I woke up just long enough to open one eye when Sven rolled out of bed. I didn’t say anything, and I assumed that he was headed for the bathroom. I was awake long enough to see him wrap his naked body in a bathrobe, but I think I had fallen back asleep before he made it out of the room.

Some time later, I woke up and Sven was still gone. I was startled at first. I blinked my eyes and scanned the room to make sure of where I was. My first thought was a worry that I’d dreamed the whole encounter the night before, and I was in my bed in my own apartment.

Then I saw a framed poster of a large city on the opposite wall with the caption, “Minneapolis, Minnesota.” I knew instantly that I was still in Sven’s bed.

Rolling over I sniffed at the pillow beside me. It still smelled of the clean soap and shampoo from the shower that we shared. I thought about wrapping my arms around Sven’s naked body and kissing his neck. It didn’t take more than seconds for my cock to grow hard again.

Listening closely, I heard sounds from downstairs. I couldn’t quite make out what they were. I heard light clinking or clanking sounds, and I decided to slip out of bed and make my way to the bathroom.

Before I left the room, I noticed a second bathrobe hanging on a hook behind the door. It was lightweight flannel, and it smelled like Sven. I wrapped myself up in it. The fit was good except that it was a little long. Sven had an advantage over me on height.

While I was in the bathroom, a familiar aroma drifted up the stairs from down below. It was the smell of frying bacon. Sven was cooking breakfast for the two of us.

As I switched off the light in the bathroom, I contemplated the choice of making my way downstairs or returning to bed. I realized there was a chance Sven might be planning to bring breakfast upstairs to share in bed.

I decided that I didn’t want to spoil his surprise if that was case. Reasoning that it would be easy enough to make my way down the staircase if his plan was to eat in the kitchen, I kept the bathrobe on and climbed back into bed. Sprawled across the bed on my back, it didn’t take long for me to drift back to sleep.

Unaware of exactly how long I’d dozed, I started back awake when I heard footsteps creeping up the stairs. Sven stepped through the door to the bedroom wrapped in a fluffy terrycloth bathrobe and carrying a tray of breakfast food and beverages.

He had a wicker stand that would fit across my legs in the bed. It was obvious that the food wasn’t just for me. Sven prepared two plates with bacon, eggs and toast as well as glasses of orange juice and steaming hot mugs of coffee.

“Good morning, sunshine,” said Sven.

I pulled myself up to a sitting position and rubbed my eyes with my fists. No one ever brought me breakfast in bed in the past. Even when I was sick as a kid, my mom just brought food on paper plates and in paper cups with admonishments not to spill.

I said, “This is amazing. You did this just for me?”

“Well, nothing is too good for our new softball hero!”

Laughing, I said, “Yeah, now I just have a reputation to try and match.”

Sven said, “I really didn’t make it all because of the softball playing. I did it because I wanted to have breakfast in bed with you. Is it okay to be at least partially selfish about it?”

I said, “I think that’s perfectly fine.” He set the tray down over my legs, and I pulled the sheets open on the other side of the bed. “You can drop the robe, Sven, and just slip back in here with me.”

He pointed at the tray and said, “There’s cloth napkins there in case you want to guard against getting things on your naked self.”

I said, “Well, maybe if I did, I would want you to just lick it off.”

Sven laughed. He said, “That would be fun, but I figured you also might want just a little bit of protection in case you spill the hot coffee.”

I cringed. “That is a good point. Ouch.” I picked up a slice of bacon, and it was crispy enough that it nearly shattered in my grip. “This is perfect, Sven. You cooked it just how I like it.”

He said, “My mom taught me that. She said the trick is to get it done to right before being burnt.”

I pushed a piece into my mouth and said, “Yum, perfect.”

The coffee was still hot, and I liked having the contrast of the cold orange juice. He asked, “What’s our plan for today? I guess we didn’t talk about it at all last night. It’s a Sunday, so I’m completely off. Do you have to work, Lowell?”

I shook my head. “Not today unless they call me at the last minute. I’ve got the whole day off. Maybe we should just spend it in my bed. We can fuck, and then we can sleep, then we can fuck, and take a shower, and then we can sleep again. That sounds like a good day to me.”

“What about food?” asked Sven.

I said, “There’s pizza delivery. I guess one of us would have to get out of bed to answer the door, but that’s it. You’ve got this nice little tray.” I swallowed a mouthful of the orange juice and leaned my head on Sven’s shoulder.

He sighed and said, “Well, as much fun as that sounds. I would probably feel bad with myself for blowing off an entire day and getting nothing at all done.”

I looked at him with mock disgust. “You are a slave driver, aren’t you?”

“If I have help available, I think it’s a good policy to make use of it,” said Sven in his best young executive voice.

I ate a forkful of scrambled eggs and then smiled. “Wow, these are so creamy. You really can cook better than me.”

