Orchids in the Sun, Chapter 5

Orchids in the Sun

© by The Lavender Quill, 2002

Warning: the following story contains graphic descriptions of male/male sex between consenting adults. If that sort of thing bothers you, or you are a minor, or it is illegal for you to read this type of content under the laws of your area, don’t read any further.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people or events is purely coincidental.

Chapter 5.

When Kenji asked me to kiss him, I came fully alert. I considered it for a fraction of a second. I looked into his pleading eyes, and knew there was really nothing to consider. I loved him every bit as much as Nick.

I leaned over and our lips met in a gentle, tentative kiss. I pulled away and looked at Kenji. His eyes were closed, and his soft full lips poised for another kiss. I felt a momentary twinge of guilt. Was I cheating on Nick, somehow? Nick, who seemed not to know the meaning of the phrase exclusive relationship, certainly wouldn’t care. Kenji apparently didn’t think so. He was not a player at all, and wouldn’t have asked if he thought there was anything wrong with it.

In an odd sort of way, I felt like since I had slept with Nick, I almost had an obligation to sleep with Kenji too. How could I say yes to one but no to the other? How could I love one more than the other? What if I hadn’t slept with Nick? I would be all over Kenji at the slightest hint of an invitation. I knew that if I’d slept with Kenji first, I would not have turned Nick away.

For the last few days, my life had been out of balance. Nick and I shared something that Kenji and I did not, and it felt weird, uneven. Maybe this would make it right.

Kenji opened his eyes and gazed at me, our faces only inches apart. I saw nothing but love in his eyes, so I leaned in for another kiss. This time we kissed longer and with less hesitation. I closed my eyes and sank into his embrace. I felt his tongue gently brush my lips, which I parted to receive him. Kenji was so tender, it almost reminded me of some of my first explorations with another guy.

I felt him tremble, and I pulled away and opened my eyes. A tear ran down his cheek.

“Kenji?” I asked softly. “What’s wrong?”

He looked down. “Trevor, it’s been so long since I… since I kissed anyone…” He sniffed, and his eyes darted around before settling back on mine. “For a while today, I was sure something terrible had happened to Masashi, and I was just so relieved when we got him home, and you’ve been the only thing that’s kept me going ever since William died, you and Nick… I feel like there is a hurricane inside my head. I’m such a wreck.”

I hugged him tightly. “You not a wreck. You just had a tough day, a tough year. You a beautiful guy, brah, everything about you.”

His trembling settled down and I felt his lips brush my neck. That almost made me tremble. His hand came to rest on my thigh. More feather kisses, and his hand moved up my leg. He hesitated, then moved closer.

“You’re so good to me, Trevor,” he whispered. “I want you.”

I stood and pulled Kenji up off the couch. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his head down to my level for another kiss. This time he was a little more passionate. I think he was nervous. He was taking baby steps toward what he wanted. I was ready to move faster, and I sucked his tongue into my mouth, swirling my own tongue around his. He moaned, almost a whimper.

We broke contact again, and his eyes searched my face, seeking approval to move on. I smiled encouragingly at him and took his hand. He actually blushed a little, then led me toward his bedroom, turning off lights in the rest of the house as we went.

It was a little strange, going in to his bedroom. Even though I sort of lived at Masashi’s part time, I’d rarely set foot in Kenji’s room. It wasn’t really a forbidden room; just one I had little cause to enter before. I usually slept on the hide-a-bed couch, and I kept a few pairs of shorts, tee shirts, and underwear on a shelf over the laundry machines. I only owned two pair of pants, and I hardly ever wore socks.

Kenji closed the door, and left the room in near total darkness, only a little light filtering in through the louvered window from a streetlight in the distance. Kenji kissed me again. I’m usually the passive one, but Kenji was obviously a bit nervous, so I decided I would have to help things along. I slid my hand up under his shirt. He got the idea. I felt his hands run down my back, and then pull up on the hem of my tee shirt. We broke the kiss so he could pull it over my head. I pushed his shirt up and off too.

