A Decision for Jarren - 1. Chapter 1

Jarren opened his eyes slowly, not wanting the morning light to sear its way through his brain. His head felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. Shit. How much did he drink last night anyway? As his eyes adjusted to the sunlit room, he managed to open them all the way and glance around. He started to roll over and realized he was naked. Fuck. He quickly sat up, his head screaming in protest. He spied his jeans on the floor, a discarded condom lay next to them, splooge leaked onto the rug. Well at least he used the damn thing even if he didn’t remember much.

His brain flashed quick images of a blonde head in his lap, and a cute little ass up in the air, other than that, not much else. As he looked around for the rest of his clothes he pulled the jeans on, commando for the time being, leaving the gross condom on the floor. His nose made him aware of the smell of coffee. Great, no sneaking out. He sighed and figured he might as well get the walk of shame over with.

Jarren found his way down the hall and into a decent sized living room. He spied his shirt lying on a chair. He grabbed it and as he was pulling it over his head he heard “There’s a bottle of water in the fridge and some Advil on the counter.”

“Uh, thanks.” Jarren replied as he stepped into the kitchen and grabbed the water and painkillers. Then he saw the owner of the voice as he closed the door of the refrigerator. Jesus Christ, really, how come he couldn’t remember how much he drank last night? He knocked back four of the pills with a huge gulp of water.

The blonde in front of him looked him up and down, wearing an amused smile the whole time. He had a bottle of coffee creamer in his hand. Jarren watched as he took down two mugs. The guy at first glance looked like a teenager, but when Jarren looked more closely, he saw that he must have been in his mid-20s. He was small, definitely fit the twink category and totally not Jarren’s type. What the fuck was he thinking? He was cute, Jarren had to give him that. But other than that, he was definitely not the type Jarren was attracted to. To make matters worse Jarren had no clue what the guy’s name was, and he had no idea how he could exit gracefully.

The little blonde seemed entertained at his predicament, which was mildly annoying. Finally he put Jarren out of his misery. “I’m Danny. Yes, you fucked the living daylights out of me last night. No, I didn’t break. Even though you kept apologizing for doing just that. I enjoyed every minute and it seemed like you did too. Don’t worry, I know I’m not your type, you told me several times, and truthfully you’re not mine. Maybe if you were ten or fifteen years older with a touch of gray around the temples.”

Jarren cocked his head to the side with a confused look on his face. He had no idea how to process what this Danny guy just said.

Danny laughed and told him “Damn, you look like a sad cocker spaniel when you tilt your head like that. Hey, it’s not the end of the world. We’re two consenting adults, used protection and had a fun time. I’m not looking for a lifelong commitment, and I don’t think you are either, at least not with me.”

Jarren shook the remaining cobwebs from his brain and said “I’m Jarren by the way. Why are you being so nice? Most guys would’ve kicked me out by now, that is if I hadn’t managed to sneak out on my own.”

Danny handed him a mug with black coffee and held up the creamer which Jarren saw was hazelnut. He took the container and splashed a little into the coffee watching it swirl around. He took a sip and hummed his approval as the barely sweet liquid fired up his taste buds.

Danny bit his lower lip before he spoke “Look, I don’t want to overstep any boundaries here, but last night you said some pretty personal things. Don’t worry, I’m not going to repeat them or post them but honestly, I felt bad for you.”

Jarren looked up from his coffee sharply and said “So I was a pity fuck for you?”

Danny cast his eyes downward and answered “Yeah...well, not exactly, but kinda sorta?”

Jarren pressed his fingers to both temples willing the ice pick that kept stabbing his brain to stop. “What did I say?” he asked.

Danny took a sip of his coffee and said “Sit. It’s glaringly obvious that you don’t remember much so let me see if I can jar your memory a bit.” Jarren sat and Danny took the chair across the table from him.

