Two Sides of the Same Coin

by Jake Mactire

  “Sorry you had to go through that, guys.”

  “Gracias, Jeff.”

  “For what, José?”

  “I remember at one time I was something like him. I tried to be macho. You kicked my ass and made me see reason.”

  “Josélito, you’re one of my very best friends, and you are macho in a good way. Not like that piece of shit. You just needed a lesson and learned it. He never will.”

  “I think you are right, but I am still happy you taught me.” He grabbed me in a quick hug. Then he turned to Mike.

  “Miguel, you are a good man. I am glad you are my friend too.” Then he gave Mike a quick hug.

  “Let’s go back in, and get ready for the next one.” We headed back inside. Just as we reached the door a battered old Ford pickup truck came up the drive. A lean guy about five-ten stepped out. He had sandy blond hair and a big moustache. He looked like a blond Sam Elliott.

  “Howdy fellas, you the guys hiring wranglers?”

  “That’d be us. I’m Jeff, this is Mike and José.” He shook hands with each of us in turn.

  “Pleased to meet you, fellas, I’m Smitty. My first name is Albert and last name’s Smith. I go by Smitty.”

  “Pleased to meet ya, Smitty. One thing, we just spoke to a guy who really wouldn’t work out here.”

  “That the lump down the road with the flat tire?”

  “Yep.”

  “Gave me the finger when I stopped and asked if I could help.”

  “I’ll be upfront with you. Mike and I are partners, we’re gay. José and Josh, our two hands and Wayne the foreman are straight. We just hired another wrangler today, Jeanette, and she’s a lesbian. Now I don’t wanna dump this all on you, but I do wanna make sure you’re comfortable around all types of folks, gay, straight, white, Latino, black, Asian, and anythin’ else you can think of.”

  “The person’s a lot more important to me than what they look like or who they love. My little brother is gay. I found out when I stopped him from hanging himself when he was fifteen. He’s a good man and shouldn’t have had to go through what he went through from ignorant folks.” He smiled at me and Mike and then at José.

  “Hablo español también. Mi mejor amigo es de México y me enseño hablar.”

  José was busy smilin’ and clappin’ him on the back, so I translated for Mike.

  “I speak Spanish too. My best friend is from Mexico, and he taught me how to speak.”

  “C’mon in, Smitty, can I get ya somethin’ to drink?”

  “A Coke if you got one.”

  “Sure do.” I handed him a can of Coke from the fridge. We all headed into the living room and sat down.

  “So you worked at a couple of dude ranches before?”

  “I did, one in Texas and one in Colorado. I can get ya references if ya need ’em.”

  “Please. Ya know how to wrangle too?”

  “I been cowboyin’ since I was sixteen, so that makes it about ten years. I got a couple buckles in some local rodeos. I like working on a ranch and working with horses and cattle. It’s fun to share that with dudes too.” Mike smiled at him.

  “So you’re not in it for the women like the last guy?”

  “I always thought it was a good idea to get my bread and my meat at different stores.”

  “What brought ya up here to the Pacific Northwest?”

  “My parents moved up to Seattle, and my little brother followed ’em. He’s kinda lost, so I like to be near him. I got up here, and he and I went campin’ a few times. This is one of the most beautiful places I ever been. I decided to look for a job up here.”

  “So you have any questions about the ranch?”

  “It’s a working ranch, right?”

  “Sure is. We run cattle, and I’ve been seriously thinkin’ of gettin’ some rare horses. There’s a breed from Central Asia that’s just beautiful.”

  “That’d be the Akhal-Teke wouldn’t it?” I was surprised, not too many people knew about the rare breeds.

  “Yep, I was thinkin’ about those and Spanish Barbs.”

  “Both good breeds. I worked on a farm for rare horses in Colorado for a while. The job includes room in the bunkhouse?”

  “You get your own room. The cowboys and cowgirl share the common area and the kitchen. You get some supplies from us, but buy some of your own too.”

  “Any rule against fraternizing with other employees?”

