Simply Red

Max’s Perspective

 We nailed our presentation on Thursday afternoon and finalized the contract for even more than the original budget. They cut us a check for the design fees, and a 50% deposit for the initial candle order. Plus, Jordan dangled the carrot of us doing the same thing for all his hotels… that would be an amazing game changer. Brody’s designs impressed the hell out of them all, and he went to meet with Kev and his boss on Friday morning to discuss some tweaks while I hung out at The Resort. Before I hit the spa area to lounge by the pool, I called the Fragrance Chemist to discuss scent quantities and timing, I called the custom container guy and gave them the greenlight to make the containers, then I got online and ordered enough wax and supplies to get me through the first phase of the rollout… including the commercial wax melter I had my eye on. It only took me about ten minutes to spend all the money they gave us, btu I had to be ready to hit the ground running when we got home. Next, I called Gina to share the news (and recruit her to help with production), then Seth to share the excitement… as always, he was excited for us. My little candle hobby was turning into an actual business.

I was hanging out down by the pool reading a book (naked of course) when Brody came back from his meeting. He texted me from the room and told me to come up, he was going to take me out to lunch. I wrapped the towel around me, went up to our room, and was greeted with a kiss and a squeeze of my groin from the man I loved. I asked him about the meeting as I got ready to go to lunch. He didn’t say too much other than it went okay. We got in the rental car and went to a little Mexican place in Old Town Scottsdale. Back home we ate mostly meat, potatoes, and chicken. Mexican was an awesome change. We ordered our fajitas and I asked Brody about his meeting again. “Did they have a lot of changes?” 

Brody let out a sigh and had kind of a blank look on his face as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “We didn’t talk about the project.” He said, I shot him a confused look. “They wanted to discuss this” he said pushing the folded paper across the table.

 “What is it?” I asked.

 “Read it” he said grinning now. It was a mother fucking job offer! The money was like double what we made together plus the bonuses and benefits were mind blowing.

 “Are you fucking serious?” I asked in a quiet tone of disbelief.

 “Yup. As a heart attack. I was totally shocked, Maxwell. These guys are a big deal and they want me. ME! This could freakin’ skyrocket my career” Brody responded in a tone that was kind of a mix of excitement and disbelief.

 “What are you gonna do?” I asked.

 “Maxwell” he said almost scolding me. “This aint a “me” decision, it’s a “we’ decision.” Then he paused and dropped the bomb. “We’d have to move to Phoenix.” My heart sunk. That hadn’t occurred to me until just then. Move? Leave North Carolina? Our family? BroMax Farm? I looked up at him, my face had to have reflected my thoughts. “There’s a guy retiring in a few months, so they gave us a couple of weeks to think about it. I told Kev I’d talk to you today and then go over to their place tomorrow for dinner so we can talk more.” Brody reached across the table and held my hand. I looked up and our eyes met “thoughts?” He asked.

 I had a million thoughts but no coherent words “I… I… I’m stunned. It’s so much fucking money, but what about the farm? What about the candle business? I gotta make all these candles! What about my job? What about Gina and Dylan, and Daddy, and BA, and…” I was babbling when Brody patted my hand.

“Hey. Stop worrying. I don’t hafta’ take it, we’ll weigh the options and decide together what’s best for us. Everythin’ else will fall into place” he said in a voice of reason. “How about we stop and just appreciate the great opportunities in front of us, Maxwell?”

 I smiled and found the strength to say, “I am so fucking proud of you. You deserve this!” And I meant it. His work was incredible and so was his presentation. Our sizzling plates came and we talked rationally as we ate. I asked, “Do you think your agency would counter with something similar?”

