by
When Aron creates a classified ad online hoping to find romance, he knows he'll probably end up with a one night stand. So when Graham shows up at their agreed meeting place with a ring mark on his finger and wants to go straight to a hotel, Aron is not surprised. However, things are rarely as they seem and Aron is about to make a connection he never anticipated, while finding love in a place he never thought to look...
Publisher: Independently Published
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 2
Romantic Content: 2
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay, Transgender
Protagonist 1 Age: 18-25
Protagonist 2 Age: 18-25
Tropes: Friends to Lovers
Word Count: 3540
Languages Available: English
Aron chewed his nails as he waited for the train to arrive. The press of people waiting for the subway train were oblivious to his inner turmoil. His Craigslist ad had finally yielded a result that didn’t scare him witless. A few texts later and they’d agreed to meet in real life to see if they had a connection.
"You can leave him at the station if you don’t like what you see. There’s no obligation,” Dan had warned him.
As Aron pulled a sliver of nail from the quick of his middle finger, a horn signaled the approach of a train. The mass of humanity around him perked up a bit, people jostling for position in hopes of getting a seat. Aron slipped to the back of the crowd, letting the throng edge closer to the train. He wasn’t getting on. He wanted to blend in, so he could walk away if the guy seemed like a creeper.
READ MOREThe train pulled up, sides shiny and red. Windows fled, faces blurring before his eyes. Was it that guy? Or that one? Definitely not the cute Korean guy with his headphones on. The train’s brakes screeched and a hiss of air sounded as the carriages halted. Doors opened, letting people pour out of the carriage. The wave of people fled towards the light, spreading out across stairwells and escalators as they headed up to street level.
Aron found himself leaning up against a supporting pillar as the doors closed and the crowd thinned. Suppose the man saw him and changed his mind? He was skinny—too skinny, in his opinion—and barely looked eighteen, despite the fact he was twenty-two. Wispy, chestnut hair formed a mop on his head, and stylish silver-framed glasses augmented his poor vision.
The older man who stepped off the train right before the doors closed was not at all what Aron expected, yet somehow he knew that he was the guy from the ad. There was something dangerous about the glint in his steel eyes. Stubble covered his chin, and grey hair covered his head, flecked with black where age hadn’t yet stolen all the pigment. He had to be in his late forties or early fifties—older than his e-mail and string of texts had suggested—but he was not unattractive.
Aron had dated all kinds of guys, looking for someone he could forge a lasting connection with, but none of those relationships had worked out. He tired of getting pity fucks from Dan to feel a warm body in his bed at night. Grindr was only a little better—the hookups he’d had there were less than satisfying, to say the least. Guys always said that he wasn’t as hot in person as he was in his picture. Or they wanted to trade dick pics.
It might have been less of a problem if he actually had one.
His Craigslist classified ad—his last ditch effort, as Dan liked to call it—had laid it all out in the open. Transman seeking boyfriend material. Serious inquiries only. Looking for a relationship. Dan had seemed more than a little leery of him putting the truth out there. “Let me come with you,” he’d pleaded. “I’m worried you won’t be safe. Or he’ll be some weirdo with a kink who ditches and leaves you.”
I’ll never leave you, his voice had pleaded. Aron could only wish he was actually attracted to Dan. He would have been a good guy to love, but his heart had sent him to the friend-zone without permission. They had no chemistry in bed together. There was no passion, no spark.
It was a huge fucking shame, in Aron’s opinion.
COLLAPSE
