Jake
Andy and I had had sex. That was a thing that had happened. Fortunately, Andy seemed perfectly normal afterward, even being intentionally goofy. It dispelled the awkward immediately.
Postorgasm, we went out to sit in the sun. I hadn’t had much breakfast, and I had the postsex munchies. I would have loved to take a bag of pretzels onto the dock and snack, but eating was such a hassle that I dismissed the idea. Emily had made us wraps, as usual, and they were in the fridge, but I’d eat that later when I was starving enough that it was worth all the effort and mess.
“Want to watch some of Walking Dead tonight?” Andy asked as we got settled into the warmth and the lassitude.
“If you want. Or Plan Z is on the Syfy channel tonight,” I suggested.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a zombie movie. Plan Z-eeeeee.” I drew out the letter ominously.
He shuddered. “I dunno. My dad talks about ‘plan Z.’ Not really good associations for me.”
“Oh? What’s your dad’s ‘plan Z’?” Knowing Andy’s dad, it was probably some stock scheme.
Andy put his feet up on the little wooden table we used as a foot bench. The sight of his long, bare legs, dusted with blond hair, did weird things to my gut. “My dad had a client, for like fifteen years. And this guy kept doing things to secure a good retirement. First he worked for a start-up company. Bio-tech or something. He gave ten years of his life to it. It was supposed to go public and make him all this money because he had tons of stock.”
“Yeah.”
“Only then it went wrong, some patents fell through or something, and the company went bankrupt.”
“That sucks.”
“Right. So then this guy started his own business, invested his savings, sure he was going to earn a few million to fund his retirement. But the business never took off.”
I had a feeling this story didn’t have a happy ending.
“So then he wrote a book, tried to make it a blockbuster, was going to get a movie deal and all that. Only the book came out and sold a hundred copies or something. There were some other things too I don’t remember. But the guy kept saying this is ‘plan B’ then ‘plan C’ and so on.”
“So what happened?” It was almost like telling ghost stories. I settled in my chair, appreciating the rays of the sun and the sound of the water lapping the shore. I propped my feet up on the bench too.
“Finally, this guy hits his sixtieth birthday, and he had no retirement and not much savings left. He hadn’t paid off his mortgage because he was always investing in these schemes. He joked to my dad that ‘plan X’ was that he was going to keep working for the rest of his life.”
“Bummer.”
“Only then he got sick and couldn’t work.”
Andy stopped as if that were the end of the story.
“So what was ‘plan Z’?” I prompted.
Andy put two fingers in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
“Oh my God!” I said, disgusted and horrified. It was one thing to tell ghost stories, but this was too real and not funny at all.
Andy shrugged. “I know. But it happens. It happens more than you’d think. My dad sees it all the time.” His voice sounded strained.
“Well, Christ, Andy. You’re not going to end up with plan Z!”
“I know I’m not,” Andy said firmly. “Because I won’t let that happen. But like my dad said, nothing’s guaranteed. Even if you work hard, you might not get there. Top law firms like the one my mom works for, they have good retirement bennies and golden parachutes and stuff like that. Very few companies have that anymore. Does Neverware have a pension plan?”
I mentally reviewed my employment contract. “No. But they have a 401K.”
Andy nodded, as if he’d expected as much. “You need to max that out, Jake, every single year. Don’t wait.”
“Jesus, I’m twenty-two, bro! I need to get an apartment and a car and other stuff to just live first.”
“Don’t put it off, man. I’m telling you,” Andy said gravely.
I rolled my eyes behind my sunglasses. Andy’s dad had sure done a number on him. Not that it was a bad thing, being concerned about your future. Andy was lucky to have a dad who gave a shit, tried to teach him things. That was way better than my dad. And it was all smart, I knew that. But I wanted to at least live a little before I started worrying about my retirement. I didn’t say it.
“So this is your agenda?” I asked. “Seduce my nubile self and then terrify me?”
Andy snorted. “Sorry. I don’t know why that even came up.” He leaned forward and took a drink of his iced tea.
“Gah! Depressing. Maybe we should discuss the Holocaust while we’re at it. Or leprosy.”
He nudged my leg with his foot. We’d taken to doing that, using our feet to express things our hands couldn’t right now. But, this time, his foot lingered, trailing down my calf and then settling half over mine, the cool of his bare sole on the sun-heated top of my foot. I swallowed.
“We could watch Vikings,” I suggested. “We have it queued up on Netflix.”
“Yeah, let’s. I’ve been dying to get to that.”
We sat on the dock, and Andy chatted away about Vikings—the real-life ones, which he’d read a couple of history books about. But my mind began to roam elsewhere.
Looking at his long, sturdy foot so casually draped over mine, I got a warm, nervous, swoopy feeling in my stomach, something like I imagined astronauts would feel in zero gravity. My mind went back to what had happened less than an hour ago,
I had sex with Andy. I’d seen him hard. I’d had him in my mouth. I’d swallowed his come. And he had done the same to me. Talk about a mind-fuck. I’d spent years fantasizing about that, and it had just happened.
It had been awkward at first. When I’d imagined getting naked with Andy, it hadn’t been like that. I’d imagined kissing and other stuff first, easing into it. But what we’d done was just—Hey, here’s my stiffy, let’s get off. It’d been weird because there was a strain of us-ness to it that was so casual and everyday. Like we were hanging out doing any old thing. Like we were just two bros jerking off.
At first. But then he was right in front of me, hard and perfect and real. So undeniably real. The moment he pushed into my mouth, the awkward was wiped away. I felt a lust so massive and powerful it was like an avalanche that had been building up and building up, held in place by the thinnest spider’s web. That web had snapped, ka-pow!
God, the sensation of him in my mouth, the excitement of being that close to him, smelling him, tasting him, getting him off; the incredible hotness of being up close and personal with his hard dick, his inexperienced enthusiasm on the other side. I loved the way he’d just gone for it, the way he did everything else—wholeheartedly and with determination. And he had liked it. Sure, he’d been horny as fuck and probably could have gotten off in a stiff breeze. But still. It hadn’t put him off. The gay thing. The cock-in-his-mouth thing. He hadn’t gone soft, and he’d moaned around my—
Oh God, I was getting boned up again sitting on the dock.
“So. Vikings.” I cleared my throat.
“Huh?”
I’d interrupted some monologue Andy had been giving about longships.
I scrambled for something more intelligent to say. “Um . . . those were the same ships used to invade France too? Because they’re long and . . . ships?”
There was a moment of silence, then Andy laughed as if I’d said the funniest thing. “You weren’t listening, were you? I’ve been prattling on for ten minutes!”
“I was making an effort to be polite,” I said, faking a hurt tone.
“Yeah, well, fail.” Andy nudged his sunglasses onto his forehead with his wrist and looked at my crotch. “Already? God, Jake. You’re incorrigible.”
His foot had moved off mine at some point, so I kicked him lightly in the leg. “I’m just sitting here! I’m innocent as a baby.”
“No, I was just sitting here talking, authentically, about important historical facts, and you’re over there with a glazed look thinking about sex.”
“I am not!” I lied.
He chuckled. “I wonder if we could manage to last longer than two minutes this time? What do you think?” His tone was both flirty and utterly natural. And there was a dare in there too. I forgot how to breathe.
“Ten minutes,” I suggested, when I could speak again. “We could have Siri set a timer. No coming till it goes off.”
“You’re on. But if one person says ‘stop,’ the other person has to pause.”
“Agreed.”
I wasn’t sure which of us moved first, but in under sixty seconds we were back on my bed, naked.
Siri held our balls to the fire, but we both outlasted her.