Slim Chance

by Jeff Erno

  “Oh. My. God. Oh my fucking God, Benjy.”

  “HOW’D YOU become so domestic?” Oliver stood behind Benjy in his apartment kitchen, wanting to wrap his arms around him, but conscious of the fact he’d just be interfering with Benjy’s meal preparation. He really got into cooking, and he was damn good at it. Oliver marveled at his skill and appreciated how meticulously Benjy prepared each meal, using low-fat ingredients, ever aware of Oliver’s diet restrictions.

  Benjy cleared his throat as he tossed his head back, still stirring the pasta sauce. “Well, if you’re not going to at least grope me, you might as well make yourself useful and set the table.”

  Oliver harrumphed and reached down spontaneously to goose the perfectly rounded globe that presented itself. He slid his other arm around Benjy’s waist and cupped his package, pressing his palm gently into his bulge. Leaning into Benjy’s neck, he inhaled, savoring both the aroma of his cologne and the sweet-smelling marinara.

  “Mmm, that’s more like it.” Benjy giggled.

  “I’m a multitasker,” Oliver whispered. “I can grope, goose, and suck neck simultaneously… and manage to set the table as well.”

  “If you make me burn this sauce, you’re buying us takeout.”

  Oliver laughed, debating for a second if it would be worth it. He stepped back, pulling his arms away, and walked over to the cupboard, where he found plates and glasses. “If paying for takeout is all that’s required for me to get into your pants, I’d say I got the better end of the bargain.”

  “As if you need to bargain for it.” Benjy turned, tilting his head to the side, and offered the sweetest, most innocent smile.

  “Well, no offense, but I’m almost as excited about the pasta as I am about the prospects of getting laid. I don’t think I’ve had spaghetti since I started the….”

  “I know. Diet’s a four-letter word. But a serving of pasta’s not going to hurt you. You don’t have to completely sacrifice all carbs, especially with the way you’ve been working out.”

  Benjy was right, as usual. Oliver couldn’t believe the rapid transformation his body continued to undergo, and at this stage, he found himself needing to eat a little more. It wasn’t like before, though. He didn’t binge or eat compulsively. He ate to satisfy his hunger and to fuel his ever-increasingly intense workout routine.

  “Maybe after dinner we can go for a bike ride, just in case.” Oliver chuckled.

  “And stop again for frozen yogurt?” Benjy grinned. “With waffle cones.”

  Oliver sighed. “Are you making fun of me? You know that was the closest thing I’ve had to ice cream in the last year. And I only ate two bites of the cone.”

  Benjy tapped the wooden spoon against the side of the sauté pan, then turned to point it in Oliver’s direction. “You might be bigger than me, but don’t think I won’t use this to warm your now tight, little, perfectly rounded asscheeks. I’ve never made fun of you, and never will. I just wish you’d accept that I love you exactly as you are, whether or not you lose another ounce.”

  Oliver gulped. “Sorry. I… um….”

  “You need to set the table.” Benjy placed a hand on his hip. Oliver bit his bottom lip, wanting to respond to Benjy’s candid expression, but wouldn’t it just seem disingenuous? He nodded and smiled meekly, then carried the plates over to the table.

  “REMEMBER WHEN you said you wanted to join the gym with me?” Oliver lay on the floor in Benjy’s living room, on his stomach with his knees bent, kicking his bare feet against the cushions of the sofa. Benjy sat beside him, cross-legged, eating a bowl of popcorn as they watched Teen Wolf together.

  “Yeah, but that was a long time ago. You’ve been going there for months now, and you never said anything else about it.”

  Oliver shrugged. “Well, I’m saying it now. You wanna start going, at least on the weekends?”

  “Do you think I need to?”

  “No.” Oliver laughed. “I love you just the way you are, but….”

  “But you wouldn’t mind me beefing up a bit, packing on some muscle?” He tossed a popcorn kernel into his mouth. Oliver reached over and playfully squeezed his slender arm.

  “That’s not what I said… or meant. I just think it’d be the healthy thing to do, and besides….”

  “What?”

  Oliver looked at him and smiled. “I wouldn’t mind if those assholes saw with their own eyes what a hot boyfriend I have.”

