Once Upon a Time...Again

Chapter 3

Tony

I was enjoying the creative writing class that I was taking as part of my therapy. I was sure I would never be a best-selling author, but my instructor, Jeff Walsh, was always very encouraging to me and all the other members of the class. He would even submit some of the work from the class to some of the local literary magazines, I and several others were lucky enough to have some of our stories published.

It had been about a year since I lost Liam, and I was finally starting to get back into the swing of things. I was going out with friends, enjoying my new writing hobby, and I even went on a couple dates. The dates were the hardest, I just couldn’t get past the feeling that I was cheating on Liam. I talked to Dr Walsh about it in several of my sessions.

She said, “so you have been out on a date?”

I nodded, “yes, a couple. I have been set up by some of my friends.”

She asked, “how did they go?”

I shrugged, “ok, I guess. I just didn’t feel the same spark that I felt with Liam.”

She smiled, “you probably won’t. Remember you can’t compare anyone else to Liam. You need to find something different you like about them, there must be something that you liked about your dates that you didn’t like about a Liam.”

I frowned, “there was nothing I didn’t like about Liam.”

She cocked her head, “you need to be honest with yourself Tony, I know you love Liam, but there was something you may have wished was different about Liam. I am sure there was something that Liam would have changed about you too.”

I sat and thought for a minute, not being able to think of anything.

Dr Walsh said, “you don’t have to come up with anything right now, I am just saying it is normal for couples to have little differences. You guys were very lucky in that your differences were very minor.”

I chuckled, “I guess that makes sense. I never did get used to the way Liam folded my socks.”

She smiled, “Just keep an open mind and don’t compare people, try to find something you do like about them and see where things go.”

I gave it some serious thought and realized she was right, I was comparing everyone else to Liam. I really needed to look for the good in other guys, I wasn’t going to find another Liam.

I was thinking about what we talked about in my last session with Dr Walsh as I went to my next writing class. I walked in just as Lucas Chang came into the room.

He smiled, “hey Tony, how are you?”

I smiled back, “good Lucas, how about you?”

We exchanged small talk as I thought back to the weeks prior. Lucas had always been friendly, but if I really was being honest, he may have flirting with me. He was a nice-looking Asian guy, short black hair, deep brown eyes, and perfectly white teeth when he smiled. Maybe I was reading more into this, but I decided to take Dr Walsh’s advice and see where this might lead. After class I was putting my things back in my bag as was Lucas, we both seemed to be lingering. Most of the rest of the students had left and Lucas and I walked out together, again exchanging small talk about tonight’s class.

As we reached our cars I asked, “hey, you wouldn’t want to go grab a cup of coffee?”

He smiled, “sure, that would be great.”

We walked across the street to a coffee shop and continued our talk about the class and stories we were each working on. About a half hour into our conversation, it turned to our personal lives.

I said, “I was almost married a year ago.”

He asked, “really, what happened, if you don’t mind my asking.”

I held back a tear, “Liam, my boyfriend of five years collapsed at work and died.”

He put his hand on mine, “I am so sorry.”

I smiled, “thanks, but I’m working through it, in fact this class is part of my therapy.”

He asked, “is it helping?”

I said, “yes, more than I thought it would, plus it has turned out to be very relaxing.”

I told him more about Liam, other than Dr Walsh, I had never talked to anyone about Liam like this. Lucas turned out to be very easy to talk to and was so sympathetic. We finished our coffee and walked back across the street to our cars. Once we reached our cars, Lucas turned to me and gave me a hug.

“Thanks for the coffee, I really enjoyed our talk.” He told me.

I smiled, “so did I, thanks for listening to me ramble on about Liam.”

He smiled back, “he sounds like a great guy.”

I nodded as he gave me another hug, before we released our hug, he looked me in the eye and brought his lips to mine. We kissed and then stepped back looking at each other.

I asked, “would you like to come back to my place?”

He gave me a look, “are you sure?”

I nodded, “yes, I am, but only if you want to.”

He smiled at me, “I would like that very much.”

It had been over a year since I had been with anyone, but for the first time it didn’t feel like I was cheating on Liam. Just as Dr Walsh told me, Liam would want me to move on. Lucas followed me to my house, and I led him to the front door.

As I closed the door, we were kissing and pulling each other’s clothes off. Lucas was about 5’6” a good 4” shorter than I was. As he pulled his shirt off, I saw his chest and abs, God he was cut. He had the body of an athlete and not an ounce of fat. I ran my hands over his smooth chest and across his bronze skin. I cupped his cock through his jeans, he was already hard, as was I when he grabbed my dick. We took our pants and underwear off, his dick was a little shorter than mine and I saw that he was uncut. This was the first time I had ever seen an uncircumcised cock before. Hell, other than in the locker room in high school, it was actually only the second cock I had ever seen. It was also the first time that I had seen a man that was completely hairless, or he shaved his pubes, I was surprised at how sexy it was. It was just so different from Liam. We fell onto the bed sucking each other’s cocks. I ran my hands across Lucas’s smooth ass, it was so firm and round. My fingers worked their way along the crack, I heard Lucas’s moan. I pushed further until I found his tight pucker, I worked it around until I finally pushed it inside.

