Second Chance

Second Chance Chapter 13 - Halloween

I woke up at my usual 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, but instead of going to the gym, as I generally did on Thursdays, I got a home work out with Julio. I woke him up with my mouth around his cock, and pretty soon we were in a 69, sucking on one another. He shot in my mouth and a few moments later, I shot in his.

"Good morning to you too," he said.

We got out of bed, and I pulled on my boxers and a T-shirt then went to make coffee. Julio came out a few minutes later, dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie. He was going to go by his apartment to shower and change before going to work.

"I should get going," he said, and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

"You don't want to have a cup of coffee first?" I asked.

"No, my sweet. I'll pick up something on my way to work," he sighed. "I need to get going."

"Thanks for spending the night," I said.

"It was just the break I needed," he told me. "I wish I could spend more time with you."

He took his overnight bag, kissed me one more time, and headed out the front door of my apartment. I watched him make his way down the stairs. For a moment, I felt like an old fashioned housewife, sending her man off to work in the morning, and the image made me chuckle at myself.

I went down and grabbed the newspaper then went back up to the kitchen to have my breakfast and read the news. The election news made me nervous, but I was hopeful. Trump just kept saying one crazy sounding thing after another, and I couldn't imagine any sane people voting for him. Still, I felt nervous about what might happen.

I showered and dressed and then took the L to my office.

"You're still too happy," Stephanie joked in our morning meeting. "But I guess I'll have to get used to it. It seems like the new you."

"Was I that grumpy before?" I asked?

"Not grumpy," she explained. "It's just that now you're glowing!"

I thought about telling her that I was dating someone, but I wasn't really sure that was appropriate. Did she even want to know about my personal life? She HAD come to my birthday party. I decided that I would mention something soon.

That night, Julio and I talked on the phone about the Halloween party on Saturday night. We considered possible costumes but couldn't think of anything particularly clever or interesting. We decided that we would go shopping during the day on Saturday to find something to wear.

Since we were going out on Saturday night, we decided to just stay in at my place on Friday. Julio stopped by his apartment after work to change and pack a bag for the weekend and got to my apartment around 6:30. I had fixed a simple lasagna that was cooking in the oven. I buzzed him up, and as soon as he stepped into my living room he pulled me into a passionate kiss. He grabbed me with such force that we stumbled back and landed on the couch, with him gently laying himself on top of me.

"I have been thinking of you all day," he said. He used his arms to lift up my legs and pressed his crotch against my ass. I could feel his hard cock pushing through the fabric as he kissed me deeply again. "I have been thinking about how much I need to take your ass and make it mine," he said. I was wearing a pair of nice sweatpants that I had picked out because they were casual without looking slovenly, and I thought they gave me a nice ass. In one motion, he pulled my sweats and boxer briefs down to my knees, exposing my bare ass.

"Dinner ... " I started to say.

"Dinner can wait," he said. "I need to own this ass." He gave my ass a hard squeeze with his hands.

HIs forcefulness had me rock hard. He pulled his sweats down so that his cock popped out, in all of its long and hard glory. He spit into his hand and rubbed it over the head of his cock, then he pressed against my hole until the head popped in. Since he had fucked me twice just two nights before, I was still a little loose, so I was able to accommodate his cock, even without lube as he careful pistoned in and out, going a little deeper with each thrust. Once he had bottomed out, his bush pressing against my cheeks, he started pounding hard into me, his lips never leaving mine, as his tongue explored my mouth as deeply as his cock was exploring my ass. He reached one hand to grab my cock and started jerking me. With his cock pressing against my prostate, his hand on my cock, and his tongue in my mouth, it wasn't long before I felt a load building in my balls. Soon, I was shooting a load that coated my belly, and that set him off. With a deep groan into my mouth, he unloaded in my ass. He pushed all the way inside, and I could feel his cock pulsing as he shot his juice in me.

He finally stopped kissing me. "Fuck!" he cried out. He pulled his cock out of my hole and looked down at me. "You are so fucking hot."

Then he surprised me by kneeling down and licking my cum off of my belly and my quickly softening cock.

"A little appetizer," he said. Then he rose back up and kissed me, tucking himself back into his sweats. I could taste the slightly bitter taste of my cum on his tongue.

"So. Dinner?" he said as though nothing had just happened.

