Construction Man

Pulling into the motel parking lot, I immediately noticed that the lot to the north had a building going up. That lot had been empty since I was a kid and living about ten blocks from here. I parked and went inside. Joe Taylor was behind the desk; he got up, and we hugged. Friends since fourth grade, Joe had taken over the motel from his grandparents. He also built a Motel 6 near the interstate, and it wasn’t one of those crappy ones. He knew how to take care of a motel, even if it was a low-cost one.

Joe and I had long ago argued about discounting my stay. Even though I stayed here quite often because of its proximity to the airport, it was his livelihood, and I insisted on paying the standard rate. Joe was the first person to know about my sexuality. We were in middle school, and he kept talking about Donna, the girl he eventually married. Although I was listening intently, he stopped and said, “You’re not interested in girls, are you, Aaron?”

“Not yet,” I replied.

“Not ever,” he said.

I remember trying to hold back tears, fearful that he knew the truth I was trying to keep hidden. He put his arm around me. “You’re my best friend; promise me you’ll always be safe; those videos in PE class are scary. I want you around forever.”

I nodded, and a few tears fell.

“Having emotions doesn’t make you a pussy,” he told me, and then he smiled really big.

I hugged him and sobbed all the fears away. Is it any wonder that I’ll stay here when my company will pay for a fancy hotel at the airport?

With my room key in my pocket, I drove to the side of the building and parked in front of my room. I hauled my luggage from the trunk of the car, and as I closed the trunk, I noticed a man in a hard hat not too far from the fence separating the properties. He was standing in the shade of a tree and talking on a cell phone. Scraggy blond hair escaped the bottom edge of the hat. He had that desirable mesomorph build; I was surprised his jeans fit so tightly. I would have thought that someone in construction would want a little more freedom with his pants. His face was turned away, but I imagined it was roughly handsome and just as sexy as his tight ass. I sighed and went into my room just as my phone dinged a message.

Feeling a little tired and hungry, I dropped the luggage next to the air conditioner and checked the phone. “Crap. My flight for tomorrow morning had been canceled. I was rebooked for the four o’clock flight. I could have driven here tomorrow for a flight that late. I texted the office to let them know so someone could adjust my meetings. I slid the curtain to the side to watch the construction guy.

He was still on the phone, but he was facing my way. I’m not sure that he saw me. Part of me fantasized that he did see me and came over to my room. I stepped away from the window and shook my head. I didn’t need to get involved with someone so far from home, even if he was one hot, sexy man.

Dinner was on my mind, or it should have been. I tapped my pocket and felt my wallet. Making sure my room key was in the other pocket. I headed out. I had decided to get some chicken at Mother’s Fried Chicken. Joe and I used to get a couple of snack-packs and go on a hike when we were kids, and I had a hankering. As an adult, I always ordered a three-piece tender meal with fries and a Coke. I did the same tonight. Mother’s fries were the shoestring kind that I loved. I sat down with my order when I saw the construction man walk into the restaurant. I took a sip of my Coke and played with a french fry.

Within a few moments, he stood scanning the seats. I smiled and nodded. He walked to my booth and sat down on the other side. “My name’s Jim; I saw that we’re staying at the same motel.”

“I’m Aaron. You’re working on the building next door, right?”

“Come on, Aaron, you know I am. You saw me talking to the boss, giving him my end of day report. That’s when I saw you.”

“I wasn’t looking for confirmation.” I smiled. “Just working through the awkwardness of talking to a guy whose ass I was ogling less than 30 minutes ago.” I took a big bite of a tender.

“I don’t have a big ass,” he said in reply, and he took a bite.

We looked at one another, chewing our food.

“Maybe it’s not big, but it’s muscular.” I took another bite.

“That’s from all the lifting from work. Now that I’m a foreman, I don’t do as much of that.” He paused. “I’m not sure why I told you that; it’s not like it would impress a guy like you.” He looked down at the table and stuffed a fry into his mouth.

“A guy like me? I’m just a regular guy,” I insisted.

He picked up another tender and shook it toward me. “Guys like you with your college education, nice clothes, and fancy cars…”

“It’s a company car.”

He shook his head. With a lowered voice, he continued. “You guys use guys like me for fun. You fuck us or get fucked by us, and then you move on. Not that there’s something wrong with having fun. Hell, you might even have a wife and kids at home, and that’s the only fun you ever get.

