Thanks for all of your great emails! It really helps a lot to hear from you!
Up to now: Ty, an avid cyclist, falls for Zack, a fellow cyclist from his group, who always shows up late for rides, but dressed to kill in great gear, always riding expensive equipment. They get to be friends, and one night Zack confesses to Ty that he is confused about his sexuality. Ty and Zack spend the night together, and then Ty is on the road for business a lot, and worries that he is frozen out by Zack. While out of town on business, Ty meets Eddie and Merck, twin brothers. They ride together, and get to know each other better.
I went back to Wichita several times that Summer for business. Almost every visit included a bike ride with Merck & Eddie. When I flew in, they provided me with an extra bike. If I forgot some piece of lycra, they could usually find something that would fit me. The good thing was, when it needed to stretch, it stretched, and showed off in the right places.
Once I was feeling kind of on edge, kind of like a "redneck" wanting to stir up some trouble. I asked Merck where that cult was that protests at military funerals because of "don't ask, don't tell." I thought maybe I could stir up some trouble myself. Merck said
"I was just giving you shit the first time we met. They're not here in Wichita. If you want to visit them, you'll have to do that one your way through Topeka. They're over two hours from here."
So, instead of stirring up trouble in public, Eddie, Merck, and I stirred up our own "trouble" in Eddie's luxury shrine to male pleasure. Eddie and I were able to introduce Merck to a lot that Summer, since he had come "out" to us he was ready and willing to learn all he could, and we showed it to him, from giving to receiving, from sucking to rimming, not much was held back after our rides. We would spend our nights, exploring each other before collapsing in a heap on those black satin sheets of Eddie's fantasy room. We let Merck call the shots most of the time. A couple of times, he wanted to watch me and Eddie do it with our cycling jerseys still on. More than once, he wanted to be dominated, being the bad boy he was for holding out and not going completely "out" in public. Once we played "fugitive" as he got a head start, and if we caught him we could force him to be our prisoner. You can bet we did all we could to catch him, and when we did, had a lot of fun introducing him to being a good little servant, giving us pleasure in many ways... Merck could not get over one fear, he didn't want to take it up the ass.
We would get into some heart to heart talks, too. Sometimes Merck was excited, sometimes he was ashamed, sometimes euphoric, running through the whole gamut of emotions as he discovered who he was and his sexuality. I shared with him my great crush on Zack, how he just seemed like my ideal of cycling masculinity, so perfect in so many ways. His perfect form, his flair for cycling jerseys and shorts, and the ways he had reached me sexually had created a void in me that I was struggling to fill, and although I liked Eddie a lot, getting to know Merck and helping him that Summer was fantastic.
One of the recurring themes in Merck's conversation that Summer was his desire to get to know himself even better, and to give his sleek and buff, built in all the right places, bod a real workout in the art of gay pursuit. At the same time, he was afraid to come out in Wichita because he didn't want to traumatize his parents even more than he thought they already were. So, I got to know the real him, vulnerable, searching, while in public he continued to be the butch, cocky alpha male I had first known him to be.
One weekend he came to visit me in St. Louis for five days. Rather than the six hour drive from Wichita, he flew. He arrived just in time for our Thursday evening bike ride, in fact, his desire to see Zack in person made him take an earlier flight. I had borrowed a bike for him, and we stopped at my place to change. He brought along basic colors: some Campagnolo bib shorts, black, with iridescent white, almost silver, panels down the side, fantastic. Don't remember the jersey he wore, just plain black and white, but he did wear a Nike undershirt. I was so blown away by the shorts. We arrived at the ride site, and I introduced Merck to some of the guys.
"So, do you think Zack will come?" he asked me on the side.
"Don't know," I said, "but let's just say you'll see me stand at attention if I see him."
"Hehehehe" Merck laughed. "If he's like you say he is, I'll be joining you in formation."
Just then, announcements began, and we listened to the normal boring recitation of upcoming rides. That meant that the ride would start in a few minutes. Just then, a Subaru squealed into the parking lot. Who should jump out but Zack? Today Zack was stunning in his cycling masculinity. If Versace designed cycling clothes, Zack would be the model. The kit might have been actually designed by Versace: it was a yellow and black number from some obscure Italian cycling team, the black was really shiny, looking almost like polished leather, and the yellow was really, well, yellow. Add to that a pair of vintage Maressi cycling shoes and cleats, and it was clear that his salary was not all being spent on the bimba and bambino! Instead, it was keeping Zack dressed in his own cycling uniforms. Zack was very tan, and the sun glistened off his tanned legs. He looked so good, had this been a toothpaste commercial, his smile would have glistened. Instead, it was keeping Zack dressed in his own cycling uniforms. Ready to conquer the roads like a disinterested cycling good. What a sense of style.
I ran right over:
"You need a hand," I asked "they're almost ready to take off." Just then announcements ended, the last one being a very pointed announcement about being on time for rides, being ready to ride when the announcements began. Zack looked up from tying his cleats and said tersely
"Go ahead, I'll catch up."
I tried not to sound too much like a puppy dog as I said, "nah buddy, I'll wait and draft you back in. Besides, I wanna see those classic cleats from up close..." I said, laughing. Merck held back with us, and when Zack got ready and we got on the road, we could see the group about a quarter mile ahead.
"Let's hit it," Zack said, and when we had just started to ride hard to catch up, Merck hit a pothole with the borrowed bike, and had a flat.
"Shit," he said.
"Shit," I said, as I pulled to the side.
"Sheeeeeeiiiit," Zack said, as he pulled over to the side. He realized that at this point he probably would not make the group without us, but he looked longingly in their direction.
"Go on ahead," I said, but he obviously knew that if we had waited for him, he could hardly leave us behind. "Or stay," I said, "whatever you want. If you stay we'll ride together, once the flat is changed." While we were changing the flat, I introduced Merck and Zack. I said
"Be nice to him, he's from out of town." We got the flat changed, and as we started out, I said "we'll never catch them, why don't we just do our own thing."
Zack suddenly got this look, and said "I know a great ride from here, it'll keep us in form, and it's a lot of fun to ride."
"Lead on" Merck said. We pored it on with Zack in the lead, some longer downhills, and then through some dips, and up a hollow, a long ascent. We were pretty tired at this point, but it was a lot of fun. This is a great part of any ride, when the hard works is done, and we were cruising along but not racing, so we were chatting about this and that. I let Zack and Merck engage in that macho bullshit they did so well, and from there we all started talking about Floyd and Lance and Tyler and doping, and wanting to ride in the Alps or the Alpe d'Huez someday.
Next, I gave a wink to Merck, and said "I've gotta stop for a minute, but you two ride on ahead." I did stop, fooling around with a strap, but then started riding again, but held back a couple of hundred of feet from Merck and Zack. We had strategized a little that if Merck and Zack were getting along, Merck would talk to Zack about some of his struggles with his sexuality issues. I was hoping that it would help Zack out, and also maybe set something up between the three of us....
More later. Let me know what you might like to see happen between Zack, Ty, and Merck...