  “No, like I said earlier, Mike here’s my partner, and José is one of my best friends. The cowgirl, Jeanette, and I go way back, we’ve rodeoed together. Josh, our other wrangler, is a good friend also.”

  “Good. I heard you all were a good group and would make good friends.”

  “Where’d you hear that?”

  “There’s this real pretty little girl who’s a waitress at the saloon uptown. She was telling me when I had lunch.” I laughed at this.

  “Sandy. She’s like a sister to me. We grew up together. She’s a great friend.”

  “Yeah, she said you were like a brother to her. Said Mike here is a great guy, too, and she had some mighty nice words about José and Josh.”

  We spoke a few more minutes about salary and responsibilities. I finally asked him if he was still interested.

  “One last question, Jeff. You don’t mind if my brother visits me here, do ya? It wouldn’t interfere with work none.”

  “You mentioned he’s had a rough go of it?”

  “He had a lot of trouble accepting himself. He got pretty heavy into drugs and booze. He’s been sober two years. We’re pretty close. It might be good for him to meet you two also. He could use some good gay role models.”

  “No problem at all, Smitty.” We made arrangements for him to move into the bunkhouse that afternoon. He’d start work day after tomorrow. I reckoned Sandy would be pretty happy about that. He followed José out to look at the bunkhouse and barns. He seemed a good fit. I was pretty excited about him and Jeanette coming to work here. Mike looked dazed or confused.

  “Penny for your thoughts, buddy?”

  “I was just thinkin’ about this afternoon.”

  “What about it? Jeanette, that doofus, or Smitty?”

  “Uh no. How my nipple, neck, and balls are still sore, and I like it.”

  “You know we’re not gonna do that every time we play, right bud?”

  “I know. I don’t want you to think that’s all I like. I really like it when you take your time and we go at it nice and slow. It’s a nice expression of how we feel about each other.”

  “I agree. Now what do ya want for dinner?”

  “How about meatloaf? We can use the leftovers for sandwiches.”

  “Okay, I’ll get the meat outta the freezer. You wanna peel some potatoes for mashers?”

  “You got it, Jeff. Can we have some green beans too?”

  “Sure, I reckon I got some in the freezer.” We shared a kiss and a hug before walking into the kitchen. I got some meat from the freezer with a pack of string beans. I mixed it all up good with the seasonings and put it in a loaf pan. I set it to bake and got a couple of packets of gravy mix from the cupboard. Mike had the potatoes peeled and set to boil. We had about an hour to go. We got a couple of beers and sat down and relaxed a bit. Pretty soon the potatoes were ready to mash. Mike did that while I made some gravy and nuked the string beans. I took the meatloaf out and let it rest a few minutes while we finished the other stuff. Dinner turned out really well. Both Mike and I love meatloaf and mashed potatoes and gravy. The beans tasted fresh. We both had a couple of helpings. We had the rest of the pie for dessert.

  We cleaned up and headed back to the living room to cuddle on the couch. I read a book by a gay author about a bookseller turned sleuth and his closeted police detective boyfriend in the foothills of the California Sierra. It was a good read. Mike was lying with his head on my lap watching TV. It was a nice and relaxing evening. Finally, after the news was over, we turned out the lights and headed up to bed. We stripped off
and got under the covers. I ended up making love to Mike, with a nice slow and easy rhythm. We both liked kissing when I was plowing away at him. It was slow and sweet. We both enjoyed it. It wasn’t rough, and we were both bare assed. I reckon there’s a time and a place for the roughness, and a time and place for the costumes like socks and underwear, or a jockstrap. The space we were in tonight was for a gentle coming together. The moon was just past full, so the silvery light shone through the skylight as we played. Finally we were both spent. We cuddled up together, a tangle of intertwined arms and legs. We were both asleep right quick.

  I WOKE up from a sound sleep. I was a bit groggy. I wasn’t sure what time it was; I could see that it was later since the shadows cast by the waning moon had moved. Mike and I were all tangled up. I wondered if he’d moved and that woke me. That happens, but I usually don’t come awake like this. I looked at the clock. It was three-thirty. Something caused me to wake up. Then I realized what it was. I smelled smoke.

