A Lesson In Respect: Part Five (Finale) (Patreon)

We've finally made it to the fifth and final entry of this series. I really hope you all enjoyed the ride and like how things end up for Andy and Joseph. This was a damn fun story to write. As always, thanks to Soul Controller for being a great beta reader and ideas man.

Joseph was surprised by just how quickly he had managed to wash away the sour memory of the night’s earlier incident as soon as he was in the safe presence of Andy. The irony of that statement was not lost on him considering Andy had been responsible for robbing Joseph of the safety of his own identity, but there was no denying that the other had used his body well and acted like a hero in Joseph’s moment of need. As if he hadn’t already been struggling with an attraction towards his own body, the other man’s heroic save had only made Joseph even more sexually frustrated.

The journey back to the apartment had been torturous; Joseph’s cock was painfully throbbing in anticipation of what was to come once they were finally behind closed doors. He had been so relieved when Andy had finally agreed to switch them back but secretly he was also excited for the opportunity to get fucked by his own body. During the drive he stole a number of hungry glances towards the driver, admiring the bulging of his biceps and the large tent in the front of his slacks. He looked like a delicious three course meal and as much as it shamed him Joseph couldn’t wait to get his mouth busy.

Of course, it hadn’t taken very long at all for Joseph to push things further than even he had anticipated when he had tried to kiss the other man. The rejection was a bitter sting and Joseph’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment at his own behaviour. It was incredibly difficult to insist that what he was doing wasn’t gay when he was actively trying to initiate a kiss. From then on though, when Andy had taken on the more dominant role and forced Joseph to go where he wanted, both men seemed to find their flow. Once upon a time (not too long ago in all actuality) Joseph would have balked at the idea of being the more submissive one in the bedroom, now it felt both natural and exciting.

As his tongue became acquainted with the large muscles of the other’s arms and pecs, Joseph urged his brain to cease its manic behaviour and relax into what he reluctantly admitted was some of the most fun that he’d had in weeks. Once he was really in the zone, Joseph was like a man who had lacked a good meal in weeks; he was hungry for the sweet taste of the other’s sweat. When Andy decided that he’d had enough of the muscle worship, he guided Joseph down to his hard shaft and Joseph didn’t even hesitate to get his lips around the eight inches that had once been (and would soon be once again) his own.

Even after getting his first taste of Andy’s load - actually Joseph Messer’s load - Joseph’s newfound lust didn’t immediately dissipate. Instead he found himself suddenly craving what his counterpart had promised; he wanted to feel the other deep inside of him, treating him like he was nothing more than a hole. Right now, that’s all Joseph saw himself as: a hungry hole that needed a muscular hunk to fill him up! Mercifully the other man didn’t keep him waiting too long and as Joseph got fucked for the first time, he was truly awoken to how much fun gay guys could really have.

To go from the extreme high of reaching climax twice in quick succession to the crushing low of being denied entry back into his own body gave Joseph some serious whiplash. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to understand what was happening. Had Andy completely duped him? Had he been feeding false promises about switching them back? Of course the other was insisting that it wasn’t the case but Joseph was incredibly doubtful. The other had done very little over the past several weeks to indicate that he was worthy of any amount of trust. It was completely believable that this was just another one of Andy’s twisted games with the sole purpose of humiliating and demoralising Joseph more than he had already done.

It was the suddenness of the kiss that really caused Joseph to stop and consider that maybe the other was telling the truth. Andy had made it incredibly clear that he didn’t want to be intimate with him in any way that might be perceived as gay, so that kiss hadn’t been an action he would have taken lightly. It didn’t completely eliminate the knot in Joseph’s stomach but he felt a little easier about what he was being told. Hopefully Andy was right and all he needed was to rest up after a rather physically intensive night and then in the morning they would be able to put things to rights.

Unfortunately that wasn’t quite the case, as the next morning brought about a new wave of confusion and blistering anger. Even after eight hours of sleep Andy couldn’t seem to activate the magic he’d used to switch them in the first place and while Joseph was still reluctant to believe that he was telling the truth, he also had some doubts that the other was a good enough actor to pull off the distress he was exhibiting in his body language and speech. The air in the room was thick with tension and neither man really knew what to say.

