CHAPTER 6
This is a fictional story dealing with love and consensual sexual activities between males. If you are not of legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now.
The author retains all rights to this story. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the permission of the author.
Note: Thanks to Tim and Rock for feedback on the draft chapters. I owe a special thanks to Robb for doing the final proofreading and catching all those silly little errors I missed.
CONSTRUCTION JOB
by Jeff Allen
CHAPTER 6
The rest of the summer passed quickly. Michael stayed with me full time with occasional day trips up to Oakdale for more clothes or tools. We got together with Gary Griffith and Matt Stevenson on a regular basis, and the four of us were on the way to becoming good friends. I talked with Bart and Isaac often while walking to school in the mornings. The two of them were taking another class together for the second summer term. I only saw Brandon and Josh a couple of times because they weren't taking any classes in the second summer term and were busy working.
My focus at school was trying to learn the ropes of being a department chair. Esther Glarrow was no help in that task. Her attitude toward me had not changed. She spoke to me but only when absolutely necessary, and she was sullen and almost defiant the rest of the time. After nearly a month of that treatment, I had a talk with Dean Hamilton. By mid August, Ms. Glarrow had been transferred to another academic department, and I had a new administrative assistant, Lauren Green. She was in her late twenties with two small children. Her husband was one of the techs in our computer services area. I told her I was gay during her interview. She replied that my sexual orientation wasn't a problem for her, in fact it would be nice to have a boss who wouldn't be hitting on her. She was bright, capable, and friendly to the faculty and students. It was a wonderful change from Esther Glarrow's icy cold demeanor.
A week or so before the start of classes, Michael and I were sitting together on the couch reading when he asked, "Does your department ever get together socially? I've never heard you mention anything about that."
I put my book down. "No, we never have."
"Don't you think it would be worthwhile to get together away from the department once in a while?"
"I suppose it would. Nobody's ever taken the initiative to start something."
"Who's responsibility is it to do something like that."
"Well, I suppose it's the chair's responsibility. Boden just wasn't a very social kind of guy. He wasn't even very likeable."
"But you're the chair now."
"I see your point. What would you suggest?"
"You've got a large and shady backyard. What about a potluck picnic the weekend after classes start? That wouldn't be too difficult to do, and people would be able to leave whenever they felt like it."
"Good idea. I could rent some tables and chairs for the seating."
"See, it's practically all planned. Just let me know when you're going to do it, and I'll disappear for the day."
I punched his arm. "Oh, no you don't, Crane! You're not getting out of this one. This is your idea. You've got to help me with it."
"Isn't that going to raise the gay issue if I'm here?"
"Yes, it will, and it might be just the right way to do it. I know I've got to be open with the department. Finding out that I'm gay probably won't be a big surprise to a lot of my colleagues. This way I won't have to say anything directly, but I won't be hiding it either."
"How will you introduce me to the faculty?"
"Why don't I introduce you as my partner?"
Michael was silent for a moment. "Is that a proposal? Do you want me as your partner?"
I put my hand around the back of his neck and guided his head toward me for a kiss. "Yes, it's a proposal. I want us to be partners, and I want you to move in with me."
He chuckled, "I thought we were already living together. I haven't spent a night in my apartment for the last six weeks."
"Then why don't we make it official? Michael, I love you. Will you share your life with me?"
He grinned. "Absolutely. I love you too. I haven't said that before because I was afraid you didn't feel the same way. I started to fall in love with you the first time we had lunch, and I knew I was in love with you by the end of that first weekend I spent here. I've been hoping you'd say something before I had to renew the lease on my apartment."
"When do you have to do that?"
He grinned again. "Next week."
"You turkey."
He leaned toward me. "Turkey? I'll show you who's a turkey." He grabbed my arms and pulled me into a kiss.
Man, what a kiss! When we finally broke apart my cock was hard and leaking precum inside my boxers.
"Nice kiss, Crane. You've got thirty seconds to get naked and meet me in the bed."
It took us a little longer than thirty seconds to get naked, and we took our time in bed that night. He used his tongue on my ass until I was ready to come just from that stimulation. I was begging him to stick his prong inside me, but still he kept probing deeper and deeper with his tongue. Finally he reached over to the nightstand for a condom. I grabbed his wrist.
"We just made a commitment to each other, right?"
"Absolutely and forever."
"Then we don't need that, do we?"
"No." He smiled lovingly at me before putting his face back down and resuming his attack on my asshole with his tongue.
