Ben isn’t quite sure how it happened. Or maybe he is except that it’s as uninteresting enough to simply be that both he and Cal end up having a busy week with no time to meet until the night before they both have a day with nothing to do.It meant arriving at the motel late enough to only have the energy to fall into bed and drift off to sleep after a round of lazy hand jobs and mumbled apologies. Which meant waking up together for once — Cal’s legs tangled in his, his ass pressing back against Ben’s morning wood, insistent and giving Ben no incentive not to grope through bleary morning vision for the lube on the bedside table. He worked his fingers into Cal sleepy-slow, then fucked him even slower, his forehead pressed to the back of Cal’s neck, coming with a low grunt as Cal sighed through his orgasm. If Cal hadn’t laughed and slapped him, he could have happily fallen back to sleep inside his friend, but Cal was calling him rude and complaining about being hungry so Ben reluctantly followed him into the cramped shower and laughed again as they groped each other under the spray of water.

They reserved the room for another night so they didn’t have to take all their stuff with them, and made it to the diner down the block looking surprisingly respectable. Ben felt half-human until there was enough coffee in him to kill a bear and, even then, didn’t feel much like moving. He could have happily dragged Cal back to bed, curled around him and slept until noon. The site was shut down for the day, the kids were away with their grandparents for the weekend, and bar some paperwork that he could easily do on his laptop, Ben had nothing to do.

Cal was smiling and shoving bacon in his mouth when he mentioned the farmer’s market. Ben hadn’t been that interested. Except when Cal described it’s location, Ben had no idea where that was. Even after a couple of tries, he couldn’t picture it, so when Cal shyly asked if he wanted to tag along, Ben couldn’t think of a reason why not.

Which was how he found himself browsing stalls or produce and carrying a string bag of tomatoes and local honey, watching Cal flirt with with a stall holder over some hummus. And feeling strangely okay with it. Karen used to try to get him to do stuff like this all the time when they were married but he’d always resisted. Oddly, with Cal it felt right to follow him through the crowds even if it would never be Ben’s first choice of activity. It was actually kind of fun.

When he said as much out loud, Cal had managed not temper his ‘I told you so’ look long enough to ask what Ben’s first choice would be. Which was how they ended up eating chips and dip on a rickety bench, watching a pick-up game at one of the local parks lucky enough to have a baseball diamond and talking about high school, sports and nothing in particular. The snick of the ball against the bat was soothing and Cal’s presence managed to leech away every trace of stress from his body. Cal seemed to be having a good time too, even if he was less invested in the loose game playing out in front of them. He didn’t seem bored, and Ben wasn’t annoyed when he periodically whipped out his phone to check messages or scroll through social media. Even the scant silences were companionable, without a hint of awkwardness. It seemed natural then, after a while, for Ben to ask, “What’s next? Your choice.”

They ended up in a movie theater, in the empty back row, with hotdogs and a soda almost as big as Cal. Ben didn’t much care for thrillers but after a while he found himself weirdly invested in the plot, so much so that he didn’t notice how Cal was trying to get his attention for so long it was embarrassing. In the end, Cal had leaned up and whispered in his ear, “If you don’t start groping with me in the next ten seconds, I’m leaving.” Suddenly the movie wasn’t that interesting any more.

They made out like teenagers, something Ben had never had the opportunity to do when he was that age. They had done so much more than this, much more than simply kissing and grabbing each other over their clothes but somehow this was more erotic that any of that stuff. Ben was giddy with it by the time the credits rolled and he was reluctant to get back to reality as they stepped out, blinking into the daylight. Ben said as much, frowning about the paperwork he had to write up and feeling glum about it until Cal said he had some things to do and suggested they could find a place to work if Ben didn’t feel like heading home yet. He didn’t and somehow found himself in a coffee shop, setting up his laptop like some kind of hipster asshole, Cal sitting opposite him and being distracting as all hell.

There was a distinct change that came over Cal when he sat down to work, suddenly no longer the fun loving guy who apparently made the same noise at the first mouthful of pizza as when Ben pressed on his prostate with just the right amount of pressure. Professor Cal was a whole other kind of sexy and Ben had half a mind to ask him to bring his glasses to bed with them sometime. But then he was lost in emails and license applications and enquiries from an architect he’d worked with a couple of years ago. It was late in the afternoon by the time he looked back up and found Cal smiling softly at him.

After being hunched up in a chair for hours, it seemed natural to take a walk. The day was gearing up to segue into a warm evening and the slight breeze as they walked down by the river was pleasantly cooling. More than once, Ben found himself having to actively resist the urge to take Cal’s hand. His fingers seemed to have decided that the only appropriate place for them to be was intertwined with Cal’s and kept drifting toward him. That was bad enough but his arms also thought that the best thing to do every time Cal laughed was to wrap around his waist so Ben could kiss him senseless. His body was betraying him in the worse way and he was practically aching with the effort of keeping his hands to himself by the time Cal’s stomach rumbled and suggested that they might as well grab some dinner together and he knew just the place.

“So, is this what you usually do on your day off?” Ben asked as he sliced into his steak. “Eat your way around the city?”

Cal laughed, but then nodded. “Pretty much. Sometimes I cook too but I find doing the dishes is too much like work. I did that as a summer job once too often.”

All it took was a slight noise of interest from Ben, and Cal was enthusiastically relating some of the more amusing stories from when he was a kitchen hand. A warmth spread through Ben, watching his friend smile, talking between bites of food and gesticulating with his fork. He figured that once they were done there was no reason not to ask Cal to head back to the motel together. Finishing off the day as they had started would somehow make it perfect. Even if Cal said no, it had still been one of the most relaxing days Ben could remember having for a long time so it wouldn’t spoil it.

As the warmth in his grew, he put it down to being pleasantly tired or maybe the effects of the beer in his hand. Even when the thought popped into his head, it wasn’t a jump-scare — didn’t leave him cold and shaking. He simply thought, “Oh. I’m in love with him,” and accepted it as if it was the easiest thing in the world. It wasn’t. But he could deal with that another time. Right now Cal’s calf was brushing up against his under the table and his eyes were sparkling and Ben had no idea how he it had happened but he was glad it had. For one day at least.