Simply Red

Max’s Perspective

The first week of school went great! I LOVED teaching… and having Gina just a couple of classrooms away made the transition easier. My kids were awesome, but calling me ‘Mr. Harrington’ turned out to be a mouthful for the fourth graders to say so I instantly became “Mr. H.” There were two other brand new teachers about our age (Sarah and Laurie) and the four of us found each other pretty fast and started hanging out in our classrooms before school, at lunch, and in the teacher’s lounge after classes. The new “single male” teacher hanging out with all the new single female teachers got the rumor mill moving. There were rumors about me and Gina being an item, there were rumors about me being a player… the new kid in town bedding every single woman in the state. Yup… Mr. H was apparently quiet the ladies’ man. Surprisingly, there were no rumors about me being gay. I avoided discussing my sexuality at work, although North Carolina as a state didn’t offer EEO protections for LGBTQ+, the county did. So, they technically couldn’t fire me for being gay but they could make it uncomfortable as hell so I decided not to broadcast my personal life. Brody and I talked a lot about it and I decided it was best to just not talk about it and cause controversy, but I knew in the back of my mind that it would eventually come up and I’d have to deal with it.

Friday night came amazingly fast and Gina officially got the keys to her new place. After school her and I went over and moved her meager possessions in. We lent her an air mattress so she had a place to sleep until she bought furniture. Dylan picked Brody up at the house after work and they met us downtown for dinner. We ate at a nice place on Gina’s block then walked around checking out the shops in the area. It really was a cute little town. We ended up having cocktails at a nice place with outdoor seating that overlooked the Intercoastal Waterway.

We were drinking and having a great time just kicking back watching Dylan flirt with Gina when I heard a high-pitched voice yell from behind me “Oh my god!!! Gina and Max! What are y’all doing here?” Then another voice screamed a similar sentiment and I heard footsteps running towards us on the wooden pier then suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around my neck in a hug. It was Laurie and Sara accompanied by two good looking young men. We all greeted each other and the four of them pulled up a table next to ours and joined us. Laurie was from the area and Sara had just moved from Chicago. “This is my boyfriend Jeb, and his brother Tommy” Laurie said, then leaned in between Gina and I and quietly said, “I’m tryin’ to play matchmaker with Sara and Tommy.” Then she looked up at Dylan and Brody with a smile “And who are these two handsome gentlemen?”

Shit! I hadn’t planned on coming out at school so soon, but I didn’t want to lie either. Shit, shit, shit!!! I wasn’t sure what to say. “Um….” I said as the three members of my party looked at me realizing that I was contemplating coming out.

Before I could say anything, Dylan stood, put out his hand and rescued me, “Dylan James, and this is my brother Brody.” He said without giving any more of an explanation and no one asked. We all hung out and got to know each other, the four of them were actually a lot of fun. It turned out that Jeb and Tommy grew up about a mile from Grammaw’s place and knew our house. They complimented Brody on all the work he had done on the exterior of the house and cleaning up the land. After about an hour and a half of drinking and talking, Laurie asked me, “So, how do y’all know each other?”

Brody jumped in to rescue me this time “Max and me both went to college in Milwaukee and lived in the same building.”

I appreciated him and Dylan both trying to save me from having to come out, but I decided now was as good of time as any. I took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, and we’re getting married In October.” Brody, Gina, and Dylan all got quiet and just watched the group, waiting for a reaction.

Laurie didn’t really know how to react and just smiled and said “oh. That’s nice.”

Sara let out an over-the-top squeal followed by, “Oh my god, I had no clue. That’s great.” Jeb subtly pushed his chair back a little further from us, and Tommy smirked as he looked both me and Brody up and down. It was definitely a mixed reaction. Sarah asked us a million questions about our relationship and the wedding, Tommy became more engaged in the conversation, and the other two got kind of quiet.

“Listen,” I said to the four of them, “for obvious reasons, I’m not quite comfortable coming out at work yet, I’d appreciate if we could keep this between us.” They all nodded.

