Electricity - 16. Chapter 16

Aubrey

Aubrey stood in front of a large tank at the Bay Aquarium and stared at the jellyfish on the other side of the glass in solemn contemplation. This was supposed to be a nice relaxing outing to get Tom and him ready for the wedding, yet here he was, feeling morose and depleted.

Andrew Thompson had not returned any of his phone calls or texts since the fake foundation article went live. Even though Earl Warren had it taken down as soon as possible, the damage had been done. Hundreds of aggregate articles had already popped up running with the story. Andrew’s lawyer did reach out to Warren, but it was only to scare him into issuing a more extensive public apology, after the original retraction, and taking full blame for posting false information. The apology was posted right on top of Pride's website.

Kat had been fired from the magazine, but her job had already been accomplished. She was leaving victorious, and despite her being fired, Aubrey definitely felt like she had won. With the barrage of negative stories on Andrew Thompson spreading like wildfire through the media, marring the news of his foundation and forcing him to reschedule the opening gala for an unspecified future date, as well as the multitude of companies dropping out of their deals with him, she hit him in all the places that hurt.

She offered Aubrey a small apology on her way out, for having to use him the way she did. She told him how much she respected him as a journalist and a person, and that she wished him a long and happy marriage to Tom. He walked away from her mid-speech, and went into the cafeteria to grab a soda and calm down his rattled nerves. Later, he heard from coworkers that she would be returning back to her home town—where she was going to spend some time with her brother and possibly go back to modeling.

Earl Warren had kept his promise and let Aubrey keep his job. But Aubrey didn’t feel victorious in any way, shape, or form. The irreparable damage he did to Andrew by allowing this woman into his own life and then letting her get away with this was unforgivable. He lost all respect for himself and wasn’t sure how he would ever recover, or if he’d ever be able to write another word again. Maybe he’d end up like Warren, angrily editing other people’s writing with a red pen. Unable to create anything original himself. Perhaps that would be his punishment.

“Don’t you think it’s sad? They’re just sitting in water tanks for us to gape at,” Aubrey said, absentmindedly staring at the jellyfish. Tom looked at him curiously, as if debating if he really wanted to get into this discussion. He took a sip of the strong coffee that he bought at a local coffee shop around the corner from their apartment, then answered.

“Sad? They’re jellyfish Aubs. They have no brain, heart, bones or eyes. It’s not like you’re watching baby Shamu crying out for her orca mother while performing tricks at Seaworld. The jellyfish, despite its misleading name, isn’t even a fish. It’s just a boneless sack floating in the ocean. It probably can’t tell this water tank apart from the ocean. So no, I wouldn’t call it particularly sad. Now if you want to get into a discussion about Zoo’s, then we can actually get into something sad,” Tom replied, the hastily added, “Wait, you’re not going all radical animal activist on me again, are you?” Aubrey chose to mostly ignore the whole rant. He was used to Tom and his insufferable way of thinking. He should have known he wasn’t going to get a simple answer from him such as, “Yes, it is sad.” Tom didn’t deal in the land of simplicity, everything had to have some sort of underlying philosophy to it. This is what first attracted Aubrey to Tom, the fact that he wasn’t simple. The fact that they could discuss one topic in a multitude of different ways for days on end without getting bored. But lately, this had become one of Tom’s most annoying traits, and Aubrey realized that sometimes it’s the things we love that turn to the things we hate one day. Nowadays Aubrey just wanted a simple goddamn answer, not a whole one hour lecture.

Plus, more and more, Tom’s answers no longer held the reverence that they used to. At the start, Aubrey believed Tom was the most intelligent man that he had ever known. But nowadays, he would catch himself questioning his boyfriend more and more. Like in this very instance.

“A boneless sack maybe, but out of all the animals in the world it’s a species of jellyfish that has immortal life. I think that’s a sign from the divine,” Aubrey mused, still staring at the yellow orbs floating in the water. Tom almost choked on his coffee.

“I’m sorry, I must have forgotten to clean my ears this morning. Surely I still have wax in them because I did not just hear you talk about the divine? The divine, Aubs? DI-VI-NE? As in, God? Please look me in the face and tell me you’re joking right this moment,” he said, the grooves on his forehead getting deeper. Aubrey knew he was entering into dangerous territory trying to get into a theological discussion with Tom out of all people, and inside of an aquarium out of all places. But he couldn’t stop himself for some reason. He turned to look at the man.

“Everything has an architect, why would we think that the Universe doesn’t?” Shots fired, there was no backing down now. As soon as Aubrey said it, he wanted to take it back. He did not have the mental fortitude to go into this debate right now. But it was too late, Tom was already perking up his ears and opening his mouth.