 “Well…” he said as he exhaled. “They could never match the money, but it’s not about the money. I have a good job, but these guys are offerin’ me a career opportunity. Honestly, they have some awesome national clients. As long as I stay where I’m at, I’ll be working on rinky-dink local accounts with clients who don’t give a shit about strategy and design and just want the logo bigger and a picture of their granddaughter in the damn ad for no reason” (he actually had a client that made him do that). “Kev’s clients challenge them to push the envelope and let them do great work. Most of ‘em are in the hospitality industry… they just picked up a major airline.” He was so animated as he told me about their clients and the work. Damn, I wanted this for him but I loved our life in North Carolina. I zoned out and my mind wondered as he talked; I got lost in my own thoughts. Yeah, I had felt a little insecure over the last couple of weeks because of the barn incident, and now we had a chance to move to a place that was more accepting, where I could feel safe again. We had friends in Phoenix, and this could really move Brody’s career forward and he freaking deserved it. I guess I could make candles anywhere… plus every market needed teachers. Right? I would have to get out of my contract with the school district, but… shit… were we really considering leaving our home? “Maxwell?” Brody said, I was in my own world and it sounded like he was far away, but he was sitting right across the table from me still holding my hand and shaking it. “Maxwell” He repeated. “What do you think?”

I looked up at him with a dazed expression, “About what?” I asked. “I was just thinking about all the things we’d have to do if you take the job.” He just smiled an understanding smile. He knew he just dropped a bomb and there was a lot to think about. 

“Well, could you live here? I really want to know what you think” Brody said.

 I took a deep breath and let out a very heavy sigh. “I think this one is on you” I said, “What I want from life is to be with you, I’m happy in North Carolina, but damn, you have earned this amazing opportunity and if this is what’s right for you, then I’m all in. I could be happy here too.”

 “But you already moved across the country for me once.”

 “No!” I retorted abruptly. “I moved across the country for US, and I’d do it again.”

 “What if I decide to rip our great life apart, move us across the country and I can’t do the damn job?” Brody asked, doubting himself.

 “Pure bullshit thought” I said with a smile. “First of all, it’s US who would be deciding to rip our great life apart, not just you. We’re in this together. Second, and most important… you can do fucking anything. You. Are. So. Goddam. Talented.” I held his hand and looked him directly in the eyes.  “Frankly, if it all goes to shit, we’ll figure it out together. No matter where we live, or what we do for a living, the you and me part of this doesn’t change. We’re in it together for life.” I truly meant that. No matter how the world around us morphed, we were BroMax. Brody and Maxwell together.

 He smiled wide, “we have a lot to think through and talk about. We don’t have to make a decision right now.” He said calmly.

 “No matter what, I am so damn proud of you” I said. It was a big deal that they recognized his talent and extended him an offer. He smiled a shy smile of pride. He was a humble man… one of the millions of things I loved about him. We finished lunch, got ice cream, and took a leisurely stroll around Old Town Scottsdale just taking it in. We picked up some of the free local real estate and gay life magazines that were sitting in racks around the area and thumbed through them as we walked. We found our way back to the rental car and then did touristy stuff. We visited the Desert Botanical Garden; it was beautiful but damn hot! Then we hit the Heard Museum and learned about local Native American history as we cooled off in the air conditioned building. Everything was so different from home. I was having weird random thoughts like ‘Would we be able to find a place with some land? Even if we did, could Jimmy survive in this heat?’ ‘would Zoey burn his paws on the hot ground?’ ‘would I have to adjust how I make and store the candles to accommodate the heat?’ ‘is there a farmer’s market here?’ ‘Could I even grow a garden in this weather and in the hard damn soil?’ My mind was so preoccupied. Before we knew it the sun was going down and it was time for dinner. Since we had a big lunch, we decided to just hit the Whataburger drive thru and take a drive. Brody found a road that led up the desert hills and found a beautiful spot that overlooked the valley. We passed Kev and Randy’s house along the way and I pointed it out to Brody.