“Of course,” Sarah said and then continued her interrogation. The others nodded in agreement. After drinks, the eight of us walked around the shops some more and ended up at Gina’s place. She showed our new friends her empty apartment, then they said goodnight and we all promised to get together soon. By the time they left, Laurie and Jeb seemed comfortable around us again.

Gina was the first to speak, “That was a little awkward, are you okay?”

“Yeah” I responded. “I didn’t plan on coming out to them yet, but it’s a small town and hell, we’ve only known them a week and already ran into them. It’s bound to happen again. Plus, I feel more comfortable coming out to them than anyone else at work.”

“They seem cool” Dylan added.

“I think Tommy has a lil’ secret of his own” Brody said with a smirk.

“Yeah, I caught it too” I said. Gina and Dylan both scrunched their faces and looked at us not catching our drift. “We think he’s gay” I said for clarification.

“That good ole boy?!” Dylan barked with wide eyes, “Naw! Why would y’all think that?”

Almost in unison Brody and I said, “he was totally checking us out!” Making all four of us laugh. We talked about it for a bit, and the more we talked the more Gina started to think we were right, Dylan on the other hand just kept shaking his head and telling us we were way off base.

“He don’t act gay at all” Dylan argued.

I rolled my eyes at him as I barked back, “What the hell is that supposed to mean. Do we act gay?!” Brody shot him a look as we waited for him to dig his way out.

Dylan back pedaled quickly, “You know what I mean” and we bickered back and forth for a little while about what gays were supposed to act like. I’m pretty sure Dylan regretted that comment. After some light-hearted bickering, we talked about inviting them to the wedding but decided to wait to see how things played out.

It was late when I said, “we should be heading home.” Brody agreed and we walked towards the exit. Gina followed us to the door and said good night while Dylan stood behind her, not leaving. They couldn’t wait to get us out that door. ‘Hmmmmm’ I thought to myself with a smile. ‘I’m way better at this matchmaking shit than Laurie.’

As soon as we got in the car Brody asked, “do you think he’s spending the night?”

I just raised my eyebrows as I cranked the engine and chuckled, “Probably, but if I know Gina, he aint getting lucky tonight. She made Teddy work for it when they first got together.”

Brody just laughed at that and said “That’ll be good for him. He needs somebody to challenge him.”

On the way home Brody asked if I was okay with coming out to my two coworkers “I know this is way sooner than you had planned, and not how you wanted it to come out.” He said empathetically.

I just sighed “Well, I was a little freaked out. I really wanted to wait until I was more established there… but I knew I’d have to deal with it sooner or later.” I wasn’t thrilled with the way it all went down, but it was out there now and I had to rely on the discretion of Laurie and Sarah. I’d just have to wait and see how it played out.

As soon as we got home, we headed to the bedroom. We were both tired, but that didn’t stop us. We stripped, went into the bathroom to brush our teeth, then jumped into bed naked. Brody spooned me from behind and pushed his hard manhood into my ass crack, moving it up and down. I pushed back against him in encouragement. Oh my god it felt so damn good, There was something about being in Brody’s arms that just made the rest of the world melt away. I was a tiny bit buzzed, and exhausted as hell from my first week of teaching but Brody’s probing was giving me a second wind. With his arms wrapped around me he pinched my nipples making me moan and push back harder. The pain mixed with pleasure felt so fucking good, like an escape.

I turned my head back and our lips met in a passionate kiss. My cock quickly grew to full mast as he ground into me, I just loved being naked with him. I ended up flipping around so we were face to face with our hard cocks pushing into each other as we full-on made out, it was just so raw and passionate. I reached behind him and grabbed his smooth bubble butt pulling him to me as I pushed into him hard and grunted into our kiss. I felt his warm hand move down my chest, over my abs, then grasp my hard manhood. He slowly started to stroke me making me writhe and moan. I was taller than Brody by about six inches, and definitely had a broader, more powerful build, yet he was the aggressor. He was the dominant one and I loved it.

He kept kissing me hard as he stroked my engorged manhood and whispered, “turn back around.” I flipped around so my back was too him again, meanwhile he reached in the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out the bottle of lube and squirted some on his fingers. I felt his soft lips on my neck as he slathered the cold gel up and down my ass crack. A soft but guttural moan escaped my lips as his finger breached my sphincter. “You like that don’t you?” He asked quietly as I moaned and pushed my ass back in approval, taking him even deeper. He probed my hole with his middle finger and hit my prostate perfectly. I moved my bottom back and forth, fucking myself on his finger as he continued to probe and kiss me. “You ready for another one?” He asked.