  “Mike, buddy, get up, I smell smoke.” Mike sat up. I jumped up and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Mike followed my lead. I ran downstairs to see the back porch in flames.

  I yelled up the stairs, “Mike, there’s a fire extinguisher in the loft! Bring it down!”

  I ran to the mudroom. There was another fire extinguisher there. The heat from the fire had broken the glass pane in the door and the kitchen window that overlooked the porch. It hadn’t spread inside yet. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and threw open the door. I began to spray the fire. I could see Mike run up through the flames. He’d gone out the back and run around the house. He was screaming, “Call nine-one-one,” at the top of his lungs.

  I continued to use the fire extinguisher, as did Mike. Just then the door to the bunkhouse burst open. Smitty ran out in his white long handles with a fire extinguisher. José came out with the other fire extinguisher; he was in a pair of boxers and a long-sleeve thermal shirt. I could see Josh with his cell phone in the door to the bunkhouse. He was yelling into the phone, dressed in only a wife beater and white jockey shorts. With the four of us using fire extinguishers we had it put out pretty quick. We were lucky that we caught it before the logs in the wall started on fire or it spread inside. I stepped out on the porch to survey the damage. There was a can of charcoal lighter fluid thrown over to one side.

  “Guys, we better get dressed, I reckon the fire squad and the sheriff are gonna be here soon. If you wanna come back up here, I’ll make some coffee.”

  We all headed back to our separate rooms to get dressed. After that, I headed downstairs and made a big pot of coffee. José, Josh, and Smitty walked over from the bunkhouse.

  “Thanks, guys. I really appreciate your fast thinkin’.”

  “Glad to help.”

  “Boss, why didn’t the smoke alarm go off?”

  “Good question, José.” I pulled a chair over and took off the cover of the smoke alarm. I change the batteries every time the clock changes to or from daylight savings time. There were no batteries in the smoke alarm.

  “What in the hell, someone took out the batteries.”

  “Jeffy, we locked the door didn’t we?”

  “I don’t remember, buddy.” Just then I heard the sirens. In a minute or so the fire truck was up here, and the sheriff was right behind. I put another pot on for coffee.

  “Looks like you guys were pretty handy with the extinguishers. Was someone smoking and didn’t put the butt out?” I looked at the fire chief. He had been a Seattle fireman before moving here.

  “Nope.” I pointed to the lighter fluid can. He walked over and began to look at the charred wood the fire left and the patterns. He called to the sheriff.

  “Dwayne, come over here.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can you smell it?”

  “Smells like gasoline.”

  “Lighter fluid, the can’s right over there.” I was standing right behind them.

  “Sheriff, someone also took the batteries out of our smoke detectors.”

  “You’ve been lockin’ the door, haven’t ya?”

  “Yes, sir. Only thing is that neither me nor Mike is sure about tonight.”

  “When are you gettin’ that alarm installed?”

  “Day after tomorrow.”

  “I’ll feel a lot better when that’s up and running.”

  “So will I, sir.” The fire truck left, but the sheriff stuck around taking statements from us all. The sun was just coming up when he left. I turned to Josh, José, and Smitty.

  “Thanks again, guys. I’m gonna try to get a bit of sleep. C’mon, buddy.” They turned to the bunkhouse, and Mike and I headed upstairs. We fell asleep right away.

  Chapter Twenty

  “MIKE, I can’t wear this. Look at it. It’s so tight everythin’s outlined. Hell, you can even tell I’m cut.” I was standing in our room in my blue and yellow Wolverine costume that Renee had made. We were getting dressed for the Halloween party. Mike and I had worked out earlier to get a good pump on. We were both lean but muscular, and every single cut of muscle stood out in sharp relief. Looking in the mirror, the suit’s thin spandex clung to me like a second skin. My ass looked muscular, and no one could say I didn’t have a bubble butt. What made me the most self-conscious though, and remember I ain’t shy, was that my dick and balls were really clearly outlined, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.

  “I like the way it looks, Jeffy. I better not touch ya or anythin’. If you got hard in that….”

