. You're coming this time as my guest. Not my handyman."

 

I had butterflies in my belly. I had shown up here every time with a sense of duty. This was the first time Tyler was explicitly acknowledging that we had become friends. And he wanted me and me only that weekend. Nobody else. Just the 2 of us. And not for work. Just 2 guys hanging out. I was so lucky.

 

"Oh, and I don't want to hear anything about it. Even though you are coming as a guest, I will pay you for your time. It's not for you. It's for your kids and wife. You are my guest, but they need the extra support."

 

I had already promised myself I was not going to accept any cash. But I wasn't going to ruin this beautiful moment.

 

We tested all the speakers by the end of the day. Tyler stuffed my cash down my pocket, and proceeded to hug me. The left asscheek got pinched again. The kiss on my cheek definitely left a wet spot of Tyler's saliva.

 

Next Friday afternoon Tyler picked me at the ferry dock rather than wait for me at home. Instead of the usual gray sweat shorts, he was wearing a very handsome outfit. I had never seen him so well put together all these weeks. We had a quick hello hug and then he helped me with my weekend bag.

 

When we got home, it felt different than other times. There were flowers everywhere. Everything looked cleaner and more tidy than usual. There was some soft music playing both inside and on the new outdoor speakers.

 

I went in the direction of my bedroom to put down my bag.

 

"Since it is only you and me this weekend, feel free to take any bedroom you want. And I mean ANY bedroom."

 

Perhaps I was too dense to realize it at that point. But maybe in retrospect that offer could have included his own bedroom. With his bed. With him. But I didn't get the hint then.

 

"I think I'm OK with this one." I headed into my usual bedroom. He followed.

 

This bedroom looked a bit different too. There were flowers on both end tables. I looked back and there were some clothes hanging in the closet. A couple of polo shirts and a couple of nicer looking shorts. 2 new Havaianas in solid colors.

 

"Please please please don't get upset. Since you never left any clothing here, I went ahead and bought you a couple of items. You can keep them here and use them as you wish."

 

I couldn't possibly be mad at Tyler when he was pampering me so well. I did not know what had I done to deserve this level of kindness. It took quite an effort not to have that single tear run out of the corner of my left eye.

 

"I'll let you freshen up." He left me inside the bedroom. Yes, I did need a shower after a hot smelly day at the construction site. I debated if I should take one in the outdoor shower or right here in the room. I wanted to exhibit that level of comfort with Tyler, letting him see me in all my nakedness as I had seen him a few times. But I wasn't ready. I was not ready for that level of comfort. Instead, I took the shower indoor, in the bathroom. I left the bedroom and the bathroom doors open.

 

I walked out of the shower naked. The bedroom door was still wide open. Tyler was nowhere in sight. He was not peeking in on me like I had done on him a few times already. I put on clean boxer shorts. I then put on one of the new shirts and one of the new shorts. None of those items were terribly fancy. But they were new and crisp, in much better condition than any clothing I owned. I looked at the mirror and I couldn't recognize who that man was. And it wasn't just the new clothes. It was the absolute look of joy in my eyes. It was my confident posture. It was the glow on my cheeks. I had been transformed.

 

I went out to the living room. Tyler had been sitting on the sofa on his phone the whole time. He looked up and did a double take just as I had done myself looking at the mirror moments ago. I had cleaned up pretty nice.

 

"Who's this stud in my house?" he joked.

 

"What, there is a loose stud that needs to be fixed?" I replied. You can take the guy out of the construction site, but you can't take the construction site out of the guy.

 

He had my Budweiser and his white wine served already on the coffee table. There were some cocktail nuts on the table. I swear I think the room lights were a bit dimmer than usual. The soft music was still playing.

 

I went and sat down on the opposite side of the sofa. I lifted my legs and laid them on the sofa in his direction. He in turn lifted his legs and landed them on the sofa and my ankles. Our feet and ankles were now all twisted around each other. Nothing is ever too gay on Fire Island. Do whatever you are comfortable with. And at that moment I was comfortable with Tyler's feet resting on top of my ankles.

 

We talked about absolutely nothing of significance. It was just a couple of drinks on a Friday evening. We skipped the Low Tea and Pool Tea crowds. Instead, he had made reservation for us at The Bistro, the one and only sit-down restaurant in The Pines. The food was OK, not great. But the company was superb. When not eating, I rested one hand on the table. Many times he rubbed his fingers over the top of my fingers on the table. Just a soft and gentle rub back and forth. No holding hands. Just a soft rub. Just a gentle reminder how much we had grown fond of each other.

 

After the longest dinner, we headed to the Piano Bar. It was pretty sad, with only 15 people there. But there were some really talented people belting some tunes along with the main act.

 

The walk home was lovely. It was a full moon and the air was still. Tyler suggested we walk over to beach to check it out. The full moon on the ocean was gorgeous. We sat down on the stairs to the beach and gazed out. His knees were touching mine, my shoulders were touching his. As we talked, he leaned his head sideways and rested in on my one shoulder. I reciprocated and leaned my head to rest on his head. No words any more. We just gazed into the sea.

 

Our peace was interrupted by a gaggle of rowdy and drunk boys coming to go to the beach. Maybe even going for a skinny dip. Tyler and I got up and continued to walk home.

 

When we got home, it was after midnight. Tyler cupped my chin in his one hand like had done last week. He looked me directly in the eyes and said: "Good night." He leaned over and planted a solid kiss on my one cheek. No hug. Nothing frisky. He then turned around and went up the stairs to his room.

 

I was left alone downstairs yearning for more. I didn't think I had my fill of him for the night already. I was hoping to sit down and chat some more. Let him rub my fingers for me. Or put his feet on my ankles again. I needed more. I yearned for more, after such a magical night. But there were only so many lines I could cross for one night. I just stood there at the bottom of the stairs that separated us. Tomorrow was going to be another day. Just Tyler and me.

 

I tossed and turned in the bed a few times. My heart was content, but my belly was having palpitations. Never before in my life did I think that I would be yearning for the touch of my new gay best friend. That is just something that is not in the lexicon of any average straight married construction worker. But here I was. Beyond my wildest imagination.

 

The next morning it was Tyler who surprised me with breakfast in bed. He had made one huge veggie omelet. Possibly 4 eggs. Served on one plate. One set of utensils. Two cups of coffee. He was wearing his gray sweat shorts. The same one that had exuded all the musk on my face on the benchpress.

 

He placed the tray in between us on my bed, then sat down facing me. He cut up a piece of the omelet and fed it to me. He cut up another piece and ate it himself. He fed me one more bite, and another bite for him. We finished the whole omelet like this, without me lifting a finger. I was lovingly fed by him the whole time. I must have done something right at some point to deserve this kind of pampering. And I kept reminding myself that nothing is ever too gay on Fire Island. Enjoy the moment.

 

We had another cup of coffee out on the deck. The new speakers were a real nice addition to the space. Around 11 he said he was hoping to do a picnic on the beach. I was happy to do whatever he had in mind. I helped him pack some food into the picnic basket, and filled the drink cooler with ice, 3 Budweisers and a bottle of white wine.

 

I went into my room to change into my bathing suit. I was looking forward to rubbing suntan lotion on his back, and sneak my fingers to touch the top of his asscheeks. I was deep in this thought when I discovered a wrapped gift on my bed. I had no idea when he might have snuck this gift in. I opened it. It was a pair of new board shorts from Billabong. Except that the inseam could not have been more than 3 inches long. I didn't even know if they came that short, or perhaps Tyler had them altered.

I put on the new bathing suit on. I looked at the mirror. My muscular thighs needed to be showcased, not hidden under all that fabric. I could not recognize that handsome man in the mirror. I came out of the room. Tyler did another double take. I could just see how proud he was of himself.

 

We headed to the beach. Yes, we did the dance with applying suntan lotion on each other. Lunch was lovely. The setting was superb. And the company was above and beyond. A few times Tyler reached out and caressed my wrist with his fingers. I was not ready to reciprocate yet.

 

We came back around 3. Tyler said he had gotten us tickets to the DRA show. It was Dancers Responding to AIDS. It was THE event of the summer, with lots of money raised each year. We each showered in our respective rooms, put on some fresh clothes and headed out. They had converted a huge deck of one of the houses on the bay into bleachers and a stage. There were like 500 people there. There were 10 different dance companies, each doing 1 or 2 numbers. Many of the original dance numbers were modified to celebrate same-sex love. I had never been to anything this artistic or sophisticated before. With the sun setting in the background, you couldn't help but get overwhelmed by the beauty of the setting and the artistry of the dancers.

 

After that we did a cursory stop at Low Tea. It was not as packed as other times. We took the water taxi to Cherry Grove for dinner. Tyler had made reservations at Top of the Bay. The taxi ride was not as packed as some other times. Yet I managed to squeeze my body next to Tyler's. I wanted our ankles, our hips, our shoulder to touch.

 

At dinner, Tyler repeated his gentle way of massaging the back of my hand and my wrist with his one hand. I was not ready to turn my hand around and take his hand in mine. I just couldn't.

 

On the way home, we walked back on the beach. It was just as beautiful a night as last night. Not a single cloud, just the full moon and the sound of the ocean. A perfect end to a perfect day.

 

Once we got home, just shy of midnight, Tyler gave me another kiss good night and headed upstairs. I wished I could go up with him. I wish I could bring myself to climb the stairs and demand more of his time. I could have hung out with him for hours more. But the night was over. He went into his room. I went into mine.

 

I got up first the next morning. From the lack of any sound, I assumed he was still in his room. I tiptoed up the stairs to check. I went to his doorway. Yes, he was sleeping. Facing the doorway, facing me. The same angelic bright light was filling the room again. I just stood there and gazed for like 5 minutes. Then suddenly he twitched and opened his eyes. I couldn't tell if he was or wasn't surprised to see me there. He closed his eyes and tapped the empty space next to him on his bed. That was my signal to come in.

 

I went over and laid out on the bed next to him. He was under the covers, I was over them. I leaned my head on the same pillow as his head. He took out one arm and embraced me. I pulled in closer. I could feel his breath on my face. My nose was almost touching his. My lips were just inches away from his. I closed my eyes and let myself cherish the moment.

 

I think we both fell asleep again. The next thing I knew I woke up and it was 2 hours later. I had taken a nap in Tyler's embrace. In his bed. On his pillow.

 

I went downstairs to get us coffee. I heard footsteps behind me. Tyler had come down too. I served him his coffee. I had mine. I think we were both physically, and quite possibly emotionally, exhausted to make some fancy breakfast. I toasted some bread and made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A definite throwback to our first meal together. Tyler chuckled as he devoured the sandwich.

 

After a lazy morning, we did another picnic on the beach. Several of Tyler's friends came over to say hi and hang out a bit. I could tell that they sensed something new in the level of intimacy between Tyler and me.

 

We did a dip in the pool just the two of us back home. I had to break in the new bathing suit and get it wet.

 

I wished that day would never end. I wished that weekend would never end. But alas, it was time to go home. As I was saying good bye, Tyler had the usual wad of cash ready for me. He tried to make me take it, I refused. Like he said, I was there as a friend, not a laborer. I did settle for my hug. The hug I knew I deserved. This time it was me who pinched his ass. He did not see that coming.

 

On the ferry ride home, there was something in the pocket of the new shorts I was wearing. I assumed it was the tag from the manufacturer. I reached in. It was $600 and a note: "This is for Cindy and the kids, not for you. I would never want to mistake your genuine friendship for labor." Somehow he had managed to sneak this without me noticing.

 

Next Saturday I showed up with two muffins again. They were a big hit last time. The project of the weekend was to change the in-deck lights to new LED lights. There were 20 of them altogether. The wiring was already there.

 

My dirty new clothes from last weekend were laundered and nicely folded on my bed. I ate the Hershey's Kiss he had left on the bed.

 

It was one of those scorching July weekends where the temperature is unbearable and the humidity absolutely miserable. You could break a break a sweat just by breathing. I left my T-shirt in the bedroom. I even took off my work boots and socks. They were not needed on the deck.

