Second Chance at Love

Chapter one

I needed a clean start, I decided.

I was still young, only 25 years old. I was working a dead-end programming job and my boyfriend of two years had just dumped me. A clean start was exactly what I needed.

It was early January. Chris and I had just got back from seeing my Mom at Christmas and then spending the week up until New Year's on vacation in Orlando. Neither Chris nor I had been to Disney, so that's what we decided to do. I had a blast at Disney and Universal and I thought Chris did, too. I was blissfully happy in my own little world, completely unaware that Chris did not feel the same.

"Pete, we need to talk," he had said.

"It's not you, it's me," he said as he proceeded to tell me that he was bored. He needed excitement. He insisted that there wasn't anyone else, but I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't being totally truthful.

I was devastated. I sobbed. I begged. None of it made a difference. Chris packed up and left. After he left, I had a very tough week.

I had met Chris online and moved to Ann Arbor to be with him. I was extremely shy and quiet, but we hit it off right away. I didn't have any other friends here. Why should I try to meet new people? Chris was the only friend I'd ever need. And now he was gone.

I was very inexperienced as far as dating and s*x. I had only been with one person before Chris. It was the summer after my first year in college; I went to a party with my older brother Paul. One of his high school football buddies took me under his wing after Paul ditched me to go off with a girl. After drinking my first-ever beer, I was feeling pretty happy. I walked out back with Jack and we headed out into the woods. I followed him like a puppy. When we were out of sight of the house, he stopped and leaned back against a tree.

"Are you a fag?" Jack asked. "Paul thinks you are."

"Uh, n-n-no. I like girls," I lied.

Jack groped his crotch. "So, you don't want this then?"

I couldn't help it. I knew I should run or tell him 'no', but I didn't. I just stared as Jack kneaded the growing bulge in his crotch.

"Yeah," he smirked. "I thought so."

Jack put his meaty hands on my shoulders and pushed me down onto my knees. He pulled down his basketball shorts and boxers enough so that his semi-erect d**k flopped out in front of my face. The back of his hand pulled me towards it.

"Suck it," he commanded. And I did. It was my first time with another person. I took Jack's fat 6" d**k and made him come with my mouth and hand and I swallowed just like he told me to.

I didn't have the courage to do it again until Chris. Chris was my first real date and then my first relationship. I was so attracted to Chris and fell in love with him right away. He was everything I liked in a guy... and everything that I wasn't.

Chris was 3 years older than me. He was over 6' tall, muscular, tan, with black hair and big brown eyes, a smattering of hair on his chest that trailed down to his pubes. Chris had a very manly, masculine face.

I was only 5'6", skinny, with smooth pale skin, red hair, and green eyes. I was completely hairless except for the tufts of red hair under my arms and just above my p***s. I still had a boyish face. I started wearing contact lenses in college so that I didn't have to deal with glasses. Most people described me as cute, which wasn't something I was crazy about. I wanted to be handsome, not cute.

So I was now alone. My job sucked. When my best friend Trevor called for our weekly phone call, I told him everything that happened. He said since I didn't have any ties in Ann Arbor, why not move? Trevor and Annie were my best friends in college. After graduating, they moved to Atlanta where Trevor got a job. He and Annie got married soon after. They both loved it there. The weather was great, there was lots of stuff to do, lots of jobs, lots of guys. It didn't take much to sell me.

A clean start. I put in my notice and hired a couple of guys to help me load a Uhaul truck and within a month, I was moving to Atlanta. Trevor and Annie had a house outside of Atlanta, in Snellville. I put most of my things into a storage facility and moved into a spare room in Trevor and Annie's house.

When I got there, they told me they just found out Annie was pregnant. They told me that I could stay as long as I needed to. The spare room was going to be the nursery, but they'd work something out for me. I knew I had to find a place right away. They were going to be busy with the baby and they didn't need to worry about me.

I started to look for an apartment and a job right away. I went on several interviews and was called back for a second with a company in Duluth. I was offered the job. The salary was $15,000 more than I made at my last job and the benefits were so much better. I couldn't believe my luck. I had two weeks before I started. I took that time to find an apartment. I found something nice and on my budget in Duluth, not terribly far from work.

My one-bedroom apartment was on the terrace level, which was ground level from the back of the building, but one flight down from the front. There was only one other apartment on my level, across the hall from me.

I met my neighbor a couple of days after I moved in. I walked out of my apartment to do some grocery shopping. I opened the door and saw him standing at his door unlocking it. He wearing dark blue hospital scrubs. His dark blue pants were snug and he had a nice muscular bubble butt. His broad back and big arms stretched the fabric of his short-sleeved shirt. He had a bald head. He turned around when he heard my door shut.

He froze for a second, staring into my eyes before breaking out in a wide smile.

"Hey, neighbor," he said. He had a deep voice with a southern Georgia accent.

"Hi."

He looked me up and down. "Toby Marks," he said, holding out his hand. I shook it.

"Pete McAlister."

Toby was breathtakingly handsome. He had bright blue eyes and a dark blond mustache and goatee. His head was completely shaved, smooth and shiny. What I could see of his left arm was covered in a tribal tattoo design from his wrist all the way up. I could see the top spires of the tattoo peeking up from his shirt collar onto his neck. He looked to be in his mid to late '20s, around my age. He was tall, at least 6'3", and 240 pounds of muscle. He was unbelievably sexy in his scrubs.

"Good to meet you, Petey," he said. "If there's anything you need, you know where to find me." He clapped my shoulder and walked into his apartment.

I let out a deep breath and continued on my way. There was a huge red Ford pickup truck parked next to my Jeep. It must be Toby's. A big manly truck for a big manly guy. Nice.