“M-maybe you need a full breakfast or something?” Joseph suggested in a weak voice, clutching at anything that might provide a saving grace. “Or you’re not hydrated enough!”

The other man paced back and forth in silence as Joseph continued to spout off suggestions, until he suddenly stopped and raised both hands. “I know what to do,” he exclaimed suddenly, “My aunt lives in the next town over and is much more into the magic stuff than I am. She should be able to switch us back, no problem.” Andy’s tone was steady as he spoke but Joseph still struggled to read the expression on his face.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Joseph cried, already rushing around the apartment to gather the clothes that Andy had ripped off of him the night before. While it was fair to see that he no longer felt sick to be in the other man’s body, Joseph knew that he would only feel content once he had been safely restored to his own skin - and had requested a transfer to a town far away from Andy and his frightening abilities.

The forty minute drive between his apartment and the isolated country home that Andy’s aunt lived in was uncomfortably tense with minimal conversation being exchanged between the two. Joseph’s leg barely stopped shaking from the moment he had climbed into the passenger seat of his own truck; he had long since inherited Andy’s nervous tics, although nervous was perhaps an understatement given how severe the situation was. It’ll all work out, he told himself. He simply refused to consider what would happen if it didn’t and they ended up stuck like this. Don’t think like that! It’s not gonna happen!

Andy’s aunt appeared to be no older than forty, although the other man had mentioned during the drive that she had slowed her aging through magic and was probably closer to sixty. Faye Haymaker was a petite woman at barely five-foot-three and dressed like it was still the swinging sixties, and she had kind eyes and an infectious smile.

Much to Joseph’s surprise she hadn’t greeted him as her nephew but rather immediately identified that they were suffering from a case of switched identities. “You better come on in, this doesn’t look like it's a conversation for us to have on the porch!” she urged, stepping out of the way and waving the two men inside.

Aunty Faye guided them into a reception room that was decorated with garish pink wallpaper and various portraits of cats, and insisted that they make themselves comfortable while she made them all cups of tea. At this, Joseph attempted to protest, but he was quickly silenced by a sharp glare from the woman and reluctantly sat down and waited impatiently for her return. “You’re sure she can fix this?” he asked, turning his attention towards the other, who continued to look bizarrely conflicted.

“If anyone can, it’s her,” Andy replied. His words initially calmed Joseph before he picked up on the subtle suggestion hidden within them. Before he could open his mouth to ask “what do you mean ‘if anyone can’?” Faye returned with a tray that was loaded up with cups of tea. Andy had accepted his cup immediately and with only a small bit of reluctance, Joseph followed suit. While there had been very little calming about that morning, the tea was something of a surprising relief.

Mercifully they weren’t forced to sit in silence while they drank, and Andy quickly explained the situation to his aunt. Joseph was surprised by the fact that the other left out his initial reason for switching their bodies, although he was less surprised by Andy’s glossing over of the events of the previous night. In Joseph’s experience, talking about sex life with family was a pretty weird zone to enter, although in this case he couldn’t help but wonder if it held some relevance. “We also fu--slept together,” he chimed in, ignoring the glare that Andy shot his way when he did so. Faye raised her eyebrows ever so slightly but aside from that had little response to the revelation.

Once Andy had finished up his explanation, the trio sat in silence for a few moments. Faye was deep in thought and her eyes continued to move between her nephew and the man currently trapped in her nephew’s body. Then, after what felt like an hour, she let out a heavy sigh. “Oh Andrew, you’re a mighty fool,” she lamented with a shake of her head, “Body switching spells can be incredibly volatile, especially for someone still fairly untrained like yourself. Being removed from its rightful place puts a certain amount of strain on one’s soul and the longer it is kept apart from the body, the more difficult it is to restore it.”

Joseph’s stomach jolted as he attempted to understand what was being said. She wasn’t suggesting that a return to their true bodies was impossible, was she? He felt suddenly nauseous and short of breath, the world feeling like it was crumbling down around him.

