Simply Red

 Max’s Perspective

It was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and we had gone back and forth about what to do for the holiday. Do we go to Minneapolis and spend it with my family? Should we stay in North Carolina and go to Daddy and BA’s? Gina was in the same quandary… home to Wisconsin with her mom or stay here with Dylan and us? Well, after a whole lot of conversations we decided that Brody and I would host Thanksgiving at our house. We invited my parents, Brody’s family, and Gina’s mom to join us. Gina’s mom accepted, but unfortunately, my grandmother had not been feeling well so my parents decided to stay home. She was doing okay but my mom didn’t want to leave just in case she needed her. I was sad they weren’t coming, but so freaking excited to be hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner.

It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and we had spent the weekend before cleaning the house from top to bottom, the place was flawless! School was closed Wednesday through Sunday, so I took the opportunity to get a jump on my first Thanksgiving dinner. We ordered a fresh turkey from a local farmer and I drove out there in the truck Wednesday morning to get it… it was freaking huge! A twenty pounder… more than enough to feed the seven of us and leave leftovers. I was going all out… five pounds of parmesan and onion mashed potatoes, five pounds of garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade cornbread, Southern style mac and cheese, corn, Stuffing with cranberries and sausage, two kinds of cranberry sauce (homemade, and gelled from the can the way Brody loved it), and apple pie made from our own apples. BA was making a couple of Pumpkin pies… other than that, it was all me.

I was in the kitchen prepping early Wednesday afternoon when Gina called me. “Hey, how big of a deal would it be to add two more guest for dinner? You said you were making enough to feed an army.”

“Not a big deal at all… who?” I yelled into the speaker phone on the counter as I continued to stir the cornbread batter.

“My mom knows a couple of people here in town with no place to go” she answered. 

“Yeah, not a problem. I got enough food and dishes.” I know this sounds corny, but I was so excited to use the dishes that the Westin/Nicholl’s clan gave us for our wedding. They had been sitting in the dining room built-in just waiting for the right occasion to come out. “Just bring ‘em along, the more the merrier.” 

“Cool. Mom’s flight doesn’t get in until tomorrow morning, Do you need some help cooking tonight?” Gina asked casually.

 “I just started to brine the turkey, now I’m making cornbread, and pies if you wanna come over and hang out I could use the company.” I said as I continued to stir. “We’re just gonna order pizza for dinner tonight. Why don’t you and Dylan come over later.”

“Sounds good. We’ll stop and pick up a couple of pizzas” Gina replied “How’s 6:30 work?”

“Perfect!” I replied before I hung up and went back to work. I had a few hours before Gina and Dylan were coming over, so I started to organize everything I needed to get done. I picked out cooking and/or serving dishes for everything, I set out all the ingredients for each dish and set them by the dish. I made notes on timing and temperature for each dish and planned out what order to do things in. I planned to prepare anything I could ahead of time to save work in the morning. I was a cooking machine and had completely lost track of time; before I knew it, Brody was home. 

“Damn it smells good in here” Brody said as he came up behind me and kissed my neck.

“Hi” I said as I turned to kiss him. “Gina and Dylan are coming over at 6:30 and bringing pizza” I told him.

“Yeah, I know. Dylan called me. Can I help you with anything?”

“Nah, I’ve got everything organized and Gina’s gonna help when she gets here” I replied as I kept working. “I want to get the table set tonight too” Then I thought “Hey, can you take Zoey out? He’s been sitting here waiting for me to drop something on the floor all day.”

“Yeah, just let me change and I’ll take care of him and Jimmy” he said as he ran upstairs to change. He was up there a long time, I heard him above me in Grammaw’s old room. When he came back down, I asked him what he was doing and he gave me some excuse about looking for an old sweater. I thought it was odd but I had already forgotten about it by the time he took Zoey outside.

I had the mixer on when the front door opened, I didn’t even hear them come in. I looked up from my Mixer to see Gina and Dylan standing there with three pizza boxes. “Hey guys” I said with a smile as I kept working… I was on a mission. “You brought three Pizzas? Damn.” I added.

Then another voice chimed in “Well it was a long drive and we’re hungry.” It was Zach, with Seth right behind him.

“OH MY GOD!!!!” I screamed with sheer holiday joy. “What are you guys doing here.”

