Falling for My College Buddy

Brett stood up as I turned over. It was a sight to see him hard as a rock with a look of concern on his face. "Is everything okay?"

"You're married," I said matter-of-factly.

"Ohhh, right. I forgot about that," he said jokingly.

"Don't do that. You know what I mean. We're about to do just what Matt threw you out for."

"So? I'm already in trouble. Why not just go for broke? I can finally be with you the way you've wanted since college, with both my head and my heart in the game. You can't tell me you don't want it."

"You're right. I DO want it...more than you know, actually. But I don't want some man's husband."

He smirked at me. "Okay then. I'll get a divorce."

"Don't joke about that. You made vows. You can't just throw that away like a dirty tissue. You need to try to make things right with Matt."

"You've told me so many times how you feel about me and how you still feel about me. Now, just when we're about to fuck with the type of emotion I should've allowed myself to have back in college, you're talking about Matt. I can't believe you're doing this."

"Let me ask you this. Do you still love him?"

"Yeah. I guess," Brett reluctantly admitted.

"Then you owe it to all of us to go try to make amends. I'm not going to be what keeps you from fixing your marriage." He started to say something, but I held my hand up to stop him. "If you really try to make it work and it's truly over, I'll welcome you back in my arms AND my bed if that's where you want to be."

"So you're kicking me out too," he grinned at me. "Fine. I guess I'll just go find a park bench to sleep on somewhere."

"You can stay until morning. Then after we have breakfast, I'm sending you back home to try and make things right with Matt."

"I can stay until morning? Oh good!" he plopped down on the bed next to me. "I call big spoon!"

"When I said you could stay until morning, I meant in the guest room."

As he climbed out of bed, he gave me that crooked smile of his that always used to drive me wild. "You can't blame a guy for trying."

Six hours later, we'd had breakfast and I'd sent him on his way after another short pep talk. It wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted Brett to fuck me last night, wake up and fuck me this morning, go back to the house he and Matt owned together and help him pack his stuff, and then help him find a good divorce lawyer. But I knew that's not the way I could let things play out. If Brett and I were meant to be, I had to let it happen the right way. And if he and Matt were meant to stay together, I couldn't stand in the way of that...no matter how much my heart wanted me to.

No one ever said doing the right thing was easy. I wasn't known for always making the best decisions, but I knew that's what I'd done...the right thing...

***

I was just in the middle of clicking and saving the story to my queue to post tomorrow morning when I heard his voice and looked up to see him peering around the corner from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. "Hey, Preston. You coming to bed? It's getting late."

"Yeah. Sorry. I'll be right there."

"Come on. The wedding's in a day and a half," he whined. I looked at the band on the ring finger of his left band, different than the one that had distracted me that night two years ago but the same as the one on the ring finger on my own left hand. "You're the one who insists on following along with the silly tradition that we can't see each other 24 hours before the ceremony."

"It's bad luck!" I interjected. "And after everything you and I have gone through, we need all the good luck we can get!"

"Whatever. I just want as much time with you as I can get before you make me go stay over with Hauser and his wife until I see you at the J.O.P.'s office on Friday afternoon."

"I'll be there in a minute. I'm just finishing up."

"Work?" he asked.

"No. I'm working on something else."

"Ah," he said, a knowing grin on his face. "One of your stories, then. Can I see?" He stepped toward the dining room table and I immediately pulled my laptop lid down.

"You know the rules, Brett," I lovingly chastised him. "You have your hobbies. I have mine...and never the twain shall meet."

"I love it when you talk all 18th Century at me!" he teased, before backing up to the hallway. "But I get it. We each need to have our own interests separate from each other. Just don't be too much longer, okay?"

"I won't." As Brett started to turn around to go back to our bed, I called out. "Hey..." He looked at me and I gestured toward me with my head. He walked up to me...my laptop lid still in the down position. When he was standing in front of me, I reached up to tug on the neck of his t-shirt and craned my neck upward to meet him in a soft and lingering kiss on his lips. When we parted, I said softly, "I love you."

He leaned down and kissed me again. "I love you too, Ray." And once again, that's how I knew it was serious.

I watched him walk back to the hallway and disappear, biting my lip. I leaned over to make sure he wasn't lurking, ready to sneak out and see my story over my shoulder. Once I was sure that he was definitely back in the bedroom, I reopened the laptop lid and - instead of clicking to queue what I'd just written, I typed:

I'd done the right thing sending Brett back home to his husband that night...and a little over a year later, the universe rewarded me for it by finally giving me the man of my dreams.

I queued the story, logged out of the site, powered-down my laptop, and headed back to the bed that used to be mine. The bed I'd been sharing with Brett Kemp for a almost a year.

When I sent him home that day a couple years ago, I didn't know how this story would end. It took a few days, but Brett and Matt decided to try and save their marriage. They even entered marriage counseling and it seemed as if things were on the road to normalcy. I won't lie. A part of me was disappointed. I'd hoped he'd show back up at my door after about a week. But even more importantly, I wanted my friend to be happy. If a life with Matt was what made that happen, I could deal.

A few months into their reconciliation, another cheating scandal ended the marriage for good. No...my horndog of a buddy, Brett, wasn't the one stepping out this time. This time, it was Matt who had strayed. And yet, the third party was exactly the same as the first time. It was Brett's turn to walk into his bedroom and find Matt in bed with his own father. Had it been three random strangers, I probably would've found the scenario incredibly hot. Okay...if you tell Brett I said this, I'll deny, deny, deny. But I DID find the idea of Matt and his father getting it on pretty boner-inducing.

What I didn't find boner-inducting was the impact it had on Brett. He was inconsolable. Just like I'd been many times before, I was there with a strong shoulder for him to lean on and eventually, he was able to recover, heal, and move on. I know what you're thinking...that I helped him move on directly into my bed. That's the last thing I wanted. I didn't want to be a rebound. No one ever stays with a rebound long-term. And if Brett needed to run through another roster full of ready and willing cock and ass in the wake of his split from Matt, he'd been right all those years ago. I didn't want to be on the roster. I wanted to be his MVP. I was in love and willing to wait and give him the space he needed to work out whatever divorced man blues he needed to get out of his system. It took some time, but we eventually found our way to each other and moved in with each other after a few months of being exclusive but living apart.

We'd had a lot of starts and stops over the years and by now, it had been over 10 years since we'd graduated college, I thought we'd never see each other again, and our friendship was supposedly irreparably damaged. But in a little less than two days, I was finally about to have my happy ending. We both were.