“I genuinely hope we’re doing some sort of mental exercise for an article of yours,” he said, gesticulating his hands as if he were a politician giving a speech, and nearly spilling his coffee in the process. “Regardless, I’ll bite. First of all, that’s a faulty argument. If we’re going to talk about architects being necessary to create things, then God would need one too, of course. So who was his architect? If you say that God is omnipotent and doesn’t need a creator, then your argument about everything and everyone needing an architect falls apart.” Tom stared at Aubrey victorious, like he was sure that he had just won the argument. The way a piece of his hair clung to his forehead suddenly made Aubrey want to move away from him.

“What if God didn’t need to be created—what if he was always there,” he replied, and began walking. A minute later a shocked Tom caught up to him.

“Babe, did I miss something?”

“Like what,” Aubrey asked, dangling the car keys from his hand. He was in a peculiar mood.

“Like the moment you became a Jesus freak maybe?”

“I didn’t become a Jesus freak, I just think…what if there’s more out there?”

“More like what, more like UFO’s? More like a virgin that gave birth to the son of God? I mean, come on babe,” he said laughing, which annoyed Aubrey. “This is Andrew Thompson talking, isn’t it? It’s the Nelson incident,” Tom said suddenly, ceasing his laughter and using a harsh tone of voice. “Look, just because he got Nels to come off the ledge with his religious babble doesn’t make it right. If he was trying to get a morbidly obese person off a ledge with a piece of their favorite food, would that make it right? Of course not.” Aubrey scowled at the analogy. “Nelson just heard what he wanted to hear. One day he’ll be ready to face the truth hopefully. Until then, he’s going to be living in guilt and shame. There’s nothing right about that.”

“I just…I feel like we witnessed something close to a miracle up on that roof, and it seems to have whooshed right past you.”

“A miracle?”

“That boy was seconds away from jumping and ending it all. I’ve known him, talked to him, cried with him, yet it was a guy that he barely met that knew just the right thing to say.”

“Sure, but just because Andrew Thompson has the same misguided religious beliefs doesn’t mean that he’s a miracle performer. He just spoke the most familiar language, the language that Nelson’s dad had been beating into his brain since the day he was born. It’s all that he knows, so he reverted back to what was familiar to him. It's pretty simple psychology babe, I'm surprised you're having trouble with this.”

Aubrey groaned in frustration. There was no getting through to this man.

Tom had swore up and down that he had nothing to do with the Thompson article, and Kat had vouched for him saying she was the only one that knew. Aubrey wanted to believe him because he couldn’t fathom that the man he had trusted all this time could betray him in so many different ways. But at the back of his head, a question remained.

Andrew

Andrew woke up to a pile of naked bodies scattered all over the condo. The last recollection he had was saying “party at my place” to a group of dudes.

He stared at the half empty bottle of vodka in his hand. Today was the day Aubrey Miller was getting married. Today was the day Andrew Thompson was going to get black out drunk and pass out with yet another naked body next to him. Or maybe even two. Why not, he was single after all. He wasn’t the one that was getting married. He could do whatever he wanted. Sleep with as many people as he wanted. Better yet, he would go out to the club. The paps would surely be waiting. How would Aubrey feel if he saw pictures of him leaving the club with another man? Would he care?

Andrew laughed at himself, of course Aubrey would not care, he expected this behavior from Andrew. This behavior is what made him not want to give Andrew a chance.

He opened the bottle and brought it close to his lips, then stopped himself. He looked down at the dirty sweat pants he was wearing. He was a complete mess. No wonder his life was going down the shitter faster than he could blink. Brands were dropping their deals with him left and right, the foundation gala had been postponed because nobody wanted to be involved or associated with the Thompson name after that unfortunate article hit the news. The only thing he still had going for him was football, but if he continued to party and drink, that might be gone soon as well. And then he’d just be a washed out ex-NFL player with no family of his own and nobody to give a shit if he lived or died.

He wanted to get drunk and forget it all. Even though Aubrey Miller brought this chaos into his life, he hated the thought of anyone else marrying him. Of anyone else kissing him. Of anyone else getting to fall asleep right next to him. If it was a worthy contender at least, but Tom? How could he be okay with losing to Tom? Then, suddenly, he remembered his college coach’s speech on his first day of practice. A speech he would often think about throughout his football career.

