Wonder how things went for them last night?
Calling Clyde to come back in, he reentered the house and went to the kitchen to fix some coffee. Trying to organize his thoughts and focus on his to-do list, he leaned against the counter and absently scratched his nuts as the coffeemaker began to whirr and steam. The stimulation caused him to start to tent the flimsy flannel pajamas he was wearing. The doorbell rang. Without thinking, he made his way to the front door and opened it. There on the stoop stood Denny dressed in workout clothes and carrying a gym bag.
“Hey, man, sorry it’s so early, but I just needed to talk to—”
Nick saw Denny’s eyes travel down to the prominent bulge displayed by the soft material of the loungers.
“Uh…is this a bad time? Did I interrupt something?” Denny said with a suggestive grin.
Nick, realizing what had caught his new neighbor’s attention, blushed and made matters worse by trying to cover himself.
“No, oh, man, shit…sorry. No, come on in.”
“No apology needed,” Denny said with a smile. “Actually, that’s why I came over—to apologize.”
“Huh?” Nick said, still flustered. He stepped back from the door and held it open for Denny to enter. As he did, Clyde lumbered up to greet his guest, tail wagging.
“Hi, short stuff,” Denny offered in greeting, without bending to pet the dog.
“Come on in,” Nick said again, walking past him to the living room and clearing a spot for him to sit on the couch, while at the same time trying to adjust himself in his loungers. “Sorry things are still a mess. I’m not one to get organized too quick.”
Nick turned to catch Denny seemingly appraising his backside.
“I should loan you Jesse,” Denny quipped. “He’s such a neatness freak; he’d have this place organized in no time.”
Nick allowed his mind a momentary fantasy that went beyond being loaned Denny’s boyfriend to help him unpack boxes. He refocused. He didn’t want further embarrassment from his overactive penis. “I’d be glad to have any help I could get. Would you like a cup of coffee? I just made it, so it should be fresh.”
“Yeah, that’d be great. I get tired of the mud we serve on the planes. Black,” Denny added anticipating the next question.
“That’s good cuz I don’t have any milk or cream. Have to get to the store and load up on stuff.”
Nick walked into the kitchen, wondering if Denny was checking out his ass again. He knew how his loungers accentuated the curves. He took two U of M mugs from a box sitting on the table, filled them with steaming liquid and returned to the living room. He handed a mug to Denny and sat in the recliner opposite him, crossing his legs, just in case.
“Thanks,” his guest said as he sipped the hot coffee. “This is pretty good.” He held up the mug. “Ah, U of M.”
Nick nodded and sipped his own drink. “Yeah, I graduated from the U.”
“I didn’t go to U of M, but growing up in Detroit, I’m a big Wolverines fan. You?”
“Go, Blue,” Nick replied holding up his mug of coffee in salute.
Denny followed Nick’s example.
Nick took a quick moment to survey the man who sat opposite him. He wore a snug sleeveless tee with a Delta Airlines logo on the left breast. He filled it out well. His nipples were prominently displayed against the taut fabric. Black curls fringed the neck band. Taking a sip of coffee, Nick surreptitiously peeked over the rim, letting his eyes move down to the ample basket displayed in the tight running shorts as Denny sat with legs spread. On purpose? Nick wondered. His legs were thick and muscular, covered with black hair as well.
Being into body hair, Nick knew he could find this man very attractive, except that personality had a large amount to do with his sexual response to someone. Dennis Christopoulos would not rate high on the Nicholas Warden Personality Profile Scale.
After a sip or two of coffee, the visitor commented, “Like I said before, I came over to apologize. I came off like pretty much of a jerk last night, I guess.”
Nick wasn’t sure how to respond. Denny had been obnoxious, and Nick had been uncomfortable, but didn’t want to just bluntly agree with Denny’s assessment of his behavior.
“We all have our days,” Nick said finally. “I’d be pretty ticked if I came home to celebrate my anniversary and found some strange guy in the house with my partner.”
