Harmony: A Bromance

by Dallas Redford

  “He went home to pack,” she said.

  “Pack?”

  “Yes. We are leaving for a very important conference today.”

  “Conference? He didn’t tell me anything about a conference.”

  She paused like she was searching for words. “Maybe your boy doesn’t tell you everything.”

  I pressed my lips together before I said something I would regret. It was no secret that she wanted Anthony and while it would have never mattered to me before, I didn’t like this at all. I got a bad feeling about him going to this conference.

  I needed to go and find him. I had to stop him from flying out before it was too late.

  Anthony

  It was a weekend conference but what did that even mean? Could I get away with casual wear? I threw the shorts set into my leather bag anyway. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have the space. The bag actually belonged to Devon. He’d bought the set a long time ago when I didn’t have enough bags to take some extra stuff with me to Bali. It was the perfect size and as far as I knew I wasn’t ever going to give it back to him.

  That made me smile. Me taking ownership of this bag. It reminded me of how my first girlfriend lifted three of my favorite hoodies from me back in high school. When we broke up, I got two of them back and she kept the last one as “break up tax.” I’d been happy to get out of that relationship so I was okay with it. Sure a little annoyed at first but in the end, it seemed like a good trade.

  I was never one for relationships, anyway. I preferred to spend time with my boys. Playing video games, hiking, running, basketball. Even traveling was better with my boys. I would prefer to be across the table from Devon in Rome over anyone else in the world.

  It seemed kind of crazy now. Was I gay? I didn’t feel gay. I knew I still liked girls. I just felt like Devon was “the one.” If that was even a thing. I was being ridiculous, thinking of him this way but what else could I do? I wasn’t even in control of it. It was my heart.

  Damn.

  I was my heart. I didn’t just love Devon. I was in love with him.

  I went into the bathroom to grab my toiletries. Even my moisturizer reminded me of him. I hadn’t used such things before I met him. We joked that he was probably gay because he had so many creams and serums. But, we knew that he wasn’t gay.

  That was what made last night so bizarre.

  And sort of scary. Something that had occurred to me on the way home in the car. I didn’t know if he was going to blame me for what went down last night. Once he came to his senses, would he accuse me of seducing him or something? I tried to think about what I was doing before we started to kiss. I guess I was leaning up against him while I was eating the ice cream. In retrospect, it didn’t seem like anything big. I just hoped he would feel the same.

  Hell, it was probably likely that I would never see him again. I couldn’t exactly go on a date with him. Not without breaking my own heart. And he wasn’t going to want to be in a relationship with me. Guys like him didn’t wake up one day and suddenly decide they were gay.

  When my phone started going off, I snapped out of it. I’d been standing there in my bathroom staring at myself in the mirror while my thoughts ran a million kilometres an hour in my head. I needed to get a move on it. It was probably Delores checking to see if I was on my way to the airport. She was leaving from the office and I was supposed to meet her out at Gatwick in an hour. I was way behind.

  I finished packing as fast as I could. Grabbed an apple from the kitchen because I was hungry. It occurred to me as I was putting on all of my bags by the front door that I should read that message in case it was something last minute from Delores.

  But, I didn’t recognise the number.

  There was a voicemail. I clicked it to start playing it as I left the house.

  I froze when I heard the voice.

  It was the producer from the audition.

  “Hey, Anthony. It’s Chris, director and producer of X. I just wanted to call and follow up on your audition. First, though, I wanted to apologize for taking so long to get back to you. It was a tough decision. We saw so many good people and we wanted to make sure we made the right choice. We’ve decided to offer you a role. It won’t be the one that you auditioned for but one for which we think you might be a better fit.”

  He went on to say which role it was. It wasn’t a lead but it was still a fairly large part from what I knew about the script.

  “We’ll need you to come in this weekend to finalize things, sign your contract, etcetera. Get back to me as soon as you can if you’re interested. Thanks.”

  I didn’t know how to feel.

  Part of me thought right away that I should turn it down. It wasn’t the role that I really wanted to play. This other role was a character that was nothing like me and that was the last thing I wanted to do was to go into this for the first time doing something that was completely out of my comfort zone. Plus, they needed me to come in this weekend. I was already going to this conference which I could not miss.

  It was okay. I wasn’t going to be a singer. It was obvious. It made sense that they offered me this other role. They were probably expecting me to turn it down and then they could move on to the person they really wanted to cast.

  Well, I was going to do them one better. I wasn’t even going to call them back.

  I finished locking my door, grabbed my bags and headed down the hall. I heard the bell on the elevator ding. “Hold that!” I said as I began to hustle down the hall.

  I tried to think of who was at home at this time during the day. It was a fairly large building but I almost never encountered anyone in the halls. Certainly not during the middle of the day on a weekday.

  As I rounded the corner, I came to an abrupt stop.

  “Devon.”

  He stood there, his hand holding back the elevator door. Almost as shocking was the expression on his face. It was one of pure turmoil. I don’t think I’d even seen a look like this from him before. He was usually so in control. If anything, I was the emotional one.