“These are my two extra guests” Gina said with a huge grin.

Just then Brody and Zoey came in the backdoor. “You made it!” he exclaimed as he hugged our two surprise guests. I hadn’t even greeted them yet. I wiped my hands on the apron than took it off and went in for hugs.

Apparently, the guys had planned to go to Zach’s parents for the holiday because flights to Phoenix were too expensive, the only problem was that Zach didn’t tell his parents and they had booked a weekend getaway cruise, so the guys were just going to stay in St louis. When Gina found out, she talked them into driving to North Carolina to surprise me at last minute. They let Brody in on the surprise earlier in the day so he came home from work and cleaned up Grammaw’s room for them; they were staying with us until Sunday! It was the best surprise!!! I looked around the kitchen to make sure nothing needed my immediate attention, then decided to take a break and hang with my friends.

The guys put their backpacks up in Grammaw’s room, freshened up from the long ride, then we all went into the dining room to eat pizza and catch up. The house was filled with laughter and loud voices all talking over each other as the six of us recapped the last month of our lives. My run-in with Mimi Fargus was on the top of our list of topics. It had been about a month since it happened, and I didn’t talk much about it (if at all) at school because I just wanted it to be behind me, but here… in my home, amongst my friends, I was free to say what I really thought about the whole thing. It felt good to let out all the anger and frustration and just say what I thought, but Gina did most of the talking on the subject. She had several choice names for Mimi Fargus and didn’t hold back. 

No other work got done that night as we just hung out talking and drinking. I had planned on cooking all night but hanging with my friends was way better! Gina and Dylan left by 10:00, Gina had to pick up her mom at the airport a little before 8AM, and Dylan had to work at the docks for a couple of hours before he could enjoy the holiday. Brody and Zach were both tired and headed up to bed, and Seth wanted to see our baby, so me and Seth brought our cocktails into the barn and hung out with Jimmy, Zoey, and of course Witchy who wouldn’t leave Seth’s lap. We sat on hay bales and talked into the night about anything and everything. Seth was loving grad school and St. Louis. He said it was exactly like Milwaukee except a different baseball team and different breweries. He and Zach were making new friends and getting politically active. They had a trip to DC planned for the spring to lobby for LGBTQ rights and invited us to join them… I was definitely interested but needed to check the dates against the school’s Spring Break schedule, and of course talk to Brody about it. They were taking to their new life in St Louis like fish to water and I was happy for them. I told him about Darius and Tommy, and we updated each other on anything we knew about our other friends. Seth wasn’t a gossip, but after several drinks, then add the fact that we hadn’t seen each other since the wedding, we were dishin’ on everyone. The more we drank the more we gossiped and the closer we huddled together. By the end of the night, I was sitting on the cold barn floor, leaning against a hay bale with Zoey asleep next to me, and Seth lying perpendicular to me with his head on my lap, his feet flat on the ground and knees in the air with Witchy on his chest. It was like old times in the duplex, just hanging out. It was almost 1AM before we decided to head upstairs and join our partners in bed. 

“I can’t believe you guys are really here! This was the best fucking surprise EVER!”  I said as we walked from the barn to the house with Zoey trotting beside us, I was so damn happy. Witchy had taken to sleeping in the barn to keep an eye on Jimmy, so she stayed behind. She was so damn aloof, but it was clear she loved her two brothers.

“I can’t believe Zach forgot to tell his parents we were coming” Seth laughed. “But honestly, this is so much better! I love it out here, it’s so damn quiet, and look at all the stars!” He said looking towards the sky. Then added, “not to mention Zach’s mom is driving me nuts with the wedding planning.”

“Really?” I asked. “I thought she was handling everything.” 

“Oh, she is!” He said. “But we just wanted a little wedding, but she’s turning it into the social event of the year. I’m good with solo cups like you had… she’s renting Waterford Crystal. Shit like that.” We talked about it all the way into the house, then finished up the conversation in the living room over one more cocktail. “I like to bitch about it, but it’s really sweet of them” he continued, “She keeps saying that if Zach married a woman they would have gone all out on the wedding, so why hold back? She’s more excited than we are, frankly… I LOVED your wedding; it was so fun and personal. That’s what we want. I sent her hundreds of pics on your wedding day, but she didn’t get the hint.” We talked a little longer and Seth ended the conversation with “I am damn lucky to have a future mother in-law that is that excited about me joining the family… so I’ll shut up now” he said with a chuckle.