Denny’s expression changed ever so slightly at the word partner. Nick remembered how Jesse had said Denny was not comfortable with that moniker. He was about to say something about that when Denny raised his mug to his lips. Nick caught a sparkle from something on his right hand. He looked closer and saw a ring.
Denny noticed Nick react and looked down at the ring himself. He changed the mug to his left hand and held up his right, giving Nick a better view.
“Jesse’s anniversary present to me,” he said, turning his hand back to face him and spreading his fingers. “The guy’s an incurable romantic. Cute, isn’t it?”
Nick felt a wave of disappointment. He fought it off. “Hey, man, that’s really a nice-looking ring. Congratulations. That mean you guys gonna take the next step?”
“Hell, no!” Denny said with almost a sneer. Then he seemed to catch himself. “I mean, Jess and I are about as close as we can get already. We can’t get married in this state and so the ring is just a nice way of saying we’re close.”
Nick’s internal response was anger. How could this guy not know what a gem he had, not only on his finger, but in the man who had placed it there?
“Well, it’s a great way to show how much you care for someone,” Nick said, trying to keep his irritation from showing.
“I guess,” Denny said absently as he went back to sipping his coffee.
Nick felt awkward. He didn’t know what else to say. Relief swept over him when he heard a knock on the door.
“Excuse me,” he said to Denny. He set his mug down on a box and headed for the door. This time he checked his “condition” and looked through the peephole. It was Mrs. Kloswick holding a plate covered with a napkin.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath, realizing he couldn’t answer the door to the lady from next door half-naked.
“Be right there,” he called through the door and ran to the bedroom, rummaged through a pile of clothes, coming up with a terry robe. He raced back to the door past an amused looking Denny as he struggled to get the robe on.
Opening the door, he said, “Why, Mrs. Kloswick. How nice of you to drop over.” He glanced over his shoulder to the living room where Denny sat, still sipping his coffee.
“Good morning, Nicholas. I see you just got out of bed. I was up early and baked some of my special sticky buns, just for you, to welcome you to the community. I got the recipe from my niece Angela, you know. I’ll just put them in the kitchen for you. I know the way. All these units are alike.”
Mrs. Kloswick marched past him. Before Nick could say anything, she rounded the corner and stopped. Nick followed her and saw Denny stand as she entered the living room.
“Well, hello, Dennis,” Mrs. Kloswick said, with a raised eyebrow as she looked from one man to the other.
Nick, realizing what she might be thinking, broke in with, “Uh… Denny came over to…uh…say hi and have a cup of coffee. Um…would you like one? It’s fresh. We could all have one of your sticky buns with it?”
“That would be lovely, dear, but I am on my way to church, this being Sunday morning, as I’m sure you know. You just enjoy the buns.”
She proceeded into the kitchen and returned empty-handed.
“You really do need to get started on unpacking,” she said, surveying the room as she made her way to the door. “If Angela were here, she could give you a hand with that. She has an eye for decorating.
“Goodbye, Dennis,” she said over her shoulder. “Nice to see you again. Goodbye, Nicholas. Maybe you’d like to come to church with me sometime?”
“Um…ah…maybe,” was all Ni
ck could manage.
Denny said goodbye and burst out laughing as the door shut behind her.
Nick turned to Denny, who was still laughing. “Well, she has your life pretty well planned out, doesn’t she?”
“I guess,” Nick replied, feeling a bit like a tornado had just blown through the room.
“Mind if I grab one of the old lady’s buns.” Denny wrinkled his nose and grimaced. “Oh, now that’s a revolting thought,” he said with a put-on gag.
While Nick had to agree in principle, he felt oddly defensive of his elderly neighbor. “Sure, I don’t want to eat ’em all myself, then have to work ’em off.”
He turned and walked into the kitchen. Denny followed. “Hmmm, very nice,” he intoned.
“What? The buns?” Nick said, wondering what Denny could be admiring, since his kitchen was exactly the same as his own. “Yeah, those, too.” Denny said with a chuckle.
Nick, feeling uncomfortable, tried to ignore him.