  “What are you doing here, man?” I said, letting out a nervous chuckle that didn’t even sound like me.

  “Didn’t you say ‘hold it’?” His voice sounded somehow deeper. Stiff.

  “Yeah, I know. But, what are you doing here right now?”

  “You were just going to head off with Delores?”

  “To the conference?”

  What was wrong with him? He was acting in a way that I had never seen before. It was almost like he was jealous of Delores or something and that was crazy.

  “I’m late,” I told him.

  I pushed down all of the stuff that was bubbling up in the back of my head. If he was jealous, what did it mean? Did it mean that he really did care about me and that what had happened wasn’t just sex to him? So many things kept flowing into my head and I didn’t know what to do.

  “Were you really going to leave without talking to me?”

  “It was just for the weekend.”

  He was quiet as he seemed to absorb this. “Well, I got you some lunch. I’m sure you didn’t eat.”

  I felt my face and neck go warm. “I had an apple. I wasn’t really hungry.”

  He frowned and took a deep breath. “Anthony, take the fucking sandwich. An apple is not lunch.”

  I took the bag from him. It felt like a bomb that I needed to diffuse.

  “Thanks,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.

  “Can I—” He paused. “Can I at least have a goodbye kiss?” he asked.

  I wrestled with it for what seemed like forever. I was going to mess around and get in too deep. Now, I understood why some of his ex-girlfriends were the crazy type. He obviously had that kind of power over people. I loved him and it seemed like he felt something for me, too. But, I was being a fool if I thought he was going to suddenly become the relationship type just for me. I was going to break my own heart. Plus, I was already late to catch my airplane. I needed to leave.

/>   The elevator started making that little buzzing sound that it makes if you hold the door open too long. I turned to look at it, still unsure what to do.

  “You better go, then,” Devon said. The sound of his voice was unlike anything else I’d heard. He sounded upset. I looked at his face. There was something like a fire in his eyes. I got the sense that he was wrestling with himself inside, too.

  Something broke loose within me.

  “Let the door go,” I told him, setting my bags down. Then, I pulled him close to me, feeling the warmth of his mouth as our lips collided.

  Devon

  When he pulled away from me, it looked like he was shivering.

  It was tearing me up inside. All of this. Seeing him drove it home for me just how in love I was with him. I had always known it but whatever had happened a couple nights ago had switched something inside of me and now I was lost without him.

  However, I was determined not to force him. I wanted him. But if we weren’t on the same wavelength, I was going to have to be okay with us just being boys. I didn’t want that and I knew I would have to find a way to convince him to be mine but still…

  He pulled away from me. His eyes were low and his plump lips remained parted as he stared at me. He was holding the front of my shirt and I could see his mind working. I didn’t have to guess too hard at what he was thinking about. The evidence was very apparent down below. His dick was so hard that it was poking through his jeans.

  “I might have ten minutes I can spare,” he said. “I’ll have to take an car to the airport instead of the train but it would be worth it.”

  I felt an ache set up in my balls. “Don’t tease me,” I warned him. “If you set off down this path, you won’t be able to turn back.”

  He smirked at me, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth. “Is that so?”

  I grabbed his bag that he’d set on the floor. “Let’s go. We’re already down to nine minutes.”

  As we raced to get back to his door, I was certain that there was no way I was letting him get on that plane.

  But, I didn’t have to think about that right then and there. We were tumbling into his condo. He was yanking my shirt off and I was taking his off. His mouth was back on mine and it felt so good. So right.

  Our kisses deepened once we were shirtless and working on each other’s pants. He managed the button and zipper on mine and had his hand on my dick in seconds. It felt so good. His big hand stroking me. His thumb spread the precum I was oozing all over my head and I nearly lost it right then and there.

  We kept moving toward his bedroom. By the time we got the door, we didn’t go another step. I couldn’t help myself. I had him up against the wall and we didn’t have much time.

  He kissed me deeply one last time. He held my face, while staring me in the eyes, almost like he was asking me a question he couldn’t utter. Then, he turned around so that his back was facing me. He pulled my arms across his shoulders so that I was flush against his hot skin.

  “Baby,” I said, panting, “You don’t have to. God knows I want you to. But, if you don’t—”

  At some point he had spat on his hand and was using that hand to slick up my cock. Then, he took me and placed me firmly and decisively at his entrance.

  Well, damn.

  “Babe, you know this is going to hurt, right?”

  He nodded and shifted my hand over to his mouth. He took my thumb into his mouth and caught it between his teeth.

  I kissed the back of his neck. “Okay, just bite down if the pain gets to be too much.”

  I slicked myself up some more before the urge took over me, forcing me to drop down and bring my mouth to that sweet opening. At the first flicker of my tongue, he groaned and I knew I was doing the right thing. I feasted on him for a few minutes before I got back up and re-positioned myself to charge in. Then, I pressed forward.

  He groaned and sucked on my thumb but he never did bite down.

  It felt heavenly sliding into him. He was tight, just as I expected him to be. I’d dreamt of this ever since I kissed him the other day. It was a whole different thing to be experiencing it first hand.

