Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 18:36:01 -0800
From: byguy82@hotmail.com
Subject: Love after 50

                             CHARACTERS

     Max is a retired man sixty one years old, five foot seven, one hundred
and seventy five pounds, a full head of gray hair, rosy cheeks and a sparkle
in his eyes. He is physically in good shape with just a little paunch. Max
has an outgoing personality' and is everyone's friend. Max is also gay.
     Guy is fifty seven years old and recently widowed. He is five foot,
nine, weighs one hundred eighty pounds, has graying brown hair with a bald
spot and receding hair line. He also is retired due to having cancer. He
also has a good body for a man his age with just a little sign of love
handles. Guy has always thought of himself as the normal straight average
man.


                             Love After 50

copright by - byguy82@hotmail.com
CHAPTER1


Is there romance after fifty? Well if your under fifty you probably don't
think so. I am over fifty and I know for a fact that there is love and
romance still around because It happened to me.

I am fifty seven years old and I have fallen in love again. Let me first
tell you that I was married and spent thirty wonderfUl years with my wife
before she passed away but I was so lost and lonely after her passing that I
thought that life might as welljust end for me too.

My friends tried to get me to go out and make some new friends but I wasn't
really interested in meeting a new woman or dating and most of my friends
were married and I felt like a fifth wheel whenever we would go out together
for dinner or whatever.

I belonged to a gardening club that met once a month and many of my friends
were members also so we saw e`ach other at least once a month. 1 was
surprised one day when I got a phone call from one of the single members of
the club. His name is Max and he was a nice guy even though everyone knew he
was gay. He asked me if l would like to have lunch with him and get away
form the house for a while. He said he wanted to talk about building a
greenhouse and he wanted my suggestions on just how he should go about it. I
agreed to meet him for lunch the following day and we would talk.

I pulled into the restaurant parking lot a five minutes to twelve and there
was Max waiting for me. He came up to the car as I got out and he put his
arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug.

"I'm so sorry about you loosing Mandy."

"Thank you." I said.

We then headed into the restaurant. The waitress led us to a table and took
our orders. She then returned and brought us our coffee.

Max and I sat there discussing his plans for his greenhouse and I made some
suggestions on how wide and how high it had to be. What materials he would
need and how to go about constructing it. The waitress brought us our lunch
and we continued to chat about gardening and other things. 1 was really
enjoying my conversation with Max and I didn't even notice it was not two
thirty. I told max that since I had all the time in the world now, that I
would be glad to help him get started with his planed project and to give me
a call when ever he got the materials and was ready to start. I thanked him
for the lunch and we parted I went back to my lonely house.

Two days later the phone rang and it was Max.

"Hey buddy, I got the stuff for the foundation like you said and now I'm
wondering how you go about laying it out.  Could you drop by for a little
while and get me started?"

"Sure!  I'II be over in a half hour."  I replied.

I had been working the yard and already was wearing my grubs so 1 jumped in
the truck and headed over to Max's place. I pulled up in the driveway of his
small house and was just getting out of my truck when Max was there standing
at the truck door. He immediately put his arm around my shoulder and gave me
a hug.

"Thanks for coming over buddy, Ijust didn't think I should start something
not knowing what I was doing."

I wasn't offended by Max's hug. It was just his way with everyone. I knew he
wasn't trying to hit on me. We went out to the back yard to where he had
cleaned a place to put his greenhouse and he had done a great job of
leveling the ground. He had the lumber for the forms for the foundation
stacked neatly on the side next to the cleared area.

"Where do I start?" he said.

"You start by fetching me the skill saw and some of that form lumber and
I'11 go to work."  I already knew the dimensions he wanted so I got started
building the forms.

It didn't take me longer than a couple hours to get everything laid out and
square and the forms anchored in place ready for the concrete to be poured.

"Hey buddy how bout a cup of coffee and some cookies for all that work you
just done?"

"Sounds good to me." I said.

We walked to the back door of his little house and he led me into the
kitchen that had a small table and two chairs. His house was as neat as a
pin. I wish I could say the same thing about mine but since Mandy was gone,
I just didn't care anymore. He grabbed two cups out of the cupboard and
poured the coffee.

"Need cream or anything?"

"No!  I come from good Norwegian stock and wouldn't even think of it." He
laughed and put a dish of cookies on the table.

"I don't have too much company here."  Just me and my old cat so it's a
pleasure you coming over to help me.  You must be pretty lonely too now that
your wife is gone."

"Oh my god, I'm sorry" He immediately said as he saw the tears forming in my
eyes.

He came over to my chair and put his arm around me and patted my shoulder.

"I didn't mean to upset you, Me and my big mouth.  I know what being lonely
is since there is just me here and I guess you know that I'm gay, I think
everyone knows."

"That doesn't bother any of us in the club and if it does it's too dam bad
for them. You are one hell of a nice guy and what you do at home is nobody's
business but your own."  I said.

He told me that he had lost his friend and lover in a car accident some
twelve years earlier and that he hadn't met anyone to fill the vacant space
in his heart. "Nobody wants you when your old and gray or gay the song
says." I could see the moisture swelling in his eyes.

