I recently wrote a story called "The Surprise" - a non-consensual story with a twist. I deliberately picked a vague title, and so I will try to write a different tale under each of Literotica's twenty-five writing categories with the same inspiration over the next year. This is Number Eleven.
* * * * *
Technically, I was at work. I had done nothing but work for weeks since my last relationship came to a messy end. It was what I did whenever I had a break-up, I turned my hand to my role in the family firm and threw myself head first into my employment.
Extra meetings with clients, additional trips to visit customers, and anything to avoid being alone in my house in the evening. I used my career as a therapy.
That evening, I sat with my third free beer, watching the men in the newly refurbished gay bar enjoy themselves while I "worked."
My occupation was a sales and relationship director for a 125-year-old brewery that produced a dozen beers from our two sites. A new customer had swapped ten 9 gallon barrels of our finest IPA and amber bitter for "sponsorship of their relaunch." The establishment prominently displayed our logo throughout the converted pub, as a couple of hundred revellers - mostly men - socialised and danced on the upper floor.
Over twenty LGBT bars and pubs in the area served our beer. We ran beverage tents in five Pride events too, and while I've never come out to my three elder brothers as bisexual, they know. I don't hide the signs, even if I have never publicised my sexuality. I don't talk about my personal life at work and my family have never probed too deeply about my "partners."
I adore building relationships with all the pubs, inns, and taverns in the area. I know 320 landlords by name, and I ensure our beers remain well stocked at competitive prices. My family thinks I have a peaceful life, but we brewed over 35,000 barrels of beer last year, and I shifted over a third of that.
But it's a Wednesday, and I have been to Liverpool, Warrington, Rochdale and Macclesfield since rising at 7am, as well as the brewery site, before changing into my promotional T-shirt and travelling on public transport to the new opening of the gay pub in a Mancunian suburb, with a hundred pieces of branded clothing for the landlord.
I got a seat at the end of the bar; it was standing room only for anyone entering after 7pm and I conversed warmly with dozens of patrons. I wasn't "on the pull" but sought a social night out, a few miles from my home.
"Same again?" the landlord asked, nodding towards my empty glass.
"Ahh, go on," I replied. "It's hard work!"
He chuckled as he poured me another free pint from the 700 pints I'd given him in the barrels. When he put the full drink on the branded beer mat, he gestured towards a man waiting at the bar beside me. "Ben, this is James from Robertson's Beers."
He was over six feet in height, tall and reasonably slender, with an unruly mop of dark black hair and sparkling white teeth. I held out my hand, unsure of the reason for the introduction. "Hi!"
"Your IPA is nice," he said. It wasn't a local accent. "I ... err ... run a campsite in Cheshire. What's the price for bottles?"
"He's another of our sponsors for tonight," the landlord added, swapping Ben's empty glass for a full drink. I glanced at the large banner across the top of the bar and recognised the other company name beside our own.
"Ahh, Bankhall Farm?" I asked. "I've heard of that."
"Yeah. My dad set it up three years ago, but he died a few months ago, so I run it now."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
He hummed. "It was unexpected. We're a gay cruising site and we host men every Thursday to Monday. We have a small bar and we usually go to the wholesaler, but I'd love to know whether we can do better than lagers and mass produced bitters. I want to be local produce only, eventually."
I looked into the welcoming eyes of the businessman, guessing that he was my age - in his late twenties or early thirties, and my libidinous mind danced to his physique underneath his baggy shirt. "I am sure we can do something. What did you want? What sort of quantity?"
"I guess we go through eighty to hundred bottles every weekend. Sometimes a little more."
"We have six different beers we sell in 500ml bottles, and they vary from £8.69 to £19.10 for twelve. We do cans too and offer some discounts for higher volumes, but you'd not be eligible for those with the numbers you're talking about." I looked around the pub and saw a small vacant table in the corner. "Shall we go chat?"
"Yeah, lets."
I never made business decisions when I had been drinking, for obvious reasons, but I warmed to the friendly man as we discussed a possible commercial relationship. The village his campsite was close to a public house that the brewery owned, and I floated the idea of setting up an account with weekly deliveries every Monday afternoon.
"I have a wholesaler coming this Friday for this weekend, but next week, I'd like that!" He grinned. "Do I get a branded tee too?"
"I have a spare." I flashed a smile. "If I get to see you put it on!" I opened my rucksack and passed him the black garment, watching as he pulled his Manchester Pride shirt over his head.
The tight stomach with a smattering of trimmed hair over his athletic body was sexy. He smiled at my eyes checking him out. "You a top or a bottom?"
"Versatile," I replied, answering an unasked question about my sexuality, although as I licked my lips at his physique he knew I wasn't straight.
"Top, normally." His gifted shirt slid over his topless torso, hiding his frame from my gaze. He took his pint to his lips and sipped it. "After this, I have to go. I need to catch the last train back to Cheshire and don't go late into the evening. Wanna come and see my campsite?" He swigged again. "You can stay overnight."
I gulped. "That'll be cool." It had been ten weeks since I had picked up a stranger in a bar, and she had been an incredible one-night stand, but the married beauty sought nothing more than a few hours of naughtiness that she filmed and sent to her humiliated husband, a cuckold. I was bisexual and flitted between sexualities for my overnight dalliances; she'd ensnared me as I fancied a bit of pussy for the first time in two years. The break-up with my past boyfriend had still pained me at the time, and I needed some female attention after the eighteen-month whirlwind male-only relationship.
We finished our drinks and left the pub. The amble to the station in the cool nighttime air was short, and I bought a single ticket to Goostrey. He sat beside me on the train, squeezing and rubbing my jeans as we speared through the shadowy countryside to the tiny rural village. His campsite was a ten-minute walk from the remote station, in the dark, along country lanes. Bankhall Farm - a white building set back from the narrow hedge-lined carriageway - shone in the moonlight. Ben unlocked the front door of the well-decorated property, and took me to his bedroom on the upper floor, with sloping roofs.