  When I began to move inside of him, he took my arms and pulled me tight again. It felt fantastic to be connected to him in this way. Stroking inside of him. It didn’t take us long to climax. In fact, he was first and that was a whole revelation. Feeling him as he clenched me tight. Being able to feel the twitching that was set off deep inside of him. It was sensational. He grunted and pressed his forehead into the wall. I pulled him back so that his body was up against mine. He was mine. I especially needed him to know in that moment. My hands were on his chest and I could feel the pounding of his heart.

  His release set off a chain reaction in me and I felt myself pulse deep within him. It was otherworldly. If I hadn’t known that I loved him already, I would have known it at that moment. It had never felt so intense for me. All of the women I had slept with didn’t compare. It was as if this was what I had been waiting for. I held him tight, kissing him over and again as the last of the sensation faded.

  * * *

  “I can’t believe she said that she suspected she’d be getting this call.”

  “I can’t believe she’s a lesbian.”

  Anthony laughed and playfully punched me in the chest. “So, is this the new you? Now I have to worry about you being jealous of me and everything?”

  I poked out my bottom lip. “Okay. I won’t be jealous.”

  He laughed. “Like I believe that,” he said.

  I laughed and gave him a shrug.“I don’t know,” I said, shifting so that I was closer to him. “All of this is new obviously, but it feels so good. So real. I was thinking about you all morning and I just had to see you. It’s never felt like that with anyone before.”

  “And when you got there and saw I was gone…”

  “Man,” I said. It still felt like crap. Just thinking that I wouldn’t have been able to talk to him and tell him what I was feeling.

  He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “You’re crazy bro. I wasn’t going anywhere. I thought I was but I wasn’t. I was worried you wouldn’t want to be with me.”

  I felt so close to him at that moment that I wanted to run down to the judge and marry him. I wanted to make sure there wasn’t even a question of whether or not he was mine forever. I wanted to make it clear. To him. To anyone else.

  I reached up and grabbed the necklace that was around my neck. It was a piece we had bought in Bali. It was made from silver and it had an infinity loop. I took it and I strung it around his neck.

  I told him, “I’ll always want to be with you. You were my boy first, now you’re more than that, you’re my man. It’s us to the end. We’ll ride the wheels off of this thing together.”

  Epilogue One

  I was in the kitchen sitting at the table but I could barely focus on my egg whites and spinach. I had a workout pending but I would be going alone because Devon had a work thing that had him heading into the office early today. And, he was leaving early, too. I was sick. I’d become pretty hopeless as a boyfriend. I demanded so much of his time and attention. I was like an addict with no hope of a cure. Thankfully, he never seemed to mind. If anything, he was more hopeless than I was.

  I looked up as he came around the corner. He was fresh out of the shower, using a towel to scrub his hair dry. “Hey, cutie,” he said when he saw me.

  I got a quick kiss and then he went hunting around the stove. The boy was always hungry. He didn’t bother making a plate, he never did. He took some of the bread and started scraping eggs onto it directly from the pan.

  He came over to me and gave me another kiss on my neck that sent shivers skipping across my skin. I felt my nipples grow hard. He kissed me again and nuzzled his nose into my neck. “Mmm. You smell good.”

  “I need to shower.”

  He sniffed me again. “Nah, you smell great.”

  “I won’t after two shows, though,” I told him
.

  He laughed and grabbed me in his arms for a tight hug.

  It was amazing the changes my life had taken. I’d actually ended up taking that show that I’d been ready to turn down. My career in advertising was finished. Technically it was a sabbatical but I didn’t see myself going back. The producer of the show had told me that he already had his next project lined up and he wanted me to star in it.

  I had Devon to thank for that. He’d insisted that I didn’t give up and it had paid off.

  He reappeared in the kitchen, this time dressed in his shirt and tie.

  “Big day?” I asked him.

  “You forgot what today is?”

  I frowned. “Oh, your promotion?”

  He came close to me. “You going to give me a good luck kiss?”

  He didn’t have to ask me twice for one of those.

  “You doing okay? You seem a little…” He flipped his hand from side to side.

  “I’m still getting nervous before every show,” I admitted. I wanted to be like the pros who went on without a spot of fear.

  “I think if you don’t get scared maybe you don’t love it enough, you don’t care about it enough,” Devon said, tilting my chin up to give me another kiss. “So, you are doing just fine.”

  He let his hand move down the front of my chest and squeezed my nipple. My cock immediately started to get hard. “Maybe I can help you release a little bit of that tension,” he said.

  He kissed me again, from my mouth around to my ear. That, we had discovered, was my spot. By the time it got down to my nipples, I was feeling better. It might not have made my fear disappear but it certainly was a great counterattack.

  A few seconds later, he lifted me up out of the chair and breakfast essentials were cleared as he got me up onto the table. My arms were around his neck, my eyes closed. I only heard his zipper as he drew it down. I took a deep breath as he entered me. The next time I opened my eyes, I was on the cusp of ecstasy. I was getting to the point where I couldn’t hold back anymore and I didn’t want to wreck his shirt.