He stood up, and I awkwardly got myself righted and pulled up my pants. My legs were shaky as I stood up.

"Let me catch my breath," I said.

I sat back down on the couch for a moment, breathing hard as he walked into the kitchen.

"What's in the oven?," he called out. "Should I take it out?"

"It's lasagna," I responded. "It should be ready."

I collected myself and got up and followed Julio into the kitchen. He had found the oven mitt and was using it to pull the bubbling pan of lasagna out of the oven. He carefully set it on the stove.

"Looks good!" he said.

"I was planning to make salad, too," I said.

"I can help," he told me.

I pulled out some carrots and a tomato, and he cut them up as I rinsed and dried the lettuce in a salad spinner. We put it all in a wooden bowl, and I took out a bottle of vinaigrette. Julio carried them out to the dining room table, as I used the oven mitt to carry out the lasagna, setting it carefully on a trivet. I had already set the table for us, but I had to run back to the kitchen to grab a knife and a spatula to serve the lasagne. Before I sat down, I plugged my phone into a set of speakers to have some music, and then we chatted quietly as we ate. Occasionally we would pause and just stare into one another's eyes in that way that people do in a new romance, as though we were both surprised to have gotten so lucky.

After dinner we cleaned up and put the dishes in the dishwasher then went and watched a movie on the couch, snuggled up under a blanket together. I should say that we only started to watch a movie, because but about a half an hour into the film, Julio turned and kissed me, and soon we were making out heavily. We turned off the TV, moved into the bedroom and stripped off our clothes, and then Julio made love to me again, slowly and gently. After he came deep inside my ass, he slid down and sucked me off until I came in his mouth.

When we were done and holding each other together under the blankets, Julio said, "I would like you to fuck me sometime, Julio. I would like you to be my first."

"Your first?" I asked.

"Yes. I've never bottomed before." He sighed. "I think it's that Brazilian idea of masculinity that my family pushed on me. Somehow, if I'm a top, I'm more manly. But you seem to enjoy it so much. "

"I do. It feels amazing," I responded.

"Do you top?" he asked.

"I used to top a lot more, but I'm more of a bottom now. Pablo and I were both vers, but over the years, he became more of a top and I become more of a bottom."

I thought for a moment about why I had become a bottom. "I guess I really love giving myself up to someone. I'm not a sub at all. You know, there's a whole fetish around does and subs. But I love being used to help somebody get off. I love having someone inside me, it's just ... I don't know."

"I would like to try it," Julio whispered. "I would like to try it with you. I really want you to have me completely. I want to feel you inside of me."

"Then we will," I promised him. "We'll find a time, and I'll get you ready, and then I will top you and you will bottom for me."

Julio kissed me gently on the lips.

A little while after, we were both asleep.

On Saturday morning, I got up to go for a run, while Julio slept in. I could still feel that after effect of Julio's cock in my ass as I ran, which was a strange sensation. Not unpleasant, but strange. The feeling made me start to get hard, which was a little awkward. Luckily, I was wearing bulky sweats, since it was a bit chilly early in the morning. I laughed at myself, reacting like a teenager to my new crush.

Back at the apartment, I used the shower in the second bathroom, rather than the one off of the master bedroom, so that I wouldn't wake Julio. But as I came out of the bathroom, drying myself with a towel, Julio was just emerging from the bedroom, looking all sleep-eyed and adorable.

"Good morning, handsome," I said.

He was naked, and his cock was half hard, so I couldn't help but give it a squeeze as he leaned in for a morning kiss.

"Don't start something you can't finish," he warned me with a wicked smile.

"I'm pretty confident I could finish it," I said, in what I hoped was a sexy voice.

Julio's cock quickly rose from half hard to fully erect. I let my towel fall off then got down on my knees and took his hard cock into my mouth. As I could tell he was soon getting close, I considered pulling off and having him plow my ass, but I wanted to taste him, so I kept going and was soon rewarded with a nice warm load in my mouth. I savored the taste for a moment, then swallowed.

"What a great way to wake up," he said.

Julio jumped in the shower while I got dressed. When he was done, he dressed, and then we went out for breakfast at the Uptown Diner, not far from Big Chicks, where my birthday party had been. It was still fairly early, so we only had to wait a couple of minutes for a table. While we waited for our breakfast, we planned out our strategy for the day. We decided to go to a nearby Target first, just to look over what costumes they might have and then to go to a vintage clothing store.

