Delta Dex by Yoteicon92

Delta Dex

Yoteicon92, Anal, Betrayal, Biloxi, Brothers, Burn out, Doberman, Family, Feltching, Friendships, Fucking, Fwb, Gulfport, Home, Husky, Illinois, Malamute, Open Relationship, Oral, Public, Rimming, Wolf, chicago, cumdump, friends, fuck buddy, mississippi, rejection, travel

The story of a burning out, hedonistic, cumdump, who rediscovers himself and what he wants in life after a traumatic event.

At 114,013 words, and 276 pages, this is by far my longest work. This story was inspired by a conversation I had on a hookup app with a quite proud cumdump who was very handsome and in his early 40's, who ultimately ended up blocking me because I think I talked him to death. It made me think "what goes on in a cumdump's daily life?" and I created this.

Part of my series on FA: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2143509/

Delta Dex

Prologue:

Steam gushed out from Dex’s walk-in shower. Emerging from behind the frosted glass was the big gray and white malamute, his tattooed and toned up body belying his age of forty-two. Grabbing the towel, he wiped down and dried off his floofy pelt. His arms bore black and gray sleeves that ran from his wrists to his shoulders, which connected to his chest tattoo piece. His whole back was tattooed up in a collage of black and gray artwork. He ran a paw through his tousled, shiny, wet hair that was dark brown flecked with a bit of gray in the roots. He had a neatly trimmed chinstrap beard and a bushy goatee of brown hair jutting from his chin. Pulling the towel away from his crotch, Dex was hung and pierced. He had a thick, tan, cut cock with a silver Prince Albert, a curved barbell of shiny silver jutting from the thick head. His pubes were neatly trimmed. His left hip area bore a tattoo of a skull with a scorpion sticking out of it. Bright blue eyes peered out.

Drying himself off and getting his hair blow dried, he stepped out of the bathroom to get dressed for the party. His dried hair was naturally wavy, with a tousled look brushed back atop his head. Going to his bedroom, he threw on a black and yellow jockstrap. Grabbing a pair of bright yellow short shorts, he threw them on over his jock and threw on a snug tanktop that was yellow and black striped. It perfectly fit his body. Grabbing his baseball cap that was also yellow, he threw it atop his head backwards and ventured downstairs to get his wallet and keys. He was all ready for the party.

Stepping out of his apartment, Dex enjoyed the warm evening air in Boystown, the gay village of Chicago. He felt right at home with his tribe, despite not coming from the midwest. Dex was born Dexter Michael Malprave, a southern boy, from the land of the delta blues, Mississippi. He got out of the magnolia state as soon as could, landing a scholarship to Northwestern to get a business degree when he was eighteen. Twenty-four years later, he never looked back, and firmly considered himself a Chicagoan, even going as far as shedding his southern drawl he once had in his youth. He was an out and proud gay man, proudly marching down the sidewalk for the club a few blocks away. He was happy to be clubbing again after a year of Covid lockdowns.

Delta Dex

2021.

Throbbing music pulsed out across the dance floor. The air was heavy and hot as sweaty men danced and gyrated to the beat, under the strobing party lights that glowed in a kaleidoscope of colors. In the midst of all of this Dex danced his heart away with his friends. In that moment he was detached from everything on his mind. He was one with the music, far away from his problems, shoulder to shoulder with his fellow men. He wasn’t worrying about work, or money, or anything of the sort. Dex was having fun.

As he danced he felt a paw gently grace his backside down to his buttocks, a suggestive, playful caress. Blue eyes opened up, and Dex turned around to see a grinning gray wolf rub up against him. He could barely hear what he had to say over the roaring bass line, but his paws told the whole story as he felt his crotch get groped and a paw slip down to feel his package. “Nice~” is what he just picked up over the tunes.

“You like?” Dex smirked.

“I do~ You wanna let me play with it, stud?”

“Absolutely~”

Slipping through the dance floor, there was a shadowy area in the corner, where a husky was getting his dick sucked. Dex leaned against the wall, slid his shorts down and pushed his jock aside to let his hard cock out, which was immediately enveloped in the wolf’s muzzle. Dex closed his eyes and moaned contently to a nice blowjob. He pushed his dick in deep and placed a big paw atop the wolf’s head as he thrust lightly, moaning to the tugging sensation the piercing gave his head. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

Dex felt a pair of lips playfully press against his for a deep kiss. He didn’t even open his eyes as he accepted an impromptu kiss from a red Doberman, who rubbed his chest and stomach. Dex slid his paw over and groped his hard outline in his tight shorts. He reached in and pulled out a nice thick cock and stroked it in his paw. Breaking the kiss, he smiled and pulled his shorts down and watched the Doberman slip behind him. As he groaned from his blowjob, he felt that thick cock, slickened by spit enter under his tail. He adjusted himself a bit and felt the Dober hilt himself in and start thrusting. Dex groaned in pleasure from the sensation of being fucked. One arm was draped around, rubbing his chest, while the other held the base of his cock that was being sucked.

The thrusting picked up. “Want me to nut?” was whispered into his ear. Dex responded with a muffled “yeah”. He wanted that load so bad. His balls were tightening, and the urge to cum was growing each second. His body tensed up, his back arched a bit. Dex wanted it so bad. His grit his teeth and groaned as he unloaded in the wolf’s muzzle. He swallowed every drop as his big cock pulsated. The thrusting of the Dober’s cock ended with a hard slam and a muffled groan of pleasure as Dex felt it pulse his load in him. He trembled in pleasure. “Oh fuck…” Dex whispered.

Soon he was alone, standing with his dripping cock in the shadows. Everyone was lost in their dancing to pay attention or care. Reaching back, Dex felt his butt and was happy to feel still warm cum dripping between his firm cheeks. The first load of the night. He pulled his shorts back up and went back to dancing.

All sweaty from dancing, Dex took a break. As the music continued on, he walked over to the bar, which was illuminated in blue and white light. There sat some of his friends, all sipping on some drinks. Dex walked up and threw a ten on the table, ordering a mixed drink himself which was soon whipped up in front of him.

“You have fun, Dexy?” asked his best friend, a slender white wolf named Trey. He was thirty-nine, but looked as though he was twenty-nine, with a whimsical grin on his face. He only wore a pair of powder blue shorts, which matched his sneakers. He spoke with a lispy drawl.

“Gurl, please.” Dex laughed. He happily accepted a fizzy pink drink from the bartender and took a sip of it as he sat down. “I’m having a blast!”

“I saw you over there gettin’ it on with Calvin and Drey!” giggled a sable furred malamute, Paul.

“Gotta get my loads in!” laughed Dex with a playful grin.

“And loads out!” laughed Paul.

“Exactly!”

Trey got up and put his arm around Dex while drinking down the last of his glass. “My boytoy hasn’t shown up yet…”

“Why wait?” Dex asked with a smirk. “Plenty of fish in the sea here!”

“Cumdump Dex here.” Paul teased. “You wanna help a bro get his rocks off later?”

“Well yeah!” Dex laughed. “No load refused, motherfucker!”

Walking over were two more of Dex’s friends, Johnny, and Lenny, a black and rust Doberman, and a slender black wolf with a peroxide blonde bouffant atop his head. Both just wore snug shorts and had reflective soft harnesses on their chest. They too ordered some drinks.

“Hey later, you wanna meet up with Kevin and Jimmy and go to his place for some food?” asked the black wolf, who spoke with a high pitched lisp.

“Sure!” Paul agreed. “What about you, Dexy?”

“Fuck it, let’s do it!” he laughed. “He better have the good shit~”

“He does~”

“Good.”

“Hey you getting dicked down any?” snickered the Doberman, who sipped on his drink.

“Well of course.” Dex grinned. “One load in!”

“Oooh!” Johnny grinned. “Jealous! I only got a shitty blowjob by some drunk fuck a bit ago…”

Lenny leaned in. “Johnny made him gag with his big dick!”

“I didn’t know he had a gag reflex!”

Everyone laughed hysterically.

Dex finished his drink, right as the next round of music started to play. “Oh shit there’s my song!”

“Yeah!” everyone cheered.

“Let’s dance it up, gurls!” Dex laughed as they all ran back to the dance floor to party.

Monday, the day Dex hated most. After a fun filled weekend in Boystown, of music, partying, drinks, and hot sex, it was time to return to the grind in the straight world.

Glistening under the glow of a table lamp, Dex started at his reflection on the mirrored tray, his face crossed with a line of white powder. Looking remorseful for a second, he took his straw and snorted down the last bit of coke he had. He grunted and wiped his nose, feeling the momentary sting. He coughed and put it away in a drawer at his bedroom table. “Ready for the day” he thought to himself as he grabbed his work attire. Instead of bright, cheerful, and skimpy clothes, Dex threw on a pair of gray work pants, and a dark burgundy polo shirt, which was embroidered with the logo of his workplace on the breast pocket. On the back it read “Saunders-Babbit Paper Supply: Write on Us!”

Looking glum, Dex looked at himself in the mirror and brushed out some wrinkles on his polo. He fetched his laptop bag and threw it on over him. He turned the light off as he left to go downstairs.

It was a short walk over to the subway station, to catch his morning commute to the Central Manufacturing District. He was soon on the six o’clock train to the Central Manufacturing District. As the train rocked and groaned, Dex sat cramped with fellow Chicagoans. His blank expression was hidden behind a blue surgical mask, as was many others. He sat with his bag on his lap, his eyes staring aimlessly at the empty chair immediately opposite of him. He wasn’t even at work yet and he wanted to go home. Fifteen minutes later, he reached his stop, and he got up and calmly exited with the queue to venture up to the surface. His work shoes clicked on the pavement as he exited the stairwell, the morning breeze tousling his wavy hair. He walked the three blocks over to his workplace, the big brick and concrete block building that housed the Saunders-Babbit Paper Supply Company.

Stepping inside, Dex stopped for a moment and stared around at the office he worked in. The malamute slowly turned his head from one side to the other; Saunders-Babbit was a paper and office supply company, which looked as though time had stood still after 1980. The sales office was a big rectangle, with big tinted windows on two sides, and a network of cubicles, with the walls and cubicles in two depressing shades of gray. Cold, bright white lights glowed from the drop ceiling stained with water damage in places.

Walking down the main corridor, he passed by his boss’ office, which surprisingly was empty of his boss. He walked up to the old mechanical time clock, grabbed his slip, and punched it, starting his day. It was a further reminder to the anachronistic ways his company worked. He turned to his right and walked towards his desk, which was situated near the entrance to the warehouse, where he oversaw operations. Dex was the lowly warehouse manager, the lowest paid manager in the company that liked to low-ball everyone in pay. It was one of the many gripes he had with the company he had worked for since 2000.

Dex took his laptop bag and sat it down on the floor as he grabbed his swivel seat. He turned on his thin client PC and waited for it to boot up as he looked at some paperwork that was placed on his desk Friday evening. It was two copies of prospective employee resumes for warehouse positions that needed to be filled. He sat them aside as he logged into the terminal to access the system program, which was nothing more than an emulated copy of PC-DOS to run the ordering system. Dex felt like the last person alive who could fully understand and utilize DOS. Half the sales department couldn’t, and it showed, every day.

“Morning, Dexy!” smiled his friend Jennifer, a lady wolfess with thick brown hair that was always flowing around her head. “Hey, would you believe that Jack called off today?”

“Oh really? I never would have known…” Dex shook his head amusingly. “Jack calling off on a Monday? Say it ain’t so!”

“Do bears shit in the woods, huh, Dex?” Jennifer chuckled as she walked by. “Maybe if you can hire some more people Jack could go bye-bye~”

“Pfft.” Dex shook his head. “Dipshit up there wouldn’t let me. I’ve been trying to get Brandon fired for fifteen years!”

Jennifer just rolled her eyes. “Only in Saunders-Babbit can you fuck up and get a raise.”

“I know.” Dex shook his head.

Checking the system for messages, Dex got up and went to the warehouse. Stepping through the frosted glass door, he listened to it close behind him as he stared into his giant domain of racks full of paper and office products. He grabbed the manifests for the outgoing loads on the semi’s and walked over to see the trucks in the process of being loaded up. Forklifts and reach trucks beeped and hummed as they moved pallets and pallets of plastic bound boxes of paper reams. Dex watched the process and checked off the loads, knowing by instinct what went on a pallet and what could fit in a standard semi cab. He signed off on the bottom with a blue rollerball pen. Turning to head back, he walked, his eyes tracking the beat up company van that was driven by his nemesis, Brandon Vlockner, the hotshot driver. He closed his eyes and shook his head in frustration at another day of Brandon milking the clock.

“Morning, Dex!” greeted his incoming warehouse guys. He mustered a smile and greeted them as he walked by to enter the office again. He walked up the corridor and hung up the paperwork on the “Deliveries Outbound/Signed Off” clipboard.

“Hello, Dexter~”

The malamute turned around to see his boss, Clyde Thompson standing before him. Clyde was a chubby husky, eleven years younger than Dex, with sable fur, and auburn hair that was kept short atop his head. He wore a polo shirt identical to Dex’s, with his belly flopping in the front past the belt.

“What’s going on?”

“Morning loads are going out.” Dex explained. “All signed off and good to go, just awaiting drivers to come in.”

“Good. Hey I want to talk to you real quick about something.”

“Okay.”

“You are aware of the new cover sheet protocols on your reports, correct?”

“Oh, geesh, yeah, that’s my bad, I forgot about that Friday when I turned in the warehouse report.” Dex explained.

“Right, yeah, so we’re going to a new protocol on how we do the cover sheets, and I’m just making sure you got that e-mail correct, Dexter?”

“Yes, Clyde, I am well aware of the email, and the copies I got from the district management as well, and that’s my fault for forgetting about it on Friday, and I’ll make sure to remember that when I work on this week’s report.”

“Right, yeah, so if you could just do that for now on, that would be golden like a shower~ And I’ll make sure to forward you another email regarding that. Ohhhhkayyyyyy, Dexter? Thank you.”

Dex closed his eyes as Clyde walked by, to go and confront a salesman over a trivial issue. He mumbled something under his breath as he grabbed the scheduled delivery pull lists and some delivery tickets to take them back to the warehouse.

“Morning, Dex!” came the bubbly, ever cheerful, Brandon Vlockner. He was a brown furred wolf, rather lanky, with messy brown hair and blue eyes where the left eye was slightly lazy. He wore blue jeans and an untucked polo that had a coffee stain in the middle. Dex ground his teeth at the incompetent Brandon, who milked the clock and got excessive hours for a sub-forty hour a week job. Even lightly loaded on the hotshot, he was costing the company money turning it into a sixty hour week screwing off around Chicago.

“You loaded?” Dex asked.

“Yeah~” Brandon smiled.

“Get the fuck outta my warehouse!” Dex ordered. He shoved the tickets into Brandon’s paws and stormed off, leaving Brandon to just watch him carry on handing out paperwork to his subordinates. Brandon frowned as he got into his messy van to leave.

Dex returned back to his desk, sat down, and put his head down for a moment.

“Good morning, Dex!” came the comanager. Dex lifted his head up to gaze at him.

“Can we talk about your cover sheet on the warehouse report?”

Dex put his head back down.

The clock inched towards four o’clock in the afternoon. Dex typed on his terminal, inputting an order for more raw stock from the Iowa sister plant. He entered the request and saved it to the system. His eyes glanced at the clock at the bottom right of his screen, seeing that he had just a few minutes left until he could go home. He saved his session and exited from the terminal and shut his system down. Then the phone on his desk rang. He let it ring one more time before he picked it up.

“Warehouse manager, Dexter speaking, how may I help you?”

“Uhh, hi, my name is Braxton Schuster and I’m returning your call regarding my application?” came a soft spoken voice. Dex immediately felt his gaydar go off.

“Oh yes, hello, it’s great to hear from you. I would like to find a time where I can sit down with you for an interview for employment. What times are you available this week?”

“Well I’m in college, so I could stop by in the morning before my afternoon class tomorrow. Would ten in the morning work?”

Dex rushed over to grab his scratch pad and pen. He jotted down his name, and time. “Yes I can! And I look forward to meeting with you.”

“Well thank so much for your time, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you then. Have a good evening. Bye-bye now.”

Dex hung the phone up and saw that it was finally four o’clock. He got up and grabbed his laptop bag to go punch out.

“Hey, Dex!” came Todd, one of the big shot salesmen. The bloodhound poked his head out from around his cubicle, phone in grip. “Where the fuck is Brandon at!? This customer was needing that paper like two hours ago!”

“Talk to Clyde!” Dex snapped back as he walked backwards. “That’s his best friend. He lets Brandon fuck around and do whatever!”

“This is unbelievable, Dex. Why the fuck do we put up with this retard!?”

“Zero accountability, that’s why. Kinda like how you can fuck everything up too and overpromise and underdeliver!” Dex quipped, which made Todd retreat back into his cubicle. Dex spun around, shoved his card into the machine and punched it. As he stowed it away, Jennifer approached, holding a folder for him.

“Hey Dexy, before you go, here’s that self-evaluation form for pay raises.”

“Oh thank god. Maybe this time if I suck up and say how great it is, how Saunders-Babbit makes rivers flow with chocolate, then maybe I’ll get a pay raise for once! Or my bonus back!”

“Pfft. If only.” Jennifer laughed.

“I’m so done with this, Jen. This company doesn’t care about anything. And I’m tired of it!” Dex complained before leaving for the exit. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you later, Dex.”

Dex left his workplace with the same burned out expression he carried in with him in the morning. The June afternoon was hot, and sweat moistened his forehead as he ran a paw through his dampened locks of hair. He was tired of having to play adult daycare every day, tired of hating his job. He wanted a change but he wasn’t sure where to go or what to do, especially not with the problems he faced in his personal life.

The malamute sometimes hated his commute home, as it gave him time to think about the frustrations ailing him. He was tired of dealing with work’s problems, and he was tired of his life feeling so empty. He could sleep with anyone he wanted, he could party, drink, and snort coke, and no matter what, he would feel the same way when alone. It was a weird empty feeling in his heart, a feeling of isolation, a longing of something better. He dreamed of having himself a boyfriend, a studly guy around his age, all sexy and gorgeous in his fantasies. He’d be perfect, hung, beautiful, with bedroom stamina that would make any gay jealous. But Dex never felt that he found that person. Did that person even exist? He wasn’t sure.

Making his way home, Dex grabbed his duffel bag with his gym clothes and quickly made his way for the car on the curb. He drove an old BMW, a twenty year old E36 that was white with black trim details. It had a rainbow flag and equality sticker on the back bumper that was slightly cracked on one corner. He took off for the bathhouse where he worked out at almost every other day during the week.

“Man’s World” was a pretty typical gay bathhouse, nestled in the heart of Boystown. It had everything Dex needed to work out and get his rocks off at the same place. He parked in the back, ventured in to sign in, and immediately headed to the locker room. He said hi to some familiar faces and quickly stripped down to take a much needed shower.

The shower room was a big square room with gang shower heads lining all the walls. There were some guys already in the process of taking a shower, or getting a bit more action as Dex entered. He walked up to his usual spot, turned it on and waited for it to get hot, and stepped into the stream to wash himself off. His reflection on the glass panels on the wall was fogged by steam as he washed his pelt down. His eyes wandered over to watch a yellow lab get railed by a beautiful young Rottweiler who was hung. He enjoyed what he saw. His chubby flopped about as he washed his fur off in the hot stream of water. Grabbing the shampoo, he squirted some in his paws and started rubbing it into his hair. He closed his eyes and massaged his scalp for a minute.

A set of arms wrapped around him playfully, and Dex felt a big set of paws rub his chest and stomach adoringly. A gentle kiss to the side of his head gave it away that it was the arrival of Ken, his regular at the baths. Ken was a big daddy malamute in his early fifties. He was a burly tattooed up bodybuilder type guy, who was married to a woman and in the closet. He gently pushed Dex’s paws aside and began massaging his scalp for him. “How’s it goin’, sexy Dexy?”

“Even better now that you’re here, gorgeous~” Dex chuckled. He dipped his head under the shower to wash all the soap away. He opened his eyes at the fellow gray and white malamute, who smiled at him, put those beefy arms around him and pulled him into a kiss. Dex felt as though he was melting away as he played with his tongue in that passionate kiss.

“Room two-twelve, sexy~” Ken whispered to him.

“Sure thing.”

Finishing up, Dex dried himself off with a soft white towel embroidered with the baths’ logo on it. He concluded with a few final dabs to his face before he threw on his red and black jockstrap, his only attire working out.

Walking to the private rooms, his eyes wandered left and right down the hallway. There was some visible fucking, guys lying face down or face up awaiting anyone to hook up with, and the occasional grunt and groan mixed with porn playing. Dex turned and stopped at Room 212. He gave the door a knock, and watched it open, revealing that beautiful daddy, bathed in red light. He extended a paw, gently grabbed Dex’s and pulled him into his arms for another deep kiss. The door swung shut.

Under the glow of the red lights, Dex and Ken fucked. Doggy style for awhile, and then missionary, where Dex locked lips with him in a passionate fuck session with lots of caressing. The big daddy took care of his needs with his hungness and deep groan of pleasure when he came.

Dex laid on his back, panting from the sensation as Ken pulled out and got up off the vinyl padded bed. He wiped his dick down with a towel, which he tossed at Dex with a smile. The daddy put his clothes back on and left without saying a word. Dex wiped his buttocks off and sat on the bed for a moment in reflection of what had happened, and how good it felt to be caressed and kissed like that. After a moment of thought, he got up to go work out.

The sun hung low over the Chicago skyline, the shadows cast long in the fading light of the day. Dex returned back home and rumbled up to his parking spot in front of his apartment door. He hopped out, walked over, and fetched his duffel bag from the passenger seat. As he fumbled around getting it maneuvered and unstuck, he heard some laughter from some kids, which made him turn his head to his right to see a couple young kids run ahead of their two fathers.

“Hey wait up!” a bearish wolf laughed, his voice all rugged sounding. “You’ll trip and bust your head, Billy-Bob!”

“Sorry Dad!” the kid giggled.

Dex tried his best to ignore them; he did not feel comfortable around kids. They were loud, unpredictable, and awkward. He locked his car and went inside.

For dinner, Dex made himself a salad and grilled a chicken breast. He sat at his round table, slowly chewing on romaine lettuce and a chunk of chicken. He was frugal with food, as he tried to maintain his looks for the scene. He finished dinner, placed the plate in the dishwasher, and took a multivitamin and a supplement, which he downed with a glass of water that was soon placed in the dishwasher as well. The malamute ventured upstairs and turned the lamp on in his colorful bedroom. The walls were a cheerful yellow and his bed was covered in purple sheets and a blanket. A rainbow pride flag hung from his window.

Stripping down to just his snug blue briefs, the tattooed up dog laid down on his bed and reached for the remote. He turned on the TV and flipped through some stations; the news was boring, sitcoms were too straight and too predictable for his liking. There was nothing to watch, so he switched it off. He sat on his bed and sent some texts to his friends, bragging about his latest escapades at the baths. He opened up his hookup app and scrolled the maps for any cute guys. It wasn’t particularly hard living in the heart of gayville. Dex was surrounded by horny men craving a fuck or two. He checked his messages, and sure enough, half of what he sent out was deleted. He hated the “conversation deleted” tag next to a cutie’s icon. Clearing those out, he read messages from out of their league, desperate fools trying for his attention. Out of shape, old, weird and eccentric guys always tried for the inked up doggo, only to get their hopes crushed.

He saw a message from a regular who he chatted with from time to time. He wasn’t his type; some young inexperienced wolf in his early thirties, new and “looking for his tribe”. But he was friendly enough, and Dex liked to chat with him when he was bored and looking for some fresh meat. He sent a hello and wished him well as he explored the map. He sent two friendly inquiries to a young Rottweiler with long brown dreads, and a twinky wolf who was his age. An incoming text pulled him away as he talked about Ken and a dude he sucked off at the baths. When he returned to the app, he saw replies. Dex’s face grew a frown.

“You too old yo.” Came a message from the Rottweiler. Dex shook his head.

“Not interested.” The wolf responded.

Dex deleted both of them. “Fuck it.” He hissed to himself.

Tossing the phone aside, Dex got up and opened the lid to his suitcase sized record player. He walked to his bookshelf and looked at his slowly growing vinyl collection. He was feeling some Elton John, and grabbed one of his LP’s, which he gingerly slid out of the packaging and placed on the turntable. He gently dropped the needle onto the blue vinyl and heard the gentle pop-hiss on the speakers. “Nikita” started to play as Dex laid back down on his bed.

Staring up at the ceiling, Dex listened to Elton John sing, and felt the cool air conditioned air gently waft against his almost nude body.

“Hey Nikita, is it cold

In your little corner of the world?

You could roll around the globe

And never find a warmer soul to know

Oh, I saw you by the wall

Ten of your tin soldiers in a row

With eyes that looked like ice on fire”

Closing his eyes, Dex dreamed of his dream man. He envisioned a studly daddy figure like that Ken guy, that sexy daddymute that was tattooed up like himself, talented in bed, studly, loving, and not the dime-a-dozen assholes that saturate the gay scene. He dreamed of those paws caressing him, those lips kissing him, all that attention he gave him, with the love he had for the wife he was cheating on. He wished he could find someone who’d love him, and take the pain away he faced. He felt so isolated when not cruising or partying, or fucking. He didn’t have his family as they were all estranged. He really wanted someone to just love him, to give him that intimacy.

Tears gently moistened his closed eyes.

Streetlights glowed as Dex made it to the street from the subway stop. The morning was cool in the CMD, and Dex made his way to work as he always did. He made it about one block when his phone rang, his boss calling him.

“Hey Clyde.”

“Dexter, I wanted to let you know that you got two calls off today.”

“Oh boy.”

“Tim called in sick, and Jack called off again.”

“Surprise.”

“Heh, yeah. So you’ll have to help Justin in the warehouse.”

“I figured that. Alright. Thanks.”

Dex put his phone away and shook his head in disgust. He hated his job.

Arriving at the office, Dex made his way inside, got situated at his desk, and grabbed his work gloves. He went and fetched paperwork, dropped his employee self-evaluation off at the mailbox on Clyde’s door, and went to the warehouse. He hopped onto one of the red and gray Toyota forklifts and fired it up as he looked at his load list for what truck. He popped the forklift into drive and spun it around to go fetch some palletized reams of paper. Working with his subordinate Justin, they got the trucks loaded up with the paper reams. As he drove back to get another pallet, he saw Brandon approach all happy-go-lucky as normal.

“Morning, Dex!”

“Get your shit loaded and get the fuck out!” Dex shouted as he drove by. Brandon looked all puzzled.

Nobody at work could say anything negative about Dex. He could be brusk about all the problems in the company, but he worked hard, and got problems solved in the warehouse. Dex liked most of his subordinates, but he was distant to his coworkers in general; while bubbly and warm in the scene, Dex was colder and distant to his straight counterparts. He felt that he had to, in order to survive. His coming out experience was a reminder to that.

As Dex worked, he kept glancing over at Brandon milling about, goofing around, and not loading his van up in a timely manner. Every time Dex drove by with a load, he saw Brandon chatting with someone, or beebopping his way around with a blank blissful stare on his face. One hour soon became two hours, with the van barely loaded with paper and office products.

“Hey!” Dex yelled. He pulled up beside Brandon and parked the forklift. “What the hell are you doing!? Running a marathon?”

“I’m thinking!” Brandon exclaimed.

“Well think while loading your van! You should be on the road by now, you have a busy day!” Dex ordered. “I’m tired of you milking the fucking clock!”

“I don’t milk the clock, buddy!” Brandon exclaimed.

“Oh you don’t milk the clock…” laughed the malamute. “You do realize you work a sub forty-hour a week job, correct? I used to drive this piece of shit, and I could get all my shit delivered, loaded back up, and still work in the warehouse! This is unacceptable, Brandon. Get the damn lead out!”

Brandon frowned and walked away with a sulky pace. Dex got so frustrated, he pulled the lift over, and went back inside the office with a quick pace to go confront his boss.

In twenty-one years of working at Saunders-Babbit, Dex had come to the cynical conclusion that the company’s motto was “mediocre is good enough”. Everything seemed to be backwards at the paper company; never before had he seen a place where if workers screwed up, there was no consequences, no accountability to anything. If you sucked at your job, you got a pay raise. Dex was even told in his face by a big wig from the corporate office that “we pick bottom of the barrel for low prices- everyone’s a number here”. It always made him wonder why he stuck around for so long. He liked having weekends off, and in the end, it wasn’t a terribly hard place to work at. Dex had started when he was still in college. He worked in the warehouse, and then drove the hotshot for a time, went into sales for a few years, and then back to the warehouse, before being promoted to the warehouse manager, a position he had held for seven years.

But yet it felt like everything worked against him. He could yell at Brandon for being incompetent, but could be punish him? No matter what, Dex could never make a punishment stick to him, or anyone. He was constantly overruled by his apathetic boss, who only got the job because of nepotism. He was the lowest paid manager in the company, a major resentment for the past couple of years. When he became a manager, he got a higher bonus, which off-set the low hourly wage, but a cost restructuring in 2020 terminated his bonus. Now the company was hiring people who got paid a dollar more than him, something he loathed. But other careers around Chicago didn’t sound any better, and thus he stuck around.

Stepping into Clyde’s office, Dex closed the door behind him. “You got a moment?”

“Yeah~” Clyde said, looking up from his desk. Dex sat down opposite of him.

“I need to talk to you about Brandon, because this is getting ridiculous.” The malamute started off. “He’s got seven deliveries today that need three trips across Chicagoland and he’s still not out the damn door and it’s been two and a half hours!”

“What’s he doing?”

“He’s wandering around looking like a dipshit just dicking around, wasting time. He needs to get his shit and go. I’m sick and tired of him milking the fucking clock and wasting payroll.”

“I don’t like it either~”

“Then get rid of the doofus!” Dex snapped. “I have a potential driver interview after my ten o’clocker, and if he works out and can get a background check and drug check passed, I want Brandon fired! I’m tired of it! I’m tired of him screwing everything up. He’s screwed up in every single department he’s been put in. Production, warehouse, hotshot, sales, you name it.”

Clyde inhaled through clenched teeth, looking hesitant. “Ohhhh man, Dex, I don’t know how I feel on that… I’d be hard pressed to fire Vlockner because he shows up to work.”

Dex stared at Clyde with a blank expression. “So if I just show up work, that’s all that matters? I can just sit at my desk all day and do nothing, then that’s good enough?”

“Well no, I’d give you shit for that~” Clyde responded.

“What the hell do you think Brandon is doing all day!?” Dex exclaimed. “He works a sub forty-hour a week job. That job has to be no more than thirty-hours driving, and then the rest in the warehouse, like what I did when I drove the van years ago. And he’s getting sixty, seventy hours! It’s crazy.”

“I’ll say something.”

“Sure.”

Dex left the office looking frustrated. He knew Clyde wasn’t going to say anything. Brandon was practically his best friend. Dex sat back down at his desk and signed off on his load sheets and stowed them away.

At ten o’clock, Dex brushed the dust off his polo and grabbed the application of Braxton Schuster. He gave it a quick read through as he glanced at the clock. His telephone on the desk rang and Dex picked it up.

“Dex~”

“Hey, you got your applicant here. Do you want me to send him your way?”

“Sure. I’ll be right up.”

Dex got up with the folder in his grip. He casually walked up and rounded the corner in the hallway to see his applicant at the entrance. Standing before him was a slightly chubby gray wolf, who wore a pair of nice jeans with a blue polo shirt. He had a neatly trimmed beard and tousled hair that was dark brown. He looked to be no older than twenty-two. Dex felt like he had seen that person before somewhere.

“Good morning, welcome, nice of you to join us.” Dex said, a smile forming on his face. He held a paw out and the wolf accepted.

“Morning~” he smiled back. He had a very soft voice, in contrast to his stocky frame. “I’m Braxton.”

“I’m Dexter, but you can call me Dex. Why don’t you come with me to the conference room.” Dex motioned.

Braxton and Dex walked to the big glass lined conference room. Dex closed the door behind him and sat down at the table for a conference. It was a pretty standard interview; Dex asked some generic questions, went over his resume and what the warehouse job entitled. As he talked to Braxton, he kept pondering where he saw this wolf from before. Some of his mannerisms screamed “gay” to him, yet he had a masculine streak in his appearance. He almost looked like someone he had seen before at a gay bar one evening. But faces all blended together under the haze of some alcohol and a few lines of coke. After finishing some final questioning, Dex offered Braxton the job. He filled out a drug test form, asked him to go visit a medical lab a few miles down the road, and filled out a background check request form. Braxton signed his copies and gave them back to Dex. He would be working part-time in the morning. Dex shook his paw and wished him well before leaving. A smile was on Dex’s face as he watched the young wolf depart, his mind still wondering where he saw him in Boystown.

After interviewing his second applicant and offering him the driving job, Dex went back to work in the warehouse, where the day went by quickly. At four o’clock he departed and went back home to change and spend the evening with his friends Trey, Paul, Johnny, and Lenny. The four, all flamboyantly dressed in colorful short shorts and tanktops, ventured off to hang out together for the evening.

They all paid a visit to the STD clinic for their regular check-ups. Dex and his friends got checked over, and their PrEP prescriptions refilled, and off they went for some drinks and dinner. The big malamute found himself sipping a wine cooler at an outdoor eatery on North Halsted. A rainbow bandage covered the spot where he got a vaccination shot at.

“So what’s new at work?” Trey asked curiously.

“It’s the same shit, different day, gurl~” Dex laughed. “I need a new career.”

“Oh I feel you there.” Paul nodded. The other malamute nibbled on a chip. “Your place sounds like a hot mess.”

“I wouldn’t mind if it burned down!” Dex laughed morbidly. “Especially if Brandon, Jack, and Clyde were inside it!”

“Well it’s full of paper so….” Trey giggled.

“I was told recently… a coworker said I looked unhappy… uhh?” Dex rolled his eyes. “What’s there to be happy about my job? That I get paid less than newcomers when we do get them to come in and work for us, that my sales department has the collective IQ of a fruit fly? That there is zero accountability for anything?”

The Doberman leaned in. “So you mean like you could like anything and get away with it?” Johnny asked.

“Basically! Outside of blatantly stealing, you could.” Dex scoffed. “I lost a really great warehouse worker when he was struck by a forklift a few years ago. Dipshit from the production side comes barreling in and slides in a turn and nails Brent and sent him flying. He broke both his legs and had to learn how to walk all over again. There was no drug testing, no investigation, nothing! When Brent came back several months later, they made him retake his forklift safety training and he stormed off.”

“Wow…” Johnny laughed. “That’s really fucked up!”

“I know right?” Dex remarked with an exclaimed expression on his face. “It’s fucking bullshit! I need a new career… but man… I’m getting old… I don’t want to change.”

“Now you sound like my Dad.” Trey laughed, the white wolf grinning as he sipped his drink. His effeminate voice attempted to make an impression of his rugged, masculine father griping about his job but sticking with it.

“Well at least you have your Dad…” Dex admitted, a frown forming. “I try not to think about it.”

“Oh sweetie, I know…” Trey frowned.

“Going on fourteen years.” Dex sighed lightly. “Fuck ‘em. If they couldn’t love me for who I am, then what’s the point?”

“Exactly!” they all exclaimed.

“Oh maybe someday I can just be me at work and I don’t have to be drab Dex.” The malamute shrugged. “Oh you never know. Pfft, knowing my luck, I’d be fired for being gay! Never mind the constant fuck ups everywhere.”

“Honey, it’ll get better, trust me.” Lenny quipped, the black wolf smiling sympathetically. “You just need to sleep with the right daddy with the right connections to make that happen!”

“I need a perfect daddy to sweep me off my feet!” Dex exclaimed as they all laughed.

“Right!”

Two Weeks Later

It was the last day of June, and a morning thunderstorm rumbled over Chicagoland. Lightning flashed through the tumultuous storm clouds that hung over in a slate colored sky. Big, angry raindrops down poured as Dex closed the dock door. It rolled shut as he watched the semi take off in the downpour.

Going back to his work in the warehouse, the big malamute helped Justin and Braxton shrink wrap another pallet of paper reams for shipment. Justin, a middle-aged red Doberman helped stack another row of paper boxes with Braxton. The malamute walked around with his big roll of shrink wrap to seal the next level, the process repeating. He was impressed by Braxton, who was already showing his worth. Just behind him, Dex watched in annoyance as Brandon continued to dick around and joke with Jack, another useless employee. Their new driver, hired to drive the other van was already on his way, leaving the space next to the single cab Silverado, empty.

“There’s the last one.” Braxton said as he took the shrink wrap from Dex and sealed the top. Before putting the final two wraps on, Justin put the manifest copy that he signed off, under the wrap. Dex shoved the pallet jack under the skid and wheeled it around to stow it in the delivery outbound region marked on the warehouse floor.

“I notice this paper is kinda shit.” Braxton joked with Justin. “No wonder why they give it to us for free!”

“Pfft. I wouldn’t even use this shit if you paid me.” The Doberman laughed cynically.

“Well I tried to print a paper off for class and it jammed the printer up, like it’s just so flimsy?” Braxton remarked as he brushed his manicured beard with his right paw.

Dex walked back with the jack wheeled behind him. “This is the cheapest paper around. I call it ‘government copy’ because it’s the crap the IRS uses or something. Half my pens don’t work on it, and it bleeds like no other paper.”

“That too.” Braxton shook his head. “I was trying to print a poster design for the Dragons Rugby team for my friend.”

“Dragons Rugby?” Justin asked. “Isn’t that that gay sports team?”

“Yeah~” Braxton nodded.

Dex raised a brow.

Braxton explained how he had a friend who was on the team, and he supported them because he was gay and liked sports. Dex got confirmation on his gaydar suspicions. He was interested in hearing that Braxton was openly gay, because he didn’t dress all flamboyant. He was off limits; Dex did not dare do anything that could cause a conflict of interest. He went to move another pallet as he listened to Justin talk about his days playing baseball back in high school.

“Hey, are you loaded up yet, Brandon?” Dex asked the brown wolf.

“No.” He said with a cheeky smile.

Dex’s face drew a blank expression. He shook his head in disdain. “You have four tiny deliveries and they’re not loaded yet? Brandon, I wanna talk to you.”

The malamute crossed his arms as Brandon looked on uneasily.

“Do you not realize how bad John is making you look? He’s brand new, been driving for just a week now, and he’s doing circles around your route! He’s getting twelve, fifteen deliveries done a day to your five that you can barely do! Do you not realize that this is not a forty-hour job? This is a sub-forty hour a week job! I used to drive this van, and I got deliveries done in record time, and worked in the warehouse! And you’re doing this job and getting sixty hours a damn week! You look incompetent!”

“I don’t care…” Brandon frowned.

“Well you should! If this was a normal company, you’d be gone!” Dex hissed. “Now get your shit loaded and get the fuck outta my warehouse!”

Brandon stormed off sulking. Dex shook his head and went back to the office to turn paperwork in. As he walked down the corridor, one of the salesman came running up to him, manifest fluttering in his grip. The ginger furred wolf looked all frantic as usual, another last minute special by John McClure.

“Hey! Can Brandon take this!? Can he take this? I promised the customer last night they’d get it today!”

Dex shook his head and looked at the manifest. “Well we don’t have any of these legal pads at all in stock, and I’ve told you about this, twice.”

“We don’t!?”

“For the third time, no. The sister plant does not have any of these made in enough quantity to ship yet, so now I gotta go unfuck this with the truck and pick these up from Minooka! Because John McTurd doesn’t know what he’s doing!”

The wolf frowned.

“If you go into the order inventory and hit two, enter, six, you’ll pull up the inventory, which has read zero for a month now. And you printed this last night at one minute before closing and expected this to be first out. You’re a god damn stupid ass.”

Dex turned and stormed out with the paperwork. He walked back over to Justin and Braxton, who were working on another pallet of paper.

“Hey are any of you interested in riding with me to help me grab some boxes of legal pads for McTurd? I gotta head an hour to our sister plant in Minooka.”

“I’ll go~” Braxton volunteered. “If that’s fine Justin?”

The Doberman shrugged. “I’ve been fucked at this place for years, so I’ll live.”

“I’ll try and take care of this quickly.” Dex assured.

“Well I know you’ll move faster than dipshit over there.”

Dex saw Brandon still dicking around, and the malamute shook his head in disgust. “Come on, Braxton. Let’s go~”

Dex unlocked and climbed aboard the company one-ton, a six year old white Silverado, a single-cab 3500 with a camper shell on its long bed. Braxton climbed in, buckled up with Dex and they took off into the rain. Justin closed the clamshell door as they disappeared into the rain.

Moving away over the lake, the dark storm clouds gave way to clear blue skies. Sunlight began to poke over the towering clouds, making I-80 glisten as Dex and Braxton made their way west to the Minooka plant. The malamute sat back in his seat, his tattooed arm resting on the window sill as he drove one handed. Braxton sat playing around on his phone as some music played on the radio.

Braxton put his phone down and glanced over at Dex who stared ahead through his reflective dark sunglasses. “Hey, Dex~”

“Yeah~” he responded in a quiet tone.

“So I don’t know how to approach this without being awkward, but are you gay?”

Dex sucked on his lower lip a bit.

“I was just curious because I recall I thought I saw you a couple times when I was around Boystown with my friend. I just… don’t want it to be…”

“Awkward? Heh, heh.” Dex said, a cheeky smile momentarily forming on his face. “Yeah, I’m gay. And no, I’m not going to have sex with you due to a conflict of interest in my roles with the company.”

“Whoa, whoa, not that far.” Laughed Braxton. “I was just curious because I notice you don’t talk much about yourself at work?”

“What’s there to talk about?” he asked. “I’m there to make money, not friends. My friends are all in Boystown.”

“Ah.” Braxton nodded. “Well I recall seeing you dance with your friends and you’re quite the dancer, and I think your tattoos look cool~”

“It was a labor of love.” Dex chuckled. “I don’t talk much about myself because I don’t think work would understand me. I don’t think my guys would respect me if their manager sounded like this…”

Braxton heard Dex raise his pitch up a bit and add a lisp.

“Would you take orders from someone who sounded like this, gurl?”

“Whoa~” Braxton remarked. “Well, maybe?”

“You see the brain-dead coworkers you got?”

“Well there’s a lot of interesting personalities that’s for sure…”

“Ha, that’s an understatement.” The malamute laughed.

“I get the feeling that most people don’t know you, Dex. The real Dex.”

“Yeah, I get that. And it’s best that they don’t.” Dex remarked. “Here is the thing, Braxton. I’m gay, and I’ve been through a lot in my younger years that have made me who I am now at forty-two. I’ve seen and been through some shit with people. I learned that straight people will never truly understand the gay life, because they look at everything we do through their viewpoint.”

“Which is a heteronormative worldview further biased by our nation’s puritanical roots.” Braxton chimed in, which impressed Dex.

“Wow, you’re good with your words.”

“Well I’m a history major at school.” Braxton laughed. “I also like psychology.”

“So you’re out of the closet?”

“Yep!” Braxton smiled. “I came out when I was fourteen. My family is happy, and that’s what matters to me… but man… I notice an at-times icy reception from other gay guys…”

“Welcome to gay town.” Dex chuckled. “Where nothing is good enough.”

“So I notice.”

“Do not take this the wrong way when I say it, but a lot of guys probably take issue with you being stocky.”

“Well, I like food.” Braxton laughed. “Guilty!”

“Heh, I’ve been rejected because I’m ‘too big’.”

“Really, Dex?”

The malamute nodded.

“Wow.”

“I’m two-twenty, and I work out all the time, take supplements, and watch what I eat, and I’m still too big for some twinks. I can get a lot of guys, but the gay village is full of flakes, full of unrealistic, and broken dreams by broken guys.”

“I see.”

“Or I’m just old. Guys are turned off by us in our forties because youth mean everything.”

“But you look great~”

“Gay death!” Dex laughed.

Braxton laughed. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. “So you got any tips for a newbie trying to find his way in this?”

“Well first off, you got a doctor right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d talk to him about getting prep, and getting familiar with testing facilities for STD’s. Now you do you, and you do what makes you feel comfortable, so if you wanna bareback? You need prep and getting tested a lot. That’s what I do. The most important thing I can’t stress enough to a newbie trying to get guys in bed is this- if it doesn’t make you comfortable, then don’t do it. If you’re not comfortable, sex is going to suck. Badly. If something doesn’t feel right or comfortable it’s okay to say no, and if they don’t like it? Fuck ‘em!”

“Exactly!” Braxton nodded. “I’m just me, Dex. I don’t want to play a part.”

“Eh. Sometimes people do. And sometimes you have to.” Dex concluded. “And what is said in this truck doesn’t leave this truck, you got me?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good.”

Braving the heat and humidity, Dex made his way after work to the store. Changing from his drab work attire to a matching getup of orange shorts, tanktop, and backwards turned hat, Dex walked over to his favorite local market to buy some things to make dinner for two. The malamute walked with a cheerful step; he looked genuinely content after a surprisingly good day at work. Yeah there were the usual headaches from everyone, but Dex had a great day thanks to his new buddy at work, Braxton.

