The New Normal

by L. J. Hayward

  Brian shrugged. “I notice guys and I think I have a fairly objective idea of what makes someone good looking. But I’m not sure I’m actually attracted to them. I mean, you appear to be an exception.”

  Unsure if that explanation put his mind at complete rest, Andrew asked, “Does it worry you to be attracted to another man, even if it is only me?”

  Expecting an instant response, Andrew got only silence for half a block, then a long sigh.

  “I think it does, yeah. That’s nothing to do with you,” he added hastily. “You’re like perfect boyfriend material, for anyone. Tall and fucking cut. Ridiculously handsome with those blond freaking curls and big brown eyes. I wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen with you on my arm about town.”

  They were definitely going to have to talk about coming out at some point.

  “But,” Brian continued, “this is new and different, for both of us, and right now, I don’t want to question too much about it, or myself. I’m really thrilled you can accept yourself as bi. And I’m mega thrilled you’re being bi with me. I just . . . want to enjoy this and be happy with you for as long as I can without complicating it with questions about why I want to suck your dick or sit on your face, or just lie in bed with you like we did last night and be content even if there was no sex. Do you get that?”

  Andrew nodded slowly. “I do, and I can go along with anything you want.”

  “Good.”

  They had reached the car when Andrew couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Sit on my face?” He wasn’t sure in the dark but he thought he saw Brian blush.

  “Maybe.”

  Smirking, Andrew said, “We’ll see.”

  The drive home was swift and Andrew didn’t wait until they were in the house to start the kissing portion of the date. Brian clung to him, hungry and greedy and they stumbled inside locked together.

  “I want to spread you out on the kitchen counter again,” Andrew said between kisses and sucks on that lower lip he’d been looking at all evening.

  “Not tonight, cowboy.” Brian steered them through the kitchen and towards the couch.

  “Cowboy?”

  “Oops, sorry. Wrong Village People person. Construction worker.”

  Andrew cracked up. They’d discovered the Village People when they were twelve and going through a box of records that had belonged to Brian’s grandfather. One listen on the old record player found next to the box and they were hooked for about two weeks. Then Zach Green, the boy who’d knocked Brian over years before, had told them the Village People were all gay and died of AIDS and if they kept listening to their music, they would turn gay and die of AIDS too, according to his dad. Brian had wanted to fight him over it but Andrew had held him back and after that, the joy had fizzled.

  Maybe it was time for a revival.

  “Want me to grow a porn stash?” he asked.

  “You would? For me? And wear a hardhat in bed? Meet me at the door in nothing but a toolbelt and holding a hammer?”

  “What the hell is the hammer for?”

  “Because you’re going to bang me like a nail?”

  That was it. Andrew could barely stand he was laughing so hard. Brian clung on like a barnacle and they dropped onto the couch in a tangle of arms and legs.

  “About the banging thing,” Brian said breathlessly when they’d sorted things out a bit. “I’m not saying let’s do that right now. I think we should wait.”

  Andrew struggled to sit up straight. “Bang?”

  “Yeah. You know, dick in bum bang.”

  Biting his lips to keep from laughing again, Andrew nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. And are you sure you went through medical school? Or did you just read the wall in the boys’ toilet?”

  Brian punched his arm and wriggled free until he could roll over and fetch his phone from his back pocket.

  Andrew stared at the arse on display, nicely defined by the way Brian’s black dress pants fell around his cheeks, and thought about dick in bum banging. His cock, already on high alert for duty, thickened at the idea. He’d thought about it, mostly while Brian’s dick had been in his mouth the day before. Brian had been spread out for him, so inviting and willing and the way he’d been grinding on Andrew’s cock had flipped a switch in his head from low to high. It had given him the drive and courage to give him a blowjob and to desire more.

  “Here we go,” Brian muttered, still on his belly and hanging over the side of the couch, flicking through his phone. “I was talking with a collector at work today while he was taking my blood and, well, he’s gay. At least he’s engaged to his boyfriend, so gay or bi or pan. We didn’t get into that. Anyway, he suggested we watch some gay porn.”

