GENERAL DISCLAIMER: This story contains sexual situations between adult males involving various aspects of the kink and fetish communities. If you find material of this nature offensive then you should not read any further. All characters in this story are over the age of 21. If you are under 18 years old in the US or under 16 in the UK you are not legally allowed to read this story. This is purely a work of fiction, any resemblance to persons living or dead, or to any events that may have occurred, are purely coincidental. The author claims all copyrights in this story and no duplication or publication of this story is allowed (except by the websites to which it has been posted) without the consent of the author. Nifty does not exist without donations. If you enjoy these stories, please donate here: http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html
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The Brownstone on Union Park
- Chapter Two -
Alex tried his best to put the situation into perspective, "Look, how many gay couples both in their early twenties make it to the point where they get married? Damn, we're not straight, it's so much more complicated in our world, we don't just meet our future husbands at the same school, get married, and start popping out kids. It takes years, fucking years if not decades! Name one gay guy you know that actually wants to settle down in his early twenties. Everyone is playing the field and if you don't know you're never going to have the chance later."
But Michael continued to weep ever so discreetly in a vain attempt to try and preserve what little masculinity remained of his predicament. He looked away trying to mask his emotion which bordered on downright embarrassment for thinking he was naive to believe his first relationship would be his last. All he knew was that things felt reasonable with Alex and he wanted to explore the next stage, whatever that was, but certainly not this.
Alex sensed the awkward tension and was feeling the pain he was causing but knew it was over between them. Trying to downplay the seriousness of the end of their relationship he added, "Oh come on now, don't be such a baby."
After the breakup with Alex, the one silver lining was the news that Michael did pass all his finals thereby completing his course requirements. That spring he graduated with his BS in actuarial sciences from Cramden College, a respected university, paving the way for a decent job and starting salary. Michael just pictured his first step in his professional adult life being with Alex. It made the thought of getting a place together and looking for jobs so much easier. And now that vision he had of the two of them was gone.
At least with the resident advisor position in place for the summer he could take a short break from reality and not worry finding a new place to live. The RA position also came with the benefit of free meals at the dining halls, so his living expenses were literally next to nothing. He even got paid a small stipend which allowed him to save a few thousand dollars by the end of the summer term. Everything was great, except for the muggy nights.
If the college dorms allowed him the opportunity to put in a window AC for the humid summer months, it would have been perfect. But, the school did not permit window air conditioners unless a student had unique medical circumstances. And even then, it was nearly impossible to find an air conditioner that could fit in the oddly shaped vertical windows that tilted open from the top hinge. So, it would be hot summer nights with a fan blowing on his bed as the only cooling source. He would have to get used to sleeping naked again. In any event, it still was a better option than moving back home to his parent's house in the very red, Republican, rural corner of Massachusetts.
Staying in the city on campus really was the perfect set up to look for a new job while his biggest worries were to patrol the floors in the evenings and be on the lookout for underage drinking parties. Of course, the fact that Alex was now living a few thousand miles away did not help things. In an odd way, it did encourage Michael to move on--how could he hold out any hope that his former relationship would return when the two of them were so far away?
The job search began with many false starts with close to a dozen or so applications for entry-level jobs, countless on-campus interviews, and other leads from the college career center. Some weeks would go by where he would simply play the e-mail waiting game and hear back from someone in HR only to be told to keep on waiting until they had more candidates to bring in for an interview. It felt like a wild goose chase at times and so pointless.
"So, this is what being an adult was like?" he thought, "What a joke!"
In early August, he was about to make arrangements to move home as a backup plan just as his phone rang. Michael finally got called in for an interview at one of the large insurance firms he applied to weeks ago. It was acutely stereotypical in terms of what he expected of big corporate culture--suits everywhere, receding hairlines, the smell of coffee, a big impressive lobby dripping with polished brass and granite tiles, abstract artwork, and a reception desk that reminded him of something he would see at an elegant hotel.
Michael had a hard time believing that it would be a full two-day interview process. The interview schedule planned for a long lunch hour each day with the department manager on the first day and prospective colleagues on the second. He reasoned that if he got a catered lunch two days in a row then it was at least worth it for the free food that did not come from the campus dining hall. The interview experience would be good to have to, although shortly he would find out that he would not be going on many more interviews.
About a week later, he received a phone call from the same company's HR department announcing he would be receiving an offer in writing. He ran across campus the next day to get his mail and just as was promised, an envelope with the company's prominent red and blue log appeared in his mail slot.
Michael could hardly believe his eyes or think he could actually experience such positive news so close to his breakup. The starting offer was fairly competitive: sixty-two thousand with full benefits and the title of Junior Actuarial Analyst. It was effectively a validation of his four years of hard work at Cramden. All those advanced probability, statisitics, and finance classes that kept him up all hours of the night finally came to mean something.