As he walked, he thought about his conversation he had with the young wolf on their travels to and from the Minooka plant. He was a fresh, new voice, and quite insightful despite his callowness. He wanted to know this young man more, and invited him to come over for dinner after his class.

There was a small grocery store he liked on North Halsted , and shopped there regularly. With pride flags adoring the front, Dex entered through the sliding glass door, and proceeded to smile and wave at the friendly faces familiar with his presence. He grabbed a hand basket and walked the aisles grabbing what he needed to make dinner. A few root vegetables, a head of lettuce, some sauces. He ventured over to the butcher to grab a couple steaks.

“Heya!” Dex smiled warmly.

“Oh hey!” smiled back a young yellow lab dressed in a white apron. “How are you doing, sexy Dexy?”

“Fantastic~” the malamute exclaimed. “You got any of those t-bones in?”

“Oh yeah we do~”

“I’ll take two, please.”

The lab went to the cooler and came out with two thick steaks, which he wrapped in wax paper and plastic wrap. He weighed them and rang out the bill for Dex. “You’re looking really happy on a work week, Dexy?”

“Well I got a friend at work for once.” He admitted, which impressed the lab.

“Oh really! Is he cute?” the lab giggled.

Dex smirked. “He’s just a friend, Colin~”

“Aww, come on!” laughed the dog.

“Conflict of interest~” Dex chuckled. “But he’s wonderful.”

“Good! I’m so glad to see you happy for once at work!”

“Uhh, honey, let’s not go that far!” Dex laughed as he waved and departed. As he walked for the checkout lane, he grabbed a cheap bottle of sparkling wine from a side stack and checked out at the register. He left with two bags in his grip as he returned to the sunshine and heat to make his way home.

“Heyyyyyyyy, Dexy!” came Lenny. The slender black wolf came running up, similarly dressed like Dex but in bright blue. “What’s going on?”

“Dinner!” Dex laughed.

“Oh dinner, eh? Well later we’re all heading out for some drinks if you wanna come.”

“Oh, not tonight, I’m having company over.”

“Company you say? Who’s this cutie.” The black wolf grinned teasingly.

“A coworker.”

Lenny’s smile faded. “A… coworker? I thought you didn’t fuck coworkers?”

Dex laughed. “No, not like that. Someone I actually like as a friend.”

“Is he cute at least?”

“Stocky wolf, bit of a muffin top.”

“Ehhhh… not really my thing~”

“He’s a nice guy, so why not.”

“Sympathy sex?”

“Pffft. C’mon, gurl!” Dex laughed with Lenny. “See you around~”

“See ya!”

Carrying a plate with the two heavily seasoned steaks, Dex stepped out onto his back porch to check on the glowing bed of coals in his grill. He blew some of the soot away, watching some embers spark up and the coals grow more red from his breath. He tossed both thick t-bones on the coals directly, and began the count to cook them. Dex stood on his back porch and admired the pink and white petunias he had growing in containers all around. It brought a smile to his face. As the steaks cooked, he went inside to check on his vegetables roasting in the oven, and see how the bottle of champagne was cooling in its bucket of ice. He went back outside to watch the grill and answer a text from Lenny and Trey. They were telling him about the place where they were drinking at, and all the cute guys they were seeing. Dex was amused.

At six o’clock, the doorbell rang, and Dex walked over to answer it, finding Braxton at his doorstep. The young wolf was casually dressed in a gray t-shirt and a pair of blue gym shorts.

“Come on in~” Dex said in a calm voice. “Welcome to my abode.”

“Oh wow.” Braxton remarked. “This is a beautiful place.”

“Thanks. I like some color.” The malamute chuckled. “Dinner’s just about ready, so you’re just in time.”

“Well I like to be punctual.” Braxton said as he took a seat at the table.

Dex brought over the salad bowl, and the tray of roasted vegetables. Fetching them from the oven, Dex placed a steak on Braxton’s plate, and then his own. He remarked that it was a special treat for himself to have a nice steak. Dex poured Braxton a glass of champagne and then himself and sat down.

“You’ve really done a lot.” Braxton remarked as he cut into his steak.

“What can I say? I like to cook.” Dex shrugged as he grabbed some steak sauce. “How did your classes go?”

“Boring.” Laughed the wolf. “I had hoped to take the summer off, but they fucked something up spring semester, so I have to take some classes to unfuck that, so here I am.”

“Heh, I remember my college days.” Dex chuckled. “That was a long time ago.”

“When did you go to college?”

“I graduated in ninety-seven, and that’s when I left Biloxi to come here to Chicago.” Dex explained.

“Oh you’re not from Chicago?”

“I’m a Mississippian. If you can believe that.” Dex smiled. “But I’ve lived in Chicago longer than I ever lived back home. I got the fuck outta dodge when I could. I worked hard to get that scholarship to Northwestern.”

“Oh neat. I’m at a community college.” Braxton laughed. “Something to write home about!”

“Hey, it’s school.” The malamute shrugged.

“True.”

Dex took a slow sip of his drink and sat it back down. “So you’re completely out to your family?”

“Yep!” the wolf smiled confidently. “I came out when I was fourteen.”

“Look at you all brave.”

“I decided then I wasn’t going to live a lie, so I told my parents, and they were fine with it.” Braxton explained. “Can’t say I wasn’t scared or anything, but my parents were friends with our lesbian neighbors, so I figured they probably didn’t have an issue with gays or anything.”

“You’re a lucky one. You sound like you have an awesome family.”

“We try.” The wolf laughed as he cut himself another chunk of steak.

“I haven’t talked to my family in fourteen years.” Dex admitted. “The last time we talked was around Christmas 2007.”

“Wow.”

“I won’t say that my family is hateful? They’re just… ignorant… ignorant of gayness, my gayness specifically.” Dex explained. “My Dad is or was a factory worker, and my Mom worked as a casino secretary. I have four younger siblings- two brothers and two sisters.”

“I have an older brother and a sister. I’m the baby of the family.” Braxton added.

“My parents took my coming out okay I guess when I told them over the phone. They were shocked that I could be gay. I wasn’t shocked! I did bad in sports and was a much more artistic and creative than my siblings that’s for sure~” Dex chuckled. “But they never really accepted it. They would always make remarks about they worried about my health, or my father say he wouldn’t want me bringing a man home for the holidays, and I finally got tired of it and told them I was done and I cut ties.”

“That’s harsh.”

“That’s another life lesson, Braxton. Never let toxic people steal your joy.” Dex pointed out. “Don’t let anyone steal your joy. And just because people are family, doesn’t mean they can push your boundaries.”

“Yeah.” The wolf nodded.

Dex looked away for a moment with a reflective gaze as he grabbed his bubbly drink and sipped at it slowly.

“You said you’ve been through a lot?” Braxton asked curiously. Dex nodded.

“I came to Chicago in ninety-seven thinking it was going to be this liberating experience, and it’s been quite an experience. Dead-end career for two decades, and it took me years to find my circle of friends here to go clubbing with.”

“Oh yeah?”

Dex nodded. “I said you shouldn’t take rejection personally, but sometimes it’s hard to do when it feels like it happens all the time. When I was younger, I tried to find my place in the gay village and I was rejected for a bunch of ridiculous reasons. I was too fat, too tall, too stocky, hair color didn’t look right, not enough tattoos, too many tattoos, dick being too big, dick being pierced, dick not uncut, too masculine, too feminine, not slutty enough, too slutty, the list goes on and on. I guess it’s just why I’m the way I am. What you see at work and what you see in the clubs are two different versions of me to blend in.”

“That… doesn’t seem really healthy?” Braxton remarked out of concern. “In psychology class we call that masking. Why not just be you?”

“I don’t know what the real Dex is after nearly thirty-years.” The malamute shrugged. “Is it the dour, always pissed off office worker to an incompetent company? The slutty clubber who likes dick in both ends? Or the former Mississippi boy with a Mississippi drawl that I cleansed from my vernacular? I’ve had to adapt to survive.”

“I think someone somewhere would appreciate the real Dex. I would.” Smiled Braxton.

“Heh, well you go find him for me.” Laughed the malamute cynically.

“I just try and be me. What you see is what you get.” Braxton pointed at himself. “Maybe it’ll be tougher in Boystown… but it might pay off in the end.”

“Like I said. People are perfectionists and nobody is ever good enough for unrealistic expectations.”

The clock on Dex’s nightstand struck eight o’clock. Dex laid in his bed on his back, an arm resting behind his head and a leg propped up as he talked to Braxton, who sat in a plush chair by the record player as they listened to some music in the background.

“What do you dream about?” Braxton asked curiously.

“Like what?” Dex asked.

“Like do you dream about your future? Goals?”

“Well I dream for a new career that would be an improvement over this current clown show.” Dex chuckled.

“Heh, don’t we all?” Braxton chuckled. “I dream that I’ll be successful.”

“Aim high and go for it~” Dex nodded.

“I also dream about my dream boyfriend. You got yourself a dream man, Dex?”

“I have an idea of what I want, and I play with a dude in the baths who is pretty damn close… but alas, it’ll never happen.”

“Why?” Braxton curiously asked. “I want a boyfriend a few years older than me, who’s successful and not a piece of shit.”

“Why? Because I’m a cumdump and everyone knows it, and when everyone knows you’re a cumdump, then you get treated like one. See, Braxton, you’re boyfriend material. You’re smart and wholesome, and your personality is down to earth. You’ll do fine I’m sure. I fucked myself over doing stupid shit over the years, and now it’s kind of like, here I am if I want to get hot guys.”

“Ah.” The wolf nodded. “That seems kind of unhealthy, no offense.”

Dex shrugged. “I’m on prep, I get tested every three months.”

“Again, I think there’s more to you than what you allow people to see. You’re smart, and you’re considerate to this baby gay!”

“Ha~ You’re my subordinate and I like you because you actually work.” Dex chuckled with a smile. He got up, turned and sat the edge of his bed.

The wolf smiled. “What can I say?”

“You’ll find yourself a boyfriend, I know it.”

“Well there is a guy who I do find pretty hot who’s on the rugby team. I wouldn’t mind wanting to know him more…”

“Go for it~ Worse that’ll happen is him saying no~”

“You think so?”

“Never know until you try~”

“I’ll see about that when I go to the next game with my friend~” Braxton smiled. “Thanks, Dex! I think I best get going home to finish up some homework and go to bed.”

“Don’t want to be late for work!” laughed the malamute as he stood up and stretched. He walked over and gave Braxton a hug. “Thanks for the company tonight~

Braxton put his arms around the stocky malamute and hugged him tightly. “Thanks for the dinner, Dex.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled. “Have a good night.”

Braxton wished him well and departed down the steps for the exit. Dex peered out the window and watched Braxton walk off in the fading light of the day for his car to depart. Dex stretched his tattooed arms and laid back down on his purple sheathed bed. He laid there and stared up at the ceiling, feeling rather content. Braxton was a very good conversationalist, and he liked that the young wolf was very intelligent. It was nice to have a meaningful conversation.

Dex fumbled his brow. Why couldn’t his circle of friends be like that?

Bright and early, Dex showed up to work at his normal time. He punched his time card in and went to his desk to sort through some paperwork, his normal routine. Going into the warehouse, he grumbled at the presence of Brandon’s van as he walked by.

“Hey Dex, you won’t believe who called off again today…” chuckled Justin. “So I’m stuck with all this shit today.”

“What’s new?” Dex sarcastically muttered as he glanced at the load lists. “These motherfuckers… Jesus Christ.”

“One person cannot do this shit all day!” Justin griped. “And look at dum-dum Mark here…”

Dex turned around to watch one of the production crews come screeching around a near-blind turn with a load of freshly cut paper reams. The malamute shook his head and walked over to confront him.

“MARK!” Dex shouted. “You’re driving like a fucking idiot! Slow the fuck down!”

“I’m in a hurry!” the short beagle exclaimed.

“You’ll kill someone!” Dex shouted. “Slow the fuck down or you’ll do a Brent again!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” the beagle laughed.

Dex shook his head as he stormed off.

“Stupid motherfucker~” The Doberman shook his head.

“Morning, Dex!” greeted Braxton with a smile as he entered the warehouse. Dex had a smile immediately come to his face.

“Hey, morning!” Dex greeted warmly. “I’ll be one second.”

Going back into the office, Dex stopped to use the bathroom and ventured up to grab the load sheets. His boss Clyde stepped out from his office.

“Morning, Dexter, what’s up?”

“Sky, trees, and stars~” the malamute quipped as Clyde handed him two job applicant’s resumes.

“I want you to look at these and reach out and get back to me because I want Jack replaced, pronto.”

“Wow, you mean, someone actually being held accountable for something?” Dex laughed. “Holy shit.”

“Well he’s never here~” the husky shrugged. “And when he is here he doesn’t do anything.”

“Speaking of that, where’s Brandon at? Usually his dumbass waltzes in around this time.”

“Oh Brandon took the rest of the week off.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Brandon felt overworked, so he took the rest of the week off. I mean, he never takes time off, so he earned it.”

“Overworked?” Dex remarked. “He takes lots of time off! When he’s out and about Chicago fucking around with the van!”

Clyde just shrugged. “Hey, did you get the memo about-“

Dex heard a tremendous crash and the floor shook. Him and Clyde looked at each other and started running for the warehouse. Throwing the door open, Dex saw that a rack had collapsed from being struck by Mark on the forklift. The blue rack had twisted and fell over, and paper exploded everywhere. Braxton and Mark were frantically trying to toss paper packs aside, and Dex realized that someone was trapped under the twisted mess.

“Justin got hit! Justin got hit!” Braxton yelled. Dex immediately ran in with Clyde. Without words, the malamute started chucking paper packs all around to dig into the pile. Clyde worked frantically with him.

“JUSTIN! JUSTIN!” screamed Dex. He heard a muffled response and threw more paper. Gradually Justin was revealed from beneath all the paper, a steel beam resting atop of him. Dex put all his might into moving the beam with Clyde and Braxton, which they ripped off him.

“Don’t move!” Braxton exclaimed. “Justin! Don’t move!”

“Jesus fucking Christ…” the Doberman muttered. “God damnit, my leg, Mark!”

“Call an ambulance!” Dex shouted at Clyde, who fumbled around for his phone. “Justin! Tell me where you’re hurt at!”

“My damn leg… my arm…”

“Don’t move, don’t move.” Dex said. “Help is on the way.”

Dex thought about how lovely it was to start the day with this.

Reeling from a tension headache, Dex wrote out the official incident report. He wrote down a statement on the incident form, his neat, rounded cursive filling the form with what he had witnessed. He smacked the pen down for the period at the end of the final sentence, and scribbled his name down on the signature section and dated it. Grabbing the witness statements from the other warehouse employees who had seen it, Dex clipped them together with the cover sheet. He walked and dropped it off in Clyde’s mailbox.

Returning to the warehouse, Dex walked over and looked at the giant mess of the collapsed rack. Some of the paper packs were salvageable, and some were a total write-off. Without Justin, and Braxton having gone home for the day, Dex was stuck doing it by himself. With the dumpster beside him, he grabbed the ripped up, damaged packs of paper and threw it away. It was a tedious, slow process. Slowly but surely, as the clock ticked away, Dex got the paper cleaned up. He tore apart the broken beams of the rack and threw them into the dumpster as well.

The clock struck five-thirty in the evening. Going on an hour and a half past his normal departure time, Dex looked at his handiwork in cleaning up the rack. As he scanned the floor, he noticed that he missed a bolt. He walked over and bent down to grab it, only to suddenly feel a pop in his lower back. A surge of intense pain hit the malamute, and he fell over in pain. Landing on his side, Dex cried out momentarily and writhed in discomfort. Sure enough, go figure his luck, he pulled something in his back. Dex looked at the single bolt in his grip, and realized that it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Limping slowly, Dex dragged himself back to his desk to end the day. He gingerly grabbed his laptop bag and carefully threw it on, his face scrunched up in pain.

“Hey Dexter, what’s going on?” came Clyde. “You look like you’re in a lot of pain?”

“I am…” Dex stared blankly. “I threw my damn back out…”

“Is the warehouse cleaned up?”

“Yes.”

“I would have helped, but I had that meeting in Minooka today.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “Did the incident report get sent to corporate?”

“Yep, I faxed it out.”

“What about the drug test for Mark?”

“Oh, corporate said not to worry about that.”

“Why? He caused a major accident that sent Justin to the hospital with a broken leg and dislocated shoulder?”

“Corporate said not to worry about it, Mark doesn’t need to be tested.”

Dex had his left eye twitch. “So they’re gonna fucking bury it like the last time Mark sent someone to the hospital aren’t they!” His face practically turned red with rage. “I cannot believe that this company lacks the god damn balls to hold anyone accountable!”

“Whoa, whoa! Take it easy!” Clyde exclaimed. “You’re gonna have a stroke, Dex!”

The malamute shook his head in disgust.

“Now they did want me to say something about the cover sheet.”

Dex had no expression on his face.

“Apparently you put the incorrect cover sheet on again. You, uhh, got that e-mail that was sent out right?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger!” laughed Clyde as he jokingly backed away. “I’ll send you a copy of that e-mail tomorrow ‘cause the wifey-poo is making me some lasagna for dinner! Have a good night, Dexter!”

Dex couldn’t believe it. A major accident sent his best worker to the ER, and once again the company was going to bury it to save another useless worker. Just as he was about to walk away, the telephone rang on his desk. Dex reluctantly picked it up.

“Dex Malprave.”

“Hey Dex, it’s Don here, uhh, did you get that e-mail regarding the updated cover sheet protocols, correct?”

Dex hung up the phone. He limped over, punched his time, and went home.

Checking into the baths, Dex walked with a very noticeable limp, a paw permanently clutched against his lower back. A few people stopped and watched the malamute limp to the locker room to go stow his clothes away and take a shower. The hot stream on his back helped a little bit. After getting cleaned up, he walked over to the hot tubs and found one that was empty. He sat his towel aside and immersed himself in the steaming hot water. His back momentarily tensed up and slowly began to relax as he took a seat with the water coming up to his neck. Dex closed his eyes and just sat in silence, contemplating on what to do with his life.

He was done with work. He was tired of the incompetent and mistreatment. Here was another accident that sent a worker to the hospital, and the company was going to just bury it and let it slide, and for what reason? Thousands of dollars in lost product and a rack that was going to need a complete replacement. And for what? So another incompetent worker who just shows up to work can be protected? Dex was done with Saunders-Babbit. Twenty-one years of their malarkey and he was done. He needed a new career. But where?

The sound of someone stepping into his pool brought him out of his eyes. Dex opened his eyes to notice his daddymute dream man, Ken, slowly immerse himself into the water with a playful smile on his face. A smile grew on Dex’s face. Ken swam over and gave Dex a kiss. “Hey sexy~” he greeted.

“Well hey.” Dex smiled. He savored those big paws caressing his chest and playfully groping him and playing with his piercing. Dex ran a paw down the side of Ken’s burly face. The malamute winced from his back hurting.

“You okay, sexy?” Ken asked as he kissed Dex’s neck. “Maybe I could use some fun time with my favorite?”

Dex frowned. “Honey I’d love to, but my back is killing me tonight. I fucked it up at work today.”

Ken frowned back. “Oh bummer… that sucks to hear you’re in pain.”

Daddymute slowly backed away and got back out and fetched his towel.

“Where are you going? Don’t you wanna soak and chat or something?” Dex asked curiously.

“Sweetie I don’t got a lot of time to get my rocks off. Happy wife, happy life, Dex~” Ken said as he walked away, drying himself off. The sting of rejection hit Dex hard.

The malamute looked sad as he slowly sat back down in his spot. The warm water numbed the rejection as he slowly closed his eyes again, feeling sad.

After his soak, Dex simply left the baths. Nobody was apparently interested in a aching cumdump. Not even a casual chat could be found from the guys there. Dex left disappointed. He returned back home at nightfall. He struggled out of his car, and limped inside.

Sitting down at his desk with a heating pad on his back, Dex checked job listings on Indeed. In the search engine, he typed “management full-time” in Chicago and hit enter. All the listings popped up. Scrolling down the screen, Dex wasn’t very impressed by what he saw. A lot of management positions offered had terrible hours, or terrible pay, or the reviews were terrible.

He stopped at one, which read for an operations manager to the “Chicago Glass and Optics Company/United Barev Industries”. It was upfront about everything; it had great hours, being a forty hour work week with weekends off, great pay and benefits, but Dex noticed it had a really bad two star rating. He clicked on the reviews.

“RYAN AND BRENT VLOCKNER ARE FUCKING RETARDED!!!” was the first review Dex read from a disgruntled ex employee. Other reviewers talked about the mediocre management, and lack of accountability, which Dex felt was just like Saunders-Babbit. One review talked about how ruthless the parent company’s president, Rob Barion, was, including allegations that a worker got hit with a baseball bat over fake Covid vaccine cards. Dex decided to pass up on that.

Right below that position was an operations manager position for “Centoh Chicago Aviation World/United Barev Industries”. In contrast to the Chicago Glass and Optics Factory, Centoh had a five star rating. They were offering an operations manager position at the hub at Chicago Midway Airport. It was offering an incredible thirty-one dollars an hour, a forty-hour work week with weekends off and a reasonable first-shift hours. No aviation experience was necessary for the office position.

Updating his resume, Dex adjusted a few details and saved a copy, which he uploaded for the application. He put his information down and sent it away. He put one more application out to an IT office near the loop, before calling it a night. His back was hurting too much to sit. He shut his computer off and turned off the table lamp. He limped to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and slowly made his way to the bed. Dex winced as he climbed into bed. He laid on his side and plugged his phone in on the dresser.

For a moment Dex just laid there staring at the wall, remembering the sting of being rejected at the baths. It frustrated him. He felt so sexually frustrated. He wanted those big paws to caress his sore body, he wanted someone to love him right now. Nobody was interested in even shedding a drop of empathy. Dex laid and thought about it before his heavy eyes finally closed for bed.

Limping to the table in the kitchen, Dex sat down to a breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries. He stuck a spoon in and stirred everything around, watching the grayish oatmeal take on a purple tint from the berries. He stuck a spoonful in his muzzle and chewed slowly as the sunlight filtered in through the window. Dex had taken the day off due to his back pain; it took him almost fifteen minutes to just roll out of bed. If he could see subordinates take practically an entire month off without consequence, then one day for an otherwise impeccable attendance record wouldn’t kill anyone.

Dex thought of what he could do on his day off. He was still hurting way too much to go play at the baths, and the sting of rejection still hit him somewhat. Perhaps he could just spend the day watching TV or try and go for a short walk.

Midway through breakfast, the phone rang beside him. He picked it up to find an unknown number. Something felt compelling to answer it. Surely it couldn’t be about his job application? Dex swiped his paw to answer it.

“Hello, this is Dex~”

“Good morning, my name is Gary Morton, I’m the hub director for Centoh Aviation Chicago, am I speaking to Dexter Malprave?”

“Yes you are. I am surprised to hear from you this early, honestly.”

“Well I saw your application this morning and I was very impressed with what I saw, and I would like to schedule a meeting with you regarding interviewing for this position.”

“Oh really, well I appreciate that. So is this a pretty standard ops manager position?” Dex asked.

Gary gave him a brief rundown about what the position was. He’d be overseeing the day to day operations of the support staff in the office, overseeing the parts inventory and coordinating with the maintenance and office managers. The position would file reports, observe for any wasteful spending and inefficiencies, and report directly to him. Dex sounded and expressed interest.

“When could we schedule an appointment to see you?”

“Well I happen to have the day off actually, so if you don’t mind me limping from a sore back muscle, I’d love to come in today at any time.”

“I have an opening at ten o’clock if you’d be interested.”

“I can make that time perfectly.

“Okay, I will see you at ten o’clock. Thank you so much, Mister Malprave. Have a good day.”

“Thanks, you too. Bye-bye now.”

Dex put his phone down and looked really impressed. “That was quick.” He thought to himself. He could very well be on his way to a career advancement and it brought a smile to his face. His phone rang again, and the number came up as one of the managers from the district management. His smile faded. Dex reluctantly answered it.

“Dex~”

“Hey Dex, it’s Paul here from the district office. I got your accident report from the other day.”

“Okay.”

“Did you get that memo about the updated cover sheets?”

Dex put his head down on the table.

Fetching his seldom used necktie, Dex walked back to his floor mirror to gaze at his reflection. From his colorful casual attire to drab work clothes, Dex looked like a Mormon in his black slacks, shiny black loafers, and satin white dress shirt. He threw the dark purple necktie around his neck and carefully tied it with a Windsor knot. He neatly folded down the collar and gave the tie a few gentle brushings. Now he looked like an executive. Turning around, he limped back down the stairs, grabbed his wallet and keys, and made his way for his car. He slowly got in, donned his sunglasses, and took off.

Driving across the concrete metropolis, Dex went south, past the CMD to Chicago’s Midway Airport. Following the directions for the Centoh hub, he pulled off the main road for an access road. It led around a huge parking lot, terminating at a tall perimeter fence topped by barbed wire. Two guards stood by, dressed in all black and armed with Kalashnikov rifles. They were the menacing private security of Barev, members of their private military company.

Dex rolled his window down as he saw a sentry approach. The soldier-like guard, armed with a rifle slung over his shoulder stopped before his window. The German Shepherd wore an all black uniform and body armor, complete with a military style helmet that was black with a white stripe down the center. "Senior Lieutenant Bruckner, of the second division, SB-Viking Battalion of Barev! State your business.”

“My name is Dexter Malprave, and I have a job interview at ten o’clock with Centoh, with Gary Morton?” the malamute asked in a slightly nervous voice. He watched the sentry radio it in and get confirmation. The gate was opened and he was motioned to drive to the hangar. Dex put the car into drive and took off down the access road, under the watchful eye of the ninja-clad guards. He approached a large hangar that read “FLY CENTOH CHICAGO” in big red letters. He was in the right place.

Parking in a spot before the hangar, Dex got out and doffed his sunglasses, which he stowed in his shirt pocket. He glanced around at the activity on the flight line, and immediately took note of the old vintage propeller driven airliners that were offloading and accepting cargo by a constantly moving fleet of forklifts hauling cargo around. The big hangar housed a propliner that was being torn down for some heavy maintenance. The scenery reminded him of a photo of his grandparents when they had moved to Mississippi, having been photographed in front of the DC-7 that took them to Gulfport back in 1959.

Getting directions for the office, Dex was led inside by a mechanic. The cool air conditioned air was a relief from the suffocating heat inside the hangar. The mechanic introduced Dex to Gary Morton, who sat inside his big office overlooking the airport. Gary got up from around his desk and shook Dex’s paw with a big smile on his face. Gary was a gray wolf who was on the chubby side. He looked to be in his mid-fifties, with tousled brown hair that was graying. He wore gray slacks and a red polo shirt that was loosely buttoned at the collar.

“Glad you made it. Please have a seat!” Gary warmly stated. He shuffled through some paperwork he had laying out in a manila file. Dex sat down opposite of his desk and leaned back a bit, looking relaxed.

“Now before we begin, do you go by Dexter? Or…”

“Dex.” The malamute smiled. “I’ve been called Dex pretty much my entire life.”

“Nice and simple to remember.” Gary nodded.

“And not nerdy sounding~” Dex chuckled.

“So I have to say I am enjoying your qualifications. So you work for the Saunders-Babbit Paper Supply Company?”

“That I do~ I have been the warehouse manager since 2014. Previously in the company I had worked in the warehouse, sales, and drove the hotshot van. I’ve essentially done most of the core service outside of production and upper management.”

“Very nice. So why do you wish to leave Saunders-Babbit?”

Dex bit his tongue. “A desire to start fresh, and make potentially more money, Gary.”

“That’s everyone’s goal, that’s for sure.” The wolf nodded as he flipped a page. “So let me ask you this- what do you think it takes to be a good manager?”

“Well frankly, to be a good manager requires leadership and responsibility. You have to observe your subordinates and see what works and what doesn’t work as each employee is ever so unique. A cookie cutter approach often tends to lead to disappointment. One has to accept the blame and take the credit, plus be able to hold people accountable and handle uncomfortable situations with tact and fairness.”

Gary nodded.

“One of the things I have learned as a manager is you have to be very observant of people. You have to see the strengths and weaknesses in your workforce as a workforce is as only strong as its weakest link.”

“I agree, one hundred percent.” The wolf accepted.

Getting down to the details, Gary and Dex talked about what the operations manager would do in more detail. He would oversee the operations beneath Gary, while coordinating and working with the office, maintenance, and flight line managers. He would generate reports, observe any wasteful spending and inefficiencies in the office, and assist in the operations of the hub. Dex felt that he could easily do that and learn the rest. He seemed to have made a good impression to Gary, who proceeded to give him a whole tour of the Centoh facility.

Dex followed Gary around the office. He got to meet a few friendly workers, went out into the hangar to meet the mechanics and see some of the aircraft up close. Gary was a good tour guide. The tour ended at the hangar door, where Gary remarked about having two more interviews. He would get back to him as soon as possible.

“Mister Malprave, I thank you so much for your time.”

“Thank you.” Dex smiled as he shook Gary’s paw. “It was a real pleasure to be here.”

“You take care, and I hope you rest your back!” the wolf smiled as he turned to leave for the office door.

“Thank you! Take care.” Dex smiled as he turned to walk back towards his BMW. He got back into his vehicle feeling pretty good about the interview. He backed out and took off to head back home.

Hobbling out the front door to his apartment, the malamute made his way down the sidewalk to meet up with his friends for some evening drinks at their usual place. He was dressed in a purple tanktop and black shorts with his backwards turned black baseball hat. Reflective sunglasses concealed his eyes. Dex walked slowly from his still aching back, which was aggravated by another chaotic day at work. Without Justin in the warehouse, Dex had to hobble around to help pull loads. It was a very painful day.

As he walked to their favorite eatery, his back very slowly loosened up. His stiff pace grew more normal as his sore back relaxed some. Reaching the eatery, he saw his friends waiting for him at one of the outdoor tables in the front. They all turned and smiled at Dex’s presence.

“Hayyyy, sexy Dexy!” Trey greeted.

“Hayyy~” Dex waved as he took a seat. He winced as he sat down.

“Still sore, sweetie.”

“Yes.”

“Did your man ride you too rough?” teased Lenny, as everyone laughed. Dex didn’t.

“Please, I’d love to be dicked down, but I can’t…” Dex winced. “Not at the moment.”

“Bummer.” Trey shook his head.

“You should get some more blow and that’ll help your back!” laughed Paul, the other malamute, who took a sip of his drink.

“Oh no, no, not when I’m at the cusp of getting this new job…” Dex grimaced.

“Oh a new job?” Lenny asked curiously.

“Yeah, I’m trying to get a job at Chicago Midway, this air cargo company, for an operations manager position.”

“Oh gurl, you got it!”

“We’ll see!” Dex laughed. “So don’t fuck me over!”

“Oh of course not!”

“Why don’t you do something more gay? Like work at the baths or something?” Trey asked with a smirk as he sipped on his drink. “You’re practically there all the time~”

“Ha, yeah.” Dex chuckled. His smirk slowly faded from his face. “I’d like to do more to be honest.”

“Oh?” everyone mumbled.

“Like what to do you mean?” Trey asked.

Dex fumbled his brow. “Well… I’d like to be known more than just being a slut… you know? Like maybe find something a bit more meaningful than hookup after hookup… after hookup. Maybe find a nice boyfriend?”

Everyone at the table erupted in laughter. It was gut wrenching, face contorting laughter that took Dex by surprise.

“Sweetie, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.” Paul teased with a grin. “Everyone in Boystown knows you’re the world’s biggest cumdump, so who’s gonna date that? Nobody with already unrealistic standards!”

“Relationships are for chumps anyways.” Trey added. “Like who the fuck wants to just settle down like straight people and just… be monogamous?”

“Why settle for just one?” Lenny shrugged. “That shit sounds boring!”

“The same dick or asshole over and over?” Paul chuckled. “Yawn!”

Dex fumbled his brow and looked a bit flustered. “Maybe it would… just be nice to have someone to pay attention to? Be affectionate with?”

“Jesus Christ…” Trey laughed as he sipped on his drink. “Sweetie, I tried a relationship before and it was the worst thing ever. Clingy, suffocating, boring!”

“Yeah I agree…” the other malamute nodded.

“To me, guys are just here to do one thing and one thing only, and get off. Guys who want relationships… they’re not gonna be doing what we’re doing, and they’re certainly not gonna screw a massive cumdump who likes it in both ends~ I’m sorry for being blunt Dex, but that’s how it’s gonna be.”

“Sorry I brought it up.” Dex grumbled. His voice lost its lispyness and grew deeper, more disgruntled.

“You gotta live life to the max, and party hard, ‘cause sweetie, it’s all downhill from here on past forty…”

Dex gave up and sat back in his seat. He grabbed his drink and swirled the ice a bit before taking a long, slow sip. His friends went back to another vapid conversation about Drag Race.

Walking back home, Dex felt rather dejected. He walked with a slow, sad pace, his head aimed down at the ground. He never felt so humiliated before, and by the people he was friends with! Dex didn’t know what to make of it. Was he really that much of a slut? His friends all slept around. Wasn’t that the gay thing to do for men? It didn’t make sense, but looking back in his twenty-four years of living in Chicago, it seemed that the gay community was a place of hypocrisy and contradiction.

From the callow college student, Dex tried to fit in and find his place in the gay community, but try as he might, it always seemed that nothing was ever good enough. He was too feminine, too masculine, he was too big, or not big enough, not hung enough, too hung, too young, or too old, or too many tattoos. Nobody seemed happy at who he was. Dex tried for years to be in the leather scene, and was rejected for not being masculine enough, despite getting his tattoos, despite getting his Prince Albert. He tried to be part of the bear scene and was rejected because he was too young and not big enough. He couldn’t be a twink as he was a stocky guy by nature. It seemed that nothing worked until he hit the gym constantly and became a total slut. Then he found his place. But was it really? Were the cracks showing now?

The phone rang, and it brought Dex out of his frustrating cycle of endless thoughts. He answered the unfamiliar number.

“Hello, Dex~”

“Dex? Hello, this is Gary Morton from Centoh.”

“Oh, hello, Gary.”

“I wanted to call you in regards to your interview…”

“Okay.”

“When can you go and do your drug test? I would like to extend an offer of employment to you for the operations manager position~”

Dex lifted his head up in complete shock. “Tomorrow I sure can!”

“If you could stop by tomorrow and sign a few papers and go to a Labcorp facility, then we can get the ball rolling for you, Dex. Congratulations on becoming part of our team!”

“I’ll stop by during my lunch tomorrow, around eleven o’clock. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“I think you earned it~” Gary chuckled. “Dex, I will see you tomorrow then. You have a good evening.”

“You too, thank you. Bye-bye now.”

Dex ended the call and a big smile lit his face up. At last, he was on his way to freeing himself from the Saunders-Babbit tomfoolery. A background check and a drug test would be a cakewalk to pass. Dex had learned from his dabbling on and off with drugs that they usually passed through one’s system in roughly a week, along with a few detoxing elixirs to help grease the wheel.

As he approached back to his apartment, his phone rang again, this time being Braxton.

“What’s up Braxton?”

“Hey Dex, uhh, could I ask you for some advice?”

“What’s going on?”

“Well, I could use some sex advice because I’ve been talking to this really hot guy on the rugby team… and I kinda wanna do more… but I don’t know what or if I should do it~”

“You doing anything this evening?”

“No?”

“Why don’t you stop by my place and lets chat and hang out.”

“Sure.”

Following an impromptu supper, Dex, and Braxton relaxed in his bedroom, in their usual spots on the bed and reclining chair. A Genesis album spun on the turntable resting on the dresser, filling the room with some soft rock.

“So I think I found my boyfriend~” Braxton explained to Dex. “His name is Christos, and he’s twenty-seven, and he’s like super Greek, super gorgeous bear.”

“Ohhh, nice~” Dex responded.

“I really want to get in bed with him, but I don’t know what exactly to do. It’s kind of overwhelming.”

“I get that.”

“Just like work.” Braxton laughed. He made Dex laugh too.

“Well here’s the thing about sex, Braxton. You gotta talk to him and see what you both feel comfortable with, and I want you to know that there’s more to gay sex than just putting it in your ass or his ass. There’s so much more you can do in bed that’s fun. You just have to be comfortable with yourself and him and that’s the most important thing. Remember what I told you before?”

“Don’t do anything if you don’t feel comfortable?”

“Exactly.”

“So I should just talk to Christos?”

“Mhmm.”

“He says he really likes me, and I told him I really like him too…” the wolf recalled, blushing a bit. “He’s so friendly and laid back, that’s what I love about him.”

“You’re lucky~” Dex chuckled.

“Why do you say that, Dex?”

“There’s a lot of guys who are afraid of any form of intimacy.” Dex started to explain. “There’s… a lot of shared pain in the gay community, a lot of guys who are hurt from their family rejecting them, or their own self-hatred of being gay. So a lot of guys might technically be out of the closet, but they themselves don’t accept their gayness. So gay sex is a means to an end, a mechanical thing to get off to and then move on. To be intimate is to be accepting their sexuality, and I suspect some guys are not accepting of who they are.”

“That’s strange.”

“Well, welcome to gayville.” Laughed the malamute. “There’s a lot of broken hearts, and broken dreams, and unrealistic expectations.”

“Hence the kind of bitchiness?”

“Yeah, kinda.” Dex laughed.

“I just kind of notice… some gay men are really bitchy… almost like a caricature.” Braxton admitted. “I went to this bar once with a friend of mine from the rugby team and I was told by some dude in what looked like a dress that they didn’t ‘get me’, that my voice isn’t super masculine, but my body is, and they didn’t know what to make of that? Like am I supposed to talk like fuckin’ John Wayne or something?”

“Pfft.” Dex rolled his eyes. “Welcome to my fucking life.”

“Yeah.” Braxton chuckled.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?”

“What would you do if all your friends just laughed at you for having a desire?”

“Like what do you mean, Dex?”

Dex looked a bit sad. “Me and my friends from the club were having some drinks earlier, and we got the talking, and I said that… maybe I don’t want to be slut forever? Maybe I’d like to one day find a boyfriend or something, and do more with my life, and I got laughed at! Everyone laughed their heart out at me for such an idea.”

“Well… that to me doesn’t sound like they’re very good friends…” Braxton bluntly stated.

“They said that everyone in Chicago knows I’m a cumdump… and yeah… I get that… but… can’t people see that maybe others want love too? I don’t get it.”

“Well I don’t get that the gay community promotes sexual promiscuity, and then turns around and slut-shames like that. It’s hypocrisy. It’s like how men are encouraged to fuck all these women, but if women do that then they’re the whore.” Braxton shook his head. “I don’t think people realize how hypocritical that is.”

“It’s our nature.” The malamute shrugged.

“There’s nothing wrong with liking sex, even if that’s something I personally wouldn’t do~” the wolf tried to reason.

“I guess maybe I’ve let things get out of control, but that’s where I’ve found acceptance at. Certainly not from all the past attempts at fitting in.”

Dex put his arms behind his head as he started up at the ceiling. “When I came to Chicago, I was a shy teenager who didn’t know what to do with this newfound sense of liberation that I could be gay. Now mind you, back then in Mississippi, you could be arrested for being gay by the sodomy laws that were still on the books. It was a really scary time still for gay people back in the nineties when you didn’t have that many allies in government, and people were still largely hostile to the idea of gay couples, marriage, yada-yada. When I was in college I was in a gay-straight alliance, and I had some gay friends, but when you’re under twenty-one, there really isn’t much for a gay guy to do. But when I started clubbing and doing more in Boystown after I turned twenty-one, I think I fucked myself.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’ve been told by guys that I’m too masculine, not masculine enough, I’m too big, or not big enough, I’m too intimidating, not intimidating enough, I’m not hung enough, or too big for them, or I have too many tattoos, or not enough, or my facial hair is too rugged, all this contradictory shit. When I was in my twenties, I tried to be a leatherman, since leather is kinda hot.”

“I agree.” Braxton grinned.

“But I was told that I wasn’t masculine enough. Then I tried to see what the bear community is like, and I was told I wasn’t big enough, and I wasn’t about to let my body go to get big enough for some insecure daddy. Twinks didn’t like me because I’m not skinny, or a lil’ bitch!”

Braxton couldn’t help but laugh. “Jesus Christ, Dex, how the hell did you pull that off!”

“I don’t know!” the malamute exclaimed. “This is what I’m talking about. But when I felt confident enough to start just getting laid, and I got on prep, then all of a sudden I get this attention in the clubs. But is it really what I want?”

“Why don’t you just be you?”

“I don’t know who that is anymore.” Dex admitted. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to blend in that I don’t know who the real me is anymore. You got me at work, and you got me in the clubs, and maybe I’m somewhere in-between? I guess this is my contribution to our community’s collective hurt.”

“My gut feeling is, Dex, that you’ve been through so much shit, your coming out, trying to fit in, that you’re like a chameleon and now you don’t know what your original color is. And to the earlier question about your friends… I don’t feel like they’re really your friends. From what you described, they sound like some kind of transactional relationship.”

“Trey is a nurse at a local clinic, Paul works at a craft beer house, Lenny is an office assistant, and Johnny is… well he bounces around jobs like how I bounce around guys!”

“Ha.” Braxton laughed with him. “But that doesn’t sound like very healthy friendships to me? Like they sound really toxic if they’re gonna dismiss your dreams and aspirations?”

“Well they’re as slutty as me.”

“Well there ya go.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Dex sighed.

“I wish I could help you, but that’s something you have to overcome yourself. Only you can decide what’s best for your life. My only advice is that you have to be yourself, and find that in you, and do what makes you happy. And I wouldn’t worry about people thinking you’re a slut, because at the end of the day, everyone likes sex, and shouldn’t be shamed for the number of sexual partners, but that’s just me. Those who mind don’t or shouldn’t matter, and those that matter shouldn’t mind~”

Dex smiled at Braxton. “I’m so appreciative that I met you.”

The wolf smiled back and shrugged. “What can I say? Sociology and psychology are fun stuff I like as a hobby.”

Dex winced as he got up slowly from his bed. Braxton got up to help him, and got a big hug from the malamute. Braxton put his arms around him and hugged him tightly.

“I appreciate you a lot.”

“I’m just me.” Braxton chuckled. “What can I say?”

“Well I like that, tons.” Dex smiled.

“Well I appreciate you being my boss.”

“Glad you brought that up before I forget. I got offered a job today that I accepted.”

“Oh did ya?”

“Tomorrow I’ll be doing my drug test during lunch to go work for Centoh at Midway.”

“Oh neat!” Braxton smiled. “They’re part of United Barev Industries. My uncle works for their newly acquired photochemical factory, and I have a classmate who’s interning at the Chicago Glass and Optics Factory.”

“Oh yeah?”

“The president of the whole company is from Ohio, and apparently he’s a no bullshit sociopath or something.” The wolf laughed. “FotoChem runs excellent, but there’s a lot of issues with CGOF since Barev just took it over early this year. My friend says they’re run about as well as our jobs.”

“Oh boy…”

“But she says the president of the parent company is working to fix the issue…” Braxton added. “Is… Brandon related to Ryan and Brent Vlockner? Those two run CGOF.”

“Brandon is a Vlockner, yeah.”

“Heh, that whole family must be pretty fuckin’ stupid, because Ryan and Brent aren’t much better than Brandon at work!”

“Sounds about right. That whole family could fuck a wet dream up, and their corrupt piece of shit Sam Vlockner is city commissioner. I suspect that’s why Brandon has his job…”

“Or he goes under Clyde’s desk every morning for a protein shake…”

“HA.” Dex laughed. “See? I like you, Braxton.”

“What can I say?” the wolf smiled. “I’m just me.”

The clock struck six o’clock in the morning as Dex strolled into the office. Instead of the blank stare on his face, Dex walked with a happy strut and a content look across his face. He punched his time clock and ventured over to his desk. He sat down, and as he waited for his workstation to boot up, Dex opened a drawer and pulled out several sheets of copy paper. He grabbed his rollerball and wrote the date down. The malamute began to write his resignation letter, as he was accepted into Centoh the day before.

“Dear Clyde,

I announce my impending resignation, effective Friday 7/23/21.

Thank you for twenty-one years of employment at this company

but after careful consideration for my future, I have made the

decision to move on to a new career direction.”

Dex continued to write, the next several paragraphs being his frustrations vented out about operational issues with the company. He didn’t hold back about what he had observed; Dex ranted about the company’s lack of accountability, incompetence in employee management and order fulfillment, and the low wages everyone but sales and management had. He filled the pages with his neat, rounded cursive, which slightly bled on the cheap company paper they made. He signed the bottom of the page with his name and capped his pen. He stapled the four pages together and took it over to Clyde’s office, where he sat it on his desk.

Grabbing paperwork, Dex was bracing himself for another day being stuck pulling loads himself since Justin would be out for months. But it would soon not be his problem. As he checked the stock, he glanced over and noticed Brandon just standing around by his van and playing on his phone. The other driver, John was busy loading paper reams into his van.

“BRANDON!” Dex shouted, startling him.

“Morning, Dex!” Brandon smiled as he quickly put his phone away.