“I typically wouldn’t advise a bodyswap to last longer than ten, maybe twelve, days. You said it’s been closer to three weeks?” By this point Joseph was completely frozen, incapable of doing anything other than looking down into the depths of his teacup as he grappled with the horrifying information he was being given. He could only presume that Andy had nodded in agreement as Faye continued shortly after. “I could in theory attempt a return transfer but given the length of time your souls have been separated… I’m ninety-nine percent certain that neither of you would survive the exchange. You’d be as good as braindead, if your head didn’t combust in the attempt, that is.”

It was finally too much for Joseph to hear. The teacup and saucer dropped out of his hands, smashing to the ground, as he burst up to his feet and rounded on the man who had stolen his body. “You were planning this all along, weren’t you?! You’ve stolen my life, you asshole!” he screamed, lunging towards the other. While he knew that a physical attack would be of little good considering the other had a much stronger body than him, Joseph no longer cared for rational thought. He was furious at Andy for the betrayal and despairing the permanent loss of his body, there wasn’t a chance he could think with any clarity!

Before he could reach the body thief though, Joseph found himself bouncing off of an invisible wall that had erected between them. A glance towards Faye revealed that the woman had her hand outstretched and her kind expression had shifted into something more serious. “I will not have any violence in my home, thank you very much,” she declared in an icy tone, “I quite understand your reasons to feel such a way, but what kind of aunt would let any harm befall her nephew - or her nephew’s body, for that matter? Let’s bring things down a level, shall we?”

The sudden calmness that washed over Joseph was startling and completely not of his own doing, he quickly realised. He still burned with anger but he no longer desired to charge at Andy and attempt to tear him apart with his bare hands. Whatever spell Faye had cast on him let him retain his thoughts and feelings on the matter but he was compelled not to act on them in a manner that might cause any amount of destruction in her home. It still felt like a violation to once again be the subject of magic but compared to what Andy had done to him, Joseph was much less inclined to resent Faye for curtailing his blistering rage.

“Now… while I can’t get you boys back where you belong, I can perhaps do something else for you,” the witch started, the happy smile returning to her round face. “It won’t take much to whip up a potion that will re-work your minds until they better fit your new bodies. I can transfer your memories across and you already have each other’s tastes, interests and behaviours… think of it as me just completing the package. It’ll be like the swap never happened at all. It should make things easier for the both of you, if that’s what you want.”

The suggestion hung in the air for several moments and Joseph found his gaze meeting Andy’s. For what it was worth, the other man did actually look guilty, although Joseph wasn’t sure how much he could trust that. He wanted to but nothing about his relationship with Andy inspired any level of trust. To his surprise though, the other man offered something of an olive branch: “It’s entirely up to you, man. I’ll agree with your decision.”

Joseph let out a long exhale. It wasn’t an easy decision to make in the slightest. If he didn’t take the potion he’d have to live with the knowledge of what he had lost and would have to go on living the life of a gay man while always aware that he was supposed to be straight. On the other hand, he’d be giving up his identity completely and losing everything he’d known up to that point. While he was going to have to live life as Andy Haymaker one way or another, did he really want to sacrifice his entire life up to that point?

After several minutes of intense deliberation, Joseph finally had his answer. With a final withering glare towards Andy, he turned his attention back to Faye… and slowly shook his head. “I don’t want to forget who I really am,” he declared. “If I have to live Andy’s life, so be it, but I’m not forsaking the man I used to be.” Was it a decision he might one day regret? Perhaps, but in that moment it felt like the right thing to do, and he suspected that Faye was in agreement given she swept over to him and pulled him into a soft embrace. Joseph initially fought back the urge to cry but soon he realised he no longer had any reason to hide his emotions. He no longer had to live up to the hyper-macho expectations of being an officer of the law so where was the harm in wearing his heart on his sleeve for a change?