It was a mostly sunny day, and fairly warm for October, so we walked around the neighborhood. It was pleasant just to spend time together. We didn't really find anything at Target. The only costumes they had were for children, and there was nothing else that inspired us. At the vintage clothing store, however, we found lots of interesting old suits and things, and they even had a section of costumes. There were adult-sized Anna and Elsa dresses, the Disney princesses, and I suggested -- half joking -- that we should go in Frozen drag, but Julio looked mortified at the thought. In the end, we each found a pair of overalls that fit us, so we decided that we would dress up as farmers. Not very original, perhaps, but also not too demanding. We found a couple of plaid shirts. ("Plaid is in style this season anyway," Julio assured me.)    We looked for straw hats without success, but I was fairly sure that I had some hats at home that might work.

We took our bags and headed home, stopping at the pharmacy to pick up an eyebrow pencil that I said we could use to draw freckles.

"I don't really get this costume," Julio told me as we walked.

"I'll show you pictures when we get home," I said.

"It's okay," he purred, "I trust you."

When we got to the condo, we laid out our outfits on the guest bed and went searching for a couple of hats. I found one bowler hat that I thought might work for me and a baseball cap for Julio. I did a google search for "farmer in overalls" and showed Julio a few pictures. Then I searched for "hillbilly" and found the pictures were basically the same.

"Maybe we'll be hillbillies?" I suggested.

"I do not know what that is," Julio said matter-of-factly. I tried to explain, and he just laughed.

"It's okay. I don't really need to know."

We tried on our outfits, and they looked fine.

"You know," I thought out loud, "you'd really look sexy just wearing the overalls with no shirt."

"Oh, you think?" he said, with a raised eyebrow. He unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off without removing the overalls. The bib of the overalls emphasized his toned arms and chest.

"Yum!" I said and licked my lips. I ran my hands along his arms and over his chest. "You definitely can't go to the party that way, though. The boys will be all over you."

"Too bad for them," he said. "I'm all for you."

We took our outfits off and, since we were stripped down to our underwear already, we decided to just hop in bed and fool around.

"Do you want to fuck me?" Julio asked.

"Let's not do that now," I responded. "It takes some preparation. It shouldn't be rushed."

He nodded in agreement. "Then, can I fuck you?"

"Anytime you want, handsome. I love feeling you inside me."

He turned my body so that I was facing away from him. He spooned me, and his hard cock pressed into my ass. He scooted up a bit until the tip found my hole, and then he pushed in, slowly, just using his pre-cum as lube. I pushed back against his hardness so that he slid inside. It hurt just a bit without lube, but it also felt good, and soon he was fucking me slowly and steadily, holding me tightly against his body, just moving his hips. Before long, he shot in my ass, and then he just stayed inside me as we fell asleep.

We woke from our nap almost an hour later and decided to order some food before heading to the party. Julio suggested that pizza would be quick, so we called in an order for a medium sausage and pepper pizza, while I made a salad to go with it.

"Living by myself, I never order pizza," I told him. "Though I sometimes order a slice for lunch. There are a bunch of pizza places near my work."

The pizza soon arrived, and we shared the simple dinner, while I told Julio what to expect at the party.

"Did you meet Andy at my party?" I asked.

"I think I did," he ventured. "He's the one that spoke, yes?"

"Yes. As you might have seen, he's quite the host. He's a designer by background, so his parties usually have some theme. He's a great guy, but he can be a bit over the top. A few of the people from my party will be there, like Carl. I'm sure it will be mostly gay men, and I suppose a few straights to liven things up. At any rate, we don't have to stay long. We can head back home whenever you want."

"It will be fun. I look forward to meeting your friends," he said.

We got dressed in our outfits, as farmers or hillbillies or whatever we were. I found a couple of colored neckerchiefs to tie around our necks. I used the eyebrow pencil to draw freckles on my face. I decided they wouldn't really make sense on Julio's face, with his dark skin. I had us both stand in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom and decided that we looked okay.

"At least we look like we made some sort of effort," I told Julio.

It was a relatively warm evening, so we decided not to wear jackets. We ordered an Uber that picked us up a few minutes later. Julio seemed a little uncomfortable, so I reached over and took his hand.

"You okay?" I asked him.