 

I started working outside. I was dripping sweat. Tyler brought me iced tea 2 different times to help me cool down from the heat. I was still dripping sweat. I got 7 units done by lunch. We ate lunch indoors with the air conditioning on full blast. I needed that Budweiser real bad.

 

After lunch I went back outside to do as many more units as I could. The heat was too much. My work shorts were soaked with sweat. Sweat was dripping from my scalp to my back to the inside of my heavy fabric work shorts to end up somewhere in my ass crack. I took off the work shorts and continued working in my boxer shorts only.

 

Just when I was so overheated and so focused on these two wires, I felt a jolt of ice on my back. Something absolutely freezing touched my backside and sent me jumping. I fell over my ass. It was Tyler. He was holding a fresh ice-cold Budweiser in his hand. He had snuck up behind me. Instead of just handing me the drink, he had put it in his head to shock me first with the freezing coldness.

 

He saw me landing on my ass, in absolute shock, and burst out laughing while holding the beer. He really was cracking himself up. I couldn't believe how this little prank had thrown me off completely.

 

"You little asshole!" I yelled and jumped to catch that bastard. Tyler, seeing I was up for revenge, started running away, still laughing and with that can of beer in his hand. We were both laughing, as I chased him round and round the pool.

 

At some point I finally reached him, and I tackled him. That sent both of us straight into the pool. There was a huge splash. We both came up for air still laughing. I tried to dunk him under the water, he tried to do the same to me. We horsed around a few times until we calmed down. That cool pool water was really refreshing after a hot day of working outdoors.

 

We probably stayed in the pool for half an hour. It was time to get out. Tyler went out first and announced he was going to get us towels. I followed him out of the pool. Tyler's gray sweat pants were dripping with water. The fabric was perfectly clinging to his crotch, making the outline very obvious. I looked down, and my boxers were equally clinging to my dick and nuts. There was no need for imagination.

 

"These shorts are beyond soaked," Tyler said. Without hesitation he looped his thumbs under the waistband and took them off. He was naked. He continued to dry off his back and his hair as he looked directly at me. I was still there with my wet shorts dripping water all over the place.

 

The ball was in my court. Tyler had no problem with nudity. I did. All of a sudden, I felt a feeling of doom coming over me. If he trusted me enough to be his own naked safe in front of me, then I should also show the same trust. But it's not the same. Tyler is gay. What if I took off my shorts and he kept checking out my crotch. I wasn't ready for that level of comfort yet. Even it were just Tyler, I hesitated having a gay guy have a view of my crotch.

 

My heart was racing. I was damned if I do, damned if I don't. But I didn't have all day to make a decision. Nobody was rushing me except me.

 

Here goes. I looped my thumbs under the waistband of my boxers and took them off. We were both naked now. 2 naked men standing in front of each other. I had finally taken the plunge to be naked in front of Tyler. We crossed that line too.

 

Tyler was an absolute gentleman. Not even for a split second did he look down below. Instead, he locked eyes with me. He gazed into my eyes as I gazed into his. Our naked exposed dicks were a secondary thought. Our lack of barriers was what mattered. Our trust is what mattered.

 

Finally, he caressed my cheek with the backside of his hand and gave me a subtle smile. No words. I didn't know where we would go from here.

 

"I'll go get you another cold Budweiser," he broke the silence. He went in and showed up with a fresh Budweiser and his glass of wine. He motioned for me to join him by the chaise lounges. We sat on adjacent lounges and sipped our drinks. No words. Each of us just tilted our heads back and enjoyed the sun and the cool drink.

 

Finally, a spontaneous conversation started. About nothing of consequence. Just two guys enjoying a cool drink by the pool. Except that they were both naked. Nothing sexual, just naked. That all was new to me.

 

I looked over, and Tyler's hand was stretched over the handrail of the chaise lounge in my direction. It was dangling in mid-air, it did not reach all the way to me. I reached out my hand in that direction. I looped my pinkie finger around his pinkie finger. We stayed locked like that for a while as we continued to chat.

 

This was SOOOOOO liberating. Being naked as though it is the most natural thing in the world. It WAS the most natural thing in the world. The rest of it was social inhibitions we imposed on ourselves. You could sit naked next to your best friend, even lock fingers with him, and that is fine. In a complete contrast to the sensation of doom I felt before taking my boxers off, I felt an immense sense of serenity. That moment, that place, in that scenario was the most relaxed I had felt ever in my life. This was a newfound nirvana I had no idea existed. The calming and reassuring presence of Tyler, our gentle touch on the fingers, our naked bodies exposed to the sun and the sky even though nobody was looking. That right there was heaven. I wished for that moment to never end.

 

I didn't go back to work the rest of the day. Neither did Tyler. We just sat there on the chaise lounges, locked fingers, and chatted. Neither one of us wanted to disturb nirvana. The only one interruption was the one time I went indoors to get us refills.

 

All good things do eventually come to an end. It was getting late and I had to go home. My boxers were still too wet to put back on. I wore my work shorts which were still damp from all that sweat. It was too hot to put the T-shirt back on.

 

Tyler came in to give me my good bye hug. He was still naked. I had pinched his ass one time in the past through his shorts. I did not dare to do the same on his bare skin this time. I was content with the hug as is, with only my work shorts separating us. I got another kiss on the cheeks.

 

On the walk home, I felt so light. I felt like I had lost 50 pounds. There was a song in my step. I felt like a huge weight was taken off of me. I felt liberated. I had never felt so free and uninhibited in my life. I was able to be naked and completely my own self in front of a good friend. Not once did Tyler try to sneak a peek down there. It was a non-issue. The issue was freedom. The issue was lack of inhibitions. The issue was first and foremost being comfortable with yourself before you worry about what other people might think or do.

 

The following morning I took an earlier than usual ferry over to the island. I had a plan. A mini plan, but a plan just the same. I had picked up two bagels for us. When I walked in, Tyler was not waiting by the coffee machine as he normally does. I was early.

 

I heard quick steps coming down the stairs.

 

"Oh, shit, you're early. I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to get the coffee brewing and ready." He was wearing a different pair of Andrew Christian bikini underwear.

 

"The kids woke us up early, so I figured I come and get work done already," I lied. We had the bagels and the coffee by the kitchen counter, as usual.

 

I then went to my bedroom. Off came the T-shirt and my work shorts. Off came the boots and socks. The boxers I kept on. I went to the deck to finish up the rest of the lighting units. Yesterday's boxers and his gray sweat shorts were still on the deck, evidence of the openness that happened between Tyler and me.

 

This time I kept an eye open for Tyler lest he pull another quick one like yesterday. He did bring me an iced tea refresher in the middle of that hot morning. By the time he announced he had lunch ready for us, I had finished the last of the light fixtures. I made sure I didn't have any work for the afternoon.

 

We sat down for lunch, me in my boxers and Tyler in his underwear. It's amazing how much we had to talk about everything and nothing at all. Tyler asked if I was free to stay the weekend the following weekend. The usual gang was coming again and Tyler didn't want to be the fifth wheel. Plus, it was Pines Party weekend. I had no idea what that was.

 

Well, Pines Party is an annual beach party. They build this huge dance stage right on the beach. The party starts at midnight and goes on until sunrise. People dress up in all kinds of crazy outfits. Usually, they raise a ton of money which in turn is donated to the town as well as several other charities. It is THE party of the summer. I mentioned that Cindy had not indicated if she was going away next weekend as well, but I would see what I could do.

 

Once we finished lunch, we cleared the table. I casually walked to the edge of the pool, took off my boxer shorts, dropped them on the edge of the pool, and jumped into the water. Tyler was looking at me the whole time. He followed suit. He came over to the pool's edge. He took off his underwear, dropped it next to my boxers, and jumped in with me. We were naked in the pool. Together. Just the two of us. The same water that was swirling around my naked body was also engulfing his naked body. I had never swum naked before. It was a first-time experience for me.

 

For the rest of the afternoon, we alternately swam in the pool or just laid out on the chaise lounges. I was very content when we locked pinkie fingers on the chaise lounges. Life could not be more perfect than that exact moment.

 

Again, all good things come to an end. It was time to go home. I picked up my boxers and went back to my bedroom to get dressed. When I came out, Tyler was still naked, waiting for me. The only thing he had on him was my payment for the weekend. He walked over very slowly. By then it had become our joke to stuff the money in my front pocket. A little inside joke, me being treated like a stripper.

 

I pushed my pelvis forward a bit to make it easier to stuff the money in my pocket. Instead, he slid the money all the way from the top of my belly all the way down toward my shorts. He reached with his empty hand and gently pulled out a bit the front of my shorts and boxers. With the hand with the money, he pushed the money into my boxers. The money brushed my dick. I think maybe his hand brushed my pubic hair. I felt a tingle. My heart skipped a beat. It was so sensuous. So taboo. So unexpected.

 

It was me who leapt forward and hugged him. He was still naked. In an alternate world, I wished I had been naked then too so that our cocks would touch too. The same way my chest was touching his chest. The same way his belly was touching mine. But I had placed that barrier of clothing in between us. In another surprise to myself, I kissed him on his cheek at the same time he kissed me on my cheek. Sadly, I let go and pulled back after that. It was time to go home.

 

When I got home, I don't even know how I convinced Cindy it was a good idea to go to Jersey shore the following weekend. I wanted to spend another weekend sleeping over at Tyler's.

 

I showed up with my usual bag of dozen bagels and spreads for the crew on Friday afternoon. They were all happy to see me. I had definitely become the 6^th member of the gang.

 

Friday night and Saturday during the day were uneventful. By now I had met more of Tyler's friends, and felt more at ease with the social interactions. We had hot dogs and hamburgers Saturday night as people were getting ready for the big party. It has been decided that all 6 of us were going as slutty sailors. How cliché.

 

Tyler had ordered 5 news shiny white jock straps for the rest of them. For me he had ordered very tight white trunks as he knew I might not feel comfortable being out in jockstraps. Mark had gotten 6 white harnesses, and he had glued those capes that go with sailors' outfit to drape over the back. Jeff got us sailors' hats. That was pretty much ALL they wanted to wear. I decided to be a good sport.

 

The weather on the beach was perfect. There was a mass of people there already when we arrived. Pretty much everyone was shirtless, in some slutty outfit or another. Loud dance music, 3 dance floors, a few VIP booths. We first went to one of the VIP booths that was being hosted by friends of Jason and Jason. Lots of food and booze. The guys then wanted to go dancing. We made our way to the dance floor. The place was packed! Tons of guys sharing a good time, not a worry on anyone's face.

 

The place was so packed that at one point Tyler and I lost the other guys. Tyler didn't seem to mind, as though it was bound to happen at some point. I didn't want to lose Tyler in the middle of that crowd. Tyler said he needed to use the men's room. Just so we don't lose each other, he grabbed my forearm and we went in the direction of the restroom area. Once he was done, it was time to go back in again. This time I reached out to grab his forearm to maneuver the crowd.

 

Somehow my hand slipped. Accidentally my hand grabbed his hand instead of his forearm. My hand was holding his hand. I didn't mean for it to happen then and there, but it just did. I turned around to look at Tyler. He had a very content smile on his face as he squeezed my hand with his. Neither one of us wanted to let go.

 

For the past few weeks, I had been taking more and more liberties with Tyler. Our emotional bond had grown stronger. Our physical bond had grown stronger. I enjoyed his company. I enjoyed him touching me and me touching him. He was becoming my other half that I never knew was missing. Throughout it all, I had repeatedly convinced myself that none of it was too gay. That this was Fire Island. That you should do whatever makes you happen. Escape labels. Escape social constructs and norms. Escape your inhibitions.

 

Holding another man's hand, this time for real, was next level. It was so sweet holding his hand in mine. He looked equally happy it happened. I landed here by accident, but I was never going back. His hand was mine, and mine was his.

 

Hand in hand we made it back to the middle of the dance floor. Invariably we held one hand or even both hands as we danced in the middle of another 2000 men. There was almost constant physical contact between us all night. He either held on to my shoulder, or I played with his hair. At some point we found Jason and Jason again. Short Jason and Tyler kept talking about something into each other's ears. The music was so loud you had to talk like that to hear anyone. At the end of their conversation Tyler gave out a good laugh. Short Jason looked at me and gave me a wink.