Everything’s going to be different from now on, he mused, pulling out of the hug and glancing back over to the body he now knew he would never be inside of again. It hurt to know that, and would probably continue to hurt for a long time, but when he caught sight of the tears in the other’s eyes, Joseph finally understood that this hadn’t been Andy’s intention at all. It didn’t smooth over the pain that his deeds had caused but hadn’t it been Joseph who had started this little war between them? Oh if only I knew how it would end…

x

Although Andy couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that was pleased by the revelation that it was near impossible to remove him from the body that he had grown to become so comfortable in, the former twink couldn’t help but feel sorry for the real Joseph. Sure, maybe he’d deserved to be taught a lesson when he’d taken advantage of his privilege but Andy had let it go too far once he was the one with the advantage. It was only when he saw the clear distress in the other’s eyes at the point that Aunty Faye explained their predicament when Andy truly recognised what he had done. They weren’t in the business of measuring crimes of morality but Andy knew that his hands weren’t exactly as clean as he’d originally perceived them to be.

That fateful day was now two weeks in the past but the frosty atmosphere between Andy and Joseph seemed no closer to thawing. With considerable reluctance the other men had settled back into the miserable cycle of working retail and spending every other evening getting cocktails with the girls. Joseph had seen him at the bar with Amber and the like while on duty one night and was caught off guard by the pang of regret he felt when he saw the other interacting with his old friends. He hadn’t quite anticipated that he might grow to miss the friends he’d had in his old body, although it wasn’t as if he was exactly lonely in his new existence. He had Olivia of course but he also had the various other men and women at the police station plus all of Joseph’s old high school friends who he had “reconnected” with at their ten year reunion.

Knowing that it was probably for the best that he kept his distance from the other man, Andy put a permanent stop to the taunting text messages and the updates on what he was getting up to. He no longer sent any pictures of himself but he wasn’t shy about uploading those pictures to Joseph’s rather popular social media channels. It turned out that there were a whole host of people on the internet who got horny for muscled guys in uniform and he’d quickly started to gather quite the following! He frequently had commenters thanking him for “humanising the badge” which was particularly amusing for Andy considering he had previously held the police in quite low regard. Now that he knew he was in it for the long haul though, he wanted to help foster a more positive atmosphere within the town. He’d started it by scaring off those three guys who had jumped Joseph outside the club but that was only going to be the beginning. There was a lot of work to be done to try and make the minority groups of their backwoods town feel safe, but that was a responsibility Andy was prepared to shoulder. It would take time but considering he was now perceived to be the town’s favorite son he was confident that he’d get it done sooner rather than later!

While it was certainly fair to say that Andy had definitely settled into Joseph’s life to an extent before they had received the news that there would be no switching back, he was now free to do so without any fear that he’d be robbed of the comfort he was building for himself. One of his absolute favorite things to do was head to the gym and push his way through a workout as if he’d been doing it for his whole adult life. Joseph’s body was even stronger than it looked and Andy absolutely loved the awed (and sometimes jealous) looks he received from the other gym-goers when he successfully completed a lift or a squat. 

More than once he had caught some of the gym’s female clients checking him out, with their gazes particularly lingering on the packed front of his pants or the pec shelf that his tight shirts showed off in delightful fashion. Every bit of attention he received bolstered Andy’s ego further, but he was happy with what he’d started with Olivia, so he never did anything other than gift the onlookers with a quick bouncing of his mighty pecs before moving on with his workout. In the not too distant past he would have longed for the positive attention he received from the gym’s male clientele but now he only saw them as either potential friends or potential competition. If they were looking his way then he assumed they were simply admiring his built physique and using him as inspiration, not checking him out. That was just what gym guys were like, Andy now understood. There wasn’t anything gay about it.

It was actually rather amusing to Andy just how much his tastes really had shifted. The thought of hanging out with a bunch of straight guys, cracking open some beers and listening to country music while they exchanged crude stories about chicks they had scored with would once upon a time triggered a response of disgust from Andy - now it just sounded like a good Friday night! It was a long way from the cocktail nights he’d had with Amber and his other work friends where they had listened to bubblegum pop music (something he now couldn’t stand) and occasionally painted each other’s nails (something he definitely wouldn’t be doing anymore). Although he definitely missed them, Andy simply couldn’t imagine himself amongst that crowd anymore. Instead,shooting the shit with the guys felt incredibly natural. Andy was delighted to find that he never had to second guess himself or what he was saying. He played the part so perfectly that he didn’t think he was even playing a part anymore, it was simply who he was.

