Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:07:26 +0900
From: Jude StJude <judestjude2357@gmail.com>
Subject: Inadequate Men - Chapter 1 - Small Discovery

Inadequate Men

This is a fictional series about two guys who meet at the gym and find that
they have a common bond in their feelings of inadequacy as men.

Chapter 1 -- Small Discovery

Jared always hit the gym late, about an hour before closing. He knew the
whole front desk staff by their first names, and they'd all assured him
over and over that it was OK for him to take his time getting dressed and
out the door. So his workout -- usually some lifting followed by a couple
of miles on the treadmill or a fast 20 minutes on the stationary bike --
finished up about 9:50. By then, the locker room was just about cleared
out. That was how he liked it.

Other guys might have been disappointed to miss the "last round up" hour,
around 9:30, when the final wave of guys headed to the showers in a
pack. Some hit the sauna as well, or just took their time getting dressed,
and for good reason. The gym's owner, no stranger to the community he was
catering to, had over the years filled the locker room with mirrors on just
about every vacant wall. If you knew where to stand, there was hardly a
corner of the locker room that couldn't be seen covertly from one angle or
another.

But this feature gave Jared only one more reason to avoid the locker room
while it was crowded with other guys. Not that he didn't welcome an
opportunity to check out 30 or 40 buff, sweaty, and mostly available guys
in various stages of undress. In fact, truth be told, Jared was more of a
voyeur than a lot of his friends. At the beach, while his buddies gawked at
the surrounding men for the first ten minutes and then settled back onto
their towels to work on their tans, Jared eyes were darting around (behind
his sunglasses) for most of the day. He couldn't keep his eyes off of those
strong, smooth chests, tight stomachs, and hairy legs all around him. And
when one of those guys also had a handsome, gentle face -- warm, caring
eyes and a sweet, genuine smile always got him most -- it was almost too
much to bear the frustration.

So why was a handsome 32-year-old guy like Jared feeling frustrated on a
beach full of guys and avoiding the locker room? For that matter, why
hadn't he had a real boyfriend since his early 20s? Sure, he worked a lot
of hours at his job at a law firm. As he'd explained more than once to
friends and family -- and, yeah, he was out to his family -- he didn't have
time for much of a social life. But was that really the reason?

He traced the problem all the way back to September of his freshman year in
high school, the first time that he -- and also everyone around him -- knew
that there was a problem. It started with those three words that worried
just about every other freshman, whether they'd admit it or not: mandatory
gym showers.

Looking back, he should have been prepared for it. He was pretty
naïve, though. An only child with parents who were a few years older
than most of his friends' parents, Jared had been in some ways a very
sheltered boy. He always got good grades and liked St. John's, the Catholic
school he went to, well enough. He had friends there, the type of friends
that his parents had no reason at all to disapprove of -- other relatively
sheltered boys like himself.

His best friend had been named Luke. They played baseball and video games,
built huge Lego structures in his basement and had endless sleepovers where
they watched horror movies. They saw each other just about every day during
the school year and spent almost every moment of the summer together. Jared
looked back on his friendship with Luke as one of his life's perfect
things. They were inseparable from first grade until, in the middle of
eighth grade, Luke's father received a promotion at his company. By the end
of June, Luke and his family had moved to the suburbs of Chicago.

Jared didn't know until it happened how large a hole the loss of one friend
could leave. When he thought about it as an adult, he realized that the
whole time he had been in love with Luke. But as kids, that feeling had
never really expressed itself sexually. It's not like they were the kind of
boys who knew or thought much about sex. Luke was an oldest child with two
much younger sisters. His parents were suddenly overwhelmed with diapers
and playpens just as Luke might have started getting curious about his
body. And Jared, sheltered as he was, just didn't have much awareness of
his body or feelings toward Luke.

Jared remembered that he and Luke had been bathed together a few times when
they first started sleeping at each other's houses. As first or
second-graders, being naked together might have been novel, but it never
led to anything more than splashing around together in the bathtub,
singing, and playing games. It never led to any exploring of the kind that
Jared would enviously hear about from friends in college. He had really
missed out, hadn't he?

With Luke leaving, Jared made the decision in eighth grade not to go on to
St. John's High School, but instead to enter public school. His parents
were grateful. Public school was free, after all, and if Jared's best
friend was moving away anyway, it seemed to make sense.

