Simply Red

Max’s Perspective

It was our second Thanksgiving on BroMax Farm and the house was bursting with more friends than the year before. Cam, Elliot, Brody, and Zach were all still asleep when Seth and I got up at the crack of dawn to start cooking again. Before we hit the kitchen, Seth followed me out to the new barn to let Jimmy out. I gave him a tour of the candle barn since he was cooking when I showed Zach and Elliot around the day before. “Damn, Max. This is freaking amazing” he said in awe as he looked around the almost completed conversion. “You could live in here, it’s a factory, and a house all rolled into one.”

“Yup, we did that on purpose for resale value, I mean who’s gonna want a candle factory in their backyard? But a guest house, that’s a sales feature.” We walked around the first floor for a few minutes, then went up into Brody’s office to look around.

“I talked to Kev a couple of weeks ago” Seth said switching the subject as we entered the studio. “He said Brody was a brilliant hire… his words. Everybody loves him.” Although I knew that was probably the case, it was nice to hear. I was proud as hell of my husband and broke out in a huge smile.

“He loves it so much! He feels appreciated and heard” I retorted without thought. “The travel sucked at first and I hated him being away, but it’s calmed down a little now. It’s been funny to watch Brody up his style game with new hairdo and new clothes. Kev took him shopping.” Seth laughed at that. When we first met Brody, the guy only owned one outfit that didn’t have paint on it.

“He’s come a long way from that quiet little hermit in our attic” Seth laughed.

“He’s the best fucking thing that ever happened to me” I said with no thought or hesitation.

“We both got lucky” Seth said and we continued to talk as we walked past the beehives, then back into the house and into the kitchen to work. Zoey had escorted us outside and decided to stay in the pasture with Jimmy. The two of us worked for over an hour before anyone else woke up. Brody was the first to rise… he came down, pecked me on the cheek, grabbed a cup of coffee then went out to his studio to paint for a while. Elliot and Zach came down together. Elliot put on an apron and he and I started breakfast while Seth kept prepping for dinner. Zach just sat at the counter sipping coffee and talking to us while we worked, eventually he got bored and went out to the studio to bug Brody.

Breakfast was done and on the table by the time Cam yawned and scratched his way down to the kitchen in boxers and a sweatshirt. I sent him out to the barn to get Brody and Zach. They came in the house laughing and joking around. The six of us sat down to a lively breakfast, it just felt so damn good to have our friends around… even shy, anti-social Brody was loving it. After breakfast, I put the huge turkey in the over and we all headed up to take showers and get ready for a houseful of guests. Six of us were fighting over two showers when Cam and Elliot decided to break-in the new bathroom in the old Barn to move things along. The six of us were showered, shaved and back in the kitchen before anyone else arrived.

“Just in case anyone was wondering…” Cam said with a grin on his face, “me and Elliot broke in the new shower.” Elliot turned a shade of red I’d never seen before, Seth just shook his head, and the rest of us laughed.

“Well, how was it?” Brody asked. Then Cam blushed. Seth, Elliot a I planted ourselves in the kitchen until the other guest got there while Zach, Cam, and Brody went outside to throw the football around. Zoey was happy as hell to be part of their game chasing the guys around the yard.

“So how many people are coming today?” Elliot asked.

I counted in my head and answered, “well, it’s the six of us, BA, Daddy, Dylan, Gina, her mom, Terrance and Harris, Tommy, and Darius… what’s that? Fifteen?” Seth was doing the math in his head making sure we had enough food (hell we always made enough to feed an army), and Elliot counted place settings. We made any adjustments and were ready just in time. Daddy and BA were the first to show.

“Gotdammit, it smells good in here… you boys can cook” BA yelled from the front door.

 “BA!!!” Zach yelled and ran in from behind her and gave her a hug, my friends all loved my mother in-law, and she loved them… they bonded at our wedding and over the holidays. BA had become regular old fag hag.

“Zach-attack, ya’ lil biscuit, l missed ya’ll” She said as she gave him a hug and a big-ole kiss on the cheek. “Congratulations on yer’ nuptials! I’m sorry we missed the big blowout.” Her and Daddy were invited to the wedding but didn’t dare leave North Carolina. Traveling wasn’t their thing.

“We missed ya’ BA” Zach said as he wrapped his arms around her neck and returned her big, wet cheek kiss.