Good old Coach Dean had looked at the sea of young faces gathered before him, full of hope for the future, and some full of themselves and their talent, and he said, “I see a lot of happy faces here. Some of you think this is going to be a breeze. Some of you think you will coast by on your enormous talent with next to minimal effort. And because you are the elite—the carefully chosen ones—it makes sense that many of you have never even taken a big loss. Never suffered a huge failure. And thanks to that, and your pristine record and stats and self-assurance, a lot of you can’t imagine anything worse than failure. You divide your world into ‘wins’ and ‘losses’. And there’s nothing as bad as taking a loss, nothing as bad as failing. Right?” he asked and many of the guys nodded their heads in agreement, along with Andrew. It was win or lose for him, nothing in-between. Coach Dean continued, “You’re wrong. You wanna know what’s worse than failure? Regret. Regret about the effort you could have put it, but didn’t. Regret about the passes you could have made, but didn’t. Regret about the choices you could have made that would have changed the entire outcome, but didn’t. There is nothing worse than regret. Don’t ever come up to me talking ‘bout regret. I’d rather see you fail a thousand times on that field, than not try something because you think it won’t work. Because you think you’ll look stupid. Because you think you’ll screw up your stats. Because you think you’re not capable. Go out there and fail, and fail, and fail some more, until finally—you win.”

Andrew felt something stir in his stomach as he heard the speech in his head. An old type of fire he hadn’t felt in a while. Or was it just last night’s vodka? No, was certain he could feel it growing, and suddenly his body felt electric again, as if he was charged up and ready for action.

And just like that, Andrew knew what he had to do. He would rather fail than not try at all. He would rather lose than regret. He threw the vodka bottle in the trash and jumped over the naked bodies on the floor, the hopped in the shower. If he hurried, he could still make it. After a three second shower, he put on clean clothes then grabbed his keys and took the most inconspicuous car he had—his Mercedes. He did not need to be spotted driving down the freeway like a maniac in his Lambo today. He needed to be incognito for this.

He drove three hours to get to the vineyard. He was cutting it close, very close. But he felt it—luck—and it was on his side today. He could always tell the morning of a big game if he was going to be lucky. It was like a small gust of the perfect type of breeze, he'd feel it whoosh over him, and then he knew it was going to be a good day. That's exactly how he felt driving down the freeway, on his way to stop Aubrey Miller's wedding.

He hastily threw the keys at the surprised valet then sprinted into the venue. It was large and he felt panicked trying to figure out where to go. He opened at least five wrong doors on his quest of trying to find the writer with curly brown hair. Then, he finally barged into the room where Aubrey was getting ready for his wedding, amongst his group of friends.

Every face in the room turned to look at him, some in shock and some scowling.

“I need a minute with Aubrey,” Andrew stated, making everyone in the room stare in even more bewilderment. He was glad Tom wasn’t there, one less person he’d need to argue with right now. Andrew gave them some time to start moving, but nobody budged. “Can we have a minute, please!?” a frustrated Andrew asked again, this time louder and more forcefully. Aubrey slowly nodded at his friends, and the room began to clear.

“What… what are you doing here?” Aubrey asked after everyone left. Prince stood by his side, on guard. The writer wore a perfectly fitted suit, and looked absolutely gorgeous and mighty confused. Andrew could have stared at him forever, but he needed to say this quickly.

“You can’t marry this clown,” he simply stated. Aubrey continued staring at him, aghast.

“I’ve been asking to speak with you for weeks. You haven’t returned one phone call, and Charles wouldn’t let me come up to your place. But you show up here on my wedding day? My whole family is here, Andrew. All of my friends, my co-workers, my boss. What are you doing?”

“I listened to your voicemails, about how it was all Kat. About what I did to her brother. And, to be honest, I don’t even remember him. But if what she said was true, then I’m sorry that I hurt him. And maybe I deserved that article. Maybe it was my bad karma. I don't give a shit anymore, Aubrey. About the article, about my reputation, about any of this bullshit. I'm too tired to care. All I know is that in my heart, I know you had nothing to do with it. I believe you. But I can't same the same for Tom. And I can't let you marry him.” Aubrey stared in confusion.

“He said he didn’t, that it was all Kat.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it. Tom is how she found her way to her secret source: Drew. Because that was the secret source, by the way. You couldn’t tell me, because you didn’t know. She didn’t tell you.” Aubrey furrowed his eyebrows. “Tom used to date Joel. He knows Joel is one of my best friends. He would be the only one that could put Kat on to Drew.” Aubrey looked shaken up, like he couldn’t compute all the information Andrew was giving him. Andrew tried to think of the words to convey this to him, so he’d understand. “I know that he feels comfortable, and that you feel like you know him well, and that you think he’s a safe guy who’s going to be there for you in everyday mundane life. That he just made one stupid mistake, but otherwise he’s the safe choice, I understand. But we have something between us, and I know I’m not crazy. Now, I can’t promise you…anything really. All I know is that I don’t want to lose you. Despite the articles. Despite all of this drama. I don’t want to lose you, Aubrey.”