"Maybe," he said.

"It's just a party. We can leave when you want."

"It's a party with your friends. It's the first time I'm meeting people as your boyfriend."

"Ah," I said. "I see. Lot's of pressure." I smiled at him. "It'll be fine. My friends are nice. They'll love you."

Steve and Andy lived in a large high rise apartment just past the end of Lakeshore Drive. Edgewater was the neighborhood just north of mine, and it was a little more upscale than Uptown. Steve had been a highly paid corporate executive, so they could afford a fancy place. Their condominium had originally been two apartments that they had bought and combined into one large condo that took up nearly half a floor in the building. They lived on the 22nd floor of their building and had amazing views of the Chicago sky line and across Lake Michigan.

The car dropped us off in front of their building, and the doorman ushered us inside. We took the elevator up, and as we stepped out we could hear voices coming from the apartment, since the door was propped open. We stepped inside, and Julio's eye was immediately drawn to the stunning view from the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the outside wall.

"Wow," he whispered, looking around the place. The apartment was decorated with sleek, understated furniture that reeked of wealth. Andy had apparently chosen a witches' coven theme for the event, because there were black cats and spiders and witches hats around. I remember that his invitation had something about a "bewitching" party. Even these decorations, though, were subtle and in good taste. There was a big cauldron on the serving table that was smoking, and we watched as the bartended ladled out a steaming drink into a punch cup and handed it to someone.

Moments after we entered, a waiter came by with a tray.

"Crab cake?" he asked, so Julio and I each took one, along with a napkin.

The waiter was a young, very muscular shirtless man, wearing only a tight black skirt and a witch's hat and black buckled shoes.

"The witch theme," I explained.

We were early, and the condo was not yet crowded. Three men in superhero costumes were standing by one of the windows, a couple of guys in drag were snacking from a table, and a few people in various costumes were sitting on chairs and the couch.

As Julio and I made our way over toward the bar, where another beefy shirtless guy in a witch's skirt and hat was serving drinks, Andy came running to greet us.

"Judah! Julio! Welcome to our party! Happy Halloween!" Andy was dressed in witch drag, a tight-fitting black dress, long black wig, and pointed hat. He gave us air kisses on the cheeks. "Get a drink! The witches brew is a rum punch, and it's excellent!" Everything that Andy said seemed to have exclamation points.

He led us on toward the bar. "Julio, Judah told me that he was bringing you tonight, and I'm so happy. We didn't really get to talk at his birthday party, so hopefully we can chat tonight."

Then he turned to me with a meaningful look on his face. "And you! I need to hear the whole story!" he said, with a nod in Julio's and a wink. "Delicious!" he said as he walked away. I looked at Julio and shrugged. "That's Andy!"

We got a couple of drinks and then started to make our way across the room, as I looked for anyone I might know.

We ended up chatting for a minute with the group of superheroes. They were good looking guys in their forties or early fifties who introduced themselves as Jack, Elliott, and Phil.

"And how do you know Andy?" Phil, who was dressed as superman, asked.

"Steve went to school with my late partner, Pablo."

"Oh, Pablo!" Jack, dressed as Batman, said. "Yes, I remember Pablo. I had heard that he passed."

"It was a while ago," I said demurely.

"And who is this yummy thing?" Elliott, who was dressed as Spiderman, asked, as he squeezed Julio's arm. Julio looked uncomfortable but said nothing.

"This is my friend, Julio," I said. "He's new in Chicago."

"Ohhh, welcome," Jack said. They looked him over like he was a piece of meat, and he just smiled uncomfortably back as best he could.

"Nice to meet you all," I said and pulled Julio away.

I saw Steve across the room and led us over toward him. As we were walking, Julio said quietly, "So I'm just your friend?"

"Hmm?" I asked.

"You introduced me as just your friend. Not your boyfriend," he said.

"Oh, yes, I don't know." I wasn't sure what to say. "They just seemed ... I didn't feel ..."

"Are you embarrassed by me?" he asked quietly.

"What? No!" I insisted.

"Are you embarrassed that we're dating?" he asked.

"No!" I stopped and turned to him. "Look, Julio, I don't really know most of these people. And I don't want them to think that you're some sort of boy toy. ..."

"I don't care what they think," he said firmly.

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Julio. I didn't mean to make things awkward."

"I'm not embarrassed that we're together," he said.