“The fuck you doing standing around!? You got a busy ass schedule today! Get your van fucking loaded!”

“I need to see Clyde about something!” Brandon exclaimed.

“You can load your fucking van while you wait for him to come, so you can get under his desk and get your fucking protein shake. Jesus Christ dude, quit wasting time, get your fucking van loaded and get the fuck out of my warehouse god damnit!”

Brandon frowned, turned, and walked away sulking. Dex shook his head in disgust and went back to the office. As he stepped inside, he saw Jennifer run up to see him.

“Dex! Is everything okay!? I heard shouting!”

“Yeah! Me telling dum-dum over there to get his shit loaded!”

“Dex you are so mean to him!” Jennifer exclaimed. “My god!”

“I’m tired of it!” Dex exclaimed. “Sub forty-hour a week job and needing sixty!”

“Take a deep breath~” Jennifer pleaded and motioned with her paws.

Dex sat down at his desk and shook his head. “Not gonna be my problem for much longer.”

“Why?”

“I put my two weeks in. I’m moving on to another job.”

“Oh my god, really!? You’re leaving?”

“Yep.”

“You’re like the only smart person in that warehouse?”

“Not my dog and pony show after the twenty-third!”

“Wow.”

Within hours, Dex’s resignation notice hit Saunders-Babbit like a bolt of lightning. As Dex went to work with his massive list of orders to pull, his boss Clyde met with him briefly to ask if he was really quitting. Dex was pretty blunt about why he was leaving. Clyde left the warehouse all flustered, leaving Dex to continue working alone.

By his lunch time at eleven o’clock, an exhausted Dex left the warehouse. He winced from a sore lower back and now shoulder from shucking boxes. As he stepped inside to go turn in paperwork, he saw the office practically filled with the district management and a member from the corporate office, COO, David Patrick.

Dex stopped and closed his eyes. He knew exactly what this was going to be. “Fuck.”

“Mister Malprave!” came Paul, a collie. “Could we have a discussion with you in the conference room?”

Dex reluctantly ventured into the conference room, where everyone piled in. Clyde was the last in as he shut the door. Dex sat at the far end of the table with everyone staring at him. There was an uncomfortable presence in the room, the tension so high one could cut it with a knife.

“Dexter, I asked these folks to come in because I want to know why you want to quit?” Clyde asked. “You do great work here, and I’d be hard pressed to lose you!”

Dex leaned forward in his chair. He had a blank stare on his face. “Are you fucking kidding me, Clyde?”

“Huh?”

“Did you not read my two-week statement?” the malamute asked. “Did you really not read any of it!?”

“I sense a lot of unhappiness, and I want to know what we could do as a company to make you compelled to stay?” Paul asked.

Dex couldn’t believe it. “I’ve been with this company for twenty-one years, and this is exactly what I’m talking about. I can’t believe none of you read my statement! I laid it out in my statement! This company does not care about its workers, they underpay by a large margin, problems go unanswered and bad employees face zero accountability for anything! I come to work every single day on time, and do my job and about three other people’s jobs, but Brandon Vlockner can work a roughly thirty hour a week job and do it in sixty, Mark can strike two people with a forklift and cause a rack to collapse and keep his job, the sales department can fuck everything up, dispatch can fuck everything up? I am the lowest paid manager here, and I have not received a damn pay raise in two years! And that wasn’t an issue when I got bonus, but we took the bonuses away last year in the pandemic as part of a cost restructuring? And you don’t think that losing money is something I want? Do you not see that the collective morale of this facility is at an all time low? That we cannot get anyone to come and work here that isn’t some dingleberry because we only pay peanuts verses our competitors? That people can go get a job driving a forklift around and get paid twenty-five bucks an hour with no experience? That we keep our wages so pathetically low so we can pay two go-go boys six figures to hand and foot our alcoholic president, Maggie Babbit?”

“What if, Dex… we offer you like a equity sharing plan… or perhaps better hours…”

Dex threw his arms up in the air. “Was I talking in another language!?”

“Whoa, easy!” Clyde exclaimed.

“God fucking damnit everybody you just don’t get it!” Dex shouted. “I have just listed all these problems and whoosh! Right over your heads! This is the shit jumping right out of my resignation letter!”

“Oh that reminds me… you didn’t put a cover sheet on the two-weeks’ notice?” David asked. The brown wolf looked over at his colleagues.

“Did you… get the email about that?”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THE COVER SHEET!” Dex screamed. “ALL OF YOU CARE MORE ABOUT THE FUCKING PIECE OF PAPER ON THE FRONT OF ANY DOCUMENT VERSES JUSTIN AND BRENT BOTH BEING STRUCK AND INJURED AT WORK!”

Dex’s face was a brilliant shade of red that just showed up in the white of his fur. His eyes were bloodshot and wide, full of rage. Years of pent up frustration finally came out in a colorful display of rage as Dex melted down and let loose on everyone and everything that was involved with Saunders-Babbit. When he was done giving management a piece of his mind, the entire office, the entire facility was silent. Every salesman, warehouse employee, and manager stood in complete silence staring at Dex.

“I rest my case.” The malamute concluded in a calm voice.

At twelve o’clock, Dex left the office, carrying a bankers box of his belongings back to his car. He was fired on the spot for his verbal rampage. Dex thought it was funny. Here he was getting fired, when all these other incidents went unpunished. He was basically fired for speaking the truth. But in the end, it didn’t matter. A job that caused him so much headache and frustration was over with, and now he had a new career ready to go come Monday.

Dex placed the box in his truck. He slammed the lid shut, and the malamute hopped back into his white BMW and took off for home. As he drove home, he felt as though ten tons of weight came off his shoulders. Perhaps he needed to celebrate some.

The room was dim, filled with pumped dance music. Under the glow of red lights, Dex laid in the leather sling, getting railed on both ends. The burly malamute was railed by a black and rust Rottweiler with long dreads, who fucked him doggy style. Dex worked his muzzle on another Rottweiler’s hung ebony cock. A paw firmly gripped his head as he sucked down practically ten inches of thick uncut dick.

“Yeah? You like that big fuckin’ huge dick?” the Rottie asked with a grin. He spoke with a smoky, deep voice behind Dex. The malamute could only mumble a “yeah” with his muzzle full. He massaged Dex’s hips as he thrust deep with his ten inches of ebony. “Daddy wants that hole to be sloppy?”

“Mhmm.”

“Better lube him up for me~” teased the other Rottie with a grin. “Fuckkkkkk dude.”

“Gettin’ close, baby~”

“Yeah, gimme the nut, I’mma eat it, yo.”

“Fuck yeah, DJ.”

“C’mon, AJ, I need it sexy.”

“Ohh fuck, here it comes, ohh fuck, here it is!”

Dex felt that cock he slammed all the way in him and throb. He heard the hesitating little inhale through clenched teeth, giving away the pleasureful exhale of getting off. As the big cock slipped from his muzzle, the just as huge cock slipped from his hole. Dex took a deep breath, just as he felt the other Rottie press his muzzle to his hole and eat the load out. He moaned to the sensation before feeling warm spit splatter on his hole, followed by the big cock sliding back into him. That Rottie fucked him fast and hard.

“Fuckkkk yeah, baby!” laughed the Rottie as he adjusted his jockstrap pouch. He smiled and caressed Dex’s tattooed back as he watched his friend fuck the malamute. “Five star fuck, sexy.”

“Heh, you’re welcome.” Dex chuckled. “Fuck I needed this!”

“Yes you do~”

“Ya’ll wanna help me get off when AJ’s finished?”

“Baby, I’d love to, but I gotta go do some things before it gets too late.”

“Oh.”

“Oh fuck, DJ, oh fuck, here it comes!”

“Yeah, fucking breed my ass!” Dex exclaimed. He tipped his head down with a sigh of contentment as that big cock slipped from his sloppy hole. The Rottie chuckled as he gave Dex’s butt a few smacks with his still hard cock.

“Fuck dude, I liked that shit.” The Rottie complimented. He tucked his softening cock back into his jockstrap.

“Wanna like give me a handjob or something gorgeous?”

“I gotta head out with DJ man~ But we should bang again in the future. Take care, yo.”

Dex watched them both quickly leave the room.

With his own cock feeling pretty hard in its fabric pouch, Dex got up, stretched, and walked over to turn the lights back on. Two loads in from two sexy guys and he still felt a bit sexually frustrated. He left the playroom adjusting his black and dark blue jockstrap. Strapped around his waist was a small fanny pack, and he wore black flip-flops. After mingling about a bit, Dex went to the slightly out of place feeling food court to get himself a bottle of water. There were a few guys there, snacking, or having a pop. Dex got his water, and sat down near a young ginger haired wolf who was sipping on a Pepsi can. He was an athletic looking guy in his late twenties, with a square jawed face and short ginger hair that was trimmed into a flattop.

“Hey.” Dex smiled. He got the wolf’s attention.

The guy turned his head and his blue eyes scanned Dex, starting at his face, and moving to his chest, and back to his face. His face had an annoyed gaze to it.

“No.” is all he said.

“What? I just said hi?”

“That’s how it always goes. I’m not interested in fucking dude, so get it out of your head.” The wolf snapped. “I don’t fuck cumsluts.”

“Yet you’re in a bathhouse…?”

The wolf got up with a disgusted “pfft” and left, leaving Dex to sit alone. He looked disappointed as he took another sip of his water. “Your loss, dude.”

Dex got up and walked with his bottle of water to the showers. He wanted to get a shower and clean himself up for taking a soak in the spa. As he stepped into the locker room, Dex stripped out of his jockstrap in the presence of a shy looking malamute. Dex glanced out of the corner of his eye, the young dog reminding him of himself when was in his early twenties. The young malamute had a half sleeve on his right upper arm that went to the right breast with black and gray artwork. He had tousled brown hair atop his head.

Dex turned on a shower and grabbed some complementary soap as he stepped in and let the hot water soak his fur. Dex washed his body off, his eyes closed as he had the water flow across his face momentarily. When he stepped back and blinked, he noticed the young malamute right beside him in the neighboring shower getting himself rinsed off. Dex squirted some soap into his paw and began rubbing it into his chest and stomach fur.

“Hey… uhh… I like your piercing…”

Dex paused for a second and turned around to see a blushing young malamute looking at him. The older malamute sound see how embarrassed the guy was looking at all of him. Dex smiled at him.

“Thanks, I appreciate it. If you want you can even touch it!”

The young malamute blushed harder. He nervously gulped as Dex stepped over and turned his shower off. He put a tattooed arm around him and welcomed him over to his running shower. Dex smiled and lathered his paws up and rubbed the soap into the young malamute’s fur. He stood stiff as a board as Dex lathered him up.

“I’m Dex.”

“Terry~”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Your paws are nice.”

“Heh, you should feel my dick.” Laughed Dex jokingly. Terry cracked a small smile at Dex.

“Do you mind if I touch it?”

“Of course you can~”

Terry nervously reached down and felt Dex’s softie as he continued to rub soap into his upper back. His fingers played with the curved barbell piercing, and felt Dex grow somewhat hard for him as he tugged and stroked. Dex washed a paw off and reached down to grip and stroke Terry’s decently thick tan member, which was nervously soft.

“Sorry I’m so nervous.”

“You’re trembling, it’s okay.” Dex assured him.

“This is my first time ever doing this.”

“Everyone has to start somewhere.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Terry nervously chuckled. He took a step back to wash the soap out of his fur. Dex rubbed his back and gave his butt a playful squeeze.

“Heh, heh, I remember when I was your age.”

“How old are you?”

“Forty-two. You?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Yeah, I remember those days.” Dex laughed. “I’m actually about to go take a soak in the hot tub if you wanted to join me?”

“Sure.”

Getting rinsed off Dex and Terry went to an empty hot tub in the humid spa area. Dex stepped in and turned on the jets that agitated the water. Terry slid in and sat next to him with the water up to their necks.

“Do you come here often?” Terry asked curiously.

“A few times a week actually.”

“Heh, dare I ask?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the older malamute chuckled. “What are you doing here?”

Terry blushed intensely. “Well… I guess see what a bathhouse is like… Sorry, I just don’t get out much to the gay scene.”

“Heh, it’s fine.” Dex said with an amused smile. “I can tell you’re a baby gay, and that’s a-okay because everyone has to start somewhere.”

“Yeah~”

“The baths are a great place to work out, take a swim, or a soak, or just down to fuck. Everything under one roof.”

“I noticed that~” Terry remarked. “I was looking to hook up… maybe find someone to pop my cherry.”

“Oh I see~”

Terry nervously placed a paw on Dex’s chest and caressed it. Dex smiled at him and pulled him over with his left arm that was wrapped around his shoulder. Dex caressed his arm and upper back and assured him he could relax and that it was okay.

“You from around here?”

“Joliet, actually.”

“Ah.”

“I need to explore Boystown more.”

“You do~”

Terry looked up at Dex and nervously smiled at him. Dex smiled back, leaned in and kissed his nose, which made the young malamute blush even harder. He chuckled and leaned in a bit more to put his lips against Terry’s. He closed his eyes and felt the young malamute’s tongue gently caress his, revealing a nice tongue piercing for him. Dex gently pulled away and caressed the side of his face. Terry was as red as a lobster.

“Oh my.”

“You like that?”

“I do~”

Dex chuckled and continued caressing him. “Let me be serious and ask you again, what are you looking for, Terry?”

“Well… I guess sex… maybe more.”

“Maybe more as in a relationship?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Dex leaned back a bit. “Terry I can tell you’re a nice person, and that you have boyfriend material written all over you. If you want to just get your rocks off, this is your place, but I suspect that you’re out for something more than just fucking.”

“I take it you’re not interested then?”

“I’m uncomfortable because our experience levels are so different, and I think you’re too good for someone like me, a cumdump. You can do however you want with your virginity, it’s just something silly, but I don’t feel comfy letting you waste it on someone like me who’s down to fuck just about everyone.”

“Oh.” Terry frowned. “So what should I do?”

“Why don’t you find a social group, or join a club, or just get a drink at a bar and see where that goes?” Dex suggested. “But do what makes you happy.”

“Well I’m sorry…” the malamute frowned. He started to turn away, only to be stopped by Dex, who pulled him into a hug.

“Don’t be sorry.” Dex assured. “I think you’ll do great.”

Terry mustered a smile. “Thanks~” He leaned in and kissed Dex’s nose, which made him smile. “I gotta get going. Thanks for chatting.”

“You’re welcome. Take care~”

Terry climbed out and fetched his towel. Dex watched him depart as he sat back in the water, his mind full of thought. He leaned back to relax some more, and just as he closed his eyes, he heard someone dip into his tub. Dex opened his eyes to reveal a smiling husky that was sable colored, with long hair that was tied into a ponytail and icy blue eyes like his.

“Heyyy~” he grinned.

Dex huffed and puffed, and sweat trickled from his brow. Trading places in the sling, it was Dex’s turn to top, as he went down on the sable furred husky swinging in the leather sling of the playroom. Horny and pent up from his fun with the Rotties earlier, Dex worked his hung cock in the husky’s tight, warm hole. It felt so good, and his piercing tugged and pulled on his head, sending ripples of pleasure with each thrust. The husky laid contently, silently taking the ass pounding from the malamute.

“Yeah, you want daddy’s huge cock?” Dex teased. He teasingly gave the husky only the tip, with a few shallow thrusts that felt so good on the head. He pushed the rest of his shaft in with a groan of pleasure from both.

“Yes, please. I need daddy’s cum.”

“Oh you’ll get daddy’s cum…” Dex chuckled. He gripped those hips and began to thrust hard. His balls felt so tight, so full. Each thrust was almost overwhelming. “Oh so close…”

“I need it so bad…”

“Oh fuck… oh fuck… here… here!”

Dex grunted and slammed his cock all the way in as he began to cum. He gasped and his whole body shuddered as he unleashed his pent up load. The husky contently groaned as he reached back to stroke his own chubby. Dex slowly pulled his cock out, and watched contently as his cum oozed out of that tan little hole. The malamute knelt down to his knees and happily pressed his muzzle to that gorgeous ass and ate his own cum out. The husky murred happily to the sensation.

Getting up, he turned the husky around in the sling and knelt back down to suck that nice cut cock. Dex worked his muzzle fast and sucked that hard, pent up cock. The husky couldn’t last long, and he tipped his head back as he came in Dex’s muzzle. Dex swallowed everything.

Licking his lips contently, Dex grabbed a clean towel and cleaned his face and cock off. He helped the husky up and cleaned him off too. He looked as content as Dex as they exited the playroom and ventured back to the showers to get cleaned up again.

“Hey that was pretty fun.” Dex remarked as they walked.

“You fuck great.” The husky complimented. “I’ll have to run into you again.”

“I’m here all the time.”

“I like that.” He grinned.

Dex hopped back into the shower and got cleaned up again after another romp. He got washed up, got dressed, and soon departed into the warm night. Dressed in matching orange shorts and a tanktop, Dex ventured to the nightclub to hang out with his friends and dance the night away.

By midnight, Dex returned home, worn out from his evening escapades. Under the glow of his floor lamp, Dex stepped out of his bathroom wearing a black tanktop and some gray briefs. He yawned and stretched as he ventured over to gaze out the window at the glowing nightlights of North Halsted. There was still some bustling activity of people out and about in the warm nighttime. Dex stepped back and adjusted the curtain. He turned around to gaze at his room and thought to himself at how quiet it was. This was his life outside of partying and sex, outside of work. Just silence.

Dex walked over to his bed and pulled the purple blanket back. He sat down and slowly adjusted himself to lay down in bed. He turned the light off by its switch near the bed and just laid there, staring up at the ceiling for a time, before his heavy eyes finally closed.

Monday morning began with a sticky, miserable heat. As the sweltering sun rose over North Halsted, Dex stepped out and made his way quickly to his car. He was dressed conservatively for his first day at Centoh. Carrying his laptop bag and a bottle of water, Dex wore gray work pants and a dark gray polo shirt. He tossed his bag in the back and hopped in to began the drive to the CMD.

Pulling into Midway Airport, Dex was welcomed in by the armed security of Barev. He drove through the perimeter and parked in the Centoh parking lot. He got out and immediately noticed the throaty rumble of piston engines as the morning flights were getting ready to depart. Dex observed the clouds of smoke of igniting engines as he walked to the office to meet with Gary to begin his day. He felt good about his first day.

Dex stepped into the office to see a busy commotion going on. He turned to his left and walked to Gary’s office, where he saw Morton talking with the dispatcher, apparently over some aircraft loading issue. Dex stood at the doorway and gently tapped on a filing cabinet, getting their attention.

“One sec Jim- Dex! Good morning!” greeted Gary who ran over to shake his paw and welcome him.

“Morning.” Dex smiled.

“So Jim, this here is Dexter Malprave, and he’s our operations manager.”

“Oh, good morning, welcome aboard~” greeted Jim, a brown furred wolf who looked to be around Dex’s age. Dex shook his paw.

“Dex, this is Jim Witt, our dispatcher.” Gary introduced.

“Dex.” The malamute smiled.

“It’ll be a pleasure to work with you.” Jim complimented.

“Same.”

“Okay, Dex, if you just bear with me here, I gotta do a few things and then I’ll print some paperwork off for you to sign for the I-9, and then I’ll get your training material.”

“Okay.”

“Just bear with me, we’ve had a hectic morning after a power outage earlier.”

Dex stepped out of Gary’s office as he saw Gary and Jim leave for the maintenance hangar. The malamute stood with his arms resting against his stomach as he observed the morning office commotion. He scanned the room from left to right, making observations about the environment. There were a gaggle of mechanics all standing around a cooler chitchatting, another mechanic making moves on an office worker who seems really disinterested, and a worker arguing with a malfunctioning copier. To his right Dex observed a worker go into the supply room and leave with a toner cartridge.

“Same shit different workplace.” Dex thought to himself amusingly.

Dex found his first day less stressful than what he expected. He signed some paperwork and began computer training to learn how Centoh’s office systems worked. It was tedious at times, but Dex began to learn the basics of his management position. He got to meet some of the subordinates who’d be working under him, and take a whole tour of the facility, including meeting some of the mechanics and pilots. Before leaving at the end of the day, Dex was introduced to his office, which impressed him. He never had his own office before. With a bunch of paperwork to read over at home, he left for the day, feeling quite happy for once about work. It was a chance to start anew and show the world his managerial skills.

Under the glow of the chandelier above the dinner table, Dex turned the page in his binder full of documentation. He read the instructions to a program that Centoh used for its delivery processing system, and wrote down some notes on a legal pad beside him. Armed with a yellow pencil, he wrote a tip down and continued on reading. “Oh that’s interesting~” he mumbled to himself.

As he wrote down another tip, his phone rang. He looked over to see Trey calling him. He slid the answer button to initiate the call and hit the speaker phone button. He heard dance music in the background.

“’Sup~”

“Hey Dexy, where are you at? There’s a big party going on here at Hydrate!”

“I’m doing a bunch of reading tonight for work.” Dex explained. “I’d love to come, but I gotta get this stuff done.”

“It’s your favorite music, sexy Dexy!”

“Sweetie I knowwwww, but I can’t, really. I have a lot of stuff to learn.”

“Fine. Okay. Well, have fun.”

“Alright. Take care. Bye-bye now.”

Dex put his phone away and shook his head. He was just too busy for party time. For the rest of the evening he sat quietly listening to some classical music as he read the binder full of material and took his notes down. He eventually had several pages of notes all neatly written down on his yellow legal pad. The clock on the wall struck nine-thirty at night when he finished the last note. He closed the red Centoh binder up and leaned back in his chair to stretch.

Getting up and turning the light off, Dex went upstairs and brushed his teeth. He took his shorts off and tossed them in his hamper and laid down in bed. Dex just laid there for a time and stared up at the ceiling, trying with no avail to fall asleep. His mind felt so restless. He did not like the attitude Trey had about him not going to the club. He had work to do! He had to be an adult and get training done. There was money to be made, and a time later to party.

As he rolled over in vain to try and sleep, he heard an incoming message beep on his phone. He reached over to grab it, finding a text from Braxton.

“Hey are you up?”

“Yeah.” Dex wrote back.

Unable to sleep, Dex made a short drive over to a Waffle House to meet Braxton and his new boyfriend, Christos. It had been ages since he had stepped foot in a Waffle House.

Braxton sat at a booth with his boyfriend, a big gray wolf with tousled, wavy black hair and goatee. He was built with a stocky body and big arms bulged with muscle. Dex arrived and Braxton quickly got up and moved over to sit with his boyfriend. Dex sat down opposite of them. Christos smiled and put a beefy arm around Braxton, who smiled at him.

“How’s it going, Dex?” Braxton asked.

“I can’t sleep.” The malamute remarked. “Maybe this’ll help.”

“Well I want you to meet someone special~” the young wolf smiled as he looked over at Christos. “This is my new boyfriend, Christos.”

“Nice to meet you~” Dex greeted. Christos just nodded back at him.

Christos and Dex ordered some food, while Dex just got an iced tea with lemon. The waitress soon returned with their drinks.

“So how was your first day?” Braxton asked, sipping on a pop.

“A lot of knowledge. A lot of training.” Dex remarked. “But I can tell it’s not a dumpster fire like Saunders-Babbit.”

“Yeahhhhhh.” Braxton laughed. “They’re still in shock at what you said.”

“Why? Because I ripped the band-aid off? That they’re all so obtuse to the operational problems with the company?” Dex remarked sarcastically.

Braxton looked over at his boyfriend. “Dex didn’t take shit from anyone there.”

“No I did not.” The malamute shook his head.

Christos chuckled. “I was told you regularly told someone to get their shit and leave.”

“I did!” Dex exclaimed. “That stupid bottomfeeding ass would take over sixty hours a week to do a sub-forty hour a week job!”

“Wow.” Christos shook his head. He looked at Braxton. “Why does this person have a job?”

Braxton pointed back at Dex.

“Saunders-Babbit is a company where mediocrity thrives. They want to pay low, get entry level, bottom of the barrel workers and use ‘em for what they got. Warehouse guys are essentially expendable. And then you get to management, where people got promoted for brownnosing, and not for talent.”

“So how did you become a manager, Dex?” Braxton asked.

“My manager quit, and they offered me more money to take it.” Dex shrugged. “More money that quickly dried up!”

“That’s fucked up.” Christos laughed.

“That whole company is screwed. The president is a raging alcoholic, and the company pays two guys six figures to be her ‘male assistants’ or what I call them, go-go boys.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Christos teased with a snort.

“It’s a pretty shitty place to be.”

“So you told this Brandon fella to basically fuck off every day?”

“Yeah! He’d waltz in late, or super early, and just fuck around loading his van up, and I was done with it! Get your fucking shit and get the fuck outta my warehouse!” Dex reiterated with a laugh. “God damn, dude!”

“Thank god I’m only there in the mornings~” Braxton chuckled. “Well, Dex, I hope you find this new job much better.”

“We shall see~”

The waitress brought the food and doled it out for Braxton and Christos. Dex politely declined ordering any food for himself. As the waitress walked away, Braxton momentarily excused himself to use the bathroom.

Dex sipped on his drink, and noticed that Christos’ face looked more serious at him. He leaned in from his spot opposite of the table and stared at Dex right in his face. “Don’t think I don’t know about what you do…”

Dex released the straw from his lips. “Huh?”

“I see you on Sniffies, I know about your pump n’ dumps, your endless taste for men, and fucking and being fucked raw. I don’t want any of this shit to come down on-“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the fuck up.” Dex said, holding a paw up. “First off, spare me the fake moral outage, and second of all, let me set the record straight that me and Braxton are just friends, and yes, I am capable of having non-sexual friends. We’re former coworkers and I respect Braxton, and I’ve tried to help him when he’s had questions.”

Christos leaned back in his seat and slowly nodded. “Okay.”

Braxton returned and sat back down next to Christos. He took notice of the stern expressions on Christos’s and Dex’s faces. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Dex nodded.

Dex had a calm conversation with his friend before calling it a night. He wished them well and gave them a few dollars for the drink and provided the tip. Dex got back into his car and made his way home, where tiredness finally set in after brushing his teeth.

Dex plugged his phone in and set the alarm. He turned the lamp off and laid down in bed, covering himself up beneath the purple blanket. He stared up at the ceiling, adorned with the shadow pattern of the street light filtering through the window. As his heavy eyes slowly closed, Dex thought about the little spat with Christos, the unprovoked accusation that he would somehow corrupt Braxton sexually? Was he this much of a total slut? Was this how everyone in Boystown thought of him? But isn’t this what the gay community wanted in its sexually saturated marketing and businesses? Dex’s thoughts faded away as he drifted off to sleep.

The beginning of August was sweltering in Chicago. Morning was sticky and already uncomfortably warm from a heat wave, with a blank white dawn silently hanging over the lake that faded away into the opaque haze. It was now the dog days of summer. As Dex drove to work, he was reminded of a quote from a childhood book he read, the prologue of Tuck Everlasting: “These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.”

Welcomed in through the security gate, Dex arrived at work, at the Centoh office. Looking pretty content, Dex hopped out with his laptop bag and quickly made his way inside where it was cooler. Dressed in his gray work pants and red Centoh polo, Dex stepped into his office and clocked in for the day. As he put his laptop bag down, he looked out the window to hear the big radial engines of the DC-6’s start up for their morning runs.

Sitting down at his desk, Dex looked at some paperwork while he waited for his desktop to boot up. Three weeks into his job, he was starting to get accustomed to the job duties of being the operations manager. For the first time in years, Dex was actually content with what he was doing for a career. The big malamute had a cozy office for the first time ever, a great salary, and good company benefits.

“Morning, Dex!” Greeted Gary as he walked by.

“Morning~” Dex called back as he opened his email program to read some emails.

And he was happy to have a good boss for once who actually cared. As Dex wrote a reply to an email, he heard some shouting outside in the office which got his attention. He got up and stepped out to see a commotion going on by the dispatch office. A bunch of freight loaders were having a heated discussion with Jim Witt, the dispatcher, apparently over the loading of planes. Dex ran over to defuse the situation.

“God damnit, Jim! Why the fuck won’t you use the damn DC-7 heading to Biloxi!”

“I do not trust the reliability of those engines!” Jim exclaimed.

“You put the same shit on a Connie, which uses the same engines, but not the Sevens? Jesus fucking Christ, now we have to split the load up again because it won’t fit on the damn DC-6!”

“Why are you getting all frustrated at me!”

“You’re the dispatcher! Jesus Christ, we’re all doomed because Dim Witt is in charge!”

“Okay, okay, okay, calm down.” Dex announced, interjecting himself into the argument. “Okay, what is the problem. Loaders?”

“We have a thirty-eight thousand pound freight load that is heading to Biloxi. We just unloaded a DC-7 that came in from Lainsville, and we can put the scheduled freight directly to Biloxi on the Seven, but Jim wants to split it up on three DC-6’s, which means it’s going to take longer to get to Biloxi, because it’ll be a connecting flight through Columbus, and back to Lainsville before it gets to Biloxi. And shit always gets screwed up when Dim Witt does this!” exclaimed Frank, the senior freight loader.

“Will you stop with the insults!?”

“Will you stop being retarded, Jim?” Frank shouted. Dex put himself between them.

“So why don’t you like using the DC-7?” Dex asked.

“They’re not as reliable as the DC-6’s! It’s the engines. They like to swallow valves on that plane.”

“But yet you’ll gladly throw that kind of freight on a Connie? Jim! It uses the same R-3350!”

“Easy.” Dex motioned with his paw. “Can you get one of the maintenance guys to come here?”

“On it.” Frank nodded. The ginger wolf quickly went to the hangar, and returned a minute later with the head manager of maintenance.

“Okay, George, tell me, what’s your opinion on the DC-7?” Dex asked him.

“Jesus titty fucking Christ, not this shit again, Dim.”

“HEY!” the dispatcher exclaimed.

Dex motioned for everyone to calm down. He pursed his lips in growing frustration.

“There is nothing wrong with the DC-7B’s… they use… CAN YA HEAR ME DIM!? They use the same R-3350-972TC-18-DA-3’s that the Super Constellations utilize, but with four blade Hamilton Standard propellers.”

“Put the freight on the DC-7 and send it to Biloxi. This matter is settled.” Dex announced. “Loaders, load the DC-7, and George, thank you.”

Jim threw his arms up in disgust as everyone left. Dex went back to his office and finished working on his email. He hit the send button and sat back in his chair for a moment to think. He had spent the past couple of weeks observing things at Centoh, trying to pick up on the company environment, what was working and what wasn’t working. It was a massive improvement over Saunders-Babbit, but he could still tell there were operational issues lurking around the office, like the never ending issues with dispatch. Dex was determined to iron out the issues.

Stepping out of the office to go pick up a document from the printer, Dex noticed out of the corner of his eye the mechanic making his moves on an office worker who looked so disinterested. Turning his head he saw Michelle, a young looking wolfess with light brown hair, trying to get away from Mike, a scruffy looking, middle-aged gray wolf in oil soaked coveralls. Dex just shook his head, just as he heard the error beep on the copier. Looking down, Dex saw that the copier had jammed. Rolling his eyes, Dex opened the unit up and yanked out the crumpled up piece of paper. He immediately noticed how flimsy and thin it was. Raising a brow, Dex glanced over at the small table at the open ream of paper, which he immediately recognized as the gray and orange Saunders-Babbit packaging. The malamute closed his eyes and shook his head. How could this day get any more annoying?

Getting his copy finally printed, Dex walked back towards his office, when he heard a familiar voice. Walking past his office towards the front, he spotted none other than Brandon, talking with another office worker. The lazy brown wolf was leaning on his dolly shooting the breeze.

“BRANDON!” Dex shouted. The wolf’s eyes went huge and he practically fell over to see Dex working at Centoh.

“Buddy!” Brandon exclaimed with a big grin. “Holy hell! I didn’t know you work here now!”

“The hell you doing here?”

“I brought you a bunch of paper and office supplies!” Brandon smiled. He held his clipboard up for Dex to sign. The malamute grabbed it, shook his head and scribbled his signature down on it.

“Did you get everything loaded up in the supply room?”

“Yep!”

Dex handed his clipboard back to him. “Get your shit and get the fuck outta my office! You got a busy schedule Brandon, quit milking the fuckin’ clock!”

Brandon’s eyes momentarily went huge, and a frown formed. He turned around and walked away with a sad little sulking pace. Dex shook his head and went back to his office to work on his document.

Checking the time, Dex paused his work and got up to venture out in preparation for lunch. He walked over to Gary’s office on the opposite end and knocked on the open door and peered in. Gary glanced over from his dual monitors. “Yeah, Dex?”

“Hey do you got a moment to talk?” Dex asked.

“Sure.”

Dex stepped in and closed the door as he grabbed a seat.

“What’s going on, Dex?” Gary asked curiously as he rolled his chair over to the edge of his L-shaped desk.

“I’ve been here for a few weeks now, and perhaps I shouldn’t be trying to rock the bottom so much per say, but I have noticed in my time here that there are several minor operational issues that I’m seeing that could and should be addressed, but I’m not sure if I’m in the position currently to address them.”

Gary fumbled his brow. “What are those issues that you’re seeing?”

“To start, dispatch. You got a guy in dispatch who seems to be in over his head, who isn’t listening to the people that matter, and I’m getting phone calls from dispatch in Columbus headquarters, Lainsville, Biloxi about why freight is coming in all jumbled up and on separate aircraft, like this morning’s debacle over the DC-7 flight. Other issues I am noticing is the constant problems with the photocopiers, and there’s a case of sexual harassment going on between Michelle in the office, and Mike the mechanic, and I’m afraid these issues are going to negatively affect morale in this company long term if they are not addressed. Now mind you, I come from a company that had never ending problems with morale because management chose to do nothing about it. And I am in the capacity to handle these issues, but I am not sure if that’s something appropriate for me in my current state of my tenure here.”

Gary nodded and thought about it. “I am aware of issues about Jim, and we’ve had a discussion in the past with Mike about his behavior about some of the women in the office… I’ve personally said something to him, but I’m not able to constantly play adult daycare.”

“I know that feeling one hundred percent.” Dex nodded.

“Now Dex, I hired you to be our operations manager, and I have faith in your abilities, so if you feel there are issues that need to be addressed, then you have my full support in resolving them, up to and including termination if it gets to that point.” Gary assured.

“I want to fix them now, so it doesn’t get to that point.”

“You’re a very observant person I noticed.”

“It’s in my nature. To be an effective leader, one has to observe and resolve crises when they come. When I worked at Saunders-Babbit, I could never resolve problems in the warehouse because I was constantly overruled by the upper management. So problems festered and people quit over it. I lost so many guys who were good workers over that, and I don’t want to see it happen here.”

“I agree with your sentiment. So you go and do what you feel is best for the company. That’s why I hired you, Dex.” Gary smiled. “And god help us if the president gets involved…”

“Oh?”

“The guy you replaced… he was a nice guy, but when it came to conflict, he was too timid, and he let problems fester, until Rob Barion came and fired him. And you don’t want to make Rob upset, because he’ll shut that shit down in a split second.”

Dex nodded. “I see.”

“A lot of the problem you see with Jim is because the last guy let it happen, and old habits die hard they say.”

“Well he needs to start routing planes with more sense or he’s gonna find himself back in another position.”

“I have faith in you, Dex.” Gary smiled.

Dex smiled back. “Thanks Gary, I appreciate that. Well I’m gonna run and get lunch and I’ll be back~”

“Hey what about the photocopier?”

Dex was halfway getting up when he sat back down. “Okay, have you seen how terrible the paper we’re getting is?”

“No?”

“Dex saw an open ream of paper and grabbed a sheet. He held it up for Gary to see.

“This is the crap I used to constantly deal with. Saunders-Babbit makes the absolute worst paper imaginable, and I can’t believe people buy this shit. Look how thin it is!” Dex exclaimed. He held it up against a book, showing the book title through the paper. “It’s like tracing paper! It’s so thin and flimsy the print rollers jam it up. I even recall one printer burning this shit with the fuser.”

“Our old supplier went out of business last year. We used to get Hammer Mill paper and then they went out of business in mid 2020. And Saunders-Babbit was the lowest bidder in vendor.” Gary explained.

“This is the worst paper known to man. And I once remarked about it to our old company president, Maurice Saunders when he was alive. I met him two times in the mid 2000’s. Old cranky World War Two veteran. I asked him about the paper quality, and he just shrugged and told me ‘fuck it, the government buys it!’ and that he ‘wouldn’t line his bird cage with that shit’. That’s the epitome of the company I worked for.”

Gary laughed. “Wow.”

“I can go price check for some vendors and see what we can do, plus I don’t need that lil’ turd Brandon constantly here to fuck off!”

“Oh, Brandon Vlockner!” Gary exclaimed with a chuckle. “He’s related to Ryan and Brent over at the CGOF. He’s a nice boy, easily distracted.”

Dex shook his head. “Sixty plus hours for a sub-forty hour a week job.”

“Sounds like Brent over at the glass plant. Ninety hours, but I’m not sure what he does?” Gary shrugged. “That’s for Rob to resolve.”

“Not your dog and pony show, right?”

“Yeah.” Gary smiled. “And you go and check the vendor pricing for bulk paper purchases.”

“I’ll start looking after lunch.”

“Thanks Dex, have a nice lunch.”

The malamute got up and nodded as he opened the door and left to head out.

Nearing the end of the day, Dex stepped out of his office and fumbled around juggling a legal pad while donning his sunglasses. Making a bee line to the maintenance hangar door, Dex stepped out into the sweltering heat to meet with some of the mechanics. Inside the hangar, the roar of the big fans filled his ears, as people tried to stay cool and do their jobs in the still sweltering breeze. The rumble of radial engines resonated off the steel beams as the last flights of the day took off, and the incoming afternoon flights were arriving into Chicago.

Dex walked over to find George standing and discussing some maintenance issue with a twin-engine Convairliner. He waited for the big Saint Bernard to finish speaking to approach him.

“Hey George?” Dex called.

“Yeah?” the sweaty dog replied as he dabbed his forehead with a red handkerchief.

“Do you got a moment that I can chat with you about some aviation stuff? I’m trying to figure this out.”

“Yeah, one sec, lemme grab some water.” He said as he walked over to the cooler to fetch a paper cup and fill it with some water he gulped down quickly.

Heat waves radiated off the sun bleached pavement of the tarmac where a bunch of aircraft were parked in various stages of loading and unloading. Dex braved the heat and walked with George out to learn a bit about Centoh’s fleet of legacy propliners.

“What you see here, Dex, is the world’s largest operation of propeller driven airliners anywhere on the planet. This is all the handiwork of Rob Barion and his bunch back in Newark Ohio.” George explained as they walked.

“I see.” Dex nodded. “Working here reminds me of an old family photo when my grandparents moved to Mississippi way back in fifty-nine. They had flown to Biloxi on what I believe was a DC-7, as the plane had four blade propellers like the DC-7’s here, complete with flat tips.”

“That’s exactly what they flew on.” George nodded. “I have a photo of my Dad when he used to fly DC-6’s way back when. He’d be so proud of what I’m doing here now.”

“So you’ve been doing this a long time, George?”

“Forty years.” The Saint Bernard nodded. “Turned sixty a few months ago, and no plans on stopping! I used to live in Arizona and I worked on water bomber fleets when they still used DC-7’s and C-54’s out west. I also used to fly some of them in Alaska and Canada in my younger days. So when I heard about a propliner operation starting up in Ohio and they were paying big bucks for maintenance? I had to jump on it, man. It’s my calling.”

“If you love something it’s not a job, right?”

“Exactly, Dex!” George laughed. “See? You get it.”

“I try.” The malamute chuckled.

“So what do you want to learn about?”

“Well, just the gist of these aircraft in Centoh’s fleet ya know?” Dex tried to explain. “I wanna know some of the details of them, so I can stop this damn argument every morning between the loaders, dispatch, and the pilots. I’m tired of hearing grownups argue like little kids!”

“Well the problem is Dim Witt in that office!”

Dex chuckled. “Okay George, I get it, you all think he’s an idiot, but let’s be an adult here.”

“Fine.” George rolled his eyes. “Jim’s problem is that he thinks he’s right, and that he knows everything. He is good at getting loads out, but he’s got a major problem with the damn DC-7’s we have. The company has seven DC-7B’s, and they come in handy when we need slightly larger capacity, especially when the Constellations are tied up on the trunk routes. But god damn Jim won’t use them.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“Well last year we had a DC-7 belly land right here at Midway. They took off with a load destined for Lainsville, and about five minutes into the flight, the number three engine had an uncontained failure of its supercharger assembly, and the blast tore the right landing gear out. They turned around and came back in for a perfect belly landing. And Jim was relatively new, and it kinda shook him up, so I think that’s where this tomfoolery comes from.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“I’ve tried to explain to that sonofabitch about it, and it just won’t matter. He has no issues utilizing the dozen or so Super Constellations we have, and they use basically the same radial engine? And I’ve seen those Connies come back in with blown out engines. That’s why I get so flustered over it. The loaders get so flustered, because it adds a heavy burden to their jobs trying to figure out what goes where.”

“I have noticed that the morale for the loaders is low.”

“Because of Jim!” George exclaimed. “Jim’ll fuck everything up.”

Dex walked over to stand in the shade of a towering L-1049H. “So can you give me a rough idea of the fleet? And what’s the most reliable, or quirkiest?”

George took Dex down the flight line, and introduced him to Centoh’s fleet. Centoh Intermodal flew primarily five aircraft types. Making up the backbone of the fleet were thirty DC-6BF’s, all having once been passenger airliners before being converted into freighters at some point in the sixties and early seventies. The DC-6 combined economy and reliability; it had a good range, good load carrying capacity, and was apparently very easy to fly. George spoke very highly of the “Cloudmaster”. The step up were the seven DC-7B’s, the evolved and stretched DC-6, but with the slightly larger R-3350 radial engines. They could gross several thousand more pounds of cargo and had a moderately longer range, but the turbocompound radials were more temperamental than the R-2800 Double Wasps that powered the “Sixes”.

Curvaceous and elegant was the Lockheed Super Constellation. Centoh had eleven; five L-1049H’s, three Navy R7V-1’s, and three ex-Air Force C-121C’s that wore the “red top” scheme. With a dolphin shaped fuselage, wide triple-tail, and a Pinocchio style radome that was painted white, the Constellation stood out from all the other planes. Spidery landing gear kept the plane high off the ground for the sixteen feet long propeller blades. George remarked that the Constellation was pretty, but it was slightly harder to load because its fuselage sat higher off the ground, and it tapered in the nose and tail. He described the controls as being heavier than the DC-6’s, but it cruised faster and had as good if not longer range than the DC-7.

For the smaller twin-engine planes, Dex was introduced to the Convairliner, the C-131F. Centoh’s fleet of twelve were all ex Navy Convair 340’s, which were upgraded with the CV-440’s exhaust system, and cowls. George liked the Convairs as much as the DC-6’s. They were incredibly tough, reliable aircraft that flew freight to smaller airports to customers, and fed the hubs with cargo from other destinations. The smallest plane in Centoh’s use was the classic, hard-wearing DC-3. Having a dozen in use, the practically immortal DC-3 was a tail-dragger, and carried usually about six thousand pounds of freight. George talked affectionately about the DC-3, and bragged that Centoh had a DC-3 that was eighty years “young” and still going strong. George also mentioned a bit about some of the other “odds and ends” that Rob Barion had for internal use within the company shuttling parts and equipment around the major hubs in the network.

Dabbing sweat off his brow, Dex stopped before a big bulbous Boeing, an all silver C-97G. It looked completely out of place. It wore its historic USAF markings as a freighter, and Dex was interested in the name “The Silver Bullet Express”. A forklift was in the process of unloading a crated radial engine from the rear cargo door.

“This isn’t our plane, correct?”

“No, this one’s a Freightmaster bird. This C-97 is the parts hauler for Rob’s husband, Joey Paulo, and his air cargo operations~”

“Husband?” Dex asked. “Rob is gay?”

“Yeah! You didn’t hear about that?” George asked nonchalantly.

“No?”

“I don’t really care for that stuff, but Rob is gay.” George shrugged. “He’s not like a lot of prissy, girly queers, he’s a tough motherfucker, and so is his husband. Really nice guy. I like chatting with him when he visits. He’s quite the gun maker too.”

“Huh…” Dex said, surprised. “Interesting.”

“Well listen, Dex, I gotta get back to what I’m doing.”

“Thank you so much for your time, George.” Dex smiled. “I appreciate it.”

“I appreciate your willingness to learn.”

“Hey, it’s part of my job~” the malamute chuckled. He turned to head back to the office. “Thanks!”

The cool air was a big relief to Dex as he returned back inside. He felt sweaty and gross from the saturated heat outside. Dabbing his forehead with a paper towel, Dex walked back to his office, only to stop and gaze up at the portrait of Barev’s president on the wall.

