What They Don't Know - 3. Growing Closer.

I don’t believe either of us gave much thought about riding in to work together the following morning, at least until someone asked Ethan about it later. He quickly advised them that we had decided to car pool, after we’d discovered that we lived fairly close to each other, and our co-worker merely nodded and expressed his opinion that we were smart to do that.

Today was also the last day that I’d be working with Ethan in his cubicle. The department manager had given me this one extra day to make sure I remembered the sign-on and various other procedures, after having the weekend to forget everything I’d learned the previous week. Even though there had been the possibility that I might have forgotten certain information, it didn’t happen and I was able to go about my duties just fine.

During lunch, Ethan asked if I wanted to work on my own for the rest of the day, in my cubicle, but I told him I’d rather we worked together for as long as we were allowed. Since I’d made my choice, Ethan didn’t say anything more about it. Well, he did say that he was glad that I’d decided to spend the remainder of the afternoon working with him, even though he realized I was more than capable of working alone. I responded by saying tomorrow would be soon enough for me to do that and I’m sure I’ll miss seeing him every second of the day, once I’m on my own.

When the workday came to an end, we rode home and went directly to Ethan’s house first. After I picked up the things I had left there, he drove me over to my place, since I didn’t have my car. Even though we both would have liked for us to be able to spend tonight together too, we decided it might be best if we only stayed together on the weekends from now on, just so we wouldn’t create any potential problems at work. You see, if people at work began to suspect about our budding relationship, then one of us would eventually have to change jobs.

Unfortunately, most financial organizations have rules against spouses and people who are dating from working in the same department. This is due to the increased potential that a spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend would be more likely to conspire to do something illegal than those who are just friends or coworkers. The system is basically set up so one person doesn’t have the ability to perform both sides of the dual entries that would be necessary to embezzle or complete scam transactions by himself. In order to do that you would need a partner, which has led to rules of this nature being put into place. Ethan and I will be fine though, as long as everyone believes we are just friends, even though we don’t plan on doing anything illegal anyway.

The following morning, I made my way over to Ethan’s house as usual, but this time I was going to drive us in to work. The way we’d set things up was that I would drive over to meet him every morning, since he lived closer to work than I did, but then we’d alternate driving the rest of the way. If we did this, then it would only appear as if we were merely carpooling and nothing more, which would help to maintain our cover.

We still went to lunch together every afternoon, since we’d done it ever since I first came to work here, but Ethan took me to a different place to eat nearly every day. He told me he was going to do this so I’d get to sample the assortment of dishes the various establishments offered, because even though they might have the same items on their menu, they didn’t necessarily make them the same way. Not every cook used the same spices, nor in exactly the same quantities, so the same dish may taste different depending on where you decide to dine.

Even though most of the restaurants we’d gone to so far have offered items I found acceptable, I realized I was still going to have to slowly condition myself to eat the spicier fares the locals seem to enjoy. I was trying to do this because I knew Ethan liked this type of food and was accustomed to eating it, even though the cuisine was foreign to me. Therefore, if we were eventually going to be eating most of our meals at home, I knew I’d have to broaden the types of dishes I’d eat, so Ethan wouldn’t have to completely change his diet or have second thoughts about whether a relationship with me would work out.

The reason I wasn’t used to such spicy fares was because while I was growing up my grandmother made her meals quite bland. She and my grandfather weren’t supposed to consume very much salt and many of the other spices she might have used instead tended to cause my grandparents to experience various digestive problems. Therefore, I had grown up being used to not having many spices in my food, so this was going to be a big change for me to make.

After we got out of work, we would sometimes stop at a grocery store on the way home and pick something up for dinner. We would then usually fix the meal at Ethan’s place, because he had a more up to date kitchen with better appliances, but he also enjoyed cooking more than I did. I had to admit that he was quite good at it too, so this worked out extremely well. Even though I could fix many simple dishes, I didn’t really enjoy spending time in the kitchen like Ethan, so when I cooked the meals were quite basic. For the most part I preferred, plus I also enjoyed, just helping Ethan, because it gave us a chance to spend a little more time together.