I took the opportunity to tongue his nipples, since they were practically at mouth level anyway. (Sometimes being short isn’t all bad.) After a minute, he lifted my chin so we could kiss some more. Kenji was definitely into kissing, and that was just fine with me. He might have been out of practice, but he seemed to be picking it up again quickly.

I felt his fingers slowly slip into the back my shorts and under the waistband of my boxers. If he wanted my ass, who was I to deny him? I undid my shorts and let them drop to the floor. I figured he could take care of the boxers, and he did. Once I was naked, he grasped my bare ass cheeks in his hands and crushed our bodies together. I could feel his erection pushing against my stomach through his shorts. Mine was pressed firmly up against his leg. I wrapped my arms around his back and clung to him.

Kenji was really getting into kissing now. Me too. He was starting to breath heavy, and he had slowly been ratcheting up the intensity. My neck was beginning to get sore from the awkward angle. (Sometimes being short sucks.) I wanted to move us to the bed, but I needed to get Kenji naked first. I unfastened his shorts and slid both his shorts and his boxers down over his hips. That got me a soft moan from Kenji. Neither of us had said a word since we stepped into the bedroom.

I rubbed his left nipple with one hand, and lightly grasped his cock with the other. He seemed to want to take this slow, and I didn’t want to push him if he was nervous about not having done it in a long time. He kept kissing me the whole while. I couldn’t see in the dark, but his cock felt wonderful. Nice and thick, not quite as big as Nick’s, but still quite a handful, something he should be proud of. He was uncircumcised too, which was a first for me. I felt the edge of the foreskin, and he squeezed my ass cheeks and crushed his lips hard against mine.

“Mmmph,” he gasped, and I felt him lurch.

Hot juices splashed on to my stomach and hand between us. My God. He was coming, and I’d barely touched him! He surged silently against me several more times, and then slowly relaxed, pulling his lips from mine. He gasped a few breaths.

“Oh, shit,” he whispered. “S-sorry, brah.”

I couldn’t really tell in the dark, but he sounded like he was about to cry.

“Don’t worry, Kenj. It’s okay.” I kissed his chest.

He reached down and picked up a pair of boxers—I’m not sure if they were his or mine—to clean us up.

“Shit, Trev. I wanted this to be so nice for both of us, and I just shot off like that. I can’t believe it. I’m sorry.”

Poor guy, I thought. He was kind of an emotional mess before we’d even started, and now he was having performance anxiety too.

“It’s okay,” I said again. “It was kinda kewl. I never made nobody come just by touching them before.”

When he was done wiping us off, I took the messy boxers from him and tossed them aside. I took his hand and led him to the bed.

“I’m not sleeping on the couch tonight,” I whispered. “And I bet I can coax another load out of you. We got all night.”

We both crawled into bed, and Kenji pulled a light sheet over us. For a while we lay facing each other. I lightly kissed his lips, his nose, his cheek. He didn’t say anything, but he trailed his fingers softly down my arm. I was relieved that he wasn’t going to close himself off to me.

“Trevor?” he said, his voice just above a whisper. “Can I tell you something?”

I scooted a little closer and rubbed his leg with my foot. I brushed his lips again with mine, and lay my head on the pillow, just inches from his.

“Sure Kenji,” I said. “Anything you want. You know dat, brah.”

“I… you… you’re the only guy that I’ve, um, been intimate with… you know, besides William.”

“William was your first?”

“First and only. Until now.”

I was only mildly surprised. In retrospect, I don’t even remember if Kenji had his driver’s license yet when he and William met. And I didn’t think it was likely that he’d been with anyone since William died. When I thought about it, it made me feel kind of special. I kissed him again.

“Thanks,” I said. “You know, for letting me be your second, like.” I almost said, after William, but stopped myself.

“It’s not that. It’s… I, I don’t think I can be… da kine like Nick.”

“’Course not,” I said. Now he was comparing himself to Nick. That would be enough to give anybody performance anxiety. “You’re you. The three of us have been best friends for a long time, but we are all, like totally different people, you know? I don’t think I can be like Nick either.” I giggled. “His dick is, like, twice the size of mine.”

His hand slid down my arm, and I felt his fingers touch my cock; caress it lightly along its length.