The guys gathered at these drinking sessions were a mix of cops that Andy worked alongside and Joseph’s old high school friends. It was kind of funny because Andy was certain that a number of them wouldn’t have hesitated to call him a queer if they’d met him back in his original body, yet now they perceived him to truly be one of them. His scolding of their poor taste jokes about “the fairies in town” had brought those remarks to an end and although it was subtle, Andy was ushering in a more liberal perspective to a mostly conservative conversation. 

Of course even if the conversation had become a little more respectable there was still plenty of discussion about women that turned towards the crude and Andy wasn’t immune from joining in, given he now had his relationship with Olivia to confide in his bros about. He was the envy of the bunch whenever he brought up the wild nights they had together and the filthy messages his girlfriend would send him while he was on duty. More than once he had been caught with a tent in his pants by one of his coworkers but none of them could blame him: they all recognised Olivia for the jaw-dropping babe that she was. While he wasn’t the only lucky guy to have a lady on his arm, a number of the guys in his new circle were still single and desperate for “Joseph” to set them up with one of his fangirls, although he continually refused. “You should see my DMs bro, some of these chicks are off their rocker!” he would say, before adding with a grin: “Besides, I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of catfishes in there, so you’d probably have a fifty-fifty chance of getting set up with a fat dude or some twink!” That was always enough to get them to stop asking.

Andy’s favorite among all of his new friends was Caleb Osworth who had been one of Joseph’s teammates back on the high school football team. The blond haired and brown eyed man stood a few inches shy of six-foot, but his shorter body was packed with strong muscle which he attributed to his love of bodybuilding. Outside of that hobby, he had made his trade as an electrician and was well respected by the local community for generally being an upstanding guy. Just a few weeks previously Andy had joked to the real Joseph that Caleb was secretly gay, but that suggestion hadn’t exactly been plucked out of thin air: he’d noticed that there was something different in the way that Caleb had looked at him at the reunion compared to the other guys there. Plus, when Andy had joked to his new group of friends about the possibility of setting them up with a catfish, Caleb’s reaction hadn’t been nearly as severe. If anything, there had been a brief flash of what might have been excitement in his eyes at the concept of being paired with a guy.

Lo and behold, where there was smoke there was fire and Caleb eventually came out to Andy in private a few weeks after they started to spend more time together. Andy had invited the other man out to the shooting range for a little bit of target practice (it was one of his new favorite hobbies, which was again somewhat remarkable considering Andy had never even held a gun back in his own body) and it had been clear from the moment the other had arrived that he was anxious to share something. Already having a feeling what was on the other’s mind, Andy didn’t press his concerns and waited until the end of their shooting session to inquire if there was anything the other wanted to share with him. It seemed like that was the opening Caleb had been looking for and over the next several minutes he tearfully confessed to hiding in the closet for almost fifteen years in fear of how their conservative town would react. Not only that but he had been harboring a crush on Joseph the whole time. Andy was sympathetic but he also knew that he couldn’t return those feelings. Back in his old body, someone like Caleb would have absolutely been a dream come true, like a Prince Charming straight from the fairytales he’d enjoyed as a kid, but he couldn’t change the fact that he was now completely straight and actually rather happy with Olivia. 

After reassuring Caleb that their recently renewed friendship wouldn’t be damaged by his revelation and declaring that he was proud of his friend for finally speaking up, Andy was struck by an idea. Just as he’d previously thought, Caleb would have been his perfect guy if he was still gay, but Andy did know someone else who was now gay and that person was likely in need of some friendly and good looking company. It took a little bit of persuasion but eventually he was able to make Caleb agree to trial a date with “Andy”. That was the easy part done; now the real Andy just needed to get Joseph on board, and that meant finally talking to the other after a whole month of radio silence.