Danny told Jarren “We met at Sparkles last night. You were already at least two or three or ten sheets to the wind when I got there. You were by yourself watching everyone on the dance floor. You had kind of a scowl on your face. Honestly I think you scared a few guys off. Anyway, I thought I saw this twink Wyatt slip something into your drink when you weren’t looking, but I really can’t be sure. Don’t worry, you only took a sip before I managed to get over to you. I pretended to slip and I knocked your drink over. Wyatt was a little pissed but screw him. I let the bartender know and Wyatt got booted. He’s a stuck up, conceited ass. We probably should have called the police, but it would’ve been my word against his as I spilled the drink all over the floor and it got mopped up pretty quickly. You insisted that I buy you another drink, so I did. Then you hit on me. Now like I said you’re not really my type but I kinda felt bad that I spilled your drink. Anyway, you got all up in my face and told me point blank what you would like to do to me. I admit, I found myself intrigued, and horny. What can I say? I’m 24 and my dick has a mind of its own and last night it wanted sex. So I brought you home. You give amazing head by the way.”

Jarren was bright red. He remembered some of what Danny was telling him, but not all. He had a feeling there was more. “OK, go on.” he prompted.

Danny continued. “OK, but remember, you asked. So on the way here in the Uber you told me how you hated the fact that your brother found the girl of his dreams and you couldn’t decide which side of the swinging closet door you wanted to be on and couldn’t even land a casual fuck buddy.”

Jarren winced and hid his face in his hands. Fuck. He was never drinking again. He felt Danny’s small hands as they pulled his own away from his face.

“Look Jarren, it really doesn’t matter if you’re in the closet or out. It’s totally your choice. I will tell you though, as much as you may be comfortable in Narnia, it’s still make believe.” Danny told him.

Jarren was still trying to process the fact that he told a complete stranger personal shit. He had figured out at thirteen that he was gay. He just didn’t want to be. He obviously had no problem with other people being gay. He just never wanted it to be something that he embraced. He once tried to tell his twin brother Mazen that it was like having brown eyes and wanting blue. Mazen had told him that was a cop out and besides playing straight wasn’t the same as a brown eyed person wearing blue contacts. Changing eye color with contacts didn’t hurt other people. Pretending to be straight did.

Jarren had argued that he wasn’t pretending to be straight, he just didn’t want to be gay. It was one of the few times he and Mazen had seriously argued. Their dad had to step in when Jarren had yelled at Mazen that it was like him not wanting to be an asshole but he was. Mazen had wanted to beat the shit out of him. He still told Jarren that if their dad hadn’t held him back he would’ve fucked up his face. That was when they were fifteen and Jarren had tried dating a girl. He noped out when she tried to give him a blow job and he hurled. He blamed it on bad mayonnaise and she saw right through his lie. He later realized Mazen had been right. People got hurt when you lied about who you were. The fallout from that particular incident had been bad enough as it was.

Jarren looked at Danny and told him “I’m sort of getting sick of Narnia anyway. The talking animals are fucking creepy.”

Danny laughed and refilled his coffee cup and topped off Jarren’s. He asked him “So what brings you this way? Last night you said you were just passing through. Where are you from and where are you heading?”

Jarren replied “I’m from a little town in western Massachusetts. I have no idea where I’m going. I just needed a change. I’ve worked with my brother and Dad since I was fourteen. Dad has his own general contracting business. My brother, Mazen, and I usually handle renovations. I’m sort of a jack of all trades. I can do electrical, plumbing, drywall, flooring. That kind of stuff. We finished our last job right before Christmas. It’s slow now, not much can be done in the winter. The next big contract we have won’t start until April. I figured I’d take a few months and get out of the goddamn cold and ice. Where the hell am I anyway?”

Danny raised eyebrow and with a grin said “Atlanta, well Decatur to be more precise. Damn, you really did drink to excess last night didn’t you? So Big Guy, where to next?”

Jarren shook his head and replied “I have no fucking clue. I think the first thing I need to figure out is where the bar is and go find my truck. I hope to hell it’s still there. Then I guess I’ll find somewhere to stay for a couple of nights while I try to decide what’s next. Have you seen my phone anywhere? I need to get an Uber.”