  “Buddy, it’s one thing to walk around in my underwear or even bare ass in the house or around you or other guys, but this is a Halloween party with kids. It looks like I’m gonna parade up and down Castro Street.”

  “What’s Castro Street, and what do you mean by parade up and down it?”

  “It’s the main area of the gay ghetto in San Francisco. On Halloween, they close the street off to traffic, and everyone wears costumes. Some of ’em are pretty amazin’.”

  “Yours is pretty amazin’ all right!”

  “That’s what I mean; this might be all right there, but not here. Besides, you want every gay guy and every single woman gettin’ a show and hanging all over me?”

  “You are so cocky, Jeffy, but I do see your point. I got an idea.” He went over to the dresser and rummaged through his underwear drawer. He came up with a pair of yellow bikini style briefs.

  “Put these on over the costume. They’re the same color as the yellow in the costume.” That did hide the detail, but my package still looked enormous.

  “That’s a little better. People are gonna think I got a wad of sweat socks stuffed down here.”

  Mike laughed. “Jeffy, you grew up here, you played sports, and went to gym class. I reckon there have been rumors floatin’ around about you not bein’ exactly small. Hell, even Sandy heard that from her brothers.”

  “Yeah, at least now everythin’ isn’t perfectly outlined, and I don’t wanna hurt Renee’s feelings. By the way, buddy, you look awesome.”

  “Thanks.” He really did look awesome. He had on these tight black leather pants, which showed off his ass and thighs to perfection. He was wearing a pair of clunky motorcycle boots, to which were attached kneepads painted silver. He had on a skin-tight burgundy shirt with steel blue stripes on the side. It showed off the cut in his abs and chest. Over that, he had Gambit’s signature brown duster. He’d needed a haircut when we started talking costumes and hadn’t cut it yet, so his hair was much longer than usual and sticking up and over a headband. He’d shaved his beard to a really short goatee, and put a rinse in his hair, so it matched his beard. He’d even found a pair of contact lenses that made the whites of his eyes look red.

  “You look pretty good yourself. Maybe, um… we can….”

  “You wanna fool around in these costumes when we get back.”

  “Uh yeah.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. Wolverine is really gonna fuck with Gambit, use his ass good.”

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nbsp; “Don’t get me goin’, Jeffy; these pants are so tight a hard-on would hurt.”

  “Yeah, I don’t wanna be more embarrassed than I already will be.” We headed downstairs. Maria, Sandy, and Renee had gotten dressed downstairs, and Josh and José in the bunkhouse. Smitty was also there dressed as Zorro. Everyone looked good. As we came down the steps, Sandy, Renee, and Maria let out some wolf whistles.

  “Holy Mother of God, how often do you boys work out?” Renee was staring us up and down.

  “We work out at least five days a week, sometimes six of seven. Plus we like to throw a football around, run, and do other stuff.” Mike smiled at her.

  “It shows. Josh, when are you gonna start workin’ out with them?” Josh scowled at her.

  “I dunno if they want me to.”

  “The more the merrier, right, Jeff?”

  “Yep.”

  “So does that more the merrier extend to me too?” Smitty was looking at both of us.

  “Sure. Do you want us to let you know when we’re workin’ out? Sometimes for us, it happens on the spur of the moment.”

  “I’d be much obliged.”

  “Jeff, I guess those rumors are true, unless you’re carryin’ an extra pair of sweat socks!” Leave it to Sandy.

  “C’mere, darlin’.” She walked over. I whispered in her ear, “Sandy, I’m self-conscious enough. These little briefs are Mike’s. The costume was indecent without ’em.”

  “Comin’ from you that’s sayin’ a lot.”

  “There’s a time and a place for everythin’, and confirmin’ rumors in great detail at a party with kids doesn’t seem like a good idea.” She gave me a hug.

  “Sorry if I embarrassed you.”

  “I ain’t embarrassed, just a bit self-conscious. Anyway you look absolutely beautiful dressed up like that.”

  “Thanks. You and Mike look pretty hot yourselves.”

  “I noticed Smitty seems to think you’re pretty easy on the eyes.” She blushed, but smiled at the same time.