  Benjy’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. He gave Oliver the most puzzled look. “You mean like a trophy or something?” He set the bowl down on the floor, then leaned back, bracing himself with both hands on the floor behind him and laughed hysterically. “Me, a trophy?”

  Oliver pushed himself up, pulling his legs underneath him. He now could do it quite easily. He reached out and grabbed hold of Benjy’s sides, digging his fingers in playfully. “Are you laughing at me?”

  Benjy erupted with another gale of fitful laughter, squirming in Oliver’s grip. “Stop it! Stop it, that tickles.”

  Oliver leaned forward, no longer tickling, and kissed him on the lips. Benjy reached up, wrapping his arms around Oliver’s much leaner, more toned torso, and moaned as he drove his tongue into Oliver’s mouth. They clung to each other, tilting their heads side to side as Oliver continued to taste the salt from Benjy’s popcorn. He at last pulled back to gaze into Benjy’s eyes. Benjy raised his hand to Oliver’s face and cupped his cheek affectionately, caressing it. “I’m not gonna get muscular like you,” he whispered.

  “I don’t want you to.” Oliver kissed his forehead. “I just want us to start doing things together, other than work, I mean. I want us to start going out places.”

  “We go to restaurants, movies sometimes. We ride bikes together.”

  “Places with other people. We’ve never gone to a bar together. We haven’t made any friends.”

  “But….”

  “I know it’s hard for you, but let’s at least do the gym together, okay? And I’m still going to the wedding with you.” He’d agreed to be Benjy’s date to his friend Sam’s wedding.

  So much had changed over the previous months. Oliver had changed, and not just physically. He’d taken off another fifty pounds and was now down to two hundred twenty, over a hundred pounds less than when he’d started his diet. But he’d not only gotten thinner. He’d also added muscle. He still had a paunch on him, but it was way smaller. He could feel the tight abdominals beneath the loose skin and remaining flab. He’d packed on muscle in his biceps, legs, and pectorals as well.

  He still had a way to go before he’d be comfortable peeling off his shirt at the beach. And eventually he’d have to do something about his loose skin. But the remaining flaws he possessed, he’d learned to conceal. He wore tighter shirts like the Under Armour gear Benjy had bought him that held in the loose skin. He had a whole new wardrobe, picked out almost entirely by Benjy. And literally everyone now noticed how slender he was.

  When Oliver looked at himself in the mirror, he now no longer saw a double chin and a bloated gut. He no longer possessed man boobs or pillows of fat beneath his arms. He could now even bend over at the waist and touch his toes, and he could sit in positions he’d only previously dreamed of.

  And he could make love.

  His first time with Benjy had been special. They both were virgins, and other than watching porn videos, had no idea what they were doing. But Benjy had volunteered to bottom, and as it turned out, he liked it. He just might possibly have liked it as much as Oliver had liked topping. They didn’t use condoms. Didn’t need to since they were each other’s first.

  Now holding Benjy in his arms, as they sat together on the living room floor, Oliver wanted to make love to him again. He slowly peeled Benjy’s T-shirt over his head and grazed his fingertips across the smooth skin of Benjy’s bare torso. Benjy responded with kisses, burying his face in Oliver’s neck as he wrapped his arms around him and caressed his back. Oliver wore a tight-fitting ribbed tank top.
It felt good, holding the loose skin in place, and Benjy seemed to understand. He never pressured Oliver to take it off. But at night, when they slept together, Oliver liked to strip down and feel Benjy’s bare skin against his own.

  Soon they were unbuttoning each other’s pants. Benjy slipped his off, then pushed Oliver onto his back so he lay flat on the carpet. He tugged Oliver’s pants down his legs, then his underwear, and pulled out a tube of lotion from the drawer in the living room stand. He slicked up his palm and began to stroke Oliver’s throbbing cock.

  Oliver moaned and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of Benjy’s ministrations. After jacking him at least a dozen strokes, Benjy reached behind himself and lubed his hole. He then straddled Oliver and held Oliver’s cock by the base. He pointed it straight up, aligning it with his hole, then sat down, impaling himself.