Encased in a dark bronze frame was a head and shoulders portrait of Rob Barion. He looked like he was a wolf mixed with some malamute; his facial structure was almost exactly like Dex’s, but his fur pattern and appearance looked wolf-life, with a medium brown, and tan around his muzzle. He had a tough, unsmiling appearance, with a stern gaze staring out. Dex was almost immediately drawn to the jagged, dark scar that ran down the left side of his face. Rob had wavy hair like Dex’s, neatly combed and shiny from a dab of Brylcreem. He wore a perfectly white dress shirt, and a dark blue necktie that had a gray chevron pattern on it. He looked like he was in his mid-fifties. Dex couldn’t believe that man was gay. There was nothing about his photo that set off his gaydar. Perhaps one day he’d meet the company president?

“STOP! GOD DAMNIT WILL YOU STOP!?”

Dex was startled by a random scream to his right. Turning to where it came from, he saw Michelle pushing Mike away. The malamute immediately ran over and put himself between them.

“God damnit, take a fucking hint!” Michelle yelled at Mike.

“Sweetie, I was just trying to compliment your hair!”

“Keep it to your fucking self, I’m sick of this shit every day!” Michelle yelled.

“Okay, okay!” Dex shouted. He noticed one of the heavily armed security guards come running up to see where the screaming was coming from.

“I need both of you in the conference room. Now.” Dex pointed.

Mike and Michelle were escorted by the guard to the conference room, where Gary met them. Dex closed the door behind him as Gary stood by the wall. Michelle sat on one side of the table, and Mike on the other end, both looking down being silent.

Dex sat down with a manila folder he placed on the table. “Okay Michelle, you go first.”

The wolfess pursed her lips and ran her fingers through her hair. “Mike will not stop bothering me. I have told him a thousand times that I am not interested in anything with him. I don’t want to go out for a drink, I don’t want to chat with him, and no I am not going to have sex with him! How many times do I have to go through with this!? I’m about ready to just fucking quit and get a new job.”

Dex nodded. “Well hang in there, and it’ll be okay, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow some more.”

“Okay.”

“You’re cleared to go.” Dex motioned. Michelle quickly got up and left. Dex’s eyes wandered over to a sullen looking Mike. He waited for the sound of the door closing. “So Mister Gallagher?”

“Yeah, I know.” He said, not looking up.

“Why don’t you look up at me, Mike? Time to man up.”

Mike looked up and glared at Dex.

“You’ve been told about this before. And if Michelle is not interested in you, why do you continue to bother her?”

“Maybe she’d change her mind, I don’t know.”

“Mike, this is blatant sexual harassment and you know it.” Dex explained calmly. “She has told you multiple times NO. And you keep pestering her, and now here we are.”

“How’s a guy supposed to get any?”

“Well if you think work is a place for sexual gratification, then I think we got our priorities mixed up…”

“She didn’t have to be a complete bitch about it. She should be happy that someone thinks she’s pretty!”

“Do you not think that makes her uncomfortable?”

“Why?”

Dex pursed his lips. “Would you feel uncomfortable if a woman you didn’t care for kept coming after you?”

“Pfft, anything with titties and a pussy ain’t bad to me!” Mike exclaimed with a laugh.

Dex looked at Gary and just shook his head. “Mike, what if a guy, what if me, was doing what you were doing to you? Caressing you, telling you how pretty you were in your… oil soaked coveralls…”

“Well I’d be pretty pissed off~”

“Makes you uncomfortable, right?”

“Yeah!”

“How do you think she feels?”

Mike stared blankly at Dex. “Well… now that you mention it…”

“You’re getting written up with your first warning. Next time I have to talk to you about this, you’re fired. I am not having a hostile workplace with this shit. Got it?”

“Got it…”

Dex signed his name at the bottom of the write-up sheet. “I’ll make a photo copy for you.”

“Okay.”

Gary watched all this and was amazed at how Dex had everything under control. He was mighty impressed by his new operations manager.

Opening the lid to his laptop, Dex sat down at his dinner table with his salad for dinner. Twirling the fork in his right grip, Dex punched in his password and logged into Windows. He opened his browser and checked his hookup account for any new messages. He opened a new tab and opened the link to a dating site he created an account for. Nibbling on dinner, Dex checked the usual gobbledygook from Sniffies. He got the usual spiel; guys out of his league begging him for some fun, the old and the creepy, and a bunch of deleted conversations from the usual assholes. Dex fumbled his brow in disappointment. He went over to the dating site to check his profile.

He had a nice photo of him smiling for his profile picture, and a description of himself saying he was “tired of the flings and hookups and was looking for something a bit more serious”. Dex saw a new message, and he clicked on it as he sipped his ice water.

“Is this some kind of joke? You looking for something a bit more serious when I see you were online just an hour ago on Sniffies probably looking for your next load up your ass?” an anonymous profile rudely stated. Dex glared and hit the block button as fast as he could work the trackpad.

“Motherfuckers…” Dex grumbled. He felt so terrible. He closed out the programs and silently ate his dinner. The emptiness, the silence, really hit him this time around. Was this how middle-age was going to be for him. Was he going to just be alone outside of the scene? And was he seen as this much of a slut in Chicagoland?

After a long thinking session, Dex ventured out alone to go for a drink in Boystown. He walked down to a quiet little gay bar two blocks away from his apartment block. He ventured inside, sat down at an empty barstool and ordered himself a mixed drink with gin. The bartender handed him a glass and he handed him a five dollar bill. Dex sat there silently and just watched the quiet scenery while he drank his gin and tonic slowly and fumed to himself. There were a few people at the bar, mostly some couples who sat in by the windows, or in the booths by the wall listening to the music or joking amongst themselves. Dex pondered how they got so lucky and he didn’t. It was years since he attempted dating, and he never had a serious boyfriend. The last relationship, if one could call it that, was when he was twenty-nine, and it lasted exactly five weeks, two days, before he cheated on Dex and left. To add insult to injury, he gave Dex a nice case of the clap too. It was another wounding event in his life.

He finished the last sip of his glass. Turning around, he sat it down on the counter, thanked the bartender, gave him a tip, and hopped off the barstool to leave. He ventured back out into the warm evening. Instead of going straight home, Dex took his time to just wander through Boystown, aimlessly walking and observing all the scenery around him. There were rainbow flags everywhere, rainbow street signs, crossings, and an overall feeling of joy in the neighborhood. But Dex felt so miserable, and lost at what he wanted to do with his life. His face carried his sadness as he walked.

Stepping out of a sex store was Braxton and Christos. The two wolves spotted Dex and Braxton immediately saw the sadness on his face. He ran over to see his friend.

“Dex! Dex!” Braxton shouted, getting his attention. “Hey, why the sad looks, friend?”

“I’m just thinking.” Dex admitted. “Just…lost.”

Christos frowned and walked over to be with Braxton. “Hey, we’re gonna grab some frozen custard, would you like to join us?”

Dex nodded and decided he could get a custard. He walked with Braxton and Christos down the road, past a club where some of his clubbing friends happened to be at for the evening. Trey and Paul, standing and having some drinks by the window, took notice of Dex walking by with Braxton and Christos. Both of them were surprised to see him after he didn’t answer their texts or phone calls.

“What the hell is Dex doing?” Paul asked Trey. “What’s he doing with those two?”

“Yeah, what the hell.” Trey shook his head. “Kinda heavy if you ask me…”

“Tisk, tisk.”

Dex was running late. Rushing around to get dressed in his casual attire, the malamute quickly threw on his white and blue striped tanktop and brushed out the wrinkles on his chest area. He grabbed his blue shorts and tossed those on and quickly shoved his feet into his blue and white shoes. Throwing on his baseball hat backwards, Dex grabbed his keys and wallet and quickly left for his walk to meet up with friends.

A gentle breeze through the shade helped cool Dex on an otherwise scorching hot day. He walked the block over to meet up with his friends at their usual eatery to grab some refreshments and hang out for the evening.

“Sorry!” Dex exclaimed all flippantly with a laugh. “I had a work clusterfuck to unfuck!”

“Better late than never sweetie!” Paul laughed.

“What’s up, Dex?” asked Lenny, the black wolf sipping on an ice water with lemon.

“Oh trying to relax. Gurl, you won’t believe my fucking day.” Dex exclaimed. He rolled his eyes.

“What happened?” Trey asked curiously.

“I busted a worker for stealing toner.”

“Toner? Like printer toner?” the Doberman asked. Johnny sipped on his drink. “Why that?”

“I have no idea…” Dex shrugged. “I’ve spent about a week figuring it out. I’ve always seen this employee leave the supply room with toner… and I figured that maybe he was just changing the cartridge since we have a couple printers in the office… and the maintenance hangar… but it wasn’t adding up… so I took a bunch of pictures of the toner cartridges SN numbers, and I started poking around on E-bay, and guess what I found!”

“The toner!”

“Yeah!” Dex laughed. “So I had my friend Braxton buy one, and the SN’s matched. So I turned that shit in and he was fired.”

“They threw him out?” Paul asked.

“Literally.” Dex grimaced. “Security came in, and they physically grabbed the guy, someone opened the front entrance, and he was physically thrown head first out the door and the door was shut. I have never once seen anything like that before…”

Everyone was taken aback by the brutality of such a stunt.

“Speaking of Braxton… that’s the chubby little wolf with the beard?” Trey asked.

“I wouldn’t call him chubby… he’s really stocky.”

“He’s not height-weight proportional.” Trey shook his head. “Why are you hanging out with someone like that, Dex?”

“What are you insinuating, Trey?” Dex asked, raising a brow.

“Well I’ve never seen you hang out with anyone who wasn’t really fit and in shape!”

“So I can’t hang out with ordinary people? I can’t have any meaningful friendship with someone who isn’t some weird twisted gay caricature?” Dex asked in an annoyed tone. He paused when he saw the waiter return with a drink, and Dex got a chance to order himself a drink.

“It just seems like… you’ve changed lately?” Lenny remarked. “It’s like you don’t really want to hang out with us and what we do?”

Dex fumbled his brow. “Maybe I’m just… maybe I want to try something new?”

“Oh boy, here’s Dexy trying to reinvent himself.” Paul quipped, which made everyone laugh at Dex.

“What’s next, you gonna start a family too?” Trey laughed, the white wolf grinning sardonically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Dex…” Trey leaned in. “For as long as I have been friends with you, your life has been sex, parties, and a few lines of cocaine, or a couple ecstasy. What the fuck is this all of a sudden? You don’t want copious sex with hot guys, parties and drinks with us? Now it’s… you want a boyfriend? Hanging out with people who aren’t HWP?”

“You gonna go to church too?” Johnny laughed.

Dex leaned back in his seat a bit. “Why the judgment?”

“We’re just… we find it odd?” Paul asked.

“Maybe I’m getting tired of the endless hookups that just come and go, the music, the alcohol, the drugs. Maybe I’d like for us to… you know? Go to the zoo? The aquarium? Make a trip and see some nature? A movie?”

Everyone looked at each other and laughed. “Jesus Christ, Dexy.”

Dex frowned as he got his drink from his waiter. He stuck the straw in it and sucked on it slowly with a disgruntled gaze.

“That sounds boring!” Trey exclaimed.

“The big circuit party is coming up in a few weeks, and THAT’S not boring!” Lenny grinned big.

“Oh my god yes gurl!” Johnny exclaimed. “I got my new harness and jockstrap for that too!”

“Ooh, I gotta get mine ordered!” Trey exclaimed.

“Yippe.” Dex nodded. “I already got my shit.”

“Well look at this Debbie Downer here.” Trey teased.

Dex glared at him as he sipped his drink slowly. The conversation soon switched from ribbing him to their vapid sex lives and who they were seeing, and the latest in their lives. Dex sat and just listened. It was just more of the same.

Going back home as the sun set beneath the horizon, Dex stepped back inside and closed the door behind him. He locked it and leaned against his purple door for a period of time as he thought to himself. He did not feel content or happy. He felt as though he got a backhand slap by the people he thought were friends. So dismissive of his ambitions to change things up in his life.

Sitting at his dinner table, he opened his laptop up and logged into his dating site, and found nothing. An inquiry he sent to someone got deleted. He checked Sniffies and found just more of the same. He quickly exited, closed the laptop lid, and put his head down on the table for a time, and just sat in silence. Why did this hurt so much?

Dex went upstairs and turned the lamp on in his room. He went to his dresser and pulled out his glass plate and a little baggy of his favorite white powder. Looking a bit ashamed of himself, he took his razor, cut it up nice into a little pile, and grabbed his straw. He gave a big snort and gasp to the sting of a line of coke. Something to numb the pain inside him. He coughed and hacked and put it away. Dex sat down on his bed and felt the pain go to a numb state. He hated that he was reduced to using drugs to numb his pain. What was his life becoming?

Taking up an invite from Braxton, Dex spent his early evening watching a rugby practice game at a large park’s field. Under the shade of a big oak tree, Dex sat on the front row of bleachers with his friend, watching Christos run with the ball tucked in his arm. The big gray wolf powered through the crowd of sweaty players. Dex seemed to enjoy himself as he watched Christos walk back to position, with Braxton cheering him on.

“This reminds me of when I was a teenager.” Dex admitted to Braxton. “I used to go watch Ole Miss games.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I used to really like baseball in my younger years.” The malamute remarked amusingly. “Me and my second brother, and our older cousin, Ronnie. It was a long drive but totally worth it. I’d watch them play all day. I had so much fun. I even got an autograph from the player I had a huge crush on.”

“Oh cool.” Braxton smiled. “What made you give it up?”

Dex shrugged. “I just lost interest after I came to Chicago.”

“Christ, did Saunders-Babbit suck the life out of you completely?”

“I thought that was from all the blowjobs.” Dex teased with a playful elbow nudge. “And no I’m not Brandon getting under Clyde’s desk looking for those protein shakes! I get mine from the baths!”

“Oh god~” laughed Braxton.

“Well, not lately. I haven’t been in much of a mood for anything like that.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I’m just… I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m simply unhappy with the status quo in my life. I fixed the job part, but the… my friends… they’re just… all they want to do is party, drink, and dabble in happy pills, and that’s it? And lately they’ve been laughing at my ideas of changing things up, and doing different things. They think I’m like becoming a heterosexual or something because I don’t want to spend all my time clubbing in the scene. You’re just… different than them Braxton?”

“I’m just me~” the wolf shrugged. “What you see is what you get.”

“Hmm…” the malamute pondered. “My friends were kind of upset seeing me hang out with you and Christos.”

“Why?” Braxton asked, looking all confused.

“I have no idea. They remarked that you and Christos were not ‘height-weight-proportional’, that stupid gay ass bullshit I had to deal with when I was younger.”

“Oh screw that.” Braxton rolled his eyes. “Anyone who follows that shit ain’t worth a damn.”

“Heh, exactly.”

“I would like friends who’d like to go on a nature walk, or go to the zoo, or aquarium, or watch a movie in the theatre?”

“Well, that might be an issue since Covid cases are picking up again…”

“Yeah don’t fucking remind me of that shit…” Dex shook his head. “I got my god damn Covid vaccine and all these morons didn’t, and here we fucking go.”

“But I get what you’re saying. So why don’t sometime we just go hang out and do that?”

“You want to do that?”

“Sure!” Braxton smiled. “I want to get out and explore some more.”

“Heh, you just like ole’ Dexy being your financeur~” the malamute teased with a grin.

“Well have more money is handy.”

“Well yeah, who doesn’t like more money?”

“I still work at Saunders-Babbit.” Braxton laughed.

“Working for peanuts is what you’re doing!”

“At least it’s working for peanuts verses having peanuts for brains like Brandon!”

“You’re giving him too much credit. I thought his brain was the size of a pea…” Dex shook his head.

The referee blew the whistle and the team took a much needed break. Christos came running up, and Braxton handed him a towel so he can wipe the sweat off his face. He was soaking wet in sweat.

“’Sup, Dex?”

Nearly across the street from the historic Pullman neighborhood, Dex himself visiting the duplex that Christos lived in. It was a decent sized abode that the big wolf lived in, which wasn’t far away from the office he helped managed. Dex felt surprisingly at home as he sat around by the little island in the kitchen, awaiting for a late dinner to be ordered.

“Okay, Braxton! Shower’s ready for ya!” Christos exclaimed as he stepped into the kitchen wearing a clean tanktop and shorts.

“Great~” Braxton said as he hopped up and went to the shower upstairs.

Christos ran a paw through his shiny damp locks of black hair and fetched his phone from his pocket to order some Chinese takeout. “Whacha want, Dex?”

The malamute shrugged. “Oh, like a Mongolian beef and a wonton soup is fine.”

“Cool. I can do that.” Christos nodded as he fiddled around with the app ordering food for everyone. He hit submit and put his phone back away. Dex sat on the barstool fiddling around with his phone, answering a text. Christos sucked on his lower lip with a look of thought on his face.

“Dex, I think I owe you an apology.”

“Why?”

“For snapping at you the first time I met you.”

Dex brushed it off. “It ain’t my first rodeo, so don’t sweat it man.”

Christos looked regretful. “I feel bad because I had just assumed.”

“It’s fine~” Dex smiled. “I get where you’re coming from.”

“I’m a little bitter at the way some in the gay community treat their own, and I worry about Braxton, because people like to give us shit about our bodies. Like this is my body type, and I work out and don’t eat unhealthy. I’m a big Greek dude just like my father. But some guys think this isn’t good enough. This is too fat.”

“You’re stocky. I know what you’re talking about because I used to be stockier, but I take a bunch of supplements, work out all the time, and eat carefully.” Dex explained. “It’s a mean world out there, and there’s a lot of unrealistic expectations in the gay community.”

“I’m kind of a cynic now for gayville.” Christos explained. “When I was younger I tried to fit in somewhere and was just met with a bunch of assholery, and I just decided to be my own person and do my own thing, and I’m happy about it. And I’m happy Braxton feels the same way. I’m just afraid of temptation, that desire to draw someone into a circle of friends would lead him down a bad path, like my ex. That’s why I snapped at you. And I feel bad for calling you a slut, a cumdump.”

“I mean, it’s true.” The malamute shrugged. “But I think it’s time for a change.”

Christos nodded. “You care for a drink, Dex?”

“Sure~”

Dex watched Dex fetch two small tumblers and put some ice in them. He pulled out a bottle of bourbon and poured a bit in each tumbler. He handed one to Dex, who gave it a swirl and took a little sip.

“So you said it’s time for a change, eh?” Christos asked. Dex nodded.

“I had an epiphany, if you want to call it that, when I started working with Braxton.” Dex recalled. “I’ve been in the gay scene for a long time, and compared to what I’ve seen, Braxton was genuine. He’s just himself. He’s not super masculine or feminine, he’s just somewhere in between in his own unique way, and he embraces that! He’s not me, having to shape shift and change masks for the occasion. You got ‘work Dex’, ‘scene Dex’, ‘sexy Dexy’.”

“What Dex is this?”

“I don’t know.” The malamute admitted. “Casual Dex?”

Christos looked to be in thought as he sipped on his bourbon. “I get the impression that you’ve tried to fit in, and got rejected, and you’ve adopted masking to cope.”

“I’ve had a lot of shit in my life. I was a scared to death, shy teenager who dared not even utter the word gay. I came to Chicago and I tried to fit in and no matter where I turned I was told I was either too tall, too fat, not fat enough, not masculine enough, too masculine, and the list goes on and on. And then I got more confident partying more, and working out, and getting laid, and then I found some friends who also liked that, and that’s my clique for at least… almost a decade or so? But after I met Braxton… everyone seems so… shallow? Vapid? My friends only like talking about getting laid, or the next party, or what so and so is doing. And they all laughed at me when I said I wanted to maybe change things up in my life and find more happiness? Something more fulfilling than empty mechanical sex? And they just laugh…”

“Dex I think you’re surrounded by some super toxic people?” Christos remarked. “And forgive me for saying this, and I’m not saying this to be mean. I think you’ve tied validation with sex. You seek validation through sex, and I think you have self-esteem issues from your upbringing and these wounding events, and you seek external validation being used as a cumdump because of the attention.”

Dex thought about it as he sipped his drink.

“When I was in my early twenties, I started to think that. I got comfortable being gay, and started to get laid regularly, but what brought me back to reality was getting the fucking clap, and it sucked! And then realizing that these so called friends you drink and party with, would never come to your aid in any kind of emergency. My parents would. My brother and sister would. People show you their true colors eventually. That’s why I got the fuck out of the gay community, almost. I mean, I still visit Boystown with Braxton, but it’s more distant.” Christos explained.

“At least you have family.” Dex remarked. “I’m estranged from mine.”

“Sorry to hear that~”

“They never understood my gayness. They just kind of tolerated me, and who wants to be tolerated? When you have to walk on eggshells and watch what you say for fear of some snide remark? Or scolding about being inappropriate when straight people do the same thing?” Dex quipped. “So why put up with that. And unfortunately, they said the wrong thing, and I said goodbye.”

“That’s a shame, because in this world? Family is all you got.” Christos shook his head. “My parents love me unconditionally, and they told me that when I worked up the courage to come out.”

“Not everyone is that lucky.”

“Sadly no. And I think that’s half the problem in the gay community.”

“Half the problem in the gay community is that a lot of guys like gay sex, but hate the fact they’re gay, and I think they take it out on others. It’s self-loathing.” Dex figured.

“That, and the pornography, and the constant advertising blitz of steroid riddled muscular guys creating this body image dilemma. The unachievable beauty and youth.” Christos grumbled.

“Yeah, I really just don’t know what to do.” Dex admitted.

“You have to do what makes you happy, Dex. And if that means stepping out of your comfort zone to do new things? Then so be it? And if your friends don’t like that? Then they weren’t your friends all along, they were some transactional thing.”

Dex nodded as he finished the last of his drink. Braxton soon came returning to the kitchen in clean clothes.

“Let’s get dinner!” Braxton exclaimed. “I’ll drive!”

Arriving to the airport on a rain swept Friday morning, Dex pulled in through the security perimeter and arrived to the office. He parked in his usual spot and hopped out, his eyes noticing two new arrivals on the tarmac by the hangar. The malamute took a few steps and paused to gaze at an all black Messerschmitt 109. The rare German warbird was an ominous looking plane; it was painted in a matte black paint scheme, with a black and white spiral pattern on its spinner, and white stenciled Luftwaffe markings, including an ominous swastika on the tail. The only splash of color came from a green “5” on the fuselage. Beside it sat a much larger Super Constellation, wearing the colors of “Barev’s Air Transport Service”, the internal airline for the whole company. Dex felt that something was up as he went inside to clock in.

“Morning, Gary~” Dex greeted as he stuck in his head inside. “So… are the Nazis invading?”

“Oh, Green Five.” Gary chuckled. “Rob is here to tend to a problem at the CGOF facility.”

“Oh boy.”

“When he brings Green Five, then heads are gonna roll.” Gary joked sarcastically as he wheeled himself over to grab some paper from the printer.

“Well it seems fitting for that role…”

Going to his office, Dex sat down and powered his workstation up to log in. He quickly got to work for the day dealing with some documentation. It was quiet and uneventful as he worked on signing some paperwork, ordered some supplies for the office, and went out to check on something with the maintenance manager. When the clock struck eleven o’clock, Dex went to head to lunch.

Hopping in his car, he took off to go fetch some food from a Panera bread not too far away. As he made his way back, he got a phone call from Trey, which he answered and put on speaker phone.

“Yessss?”

“Hey, we’re all going to this big party thing at Hydrate Saturday night, you wanna go?”

“Ohhh, I’d love to, but I got plans actually.”

“Plans?”

“I’m going hiking with my friends Braxton and Christos.”

“Oh.”

“Hey, they asked first, so it is what it is.”

“But we always party on the weekends!”

“Remember what I said? I wanted to change things up. Why don’t you guys join us?”

“Uhh, no, Dex.”

“Okay. Listen, I gotta let you go I’m hitting some traffic. See you around. Bye-bye now.”

Dex hung up and shook his head. He returned back to work and slowly ate his lunch in the break room. He was accompanied with some of the mechanics, who had lunch with him. They were a bunch of rugged guys who came from all walks of life to work on radial engines again, some younger and much older than Dex. They were the complete opposite of his friends in personalities and lifestyles, and politics, but Dex liked chatting with them over aviation stuff as he tried learning as much as he could about the big propliners.

“Rob just left about twenty minutes ago, and I guess over fifty people got fired at the CGOF place today.”

“Shit dude!” another mechanic exclaimed.

Dex looked up from his phone. “You’re joking.”

“Apparently someone was passing out fake vaccine cards for money, and the security goons caught it, and Rob had fifty-one people fired!”

“Wow.” The malamute responded.

“Rob Barion don’t fuck around, and that’s something people learn real quick working for his companies.” The mechanic remarked. “Now I like Rob a lot, and he’s a hoot to work with.”

“He’ll actually work on planes?” Dex asked.

“Oh yes he will. You see all those planes out there? Many of them he worked on himself with his mechanics back in Ohio.”

“Really~”

“Oh yeah. Rob’s a tough motherfucker. He’s not like a lot of queers, all social justice and that stupid woke ass shit. He’s a no-bullshit, tells it like it is fella, and he’ll get his paws dirty with ya.” The yellow lab explained to Dex.

“Interesting.” Dex said in a calm tone. He really wanted to say what he felt, but decided it wasn’t the time or the place.

After lunch, Dex returned to his office, where he saw something gold on his desk. He walked around to take a better glance at it, some kind of trophy thingy. It was a wood base with a gold plaque attached, with some kind of gold colored vacuum tube thingy sticking out of it. Dex tilted his head in confusion at it, just as Gary ran in.

“Dex! This is for you.” Gary said, pointing. “Congratulations on achieving your first golden Plumbicon award!”

“My what?”

“In Barev, for outstanding work achievement, you are awarded a golden Plumbicon. It’s a type of obsolete video camera tube.”

“I see.”

“You’ve been here for just about a month, and Rob was unfortunate to miss you, but he wanted me to let you know that him and Centoh’s president, Jaska, are very impressed with your skills in turning the morale around at this facility and solving several long standing problems with logistics, and employee support. They wanted to show you their support.”

“Well I really appreciate it.” Dex said, smiling. “I’m honestly kind of surprised so soon.”

“I’m very proud to have you aboard, Dex. You’re doing a fantastic job!” Gary said, as he held out a paw. Dex grasped Gary’s paw and shook it with a smile.

“I’m happy to be here too.” The malamute smiled. “Now payday is coming up, so if you can bump my pay up, that’d be great.”

He and Gary laughed together. Gary soon departed back to his office, and Dex sat down to gaze at his eccentric award. He picked it up and read the plaque.

“BAREV GOLDEN PLUMBICON AWARD. FOR OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE. DEXTER MALPRAVE.”

Spinning around in his chair, Dex sat it down on his bookshelf behind him. Just barely a month in and he already got his first award. He was impressed. And what he was doing felt like a cakewalk to him. Turning back to his desk, Dex noticed two cards presented to him in nice ivory envelopes. Dex opened the first one, to get a thank you note that was signed from Centoh’s president, Jaska Saari.

He smiled, sat it aside, and saw the second one, from Rob, with his name written in loopy cursive that was dark blue. He opened it up to see a thank you note that was handwritten from Rob Barion himself. The imposing, reclusive president of the company had neat, rounded cursive, much like his, written with a dark blue felt pen.

“Dear Dex.

You have done a tremendous job in

turning the morale around at Centoh

Chicago. I have heard many great

things from Gary about you solving

logistical issues, listening and

resolving worker conflict and

inefficiencies.

Keep up the good work and I’m

sorry I missed you!”

Sincerely,

Rob Barion.”

Dex sat the note down and thought about it. It felt nice to be appreciated by a company. After twenty-one years of Saunders-Babbit taking him for granted. Was this gonna be his dream job?

The sound of flowing water resonated off the stone walls of the gorge. The dual waterfalls of Starved Rock State Park was the subject of some artwork by Dex, Braxton, and Christos. Situated in the shade of the trees by the stream, Dex sat on a felled tree, doodling the view with a pencil on a drawing pad. Braxton and Christos sat on a stone slab doing the same thing. Dex, showing off his artistic skills, quickly shaded some of the background, giving a basic but to the point capture of the scenery on their hike through the park.

“Here, what do you think?” Dex asked as he showed his drawing pad to Braxton, who looked surprised.

“Dex! I didn’t know you could draw so good!” Braxton exclaimed. “Mine looks like shit!”

“I dabble in art from time to time. How do you think I got some of this ink?” the malamute chuckled.

“That’s…wow.” Christos muttered. “I’m really impressed.”

“Art is in the eye of the beholder.” Dex remarked in an amused tone. He sat his drawing pad down and took a swig of ice water from his big water bottle. “This has been a great adventure. I’m having a blast.”

“Well that’s good.” Smiled Braxton. “We like having you along for the hike.”

“I appreciate it.”

Finishing up their drawing session, the trio began the long trek back to the parking lot a few miles away. The humidity was rough in parts of the gorge, the canopy of trees and the towering stone cliffs around them trapping in the saturated heat. But Dex was having fun with his friends. He was having a lot of fun. It had been ages since he had been out doing something like this with anyone. Instead of clubbing, and getting smashed and high, he was out hiking and having a good time with Braxton and Christos. And it was nice to have meaningful conversations that weren’t about who was fucked or fucking, or the next party. It felt good for the soul.

Christos and Braxton were really down to earth. They were funny and made a great couple together. Dex felt that they were genuine; a lot of guys liked to be something they weren’t, the consequence of the pressures of the community. Plus, Dex liked that Christos was a white collar worker like himself. He was the assistant manager to a regional bank branch office.

“When I worked at Saunders-Babbit, I had eight different bosses.”

“You had eight?” Christos exclaimed as they walked through the shaded gorge. “Eight bosses?”

“Yep.” Nodded Dex. “I had the comanager, the plant manager, the two district managers, two regional managers, and then the corporate management.”

“Jesus Christ.” Braxton laughed. “It is pretty bad there. There’s more management than there are workers.”

“That’s because they give so many people the meaningless title of ‘manager’ just to pay them more money and shut them up.” Dex explained. “There’s a worker at the Minooka plant who is a storage manager and it’s just him. So who is he managing? Himself? It’s dumb. The whole structure of that company is fucked because everyone from the get go set the bar so fucking low.”

Braxton laughed. “Christ, why did I pick this place?”

“It gets better!” Dex grinned. “I got to meet the president of the company a few times. Maurice Saunders was this crotchety World War Two veteran, and the two times I met him, he had a cigar in one hand, and a tumbler of scotch in the other. He was a colorful figure to talk to. And on the second occasion I met him, and you’ll love this. His printer jammed up because of our awful paper. He said he wouldn’t buy our own paper and he wouldn’t use it to line his bird cage, and I asked him why we make such thin paper. Saunders shrugged and told me, and I quote, ‘fuck it, the government buys it’.”

“Wow.” Christos shook his head.

“That’s what I mean when I say mediocrity is good enough there.” Dex shook his head. “And his daughter, Maggie Babbit is a raging alcoholic. I met her a few times too, and every time I met her, she reeked of alcohol, and talked like a sailor.”

Braxton shook his head and looked at Christos who did the same.

“Makes me glad I work at a bank.” Christos chuckled. “I have a great management team.”

“That’s what makes or breaks a company. At Centoh, I have the full support of my boss, and the corporate office in laying down the law.” Dex remarked.

“Do you tell people to get their shit and get the fuck out?” grinned Braxton.

“Yes!” Dex laughed with a grin. “The maintenance guys in the morning like to huddle around and drink coffee and gossip like women, so I’m always telling them to get their shit and go. ‘Hey you working on the airplanes in here? Get your shit and get the fuck outta my office!’”

“Ha!” Braxton laughed. “Dude, Brandon takes hours to get loaded. Clyde has to yell at him all the time to get on the road.”

“I bet that dumbfuck is probably working, what? Sixteen hour days?”

“I work six to eleven now, and he was still there one day when I was leaving!” Braxton exclaimed, which Dex shook his head.

“Unbelievable.” Dex shook his head. “I found out Rob Barion fired Barev’s equivalent, Brandon’s idiot cousin Brent and his ogre looking brother, Ryan Vlockner.”

“Oh boy.” Christos remarked as he drank from his water bottle.

“Brent caused a rack collapse over at CGOF by putting smaller bolts in the racking, which gave out. Nobody was killed, but people were trapped under the debris for several hours. Brent was a dumber version of Brandon. Worked ninety hours a week, but nothing got done? Strange. And Ryan had no balls to handle any crisis.”

“I’m sure Sam Vlockner will be happy about this~ I’ve heard rumors that he’s pretty fucking corrupt, and gets people close to him comfy job positions and security.” Christos remarked. “He banks at our branch, and he’s a sleazy bastard. Always bringin’ in cash to deposit.”

“Red flags~” Dex chuckled.

“Heh, you’re telling me.” Christos chuckled. “But folks like that get their comeuppance one day.”

“One could hope, right?”

Feeling pretty good, Dex made a brief stop at the Centoh office on his way home to drop some paperwork off. Pulling in through the perimeter, he parked by the office and hopped out with a manila file with some paperwork for Gary he had. The malamute was still dressed in his sweat soaked blue tanktop and basketball shorts. He quickly ventured in and dropped it off on Gary’s desk. As he stepped out the door to leave, he was stopped by the Lieutenant of Viking Battalion, who wanted to talk to him about the resurging Covid situation.

As they talked about the Delta variant and the growing number of cases in Chicago, and over at CGOF, Dex noticed the company SUV return. Leaning around Bruckner a bit, Dex watched the white Tahoe roll in and park by the hangar.

“Who the hell has the Tahoe?” Dex asked, interrupting their talk.

Bruckner turned around to see a brown and gray furred wolf emerge from it. “That’s Josh Manley, the interim plant manager to CGOF.”

“What’s he doing with it?” Dex asked, fumbling his brow.

“He said he needed to borrow it for work, and we authorized it.” Bruckner shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like he’s gonna use it for some criminal activity.” The German Shepherd laughed cynically.

“Yeah, I guess no. Not with the amount of security here.” Dex chuckled.

“Exactly.”

“Well I appreciate the chat, and I’ll talk to Gary about it Monday, because I rather nip this shit in the butt now before I get to repeat what happened to me last year, when the whole office and warehouse got sick with Covid. That shit sucked.”

“Yeah.”

“Great chat. You take care Bruckner.”

“You as well, Dex.”

Hopping back into his BMW, Dex backed out, and left the airport to continue his way home. He returned to Boystown, parked in front of his apartment and hopped out with his gear. He went inside and immediately hit the shower to get cleaned up. As he stepped out and dried himself off, his cell phone rang on his stack of towels. Dex walked over to answer it.

“Dex~”

“Hey Dex, it’s Justin. How are you?”

“Oh Justin! Things are fine. How’s your shoulder?”

“Heh, fucked up.” Laughed his former subordinate. “This rehab sucks, but the time off is nice.”

“Double-edged sword I suppose.” Dex chuckled.

“How’s your new job?”

“Oh fantastic. This was the best thing ever.”

“You think there’s anything for me when I get back in shape?” Justin asked. “Because I am not going back to Saunders-Babbit that’s for fucking sure.”

“Sure! I’m sure you could find a position in the company.” Dex nodded.

“I’m working with my attorney to sue Saunders-Babbit for this shit.” Justin admitted. “I was wondering if you could testify for me?”

“Absolutely.”

“I really appreciate it.”

“Let me know what you need, and I will help you, Justin.” Dex said as he stowed his dampened towel and threw his clean tanktop and shorts back on. He wished his former coworker well and ended the call with a friendly “bye-bye now”. Dex went back downstairs to grab a salad for lunch. He felt really content.

The penultimate day of August was already muggy at eight o’clock in the morning. The haze turned the morning sky a milky white, featureless and oppressively bright. Steam wavered off the tarmac from an overnight rain. Dex stood with Gary, and a couple security guards to welcome Rob’s arrival into Chicago. They watched him emerge from the glare of the sun, arriving from Newark in his tubby little FM-2 Wildcat. The glossy sea blue warbird uneventfully touched down at Midway and rolled out of view. Rob soon came taxiing up, the rumble of the Wildcat’s Wright Cyclone filling their ears. He turned and parked with the aid of the tarmac crew. Dex braced for it, his first time meeting the reclusive Rob Barion.

Hopping out of the plane was a slightly stocky wolf-malamute, dressed in a khaki flight suit and soft leather helmet that was brown, complete with big amber tinted goggles. He opened a small compartment behind the cockpit and pulled out a backpack. Rob took his helmet off and revealed a head of thick wavy brown hair, which he ran a paw through to crudely style it. He doffed his flying gloves and stowed them in his pocket as he approached.

“Good morning, Rob!” greeted Gary. “How was your flight?”

“Uneventful.” Rob remarked in a flat sort of tone. Rob immediately turned to greet Dex. The malamute stood there and saw that Rob had an imposing presence, even if Dex seemingly towered over him. His face had an almost permanent gaze that was really serious.

“You must be Dexter Malprave in the flesh~” Rob remarked. He held out a paw, which Dex shook with a smile on his face. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you here as the operations manager.”

“It’s just part of the job.” He smiled. “Common sense!”

“Heh, something nobody fucking has anymore.” Rob quipped, which made Gary and the security guards chuckle a bit.

“Well maybe now you’ll have some common sense at the CGOF!” Gary suggested.

“Well let’s not get ahead too far.” Rob chuckled. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Dexter.”

“You can just call me Dex.” The malamute smiled. “Dexter is too…formal… too nerdy…”

“Alrighty then, Dex. I look forward to chatting with you later. I gotta address some stuff with Barev Two.”

“I look forward to it.” Dex nodded.

Rob ventured inside to quickly doff his flight suit. Rob stepped out in his usual work attire of slacks, a white dress shirt, and necktie, which was black with gold chevron stripes on it. He climbed into the white Tahoe and took off through the perimeter gate. Security sealed it back up.

Escaping from the suffocating heat, Dex went back inside with Gary. He mentioned to Gary that he wanted to speak to him about the Covid situation, but was pulled away briefly to help order some replacement parts for the hangar’s parts inventory. Getting that resolved, Dex went to Gary’s office to discuss with him about the Delta variant’s dramatic rise in Chicago.

“I talked about this yesterday with Lieutenant Bruckner, about the Delta variant, and I have a feeling we’re gonna be in trouble if we don’t doing something now.”

“I agree.” Gary nodded. “Should we mandate masks in the office?”

“Yes.” Dex nodded. “There’s three workers that I know of who have weak immune systems, and I especially worry about Mary since she just beat leukemia. I think we need to start a mask implementation, and get more sanitizer, and have the custodians try and spray stuff down a few times a day.”

“I’m sure the maintenance guys are gonna love that.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “It’s a surgical mask, not a chastity belt, Jesus Christ. You’d think people are-“

Dex felt the whole building shake. Things all around the office rattled as Dex and Gary heard a massive explosion, a huge concussion reverberating through the Central Manufacturing District. It was soon followed by a second, even louder explosion that caused an even more violent earthquake. Dex grabbed his seat and held on as the room shook.

“What the fuck was that!?” Gary shouted.

Dex got up and ran for the exit. He looked out the office windows and saw flaming debris land on the tarmac and people running. “That can’t be our building!?”

“What the hell just went off?” Gary exclaimed. “Look at that debris!”

Dex watched the security guards rush around. A black BTR-70 raced out through the perimeter. He heard a door slam open and a guard come running up.

“POLICY FIVE! POLICY FIVE!” shouted Second-Lieutenant Gottwaldov. The German Shepherd rushed out the door with two other guards. Dex fumbled his brow and looked at Gary.

“Policy five is the PMC’s response to an attack on a Barev facility.” Gary explained. “Something terrible just happened.”

Dex ran out the door and through the security perimeter. Off in the distance, he could see dark smoke rising from where the Chicago Glass and Optics Factory was at. All the PMC vehicles were heading in that direction.

Turning around, the malamute saw bits of broken glass and chunks of red bricks littering the ground. Whatever happened at the CGOF had to have been catastrophic to rain debris down all over the CMD.

“Dex!” shouted Gary. “Dex! I need you here! We’re starting contingency plans!”

Dex ran back to the office. His adrenaline began to surge as he rushed for the door. It was the beginning of a long ninety-six hours.

Breakfast for Dex was a cup of coffee, a bagel with some cream cheese on it, and four lines of coke. Trembling paws held the straw that sucked up line after line of the bright white powder on the glass table. Dex wheezed and coughed as he brushed off the glass and stowed his cutting board away. He ran a paw through his wavy hair and quickly grabbed his laptop bag to rush out of the apartment for another chaotic day at work.

In four days, Dex worked a combined total of seventy-two hours. From Monday morning on, the malamute found himself playing damage control as an impromptu emergency manager to the explosion at the Chicago Glass and Optics Factory. From sun up to sun down, he ran the show with Gary in an effort to contain the spiraling crisis for Barev. He thought it would just be a temporary gig until the managers at CGOF could take over, but to his horror, he found out that the people who normally would handle contingencies at “Barev Two” were killed in the blast. It was discovered that the explosion was actually a bombing, a bombing meant to kill Rob Barion by the disgruntled ex managers of CGOF who he fired recently. When the bombing failed, the Vlockner brothers tried to kill Rob using baseball bats, and while they managed to severely injure him, Rob killed Ryan and Brent, and their eldest brother, Sam Vlockner, was fatally shot by an FBI agent. The president of Barev was now in a coma at Chicago’s Mercy Hospital.

Initially there were thirty casualties, and forty-five injured. But after four days, and rescue workers sifting through the rubble, it was found that 130 people were killed and dozens more severely injured. Dex had the stressful responsibility to contact loved ones of those killed, and coordinate with Chicago PD, the FBI, and Barev’s own PMC. He was frankly just mentally worn out from everything.

Arriving at work. Dex stopped at the heavily fortified perimeter to Centoh. Viking Battalion, which protected Barev’s facilities in Chicago, were on high alert after the bombing. At the airport, there was a initial checkpoint where he showed his badge. Sandbags concealed two makeshift machine gun nests, where a machine gun crew sat with their MG-3’s. Dex entered through the first checkpoint to stop at the second to be let through. The amount of firepower impressed and intimidated Dex. Rob’s “blackshirts” carried their AK-103’s, and some even had anti-tank weapons strapped to their bodies. It was a constant reminder that something really terrible happened to the company.

“Morning, Gary.” Dex said in a tired tone as he walked by.

“Morning.” Gary greeted.

Dex turned the light on in his office, and looked at his paper strewn desk. He had stacks and stacks of yellow legal pad paper all stapled together with notes and messages he had written down. He sat his bag down, and got his workstation going, finding his inbox filled with emails after emails. Dex let out a disgusted sigh and felt so overwhelmed. He ran his paw repeatedly through his wavy locks of hair.

The telephone on his desk rang, and Dex quickly picked it up.

“Dex Malprave.”

“Good morning Dex, this is Bill Czerny, Combat Engineer for Strategic Missile Troop Unit B, and I would like for you to come to the CGOF facility to meet with my counterpart engineer with Viking Battalion, and the building engineers for Cook county and Barev, to discuss the building.”

“Okay. I can do that.” Dex agreed. “Uhh, let me get some stuff here resolved and I’ll be over around ten-ish. If that’s fine.”

“That’s perfect. Till then Dex, thank you.”

“Thank you. Bye-bye now.”

Dex rubbed spot of his muzzle between his eyes and let out a disgruntled sigh. He was about to hit reply on an email when he suddenly heard screaming. There were screams and a dull thud of something smashing to the ground. Dex got up and immediately ran to the hangar.

Throwing the door open, Dex ran out to find two mechanics going at it in a fight. He immediately recognized one of them as Jacob Stark, a cocky, pompous young wolf that nobody liked in the maintenance department. Dex couldn’t run fast enough; he watched Jack Donnelley punch him in the face, only for Jacob to hit Jack upside the head with a big socket wrench, which knocked him to his feet. The malamute grabbed the socket wrench and yanked it from the ginger wolf. Jacob, his adrenaline surging, tried to shove and kick Dex, but Dex ripped the socket wrench from his grip and threw it to the ground. Jacob threw one punch into Dex’s shoulder, but the arrival of heavily armed security ended the fight.

“HALT!” screamed a guard, who raised his AK-103 at Jacob. Barev’s ramp security were armed with Swedish-K’s, and they quickly secured the scene. Jacob was grabbed by two guards and restrained momentarily. Dex ran over to check on Jack.

“Jack!? Are you okay?”

“Boy did that hurt…” Jack muttered. He looked dazed and confused, and had a big knot on his head that was bleeding pretty good. Viking Battalion’s combat medic ran over to check on Jack.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?” Dex screamed.

“This cocky little motherfucker here ran his cocksucker at Jack!” George exclaimed. “Jack told Jacob he wasn’t putting the feathering pump on right, and dumbass here just wanted to dig his talons in and continue fucking it up! So Jack grabbed him, and Jacob punched him, and that started the fight!”

“He disrespected me!” Jacob exclaimed.

Dex’s face turned a bright shade of red. The malamute, adrenaline and cocaine surging in his veins, grabbed Jacob by the collar of his shirt and yanked him into his face. Jacob’s cocky little expression evaporated to a timid little gaze at Dex’s glare.

“I’M DONE WITH YOUR POMPOUS LIL’ ASS!” Dex screamed in his face. “DONE!”

“DON’T YOU TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!” Jacob hissed.