“And like I said, I’m not against having fun. I used to go to the gay bars near campus and pick up a skinny freshman looking to ride his first pole. I’ll admit going through several value packs of condoms just with guys who live in dorm rooms.”

“And guys like me?” I asked as I took my last tender in hand.

“Even more important to play safe. You never know about guys like you.”

“Sounds to me like guys like me, especially this guy, is pretty much like a guy like you.” I saw an eyebrow shoot up. “You see, I played around with the guys while in college. Having fun at first, but then realizing I wanted more but never finding it. Then I was in the real world, occasionally meeting someone who turned into a hook-up rather than a long-term. And, as for hook-ups, which I will admit I had when I was horny, never ended up being more than that.”

His stoic look never changed. “What do you want from me, then?”

“Shouldn’t I be the one who asks that? You followed me in here.” I saw his eyes glance down to the table before looking up again into mine. “But I’ll answer that. When I saw you standing under that tree, my dick got stiff. I thought about some fun between the sheets, but I thought about how far this was from my home, and I figured a guy as good looking as you wouldn’t be interested in me anyway.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re really hot, why would I want to hook up with you?”

“Is that what we’re going to do then? Go back to my room and fuck? I thought you wanted more?” I waited to see what he said, but he only wiped his mouth with his napkin and continued to look at me. “I know that I want more.”

He stood up and gathered his trash. He walked to the door and threw it away. He walked out the door. As I saw his ass go through the door, I thought of his handsome face. I bet it would have been a great view as I fucked him or he fucked me, but afterward, I’d still be as empty as I am now. As empty as I’ll always be, I wondered.

There was static on a speaker in the kitchen as someone began talking from the drive-thru. The door to the restaurant opened, and Jim came back in. He walked over to the table. He pointed his finger at me. “Fuck you. Fuck you for making me think that you’re different, and fuck me for being attracted to you.”

I smiled and stood up. “Are you worth the risk?”

“Damn straight, I’m worth it.”

“Well so am I,” I told him.

“Walk me back to the motel, why don’t ya.”

On the way back, I found out that he was from Longview, hence that cute East Texas accent, and while he had a house there, he traveled around building Taco Bell restaurants. He had a brief relationship with the owner of a roofing company when he was twenty-four. It ended when he tried to prevent the man’s driving home after having too much to drink. Jim said he was slapped, punched, and then pushed into the road in front of traffic. He escaped being hit by a car, and after that, he never spoke to the man again. At twenty-eight, it sounded as though his last four years averaged one hook-up per year, a far cry from his late teens and early twenties.

I told him that I had just turned thirty the previous month, and I had never had a relationship last longer than four months. My home base was Bryan, but I traveled a lot for work as the head educator for a contact management software package. I let Jim know that I didn’t want to treat him like a piece of meat. “We’re more than a body with a dick and a man hole.”

At that point, he reached over and held my hand. It gave me a warm feeling inside. We walked the rest of the way in silence. When we reached his door, he let go of my hand to unlock it.

“I don’t want to ruin anything,” Jim said to me. “I want to explore a real relationship, but I’m not sure what that means.” He stood there with his hand on the doorknob. He took a deep breath. “I can’t do this.” With that, he went quickly into the room and closed the door.

I stood there for a moment before going back to my room. I sat under the covers with just my underwear on. The room was dark. I thought about going to the gay bar near campus and maybe finding someone, but I was angry, and I didn’t want to fuck someone in anger. I also didn’t want to get fucked because I was feeling sorry for myself. So I just sat there.

‘Screw this!’ I thought. ‘Why am I sitting here thinking about some guy I barely know? He doesn’t want me.’ Then I imagined what it would be like to have him next to me, that strong, muscular body against me. What would it be like to kiss him, to have him kiss me? Would my kiss make him hard, or would he be soft until my mouth wrapped around his shaft and warmed it? Was he the kind of man who would run his tongue over my sphincter and make it quiver before he slid his shaft inside me? Would he take me from behind, pushing me down as he thrust inside? Or would he want to look into my eyes as I felt him enter me?

What if he wanted to lie beneath me and help me enter him? Would we promise to remain faithful and get tested so that he could feel me fill him with my seed? I would certainly make that promise so I could feel him enter me raw and unload into me.

But he was too scared to allow that. Dammit. I’d be willing to wait and see how things worked for us. Why wouldn’t he?

I wiped a tear away as I realized the depths of my loneliness. I wasn’t this lonely before I met him, and we only talked for less than an hour. But it felt so good to hold his hand.