I nodded, “we’re both so damn lucky to have found such great guys with such accepting families. We have so much damn support. After the shit at school, I’ll never take that for granted again.” That was the last of the bitching, moaning, bullshitting, and gossiping for the evening. We finally hugged goodnight and went upstairs.

 Zoey and I went into our bedroom and he jumped up on the bed waking Brody just as I was slipping my naked body under the covers. “Hey baby, were ya’ sleeping?” I asked kissing him on the lips as I laid on my side and looked into his beautiful, sleepy eyes.

“You’re drunk” he said with a sleepy grin.

“Drunk and horny” I said giggling, then kissed him. He was half asleep, but my warm lips were the perfect wakeup call. I was naked and he was in his boxers, I reached down and fondled his warm, soft, sleeping snake; it slowly woke up ready to play. I kissed him hard and he reciprocated with a sleepy assault on my wanting lips.

 “I was asleep” he half-complained.

“Since when do you bitch about being woken up for sex?” I asked. I was in a mood… again. He just chuckled at me. “I’m gonna suck the cum outta you, just sit back and enjoy.”

Brody chuckled “day-um, y’all are dunk aint ya’?”

 I just chuckled as I snaked my way down the bed, still under the covers and found his hot, flaccid tool. I took it all the way in my mouth as I lubed it up with my throat slime. My mouth quickly became full as he started to grow, and I could feel the heat of his stiffening rod. Within just a few minutes he was rock hard as he lay on the bed flat with his hands behind his head while he looked at the ceiling and reaped the benefits of my alcohol-induced horniness. I moved my warm mouth up and down his beautiful cock, using my hand to stimulate him and bring him to the edge. He put his hands on the back of my head and pushed his hips up in an attempt to face fuck me… he was awake now.

I pushed his hand off my head and pulled my mouth off his manhood before pulling the covers off us. He was up on his elbows now and I looked up into his lust-filled eyes and said, “This is my show. Just lay back and enjoy.” Without losing eye-contact I went back to work on him, savoring every ripple and vein of his girthy pole. Damn, I loved sucking his cock for some reason… the taste, the texture, the weight of it, his scent, all of it and more! As I sucked him off, I could hear muffled moans and groans along with the distinctive sounds of Grammaw’s old bed squeaking through the old walls. Seth must’ve had the same idea I did. The thought of my two hot friends fucking just a few feet away on the other side of the wall just fueled my lust (like old times in the duplex when we’d hear all the guys fucking). I took him back down my throat and picked up my pace.

“I’m fucking close, Maxwell” Brody growled in a low voice through gritted teeth as he panted and grunted before rewarding me with shot after shot of his salty sweet seed, I swallowed every hot thick drop. When I was finished, I moved up for a kiss. I was drunk and tired, and before I could even get myself off, I fell asleep. It had to be about 2AM.

I had set my alarm for 6AM on Thanksgiving morning. I had a shitload of cooking to do since I abandoned my efforts last night to hang out with Seth, but I had zero regrets. I pulled on some sweats and a Tee and went down to the kitchen to get to work. I made some coffee hoping to counteract the effects of the booze and late night sex… I was one hurting unit that morning. Seth was the first one to come down, he mumbled a “good morning” donned an apron, poured himself a cup of joe, then went to work. Seth knew his way around a kitchen and just jumped in; he didn’t need instructions. We worked almost silently for about ten minutes, then I put some 90’s music on in the background. After about 45 minutes’ worth of work, we started to wake up and talk again. Having Seth and Zach there was such a great surprise, and the night before just catching up and bullshitting with one of my best friends was so much fun but hanging out in the kitchen cooking together was even better.

Seth was working on the side dishes, he finished the green bean casserole, had the mac and cheese ready to go in the crockpot, had the parmesan and onion potatoes in the casserole dish ready for the oven (I baked them to put a golden crust on top), he was cranking out food like a machine. I made the sausage, cranberry, and rosemary stuffing and was putting it into the turkey. Seth came up next to me and said, “Can I butt in, or do you have a plan?”

“Always open for suggestions” I said, not really knowing what to do with the turkey other than stuff it.