“Get his shit packed up and get this lil’ shit outta here!” Dex ordered.

“WHAT!? I’M BEING FIRED!”

“YEAH!” Dex screamed. “GET YOUR SHIT AND GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY HANGAR!”

Gary came rushing out. “Oh, Jesus Christ.”

“Gary, call an ambulance for Jack.” The medic exclaimed. “He needs to go to the hospital, pronto.”

“I’m on it. You got it under control Dex?”

“Yep.”

Dex crossed his tattooed arms and watched as Jacob was literally dragged off by the two guards.

“Throw his ass out!” Dex ordered. He shook his head in disgust.

Jacob was dragged off the property, and in typical fashion, Dex watched him literally be thrown through the open perimeter gate. Jacob landed on his stomach, and a guard threw a box full of his personal belongings at him before returning back and the gate sealed.

Dex told the mechanics to be prepared to write statements as he went back inside. He went to his office and grabbed some paperwork to fill out for this calamity. He sat down at his desk and rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on. Gary soon appeared in his doorway.

“Hey are you okay, Dex?” Gary asked.

Dex looked up, his face sweaty. “Yeah. Why?”

“You look awful.”

“Well I’ve had an awful past couple of days.”

“You and me both.” Gary nodded. “Look, uhh, Dex, why don’t you get that paperwork taken care of, and then go home and rest. You earned it.”

“I gotta run over and talk to the engineer about the building as well.”

“So why don’t you do that, go check on Jack in the ER, and then go home and rest.”

“Okay.”

Gary smiled at him. “You earned it.” He turned and left for his office.

Dex blinked a few times, grabbed a tissue and dabbed his forehead.

With a clipboard tucked under his arm, Dex quickly made his way to his BMW. He took off through the security gate and ventured down the road to what remained of the CGOF facility. As Dex approached, he thought it was a war zone as he saw city crews cleaning up the area around the cordoned off building. What was once the Chicago Glass and Optics Factory, housed in a ninety year old brick building, was partially reduced to rubble. Everything that was once the parking lot, the sales office, and part of the factory area was completely destroyed in the two explosions, the second and more powerful blast being caused by the chemical storage facility detonating.

Dex was cleared through Barev’s security. The ruins were guarded by a detachment of the “Strategic Missile Troops”, which everyone called “Rob’s Little Green Men”. They patrolled alongside “Robsschutzstaffel”, the black shirted Viking Battalion. Dex hopped out of his BMW and gazed up at the crumbled ruins of the factory. It was an ominous sight of such a terrible event.

In the parking lot, Dex met with the combat engineers of the PMC, the insurance claims inspector, the engineering inspector for Chicago, and Barev’s building engineer. They talked about the initial inspection of the building, and the consensus from all the engineers was that the building was “beyond saving”. Without a hardhat, Dex was provided a black military helmet from one of the guards. It was a perfect copy of a Russian 6B47, complete with black cloth cover that bore a white stripe and the coat of arms of the PMC. He strapped it to his head and ventured inside the ruins with the engineers.

Once bustling with activity, Dex felt sad inside the crumbling remains. There was an air of danger as they walked through the confines, which showed the extensive damage in the standing areas. Dex was shown twisted, crumbling support columns, twisted beams, and extensive cracking in the concrete. Even a lot of the delicate glass cutting equipment was destroyed by the shockwave. It was clear that demolition was the only fate left for this once historic building. Stepping out the back, Dex glanced around at the back lot as he listened to the engineers talk. He looked down and fumbled his brow at the broken remains of a baseball bat.

Grabbing some paperwork from the insurer and engineers, Dex left to head to the hospital to check on Jack. He was brought to the Roseland Community Hospital, to be checked over for the head injury and a concussion. Dex rubbed his forehead from his worsening headache. If he did too much coke, it would often give him a king sized headache. But it helped numb the pain and keep him going in this period of immense stress. Dex momentarily looked away and glanced down at his dashboard. When he looked up, he saw traffic was at a standstill. Dex’s eyes went huge, and he slammed his foot into the brake. His tires locked up and screeched on the pavement. Dex went as far as ripping the emergency brake, and his BMW came within a foot of hitting the car in front of him. Blue smoke came off all four of his tires. In the middle of the intersection was a bad car accident. Two cars lay crumpled together, and an ambulance and several police cars were stationed around with their strobing lights.

“Oh my fucking god…” Dex muttered. His face was practically dripping with sweat.

Arriving at the hospital after a ten minute delay, the malamute quickly made his way into the ER to go find Jack. Dex found him in the middle of having his head wound stitched up by a technician in blue scrubs. Jack joked that ‘now he can get some good drugs’, which made Dex chuckle a bit.

“Well you won’t have to worry about Jacob anymore.”

“Good. That little sumbitch really pissed me off.” Jack grumbled. “Lil’ Miss Can’t Be Wrong~”

“Not a bad song.” Dex chuckled. “When he’s finished, could you fill out a statement for me?”

“Am I being fired?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“But I need a statement to cover our asses.”

“Yeah, lil’ miss will run back to mommy and daddy and they’ll sue us.”

“Not on my watch.” Dex shook his head.

The technician finished his work stitching Jack up, and provided a pen, quickly wrote down a statement for Dex. The malamute thanked him, and asked if he needed a ride back home, to which Jack remarked his son would come and get him. Dex wished him well and turned to leave, when the ER doctor on call happened to step in. The doctor, a black wolf in blue scrubs and a white lab coat took one look at Dex and his eyes went huge.

“Jesus Christ, buddy, what happened to you!?” he exclaimed.

Dex looked a bit uncomfortable at the doctor’s reaction. He was all flushed looking, clammy. His hair was soaked in sweat. “It’s fine, nothing, I almost got into a wreck on my way here, and been under a lot of stress the past couple of days.”

“Buddy, why don’t you have a seat and let me check you over real quick.”

“No, it’s fine, Doctor, I-“

“Please, please, have a seat for me, and let me check you out.”

Dex gulped and reluctantly agreed. The doctor took his temperature and slapped a blood pressure cuff on his right arm and checked his pressure, which was very elevated. Dex explained the stress he was under, and the sympathetic doctor gave him a single valium pill to help him relax. He quickly downed the little light blue pill with a paper cup filled with water from the drinking fountain. He was sent on his way home.

Dex felt so embarrassed getting back into his vehicle. Was he this rough looking? He quickly pulled out and left to head back to work to drop paperwork off. Maybe he really did need to rest. He was quickly approaching nearly eighty hours of work. Dex dropped his stuff off and went straight home and back to bed.

The late summer heat continued on into the first week of September. Feeling recharged again, Dex left his apartment dressed in a pink tanktop and shorts. He adjusted his black baseball cap and donned his sunglasses as he made his way to meet up and have drinks with his friends. He hadn’t seen them in a few weeks. Making his way to their usual spot to get drinks and catch up on things, Dex found them all sitting around in the shade.

“Heyyyyy everyone!” Dex greeted with a smile. Everyone looked up, but nobody smiled back.

“Everything okay?” the malamute asked as he took a seat.

“I think we need to have a talk.” Trey started. His tone was unflinching and cold.

Johnny sipped on his drink and leaned in a bit. The Doberman was unamused looking. “So, where the hell have you been the past couple of weeks?”

“You missed the huge circuit party?” asked Lenny. The black wolf crossed his arms.

“What the fuck is going on, Dex?” Trey asked him bluntly.

Dex was taken aback by the sudden hostility. “I had a giant emergency situation to handle at work? The bombing? I’m sorry that I had to adult and play damage control?”

“We always go to that party!” Paul exclaimed. “What the fuck, Dex?”

“You just blew us off for that fat little wolf and his big ogre boyfriend.” Trey glared. “The fuck, Dex?”

“So all those people dying meant nothing to you verses a party where ya’ll get shitfaced and high?” Dex asked them in return. “That I had to call every single victim’s family and speak to their grieving loved ones means nothing? That I worked over seventy hours in four days? Taking endless phone calls, talks to the media, the feds? Police? Screw that stupid party, I had more important things to do.”

“I get the impression you don’t care about us anymore, Dex.” Paul shook his head. “Is that what it is?”

“That you’re hanging out with new guys? Out thinking you’re so much better than us?” the black wolf hissed.

“Now you wait a fucking second there.” Dex said. His pitch dropped and his face grew cross. “Don’t you drag Christos and Braxton into this shit because you’re jealous or something.”

“PFFT. Jealous? Of a out of shape, fat fuck and their ugly big ass boyfriend?” Lenny laughed.

“You want to be associated with that?” Trey griped. “They’re not height, weight proportional!”

“Well maybe they’ll just starve themselves like you.” Dex glared back. Trey was taken aback.

“You’ve changed, Dex.”

“I want change.”

“Then I think you should just go.” Trey suggested. “We don’t want you here anymore.”

“You can’t pick and choose what group you want to be Dex.” Johnny exclaimed.

“Fine.” Dex glared. As he got up, Paul threw his drink on Dex and laughed. It splashed all over his chest and stomach.

Dex couldn’t believe it. He was being exiled from the group he considered friends for nearly a decade. They did everything together. And it was over? Because of stuff out of his control? The malamute felt so overwhelmed he just turned and walked away. He walked back to his apartment in complete shock, and it showed on his face with a disassociated stare. He stepped back into his apartment, closed the door, and locked it. Dex’s paws began to tremble as he took his wallet and phone out. He placed the keys on his table, only to suddenly grab everything and just throw it. A vase smashed onto the floor and everything landed all over the living room. Dex screamed at the top of his lungs and ran upstairs.

Throwing his dresser drawer open, he frantically grabbed his cutting board and a baggie of some coke and poured it out. He cut it up crudely and slammed his face into it and snorted it all up. He hacked and coughed, his face covered in white powder. Dex started to feel numb, taking the state of rejection to just a feeling of empty numbness. He sat down on his bed and stared off into space.

Late at night, on the south side, the glowing red vacancy sign flickered to the sleazy motel. The blue and red neon lights cast a colorful reflection on the wet pavement and building. While others slept, Dex was in the middle of his sleazy late-night escapades.

Gathering a bunch of hot men on Sniffies, Dex drowned his sorrow in cum. On his paws and knees, Dex frantically sucked another huge dick while he was fucked by a big burly malamute with black and white fur. The big dog worked Dex’s hole rough and hard, his butt being marked with twenty-six tally marks already. There were a few other guys chatting and watching hungrily as Dex was worked hard on the bed. The malamute sucked the big dick of a red Doberman, who held onto his head and thrust into his muzzle.

“Yeah, you want that dick, boy?”

“Mhmm.”

“Yeah?”

“Oooh yeah, getting closer baby…” the malamute grinned. His thrusts were getting faster and harder. He bit his lower lip and grunted. “Ohh! Ohh! Yeahhhhhhhh~”

Dex grunted contently at getting another load. He pulled his muzzle off the Dober’s cock for a second to let out a content grunt. The malamute pulled his sloppy, dripping cock out and grabbed the marker. With a grin, he gave Dex’s butt another tally. “Next!”

The Doberman grinned and moved around to get his turn. A big black wolf hopped onto the bed and quickly stuffed his boner into Dex’s awaiting muzzle. The malamute began to suck away. The Doberman spat on his dick and quickly fed it under Dex’s tail and began thrusting into his well used ass.

Dex drowned his sorrow in sleazy, anonymous sex. Sex and drugs took the pain away of being rejected. It took away the frustration of isolation.

The clock struck three o’clock when the last guy finished. A black and rust Doberman with long brown dreads came and bred Dex with his thirty-first load. The last tally completed the night for him.

Dex reached for his phone and handed it to him. “Baby, take a pic of my ass~”

The Dober obliged and snapped a picture of his cum oozing out of Dex with all the tally marks on his right cheek. “There you go baby, thanks so much sexy Daddy.”

“You’re welcome.” Dex smiled. “Take care.”

“You too.” The Dober smiled as he threw on his clothes and left through the door. Dex watched it close and lock shut. Footsteps faded away into the night.

Dex got up and stretched. His elbows and lower back were tired from being posed like that for so long. He looked in the long mirror on the wall at his ass and all those tally marks. He glanced at the photo on his phone. He was mighty proud that he got thirty-one dudes to show up and fuck him.

Hopping into the small shower, Dex grumbled about the low water pressure as he washed himself off. He felt so horny, his dick was so hard. Dex gripped his solid eight inches and stroked it, pumping it with his soapy paw. His pierced cock throbbed with each pump, and Dex could barely last before blasting his cum all over the shower wall. His knees buckled momentarily, and he caught himself on the wall as the orgasm took everything out of him. Blue eyes rolled back into his head for a moment while he savored the feeling. Then the euphoria was instantly replaced by a feeling of regret and emptiness.

Dex got cleaned up, dried off, and dressed. He grabbed his bag, stowed his lube and poppers, and left. He went to the office and made some excuse about “having to leave early” to the unconvinced, tired looking clerk behind the desk. She accepted the key from him without question, and Dex left in his BMW to head back to Boystown.

With the windows down, Dex felt the cool breeze hit him as he drove, which ruffled his wavy hair. He looked depressed, miserable as he drove through the empty streets. Why did this always happen to him? Why could he not find a group of friends in Boystown? It always seemed that something would always come collapsing down on him. It’s happened so many times before. He would try and fit in and find his place and people would find any excuse to reject him. Dex felt that it was all his fault that his friends left him. But he had an emergency to compound! People had died, a terrorist attack happened, and they were more concerned about him missing a party? It made Dex so upset he punched the steering wheel hard enough the horn honked.

Coming up to an intersection, Dex rolled to a stop at the red light. He glanced over to see some workers taking a smoke break while listening to some Bob Marley that blasted on a stereo beside them.

“There is one question I’d really love to ask.

One heart

Is there a place for the hopeless sinner

Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?”

Dex fumbled his brow as he took off at the green light.

Gingerly approaching the awaiting DC-6, Dex lifted his pallet of cargo and slowly approached the rear loading door. He inched in and gently placed the pallet down on the cargo floor and backed out. The loaders then maneuvered the pallet board the cargo plane. He backed up slowly and turned around, and another forklift came in with another pallet of cargo. Dex fetched the last pallet of goods and brought it aboard to be loaded in the old Douglas.

With two workers out sick with Covid, Dex had to help the loading crew get the afternoon flights loaded. He whipped the forklift ground, and grabbed the loads to throw into the two Convairliners awaiting to take material to Detroit. The heat was still unbearable. Sweat dripped from Dex’s brow. He took his hat off and ran his paw through his sweaty locks of hair and threw it back on. It was Friday, and he longed to get out of work so he could go to a party with Braxton and Christos at a leather bar in the north end of Chicago.

Returning back to the hangar with the forklift, Dex hopped off and immediately grabbed some water from the cooler. His polo shirt collar was soaking wet with sweat. He took a long swig and breathed a sigh of relief to how refreshing it felt. He turned to walk back inside and as he walked, he pulled his neatly folded up surgical mask from his shirt pocket and put it back on around his muzzle as he went inside. Everyone inside the office wore a mask.

Dex went to his office and sat back down to check over an order form before he’d fax it to the vendor. As he began to fill it out, he heard a knock on his open door. Dex looked up to see Gary looking at him.

“Hey Dex, do you got a moment before you go?” Gary asked.

“Yeah, sure.” The malamute nodded as he got up. “What’s up?”

Gary stepped into his office, and Dex poked his head in to see another Golden Plumbicon Award sitting on his desk.

“This is for you, courtesy of the vice-president, Mister Tokarev. For your hard work in being our impromptu emergency manager!” Gary announced as he handed it to him, plus a note of thanks for Maverick Tokarev himself.

Dex was amazed. He was with the company for just barely two months, and got his second award of outstanding achievement.

“Well, wow, thank you!” Dex smiled. “Thank you so much, Gary!”

“You’re a welcome addition to the team!” Gary exclaimed.

“So let’s talk about pay.” Dex laughed, which made Gary laugh.

“Talk to me on the six month review, Dex. I put a really good word in for ya!” the gray wolf assured.

Dex went back to his office and sat the award next to his other one, he sat back down at his desk and read the note from Barev’s vice-president. It made him smile and he stowed it with his award. He went back to filling out the order form. At least his workplace appreciated him.

Clocking out for the weekend, Dex said goodbye and hopped into his BMW to depart through the security perimeter. He went back home, got a shower, and got ready for his evening plans.

Digging through the back end of his closet, Dex pulled out his leather gear from long ago when he tried to be a leatherman. Packaged away in a suitcase, Dex sat it on the bed and opened it up, finding that everything still looked to be in good shape. It had probably been nine or ten years since he had last worn it. He had a pair of shiny black chaps, a codpiece, short leather shorts, and a harness. He used to have a garrison cap to go along with it, but he remembered it being damaged so he got rid of it. Dex then remembered that he gave the his boots away to someone who needed them, so the chaps were out of the question. The malamute decided on the short leather shorts and harness. He stowed those away in his backpack.

Feeling the urge hit him, Dex grabbed his coke and snorted a line. He hacked and wheezed and took a step back. Now he felt ready to go. Grabbing his bag, he fetched his wallet, phone, and keys and left out the front door.

It had been years since he had been at the Jackhammer, an industrial looking leather bar. Dex emerged from the changing room in his harness and short leather shorts that left just about nothing to the imagination. Dex walked over towards the bar area and waited for Braxton and Christos to arrive. The place was getting packed, and Dex could see for all around a bunch of burly, strong, black leather clad men, ordering drinks and dancing, or playing pool. Dex looked the part with his shiny leather harness and shorts, and his tattooed up body, but he felt really out of place. Compared to the sea of twinks and colorful, flamboyant guys dancing, this was rawer, tougher. The music was loud, pulsating, industrial tunes.

The dark steel door from the front of the bar opened and Dex saw Braxton and Christos arrive. Christos had the full leather gear setup; snug leather pants, boots, and a biker jacket complete with Muir cap. The gray wolf looked beautiful in his gear. Braxton wore a bar vest and a set of leather pants that looked nice on him. It was the first time he saw more of Braxton’s body.

“Well hey~” Dex smiled as he met up with his friends.

“Wow Dex, you look good in leather~” Braxton complimented.

“It’s been a long time.” The malamute remarked.

“You got a nice chest tattoo.”

“Well thank you! I partially drew it with my artist who did it.” Dex laughed. “Oh this was a bitch to apply.”

“Well I feel really out of place.” Laughed Braxton. “This is my first time going to a place like this!”

“Well everyone’s gotta start somewhere.” Dex chuckled. “Just take it slow and be yourself.”

Christos decided to go get a drink, while Braxton wanted to dance. So Dex went with him. In the sea of sweaty, leather clad men, and colorful strobing lights, Dex danced with Braxton. The malamute did have a good time as they gyrated and flexed their bodies to the beat.

“I’m gonna get shit faced tonight.” Grinned Braxton. “Aced an exam I was dreading!”

“A piece of advice on that. Don’t.” Dex smiled. He gyrated his arms above his head. “You’ll make a fool of yourself, and who wants to do that? And you’ll wake up like a piece of shit. Just have a few drinks for fun and maintain your situational awareness.”

“Situational awareness?” Braxton asked.

“People take advantage of you, they can spike your drinks with whatever to fuck you up, and it’s better in a place like this to maintain control.”

“Ah.”

“I once got shitfaced drunk at a party, and somehow woke up under a pile of leaves in the west side.” Dex recalled.

“Uhhh….”

“Yeah.”

“Good point!”

Working up a sweat after a round of dancing, Braxton and Dex went back to the bar to order some refreshments. Christos sat at a stool chatting with a big Saint Bernard who wore a leather kilt and a leather sash around his upper body. Dex ordered for himself and Braxton two coke and rums. Dex paid for it and the bartender quickly whipped it up for them.

“That was fun.” Braxton remarked as he sipped on his drink. “I think someone groped me at one point.”

“Yeah, you get that.” Dex laughed. “Expect random gropes, especially as more people get shitfaced. See what I mean? Watch your situational awareness.”

“Noted.” Braxton nodded.

“So how was it?” Christos asked. He got up from his spot and walked over with a mixed drink in his grip.

“Fun!” Braxton smiled at his boyfriend.

“Good.” Christos nodded. “I don’t do this all the time. Clubbing, and bar hopping, because you inevitably once in a while run into the entitled assholes.”

“Well I had a dude throw up on me once, so there’s that too.” Dex laughed.

“Gross!” Christos exclaimed.

Dex finished his drink as Braxton and Christos went back out to dance. Dex chuckled at watching Braxton’s enthusiasm. It made him smile a bit as he gazed at his empty tumbler with its melting ice.

“Well hey sexy~” came a white wolf with a sly grin on his face. He wore just a black leather kilt.

“Well hey.” Smiled Dex.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before.” The wolf remarked as he stood beside Dex. The malamute seemingly towered over him.

“It’s been a long time.” Dex remarked. He watched the wolf caress his stomach and chest and the malamute let him.

“I like your tattoos.”

“Thanks!”

Dex smiled and rubbed the wolf’s chest and shoulder. The wolf took his big paw and as he got close, place it under his kilt. Dex felt his nice thick softie and noticed he was pierced just like his own cock, with a nice curved barbell PA.

“Nice.” Dex remarked. “Just like mine.”

“Oh hot.”

“Not to burst your bubble, but I’m just here with friends tonight. I’m not looking.”

“Ohh. Could I buy you a drink?”

“Sure.”

The wolf ordered Dex a scotch and soda. Someone else said hi to Dex and he was momentarily distracted talking to the big Saint Bernard. When he turned his head back, the white wolf had a short tumbler with a scotch and soda fizzing for him.

“Thank you~” Dex smiled as he took a sip.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna fuck or anything~”

“Sorry, I’m with friends tonight.”

“Well that’s a shame.” The wolf frowned.

“You can hit me up on Sniffies or something dude.”

“Alrighty. Thanks.”

Dex watched the wolf walk off back to the party. Dex took a bigger swig of his drink and smacked his lips to the slight sting of alcohol. As he stood there, he felt like a headache was coming on all of a sudden. He felt suddenly a growing sense of tiredness. His eyes felt a bit heavier. He looked at the drink all confused. Was the alcohol hitting him already? There wasn’t anything suggestive to the drink that it was drugged? Dex sat the tumbler on the bar and walked towards the dance floor. With each step, he felt slightly more uncoordinated, his vision drifting in and out of focus, the sounds of music slurring and sounding underwater as it came in and out.

Braxton and his boyfriend were dancing away to the tunes when Braxton saw Dex come clumsily up. He looked unwell, which got his attention.

“Dex?”

“Braxton, I think I’m not feeling good, I have a headache or something.” Dex said, a paw placed on his forehead.

“Oh well, okay. Shit. Hey, let me know when you get home okay?”

“Okay. Have a good night man.”

“You too.” Christos nodded. “Get well, Dex.”

Dex went to the changing room and doffed his leathers for his tanktop and shorts. He stumbled out of the bar and made his way to his BMW. Dex felt dizzy and he bumped into the door of his vehicle. Something wasn’t right as he fumbled with his keys and unlocked his car. He climbed in and started it up. He really was having a headache. Dex popped it into drive and started his way home.

Making his way home, Dex saw that his usual path home was closed because of construction. He made a turn and hopped on the highway. Merging onto Route 41, Dex headed south. The malamute was sweating profusely, and he squinted, struggling to see ahead as his vision came in and out. He felt so unwell. The headlights and taillights hurt his eyes. That sonofabitch had to have put something in his drink. Dex thought about preparing to pull over, but everything went to black. The sound of the engine, the wind against the windshield blurred together to just silence.

Burbling along in the center lane, drove a big Ram 3500, the blue truck towing a fifth wheel trailer behind it. Sitting behind the wheel was a tough looking cowboy, a middle-aged husky complete with Stetson on his head. His wife sat in the passenger seat, and in the backseat sat two of their friends, heading back home to Evansville a few hours away. They listened to some Brantley Gilbert that blasted on the radio and conversed with each other to pass the time while they passed through Chicago.

Noticing something out of the corner of his eye, the husky glanced in his extended mirror to see the headlights of a BMW rapidly approaching. It was kind of merging in an awkward way that made him fumble his brow, the car rapidly picking up speed. He watched it zip by him; he was going seventy-five, and that BMW had to have been pushing well over eighty-five. He laid on the horn as the car nearly struck another vehicle. That Buick swerved at the last second, and the E36 smashed into the guardrail with an explosion of sparks. The front bumper tore off as the crumbled up car screeched past the Ram and slammed into a semi truck. The husky locked the brakes of his truck up and watched helplessly as the BMW was pinned beneath the trailer, trailing sparks and flames.

“Oh my god! Taylor!” exclaimed the wife.

“He’s not stopping! The motherfucker ain’t stopping!” exclaimed the husky as he put his boot into the accelerator and commanded max power from his diesel. Pulling up alongside the semi, the husky honked his horn frantically and flashed his high beams. His friend rolled down the back window and screamed.

“HEY!” screamed a black and gray wolf. “HEY! A CAR HIT YOU!”

The semi driver, hearing the horn and seeing the strobing headlights, looked in his mirror to see the Ram honking at him, and then the sparks and smoke coming from his trailer. The driver immediately slammed on the brakes and screeched to a smoking stop in the middle of the highway. Other cars came to a screeching stop too upon seeing all the smoke.

Jumping out, the husky and his wife ran over to see the BMW crushed under the trailer. “Oh my god~” the lady husky muttered. There were some flames licking up from the trunk area of the BMW. As the driver jumped out, the sable furred husky doffed his Stetson and kneeled under, braving the smoke and flames.

“Oh my god there’s someone inside the car!” he yelled. “HEY! Get your trailer off the car! Now! Back it up!”

The driver momentarily froze, looking panicked.

“BACK THE FUCK UP!” the black and gray wolf screamed. The driver turned and ran back to jump into the cab.

“We need a fire extinguisher!” screamed the husky’s wife. Others hopped out of their cars and began running towards the scene of the accident as the semi began to be backed off. The trailer was maneuvered away and the crushed remains of the BMW were revealed. The impact had sheared most of the roof off, and flames began to erupt from the engine bay.

“Oh my god…” the wife gasped at the sight of the driver.

Lying across the seat was a blood soaked malamute. Every bit of his white fur was red with blood. It was clear he had a severe head injury, and multiple broken bones.

“Honey! Call nine-one-one!” Taylor yelled. “KATIE! CALL FOR HELP!”

“I’m on it!”

Taylor made an assessment as the flames began to really get intense. He was deafly afraid to move this man, but there was no choice. The flames were getting worse and he was afraid of the gas tank going up. Jumping in and braving the heat, Taylor grabbed Dex, who made no movement and lifted it up with all his might. Others began spraying the flames with fire extinguishers, giving a few seconds of relief as he struggled to extract Dex. The extensive damage to the nose drove the dash in and his legs were pinned.

“I got you! I got you!” exclaimed a Beagle as he too jumped in and braved the flames and heat. “Fuck! His legs are stuck! His legs are stuck!”

A Doberman and brown Labrador frantically attempted to rip the driver door open. Taylor resorted to kicking it multiple times with his foot until it finally gave way. “His legs are fucking pinned!”

Using a crowbar from the semi driver, they ripped the dash apart practically. As flames began to eat the interior of the E36, Taylor and the Beagle jumped out, dragging a critically injured Dex away. He made no movement as Taylor finally fell to the pavement with him.

“I’m a nurse! I’m a nurse!” screamed a wolfess. She dropped to her knees and immediately checked for a pulse. “I think I got one! He’s barely breathing!”

“Buddy! Can you hear me?” Taylor asked. He massaged the malamute’s chest, but felt that something wasn’t right.

“Where’s the god damn ambulance at!?” screamed the red Doberman.

“It’s coming!” the husky’s wife yelled.

Everyone tried in vain to do something to help Dex. He just laid on the pavement, broken and bloodied, while everyone circled around trying to do something to make any kind of difference.

Chicago’s Mercy Hospital, already getting to the max with Covid patients, was where Dex was treated at. The ICU was packed full of Covid patients on ventilators. Under the glare of the bright lights, nurses clad head to toe in plastic gowns, masks, and goggles, all worked to take care of their critically ill patients.

Behind a blue curtain laid Dex, ironically, sharing the space with Rob Barion, his company’s president. Both of them were hooked up to a ventilator, comatose. Both of them were bandaged up head to toe from their injuries. Rob was going on two weeks in a coma, while Dex had been in a coma for a week since his accident. Both his legs were in casts, his arms were in casts, and his face was mostly covered in gauze and bandages. A breathing tube was taped to his muzzle, his chest slowly rising and falling with the hiss of the machine breathing for him. He survived a very nasty car crash with significant injuries.

The curtain was drawn, and a nurse welcomed in Braxton and Christos, who came to visit Dex. They were both dressed in orange plastic gowns, with blue surgical masks and goggles shielding their eyes. Nitrile gloves protected their paws as well.

“You may visit for half an hour. I will be back then.”

“Thank you.” Braxton nodded.

Braxton pulled up a swivel chair and sat down beside Dex. He very gently grabbed Dex’s paw and held it, finding it thankfully still warm.

“Oh Dexy, buddy, how could this have happened to you?” Braxton muttered. Christos looked sad behind all his protective gear.

The sound of the curtain being drawn made them look back as a nurse welcomed in Rob Barion’s family. His husband Joey Paulo was similarly dressed like them, and he went over to check on Rob and sit with him. Not far behind him was a chubby gray wolf, who stopped to see Rob for a moment, before going over to see Dex. The wolf stood on the other side of the bed, his paws clasped together as he stood there silently.

“Do you know, Dex?” Christos asked.

“I’m his boss.” The wolf said. “My name is Gary Morton, Centoh Chicago.”

“I’m Braxton Schuster.”

“Christos Agnewopolus.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Are you Dex’s family?”

“No. We’re just friends of his.”

“Damn.” Gary said, sounding disappointed. “I have tried to help the hospital, but I can’t find any information about his family. Dex did not provide any emergency contact information.”

“I asked my workplace where he worked at if they had any, and they told me they purged his file.” Braxton added as he shook his head. “Dex is estranged from his family.”

Gary pulled up an extra seat and sat there. “Oh lord, help this poor man in this terrible plight… How can one not have a family? What a terrible thing to have happen.”

“Well… they… forgive me Dex for telling your boss. Dex… is estranged from his family because they didn’t accept that he’s gay. He hasn’t talked to them in over a decade.”

Gary sighed a bit as he looked at Dex. “You poor thing. All alone.”

“I should have offered to drive him home. This would never have happened if I just offered to drive him home…” Christos shook his head. “He said he didn’t feel good when we were at a party… I should have intervened and helped him.”

“Do you know what happened?” Gary asked.

“No. They’re not telling us because we’re not family.” Braxton shook his head.

Gary shook his head. “How could a family do this to their son? How could you do this to your own flesh and blood.”

“We were lucky and ours didn’t.” Christos said to Gary. “I don’t know how to help Dex?”

“I don’t know how to either.” Gary shook his head.

Pushing the blue curtain beside entered Dex’s doctor assigned to his care. She was a white furred wolfess with brown hair that was concealed by a hair cap that was blue like her scrubs. She had a white surgical mask and goggles on. “Good afternoon, I apologize for interrupting.”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Braxton nodded. He got up and stepped aside for the doctor to do her work. She took a moment to examine Dex, and check his vitals. She then went over to look over at Rob beside him. As she did that, another nurse stepped in, with an FBI Agent paying a visit to Rob. Braxton watched him walk over to talk with Joey Paulo while the doctor came back.

“How is Dex doing? Is there anything you can tell us?” Braxton asked the doctor.

“Please, we really care for our friend here.” Gary pleaded.

The doctor looked at them, and looked at Dex with sympathetic eyes.

Gary, Braxton, and Christos were taken to a consultation room just outside of the ICU. They piled in and the doctor stepped in and closed the door. She sat some paperwork down on the table.

“I can’t tell you everything specifically, but I can give you the general outline.” She explained.

They all nodded. The doctor explained that Dex had to have emergency surgery to correct internal bleeding, and that he suffered significant injuries to his legs. Both his arms were broken, and he had a neck injury. She said that Dex would have to undergo extensive physical therapy, and there was a chance he may never perfectly walk again. But she was confident that he would wake up soon, once the time was right to wean him off the medication that kept him sedated. His prognosis wasn’t the worst she’s seen.

“Do any of you have any contacts to his family?” the doctor asked them.

“No.” they all said.

The doctor looked sad. “Great.”

“Dex is estranged from his family. They live in Mississippi.” Braxton explained. “That’s all I know.”

“Do you know what happened on the night he crashed his car?”

“We were at a party at a leather club, and I saw that Dex was talking with someone, and then he came staggering over saying he wasn’t feeling good, had a headache or something. And then he said he was going home.” Christos explained. “We found out in the morning from the news that he crashed.”

The doctor nodded.

“Was there drugs involved?” Braxton asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say.” She quipped with a regretful tone. “That’s all I can tell you as non-family. The hospital committee will continue to appoint me as his legal guardian until he regains consciousness.”

“Is it possible that one of us can help him when he wakes up?” Gary asked.

“I’m not sure. You will have to consult with a legal expert.”

“Right.” Gary nodded.

The doctor thanked them for their time and she excused herself to head back to the ICU. Everyone else got up and departed to head home.

2022.

Seven Months Later.

In the hangar, everyone from the office stood around and sang “Happy Birthday”. On a big rolling table sat a huge sheet cake, iced in rainbow colors simulating the pride flag. The cake read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEX” in fancy red script, complete with forty-three glowing candles for his forty-third birthday. As the office workers finished singing, everyone gave a big round of applause as Dex blew the candles out with all his effort. Gary grabbed the big knife to prepare carving the cake up for everyone to have a piece.

“How’s it feel to be forty-three?” someone asked him.

“Christ, forty-three? I feel like I’m ninety-three!”

Sitting in a wheelchair, Dex looked like a grotesque caricature of his once fit self. The malamute’s once toned body was now bloated from the steroids and medication he took. His flat stomach became a pudgy gut. Wavy brown hair with a touch of gray was now significantly grayer from the stress. His chinstrap and goatee was now mostly gray. His face was constantly strained by the never-ending pain his body was saddled with on his slow path to recovery, if it was ever gonna recover.

Dex felt like a god damn fool. He wrecked his car after passing out, and in that single act, wrecked his whole life. Everything he took for granted was gone. His health, his looks. His whole existence was turned upside down. He had to learn how to walk all over again, and he still couldn’t walk very good some days, hence the wheelchair for Wednesday. He had to be treated for drug addiction, sex addiction, and to add salt to the wound, had to be treated for an STD, a case of the clap again. The physical therapy was ongoing. But feeling like a fool or not, Dex was just thankful to be alive. He came very close to dying according to his doctor.

“Here you go~” smiled Gary, giving Dex a big slice of cake.

“Oh lord, here goes more of my gut!” laughed the malamute cynically.

“C’mon it’s your birthday~!” laughed his boss.

Dex laughed and shook his head as he took a bite of the yellow cake. He looked around at all his coworkers and Barev’s leadership all having a piece of cake. He spotted Rob Barion and Maverick Tokarev conversing with Gary and some of the pilots as they took had some cake. He appreciated having such a supportive workplace, even after everything that had happened and missing months of work.

Following everyone back inside, Dex was wheeled in with the help of a guard. He was taken back to his office, where Dex slowly lifted himself out of his wheelchair. His mangled legs trembled as he grabbed onto his bookshelf and then desk and dragged himself into his swivel chair. Dex collapsed into it with a loud groan. His back hurt. He proceeded to get back to work. He had a lot going on.

Without a car now, and clearly unable to drive for the time being, Dex relied on the generosity of his workplace to get him to and from work. Pulling up to the curb was Barev’s replacement Tahoe, a gently used 2019 model. One PMC guard stepped out from the back and helped Dex out. Limping and getting help with a cane, Dex slowly walked to his door with the assistance of the “blackshirt”. He thanked them as he made his way inside.

Limping to his living room, Dex sat down on his couch and winced in pain as he heard the SUV depart. He stared at the blank screen of his television and thought about what his life was reduced to. It sure felt that his life was reduced to pain and isolation. The past seven months felt long and humiliating.

Dragging himself upstairs, it took Dex a solid two minutes to limp up the stairs to his bedroom. He had to hold onto the railing and grit his teeth to make his way up. With each step his legs trembled with an intense burning feeling. Grabbing some clean clothes from the dresser, Dex stripped himself out of his work polo and pants and threw those in the hamper. He stood and looked at his reflection in the long floor mirror and frowned at his reflection.

He was always a stocky guy, and no matter how hard he worked out, his malamute frame could go no lower than about 215 pounds. His fit looks and nicely toned, flat stomach was now pudgy, and he gained sixty pounds from the lack of exercise and all the medication given as part of his treatment. All the gray hair made him want to cry. His face looked aged and tired, contorted by the haze of pain he worked under constantly. His stomach had a big surgical scar that went from the bottom of his chest to his belly button, and both his legs had multiple surgical scars. He had to have his left knee replaced. Dex hated what had happened to his body, his looks, and he blamed himself for it. With a big disgusted sigh, Dex grabbed his clean clothes off the bed and limped to the shower to get cleaned up.

The hot water felt good against his sore body. He stood there and let it fall against his tattooed up backside. He braced himself against the tile wall and frowned, his eyes closed as he tried to reflect on things. He thought about all the therapy he underwent for drug and sex addiction, and never realized how out of control both got, especially after having to be treated for an STD again. Dex thought it was ironic that he did cocaine to party and numb himself from his work stress, but now he was given super powerful painkillers and he didn’t want to take them!

As for sex, Dex craved the closeness he got with other men, the intimacy and the heat of the moment, but now he felt kind of terrified of the prospects because he doubted it would ever happen again after what had happened to him. Now he looked like the hapless fools who would ask him for sex on Sniffies and Grindr, the out of shape, creepy, awkward, closeted guys with “headless torso” pics, who he always ignored. Now he was one of them, and the prospect of any hot guys paying attention to him was out of the question. Dex felt so unsure of himself now. He had to give up PrEP because of his medication treatment, so that made him nervous about barebacking.

The accident did do one thing that Dex thought was positive: he was now completely out of the closet to everyone he knew at work, both at his former and current workplace. He never told anyone at Saunders-Babbit that he was gay, both because he didn’t think it mattered at work, and that he was uncomfortable to the idea. His accident revealing the extent of estrangement he had with his family back home got the sympathy of everyone. He got so many phone calls and texts from his former coworkers and current coworkers that it helped take away the loneliness he felt. They cared more for him than the circle of so-called friends that he had. Not a single one of them ever contacted him. And Dex didn’t care at this point. He was done with them as well. He was done with that kind of life. But he wasn’t sure what his life had in store for him?

Rinsing himself off, Dex slid the glass door open and stepped out. He grabbed the towel and dried himself off, which took himself more time as he struggled with his balance. He hung the towel back up and looked at his clean clothes. Being heavier meant that the options for stylish clothes he liked was much more limited. He threw on a pair of blue shorts, and a charcoal gray t-shirt that was now a 3XL. He hated it. Now he really looked middle-aged.

It took a few minutes to head downstairs. Dex limped into the kitchen and pulled a salad out from the fridge. His usual salad with some grilled chicken. He sat down at his table and ate in silence as he stared off at the wall.

Saturday morning was overcast above the windy city. Thick clouds obscured the towering skyscrapers of the Loop as a wind whistled through the city labyrinth, rustling the flowering trees.

Stepping out of his apartment, Dex limped with a cane. He wore a pair of gray sweatpants and a dark blue sweatshirt. A dark gray beanie kept the top of his head warm. Needing to try and get his steps in, Dex limped down the sidewalk. His once fast pace was reduced to a crawl as he forced himself to walk. Dex walked through Boystown to fulfill his weekend itinerary. He needed to stop at the bank to deposit a refund check from the IRS, and he wanted to get a haircut and see if the stylist could do something about the gray. He also planned on meeting up with Braxton to get lunch.

As he walked, Dex observed his surroundings around Boystown. All the other gay guys he saw were sharply dressed, looking beautiful and stylish. Dex glanced down at his plain sweatshirt and felt so painfully out of place. He envisioned this getup being something his father would wear. He remembered his Grandpa, in his seventies, always wearing a sweatshirt or sweater with a pair of slacks. This was him now. It made him feel really insecure.

Dropping his refund check off at the bank, Dex walked another block and went to the beauty salon who always cut his hair. He got signed in and took a seat. He grabbed a Gay Times magazine and read it. He tried to not notice the weird stares he got from all the fit, flamboyant guys who knew him from the club scene. Dex hid his face behind the magazine; he could feel their shock and scorn to his drastically changed appearance.

“Okay, where is Dex at!” came a young slender white wolf. He wore a black dress shirt and slacks with a bright pink apron tied around his body. He had a pair of scissors that he twirled in his grip.

“Yeah, I’m here, Calvin.” Dex said, lowering the magazine.

The white wolf took one look at Dex and nearly gasped. “My god! What happened!?”

“Aging.” Dex joked sardonically. “I had a bad car accident several months ago.”

“Oh my god, you poor thing!” Calvin exclaimed as he saw Dex struggle to get up from the chair. Calvin grabbed his paw and helped him over to his cutting station. He got Dex situated in the chair and threw a cover over him and secured it.

“Do you want your usual trim up, sweetie?”

“Yeah, and hey, is it possible to do something about the gray? And no I don’t mean shave it off!” Dex exclaimed.

“I got some color to blend it in if that’s what you want. I have a brown that looks nearly your hair color, so it’ll blend in nicely.”

“Could you do that, please?”

“Absolutely, honey.” Calvin smiled. “I’m so glad to see you again! I didn’t know what happened to you!”

“I fucked up.” He admitted.

“Who hasn’t with their lives! I mean, I’m still here!”

“Oh my lord.” Laughed Dex. “You act like this place is a bad thing!”

Calvin grabbed his clippers and comb. “Honey, you see the bitches that come in here? Please!”

“I’m here.” Dex joked. He watched in the mirror as Calvin began to trim his hair up. Calvin trimmed up his wavy locks, got them nice looking again, and trimmed up his goatee and chinstrap. He grabbed some color and mixed it up. He gently brushed it into Dex’s hair and beard and let it set. While Dex sat there, he told Calvin about what had happened to him, and the white wolf listened with a sympathetic gaze on his face.

“This has been awful.” Dex admitted. “I’ve gained so much weight. Everything hurts and I can’t work out, exercise, nothing! None of my clothes I love fit me anymore. I look terrible. And I can tell people notice…”

“Don’t let that get you down, sweetie.” Calvin said sympathetically.

“I’m sitting there and I can feel everyone staring at me~” Dex shook his head. “Like a fat gay person can’t exist.”

“Don’t let others take your joy away.” Calvin quipped. “I know you’re feeling in a bad place, but things will get better. Your body is still reeling from a great trauma! It’ll take a while, but you’ll feel better when your body heals more.”

“I hope.” Dex pursed his lips.

Calvin turned him around and showed him the hair color. Dex had a smile return to his face. “Wow, that looks nice.”

“See? It covers up a good amount of the gray while giving you a bit, so you don’t look out of place like some guys.” Chuckled Calvin. “You can get this stuff at the men’s grooming store down the road.”

“Oh nice.”

Calvin washed his hair and got him cleaned up. Blowing the last of the clipped hair off his cover, Calvin removed it and helped him up to his feet and over to the cash registered. Dex gave him a generous tip. Calvin walked around and gave his friend a warm hug.

“It’s so nice to see you again.” Calvin smiled as he hugged Dex. “I wish you the best!”

“Thank you, that means a lot to me.” Smiled Dex.

“Remember, honey, don’t let ‘em take your joy away.” Calvin reminded him again.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you so much Cal, you have a good day.”

“You too~” the white wolf waved as Dex turned to limp out the door.

Lincoln Park was adorned in pink and white blossoms. Flowering trees swayed in the breeze that sent ripples through the lush emerald green grass dotted with yellow dandelions. Despite the overcast and wind, people mingled about to get away from Chicago’s cold concrete and steel that towered in the distance. April was a welcome relief to the bleakness and cold of the winter months. Everything looked fresh and lively, the plants returning yet again, and the weather pleasant and mild before the arrival of the oppressive summer heat.

Limping with the help of his cane, Dex walked with Braxton, who carried a paper bag containing their lunch. They walked along the paved trail through the park which was lined with flowering trees, and Dex marveled about their beauty as they ventured to an empty picnic table.

“When I worked at Saunders-Babbit I swear I would walk like five miles a day back and forth. I took that for granted.” Dex remarked as he winced in pain. “Walk and jog, and took all that for granted now that each step really friggin’ hurts!”

“Baby steps! One day at a time.” Braxton assured.

“That’s what my therapist says, but man, these are really long days when everything hurts…”

Finding a picnic table by a clutch of crab apples, Braxton and Dex took a seat. Rummaging through his paper bag, Braxton handed Dex his cup of soup, and Braxton fished out his. Dex got a spoon and stirred his home style chicken noodle soup with vegetables. Braxton got a beef stew and crumbled some crackers into his.

“I got my hair cut today at my usual place, and I can’t help but notice everyone staring.” Dex said in a frustrated way. “Yeah I get it, I’m a big fat fuck wearing blah clothing.”

