Wayne Gray

Thanks, Parker. We've all had doubts about our own worth. I think we can all relate to Ben in some way or another thanks to that. Ahhhh ... Terrence. I could envision that scene with absolute clarity in my mind, and the moment everyone in the room realized what was happening. It made me shiver, and then laugh in maniacal glee. I may have gotten a look from my husband for that when the scene was completed. Hehehe. One more to go. And that's coming tomorrow.

Yep. A pair of guys who exclusively bottom or top can be in relationships with one another. I know a pair of tops that make it work. Okay ... so that involves bringing home lucky guys who enjoy bottoming ... but still. 😉

Did you truly expect it to not be Soap Opera-like? I find your lack of faith ... Dramatic! Hehehe. Thanks for reading and commenting, droughtquake.

Hehe. I'm so glad you enjoyed that scene. Yeah, I've been waiting for it too. And we'd all best get that right - Terrence is definitely The Man! Thanks for the comment, Jaybee!

Thanks, chris! Our pairs of guys seem to Finally be moving toward happiness. And, yes ... Terrence was indeed faithful to his boss, Gail. He had the power to undo her, and he chose not to. It was so hard to avoid giving things away when people were so angry at him! 😄 There's one more chapter to go. See you then!

We wanted it to feel as if you were watching a soap when they were in that boardroom. I hope that came across! There's one more short chapter to go. We've got a few things to wrap up yet. Thanks, Tony!

Late in the afternoon on Monday, Frank sat at his desk. Ben had already done his work on the script, and now he watched over his partner's shoulder as Frank finished the rest of the scene. &&& As the Houseboat Floats Episode Scene: Tom and Gerry’s Bedroom "Come on." Lupe pulls Weatherby to his feet. He kisses him soundly … deeply … Weatherby groans as the kiss doesn’t stop. Gerry watches for a few minutes but the moaning and groping make him turn away. "Holy shit.

Hrm ... your fishing expedition nearly worked. 😛

Yes! You nailed it. Georgette didn't come right out and ask if they were screwing each other. Trust me, she wanted to. She's the kind of person who just needs to know! But ... this was her showing restraint. She truly can't help herself. She's not mean, she just wants to be included and to know what is going on. Grant did sort of spin off, I suppose. Brian is tromping over to see if he can pull him back to the group. We'll see how that goes. Troy is definitely having a conversation with Aaron, Georgette, and Natalie. What that might be will be revealed on Thursday. More to come. 🙂 Thanks for writing!

Thanks for commenting, Chris. When it was just him and Troy, Grant could handle things. He was okay with opening up to Troy, baring his soul. But now, at the center of the attention from the friends, Grant is definitely having a harder time. We'll see if Brian can help smooth things over. And since you're so sure about the journal, I guess that means I'll just have to make sure it comes up again. 😛

LOL. You guys are so down on poor Georgette. She didn't actually say anything that might have given things away. It was in how her non-secret keeping mouth verbalized something that should have been innocent. It's just that Grant and all the rest of the friends were hyper-alert for any sort of sign that things were wrong. The reactions of the group really pushed it over for Grant. Almost all friend groups have someone similar to her. Maybe not to her degree, but similar. I love her. She walks into a scene and both the friends and readers sort of just wait for something crazy to come out of her mouth! 😄

That’s a good point - that new relationships can be challenging to friendships. Yet the reverse is true, that friends can be a challenge to new relationships. Friends can make or break them. If they really wanted to, this little pack could do some damage to our guys. Thanks for the great comment, and for reading!

Grant has a right to be pissed. There's a scene in the next chapter that explains why in the best possible way that I can. It's so hard to explain to straight people what it's like to come out, particularly to those who accept you for it (oddly). Yeah, Troy would have made for a bad choice to go get Grant. He's hurting for Grant, and feeling responsible. It wouldn't have been good. Is Brian much better? We'll just have to see how that goes. Brian's number one priority is the happiness and safety of his friends. He knows Grant has been good for Troy ... so let's find out what he does. And ... as I've said above to others, Georgette's sin is that she's a terrible person to safeguard a secret. Any secret. I have a friend like this, and I asked him once, "Why can't you just not talk about stuff when you know I don't want you to?" His response was, "I don't know! I just think about not saying anything, and if something I'm about to do is going to be suspicious, and it eats at me until it just comes out! I'm sorry!" Two days later, another friend approached. "Hey. So, are you mad at Michael (no, not any of the ones here on GA)?" Me: "No. Why?" "Oh, he said you were mad that he can't keep a secret." Guess who I based Georgette on?