“Yes” I whimpered, “fucking yes. Fuck me with your fingers.” I swear I was drooling on the pillow in front of me as I basked in the euphoric sensation of his ring finger stretching my tight, pink pucker. Oh god, it felt amazing! I pushed back and gyrated my hips and begged for more.

“You want another one?” He breathed into my ear.

“Fuck yes” I panted back. My ass ring resisted as he tried to add his index finger, but Brody persisted. He added more lube and pushed harder. I soon opened up and invited half his hand into my ass. Three fucking fingers probing and massaging my prostate was almost more than I could stand. I could feel my orgasm building in my balls “Oh my god, I’m so close.” I grunted in lust.

Brody pulled his fingers out completely and immediately replaced them with his hard cock. With one thrust he was all the way in me making me wail for more. “OH, MY FUCKING GOD YES!” He pulled back and plunged forward hard and rough knowing exactly what I needed at that moment; a good fuck to help me escape from a stressful week. He pounded in and out then he did something he had never done before… I felt a finger slip in above his dick probing for my prostate again. He fucking found it! Oh. My. Fucking. God! He was fucking me hard with his big cock and massaging my prostate with his long finger. My eyes were in the back of my head, drool was forming at the corners of my mouth, and my cock was pulsating on the verge of shooting without me even touching it. I was clutching my pillow for dear life, I wanted to scream in pleasure and warn him that I was cumming, but words wouldn’t form. All that came out was a weird moan, grunt, whimper hybrid that probably made all the little woodland creatures living around the house scurry for shelter. The load in my balls was boiling and rising up my rigid shaft ready to shoot. My noises became louder as I shot my load onto the sheets.

I don’t even know if Brody knew I was cumming, but he was the recipient of the spoils of my orgasm as my already tight hole gripped him even more firmly and milked the load right out of him. “I’m cumming, Maxwell. I’m cumming” he panted breathlessly into my ear as he unloaded shot after shot of his hot essence deep into my bowels. He kept pumping and pumping, his finger still massaging my P-spot. Several minutes later we both just collapsed, Brody nuzzled his face into my sweaty neck and wrapped his arms around me.

Finally, my words came out “That was so fucking intense” I said panting.

“Hell, yeah it was” Brody breathed into my ear. I could almost hear his satisfied smile as we both lay there heaving and trying to catch our breath after an amazing fuck. We fell asleep in our own filth with my tiny power-top holding me tight. It was my version of heaven.

The next morning, we got up and showered together lovingly soaping each other up and down, sharing a tender morning moment. We had breakfast and talked about out plans for the day. Brody had picked up the wedding invitations from the printer on his way home from work the day defore, so we decided to address them and send them out before we did anything else. After we ate, I cleared the table and Brody got the invitations and printed out our guest list. I made us a fresh pot of coffee and we went to work. As we addressed the envelopes, we talked about all our friends and how excited we were to see everyone. Even though we hadn’t even sent the invites out yet, most of our friends had already made their travel plans. Seth’s family (His brother Brad and husband Scotty, Scotty’s brother Kev, and His husband Randy) were leaving the kids at home and had reserved a beach house on Wrightsville beach through Airbnb. Our friends from College (Cam, Elliot, Teddy, Eric, and his boyfriend Hunter) reserved the place next door. They were all making a vacation of it. I was lucky to have negotiated three days off around the wedding when I accepted the position. They didn’t like teachers taking time off during the school year, especially new teachers, but they were desperate for teachers and made an exception. The more we talked, the more excited I got about the wedding. We finished the invites in a few hours and I put a few extras away in case we decided to invite Laurie and Sarah, or maybe some other new friends.