We stood in silence a second and looked into each other's eyes. Then I leaned forward and pulled his face to mine and kissed him passionately. A couple of people whooped, and there was a smattering of applause.

"I'm not embarrassed either," I said.

Steve came up to us. He was dressed as the Grim Reaper, but with his hood down, so he looked rather like a monk holding a scythe. As at my party, I was struck by how old he looked. His shoulders seemed stooped, and he walked slowly.

"Glad you could make it, Judah," he said. I noticed that he did not greet Julio.

"Do you remember Julio from my party?" I asked.

"I don't think so," he said, then asked Julio, coldly, "And who are you here with?"

"I'm here with Judah. We're dating," he said, pointedly.

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Oh?" he said.

"Yes," I said. "It's new, but I feel so lucky." I took Julio's hand.

"Okay, well good for you," Steve said in a tone that meant he clearly did NOT think it was good for me, then he turned and walked away. It occurred to me that my connection to Steve and Andy had been through Pablo. Steve had known Pablo for at least a decade longer than I had.

"I'm sorry, Julio. That was awkward. Steve was Pablo's friend from high school."

Julio pursed his lips.

"I get it. I'm okay," he said.

Many more people had arrived, and the apartment was beginning to become crowded and loud. A couple of tall drag queens came up to us and started running their hands over Julio's muscles.

"And who is THIS fine specimen?" one asked.

"I'm Julio," he said.

"Oooo! An accent!" the other one cooed. "Where are you from?"

"Brazil," he said.

"All the hottest boys come from Brazil!"

Julio was clearly uncomfortable with the attention, so I pulled him away.

"I'm sorry Julio," I said. "All of these old gay men aren't used to seeing someone so young and handsome."

"I'm fine," Julio said, though clearly he was not.

In fact, the crowd was not entirely old men. Steve was long since retired, but Andy continued to have an active career as a designer, and there were a few young men he worked with who were there. A few women were there, mostly what we used to call "fag hags," straight women who hang out with gay men -- I'm not sure if that term is used anymore. There were even a couple of straight couples.

A couple of people commented on our costumes. Someone asked if we were supposed to be American Gothic.

There were three waiters circulating through the crowd, plus the bartender. They were all gorgeous, smooth and muscular and flirtatious, and they didn't seem to mind as the guests openly drooled over them and even pinched their asses or squeezed their muscular arms. I wondered where Andy had gotten them from. An escort service? Or was there some kind of gay catering company that specialized in this kind of thing?

Carl came up to us. He was dressed as a cave man.

"Hey, Judah. Hey, Julio. Wild party, huh?" he said.

"Hey Carl," I responded.

"I feel silly wearing a costume at my age, but it would be awkward to not wear one to this," he said.

"I don't really like Halloween," Julio ventured.

"No? It's supposed to be the gay Christmas or something," he replied. "But I think that's mostly for young folk, cause it's a chance to go wild, I guess. People like me and Judah are too old to go wild!" He laughed. "But you're young! You should love Halloween."

"My family was very religious," Julio said simply.

"Oh yeah, I had a cousin who was Jehovah's Witness, and they couldn't even do Christmas, much less Halloween!" He took a big gulp of his drink. "And I suppose Halloween is mostly about kids anyway. Trick or treating and all that. I guess Dave and Langston are home taking their kids around the neighborhood."

"Their kids might be too old for it now," I said. "I think they're both in junior high."

"D'anisha's still in grade school, I think," Carl said. It was a relief that Carl was speaking to us normally. I realized that I really hardly knew anyone there, just a few folks I'd met at previous parties that Andy and Steve had thrown.

"So, where's your friend? Howard, wasn't it?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, that didn't last very long," he laughed. "You know me." Carl had dated a lot of guys over the years since he broke up with my old friend Lewis, but he'd actually had a few longer-term relationships. He was not like Tom, going from one guy to another.

"So, you two are an item now?" Carl asked with a smile.

"Yes," Julio answered proudly. "I've fallen in love for the first time." What Julio said really struck me. He said that he had fallen in love.

"Oh, congratulations, then," Carl said. "Judah is a great guy. And it's nice to see him dating again."

I put my arm around Julio's shoulder and gave him a side hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was nice to have someone like Carl express support for us. So far tonight, I had been rather regretting bringing Julio to this party. Most people looked at us like Julio was an escort that I'd paid to come with me.