He lined his hard prick up against my hole and started moving in. I was so wet with his saliva and so ready to receive him that he slipped in easily without any lubricant other than his spit and precum.
We moved together. I'd never barebacked with anyone before. I really couldn't tell the difference from the physical feeling, but the emotional feeling was off the chart. There was nothing between my lover and me. Soon he would fill me with his seed. I was truly his.
That weekend we moved all of his stuff out of his apartment and into my house. He didn't have a lot of furniture, but the upright piano presented a problem. We finally moved a chair out of the living room and put it in there.
We were exhausted that night and went to sleep without making love. It was still wonderful. The man I loved had just moved in with me. We were partners!
Michael took charge of all the arrangements for the departmental party. He rented the tables and chairs; he hired Bart, Josh, and Isaac as servers/helpers. We would have had Brandon working also, but he had to work at the restaurant that afternoon.
On the morning of the party Bart, Josh, and Isaac showed up about nine in the morning with Brandon's big Chevy pickup truck to collect the tables, chairs, silverware, and tablecloths from the rental company. I cleaned up the house.
By one everything was ready. All we needed was the guests.
The first couple arrived around two. Shortly after that it was a steady stream of faculty colleagues and their spouses or guests coming up the drive way and into the house. Josh, Isaac, and Bart had donned black slacks and white shirts with nametags for the occasion. They greeted the arrivals, took their covered dishes into the kitchen or out to the tables in the yard, and arranged the food on the tables for easy access and service. Michael and I moved around talking to people.
The first time I introduced Michael as my partner to a colleague it was to one of the most senior members of the department and his wife. I'd been most concerned about the reaction of the senior faculty, especially this very formal gentleman and his wife. I shouldn't have worried. Without missing a beat or batting an eye they simply shook Michael's hand and engaged him in conversation right away.
It didn't always go so smoothly. Some of my colleagues displayed a widening of the eyes and a momentary loss of their ability to speak. One had been in the process of shaking Michael's hand when I uttered the word "partner." He quickly dropped Michael's hand and walked away from us a little quicker than normal. Later I got a chuckle out of watching that particular colleague repeatedly wipe his right hand on his pants as if something sticky and slightly disgusting was on it.
Fortunately that colleague's reaction was the exception to the polite, even welcoming, way Michael was received by most everyone.
Michael and I were separated often during the afternoon. He seemed at ease talking with the people he'd just met. Once I saw him in deep discussion with one colleague whose area was Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American history as was mine. Later that colleague took me aside and praised Michael's knowledge of the Inter War Period. My chest swelled with pride and my eyes misted over with love. They were talking about my partner!
**********
It's been almost a year now since Michael moved in with me and we officially became partners. Like most other couples, we've had a couple of fights. Those disagreements haven't been serious, and the "making up" after the arguing is lots of fun.
Gary Griffith and Matt Stevenson are now our best friends, and through them we've developed a circle of other supportive and interesting friends, both gay and straight.
Gary had told me that when he came out to his departmental colleagues no one paid much attention to the fact that he was gay after a month or so. The same was true for me. There were a few faculty in the History Department that kept their distance for the first semester, but by the start of the second semester I don't think the fact that I'm gay was a big deal to anyone. In fact, unknown to me almost everyone in the department signed a letter that went to the Dean just before Thanksgiving. In the letter, they asked her to call off the national search for a new chair of the History Department and appoint me as the permanent chair. She did.
I'm still getting used to being a department chair. Mostly I like it, but sometimes there're just too darn many meetings and evening social events that I have to attend. I don't mind the meetings and social events so much on the weeks when Michael's out of town on a job. However, when he's here I kind of resent them if they eat into the time I could otherwise be spending with Michael.
Crane Construction has completed the widening of Elm Street. They've got a couple other jobs lined up, but most of the time now Michael is gone from early Monday morning until Friday evening.
Tom, the cat, mopes around when Michael's gone. I know how he feels. Talking with my partner on the phone doesn't replace the feeling of his warm body sitting next to me on the couch or stretched out beside me in bed. When he's not here, I'm reminded of how lonely I was before he arrived in my life. I guess Tom's not the only one that misses Michael.
So much has changed in a little more than a year. Michael has made me happy. I love him more everyday. Sometimes he teases me about how isolated I was before we met. He'll tell me that bringing me out of my shell has been the best construction job he's ever done.
I think so, too.
The End