 We got out of the car, sat on the hood, and ate our dinner as we looked down on the desert landscape in front of us, and the lights of the big city in the distance. “Day-um” Brody said as we took in the view. “We’re a long way from home.” He wasn’t wrong. It was beautiful but it was completely different world from the one we had built together. Could we really survive there? Would our life be richer and more fulfilling? In all honesty, since I moved to North Carolina… leaving there had never even crossed my mind, but now we had a decision to make. After we ate, I packed all our garbage into the Whataburger bag and threw it in the backseat of the car, then jumped back up onto the car. Brody was leaning against the windshield and I sat on the hood between his splayed legs and leaned against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me as we looked down on the desert. I felt safe in his arms again… it had been a couple of weeks since I felt that way. Brody was smaller in stature than me, but he was my protector. We talked quietly as we sat there discussing everything we loved about our life, what this new opportunity could mean to Brody’s career and to us, and what sacrifices we would need to make… could we really have it all? It seemed doubtful… something would have to give.

 “The stuff they work on here is awesome! I’ll never get to do work like that in North Carolina. Kev’s right, I’ll have to move on to move up or do this rinky-dink bullshit for the rest of my career” Brody aid with a sigh. “Damn, I wish they’d let me work remotely.”

 “Well, what about just getting an apartment or a condo here and going back in forth” I suggested, just spit balling and trying to combine the best of both worlds.

 “It’s a long flight. I’d spend all weekend on the damn plane and never get any time at home… plus between the cost of a second place and travel, we’d end up spendin’ all the extra cash” Brody responded. We’d probably still be ahead, but he was right. Plus, I sure as fuck didn’t want to spend 80% of my time without Brody. 

“Yeah, and we’d only get to see each for few hours every week… that would suck. Like when you first left Milwaukee.” Brody and I had a long distance relationship for over a year while I finished my final year of school… IT FUCKING SUCKED! We actually broke up for a couple of months… I don’t’ even remember why, it was over something stupid (And the reason I don’t remember is because it was my fucking fault. THAT much I remember). I don’t remember the fight, but I remember making up. That sweet little fuck flew from North Carolina to Milwaukee unannounced and showed up on my doorstep with an engagement ring. “Maxwell” he said, “enough of this crap, we know how this story ends, so Marry me already” and y’all know how that turned out.

 “I really want this job, Maxwell. But I love our life on BroMax Farm and don’t want to leave North Carolina” Brody said quietly as we sat under the stars in the desert night, then he yelled, “FUCK!” and it echoed through the valley making me chuckle.

 I wished I could find a way for him to have it all. He deserved it. “I know, babe. Maybe we can find a way” I whispered. He kissed the top of my head and we sat there in the hundred degree dry heat, breathing the desert air, and just taking it all in. About a half hour later we jumped off the hood, got into the rental and drove back to The Resort.  We parked the car and dumped our Whataburger trash in the can outside the lobby door, Jeff greeted us as we walked through the lobby and took the elevator up to our room.

 “Let’s get in the Jacuzzi” Brody said when we got into the room. The Resort had suites with big Jacuzzi tubs in the middle of living room, but we just had a regular room. However, there was a 2-man Jacuzzi in the bathroom.

 “Sounds like a plan” I said as I went into the bathroom to draw our bath. I dimmed the lights and put on some quiet music, then stripped down. Brody entered the room completely naked, the dim light reflecting off his tight little body. He tested the water with his toes, then lowered his body into the steaming Jacuzzi. I got in next and sat between his legs with my muscular back against his tight chest, just like we sat on the car hood earlier except for this time we were naked and didn’t talk, we just basked in being together. We soaked and relaxed wordlessly until we were both pruned up and the water went cold. “Let’s go to bed” I whispered, Brody didn’t need and engraved invitation. He kissed the top of my head, then we stood and got out of the tub and Brody dried my wet, naked body with one of the luxurious towels. He patted me down, lingering on my most sensitive and erogenous areas… he knew them well. When he finished, I returned the favor then we headed to the over-sized king bed and slipped under the warmth of the luxurious bedding. It was about 100 degrees out, but we were shivering from stepping out of the tub into the cold AC. 