Although he had been afraid that his reunion with his body swap counterpart would be the most uncomfortable moment of his life since he’d originally come out of the closet, Andy was pleased to see that the frozen tundra between them had begun to break. Indeed, the first thing that struck Andy about the other man was how comfortable Joseph appeared to be. During every other meeting since the switch, Joseph had understandably held himself in an incredibly tense manner and his face had almost always been scrunched up into an expression of disgust or fury. This time though he greeted Andy with a smile - a small one, but a smile nonetheless. I’ll count that as progress. He decided it was best not to comment on how Joseph’s eyes had flickered towards the beefy upper arms that were stretching out the sleeves of his shirt. They’d have to be a lot further along the road to civility before he started making jokes about that.

The conversation started with some awkwardness but once they were both halfway through their coffees it had finally relaxed into something that almost resembled friendly conversation. Andy caught the other up on how work was going and even his relationship with Olivia, while Joseph revealed he was writing an application to go back to college and start fresh by studying something new. “I don’t know how you stayed in retail so long,” the other huffed, shaking his head in despair, “I’ve gotta move on and do something worthwhile because since I’m gonna be like this for good… I mean, I’m not exactly gonna be a cop again, am I?”

“You never know, I think you’d make a great partner,” Andy countered in a lighthearted tone. The joke brought a smile to both men’s faces and the conversation continued on in a friendly manner until Andy decided it was finally time to bring up his reason for inviting Joseph out for coffee. “So, I met a guy and I think he’d be great for you,” he announced suddenly, deciding there was no real need for subtlety. “Well, technically you met the guy first because he’s an old school friend of yours but-- fuck, I’m rambling. You remember Caleb Osworth, right? It turns out my joke about him being a receiver wasn’t too far off the mark. Now, I think he’s actually a top but he says he’s open to meeting you and I think you’d look pretty cute together, so what do you say?”

For several long moments the other simply gaped at him. “Caleb Osworth… is gay?” he asked finally, voice dripping in disbelief. “No, no, no, you’ve gone back to teasing me, haven’t you? No way is he--”

“I’m not joking,” Andy interrupted, dropping his voice into a serious tone in his attempt to stop the other from working himself up into a frenzy. “He came out to me and I had to turn him down for obvious reasons but I really think he’d be a good match for you. He’s a chill dude, pretty nice on the eyes and you already know that you get on with him. What’s the harm in giving it a try, huh?”

The offer hung in the air for a few moments longer before the other tentatively nodded. “Okay, I’ll meet him,” Joseph agreed, the corners of his lips turning up into an optimistic smile. “Fuck, just when I thought my life couldn’t get any more insane my old body goes and sets me up on a first date with a guy and I’m actually excited by the prospect. And I say shit like prospect now!” He broke off into a gentle chuckle and nodded again. “Sure, why not. I’m gay. I date dudes. It makes sense.”

Pleased that the other man had talked himself around to accepting the offer, Andy relaxed back into his chair and smiled. “Looks like you just scored your first date then, bud,” he remarked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the card that he’d already scribbled Caleb’s cell phone number onto. It was only when he slid it across the table and met the other’s eye again that he realised just what he’d called the other: bud. They were anything but buddies considering their history… but it had slipped off the tongue so easily, just like so much of what Andy found himself saying.

It was strange but there was actually a part of him that wanted to refer to the other as his friend. Whether such a thing would ever be possible would probably take a while to be determined, but when all was said and done, stranger things had definitely happened. Anybody observant enough could see that there was change in the air of their little town and although nobody else would ever know it, the change had all started with the two of them having a heated exchange outside of a club and in the confines of a police car...

Six Months Later…

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but babe, you need to put a shirt on or we’re going to be late!” Olivia exclaimed, nudging her bare-chested and delightfully muscular boyfriend as she moved to station herself in front of the vanity mirror. She was quite the stunner herself in a tight-fitting black dress that highlighted her best physical assets. She was a headstrong woman confident with her body, but she was also content in the knowledge that her boyfriend liked her for more than just her perky tits, slender waist and juicy ass - although he wasn’t shy about expressing how much he loved those features too.

The boyfriend in question just chuckled, positioned himself behind Olivia and raised his tree trunk arms to hit a double bicep flex while also tensing the muscles of his abs and pecs. “You want me to conceal THESE bad boys?” Joseph Messer exclaimed in his sexy deep bass, his voice so naturally loud that it seemed to bounce off of the walls. The words were accompanied by a cocky smirk that never failed to make Olivia feel flustered and he even bounced his meaty pecs for good measure, although that wasn’t exactly uncommon for him.