Eh, Georgette is who she is. She's not the one creating secrets and creating situations where they're either kept or people get hurt. FYI - you'll see that Georgette and secrets simply don't get along ... not even the ones she really wants to keep. 😉 Firefly rocks!

So, what needs to happen more? Do Grant and Troy need to develop communication skills, or does Georgette need to learn when to keep secrets she should never have had to learn in the first place? 😉 Troy needs his friends, and Grant does need patience and understanding from those friends. He's in a weird place in life ... and you're certainly right about him being fragile and volatile. We'll have to see how things with Mr. Brian go. Thanks for the comments! 🙂

Mwhahaha! 😄

This is so very true. They all love him, and they all worry about him ... so they're going to watch carefully. There are so many "OMG, why didn't they do ..." moments. Absolutely. And that's what makes them human. Thanks, molly! 🙂

You're right. Grant is still processing himself, and now they all know. He's not having a very good time at the moment. The friends are genuinely confused as to why Grant might have trouble with them knowing. We'll get to more of that in the next chapter. Good comments. Thanks for leaving them. 🙂

Love, sex, food, secrets and exposure ... this chapter has it all! Troy and Grant are both guilty of a few things now. Troy could have told Grant that the friends had already figured things out, and it would have been far less of a shocking moment to him. Grant of course has been guilty for a while of deceiving Troy and Brian too. Yeah, not doing so hot on the communication front. They had some nice sex, yes. Sweet, loving, and free of all those pesky questions about if they're doing the right thing or not. So, that's nice. That buffalo/chicken dip is exceptional. Here's the recipe for an improved version of it. It's idiotically good. Try it out. It is hard to find your place in an established friend group. It really is. But, Grant feels it's worth the effort, simply because Troy loves them. Stuck ya with the cliffie! I know. Evil. Thanks for reading! 😄

26 November 2018, Monday 6:00 a.m. Grant's phone chimed, and Troy reached across the sleeping man. He turned off the alarm and lay back down. Troy curled around Grant, enjoying the last few moments of warmth and coziness before they both had to get up. Grant was still out, and Troy smiled. He'd always loved this time of the day with John. He'd slowly wake John with soft touches, little kisses, and gentle prodding to get his man out of bed. Grant wasn't exactly "his". Troy knew that. But

Thanks for the comment, Etotsira. Grant is in pretty hot water at this point. He's now in something of a relationship with Troy, and that was made possible by the journal. So ... we've got a group of people who have known and loved Troy for five years, and we've got Grant, who Troy met a couple of weeks ago. Let's go through the list of sins each is guilty of. Grant - Hid how he knew about Troy. Manipulated him through knowledge gained from the journal. Flat out lied to Brian when asked how he knew Troy lived in the house. Troy - Revealed that he and Grant engaged in sexual activity, outing Grant in the process. Friend Group - Discussed among themselves the interloper (Grant) and how they're worried for Troy. Engineer a "test" to get to know Grant better. I will mention again ... Brian likely holds the keys to a wrecking ball that he could swing any time he sees fit (proof that Grant lied to him). But ... he's yet to pull that trigger. He knows Troy likes Grant, and so far Troy is doing better than he has in over a year thanks to him. So ... Brian is just sitting on that knowledge.

Yes, as I said above, this seems driven to encourage posting often to stay on the updated stories sidebar. If that's the case, then fine. I don't see the logic for the shift working any other way. There are a few prolific posters who will benefit from this change, the rest of us will be pushed off of the front page fairly quickly (yesterday the last story on the list when I looked had been posted three hours prior). Edit: Though today it harks all the way back to 7PM yesterday. So perhaps I caught it during a spate of updates. I don't think the impact will be tremendous. It just seems odd, and designed to encourage quantity over quality.

Well it shouldn’t matter the sexuality of the friends if the issue is just the interjection into the lives of Troy and Grant. If the issue is that straight people are doing it as opposed to gay friends, then that’s a different ball of wax.

Yeah. If Brian could trust Grant a bit more things would have been a bit different. But ... he knows Grant lied to him. So now, well, now he’s out to find out what kind of guy Grant is. Though, he has, thus far kept Grant’s deception to himself ...

We had a good writing day. We’re maybe ... 1/2 through chapter 3 or so. It feels Like it’s moving fast to me. We’ve also gotten a ton of the research done needed to write it correctly too. It feels good. This is going to be a really good one ... I know it.