We cleaned up the table and put the stamped invites in a box to take to the Post Office. It was about noon and I was getting ready to work in the garden and Brody was going to spend some time in front of his easel. As we were getting ready to go to work Dylan called Brody and asked us to meet him at Gina’s. They were out furniture shopping all morning and had a pick-up truck full of stuff, and another truckload coming from the a local furniture store. “Change in plans” Brody said. “We’re going to Gina’s to move some furniture.”

“Gina called you?” I asked.

“Nope. Dylan” He responded and we both chuckled. She had Dylan working hard.

I rolled my eyes and laughed “Gina. She knows how to work a straight boy.” We got into our moving duds and headed over to Gina’s in Old Blue stopping to drop the invitations off at the Post Office on the way (no turning back now, not that I wanted to). Damn, she had bought a lot of shit. When Dylan greeted us by his truck at the curb I quipped, “Nice outfit.” He was wearing the same clothes he was when we left him at Gina’s the night before.

He blushed uncharacteristically and said “Nothin’ happened. I just stayed here last night so she wouldn’t have to be alone in a new, empty place.” Dylan really was a good guy, and I believed him. Brody of course gave his brother shit about it all day. We moved the pick-up to the back of the building to the loading zone and filled the freight elevator with furniture and took it up to Gina’s. Gina met us at the door and we moved in the first couple of pieces. She was busy in the kitchen putting away the dishes, cookware, utensils, etc. that she had bought.

While the brothers kept unloading the freight elevator, I helped Gina in the kitchen. “So, you and Dylan?” I asked with a sly grin.

“He just spent the night so I wouldn’t be alone. We both slept in our clothes, nothing happened” she said. Then smiled and added, “yet.” She was hot on his trail. We continued to talke as we organized her tiny kitchen.

Brody and Dylan brought in two cute barstools and put them in front of the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, then set a medium sized, round vintage kitchen table with four plastic formed chairs by the window in the kitchen. “That’s the last of it” Dylan said.

“Dylan knows where to shop” she said smiling at her prey. “I got all this stuff from a couple of vintage stores, then I bought a living room set and bedroom set at a furniture store in town… all on clearance. They’re delivering everything later today.” She took a deep breath as she looked around the slowly filling up room. “I actually didn’t even have to use my credit cards, I’m right at my budget.” After we finished putting stuff away Gina said “Why don’t you guys come over for dinner tomorrow night. I should have everything done by tonight, and you can be my first official house guests.” We agreed, then left her and Dylan alone and headed home again.

It was late afternoon when Brody finally got to spend some time in front of his easel and I got to work in the garden. I couldn’t believe how much it had grown in just a couple of days. Damn, there was so much more to pick and so much to weed out. I freaking loved it. After a few hours we decided to go to dinner and do some shopping. We ate at the Olive Garden (ugh… not my first choice, but I was hungry), then hit Lowe’s and found a HomeGoods store.

Sunday morning, we got up early and Brody went to work on his studio. It was close to finished, he was just adding some final touches, it was pretty awesome. I on the other hand went to work on a housewarming gift for Gina. I found a big metal ice bucket… I guess you could call it a trough… at HomeGoods and filled it with jars of homemade pickles, marinara sauce, salsa, spices, pickled peppers, dilly beans, etc. I put a bunch of fresh vegetables from the garden in, and added a couple of bags of tortilla chips, some pasta, and a bottle of wine for good measure. The thing looked amazing but weighed a shit-ton!

After a quick shower together, we headed over to Gina’s for her inaugural dinner party. I lugged the giant cornucopia of my labor up to her third floor loft. She opened the door dressed to kill, suddenly I felt underdressed. Brody of course didn’t give a crap, he was comfortable. “I didn’t know this was going to be a dress-up occasion” I said.

“Well, I just felt like dressing up” she said as she opened the door. Holy shit! Her place looked amazing. Her furniture was beautiful and fit perfectly, she had some Erykah Badu playing on her Bluetooth speaker, and had lit a few candles and the kitchen table was set perfectly for four. It was like a big-city oasis in the middle of rural America. I couldn’t believe this was the same empty shell I saw just two nights ago. She looked at the monstrosity I was lugging and asked excitedly, “Is that for me?”

“Oh!” I exclaimed forgetting about the heavy trough of down-home goodness in my arms. “Yeah, from our home to yours” I said as I lugged it over to the counter and set it down. It looked perfect (but huge) sitting there.