Mandatory gym showers, though. That was daunting. Jared worried about it
all summer. Even if he'd stayed at St. John's, he would have had to do them
anyway. He and Luke had even talked about it a little. They agreed that
when the time came, they would make sure to get lockers right next to each
other, and stick close in the showers.

"I mean, it's not like you've never seen me without my clothes on," Luke
had said, presumably referring back to the bathtub days.

"Yeah, that's true, I guess," Jared had agreed. "That was a long time ago,
though."

For two other boys, it might have led to some curious exploration. Luke and
Jared, though, were just a little behind the curve in that way. Jared did
remember, for a few months there in eighth grade, imagining what it would
be like to get undressed next to Luke, wrap themselves in towels, and
shower next to each other in a shower room filled with other boys.

"You're my best friend, Luke," he remembered whispering under his breath
once as he lay in bed thinking about it.

His actual experience of his first gym shower was memorable for a whole lot
of other reasons. Jared remembered how nervous he was the whole
day. Changing into his gym clothes wasn't so bad. He kept his underwear on,
as did all the other boys, and in a moment his gym shorts were up over them
and he was tying his sneakers. Nothing to it.

By the time Jared returned to the locker room, he could already hear the
showers running in the background, because another gym teacher's class had
finished up a little earlier than his class. He didn't know any of these
kids very well, but in his first few days at school, he had already figured
out that they were tougher and more experienced in some hard to explain way
than any of the kids at St. John's had ever been. Those kids had really
been a pretty nice group, he realized now, and he'd known most of them
since grade school. He began to wonder if maybe jumping ship had been a
mistake.

The boys around him were talking loudly, and it seemed like some of them
weren't even the slightest bit worried about that inevitable moment that
could no longer be avoided, pulling down their underwear and revealing what
was underneath. Jared was really shaking, and his heart was beating about a
thousand beats per minute. His hand was shaking so much that he had to turn
his new locker combination three or four times just to get it open.

By that time, some of the boys had already just about stripped down. As one
boy's underwear dropped, Jared couldn't believe what he saw. The kid had a
boy's face but the rest of him was -- um -- all man. Jared hadn't been
expecting that. As one of the youngest boys in the class, having just
turned 14 in August, Jared was used to being one of the shorter kids. To
make matters worse, he was also a bit behind when it came to starting
puberty. He'd even been to see a doctor about it, who had assured him that
there was nothing wrong, and that every boy goes through this at his own
pace.

As Jared dawdled taking off his gym shorts, three guys came back from the
showers, all wearing towels. They were all friends and, fortunately, didn't
notice Jared. One of them pulled his towel off, spun it around a few times,
and then started cracking it like a whip at his friends' butts. Jared would
never forget it. The guy was buck naked and not even embarrassed. And even
at 14, he was clearly a good two years into puberty, with a full bush of
dark hair, two low-hanging balls, and a dick that look like it belonged to
a guy twice his age. No wonder he didn't mind being naked in front of his
friends.

Then the friends dropped their towels, and it was the same story. They
might have been full-grown men. One kid was swinging his cock around in
circles while the other two just laughed and laughed.

Just then the gym teacher walked through and blew his whistle. "Everybody
in the showers now! Full soap shower, no exceptions! Move!"

At that moment, if Jared had been given a choice of that shower room or the
electric chair, it would have been so much easier. Quickly, he formulated a
plan. He would wrap his towel around him while he pulled off his underwear,
wear it to the shower room, duck into the shower room and try to keep
facing the wall as he took the fastest soap shower humanly possible, and
then retreat and re-wrap himself in the towel.

Everything went well as he slid his underwear down under the towel, and
then followed the pack of other towel-clad boys to the shower room. As soon
as he saw what awaited him, he knew that the game was going to be up
soon. Instead of showerheads lining the walls, which would have permitted a
bit of privacy, this shower room had four center-sprayers in the middle of
a tiled floor that sloped to a square drain in the middle. Worse yet, there
was already a line of naked guys around the edge of the shower room, all
waiting their turn. There was simply no hiding.

All of the guys around him one by one dropped their towels on the wooden
benches that lined the drying room outside the showers. Every single one of
them had some amount of hair over his genitals. It somehow made them look
less naked. Jared had looked at himself in the bathroom mirror enough times
to know what a stark contrast is his own body was in comparison.

Reluctantly, he dropped his towel, covering himself with his hands. In his
nervousness, his penis had retracted to its smallest-ever size, as he could
feel when he touched himself. He prayed that none of the other boys would
notice.