We lie face-to-face holding each other and I gave Brody a tender kiss on the lips, he replied in-kind. It was a soft, tender moment between two lovers and I just savored it. All the stress, discussion, and decision making were completely out of my head… millions of miles away. The here and now was me and Brody. Nothing more. Nothing less. We wrapped our arms around each other as we kept kissing like lovers. Brody made a move and rolled on top of me, the entire weight of his tight little body resting on my muscular frame. He broke away from our kiss and moved down to my left nipple and gave it a little bite, then my right, then back up to my lips to continue our tender kiss as he was grinding his hard cock against mine. The night before we had fucked in the steam room, tonight we were making love in private. We had spent the day together talking about our life together and our future, and we both wanted to continue the intimacy.

 I reached down and rubbed our hard cocks together, slowly jacking us both off. I laid still as Brody dry humped into my hand, it felt so damn good to just be with my husband. “Did you bring lube?” he whispered in my ear.

 “Yeah, it’s in my backpack, in the side pocket” I whispered back. He jumped off the bed and went over to the chair and rummaged through my bag.

 “What’s this?” He asked with a smile in his voice.

 I propped myself up on my elbows and looked his way to see him holding up a little brown bottle of poppers. It had been sitting unopened in my drawer at home, and I saw it when I was packing so I threw it in with the tiny bottle of lube. I smiled and said, “I found that in my drawer so I tossed it in my bag, we haven’t used them in forever.” Brody responded with a smile as we walked back to the bed. He handed me the bottle and I fumbled with the wrapper while he lubed his fingers and started to play with my tight, pink hole. I grunted out a “fuuuuuucccckkkk” under my breath. I finally got the little brown open and it made a hiss. I took a hit from my left nostril then my right, then handed the bottle to Brody. He took a long hit from each nostril, then capped the bottle and set it on the nightstand as he continued to play with my hole inserting a second finger.

 “Gotdammit, Maxwell, your hole is so hot and tight.” Brody said quietly as he added more lube and tried to twirl a third finger into me. My face felt flush from the poppers and I pushed out, opening my hole for him. “Gotdamn” he said again with the most content look on his adorable face. I grabbed the backs of my thighs and pulled my legs to my chest giving him complete access. The poppers had cleared my mind and heightened the sensation of his exploration of my hole. I could feel his breath on by nuts as he leaned in close to watch his handy work, it felt A-fucking-MAZING!!! 

“Please fuck me” I whimpered and begged, realizing that we had gone from tender lovemaking to a dirty escape from our stress. I wanted to get fucked. Hard. “PLEASE?!” I begged in a desperate whisper as the poppers continued to tingle through me.

Brody sat on his knees between my legs, grabbed the little brown bottle from the nightstand and took another hit before handing it to me and lubing up his throbbing manhood. I took another hit, put the bottle down, grabbed the back of my thighs, then laid back and continued to beg. Brody moved into position, lined up his cock and pushed into me as our eyes locked. I let out a gasp as the spongy, purple head breached my hole. “Is that what y’all want?” Brody asked with a grumble in his voice and lust in his eyes.

 “Yes. Fucking YES!” I yelled with more desperation that before. “I fucking want it all!” My hands left my thighs and I wrapped my arms around him, digging my nails into the soft flesh of his back.

 “Ow, fuck” Brody grunted as he thrust deep into me with all his might. His balls slapped my ass and his cock bottomed out in my channel. A guttural scream of pleasure broke loose from deep down in my diaphragm.

 It felt so fucking good. “YES! “More. Harder” I yelled with several other words thrown in there somewhere. I was gone as the euphoric pleasure engulfed my entire being. Brody pulled all the way out, then pushed back in burying himself completely, his balls slapping against my ass again. He kept going, fucking me hard with long, hard thrusts. Goddammit my little man knew how to fuck. He rammed in and out of me for a good fifteen minutes hitting all the right spots. He was pounding my prostate over and over and the cum just suddenly started volleying out of my shaft splattering our sweaty bodied.