“Where do you keep the other spices?” He asked. I led him out to the enclosed porch off the kitchen. At the end of the season, I had dried a lot of the herbs from the herb garden, I had also potted a bunch of the stronger plants and made a little herb garden out on the porch. I handed Seth the pruning shears. “Holy shit, this is gonna be great!” He said excitedly as he cut off some parsley, thyme, rosemary, and sage. He put some in the bottom of the roasting pan with a cut up onion and then roughly chopped some more. “Don’t be stingy with the herbs and butter” he said as we slathered the bird with soft butter and covered it with herbs. It was a thing of beauty and I had to take some pics before we put it in the oven at about 8:30. We had most of the heavy lifting done before Zach and Brody came down in their boxers. 

Seth and I both stopped and stared as the two contrasting bodies entered the kitchen. Brody had a small, toned frame with a little dusting of auburn hair on his chest, and even his baggy boxers couldn’t conceal his ample package and perfect bubble ass. Zach had a muscular, athlete’s body that was smooth as a baby’s ass with little tufts of blond hair under his pits and peeking out from his waistband. I involuntarily let out a “damn” under my breath, Seth responded with “You got that right.” The other two guys laughed while Brody stretched, yawned, and scratched himself, and Zach showed of his body by flexing.

“Y’all were up late hootin’ with the owls last night, I’m surprised to see ya’ sorin’ with the eagles this mornin” Brody said as he grabbed a couple of mugs out of the cabinet and poured himself and Zach each a cup. “You woke me up.”

“Me too” Zach added.

“Yeah, and by the sounds coming through the wall you didn’t seem to be complaining” I said to Zach putting a shit eating grin on his face and making Brody laugh. “And you…” I said looking at my half-naked husband, “you got nothin’ to bitch about.” My shy husband turned beet red as he thought back to the late night blowjob he woke up to. 

“It smells freaking great in here” Zach said as he started rummaging around the fridge. “What’s for breakfast?” Seth moved in behind him to look in the refrigerator.

“There’s bacon and eggs in here, do you mind?” he asked me. 

“Not at all, help yourself to whatever you find. I’ll make toast” I offered as Zach and Brody sat down at the kitchen table and drank coffee while me and Seth did all the work. The four of us had a great breakfast together. God, I had been so wrapped up in my new life that I hadn’t realized how much I missed my old friends. “I am so happy you guys are here” I said again for the umpteenth time. Before we knew it, it was noon, everyone was supposed to start arriving around 2:00.

The four of us went upstairs to shower, Zach and Seth went to the spare bathroom and Brody and I took a shower together in the master bath. We soaped ourselves up and I had my head tilted back as I was rinsing off under the warm, cascading water when I felt Brody’s warm mouth on my wet, flaccid cock. I ran my hands through my hair to get the excess shampoo out, then moved my head to look down. Brody was on his knees looking up at me with my white, thick cock down his throat. Damn, the whole scene was so hot, my cock stiffened instantly. Brody held eye contact with me as his mouth and hand went up and down my stiff rod. He stroked, sucked, and pulled on my low hanging balls doing his best to coax the load out of me. Oh my god, he was hitting all the rights nerves and brought me to the point of no return in no time. I fought the desire to grab his head and skull fuck him, but instead I let the man who knew my body best do his thing… I didn’t regret it. Within minute I was moaning and pushing my hips forward warning him “I’m cumming.” I had my hands clasped behind my head as I stood on my tip toes and pushed the hot load from my balls up through my shaft and down his throat. Brody just kept stroking me with his twisting hand as he gulped and swallowed my spurting man juice. I shot so hard that I could feel a pulsing sensation as it worked its way up my shaft and shot deep into Brody’s hard working mouth.

 I finished shooting and Brody continued to drain every drop out of me as I panted and huffed under the water. Finally, he stood up and pulled my wet body into his for a cum-filled kiss. He pulled away from the kiss and said “I owed you for last night” with a grin on his cute face. We finished cleaning up, got dressed, then back to the kitchen.