“I don’t think so,” he said. He scooted closer, twining his legs with mine, and kissed me. His skin was so soft and smooth. “You maybe not as big as Nick, but you dick ain’t small. You’re bigger than…” I felt him take his hand away, “than William… was.”

He rolled onto his back, pulling away from me. I never imagined making love with someone could be both pleasurable and painful at the same time. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I took his hand in mine, and brought it to my lips and kissed his knuckles. Not in an overtly sexual way. Just so he knew I was still there and I cared for him. I’m sure I only understood half of what Kenji was going through, and I was suddenly glad he was with me and not with one of the guys from the party. They wouldn’t have understood at all.

“You know, we made love the night before he flew to Colorado,” said Kenji, his voice sounding kind of distant. “We had before, of course. Lotsa times. But that night was special, ’cause we knew we were going to be apart for a couple weeks.” Kenji rubbed his thumb nervously back and forth over my finger. “When they told me he was dead, I could remember it… vividly. Remember him. Every detail. I didn’t think I could ever touch another guy again.” He sighed. “But of course the one eyed monster never sleeps for long. Sometimes I would think… sexual things. About you, or Nick, or some other guy. And I would feel so guilty, like I was cheating on William, or his memory, or whatever. I know that doesn’t make sense, ’cause he’s… gone. And he ain’t ever coming back. But I couldn’t help how I felt.”

He squeezed my hand, and was silent for a couple minutes.

“After a while that went away,” he continued. “I can’t really remember it now… that last night. I mean, I remember, but not in any detail. Sorta like a old faded picture.” He brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them, just as I had his a few minutes ago. “I started thinking about dating again a few months ago, but I was scared, you know? What if I freaked out or somethin’? What if I couldn’t, uh, get it up? What if I blurted out William’s name? What if it made me cry?”

“It’s okay,” I said softly. I scooted closer and kissed his shoulder. “None of that matters to me.”

“I know,” said Kenji. He rolled to face me again. In the near darkness I could see his eyes. “That’s why I knew it had to be you, Trevor.”

“Me?!”

The revelation stunned me.

“Of course.” Now he kissed me. “You and Nick are the only two guys that really know me, know what I’ve been going through. And I love you both. But Nick… Nick… well, Nick is Nick.”

I remembered Nick’s wild enthusiasm in the grotto, and couldn’t imagine Kenji being able to deal with that in his current vulnerable state.

“Oh, Kenji…”

He wrapped his arm around me and rolled onto his back again, pulling me on top of him. I kissed him again, and slipped my tongue past his lips. I felt his hands on my back, and one of them slowly trailed down to my ass, and I could feel his cock start to get hard again against my leg. My erection was back to full strength, and was pushing on his stomach. I was holding back, trying not to go too fast, trying not to rush him. His other hand moved down and he kneaded my ass cheeks with both hands. I broke from his lips and moved down to kiss his neck. I heard Kenji sigh, and he slid one finger along the crack of my ass as his cock jutted up between my legs.

I could sense where we were going with this, and I was glad. I straddled Kenji, pulling my knees up and laying back down on him, leaving him easy access to my rosebud. I kissed him some more and let him play with my ass. His fingers roamed around, moving timidly closer to my center. His cock was leaving slimy trails of pre-come on the back of my leg, and I was starting leak heavily onto his stomach. I reached back and took his cock and placed its head at my entrance. Kenji sighed and thrust reflexively, clutching my ass, raking his cock up along my crack. I surged against his stomach.

Kenji rolled me off of him and onto my back, and pushed himself up on one elbow. He rubbed one hand from my knee to my hip and up my torso as he leaned over to kiss me, squeezing my hip, brushing past my leaking cock, caressing my nipple. I could tell he hadn’t done this for a long time. He fumbled just a little. Yet he knew what he was doing, knew how to make a guy feel good. It was coming back to him.

He broke from my mouth and looked at me with his beautiful brown Asian eyes. He hesitated for a second, and I smiled at him warmly and rubbed his strong shoulders. He lowered his head and licked up some of the pre-come that was flowing from me. He swallowed, and went back for more. Once he had cleaned my belly, he went for the source. I moaned when I felt his warm moist mouth engulf the end of my cock. Like riding a bike, I guess. Once you learn how, you never forget. It didn’t take him long before he was taking almost all of me into his mouth.