  Oliver moaned and bucked his hips, savoring the heat of the silky-smooth sensation that surrounded his cock. Benjy placed his fingertips against Oliver’s chest and began to bounce up and down, riding him cowboy style. Oliver hardly had to do any work and received the benefit of an awesome show. He stared up at Benjy, taking in the entirety of his naked body as he bottomed from the top.

  Oliver took hold of Benjy’s cock and jacked it as the two edged closer to climax. “Oh fuck, Oliver! Fuck me! Fuck me hard!”

  Oliver thrust his pelvis upward in time with Benjy’s bobbing. Kneeling with his legs on either side of Oliver’s body, he took the entirety of Oliver’s cock deep inside him. At last Oliver reached his point of no return. He cried out, “Baby, here it comes,” and released his load. “Oh God! I love you! I love you, Benjy Erickson!”

  At that very moment, Benjy moaned and fired multiple jets of cum all over Oliver’s tank top.

  Trembling and gasping, Benjy finally dismounted. He slid onto the ground beside Oliver, who pulled him into a loving embrace. They kissed and hugged each other tight.

  “I’m sorry. I shot all over your shirt.” Tears flooded Benjy’s big brown eyes.

  “It was hot. You were amazing. Baby, please don’t cry.” Oliver ran his fingers through Benjy’s hair.

  “I love you too,” he whispered. “And yeah, I’ll do it.”

  “You’ll do it? What do you mean?”

  “The gym. I’ll join the gym with you. I’ll be your trophy boyfriend.”

  Oliver grinned. “They’re gonna be so fucking jealous.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “HOLY MOSES! Mister, you look fabulous!” Amanda gawked at Oliver as he walked out of the dressing room cubicle. Wearing all black, with a black tie, Oliver looked and felt like a new man. He and Amanda had spent the entire afternoon running up Oliver’s credit card at the mall. He stood in front of the full-length mirror, gazing at himself and slowly turning, checking out his ass as best he could. “Do these pants make my butt look fat?”

  She giggled. “I don’t know. I need a good feel to really be able to tell.” She reached down quickly and goosed him.

  Feigning indignation, he pulled away. “Watch it, girl.”

  “Are you wearing a girdle?” She laughed again as she stared at him. It seemed so odd, the way their roles had somehow reversed. After her marriage nine months ago, she’d gained more than a few pounds while he’d lost an enormous amount of weight. Now down to a thirty-four-inch waist, which was probably about an inch too big, and a large shirt size, Oliver looked proportionally normal.

  “Kind of,” he admitted. “It’s a one-piece compression undergarment, to be precise.”

  Puzzled, she stared at him. “Really? How come? You’re not even chubby anymore. Why do you need that?”

  “Trust me, you wouldn’t want to see me naked.”

  Scoffing, she placed two fingers against her chin. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You’re looking mighty fine.”

  “You’ve seen the Fantastic Four movies, right? You know who Mr. Fantastic is, Reed Richards?”

  “The stretchy guy?”

  “Exactly. That’s me now. Amanda, I have so much loose skin, it’s disgusting. I mean, you can’t tell so much on my arms. When I flex my bicep, it’s not really noticeable, but I can literally pull the skin down below my arm for probably six inches or so. And on my legs, it’s much worse. Remember how fat my legs used to be? I couldn’t even cross them at the knees.”

  She looked down at his midsection. “Well, I’d be lucky if I could cross my legs at the knees right now. But you’re right, you’ve lost a huge amount. I’m so proud of you. What’re you going to do about that leftover skin, though? This sounds weird, but will it tighten up on its own?”

  He shook his head. “I still have at least thirty more pounds to lose, and then I can have skin surgery.”

  “Thirty more pounds? Oh my God, you’ll be a stick.”

  He cackled. “Well, maybe twenty. I’m a hundred ninety-eight, as of this morning. This is the first time since junior high I’ve been below two hundred pounds. I’m so psyched.”

  “And you wanna get down to one seventy?”

  “Maybe one eighty. I have to be within a certain range for my height to qualify for the surgery. We have good insurance, but they’re not likely to cover the surgery. They consider it cosmetic, so I’m going to have to lay out some cash.”

  “Ouch.” She looked him over once more. “I like it.” She nodded. “But are you sure you want to keep racking up your credit card? Sounds like you’re going to need to save every penny.”

  He nodded. “I have some saved, and my folks are giving me twenty grand for the surgery.”