  Andrew gaped. “We? You told him about us?”

  “In vague terms. I was doing research and he needed to know there was someone else in the picture otherwise it would have just been creepy.”

  Unsure if he should be upset or amused, Andrew asked, “Research?”

  Brian’s cheeks pinked up again. “Yeah. I wanted the first time I blew you to be good.”

  “Does that mean I wasn’t good?”

  “No!” Brian was up and on him in a flash, kissing his cheeks and nose and chin. “You were so good. You don’t need any lessons. But I was feeling a bit worried about not living up to your standards, so I got advice.” He sat back on his heels and frowned. “Was that okay?”

  One thing Andrew, or anyone, had never been able to do was convince Brian he was more than intelligent enough for his chosen profession. No matter his exam results or overall grades, or the praise he got from his lecturers and mentors, he constantly believed he was about to crash and burn. His anxiety was always off the charts during exam periods and he’d been a bundle of nerves leading into each of his rotations.

  Andrew cupped Brian’s face and kissed him, soft and sweet. “Whatever you need to feel good about this. I’m sure you would have been awesome without, but this will be better because you feel better about it.”

  Brian sighed and leaned his forehead on Andrew’s. “I just don’t want to mess this up. Because it’s you.”

  That needed another kiss, and another, and then Andrew was on his back, Brian on top, and clothes were vanishing. Andrew tried to touch every part of Brian he could, needing to memorise and imprint it all on his brain so he wouldn’t forget a single moment.

  Then Brian was sliding down, licking and stroking and muttering about how hot Andrew’s body was as he went. His tongue delved into the grooves of the V of muscle pointing towards his cock and Andrew bucked at the heat it sent rolling through him. Brian’s hands roamed across his chest, playing with his nipples and tracing his abdominal ridges, his fingers walking up and down his ribs. He lapped at Andrew’s pleasure trail, humming as he did so and Andrew was breathless with anticipation, more than happy with the current state of affairs. He didn’t know what to do with his hands, so he gripped the back of the couch with one and pressed his other fist to his mouth, to keep from babbling Brian’s name and shouting how good he felt.

  All of his efforts failed when Brian curled a hand around his hard cock, lifted it off his belly and kissed the tip.

  “Oh shit. Yes. Fuck. Please. Yes.”

  Brian’s tongue laved the head of his cock, his fist gently pumping the base of the shaft. His lessons had certainly paid off because the sensations building in Andrew’s dick and ball were all heat and pleasure and increasing eagerness. The first press of Brian’s lips around him made him catch his breath and hold it, wanting nothing, not even breathing, to impinge on his first experience of this.

  Brian’s mouth was hot and wet, his lips a firm pressure around Andrew. He went slowly, swirling his tongue and when he was too far for that, pressed it to the underside of Andrew’s cock and slid down until he met the top of his fist. Said fist was still shuttling up and down the lower part of his dick and between it and Brian’s mouth, Andrew felt fully encased, enveloped by this man he loved.

  Brian sucked back, makin
g a low moaning noise as he popped off the end. “That’s intense.”

  Andrew barely managed a chuckle. “You’re telling me.”

  “Is it okay?”

  “Yah huh. More, please?”

  Wet lips curled up into a shy smile. “Only because you’re good. And I’m really liking this.”

  He stepped it up, pumping and sucking, flicking the tip of his tongue across Andrew’s leaking slit every other head bob. Andrew’s hand ended up on Brian’s head, just to feel the motion in a different way, to ground him before he flew off in a million different directions. But even that didn’t work for long and soon he was panting and shifting involuntarily.

  “Gonna come. Fuck. Oh fuck. Now.”

  His back arched and he thrust his cock up further as his orgasm shot load after load. Vaguely he heard Brian encouraging him, felt his hand pumping him like a piston. Milked and wrung out, Andrew dropped back to the couch and let out a long, slow groan. Intense ripples of excitement still rolled through him. When he could focus, Brian was still stroking his cock, watching intently.

  “Tell me when it gets too sensitive and I’ll stop.”