The line moved slowly as he waited with the other boys for his turn at the
shower. But no sooner had he entered the shower room than he saw one of the
boys who was showering poke his friend and point at him. They both looked
and then one whispered to the other, and they both burst out laughing.

Jared knew he must have been beet red. He did his best to step out of the
line of view and turned away from them in shame. Everywhere around him was
evidence of what a normal 14-year-old boy was supposed to look like. And he
was the exception.

He was still waiting for his turn at a shower when a voice behind him said,
"Excuse me, little boy, are you even supposed to be in here?"

Behind him, he heard another boy say, "He's in my geography class."

"How old are you?" the kid next to him asked.

"Fourteen," said Jared.

"Are you kidding? You look like my nine-year-old brother. Except his dick
is bigger."

"Come on, take your hands away. Let's see."

Jared reluctantly did as he was told. What was the point of trying to hide
it?

As the boys looked at him, he remembered feeling like some sort of science
experiment. They weren't even taunting him now. They were looking at his
penis up close trying to figure out what they were seeing.

Jared's penis was circumcised and very tiny. His testicles still hadn't
descended. And he had yet to sprout even the first wisp of light hair. The
rest of his exposed body, too, was entirely undeveloped. Even as he thought
back upon the experience as an adult, Jared knew that these kids weren't
merely being cruel.

"Dude it's like, literally, so small, I like wanna get a magnifying glass,"
one of them was saying. "Are you really 14?"

Jared just nodded.

"Dude, you better start praying it grows soon."

A space opened up at a shower and Jared took it. He immersed himself under
the running water to drown out the other boys' words and the shame that had
welled up inside him. He took his time washing himself with soap. As Jared
rinsed off, the shower room started emptying out. No one seemed to notice
him for the moment. He left the shower room, re-wrapped himself in his
towel, and slunk back to his locker. There, he dried off thoroughly, facing
away from the other boys as much as he could. He didn't worry about hiding
himself as he pulled up his underwear. There really wasn't much point.

By the end of his first two weeks at his new high school, every guy in his
gym class was calling him Little Boy. Eventually, they dropped it and just
got used to seeing him in the shower next to them. His delayed puberty
eventually kicked in toward the end of the school year, but obviously it
was too little too late.

He hoped that over the summer he would grow a ton of hair, a huge pair of
balls, and a dick that he could swing around as proudly as the kid he
remembered from that first day. But it never happened. He just never really
did much growing. A few hairs started sprouting, and then turned dark like
the books said they were supposed to do. But his balls stayed small and
tight in their sack. And while his penis gained a bit of girth, it still
displayed just a tiny head when he was soft. As for his erection, if he
cheated while measuring, pushing the ruler into his pelvis, he could just
manage to top out at about 3.5 inches.

For the most part after that, high school wasn't all that traumatic. Jared
was a smart kid and good looking enough to attract the attention of some of
the girls. He wasn't really interested in them, though, so he just
pretended that he was oblivious to the availability hints that some of them
dropped.

Meanwhile, during his sophomore year, the baseball coach approached
him. Having observed Jared play in gym class that spring, the coach asked
him if he wanted to try out for the team. Although his long distance
throwing arm didn't suit him for an outfielder, Jared was fast and threw
accurately enough to play shortstop and, from time to time, second or third
base. He also batted reasonably well so that, while he was never a star, he
remained a starter for his entire senior year. And fortunately, once he was
on the team, none of the guys ever brought up the "incident" again. They
all showered together many times and if any of the guys were thinking about
it, they kept it to themselves. They were a pretty decent bunch, actually.

But Jared thought about it all the time. He knew the truth, even if no one
else was talking about it.

Along with baseball, Jared started working out in his school's weight room
after practice was done. His coach obviously encouraged it, and Jared
himself enjoyed the discipline. He also found that when he knew that the
shower room was going to be empty, he could actually look forward to the
feeling of working up a good sweat and then rinsing it all off.

So that's where Jared's habit of a later-than-average workout had
originated. His nine o'clock arrival at the gym virtually guaranteed an
empty shower room by the time he needed to be in there.

He knew, of course, that he was missing out on some of the friendships that
he could have had. Even as late as he arrived, there were always guys just
finishing up their workouts. Nice guys, it seemed like. Jared would have
loved to cross paths with them in the locker room, strike up a
conversation, head to the showers together, and then -- who knows -- maybe
suggest getting a beer together. He just figured it wasn't meant to be.