 

We did indeed stay for the last dance, as the sun was coming up. It was a glorious experience to share with people you partied with all night. A big communal sunrise on the beach, after a night of dancing. The yellow cast of the golden sun showered everything with warmth and magic. Well worth staying up all night for.

 

We exited the party grounds in single file. Tyler and I walked next to the each other on the sand until we reached the first set of stairs up to the boardwalk. I let him go first. He climbed the stairs in front of me, with his exposed ass in those jockstraps. We reached the top of the stairs. I paused in my place. Tyler sensed my pause and turned around to see why I had stopped. I stretched my hand, palm up, in his direction. He gladly reciprocated with his hand on top of mine. We were hand in hand, this time with the most deliberate intention. There was air of extreme content on his face. I felt the same inside of me.

 

We walked back home hand in hand, a first for us. Such a natural way to show you care for someone. When we got home, Tyler reached out with his free hand and cupped my chin. He leaned over and kissed me on my cheek.

 

"I gotta go catch some sleep," he said. With that, he turned around and climbed the stairs to go up to him room. That exposed ass was once again in my full view as he went higher and higher. By then his ass, and his entire body, was invariably covered with glitter, sand, and sweat. He went all the way up and went into his room. He did not close the door.

 

Once again, I was left downstairs yearning for more. I did not want to spend time apart from him. After staying up all night with him, I wanted even more. In an alternate world, why do I need to go into the downstairs bedroom while he's upstairs? I wanted to even sleep in the same bed. Just to have him next to me even though I was asleep. I wanted him there all the time. But my life was too complicated for that. I did not dare go up the stairs and see what could happen.

 

The other guys were not home yet. They must have gone to some after party. I took a quick shower and hit the bed in my bedroom. I wasn't sure time it was much later in the day when I sensed something in my room. I opened my eyes. It was Tyler. He had a tray in his hands.

 

He came over and sat on the bed. On the tray, once again there was a huge omelet on one plate, one set of utensils, and 2 cups of coffee. I sat up. I knew what was coming. I had a fresh pair of boxers on. He was back in his gray sweat shorts. He spoonfed the both of us that delicious omelet he had made. I just laid back and allowed myself to be pampered.

 

We then both leaned on the headboard of the bed and sipped on our coffees. No words were exchanged. I finished my coffee, he finished his. Still, no words. After that he slid down the bed, put his head on the pillow, and turned away from me. He then reached out with his arm that was out and pulled my one arm toward him. I got the hint. I slid down the bed and put my head on the pillow facing him. He pulled himself all the way back to me till he was snug as the little spoon. I brought my one arm over and caressed him. We were back asleep in that position in no time. I don't even know how long we slept again.

 

We woke up early afternoon from some commotion in the living room. We got up and went to meet the other guys. As we both left my bedroom at the same time, I caught short Jason giving a mischievous wink to Tyler. I also caught Tyler flipping him the bird. Affectionately, of course.

 

We spent a lazy afternoon by the pool. I wore my new bathing suit Tyler had bought for me. I did not feel comfortable experimenting with nudity in front of the other guys. Eventually it was time to leave. I made sure I made myself look busy and tried to stay a while longer after everyone else was gone. My time to leave came as well.

 

Tyler came over with payment for the weekend. I pulled back. I had not helped at all with anything that whole weekend. I did not earn that money. But Tyler convinced me that although he completely agreed with me being there as the most desired guest, the money was not for me alone. It was for the kids. I could not show up back home and not have $400 to show for. It would not look right. I didn't want Cindy to suspect anything. Yes, I could not show up home without the money.

 

Tyler did a playful quick hand pantomime guessing how he was going to hand me the money. Eventually he went for the same routine as last time. He slowly glided his hand with the money from my chest to my belly. This time it was me who pulled the waistband of my shorts and boxers forward to allow his hand in. I don't quite know what had gotten into me. He gladly shoved the money all the way down, and then gently retracted. He brought his hand back to his nose and sniffed it. He then licked his index finger and got a taste of it. These games we were playing with each other were becoming riskier each time. The hug was longer than usual. The kiss on the cheek was certainly mutual.

 

 

Chapter 4: August

 

Tyler had already told me that the following weekend we have to go a charity event/party each day. I was intrigued. I showed up Saturday morning with two cupcakes. When I walked in, Tyler already had our 2 cups of coffee ready. I looked over, and Tyler was naked. No gray sweat shorts. All natural. I thought I should do the same.

 

I went to my bedroom to get out of my clothes. Off came the T-shirt and work shorts. Off came the work boots and the socks. And most happily, the boxers came off too. I was amazed by my newfound confidence. I turned around and looked at the closet. There were 2 new polo shirts and one new pair of linen shorts in my closet. There was also a new pair of sandals. I still didn't know how I deserved all this.

 

I went back to the living room. We enjoyed our cupcakes and coffee all naked. We held hands as much as we could, in between sipping coffee and eating cupcakes. As if that is the most natural thing in the world. I had to assemble a new outdoor bar set this morning. I took out my toolbox and started working. It was so odd yet so natural to work outdoor naked. It was a fierce combination of male erotica and masculinity.

 

Tyler brought me my customary iced tea mid-morning. He was still naked. He told me we should start getting ready by noon and leave a bit after that. The first event included brunch. After working out outdoor all morning, I needed a shower before I went out socially. I decided I was gonna take one in the outdoor shower. Tyler was on one of the chaise lounges reading some old movie script for inspiration. He had full view of me and the shower area.

 

I turned the water on and stepped under it. All that refreshing water hit the top of my head and bounced off my shoulders. Some trickled down my chest and abs to my crotch. Some trickled down my back to my ass crack. Eventually the two streams met in my taint and drained down my legs. I made sure I turned around a few times so Tyler could see all of my wet body from every angle. He just sat there and enjoyed the show.

 

I remember the first time I got the courage to get naked in front of him, I was petrified his gaze would go directly to my dick. I was so happy it didn't. This time I wanted Tyler's gaze to go there. I wanted him to see all of me. I wanted for his eyes to have a feast. He already paid me playfully the way you would pay a stripper. Why not give him a show as though I were a stripper? What's a little playful banter between such good friends?

 

I finished my shower. Tyler got the hint that he too should go got ready. I went to my bedroom and put on a new polo shirts and the new linen shorts. I'm sure the outfit was not terribly expensive, but I looked like a million dollars. My face was sun-kissed, and the clothes fit me really well. But most importantly, the confidence and the air of happiness in my eyes made me a different man.

 

I came out, and Tyler was dressed in a similar outfit, but different color combination. After all, he had bought all those clothes for both of us. We walked hand in hand to the house where the event was being held. It was a benefit for Lambda Legal. I had never heard of that organization.

 

I learned Lambda Legal is the most significant legal organization fighting for LGBT rights. I learned that so much of gay rights have been attained through legal battles, rather than politicians taking brave actions. As an outsider, I didn't even know that the LGBT community had suffered so much discrimination over the centuries. It was all new to me.

 

Tyler introduced me to the host, a dear friend of his. He also introduced me to the CEO of Lambda Legal, and some of the staff he had met in the past. Dan and Dan were there. Cody and Andres showed up later. I could see the look in people's eyes as they saw the body language between Tyler and me. Nobody said anything, but their looks were very telling. I didn't know how to respond. I just enjoyed the moment.

 

We spent all afternoon there. I met so many new people and learned so much about the community. Most importantly, I learned that gay life is not just about sex and parties. There is community. There is charity. There are chosen families. There are struggles and triumphs. And there are people there to support you with the losses. Having gone to the underwear party and the beach party, this was the exact other end of the spectrum. It was the side of gay life you don't see much in news or even in movies.

 

By the time we made it home, it was time for me to go back to the mainland. I wish I could have stayed there the night, but I had to go. I changed into my work clothes and left the new ones in the closet. I couldn't show up at home looking all dapper. I put my dirty work shorts back on. I left the T-shirt off. I wanted my good-bye hug to be chest to naked chest. Tyler had also changed to his gray sweat shorts in the meantime.

 

When we hugged good bye, I took one hand and gently passed it through the back of his hair, down his back, and stopped at the waistband of his pants. I could feel Tyler hugging me even tighter as I slowly repeated this a second time. It was time to go. As elated as I had been all day being there, tears were accumulating in my eyes on the way back to the ferry. I wished I could stay there. I wished my life was different.

 

The next morning, I showed up with 2 pistachio croissants. Tyler was naked again. I got naked in no time. This time I did it right there in the living room, as soon as I saw him naked. I just tossed it all on the sofa. Throughout coffee time, we played footsie as we sat naked on the barstools by the kitchen counter.

 

I went out to the deck to finish the rest of the outdoor bar set. I didn't have too much left to do. By the time Tyler brought me my mid-morning iced tea, I was basically done. He joined me for a dunk in the pool, and then we just relaxed outside. When it was time to shower and get ready for that day's event, I went to the outdoor shower like I had done the day before. I was glad to give Tyler another shower scene.

This time Tyler joined me. He got up and followed me to the shower area. I had never taken a shower with another person before. Specially not with a man. Sure, there were some showers in high school gym, but that was a different scene.

 

We took turns getting wet under the water and lathering ourselves with soap. I had done my whole body except my back. Tyler looked at me and took the bar of soap out of my hands. He turned me around until my back was facing him. He crisscrossed the soap on my back from top to bottom with one hand, and then proceeded to lather it up with the other hand. He rubbed the lather all over my shoulders, my traps, and my spine. He even lathered the very top of my ass cheeks, just as little of it as he usually had lathered with suntan lotion in the past. He did not go any farther down.

 

He then handed me the bar of soap and turned around. I had his back now. I reciprocated all the same moves as him. I alternated soaping and lathering him. I even covered the tops of his arms and triceps. I glided my soapy hands down his spine. I approached his ass cheeks. There were all there. Out for the having. I wanted to lather those ass cheeks, rub my hands all over them. I wanted to cup each ass cheek in one hand and squeeze as tight as I could. I wanted to spread those ass cheeks and see his most intimate parts. But I couldn't.

 

Our shower was over. We each toweled off and went to our respective rooms to get dressed. I made sure I did not repeat the same outfit as yesterday. I had a small but nice selection to choose from.

 

We walked hand in hand, and quite possibly heart in heart, to the event. It was at Whyte Hall Community Center. It is a large structure with event space that could be converted to a theater, along with meeting space, doctor's office, and many other essential services. The event was to raise funds and awareness for SAGE, an advocacy group for LGBT elders. Who knew there was even such a thing? Apparently elder gays have been subject to neglect or abuse in traditional care services for elderly. And as many LGBT people do not have their own children, the community needs to step in to provide advocacy and protection. Just wow.

 

But of course, Tyler knew all the who's and who's of this event as well. He must have introduced me to essentially every person there. The rest of the afternoon was spent there.

 

We came home and I took off my fancy clothes. It was time to put the laborer clothes back on. Again, I did not wear my T-shirt yet as I wanted some skin to skin contact for our hug. I was wondering what new and playful way Tyler was going use to give me the payment. He started by putting his hand on my chest. He slowly glided it down my abs in the direction of my crotch. But then he made a 90 degree turn and traced his hand around my left side all the way to the back. He glided it all the way to my spine, and only then continued further south. He went under the elastic of my boxers and planted the money solidly in my crack, in between my asscheeks. From there he brought his other arm the other way around me and gave me my much-anticipated hug.

 

I reciprocated by putting my arms around his naked back. Slowly I glided my hands down to his lower back. My one hand stopped there, but with the other hand I made my way under the elastic of his sweat shorts. I put one finger in the crack in between the very top of his asscheeks. I did not dare go any deeper. Or to touch the asscheeks. But the very top of his crack felt safe enough for now. I felt his ass muscles give a firm squeeze back, acknowledging my finger there. I didn't know what had gotten into me.

 

I could have stayed there like that forever. But I was going to miss my ferry back. I almost did. When I sat down in the ferry, I smelled the finger that was in between his asscheeks. It was the same musk that had intoxicated me on the benchpress a few weeks ago. I kept that finger next to my nose the whole ferry ride and the whole car ride home. Eventually I couldn't smell the musk any more.