Aubrey swallowed hard.

“I’m getting married in ten minutes, Andrew.”

“Forget the wedding! Come away with me.”

“You’re insane,” Aubrey laughed, he sounded like he was on the edge of a mental breakdown. “You’re actually insane. You can’t just show up here ten minutes before my wedding and do all of this. That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of it works.” He was unraveling.

“Come away with me,” Andrew said in a gentle voice. Aubrey shook his head.

“I can’t, this is crazy.” Andrew walked towards him but Aubrey backed away.

“Please,” Andrew pleaded, “Just you and me. I could be really good to you, if you’d just let me.”

“You have to leave, now,” he stated, then walked around Andrew and opened the door for him.

Failure. Loss. This was it. He was experiencing it now. Was it better than regret? He couldn’t tell because this felt pretty horrible. But he wasn’t going to stay and harass Aubrey. The writer had made his choice clear, yet again. He looked at him one last time—tried to touch his hand, but Aubrey backed away—then walked out and left the venue. Where the hell was luck now?

He sat in his car, completely defeated. He knew this was a crazy idea on his part, but deep down in his bones he truly believed that it would work and that he would be leaving here with Aubrey by his side. That they would be starting over—together. He was not expecting to be alone while the love of his life was getting married just feet away from him.

But this was it, he was out of options and out of ideas. He did all he could, and it didn’t work. None of it worked. He had failed, yet again.

Suddenly, the back door opened, an out of breath bulldog hopped in, and then the door smacked shut behind him. Then, before Andrew could even blink, the passenger door opened and a pale looking Aubrey hopped inside the car, also out of breath from running. Andrew looked at him in surprise.

“This is…this really makes no sense. No sense at all. This is…actually crazy. This isn’t like me. But…” he said looking into Andrew’s eyes, “I just feel these fireworks whenever you and I touch. Maybe that’s just…lust, or I don’t know, desire gone mad, but I…I want to be with you, Andrew. I really—more than anything else in the world—want to be with you.”

Before Andrew thought about it he said, “Let’s get married.”

“What?” Aubrey asked in disbelief.

“We’re two hours away from Vegas. You’re in a suit. Let’s get married. I want you to know how serious I am about you.”

Andrew thought Aubrey would call him crazy and say no. Instead, the other man lunged forward and kissed him vigorously.

A couple hours later, the two were married, with Prince serving as the ring bearer. Andrew popped the champagne bottle inside of their luxurious hotel suite, and Aubrey laughed nervously. He hoped the man wasn’t having second thoughts. He handed him the champagne flute, “Cheers.”

“Cheers,” the writer replied. They both took a sip. Then Andrew sat next to Aubrey on the bed. The writer chugged the rest of his champagne and Andrew knew he needed to do something quick before the panic spread. So he leaned in and kissed him, and felt his body slowly relax. Then they made love for what felt like all night, until they both fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, wrapped up in each other’s arms. Even with his whole world going up in flames, it was amazing to Andrew how simply just being next to Aubrey eased all of those worries away. He could handle everything that came his way now. He could fight for the foundation, he could rebuild his relationships with the brands and get new deals, he could focus on football. Everything would be alright, just as long as Aubrey was in his arms.

He inhaled the smell of coconut from the writer’s curls and kissed him on the forehead. Aubrey sighed in content and nuzzled into Andrew’s neck, then both of them fell asleep.

When Andrew woke up the next morning and saw a mass of brown curls right in his face, he couldn’t help but smile. Until he heard, “What…the hell…did we do?”

Aubrey sounded completely defeated and Andrew could not believe that they were right back to having this conversation, yet again.

“Can we at least have coffee before you start your monthly breakdown about our relationship?” Andrew asked, not realizing how insensitive he sounded. Aubrey scowled at him and Andrew quickly changed his tone. “We got married,” he replied, leaning over Aubrey and going in for a kiss. The man turned his head to avoid it.

“My whole family is furious with me for just running out like that. Everyone is worried and confused. How am I supposed to explain this? I’ve hurt so many people by doing this. This is completely unlike me.” Andrew felt a headache coming on. He wasn’t used to sticking around and dealing with people’s feelings. This was about time he would usually make his exit and let the other person deal with their own tornado of emotions. But, he couldn’t leave this one…he was married to this one. Chained and bound. He didn’t expect marriage to be this difficult so early on. Not only did he not have time to process that he was married yet, he now had another person he needed to soothe and take care of before he could worry about his own thoughts and anxieties about the situation. He took a deep breath, if he was going to be a good husband, he needed to practice it right here and right now.