As he had no other offers and was running up against the clock, it made Michael's decision to accept the offer an easy one. After a little negotiation, he was even able to up the salary to sixty-five thousand and he e-mailed his HR contact a signed agreement with a start date of the Tuesday after Labor Day. Things, he felt, were finally starting to go right for a change.
And so, the housing search began. His junior year he lived off campus in a small studio by himself that ended up being a disaster. Just about everything that could have gone wrong did with the plumbing and electricity--the pipes freezing in the winter, the electrical wiring failing in the middle of the night, all the drafty windows and leaks. The central heating in the building was atrocious too, it was either burning at one hundred degrees or nothing at all. Sweat to death or freeze in the middle of winter and no in between. The walls were also made of plaster instead of more modern sheetrock so even the simple task of hanging a picture was not easy. A small nail hammered into the side of the wall would cause a giant crack to appear and then crumble to dust to the next day.
It was like pre-war conditions, to say the least. But, at the end of the day, it was his own place and that made it sort of special. No crazy roommates staying up all hours of the night with music or lights preventing him from going to sleep. He could have guys over if he wanted too, another novel first. A thirty-dollar gallon of fresh paint made all the difference despite the apartment's shortcomings. If the walls looked fresh and clean, so did the rest of the place. Michael kept it neat and organized, it gave the illusion that all was in order; on the surface, it looked nice anyway.
The summer before his senior year he reached his limit when on one hot and humid summer evening he pushed the on-button of his small window AC and it blew a fuse causing all the lights to go out. Yes, a fuse, because the building owner was too cheap to retrofit the place with a modern circuit breaker and redo the wiring. And that meant a trip down to the basement to change out the fuse in the control room by the laundry machines.
He had replaced the fuses a few times in the past when he had too many appliances going all at once. This time when he got to the control room and flipped the wall switch the lights did not respond and the room remained pitch black. Probably a burnt out bulb was to blame. In response, Michael turned on his phone's LED light to illuminate the basement.
A rat the size of his foot scurried past him and nearly caused him to trip over his own feet as he reflexively backed away in disgust. Michael ended up knocking over the small cardboard box perched on top of a wooden stool housing the glass-encased fuses. The sound of the glass shattering was horrifying, the only two good remaining fuses were ruined and he could not replace them so late in the night. He was fucking done with this place.
When one of his friends told him about the school needing to fill the resident advisor job back on campus in exchange for free housing in a private single, Michael jumped at the chance. Besides, it made financial sense to cut down on his living expenses and have dormitory quality housing which felt luxurious after his year in the studio apartment off campus.
But he was done with college and the lifestyle that came with it. As an adult, and soon to be working professional adult, he wanted something better. This led him to the craigslist ad on Union Park. Again, he thought, "It has to be a scam," but he honestly did not find anything better for the price and location.
Maybe he should just suck it up and pay a finder's fee, typically a full month's rent, to an agency in hopes of finding a legitimate one bedroom on the outskirts of the city. But then he would have to furnish it and he already sold the futon he had from junior year. Not that he really had too many personal items besides his clothes, textbooks, microwave, and mini-fridge. The thought of having to furnish an entire place from scratch just seemed insurmountable at this point in his life.
Michael just did not have it in him to make any more decisions today. He only knew he wanted to have a place to sleep by September when his new job started. The absence of time did not allow him to be overly particular either. He could always decide to move if whatever situation he got himself into did not work out. Technically, he moved every year for the past four years at college, it just seemed like a normal part of his life at this point.
Since the ad on Craigslist only had an anonymized e-mail and no phone number, Michael did the only thing he could do and e-mailed the listing:
"Hi, my name's Michael and I'm interested in the bedroom for
rent in the listing for the three-bedroom apartment. Your
place looks wonderful and really well planned out. I'm starting
a new job at an insurance firm in the city and am looking to
move in towards the beginning of September. If it's still
available please give me a call/text at 617 XXX-XXXX."
"That was probably a waste of time...", Michael thought as he hit the send button.
Like most things, however, it was a start. To something or nothing, he did not know. He only knew he was taking what he thought was the right step in the next phase of his life. Michael would continue looking for more places as he had two weeks left to find an apartment and sign a lease. He felt like he accomplished so much since his breakup with Alex: he graduated, found summer housing, an on-campus job, and now a real job.
But he still did not feel secure and was starting to get anxious to the point where his sleep was being affected again. Michael needed to get back to that comforting feeling of security and a sense of belonging but did not have a clue where to even begin looking.