BA Pulled Zach over to the couch by his hand, “Tell me all about it.” While BA caught up with Zach, Brody greeted his daddy, and Cam joined in the conversation. I was in the kitchen with Seth and Elliot finishing up our feast. Within a few minutes our other guests started to arrive and in no time the house was total chaos. Harris and Terrance fit right in with my old friends, and Zach pulled them, Dylan, Cam, Darius, Tommy, Daddy, and even BA into a football game out in the yard. Gina joined us in the kitchen and caught Seth up on the wedding plans and the latest baby news. Three old friends talking and cooking, time just flew by. Before we knew we were all gathered in the dining room having an amazing meal with the people I loved, the only ones missing were my mom and dad. I had invited them, but they were on a Mediterranean cruise. Ever since I graduated, they had been spending their time traveling the world and loved it, but unfortunately that meant I didn’t see a lot of them. I was glad we had some time together over the summer before Seth and Zach’s wedding, but I did miss them.

After dinner, Dylan and Brody built a bonfire with brush and branches we had cleared off the property over the summer and piled up behind the old barn. We all warmed ourselves around it as we ate pie and drank cocktails. There was a little chill in the air; it was a perfect fall evening. I looked around the fire and saw new friends and old friends laughing and blending… it was family. Everyone cleared out around 10PM except for our houseguests, and we hung out by the fire for another hour or so before Brody snuffed it out and we decided to call it a night. Brody and I went up to our bedroom with Cam, Elliot Zach, and Seth, all following us up the steps and into their rooms. We all shouted goodnight to each other as the bedroom doors closed one by one, and Zoey followed his buddy Zach into his room for the night. Zach had been bribing Zoey with turkey all day long, and by bedtime the two were inseparable.

Once we were finally alone, Brody and I both stripped naked and got into bed. We could hear the muffled voices of our friends as they talked quietly in their rooms. “It’s weird havin’ folks in the house” Body said, “I’m used to just you n’ me… and Zoey.”

“That traitor” I said with a chuckle about our sweet pup who sold us out for some scraps of turkey.

“This bed’s big without him” Brody said as he scooted his naked body closer to me.

I laughed at his not-so-subtle advances. “Well then maybe we should spread out a bit” I suggested with a mischievous grin.

“Nah, I’m good” Brody said. Then he abruptly ripped the covers off me in one fell swoop exposing my naked body, flipped himself around, then sat on my face. That’s what I said… my sweet little man perched his perfect little bubble butt right on my fucking face and wiggled it around. He bent over and stretched his tight little body forward until his mouth was directly above my engorged red rocket. Before I could even stick out my tongue and taste his musk, he took me in his mouth and all the way down his throat with one gulp. He moved his mouth up and down my rigid shaft sending waves of pleasure through me. He readjusted himself to align his hard and ready manhood with my mouth, I opened and he plunged in until his smooth balls rested on my nose. He pulled out slowly and I looked up, I know I’ve said this before, but the site of his balls dangling above my face and his sweet, perfectly formed ass cheeks above them is just amazing to me, it is so fucking hot.  We stayed like that for several minutes, him on top of me moving up and down in a sixty nine giving each other oral pleasure.

I had almost completely forgotten about the fact that we had a house full of guests when I heard a headboard hit the wall behind us followed by quiet moans and a quiet voice saying “Yes, Cam. Please fuck me.” Elliot and Cam were fucking just inches away from us on the other side of the wall. I could feel Brody chortle around my cock as we eavesdropped on the lovers next door. As their moans and groans got louder and the banging of the headboard became steadier, Elliot wailed out a “Fuck yes!” followed my Cam yelling in a whisper “Shhhhhhhh, you’ll wake the whole fucking house.”

Brody couldn’t resist, pulled his mouth from my cock, and yelled “Y’all already did! We’re awake now you might as well get ya’ some” I laughed around his cock almost choking myself before I pulled off him.

“Yeah!” Zach’s voice yelled from further down the hall “Keep going, it’s like being back at the duplex.” I could hear Seth laughing as we all yelled our comments through the walls of the old house.

Brody stayed on top of me as we listened to the scene play out. After a couple of minutes of banter Cam yelled “You’re all just jealous because I’m gettin’ some” the Elliot yelled “Yeah” in a high-pitched embarrassed voice. Elliot was shy and did his damnedest to go toe to toe with the rest of our loud obnoxious group. I heard Cam say “you tell em’ baby” then give him a kiss.

Once that little exchange was over, Brody and I went back to work. He moved lower and started to eat my ass, his cock never leaving my throat. I was lubing it up with my throat slime and he was opening my hole with his warm, wet tongue. I didn’t my damnedest not to moan or make noise in order to avoid being the next target of our friends down the hall. Once my hole was nice and open and Brody was hard as cement, He flipped his tight little body around and pushed my legs to my chest. His eyes were locked with mine as he lined himself up with my hole and pushed in. Goddamn it felt so fucking good. His cock was inside me and I could feel it pulsating, breathing as though it were its own living being. He pushed in slowly as he looked into my eyes, and whispered “damn, I love you, Maxwell” then added, “and I love our life.” That little fuck took a moment of pure lust and used it to warm my heart.

