Friends with Benefits Pt. 04

"Ok." I sad slowly. "I get all that." I but my lip. "But..."

"I know." Dylan said quietly. "Bit rich of me to tell you I needed honesty and then to go and do that."

"Yeah." I said. "You've never mentioned him. If he was bothering you at work... I just don't know why you wouldn't... tell me. You're good at that!" Dylan nodded.

"I guess I'm better at giving advice than taking it." He mumbled.

"Huh." I kissed his head. "It's ok Dyl. Eric gets in people's heads." He looked up at me.

"Are we ok?" He asked. I held him tight.

"We'll be ok." I said. "We just need to talk properly. Both of us. Always." Dylan went weak in my arms and pressed his head to my chest with a sigh. I patted his back absentmindedly. My brain was somewhere else though. On a really fucking bad idea.

--

"That's the last box." I hung up one of Dylan's shirts and looked at him. I didn't understand how he owned so much shit. We'd spent the last god knows how many weekends unpacking and we were only just done. We had a flat inspection soon- it had been that long since we'd moved in He grinned and picked me up. He was starting to get some real tone on his body, and I could feel his muscles tensing as he swung me round. I loved that he could pick me up now, it made me feel soft, and I'd never been soft before. He brought that out.

"Lets fuck." He whispered in my ear. laughed. Not that I didn't want to. I definitely did. Dylan just didn't talk like that. He threw me on the bed and launched himself over me. He leant down and started kissing me urgently.

"Um... You don't want to save it?" Dylan pulled away from me. He blinked.

"Oh shit. That's tonight!"

"Yeah. Still keen?" Dylan nodded. Yeah. I thought he would be.

—-

The first time took a lot of convincing.

When I brought it up he slapped me.

"Sorry." He cradled my cheek. "Just checking you hadn't lost your fucking mind."

"So that's ..."

"Not even up for discussion."

He brought it up next. He slipped in next to me after a long shift at work smelling of cigarettes and booze. And toothpaste- he was good about that. Better than me.

"You go out after work?" I muttered.

"Na. Couple of shots after the function." He squeezed me.

"Good function?" He sighed and didn't say anything. I wondered if he was asleep. As I was starting to drift off again he spoke up.

"Still want to try that thing with Eric?" He mumbled.

"Thought that wasn't even up for discussion."

"It's up for discussion."

"Ok. But not at 3am. I have work soon babe." Dylan kissed my neck and fell asleep.

I didn't know when we would talk about it, obviously I worked mornings and he worked until the early morning. Our schedules were shit for each other at the moment. I did get him a bunch of flowers and make him an awesome dinner on our night off together and waited to see if he wanted to raise the subject.

"Gus this is too much." Dylan looked at the feast in amazement. It was slow roasted beef cheek in a red wine jus, with Jerusalem artichokes and anchovy radicchio salad. I looked at him.

"I got carried away. I haven't been able to cook here yet. I just unpacked the kitchen stuff." Dylan sat at the table and opened a bottle of Beaujolais. I didn't mind red wine anymore. Dylan ordered it when we went out and taught me how to enjoy it properly. He always hesitated before ordering. He insisted I could have a lager instead but when Dylan spoke about wine he got all flushed and started speaking faster- he put on his manager voice from work and talked me through the nuances, making sure I understood. It was a side of him I didn't always get to see and it made me feel warm- like he was opening the door to a private corner of his mind and showing me around. I liked sharing things with him, learning from him. I liked the way we were changing together. He poured me a glass and helped himself to the food.

"You're such a good cook." He moaned. "This is awesome." I grinned and sat down with him, moving the flowers so I could see him. He grinned at me. "Right." He said. "Run it by me again. You want to have a threesome with Eric?" I choked on my mouthful of wine. I kind of thought we might warm up to it. You know, how was your day, and all that... Dylan looked at me sympathetically as I coughed but made no effort to help.

"Thanks." I gasped sarcastically as I resumed breathing. He nudged my leg and grinned. "Anyway. Not a threesome." I sighed. This was such a bad idea. "I uh... I thought he might get off watching... Maybe directing." I glanced at Dylan. He didn't look mad- that was already better than I'd expected. He ate some more and we sat in silence for a minute.

"Well he would." Dylan said eventually. "That's a hot idea."

"I know it's hot in theory." I said slowly. "I know you..." I paused and looked up. Dylan grinned.

"I what?" He pressed.

"Uh. You like it when other people look at me." I mumbled. "You go on about a fucking only fans all the time." He laughed.

