Plains, November 2013Cyrus came to the first M4M party I held on the Plains. He wasn't really my type: in his 30s, pale, very tall and thin -- you could see his ribs -- and so painfully shy that you could never get much conversation out of him, let alone sex. He was mostly there to watch. But he had two important qualities:
1. An enormous uncut Kovbasa.
2. He lived right down the hall. After a year in Philadelphia, where every apartment building for blocks around was occupied by gay men, it was nice to have a landsman nearby.
I started making romantic overtures. I asked him out to dinner, but he worked evenings. I asked him out to lunch, but he was busy.
Not interested, or too painfully shy to respond ?
When I went to San Francisco for a conference, I asked him to pick up my mail.
I got back around noon on Sunday morning, knocked on his door, and...Max answered -- in his underwear!
Max was a regular at the evening M4M Parties: a short, chubby, hairy chested bear, balding, jovial, a writer and gamer who spent most of his time at the comic book store down the street.
I didn't remember them ever coming to the same party. How had they met? How had they started dating?
"Um...hi...I came to pick up my mail."
"Cy's in the bathroom, Come on in and wait."
The living room was littered with Dungeons and Dragons game pieces, pizza boxes, books, clothes, and beer cans. There was a tv show with a Medieval theme playing.
I sat on the couch next to Max. "So, are you guys together now?"
"Maybe...I'm not sure. He offered his apartment for our D and D game yesterday, and we were playing all night, and then after the other guys left we sort of sat on the couch, watching Game of Thrones and cuddling."
"In your underwear...."
He shrugged. "It's hot in here."
My jealousy started raging. I had been working on Cy for two months, Max just takes one day to shove his way in. Cy lived down the hall! He was mine!
Besides, they were completely unsuited for each other. Ok, they were around the same age, and both into Dungeons and Dragons, but tall and skinny with short and fat -- they'd look like the number 10 walking down the street!
Cy came out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a towel. His shirt was off.
"Hi, Boomer. Your mail is in the kitchen -- I'll go get it."
I stopped him with a hand pressed flat against his chest. "Wait. I understand that Max here has declared his intention to become your boyfriend."
He began to blush. "Well, maybe. We haven't really discussed anything yet."
"Good, then I have time. Before I left for San Francisco, I was going to declare my intentions, too."
"Oh, really? I...um...didn't think you were interested. You never said..."
Max stood up. "Hey, I was here first." He put his arm around Cy's waist and kissed him on the neck.
"You haven't gone out on a date yet -- hanging around the apartment doesn't count." I put my arms around both of them. "I propose a little contest, like we used to do in West Hollywood. Max and I will give you our best shot, and you can decide which of us to date."The full text, with nude photos and sexual situations, is on
Tales of West Hollywood.