Julio asked me where the bathroom was, and I pointed him across the room, down the hallway. As soon as Julio walked away, Andy swooped in next to Carl.

"So! How did this happen? I want the details!" Andy asked in excited tones.

"He's a friend of my niece. We started talking after my party," I explained, "and then we went on a couple of dates, and then, one thing led to another."

"I saw you guys leading him drunk from the party," Andy said. 

I noticed that Andy was a little drunk himself at the moment.

"So you took advantage of him while he was drunk?" Carl joked.

"No!" I insisted. "He did end up on my couch that night ... well, actually in my bed, but ..."

"You dog!" Carl said.   

"He. Is. Gorgeous!" Andy interrupted. "I bet he's great in bed. He must have a tight little ass."

"Actually, so far I've always been the bottom. And he's got a great long cock," I said and then immediately felt as though I'd maybe betrayed his confidences by speaking so crudely.

"Well, good for you, Judah. It's great to see you having a little fun," Andy said, then walked on to speak with some other guests. Andy made it sound so shallow. I wanted to say that my relationship with Judah wasn't just about having fun, that it was more than that. It was about finding a friend. But he had already walked away.

I walked over to the buffet and filled a small plate with shrimp and canapes and petit fours. As I was nibbling on them, Julio came back to me, he looked shaken.

"What's wrong, Julio?" I asked.

"This party," he said. "I don't feel comfortable. This is not ..." He stopped.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Back there, in the bedrooms." He struggled to get his words out. "There are people fucking. Two drag queens. And one of the waiters. Someone was fucking him, and there were people lined up watching and playing with themselves. It's just so nasty." He looked horrified and disgusted.

"Julio, we can go," I said, putting my hand on his arm.

"Yes, yes," he said.

I considered finding Andy or Steve to say goodbye, but I decided that I just needed to get Julio away from the party. He looked shaken.

"Let's go," I said, and we headed out the door. In the elevator, I took his hand.

"I'm sorry, Julio. That party ..."

"No, no. It's me. It's just how I feel about Halloween. And all these people judging us. And strangers touching me. And then, the ... Yuck!"

When we got outside, the cool night air felt good after the crowded apartment. I tried to order an Uber, but the closest one was twenty minutes away, I suppose because there was so much demand on Halloween.

"I'm sorry I took you there," I said.

"No! I told you! It's not your fault!" he said very sharply. "It was MY choice. I said we should go!"

He looked angry, then he sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't mean to yell at you. I should probably just go back to my place tonight."

We were quiet for a moment, then I spoke up.

"No, Julio," I said in a voice that I hoped was firm. "That's not how this works. That's not how a relationship works."

I took a breath to calm down. Then I spoke forcefully and as calmly as I could. "This is one thing that I had to learn in my time with Pablo, because we don't have any model for gay relationships. When things get tough, most guys just walk away. That's why so many gay men have trouble dating. Relationships require work. You and I, we will sometimes have conflicts. We will sometimes say unkind things or annoy each other or even fight. But we have to work through it. We can't just walk away."

I took Julio's hands in mine and looked him directly in the eyes.

"You told Carl that you had fallen in love with me. Is that true? Do you love me?" I demanded.

Julio suddenly looked sheepish and glanced away. He got a slight smile on his face and then whispered. "Yes. I love you."

"And I love you, too, Julio. I know that it's too early to say it, but I've fallen for you. I can't help it." I took in a deep breath. "And if it's true that we're in love, then we have to fight for it. We have to work things through and come out on the other side." I squeezed his hands. "So, you should NOT go back to your place tonight. You should come home with me and hold me in your arms, and we will work things out."

Julio suddenly released my hands and grabbed me in a hard bear hug. Then he kissed me deeply and passionately on the lips.

"I knew there was a reason I loved you, Judah," he said.

He surprised me by picking me up and spinning me in the air and then setting me down.

"You said you love me too!" he cried.

"I did," I said.

"And I love you. I love you so much. I've never loved anyone like this before, and I feel so lucky to have found you."

Our car arrived and we climbed into the back. Julio slid right next to me and held me tightly in his arms as the car drove us home.

Sorry it's been a while since I posted. Work and life have kept me busy. Let me know what you think about my story. Email nifty1dan@gmail.com

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