"Because it's a crime that only I get to see you naked." He said. "And I stand by that." He sighed and put down his fork. "So you're not... look, just be honest with me here Gus. It's not that you miss sex with him?" I shook my head.

"I'm happy Dyl. With you." I sighed. "But... if I'm being totally honest... Eric always did turn me on like crazy, and I can't shake that. If we never saw him it would be one thing, but you see him all the time..." And I didn't say it but they talked about me, I know they did because Dylan told me everything. Dylan and Eric weren't friends but they were friendly. And one or two late night cocktails still occasionally turned into a 'have you/did you try this with Gus talk'. And to be honest, it turned me on. Which Dylan knew- I couldn't hide it if I tried. The semi I sported when he mentioned it was a dead giveaway.

Dylan sighed and reached for my hand across the table.

"I'm worried you'll change your mind when you see him." He said. "I'm scared this will be really bad for us." I nodded.

"Yeah." I said. "You're probably right."

"But thinking about fucking you in front of him..." Dylan trailed off. We looked at each other across the table.

I'd opened a can of worms. And we both knew it.

——

Dylan's hair fanned out around him on the pillow as he slept. I couldn't stop myself from touching him, running my fingers down his body as I admired how beautiful he was. I stroked his chest, gently circling his nipples and feeling his pecs- he was so tall the bastard could get away with eating twice as much as me. Now that he worked out his body was only getting better. If he hadn't been out of my league before he was well out of it now. Not that he seemed to care, I grinned to myself. I stroked his face, where he sometimes had a long beard but had shaved recently. His face was rough and stubbly, like mine, although mine was part of my whole 'look' and his was just a couple of long days. I saw him smile as I touched him and he opened his eyes. He blinked at me.

"Good morning." He said.

"Hello."

"What are you doing?" He grabbed my hands playfully. I laughed as I fell to his chest.

"Committing you to memory." I said. His arms wrapped around me and he squeezed me tight.

"When do you have to be at work?" He said. I frowned at him.

"Not for a while." I said slowly. He grinned and rolled us over so he was spooning me, and rested his head in the crook of my neck.

"Can we just lie here until you have to go?" He whispered. I smiled at him.

"Sure." I muttered. "If you really want to lie in bed all weekend." Dylan started to laugh. "It's Saturday." I reminded him.

"Yeah." He said. "That's right." He kissed my neck and wrapped his arms around me. We lay in silence, his hands gently stroking me. My brain was starting to go fuzzy and drift away when I heard Dylan talking to me. "The way you look at me, Gus... I'm not worried about Eric anymore. Do you..." I pressed against Dylan.

"We should probably ask Eric." I said.

——

Eric took less convincing. By which I mean, none at all really. He saw me talking to Dylan at the bar and made his way over.

"You never come here anymore." He said as he stood next to me.

"Na, I work in Karori now." I said. Eric looked between Dylan and I.

"What's going on?" He said slowly. I shrugged.

"We had an idea." Eric's gaze immediately hardened.

"Oh?" Dylan finished pouring me another pint and sat it down, looking across the bar at Eric.

"I'm off at 10 if you want to stick around and talk about it." Eric stared at him.

"He has lots of tattoos." I said, to help with the image. Eric always did like tattoos. He was always trying to get me to get one. Eric glanced at me.

"Another bottle of the Nikau Farm." He said to Dylan. I winced as I realised the bottle was over $150. Man nights out with Eric must be pricey. Luckily we never did nights out.

Dylan poured the wine at Eric's table and returned to the bar where he tried not to let me distract him. His co-workers were intrigued by me. They kept stealing glances whenever Dylan replaced my beer or paused to touch me. I guess Dylan didn't talk about me much at work. I watched him a bit between scrolling reddit. He was always moving, barely stopping when his staff asked him questions or came to him with a problem. He always paused and took a breath before he answered- and his resolutions were always thoughtful and kind. He didn't ever blame anyone, except once when a customer didn't say thank you and he yelled "Thank you SO MUCH. Have a GREAT NIGHT." At their retreating backs. I laughed into my beer as he cursed at them quietly.

I could see why Jordan was jealous. Dylan had a natural easy leadership about him. Jordan was snappy and seemed to operate on a 'customer is always wrong unless YOU fucked up' basis. Dylan touched his shoulder after Jordan had a particularly nasty row with a wait staff who'd spilt red wine on a customer.