“Well, I think I just might be able to help you out,” offered Danny. Your phone is over there on the charger in the living room. I plugged it in for you when I got up. I can give you a ride over to the bar after we eat. The owner usually leaves the leftover vehicles alone unless they’re there for more than two or three days. If you want, you can crash here for however long you need to. My last roommate moved out last month so I have an extra room. He’s doing a semester abroad and couldn’t afford to pay rent on a place he wasn’t using. I wouldn’t mind the company. Why don’t you take a shower while I fix breakfast. There’s a pair of gym shorts on the dresser in the spare room that Garrett left behind. They should fit you, Lord knows nothing of mine will!” Danny laughed. “I’ll throw your clothes in the wash when you’re done with showering. No offense but they stink like stale beer, and God only knows what else!. There should be new toothbrush in one of the drawers next to the bathroom sink.”

Jarren looked over at the skinny little twink who was being so nice to him and asked “Why are doing all this for me?”

Danny’s face took on a serious expression and he replied “You and I aren’t boyfriend compatible, but I think we’re friend compatible, and Jarren, I think you could really use a friend.”

Jarren smiled wistfully and turned to head to the bathroom. He found the toothbrush in the drawer and brushed the remaining taste of dead animal out of his mouth that the coffee hadn’t washed away. He found a towel and washcloth in the closet. He stepped under the hot spray and let the water wash over him. He looked for the soap and found none. Danny had two kinds of body wash and some kind of facial scrub with essence of apricot in it. That was in addition to shampoo, conditioner and something that said it was for once a week deep conditioning. Jarren grabbed the body wash that was coconut lime because he had no idea what jojoba and ginger extract was. He wasn’t particularly fond of coconut scented stuff but it smelled better than the other one. He had never been a fan of anything with ginger in it, and what the hell was jojoba anyways? He lathered up the washcloth and washed away all the grime from the bar and the residual stickiness from whatever it was he and Danny had done last night. He had a vague memory of the other man going down on him, and as he recalled seeing the blonde head in his lap, the memory of one kick ass blow job came rushing back. His cocked perked up as it remembered the hot suction those pretty lips had provided.

Jarren pushed the recollections out of his mind and finished washing up. He was starting to feel human again as the ibuprofen kicked in and he was clean. He turned off the water and grabbed the towel to dry off. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he stepped out of the bathroom to look for the shorts Danny mentioned in the room across the hall. The smell of bacon assaulted his nose as soon as he opened the door. Damn, too bad he preferred tall muscular guys. If that bacon tasted as good as it smelled he might have to reconsider his lack of attraction to small guys. He saw the shorts folded up on top of the dresser and pulled them on. They were a little small for him but they weren’t obscene. He liked his shorts to come down to his knees and these stopped about two inches above. Oh well, they would do for now.

Jarren thought about Danny’s offer to stay as he looked around the room. It was a decent size, had a queen bed and matching dresser. The closet door was open slightly and Jarren saw that it was a small walk in with shelves built in along one side and empty clothes bars on the other. He would have to give it some thought. He didn’t really relish the idea of wandering around the country for the next three months staying in cheap motels every night. Jarren realized he hadn’t really thought things through when he took off, he had just wanted to get away for awhile. He had a decent amount in his savings account and didn’t want to drain it completely. He went back into the bathroom and hung his wet towel up to dry, then made his way back to the kitchen.

Danny was at the counter, a large griddle in front of him and he had just added a few pancakes to the stack under the heat lamp on the stove. A mound of crispy bacon was on some paper towels next to the pancakes.

“There’s more coffee, plates are in that cabinet, silverware in the drawer underneath. Help yourself while I go throw the clothes in the washer.” Danny told him.

He caught Danny’s gaze running up and down the length of his body. He felt a little exposed wearing just shorts, but what the hell. The guy had blown him last night and he could vaguely remember slamming into the cute little ass over and over. He had to mentally tell his dick to stand down.

