Tony had a crush on this guy at work. Mark was a confident, dominant, and out bisexual guy. He had carefully tousled black hair above blue eyes. The girls at the office fawned over him, and he'd been with many of them. The gay guys at the office were jealous of him because he was so fit without having to work out. He'd been with many of them, too. Tony was closeted and fantasized about Mark all the time, but he couldn't bring himself to do more than make small talk with him.
One day at the copier, Mark mentioned he was tired because he spent all night at the 501. "That's a great place," he said. "Have you ever been?"
Tony blushed, knowing that to admit he'd been to the gay fetish bar would be admitting that he was gay, or at least curious. But he assumed that Mark already knew, so to deny it would be a shy step back into the closet. "Once or twice," he mumbled.
"You have? You should hit me up next time and we can go together." Mark gave him a pat on the back that was much too close to his rear end. Extremely flustered now, Tony grabbed his copies and pointed himself toward his desk. "Sure," he said, scurrying away.
It was Friday after Tony's embarrassing run-in with Mark, and Tony was looking forward to going home and relaxing in front of the TV. Maybe he would search on Craigslist's Casual Encounters and imagine meeting one of those guys for a night. It was always a fun segue into watching porn, where he imagined one of the guys being real and there for him.
Someone called his name, and he turned to see Mark standing at his desk. Tony was seated, and couldn't help stealing a glance at the bulge in Mark's pants before meeting his eyes. "Tony, some friends and I are going out for drinks tonight. Want to come?"
Tony swallowed, thinking of the possibilities. They could have a few drinks, maybe have a rendezvous the bathroomβbut he mentioned friends. Surely there would be other guys vying for Mark's attention as well. Tony sighed. Well, at least he could be among the admirers. "Sure, sounds like fun."
And he did end up having fun, despite the crowd. Some of the men he knew well enough from work to discuss some projects or common interests. After an hour and a few drinks, Tony was able to stop worrying about his secret love. The after party was at Mark's house, and he was a great host and bartender. Tony knew he was drinking a little too much, but he could always call a cab if he needed to. Eventually things started winding down, but just as Tony started judging his sobriety, Mark called him over.
"I heard you speak some Russian," he said.
"Yes, I studied it in college." Mark waved him toward the bar and pulled a beer mug from his collection.
"This one has Russian on it, right? What's the alphabet?"
"Cyrillic." Behind him, Tony heard some of the others saying their farewells, and Mark waved to them.
"What's it say?"