  There were splatters of come on Brian’s chest as well as on Andrew’s. Brian must have got his mouth off in time. His palm brushed the head of his softening cock and Andrew hissed at the sharp sensation.

  “That sounds like it.” Brian let him go and leaned over him, propped up on his hands and knees. “Do I get a passing grade?”

  Andrew pulled him down for a kiss. “Top of the class.”

  “How about this one?” Troy asked, twirling around. He had on a white tux with tails, a powder blue button down, and a top hat, which he tipped off his head, rolled down his arm and caught by the brim. “Tada!”

  “Bravo!” Brian clapped. “Now make a rabbit appear out of it.”

  James snorted. “Elle would kill me. I have a very specific set of parameters we have to keep to. White tails and top hats aren’t on the list.”

  “What does that woman know of fashion?” Troy demanded pompously.

  “More than you,” Andrew muttered as he came out of a dressing room. He held his arms up. “Pass muster?”

  “Yes,” James mused, checking over the very real list on his phone. “But it’s a bit dull.”

  A bit dull? Brian swallowed hard. The suit was rather basic and black, but it was fitted and so incredibly fine on Andrew’s body it was doing dirty things to Brian from across the small room.

  The past couple of weeks had done absolutely nothing to abate Brian’s newly awoken desire for his best friend, but even when they weren’t naked, Brian felt closer to Andrew than ever before. He wouldn’t have thought their friendship could be any better, but he’d been wrong.

  The simple act of telling each other about their days had somehow become vitally important to him and not just interesting and fun. Making sure Andrew had all his safety gear and a good lunch was now Brian’s main aim in the morning. Bitching about how the shower wasn’t big enough for the two of them was a new favourite topic. Making sure he and Schrody got equal lap time with Andrew was his evening goal.

  As per Sean’s advice, they’d started watching porn together and while Brian wasn’t certain if it was watching two guys go at each other that got him worked up and panting, or the thought of Andrew doing those thing to him, he loved the results of their research. The sex was only getting hotter and more addictive each time and a quick frot that morning was not tiding Brian over as he watched Andrew strip out of one suit in order to put on another.

  “Gotta piss,” he announced when Andrew was down to his underwear.

  Brian charged out of the back room at the wedding shop, ignoring James’s “You okay?” and straight into the customer toilets. In a stall, he pressed the heel of his palm against his hard cock and thought about blood and guts and grandmothers and sharks.

  Okay, springing a fucking red wood in public just because he saw his friend mostly naked was not a great part of this new existence. But oh god, he wouldn’t trade that for not knowing how that body felt when it pushed him into the mattress, their cocks rubbing together, Andrew’s powerful thighs driving them to amazing orgasms. And oh shit. He was closer to coming than calming down now.

  “Brian? You okay?”

  Thank heavens it was Andrew.

  “No.”

  Andrew pushed on the door to the stall. “Let me in.”

  Brian hastily unlocked the door and Andrew came in. It was a bloody tight fit with both of them, but Brian was plastered against him instantly. Andrew had thrown his own clothes back on and the jeans and T-shirt did nothing to ruin the images in Brian’s head of him in the suit.

  “I have a problem,” he hissed and thrust it into Andrew’s hip. “You caused it, you fix it.”

  Andrew groaned. “What do you want me to do? The guys know I’m in here with you. I can’t be gone too long.”

  Brian shook his head in frustration. “I reckon I could go in about twenty seconds. Just need your hand or mouth. Please. It’ll stop me getting hard again. I swear.”

  “I doubt that,” Andrew whispered but moved them around so he could sit on the toilet seat. He quickly undid Brian’s pants, released his thick cock, muttered, “I guess this is my new normal now,” and sucked him in.

  If he hadn’t been wound so tight and anxious, Brian would have probably come in that moment, but it took maybe forty seconds instead of twenty. Andrew had decided he liked swallowing, so he did, tucked Brian away and stood.

  “Okay now?”

  Clinging to the stall walls and finally able to breath, Brian just nodded.

  “Good.” Andrew kissed his temple and squeezed past him. “When you’re ready, James has a suit for you to try. I’ll tell them you had a bad bit of sushi or something.”