“Hey, look at me,” he said and Aubrey turned his head back to look him in the eye. The poor guy looked pale and stressed out. “I know we went about this in an unusual and maybe not the most mature way. I know we hurt some people with our actions, and trust me we’ll do our best to apologize and fix it,” he said, gently caressing Aubrey’s face, “but I don’t, even for one second, regret the fact that we got married, Aubrey. I love you, and I’m so happy, and I want nothing but to see you be happy as well. I’m your husband now, I’ll do anything for you,” he said, feeling mature and unusually mushy. But Aubrey seemed to be touched by the words. This was the first time Andrew had said “I love you” to him, apart from their hasty and somewhat drunken wedding vows. His new and improved methods were clearly working.

Andrew took Aubrey’s hand, the one that now had a chic slim gold wedding band on his ring finger, and kissed it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like I regret getting married. I’m beyond happy. And to hear you say the word ‘husband’ right now, it made my heart skip a beat,” Aubrey replied and Andrew leaned down to kiss him gently.

“We’re married,” Aubrey whispered, in-between kisses.

“I know,” Andrew smiled, “you have to do my laundry now,” he said and Aubrey arched his eyebrows.

“You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“Nope, those are your husbandly duties.”

“I don’t remember that being anywhere on our marriage certificate,” Aubrey mused.

“It was hidden in the fine print,” Andrew said and kissed him again, making the other man chuckle.

“You’re ridiculous, but fine I’ll do your laundry. And what do I get out of all this?”

“Hmm,” Andrew wondered out loud, “a black American Express?”

“For what, so I can go shopping at Barney’s? No thanks. I want something that will actually cost you, and that’s not money.”

“Okay, what do you want then, my non-materialistic spouse?” Andrew asked playfully.

“Give me some time to think about it,” Aubrey replied, smiling.

“Now, how about we go on a honeymoon?”

“A honeymoon?”

“A honeymoon.”

“Right now?”

“This is usually the time, yes. It would be weird if we went five years from now.”

“But…what about work and making amends with everyone?”

“Fuck it. It can all wait.”

“No, no. I wouldn’t feel right about it,” Aubrey replied much to Andrew’s dismay. “We’ll go, I promise. Just, later. I want to keep this low-key for a while.” Now Andrew was skeptical. Were they back to hiding everything all over again?

“What does that mean?”

“You know, just kind of prepare for how we’re going to go about all this. Get our families ready. Inform your publicist. I’ll have to let Warren know as well. I just want to have all our ducks in a row,” he said, caressing Andrew’s worried face.

Andrew nodded, Aubrey was right. They couldn’t just run around doing whatever the hell they pleased. But then his phone started going ballistic. He took one look at the screen and said, “Actually, I don’t think we have a choice anymore.”

Aubrey looked over his shoulder at the phone and read the headline out loud, “Andrew Thompson Says ‘I DO’ In Shotgun Vegas Wedding.” He put his head in his hands.

“It’s okay,” Andrew said, trying to make the situation better, “We’ll figure it out.” He could tell Aubrey was freaking out, but trying hard to contain it. “Hey, you know what we need?”

“What?” the writer asked.

“Breakfast,” Andrew replied, and Prince’s ears perked up from the edge of the bed where he was lazily napping.

“I don’t know if I can stomach anything,” Aubrey replied.

“Once you see some pancakes, you’ll change your mind,” said Andrew picking up the phone and ordering room service. Aubrey stepped over his wedding suit, which he haphazardly threw on the floor in the throes of passion last night, and went into the shower. A minute later the door opened and Andrew joined him.

The quarterback still couldn’t believe it was real. That Aubrey was here, that they were married, and that he could now touch, kiss and hold him whenever he wanted. He felt giddy about it. He already loved and was used to the feeling of the wedding band on his finger, almost as if he wore it all his life.

He pulled the writer in close by his shapely behind, and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Hello spouse,” he said and Aubrey laughed.

“You’re crazy.”

“I’m crazy about you,” he replied. Aubrey smiled, but then a sudden serious look took over his face.

“I just want you to know I’m going to spend all my free time helping you with the foundation.” Andrew felt touched.

“I don’t want you to feel guilty about any of this, it wasn’t your fault,” Andrew replied.

“It was. I could have stopped her before any of this even started. It’s completely my fault,” Aubrey replied.

“I don’t blame you for anything. We’ll work on the foundation together, I have no notion of giving up.” Aubrey smiled and put his arms around Andrew’s neck and the two went back to a passionate kiss, until a knock on the door prompted Andrew to hop out of the shower and open the door for room service.

