After working out I would always hit the gym's jacuzzi--and usually Julio, Jerome and Tim did the same. We weren't really friends--just four guys who'd come to rely on each other for spotting and occasional assists. No one else nearby was built or experienced enough to trust that way. But after a while it became usual for us to arrive at the same time and finish our workouts with a good hot soak. Any talk centered around advice and comments on how we were doing in our routines. So it was a total 180 for me to suggest we break in the new cabin I'd recently rented in the hills outside the city.
Julio was the most private of all of us, saying little if anything, ever at all. Born in Brazil, he was tall and acted tough--the very embodiment of the strong, silent type.
"I can't. Brenda has plans for the weekend," he said without emotion. He looked at Tim as if passing the ball.
"Jeez, Todd, I dunno--Shiela says I gotta clean out the basement--her mother's coming." His rancher-boy face looked even younger now that his blond hair had been buzzed. Below that face was a gymnast-type body so muscular, no one would dream of taking advantage of his cornfed looks.
'Brenda'--'Shiela'--it was news to me these guys were even attached! It took my little cabin invite to discover even that much.
"Shit--my woman got plans--she always got plans for my black ass," Jerome's voice boomed against the tiled walls, his mammoth body dwarfing the tub. "--but here's the thing, brothas--I'm th' man--you feel me?--and I want t'go see Todd's place." He broke into a dazzling smile, his wide lips forming dimples in his high-cheekbone face. "So here's a question for you boys... "
Tim, Julio and I looked at him with utter surprise--it was the most Jerome had ever spoken, other than to comment on how sore his muscles felt.
"... are yo 'the man' with your chicks?"
Tim was already pink from the jacuzzi, but his face turned bright red. "Sure I am..." He didn't sound convincing though, and Jerome chuckled, deep and rich.
"Where is this place?" Julio bypassed Jerome's challenge. "Does it have running water?"
"It even has a hot tub--and a river beside it." I watched Julio's lady-killer, dark eyes become more interested. "And I've got a couple cases of Corona--and steaks, and... "
"... I'm not ruining my whole regimen on beer and steak," Julio flexed his massive, hairy chest and huge biceps.
"So??? Don't! But steak's protein, brotha'--pure protein... " Jerome's finger pointed right in his face.
"... you ever go fishing?" Tim sat up, his gigantic delts gleaming, his smooth, full-sized pecs a marble-like work of art.
I nodded. "There's trout--I think Rainbow."
"How big?"
I parted my hands, exaggerating for his benefit (I actually hadn't the faintest idea).
"Hmmmm--almost as big as my 'Black Beauty'," Jerome reached into the water, feeling up his Speedo, then chuckling.
Even Julio laughed at that. "OK--but not before eleven--I gotta give Brenda a big present," he felt up his own crotch, drawing more laughs.
********************************
It was around 3:00 when they arrived. Being late May, the sun had finally gotten hot enough to sit out on the raised, cedar deck.
So far the talk had centered around sports, and I was increasingly glad I'd gotten the beer. Without it, I pictured them just sitting there looking out at the woods and river.
"You want another, Julio?"
He killed his second and shrugged his huge shoulders. "Why not? I've already blown my carb intake for the whole week."
"Fuck it, man--you could use some fat on you," Jerome looked him over. "b'sides, with all that fur, who th' hell's gonna know?"
'God. Leave it to Jerome to say something like that', I thought to myself. All I needed was for them to get into some kind of argument.
"Fuck," Julio pawed his red tank top. "I've tried shaving it, but my skin's too tender." His rugged, dark, unshaven face looked momentarily vulnerable. "Brenda uses that cream shit, but... "
Tim polished off his second Corona. "Jesus--who'd want to shave a chest like that? --I sure wouldn't."
Julio kind of smiled. "Yeah? --she says I look like a sasquatch."
"Take it off--we'll tell you, man--" Jerome nodded over at him.
I wanted to go get them fresh beers, but this was getting interesting.
Julio peeled up his tight muscle shirt, his abs rippling as he went. Once off his dark-skinned body, he flexed his huge, hairy pecs, examining them critically.
"I'd give anything to have a chest like that," Tim eyed his masculine tits. "it's a regular forest!"
"When I see that? --I sees a real man, brotha--with a capital 'M'."
"No shit? --she wants me to at least trim it some," he ran his fingers through the black field of curls.
"It always takes a brotha t'appreciate a brotha--you feel me? --all chicks think about is how they look, man!"
Julio's dark mahogany physique had few equals--his pecs burst out below his bullneck like two halves of a melon, his dusky areolas the size of dollar coins--smack in the center--his rubbery nubs poking out from the curls.
"--you're right--I like having a hairy chest--it feels...I dunno...sexy, or somethin'..."