Cliff Gives Handy Man Sloppy Blowjob

As the evening went on, I grew more and more uncomfortable. Kent and his four buddies all but ignored me. After about an hour and a half, I had enough.

“Hey, guys,” I said standing. “Thanks for the beer and the game, but I’m gonna head out.”

“See ya,” Kent grunted without looking up at me.

The other guys didn’t even acknowledge me. I felt my eyes start to sting and I quickly turned and left the bar. I got into my car and wiped the tears from my eyes as pulled out of the parking lot and drove home.

I felt numb as I walked through my house. I went upstairs to my bedroom and took a shower. I crawled into bed and turned onto my side. I curled up into the fetal position and cried myself to sleep.

A ringing and knocking stirred me awake. I sat up and listened, but didn’t hear anything. I looked at the clock and it was nearly midnight. My cellphone started to ring and vibrate and I picked it up off my nightstand.

Kent Barnes.

I answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Cliff. Are you okay? I’m downstairs. You’re not answering the door.”

“Sorry. I was asleep.”

“Can you come down?”

“Be right there.”

I wasn’t quite ready to deal with this yet, but I guess sooner is better than later. I pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt and made my way downstairs.

I opened the door. “Kent.”

When I didn’t move out of the way to let him in, he seemed a little bit surprised. “Can I come in?”

“Okay.”

I let Kent in and we stood in the foyer looking at each other. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“Me, too.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Kent… I’m comfortable with who I am. I know I’m not the manliest of men. I know that your friends took one look at me and thought ‘sissy’ or ‘fag’ or whatever. I’m okay with that. I have to be. That’s who I am and there’s nothing I can do about it. The thing is… Tonight I felt bad about myself for the first time in a really long time. I don’t want to feel like that, Kent. I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

“Cliff… Don’t… Please…”

“I can’t be what you need me to be. And… You can’t be what I need. I’m sorry.”

Tears spilled down my face. Kent looked at me with agony in his eyes. I had to look away. He reached for me and I intercepted his hands. I squeezed them tight.

“Bye, Kent.”

I opened the door and held it open for him.

“I love you, Cliff,” he whispered.

Kent walked through the door and I shut it behind him.

“I love you too, Kent,” I whispered back.

I managed to somehow make it through the week without having a nervous breakdown. I missed Kent terribly. A little part of me wished he would call. If he did, I probably would have taken him back. But as time went on, my sadness turned to anger. I was pissed off at Kent. He treated me really badly. If he truly loved me as much as he said, he wouldn’t have done that to me.

I decided to hire another contractor to paint my bedroom. The guy didn’t show up until five hours later. It wasn’t until after he finished and left that I noticed how sloppy his work was. He got paint on the baseboards and the trim. There were spots on the wall that were thinner and needed another coat. Kent never would have left a job looking like this.

Over the next couple of months, I concentrated on finishing up my MBA. I was so relieved when I finally finished. I would finally have time to concentrate on other areas of my life. Like fixing up my house. Or finding a man.

Yeah, right.

My friends took me out to dinner to celebrate that Saturday after I finished.

“So what are you gonna do with all this free time, Cliff?” Byrne asked.

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Kick back and relax?”

“You’ll have a lot more time for dating now,” Chip said. “No more excuses.”

“Fuck dating. You need to go out and get laid,” Walt said.

I frowned. “Can we change the subject?”

“You broke up with that asshole like three months ago,” Walt said. “It’s time to move on.”

“He’s not an asshole. He’s just… He wasn’t ready to seriously date anyone yet.”

“Well, you could do a lot better,” Byrne said. “He was fat and hairy. Yuck.”

“I like big guys,” I said quietly. “I like Kent. Please don’t talk about him like that. Can we change the subject please?”

“Like I said. You need to get laid,” Walt said. “You’ll never get over him if you just sit around moping.”

“This is supposed to be a celebration,” Chip said. “Let’s get out of here. We need drinks.”

After we paid for dinner, we headed down the street. We walked to the small gay bar a couple of blocks down the street. Walt bought the first round at the bar and we found a table and sat down.

After a couple vodka cranberries, I was feeling pretty giggly. We were laughing and joking and having fun. I forgot all about my guy troubles.

A big, muscular black guy walked by our table, and he gave a flirty smile at Walt.

“Now, that’s nice,” Walt said under his breath.

Walt hopped up from his stool, grabbed his martini, and proceeded to follow his new ‘friend’.

“What a slut,” Chip whispered and the three of us died laughing.

“Next round’s on me,” I said.

Byrne and I got up and walked towards the bar. We ordered our drinks and waited for the bartender to make them.

“Okay, Cliff,” Bryne said as he scanned the room. “First choice.”

Byrne liked playing this game. You walk into a room and point out the first person you’d have sex with. I looked around, but didn’t see anyone who caught my eye. “Eh. Pass. How ’bout you?”

“Hmm… That guy over there. Red shirt. Cute and preppy. Big arms.”

“Not bad. Totally your type. But I think he’s with his boyfriend.”

We were both looking at him when he looked up and caught us staring. We quickly turned around and started giggling.

