Simply Red

Max’s Perspective

 From Chapter 31: 

“She’ll warm up to you. Gina’s awesome, she’s also protective as hell of us. Those words you guys wrote on the barn scared us all” I said being honest. “It was more than just random graffiti on a barn… it was a personal attack that said someone didn’t want us here. I mean, being gay in the south aint easy son” I said in my best fake redneck voice (mimicking Daddy).

He nodded and replied, “I know.”

Was that empathy or a plea for understanding and acceptance?

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 Simply Red 32

 I just stood there looking at this sweet kid trying to figure out what was going on in his head. All I could think to say was “But it’s not impossible. You just need to surround yourself with the right people.” It was kind of a generic statement, but at the same time I think it sent a good message.

He just nodded and said “Thanks, Max. Today was fun. Same time tomorrow?” 

 “Yup” I chirped.

 “Okay, but I get to pick the music tomorrow” he shot back making me laugh, then he left. I called Zoey and we went into the house where Gina was stealing a soda from the fridge and getting ready to hit the road (she had become very comfortable in our house). “Hey, can you stay a minute and talk?” I asked.

 “Of course,” she said and plopped herself onto a kitchen chair while I grabbed a soda and joined her.

 I told her about my conversation with Ricky “So… do you think the kid might be gay?” I asked.

 “Well, if he aint straight, he’s at least bi… that boy was checking my fine ass out” she laughed. I laugh too and nodded, I noticed it too. “Maybe he’s just growing up and regrets what he did.” She said almost defending him.

 “You’re starting to like him, aren’t you?” I asked in a sing-songy voice.

 She rolled her eyes and let out an “Argh… Yes. I like the kid, he’s smart and fun. But that little fucker attacked you guys, I don’t trust him.”

 “He just followed the wrong crowd and did something stupid to try and fit in. Cut him some slack” I said defending him.

 “I’ll be nice, but he has to win me over… he’s gotta work for it” she said. I had a flashback of when we were in college and Teddy was chasing her. She said the exact same thing.

 “Fair enough” I answered.

 “Why don’t you just ask him if he’s gay?”

 I scoffed at her suggestions “Because if he’s not, he’ll look at me like some old queen creeping on him.”

 “Old queen?” Gina laughed. “You’re fucking twenty three years old!!!”

“Yeah, and to a seventeen year old I might as well be ninety!” I shot back at her. We both laughed and talked about him just a little longer before we switched the subject back to candle making and what we had to get done. About a half hour later, I walked her to the car.

Brody pulled into the driveway before we got all the way to her little Toyota. She waited for him to get out, then hugged him, congratulating him on his new job. He looked uncomfortable as hell (like he usually did when people hugged him) but he was smiling wide. It was so good to see him happy. We watched Gina drive away, then Brody greeted me with a kiss and we went into the house. I made dinner while he changed his clothes, then we sat down to a simple dinner (half of it was from our garden) and we talked about our days. His day was rough, they gave him a hard time about leaving and accused him of taking advantage of their generous nature by taking time off with short notice to interview, etc. A classic case of desperation. Brody was the best, most strategic creative talent they had on staff but they never really treated him that way, and now they were losing him.

 The subject changed to my day out in the barn making candles. I told him about my conversation with Ricky. “I think y’all are reading way too much into it. The kid got busted doin’ somethin’ stupid and he feels bad about it. I think he’s just seein’ it from our side now that he’s getting to know us.” Brody’s words made a lot of sense. If the kid comes out of this with a stronger sense of empathy, I would call that a win… the world needs more empathy.

 After dinner we headed out to the barn to talk about how we could convert the barn into a candle factory and a year-round creative studio. The first floor was a big space that was mostly open to the rafters except for where Brody’s studio was. “So, here’s what I’m thinkin’…” Brody started. “We can put a bathroom and storage under my office, so when you enter from the back you can go right upstairs or you can go down the hall to the open area.” He continued telling me his thoughts. Part of the kitchen area where the farm sink was, would be under his office too. Then we’d build a big granite island that would hold the Wax melters, the rest of the space would be completely open and could hold several workstations. Brody’s studio on the second floor was currently open to the barn, he wanted to enclose it with French doors so he could shut things out if the activity below got too loud. Half of the loft would be more of an office space where he could take video calls, and the rest would be for his studio. He was thinking about adding a full bathroom upstairs too (if it was affordable). I had to admit, his vison for that old barn was damn amazing. If we ever sold the place, we could call it a guest house (not that I ever wanted to leave). “We could probably pay cash for the renovations if we bottomed out our savings, but I think it’s worth takin’ out a loan for at least part of it. We’ll still have a lot of equity.” Brody said, he had obviously thought this through.