Tonight, as usual, the locker room was all but empty as Jared entered,
sweaty from a hard sprint on the treadmill. He was still visibly panting
even after his two-minute slowdown, as he kicked off his sneakers and
opened his locker. He was so accustomed to having the place to himself at
this hour that he just pulled off his shirt and dropped his gym shorts and
underwear without a second thought. Wrapping himself in a blue towel, he
didn't even bother to relock his locker, just placed the lock inside and
closed the door.

Just as he walked into the changing area outside the shower room, he heard
a urinal flush in the men's room that was just around the corner. Moments
later, a guy emerged from around the corner, readjusting his towel, clearly
headed for the same destination as Jared. Surprised to see someone, Jared
felt his heart skip a beat and fought off the urge to run the other
way. And from the looks of things, he had startled the other guy as well.

But a second later, they recognized each other. The other guy spoke first,
"Hey, how's it going? Jared, right?"

Jared looked at the handsome towel-clad guy for a moment and said, "Tom?"
Instinctively from his habit at work, he extended his hand, and Tom shook
it. It felt silly for a moment, two guys in towels shaking hands just
outside a shower room. But a split second later, Jared got a wave of good
feeling touching the other man's warm hand. He knew he should let go when
the handshake was done, but somehow couldn't. And apparently, neither could
Tom. Jared felt his heart race a little in a way it hadn't done in quite a
while. Fortunately, nobody else was around to notice.

Finally, breaking the handshake and the silence, Jared said, "I though you
moved away?"

"Yeah, I did," Tom answered, "About four months ago. But I couldn't find a
gym I liked as much as this place. So I'm back."

"Cool, nice to see you."

"Thanks, you too." And then there was this pause. It was obvious to both of
them why they were standing in towels just outside the shower room. Jared's
mind raced, trying to think of an excuse to retreat back to the locker
room. But there was nothing else to do but move together toward the
showers, so that's what they did.

Under other circumstances, Jared probably would have left his towel on the
bench in the changing room. But instinctively, he just wanted to keep it on
as long as possible, if only to prolong the inevitable. Tom didn't shed his
towel either, and the two men took what felt like a very long walk together
to the far corner of the showers, each choosing a nozzle on a different
wall.

As usual, Jared felt nervous and ashamed. If he were a big guy, or even
just average size, this would be a great opportunity to proudly show off
what he had in front of a guy he was interested in. And, of course, to
enjoy looking at Tom as well.

Instead, Jared turned his back to Tom in order to remove his towel. He knew
he was being rude, and probably sending Tom a signal that he wasn't
interested. But what choice did he have? In his nervousness and shame, not
to mention the cold, Jared could feel how completely his penis, small on
the best of days, had retracted into his tight scrotum. So, facing away, he
took off his towel and hooked it on the faucet of the nearest shower.

Jared planned to hurry through his shower so he could put his towel back on
as fast as possible, and then run back to his locker, so his new buddy
didn't spot his small penis.

But then, Tom, obviously making small talk to keep the conversation going,
asked Jared, "Are you still living in the same place?" Jared craned his
neck around, expecting to see Tom facing him, but he was facing away as
well. And while Tom definitely had a nice butt, Jared felt a little
disappointed that he couldn't catch a glimpse of his dick.

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy here," Jared answered, soaping himself without
turning around. "I'm not leaving until they throw me out."

"This is a great neighborhood," Tom agreed, rinsing shampoo out of his
hair. "I felt like I needed more space, but now I'm kind of regretting the
move." He was also still facing the other side of the shower room.

It felt objectively weird to Jared, two grown men showering together while
having a conversation, but turned in opposite directions. Maybe Tom was
just shy, Jared thought. He was a tall guy, almost 6 feet, and seemed like
just the kind of confident man with nothing to worry about. He must have
big or at least average sized equipment. No doubt, he was just shy for his
own reasons, nothing to do with size.

But once the idea had entered Jared's head, he couldn't let it go. So Jared
started wondering, just for a moment, if maybe Tom had the same problem. It
would be too much to hope for.

With the conversation on pause for the moment, Jared tried looking behind
him to see if he could catch a glimpse, making sure to keep his small penis
hidden. But this made it impossible to see anything but Tom's back and
butt. Nice as they were, Jared longed to see more. He turned again, but
this time at the exact same moment, he caught Tom doing the same
thing. Their eyes met for a moment, and together they both turned
uncomfortably away.