After dinner, we’d occasionally go out for a walk, take a quick dip in the pool or just spend our time watching TV or a DVD, but I would go home every night and then drive back again the following morning. Ethan and I felt it was important that we kept up this appearance, just in case someone became suspicious of our relationship and decided to start checking up on us.

It wasn’t too difficult to pull this off during the week, but the weekends were a different story. I think we were both very relieved when Friday rolled around, because it meant that we’d not only have the entire weekend to be together again, but it would also give us an opportunity to share some quality time with each other. Ethan had already made plans for us to do something on Saturday, so I had packed a few things and put them in my trunk before I drove over to his place that morning. This way, I’d be able to stay there both Friday and Saturday nights and if anyone questioned what I was doing, we could write off one weekend as just being a little friendly camaraderie. After all, Ethan did have a guest room I could say I was using, even though we didn’t live that far apart.

After preparing and enjoying a very simple dinner, we decided to go see a movie. After looking at our choices, we finally agreed on what we wanted to see and headed to the cinema complex. Seeing we’d just finished dinner, we only got something to drink and took it in with us for later.

We didn’t do anything besides watch the movie, because we were a little concerned about who might see us. It wasn’t that we were worried that others would know we were gay, but it all goes back to our concerns about it affecting our employment status. If someone we knew were to see us kissing or holding hands then they would definitely conclude we were dating. If that were to happen, then one of us would be forced to either transfer to a different department or find another job, and neither of us wanted to go that route.

When we returned to Ethan’s house later, we decided to spend a few minutes in his pool next, just swimming and cooling off. However, once it started to get dark and we knew it would be difficult for his neighbors to observe what we were doing, we began to kiss and feel each other up, although we were still in the pool while we were doing this. Needless to say, this made me horny as hell, and I was fairly certain it was having a similar effect on Ethan, so I dragged him out of the pool and led him into the house.

After quickly drying off, I pulled Ethan into the bedroom, yanked down his swimsuit, pushed him onto his bed and began attacking his groin. I’d only been working on him a short time when I felt Ethan begin to squirm and shift his position beneath me, so he could pull my trunks down too. Realizing what he was trying to do, I quickly released him, stood up and took my trunks off for him, and then we arrange our bodies in a classic sixty-nine position on the bed. Once we were situated in this fashion, we ravenously devoured each other and eventually reached our intended goal of achieving a very satisfying orgasm.

After we’d sated our lustful desires, we decided to clean up before going to bed for the night. Since Ethan had a rather large shower in his master bedroom, there was plenty of room for us to get in it together. Tenderly, we washed each other’s body, which kept us both aroused, so we repeated our earlier actions and gave each other our second orgasm of the evening. It was becoming very apparent that we were also sexually compatible.

Once we dried off, Ethan advised me that we needed to get up fairly early the next morning and then suggested that we should just go to sleep. He wouldn’t tell me what we were going to be doing, but I actually kind of enjoyed not knowing what he had up his sleeve, because it allowed me to postulate about what he’d planned.

Neither of us put anything on after our showers, so we both slept naked. Ethan spooned up behind me, but since we’d both enjoyed a couple of releases earlier, he didn’t get aroused again. In a way, I felt it was even sexier that he didn’t, because it indicated that our relationship was more than just a purely physical encounter.

After waking up the following morning, Ethan fixed us some French toast, bacon and sausages. After we finished eating, we put on a pair of shorts, polo shirt and athletic shoes, before getting into Ethan’s car. He insisted that we take his car, since he knew where we were going and didn’t want me to discover what our destination was until we got there.

After driving for a while, I noticed that Ethan had turned onto Canyon Road. I knew from my previous time in the area that this was a very picturesque stretch of road that followed an old trading route toward Pecos. Shortly after he turned onto it, Ethan began to explain that Canyon Road was lined with numerous art galleries and announced that we were going to stop at a couple of them.