He fingered my nuts, and I spread my legs, inviting him to feel lower. He got the hint, and his fingers moved slowly down. I spread my legs wider, and he brushed a finger across my ass hole, light as a feather. I almost came in his mouth.

“Not so fast,” I said softly.

I lifted his face off my cock and pulled him up on to me. I drew his lips to me and we kissed again. I could taste the flavor of my pre-come on his tongue. I could feel his cock, fully hard again, rubbing between my legs. I lifted my legs up and clamped them around his back as we continued to kiss, and his cock lodged in the crack of my ass. This is one of the advantages of being short. Perfect height to comfortably kiss and take it in the ass at the same time.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, locking us in our kiss. I squirmed around until I could feel his cock rubbing at the entrance to my core. I relaxed and pulled his hips down with my legs. I like all kinds of sex, and often I’m quite oral. I liked it when Kenji was sucking me, and normally I would have gone with it, let him take me over the edge. But more than anything, I love being filled by someone I care about. For me, there’s nothing like it. Often I come just from the feeling of being fucked, without ever touching my dick at all. And, oh, I wanted this with Kenji. I had to have him inside me. The crack of my ass was beginning to get slick with his pre-come and the sensation of him nudging at my back door was driving me wild. With my legs, I pulled up to him, trying to impale myself on him. I nearly had him breaching my entrance, when he broke away.

“I…” he whispered. I could feel his body tense, almost tremble. Then he sagged his head to my shoulder.

“What is it?” I asked softly.

“I, I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t have any condoms.” I could almost feel him blush in the dark. “William and I… We, like, never bothered with them. And like I said, it’s been a while. And I didn’t really plan this, you know? I’m sorry.”

I kissed his neck. If they’d been virgins when they met, and Kenji had never been with anyone else, I wasn’t worried about it at all. But it was obviously stressing Kenji.

“Shhh. It’s okay, Kenj,” I said. I kissed his hair. “I should’ a been a boy scout. I’m always prepared.”

I rolled him to the side and scrambled off the bed. I poked my head out the door to make sure Masashi was still asleep, then dashed to where I had left my day pack next to the couch. I snatched it and ran quietly back into Kenji’s bedroom, trying not to giggle at myself. Once safely back inside with the door closed, I rooted around in my pack until I found a couple of condom packets. Armed with the necessary sheaths, I climbed back on the bed.

We both sat on our haunches facing each other, my legs outside of his. I got him kissing me again, and I peeled open a packet and slowly rolled it down his shaft in the dark. Then he pushed me onto my back. He reached over and opened a drawer in the nightstand next to his bed, and pulled out a bottle of lube. I spread my legs and pulled my knees up in eager anticipation. He squirted lube into his hand and warmed it with his fingers before touching me, softly, gently, caressing my rosebud. It was heavenly. I rested my arms above my head, toying with my pillow, resisting the urge to touch my cock. I knew if I did, I would blow before he ever entered me.

He began to suck on my nipple, swirling his tongue around as he eased a finger into my ass. He used the same swirling motion with his finger as with his tongue, lubricating and relaxing me. He kept this up for a long time, eventually switching to the other nipple and adding a second finger. He rubbed the lip of my ass hole with his thumb as his fingers did magic from the inside.

I was more than ready when he at last removed his fingers and positioned himself above me. I pulled the pillow from under my head and shoved it under the small of my back, raising my ass for him. He kissed me deeply. I locked my legs around his back again. He rested the head of his cock at my entrance and probed my mouth with his tongue. So tender was Kenji, so ready was I, that I barely noticed when he breached me. I moaned into his mouth as I felt his cock slowly fill me. Given his size, I was amazed by the complete absence of pain. I pulled myself against him, taking him completely within me. He gently settled his weight onto me, still kissing, kissing.

His lips broke from mine and he kissed his way along my jaw. “Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear. “Does it hurt?”

I’d never in my life been treated so gently. It was exquisite. It took me a minute before I could even form words.