“Don’t let them get to you.” Braxton tried to comfort.

“I look in the mirror and I’m horrified!” Dex exclaimed. “I’m surprised my mirror hasn’t exploded yet! Or my reflection shoot itself. I’ve never been this big before, and none of my nice clothes fit anymore! Now I’m stuck with this Walmart shit. Christ, I look like my Dad or something.”

“Your body has also never been through that kind of trauma. I mean, people thought you were dead when they pulled you out of the wreckage. You were limp as a noodle.”

“I have no recollection of any of that. One minute I’m driving, my vision is going in and out, and then I wake up in the hospital in this haze of pain, and here we are now.”

“Just be glad you’re alive.” Braxton suggested.

“I suppose.” Dex muttered as he spooned soup into his muzzle. “I suppose one has to weather the bad to appreciate the good. But man, this sucks!”

The gray wolf nodded. “Yeah I get that.”

“Somedays picking up something as simple as a book kills my limbs.” Dex shook his head.

“Baby steps, Dex~”

“That’s literally all I can do!” the malamute sardonically laughed. “Oh man I fucked my whole life up.”

“You didn’t fuck it all the way up. Your name’s not Brandon…” Braxton teased with a grin.

“I guess you’re right… that’s a walking fuckup right there…” Dex shook his head.

“I’m looking for another part-time gig because this is getting ridiculous.” Braxton quipped. “I’ve never seen a company just put up with shit workers.”

Dex closed his eyes as he shook his head. “No, Brandon’s life isn’t a fuckup. Because he’ll never get fired, and he worked less years than me and got more money than me with half the work!”

“You really take that personally.” Braxton chuckled.

“Yes I do!” Dex exclaimed. “It’s insane!”

“Ah, well.”

“I think the best thing that I can say about that place… is that I made a good friend in you.” Dex complimented. He smiled at the gray wolf. “Even in all this pain, all this uncertainty, I’m glad I have you as a friend.”

“Likewise.” Braxton smiled. “You’ve been a lot of help for me, Dex. I don’t think I would have got Christos as my boyfriend without your advice.”

“Well I’m an observant person, and I’ve fucked up enough shit to learn and pass it on!”

“Like an STD!”

“NOOOOOOOOO!” Dex exclaimed.

“Too soon?”

“Yes.” Dex shook his head with a smirk.

Braxton took Dex back home after their park outing. Stuck in slow moving traffic, Dex rode in the passenger seat of Braxton’s blue Corolla.

“So what else are you doing today?” Braxton asked as he watched the red light glow.

“Well I gotta meet with my landlord regarding my lease that’s coming up, and I already know what that means…” Dex grumbled.

“Oh boy. Price increase.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been debating if I should ever get an apartment myself? Or just wait, and maybe move in with Christos in the future?” Braxton pondered.

“You live with your parents?”

“Yep. But they leave me alone, and I don’t mind it.”

“I’d say just put up with it and put money away, and you have your boyfriend’s place if you want to hang out and fuck.”

“Oh man, speaking of that, I’m still sore from last night.” Braxton laughed, blushing a little bit. “Christos is the first guy I’ve ever bottomed with and it hurt!”

“Ha, I remember my first time.” Dex chuckled. “It takes a lot of relaxation and skill to really be a good bottom.”

“I notice.”

“A lot of patience and lube, sometimes poppers.”

“We use a lot of lube, but man Christos still hurts~” chuckled the wolf.

“Okay, not to be nosey, but how big is Christos?”

“Oh, like maybe nine and half inches?”

“Jesus Christ, no wonder you’re sore.” Laughed the malamute. “That’s huge!”

“And uncut.”

“Nice.”

“God I love my man~” Braxton grinned.

“Well there you go.”

“Do you ever see yourself finding a boyfriend?”

“Probably not.”

“Why?”

“Look at me, dude. I look like a mess!” exclaimed Dex. “Who the fuck is gonna date me?”

“I think there’s someone for everyone. I’ve been told I’m too fat and shit like that, and I found Christos.”

“I fucked myself over becoming such a slut, and now I fucked my looks up either.” Dex shook his head. “And my age too.”

“You’re letting your negativity dictate your thought.” Braxton said as he drove. “I believe there’s someone for you. It might not happen right away, but one day you’ll find him.”

“I hope. I appreciate your optimism.”

“Anytime!”

Braxton dropped Dex off at his apartment. He helped Dex out of his car, and fetched his cane from the backseat. The wolf gave his friend a hug and wished him well as he departed to head for home. Dex limped down the sidewalk to his apartment complex’s office, which was located on the corner. He limped up the wheelchair ramp and went inside.

The landlord’s office was spacious, with big windows that overlooked the street. The walls were painted in a light and dark shade of gray, and the furniture inside was similarly gray. A small live tree and some plants provided a splash of color. Dex stepped inside, the bell on the door signaling his arrival. From a side room came his landlord, a big middle-aged wolf who looked all hypermasculine in his jeans and red flannel shirt that was loosely buttoned at the collar. He had tousled brown hair that had some gray mixed in it, and ice blue eyes that peered out.

Dex sat down with him to go over the changes to his lease that was coming up for renewal in June. The malamute was braced for the inevitable rent increase that he knew was coming. It had been three years since the last raise, which put his rent at $1,400 for his one bedroom apartment.

Grabbing paperwork off the printer, the wolf sat it down in front of Dex. “You got some time to prepare for this, but given the increase in property taxes in Cook county, and the increase in utility prices, I have to raise your rent an additional five hundred dollars.”

“Holy shit.” Dex blurted out. “That puts my rent at nearly two grand!”

“I know it’s a lot, but I gotta make money too.” The wolf said rather bluntly. He didn’t look very sympathetic. On the paperwork, he pointed out the line item deductions that the rent broke down for, which read at the very bottom, $1,955. Dex looked at the paperwork and pursed his lips as his frustration mounted. He made great money working for Centoh, but two grand was two grand. He had medical bills from physical therapy and his prescriptions that his insurance didn’t completely cover, and he was dreading any further bills from his extended hospital stay. Dex said he would think about it and took the paperwork for the planned changes. He left the office feeling rather disgusted.

Limping down the sidewalk back to his apartment several doors down, Dex glanced around at his place in the middle of Boystown. It was the dream come true apartment; right smack dab in the middle of Chicago’s gay village, his humble abode for sixteen years. But the slowly creeping rent was turning that dream come true into a looming nightmare as landlord after landlord nickeled and dimed more and more. The malamute let out a disgusted sigh as he limped home down the sidewalk. Each step really hurt after a long walk with his friend.

Dex returned to his apartment and slowly shut the door behind him. He went to his couch and just collapsed down on it. His face was scrunched up in pain for a moment as he adjusted his aching hips. The malamute stared at his blank TV and saw his reflection on it. His face had a look of worry on it. Was he going to have to search for a cheaper place to live at? It only added to the pressure on his life.

Hitting the ground Monday morning, Dex arrived at work with the help of Lieutenant Bruckner. Driving through the security perimeter, Dex arrived in the white work SUV directly to the flight line where his flight awaited him. On the tarmac sat the company Convairliner, one of the propliners that made up Barev’s “BATS System”. The twin-engine C-131D was a colorful machine, with prominent fluorescent dayglo orange nose, tail, and outer wing sections, a white upper roof with natural metal undersides separated by a dark blue cheatline that had a zigzag kink immediately aft of the cockpit windows. Its upper fuselage read “United Barev Industries”, and the nose bore the golden arrow logo of “BATS”. It was his ride to Ohio for a big Centoh meeting at the corporate office in Columbus.

Limping with the help of Lieutenant Bruckner, Dex slowly made his way up the aircraft’s folding stairs. Clutching the rail, the malamute limped up the twelve steps into the plane, where he saw the flight crew getting ready in the cockpit. The forward cabin was modeled like a traditional airliner, with a single aisle and wide seating two per side, all upholstered in gray fabric with enough seats for about twenty people. The rear half of the plane was open, with some swivel chairs, a couch, and two card tables with booths by the windows. The walls were painted a very light gray, with the rear bulkhead adorned in faux wood paneling for the bathroom doors.

Dex took a seat by the window. He sat his laptop bag and lunch bag on the chair beside him as he sat down by the window which overlooked the wing and the number two engine. He peered out and watched the ground crew hand-turn the propeller, which was polished metal tipped in red, white, and blue.

Dex glanced over at the sound of people boarding. Arriving inside the cabin was Gary Morton, and comanager, Dwight Grendel, a forty-seven year old Pointer dog. Both of them wore dark red Centoh polo shirts with black and tan slacks. Dex was dressed in a red sweatshirt over his polo with gray work pants.

All ready for their flight to Ohio, the aircraft’s integral stairs were retracted with the whir of the electric motors. The stairs folded in on themselves and folded up, followed by the hatch closing and locking with a mechanical click. Dex watched with interest as the number two engine was started. From his window he watched the prop slowly turn with the whine of its starter. With a hacking backfire and clouds of oily blue smoke, the Pratt and Whitney coughed to life with the chug of cold cylinders and the whir of the turbocharger. He felt the vibrations in his seat as the engine idled, followed by the hacking couch of the number one engine turning over. It had been quite a while since he had flown, and it was the first time he was flying in something so anachronistic. His mind wandered back to what an experience it would have been when his grandparents flew to Gulfport to begin their new lives in Mississippi way back in 1959.

Getting airborne, the Convair smoothly lifted off into the bright Chicago sunrise. Climbing slowly, Dex watched the big radial engines work hard keeping them skyward as Chicago passed beneath them. Compared to his last time flying commercial, the propliner was a bit shakier, a lot smaller, and slightly louder, but as they leveled off and the engines set to cruise power, the cabin was filled by the muffled, mesmerizing drone of synchronized propellers. It would be an uneventful two hour flight to Columbus.

The back of the plane was quieter as Dex, Gary, and Dwight huddled around at the card table, crunching numbers and brainstorming and having an early lunch together. Outside the window, clouds lazily drifted by as they flew somewhere high over northern Indiana.

Tapping the green eraser of his pencil on his legal pad, Dex listened to Dwight and Gary talk while he chewed slowly on a sandwich. The discussion was about the upcoming reviews and pay raises that happened yearly at Centoh.

“I think we should be a bit more optimistic about the raises this year, due to inflation.” Dwight said as Gary nodded.

“Gas prices are really skyrocketing because of the Ukraine situation.” Gary remarked.

Dex sat his sandwich down. “I’ve been going through the numbers last night and reading some of the economic reports being published, and inflation is going to keep on skyrocketing this year. Everything’s climbing up in price, especially in Chicago which already was among the areas with an elevated cost of living. Now Cook County increased their taxes this year, the benefits have gone up, so I think we need to seriously look at possibly a two dollar raise for everyone to keep up and make people happy.”

Gary took a sip of his Diet Coke. “That’s something we’ll have to bring up at the meeting and I’m sure it will be touched on.”

“We have to keep morale up, especially the mechanics because there’s so few people who can work on such legacy aircraft.” Dex remarked. “I myself make great money and I’m finding myself with a narrower margin of financial error than what I want.”

“Well one thing’s for certain, the morale has gone up since we got rid of some of the dead weight like that lil’ shit Jacob.” Dwight grumbled as he grabbed a potato chip from the baggie in his grip.

“Accountability. It’s a great thing.” Dex chuckled.

“When you were gone… Jesus Christ…” Dwight shook his head. “I’m running back and forth putting fires out, and you got god damn Dim Witt fucking everything up.”

“He’s next on my chopping block if I don’t get him to stop doing stupid shit.” Dex shook his head. “I don’t want to get rid of him, I really don’t, but we’re starting to pick up in loads, and I need those DC-7’s maxed out when they depart for Columbus, Lains, or Biloxi!”

“You need to give him that ultimatum, and you tell him I told you this.” Gary quipped. “If you don’t send the DC-7’s at capacity, you’re gone. That’s what you tell him.”

“I’ll gladly do it.”

“So about the cost of living earlier.” Gary said as he twirled a pen in his grip. “You know my property taxes went up again!”

“Mine did too.” Dwight shook his head. “Death and taxes I suppose, Gary.”

“My rent is going up five hundred bucks.”

“What are you paying right now?”

“Fourteen hundred.”

“Jesus Christ, and half the size of a house too.” Dwight shook his head.

“When I got that apartment, it was originally like six hundred bucks a month sixteen years ago. I’m really getting nervous about my financial situation because of that, and all my medical bills… all because I’m god damn stupid.”

“Eh, don’t beat yourself up.” Dwight shrugged.

“So I gotta figure out something because my medical bills are killing me.”

“You got the health insurance?”

“Go figure my luck that there’s certain things they’re not covering because it’s not in network…”

“Are you fucking kidding me.” Dwight shook his head.

“My physical therapist? They cover half. My orthopedic specialist that the hospital assigned to me without input from me or the health insurance company? He’s not in network! So I get bills and I feel like I’m gonna have a damn heart attack!”

“Dex, I’m really sad to hear that.” Gary frowned.

“Eh. It is what it is. It’s my fault for fucking everything up.” The malamute grumbled.

“Oh c’mon, you’re so hard on yourself.” Gary remarked.

“I made a bunch of stupid mistakes, got hooked on drugs, and got myself nearly crushed by an eighteen wheeler and look like a hot mess! And I’m not enough of a sociopath to spin it in a positive light!”

“At least you’re alive.” Dwight suggested.

“Yeah. I got that going for me.”

“Nothing is guaranteed in life except death and taxes.” The Pointer laughed. Dex chuckled and reluctantly agreed on that note.

The flight back to Chicago was smooth and uneventful at eleven thousand feet. The Convairliner burbled alone in the sky, battling a headwind over Indiana as they traveled northwest to the windy city. Gary and Dwight napped in the big swivel chairs as Dex sat alone at the card table, reading paperwork that came in a red binder from the big corporate meeting in Columbus.

Dex felt pretty good about the meeting. He got to meet the other operations managers from Lainsville, Biloxi, and Columbus, and met the leadership of Centoh, Jaska Saari, who oversaw the aviation division, and Cheryl Voyager, who ran the trucking division. He thought he made a good impression to the leadership of the company, who blessed his proposal for higher pay increases to everyone to offset inflation. He really felt happy that he went to work for Centoh, after years of suffering under the apathetic management of Saunders-Babbit.

Flipping a few pages in the binder, he got some early ideas for the long term plans of Centoh, including plans to supplement their legacy propliners with a widebody jet cargo fleet, with a 2024-2026 time window. Dex read about the early ideas with some interest about how expansion would benefit all of them. He was ready to lead on that.

Arriving back to Chicago, the C-131 made a smooth touchdown on the runway centerline. Both Double Wasps revved back up for full power in reverse thrust, and Dex watched as they bled off speed to a slow crawl back to the tarmac. The colorful Convair turned and parked by the terminal building, and both engines were run lean before being powered off. The propellers windmilled to a stop.

The forward hatch deployed and the stairs were unfurled. Dex very carefully made his way down the metal steps. He had to hold on for the railing to maintain balance as his legs hurt with each step. Climbing down, Dex glanced over to see a DC-7B ready to depart. As he walked to the terminal building, he saw a couple maintenance people walking by, and he overheard part of their conversation.

“There’s several grand more down the toilet from Dim Witt.”

“I love shuttling empty planes around and pissing people off flying that shit on two planes…”

Dex closed his eyes and shook his head in disgust as he went inside. He dropped off the paperwork on his desk and called it a day. Dex met up with Lieutenant Bruckner, who took him back to his apartment in the work Tahoe.

Getting cleaned up after work, Dex caught a taxi to his physical therapy. His treatment was usually a quick check over by the orthopedic specialist, and then some light leg stretches and workout with a medicine ball to build strength back up in his arms. It was a two hour session three times a week, and each time, Dex left really sore. In a way, he dreaded each visit, because the orthopedic specialist, not in network with his insurance provider, charged an arm and a leg. But he got a “discount” from the specialist’s office. He longed to get back into shape.

The taxi took Dex back to his apartment, and he paid the driver’s fee. Grabbing the mail, Dex limped inside, sat the mail on the dinner table, and limped upstairs to get another shower. He got cleaned up and returned back downstairs in a black tanktop and a pair of gray mesh gym shorts. He dragged himself to the kitchen and grabbed dinner from the fridge, a Caesar salad. He grabbed the bottle of dressing and closed the door with his foot. He sat down at the table, went back to grab some ice water, and sat back down to check over his mail. Half of it was junk, and he threw those in the mail without opening the envelopes. He got a statement from the insurance, which he opened. It read that they were denying the cost of the orthopedic specialist, citing his out of network, the usual spiel that made him roll his eyes. Dex folded it up and sat it beside as he opened the envelope that was addressed directly from the therapy office. Dex pulled out the statement and opened it.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” the malamute screamed out loud. His eyes went huge at the sight of a $14,000 bill. The massive cost was for a CT scan he underwent the month before, at the urging of the orthopedic specialist, the orthopedic specialist who was out of network. He was told that it would be covered by his insurance, as it would be done at a facility in-network. Dex grabbed the letter of denial and read that their refusal was based around the fact that the insurance deemed the scan “unnecessary”. Now he stared at a $14,000 bill that was due in three weeks. Dex felt like he had a momentary out of body experience. He was so frustrated that his face turned red under his white and gray fur. His heart was pounding in his chest. He threw the bill to the side and bitterly ate his dinner in silence.

Going to the couch after dinner, Dex turned on the TV and let the evening news play while he opened his laptop up and logged into Windows to go look at apartments for rent in Chicago. He checked a few sites and felt his heart sinking at the prices of apartments in the windy city. There was nothing near Boystown that wasn’t anything less than two grand a month, and the cheaper apartments were all located in areas that were not known for their quality. Dex wasn’t going to go back to the terrifying days of living on the west side where there was practically a murder a day at a park near his place, or the random sounds of gunshots at night. The malamute shuddered. He felt so backed into a corner, unsure of what to do. He was hemorrhaging money paying for his bills, and his once proud savings account was looking really low, after having at one point nearly $130,000 saved up. Now he was looking at having to raid one of his CD’s, or as a last resort, one of his two IRA’s. The thought disgusted him.

Dex numbed his mind watching the news, which had a segment about the company he worked for. It was about the lawsuit that Chicago was in with United Barev Industries, over the bombing of the optics factory in 2021.

“In a few days, a verdict will be read out on the conclusion of the lawsuit, United Barev Industries v. Chicago, and Rob Barion v. Chicago, regarding last year’s August bombing of the Chicago Glass and Optics Factory, and the attempted murder of Rob Barion by members of the factory’s management team with assistance of members of the city government. This saga has been made more surreal by the assassination of Chicago comptroller, Michael Trenoff, and the murder of the assassin by Rob Barion during a last second negotiation at a Greek restaurant on the north end of the city. The FBI believes that the assassination of Trenoff was unintended, and the real target was Rob Barion.”

Dex shook his head and sat with his tattooed arms crossed.

Rain splattered against his office windows as Dex watched the flight line get ready for the morning flights out. On the phone with the dispatcher from Lainsville New York, Dex leaned back in his chair and winced as his back ached. He worked to assure that the DC-7’s would be coming back fully loaded. Glancing back out the window, Dex watched a C-121C fire up its first engine, with a copious cloud of oily smoke. It’s deep, hacking cough was heard in his office.

Dex put the phone away at the end of his call and got up to limp over to the dispatcher’s office, where he saw Jim at work preparing paperwork. On a large electronic screen showed the entire route network of Centoh and allied cargo companies, Precision Cargo, and Freightmaster Systems International. The display showed all aircraft that were in the air along the routes. There was another display that showed any alerts.

“Morning, Jim.”

“Morning!” the brown wolf exclaimed as he stapled a stack of paperwork. “I’m getting the second round of flights ready!”

“Excellent, because we need to talk about that. I just got off the phone about the four DC-7’s that are coming from Lainsville and Columbus, that need to go back to Lainsville, and rerouted down to Biloxi.”

“Well I actually have a plan for Biloxi, where the DC-6’s will take the Biloxi run.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no.” Dex shook his head. “Two are going to Lains, and two are going to Biloxi. And that’s how it’s going to be.”

Jim dropped some paperwork on his desk. “Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?”

“Yes I am.”

Jim looked visibly annoyed. “You know, Dex, I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m relaying what the Lainsville dispatcher told me. He expects two fully loaded DC-7’s to come back to him, so they can use them to run to Biloxi. And I expect two fully loaded DC-7’s to head to Biloxi on the second runs.”

“I got it to where two DC-6’s and a Convair can run it!”

“How is that efficient!?”

“I don’t like utilizing the DC-7’s unless I absolutely have to?”

“Why?”

“Because they always have engine issues and when there’s an issue I don’t have anything that can fly that capacity! All the other planes bulk out!”

Dex shook his head. “I talked to the maintenance manager and looked at the logs and the rates of in-flight shutdowns for the DC-7 are no worse than the Constellations. They use the same R-3350, save for a few mods for the props… and I never see you have any hesitation with the Constellations. I simply think you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I take offense to that.”

“I take offense that you piss away so much money ferrying empty aircraft around and pissing off flight crews with shit like this!” Dex griped. “Do you not realize how bad you look in this whole company? When I have ops managers and dispatchers from other hubs calling in and bitching about you shuttling around EMPTY aircraft that cost us twenty-grand to do!? We’re at the cusp of getting a pay raise to match the rising cost of living, and I am not about to have you fuck this whole company over with your incompetence!”

“I AM NOT INCOMPETENT!” Jim screamed in a fit of rage. “STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!”

“DO YOUR FUCKING JOB RIGHT!” Dex screamed. His face turned bright red.

Gary ran over to see what was going on. “Guys! Guys! Guys!” he exclaimed.

Dex pointed. “If I get even a whiff that one of those DC-7’s leave with nothing on it, you’re going home and not coming back and I’ll fucking route the planes! That’s my final warning!”

Dex turned and limped away. Jim looked sad from being screamed at and went back to shuffling around his paperwork. Gary looked concerned as he glanced over his shoulder at Dex going back into his office. Gary took a moment to talk to Jim and tell him basically the same thing over routing the planes, but with more tact. Gary then turned his attention to Dex. The gray wolf walked over to see Dex replying to an email. Gary tapped on the door, stepped in and closed the door behind him.

“Hey is everything, okay?” Gary asked.

“I’m sorry I flipped out at him.” Dex apologized.

“I said something to Jim too along the lines of what you said, but I want to know if you’re okay, because I could tell you were on edge all this morning from the moment you got here.”

“I get two phone calls from dispatchers in Lains and Biloxi, and they want the DC-7’s to come in with cargo instead of this split the load up on multiple plane bullshit that Jim constantly does! It pisses everyone off! It pisses the pilots off! And everyone has to change all their plans because of his this. And its tens of thousands of dollars that gets pissed away that could be used to generate revenue hauling freight!”

Gary nodded. “I think there’s more than just work woes bothering you, Dexter.”

“Fine.” The malamute grumbled. “I got a god damn fourteen thousand dollar bill yesterday from the orthopedic specialist….”

“Excuse me?”

“Fourteen thousand dollars.”

“For what!?”

“A god damn CT scan that the specialist recommended, but the medical insurance said wasn’t required so they denied the payment. And I’m stuck with the god damn bill, on top of the other bills I have to pay, and the looming reality my rent is going up five hundred bucks!”

Gary tilted his head in disbelief.

“I’m a little pissed off about it, and that’s kind of an understatement…” the malamute grumbled. “I know you’re not supposed to bring your personal problems into work… but I don’t know how the hell I’m gonna pay for all this shit. I’m burning through my savings account, and I have to leave early today so I can go to the bank and probably implode my CD… or my IRA… my piggy banks to save my ass.”

“You know Dex, Barev has an emergency help fund for employees in need.”

“I don’t want to resort to charity… especially when this is my own god damn fault.” Dex shook his head. “That fund is for things like a car breaking down… or someone’s refrigerator blowing up. All this shit is because I was an idiot, did drugs, partied, and fucked my life over to numb the pain that I still have to deal with, and now its literal pain!”

“I want you to take a deep breath, Dex. And I want you to know that everything will be okay.”

“I guess.”

“I know you’re really frustrated.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“Just know I’m here to talk when you need to vent.”

“Thanks, Gary.”

Gary smiled and turned to leave Dex’s office. Dex sat at his desk with pursed lips. He rubbed the spot between his eyes and grumbled at the oncoming tension headache.

Lieutenant Bruckner dropped Dex off at his therapy office. Limping at a fast pace, his face scrunched up in discomfort, Dex pressed the handicapped door button with his cane and marched inside with his bill in his grip. He went right up to the receptionist’s desk and slammed the bill down.

“Why am I being charged fourteen thousand dollars!?” Dex exclaimed. He said it loud enough that everyone in the waiting room turned and looked at him. The wolfess looked up from her desk and could immediately sense the rage in the malamute. She nervously took the statement from him and looked at it.

“Well your health insurance provider denied the coverage.”

“No shit!” Dex exclaimed. “I want to talk to Doctor Thoraki, and I want to ask him why he had me do this medical scan that Aetna denied!”

“Well he is busy with a patient.”

“This is absolutely ludicrous to just dump this into my lap! How many people have fourteen thousand fucking dollars just lying around to sign off into a check to pay this!?”

“Sir, I need you to calm down.”

“Calm down!? With this much money at stake?” Dex yelled. “What do you think I’m made of? Money?”

The shouting happened to get the attention of his orthopedic specialist, Dr. Thoraki, who came running out from the hallway. He stopped at the sight of Dex, which puzzled him.

“Dex is everything okay?”

Dex grabbed and held up the bill. “Fourteen thousand dollars!”

“Oh no.”

“You told me it would be covered because the CT facility was in network!” Dex exclaimed. “Now I’m being charged this!?”

“There has to be a technicality somewhere…”

“YEAH! Aetna is saying the scan was unnecessary! You’re saying it was necessary! So which is it!?”

“Okay, Dex, please calm down.” The doctor pleaded.

“I will not calm down, this is bullshit!” Dex pointed. “Do you think I’m made of money, man?”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on… let me see what I can do if you can just give me a moment to finish up my consultation…”

Sitting outside in the parking lot, Lieutenant Bruckner sat in the work Tahoe looking at the time on his watch. He sat watching the lobby doors while listening to radio chatter to the other members of the PMC battalion. He checked the time again and saw he had been sitting around for twenty-five minutes. He was about to call Dex when he saw the malamute hobble out of the lobby with some paperwork. Bruckner watched him step off the curb, only to suddenly fall. The German Shepherd quickly jumped out and ran out to grab him.

“Dex! Dex!” he shouted. The malamute all hobbled on the ground.

“Oh Jesus Christ…” Dex grunted as he was helped up. Bruckner grabbed his cane and paperwork and helped the limping malamute back to the SUV.

“God damn that hurt…”

“Are you okay?”

“I am, still not my bank account…” Dex grumbled.

Lieutenant Bruckner took off with Dex and hit the road. Dex explained that he got a “discount” over the “error”, which put his bill down to a still ridiculous nine thousand to pay. He was driven to the bank, where Dex had to reluctantly dig into one CD. After paying the fine and signing paperwork, he left with the money needed to pay his bill.

“This is absolute bullshit.” Dex griped to Bruckner. “This is absolute horse shit, and exactly the problem with our healthcare industry! It’s absolutely ridiculous that doctors want you to do all this shit and then you get fucked over with the bill because your insurance is next to useless! It’s all a giant money making scheme on the health of others!”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“It absolutely pisses me off that people allow this shit to happen. No wonder why people put off taking care of health issues? You get nickeled and dimed for every little fucking thing! I had to pay for the helicopter flight to Mercy Hospital, I had to pay for stupid shit left and right! You know they charged me over two hundred dollars for the gowns I wore. THE GOWNS. I had doctors come in and say hi to me, and then I get a five hundred dollar bill! It’s highway robbery! It’s fucking bullshit that people let this shit happen because nobody has the balls to change the system that we have.”

Dex finally got dropped off at his apartment. He waved and said goodbye to Bruckner, who took off to head back to the airport. With his paperwork tucked under his arm, Dex limped back inside and slammed the purple door shut.

Sitting at his dinner table, Dex reluctantly wrote out a check for nine thousand dollars. He scribbled the amount down and signed his name. It was placed with the bottom half of the statement, and sealed in an envelope. Dex slapped a stamp on it, and wrote his address down on the envelope. He capped his pen and tossed it aside and put his head into his paws and uttered a disgusted sigh.

Getting up, Dex walked over to his laptop in the living room and sat down and opened it up. Wanting to distract his mind, he logged into Sniffies to just oogle at all the guys in the city. It had been ages since he used the app, and he got the map to pull up, showing himself surrounded by hundreds of people all looking for sex.

Dex clicked on his own icon and stared at the profile picture of himself. It was a photo of himself in his mirror, posed with just his blue jockstrap on. Oh how he wished he looked like that again. He had a nicely toned, flat stomach, a nice chest all inked up. He looked so beautiful, compared to his mangled, fat self now. Dex closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. He ruined his own looks by his stupidity. How was he ever gonna recover from this?

Deciding he needed some fresh air and mail his expensive bill, Dex slowly went upstairs to go get dressed for an evening outing. He opened his closet door and sighed at the fact that all of his nice colorful attire no longer fit him. Dex threw on a dark blue polo with his dark gray work pants. He walked over and glanced at himself in the mirror. His pudgy body just did not look good in anything. He looked like was about to go and fix an IT issue in an office. It made him frown. He forced himself to look away. He limped downstairs, shoved his feet into his shoes, grabbed the envelope off the table, and fetched his cane. He made his way out the door and pulled it shut behind him.

Making his way into the heart of Boystown, Dex dropped his bill off into the mailbox and continued on his way. Wanting a drink, he stopped into a bar he frequented a lot, finding it very quiet at five in the evening. Limping up to a seat, Dex sat down and the bartender, a slender yellow lab in a tanktop and short shorts, walked over.

“What can I get you?” he asked with a lispy voice.

“I don’t know, maybe a vodka with sprite and lime or something.”

“Coming right up.”

Dex propped his head up as he stared out the window at some people mingling about in the village. The bartender returned with a short tumbler with a fizzy clear drink, complete with a lime wedge shoved into it. Dex paid him with a tip and sat there and slowly sipped on it alone. He felt really lonely.

The bartender glanced over while cleaning a glass with a towel. “You’re Dex, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Christ, what happened to you?”

Dex wasn’t sure what to say with such a flippant remark. “Car accident.”

“Ah.”

Dex swirled his glass and took another slow sip. He finished his drink and left the glass on the counter as he turned to leave the empty bar.

Stepping out onto the sidewalk, Dex took two steps and tripped over an uneven section of the sidewalk. The malamute fell hard on his side and was stunned by the pain. His face was contorted by the immense pain surging through his hip and leg. He momentarily turned red from the strain. The malamute groaned and rolled onto his back. He just laid on the sidewalk for a moment, unable to move from the pain.

Dex opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps approaching. Slowly turning his head to the left he saw none other than his former friends, all towering over him. Trey, Lenny, Johnny, Paul, all colorfully dressed in pastel colors, snickered and smirked at the hurting Dex in his drab clothes.

“You take up a lot of space down there.” Trey teased with a grin.

“How the mighty have fallen.” Johnny chuckled.

“Gee Dex, you’ve really let yourself go, sweetie.” Lenny laughed.

“Motherfuckers, all of you.” Dex grumbled. He rolled and tried to lift himself up but his hip hurt too much. His face was scrunched in pain as he tried to push himself up with his arm, only for his shoulder to start hurting. His former friends just laughed as Dex tried to push himself up, only for his arm to give out, and him falling back onto the pavement. They turned and left, discussing about what drinks they wanted to get. Dex just laid on the pavement.

Struggling to reach his phone, Dex dug into his pocket and yanked it out. He frantically texted Braxton and asked for his help and told him where he was. “I’m really hurting and I can’t make it home.” A minute later, he got a reply.

“Oh man… I’m in the middle of an exam. I’ll try and reach out to Christos. Do you have a backup?”

Dex wrote back that he’d call work. His fingers trembling, he swiped and scrolled for the number of Lieutenant Bruckner, which he engaged and put on speaker phone.

“Bruckner.”

“Bruck, it’s Dex. God, I need your help…”

“Are you okay?”

“I fell and I can’t fucking get up. I’m here in Boystown, North Halsted, by the Johnny’s bar.”

“I’ll send you help right away.”

“Thank you.”

Taking every ounce of strength, Dex grabbed his cane and slowly lifted himself up. He grabbed the bench and dragged himself up and onto it. His breathing was labored as he clutched his leg. “Motherfucker…”

A little over ten minutes later, Dex heard the distinctive rumble of the PMC’s BTR-70. The menacing black Soviet APC pulled up and its side hatch opened. Out came four armed sentries, a combat medic, and an officer, dressed in his menacing black leather overcoat with big white lapels, and peaked cap that was shiny black. They were members of the First Division of Viking Battalion, who protected Barev’s FotoChem plant in the north side of Chicago.

“Officer Schroder, first division SB-Viking Battalion.” Greeted the ominous German Shepherd with a friendly smirk. He had a distinctive German drawl.

“Dex.” The malamute said, sounding exhausted.

The combat medic checked Dex over as they asked him about what had happened.

“I tripped and fell, and it just hurt too much to, YEOUCH! Get my fatass up!”

The wolfess fumbled her brow as she checked his leg over. The gray furred wolfess was dressed in her black BDU and body armor, complete with black helmet that bore a white circle with a red cross on it. “I think you just pulled it, as I don’t sense anything broken, and you’d know if you broke it.”

“Yeah…”

“So nobody offered to help you up?”

“No.” Dex shook his head. He pointed down the sidewalk. “A bunch of assholes I used to be friends with all kinda stood over me and gloated and then went along their way for their usual drinks…”

“Oh really.” Officer Schroder quipped. He looked up to see far in the distance, a group of guys all sitting around at a wrought iron table. “Are they a bunch of frilly looking men in bright colors?”

“Yes.”

“Wobloski? Smith? Sanders? Martinez? Come with me.” Schroder motioned. They walked down the sidewalk, leaving the combat medic and another guard to gently help Dex up to load him into the APC.

Shiny boots clicked ominously on the pavement as the members of Viking Battalion made their way towards them. The friends sat around laughing and joking about their usual flippant conversations about sex and parties, sipping on drinks and having a good time.

“Excuse me!” Officer Schroder announced. His presence made them all go silent as he approached. The four “blackshirts” surrounded the table.

“Who the fuck are you?” Trey asked. His words were acidic, but his body language screamed timidness.

“Officer Fabian Schroder, first division, SB-Viking Battalion of Barev Defense Group PMC. I’d like to ask you why you didn’t bother helping my fellow coworker, Mister Dexter Malprave?”

Trey leaned back in his seat and gulped nervously with his friends. “We’re…we’re not friends, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t matter?” Schroder scolded. “You’d just leave someone lying on the ground when they look to be in pain? You don’t even have an ounce of decency to help a stranger in obvious need, friend or former friend? How can you live with yourself like that?”

“He burned his bridges with us, so it don’t matter.”

“You’d just leave someone in need lying on the ground? Would you like it if you needed help and everyone just ignored you?”

“We have stuff to attend to!” Trey shouted. “Now what is the meaning of this, or I’ll call the police!”

Schroder just gave the white wolf a rather sinister smirk. He chuckled and shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, what a shame… but those who are late will be punished by life itself… Lebe wohl~”

Schroder motioned as he turned to leave. The other sentries turned and left in tow, leaving Dex’s former friends to sit in silence, looking ashen faced at being confronted by armed men. Trey tugged nervously on his shirt collar as he looked at his friends.

“Oh my god, I didn’t know Dex was surrounded by that!?” Lenny exclaimed.

Paul wiped sweat off his face. “My god, Dex could have had all of us killed!”

Trey was speechless.

Inside the cramped APC, Dex laid on a cot awaiting the return of the other PMC members. The hatch opened and the first sentries climbed in and stowed their rifles into the rack holder. Office Schroder stepped in and closed the hatch and signaled for them to go.

“Let’s get you home, Dex.”

Getting a chance to rest for a few hours on the couch, Dex hurt less. While his body hurt less, he felt emotionally wounded by the blatant snub at the bar and by his former friends. Dex sat on his couch, his arms wrapped around a pillow he clutched while he aimlessly watched TV. He felt so emotionally agitated, volatile. He couldn’t believe the rudeness he faced. It made him wonder if any of these people he knew really cared about him? Or were they only interested in his looks and that only? It really bothered him. Was this life that he once lived just superficial? That everything he trusted and did meant nothing in the end? But wasn’t that what gay men did? Dex didn’t know what to make of it all.

The door bell rang, and Dex tossed the pillow aside and slowly stood up. “Coming!” he shouted. Grabbing hold of furniture and the wall, Dex hobbled his way to the door and opened it, revealing Braxton and Christos standing outside in the orange glow of a streetlight. He immediately welcomed them inside.

“Dexy I’m sooooooooooooo sorry!” Braxton exclaimed. “I had back to back to back exams!”

“I couldn’t get out of work, Dex, I’m sorry.” Christos frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Physically, yes. Emotionally? No.” the malamute shook his head. Christos and Braxton helped him back to his couch. Braxton sat next to his friend while Christos pulled up a chair near the coffee table.

“Today was a terrible day.” Dex admitted. “I had to implode more of my savings to pay for these fucking medical bills, and then I get humiliated all around! Everyone shocked that I look this way, everyone thinking I’m some fat, ugly, middle aged fuck now. And then I fucking fall and can’t get up and my former friends just pointing and laughing and then going on about their business like I didn’t matter or anything!”

“Oh my god that’s awful!” Braxton exclaimed.

“You’re telling me!” Dex shouted. “I can’t believe my life has been reduced to… this.”

Christos shook his head as he glanced at Braxton. “Dex… they never were your friends. They were just opportunists, parasites, who latched onto you, and when you no longer could provide for them, they dumped you off.”

Dex shook his head. “Those motherfuckers. For almost a decade, we were inseparable. We partied together, made vacations together. Everything. And all of that is just a footnote now? If that? Because I wanted to better my life that makes me the bad guy? And now I’m not fit and perfectly in shape it’s terrible? Something to laugh at?”

“Welcome to gay town.” Christos remarked. “You have to look at people like them, Dex. You are competition. You are sexual competition. All of us are out for the same thing and we don’t have the same pool of potential partners like straight people do. You add to that the oppression of society upon us and it makes people lash out in stupid ways.”

“I’m so over it. I’m so tired of the way I’m treated…” Dex said. He broke down into tears. Dex covered his face with his paws as he wept. Braxton motioned for Dex to come to him and the young wolf put his arms around him to comfort him.

“It’s okay, Dex. Don’t cry. Don’t let them take your joy away.”

“What joy do I have left?”

“You’re not dead.”

“I feel like I should have died in that wreck.”

“No, no. Let’s not talk that way.”

“I don’t have anyone in my life, other than you two, and my coworkers.”

Christos had a look of thought on his face. “Dex, have you ever thought about trying to reach back out with your family?”

Dex grabbed a tissue and dabbed his bloodshot eyes. “What would that do? Just remind me further that I’m their fuckup son?”

“It’s been a long time, Dex, and they very well could have changed. You just don’t know until you try.” Christos suggested. “Some people have the capacity to learn and grow and overcome their prejudices. Like my family did.”

“I don’t know.”

“You will never know until you try, man.” Christos assured him.

“Let me… let me think about it.”

Braxton smiled and gave Dex’s arm a friendly rub. “Everything’s gonna be alright man.”

Dex blew his nose and nodded.

The first Thursday morning of May was foggy at Chicago Midway after an overnight rainstorm. The soft glow of the tarmac lights burned through the opaque gray haze that enveloped aircraft and buildings. Puddles of oily water covered the tarmac as the morning flights were in the process of being loaded.

Feeling unwell and rather exhausted, Dex sat at his desk, hurting. His leg was bothering him after a bad night of sleep. His mind was racing too much, and his leg just hurt no matter what he did. Even half a pain pill only took the edge off. Dex rubbed his eyes and braced himself for the phone call he was dreading. In front of him sat the written contract with the fuel vendor, the hedging agreement that capped fuel prices for 100LL avgas for the months of April and May, as signed and agreed. Beside it sat the fuel bill that was several thousand dollars more than anticipated.

Dex grabbed his desk phone and dialed the number to the vendor’s office.

“Good morning thank you for calling Capitol Energy Supply Services, my name is Jessica, may I have your name and business name, please?”

“Good morning my name is Dexter Malprave, I’m the operations manager to Centoh Chicago Aviation World, and I would like to speak to the billing department please regarding a discrepancy in our recent fuel bill.”

“Absolutely. Please hold.”

Dex closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead as he waited for the call to transfer. Getting ahold of the billing department, Dex made his case about the payment discrepancy, with the reminder that the price that was agreed upon would be honored through the end of the month. The billing spokesman tried to argue in return that due to the unforeseen skyrocketing fuel prices, the company had to void the agreement to avoid financial ruin. Dex wasn’t buying it and asked to speak to his manager to resolve the problem. He was put on another brief hold and was soon in touch with the manager of the billing department, where Dex again made his point across about the several thousand dollar discrepancy and the written agreement between Capitol and Centoh.

“Frankly, Mister Malprave, given the fuel costs going all over the place, the agreement is void, and you can enter a new hedging agreement.”

“This was signed by your company with an agreement that it would be honored through the calendar date and that reneging would have sanctions.”

“So what are you going to do about this?”

“I will refer to this matter to the corporate office in Ohio, and to our parent company, United Barev Industries, where Mister Barion himself will get involved with his legal department.”

The other side of the phone line was silent.

“This is a signed agreement between our companies with the fine print stating that reneging on this contract by the respected parties will see sanctions and or financial compensation, which we seek.”

There was a nervous gulp. “Uhh, Mister Malprave? I will refer this matter to my higher up for review, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

Dex hung up the phone and shook his head. He rubbed his forehead at the headache that was bothering him. Wheeling himself to his copier, he made scans of the billing statement and agreement, and wheeled himself back to forward them via e-mail to the Centoh corporate office with a c.c to Rob Barion with a message that he called the company and was expecting an answer and that he would follow up. Dex clicked the send button.

Right as he hit send, he heard a door slam, and the sound of shuffling feet which got his attention. There was a bunch of angry commotion that got Dex to his wobbly feet. He limped out of the office to hear a big argument erupting in the dispatch office between two flight crews and the dispatcher, again. It got the attention of Gary as well as an armed sentry.

The malamute couldn’t even make out what was being said as he put himself once again between the furious pilots and Jim Witt in the office.

“Alright! Alright! ALRIGHT!” screamed Dex. Everyone went silent.

Dex stared right at Jim. “Let me guess, you fucked everything up again didn’t you?”

“We have that one Seven in the hangar with a propeller issue! And this dimwit here wants to have everything split up so we don’t fly them out again!” a pilot shouted. “I’m fucking done with having to work harder because Dim Witt can’t! I’m going the fuck home because I’m tired of no life working for this place!”

“Now hold on!” Dex motioned. “Jesus Christ, Jim. We just had a talk about this too.”

Jim frowned and looked down at the floor.

Dex closed his eyes and shook his head as he ran a paw through his hair. “You know what, I want you to go home Jim, and I’ll do your job.”

“What!?”

“You heard me! Go get your shit and get the fuck outta my office!” Dex shouted. “Go home and get your head out of your ass or something and I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“No!”

“GO!” Dex glared. The sentry walked up, armed with his submachine gun, grabbed Jim, and dragged him out by his arm.

Dex limped over to Jim’s desk and looked at his paperwork that was everything. “Give me a couple minutes, and a couple phone calls and I’ll go and unfuck all of this.”

“Well I’m heading home ‘cause I’m in no mental shape to fly.”

“I can’t stop you.”

Dex watched as his pilots all walked off in protest of Jim’s incompetence. Gary watched them leave as he saw Dex collapse into the seat and slam his paws on Jim’s desk.

“Jesus god damn fucking Christ!” Dex shouted.

“Take it easy! Take it easy!” Gary pleaded.

“I’m down two flight crews now! Two planes fully loaded and I have nobody to fly them!” Dex exclaimed. His face was visibly red under the white in his fur. “Now I gotta call back and hear no end to this bullshit! I want Jim fired, because I am done!”

“Dex, Dex, Dex.”

“DONE!” the malamute pointed at Gary.

“Calm down!” Gary shouted more forcefully.

Gathering up paperwork, Dex grabbed his cane and stormed out. He limped badly and stumbled twice as he made his way back to his office. Gary followed behind him, upset himself about the whole situation. Dex stepped into his office and made it about four steps before he tripped. Paperwork flew everywhere as Dex struck his head on the side of his desk with a mighty crack. He went limp and faceplanted the carpeted floor with blood immediately gushing from a gash to the side of his head.

“Dex!” Gary shouted.

The malamute laid on the floor crying hysterically, his face contorted in pain as angry, hot tears streamed from his eyes. His arms convulsed and his whole body tensed as he screamed furiously, frightening the chubby wolf who called for help. Gary jumped down to his knees to try and tend to Dex who then went limp in a catatonic state. The PMC’s combat medic ran in with her medical bag to immediately begin treatment as Gary called for an ambulance.