"We're busy." Dylan said. "Accidents happen. Ange is new and doing her best." Jordan sighed.

"Now we have to pay for dry cleaning."

"We pay less for dry cleaning than for your fucking bar tab." He squeezed Jordan's shoulder.

"Take a smoke break and relax, I'll deal with this one. Then you can apologise to Ange." Jordan opened his mouth to argue but Dylan frowned at him. I've been on the receiving end of that look before and it seemed to work on him the same way it did on me. Jordan's shoulders slumped forward and he nodded .

"Yeah. Thanks." He muttered, slinking off.

As 10pm rolled around Eric's co workers stumbled out and he took a seat beside me.

"You look good." He said.

"Thanks." I said, putting my phone away.

"You both do." He admired Dylan, who was now quietly telling Jordan it was way too early to close the coffee machine early, and could he double check next time because now he had to open it again for a round of espresso martinis and he'd wasted maybe half an hour. "I swear all the weight I've lost since we broke up has gone straight to his arse." Eric said admiringly. I chuckled. Huh, I looked at him properly. Eric was looking positively angular. He'd always been lean but his nice suit was swapping him in the shoulders. I frowned at him, a little worried but he shook his head, reading my thoughts. "You cook with a lot of butter. I don't think I ever learnt how to cook." I pursed my lips. Amazing how he could make me feel guilty when he was the one who had got himself into the situation. He laughed, reading my mind again.

"Hey, that's my next boyfriend's problem." He joked. "In the meantime..." He looked up at Dylan, who had set some drinks in front of us. Dylan took off his apron.

"Need a cigarette." He said, grabbing his gin and tonic and his backpack. Eric reached for the negroni, his usual, and I guess that left me the White Russian.

"So." Eric looked at us as we settled outside, away from the prying eyes of the staff. Not far enough away. I noticed they were taking turns to drift near us on the pretence of carrying out food or clearing glasses. Eric wasn't phased. "I have two very pretty boys telling me they have an idea." Should I be worried?" Dylan put his arm around me and we looked at each other. I nodded at him. He cleared his throat.

"Gus and I agree you have an uncanny ability to do amazing things to us in bed without even being there." Dylan said slowly and Eric grinned. "Which we weren't exactly happy about." Dylan said. Eric's smile faded and he sighed.

"I've been waiting for this." He said. "It might be time for me to find a new bar." Dylan sighed and lightly touched Eric's hand. Eric flinched and looked down with wide eyes. "Actually..." Dylan said slowly, and glanced at me.

"We thought it might be even better if you were there." I continued. I tried to meet Eric's eye but he was staring at the table. Dylan and I glanced at each other. Eric suddenly looked up at me frowning.

"No." He said. He shook his head. "No, no. I like what you have. Don't let me fuck that up for you." My heart melted a little. That was so unlike Eric. I guess I wasn't the only one who'd changed. Dylan grasped his hand a little tighter.

"Hear us out." He suggested. Eric looked at him, still frowning, but he motioned for me to continue.

"I don't want to fuck anyone but Dylan. And he feels the same." I said.

"Ok." Eric said slowly.

"But we thought maybe you'd like to watch. Direct. You'd be in charge. You could wank, obviously, just not touch." Eric's eyes glazed over and his mouth fell open as he gazed into the distance.

"That's insane." He said eventually. "You realise that?"

"Sure." Dylan said. "But you're insane. You made a fake Grindr account to scare people off from dating Gus. And Gus is insane- he likes being pissed on. And I'm insane because I have fantasies of passing Gus around like a fucking party favour and letting everyone and their mum have their way with him." He shrugged. "And all our crazy aligns pretty well." Eric looked between us and started to laugh. He pulled out his iPad and started tapping furiously.

"That's so hot." He said. Dylan and I grinned at each other. We'd been talking about it for a couple of months now. We had given ourselves space to see if it was just something that made us horny, to make sure the reality wasn't going to break down our relationship entirely. We'd discussed trying it with someone else but it was Dylan who eventually vetoed that.

"It needs to be him." He'd said over breakfast out of the blue. "This is going to sound so crazy but it needs to be someone I know. Someone I can..." he winced. "Trust."

"You trust Eric?"

"I guess I do."

"Right." Eric brought me back to the present, "Traffic light system work for you both?" We nodded as he started taking notes, checking in on limits, describing things and getting our reaction. I glanced at Dylan and . This was going to be quite the scene.

"We do have a caveat." I spoke up as he wound down. Eric nodded.

"Of course." He said.