Olivia rolled her eyes at the typically goofy behavior of her man but she couldn’t quite keep the adoring smile off of her lips. That dopey charm was just one of the many things that she appreciated about Joseph Messer, which in itself was a rather large list. Despite such a laundry list of positive attributes, the absolute stunner of a woman certainly knew of Joseph’s sole negative quality: his tardiness. With the clock ticking closer to their date by the second, Joseph was putting the couple in danger of being late; something that Olivia absolutely wouldn’t allow to happen. She prided herself on never being late and she wasn’t about to let her boyfriend jeopardise that hard-earned reputation!

While he certainly understood his girlfriend’s desire for being on time, Joseph didn’t share the same sentiments given the fact that he knew that the two people they were meeting weren’t the type to hold a grudge over such a trivial thing. Those people were two of his closest friends after all: Caleb Osworth, his old high school buddy, and Andy Haymaker, who he knew better than his own family and who could say the same in return about him.

The four of them were meeting for dinner at the fancy new restaurant that had just opened in the center of their town a week prior. Olivia had heard great things about the menu and had all but demanded that Joseph take her there for a date night. Like the good Southern gentleman he was, he had agreed, and he’d also had the bright idea to invite his friends along to make it a double date. Olivia had struck up an unlikely friendship with Andy during previous meetings so she was more than happy with the idea of sharing date night.

“You mean you don’t wanna make them wait and go for round two instead?” he asked, half-teasing and half-hopeful. Twenty minutes ago they had been deep in the throes of lovemaking and already Joseph was looking forward to tearing that dress off of his girlfriend’s slender body and having his way with her. He’d wanted to initiate some more intimacy during their quick clean-up shower but Olivia had shut him down and insisted that he get his ass in gear lest he ruin her reputation for always being precisely on time.

Dodging the hairbrush that was thrown in his direction, Joseph laughed and reluctantly started to pull some clothes onto his body. Olivia had gone through his wardrobe to pick out a nice shirt, some slacks and a tie that went well with it, which truthfully was probably for the best because if Joseph had his way then he probably would have gone in a sports jersey and some shorts. He didn’t really have much of a fashion sense to speak of beyond the very basics; what he wore or what people might think of his appearance (or behavior, for that matter) simply wasn’t a concern for him anymore.

Once they had finally arrived at the restaurant - perfectly on time, of course - and greeted their friends, Joseph toned down his flirtatious behaviour… but only a little. They were amongst friends after all and even if anybody overheard his crude jokes, they would quickly dismiss them. He was the poster boy of the town’s police department and was probably a shoe-in for mayor if he ever decided to turn his career prospects towards politics. It wasn’t something that Joseph was actively planning on but life had thrown him some notable curveballs before so he was no longer in the business of ruling anything out.

He wasn’t the only one keeping their future options open either, as Andy had returned to college just as he’d suggested he might. He had plenty of stories to share with them about his classmates and teachers, and Joseph was proud of how excited the other man was about being back in a place of learning and creating a new path in life for himself. It was also incredibly clear just how proud Caleb was of his boyfriend, as the bodybuilder’s smile was so bright while Andy spoke that it could give the sun a run for its money. Joseph mentally gave himself a pat on the back for setting up such an adorable couple.

It wasn’t just a night full of conversation between the two couples as there were also plenty of jokes to be had. A good number of those jokes were by Andy and Olivia and were at Joseph’s expense, but he didn’t mind. He enjoyed seeing his girlfriend and his best friend getting along and he was definitely man enough to take a bit of friendly teasing. Eventually though they settled into talking about their lives between high school and that current day, which was when Caleb made a sudden declaration: “You know, I don’t think either one of you has told me how you actually met.” Olivia hummed in agreement, realising with some surprise that it was a story she had also never been privy to.

“Well…” Joseph started with a laugh, grinning across the table at Andy. As expected, the other was able to finish his sentence: “I guess it’s kind of a long story.”

The End