 “It makes sense, and it could be pretty awesome” I said as we walked around the barn pointing at things, expanding on his vision, and talking through everything. Brody and I made a good team because his mind went to the creative vision while my mind started mapping out the next steps and organizing the process for getting it done. We had completely different perspectives. “We’d have to build the new barn first so Jimmy’s safe” I said, then we walked outside and talked about where we wanted to build and paced off how much space it would take out, then we went back into the barn.

 There was one empty table in the candle studio, I jumped up and sat on it with my legs dangling off the side as we talked. Brody stood facing me and put his hands on my upper thighs as we talked, I was wearing shorts and his warm hands felt good against my skin as he rubbed my thighs while we daydreamed about our space. I started to zone out as he talked, reveling in the feeling of his hands on my legs. I put my hands on top of his and guided them up into the openings of my shorts. Brody moved his hands up my thighs until he found my soft member, he grasped it with one hand and massaged my balls with the other. I opened my legs a little more to give him better access. He bent down and started nibbling my cock through my shorts, his hot breath was making me grow hard in my shorts. I pushed his head down as his mouth and hands did their damnedest to pleasure me through the material.

 Brody came up for air, pushed me down flat on the table, then undid my shorts and pulled them off me, dropping them on the hard cement floor. He got between my legs which were still dangling off the edge of the sturdy wooden table and started licking my balls, cleaning off the days’ worth of sweat with his tongue. After a couple of minutes, he nudged my legs a little further apart and pushed them up towards my chest. “Gotdammit, Maxwell” he said with a sigh as he took in my musk before attacking my pink hole. He darted his tongue in and out of me as I pushed to open up for him. His licks were sharp, like he was fucking my hole with his hot, wet tongue. I instinctively grabbed my legs and pulled them tight against my chest with an involuntary whimper. Damn, he was going to town on my hole and I loved it. As he was eating me out, he gave my ass a nice smack and it echoed through the old barn. I wanted him to fuck me and fuck me hard, but I was so lost in the euphoric pleasure his mouth was giving my hole that I didn’t want it to stop. I was torn between two pleasures, so I just let Brody do what Brody does.

 After a very long time, Brody dropped his jeans and hopped up on the sturdy table, and straddled my face. Holy fuck! I pulled his hot, musky ass to my lips and devoured his hole like he had done mine. He leaned over and took my now aching member down until my crimson head was lodged deep down his throat. His tongue was masterfully twirling and swirling around my veiny shaft awakening every nerve and driving me to the brink of no return as my tongue continued to devour his hole. One of our favorite sexual positions was sixty-nine with Brody on top. I loved looking up and seeing the curve of his perfect bubble butt above his soft, low-hanging balls. I was lost in lust when Brody pulled off me, flipped around, then shocked me by sitting on my cock.

 Brody rarely bottomed, and almost never without major prep and lube. But that night he was overcome with lust and wanted me deep inside him. He crouched above me and grabbed hold of my hard shaft, lined it up with his tight, wet hole, then sat. He slowly but steadily took every inch of me inside him until his dangling balls touched my red bush. Our eyes were locked when he leaned in for a passionate kiss. I could taste my own musk on his soft lips as he moaned into my mouth “fuck, Maxwell. You feel so gotdamn good inside me.” I just laid there as he bounced up and down my cock, stroking his own as he did. He sat upright with his head thrown back in ecstasy as he whimpered and moaned in pure pleasure. I just laid there propped up on my elbows watching his adorable face as he fucked himself on me. “Gotdammit, I’m gonna shoot… I’m gonna shoot” Not sooner did he say the words than a glob of his white-hot jizz hit my lips. I quickly licked up the salty concoction and opened my mouth hoping to catch more of the volleying cream. His tight hole clamped even tighter around my manhood as he pushed his load out.

 “Fuck, I’m close, Brody” I said in a breathless grunt that spurred him to bounce faster and harder. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuuuuuck” I screamed as I shot spurt after spurt of my manhood into his sweet little ass. Brody kept bouncing with his head still thrown back; we were both spent but still rock hard. He slowed down, then came to a complete halt and leaned in for a kiss. His full weight was on me. It was then that I remembered the goat cam. “Oh fuck! The goat cam is live!” I yelled with panic on my face.

 Brody cracked up laughing, “Nah, I turned off the feed this mornin’ when I realized it was pointed on y’all making candles. I need to move ‘em before I turn ‘em back on.”

 A huge sense of relief came over me, then I laughed almost maniacally. “Oh shit, I thought we just made live porn.” We both laughed and then he collapsed on top of me. After a few minutes we got dressed, went into the house, cleaned up and went to bed.