Sven said, “None of this is particularly difficult, but yeah, I kind of pride myself on knowing the basics of cooking. My mom would be proud, too.”

I asked, “Can I be serious for a minute?”

Sven sipped at his coffee and said, “Of course you can. I’m not all just jokes and laughs.”

I placed one hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but that’s an understatement. When I first met you again that day at softball practice, you were all straight-laced and serious. I like seeing that you’ve loosened up a little.”

He said, “A lot for me.”

“Well, I just wanted to say that I’ve never felt so relaxed and comfortable with anyone before. Even when I was growing up with my own parents.” I held out a slice of bacon for Sven, and he bit off the end. The crunch made me smile.

I continued by saying, “Most of my life I’ve run into people that are judgmental in one way or another. They either say I won’t amount to anything, or I should have amounted to more.”

“But you’re only 28,” interrupted Sven.

I said, “Exactly, and I don’t plan to work in retail for the rest of my life. I made some poor choices earlier, but then it’s all been sort of random. Philosophy majors don’t find jobs easily. With the right alignment of the planets, I could have just as easily ended up in one of those offices in a high rise building downtown like you.”

Sven said, “Well, it’s not quite so simple as that.”

“Oh, I agree, and I wasn’t meaning to minimize your efforts. In fact, I’m starting to understand how sticking with something can bring rewards. I mean, you do go down to that office everyday, and you work in that big bank, and here we are spending all our nights together in this great house. I get how you’ve worked for this. Maybe I need to look at my lack of plans again.”

Sven smiled, and I loved seeing that smile. He said, “If you want me to dig around a little and see if there are any opportunities available…”

I held up a hand. “Whoa. Just because I’m starting to have a moment here, we don’t need to rush things along too fast. Let me enjoy the revelation.” I turned toward him and kissed him on the cheek. “Of course I could use a better paying job than retail, but I think I’ve got things back on track again. I scraped enough cash together the other day to spruce up a couple of things in the apartment.”

While Sven sipped at his coffee, I dug a knife into the grape jelly jar that he thoughtfully included on the tray. I spread it in a thin layer across the already buttered toast. I said, “This is just like when I was a kid. Grape jelly on toast.”

Sven said, “It goes great with peanut butter, too.” Then he added, “It’s not like you’re the only one that’s figured a few things out, Lowell.”

I reached under the sheet and slipped my hand along his inner thigh. “You mean you figured out what a sexy guy I am?”

Sven laughed that deep, rolling laugh that I loved. Then he said, “I have to admit that my life was pretty dull before you fell on me at the softball game.”

“Fell on you?” I asked. “You knocked me down, you brute.”

“Either way, it felt pretty good, didn’t it?” asked Sven.

I nodded. “Yeah, I have to admit that you’re right about that.”

Sven continued his comments. He said, “Life with Stuart was pretty dull. He was really picky about everything, and we never did anything but eat, shop, and watch TV. Once in awhile we went out to dinner or a movie, but there was never anything unique.”

I wrinkled up my face and asked, “Well, why did you stay with him? You said he walked out on you, right? You didn’t leave him.”

Sven said, “That’s how I thought things were supposed to be. I found a guy. He was kind of cute. I bought a house. I figured that after a few more months we would move in together. Eventually we would get married, and then we would grow old together as a couple of geezers rocking in chairs on the front porch.”

“And never ever jump out of a plane.”

Sven shook his head. He said, “We wouldn’t even have a candlelight dinner on the beach.”

I turned toward him and said, “Well, you were pretty damn lucky to find me, weren’t you?”

He laughed and said, “I don’t think I told you what happened at work the other day.”

I raised an eyebrow. “No, you didn’t. Aren’t you supposed to share things like that with me now. I think it’s in the rulebook somewhere that after a certain number of dates we start to share things like that.”

“Are you interested in what goes on at my bank?” asked Sven.

I grimaced briefly, and then I said, “I’m interested in what happens to you. Is that good enough?”

Sven smiled and said, “That’s a good answer. Anyway, I had this horrible day of meetings planned, and for part of it, I had to explain why we didn’t meet some of our performance goals.”

I said, “Aww damn, I bet that was rough, Sven.” I ran my fingers along his inner thigh again.

He grabbed my hand and said, “Quit trying to distract me. I’m trying to tell a story. Anyway, I started thinking about ideas that seemed good to me, but I thought they were a little risky. I thought there was a chance of negative repercussions from bringing them up.”

I opened my eyes wider and looked at him. Sven looked just like a little boy who was sharing something exciting with anybody who would listen. I asked, “Did you go ahead and bring them up anyway.”

Sven said, “Yes, I did, and you know what?”

“Well, I don’t think you got fired.”

He smirked at me and said, “No, they thought they were great ideas, and I cut our meeting time for the week in half. It turned out to be a great day, Lowell. Thank you for the inspiration.”