"Don't be a dick." I said. Eric laughed.

"Seriously." Dylan said. "Don't you dare wait around for me after work and try to walk me home. Don't email Gus and ask how he liked it behind my back. If you have anything to say to us you tell us. Together." Eric blushed.

"Right. Sorry. Sometimes I get a bit obsessive."

"No shit." Dylan and I muttered at the same time. Eric rolled his eyes and packed away his iPad. He sunk the rest of his negroni and paused as he stood to leave.

"Hey. Just to be clear if you do change your minds I promise I won't go psycho. Well, no more than usual. I know I'm obsessive but I still believe in consent. Please feel free to call it off ok?" Dylan stuck out his hand and they shook.

"Thanks Eric." He said. Eric looked at me. I nodded at him.

"See you soon." I said.

—-

Dylan and I gripped each other's hands tightly as we knocked on his door that first time. I glanced at him.

"Still keen?" I asked. He looked down at me with a grin and rolled his eyes.

"Amazingly my answer hasn't changed since we got out of the Uber." Eric opened the door and grinned at us.

"Come in." He ushered us in and sat us at his dining room table. "Tea?" He asked. "Coffee?" He fussed around us, boiling the jug and pulling out his ceramic mugs.

"Anything stronger?" Dylan muttered. Eric looked over at us.

"No." He grinned. That same half smirk he used to give me. "You need to stay hard." He looked at me firmly. "And HE can't fuck with his system." Dylan and I glanced at each other. I started giggling. The atmosphere was awful. I'd never felt so tense in my life. "I did get this though." Eric reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag of weed. "That might help." Dylan grinned and picked it up.

"Thank god." He said. "I can't do this sober." He laughed. I looked at the weed suspiciously. Eric hated weed. We glanced at each other and he shrugged.

"I'm a bit different now." He said. "I still think cigarettes are gross but it turns out weed doesn't give you a hangover, which was beginning to be a bit of a problem for me." He sighed and pulled some papers and filters from his pockets. He and Dylan each rolled a joint as I looked Eric over. He had big dark circles under his eyes and his hair was tied back. It was getting long. He never used to have it long, said it was annoying and didn't suit the office anyway. I bit my lip as Dylan passed me the joint.

"Are you ok?" The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Eric sighed.

"Was this all a ruse for a therapy session?" He asked as he lit his own joint and motioned to the couch.

We moved to sit more comfortably, and I curled around Dylan as Eric lay down in the armchair opposite us.

"We can do therapy if you prefer." Dylan joked. Eric laughed.

"Can I see your qualifications?"

"Sure. I'm the manager at SWC's on The Terrace. I spend about 9 hours a day listening to people's problems."

"You need a testimonial?" I asked. "He's very good."

"Alright." Eric relaxed into the armchair. "My problem is that I have two really hot guys in my apartment and absolutely no one has their shirt off."

"Oh I can definitely help with that." Dylan said- and I felt myself restrained as he pulled my t-shirt off.

"Fuck you!" I said. It was a mistake to start training him. I was still stronger but not enough to over power him when he caught me off guard.

"No that's better." Eric grinned and looked us over. "You too Mustaine." Dylan rolled his eyes and slowly peeled his shirt off. Eric moaned. "Oh that's so unfair." He said. "Look at you both. I always thought it was ok for Gus because he worked all day but there's no excuse for a bartender to look that good." Dylan grinned and pulled me against him, sprawled on the couch. The weed was hitting me and I was starting to feel horny now. "Show me your tattoos." Dylan sat up and began explaining them to Eric, who was laughing in spite of himself.

"I love them." He giggled. "I don't know what the fuck you were thinking though. Osculum Capra? Kiss the Goat?" Dylan groaned.

"You read Latin?" He whined. "Oh that's so embarrassing." He was laughing too. "It's a band I used to like..." He laughed. "Pop culture satanic stuff... it's really stupid..."

"Wait, put it on." Eric motioned to his sound system and Dylan shook his head in protest.

"No, no, no... we cant fuck to Ghost..." He laughed. "That's poser music." Eric laughed.

"Can't be worse than the shit Gus listens to."

"What?!" I protested. "Nothing wrong with..."

"Slipknot?!" Eric said. "I beg to differ."

"Pantera!" Dylan joined in. Traitor. "It's so awful!"

"Alien Weaponry..." Eric continued.

"Hey Alien Weaponry is fucking legit!" I interrupted. The other two looked at each other and shook their heads.