After they spent a cozy morning in bed, eating, kissing, watching movies with Prince, and making love two more times, it was time to face the music. Andrew called his parents to have a conversation about everything that happened, while Aubrey got on the phone with those close to him to explain what went down. The most difficult one of them all was Tom, of course. And even though Aubrey now knew for certain that Tom had something to do with the article, he still didn’t enjoy the fact that he left him at the altar, ran off and married someone else that same night. He didn’t like hurting people, and although Tom wasn’t perfect, Aubrey wasn’t proud of his actions. But he began to feel better and less guilty after Tom cussed him out and told him Andrew was certainly going to cheat on him and that he would be forever miserable.

After having some difficult conversations, Andrew drove them back to the condo, where they continued making amends with people and had Andrew’s family over for dinner so that they could get to know Aubrey better.

A Week Later

Andrew opened his fridge and for a second he thought he was in the wrong condo. This couldn’t be his, the fridge was packed to brim with healthy looking food.

“What the…” he chuckled to himself, looking over all the colorful and neatly organized contents. It was full of fruits, vegetables, and little glass containers with pre-prepped meals. Andrew grabbed a ripe looking peach and bit into it. Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms envelop him.

“Hey stud,” Aubrey said, “I wanted to leave you some room, but you never have anything in here anyway.”

“No, by all means, take over my entire refrigerator,” Andrew replied in good humor and Aubrey smiled.

“Technically it’s OUR refrigerator now. But, how about…I cook you dinner tonight, as a way to make it up to you,” Aubrey offered. Andrew loved the idea.

“That sounds like a plan. I can also think of other ways you can make it up to me, after dinner,” he added, and Aubrey rolled his eyes and laughed. He let go of Andrew and started walking off towards the living room.

“I bet you can Thompson. Alright, go to practice so I can get some work done. You’re always distracting me.” Andrew raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

“Oh, am I distracting you?” he asked, following the writer to the living room and taking off his shirt, then casually dropping it on the floor. Aubrey couldn’t hide that little intake of breath he always did when he saw Andrew’s buff chest with no shirt on.

“You are, you are incredibly distracting,” he replied laying back on the couch, and keeping Andrew at bay with his bare feet, “and I have a lot of work to do today.” Andrew gently pushed his feet aside and laid on top of him.

“I think you should probably get un-distracted, before you start working. I don’t want your writing to suffer because you’re thinking about me all day long,” he said, teasing.

“I had no idea you were this altruistic,” Aubrey added, “I really need to get some work done,” he whined but Andrew already had his tongue in his mouth. They kissed feverishly, and Andrew quickly got the other man out of his clothes. In seconds, they were tangled up naked on the couch.

“Why don’t I just blow you? I haven’t…ehmm, prepped for anything,” he said, slightly embarrassed. Andrew caught on.

“I don’t care,” he said, planting a kiss on Aubrey’s mouth, “I wanna feel you.” Aubrey still looked a bit uncomfortable, but a few more feverish kisses and Andrew’s groping hands had him spreading his legs and letting Andrew slowly insert himself and begin a lazy morning love making session.

Andrew never realized he could enjoy married sex this much. That it could be this fun. There was something intimate and sexy about it, and he realized that making love to a person you loved just felt different. Threesomes were fun, but nothing ever felt as good as this. This he could do forever.

“God you feel amazing,” Aubrey managed to get out in between heavy breath intakes. They smiled at each other. The electricity was there, even during the slower and gentler sex. Andrew continued a steady rhythm, feeling all of Aubrey’s warm insides. “I love you,” the words escaped him suddenly. It had been a week since their wedding and since Andrew had said the words, but so far he was the only one. Aubrey smiled, but didn’t return the sentiment.

Andrew understood that even though they were married, the beginning of their relationship was pretty turbulent. He would need to prove himself to his spouse, gain his trust and show him that he wasn’t going to do anything stupid that would jeopardize their relationship. He didn’t mind, he could wait until Aubrey felt comfortable saying it.

Unfortunately, his plans crashed and burned that night with one knock at the door. Andrew was in the living room watching a basketball game, when Aubrey left the kitchen to answer it. Engrossed in the game, Andrew didn’t realize anything was wrong until he heard Aubrey yell out.

“Who is he, and why is he crying on our doorstep?”

Andrew got up and made his way to the door, where he saw a distraught and completely dripping wet Landon. That’s when he knew he was in trouble.

“‘OUR’ doorstep!? You let him move in with you?” Landon cried. Andrew’s head was already hurting from all the feelings being thrown at him. But he got himself into this situation on his own, so now he would need to deal with it.

“Let me? What kinda question…what am I a slave? Who are you?” Aubrey asked, growing more irritated by the second.