 

The next Saturday I showed up with 2 danishes. I stripped naked as soon as I walked in the door, right there in the doorway. I tossed everything and joined Tyler, who was naked and expecting me, by the kitchen counter. I rubbed my fingers on his back throughout breakfast.

 

The project for the weekend was going to be new end tables in the bedrooms. The old ones needed to go, and the new fancy ones needed assembling. He was replacing all of them in the guest bedrooms, except the ones in his own bedroom. He said he wanted to have more time to think about a more grand plan for the master bedroom. I couldn't wait to help him with that project.

 

It took the better part of the morning to disassemble all the old end tables and pack them for recycling. Tyler brought me my mid-morning iced tea and two cookies. He was spending the morning reading more old movie scripts. He was looking for inspiration.

 

For lunch he had packed us sandwiches and drinks to go do a picnic on the beach. I was very happy to have lunch with him, wherever he chose to take us. We took the stuff and beach chairs and headed out, hand in hand with the one free hand we each had. He wanted us to stop in the downtown area first. He guided me to TOLA, the fancy downtown boutique that has all kinds of interesting clothes and merchandise.

 

He sifted through the racks and found us matching new bathing suits from 2eros, some brand I've never heard of before. Bikini shorts for him and board shorts for me. We tried them on. The owner lady kept commenting that we were a gorgeous couple.

 

Wearing our new bathing suits, we set up on the beach. It was time for our suntan lotion ritual. We each did our own faces, chest, belly, arms, and legs. Tyler came over to do my back for me first. The same ritual of covering every inch of my neck, my shoulders, my back, ending just inside of the waistband of my new bathing suit to cover the top of the asscheeks with his one finger.

 

It was my turn to rub my hands all over his body. I mirrored all his moves. Neck, shoulder, back, spine. When it was time to handle the waistband, I was just a bit more aggressive with his asscheeks. I made sure I started on the one hip, made my way across the globe of his ass, wedged my finger in the top of his crack, then the other asscheek, and end in the other hip. He did not seem phased at all being handled like that. It was all natural for him.

 

When I was done, he thanked me and took the container of suntan lotion back. He looked at me with a smile.

 

"You missed a couple of spots," he said. He took some more lotion and ever so gently rubbed near my forehead and hairline, caressing my face gently as he went along. It felt so good being taken care by him.

 

When we finally sat down, he took out our 2 sandwiches. He then took out 2 Budweisers and handed one to me. He kept the other one for himself.

 

"Wait, what?" I exclaimed.

 

"When in Rome..." he responded.

 

"I used that phrase last time, and you said this place is more like Sodom." We both burst in laughter. He opened his can of Budweiser and we cheered a toast to us. You could see from the expression on his face that he did not like the taste, but he wanted to be a good sport.

 

We finished the picnic and went home. I worked on the end tables, he read more scripts. I got a proper good bye hug by the door. No funny business, just a hug that lasted more than 5 minutes. Heads on each other's shoulders, tight embrace.

 

The next morning, I showed up with two mini quiches. I was naked by the door, he was naked and waiting with coffee in his usual spot. We played footsie again as we ate and drank.

 

It was a casual morning of work. If you call a naked handyman assembling furniture for you while the employer is lounging naked on the sofa reading move scripts. But that worked for us just fine. Tyler wanted to do another picnic on the beach, as the summer was coming to a close.

 

We set up on the beach again. Once again, we each did the parts of our bodies we could on our own, leaving the entire back for the other one to do. He repeated the same moves on me he had all summer. Neck, shoulders, back, spine, top of asscheeks through the waistband. I was very happy I was next, getting to rub my hands all over his body.

 

Yes, I started my routine the same way. I spent extra time in each section and worked very slowly. I made sure I rubbed and double rubbed and triple rubbed every single piece of his entire back. By the time I was going to wrestle his bathing suit waistband, something new happened.

 

Without saying a word, he lowered the entire back of his bathing suit. His entire ass was out in the open. He flexed his hip slightly, pointing his asscheeks toward me. He wanted me to touch his ass. I wanted to touch him all over. Right there on the beach. My heart went into palpitations. I had seen and admired his naked ass so many times. I had imagined touching its naked skin so many times. And here I was, being asked by him to do just that. He wanted me to rub my hands all over his asscheeks.

 

My heart was going faster, my breathing became heavier. I had seen that naked ass so many times. I've wanted to touch it so many times. Specially after the Pines Party, when he left me downstairs and walked up the stairs with his ass covered with glitter, sand, and sweat, I wanted to cup his melons. And now he was expecting me to do what I had held back from doing so many times. He wanted me to cover every inch of his ass with my hands. To rub lotion, get wet and sticky with it.

 

I took a big gulp of air. I placed some more lotion in the palm of my right hand. I brought over my left hand and distributed the lotion evenly. I knelt down behind him. I was eye level with his ass. With each hand I just leapt forward and cupped the corresponding asscheeks. Instead of rubbing, I squeezed as hard as I could. I wanted to engulf each cheek in my palm. I wanted to make it all mine. I could have stayed frozen like this forever. I would have been perfectly happy if I could do this all day.

 

Eventually I realized I had a task to complete. I started swirling my palms on his ass in circular motions. I loved how the lotion provided lubrication for my hands to cover his entire butt. I swirled my hands on the tops, the side, the crease of his ass joining his thighs. I brought my hands to the center, near the crack. I couldn't. I couldn't go inside the crack. I just couldn't. That was too intimate for me. I was there to apply lotion, not explore his intimate parts on the beach in front of everyone else.

 

I finished my task. I came up for air. I got my composure back. I took a heavy breath. When we sat down, we cheered over twin Budweisers again.

 

After lunch we went back and I was able to finish the last of the end tables. I put my work clothes back on the way out. I left the T-shirt off. I was wondering what kind of new playful exotic song and dance routine Tyler was going to do for the payment and our good byes.

 

He was up in his bedroom at that time. Like an eager puppy waiting for his treat, I waited at the bottom of the stairs for him to come down. He was wearing his sexy red jockstraps, the same one he had on when we went to the underwear party. It made his naked exposed ass pop out even more. He slowly came down the stairs. He clearly had the cash in one hand. My heart started pumping faster. I was in for a treat.

 

He came down and stood face to face to me. He gazed into my eyes for the longest time. I wondered where he was going to go with it. He took a step forward toward me. With his hand that was empty, he slid one finger in the front of my shorts and boxers waistbands and pulled it out as far as you could go. By then you could fit and entire fist down my pants. With his other hand he gently placed the money inside. He pulled that hand out and also let go of his other hand holding the pants. He then took his right hand and cupped my chin. I was intrigued. He leaned forward, his head approaching mine as he had my chin in his grip. He kept getting closer very slowly. Eventually our lips met. He planted a single gentle kiss on my lips. No tongue, no saliva. Just a single simple kiss.

 

I stopped breathing. I wasn't expecting that. I had gotten away with kissing his cheeks and him kissing mine. I had gotten away with rubbing suntan lotion all over his back, even his ass. I had gotten away with holding hands. But a kiss on the lips was a huge admission. An admission on his part and mine. A kiss on the lips between two consenting adult men who desire each other so much. Two adult men who seem to be coming from such different backgrounds and life stories, yet are so compatible you'd think they have been together for years.

 

He then started climbing the stairs back up to his bedroom. As he climbed, once again I was given a view of his exposed ass in the sexy jockstraps. Step by step, he got farther and farther away from me. My belly was churning. The stairs, him being upstairs and me being downstairs, were so symbolic of the gaps between us. I was a straight married man from Long Island; he was a confident gay man who hung out in Hollywood. I was a blue-collar construction worker with no further career prospects already at 27; he had won an Oscar for his work at the same age. I needed to work 7 days a week to make ends meet; he had this beautiful summer house as well as who knows how many other properties and investments. I was nervous to go up those stairs to overcome the gap; he crossed that gap back and forth at ease. Yet despite that, our souls had connected like nobody could have predicted. He had showered me with kindness from the first moment. He had showered me with gifts, both physical and conceptual. Most importantly he had showered me with all his free time. He had formed an irreversible bond with me. With me, the man from the other end of the spectrum.

 

Something inside of me told me to go up the stairs. Follow him upstairs. Overcome the gap. Let your inhibitions down. Take a bold step. See where the circumstances would take you. The prize was mine to take. The opportunity was waiting for me. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I wasn't ready. I had been playing with fire all this time. I was scared of getting burned. For now, the stairs were my safety zone. For now, the trepidations in my heart were all the thrill I could stand.

 

I'm not even sure how my feet led me to the ferry or how I drove home. My mind was not on my head. My mind was floating. I was on the edge for the rest of the night. For the rest of the week. Step by step I had become more intimate with Tyler. And then he kissed me. Boy kissed boy. Never in my wildest imagination I thought a kiss by another man would mean so much to me. A simple kiss. His lips had touched mine. And they had left an effect that had overcome my body. 3 months ago I was your average blue-collar construction guy with wife and 2 kids, with no clue about anything in life. But in those 3 months I had been radically transformed. All because of this one man.

 

That kiss was a milestone. I knew my life had changed forever. I knew there was no going back. I knew I was on a path. I just did not have the foresight to see the path through. I needed courage that I didn't have. I needed more time to process.

 

The forecast for the following weekend was rain starting Saturday night. I showed up Saturday morning as usual. The whole walk from the ferry to his house I was ecstatic and nervous at the same time. I had left on such a high note last weekend. I wanted to see what the new chapter would bring.

 

When I walked into the house, the 2 cups of coffee were freshly served and waiting for us. Tyler was butt naked. He was laying on the sofa on his belly reading a movie script. His naked plump ass was on display as the first thing I saw when I walked in.

 

He dropped the script and walked toward me at the entrance as I was taking my clothes off. By the time I was done, he leaned over and gave me another simple kiss on the lips. This time more casually, less drama. Just a simple kiss between 2 naked men. He grabbed my hand and took me with him to the kitchen table. We had our breakfast and coffee there. I kept passing my fingers in his hair. It was pure morning bliss, even though the weather outside was beginning to turn.

 

The project for the weekend was to replace the outdoor lights all around the house. These were the high up fixtures giving light to the whole deck at night. As I had to be outside in this weather and I had to wear my tool belt for the project, I put my boxers back on. I went outside to start the project.

 

I was happy when Tyler brough me hot coffee instead of cold iced tea for my mid-morning break. There was single cookie on the side as a treat. It was getting just a bit nippy, he was back in his gray sweat pants too. I was also happy to see he had set up our lunch inside. It seemed rain might come sooner than expected. Over lunch he shared that his original story for his move script was not going anywhere. But he had a new muse in mind, and he was still mid-story to see how things would progress.

 

I went back out after lunch to continue with the rest of the light fixtures. I was trying to get as many done before the rain came. I kept working and then looking up to check the weather. I felt an occasional droplet of rain here and there. Around 4 PM, just as I was rushing to get done with the last fixture, there was a sudden freak wind storm.

 

Before I could get off the ladder, the strongest gust of wind came out of nowhere. The wind was so strong all the chaise lounges got pushed to one end of the deck. The cover of the hot tub flew into the air and landed on the other side of the pool. The wind then knocked my ladder and I went flying in the air as well. I reached with my legs to come off to safety, but I was airborne already too. The wind picked the ladder and me and threw us over. Luckily the ladder landed by my side and not on top of me. I tried to land on my legs to save myself, but my left quadriceps went into a full spasm. I fell and hit the ground.

 

Just then Tyler jumped from inside to house to see what happened. He saw me on the floor, in absolute pain and agony. I was clenching to my left thigh. At this point I couldn't tell if I had broken it or not. I was in miserable pain.

 

The weather was turning. Rain drops were starting to come down faster. Tyler jumped into action. He saw I couldn't stand up on my own. I looped my arm around him. He scooped his one arm under my knees, and the other behind my back. I held on to his neck. He picked me up into the air. I had visions of when I had to do the same thing for him the one time he was drunk after dinner.

 

He brought me inside and laid me down on the sofa. He closed the sliding door behind him. Crazy rain started just as he closed that door. Lightning followed.