First, he pulled in to the Adobe Gallery, which I quickly discovered featured both historic and contemporary southwest pueblo pottery, Hopi katsina dolls, sometimes called kachina in English, old silver and turquoise jewelry, woven baskets, mission oak furniture and other types of fine art. I found it quite interesting and saw some things I’d never seen before, so I enjoyed the time we spent at this location.

“Wow, now I understand what that guy was saying on the Ancient Aliens show on television,” I announced, as we exited the gallery.

“What are you talking about?” Ethan asked.

“The heads on the katsina dolls don’t look human, because they’re sort of square,” I replied, “almost as if they were wearing a helmet. Since the dolls are supposed to represent ‘Hopi Spirit Beings,’ the guy on the show claimed they were the Hopi’s crude way of representing how they perceived ancient astronauts who had to wear some sort of spacesuit and helmet to survive on earth.”

“That’s an interesting interpretation,” Ethan acknowledged, “but maybe they just weren’t very good artists.”

“I don’t know,” I shot back. “They seemed to be able to create other things that were beautiful and not nearly as bizarre looking.”

Ethan didn’t respond to my final statement, so I didn’t know if it meant he agreed with me, didn’t want to continue debating the point or if he wanted more time to think about it.

After leaving that location, Ethan took me to the Medicine Man Gallery next. It featured the work of famed western artist Maynard Dixon, along with several other well-known western artists. It also maintained a large collection of Native American art, which included pueblo pottery, Navajo rugs and blankets, as well as Native American jewelry and beadwork. I found this stop to be interesting as well and was glad Ethan had brought me here.

After visiting these two places, I now had a much better feel for how the Native Americans had influenced the region, to go along with what I’d learned the previous weekend. When I put this together with what I’d learned about the Spanish, Mexican and early settler influence on the southwest, I was able to better appreciate my new home and began to feel more comfortable in my current surroundings.

After visiting those two galleries, Ethan drove much farther out on Canyon Road, until we reached the Cristo Rey Catholic Church. This is the largest single adobe structure in the country and was built during the late 1930s. It was designed primarily to accommodate an impressive and beautifully carved stone retablo, or altar screen, which was twenty feet wide and forty feet high.

This magnificent work of art had been relegated to a storage area in the older church downtown, primarily due to the fact that they had no place to show it off. Rather than leave it where no one was able to view and enjoy it, the downtown congregation graciously donated it to be used here. I was glad they had done this, because the retablo was a gorgeous work of art and worth the trip to see it, although the rest of the church was interesting as well.

As we came outside after checking everything out, I told Ethan that I was beginning to feel hungry and wondered if he was too. When he agreed his stomach was beginning to grumble as well, we decided to find a place to have lunch and relax for a bit. As we ate, he asked me what I’d thought about the places we had seen so far.

“I’m really glad you took me to each of those locations, because I really enjoyed our time there,” I confirmed. “The things I saw today only added to the understanding I gained last weekend and gives me an even deeper appreciation for this area.”

Ethan seemed pleased with my response and told me we had one more stop to make after we finished eating and before we headed back to the house. Before that happened, however, we had an unexpected, and rather unpleasant, surprise.

“Well look who’s here,” a man’s voice boomed out. “It’s freakin’ Ethan.”

Ethan and I both turned in the direction of the voice, and discovered a rather tall, muscular fellow in jeans, western shirt and cowboy hat. As I glanced back at Ethan, I saw him make a face, showing his displeasure. He obviously hadn’t counted on running into this person.

“Jack, just go away and leave me alone,” Ethan suggested. “I dealt with enough shit from you in high school.”

“Aw, is the poor little fag unhappy to see me,” Jack replied, while seeming to enjoy Ethan’s less than happy response. “I heard you went to college in Arizona, so I thought we’d chased you out of this state. Is this your boyfriend?”

“This is my friend,” Ethan snapped back, “and we’d like to finish our meal in peace.”

“So do you live in Santa Fe now?” Jack pressed, after ignoring Ethan’s not so subtle hint.