“Oh, God, Kenji. It feels so good.” I stroked the muscles of his back with my fingers. “You’re so beautiful.” I kissed his neck. “Take me, Kenji. Make love to me.”

And he did. His lips found mine, and they never left the entire time he was inside me. He fucked me with long, slow, deep, loving thrusts. I wanted it to go on forever. It was wonderful. I was awash in pre-come. I tried to hold out as long as I could, to just exist in that blissful state, to make this as good for Kenji as it was for me. But his kisses and his loving invasion were driving me higher, my orgasm inevitable as the tides, coming closer with each intense, nerve jangling penetration.

My cock was trapped between us, sliding up and down his smooth flat stomach as he thrust. It was more friction than I could withstand any longer. I broke from his never-ending kiss and gasped aloud, my hands fell useless to my sides. My orgasm overcame me not suddenly, like it usually does, but slowly. Long jets of come flowed from my cock each time Kenji buried himself into me. Again and again and again, my come boiling up between us in waves.

Kenji’s mouth clamped down on my neck, sucking intensely. His body shuddered with his own release, his thrusting spasmodic as he came inside me.

“Yessss,” I whispered.

After a final lunging penetration, he held himself in me for long minutes as we recovered. I wished he could stay in there all night, but I could offer no resistance when he withdrew, all my muscles gone slack. He rolled off me and for a few minutes we both just lay side by side, holding hands lightly.

Finally, I reached for a box of tissues. My whole torso all but coated with my come, and it was dribbling down both sides of me. If I didn’t clean it up, it would soak the bed. When I was done, I rolled to clean Kenji up too.

That’s when I noticed he was staring at me. He had tears streaming down his cheeks. I cleaned him off and kissed his shoulder.

“You okay, Kenj?” I asked softly.

“Oh, Trevor.” He sniffed. “Thank you. I’m sorry. I hope it didn’t hurt.”

“Sorry?”

“I didn’t mean to get carried away at the end.”

“Oh, Kenji.” I said. I softly kissed his eyes. “You got nothin’ to be sorry for, brah. Just because I’m half the size that William was doesn’t mean I’m a little kid. I won’t break. I loved it, dude.” I kissed his cheek. “I loved every second of it. I didn’t want you to ever stop. It was… beautiful.”

Kenji cried some more, silent tears wetting his cheeks. But this time, they weren’t tears of sadness. I think he was just on emotional overload. I snuggled up beside him and rested my head on his shoulder, my arm across his body. After a minute his hand encircled mine, and after a while I could feel his breathing and heart rate slow.

“Thank you Trevor,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

And we both drifted off to sleep.

* * * * *

It was later than usual when I woke the next morning. Whenever possible, I tried to wake up and get showered and dressed before Masashi woke up when I stayed there. That way we could maintain the fiction that I had not spent the night on the hide-a-bed couch. It also got me out of the house early enough to go surfing in the morning. I wasn’t sure what explanation we would come up with for me sleeping in Kenji’s room.

I was naked and alone in the bed. I stared at the ceiling, and noticed the silhouette of a gecko inside the light fixture. Silly things can get into the strangest places in their search for bugs to eat. I smiled. I thought they were cute. While I stared lazily at the gecko, Kenji softly slipped into the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He was dressed in shorts and a tee shirt.

I rolled onto my stomach and stretched, parting my legs just a little, displaying my ass for Kenji. I looked coyly over my shoulder at him. I knew we really didn’t have time for another go round, but I was not above tempting him anyway. He walked over and sat on the bed next to me, and then trailed the fingers of one hand up my leg and rested it on my ass. His eyes darted from my ass to my face to my body and around the room; then he pulled his hand away and looked down. I felt a little guilty for tempting him then. He obviously had a hundred thoughts going around his head, and he didn’t need me teasing him.

I sat up, pulling the sheet discretely over my middle. I slid one hand around his waist and he leaned on my shoulder.

“Thank you,” said Kenji, softly.

His emotions were still running high. I gave him a comforting squeeze.

“How’s Masashi doin’ this morning?” I asked

“Well, he seems normal again today. He doesn’t seem to remember much of what happened yesterday, but he’s in the kitchen fixing breakfast like there was nothing wrong with him.”