 The next day was more of the same as me, Gina, and Ricky continued to make candles and started to get into a groove. Ricky was a natural born project manager. He came up with a better, more efficient system of setting the wicks and pouring the wax that helped us produce more. The three of us worked well together and, against her better judgment, Gina was warming up to Ricky.

 Friday we were hard at work when Brody called to tell me the labels were ready to be picked up from the printer. We had several dozen candles that were done and just needed the labels before they could be packed and shipped… almost enough for the rollout of the Phoenix location. I left my two coworkers, jumped in Old Blue, and headed to the print shop to pick up the labels. I was gone for about an hour. When I got back to BroMax, I heard loud music and bad singing coming from the barn. I grabbed the first box and carried it inside to find Gina, Ricky, Zoey, and Jimmy in the middle of a dance party. The two humans were working and dancing while Zoey ran in circles inside the barn and Jimmy was just outside the door bouncing and bleating. Ricky saw me walk in and stopped singing immediately, Gina saw me and sang louder. They were not only getting along but seemed to be having a great time.

 I put the first box on one of the tables the went out with Ricky and unloaded the other two. I opened the first box, Ricky brought me a candle that was ready for labels. Ricky put the top on the container, I secured the label to the front, then out the circular disclaimer to the bottom. It was a milestone. Our first candle was completed. I took a pic and sent it to Brody. Ricky was reading the labels. He looked at the disclaimer label and read out loud “Produced by BroMax Farm, LGBT owned and operated.” Then he asked with a worried look on his face, “Do you think it’s a good idea to advertise that you’re gay?”

 Gina answered before I could “you’re damn right it is! They’re proud of what they built and should be.” Ricky was perplexed. To him, gay was something shameful that you hide, this was new to him. He didn’t disagree, or anything… it was just a new perspective. He was growing and didn’t even realize it.

 We labeled one case-worth of candles, packaged it for shipping and sent it to Scotty as a test run. We wanted to make sure that they shipped without breaking, etc. I called Scotty to tell him the news… “I’m shipping the test case today.”

 “Holy shit” Scotty said. “That’s great news, more than a week ahead of schedule.” We talked for a minute then he said “Hey, we want to make them available online. I know you guys have a mechanism for fulfillment, is there a way we can link to your site and you handle it directly? Any orders would be in addition to what we order, you can charge full price and credit us the difference from the wholesale price.” I told Scotty I’d need to figure out how to do that, but it was a good idea. This was really coming together.

 After a hard day’s work, Gina and Ricky left and I headed to the UPS Store to ship the test case. As our quantities got bigger, they’d be picking them up from us directly. When I got home, Brody was there. I was amped as I babbled about my day and showed him the first candle (I didn’t put that one in the box, I kept it as a memento).

 Brody and took a quick shower together then headed to the restaurant meet Dylan and Gina for dinner.

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 Dylan’s Perspective

Gotdamn I was nervous. I mean, hell I’d been with a lot of women, but no one like Gina. Before I met her, I was chasin’ good ole’ country girls with short skirts and big hair (like they say aroun’ here; the bigger the hair the closer to Jesus). I caught a lot of ‘em too. But then SHE showed up. Max’s friend from college. She was freakin’ beautiful, not like the girls around here… a natural, sophisticated beauty. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Maxwell, my brother introduced us (well technically he’s my brother-in-law I guess, but I think of him as a brother). Gina was way out of my league, but we started datin’ and it’s been a year now… I’m gonna marry that girl.

I Called Gina’s momma to ask her permission, she was excited and gave me her blessin’, then I visited a friend of Daddy’s who owns a jewelry store with BA and picked out a ring. BA knows Gina’s taste better n’ me. I also been thinkin’ about buildin’ a house on my land and selling the trailer. I’d pretty much assumed I’d be single forever until I met her and it was perfect for me, but Gina aint the type of girl you put in a trailer. She wants a house… fine by me… we’ll build a house.

We had dinner plans with Brody and Max on Friday night and I planned to propose after. I wanted to propose a couple of months ago, but shit fire, how do I ask a girl like her to marry a guy like me? I went through a million ideas in my head, then I just decided to be me. I borrowed a pontoon boat from a friend of mine. Boats are romantic. Right? I strung a bunch of white Christmas lights on it, filled a cooler with White Claw (Gina loved that shit), Bud Light, and a bottle of champagne and put it on the boat before I met Gina for dinner.