“I love you too” I whispered back. He leaned in for a sweet, tender kiss. Once he pulled back, I growled in a whisper “Now fuck me.” Brody snickered and then delivered. His strokes were slow and steady as he did his best to give me his all without disturbing our guest.

“I’m close, Maxwell” he whispered in my ear after a few minutes. I stroked myself and timed it almost perfectly, shooting my load just seconds after him. He filled my ass and I made a mess on my abs. Brody finished emptying himself into me, when he finally pulled out, he knelt between my legs then bent over and licked my load from my abs. Our lovemaking ended with a kiss that tasted like my own cum. After that, we said our final I love you of the night and his little body spooned my muscular frame as we drifted off to sleep.

I was up and at it by 5AM. I left Brody in bed, and all our guests were still asleep when I jumped in the shower to start my day. Once I was ready, I went to the new barn and let Jimmy out a little early, then off to the old barn to set up for our meeting. I had made gift bags for each board member that featured a mini version of every scent we produced including the private label scents for the hotels, a BroMax Farm Tee-shirt, and a BroMax Farm mug. I also included a box of business cards for each of the board members as a symbolic gesture. I also made up gift bags for our special guests Stella and Ricky. Ricky told me he might bring Timmy and Trey along as part of his presentation so I made bags up for them too… I loved how Ricky was so into this.

Finally, I set the bags around the big pouring station (AKA our conference table) with a thumb drive loaded with presentations and documents next to them. Brody had a big screen in his office for conference calls, we moved it down to the barn and found an old table to set It on, this would be our presentation screen. Once the table was set, I jumped in the Camaro and went to a little bagel shop in town to pick up my breakfast order. They opened at 6:30 and I was there waiting for them when they unlocked the door. I hurried back to the farm and set the platter of bagels, containers of cream cheese, boxes of coffee, and bowl of Fruit bowl up on a counter in the kitchen area with dessert plates, BroMax coffee mugs, silverware, and napkins. By 7:30 The stage was set and I went into the house to see what was going on. Everyone was up and rolling. Brody had already showered and taken care of Zoey. Seth, Zach, and Elliot were all dressed and in the kitchen having coffee, and Cam was still sleeping in. He was the only one of our house guests that wasn’t on the board. He was fine with a little alone time and planned on taking the Camaro and exploring the area. I left the keys on the counter for him before we all went out to the barn. Gina and Dylan drove up just as we were walking through the yard to the barn and joined us.

“I promise to be focused until one o’clock… after that it’s Bridezilla time. Got it?” Gina commanded as she jumped out of the passenger side of the truck.

“Yes ma’am” I responded in my serious voice as we all continued towards the barn. When they all entered there was a collective gasp and I had to admit the place looked amazing. I had been so caught up in the renovation that I never really stopped to just look around. Bubba and crew had done an amazing job. It was a huge open, rustic space with ceiling fans affixed to the freshly cleaned gleaming beams. The walls of the main area were mostly wood plank save for a few drywalled areas around the kitchen area, bathroom, and storage area under Brody’s loft. Upstairs beyond the French doors that led to the studio things were slightly less rustic.

Gina had been in that barn a million times but she had never seen it like this. “Oh. My. God! This place looks amazing!” she blurted out. She wasn’t wrong. I took a good look around and was impressed with our little candle company. After everyone took a quick tour and threw out compliments, they gathered in the kitchen to fill their plates and grab coffee, then it was time to get to work. We all sat on the cheap barstools around the giant table and brought the presentation up on the big screen to open the meeting.

I stood next to the screen with a giant BroMax Candle Company logo displayed on it. “I am so grateful to every one of you and honored that you took time on this insanely busy weekend to participate in this meeting. I don’t want this to be just a fulfillment of our corporation requirements, but I really want your input” I said to open the meeting. “We decided to give you guys each a couple of shares because we want you to be part of this venture. Financially it’s not worth crap, but symbolically it means a lot. We appreciate you all.” I continued. “Dylan, you’ve moved everything in this barn around about a hundred times just so that we could keep production going during construction, and you’ve built whatever table or cabinet or whatever we needed. Gina, you pulled my ass to a candle making class last year and sparked a love in me that I didn’t know existed, then stood side by side with me all summer in this hot barn to ensure we could fulfill all the orders that started coming in. Zach you set us up to be a legitimate corporation. Elliot, you helped me set up our books and refine out billing systems. Seth, you gave up your weekends to sell at the Soulard Farmer’s Market in St Louis and connected us with The Resort opening more doors for us.” I looked over at Brody and raised my eyebrows to see if he wanted to add anything.