“Maybe I should have a quick shower and get dressed while he’s in the kitchen, like.”

“Good idea,” said Kenji. “He doesn’t know you’re here yet.”

“You talk to his doctor this morning?”

“Yep. I’m taking him in at 10:30. He said he wants to talk to you since you saw how he was at lunch yesterday, and you were the first person to talk to him at the mall. He’ll call you after he examines Uncle Masashi. I told him he could call you at the nursery.”

“Okay, sure,” I said. “Anything else I can do?”

“No.” He put his arm around my shoulder. His eyes darted around the room, and then locked with mine. “Trevor… I…” He looked down, then back at me again. He pulled me to him and kissed me, his soft lips like velvet on mine. He kissed me again, and broke away. “Thank you. I, I better get back to Masashi.”

After he left, I darted into the bathroom, which separated the two bedrooms of the small house. I turned on the shower and stepped in. As I lathered myself I luxuriated in that morning after freshly fucked feeling, that wonderful slightly uncomfortable tenderness in my ass: nature’s reminder of our pleasure.

As I stood in the shower reminiscing, it was inevitable that I compared Kenji to Nick, since I had now made love with both of them within the last week. Where Nick was an exuberant passionate lover, Kenji was a gentle considerate lover. Quiet Kenji had hardly uttered a sound during our lovemaking, while playful Nick would have woken the neighbors, if there had been any within hearing distance.

With an effort, I refocused on finishing my morning routine. I quickly finished my shower and shaved. I wrapped myself in a towel and snuck into the laundry room, where I dressed.

When I had dressed, I took a deep breath to compose myself and walked toward the kitchen. I still wasn’t sure what we were going to say to Masashi about last night. In hindsight, I sort of wished I had moved to the hide-a-bed after we’d had sex, but I think we both enjoyed the closeness and the comfort of sleeping together too.

My worries were unnecessary, however. When I walked into the kitchen, Kenji was finishing off a bowl of cereal. There was a strawberry papaya cut in half on two small plates in front of him. He smiled at me when I walked to the table and sat down.

“Masashi is out back,” said Kenji softly, hooking his thumb toward the back door to the patio.

I leaned over and could see out the sliding glass door. Masashi was sitting with his back to the house on a plastic bench, the newspaper held out at arm’s length in front of him, half rimmed reading glasses perched on his nose.

“Whew,” I sighed. “One less thing to worry about. I was wondering what we would tell him.”

“I don’t know if he would really care. I mean, he must have figured it out by now, brah. I never once brought a girl into this house. He may have Alzheimer’s, but he ain’t totally stupid.”

“Maybe. Maybe. Still, it would be incredibly rude to shove it in his face, even if he did know.”

“Of course.” He combed his fingers through his hair. “Most of the time I have a lotta respect for his old fashioned ways, you know? But sometimes it makes me kinda loko.” I rested my hand on his arm, and he continued. “I love him way more than my own parents. And I know he loves me too. But sometimes I wish I could talk to him more like I can with you and Nick.” He shoved one of the half papayas over to me, and scooped out a chunk of his with a spoon. “He never knew what William meant to me, how much I hurt when he died.”

“I think he knew,” I said. “Maybe he never said anything, but I think he knew, brah. Maybe you two never talked about it, but he treats you extremely kindly, in his own reserved way.”

We both ate our papaya in silence for a few minutes. When we were done, we took our dishes to the sink. I washed the dishes while Kenji stood next to me, staring out the back window. I wasn’t sure if he was looking at Masashi or staring off into space. When I was finished, I took his elbow and led him back to his bedroom.

“I should get going,” I said. “You gonna be okay? You know, takin’ him to the doctor?” I wanted to ask him what, if anything, we ought to tell Nick, but didn’t want to add to his troubles any further.

“Yeah. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

He pulled me in to a hug then. Not really sexual, yet not quite as chaste as the many hugs we had shared over the years either. He held me for a while, then released me, smiling.

I managed to sneak out of the house, and I don’t think Masashi knew I had been there at all. I drove to where we had left the Buick the night before. I pulled the flat tire out of the trunk and threw it in the back of my Rav4 so that I could get it blown up again at a gas station on the way to the nursery.