 

He came back to me. I was in so much pain. My left thigh had a huge muscle knot in the front. I felt around, no bone deformity. I moved my calf and toes down below, all good. It was just a muscle spasm, no broken bone. I was so relieved.

 

Tyler seemed to be even more stressed than me to see me in so much pain. He didn't know what to do. He suggested we call the paramedics or somehow get ourselves to the doctor's office. I insisted it was just a muscle spasm, nothing serious. I asked him to bring me an ice pack. He placed it on the bunched muscle. That helped.

 

I needed to relax the muscle. I tried to gently massage the muscle around the ice pack.

 

"Let me do it for you," he offered. Yes, perhaps the magical touch of Tyler would heal me both physically and emotionally. I would very much like that. He knelt down on the floor next to me and started his magical work.

 

I took off the ice pack allowed him to go to work. That muscle indeed looked it was all bunched up. It was gonna need some good kneading to make it relax. I think Tyler was only too happy to nurse me when I needed him. He placed both of his hands on my thigh. At first just a gentle touch. Then he started making circular motions up and down my thigh. He then slowly allowed his fingers to flex a bit. One by one his fingers grabbed a bit tighter and tighter. There was a trade-off between the pain and the pleasure of allowing Tyler's hand nurse me. Tyler found the center of that spasm. With one finger, then 2 fingers, he relaxed the area. A series of gentle squeezes and releases, and the pain was getting better. I could feel my muscle melting under his touch. I could feel the muscle deflating. It still hurt a lot, but I was getting better. If I could only bend down and kiss those hands that were helping my pain. If I could only grab the rest of him and kiss him for all that he had done for me. If I could only bring him the same physical pleasure he had brought for me.

 

Just when I was finally relaxed, Tyler got an alert from the town on his phone. Due to the freak wind storm, one of the pilings of the ferry dock had been damaged and they were announcing there would not run any more ferries for the rest of the day. There was no transportation in and out of the island except for life and death emergency boats by the police. Anyone who was on the island was stuck there for the night. That included me.

 

I had to call Cindy and explain the situation. She had experienced the storm on the mainland too and was not too surprised. I told her I'd see her and the kids tomorrow night. She told me to thank Tyler in her name for taking care of me and putting me up overnight. She had no idea how much time I had spent here when she was out of town, or what was going on between Tyler and me.

 

Tyler, on his end, seemed to be too happy to have an extra bonus night of me staying over. Once he saw that my leg felt a bit better and I was stuck there, he sprung into action. He served me a Budweiser as I stayed on the sofa, and went to work in the kitchen. Before I knew it, he had whipped up a 3-course dinner. As I still wanted to keep my leg up, he served it on the sofa. I was sitting on the sofa on one end, he was on his end. My legs were stretched the whole length of the sofa and my feet were on his lap. We ate our dinner like that. He intermittently took a bite and gently tickled my ankles. I washed my dinner down with another Budweiser. He had another white wine.

 

We needed something to do to pass our time after dinner. The weather outside was crap. The TV was upstairs in his room. I didn't see myself going up the stairs quite then with my thigh still a bit sore. He suggested we can watch something on his laptop. I wanted to keep my leg up, and the sofa was too tight for both us to watch the screen together. He suggested we go lay in my bed downstairs so we could both stretch our legs and watch.

 

He asked if I needed help walking over. I probably didn't, but I said I did. I wanted Tyler to pamper me. He was more than happy to. The same way he had scooped me on the deck, he once again lifted my body and carried me to the bedroom. He laid me down on one side, and joined me on the other side. Yes, I was being fussy, but we both seemed to enjoy the interaction.

 

Tyler insisted that since I had missed the reference to Golden Girls that first time he had mentioned he was from Wisconsin, and I had learned so much about him and the gay culture since then, it was mandatory that we should watch a few episodes. After all, Rose Nylund was his grandmother. Another missed gay reference on my end.

 

We laid in my bed, heads on the headboard and legs drawn out, and watched a few episodes of the show. Our shoulder were touching, we held hands, and our toes played footsie here and there. I was still in my boxers, he was in his signature gray sweat shorts. Those ladies in the TV show were a hoot. I then understood that those ladies with their sharp tongues are essentially sassy gay men and their social banter. I had seen the men act like that with each other, except that the same language was now being spoken by older women divas. I got it.

 

I was so happy to be there next to Tyler. He had taken care of me, nursed me, fed me. He had opened his heart to me, had made me the center of his world. Being there next to him, just me and him, is all that I ever needed in the world. Alas, the world was more complicated than that and we both had obligations beyond the confines of that bedroom in that house at that very moment.

 

After a few episodes, Tyler asked me how the leg felt. I was really 100% back to normal, but wanted to be pampered a bit more.

 

"Still a bit sore," I lied.

 

"Do you want me to massage it again?" he asked.

 

My puppy eyes were the affirmative answer he needed. He jumped into action again. He put the laptop away and turned 90 degrees to face my legs. He laid both hands on the same thigh again. That was the thigh on the other side from where he was sitting on the bed next to me. By then knot had gone away. He leaned over and caressed that thigh with skill and love. He seemed very happy to have the chance to touch me there as he wished.

 

He started gentle and slow. Just rubbing the skin of the thigh with both hands. The hands went further apart, one toward the knee and the other one toward the hip. Then they came back together. Back and forth. The strength of his grip got a little bit more firm with each slide. The fingers were becoming tighter, the grasp was becoming more intentional. There was no knot for him to undo, but the thigh loved all that attention. He kept doing this for a few moments.

His body position going across the good thigh to cross over to the bad thigh was just a bit of a stretch.

 

"Spread your legs," he said. I didn't know what he was up to.

 

He saw my confusion. He picked up my one ankle nearest to him and brought it all the way toward him. He picked up the other ankle and pushed it farther away. He skipped over my good thigh and positioned himself in between my open legs. He sat there and resumed his gentle massage where he had left off. I enjoyed every moment of this. I was in heaven.

 

I tilted my head all the way back and closed my eyes. I allowed myself to be transported. He saw this and adjusted himself. Still in between my open legs, he turned 90 degrees to face me directly. With each hand he grabbed one thigh. He slid his hands up and down both of my thighs at the same time. From the hip to the knees and back. With each stroke the grip became tighter. The fingers became firmer.

 

The bottom of each stroke were my knees. But the top of the strokes inched up with each cycle. His fingers slowly penetrated under the rim of my boxers. With each stroke he came just a bit further up my boxers. I was in ecstasy.

 

I could feel his hands getting closer and closer to my balls. My dick felt the same. A rush of blood woke up my dick to full attention. My cock got engorged with blood and became a rocket ready to launch. His hands were gently getting closer and closer, and my dick was begging for attention. I couldn't believe the moment I was finding myself in.

 

Yes, his fingers eventually did touch my balls inside my boxers. No grabbing. Just a gentle `accidental' touch with each massage stroke. He was not shy about it. He did not avoid the balls every time he went up inside my boxers. My head was still tilted back and my eyes were closed. But I had a full mental image of what was going on in between my legs.

 

I came up for air. I had to see this with my own eyes. I tilted my head forward. I finally opened my eyes. He was in between my legs. Each hand possessing one of my thighs. Still stroking back and forth. Still accidentally touching the balls with each stroke.

 

I looked down. The tent in my boxers, my boner in that loose fabric, was unmistakable. It was the same boner that had woken up certain feelings in me when I had my massage a few weeks ago. This time, Tyler had seen it. I looked down and he had a matching boner in his gray sweat shorts. That, too, was unmistakable. We both had rock hard erections from the intensity of this moment. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this in my life.

 

He caught me looking at his boner. We locked eyes. He kept rubbing my thighs. His eyes went to my boner. My eyes followed. For the next few minutes, as he kept massaging my thighs in the same manner, our two sets of eyes chased each other looking at my boner, looking at his boner, and looking into each other's eyes again. It was a moment of admission. We had boners for each other.

 

He stopped rubbing my thighs. He took his right hand and gently slid it this time over the fabric of my boxers. Hesitantly, shyly, he went in the direction of my boner. The tension was immense. Slowly, he inched up. Just very gently. No rapid movements.

 

Eventually his hand reached the base of my cock where it met my balls. Very slightly, he air touched the fabric of my boxers where the outline of my boner was. Very slightly. No grabbing. Just an air touch. He moved his hand up the shaft, and then down again. He repeated this a few times. Still, just an air touch. Barely even putting any pressure. All on the outside of the fabric. The whole time he was looking at that package of mine with such great intent. That was the focus of his entire frame of mind.

 

He eventually he looked up and locked eyes with me again. He was not changing the pace of his hand outside my boxer. He was not tightening things up. He was going slow. He saw the combination ecstasy and terror in my eyes. The rain was picking up. There was on occasional lightning and thunder outside.

 

"You're gonna be OK," he reassured me. He had said the same exact words to me when I had an anxiety attack after he caught me peeping on his Grindr hook up.

 

A couple of minutes of this ensued. Eventually he broke the silence again.

 

"Do you want me to... ?" He inquired.

 

My heart wanted to yell out as loud as I could YES. PLEASE. Help me release myself to you. The past few weeks of taking more liberties with myself and with Tyler had led me to this very moment. To the moment I should cross the threshold. To the moment I should consummate my relationship with this fantastic human being. I wanted to dive in head first. I wanted to make it happen. I wanted to taste the forbidden fruit. I wanted to take the plunge. I wanted to overcome that gap between us. I wanted the courage that I was lacking.

 

But my head told me I did not in fact have that courage. My mind told me I wasn't ready. That I had more complications in my life than I can allow myself at this point. That I had taken a vow in the past, and that I should stay true to that vow even if it really meant nothing at that point. That I came from a different fabric of life, and that this other life was not going to be good for me. That I should not have been there to begin with. That I had taken too many liberties already.

 

I'm sure if I were wearing one of those fancy smartwatches, some heart alert would have popped up. My heart was racing in my chest. I was at a fork in the road. All I had to do was to nod yes. Just let it flow. I was in good hands. Literally.

 

I couldn't make myself come to that admission right at that moment. Instead, I brought both of my hands and covered my face. I couldn't face the outside world. I couldn't face reality. I couldn't bear to show my weakness of character to Tyler. I just couldn't. I kept my hands on my face like that.

 

Tyler stopped his gentle air brushes on the outside of the fabric of my boxers. I couldn't see him as my face was covered, but I assumed he sat back and just looked at me. Eventually, I could sense his body coming back toward my face. I could feel his heavy breathing on my hands covering my face.

 

He found a bare spot on my forehead and gave it a gentle kiss. He passed one hand through my hair ever so gently.

 

"It's all gonna be OK. I love you." I think I stopped breathing altogether. Those words came out of his mouth. I loved him a thousand time more, but he was the first one who verbalized it out loud. Yes, the straight handyman and the gay employer had fallen madly in love. How cliché, but how real.

 

I still had my face covered with my hands. Seeing no action on my end, Tyler slowly pulled back. I could sense him getting farther and farther from where he was seated in between my legs. Eventually I could sense that he got off the bed altogether. I heard footsteps. The footsteps also got farther. Those footsteps were then climbing the stairs back to his bedroom. I could hear each step, more and more faint from where I was. I heard him get into his room, and then the footsteps stopped. He was gone. The stairs to his room had become the physical and the metaphorical gap between us again. I was still in my bed, with my hands covering my face.

 

What had I done? Why couldn't I? Why did I not allow myself to?

 

I allowed myself to catch my breath. More rain outside. More thunder and lightning. More remorse. More missed opportunities. Through all this, all the regrets, my boner did not want to go down. It was here to stay. It was not going to shrink unless some release came. I sat there for a while. Just reflecting. Just wondering what had transpired.

 

I slowly got off the bed. I walked outside the bedroom. All the lights were off. The house was dark. More rain outside. More lightning.

 

I walked to the bottom of the stairs. Those fucking stairs. The metaphoric gap between everything that I was and everything that Tyler meant to me. Fuck you stairs. Fuck you and everything you stand for. Fuck you for holding me back. Fuck you for not letting me overcome my inhibitions. Fuck you for not letting me by myself. Fuck you for intimidating me from overcoming you. Fuck your for not letting me confidently step all over you to go get what is mine. Fuck you for separating me from the one person I love. Fuck you, you metaphor!