When I picked Gina up she was waiting in front of her apartment building. I pulled up to the curb, she jumped in the truck and gave me a kiss before she buckled up and we headed to meet Max and Brody. She looked damn good… hell she always looked damn good. We got to the restaurant, well it was more of a bar in the middle of nowhere that served food, but it had become our regular place since Brody moved back. Dinner conversation was lively. Brody just landed a new job and Max was starting a candle business that was really taking off. I was so damn happy that those two were puttin’ down roots here. Brody moved away after high school to go to design school in Milwaukee and I thought he moved away forever… it was rough for a gay guy around here, I got it. But when Grammaw died and left him her place it was the perfect opportunity to talk him into coming back. Then Max happened. I like Max… no I love Max like a brother. He’s a good guy who makes my brother happy, and I’ve done my best to redneck-ize him. He fits in here pretty good. They’ve had a couple run-ins with the ignorant locals, but they handled it all with class. Brody’s new company is based in Phoenix and they tried to get him to move there. It got me thinkin’; I was just survivin’ here until those guys showed up, Now I was buildin’ a life for myself and thinkin’ bout the future… and that meant a life with Gina. I am so damn happy they didn’t move. When Brodes turned it down they made him a counteroffer where he could work from home… they wanted him bad. Of course, they did; he’s talented as hell.

Anyway… dinner was great and Brody and Max invited us back to their place for drinks… I told ‘em I was tired and we headed back to my place (At least that’s what Gina thought we were doin’). Instead, we headed to the marina where I had the boat waitin’.

We’d talked about marriage and she was waiting for me to propose, Gina’s a smart girl, she knew somethin’ was up, but she let me do my thing. I escorted her onto the boat, turned on some music over the speaker, and handed her a White Claw. Then I started the motor with a roar and we slowly grumbled out into the ocean. Gina stood behind me with her arms around my neck as I steered us out to sea, I knew those waters like the back of my hand. When Brody and me were in high school, Daddy had an old boat that he’d let us take out in the ocean. When we got offshore a ways, I cut the engine and we just floated. Gina and I sat side by side on one of the cushioned bench seats and looked back at the lights on the shore. It was so gotdamn peaceful out there under the stars. “When Brodes and I we younger, we’d come out here for hours and just float.” I said as I put my arm around her.

“That’s sweet” Gina said.

“Sometimes we’d fish, sometimes we’d do some snap-trappin’ to catch crabs, but mostly we just sat here and looked at the shore. It was a great escape from Patty James when she was bein’ crazy” I said with a laugh. “and I knew Brody was safe when he was here with me. When he was a Sophomore, it was kinda obvious he was gay, and the bullies zeroed in on him and he’d just take it. When I would find out I’d kick their asses. Damn that poor guy took so much shit growin’ up around here. I never thought he’d really move back.” I told Gina all about our childhood, which was not so bad thanks to Grammaw makin’ sure we had a safe place to stay while Daddy was workin’. Then the conversation turned to Gina. She told me about how she grew up near Lake Michigan and would sit on the rocks at night looking out over the water. Her dad was a drunk and could get nasty, her mom sheltered her from most of it, then they finally divorced when she was about thirteen. She told me about life got better for her and her mom when her dad moved out, but her dad spiraled pit of control. Sadly, he died when she was still in high school; basically, he drank himself to death. She never told me any of that before, I knew he was dead and that her mother raised her, but that was all I knew. We were sharing intimate details about our lives with each other. I aint never done that with any other woman in my life. After an hour of floatin’ on the calm waters and bearing our souls I felt closer to her than ever,

 “This was a good idea” Gina said as she snuggled against me. “I’m glad you brought me here, it’s beautiful” then she gave me a quick peck on the lips, put her head on my shoulder and we just floated and looked towards the shore. I was trying to figure out exactly when to make my move when one of her favorite songs, “I Will Stay With You” by John Legend started to play on Pandora. The words were perfect… “We've been together for a while now. We're growing stronger everyday now. It feels so good and there's no doubt I will stay with you…” It summed up how I felt about her, it was like a cue.

I took my arm off her, got off the bench and down on one knee. “Gina, you’ve changed my world and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” I asked opening the little jewelry box and presenting her the ring.

There was no doubt that she knew it was coming as she grinned that evil grin of hers and asked, “Why should I marry you?” 

She was bustin’ my balls like she always did, just one of the reasons I loved her “Because I’m the only man on earth willing to put up with your shit for the rest of my life” I answered with a smirk.

She pretended to think about it, then we both stood up and she said, “Hell Yes I’ll marry you.” She threw her arms around my neck and held each other tight as we slowly swayed and danced on the water to John Legend. Damn, I loved that girl.

It was pretty damn romantic for a good ole redneck like me… and it worked. She said yes.

 

To be continued…