Pt. 01: He tasted me.
Author's Note: This work is the first in an anthology of mostly unrelated or loosely related short erotica.
*****
We're over at his. One bedroom apartment. Total bachelor's pad meets gay man's wet dream. Incense burning, cheap furniture, expensive electronics. Black and white photos of sexy male models in various states of undress on the walls, coffee table book pile including The Joy of Gay Sex, a pump bottle full of expensive-looking lube on the rack under the glass top of the coffee table. We're only half paying attention to the movie on the huge flat screen. Some throwaway action flick he's streamed. Protagonist is hot enough, at least.
I'm sitting to his left on his black leather couch, slumped over, resting on my elbow. He's on his phone, cycling through memes. I've overdone it on the drinks. We're laughing over some stupid sex meme he's flashed me on his phone when he turns to me and says, "I need to get laid. Fuck this dry spell."
"How long?" I ask, draining my whiskey. In my defense, there wasn't much left in the glass besides ice. The glass clinks against the glass table when I return it. I set one foot on the table's edge and sit with my other foot pressing into my thigh, legs splayed open, hands in my lap.
"Three months." He grins sheepishly. I see a flash of embarrassment in the crinkle at the edges of his eyes. He looks at me, nodding slightly. It's obviously my turn.
"Got you beat: a year and three months." I realize my tone is a little too smug. This isn't necessarily something to be proud of. I'm too liquored up to care. I grin.
His almost-charcoal eyes widen. He scratches at the mocha stubble around his mouth. "No shit. Dunno how you do it. You're like a monk."
"Yeah, I don't think so. Monks don't fuck."
He slaps my arm and grins. "Monks definitely fuck. They're not supposed to fuck, but they get all horned up under those robes and reach for-"
Here, he paws at my crotch, shaking my dick playfully.
"Sexual harassment!" I shout and laugh.
He recoils and raises his hands just above his thick chestnut locks. "Sorry, sorry. Don't go saying I was making a pass at you. I know you're much too much a prude to mess around with a guy like me. Jeez."
My laugher dies away. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean, Bri?" He hates when people call him that, but I would say I'm allowed. I've called him that since we were in peewee soccer together.
He shrugs, smiling at me and then looking down at his faded red zip-up and fiddles with the zipper. "You never seem like you're interested in just getting out there and meeting people, Davey." I'd say I hate that nickname almost as much as he hates Bri, but I don't mind it when he uses it. "You always gotta be in a relationship, or else you gotta be desperately trying to find Mister Right. You miss out 'cause you won't just cut loose and see what's out there."
I lift both hands in self-defense. "Look, just because I'm not looking to fuck some rando on the apps doesn't mean I'm uptight."
"See? You act like there's nothing between going from long-term to long-term and fucking everything that moves. You're so uptight, man."
I cross my arms and sigh. "Maybe... I just don't know how to get out there and feel OK about it, you know. I get self-conscious."
"About sex?"
"Yeah. And my body." Here, my hand goes to my neck. "The apps make me feel like I'm getting sized up: height, weight, build... even the size of my dick."
"I don't remember there being a problem... there," he offers, helpfully. Bri leans back and sighs. He's got a grin on his face, eyes curved slightly in mischief. He thinks his teasing is funny, no doubt.
"Har har. Very funny. I'm trying to be serious."
"Maybe you just need to meet somebody you can experiment with."
"Experiment how?"
"Maybe a friend with bennies?"
"A fuck buddy?"
"If you wanna be crude about it."
"And the idea of a fuck buddy isn't crude?"
He rolls his eyes and pulls downward at his cheeks in consternation. I can't say whether it's mock or real. "Ugh. Never mind. You manage to take all the fun out of being gay."
"I didn't realize being gay was supposed to be some particular way to be fun."
"You know what I mean. There are a lot of available gay guys out there who aren't uptight about experimenting, having fun, feeling good. You, Davey, get to meet up with one, experiment, have fun-feel good, even. That can be part of the fun, don't you think?"
"I'm not..."
"Oh, you're 'not like that'?"