 

I looked up the stairs. I sensed something happening. I saw some shadow inside Tyler's room. Then he emerged. This time he was completely naked. His erection was on full display. He saw me at the bottom of the stairs. His face did not show much emotion. It was too dark to see much emotion. But I could see the silhouette of his entire body from random outside street lights.

 

He came out of the doorway and went to stand at the top of the stairs. He was naked, with an erection pointed in my direction. He was at the top of the stairs, I was at the bottom. My boxers were still concealing my own erection even though you could see outline of the action very well.

 

We stood there for a few moments and stared at each other. Him from the top and me from the bottom. Fuck you, you stairs! How dare you separate me from Tyler like so?

 

Tyler took one arm and stretched it in my direction with the palm up. It was a silent invitation. An invitation for me to have the courage to join him. An invitation for me to overcome the gap. Just have the courage to cross the boundary. Just leap in. Let your life take the next journey. Don't be scared of the gap. Embrace the gap. Then defeat the gap. Erase the gap as if it never existed. Fuck the gap. Fuck the stairs.

 

That hand of his was still extended. Looking at him straight into the eyes all the way from bottom, I took one step up. My heart skipped a bit. Another step. Another step. With each step I was winning. I was erasing the distance. I was overcoming my inhibitions. I could do it. I could cross that threshold. I could be one with him. I deserved to have him. Another step. I could almost smell his musk in my nose again. I knew I was getting there. Another step. Another. I was most of the way there. The higher I got, the more elated I felt. With each step I lost 10 pounds of heavy weight on my shoulders. With each step closer, I felt more victorious.

 

I was two steps away. His one arm was still stretched toward me. I stretched my corresponding hand and allowed him to help me up that last two steps. I had reached the top of the staircase. I had arrived. I had won. I was there. I finally allowed myself to have the courage I never thought I'd have.

 

Just a few weeks ago, I needed a lot of confidence to take off my wet boxers in front of him after our accidental pool dunk. I was relieved when he did not immediately sneak a peek down to check out my junk. It was now time for me to do it one more time, this time with a raging boner being released. In one motion I dropped those boxers and shed them off my body. I was one naked man standing in front of his love, also naked. Just then another lightning totally lit the room and we saw each other in full naked glory. Again, he did not sneak a peek below. He just locked gaze with my eyes.

 

Having just climbed those fucking stairs, my courage had finally caught up with me.

 

"Tyler Hansen, I love too," I couldn't believe how easily those words escaped my mouth. If only I were gonna let myself handle all things as easily as I did at that moment.

 

Somehow those words escaping my mouth were all the warning either one of us needed. Like ravenous wolves we attacked each other. No more a gentle touch here or a tickle there. It was a full-on kiss and bite orgy. I devoured his lip, his tongue. I shoved my tongue as deep inside his mouth as I could. He cupped my head with both hands and shoved my head into his. I don't think either one of us knew how to breath at that moment.

 

Down below, my naked chest locked with is. My naked abs rubbed against his. And finally, after all these weeks of teasing, my naked erection glided on his as our pelvises kept grinding. I needed to kiss that man, devour him, and make him mine. His lips, his hugs, his warmth, his breath; I needed to devour all of it.

 

The new confident Pat was released. I had managed to come up those stairs, and there was no stopping me now. After a few more minutes of letting our lips taste each other for the first time, I needed to own his entire body. I firmly grabbed his hand and took him in the direction of his room. We walked in and we were flat on his bed in no time. We were both already naked.

 

Endless kissing, hugging, caressing, adoring, biting, and sweet whispers ensued. Neither one of us was in a rush. We had all night. All day. All week. All the rest of our lives. I wanted for us to enjoy every moment of this. We rolled back and forth on the bed. Just this part alone was a new experience for me. I had only ever made love to Cindy before. In that scenario I was the man and she was the woman. Here, both of us were men. Either one of us could be on top or bottom or roll around. It was a perfectly sensuous wrestling match. There were no gender roles that I needed to follow.

 

Outside, the rain and thunders continues. Occasionally a lightning would light up the room for a split second and I could see this adorable person I was able to make love to. I couldn't get enough of the sights, the smells, the warmth of his skin. I had taken a dive to the other side, and I couldn't be happier.

 

During one of our roll overs, Tyler pinned me on my back. With each arm he pinned one of my arms on the mattress below. His head was about half a foot away from me. He just glared into my eyes. His eyes were ravenous. My eyes were equally hungry for more. Still with my hands pinned on the mattress, he lowered his head and kissed me all over my neck. He covered the left side, then moved to the right side. From there he moved to the right shoulder. He covered it all with kisses and bites. He made it to my right nipple. He licked it and bit it alternately. I never knew nipples could be this sensitive and sensuous.

 

From there he looked up and gazed into my eyes for a second before continuing. He let go of my wrists. He slid his body south until he situated himself between my spread legs. His head was over my belly. He kissed my six pack, covering each one individually. I can't even remember at what point he grabbed my cock in his hand. I felt a firm squeeze. I was in heaven.

 

Again, I can't even remember when his hand got replaced by his mouth. The next thing I knew Tyler's wet and warm mouth had inhaled my cock all the way in. I was inside of him. He went all the way down, all the way down the shaft. That barrier, too, was crossed. My first blow job by Tyler.

He bobbed his head up, then down, then up again. I couldn't tell which one of us was moaning louder as we both were enjoying this beyond imagination. His plump lips, his wet tongue, his inviting throat felt just right around my cock. It was a match made in heaven.

 

Just then I felt a wave of warmth go down my spine. It started from my skull, all the way down, to my pelvis. I was cumming. I didn't want to cum so early. But I couldn't stop myself.

 

"I'm cumming," I yelled out loud. I didn't know what the etiquette was. I didn't want to startle Tyler. It was bad enough I was cumming this early like a horny teenager. Tyler sprung into high gear. He kept his head all the way down my shaft, making sure the tip of my cock was as deep inside him as possible. Just then it happened. Stream after hot stream of my cum burst deep inside his throat. His moans were louder than mine. His gulping told me he was swallowing it all. He vacuumed it all out of my pumping cock. He savored every little last drop.

 

By the time I was done pumping cum, he had satisfied himself too.

 

"Sorry I came too early. I feel like a stupid teenager. Just that the whole thing was so right, and so erotic for me."

 

"It just means you enjoyed it tremendously," he replied. "It was your first BJ from me. Or a man, for that case. Your first sexual act in over 3 years. You were bursting with hormones."

 

"Still, what about you? You didn't cum."

 

"Pat, the night is young. For now stop worrying and bask in the moment."

He slid his head up from my crotch area and came up north. He laid his head smack in the middle of my chest. With his arms he reached around and gave me an embrace. I reciprocated, embracing him with one arm, and with the other arm rubbing his hair. The sound of the rain outside was the only thing that broke the silence. With every breath, I was aware of Tyler's head being part of it, part of me now. We just laid like that for quite a few moments.

 

A loud thunder woke us up from a cat nap about half an hour later. He lifted his head and looked at me. I had the happiest grin on my face. He had an adoring smile as well. All was OK, just as he promised. My heart couldn't contain all the love that I felt for him.

 

He gently slid his head back up to me and we locked lips again. This time the kisses were more slow and deliberate. It was the kisses of lovers, rather than horny sex addicts. Each kiss was a perfect dance of lips and tongues. The whispers were softer, and the bites more gentle. Two souls in search of love had found each other.

 

I came up for air. "Teach me everything," I said

 

His face was puzzled.

 

"I want to be the best lover you've ever had. But this is all new to me. I don't know what I'm doing."

 

He just leaned over and kissed me softly. "You are already the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you more than you can possibly imagine. You have transformed my life more than you know." And I thought it was me who was transformed radically by him.

 

The soft kisses back and forth continued. I was content to live in the moment forever. This time it was me who pinned Tyler on his back. It was my turn to taste the forbidden fruit. That time in the gym his ballsac musk had intoxicated me. I was going to get a taste of the real thing finally.

 

I also inched my way down Tyler's body as he had done to me. Admittedly, my moves might not have been as careful and sensuous as his. I was rushing to get down there, but I knew I needed to worship the rest of his body first. There was an inner struggle of taking my time versus going for the gold. The latter won.

 

I placed myself between Tyler's wide-open legs. He had done the same to me a while back. I looked down, and his package was ready and waiting. It was inviting me in. It was begging me for attention. I put my hands on his thighs and slowly slid them up. Ever so slightly my hands slid up as my gaze was locked on Tyler's amazing dick. My mouth was already drooling. I could smell the musk and I loved it.

 

My hands reached his balls. I slid my hands toward the center, making a ring around his entire package. I tightened the ring, making my grip smaller and smaller. Eventually it was just my two fists at the base of his cock. I had reached my destination. I guided my left hand to his balls, and the right hand slid up his shaft. I had his entire manhood in my 2 fists. He was mine. I had him conquered. Finally.

 

I massaged his nuts with my left hand, and stroked his cock with my right. I had jerked off myself enough times in the past to know this part well. But this was another man's dick. I had only touched my own dick in the past. I had no idea what to expect holding someone else's instead. His did not feel much different than mine.

 

I looked up. Tyler was leaning on his elbows, his head popped up to enjoy what he was seeing. I looked down again, there was precum coming from his hole. It dripped down the tip, and with every stroke more of it came out. The hot precum then started sliding on my hand, providing more lubrication between my fingers and his dick.

 

All that precum, and Tyler's musk in the air made me ravenous again. With no further foreplay, I just bent over and put the whole thing in my mouth. I swallowed his entire dick in one move. As far down as I could go. I gagged, but did not let go. Instead, I tightened my lips around the shaft. I had it. In my mouth. I did not want to come off as an amateur, even though I was one.

 

I still held to his balls with my left hand, as I raised my head a bit. I lowered my head on his cock again. Up, down, up, down. I had no idea what I was doing. But I was giving a blow job to Tyler. I had Tyler's cock in my mouth and I absolutely loved it. I loved how his cock filled my mouth. My first time giving a blowjob. And it all made sense since I was in love with this magnificent man. Yes, a man! And I was loving all this new plumbing I was not used to. Yes, I was blowing a man. Me, the blue collar married straight man from the south shore of Long Island, madly in love with a gay man on Fire Island, bent over and blowing him in his bedroom in the middle of a thunderstorm.

 

I increased my speed. I could taste Tyler's salty precum. Most importantly, I could lick the organ that was exuding all that musk. Precum, musk, lust, sex, love, all mixed in. With my free right hand I reached below and started to stroke myself. I could pleasure him and myself at the same time. I had cum only half an hour ago. But my dick was already full of blood and cum again.

 

I could feel my own precum on my right hand, as I tasted Tyler's in my mouth. A couple of times I glanced up and looked at Tyler. He was still in disbelief that this moment had arrived. He was just overjoyed with love and lust, just like me.

 

I stroked myself, and I tried to swallow as much as his dick as I could. I never had a dick in my mouth before, but Tyler's stiff cock was just the right fit. I stopped gagging. I was enjoying him in my mouth. I was enjoying giving head as much as Tyler was enjoying getting one.

 

My up and down motion on his dick was getting faster. My stroking of my own dick was also getting faster. Tyler's groans were getting louder. My panting was getting more intense. More saliva was drooling from the side of my mouth all over his crotch. The intensity of his musk in my nose was growing. It was all just a perfect storm.

 

And then I felt it. I felt that familiar heat. This time is started in my mouth, where Tyler's dick was. It went down my throat, into my spine, down my back. I could feel that wave of heat hit my pelvis any moment. I knew I was about to cum again.

 

I let go of Tyler's cock and sat up. I yelled out loud: "I'm cumming." I grabbed my dick and got ready for the fireworks. I saw Tyler grab his own dick too. As soon as the first stream left my cock, I could see Tyler's body shiver in ecstasy too. His dick shot out the second stream of cum before my dick could catch up. For the next minute his dick and mine took turns shooting loads of hot cum all over Tyler's belly and chest. Even though I had shot my load just half an hour ago, I was surprised how much more my body had in it for round 2.