Jarren suddenly felt ravenous. He took four of the pancakes from the stack that Danny made and added several pieces of crispy bacon. He was in the process of buttering his pancakes when Danny came back and put three pancakes and a handful of bacon on a plate for himself.

While they ate Danny told Jarren that he was an assistant Business Development Manager for one of the major river cruise companies in Europe. His boss covered the entire southeast and was on the road three out four weeks of the month. He went to various travel agencies and at this time of year he was busy with consumer trade shows as well. Danny often worked from home, he took care of answering emails, troubleshooting for agents that were having problems. He ran webinars for both agents and consumers. He would have to go into the office in Atlanta for meetings or training once or twice a week and to review reports and things when his boss was in town. He occasionally went out on the road to cover when his boss was on vacation or sick.

“It’s a decent job, pays the bills and I get to go on a river cruise in Europe once a year for free. Not too shabby. I wanted to be a travel consultant but one of my friends works for a big agency and she tells me the base pay is OK, but the commission structure sucks. It would take three to five years to establish a client base decent enough to make good money, plus her company went through a huge restructuring a few years ago and now their incentives and shit are tied into hawking memberships and credit cards, and financial services. That sounds too much like working for a bank to me. No thanks, plus she says that travel benefits are all but nonexistent. Mom and Pop agencies are rare nowadays and don’t pay very well.” Danny told him.

Jarren had finished eating and had put his dirty dishes in the dishwasher and cleaned up while listening to Danny. Danny finished his breakfast and put his stuff in as well. Jarren’s clothes were ready for the dryer and Danny let him know it should take about a half hour to forty-five minutes for his stuff to dry.

Danny informed Jarren “I need to check my emails and make sure there are no fires that need putting out. Upside to working from home is that I can set my own hours, downside is I usually have to put in a couple of hours on the weekends, especially when my boss is out on the road. It won’t take me long, just make yourself at home.”

Jarren finished cleaning up and then sat down on the couch. He scrolled through his phone, shot a quick text to his brother letting him know he was in Atlanta and might stay for a couple of weeks. He was scrolling through one of his news feeds when Danny came into the living room with his clean clothes in his arms.

Jarren looked up and smiled. “Thanks,” he said as he got up off the couch. He took the clothes and went into the bathroom to change. They definitely smelled better than they had a couple of hours ago. When he emerged from the bathroom he asked “Do you have time to take me to get my truck and have you seen my keys and wallet?”

Danny smiled and answered “Sure, your keys and wallet were in your jeans. I put them on the dresser in my room.”

Jarren went down the hall to grab them as Danny took his jacket out from the hall closet. It may not have been freezing cold like it was up north, but Atlanta still got cold in the winter. Normal high temperature this time of year was in the 50’s and today was no exception. Jarren would just have to make do with the heat in Danny’s vehicle. All of his extra clothes including his jacket were in his truck. He had worn jeans and a t-shirt to the club. Not much he could do about it now.

Danny locked up as they left his apartment. He was on the third floor of a small apartment complex. There was a covered parking area across from the front entrance and an uncovered parking lot to the right. Danny pointed to a black Nissan Versa. Jarren saw the lights flash as Danny hit the remote to unlock it.

Jarren hoped his legs would fit. The Nissan looked kind of small to him. Sure enough when he tried to get in he had to fold up his six foot frame and his knees were jammed against the dashboard even with the seat pushed all the way back.

Danny saw his predicament and laughed. “Sorry man, it’s plenty big enough for me. I don’t usually have huge behemoths with me. It’s not that far to the club though. Think you can tough it out for ten minutes Big Guy?”

Jarren looked over at Danny whose seat was adjusted pretty far forward and his head just about cleared the steering wheel. “Definitely no long roads trips for us in this little tin can.” he replied, shaking his head at his predicament. Jarren was just over six feet and usually hovered around 190 lbs. Danny maybe reached 5’4” and probably topped out at 110 lbs soaking wet, if that. He didn’t doubt thinking that he was going to break the petite man last night. Jarren’s head banged against the roof of the car as Danny went over a speed bump in the road leading out of the apartment complex. “Hey, watch it!” he cried.