Now, Jared had to know, even if it meant taking the ultimate risk of being
seen after working so hard to keep his secret hidden. He had left a
previous gym when he began to suspect that some of the guys had a permanent
smirk on their faces because they'd all seen what he was lacking down in
his underwear. One guy had even started calling him "little buddy" as a
joke. He never wanted to feel that way again.

Steeling up his courage, Jared turned his body a little bit, and noticed
that Tom was starting to do the same. They had both begun to turn so that
they were both facing into the same corner of the shower, away from the
door, so that if anyone suddenly walked in, no one else could see
anything. Jared hadn't felt so nervous yet so excited in a long, long
time. The whole shower room seemed to be buzzing with nervous energy. They
were both approaching the point of no return.

A moment later, Jared and Tom could just begin to see each other from the
side. In fact, Jared could have just peeked and then turned away and been
done with it. He could have then known Tom's size without having to reveal
his own. But at that moment, it would have felt like a betrayal, and Jared
couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he just took a deep breath and
finished turning around.

The minute he did it, he was sorry. He knew what he was in for. Tom was
probably this big dude who had never worried about his dick size in his
entire life. When he saw Jared's dick, Jared knew that he would read in
Tom's eyes what a big joke it was. Maybe, Tom and the other guys at the gym
had even noticed that Jared had never showered with them like a normal guy
would. He always picked a time when the shower was empty, got in and got
out fast, and kept a towel nearby at all times in case it was needed. Jared
was sure that Tom was now going to have a great time reporting back to the
other guys that the mystery was solved. Having seen Jared's little boysized
equipment, Tom and the others would know why Jared always hid it. And he'd
soon need to find a new gym. His embarrassment was complete.

Jared looked into Tom's eyes hoping to find some small shred of compassion
there. He was naked in front of this handsome man that he really liked, and
just pleaded with his eyes as if to say, "Please don't tell anyone."

Tom's eyes stayed locked on Jared's as he also turned around. And like
Jared, Tom's soft penis was also, by any reasonable standard, tiny for a
grown man. Jared took in the sight for a few seconds to make sure he wasn't
making a mistake. It was true -- Tom's penis had to be one of the smallest
that Jared had ever seen. Maybe even smaller than his own.

The feeling of relief that passed through Jared almost overwhelmed
him. Once he fully convinced himself that his eyes weren't deceiving him,
he looked back up and into Tom's eyes, which were smiling back at him with
what Jared interpreted as gratitude. And he guessed he must have looked
pretty grateful to Tom, too.

He could feel the tension lifting between them, even as neither spoke a
word. Each man's eyes were locked on the other man's face, and both were
slowly coming to the realization that it was OK to be naked in front of
this other man. That there was nothing to be ashamed of.

Jared could feel his heart pounding as he looked into Tom's eyes and found
there not the joking contempt he had seen all too often in another man's
eyes. It was really OK to be naked together with this man. And as he
thought he could read a little bit of embarrassment in Tom's face, he
desperately wanted to reassure Tom with his eyes that he had nothing to
feel ashamed about.

At that moment, Jared's heart started pounding in a way he hadn't felt for
many years. He felt so open and revealed in front of this handsome naked
man who was looking back at him, obviously nervous but taking the risk of
revealing himself as well. A few times, his eyes scanned downward on Tom's
body to take in the beautiful sight of his naked chest and stomach, and
then to look again at the other man's small cut penis, which reminded him
of his own. Each time he looked down, Tom looked down at Jared's own small
penis. And when his eyes returned to Jared's face, Jared was sure he could
see the fear of rejection in Tom's eyes. And he knew that his own eyes must
also be betraying the same emotion.

Their eyes met and at last both men began to find the courage to hold the
connection and not break eye contact. Jared felt so torn. He desperately
wanted this connection, but he felt so vulnerable from his experience as a
boy in the high school showers. It took every ounce of courage he possessed
to keep his eyes locked on Tom's handsome face and risk ultimate rejection
once again. And as he did so, he thought he could see the same struggle in
Tom's eyes, the joy of sharing nakedness with a man while at the same time
battling the fear of being rejected yet again for his small masculine
equipment.