 

I was spent. It was late at night and I had just shot 2 huge loads back to back. And the emotional turbulence of the night, with that crazy rain and thunder outside, was just too much. I needed to collapse. I grabbed a towel from the bathroom and cleaned the both of us. I then snuggled to put my head on Tyler's chest. He was going to be my pillow that night. There were no pre-defined gender role there. He could be sleeping on my chest once and the next time I could be sleeping on his.

 

I climbed on top of him and put my head where I wanted it. I looked up to Tyler. He gave me single gentle kiss on the lips.

 

"Good night Tyler. I love you," I said. I couldn't believe how easily those words came out of mouth.

 

"Good night my prince charming," He replied. He curled his arms around my back and gave me a tight embrace. Sweet dreams after a crazy night.

 

I woke up rather early from the bright sunlight. The rain had stopped. The skies were totally clear. It was as though nothing had happened. Except that I found myself and Tyler both naked in his bed. After a night of exploring each other sexually for the first time. I wish every day of life was like this, waking up in his loving embrace.

 

I got out of the bed as quietly as I could. On the way down the stairs I put on Tyler's gray sweat shorts. I grabbed some cash from my bedroom and went out. No shoes, no shirt, no underwear. Just in Tyler's signature shorts. I went to The Canteen in town to pick up 2 muffins. I had been bringing breakfast of baked good every morning, I couldn't neglect my duties.

 

I walked back in again as quietly as I could. I wanted to surprise Tyler in bed with the muffins and coffee. Tyler was up already. He as waiting in his usual spot by the kitchen counter with two cups of fresh coffee. Just exactly as our routine had developed. He was naked. I took off his shorts and tossed them to the side.

 

"I wasn't sure if you went out to get us some breakfast, or took the first boat off the island. I'm glad it was the former."

I was glad it was the former too. No, I was not escaping this. This is what I had wanted.

 

Instead of sitting on the kitchen bar stools, Tyler brought the coffee cups to the living room. I followed him. I sat down first, in my usual spot on the sofa across where he usually sat. I was looking forward to another session of locking feet and ankles as we had breakfast. Instead, Tyler turned around and wedged himself into my lap, in between my legs. He tucked himself into my lap as tight as he could, and then leaned his back against my torso. His naked ass was wedged right into my crotch. We ate breakfast like that. The conversation was about something light, not at all dissecting that huge step we had taken the night before.

 

When we finished, we got up to clear the plates and coffee mugs. I stood behind as Tyler rinsed the items in the sink. I got fixated on his ass as he was gently moving in front of the sink. I could see the individual fibers of his glutes. I got fixated on the little dimples on each side where all the muscles converged and he had no fat to pad the area. I had seen his naked ass so many times, but I had never studied it this much.

 

And then it happened. He bent down to load the dishes and cups into the dishwasher. As he bent down, his asscheeks spread and for the first time ever I saw his butthole. All this time, I had never seen in between his crack. And here it was. A perfect rosebud with no hair, nestled in between his two melons of pale Scandinavian skin. Not a single imperfection. It was as though an artist had painted a perfect butthole.

 

Just then an animalistic instinct got into me. I was the romantic just a few seconds ago, but this sight woke up the ravenous. I didn't know what got into me. With no warning I snuck up behind him. Without saying a word I bent his entire upper body down on the kitchen counter until he was laying on it. Within a flash I buried my entire face into his crack. My mouth and his butthole became one in a split second. I heard a loud groan from where his head was.

 

I cupped each asscheek with one hand. I had a vision of this one time before, but I was making it happen finally. I dug my face deeper and deeper into his melons. Neither one of us had showered since having sex last night. His signature musk was stronger than ever. I licked, kissed, and worshipped his butthole. I used my tongue to make circular motions around the sphincter. It was quite arguably the softest skin of his entire body. I tried to shove my tongue in. I wanted to go all in. I needed to be inside of him, one way or another.

 

I continued this for a few minutes. Tyler just kept spreading his legs more and more to let me as deep as I could go. He was literally melting in mouth. And that made his beautiful body release even more of his musk.

 

I was ready. I was ready for next level. I didn't know how, but I was going to do it. It was time for me to actually consummate him. It was time for my cock in his ass, not just my tongue. I was gonna make him mine.

 

I pulled back and stood up. I grabbed his hand in mine. I took him in the direction of the staircase. The new Pat was no longer intimidated by the stairs. The new Pat confidently escorted his prey up the stairs to the love den so he could have what was rightfully his. And that's what I did. I brought Tyler back to his room and we both jumped on the bed.

 

He reached over and took some lube out of the side table drawer. As he was laying on his back, he applied a small amount to his one finger. He then put that finger near his butthole, right where my mouth had been just moments ago. He pushed the finger in and made it disappear. He repeated this a few times till the inside was all nice and ready.

 

He then applied a more generous portion of the lube to his hand and massaged my cock with it. I had never seen my cock this stiff. It was like a rock.

 

"It might be easier for you to do doggie style your first time," he instructed. He turned around and bent on all 4. His butthole was exposed for my direct view once again. I approached him from behind. My cock was throbbing and I wasn't even in yet.

 

I came close until the tip of my cock touched his rosebud. I gently pushed in. It was much tighter than a vagina. It was tighttttt! I grabbed the base of my cock and pushed some more. I had to get in. I needed to be inside. His sphincter relented and let me in. A most narrow sleeve of flesh engulfed my shaft from tip to base. His sphincter was grabbing the very base of my cock.

 

I gently slid out some, then slid back in. In, out. With each thrust, the distance grew. The pace became faster. I looked down and couldn't believe my eyes. My dick was inside Tyler's ass. I was buttfucking this man who had made me turn madly in love with him. And here I was, fucking him for the first time. I will never forget that first time for as long as I shall live.

 

Tyler then pulled away. "Now fuck me from the front, I want to see you getting inside of me."

 

He laid on his back and brought both legs high up in the air. That was yet the best open view of his butthole. I climbed on top and shoved my dick right back in. Much less resistance this second time around. I started pumping him as we both locked stares again. More than looking at my dick disappear in his ass, I wanted to look inside his soul as our bodies were becoming one. The whole time, he was stroking himself with his legs up.

 

The heat wave started again. This time it was from my back to my pelvis to the front. My thrusts got deeper and more forceful. My dick started throbbing. And just like that I was cumming again. The grimaces on my face, the sudden change of pace must have given out my secret that I was filling Tyler with my DNA. He overcame himself as well and shot his load once again on his bare chest. We came at the same time. I shot so hard, this being my third time in so many hours, that I got lightheaded. I pulled out my now-empty cock to get my composure back. I needed a second to catch my breath. Wow, that was explosive.

 

I used the towel that was still on the floor to clean Tyler's chest. I nuzzled back to his chest and laid my head there, the same spot I had slept all night. With one finger I played with his one nipple right in front of my face. He reciprocated by gently by rubbing my hair. We did not exchange any words. We just lay like that for a while. Each one of us with his own private thoughts.

 

We must have fallen asleep again. Laying just like that peacefully. Eventually some loud guys outside the fence woke us up. I looked up, Tyler had also woken up. We needed to get up and stretch.

 

I got off Tyler and stood up. He got off the bed too. He asked for my hand by simply extending his in my direction. I gladly gave him my hand. I had no idea what he was up to. Hand in hand, he escorted me downstairs. He took me out to the deck and in the direction of the outdoor shower. He turned the water on. He hugged me and moved both of us to get under the streaming water. Our lips locked again. My hands caressed his back, his hands cupped my buttcheeks. Our naked torsos rubbed against each other as we let all that water wash us all over.

 

After a few minutes, he grabbed the soap. Still locking lips, he lathered my backside with the soap. First the shoulder, then the back, then the spine. He glided down to my asscheeks. He gently cleaned the crack. He then took a step back. He lathered my neck, my chest, my pecs, my abs. With both hands he lathered my cock and balls. He washed it real good. My dick was semi hard at this point. He then washed each arm, even the armpits. He then bent down and did my legs, front and back. He got up. He used the shampoo to lather my hair for me. The whole time I was looking deep into his eyes as he was running his fingers all over my scalp. He used some of the lather to wash my face. Gently outlining my forehead, my cheeks, my chin. He pulled me under the water and rinsed off all the lather he had left all over my body.

 

It was my turn to return the favor. I pretty much repeated all his moves from earlier. Except when I cleaned his crack for him, I was not shy about his butthole. I spent extra time introducing my finger to his sphincter. I wasn't going to go in with the soap, but just wanted my finger to feel comfortable there.

 

We toweled off. We went in the direction of the chaise lounges, our usual siesta place. I laid out on the usual chaise I always sat on. He proceeded to come sit on the same chaise as me. He wedged his backside into my lap and made himself comfortable. His naked ass was once again on my crotch. Except that this time I had already penetrated that ass already. That ass was already mine.

 

He leaned his head back and rested it on my pecs. I wrapped my arms around his body and gave him a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around my arms and made sure the hug was even tighter. We just laid out there for a while.

 

My stomach had a rumble after a while.

 

"Shit, I totally forgot," Tyler said. "We are invited to go to Dan and Dan for an end of the summer BBQ and pool today. I didn't pick up anything for us for lunch on account of that."

 

"That's OK," I replied.

 

"I can go pick us some something quick at The Pantry if you'd like."

"No, we can go over to your friends."

"Are you sure. I just had not planned for what had happened and now we are at a different place."

"It's OK. I am in love with you. I will go wherever you go." The truth of it was that I actually WANTED to go. I wanted his friends to see us as we were. I wanted them to know that Tyler and I had taken our relationship to the next level. I wanted them to know Tyler and I fucked. I wanted them to see Tyler and I were in love.

 

We stayed hugging like that for a little while longer. Then it was time to go. We got up. I headed toward my bedroom to go get ready.

 

"Wait. There is one more thing we need to do," Tyler said. I did not know what he was up to. But I knew it was going to be something good. I let him take the lead.

 

He grabbed my hand and escorted me to my bedroom downstairs. Once inside, he let go of my hand. He picked up all my new clothes as well as the few older items. He even picked up my stuff in the one drawer. With his free hand he grabbed my hand again. Without saying a word, he escorted me up the stairs, into his bedroom. He let go of my hand one more time. In his closet, he pushed all his clothes to one side. He then hung my few items on the freed up side. He turned around and kissed me gently.

 

"Welcome home. You belong here with me," Tyler said joyfully. My heart melted. I couldn't believe it all.

 

From there we put on our bathing suits and headed to Dan and Dan. There was a fresh six pack of Budweisers for me, and rosé for everybody else.

 

Well, we did not need to make any announcements. The body language between Tyler and I was all the confirmation they needed. At any given time one or both of my arms were wrapped around Tyler hugging him. He sat on my lap most of the time. There were lots of giggles. I kept stealing kisses from Tyler's neck and nibbling on his ears constantly. At some point after lunch, as I was taking yet another nibble from his ear, I whispered to him: "Let's go home." He responded by wiggling his ass on my crotch as he was sitting on me. We kissed everyone good bye. The guys were showing extra affection toward me. I was now one of them, rather than just come curious straight boy who was fucking with Tyler's head.

 

Tyler was walking in front of me as we entered the house. No sooner had I closed the door behind me that I slid both of my hands inside his bikini bathing suit and lowered it all the way down to the floor. Just like in the morning, I was ravenous for that ass again. I cupped his asscheeks and dug in. Once again, the musk of his sweat hit my nose and my tongue. I could live on this stuff forever.

 

He loved it. He leaned over a bit to let me in. I pushed in further to taste it all. The sweet sweat in his crack was like an aphrodisiac. I was getting drunk on it. I licked until I found the hole again. With my hands I squeezed his asscheeks tight around my face. My tongue was as far out as I could stretch it.

 

I needed more. I think Tyler needed more. He looked around as my face was deep in his ass. We locked eyes again. He turned around and grabbed my hand. He helped me up. He then held on to my hand and escorted me upstairs. To our love den.

