I had had a football party at my place and most of the guys had already left. I was in the process of finishing what was left to clean up. Thankfully, most of my friends had become helpful in that area, as most of them were married and had learned some domestic etiquette from their wives. My neighbor across the street was the only one left and insisted on helping me with the last of the chores. We finished up and grabbed a couple of cold ones from the fridge and sat down at my kitchen table.
Mark was gay but that didn’t bother me. It took him quite a while to confide in me of his sexual orientation, but he eventually did. Once we had heard a news bulletin before a game about a traffic tie-up downtown due to a gay pride parade. He tested me by making a sarcastic remark about gays and I just mentioned that we all have the right to free speech and that included gays as well. We got to talking and because of my live and let live attitude; he revealed his sexual orientation to me.
I would have never figured him to be gay, as he seemed to be just like the rest of the guys I hung out with. Of course I had no idea what a gay person was like, as I had never had the opportunity to talk to one. I guess the only thing I had to go on was the stereotypical limp wrist, feminine voice type of thing. Mark didn’t seem to fit those criteria. I had assumed that he was divorced and lived alone like I was. I never did like poking into other people’s private lives or they to mine.
He was willing to talk about it if I brought it up, which I did on several occasions. I guess I had an academic curiosity of why people were gay. I thought it had mostly to do with the sex but that was probably due to society’s stereotype. Mark had told me that it was much more than the sex. That in many respects, it was much like a heterosexual relationship where there was love and commitment. He said there are some who seek the sex, but so do heterosexual people. He didn’t care for the gay bars and that scene and as far as the sex was concerned, he wanted that to be a part of a relationship and not some one-night stand. He had no desire for sexually transmitted diseases and was careful about that. I had wondered why I never saw anyone over at his place and he had told me that before his company had transferred him here, he had been in a long-term relationship with a guy, but that they had broken it off and he was just enjoying being himself for a while. I could relate to that as I had been in a couple of relationships since my divorce, but that they weren’t right for me so I decided to take a break from the dating scene.
Although Mark was OK with talking about his sexual orientation, we didn’t delve into the subject too much. He did bring more understanding about the issue to me. He had asked me one time if I had ever had a same sex experience and I told him that I hadn’t, but that I had thought about it wondering how one could desire having sex with someone of the same gender. I told him that although I knew when a guy was handsome, I had never desired to have sex with him and doubted that I could even get aroused. At the time, he told me that if I ever wanted to explore that aspect of my sexuality, he would be glad to help. I was embarrassed but jokingly said I’d be sure and let him know.
We sat around the table and had a few more beers, which I really didn’t need as I had put down a few during the game as well. I became a little bold and began to ask him about what it was like having sex with a guy. He too was feeling the beers and seemed comfortable with talking about it. It was interesting to me because it was like listening to a woman talk about having sex with a guy. As we talked, I could feel a subtle kind of arousal. I assumed that it was due to our conversation of a sexual nature. The details weren’t arousing as there wasn’t anything really new to me as a male he was describing, just that the conversation was about sex. I told him I just couldn’t see myself getting aroused by a guy. He asked me if I would like to find out.