Ethan meets young dad Oliver on a cruise and pines for what he knows is out of reach…
As Oliver lifted Finn up, and began the acrobatics of twisting him into position, his t-shirt got caught up in the process and rode nearly half-way up his torso. Although the crowd and dim lighting didn’t provide for the best view, Ethan couldn’t help but notice Oliver’s decidedly manly dad-bod. He had a slight belly that pushed just a little bit against what Ethan could have sworn was a Star-Wars belt buckle, with a narrow trail of hair that began north of his belly button and grew slowly wider until it disappeared into his jeans. And those jeans had slid down just enough in the back to reveal the bright blue and yellow plaid of his boxers. Kind of sexy and adorable all at once. Ethan felt his face flush and his pulse quicken; until that moment he hadn’t seen Oliver as anything other than a guy his age on a ship filled mostly with his grandfather’s contemporaries, who could potentially be someone to do a few of the more adventurous Alaskan activities that Warren might not be up for. That little glimpse of tummy and waistband made him feel something altogether different. But given the circumstances—wife, kid, and his own grandfather in tow—that was a set of feelings that he would just have to let go. He sighed. Cute and sexy straight guys—even ones who shared his interests—seemed a dime a dozen. Similar gay guys? The world seemed like an echo chamber…
…but did he write off his new shipboard buddy too soon?
The idea didn’t thrill Oliver. Not that he cared so much about changing in front of anyone—having played a lot of sports he’d stopped being self-conscious of that years ago—but who knew how many other guys had ‘gone commando’ in the suit before him? It was kind of gross. He glanced back at Ethan, and from the smirk on his face he could tell he was having a similar inner dialogue.
“Yeah—ick,” he said by way of confirmation. Then he sighed. “But fuck it! No way this thing’s gonna go on over these,” he said tugging at the baggy leg of his board shorts. And with that he slipped his hands into his waistband, pushed his shorts and suit to the floor, and stepped out of the whole tangled mess. He then bent down, grabbed the shorts, tossed them in his locker, stepped back into the suit, and slid it straight up past his waist in one fluid movement. Two more quick twists and he had his arms in the suit, and the whole thing zipped up.
Oliver, on the other hand, was still standing there frozen in place, his wetsuit and board shorts bunched together halfway up his thighs. Despite his apparent immobility his heart was racing, and he was sure his face had gone from slightly flushed to beet red. And he was completely and totally confused. It had taken Ethan probably less than ten or fifteen seconds to shuck his shorts, toss them in the locker, and pull himself completely into the wetsuit. But in those few seconds he had managed to moon Oliver twice. Not intentionally, he was sure—but the small space just didn’t allow for bending down in much any other direction. So Oliver got a full moon—complete with surprisingly large balls swinging beneath a hairy butt crack. But what shook Oliver and rendered him motionless wasn’t so much what he saw—he’d seen his share of butts and balls in lockerrooms over the years—but the nearly instant emotional reaction he felt the moment Ethan yanked down his shorts. It was such an unexpected and intimate sight—something that wouldn’t have even occurred to him that he would see (or care to see, for that matter), but it somehow made him feel closer to Ethan. It was like he’d suddenly been given a little peek into a very private and privileged part of this guy he was just becoming friends with, and that brought on a rush of fear and excitement he wasn’t prepared for. Which was absolutely weird and insane, since that private peek was quite literally of the guy’s ass crack. Why the hell would THAT be something that made him feel closer to Ethan?
And then it clicked. “Oh my god.” He liked Ethan. He really liked Ethan. Like like-liked him. What the fuck??