When I got to the Hinohana Hinata Orchid Gardens, I called Marlene right away and asked her if she could come in early and work an extra couple of hours. She agreed and arrived about an hour later.

The day was a blur of activity. Marlene covered the retail shop, which left me free to catch up on other things.

We sell to three broad categories of customers: retail sales to tourists, mail order plants to orchid growers around the world, and cut flower sales to hotels and restaurants on Maui and some of the other islands. The later category had increased dramatically over the last year or so, largely due to Nick’s efforts. He had been going around shmoozing hotel and restaurant managers. With his natural charm, charisma, and good looks, it was paying off big time. He had correctly determined that hotels and restaurants could get orchids from any number of orchid growers on the islands for roughly the same price. So the only real difference was the personal interaction and customer service.

We had traded in an older van for a slightly larger panel truck with a refrigerated cargo compartment, and hired a full time delivery driver. Her name was Zan—short for Suzanne. Zan was a middle-aged woman who had four silver hoops in her right ear. When we hired her, I had assumed she was a dyke, but later found out she swung both ways. None of that mattered. What did matter was that she was extremely reliable and our customers liked her. Nick hooked them and Zan kept them happy. All I had to do was coordinate delivery orders, and have all the flowers ready to go the night before.

Since I had dashed off early the night before to help find Masashi, I didn’t have all the flowers ready when Zan arrived. In typical Hawaiian fashion, she was nonplussed, and the two of us managed to get everything ready, and get her on the road only a half hour late. If she had good luck with the traffic, she should be able to make up that time through the day.

The phone seemed to never stop ringing and the fax machine was cranking out orders too. Tomorrow was going to be a big delivery day for Zan.

The doctor called, and I walked him through my interactions with Masashi the day before. He asked a few questions to clarify, and thanked me for my help. I asked him how Masashi was doing, and he said he would discuss it with Kenji, and he could fill me in later.

Kenji called mid afternoon. I lied and told him things were quiet, and he shouldn’t bother coming in, since I was there already. I told him I would go over to Masashi’s as soon as we closed for the day, and we could talk about what the doctor said then.

As soon as I got off the phone with Kenji, I called Nick and left a message for him, asking him to come and help me when he got done with his classes. He showed up later in the afternoon.

“Thanks for comin’ to help, brah,” I said. “I told Kenji not to come in. The dude never takes hardly any time off, and with all this with Masashi, I’m worried he’s gonna blow a gasket.”

“No problem, surfer dude,” he grinned at me, releasing half my tension with his infectious smile.

“If you have time after we close, maybe you can come over and meet with me and Kenji to talk about what to do about Masashi.”

“Yeah, okay. I wanna hear about how the doctor visit went.”

“We aren’t gonna mess up your homework or something, are we brah?”

“Nah. The classes ain’t all that hard right now, and I don’t have any big tests coming up for a couple weeks.”

Nick and I worked the remainder of the afternoon packaging orchid plants for mail order customers and preparing the cut flowers for Zan’s deliveries tomorrow. By the end of the day, I was quite pleased. We had done a lot of business, had caught up from being behind from closing early the day before, and Kenji got some much needed time for himself.

Marlene went home. Nick did some accounting work on the computer while I cleared the cash drawer and locked up all the buildings. Then we locked up the office too, and walked toward the cars.

Nick pulled me aside and he leaned back against a palm tree next to the gravel parking lot. He drew me in for a kiss. I hesitated briefly, but his raw passion and the look of lust in his eyes blew right past any doubts I had. I could feel his big cock pressing against me through our clothes. I moaned a little and sagged into him.

“Dude,” said Nick. “I know we gotta go help Kenji, but one of these nights, we gotta get together again.” He gave me another quick sloppy kiss. “I’ve been so fuckin’ hot for you ever since my birthday.”

“Nick…” I leaned back a little. “Nick. I need to tell you something.”

“What?” asked Nick with a happy grin.

I faltered, not quite sure how to say it. “Well, I… that is, me and Kenji. We, umm…”

(To be continued.)

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