“Y’all helped us turn Maxwell’s hobby into BroMax Candle Company, a legit business. We appreciate the hell outta ya’.” The room chuckled a bit.

I went through the agenda. “Elliot will walk us through the financials, then our rep Stella will join us to discuss expansion opportunities and projections for regional sales, after that our Project Manager Ricky will walk us through the process and talk about production bandwidth and scalability, and Zach will close by having us vote on a couple of issues, and the distribution of stock certificates. Once the meeting is officially adjourned, we’ll have lunch and then Brody’s going to lead us in a brainstorming session on new ideas for products and revenue streams to move the company forward. Any questions?” I asked. Nobody had any, so Elliot went right into our financial picture.

He opened with “Max exaggerates when he says your stock shares aren’t worth crap. The company may be new, but it has a solid foundation and good prospects.” He took us through the numbers and frankly, things looked pretty decent. There were several questions but everyone seemed impressed by our overall outlook and prospects for the future. Stella texted me that she was about 5 minutes away. I let Elliot know and he started to wrap up.  We took a bathroom break, and refilled out coffee mugs, etc. as Elliot stepped down and Stella entered the room with a man dressed in a suit.

 She looked around the barn and exclaimed “Holy crap, Max. This place looks amazing.” She had only been there once before when we first signed the contract, it had changed immensely since then. “Oh, this is our CEO, Darren. He decided to join me. I hope you don’t mind.”

Darren reached out his hand and said, “I’ve heard a lot about you, and I love your products, so I invited myself to join Stella, I hope that’s okay.”

“Absolutely” I responded to the handsomely dressed man. While we filled our BroMax Farm coffee mugs, he told us about his company, and how he had several reps throughout the country and saw great potential for our products in markets beyond just North Carolina. He asked about the BroMax mugs and T-shirts he saw scattered around the room. I called Brody over and introduced the two men, Brody took Darren up to his office, pulled out his laptop and showed him the merchandise section of our website. Darren looked around Brody’s studio admiring his artwork while he was upstairs. As he and Brody descended the steps to join the rest of the crowd, I heard them talking about selling Brody’s mug and T-shirts designs through his company. The conversation was cut short as everyone took their seats and Stella took the floor. Darren stood with her and they discussed our sales trajectory, projections for the next year, and opportunities to expand into other markets. Darren quickly mentioned the conversation that he and Brody had upstairs saying he thought there was an opportunity to expand our product line by putting Brody’s designs on other merchandise… it wasn’t a proposal, but he was planting a seed.

When Stella and Darren were done, they answered questions and said goodbye. Meanwhile, Ricky had joined us. He was wearing a suit and had Trey and Timmy with him. They asked us all to sit at the far side of the pouring station and then set up on the other end of the big, sturdy table. Ricky was so serious at that moment as he took control of the room. He introduced himself and “his team” then went into a spiel about the candle making process, the time it took to melt the wax, pour it, let them cool, and finish them off. He had the guys do a demonstration. Ricky had put wax into one of the smaller melters when he first entered the room, the guys lined up the containers and went through the entire process. It was impressive. Everyone watched with interest and asked questions. Ricky talked about timing, capacity, scalability… honestly, he owned the process. This wasn’t some kid trying to sound smart, this was a leader who understood what he was doing and what we could do as a company. After the demonstration, we thanked the boys and they left… with the exception of Ricky who stayed to join the brainstorming session.

Finally, Zach went through the legal stuff and handed out the stock certificates, then we ended the meeting and got into the brainstorming session. Brody led us and it was clear he was a pro. He knew how to get everyone to participate and think beyond the obvious. They threw out ideas that were all over the board, some insanely off the wall like close the thing down and turn it into a gay dude ranch, some too tame like add a new scent to the line, and some smart as hell like create a family of branded candles that allowed us to go beyond homemade scents and dive into things like seasonal scents under different brand names. Seth wrote everything down on a white board and Gina captured it all on her laptop categorizing the ideas as undoable, doable, and aspirational. It was a lively two-hour session that sparked great discussion and a lot of food for thought, plus yielded a lot of good, actionable ideas. The main takeaway for me was that we had built the foundation of something great.

As we closed our session for the day, Seth threw out the million dollar question: “So, when are you going to quit teaching?” I stood there dumfounded as my board of friends looked at me expectantly. I had no answer.

 

To be continued…