Had I just undergone a mind-fuck? He certainly didn’t do it intentionally. He was going through the same struggle. Or was I being too nice? Maybe he was just a guy with a dick and a man-cunt. Just a fucking asshole who didn’t deserve my time of day. I just wanted to get in my car and drive back home.

And then there was a light rapping at my door.

‘That better not be him,’ I thought. ‘If he is fucking knocking at my door, I’m going to fucking knock him into next week.’ I opened the door.

Jim stood there. T-shirt, cargo pants, bare feet. “I am a fucking idiot. I’m sorry. I’m so afraid of failing that I…”

“Come in.” I closed the door behind him. He was so cute in his Jaws t-shirt. I was trying to decide what to say to him.”

“Your chest hair; it’s straight and flat. That’s so sexy.”

I pulled him to me and held him in a hug. “Jim, it’s obvious we find each other attractive. Now we need to find out if there’s more than that. Are we two people who might be able to forge a relationship?”

“I know,” he said. “I’ve been sitting in my room pissed at myself for closing the door in your face. I don’t want a one-night stand. But I’m so worried about only having one night with you that it’s keeping me from having any nights with you.”

“I hear you telling me that you want more than one night.”

“I do. But when I try to figure out why, all I come up with is that you are so fucking sexy. There’s got to be more than that.” Jim looked away from me. “When I look at you right now and see you practically naked. All I can think about is how much I want you to fuck me. I just want to pull my clothes off and let you put your dick in me.”

“What were you thinking when we held hands on the way back to the motel?” He looked back at me.

“I wanted to feel you nuzzle up to me. I wanted to kiss you, and I wanted to keep walking. And...oh, fuck me, I imagined the two of us walking with a kid who wanted to hold your hand then mine. A kid who belonged to both of us.”

“That sounds nice.”

“But I’ve just met you. It’s too weird to think about having a kid together, don’t you think?”

“Some people believe in love at first sight. I think that seeing us with a family means you’re seeing something for us, a future for us. People who aren’t gay date each other to see if they want to be together and have a family. How do they know if a person is worth dating?”

“The same way we do, I suppose. Something inside them tells them so,” Jim smiled. “I guess this is you and me right now, and maybe someday, it’ll be us.”

“Yeah. I think I’d feel blessed if there’s an ‘us.’ Something tells me you’d be a great husband. I think I would, too.”

“Do you want to go on a date tomorrow? I’m only working half-day.”

“Do you want to take me to the airport tomorrow and give me a kiss good-bye?”

“You’re leaving? Already?”

“Not forever. Will you trust me that I’m coming back?”

“Of course. I’m not a pussy you know. Real men have emotions.”

I rushed over to him and kissed him. “That’s what my friend Joe said when he told me I was gay.”

“What?” Jim tilted his head. “He told you?”

“Well, that’s how he tells it, and I let him. He told me one day that he knew I was and that he loved me anyway.” I started to tear up. “I had wanted to tell him, but I was afraid. And when he told me he knew, I started to cry. Then I was afraid he’d think I was weak, but he said that having emotions didn’t make a guy a pussy.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“He is. He runs this motel. He’s the Joe at the front desk. That’s why I stay here when I’m in town.”

“And that’s the reason you were here when I was here.”

We both stopped talking and thought about what that might mean. Some people think everything is random; I think there’s a reason behind what happens, be it pain or happiness.

Jim looked at me and smiled. “This is going to work.” He nodded. “It is. With my doubts and craziness and finally realizing that you are right, we need to try because there is something more here. We were meant to meet. Even if we aren’t meant to last forever, which I don’t believe now, we will make each other and ourselves stronger through the attempt.” Jim moved his hands to my ears and kissed me. We kept kissing; our mouths, our tongues, our cheeks, our chins, and our ears were involved in the erotic oral play. We finally stopped to catch our breaths.

Jim leaned forward and touched his forehead to mine. “Will you fuck me slowly and deeply before we fall asleep tonight?”

“Of course I will,” I smiled. “And will you fuck me slowly and deeply?”

He laughed. “I’ll try, but your so damn sexy, I may end up fucking your brains out.”

“I’ll risk it.”

Will Jim spend the night? Will they find out they're sexually incompatible? Will Jim take Aaron to the airport? And will they kiss in public?

The answer to these questions and more on the next episode of "Construction Man".