And then, as the water continued to run over their naked shoulders and
backs, the impossible happened and the two men began to break through their
fear. Each saw in the other's eyes that, far from being rejected, he was
being fully accepted even as his inadequacy as a man was clearly revealed
and on display. For Jared, a feeling of relief he had never felt before
washed through him that made him almost want to burst into tears. How long
had he and Tom both been hiding from the world in shame, carrying this
burden all by themselves? How long had they both been pretending to each
other and to the rest of the world that as grown men they both had it all
together sexually, with nothing to fear? And all the time, each was
carrying and hiding his own secret feeling of inadequacy that no one could
ever know.

And now, what could be more natural than this? Two men just standing naked
and unashamed together in front of each other. They both just stood there,
taking in each other's nakedness, each second daring to feel more and more
comfortable and even proud as men, and sharing that first-ever feeling
together. And as they did, Jared began to feel the pounding of his blood
through his heart moving into the rest of his body as, without touching
himself at all, his penis began to pulsate and engorge.

He could feel it starting to happen and felt powerless to stop it. At that
moment, Jared wanted Tom to see his erection, small as it was. But if that
happened, then all doubt about his substandard size would be removed
forever. Could he risk that? But with the intense feeling he was starting
to have, he knew he couldn't hold it down for long. And then he saw that
Jared was struggling in the same way that he was. His penis was pulsating
and engorging, too. And then, at the same moment, it just happened, and
both men penises started growing and began to stiffen into full erections,
both under 4 inches in length. Jared's was very short but had a little more
girth to it, though he was sure that no man would ever call it thick. Tom's
penis was slightly longer than Jared's, but much thinner, about the width
of a finger.

The stood there together for a moment without speaking, just taking in the
sight of each other's small but pulsing erections. It was Tom who finally
broke the silence. "I guess I'm never gonna make a living as a porn star,
huh?" he said at last.

Jared said slowly, "Yeah, me neither." He waited a beat and added, "Sure
does feel good though."

"Dude, yeah," said Tom, "It sure does." Then, "It's been a while for sure."
Then, "I hope I don't..." Then, "Oh, no, I'm gonna..." Tom turned toward
the wall, and leaned against it for a minute. Jared could see he was
struggling. "I can't....I can't hold it..."

Jared put his arm on Tom's shoulder and said, "It's OK, buddy."

With that, Tom doubled over against the shower wall and held his penis as
wave after wave of pulsation shot through him. His white cum spilled over
the edge of his fingers into his other waiting hand.

Still touching Tom's shoulder, Jared could not only see but feel the
intensity that racked the other man's body. Suddenly, leaning into Tom's
side and facing the same shower wall, Jared grabbed his own penis and began
rubbing the head with his finger and thumb in a practiced way. A few rubs
in, Jared whispered to Tom, "Dude, I'm gonna...", then let go with a
muffled moan as his boysized penis emptied a mansized load.

Leaning into each other, both men panted as their orgasms subsided. Despite
the risk, Tom put his arm across Jared's shoulder, and the shorter man
wrapped his own around Tom's waist.

They must have stayed that way for only a minute, but it felt like a whole
universe of time. Eventually, though, the world invaded. Hearing a door
open in the locker room, the two men stepped apart quickly as an employee
that both of them knew passed by the open doorway to the shower room and
headed past it into the men's room. Fortunately, he didn't appear to notice
them. Still feeling electrified, Jared watched as Tom turned and shut off
the shower. Jared did the same. Without saying another word, both men
wrapped themselves in their towels and returned to their separate lockers
in different rows.

Jared got dressed, feeling like he had just come back from a trip to
Mars. He got dressed and as he was tying his shoes, he realized that he
couldn't let Tom just walk out the door without at least a word of
goodbye. Then he looked up and Tom was there. Wow, he looks great in
clothes, too, Jared thought. "Hey, Jared," he said "I was thinking of
grabbing a beer. Are you up to anything else right now?"

"Um, no -- I mean nothing. A beer sounds great."

Tom said, "I used to like the Dubliner, but I think they're closed for
renovations. You know anyplace else around here we could go?"

"Hmmmmm," said Jared, "Not too sure...but.... I've got some beer in the
fridge, if you feel like coming over."

"Uh, sure," said Tom, "I mean if it's OK. If it's not too late or
anything."

"No it's cool."

Tom said, "Let me just get the rest of my stuff together. Meet you out by
the desk?"

"Sure," said Jared.

He had never felt so sure in his life.


To be continued...

Thanks for reading. If you liked the story, please contact me at
judestjude2357@gmail.com. I'd be glad to hear any feedback you have about
how to make this story and series better going forward. Thanks again! TJ