Dan and Brian lived upstairs from me. I had lived in the building for about two months when I started running into to them more frequently at the mailboxes in the lobby. The building had more than a few gay men and couples living there. While many of the other guys in the building were playfully flirty (and sometime more earnest than playful) Dan and Brian were at first, always polite but never much more. They were rare that way and maybe that was what made them intriguing.
They were incredibly sexy devils. Both had salt and pepper hair closely cropped and piercing eyes; Dan's were brown while Brian's were a cool shade of gray blue. While Dan looked about thirty-eight, I guessed that Brian was about forty-two. More or less the same height they both stood just above six feet tall. Clearly, both of them were in shape from the way they filled whatever clothing they had on when I bumped into them. After we found ourselves meeting at the mailboxes (sometimes I would bump in to one or the other, sometime I would see both after one of their bike rides) I started to say hello and after some seeming initial hesitation, they begin to reciprocate to the point we established a polite but limited repartee. I readily admit that I snuck a few looks at them at the mailboxes. Catching glimpses of Dan's sexy hairy chest through the opening of his button-down business shirts when he came back from work. Following the lines of the lean muscle of their backs when they came back from a workout with their T-shirts stuck to their bodies with sweat. What made them attractive was that they were men, and not the little boys that seem to populate the building and spill over into the surrounding neighborhood. They had the weathered look that comes from exercising outdoors rather than spending their time down the street at the gym doing endless hours on the elliptical machine that often felt like a staircase to nowhere.
After a few months our conversations started to get a little longer, bit by bit, even though my new work schedule made our run ins at the mailboxes less frequent. It got to the point that it felt like we were at least on friendly terms, catching up on how work was going, (I found out that Dan worked for a start-up tech company and Brian had been at the "green" non-profit he worked at since he first graduated college. Both careers seemed far more interesting than my job as an accountant at HR firm downtown.) and hearing about their weekend plans. Although I never got an invite for dinner or go out for drinks and I never extended one myself, I didn't think too much of it as I had been seeing a guy named Jonah I had met at the gym and he kept me occupied a number of evenings a week. The other nights I was too exhausted from work.
A few months into it, it was clear than things with Jonah were not going to work out. When Jonah finally broke it off after a few weeks of half heartedly trying to make time to hang out together, I wasn't left devastated by I was understandably disappointed. Once more, unlucky in love, I thought.
Back to my single guy routine, I wound up running into Dan and Brian more in the lobby. Seeing me particularly mopey, one day. Dan asked what was up.
"Just got dumped" I replied. "Feeling a little down."
"Oh, sorry to hear than, man," came the reply. "I know how tough break-ups can be." And with that Dan, absent mindedly sifted through his mail and head towards the elevator. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that the didn't chat me up more.
A week later, I bumped into Brian at the front door. After a quick hello, he mentioned that Dan had told him about my recent break-up.
"So what are you doing to get through it?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Well, are you doing any thing to keep busy? Keeping busy, exercise got me through a few rough break-ups."
"I guess I go to the gym." (It sounded so lame coming out of my mouth.)
"I'm talking about getting into the outdoors. Some fresh air might do you good."
Having grown up in the city and having spent my whole life enjoying the perks of urban living, I had no real idea of what he was talking about.
"Dan and I are heading out to Azores's National Park this weekend for a bike ride. We have an extra bike. Come with us." Brian offered.
It didn't sound all that fun to be honest, and I think it showed immediately on my face, because Brian broke out into a laugh.
"Oh, come on. Try something new. It will be a quick ride," he promised.
Sizing the situation up, I agreed. This was the first invite I had gotten to do any thing with them. And I had ridden a bike before. Couldn't be that hard. Hop on and pedal right? It sounded like it would be a quick jaunt at any rate...
Four hours after we headed out that Saturday morning, we made it back to the building. The sun had beat down on us the entire time. And while we had stopped for breaks to accommodate my pace, it was without a doubt the most strenuous thing I had ever done. I wasn't convinced I had fun—the one saving grace had been when Dan had stripped down to his waist to air out and I got my first full look at his magnificent torso, sweat glistening off the ringlets of fur that covered his front.
Back at the building, I think they saw the damage they had done, particularly watching the wobbliness in my legs as I got the bike they lent me through the door. I think half feeling sorry for me, they invited me up for dinner. "It's the least we can do." Dan said.