“Sorry!” Danny said.

Thankfully there were no more speed bumps and the roads were smooth and traffic was light being late morning on a Sunday. They reached the bar and Jarren pointed out the truck to Danny. Jarren had a black Chevy Silverado. He liked it better than the Ford F-250 that he and Mazen drove when they were working. He had bought the truck three years ago and paid it off a couple of months ago. It felt good not having a payment every month. He could easily fit his tall frame behind the wheel.

Before Jarren got out he asked Danny “Did you mean it when you said I could stay? I can kick in for rent and expenses.”

Danny’s face brightened up and he replied “I’d love it! Garrett left right before Thanksgiving and it’s been way too quiet. I grew up in a big family and while I don’t miss the chaos, I do miss having someone around.”

“I don’t know how long I’ll stay so can we take it month by month? I’m not really sure if I want to go back and work for my dad, but I don’t know if I’m ready to pull up stakes either. If I stay I’ll need to find a job, at least temporarily until I can figure what the hell I want to do.” Jarren told him.

Danny’s smiled stayed plastered to his face and he said “I might be able to help you yet again. Let’s head back to the apartment so I can make a couple of calls. Then you can take us to the grocery store. I have a feeling I don’t have enough food on hand to keep you going for more than a day or two.”

Jarren unfolded himself and got in his truck. He followed Danny back to the apartment and once they were inside he listened to Danny’s side of a conversation he was having with an apparent friend.

Danny was asking his friend “Hey Brendan, it’s Danny. Is your uncle still looking to hire someone? No, asswipe, I’m not looking for a new job. It’s for a friend. Uh-huh. Text me his number. Hey you wanna go hit the walls later this week? Yeah, I can do Thursday. Make it eight o’clock. They offer a discount then. Screw you, I am not cheap. Hey I gotta go, I’ll see you Thursday.”

Danny ended the call and turned to Jarren. “So my friend Brendan’s uncle is a foreman for a construction company. Brendan’s texting me his number. Give him a call and tell him I referred you. He’s a cool guy and Brendan worked for him for a couple of summers and made some good money.”

Just then his phone chirped with an incoming text. He looked at it and said “What’s your number, I’ll forward this to you.”

Jarren rattled off his number as Danny tapped it into his keyboard. Ten seconds later he felt his phone buzz in his pocket with the text from Danny. He looked at it and saw the number and the name Andre Wilson.

“Call him tomorrow and see what he can do. Now, let’s take that monster truck of yours and get some food. You can cook can’t you?” Danny asked.

Jarren chuckled as they headed back out. “I can find my way around a kitchen OK.”

“Good cuz you’re cooking dinner.” was the smart ass reply he got from Danny.

They ended up filling up two carts at the store. Jarren insisted on paying for all of it. After his bank account was a couple of hundred dollars lighter, he loaded everything into the bed of the truck. Danny couldn’t reach unless the back gate was lowered. It was just quicker if Jarren did it himself. When they got back to the apartment complex Danny grabbed a flat trolley that was near the office and using that they only had to make one trip up the elevator. Danny showed him where to put things and they worked in companionable silence to get everything done.

They had a few hours to kill before Jarren planned on starting dinner so Danny decided to Netflix a drama he had been wanting to watch. It provided a nice mindless diversion and when it was over Jarren fixed a simple chicken parmesan with spaghetti and marinara sauce. Danny gave his stamp of approval and told Jarren he could stay. Jarren shook his head at the tiny blonde and chuckled.

Still feeling the effects of the previous night’s drinking binge both guys decided to call it a night early. Danny told Jarren to let him know if he needed anything. The linens on the bed were clean and Jarren slid beneath the soft blanket and read a few chapters of a book he was reading online. It wasn’t too long after nine o’clock that his eyes started drifting shut. He closed his app and plugged the phone into his charger. He used the bathroom and once he settled back under the covers it didn’t take long for sleep to claim him. He knew that tomorrow was going to be a fresh start for him and for a change he was looking forward to a new day.