It was my turn to get up and put my arm around his shoulder and give him a
gentle hug.- I patted him on the back and went back to my chair and sat
down.

"You gonna have them pour the cement tomaorrow?  Let me know when and I'11
be over to makesure they slope the floor right and I'11 put the anchor bolts
in too.  Give me a call when the truck shows up."

" I'11 do that." He said.

"Well I guess I had better get going, I still have a little yard work to do
at home before it gets dark." With that I got up and headed out to my truck.
Max was righ there behind me patting me on the back and rubbing my shoulder.

"Thanks again buddy, I'11 give you a call tomorrow."

When I got back home I finished up my yard work by emptying the bucket of
weeds I had pulled out of the flower beds and putting my tools back into the
garden shed. I then headed in to the house and sat down with a cup of coffee
and a cigarette. I couldn't smoke in the house when Mandy was here. She
wouldn't allow it, but now she's not here to give me hell whenever I light
up.

I started thinking of how I missed her nagging me to stop. How she would put
her hand on my back and rub it saying " You would be a lot healthier if you
would quit those things."

Just then I could feel Max's hand on my back saying the same thing. Was I
loosing my mind too? I guess maybe it was because Max was the only person I
had received any physical contact from since Mandy died. His hugs and pats
on the back were really the only comforting touches my body had felt in a
long long time. I turned on the TV not wanting to think about or deal with
these strange new feelings.

The next day the phone rang and it was Max.

"They will be here at ten thirty to pour, can you make it over by then?"

"No problem.  I'll be there with bells on."  I almost said my usual "with
balls on" but thought twice since I was talking to a gay man.

I made it over to his house just as the concrete truck arrived. I went back
to where we had set the forms and helped with the pour making sure they
didn't get too much in one place that we would have to move. The truck left
and I proceeded to get my concrete float out of the truck and show Max how
to float the floor and get a good pitch to it so all the water would flow to
one end. 1 explained to him that the floor shouldn't be level or have a
belly in it because standing water in a greenhouse would attract algae.

"OK that's it for a couple hours."

"You mean there's more?" Max said.

"Yes,I'11 have to trowel it out smooth after it has set for a while. It will
be easier to sweep and keep clean with a smooth finish."

"Good!  I have fixed us some lunch and I got a couple of beers in the frig."
He patted me on the back and rubbed my shoulders.

We headed back to the house and entered the kitchen.

"You go on in and wash up, I'll have lunch on the table in just a couple of
minutes."

When I came back from the bathroom there it was on the table, hot homemade
broccoli soup and roast beef sandwiches.We sat down and started eating. I
complimented him on the food.

"This is better than I get at home. You would make some man a good wife." I
said jokingly.

"I did once, but he's gone now too."

I quickly changed the subject to what we needed to do to after lunch.

Max got up and went to the frige and got us a couple more beers and sat down
at the table. He stretched out his legs and his foot came to rest on mine. I
immediately noticed that I was starting to get and erection and felt very
uncomfortable about my reaction to his foot touching mine and I moved mine
away.  He got up and started clearing the table.

"Take your beer in the other room and watch some TV while get these dished
cleaned up.  I'll be in to join you shortly."

I went into the living room and sat down on the couch, wondering if he had
noticed my aroused condition. The feelings I was having were new and strange
to me and I wondered if there was something the matter with me. I had never
been turned on by the same sex before.

I heard the clinking of dishes in the kitchen and water running as Max was
tidying up. I leaned back into the comfortable couch with my legs spread
wide apart and felt like I could almost go to sleep. Just then Max came into
join me. He sat down beside me almost in the same position I had taken and
said.

"Almost feels like nap time ."

"We can't do that or the cement will be harder than a rock and we got to get
a good finish on it·for you.  Time to go back·to work."

Max reached over and patted the inside of my leg above the knee and said.

 "OK, your the boss man. I is just the hired help or am I the slave?  I kind
of like that idea."

He laughed, then stood up and waited for me to lift my tired body from it's
too comfortable position. I almost threw another hardon from the pat he had
given me. I got up and we headed out the door to see how the cement was
drying.

     I placed a kneeling board down on the new cement and started to trowel
it smooth. I always liked working with cement and had had done almost all
the cement work at home. I had put in curbing, sidewalks and stepping stones
all through my yard. I had put curbing around all my flower beds since I
hated edging the lawn. I was kind of surprised when Max asked,

"When is it my turn."

 I laughed and handed him the trowel and supervised his work.

     It didn't take long to finish the job and cover up our handy work with
a plastic tarp, just in case it decided to rain over night. We cleaned up
the tools and loaded them into my truck. I then gave Max instructions on how
to wet it down the next day. He was surprised.

"I thought it was supposed to dry out."

"it is, but the trick is to not let it dry out too fast or it might end up
with cracks in it."

I went back to my truck to go home and Max followed close behind me thanking
me again and giving me the usual hug and pat on the back.

"Call me in a couple days and I'11 be back over and check it out. We should
be ready to start building then."

     I went home, did some laundry and chores around the house then had an
early dinner. The TV was boring and I was tired so I showered and went to
bed early.

If you like my story please let me know and send me your comments
to  byguy82@hotmail.com