  “’Kay.”

  Andrew washed his mouth out in a sink then left. Brian got his breathing under control, made sure he hadn’t leaked noticeably, then returned to the others.

  “You sure you’re okay to try on clothes?” James asked, genuinely concerned. “We can do this another day if you’re not well.”

  “Nah, I’m good. Where’s my monkey suit?”

  Between them, they tried on at least a dozen suits and Brian managed to keep his libido cooled down by means of paying more attention to James and Troy. They were safe. They didn’t rev his engine. Objectively, they were prime specimens of mid-twenties athletic men and they rocked most of the suits on offer, but they were no Andrew. Both of them were very good friends, however, but even that didn’t do much more than make Brian smile fondly as Troy, wearing only his undies, leaped on James’s back and rode him around the room like a cowboy. It was, plain and simple, not sexy. But all Andrew had to do was smirk and Brian was a puddle, except for his dick.

  Why? Why Andrew and not James or Troy, if Brian’s criteria for having sex with someone was that they be friends first? Being a hunk helped, which was a criterion neither of his other mates failed to reach, so why?

  He still didn’t have an answer when they settled on dove grey suits with paisley patterned vests in shades of grey with hints of colour, and ties in dusky pink—Elle’s central colour in her “theme.”

  “It’s nipple colour,” Troy decided as he smoothed his tie down his chest.

  “Not all nipples are that colour,” James chastised. “Elle’s aren’t.”

  “I was talking about my nipples.” Troy opened his shirt to show one off. “See. Nipple colour.”

  “Are we sure he’s Carly’s twin?” Brian asked Andrew. “She’s smart and classy, and he’s comparing his nipple to a tie.”

  Andrew made a show of covering his ears. “I just don’t need to hear James talking about Elle’s nipples.”

  James and Troy shot them the finger in perfect sync.

  After they confirmed the suits for the wedding, they went to Broadbeach for lunch, then over the road to Pacific Fair to look for shoes. James’s game plan was to knock out as many of his wedding jo
bs in one day as he could. While Andrew began the quest for dress shoes that fit his wide feet, James dragged Brian aside.

  “Troy’s been hinting at the bach party. What’s the plan?”

  Brian and Troy had been helping Andrew brainstorm the bachelor party and they were pretty close to having a brilliant day sorted. Troy had also started a campaign of misinformation for the groom-to-be.

  “Don’t believe a word Troy says,” Brian said sagely.

  “Believe me, I don’t want to.” James looked honestly concerned. “He said something about staying overnight in a hotel at Burleigh Heads because of ‘an early start.’ The only thing you do early at Burleigh is surfing. Dude, I’m in the water for my job.” He was almost whining. “I don’t wanna surf for my bach party.”

  “But you love surfing.”

  “Yeah, I know, but . . .” He shook his head. “Then he said something about putting our thinking caps on and that we had to be ready to ‘escape.’ An escape room? Really? The only cap I want to put on is one with the two Bundy and coke cans on the sides and straws that come down to my mouth.”

  Brian shrugged. “You told Andrew you wanted something really different for your party. Who else does an escape room for a bucks night?”

  “People who aren’t me? Come on. Tell me Troy’s full of shit.”

  “Generally, yes, Troy is full of shit.”

  James took a step back from him. “Generally?”

  “Look, it’ll be fun! There will be drinks at the surf club before the escape room. You’ll be escaping under the influence.” He made it sound as exciting as he could. Which wasn’t a lot, judging by James’s frown.

  “And this is what Andrew planned?” His annoyed frown became a worried one. “Is he okay? He’s not . . . backsliding into how he was before?”

  Brian went from teasing to pissed off in two seconds flat, but he kept his expression neutral and his tone calm. “He’s fine. Better than fine, okay? And the last fucking thing he needs is people constantly questioning his state of mental health.” Simone and Elle’s comments to him about Andrew were still smouldering away in the back of his head as well. “You’re the one who badgered him into being your best man, and he’s doing what he thinks is right, okay?”