“What do you mean who am I!? Are you dumb? Everyone knows who I am. I have 10 million followers on Instagram,” Landon cried hysterically. Aubrey looked confused.

“Are you fucking him?” he suddenly asked, looking at Andrew with fury?

“NO!” Andrew replied with a bit too much conviction, making Landon completely break down.

“Jesus, you’re dripping wet, just…come on in,” Aubrey said, agitated, parting the way to let Landon come in. Andrew was not happy with that idea, but the last thing he wanted to do right now was to upset Aubrey any further. They walked in and Aubrey grabbed a fresh towel and handed it to Landon, letting the boy dry off a bit. Landon looked like a sad wet puppy.

“What if I say I’m okay with him? Can we make it work then?” Landon asked looking at Andrew hopefully. Andrew wanted the ground to part and take him away, he was mortified. Aubrey let out a confused laugh.

“Okay, everyone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on,” he said, taking a seat on the living room couch. “NOW!” he yelled out and Landon jumped.

“I love him!’ Landon yelled right back, and Andrew put his face in his hands. What had he done?

“Okaaaay,” Aubrey replied, still confused, “go on.”

“There’s nothing more to say. I want to be with him.”

“Uh ah…okay. Well, you see that ring on his finger?” Aubrey asked, “That’s a wedding ring. It means he’s married.”

“So what, I don’t give a shit!” Landon replied, crying.

“Are you like…a stalker?” Aubrey asked, completely confused. Andrew stepped in.

“We…uh, we had a thing, while you were engaged to douche face,” he said.

“A thing!?” Landon asked in a shrill voice. “A thing??”

“A…uhm, we were hooking up,” Andrew tried to explain further. Aubrey rolled his eyes.

“That’s what you call it? Cause I’m pretty sure we were in love,” Landon replied, full of vengeance.

“Seriously Andrew? He’s a baby. Hold old are you?” he asked, turning to look at Landon.

“I’m 22,” the boy replied, offended.

“He’s 22. What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked Andrew, who felt like a complete pervert seeing the situation from Aubrey’s perspective. “It’s like you never learn.” Andrew took the scolding, knowing full well he deserved it. “You deal with this mess you made, I don’t have the strength,” Aubrey continued, and sat there with an annoyed look and waiting for Andrew to fix things.

“Look,” Andrew started, turning to Landon. “I really enjoyed what we had together, but I’m not the right man for you. Okay? You need someone closer to your age, who’s going to be crazy about you and treat you with all the love and respect you deserve, and I know you’re going to find them without any problem. You’re gorgeous and you’re an amazing person Landon.” The boy started crying again.

“I don’t want anyone else, I want you. I love you so much Andrew that it hurts.” Andrew had never felt this horrible. Usually he would run away from these situations, but now he was cornered. Confronted by the emotional damage he had created and left behind. And right in front of Aubrey. He was sure the man would dump him as soon as this was over.

“That’s just what you think. You don’t really know me. And you deserve so much better, trust me.” Landon wobbled on his feet and sat on the chair behind him, weakened. Now Aubrey looked concerned. He got up and left the room, and Andrew figured he wasn’t coming back. But he returned with a bottle of pills in his hand.

“Here,” he said, kneeling in front of Landon opening the bottle and handing him one pill. “This will relax you. I’ll get you some water.” He went to the kitchen and gave the boy a bottle of water. “Why don’t you sleep here tonight, I don’t want you driving or going anywhere in this state.” Now it was Andrew’s turn to be shocked.

“Can I talk to you in the other room for a second?” he asked urgently. Aubrey followed him to the corridor.

“What are you doing? He can’t stay here,” Andrew whispered loudly, hoping the boy couldn’t hear him.

“He’s hysterical! I’m not letting him leave like this and God forbid hurt himself.”

“Then let’s call him an Uber or have a friend pick him up.”

“You are such an asshole! You did this to him, the same thing that you did to Kat’s brother by the way, and now you want to throw him out on the street when he’s at his lowest. That’s not how you treat people, Andrew.” The quarterback stared confused.

“Or maybe I just don’t want him to stab you with a knife at night, he’s clearly unstable.”

“Then we’ll lock the bedroom door. But he’s not going anywhere tonight,” Aubrey stated in a final voice. Andrew relented, unhappily. This was a bad idea.

After Landon passed out on their couch, Andrew and Aubrey made their way into the bedroom. Andrew worried that Aubrey was still in shock, and that when it all wore off, he might leave him. They laid next to each other in bed. Suddenly Aubrey said, “Why do you think he’s even into you, I mean you’re really not all that.” Andrew turned his head to look at him, wondering if he was serious. Aubrey broke his serious face and started laughing.