 “Holy fuck, Maxwell” Brody grunted with a laugh. “Y’all just shot your load everywhere. Gotdamn that was hot” He said as he leaned in for a kiss and his ass went into overtime pounding me hard and faster until he grunted into our kiss and shot his load deep inside me. He continued to fuck his warm cum into me. He kept going until he finally collapsed on top of me, our bodies a sweaty heap of cum and satisfaction. The room smelled like sweat, cum, and man-sex. We were catching our breath as my muscular body supported all of Brody’s weight once again. “Gotdamn, Maxwell” Brody panted.

 “No one else could ever make me feel that way” I said to Brody. “Damn, I love you.”

 “I love you so much, Maxwell.” Brody said.

 “No matter what we decide, we’re gonna be great” I said. Brody gave me a kiss and rolled off me, I rolled on my side with my back to him and he wrapped his arms around my gross body. We fell asleep spooning in our own aftermath. Our sex-capades were a needed escape from the heaviness of our looming decision.

I woke up early, like 5AM… but in all fairness I was still on NC time so my body thought it was 8AM. Brody was sitting in a leather chair in the corner of the room wearing nothing but his boxers. His legs were crossed on the chair and he was tapping away on his laptop. He looked so damn adorable wearing his readers. A combination of cute, nerdy, and hot. “Good morning sunshine” I said as I stretched and wiped the sleep out of my eyes. “What are you doing up?”

 “I couldn’t sleep, I’ve been up since 2AM” he said, “I made coffee, want some?” I just grunted, getting up to pour coffee sounded like a lot of work at that moment. “I’ve been online lookin’ at houses. I wanna see what our reality would look like.”

 “And…?” I asked not knowing if I wanted him to have found our dream house or totally fail. I had no clue what I wanted.

 “Well, we aint gonna recreate BroMax here, we’ll have to completely reinvent our world” He said as he continued to tap his keyboard and scroll. “The places with land have like one and a half to two acres at the most, and the outbuildings aint nothin’ fancy… and there aint a lot of ‘em.” He said jotting down a note on the little notepad The Resort left for us on the desk in the room. “I’ve been crunchin’ some numbers, and we’re gonna have to spend about double what we can get for BroMax to get anything with even a little land. And I’ll have to commute.”

 I finally rolled out of the luxurious bed and dragged my body over to Brody. I moved to the side of the chair, kissed him, and knelt on the floor next to him. He turned his computer to show me what he had found. “Damn, the land looks so different from home” I said. The lots weren’t lush and green, they seemed more like barren and brown. I started to wonder if Jimmy or the bees could even survive there.

 “I was thinking we could grab some breakfast, then drive out to a few of these places just to see” Brody said, still looking at the screen. “We aint got time to work with a real estate agent before we leave, so I thought we could just browse on our own today. I found this map at the front desk and plotted out a few places.” Then he said, “here, add to this” and handed me a handwritten list. “It’s all the shit we need to think about if we do this.” He had been up all night making a list of details and trying to organize his thoughts… that was usually more my thing than his.

 “Sounds good” I said. “Let’s go to Jordy’s café, you know Jordy, he’s Marc the cops husband.”

 Brody nodded “sounds good” he said still preoccupied. I looked at the long, thorough list he handed me and added several things to it, then I pulled out my laptop and started researching bees and goats to see if either could survive in Arizona (I concluded they both could but I’d have to make some adjustments). I also looked at the places we were going to drive by.

