Author's Note:
I always make an effort to make these Ben, Ira, and Corey entries enjoyable without reading anything else. This is the fourth story on their particular timeline. It should make sense alone, but, if you like these guys, I'd say this one is more fun with context.
Thanks for reading!
Corey
I was young when I moved to Nashville. I was fleeing a small, lonely life at the time, hoping the scene in Nashville would be more welcoming than my hometown. It was, to a point. I made some good enough friends and partied hard. It took me a few years, but I eventually realized I'd traded a small, lonely life for a big, lonely life.
One of those good enough friends called me after a few years of distant, social media connection. Ira Larsen had been one of the guys I saw at clubs. He was a charismatic partier back then with an undercurrent of sweetness to him. We had always gotten along great, so I happily accepted his lunch invitation to meet him and his boyfriend Ben Young while they were in town.
I had no idea that was going to be the most important day of my life. Even after I learned they were looking for a threesome and Ira had picked me out as a good person to ask, after we hooked up for a mind-blowing evening, after I stayed the night cuddled up between them like the most beloved little fucktoy, I still didn't really know what that meeting had meant.
I left the morning after with fluttery butterflies waking up in my guts. I wasn't planning to nurture that feeling. I'd slept with Ira before. I already knew he was going to have my head spinning with his overwhelming, caring, dominant nature. I was ready to shake that off. I didn't expect his surprising, sharp boyfriend Ben, the beautiful man who's hard shell melted into vulnerable, sweet softness when he was relaxed. The two of them together had ticked every box in my ever-conflicted mind. I wanted someone like Ira who would put me on my knees and make me beg just as much as I wanted a beautiful man like Ben to adore.
We hooked up off and on while my heart got twisted up in their relationship. A year into it, I confessed my feelings in an effort to avoid fucking up their perfection with my clinginess. I offered to walk away with no hard feelings despite the acid that ate my heart at that thought. They surprised me again, though. Ira and Ben were delighted to fold me in as a partner instead of a hookup.
Living so far away was harder after that. I was blissfully happy any time the three of us managed to steal some time together, but I was an EMT and working towards my paramedic certification. I was too busy to really dedicate as much time to them as I wanted to. I was lonely most of the time even as Ira and Ben made every effort to keep in constant contact with me.
It was one of those lonely nights. I was in my empty apartment, stretched out in my painfully cold and empty bed, thinking about how Ben and Ira must have been wrapped in each other's arms at that time of night, blissfully asleep in the soft, safe confines of their love. My heart ached to be there with them. That longing choked me there in the lonely dark.
I sighed and pulled out my phone to scroll through our group chat again. Ira tended to send us goofy observations and random memes throughout his days while Ben would respond with sarcasm and the rare, heartstopping selfie. It was like a camera wouldn't dare capture him as anything less than ethereal. I stopped on one picture of the two of them at Ben's coffee shop. Ben was leaning over the counter with an amused smile. Ira held his phone out in a way that made his jacked arms look impossibly delicious and flashed a big, cheesy grin for the camera.
"I miss you,"
I texted. I wasn't expecting a response that late at night, but my phone vibrated immediately with a reply from Ira.
"Can't sleep, sweet boy?"
"I'm lonely,"
I answered.
"Why are you awake?"
"I wasn't,"
he replied.
"Pick up the call."
A video call rang through before I could reply. I answered it to see Ira smirking at me with his hair in a wavy mess. He seemed to be in Ben's living room with just one of the lamps on, washing him in soft focus light like a glamor shot.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," I started, but Ira cut me off.
"Shhh, don't worry about it. Your texts override my do not disturb for a reason. Close your eyes and just relax," he murmured softly. "Turn off that light and get comfortable. I'll help you get to sleep. I'll tell you a story and you can just drift away, would you like that, my good boy?"
I shivered at his soft, deep voice and the caring we he took charge.
"Yes, sir," I whispered and followed his orders, flipping off my lamp and trying to find a comfortable spot in my cold bed. Once I was settled with the phone propped up next to me, Ira started talking again. He told me silly stories about his life, keeping his voice low and soft. I mumbled responses for a while, but I found myself slipping off before I realized it.
"Ira?" I interrupted him. He chuckled at my sleepy voice.
"Yes, pet?"
"I love you," I mumbled.
"I love you, too," he purred back at me. "Go to sleep now. You don't have to answer me. Just relax."
...
Ira
Ben squinted at his phone screen the next morning while we bustled around each other in his tiny bathroom to get ready for our days.
"Did you call Corey last night?" he asked. "I didn't know you were out of bed?"
"Yeah, he couldn't sleep," I answered. I raked texture paste through my hair and shook it to achieve my preferred stylistically messy look. "I told him stories for a while."
"Aw," Ben chuckled and kissed my cheek. "You remember when you used to do that for me in high school?"
Of course I remembered. Ben and I didn't date until much later in our lives, but I was wrapped around his fingers from the moment we met. Ben managed his anxiety fairly well by the time we were both mature enough to properly love each other, but he spun out in panic attacks often when we were young. He trusted me enough to call me when he needed help, so I made it my mission to learn how to talk him down. We spent hours on the phone in the middle of the night while I talked about nothing in particular or walked him through his coping strategies.
"I miss Corey," I said sadly. Ben sighed and wrapped his arms around me.
"Yeah, me too," he agreed. "We'll see him next weekend, though."
I brightened up at that. The next weekend was special. Our first anniversary as the three of us instead of just the two of us. Corey was going to come stay with us that weekend, anyway, but I had the extra draw of my roommate and sort of little sister Maggie performing in her first open mic since leaving the abusive asshole who had silenced her music years before. Maggie's actual brother Teddy and I were scheming to fill the bar with supporters for her that night, which was a perfect reason to get Corey to agree to a long weekend.
"Mags is going to play
Just Like Heaven
for him Thursday night," I told Ben happily. "I just had to bribe her a little."
We discussed the open mic and our plans for Corey for a while when the group chat beeped on both our phones.