He cleared off the table, got two plates out of the box of dishes he had set on the floor. He tore two sheets off a roll of paper towels to serve as napkins. Denny sat at the table and helped himself to a sticky bun.
“You sure don’t look like you have any trouble with your weight,” he said.
Nick refilled the coffee mugs and sat opposite him. “Thanks. I don’t usually, but I do have to work out regularly to keep it where I want it, and sweets are my downfall. Jesse and I had a good workout yesterday, though, so I guess a couple of these won’t do too much damage.”
Denny looked up from his coffee. “Just how much of yesterday did you share with my boyfriend?” he asked offhandedly.
Nick took a breath. How much? What should I say? He decided honesty was the best policy.
“We jogged in the morning, had lunch, went shopping and worked out.”
“And?” Denny said with almost a sneer.
Thought you came over to apologize for being a jerk. “And what? And nothing. I came over after to keep him company while he waited for you. Your guy is completely hung up on you.” Though I can’t see why. “You got nothin’ to worry about, man.”
Nick thought he saw a look of disappointment cross Denny’s face. What’s that all about?
“Sorry, again. I guess I get a bit paranoid with being gone so long and so often. The old lady makes a damn good sticky bun,” he said almost in the same tone and took a big bite. “Probably a good idea for Jesse to have someone to hang out with while I’m gone, now that I think of it. Guess it’d be better if you weren’t gay, but, hey, can’t have everything.”
Nick could barely keep up with Denny’s shifts in conversation.
Denny’s phone rang. He took a swallow of coffee to wash down the bite of pastry in his mouth and walked to the other room to get the phone out of his gym bag. Nick sat and nibbled his sticky bun and tried to process the mixed signals Denny had given.
“Hello?” Nick heard from the other room. He tried not to listen.
“Hi,” Denny repeated the greeting, as if recognizing his caller. “Look, I’m not alone. I told you last night I’d call when I knew something. Yeah. It’ll be a few days… Yeah, same here…Yes…I do, too. Look I really can’t talk… Okay… Yeah, I’ll get back to you soon. Okay…okay, I said. ’Bye.”
Nick tried to look like he hadn’t heard anything. He got up and took his plate to the sink and rinsed it off.
Denny walked back into the kitchen. “Sorry about that. I shoulda let it go to voicemail, but you never know when it’s gonna be the airline.”
“S’okay,” Nick responded. “Want some more coffee, another bun?”
“No, I’m on my way to the gym. You wanna come along and work off Mrs. K’s calories?”
“Thanks, but no. I got all this stuff to sort out and get put away. That’ll be my workout for the day.”
“Suit yourself,” Denny said, turning to walk back into the living room. He put his cup down on the coffee table. He picked up his gym bag and headed for the door. Nick followed him.
“Maybe another time. Thanks for the coffee and”—Denny raised an eyebrow—“the buns.” He emphasized the word and smiled. “They were great.”
Nick, a bit flustered, replied, “Yeah…sure. Have a good workout.”
Denny said goodbye and left. Nick stood for a minute, trying to wrap his thoughts around the encounter with his new neighbor. Something was strange about him, the way he talked about Jesse…and that phone call.
He looked down. There at his feet was Clyde. He had his dog bowl in his mouth.
“Oh, gosh, buddy, I’m sorry. I guess I forgot your breakfast.”
Nick put his cup down next to Denny’s, took the bowl out of the dog’s mouth, went back into the kitchen, rinsed the bowl in the sink, filled it with kibble from the Rubbermaid container and stood in front of the patient canine.
“Can you sing for your supper…even though it’s breakfast? Can you sing?”
The hound back threw his head and bayed like a lonesome timber wolf howling at the moon.
Nick laughed. “Good dog, Caruso.” He bent and placed the dish on the floor, picked up the water bowl, rinsed it out, filled it and replaced it as well.
He leaned against the sink, as he had earlier, while the appreciative dog devoured his food. He absently rubbed his abs as he tried to put his finger on what was bothering him about Denny’s references to Jesse and that phone call. His fingertips encountered the crusty residue still adorning his flat stomach.