  “No way!”

  “I know. I was shocked. At first I refused, but Benjy talked me into it. He said it would devastate my parents if I refused. I swear to God, he’s closer to my mom now than I am.”

  Apparently tired of standing, she plopped down in the chair outside the dressing room cubicles. With a sigh, she yawned. “He seems nice. Quiet, though.”

  “Oh, wait till he gets to know you. He’s a magpie who never shuts up.”

  “That’s just it. After all this time, I still hardly know him. Ollie, I wonder if your Benjy even likes me.” It seemed an odd thing for her to say. Amanda certainly wasn’t the insecure type, and he’d always expected her to be 100 percent supportive if he ever did find a boyfriend. Now he had, and she was being pissy about the whole thing.

  “No, he’s just shy. He likes you a lot. Plus, he kind of has an anxiety disorder or something.”

  She scowled. “I just want to make sure you’re happy, that’s all.”

  “Of course I’m happy. We’re buying these clothes more for him than me. I want to look good for him when we go to the wedding together.”

  “You should want to look good for you, Ollie. Not for Benjy.”

  He rolled his eyes. “What if I said something like that about you and Tyler? Don’t you want to look good for your husband? We’re happy,” he said, a little too defensively. “Benjy makes me very happy, so happy I was thinking of….”

  “What?” She crossed her legs at the ankles as she batted her eyelashes, looking up at him expectantly.

  “I’m thinking of asking him to move in with me.”

  “Oh, that. Well, to be honest, I’m surprised that didn’t happen a while ago. I thought you meant something more permanent.”

  More permanent than moving in with each other—was she talking about…. “Marriage, you mean?”

  “You say he makes you happy. You both say you’re in love.”

  “Wow.” He turned and again stared at his reflection in the mirror. “I hadn’t gotten that far, I guess. I hadn’t even thought about that.”

  She sighed dramatically. “Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any to spring the news on you.”

  “The news?” He turned back to face her. “What news?”

  “There’s a reason I’ve put on so much weight recently.” As she rubbed her tummy, her sheepish smile was what really gave her away.

  “Amanda, no way! You’re…?”

/>   “Pregnant! You’re gonna be Uncle Ollie in a few months.”

  “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” He stepped over to her as she pushed herself up from the chair, a bit wobbly on her feet. He swept her into a hug, then backed off quickly, careful not to squeeze too tightly.

  She laughed. “I knew you’d be happy for me. For us.”

  “I am! I’m just so… surprised.”

  OLIVER AGAIN found himself standing outside Benjy’s apartment, waiting to be buzzed in. He’d arrived as planned, at seven in the morning. Benjy was supposed to meet him in the parking lot to go to the gym. They’d planned out the entire Saturday, beginning with their first workout together. They planned to get a healthy breakfast afterward, then hit the video game store. The county fair, one of the biggest in the state, was running that week, and they were going together.

  But when Oliver pulled into the parking lot, Benjy was nowhere to be found. Of course, Oliver tried calling from his cell phone, and the call went straight to Benjy’s voicemail. He must have overslept. That seemed strange, though. In all the time Oliver had known him, he’d never once been late for work. Benjy was never late for anything.

  He pressed the button again, holding it for a few seconds. His concern had begun to morph into frustration. He didn’t want to be pissed at Benjy, especially not today. He planned to pop the big question, to ask Benjy about possibly moving in together. But when the speaker crackled and Benjy’s hoarse voice croaked out a tepid greeting, it felt exactly like déjà vu to Oliver. This is what Benjy did when he freaked out. He holed himself away, shutting out all the world, including Oliver.

  He sighed in disappointment. “Benjy, buzz me in.” After a few seconds, when nothing happened, he pressed the button again. “Benjy! Will you buzz me in, please?”

  Finally the buzzer sounded, and Oliver pushed the door open. He bounded the three flights of steps and stopped abruptly outside Benjy’s door. He didn’t want to barge in there angry. Benjy’s anxiety had kicked in again, and he couldn’t help it. Still, the situation was no less maddening. How were they ever going to be able to plan anything? How would they ever make friends, experience anything together, when Benjy got all crazy every time Oliver so much as suggested they leave their comfort zone?