I was finally moving out from my place with my soon-to-be-ex-wife. It had been a slow boil over twenty years, but we had gotten to a place where we could no longer stand to be around one another: we couldn't even be in the same room for longer than five minutes. Unfortunately, at the same time, I had lost my job as well. AI or something, no longer needed, thanks for the work, blah blah blah. I had a good severance package, so I decided I just needed to get out, reset, and figure out what to do with the rest of my life.
Fortunately, when I shared all of this with my old university roommate, Tyler, he immediately suggested I move in with him.
"Don't worry about it, Bro. We've got plenty of places for you to stay. No charge. You can stay for as long as you need."
Because we didn't live in the same city, I hadn't seen Tyler in person in ages -- we stayed in touch mainly through social media or through phone calls. But his offer was appealing. I liked the idea of being in a new place, too. It would help me clear my head from all the bullshit and stress from the last few years. And so, I accepted.
When I saw him waving to me at the airport, I was a little shocked. Back in our dorm days, we had both been skinny guys surviving on ramen and cafeteria coffee. And I had seen his body transform over social media. But in person, it was even more impressive: he was jacked. Not so big that his arms couldn't rest against his sides, or that his muscles looked disproportionate. But big in a very powerful way. He had a thick brown beard and a bald head. His t-shirt hugged the contours of his pecs and stretched over his chest.
As someone who used to be in shape in his twenties and thirties but had found it hard to keep it together in his forties and had the gut to prove it, I felt a little embarrassed at how good he looked. But none of that mattered when I walked up to him.
"Come here, Bro!" And he pulled me into a hug.
His hug was warm and welcoming. I found it more soothing than I had expected -- I guess I was carrying a lot of bullshit on my shoulders from the breakup -- and we rocked a little as his arms enveloped around me.
He clapped me on my back.
"It's great to see you, Bro!" He pulled me back and I could see his white teeth in his huge smile. "You look amazing!"
"Thanks," I said. "I don't feel amazing. I wish I didn't have this belly."
"Oh Bro, it makes you look powerful, masculine. Look at your dark hair, your eyes -- you look hot!"
"Thanks," I said again, feeling sheepish, and feeling a warm wave of pleasure ripple through me. "I can't believe you are saying this when you look perfect. Your wife must be so happy about how good you look!"
Tyler smiled an odd smile.
"Well, yeah, we'll get to that." He picked up my bag. "Let's go back to my place."
We got to his car in the car park -- a black Escalade -- and we drove home. On the way, he gave me the full details of his situation: Him and his wife were not breaking up, but they were definitely going through a bad patch. She felt he didn't listen to her, or something.
"Long story short, I'm sleeping on the couch, which is where I was going to put you."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. I panicked a bit. Would I have to find a rental? A hotel room? What was I going to do? "I don't want to cause problems. I can find somewhere else."
"No, no," Tyler said. "It's not a problem. My son Brady is at college, and he doesn't come home much. And when he does, he's often at his girlfriend's. You can sleep in his bed."
"You sure?" I asked.
"Yeah," Tyler said. "I asked him. He's cool about it."
"There's nowhere else?"
"My daughter Gloria also has a room, and she's also away at college, but I don't think either of you would want you to crash in her bed."
"Okay," I said. I was feeling like an intruder now. "You sure?"
"I'm 100% positive!" Tyler said. "You can stay as long as you want." With his left hand on the steering wheel, he reached out to me with his right. His big hand grabbed my back and rubbed it.
"It's great to see you," he said. "We're going to have fun."
His smile looked like a million bucks.
*****
Tyler's house was nice. Not huge, but the rooms were comfortable and well-furnished. There were three bedrooms upstairs, and they were big. Brady's room shared a bathroom with his sister, and he had a king bed. The bedroom was a typical young guy's room: there were posters of some sexy ladies on the walls, some Star Wars stuff, and LED lights strung where the walls met the ceiling. It was clean except for the closet, which was so filled with junk I couldn't open it. But it was fine -- I figured I'd just live out of my suitcase.
At first, I struggled to find a routine. I wandered around Tyler's neighbourhood, watched TV, played on my phone. But I was bored. I didn't know what to do. I had been working every day for over twenty years, and I didn't know how to fill these enormous stretches of time I found in front of me every day.
It was also clear that Tyler's wife, Sharon, was not particularly happy with me being there. She was polite to my face, but that was it -- she never asked me a personal question, and when Tyler and I started talking, I could see her almost rolling her eyes.
Tyler came to the rescue again. One evening, after we'd eaten dinner, he asked me if I wanted to work out.
"Sure," I said. "But it's been ages. I'm going to cramp your style."
"No, come on," he said. "It'll make you feel better."
We went to the gym. It was fortunately pretty quiet, so we got to use the equipment we wanted, and I didn't feel so embarrassed. Tyler was a great teacher. He reminded me how to do some exercises and he taught me a few new ones. Even when I wanted to push myself, he told me not to.
"There's going to be time for you to push yourself. But you need to get back into the groove first. You don't want to injure yourself."
He also looked amazing. His body was in perfect shape. His legs were large and well-defined, his waist was tight, his arms huge. He wasn't afraid to show off his body, too. He wore small booty shorts and a tank top which he called a stringer. The tank barely obscured the top half of his torso, and the booty shorts showcased a huge bulge at the front.
I had never felt any attraction to guys before, but I definitely felt something when I watched him do a squat. The way his thick, round buttocks stretched the fabric of his shorts as he plunged close to the ground -- it was mesmerizing.
Tyler caught me staring.