“Look, just leave us alone,” Ethan advised him. “We merely stopped in for lunch and will be leaving shortly, so just go find your Neanderthal friends and leave us in peace.”

“Same old Ethan. Sharp tongue and no guts to back it up,” Jack taunted.

“That’s ironic, coming from a guy who likes to have a huge size advantage over the people he’s hassling and three or four goons behind him for support,” Ethan shot back, while looking past Jack at his table of friends.

“Hey, I’ll take you on, just the two of us, if that will make you feel better,” Jack challenged.

“If I wanted to wrestle a gorilla, I’d go to a freak show,” Ethan shot back.

At that moment the manager came over and stepped in.

“I don’t want any trouble in here,” he announced. “Stay at your own tables or leave. I don’t want to have to call the Sheriff to have anyone removed, but I will if you leave me with no other option.”

Jack didn’t look very happy, but he did walk away and left us alone. Ethan and I quickly finished our meal, paid our bill and took off. We certainly didn’t want to give Ethan’s tormentor a chance to continue his verbal assault or an opportunity to follow us.

“What was that all about?” I asked, once we were driving away from the café.

“Jack the jock, or Jack the jerk, was my worst nightmare during my junior and senior years in high school,” he explained. “Once it was suggested that I might be gay, since I didn’t date any girls, he and his friends did their best to verbally torment me. It even got physical a couple of times, but not to the point where anyone got hurt.”

“He was freaking huge,” I observed. “He must have been 6’ 5” and all muscles.”

“Yes, he was a football and wrestling star in high school,” Ethan acknowledged, “and had a reputation for being a major league bully. I understand he was like that all during school, because he was always big for his age.”

“So what types of things did he do to you?” I followed.

“It’s not important now and I’d rather not get into it,” Ethan answered, which let me know to back off a bit.

“Well I thought he was going to punch you, when you made that comment about his Neanderthal friends,” I admitted.

My observation caused Ethan to laugh.

“Yes, he never liked me making jokes about them being cavemen or when I insinuated that their knuckles dragged on the ground,” he tittered. “I think the first time I called any of them Neanderthals, they knew it was an insult, but it took them several days to figure out what I meant by it.”

Now, we were both laughing.

“So you went to high school around here?” I asked.

“No, I grew up in an area south of Albuquerque,” he answered. “I moved here after college, because my parents had already moved and I was hoping to never run into any of those jerks again. Up until today, I never have.”

“And if you hadn’t been taking me sightseeing you probably wouldn’t have today either,” I countered. “I’m sorry that I put you in that position.”

“It wasn’t you, it was Jack, but let’s forget about him,” Ethan suggested. “Hopefully, this will be the only time we run into him, since I now know it will be wise to avoid this part of town.”

While we’d been talking, Ethan had driven us to the Randall Davey Audubon Center. Shortly after we arrived, I learned that Randall Davey had been a very skilled painter, printmaker, sculptor and an early vanguard of the modern art scene. He was also a very important fixture in the Santa Fe Art Colony until his death in 1964. Then, in 1983, his family donated the property where he’d lived to the National Audubon Society, so it could be used as a wildlife preserve.

During our time there, we ended up taking a nature walk around the property. We did this not only so we could observe the birds, but also so we could enjoy the lovely scenery and beautiful day. Part of the trail was quite level and very easy to navigate, but there was another section that was much more difficult to traverse. At one point we even had to stop and turn around, because the trail became so steep that we were unable to continue going forward. Overall, I’d say we ended up walking about three or four miles on our little excursion, but we’d both enjoyed it.

Even though the temperature in New Mexico could get quite hot at times, the heat didn’t seem to bother me as much as the same temperature would in Florida, since the humidity wasn’t nearly as bad. Therefore, I was able to concentrate on the fascinating scenery, which was totally different than what I’d grown up with. I wasn’t used to seeing mountains in Florida or the types of plants and other vegetation that is so plentiful in this region. Of course, I didn’t have to keep my eye out for alligators here either, not that they were a major problem where I grew up in Tampa.