“Oh my god! Did you make all this?” she asked as I nodded. “So, this what you’ve been up to for the past couple of weeks.” She said as she rummaged through the fruits of my domestication. I smiled proudly. Yes … I was damn proud of myself. “You’ve gone from big city boy to country girl pretty damn fast.” Gina kidded. Well, I wasn’t quite fully adjusted, but I was definitely on my way… oh, and I decided to let the ‘country girl’ remark slide… at least for the moment.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Gina opened the door and there stood Dylan in a pair of brand new blue jeans and a black button down silk shirt with a fresh haircut and beard trim holding an amazing bouquet of flowers in a beautiful vase. Every straight country girl’s dream (I would guess every gay bear’s dream too). Gina squealed a little and instinctively gave him a kiss as she took the vase from her suiter. “I figured y’all didn’t have a vase yet, so I brought ya’ one” he said with a toothy grin. He was “courtin’” her, and it was cute as hell. Gina put the over-the-top bouquet on the tiny coffee table as Dylan came in and looked around the place. “Damn, Gina. You whipped this place into shape… and dinner smells awesome.”

Gina smiled and said “I’m not the greatest cook, but I found this awesome scallop casserole recipe, and made some asparagus and a salad. I also made some crescent rolls and picked up a cake for dessert, I hope it’s enough. FYI, it wasn’t. She was just learning to cook and didn’t factor in that the three of us ate like pigs. It tasted awesome and we ate every damn crumb! Luckily, the cake filled us up. It was a nice evening and the soulful R&B music was a nice break from the country music I’d been accustomed to, I really did feel like I was in a high rise in the middle of Manhattan. Gina did an incredible job with her place. Brody and I only stayed until about 9:00, then headed home, Monday was a school day. But Dylan stayed behind… again.

The next morning at school Gina and I were having coffee in my classroom before the kids got there and she gave me the scoop. According to her Dylan was nothing but a gentleman, they had made out a little over the weekend, but that was the end of it, they were taking it slow. “I really like him, Max. Why the hell is he still single?” She asked.

“Because he likes them beautiful and stupid according to BA” I answered looking her square in the eye. “He’s too damn smart for the girls he dates, in walk you… beautiful and smart as hell.” She laughed and even blushed a little at my compliment.

“He asked me to be his date to your wedding” she said, “I said yes, but if Teddy comes it could get weird.”

“Well, get ready for weird because he’s coming. I talked to Cam the other day and he rented and Airbnb for him, Elliot, Eric, Hunter, and Teddy.”

“Shit” Gina said under her breath. She loved Teddy, but he wasn’t the right guy for her in the long run, however, he still had his heart set on her. “It’s going to be awkward.” As we were talking, Sarah came into my classroom.

“Hey!” She said cheerfully. “It was fun running into y’all the other night. I hope it wasn’t too awkward” she said looking at me.

“No, it was cool” I said with a smile. “how was your date?” I said with a knowing smirk.

She smirked back and said, “I think you know how it was.” Then added “When I lived in Chicago, I had a place near Boys town… He’s not the first gay guy I dated.”

I laughed and asked, “Does Laurie know he’s gay?”

“Oh god no! But I figured it out about ten seconds after I met him” she said. “When Laurie and Jeb finally left us alone, I went in for a kiss and he admitted he was gay. It’s fine by me. I need a friend more than a boyfriend, and he needs a beard so it worked out fine.” I was chuckling, and Gina was still in in shock. “By the way” Sarah added, “he thinks you and Brody are cute as hell.” I laughed again. We talked for another ten minutes or so before the two ladies left and went to their respective classrooms.

From that point on, Gina and Sarah started hanging out together after school, Laurie always seemed to be busy whenever they invited her to join them. As the wedding approached, we decided to invite Sarah and Laurie… I really just wanted to invite Sarah, but I couldn’t just leave Laurie out. It worked out just fine because Sarah accepted and invited Tommy as her plus one (he wouldn’t miss it for the world), and Laurie and Jeb politely decline.

I was quickly learning where I fit in.

To be continued…