 

This time he just threw me on his bed. He grabbed my bathing suit and took it off. My stiff cock snapped on my belly making a perfect arch as it was released. He then straddled me and once again pinned my wrists to the mattress.

 

Leaning over me in a hunter position, he said softly: "Where have you been all my life?"

 

I nearly burst. I released my wrists and used my hands to grab his head. I lowered him to me so we could lock lips again. I kissed him over and over again. Indeed, we were both making up for lost time. Why wasn't Tyler my high school sweetheart that I would have loved and adored all these years?

 

Tyler reached down and grabbed my stiff cock. I'm sure he was getting my precum all over his hands. I'm sure he didn't mind. He kissed me above as he stroked me below. I spread my legs a bit. I grabbed his hand that was stroking my cock and guided it south. He didn't know what my intentions were. I guided his hand all the way in between my spread legs till his fingers were over my asshole.

He abruptly stopped kissing. He was shocked. He looked me in the eye, at close range, and asked: "Are you sure you are ready for this?"

 

I nodded yes.

 

He needed no further invitation. He resumed kissing me, and this time he used his middle finger to fondle my butthole. I had never been touched there before.

 

After a few minutes of this, he went south. He positioned himself in between my legs. He lowered his head on my cock and swallowed it. His one hand was still massaging my hole. That hole was slowly relaxing. My sphincter no longer felt like a rock against his probing finger. The feeling was becoming more enjoyable. He kept blowing me to relax me, as his finger probed outside my ass. A couple of times he spit on my ass to help lubricate a bit, then went back to sucking.

 

His spit helped, but my tight virgin ass needed more help than that. He leaned over and grabbed the lubricant bottle again. He put a healthy portion on his fingers. He went back to sucking my dick while he rubbed the lubricated fingers around my hole. I was calming down, in no little part due to him constantly sucking my dick for distraction.

 

Slowly, gently, he managed to get one finger in me. I felt that! My sphincter had never met anything like that before. He didn't rush. He held that finger in place so my sphincter could get used to it. He then slid it in just a bit more. Once past the sphincter, things were not as tight. Slowly but surely, he managed to get the whole finger in. He took another pause as he kept sucking me. He brought the finger out to the sphincter, then back in again. In and out. Luckily there was enough lube on his finger for my tight virgin ass.

 

After a few cycles, he brought that finger out. He then touched my hole with 2 fingers. I knew what was coming next. Very expertly he massaged my sphincter until both fingers fit in. I felt more than twice the pressure compared to just the one finger. There was this immense heat building in my pelvis. He was in. He had managed to get in with 2 fingers. He pushed those in, very gently. He started finger fucking me with both fingers.

 

By then he had let go of my dick with his mouth. Instead, he was stroking me with his left hand as he was using his right hand to finger fuck me. My entire crotch and pelvis were feeling sensations I did not know existed in me. I had been missing out on all this. He worked his way as expertly as he could. Eventually I was so loose he could slide those 2 fingers in with no resistance at all.

 

"Fuck me already," I yelled. I had no idea where that came from. I couldn't believe I yelled that out. Tyler couldn't believe what he heard either. But it was out there. All this finger fucking and stroking had me on the edge. I needed to have Tyler make me his bitch so we could both cum already.

 

Tyler put a hefty amount of lube on his dick. I picked up my legs as high up in the air as I could go. He mounted me, approaching me with his erect dick. The tip of his dick touched my ass. I thought I might cum right there, but I had already cum 3 times that day and I had some tolerance. He was struggling to get the tip in. His dick was much bigger than 2 fingers. I let go of my legs and instead grabbed his hips. I pulled him toward me. This encouraged him to push in harder. And he did. He pushed in until my sphincter relented. The tip was in.

 

He stared in my eyes and he shoved the rest of his dick in. He went all the way in and paused. By far the biggest thing up my ass. He tilted his hip back, then forward. Back, and forth. Back and forth. He developed a nice rhythm of fucking me. Never in a million years did I think I would want a man to fuck me and enjoy it too. But this was not just any man. It was Tyler.

 

Neither one of us lasted long. As I felt the heat was down my spine into my pelvis and I started shooting my cum all over my chest, Tyler's body also went into convulsions of pure joy. I could tell he was filling my ass with his hot cum. That's where I wanted it. I wanted Tyler in any way possible. And I got him.

 

We collapsed for a short while. It was getting late in the afternoon. I had to go back to the mainland. I had to go face reality. Not once had I stopped to wonder how I should conduct myself from this point on. How should I tell Cindy? When should I tell Cindy?

 

As I was getting ready to leave, this time from Tyler's bedroom instead of the downstairs bedroom, Tyler sat me down.

 

"You're going to be OK. Remember, I love you and we can overcome any challenge together," he reassured me. I appreciated his encouragement. But he was not the one with a wife and 2 kids who had just cheated with another man. I was. I had to figure out what to do.

 

"Be yourself. Be honest. Be receptive to a reaction," he further elaborated. He must have written a movie script or two...

 

We had our most meaningful hug and kisses good bye. Nothing kinky or naughty. Nothing taboo. Just a genuine hug for 2 people in love. On the ride back, I tried a million scenarios on how and when to talk to Cindy. I wasn't even sure what future waited for me with Tyler. But I had to talk to Cindy.

 

When I got back, we had an hour to feed the kids and play with them before bedtime. Then it was Cindy and me.

 

"Um, I think we need to talk about something," I said in a very low tone.

 

"Yes, we do," she replied with a very determined tone.

 

Shit! What is that supposed to mean? How did she even know there is something to talk about? Did she find something out? Did someone say something? Whatever happened on Fire Island stayed there. How could she possibly know? And so fast after it did happen? My mind was blown. My heart was racing.

 

We sat on opposite ends of the sofa. My head was bent at the neck and I was staring at some random blank spot on the floor. I didn't know where to start.

 

"I think we both have something to tell each other," She went first.

 

What?!?

 

There was another silence. I was now both puzzled and nervous. I thought it was just me springing something unexpected on her. Seems like she had something up her sleeve too. More silence.

 

"Ok, you've never been the big talker. I'll go first," she relieved me of the duty of going first. "Look, it is no secret that you and I have been drifting apart. Yes, we were lovers once. But now we are just roommates with 2 kids. I really appreciate you working 7 days a week to support your family. I admire your sense of duty. But besides the kids there is nothing that is holding us together any more.

 

"I take my full share of blame for it. Ever since I put all that weight on, I do not feel like a sexual being any more. I have rejected all your attempts to have sex. I just can't do it. I can't even look myself in the mirror naked, let alone have someone else look at me. Yes, that's all inside my fucked-up head. But personally, I'm fine with it. I'm really comfortable with it. And I don't feel like going to therapy to talk about it so I can have sex again. I don't want to. I'm fine like this.

 

"But I can't expect the same of you. You are a most good-looking 27 year-old man in your physical and sexual prime. I can't tell you not to have sex again just on account of me. It is not fair to you. And our marriage is not going to survive that. You need to get laid. You need to have somebody to love you both emotionally and physically. You need to move on. And I need to move on too."

I was flabbergasted. I could not believe what was coming out of her mouth. I agreed to all of it, but I never thought she would be the one saying all that.

 

"Listen, I'm not stupid. I know there is something going on in Fire Island. A wife knows. Not because you left any signs or I saw some text message I'm not supposed to see. Every time you come back from your weekends there you seem so much happier. I have seen a huge transition from the tired Pat to one full of energy. I can see you're in love. Young love that makes your eyes shine. Young love that makes you sing to yourself. You're walking taller. You are much more confident. And I love that for you.

 

"I don't know what has or had not happened with this guy Tyler there. All I know is that he has made you happier than I have ever seen you in my life. And I'm happy that you're getting that happiness there. I don't mind at all if Tyler is a guy rather than a woman. In some ways I prefer if the person who is making you happy is a guy. This way there is no bitch other woman to deal with. As someone who is asexual I shouldn't comment on other people's sexuality.

"All these weekends I've been going to Jersey Shore made me realize I needed to make a change too. I'm moving in with my parents there for now. They can help with the kids as I try to get a job. We can have a nice amicable arrangement for the kids. They love us both. And since I'm not separating from you on bad terms, I'm sure we can work something out."

 

More silence. Not a word of response from me. I was still looking at that imaginary spot on the floor.

 

"Anything you'd like to add?" she asked.

 

I ran over and hugged her. She had just explained so eloquently she had stopped being a sexual being, but I had to hug her.

 

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything." I started crying. I could sense she was crying too. We held on like that for a while as we provided each other the shoulder to cry on, literally.

 

"I'm sorry it all went down like this," I added. "I promise, I will do right by you and the kids. I promise." And I focused back at that imaginary spot again as my crying subsided. She held my hand. We both needed to digest on all this.

 

 

Chapter 5: September and Beyond

 

Things with Cindy worked out a lot smoother than I could have possibly imagined. First, I introduced her to Tyler at a dinner on the mainland. Cindy and I packed up the house. I moved her and the kids to Jersey Shore with her parents. I get to see the kids every other weekend.

 

I moved in with Tyler at the beach house for the rest of the summer, the New York City apartment in the fall, and Los Angeles here and there for his business trips to Hollywood. With Tyler's encouragement, I quit my day job and started my own full-time handyman gig on Fire Island. Before I knew it, I hired more help and the business grew. I now have 10 people working for me. My firm does all kinds of work except for building houses from scratch.

 

Sometimes I am so busy at work that I cannot take off to go pick up the kids from Jersey Shore for the weekend. On those occasions, Tyler is more than happy to pick up the kids. They call him Daddy Tyler or Daddy Hollywood. By the time they arrive, Tyler has usually made a pizza stop, an ice cream stop, and bought them several toys from the store. He is the fun daddy and I'm the disciplinarian daddy. We converted the downstairs bedroom on Fire Island, the one that used to be mine, into the kids' bedroom.

 

Two years later I escorted Tyler to the Oscars. He was nominated for another movie. It was the story of a gay man who had met an unassuming straight married man and knew on day 1 that this straight man was his soulmate. It was the story of how the gay man was so patient and allowed the curious straight man to take baby steps, one at a time, until their love blossomed and was ready for that final transition. Basically, a Long Island version of Brokeback Mountain. Yes, he won that Oscar. And he thanked me by my name from the podium for being the sexiest muse ever. Who knew my life story would one day become a hit movie?

 

Cindy and I kept in good terms. I had given her every last penny I had for the divorce settlement. I knew that my future with Tyler was bright, so I wanted her to have all the money upfront. Years later she confided in me that she had met a woman just like her. Someone who also does not see herself as a sexual being. They live together and even share a bed. But just as companions and roommates. Nothing sexual. They did not label themselves as lesbian. They think of themselves as asexual. I was genuinely glad she found someone else she can share her life with.

 

Tyler and I did eventually get married. We did the ceremony on the beach on Fire Island. We had the reception at Whyte Hall Community Center. It was the buzz of town that summer.

 

Tyler was right all along. I WAS going to be OK. Everything WAS going to be OK. Any other out and proud gay man might not have had the patience to allow a curious straight man to complete his journey and meet him at the end of that journey. But Tyler saw something special. He stood by my side the whole time. He allowed me to take those baby steps at my own pace. I am forever indebted to him for that.

 

This was a journey that young Pat could not imagine for himself as a teen or even as a married straight man. But life brings people into your life for a reason. Tyler was my soulmate and once I met him and got to know him, there was no going back.

 

 

Wow, this story came out longer than I thought. I always considered my last story My Roommate, My Soulmate to be my masterpiece. For the longest time I did not think I could possibly write another story that would compare. That's why I hesitated. Finally, the muse caught up with me.

 

I did not plan to make this story so much about love. I planned it so that Pat would be staying over the first time only the night of the storm. But once I started writing, the most beautiful love affair blossomed. Little glance here, little touch there, little taking privilege here again.

 

It took me around 3 weeks to write this story. Then I went back to proofread it from the beginning. The innocence of the first few weekends seemed like such a long time ago compared to the intense love at the end of the story.

 

As always, all comments, feedback, and suggestions are welcome at DrThroat@aol.com. Maybe I'll get my next inspiration from one of your comments.