Lucas let my dick fall from his mouth and said, “oh God yes, that feels so good Tony.”

I pulled my finger out, spread his cheeks, and replaced it with my tongue, pushing in as far as I could. Lucas squirmed and moaned as I attacked his hole, his hands on the back of my head.

He gasped, “please, just fuck me.”

I pushed his legs up and aimed my cock at his smooth, tight hole. I slowly pushed in and began to pump. His tight hole and it being so long since I had had sex, I knew I wasn’t going to last long, from Lucas’s heavy breathing, I could tell he was close too. A few strokes later, I was unloading my full nuts into his guts, and he was covering our stomachs with his own hot seed. We kissed as our breathing returned to a normal rate.

We lay next to each other in silence for a few minutes, then Lucas asked, “are you ok?”

I ran my hand across his cum coated chest, “yes, I’m good.”

He kissed my cheek, “I know I’m not Liam, but I hope you enjoyed it.”

I smiled, “no one is Liam, and yes, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.”

We cleaned up, dressed and Lucas left to go home. I suddenly felt like it was ok to move on, I didn’t need to feel guilty about seeing someone else, Liam would be ok with what had just happened. I fell asleep and I had the best night sleep since he died.

The next night, I was watching the news, I heard the reporter start the next story.

“Today marks the 10th anniversary of a missing Green County youth and authorities are still no closer to finding out what happened to 17-year-old Tanner Grisham.”

I sat down and watched the whole story. The summer between Tanner’s junior and senior year, he was going to meet his friend, Logan Bose to go fishing at Green Lake. Logan had texted Tanner that he was running late but would be at the lake in 20 minutes. Tanner never texted back, and when Logan got to the lake Tanner was no longer there. Logan had tried to call, but all his calls went straight to voice mail. He assumed Tanner had just gone home so he walked to his house, no one was there. Logan wasn’t too concerned, just thinking that something came up and he was with his parents. That evening he got a call from Tanner’s mom, asking if Tanner was with him. Tanner had not been seen or heard from since. I remember when this happened, I was the same age as Tanner and even though we didn't know the family, my mom took it very hard, she hugged me and told me to be careful.

I was immediately intrigued and started to make some notes and began a search online for any information. Green Lake was a small town about 2 ½ hours north of the city that I lived, this kind of thing didn’t happen in that area. The town was close knit, and everyone knew Tanner, they all turned for two weeks after his disappearance to search the lake and woods that surrounded it. I watched the interviews with the town’s Chief of Police, I could tell he had no real experience with cases like this. The state police were also involved, but their belief that Tanner had just run away from home got the investigation off to a slow start. Now ten years later they were still no closer to finding Tanner and the interview with his mom just broke my heart. I couldn’t help but think that even if they had found Tanner dead, at least his family could have some closure and move on

I spent the rest of my night reading everything I could find on the case and taking notes. I decided to use this to write my next story, but instead of fictionalizing it, I wanted to try a true crime story.

The next week in my writing class, I smiled as I walked in and saw Lucas was already there, he smiled back at me as I sat next to him. We chatted before class started, I was telling him about the new story that I was working on. We finished the class, and I was talking to Jeff about trying a true story instead of the fiction stories that I had done up until now. He gave me some pointers on doing the research and how to write in an objective way, so as to not show my opinion, especially since the crime had never been solved. I took his advice to heart, at this point I really had no idea what happened to Tanner, after all the state police could be right, maybe he did just run away.

I hurried out to try to catch Lucas, I wanted to see if he wanted to get together and maybe go out for dinner. He was standing next to the entrance when I came outside.

I smiled at him, “I was hoping you hadn’t left yet.”

He suddenly looked uncomfortable, “oh, yeah, I was just waiting for my ride.”

I said, “I can give you a ride if you need one.”

He shifted back and forth, “no thanks Tony, they are already on their way.”

I could tell he was hiding something, I asked, “oh, I see. So, you have a boyfriend?”

He ran his hand across his face, “Tony, my wife is coming to pick me up.”

I chuckled, “really, so I was just a fuck while the wife was out of town?”

He sighed, “no Tony, that’s not it at all. I just…”

I held my hand up, “don’t even try, I guess I should be glad that I found out this soon instead falling for you even more than I already have. Just go home to your wife, and don’t worry I won’t tell her anything, but don’t be surprised if she finds out about your little secret.”

He tried to talk to me again, I just walked away as a car pulled into the parking lot. I started my car as he crawled in with wife and drove off. I thought as I drove home, how lucky I was to find Liam, neither of us had ever played those stupid games with each other. It may be harder than I think to find that trust again.

I just threw myself into researching Tanner’s story, spending all my free time working on it. I had compiled all the information that was available to me online and brought up a map of the town of Green Lake on Google earth. It gave me a better understanding of the town and the lake, I saw the path that Tanner walked from his house to the lake that day.

I decided I needed to go to Green Lake and see everything for myself. I wanted to talk to Tanner’s mom, his friend, Logan and maybe even the chief of police. I scheduled a week of vacation and a couple of weeks later I was loaded in my car and taking the two and half hour drive up north.