“Holy shit!” He moaned. “I greeted that fucker at the door with a woody, and all the while I’m covered in cum. At least I had a God damn robe on when Mrs. K. came in.”
He looked down at Clyde, who was trying to lick a hole in the bottom of the bowl.
“If you can be patient just a little longer,” he said to the hound, “I’m gonna take a shower and then we can take a—” Nick stopped before uttering the magic word, which would transform his sedentary pet into a whirling dervish. As it was, Clyde almost got the idea and cocked his head to one side, then trotted to the cupboard door, where his leash was hanging.
“You’re too smart for your own good,” Nick said, bending to ruff the dog’s long, floppy ears.
He then went to the bathroom, where he remembered he had to clean up his errant stream from that morning. He dropped his loungers on the spot and made another mental note to find the cleaning supplies ASAP. He turned on the shower and let it warm up while he got his shaving tools out of the medicine cabinet.
At least I got that much organized.
Stepping into the warm spray, he let his mind drift as he lathered his body with hydrating body wash.
That phone call. Sounded to me like he was talking to someone he wasn’t happy about hearing from just then. Someone he was trying to hide.
Nick remembered a time when he was at home and his gay grad assistant friend had called in the middle of a family meal. Recalling how he had tried to tap dance around that conversation without saying anything incriminating reminded him of the way Denny had sounded.
Nick rinsed off the foam from the body wash and squeezed some shampoo into his palm. Rubbing it into his scalp, he turned his thoughts to Denny’s references to Jesse.
Does the jerk care about Jesse at all? He just seems so…so…uncommitted. Like this is all just some temporary thing.
Nick began to rinse the shampoo out of his hair.
Oh, God, Jesse. If I had a guy like that to come home to, a guy who gave me a ring, I’d have him on a plane to Iowa, Massachusetts or Canada as fast as I could.
As Nick stood under the spray, letting the shampoo get washed away by the streams of warm water, he pictured Jesse as he had the previous night: Jesse at the gym working out; Jesse in the shower; Jesse smiling at him across the room; laughing…talking. Almost before he realized what he was doing, he arched his back and shot volleys of thick, white, ropey cum all over the wall of his shower stall.
Panting, he brought himself back to reality.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, he washed off the wall, his hand and his still-hard cock.
Where is this goin’? Get a grip. He got out of the shower and dried himself, then started to shave.
A male voice calling from beyond the open door almost caused him to drop the razor.
“Hey, Nick, you home? Door was unlocked, so I let myself in. Nick?”
It was Jesse’s voice.
CHAPTER 6
Nick reached for a towel. Shelby came into the bathroom followed by Clyde. She jumped up on the naked man and crooned as if to say she had found him for her master.
“Shelby, where are you?” Jesse called. A second later, he appeared in the doorway. He stopped and smiled as he surveyed the scene. Shelby dropped to the floor, and Nick stood, half-shaved and naked in front of his new neighbor.
“Hi,” he said with a chuckle. “Came to see if you and Clyde wanted to go for a wa— A you-know-what? I’ll wait in the living room.” He smiled, glanced at Nick’s still-plumped dick and winked.
Nick laughed and shook his head. “Okay, be right out.” Jesse left.
This has been quite a morning, Nick thought.
Ten minutes later, shaved and dressed in shorts and a sleeveless
tee, he joined his guests in the front room. Jesse sat where Denny had been a half-hour earlier. “Sorry, man,” Jesse offered. “Didn’t mean to barge in on your privacy.”
“No worries,” Nick said. At least you didn’t catch me pounding my meat.
“You had company this morning?” Jesse asked, pointing at the two cups on the coffee table.
“Oh, yeah. Uh, Denny came over…to apologize.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No, really. He sounded sincere.” Nick noticed Jesse’s puzzled expression. “Something wrong?”
“No…I don’t think so. But he’s been doing some pretty out-ofcharacter things lately.”
“Like?”
“Well, last night he helped with the dishes and went with me to wa— You know with Shel.”
Second Thoughts Page 6