The commotion of voices faded away for Dex as the world around him went dim. His mind retreated away to a nightmarish vision, of discombobulated voices and images from his memory.

“Dex, I don’t know how to put it, and don’t be offended, but you’re just… you’re just not meant for our group.”

“Your dick is just way too big… and that PA? Turn off!”

“I need a nigga’s BBC, and that ain’t good enough!”

“Too much ink!”

“Not enough ink, Dex.”

“Uhh, I like twinks and you’re too big, bro.”

“I don’t think you’re meant for the bear scene, Dexter. Sorry!”

“What are you? Forty? I only like eighteen to twenty-eight. So fuck off!”

Dex watched his former friends stand over him, laughing at him lying on the ground. The vision was distorted, warping constantly like everything was melting and shaking.

“Boy you’ve really let yourself go, huh, Dex?” laughed Lenny.

Johnny pointed. “Christ, look at this fat fuck!”

Trey grinned. “We don’t want you around anymore, Dex!”

“No, no, no…” Dex’s voice wavered. It sounded so distorted as he watched his vision warp into a vision of his career woes, showing all the incompetent moves of Centoh’s dispatcher, the arguing and fighting, and sheer incompetence of his former workplace, which ended in a hellish scene of his former boss fucking the alcoholic president of Saunders-Babbit. Clyde, the overweight husky, gripping the wrinkled leg of Maggie Babbit. He casually drank from his tumbler as he looked right at Dex.

“Hey Dexter, glad I ran into you, uhh, did you get the email about the updated cover sheet protocol?”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Dex screamed. He raised himself up screaming as paramedics and the combat medic were in the process of treating him. His chest rose and fell heavily as he was urged to lay back down in preparation to being moved to the stretcher. Dex’s eyes were as wide as saucer plates as he was gently rolled onto the orange spine board and strapped in to get placed on the stretcher. He soon lost consciousness again.

Stepping through the sliding glass doors, Gary checked himself into the ER to go see Dex. He was followed by an intelligence officer of Viking Battalion’s second division as they made their way to room fifteen, where Dex was resting at.

“What an exhausting day.” Gary remarked to the officer, who nodded as they rounded the turn for the hallway.

“Welcome to leadership, Gary.”

“You’re telling me!”

Pushing the curtain aside for room 15, Gary and the intelligence officer stepped in to find the emergency room doctor on call tending to Dex. The malamute laid in bed, hooked up to an IV as he rested. He looked comfortable for once. The doctor took notice of Gary and the intelligence officer, and got up to greet them.

“I’m Doctor Farnsworth.” The brown wolf greeted.

“Gary Morton, I’m Dexter’s emergency contact, and boss, for Centoh Aviation World.”

“And you?”

“I’m Officer Coughlin, second division SB-Viking Battalion, Barev’s PMC that guards the airport facility. I’m here for the incident report.”

“It’s okay for him to hear this, so is everything okay?” Gary asked.

“Dexter here is resting with a mild sedative to calm him down. He got a gash on the side of his head that got stitched up. We checked him over and he doesn’t have a concussion, but, I believe after talking to him, and looking at some of his symptoms when he came into my care, that he had a nervous breakdown today. Has there been any major issues in his life other than the bad car accident that happened last year?”

“Dex doesn’t talk about his personal life to me. I spoke to his friend who he is close to, who said that Dex has had a lot of personal issues going on outside of work, but out of respect, he wouldn’t talk much about them and would defer to Dex.”

“Okay.”

“Could I speak to him?” Gary asked.

“Sure.” The doctor nodded.

Gary went in and closed the curtain behind him. He pulled up a chair and took a seat beside Dex. The sounds of him grabbing the chair stirred Dex from his rest.

“Oh… oh Gary. You’re here.” Dex said, his voice very quiet.

“I’m here.” The gray wolf smiled. “How are you feeling, Dex?”

“Groggy. Sore.”

“Yeah, I get that, buddy.” Gary nodded. “I think we need to have this talk, Dexter.”

“Am I going to be fired?”

“No, no, no. You’re not going to be fired. But we need to talk about the core of all of this that has been going on. You’ve gone through a very traumatic experience that has left you in pain, and you’ve had these little frustrating pinpricks in your life since then. But there’s more to it that is bothering you on the inside, and I want to help you. But I can’t help you without you telling me what’s going on.”

Dex stared off into space for a solid minute. “I don’t think you’d understand, Gary.”

“You don’t know until you tell me.”

Dex let out a frustrated sigh. “Gary, I’m an openly gay man, who has been out of the closet for twenty-one years. You’re a straight guy, married, with a family, and I don’t have one. There’s things that go on in the gay male community that is just alien to straight people. Stuff people don’t get, or don’t want to understand. It’s why I don’t talk to my family anymore.”

“Dexter, you’re not going to get through this crisis unless you talk about what is hurting on the inside!” Gary pleaded.

“Alright! Fine!” Dex exclaimed. “Do you know how it feels to spend your whole life feeling lost and unsure of what or who you are because everyone finds some kind of fault in you? I was the shy, uncomfortable teenager who knew he was gay and had to keep it an absolute secret growing up in Mississippi. I made it my goal to get a scholarship to a northern school, and I worked so hard and I got it so I could come here to Chicago. When I came here twenty-five years ago it was such a liberating experience- here I can just be me! I didn’t have to fear being judged or condemned by my family. And go figure my luck at my first gay pride parade, I got the shit beat out of me by three dudes in an alleyway. For twenty-five years I have tried to find my place in this community of gay people and I haven’t! For whatever reason people always found some kind of fault in me. I’m too much of this, or that. I’m not feminine enough, I’m not masculine enough. I’m too big, not big enough. It’s like nobody can find anything to like about me! It’s bothered me my whole fucking life, Gary. And just when I thought that maybe I found my group of friends… my place… in the gay community… my social life… it all comes crashing down because I wanted to change things up… verses just partying, drugs, and a whole lotta sex with random people.”

Gary nodded slowly.

“I’m sorry, Gary. You probably think I’m some crazy, faggot fuckin’ whore.” Dex frowned. The malamute grabbed a tissue to dab his tear filled eyes.

Gary shook his head no. “I don’t think you’re that at all, Dex. I think you’re a smart, capable, intelligent man who has ‘management’ written all over you. From the get go, you stepped into this company ready to hit the ground running. You’ve helped trim off the dead weight, you’ve helped improve the morale of our facility and operations outside of just our issues with dispatch, but that’s not going to be an issue much longer… but that’s beside the point. You nearly died and you still came back to work two months later! You were going through all that therapy, drug treatment, and you still came to work on time, and worked even though I knew you were in massive pain some days. I couldn’t even get some people to come in on time if I PAID them a bonus to come in on time!”

“Well… disability pay just barely covered my bills so….”

“Heh, heh, I get that completely.” Gary said as he laughed lightly with Dex.

“I’m so fucked right now, Gary. I’m losing so much money because of my bills! My rent is going up! I’m getting nickeled and dimed for practically everything in my treatment plan, and now I’m probably gonna be fucked over this hospitalization!” Dex exclaimed. “I’m really so upset at my predicament.”

Gary pursed his lips and twiddled his thumbs. “Dex, you’re really good at reading people, but I don’t think you can read yourself.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You are a very observant person at work, and you see what works and doesn’t work. But I get the feeling you are blind to your own self. And that’s where your problem lies. You have faced this pattern of rejection as you said earlier, and I think you’ve internalized it. I think you’ve taken all that negativity and built yourself up into something that’s sort of like a house of cards that ended up collapsing. Now I get that there are elements of your struggle that I don’t get as a straight man, but this kind of stuff happens to us straight people too. My first wife left me for a guy ten years younger than me who made more money. And that really hurt for a long time. But what helped me get over it was that if my wife only cared about my looks or how fat my wallet was then it was better off she left. If people only cared about your looks, or what you did in the bedroom, and nothing else of your talents and knowledge mattered, then what’s the point? I know people want to be accepted and be part of something, but the hardest thing to do for anyone is to blaze your own path and do your own thing.”

“It’s a lonely experience.”

“I understand completely.”

Dex looked away and sucked on his lips. “I stopped talking to my family because they just didn’t understand or respected my views. I would try and talk to them about how I felt and they’d just brush it off because they didn’t want to hear anything about my gayness. They were upset when I came out. They asked me what they did to make me gay, and I told them they didn’t do anything. This is who I am. I knew I was gay before I even knew that word. I wasn’t molested, I wasn’t coddled by my Mom, or the stupid shit people say. They acted like my gayness was the end of the world for a long time. They would always make these backhanded comments about my life, while celebrating my brother’s and sister’s relationships. I couldn’t talk about my dreams or wants because it scared them. My Dad told me he’d never accept a boyfriend of mine. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I stopped talking to them in August of 2007.”

“Maybe you should try and reach out to them?” Gary suggested.

“Why? So I can be reminded more about what a colossal fuckup I am?”

“Dex, it’s been nearly fifteen years. Think about how much has happened in fifteen years? Think about how different our society is, good and bad, between 2007 and 2022? People have the capacity to learn and grow and overcome prejudice.” Gary explained. “They’re older now, and who knows? Your family back home could be missing you.”

“I don’t know.”

“Well you don’t know until you try and reach out to them? Sometimes Dex, love overcomes deep held prejudices. Sometimes it doesn’t. But you just don’t know until you try. And you have nothing left to lose because you can’t go through life alone.”

Dex had a hard look of thought on his face.

“I’ll make a few phone calls to see if I can help you financially with the emergency fund. I’m here to help you, Dex. I’ll do whatever it takes in my power to help you.”

“Why do you care?” Dex asked him curiously. “After everything that’s happened.”

“That’s what the bible teaches us.” Gary explained. “If you don’t care for your fellow man, then society is doomed. At least that’s how I see it.”

Dex glanced over at him. “I really appreciate you as my boss.”

“I know.” Gary smiled. “I appreciate you being my damage control specialist.”

Dex mustered a smile.

By nightfall, Dex went home. Limping back inside his apartment, he shuffled his way upstairs slowly and went to his dresser by his bed. Kneeling down slowly, Dex reached the bottom drawer and pulled it open. He pushed aside a couple t-shirts that no longer fit him to grab a little blue spiral wound notepad. He pushed the drawer shut and stared at it. In his handwriting, the cover said “CONTACTS” on it. He flipped through it to find phone numbers and e-mails to people he no longer spoke to, an endless list of former friends and acquaintances going all the way back to college. He stopped at “Mom & Dad”, and read their home telephone number.

Dex felt his heart sink as he nervously reached for his cell phone. He stood there and looked at his phone and then the contact booklet. Going back downstairs, Dex walked to his dining room table, and sat down slowly. He looked at that phone number and its Biloxi area code and remembered the last time he spoke to them, and the bitter argument they had that ended with him hanging up and blocking them on his old phone. All that pain came back as he debated himself about calling. It made him tear up in frustration at the situation he was facing. His health was shaky, and he was nearing financial ruin. But would his family even accept him, or worse, tolerate him?

“But you just don’t know until you try.” He could hear his boss remind him.

Dex forced himself to sign into his phone. He opened the dial pad and dialed his parents’ number. He put it on speaker and heard the first ring. His heart was racing at each ring. He glanced up at the clock, which read nine o’clock. It was now or never.

There was the sound of the line picking up. “Hello?” came a curious sounding female voice. It was the first time in almost a decade and a half that he heard the voice of his mother, Cathy.

“Mom? It’s Dexter.” The malamute announced. He nearly choked on his own words.

“Oh my god… Dexter… my god I thought I’d never hear from you again…”

“Mom… I’m so sorry…” Dex said, breaking down in tears.

“Oh sweetie, what’s the matter? Are you okay? What’s going on, Dexy?”

Dex wiped tears out of his eyes. “I really need your help… I’m hurting so bad after this accident…”

“What’s going on? Who’s on the line?” came his father’s voice in the background.

“Brucey it’s Dex!”

“Dex!? Our son, Dexter!?”

“Yeah!”

“Oh my god!” came his father’s voice. “Dexter! Jesus Christ! It’s been fifteen years! I didn’t think I’d hear from you again! Are you okay? Are you safe?”

“I really need your help…”

“What is it? Oh my god, what’s going on?” both of them were asking frantically.

Dex began what would become a three hour call that would change his life.

One Month Later.

Dex remembered the first time he stepped foot in his apartment, and gazed in awe at the space that it gave him. Sixteen years later, his apartment was now empty again. Its colorful purple and white walls were now barren, and the hardwood floor showed the traffic patterns of all the years of where he walked at. The malamute watched as the movers took his bed downstairs in pieces, to be loaded into the box truck for the trip to the airport. Soon he would be in the air, ready to go back home to Mississippi. Dex wasn’t sure what to expect, but there was no other choice as the walls of Chicago closed in around him.

With the bed removed, there was nothing left. Dex took one last glance of his long serving abode before turning to leave. He pulled the purple door shut and locked it for the final time. Limping down the sidewalk, he returned his key to the landlord’s office, and signed the final document of surrendering the key. He was now free from his lease.

Walking back to his awaiting ride, Dex glanced around at Boystown, all ready for pride. The street lamps were adorned with pride flags. Everything was adorned in rainbow flags that fluttered in the warm June breeze. What used to make Dex so proud now felt so shameful and hollow; his dream of being “amongst his people” in the heart of the gay village was gone. The façade of inclusiveness and acceptance, belying the treatment he received over the years. Now it was time to go back home, to an uncertain fate with his family again.

Dex tossed his laptop bag into the backseat of Braxton’s Corolla and slowly climbed in. He buckled himself in as Braxton took off. In the front seat, Christos sat playing on his phone. Dex glanced back to see the box truck soon following behind him. He sat silently, reflecting on everything, and mentally preparing himself to face his family again.

Going to Midway, Braxton and the box truck were waved in by security. Braxton pulled directly onto the tarmac where Dex’s flight awaited him. On the tarmac sat a conservatively dressed, old DC-7 freighter; Dex thought it was a fitting fate to fly home in a DC-7, just like his grandparents.

Getting out, Dex threw his laptop bag over his shoulder as he watched cargo still being unloaded from the freighter. A big R-3350 was pulled out with a forklift, and brought down, as another forklift got into position to pick up another R-3350 that was being wheeled into place with a pallet jack inside the plane.

Taking a moment to go inside, Dex stepped into the office and checked his office over. His office now sat empty, the bookshelves and desk cleared of all of his belongings that were boxed up for the trip. By pure luck, Dex would become the operations manager for Centoh Biloxi; their operations manager who he had met earlier in the year, was leaving to take up an upper management position at the Barev Medical Supply facility next door to the Centoh hub, and Dex would now take his place. Everything happened at the right time. Perhaps it was fate? A sign of better times coming for him?

Dex exited the office to watch his furniture be removed from the box truck and checked over by the loaders. He watched smaller items be loaded up into a freight container, the workmen gingerly taking all his worldly belongings and placing them inside the container like a game of Tetris. The bigger pieces of furniture, his dresser, desk, recliner, and mattress, were directly hoisted into the DC-7 and put into place with the cache of engines and other spare parts that were heading to Biloxi.

Walking over, Dex took a moment to examine the old propliner that was being refueled. One of the “overflow” planes that came to Chicago from time to time, the DC-7BF wore an unspectacular, conservative paint scheme. It was white on the upper half of the fuselage, and natural metal on the underside and wings. A thick dark blue cheatline ran down the center of the fuselage where half of the windows were faired over. While it wore the title “United Barev Industries” in an italicized Univers font, it was privately owned by a Felix Barion, who used it for ad-hoc freight services and “Internal Barev Service Flights”.

The radial engines made Dex feel small; four turbocompound R-3350’s hung from the wings. Tightly cowled with pointed spinners, each Cyclone-18 was paired with a medium chord four-blade propeller that was lusterless unpainted metal with flat tips colored yellow. The back of the cowls around the petals were stained heavily by the exhaust soot. Dex moved away as the ground crew approached to check the engines over.

With everything loaded and the plane fueled, it was almost time to leave. Dex got a chance to meet the flight crew to the plane as they prepared to board. To his surprise, the flight crew was made up of two gay couples; Felix Barion and his husband Tony Alvarez, two tattooed up fawn Dobers who were casually dressed in shorts and t-shirts with sleeved up arms like Dex, and Ivo Horvat and Jordan Hoover. Ivo was a burly gray Croatian wolf with reddish-brown hair and goatee and tattoo sleeved arms like the others. Jordan was a slender German Shepherd with tousled black hair. Dex said hi to all of them as he watched them climb aboard the plane to do the preflight checklist. Dex continued on to say goodbye to his friends.

“Well Dex, are you all ready?” smiled Gary. Dex walked up and shook his paw, grasping it firmly with a smile back at him.

“I don’t know how to thank you.” Dex said in response. “Why did you do all this for me? Why didn’t you just fire me from the get go? I’m curious.”

Gary just smiled. “Why would I fire someone as talented as you? When you were hired in, you hit the ground running, and you took charge and moved out to clean up the dead weight. So why fire someone over that? You were faced with a problem, Dex. And firing you wasn’t going to fix the problem for you. When I was hired to open this hub, I was told directly by Jaska and Rob that we were going to run this place differently, and that people weren’t just going to be some employee number. We were going to do our best to encourage good workers to stay and make them happy. And I know deep down you’re a very good person who’s facing his own existential crisis of who you are and what your destiny is.”

Dex nodded slowly.

“Plus I try and follow the teachings of that good little book, the Bible. Not the cherry picked shit a lot of Christians like to espouse.” Gary laughed. “So that’s just me~”

Dex smiled. “I really appreciate you and this company. Because in my last job, they would have just let me go.”

“But I thought they didn’t hold anyone accountable?”

“Go figure my luck huh?” Dex laughed with him. Dex gave Gary a warm hug and Gary hugged him in return and gave him an encouraging pat on the back.

“Please stay in touch, Dex! And I hope you have a safe flight.”

“I will. Thank you, Gary.”

Dex turned and walked to see Braxton and Christos. The two wolves looked happy, yet sad at losing their friend.

“I gotta tell you guys, there’s a lot I’m going to miss about Chicago, but the most is you two, because I really appreciate you guys sticking around when I was at rock bottom.”

“That’s what friends are for.” Braxton smiled.

Dex chuckled with an appreciative smile. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened in my life, Braxton. You’ve allowed me to open my eyes at where my life was going.”

Braxton smiled and shrugged. “What can I say? I’m just me.”

“Well I appreciate that.” Dex smiled. “And I appreciate you too, Christos.”

“I wrote you off too soon the first time we met, and I feel bad about that, because you’re so much more than what I had thought.”

“People are mysterious, with many twists and turns, and that’s me, and I’m not talking about twisting and turning in bed!” Dex laughed as he gave Christos a hug.

“We’ll stay in touch, and when we get time, we’re definitely gonna have to come down and visit you!”

“I’ll try and come up and visit too.” Dex smiled.

“Have a safe flight.” Braxton smiled as he gave Dex a hug. “I’m gonna miss you, Dexy!”

“I’ll miss you too, friend.” Dex said as he hugged him tightly. “But we’ll stay in touch, and we’ll see each other again in the future.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Have a safe flight~” Christos waved as Dex turned to walk towards the plane.

Limping towards the DC-7, Dex prepared himself for the flight towards his destiny. With the help of one of the airport sentries, Dex climbed up the metal steps slowly, through the forward loading door. He stepped into the plane’s rest area for the crew, a little space between the cockpit and the cargo bay where there was a bunk, a few lockers, and a seat. Dex glanced back down through the bulkhead at the fuselage filled with engines and spare parts plus his furniture. He stepped aside so Felix could close the hatch and lock it. The stage was set.

Dex went to his seat that he requested. In the cargo hold, by the window, he had a reclining airline chair bolted down to the floor. Dex took a seat and buckled himself in as he peered out the window. As he sat he could hear Felix and Ivo go through the checklist as the aircraft’s APU hummed in the tail. The number three engine fired up first, and Dex felt the backfire shake the plane a bit with its hacking couch. He could smell oil as the rumble of the engine filled the cabin. Engine four was soon turned over, and Dex watched engine two turn over. He counted the blades as the R-3350 caught, and with a glut of flames erupting from the engine’s turbine hoods, the prop wash blew the oily smoke way, the process repeating with engine four. The engines warmed up and the ground crew backed away as Dex heard the brakes be released. They began taxiing in a slow turn. Dex smiled and waved from his window as Gary, Christos, and Braxton all waved at his departure.

“Godspeed, Dex!” Gary shouted as Christos and Braxton cheered watching the plane take off. The DC-7 roared down the runway and slowly lifted off, climbing away to begin the four hour flight south to Biloxi. After nearly twenty-five years, Dex was heading back home.

From his vantage point at twelve thousand feet, Dex sat and watched the scenery from his window. Finally leaving Illinois, Dex watched the Ohio river glisten as they passed overhead. His eyes wandered, watching the farmland and small towns that dotted the landscape drift in and out of view, to observing the puffy clouds silently drifting by. The cabin was loud and Dex’s hearing was dominated by the burble of four Cyclone radials keeping them aloft.

Feeling restless, Dex got up and stretched. He yawned and limped himself towards the cockpit, where he found everyone having a casual conversation. Dex’s presence got their attention as they all looked back.

“Everything okay?” Felix asked.

“Yeah, just wanted to stretch my legs and back.” The malamute nodded. “This is, uhh, quite the office here.”

“You could call it that~” grinned Ivo as he looked back from the right-hand seat.

“So, Felix? This is your own plane, correct? I heard that right?”

“Yeah!” smiled the Dober. “This is a DC-7 I bought last year actually. But this is the first year we’ve got to use it really since we had a bad engine fire last year that put it out of service. Ivo? Wanna explain that story?”

“We were coming out of Opa-Locka, and were going through Georgia when we had a pretty loud bang startle us with the fire warning. Tried to extinguish the fire and nothing. It kept burning, so we had to put it into a dive to snuff the fire out.”

“Yikes.”

“Old plane adventures.” Jordan chuckled.

“Good thing you never told Dim Witt that.”

“Oh god, that stupid motherfucker.” Ivo laughed. “I never saw someone who could fuck everything up dispatching loads out.”

Dex shook his head. “He could be a nice guy, but he had it against this plane so much and it made so many headaches for everyone.”

Felix shook his head.

“I think there was a collective sigh of relief when he was fired.” Jordan quipped.

“It is what it is.” Dex shrugged. “That was out of my paws, due to conflict of interest.”

“At least we all know that when you take over Biloxi, there won’t be issues there!” snickered Ivo.

“Oh come on, all of you give me too much credit.” Smiled Dex.

“The last guy who was Chicago’s ops manager was awful!” Felix exclaimed. “That’s why Rob fired him personally.”

“The thing about management is that you have to be firm but fair, and hold people accountable. That’s it! If you don’t hold people accountable for mistakes, then it keeps happening and people get entrenched.” Dex explained.

“Not everyone’s built for leadership~” Felix nodded.

“Yeah.” Dex agreed. He took a moment to just gaze out the cockpit windows at the clouds passing by as he thought. “You know, I was just curious.”

“Yeah?” Tony muttered as he read a magazine.

“So you’re all couples?”

“Yep.” Jordan nodded. “Me and Ivo got married last year.”

“Me and Tony tied the knot back in January.”

“Felix slapped them handcuffs on me~” Tony chuckled behind his magazine.

“How old are all of you if you don’t mind me asking.

“I’m twenty-six.” Felix responded.

“Twenty-eight.” Ivo quipped.

“I’ll be twenty-eight in a week.” Jordan added.

“I’m the old fuck, heh, thirty-two.” Tony concluded with a snort.

“Old!?” Dex exclaimed. “I’d kill to be thirty-two again! I’m forty-three!”

“Gay death!” Tony laughed teasingly.

“You ain’t a kidding.” Dex laughed. “I really fucked my life up, and now I gotta head to my own gay death. Back home.”

“At least you got family.” Jordan quipped. “Not all of us here have that. I don’t.”

“Me neither.” Felix quipped. “I came out when I was almost seventeen and was told to leave, so I did. And Rob Barion took me in under his wing, which probably sounds downright frightening to some people! But it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“I was kicked out when I was fourteen, and I walked all the way from my hometown in Kansas to New York City, because I thought that’s where I was gonna find freedom. But instead I was homeless for almost a decade until I was picked up by Rob Barion and his entourage and they took me home and that’s how I met Ivo.”

“Love at first sight.” Ivo smiled at Jordan.

Tony put his magazine away. “So I’m bi, and when I came out? My parents’ made me a virtual prisoner of my home, until I ran away at the age of sixteen. And I worked really hard, I did anything I could to make money and go to college, and do something with my life, and I met Felix and we’ve been together for just under ten years now.”

“Luck.” Felix chuckled as he leaned around to smile at Tony.

“I was twenty-one when I came out, and my parents’ weren’t happy. And I think the worst thing in the world is being just tolerated.” Dex explained. “My parents just tolerated me, while loving all my siblings, and it really hurt. It hurts as much as trying to find your place in the gay community and being snubbed for a huge list of arbitrary reasons.”

“Oh god, don’t get me started with that shit, yo.” Tony rolled his green eyes. “The gay community to me is a community of crazy contradictions and horny two-faced motherfuckers.”

“Yeah, I gotta agree with that…” Jordan nodded. “You’d think an already oppressed community would have some sympathy, but no. When I was fourteen, I was sexually assaulted by a trucker getting a ride to New York, and sexually assaulted two more times before I met my late boyfriend Noah. It was a real eye opener to me that coming out doesn’t always guarantee happiness.”

“Not at all.” Felix shook his head.

“So none of you are really involved in the gay community?” Dex asked curiously. Everyone shook their heads no.

“I mean, we’ll hit up a cool bar or something. All of us, but that’s about it.” Felix explained. “I don’t care for drunk guys wanting to fuck me and Tony because we’re monogamous, and some guys don’t seem to get that?”

“I’ve banged my fair share of guys, but man, I’ve been rejected for weird things…” Ivo responded to Dex. “I had a dude tell me that he didn’t want to have sex with foreigners because I was born in Croatia, and I’ve had guys not like me being uncut… sorry about that guys… just stupid shit. But I think in the end if you’re that picky, it’s better not sticking your dick into crazy!”

“I agree!” laughed Tony.

Dex chuckled as he leaned against the radio rack beside him. “I thought being gay meant you had to be slutty and fuck everyone or get fucked by everything, and I sort of fell into that stereotype until I fucked my life over wrecking my car. And here I am all fat and hobbled going back to Mississippi.”

“I think the gay community is a wonderful thing in general.” Tony quipped. “I was helped by a lot of really nice people in the not so nice younger days. But there’s a lot of toxic behavior.”

Dex thought about it. “I think the problem is that people don’t like the fact that they’re gay, but they love gay sex. It’s just a mechanical thing, to get off. I’ve met so many guys who would not even let you kiss them, nothing. No intimacy. Just fucking and leaving.”

“Yeah.” Ivo nodded. “It’s insane. But that’s gayville.”

“I tried to fit in and it didn’t seem to work until I just said fuck it when I got on prep and just whored myself out and had a good time. And I let it get out of control with the drugs and everything when that whole house of cards fell apart on me.”

“So what made you want to change?” Jordan asked curiously.

“I met a coworker who was gay, and he was very down to earth about everything. And I really liked chatting with him because our conversations weren’t just about partying and fucking, and doing drugs, it was something wholesome and meaningful. We’d talk about history, books, art, and he got himself a really nice boyfriend, and I’d go watch him play rugby. And it made me want to change things up, and like it or not, I got sent on that trajectory.”

“I’ve been out of the closet for a decade now, and the thing is, you can’t live for other people, and you have to do your own thing, even if you have to do it kind of alone.” Felix explained. “I do aviation stuff, and you don’t see many other out gay people in this field, but that’s okay.”

Ivo turned around to glance back at Dex. “The other thing is that sometimes people make their identity their whole identity if you know what I mean?”

“I get that.”

“There’s this idea that being a gay man means you have to be all flippant, effeminate, a whore, vapid social butterfly. You can be anyone you want to be. But you have to make yourself happy because you’re the only one who can do it.”

Jordan nodded. “I’ve been through a lot of shit. So I really appreciate the last six years of my life. Sometimes the path is different for everyone. Everyone’s struggle and challenge is different.”

“It’s never too late to find yourself.” Tony nodded.

Dex nodded as he thought about all that. “Yeah.”

Lunch was a pimento sandwich on white bread, a yogurt cup, and a bottle of iced tea. Dex sat at his window seat, slowly chewing on his sandwich as he watched the clouds pass on by. Far below, the landscape began to look familiar as he crossed into northern Mississippi. “Home.” He thought to himself. Twenty-five years before, he remembered how excited he was, as he packed up and began that long adventure north to Chicago, towards “freedom” as he called it. Eighteen year old Dex dreamed big that he’d make it big in Chicago, so he’d never have to go home again. Here he was, southbound.

It seemed like a family tradition to travel and relocate. His whole family was a textbook case of immigration and travel. The Malpraves were a Moravian family who had fled Czechoslovakia after the Nazi’s took control in 1938. They settled in Virginia, and worked in the factories during the war years. His grandfather, Vinko, or “Vinnie” as he Americanized his name, would later marry a fellow Czech immigrant, Ivana, and later move to Biloxi as part of a job transfer. His father Bruce was born a year later in 1960. Bruce would go and marry his high school sweetheart, Catherine, “Cathy” Young.

His mother Cathy was a first generation Ukrainian-American, from a family who had come from Zhytomyr. Having survived Stalin’s famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, the Nazi death squads, and horrific combat, the Yonchenko family got out and made their way to America in 1946. They Americanized their last name to “Young”, and ended up being settled in Mississippi, where the family found work in the shipping industry.

Dex sat watching the big engines drone. The sound of the synchronized propellers gave a mesmerizing “radial song”, a monotonous tone that filled the whole cabin. Dex imagined what his grandparents had experienced as they flew to their new lives in Mississippi. Now here he was, aboard a DC-7B, fulfilling his own destiny to a new chance at life.

In the decade and a half he was out of touch with his family, his siblings, Jason, Jennifer, Molly, and Sam, all grew up and got families of their own. Jennifer and Molly Malprave were now Jennifer Mikolajczyk, and Molly Kramer. Jason was now forty-one, Jennifer thirty-nine, Molly, thirty-seven, and Sam, thirty-four. Dex now found himself being an uncle to nine nieces and nephews. The oldest, Nathan, was now sixteen, the youngest, three. A lot of changes. The idea of being an uncle was intimidating. Kids were intimidating. Dex thought about all the changes as he munched on his sandwich in silence.

The clock struck three o’clock central time as Dex finally saw Biloxi come into view. The conjoined cities of Gulfport-Biloxi emerged through the haze as Dex saw they were beginning their descent from twelve thousand feet. The plane rocked a bit from turbulence during the descent, including passing through a cloud, where Dex watched the rain streak across his window. Emerging through the cloud, the DC-7 began banking left, and Dex got a front row seat over Gulfport, and then Biloxi as they entered the landing pattern to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, which housed the Centoh hub. The engines throttled back some more, and Dex heard the flaps deploy followed a few seconds later by the landing gear. They lined up for the runway and began the slightly nose down descent.

“I’m home.” Dex remarked to himself as he felt the landing gear jolt on touchdown. The DC-7 smoothly rolled out with the help of reverse thrust to slow them to a crawl. The outboard radials were powered off, and they taxied to the hub on the inboard engines. Dex checked his bag beside him and looked back out the window to see the administrative building approach where a number of Centoh aircraft were parked out in the sun. And standing beside the building, he saw his whole family there, waiting in the shade. Dex looked out in awe, and yet, some uncertainty at what would expect after fifteen years of silence.

With anticipation on their faces, the Malpraves stood watching the DC-7 be guided in a slow turn. Bruce and Cathy stood with their children, Jason, Jennifer, Molly, and Sam. Jason’s oldest son, Nathan stood with him. The plane turned and parked, and the inboard engines were powered off. The airport sentry cleared them to begin walking towards the plane. An airstair was wheeled over and propped up against the forward loading door, which was soon opened by Ivo.

Throwing his laptop bag on, Dex winced as he limped with his cane to disembark. A security guard climbed aboard to help him down. Dex stepped out into the sunlight and donned his sunglasses. He was back in the humid heat of a Mississippi summer. He was assisted down the steps slowly, and he saw his family quietly approach. Dex felt a bit anxious and wasn’t sure what to say to them.

His feet reaching terra firma, Dex saw his family surround him. The malamute got a glance at his siblings and then his parents. No words were said as Dex was happily embraced by his family. He got tight hugs from his siblings and his parents, who laughed with joy and excitement that the eldest son was back. It took Dex completely by surprise at the joy he was experiencing from them.

“I feel complete again! Dexy is back!” Cathy exclaimed as she hugged and kissed him all lovingly.

“It’s so good to see you again, son.” Bruce chimed in with another hug. “My eldest boy is back home!”

Dex smiled from the warm reception.

It took half an hour to unload his belongings and put them in a box truck that was being borrowed from the medical plant. Dex took a moment to thank Felix and his flight crew, thanked the security guard who helped him down, before he turned to leave with his family. It felt surreal. “Back home” he kept thinking to himself as he climbed into his brother’s truck to go back home with his parents.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Making the turn onto Connie Avenue, Dex returned home to the suburb of Orange Grove. Winding streets lined with residential homes and adorned with trees filled the landscape. The neighborhood didn’t change much in two decades. Dex saw that some of the old trees he remembered in his childhood stood, but others were cut down, and new trees planted. Or trees he remembered as little saplings way back when were now towering in people’s yards.

Jason turned the wheel and pulled up to park on the curb. Dex arrived back to 2187 Connie Avenue, the home he grew up in. He remembered when his parents’ bought the home in 1983, to upgrade with the expected arrival of his sister Jennifer. When he left, the house had brown wood shingles, but now it was adorned in light blue siding with white trim. The little crab apple tree he planted when he was twelve years old was now fully grown and filled part of the front yard with its dark green canopy.

Jason pushed the column shifter into park and hopped out to rush over and get Dex out of his bright red Ram 3500. Dex hopped down and watched as the box truck arrived and backed into the driveway as instructed by his father Bruce. Everyone soon arrived to help unload the box truck and put all of Dex’s belongings in the garage for storage.

Going inside, Dex found that the home had changed a lot in twenty-five years. The shag carpet and seventies vintage faux wood paneling were gone. Hardwood floor that was teak colored went with dark blue walls that sported white trim around the big windows in the living room. The floral themed wallpaper that looked dated back then was now a light shade of pink in the dining room. Making his way slowly upstairs, Dex returned to his old bedroom. He approached the old wooden door and grasped the door knob and turned it.

The door slowly swung open with a creak, as if it hadn’t been opened in a long time. The air had a stagnant feel to it. Dex stepped into his old bedroom, as if he had stepped foot into a time capsule of his teenage life. To his amazement, his bedroom looked exactly the same as he had left it way back in 1997. His old dresser, the bed, stripped of its blanket and sheets, and desk were exactly as he left it the day he left. Everything had a thin coating of dust on it. On the wall hung a poster of his favorite Ole Miss baseball player, a cute husky he had a crush on back then. It was faded from years of sunlight filtering through, and still bore the autograph of the player. Dex stood there in awe.

“Hey, we’ll bring your bed inside in a bit.” Jason suggested.

“Sure.” Dex nodded. “I can’t believe I’m home.”

“We’re happy to have you home.” His brother smiled.

Leaning back in his chair, Dex was in the midst of an important meeting in his office. On the opposite end of his desk sat Centoh’s hub director, Ron Gaughan, Barev’s Southern Director, Martin Bixby, and the Barev Medical Supply plant management. Brian Sheppen, “Barev Four’s” plant manager, and the guy Dex replaced, Ethan Mugnano, the operations manager to Barev Four. Unlike his office in Chicago, with its expansive windows overseeing the flight line, Dex’s new office was a bit smaller, with just one large window that overlooked the tarmac. It had white walls that were adorned in some framed aviation photos, and a bookshelf. In one corner was an artificial tree that glowed with some lights on them. Two brown chairs and a small loveseat completed his office setup.

“Capital Health Suppliers is looking to drop their major supply vendor because of major price increases due to tariffs and supply delays coming from getting things overseas, and they would like to have us as their primary supplier of medical gear.” Explained Sheppen, a middle aged German Shepherd with tousled brown hair. He glanced down at his yellow legal pad. “We’re looking at potentially a multi-billion dollar deal because they supply all through North and South America.”

“It’s an opportunity to really get some cash flowing.” The southern director quipped. Martin, a slender gray wolf with slicked back brown hair, tapped his pen on his pad of paper that sat in his lap. “The thing is, it’s the logistics of getting stuff to Austin Texas, because we don’t have any destinations through Texas.”

“The company said they’re willing to pay the transportation costs to airlift it to Austin.” Mugnano chimed in. “They said that they feel that would be the best option to meet demand. And I think two flights a week dedicated to it would be perfect for their needs, along with a semi route as well.”

Dex nodded. “We’d have to really work carefully to see how we can route all this without disrupting the other hubs in the network route for plane availability. Especially if they’re ordering enough stuff that warrants a larger aircraft like the DC-7 or Constellation.”

“From what the rep was saying, I’m having a feeling it’s going to be two DC-7’s a week to Austin.” Mugnano figured.

“That’s what I’m afraid of, as Centoh has only seven, and one coming in service at the end of the year after talking to the maintenance department for Freightmaster who is fixing it up.”

“Rob told me that he went on a aircraft expedition to Wyoming earlier in the month to look at a bunch of just retired DC-7 water bombers, and he’s looking to make a bulk purchase of them.”

“Christ, Rob doesn’t have enough planes?” Mugnano laughed.

“Pfft, yeah.” Martin chuckled. “Especially after the military gave him all the remaining Convairs and C-118’s out in the boneyard. But the Seven’s out in Wyoming are a mix of the B and larger Seven Seas-CF conversions.”

“If we got two Seven Seas to be based exclusively in Biloxi it would be perfect.” Mugnano suggested. He saw Dex jot that down.

“I’ll make some phone calls back up to the corporate office in Columbus to see about acquiring two DC-7’s exclusively for Biloxi because this big opportunity could see us ramping up even further.”

“Okay.” Everyone nodded.

“Let’s see what we can do before we overpromise and fuck all of us over.” Laughed Dex.

Martin, Ethan, and Brian got up to leave as Dex shuffled some paperwork on his desk. “Ron, do you have a moment?”

“Sure.”

Dex got up and limped over to close the door as Ron stood up to stretch his back. The gray and black furred husky ran a paw through his graying mop of black hair as he sat back down.

“I’d like to bring to your attention about an employee named David Hammer.”

“Oh boy, Dave.” Ron grumbled as Dex sat down.

Dex grabbed a manila folder that held copies of his employee file, attendance, and PTO. He flipped it open on his desk. “I’ve been here for roughly two weeks now, and I’ve been noticing that Dave calls off a lot, and when he is here, he’s doing essentially everything but his job, and nobody seems to really like working with him? I’ve talked to the other mechanics and there’s this universal sense of dislike of him. I’ve looked at his hours and attendance, and Jesus Christ, he has only worked one forty hour week in the two years he’s been here? He has exhausted all of his PTO by the end of January? And what’s this about taking FMLA for six months?”

Ron rolled his eyes. “Dipshit Dave claimed he hurt his knee, so he filed for FMLA and it was denied for not working enough hours. And he was off for six months.”

Dex stared blankly at Ron and just shook his head. “So why was he not let go?”

“I wanted to, but we lost a guy during peak season, and we needed him, so we took him back in, which in a way I regret.”

“How it always goes.” Dex shook his head. “Dave called off today… and in the past two weeks, he’s called off seven times.”

“I’m aware.”

“I worked twenty-one years at Saunders-Babbit Paper Supply, and I called off seven times in twenty-one years save for a week off when I had Covid.”

“Oh you worked at Saunders-Babbit too?”

“Yep. In Chicago.”

“I had worked for a few years at their plant in Tupelo, and Jesus Christ, what a clusterfuck of an organization. You know they don’t hold anyone accountable?”

Dex stared blankly as he stacked some paperwork. “Been there, done that.”

“Anywho. I am aware of Dave and his issues.”

“The other issue is his anger and mania.” Dex pointed out. “My second day here, he is outside, screaming at his wife and kid on the phone, saying he was going to beat their fucking asses, and it made him so look pathetic and small. He flips out over anything, and frankly I am not going to condone a hostile work environment, especially after several employees have come up to me about Dave.”

Ron shrugged. “If you want to get rid of him you’re more than welcome to now that we have a fully staffed maintenance department.”

“Not yet. I’ll give him a chance.” Dex suggested. “But given what I’ve seen and been told? Leopards don’t change their spots.”

“Not at all.”

“That’s all I want to discuss with you, Ron. I gotta head out of here early and go the BMV to unfuck my license issue…”

“Doin’ a Dave, eh?” chuckled the husky. “You take care, Dex.” Ron got up and walked to the door and opened it. He paused and turned around. “You’re doing a great job.”

“Thanks.” The malamute smiled.

Dex cleaned up his desk and stowed his paperwork away. He left a note to call the corporate office tomorrow regarding the DC-7 request.”

Stowing his pencil back into the cup, Dex got up with his laptop bag, grabbed his cane, and limped out of the office to go clock out.

Departing the airport, Dex got a ride in the work truck, a single cab Silverado, driven by the head of the PMC’s Strategic Missile Troops, Jerry Schultz. The grizzled, middle-aged German Shepherd wore a olive green t-shirt with his camouflage pants and a bullet resistant vest that was the same Russian style EMR camouflage that was a dark and light green digital pattern.

“So how are you liking being back home?” Jerry asked Dex curiously.

“Well it’s better than I expected.” Dex admitted. “It’s just still an adjustment from so many years spent in Chicago.”

“Whole different world down here.”

“You’re not kidding~”

“I want to get this driver license issue resolved.” Dex rolled his eyes. “One less headache I gotta deal with.”

Being taken to the BMV, Dex was dropped off, where he went inside to his appointment to resolve an issue getting an updated driver’s license. Getting checked in, Dex had to wait in the packed lobby for the administrator to finish. It was annoyingly uncomfortable; people talked loud, kids ran around screaming and crying, and the air conditioning felt weak in the warm lobby.

It was nearly two weeks since his arrival back home, and for better or for worse Dex was adjusting to his life in Biloxi. While not as progressive as Chicagoland, Biloxi was a decent community in an otherwise backwards, deep red state. Dex glanced around at his fellow Mississippians and felt that his consensus was that people were “good intended but flawed”. He liked having his family back into his life, but he did feel smothered living at home with his parents. The absolute privacy he once had in his own home was no longer an option, and his parents were sometimes “snippy” about things he wanted to do. He painted two of his walls in his bedroom purple, and his father remarked about “how gay of a color that is” to his chagrin. And the isolation was profound; he had no friends here in Biloxi, and the friends he had were hundreds of miles away in the windy city. But he had to remind himself that he felt just as isolated in the middle of Boystown in the end.

Finally getting called to his appointment, Dex went in and worked with the administrator in resolving his license dispute, which was caused by Illinois not sending the right paperwork over. Dex filled out a form, signed some documents, and went and did his vision test and got a photograph taken. He left the BMV with a shiny new driver’s license to the state of Mississippi. Now it was his turn to go get his “new” temporary ride from his brother. As he put his new license into his wallet, his ride arrived, the blue Kia Sportage, driven by Sam’s wife India, with Sam and Jason inside. The ride stopped at the curb, and Dex climbed in the back to begin the almost forty minute drive to Perkinston.

The Perkins Transmission Shop was a small mechanic’s garage, located just outside of the little town of Perkinston. Sitting in the parking lot of sad, broken down cars sat a pristine Dodge Ram, a bright red three-quarter ton pickup truck from 1995. Looking brand new, it was Jason’s rare barn find that he purchased earlier in the year from an elderly gentleman outside of Tupelo. It had been safely stored in his barn for years and driven very little.

Exiting the little office beside the Quonset hut like garage, Jason folded the receipt up and stuffed it into his jeans pocket. His pointed boots clicked against the weathered pavement as he, Dex, and Sam all walked over to take a glance at Dex’s “new” set of wheels he was borrowing.

“This here is the Twister Ram I always wanted!” Jason exclaimed with a big happy grin on his face. “I named it ‘Paxton’!”

“Wow.” Dex muttered. He was really impressed. Dex walked slowly around to examine Jason’s collector’s piece. There was not a single spot of rust anywhere on the vehicle. It had an extended cab and a long eight foot bed that was black from the spray-on bedliner. Brand new Goodyear tires were installed on the polished chrome rims.

“You even got the Twister 3500 tags like the movie Ram!” Dex pointed out. Both doors had the badging that read “Ram 3500 V10 Magnum”.

“One door had some slight damage on it, so I found a junked one-ton and took the doors off and installed it on this one.” Jason pointed out.

“So this does have a V10?”

“Yep!”

“Oh boy…” Dex chuckled. “When gas is five bucks a gallon!”