After leaving the Audubon Center, we returned to Ethan’s house. Since we had worked up quite a sweat on the walk and now felt too exhausted to think about fixing anything to eat, we decided to clean up and change first, so we could go out to eat. We showered together again, which really wasn’t any faster, but it sure was a lot more fun. Anyway, when we got done washing up, we went out to find a good place to eat that wasn’t very crowded.

Being Saturday night, most places were busy, and since we didn’t have a reservation we ended up having to wait a while before we could be seated. It wasn’t too bad of a delay though and we passed the time by chatting about our day, except for the run-in with Jack, while we waited for a table to open up.

After we were shown to our seats, we quickly decided what we wanted and placed our order. Surprisingly, the food was delivered after only a short wait and we enjoyed our meal, along with a couple of glasses of wine. We even agreed to splurge and have dessert after we finished, since we felt we’d done enough walking today to earn us this small treat.

Let’s face it, neither of us could ever be considered fat, although we didn’t want to find ourselves in that condition in the future either, but we felt we could risk this minor indulgence tonight. We decided to use this special treat to celebrate our new relationship and the prospect of many wonderful years together. Besides, I felt we might also burn off some of the sugar after we got back to Ethan’s place, so calories be damned.

Neither of us wanted to do much after we first got back to Ethan’s house, so we just sat and watched TV for a while first, before we decided to go out and take a dip in his pool. After swimming for a short time, we got out, dried off and then got ready for bed. Once we were lying next to each other, we began to make out, but then Ethan unexpectedly stopped, looked me in the eye and spoke.

“Bryan, I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to rush you, but do you think you are ready to take the next step in our relationship yet?” he asked.

“Damn, you must be a mind-reader,” I responded. “I was just thinking the same thing myself.”

“Great! I was hoping you might be interested, so would you prefer to give or receive?” he wondered.

“Which would you like to do?” I offered.

“Seeing it was my idea and I don’t want you to think I’m pressuring you,” he began, “then why don’t you do me tonight.”

That was fine with me, so Ethan got up and grabbed the necessary supplies, handed them to me and we got into position. Before long, I was sliding into him and we began making mad, passionate love. We were not only engaged in the physical act of having anal intercourse, but we were just as involved in kissing, hugging and stroking other parts of the body as well. This made it clear to me that what we were doing was much more than just having sex. We were truly making love.

I made sure that Ethan was able to ejaculate too, by simultaneously masturbating him, so we were both breathless and fairly exhausted by the time we’d finished. Even after we’d had our releases, we continued to lie beside each other, kissing and hugging some more, until Ethan suggested we get up and shower together again. This idea sounded absolutely fantastic to me, so he didn’t need to ask twice.

After we finished, we got back in his bed, but this time I spooned up behind him. I could really see us doing this until we were both quite old, so I hoped Ethan was feeling the same way about us.

We slept in later than normal the next morning and didn’t get up until nearly 10:00. As soon as we finished dressing, we chose to go out for brunch, rather than trying to make breakfast. After we finished eating, we then decided to catch a matinee, as we continued to keep this a low-key and relaxing Sunday.

Not only did I truly enjoy every minute we were spending together, but I also couldn’t deny that I was developing some extremely deep feelings for Ethan. This was no longer some simple, youthful crush with a good-looking co-worker. For me, I was truly in love with a gentle, caring and considerate partner, whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

When we returned to Ethan’s house later, I decided that I wanted to be intimate with him again and quickly advised him about my intention. Since he had let me make love to him previous night, I offered to return the favor now. Even though Ethan insisted he wasn’t expecting this to happen, he also wasn’t shy about showing how eager he was to accept my offer.

Ethan practically dragged me off to his bedroom this time, because he was so excited about what was going to happen next. He did manage to slow himself down a little once we reached the bedroom, as we tenderly and seductively began to undress each other. We also took time to pay special attention to every part of each other’s body as it was uncovered, but once we were both naked, we moved onto the bed and started out in a sixty-nine position. We stopped before either of us had a release, so Ethan could make love to me. After pulling the required items out of his nightstand, we both hurriedly prepared ourselves for this coupling.