 It was about 8:00 when I finally spoke, “I’m taking a shower” I said as he went back to work “I’ll leave the bathroom door unlocked” I said teasing my husband. All I got was a grunt in response. I turned on the shower and brushed my teeth while the water warmed up. I looked at myself in the mirror, damn, my hair was getting long and curly again (like Brody’s). I jumped in the shower; the warm water felt good as it washed the remnants of sex off my body. Just as I was about to get out, Brody jumped in. I soaped him up, we rinsed off together, then dried ourselves off, pulled on some shorts, and headed out to the café. I couldn’t help but breathe in the scent of the desert as we got into our rental. It was almost 100 degrees out already but without the humidity, it was tolerable. We pulled into the parking lot of the café and walked inside.

 Jordy greeted us like any other customers, then did a double take when he realized who we were, “Max and Brody! I didn’t know you were in town.” I greeted him with a hug and told him about our project… he was vaguely aware of it. He pointed to a table and there sat Scotty, Brad and their two kids. “The table next to them is open” he said walking us towards them. All four were excited to see us, there were four open spots at their table for Kev and his family. Scotty and Brad stood up and moved our table up against theirs so we could all eat together. We talked for a while before the others showed up, we didn’t say a thing about the move and I wondered if these guys even knew about the offer.

“HEY!!” Kev yelled as they approached the table. “I’m glad you guys are here” he added when he saw me and Brody. The kids were excited to see each other (it was obvious they were all best buds), Kev and Randy sat down. After we all ordered, Kev asked, “So, what are you guys up to today? Anything fun?”

“Well…” Brody started “I mapped out some properties for us to check out just to get the lay of the land”

 “Properties?!” Brad said in surprise. “Are you guys thinking about moving out here?” Kev just smiled at us and shrugged, it was clear he hadn’t told Scotty and Brad about the offer.

 “Um…” Brody continued. “I um got a job offer from an advertising agency in town.”

 Scotty and Brad looked over at Kevin, “WHAT?” Scotty said. “You made him an offer and didn’t tell us?”

 Kev shrugged “I never tell you when I recruit new people, why should this be different?” He said with a grin and a shrug.

 Scotty threw some sugar packets at his brother then asked Brody excitedly, “So, did you accept? Are you guys moving here?”

 “It’s a great offer” Brody said.

 “And a huge decision” I added making it clear we hadn’t committed yet.

 Kev and I hadn’t talked since he made Brody the offer. “How do you feel about all this?” He asked me.

 I just shrugged “I have no idea how I feel. I have literally never thought about leaving North Carolina. I’m still wrapping my head around it” I said speaking my truth. Kev understood. They all did. We talked until the food came. They all wanted us there, but they knew our dilemma. Brody pulled out the map and showed them the areas we were planning to explore. The four of them had other suggestions, Brad pulled out his phone and found us a couple of other places to drive by. By the time we finished breakfast we had a plan for the day. Kev asked us if it was okay to invite Scotty, Brad, and their other friends over for cocktails and a swim after dinner.

 “Might as well get as many perspectives as we can before we leave town” Brody said with a smile. Then we said goodbye and took our leave. I put the first address in my GPS and navigated as Brody drove out of town, onto the freeway, and exited onto a dusty dessert road in the middle of nowhere. After about twenty minutes we pulled into the long driveway that led to the little ranch home. I pulled up the listing on my phone, It was cute, but tiny, the land was barren, and the price… ugh! It was so nice not having a mortgage. On to the next one… more of the same. The third one was a little nicer, it was a cute, two story hacienda style house with more lush landscaping than the others, including some greenery and a couple of raised garden beds. We parked by the road and got out to look around, we were leaning against the fence looking toward the outbuilding and talking about the possibilities when I noticed a goat, a dog, and a horse roaming around. That changed everything for me. Suddenly I could see Jimmy and Zoey playing outside, and I could picture my Camaro, the Gladiator, and Old Blue parked in front of the garage. I saw myself walking into the outbuilding to make candles, while Brody hanging our barn quilt on its peak.

It probably wasn’t the right place for us, but the point was that I was able to picture us living somewhere else, as long as we were together (Brody, Zoey, Jimmy… and me). We still had a lot to discuss, but I was beginning to see the possibilities.

  

To be continued…