Seth and Zach came down right behind us. I checked on the turkey in the oven and the Mac N’ Cheese in the crockpot, then pulled out one of Grammaw’s old tablecloths and spread it across the big table before I started to set it. Seth helped me while Zach followed Brody out to the barn to take care of Jimmy. Zoey ran out the door and led the way to his goat brother. Seth found one of Grammaw’s old three-tiered serving plates in one of the cabinets and filled it with leaves and gourds to make a centerpiece. I carefully placed all our brand new dishes on the table, then added the new silverware, and topped it off with Grammaw’s stemware. The final touch was a cloth napkin lovingly folded on each plate. The table was beautiful. Seth made some final touches while I checked on the food and put a couple of casserole dishes in the oven around the turkey. The turkey was golden brown and beautiful. I checked the temperature with the thermometer, then, after a second opinion from Seth, proclaimed it officially done and took it out of the oven. Seth finished up the garlic mashed potatoes as I filled the oven with the rest of our bounty.

“Holy shit,” Seth said. “You cook like me. You’ve got enough here to feed 30 people!” I laughed because he was right. I totally went overboard. We were both up, awake and over our hangovers by now and the conversation was lively as we worked to finish our feast. I was so glad he was there; this was my first Thanksgiving meal and I was totally winging it… Seth was a pro in the kitchen and taught me a lot that day.

Promptly at 2:00 the front door flew open and BA’s gravely voice yelled “Where’s my grandpuppy?”

“He’s out back with your grandkid!” I shouted back just as she entered the kitchen.

Daddy was several steps behind her yelling “Who belongs to the VW in the drive with the Missouri plates?” he pronounced Missouri as Miz-or-a with his deep southern twang.

When they both got to the kitchen I nodded to my friend and said “y’all remember Seth from the wedding, right?” They did and greeted him warmly, Daddy asked about Grammaw’s car, and BA wanted to know… and I quote… “what in the H-E-double fucking hockey sticks was he doin’ here.” Seth chuckled then told them the story of how they ended up road tripping at the last minute.

BA went out to the barn to greet the boys and the animals while daddy grabbed a beer from the fridge and planted his ass on the couch in the living room to watch football. His ass barely hit the cushion when the door opened again and Dylan, Gina, and her mom walked in. We all greeted each other and I reintroduced myself to Gina’s mom, I had met her a couple of times during college. Dylan grabbed a beer and joined Daddy in the living room while Gina and her mother gushed over the food.

“This place is beautiful, Max. Can I get a tour?” Gina’s mom asked.

I looked around the kitchen trying to assess if I could take a break or not when Seth chimed in with “Go, I got this.” I took Gina and her mom around the first floor, then upstairs (apologizing for the mess since we had unexpected guests staying over). Then we headed outside and I showed her where the gardens were, the apples trees, the fenced in pasture, then we ended up in the barn with Brody, Zach, and BA. The goat was bleating and Zoey was running around with Roscoe barking. Roscoe must’ve jumped out of the truck when Dylan arrived and ran back to play with his cousins, I didn’t even know he was with them. Gina’s mom was like a deer in the headlights standing in the middle of the barn with her high heels, manicured nails, and perfect make-up while the rest of us rednecks stood around in jeans and flannel playing with animals on Thanksgiving day. I’m sure she didn’t picture her quiet holiday with her daughter like this. As always. BA stepped up to make everyone feel at home by greeting Gina with a hug and introducing her mother to the gang. I left them all to hang out while I ran into the kitchen to check on everything. Seth greeted me with a smile, “We’re ready to carve the turkey and eat” he said with a casserole dish in his oven-mitt covered hands.

I pulled out the electric knife and went to work putting the meat neatly on a platter while Seth set all the other hot dishes up on the granite island. Man, Seth just had a talent for this. He garnished each dish by either sprinkling herbs on top or adding sprigs of parsley, or rosemary to the serving dish. It looked like a damn catered event. Seth went to the living room to get Daddy and Brody, and I yelled out the back door for the others. Everyone grabbed their plates from the dining room table and piled them high as they raved about how amazing everything looked and smelled.

We sat at the big table, and since Seth was the most religious… I take that back, let’s say the most spiritual of our group, I asked him to say the prayer. “Thank you for this incredible meal, but most importantly thank you for this collection of amazing people that make up our family.” Was all he said. BA belted out an “AMEN!” as she lifted her glass, the rest of the guests followed suit.

Oh my god, the room was alive with conversation and laughter as we all broke bread; thankful to be together.

 

To be continued…