Ethan spent a great deal more time kissing me and slowly worked his way down my body again, before he finally entered me. Then, we kissed and hugged a great deal more, as he pumped his love into my body. Even though I’ve had sexual encounters prior to this, I have to admit that I’ve never been as turned on or enjoyed the sex nearly as much as I did today. I won’t go as far as to claim that it was due to Ethan’s sexual prowess, but I would say that it had more to do with the emotional connection we had that made this experience so gratifying. Due to this spiritual, as well as physical bond that we currently shared, it truly was a moment in time that I shall never forget. I shall always treasure the memories of my initial experience of having Ethan make love to me, but I also hope we share many more times like this in the future.

After we’d finished making love and were lying next to each other, I decided to mention something to Ethan about us, because I wanted to know if he felt the same way I did. I believed he did, but I felt I needed to be certain, because I didn’t want to end up deluding myself. It would be a total waste of time wishing for something that could never be, if he wasn’t interested in the same thing that I was.

“Ethan, I’ve really enjoyed this weekend with you – again,” I added, to emphasize that I’d enjoyed the previous weekend too.

“Yes, I have as well,” he replied. “In fact, I’m thinking that we’ll be spending most, if not all of our weekends together, if you’re willing.”

“Definitely,” I assured him, “but do you see anything more happening, other than us just spending a few weekends together?”

“How about every weekend and every day for as long as we live,” he offered.

I was so happy and excited when he confirmed that he felt the same way about me that I did about him.

“You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to hear you say that,” I confessed.

“Probably as much as I wanted to know that you were agreeable to it too,” he replied.

“What are we going to do about work then?” I wondered.

“For now, we’ll try to hide our relationship from those we work with,” he explained, “but I’m not going to try to hide my feelings for you when we’re here or at your place.”

“What if someone we work with sees us then?” I wanted to know.

“I don’t expect anything like that to happen, unless they’re peeking in our windows, but if it does, I’ll either ask for a transfer or start looking for a new job somewhere else,” he replied. “I’d rather give up my job than give you up.”

Oh my God, how sweet was that? Now, I’m convinced that he feels as strongly about me, as I do about him.

“Since I just started there, maybe I should be the one looking for another job,” I offered.

“Nonsense,” he shot back. “I’ve already done a great deal of thinking about this and there are a couple of other departments I wouldn’t mind transferring to, if it comes to that, but we’ll try to keep it the way it is for as long as we can. If anything, I feel I might be ready to try something different anyway, especially if it’s the only way we can stay together.”

I couldn’t resist the impulse to hug and kiss him aggressively, to show him my total appreciation for what he’d just said. I was absolutely convinced that this would end up being a lifetime commitment for both of us, but there was a little snag. Would we be able to do it legally?

Currently, New Mexico was the only state that didn’t have any laws either allowing or prohibiting same sex unions, so I hoped this meant we’d eventually be able to travel to one of the other states where it was legal and get married. As of now, there were six states where same sex marriage was legal and a dozen more that permitted some sort of civil unions, which granted the respective parties either partial or total rights as married couples. However, because of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) none of these marriages or civil unions were currently recognized by the federal government.

Although this had been a truly wonderful weekend and I was very upbeat about our future together, I still had to say goodbye to Ethan and return home. We’d agreed that we would only spend Friday and Saturday evenings together for the time being, so I reluctantly got ready to drive back to my place. I had trouble hiding my feelings that I was still somewhat hesitant to leave Ethan, even though I knew I’d be driving back to his house in the morning so we could ride into work together. I also knew I’d be seeing him all week at the office and I’d be having lunch with him every afternoon, so that did help to alleviate any remorse I was feeling about having to leave him now.

Even though I went to sleep alone that evening, I hoped this situation wouldn’t last much longer. Besides the fact that I loved feeling Ethan lying next to me in bed, I also enjoyed the incredible sex we’d had together and couldn’t wait until we’d be able to enjoy doing those same sorts of things every night.