“Hey,” Cliff said. “What about that guy?”

Cliff motioned to a guy at the end of the bar. It was dark, so it was hard to get a good look at him. He was a husky bear. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see that he had a nicely trimmed beard. He had a baseball cap on his head, slung low over his brow. He was staring down at a beer bottle, lost in thought as he picked at the label. A cigarette was burning down to ashes in the ashtray in front of him.

“Yeah, I guess,” I shrugged.

“He looks lonely. Buy him a drink.”

“What? No. Are you crazy?”

The bartender returned with our drinks.

“Sorry,” Bryne said to him, “but we need a Bud Light, too.”

The bartender set the beer on the bar and I paid him and left him a tip.

Byrne gave me my vodka and the beer bottle and nudged me towards the end of the bar.

“Go,” he hissed.

I frowned. “I don’t wanna.”

“Go!”

He gave me a hard push and I stumbled and nearly tripped, but I caught myself and straightened up. The guy lifted his head and I gasped in shock when I saw Kent Barnes staring back at me.

He looked just as shocked to see me. “Cliff?”

“Kent… I, uh…”

“Oh, shit,” Byrne mumbled behind me.

I cleared my throat. “I, um… I bought a beer… for you…”

“Fuck that,” Byrne snapped as he grabbed the beer from my hand. “Come on.”

Byrne tugged at my arm, but I held firm.

“I’ll catch up to you, Bryne,” I said to him.

Byrne sighed. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

He looked at me, then at Kent. He glared at Kent with hatred.

“Byrnie,” I said gently. “Please. I just want to talk to him for a second.”

“Cliff, don’t,” he whispered. “I know you. You’ll just let him walk all over you again. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I need to do this, Byrne.”

“Okay. I’ll be back at the table.”

I took the beer from Bryne and he turned around to walk back to our table, but not before giving Kent one last dirty look.

I turned my attention back to Kent. I sat down next to him and slid the beer back to him. He looked quite uncomfortable and he had trouble looking me in the eye.

“Thanks,” he said quietly. “I take it you didn’t realize it was me when you bought this?”

“No. Byrne wanted me to meet new… Never mind.”

He took a long, slow pull of the beer. “So, how have you been?”

“Fine,” I said with a shrug. “I finished my degree. We’re out celebrating.”

“Congratulations, Cliff. You should be proud.”

“Yeah. I am. So, how have you been?”

Kent shrugged. “Eh. I’ve been better.”

I nodded. I knew how he felt.

“You know this is a gay bar, don’t you?” I asked. It sounded a lot more bitter coming out of my mouth than I intended.

“I suppose I deserve that,” he said.

He took another drink. I opened my mouth to apologize, but changed my mind. He did kind of deserve it. I sighed and took a sip of my own drink.

“Maybe a little,” I said with a shrug. “Why aren’t you hanging out with your friends, watching the game?” I asked.

Kent scoffed. “Those guys aren’t my friends.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. I’m not friends with those guys. I came out to them, Cliff.”

“Wow. I’m… Wow. Don’t you feel better?”

“Better?” he asked, raising his voice and looking into my eyes for the first time. “Are you fucking kidding me? I don’t have any friends anymore. Most of my family won’t even speak to me. How is that better?”

He backed down and his facial expression softened and he turned his gaze back down to the bar.

“Sorry,” he said quietly. “It’s not your fault… I’m a fucking idiot. I thought I could have it all, you know? I’d tell them I was gay and everything would be okay. I’d win you back and we’d all hang out together and we’d spend holidays with the family. Happily ever after.”

“Sometimes life isn’t that easy, Kent.”

He scoffed. “Yeah… I don’t know how you do it.”

“Do what?”

“How you are so comfortable with who you are. You don’t care what anyone thinks.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that I don’t care what people think. I can get my feelings hurt as easily as the next guy. But I’ve had a lot longer to deal with being gay and being out. You should have seen me when I was younger. I was a basket case. But one day I realized that I couldn’t change who I was and once I was able to accept that, it got a little easier.”

Kent slowly nodded, then let out a deep breath. He took a deep drag of the last of his smoke and then exhaled and put it out in the ashtray. I looked at his face. He looked so down and dejected. His spark and confidence that I loved so much was completely gone. Any anger I felt towards him disappeared. I felt really bad for him and I just wanted to hug him and comfort him.

“I think I’m gonna grab a cab and head home,” he said.

“Okay. If you want to talk, you still have my number? Call me, okay?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Okay.”

He stood up from his stool and pulled his ball cap off. He smoothed down his hair and pulled the cap back on low over his brow. I watched him leave the bar.

It wasn’t but a few seconds before I was surrounded by Byrne and Chip. I told them what happened and they were both as surprised as I was. However, they didn’t feel any sympathy towards him. As Chip talked about karmic retribution, I tuned him out and couldn’t help but think about the look on Kent’s face.

I had hoped that Kent would call me, but he didn’t. In the end, it was I that ended up calling him about a month later. After two more bad contractors, I bit the bullet and called Kent.

“Hello?” he answered hesitantly.

“Hi, Kent. This is Cliff.”

“Yeah. I know…”