“Wow,” Andrew said, laughing as well. “You think that’s funny, huh?”

“If he was obsessed with Tom Brady or something I could understand, but you? That’s just silly,” he continued laughing.

“You mention Tom Brady ever again and I swear we’re going to have a domestic,” Andrew replied, and started tickling Aubrey.

“Ahhh! Stop!!!” Aubrey shrieked, trying not to be too loud. In the process of fighting him off, he had turned on his side, and now Andrew was fully enveloping him from behind. Suddenly, the mood got a little more serious. Andrew kissed the side of Aubrey’s face and his neck.

“You’re so amazing,” he whispered in his ear. Aubrey turned his head so that the two of them could kiss. He moaned into Andrew’s mouth when the man’s erection forcefully rubbed on his behind. Andrew had never experienced sex this natural and erotic. Every time with Aubrey felt special and forged a deeper connection between them. His already saturated in precum member slowly slid right inside of Aubrey, inch by inch. The writer moaned quietly as his insides made room for Andrew. The blazing heat enveloped the quarterback's cock and he groaned into Aubrey’s ear. He wanted to stay like this forever.

He kissed Aubrey’s neck and ear and caressed the rest of his body with his left hand, gently rubbing his finger back and forth over Aubrey’s pink nipple.

“You feel so damn good.”

“Yeah?” Andrew asked and sped up his pace. He wanted to last all night long, but Aubrey’s voice was just too sexy and his ass was too perfect. He came inside of his husband with a long groan. Afterwards, he got Aubrey off with his hand while kissing him. Andrew was ready to doze off, but Aubrey said something that intrigued him.

“You know, this is the only ass you’ll get for the rest of your life, right?” he asked, sounding somewhat unsure of himself. Andrew felt bad, the last thing he ever wanted Aubrey to feel was insecure about their relationship or where they stood.

“It’s the only one I want,” he replied, and kissed him.

“There’s still time to back out now, if you want…” Aubrey suggested, still not convinced.

“The only thing I want is right here next to me,” he replied without having to second guess himself. He knew it in his heart to be true. This was the human being to whom his heart fully belonged to.

The next morning, he made Landon coffee and fully apologized to him again. The boy was sad, but accepted the reality of the situation eventually. It was one of many amends which Andrew felt he needed to make. He called Brandon next, to apologize for how he treated him.

“I’m confused babe, what are you saying?” the Instagram star replied when Andrew FaceTimed him.

“I’m saying I wanted to apologize,” Andrew said.

“Oh, for what? You know I love your cock,” Brandon replied while doing something on his laptop, and Andrew put a hand over his phone’s speaker and hoped to God Aubrey couldn’t hear.

“Okay, so, no hard feelings?” Andrew asked, wanting to get off the phone.

“No, you’re not going to unfollow on me Insta, are you? I need those likes from you babe. A comment here and there wouldn’t hurt you either,” he replied and Andrew sighed.

“I will make sure to double tap on all your pictures, I promise.”

“You’re the best. Bye sexy,” Brandon replied and hung up, and Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. His last phone call was the hardest. It was difficult to find the right number, but he finally managed.

“Hello?” the boyish voice on the other end answered, and Andrew felt terrible.

“Hey, it’s Andrew Thompson,” he said, and felt the tension from a thousand miles away.

“If you’re calling to sue me,” the boy started to say.

“Sue you? What, no, absolutely not,” Andrew replied.

“Oh,” the voice sounded relieved.

“I’m calling to apologize.”

“Apologize?”

“Yes, for the way I ended things. For how I treated you. I should have been more mature and spoken to you about everything. Made sure you were okay. I’m really sorry I hurt you, Alfie.” There was a long silence on the other end and for a while Andrew was worried the other man hung up on him.

“I accept your apology,” Alfie replied.

“How are you doing?”

“Better now. Realizing what my sister did for me, because of how I’ve been acting, it made me really think about things. I can’t put her in these situations anymore, where she feels like she has to defend me. You broke my heart, but I can’t just stop living because of that. This whole thing woke me up, so I guess thanks for that.”

“I’m glad to hear that you’re doing better,” Andrew replied. A part of him still wanted to strangle Kat, but another part of him knew it was all for the best.

“Congratulations on the wedding Andrew. Aubrey is very handsome. I wish you nothing but happiness,” Alfie replied with a lot of emotion in his voice, then hung up. Andrew put his phone down and exhaled. That was it, he’d made all his amends for the day.

He checked to see that Aubrey was still busy working upstairs, and then he snuck out of the house quietly. He had a very secret, and very exciting appointment that he had to attend to without Aubrey knowing.