“Go big or go home.” Sam teased.

“This is amazing. This looks like it came out of a time capsule.” Dex remarked.

“And she only has sixty-two thousand miles.” Jason added.

“Wow.” Sam shook his head. “I’m jealous!”

“She’s a pretty great truck! Save for the whole transmission catastrophically going out on my way home with it.” Laughed Jason.

“Oh Chrysler’s doing Chrysler things.” Teased a grinning Sam.

“Shush you.” Jason pointed with a grin. He grabbed the keys and gave them to Dex. “Your honor!”

“Heh, thanks.” Dex smiled. “Let’s go home.”

Dex opened the truck door and was amazed at how pristine the interior was. The seats were covered in gray cloth, and the floor was all vinyl. Pushing his seat forward, Sam jumped in the back and Dex locked the seat back into position. He gingerly climbed in and buckled up. Putting the key in, Dex fired up the big V10, which burbled under the hood. He turned on the AC and popped the shifter into drive. Putting some power on, they took off for home.

Dex hit the highway and got up to speed. He engaged the cruise control. Glancing at his instrument gauges and at all his mirrors around the truck, Dex looked content at driving again. He glanced over at Jason, and saw Sam’s reflection in his rear view mirror. The three brothers practically looked alike. Dex was slightly taller than Jason, while Jason was more slender than him. Sam was taller than Jason but stockier than both of them. They all had facial hair; Dex and Jason having chinstraps with their goatee, while Sam just had a neatly trimmed goatee jutting from his chin. Jason wore a snug fitting t-shirt with his snug Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, while Sam wore a red tanktop and blue gym shorts with sneakers. Dex was still dressed in his work attire of dark red polo and work pants. While Dex had both his arms sleeved with tattoos, Jason had just his right arm with a sleeve, which was a mix of some colored pieces and mostly black and gray artwork. Sam had his left arm sleeved, which formed a partial chest tattoo of black and gray art.

“So what do you think?” Jason asked.

“I like it.” Dex said, smiling contently. “I like being able to drive again! It’s been a while.”

“Well you’re welcome to drive it for as long as you need.”

“I appreciate it since it’s gonna be a hot minute before I can afford another vehicle.” Dex remarked with a grimace at the end. “I’ve… only burned over a hundred grand in medical bills…”

“Jesus Christ!” Sam exclaimed. “What health insurance?”

“I say the same thing too.” Laughed Dex cynically. “Well it didn’t help that all this shit got set in place when I was in a coma, and nobody bothered to see if stuff was in network or not…”

“Ha-ha, patient goes ka-ching!” Jason grinned.

“No shit.” Dex shook his head. “I had to blow up all that money.”

“A shame.” Jason shook his head.

“Well, it is what it is.” Dex shrugged. “It’s what happens when you think with your dick and do drugs and fuck your life up~”

“So you like being back home? A lot different than Chicago, eh?” Sam asked.

Dex shrugged. “I like it and I don’t. I like having everyone back in my life, but I must admit that I feel kinda smothered by Mom and Dad living at home again. I went from being able to do whatever I want and wear whatever I want or not wear anything, to now having only my bedroom for privacy, and Mom and Dad being Mom and Dad… like I painted two of my walls purple and Dad made this snippy comment about me wanting such a gay color… It kinda set me off.”

“You know how Dad is.” Jason chuckled. “He’s still coming around I guess.”

“I get it. They had all these big dreams with my life, and it didn’t go the way they wanted after I came out, and well, all this shit. So I don’t know what to tell them?”

“Well, don’t let it get to you.” Sam suggested.

The malamute sucked on his lower lip as he thought. “I’m just thinking… what made you guys come around about me being gay?”

“Well, you’re our brother.” Jason quipped. “We didn’t hear from you for a long time, and we missed you. And in the end, it doesn’t matter as I’ve come to realize in time, at least not to me. Plus, our boss is gay…”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah.” Sam chuckled. “Ole’ Connor Magruder.”

“He runs a big farming operation outside of Biloxi along with a metal fabrication facility. I’m his head welder.”

“I’m his farm hand, and I also work in the metal shop running a lathe.” Sam chimed in.

“Oh nice.”

“Connor’s a great guy, and he really looks out for us and pays us really well.”

“Last time I remembered you were a custodian.” Dex remarked, which made Jason shudder.

“What a nightmare… Orange Grove Schools…” the malamute grimaced. “I got the fuck outta there when I got the chance.”

“I can’t blame you.” Dex shook his head.

“You should totally date Connor, he’s like your type~” suggested Sam with a big hearty grin.

Dex turned immediately red. “I don’t think so, Sam!”

“Aww, you’re blushing!” Jason grinned. “Heh, well, Sam, I don’t know if Connor would even be interested in dating after his partner died.”

“Oh yeah.” Sam frowned. “Connor had a really wonderful husband named Paul. We really liked him and he died earlier this year.”

“Oh no.”

“He had a heart condition, I don’t know if it was like a birth defect or something, but he had a heart condition that he had surgery for a couple times, and one morning, he was found dead on the ground.”

“Oh that’s sad.” Dex frowned.

“Connor was pretty devastated.”

“I can imagine so!” Dex exclaimed. “And to be honest, I’m in no hurry to date because I’m trying to get back in shape from whatever the fuck you call this…”

“Big boned?” Sam quipped.

“I don’t think so!” Dex laughed. His laughter immediately stopped when he saw a Ford pickup suddenly cut into the lane, heading straight on at them. “WHOA!”

Dex spun the wheel and the truck abruptly swerved to the right. He slammed his foot into the brake and cranked the wheel to avoid crashing in a gravel washout. The tires screeched against the pavement as Dex spun the truck around to a smoking stop. Jason and Sam were startled by the abrupt maneuver.

“Holy fuck.” Dex muttered.

“What the fuck was that!?” Jason shouted. “Dex!? Where the hell did you learn how to do that?”

Dex caught his breath and rubbed his forehead. “I lived in Chicago for twenty-five years. You learn a thing or two…”

Jason and Sam looked at each other in disbelief.

Taking a seat at the dinner table, Dex was ready for dinner as his Mom made the final finishing touches in the kitchen. His dad Bruce sat at the end of the small bleached oak table, reading some paperwork from work. Dex pulled out his phone to read a text message from his friend Braxton.

“Okay, Dex, Bruce! Din-din!” Cathy exclaimed as she carried them their plates of food. Dex watched as his Mom put the plate before him. He grimaced at the overcooked steak sitting on his plate, with some mashed potatoes and peas all smothered in brown gravy. Bruce thanked his wife and casually grabbed his knife and fork to start cutting his steak. “Great steak, dear!”

Dex grabbed the steak sauce and poured it all over his steak to smother it. He grabbed his knife and fork and began carving his steak up.

“So how was your day today, Dexter?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, how’d things go at work and on your trip with your brothers?” Cathy asked with a smile.

“Well other than almost dying on the way back from a guy not paying attention, uneventful.” Dex said in a dry manner. He chewed on his rubbery piece of steak. “Work was okay, and I got my license issue resolved so that’s taken care of.”

“Good.” Cathy smiled. “When is your doctor’s appointment?”

“Friday after work.” Dex said. “I hope this guy is good and understanding to my needs.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bruce asked.

“Well I want a doctor who’s gay friendly, Dad.”

“Why? They’re a doctor. You go to them when you have a problem and they come up with a solution?”

Dex ground his teeth slightly. “Well… when a significant portion of gay people have reported feeling discriminated against by healthcare professionals… maybe there’s a reason why…”

Bruce tilted his head in confusion. “I just don’t get it.”

“Okay, here’s an example. My one brief relationship gave me an STD… and the normal testing clinic I went to was closed that day… so I went to this other one and the person administering the test gave me a really hard time and was very condescending. And not only did I have, surprise, the clap? I got in the mail, all this evangelical crap about sex and relationships, and it was just awful to put it simply.”

“Don’t let it get to you~” Cathy suggested. “They were just trying to help in what they thought was the best way.”

“To me? Religion belongs in churches, not healthcare settings.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Bruce shrugged. “You’re forty-three years old.”

Dex left it at that. His parents just didn’t understand his concerns. Here they were, in their early sixties, having been married for forty-four years. Bruce and Cathy were high school sweethearts who got married right after they graduated. Dex arrived shortly afterwards. Their lives were much of the typical heterosexual experience, of monogamy and the nuclear family. It wasn’t filled with parties, orgies, and hookups like Dex’s past life in Chicago. They just did not understand.

“Do you see yourself ever getting into a relationship?” Cathy asked curiously.

Dex paused mid-chew and thought about it. “I don’t know.” Was his reply.

“Oh, c’mon, you can’t go through life all alone!” Bruce muttered as he grabbed his drink.

“Some people do. Not everyone’s meant to have a spouse, partner, whatever the term is now.” Dex shrugged.

“Me and your Mom met when we were fourteen! Look how long we’ve been together.”

“Slapped those handcuffs on you good!” Cathy teased with a laugh with Bruce.

“I’m not in any hurry, to be honest, Mom and Dad. I want to get back into shape before I do anything else.”

“Alright.” Bruce nodded.

Dex glanced over at him while sipping on his ice water.

After dinner, Dex went upstairs to his bedroom. He switched on the light and closed the door behind him. Stowing his cane against the bookshelf, Dex hobbled his way over to grab a record off the shelf and place it on the turntable. He broke the silence with some Elton John as he grabbed his book and sat down in his plush reclining chair. His childhood bedroom felt cramped with his recliner wedged in between his computer desk and bed by the window. The warm glow of the lamp cast an amber tint all through the bedroom with its now purple and white walls. His faded autographed poster was still hung up, but the walls were now adorned with some Japanese art he liked.

Dex sat and gazed at the wall, feeling a bit lonely. He really felt isolated in Mississippi. He had his family, but the earlier conversation was a reminder that they didn’t understand how he felt being back home. He had no friends here, and was nervous about trying to venture into Biloxi’s gay village, at least not until his body recovered some more and he got into better physical shape. God forbid if he got a repeat of his treatment like back in Chicago.

Flipping the page in his book, Dex heard an incoming message signal him on his laptop. He glanced over to see Braxton messaging him. It brought a smile to the malamute’s face. At least he wasn’t completely alone with Braxton and Christos messaging him.

Dex remembered when the office park was once a swampy field. It was the sign of the times of development, a gray concrete jungle of corporate offices, some medical facilities, and a family restaurant from a well known chain at the intersection. Dex put his turn signal on and pulled into the office park to go to his doctor’s appointment. He rolled into the parking lot, turned, and backed into an open space towards the back of the lot to get out easier. He pushed the shifter into park, and hopped out with his cane.

Getting checked in, Dex took a seat by the aquarium and sat quietly. He was given company by a gaggle of curious angelfish that swam close to the glass near him. He looked at the magazine selection was bored by its selection of hunting and fishing magazines, or home and gardening stuff.

“Dexter Malprave?” came a nurse. Dex got up and limped over, happy to get this appointment over with. He was taken to a small windowless room that had all the hallmarks of a typical exam room; light blue walls, white ceiling with harsh white fluorescent light, and a cabinet with medical supplies and a soft padded exam seat with a paper sheet covering it. Dex was weighed, had his blood pressure taken by a technician, and his breathing examined. The blue scrubbed technician left and Dex waited for a minute in silence before the doctor showed up.

Stepping through the door was a black furred wolf who looked to be around Dex’s age. He had a piercing stare with dark green eyes, and jet black hair that was shiny and neatly coifed atop his head. He wore a white lab coat over white dress shirt with a dark red and gold accented necktie and black slacks. A stethoscope was placed around his neck. Dex noticed a little Christian cross lapel on his lab coat.

“Good afternoon, I’m Doctor Ritter.” He greeted. He had a quiet voice.

Dex stripped out of his clothes and was examined by the doctor who checked him over, and examined his mangled leg. He remarked about Dex’s weight, something Dex acknowledged that he was working on. The doctor remarked about his extensive tattoos as he checked Dex over and checked his breathing again with his stethoscope. With the physical exam done, Dex got himself dressed again and sat down as the doctor went back to Dex’s medical file.

“Now I would like to talk to you about your sexual history. I notice in your file that you have been treated several times for sexually transmitted diseases. You’ve had past infections of gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and I noticed you were using pre-exposure prophylaxis.”

“Yes.”

“Are you a active homosexual?”

“Yes.”

The doctor suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable as he sat on his stool. His eyes nervously darted a bit. “Okay” was his reply as he took a note down in the medical file.

“I would like to go back on prep.” Dex requested.

The doctor closed the medical file up. “With all due respect, due to my faith, I do not prescribe such medication to my patients, as I feel that goes against my beliefs, and that pre-exposure prophylaxis should not be used as some band-aid for risky sexual behaviors.”

Dex was silent.

“Homosexual intercourse is inherently high risk for disease transmission.” Dr. Ritter explained. “I would recommend that you not partake in high risk sexual activity, especially given your medical history of past STD infections.”

“So instead of offering me a medication that has proven itself time and time again to help prevent the transmission of HIV, your suggestion is that I should just be celibate or something?”

“I mean, well, basically, yes.”

Dex had a blank stare on his face.

“I in fact know a great Christian ministry who does wonders in helping people break their sex addiction and find their place in the Lord’s plan.”

“Is there anything else you plan on doing?”

“Yes, I would like to draw some blood.”

“For?”

“Well I want to do an STD panel for you along with other general blood work.”

“But I have already been tested for STD’s earlier this year, and it came back fine, plus I haven’t had sex in almost a year…”

“I would like to double check.”

“When we’re finished, I would like my medical file please.”

Dr. Ritter looked confused. “Well that stays in the office, so why if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Because I am going to find myself a new doctor, and one who isn’t practicing medicine like it’s 1930.” Dex glared. The doctor just blankly stared at him.

“Uhh, okay.” Was his reply.

Dex left the exam room in a huff. A bandage was applied to the crook of his right arm from getting blood drawn. He went to the receptionist desk and requested his medical file. The puzzled secretary didn’t understand why as Dex griped about his treatment. He stated bluntly he was finding a more accepting medical facility. As the secretary handed him a copy of his medical file, the doctor tried to intercept him as Dex left.

“Sir! Sir! Sir!” the doctor exclaimed. “I would like you to please take a moment?”

“The hell do you want?” Dex asked. His comment made heads turn in the waiting room.

“Mister Malprave, I would like to apologize for maybe coming across as too harsh in my commentary.”

“What’s there to apologize about?” Dex asked. “You told me everything I needed to hear. You’re sex negative, you let your beliefs get in the way of my healthcare needs, and I’m frankly not gonna put up being talked down to like that.”

“Sir, I did not talk down to you.”

“You don’t consider your commentary condescending in any way shape or form!?” Dex exclaimed. “That you wanted to give me an STD test because I told you I’m gay? That- that alone makes me just this disease riddled sinner in your eyes? Buddy I don’t know who you’re trying to fool, and I’m not in the mood for this shit. Never in my life have I ever been talked to like this seeking medical needs. So frankly you can take your christofascist bullshit and go fuck yourself with it! You want Christ back in society? Well put Christ back in fucking Christian!”

Dex turned and left through the double doors. Dr. Ritter stood there in disbelief. The malamute looked bitter as he grumbled to himself. He limped his way across the parking lot, so angry that he just ignored the pain as he marched back to the truck. He threw the door open, threw his medical file in, and climbed aboard to leave.

“Lord almighty, what the fuck am I gonna do?” Dex asked himself as he backed out and left.

Taking a gamble and going to an LGBT resource center he found in downtown Biloxi, Dex left looking content with his medical file in his grip. He got to speak to a representative who helped him find a new doctor who was gay friendly. He had a new appointment scheduled to consult with him and get back on PrEP. Dex tossed his medical file on the passenger seat and hopped back into the truck to depart. Feeling curious, Dex backed out, and made his way down the street to explore.

Years before as a teenager struggling with his sexuality, Dex thought there was never a place for him in backwards Mississippi. There were some rainbow flags around the resource center that caught his eye. A gay bar he had heard about, and he even saw a gym with a rainbow flag in the glass. It brought a smile to Dex’s face. Maybe there was some hope. It was pride month, but Dex didn’t feel he was ready yet. But one day he’ll try his luck again.

Dex returned back home and pulled his brother’s Ram truck back into the driveway. Hopping out, he went back inside and said hi to his Mom and Dad before going upstairs to take a shower and change into casual clothes.

In the shower, Dex grumbled at the home’s famously low water pressure. Being the tallest in the family, he practically could hit the shower head with his head as he ducked down to wash his wavy brown hair. The dye was wearing off and more and more of the gray was showing up, which annoyed him. He scrubbed his pelt down with a pink bar of soap and washed it all off. He held his floppy cock in his grip and stared at the polished silver piecing jutting out as he gave it a gentle cleaning with some soap before washing it off. Sex was not on his mind at all. This was a time of healing, a time of reflection. One day he’ll get back to it, but not now.

Turning the water off, Dex stepped out of the shower and began drying himself off. Standing on the mat, Dex had his face all covered up as he dried his head off. That’s when he heard the door open. Before he could even react, his Mom stepped into the bathroom to grab a towel. She took one look at Dex and gasped.

“DEX!” she exclaimed.

Dex ripped the towel off his head and was fifty shades of red. “MOM!”

“Dex, how could you do that to yourself!?” Cathy exclaimed. “How could you get a piercing down there!”

“Oh my god, MOM!” Dex shouted. “I’m drying off!”

Cathy quickly left the bathroom, and Dex frantically dried himself off to get dressed and play damage control. He quickly ran downstairs in shorts and a t-shirt and practically fell at the base of the steps maneuvering the turn on his bad leg. He limped over to confront them at the dinner table. Dex on one end of the table, Cathy and Bruce on the other side.

“Dex, what the hell is the matter with you?” Bruce said all in an annoyed tone. “Your Mom’s freaking out over you getting your dick pierced? Why the hell would you do that? Is that something gay guys just like to do or something?”

“Oh my god…” Dex grumbled. His face was so red from being embarrassed.

“Well what?” Bruce asked, his face all scrunched up in frustrated confusion.

“Why does it matter?” Dex asked bluntly. “I’m forty-three for Christ’s sake! I wanted to get a piercing and I got it!”

“Usually people piece their ears…” Cathy blushed.

“Well it is what it is.” Dex said curtly. “And no, Dad, it isn’t just something gay guys do. Straight guys get a Prince Albert too. I’m sick and tired of you nippicking at anything I do that doesn’t fit your profile of a masculine straight male!”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Dexter?”

“You’re constantly nippicking about shit. The color of my bedroom that I painted, you used to nitpick about the clothes I used to wear, or how I felt about stuff in the world. Or even my concerns about finding a new doctor, which came true today!”

“What do you mean?” Cathy asked. “What happened?”

“I’m getting a new doctor after the treatment I got from this guy. In all the years of going to a doctor, I have never been talked down to like this ever! He asked me some questions about past STD’s I had, and asked if I was gay, and I told him yes, and I asked to go back on Prep, and he told me he wouldn’t do that because it goes against his faith. And then he tried to refer me to some church run therapy thing, and uh-uh, no. And then as if I’m just riddled in STD’s, he wanted to do a STD panel on me, when I’ve already done one a few months back. I’m not dealing with this shit. So I went to Biloxi’s LGBT resource center and got a new doctor lined up after a few phone calls.”

“I think you’re too sensitive to what other people have to say.” Bruce suggested. “My doctor tells me stupid shit all the time and you know what I do? I tell him no.”

“Well that’s you, and my name isn’t Bruce Malprave.” Dex stated. “I’m not going to have someone denigrate a part of who I am because of their so-called beliefs!”

Bruce was about to say something flippant when Dex cut him off before he could even begin.

“I want you to please listen to me, Dad, because I’m done arguing and I am done talking about this. NO! I want you to please listen.”

Bruce nodded reluctantly and gestured for him to continue. His face looked frustrated.

Dex nodded and pursed his lips in thought. “I want you to think about this. How would you feel if your father didn’t approve of your romantic and sexual attraction to women?”

“What?”

“Listen!” Dex exclaimed. “How would you feel, Dad, if your family didn’t like you for being romantically attracted to women. How would you feel if they made it clear through their commentary and or actions that they did not approve of your relationship with Mom here? And the same goes for you, Mom. How would you feel if your family didn’t approve of your attraction to men? How would both of you feel knowing that you’re not accepted, merely tolerated.”

Bruce and Cathy looked at each other with a hint of surprise on their faces.

“Now you’ll know how I feel some days. That’s why I was out of touch for so long. So I want you to think about it.”

Dex got up. “I’m going for a car ride to clear my head.”

Bruce sat back in his seat with an ashen look on his face. He heard Dex leave the house with the thump of the door closing behind him. The aging malamute looked deeply introspective glancing at his wife.

Kicking up dust behind them along the rural highway, Dex and his brother Jason drove north to go hang out for a bit. Dex wanted to blow off some steam as he drove the big old Dodge Ram, which burbled down the dusty highway.

“I’m so embarrassed.” Dex said, shaking his head. “I can’t even get privacy.”

“Heh, living at home.” Jason chuckled as he played with his tanktop strap. “I don’t miss that.”

“Mom was so shocked that I… forgive me for telling you this, my Prince Albert… and that led to Dad saying something stupid and just pushing me over the top.”

“Oh you got a PA?” Jason said, surprised a bit. “Heh, I almost got one a long time ago… this girl I was dating thought I’d be so hot with it, but I never really liked the idea of a dude with a needle messing with my dick! And I’m glad I didn’t because that chick was nuts~”

“You only do something if you feel comfortable and want to do it.” Dex pointed out. “It’s been so long ago, so I forgot why I specifically got it, but it’s not a big issue.”

“It is to Mom and Dad.” Teased Jason.

Dex closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. “Don’t remind me.”

“You shouldn’t worry about what they think. You’re a grown ass adult.” Jason remarked. “When I got this tattoo sleeve started? Mom freaked out because she thought I was never gonna get another job. Now look at it, everyone and their mother has a sleeve at work!”

“I think they have to!” Dex exclaimed. “Christ, you can’t get anyone to fucking work.”

“Ain’t that the truth!” Jason laughed. “Dude, it’s crazy.”

“Thank god they didn’t see me when I got all my ink… I mean what difference does it make… I can’t do anything right it seems.”

“Oh c’mon, don’t beat yourself up!” Jason exclaimed.

“I asked Dad this, and I asked Mom this too. I asked them how they would have felt if their parents didn’t like them dating the opposite sex? How they would feel if they were constantly made to feel awful about a major component of their identity and existence? How they’d feel if their romantic, sexual attraction, or love for each other was not accepted? Or worse… merely tolerated.”

Jason tilted his head a bit to one side as he thought about that. “You know… I never thought of it like that…”

“Think of it as… you don’t have to worry about coming out to every single person who is new.” Dex explained. “You, Jenny, Molly, Sam, Mom and Dad. All of you can talk about your significant other and not worry about your safety. I have to. It’s like my doctor visit today. The moment he found out I’m gay? The whole situation changed. Suddenly he became very condescending. That could also be outright hostility. Every time I meet somebody new, I have to calculate the risk of whether it’s safe for me to come out? Every single time, Jason.”

“I can see that.”

“I want to be accepted. That’s it! I don’t want Mom and Dad to be the annoying pflag, rainbow pride flag waving parents. I want them to just accept me for who I am. I don’t want to snippy comments, or the dismissal of my concerns, yada, yada, yada. I’m tired of feeling like some fuck-up. It’s why I stopped talking to everyone for a long time. And I don’t want to think that Mom and Dad are only nice to me because they take pity on their fuck up of a son who fucked his whole body up.”

“I think Mom and Dad have made a lot of progress, and they’re just about there.” Jason figured. “I can’t speak for them. But I want you to know that I accept you, and I love you because you’re my brother. Being gay has no qualms or concerns to me.”

“Well I really appreciate that little, middle bro~” Dex smiled.

“Not so little anymore at forty-one…” Jason chuckled. “Lord, staying up to ten o’clock becomes a challenge!”

“Ten? Try nine.” Laughed Dex.

“Ya old fuck.” Jason grinned.

“Look who’s talking!”

Arriving into the little town of Saucier, Dex pulled up to a small ice cream shop. Dex hopped off and braced himself against the door as he rubbed his aching knee. As he got up, Jason came over and gave him a big tight hug. Dex instantly accepted a hug from his brother and hugged him in return.

“I love you, brother. Everything will be okay.”

“I love you too, little middle brother of mine. I appreciate this so much.” Dex smiled.

Getting some ice cream, the two brothers sat in the shade slowly lapping away at their ice cream cones and chatting some more about Dex’s upsetting doctor’s visit. As Dex griped about what Dr. Ritter had said, Jason’s phone rang. It was their youngest brother Sam calling them.

“’Sup!” Jason greeted as he put it on speakerphone.

“Hey where are you at? I need some help ‘cause some fuckhead ran me off the road!”

Jason leaned forward. “You okay!?”

“Yeah I’m okay, but my truck is stuck!” Sam exclaimed. “And there’s a thunderstorm looming in my area, so fuck!”

“Where are you at?”

“Maybe five or so minutes down the road from Connor’s second farm field, Ole’ Highway forty-nine~”

“North or south? Me and Dex are in Saucier, hanging out.”

“South!”

“I think I know where you’re at. We’ll come and get ya.”

“I’ll be here…”

Dex got up and grabbed the keys, just as Jason took them out of his grip with a grin. “My turn!” his brother exclaimed as they made their way back to his truck. Dex climbed into the passenger seat, and Jason hopped in and fired up the big V10. Popping it into gear, he put his foot to the gas and spun around, kicking up dust as they began to head south to get their brother out of trouble.

Departing the four lane Route 49, Jason and Dex took the two lane Old Route 49. Cut through thick woodland, the rural road stretched for miles as they went searching for Sam and his pickup truck. As they drove, the blue skies gave away to menacing storm clouds that approached from the northwest. Dex glanced at the approaching dark slate clouds behind them in the rear view mirror, the same view Jason took notice of in his mirror.

“Do you remember when you wanted to be a storm chaser?” Jason recalled with a smile.

“Yeah!” Dex smiled. “Oh my god, that was twenty-six years ago.”

“We went and saw Twister together in the theatres when it came out.” Jason remembered. “You and me, we thought we’d go and be storm chasers.”

“Ha, yeah.” Dex grinned. “I think it was… what? A few weeks after we saw Twister and then those bad storms came through and you and me went storm chasing in my car.”

“You had that old sled… it was a Chevy…”

“Grandpa’s old Celebrity… my first car.” Dex fondly remembered. “It was that weird slate colored station wagon. Roomy! But oh god, so underpowered with that tiny four-banger.”

“And we fucked that thing up in the hailstorm!” Jason laughed. He clapped his paws together. “I don’t think we had any idea what we were doing!”

“We’re lucky we didn’t get ourselves killed!” Dex exclaimed.

“I was scared shitless when the hail took out the windshield and dented the hood up!” Jason laughed.

“Just like the hill tornado scene in Twister…” Dex laughed as well.

“Oh everyone was so pissed off.” Jason snickered. “Lord that shit’s funny.”

“I know right? Young and dumb~”

Jason pointed out the farmland that Sam helped maintain, and a few miles up the road, they spotted tire marks that went off to the right in a semi-swampy area. Slowing up and putting their hazards on, Dex glanced over to see Sam’s pickup truck mired down into the gumbo like mud, with Sam sitting inside the cab of his huge dually Silverado.

Rolling to a stop, Dex and Jason hopped out and peered down the shallow embankment to yell at Sam, which got his attention.

“That’s a bad place for parking!” Jason teased.

“No shit!” Sam laughed. He climbed through his crew cab to exit out the small sliding back window to get into his truck bed. “And a storm’s coming too!”

“Throw that rope up there and we’ll get ya out!” Jason called.

Sam grabbed his rope and threw it up to Jason. Sam gingerly balanced himself on a fallen tree trunk to keep himself out of the mud as he was helped up by Jason and Dex.

“So what the fuck happened?” Dex asked.

“I was making my way home and this Amazon driver on his god damn phone went left of center and I had no place but to swerve right! And I caught the side of the embankment, and down I went! And I took out a small tree too, so I think I fucked the back right tire well up…”

“I don’t have anything to pull you out with the Ram sadly…”

“Well I called Connor, and he said- sumbitch is here already!” Sam pointed.

Arriving into the gravel washout was a big Ford F-350 dually, the dark green truck rumbling up with the burble of its diesel engine. The glowing headlights cast rays through the dust as its driver door opened up, revealing a big burly malamute stepping out. With slate gray and white fur, the malamute wore snug Wrangler jeans, fancy pointed boots, and a cream colored Stetson atop his head. He wore a cutoff button up shirt with a green and blue plaid design, and both his meaty arms had tattoo sleeves that ran to his wrists. His chinstrap beard and goatee were a reddish-brown color. Cheerful green eyes peered out.

“Sam! You’re supposed to be drivin’ trucks, not wrecking them.” Teased their boss, Connor Magruder. He had a really masculine voice, with a distinct southern drawl.

“Well tell that to the Amazon fuck that wasn’t paying attention… “ Sam shook his head.

“Well if it ain’t one thing, it’s something else!” Connor laughed. He walked back to go grab a heavy chain from the bed of his truck and handed one end to Sam, who gingerly climbed down to go hitch it up to the hitch mount. Connor turned his truck around and hopped out to attach the chain’s hook to the hitch mount on the back of his SuperDuty.

“I’d suggest you gentleman stand behind your nice red Ram truck so ya’ll don’t get cut in half!” smiled Connor.

Dex stared in awe. His brothers weren’t joking about their boss. He was an absolute stud. Dex got back behind the truck and watched as Connor got back into his truck and began pulling forward. The chain went taut, and with the revving of both truck’s big diesel engines and the spinning of tires in the gravel, Connor slowly pulled Sam out of the gumbo. Rattling up the embankment and back onto solid ground, Sam’s mud covered 3500HD had its front bumper all crumbled up and dragging. It scraped to a stop and Sam hopped out to see the damage. They all ran over to see that the bumper was damaged, the front right tire was flat and the rim badly bent, and the back right fender was crushed from striking a tree, which in turn heavily damaged the back right outboard tire and rim. Sam just shook his head.

“Jesus Christ…” the malamute muttered as he looked at the damage. “Well this is gonna be totaled if I call Nationwide!”

Connor knelt down and examined the front right tire. “Hmm. Well the rims are fucked and so is that fender. Tell you what, I think there was a junked one ton just like yours at the junk yard when I was there yesterday, so why don’t we tow this back to my place, and we’ll go to the junk yard tomorrow and see if we can scavenge some parts to get this ole’ lead sled back to action!”

“Sure!”

“I’ll go grab my fifth wheel with the winch, and we’ll pick this up.” Connor suggested as they all turned to see a Mississippi state trooper pull up, and its Deputy step out to inquire on what was going on. Sam went to go talk to him.

“Bossman! I want you to meet someone special!” Jason called out.

“Oh yeah?” Connor asked. He walked over to smile at Dex.

“This here is our wonderful older brother, Dexter!”

Dex blushed as Connor held out a paw for a friendly handshake. Dex grasped his paw and gave him a warm handshake as they smiled at each other.

“Hey~” Dex smiled. “Nice to meet you.”

“Connor Magruder~”

“Dex~”

Dex was just blown away at how handsome that malamute was. Oh how he wanted to get in bed with that handsome stud and let him have his way. But that lingering feeling of doubt taunted him with all the reminders of past romance. “That’ll be the day…” Dex thought to himself.

“Well I hope to get to know you as well as your brothers, ‘cause your brothers are pretty awesome guys.” Connor complimented.

“Well I would love to get to know you too.” Dex said with a smile. He tried so hard not to blush.

“Well I best go get my trailer before this thunderstorm really hits. You guys go take care on your way back home, and I’ll get your bro all taken care of, Jason.”

“I appreciate it~” Jason nodded. “And as for the compliment, the best compliment is giving me another pay raise~”

Connor just grinned as he wagged a finger sarcastically before turning to head back to his truck. Jason and Dex laughed and went back to their idling Ram 2500, with Dex remarking about “going through half a tank just sitting there”. Dex climbed back in behind the wheel, and they took off to head for home.

The evening was warm as the passing thunderstorms turned the evening sky a rich amber color. In the slowly fading light of the day, Dex sat on the back porch under the patio umbrella, working on time off requests for work. He took a moment to take a sip of his iced tea, before finishing the last approvals and stowing them in their folder. He grabbed another folder to go over an order form.

The patio door slid open and his father stepped outside, sliding it slowly shut behind him. Bruce walked over and stopped at the table. Dex looked up from what he was doing to see his father smiling at him.

“Hey Dex, you got a moment?”

“Yeah?” Dex said, getting up slowly. “Everything okay, Dad?”

Bruce put his arms around Dex and hugged him tightly, which took him by surprise. Dex hugged his father back, and he felt his Dad grasp the back of his head affectionately and hold him close. No words were said, but Dex understood what his father intended. Dex closed his eyes and smiled; everything was gonna be okay between them.

The brutal heat of summer finally gave way to the mildness of fall. Autumn had finally arrived to Mississippi in the middle of October, and the trees were becoming awash in color. Just north of Orange Grove, Dex drove alone through a densely wooded area on a quiet back county road. The Dodge Ram burbled, its tires kicking up dust as sunlight flickered through the colorful canopy of trees. He slowed up and pulled off the road into a dusty washout area to wait for his nephew.

Pushing the door open, Dex hopped out and reached for his camera bag on the passenger seat. He had recently rediscovered his old Nikon F4, his first serious camera he had gotten for Christmas 1993. Its original bag held a “nifty-fifty” portrait lens, a wide angle, and telephoto, and his favorite, attached to his F4, an 85mm portrait lens with a wide aperture. Dex fiddled around with the back and loaded a roll of FotoChem Vista Chrome 200, a new film that was made by Barev’s photographic film division. From what he had seen, it was a C-41 film that could almost perfectly mimic the look and feel of the long gone Kodachrome that Dex remembered as a kid. He loaded a thirty-six exposure roll and locked it shut and wound it up with the attached autowinder. He fiddled around with the settings and as he waited, walked and took some picture of the colorful maples and oaks around him.

Dex was starting to feel good about himself. His physical therapy was paying off, and the malamute was showing it; he no longer needed a cane, and although his pace was still a bit slow, he could walk easier and maintain his balance. He lost thirty-two pounds, and was shedding off weight at the gym and building up his muscle again. He was starting to feel confident about his looks again. Dex looked in the truck’s mirror and adjusted his baseball cap. He wore a pair of gym shorts with his dark blue hoodie.

Arriving and pulling up behind him came Nathan and Haley, in Nathan’s aging Impala sedan. Out stepped Nathan first, a rather shy teen who reminded Dex of himself when he was a teenager. His father Jason was a big ole’ country boy at heart, while Nathan was a quiet introvert who liked music, art, and reading. He had Dex’s style of wavy brown hair that was neatly combed back atop his head, and wore for the photo shoot, a pair of black slacks, and a light blue dress shirt that was loosely buttoned at the collar. Nathan held a black necktie. Haley stepped out from the front seat; she was a pretty teen malamute, with sable and white fur, and light brown hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a sea green dress that matched her eyes.

“You made it, Nathan!” smiled Dex.

“Yep.” He said, looking nervous.

“What’s the matter?”

“Oh I’m nervous about these pictures for the fall dance at school.” Nathan admitted.

“You’re so shy!” Haley giggled with a smile. She gave her boyfriend a hug. “It’ll be okay!”

“I’ll make you look fabulous!” Dex exclaimed with a confident grin.

“Okay.”

Walking a bit on a trail, Dex did some casual photos of Nathan and Haley. He used up the roll of film getting individual shots of them, and shots of them smiling at each other and at the camera.

“I didn’t think anyone shot on film anymore, Uncle Dex.” Nathan remarked as he watched Dex remove the rewound film canister and stow it back into its protective case.

“This was my first camera~ and you never forget your first.” Dex chuckled. “I’ll get these developed and I’ll edit them after the developer scans the negatives, and why don’t you come over this evening and I’ll give you the disc.”

“Cool, okay. Thank you~”

“Thank you, Dex!” Haley waved as she left with Nathan. Dex put his camera away as he watched Nathan depart with Haley in his brown Impala. Dex climbed back into his Ram truck and fired it up to spin around and head back into town to drop off the film and go do physical therapy.

Two big T-bone steaks sat directly on a bed of glowing coals in the grill. Dex watched the time as he slowly sipped a glass of iced tea on the deck. A cool breeze gently rustled the trees in the back yard. When the time came, Dex grabbed his tongs and picked up the now charred steaks and placed them in the metal tray with two other steaks. He ventured back inside to play the tray in the warm oven to keep them warm, as his Mom worked on making a salad and some mashed potatoes. Dex went back out to put out the grill with the garden hose and stepped back inside through the sliding glass door to sit down to dinner.

“How was your Saturday, Dad?” Dex asked as he slowly carved up his steak.

“These Saturdays are getting old…” Bruce grumbled. He took a bite of steak with a look of satisfaction on his face as he chewed. “You can’t get anyone that’s worth a damn anymore to work! Jesus Christ, I’m sixty-two and work harder than these twenty something’s!”

“Seems like it…” Dex remarked as he slowly chewed on a piece of steak. “I got my own adult daycare stuff at work.”

“I had to get on the case of one worker over their attendance. Now get this, Dex. He works three jobs, to pay for a god damn Cadillac Escalade! Can you believe this shit?” Bruce exclaimed with a snort. “Three jobs for a Cadillac!?”

Dex shook his head.

“Oh lordy, that makes me think about when I worked at the casino and someone won the money to buy a brand new Cadillac~” Cathy remarked. “Oh the look of joy on their face~”

“I feel like I gotta hit the slots with the way vehicle prices are now~” Dex chuckled. “I’m kind of sticker shocked!”

“Yeah, it’s crazy.” Bruce grimaced. “So you’re looking for a vehicle eh?”

“Yeah, I think it’s time… but whoa-boy, these prices are crazy. I kinda want to get a truck because… when in Rome… and it’s handy.”

“And you sit higher~” Bruce pointed out.

“Okay, that too.”

“I don’t want to hog Jason’s nice Paxtonmobile forever.”

“That is a really pretty truck.” Bruce remarked. “You don’t see vehicles that old so nice anymore.”

“Yeah ‘cause everyone rides the piss outta them.” Dex joked. “I guess I’ll figure it out, but I’m trying to conserve my money because I have a feeling the medical bills will come soon enough after getting statement after statement showing the line item services.”

“But you’re in network right, sweetie?” Cathy asked.

“Yeah.” Dex nodded. “Oh I made sure this was not gonna nickel and dime me! But I haven’t gotten a bill in like… months? And I know the insurance wasn’t covering it one hundred percent, so I’m kinda puzzled?”

“Hmm. Maybe you should call them?”

“I’m going to after dinner, yeah.”

“Our medical system is a joke~” Bruce shook his head.

“Yeah.” Dex agreed.

Bruce pointed at his plate. “This steak, Dex… holy mosses… this is perfection right there.”

“Coarsely crushed pepper, a little bit of garlic powder, and a light sprinkle of ground coffee, and hot coals. Turns a steak into a masterpiece.”

“This makes my day so much better~”

“Well I like to hear that.” Dex smiled.

Having done the dishes for his Mom, Dex ventured upstairs to retreat to his bedroom for the evening. Sitting down at his desk, he looked over his mail that he had sat down earlier and threw away the usual junk mail and solicitations for an extended car warranty. He opened some mail from his healthcare provider, and found that he got more statements that were not bills.

Grabbing his cellphone, Dex dialed the number on the statement and connected through the automated part to speak with a representative. It rang four times before someone picked up.

“Hi, yes, my name is Dexter Malprave, and I have an inquiry over my recent medical bills? I have my policy number when you need it.”

“How may I help you, sir?” the woman asked.

“Well I have noticed over the past several months that I have not received any bill? Only these statements that say they’re not a bill, but clearly are line-item costs of my medical treatment, and I was curious if that’s a mistake?”

He heard the faint sound of some typing as he waited. “Sir? I looked up your account and recent payments, and I have found that your payments are marked complete, with a note from another administrator that your debts have been forgiven from a donation that was given by your employer, United Barev Industries.”

Dex leaned forward in his chair. “Really now.”

“Looks like the donation was given on May twenty-seventh of this year, by a Rob Barion, the president.”

“Huh… wow.” Dex remarked. “Well… I don’t know what to say?”

“So that’s why you’ve received just the statements. As far as what I am seeing on my end, your medical debt is paid in full from the donation.”

“Well thank you so much for informing me.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with sir?”

“No, I think that’s it. So thank you for your time.”

“You have a great evening. Bye-bye.”

“Bye-bye now.” Dex said, ending the call. He looked completely shocked as he leaned back in his chair. The president of his job paid off his medical debt. The massive, crushing bill that loomed over his head was gone. It felt like twenty tons of weight came off his shoulders. “Wow.” That’s all that could come to mind to react to such news.

An early morning rainstorm left the parking lot dotted in puddles as Dex rolled in to his parking spot. He hopped out and grabbed his laptop bag and stood momentarily at the fence as he watched the first morning flights leave the airport. In the dim light of dawn, he watched a C-121C lift off the runway, the big radial engines spewing bright red flames as the Super Connie slowly climbed skyward. Dex turned and went inside to clock in and begin his day in the office.

“Morning, Ron.” Dex greeted as he passed by his boss’ office.

“Oh, Dex!”

Dex stopped and leaned back to peer back in. “Yes?”

“Hey the Capital people are looking to come and visit our facility this Wednesday. So we’re gonna dispatch the DC-3 out to get them and fly them here.”

“Oh joy.” Dex said as he stepped in and took a seat. “Hey did you get any word on the DC-7’s being readied for the ferry flight here?”

“Not yet. But I’m gonna inquire about it around nine.” Ron responded. “Let’s see, what else, oh, Gary Morton wants you to call him regarding a job application that listed you as a reference.”

“Oh I know about that, okay. I can do that.” Dex nodded. “Anything else?”

Ron smirked as he handed Dex a folder. “Why don’t you tell Mister Hammer that his FMLA request, again, was denied for lack of total hours worked.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “I’m on it. And I’m gonna tell him one more time about his attendance, or he’s gone.”

“Hopefully nobody else gets incapacitated, or something comes up where we need the extra help.” Ron sarcastically quipped.

“Always something.” Dex said with a sarcastic smile on his face.

“So if you can take care of that for me, that’d be great.” Ron chuckled. “I’m putting in the order request to get another truck shipped down here from Ohio.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, the maintenance guys want one more truck for the airport. And Barev has a surplus from their latest fleet purchase to replace older vehicles.”

“Interesting.”

“I think I recall you saying you were looking for a truck?”

“Yeah, kinda. But these prices are insane.”

“Well if you’re interested, Barev is willing to sell one of the surplus trucks at a discount.”

“Oh yeah?”

Ron grabbed his notepad and wrote down some information, which he ripped out and gave to the malamute. “This is for the fleet logistics department.”

“Thanks. Anything else?”

“Nope.” Ron smiled. “If you need me for backup regarding Dipshit Dave, just call me.”

Dex chuckled as got up. “Sure thing.”

Venturing to his office, Dex sat down and fired up his workstation. As he watched Windows boot up, he flipped through his contact booklet and dialed the number to his old boss, Gary Morton. He picked up the handset and listened to it ring.

“Gary Morton, Chicago hub director.”

“Morning Gary!”

“Dex!” exclaimed Gary all happy. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing pretty good, Gary. I’m feeling a heck of a lot better.”

“Oh that’s wonderful.”

“I was told to call you?”

“Yes, your friend, Braxton Schuster has put in a job application for a full time position as a loader?”

“Yeah, he was telling me he was interested in doing that now that he’s out of school.” Dex explained. “He’s a great pick if you ask me as we had worked together for a bit at Saunders-Babbit.”

“When I met him at the hospital, he seems like a really level headed guy.”

“He’s a great guy. Braxton is understanding, he’s caring, and thoughtful. He’s a good worker who shows up on time and tries his best.”

“That’s excellent to hear.”

“He’s cut from a different fabric than others because he actually works.” Dex laughed cynically.

“Well, that said, I’m gonna call him in for an interview and perhaps offer him the job.”

“Sounds good.”

“So how’s things down in Biloxi?”

“You know, it’s been nice.” Dex admitted. “I’ve been doing pretty a-okay down here. I’m kind of alone, but I have my family at least.”

“Well that’s the best thing you can have. Friends come and go, but family is forever.”

“Sometimes you can get friends that are like family, like Braxton and his boyfriend Christos, but that’s rare.” Dex remarked. “Hey Gary, I don’t want to hold you up forever on the line, but I gotta ask something.”

“Yeah?”

“I called my health insurance over the weekend about why I wasn’t getting a bill? They told me that the whole thing was paid off by a donation from Rob Barion. And I was blown away!”

“I knew you were having a really hard time when you were in the hospital after you collapsed at work. I knew you needed help, so I called and spoke to Rob to great length about the situation, and he said he’d make a few calls.”

“I don’t know how I could repay you, or thank you enough, Gary, for your kindness.”

“When you have a good worker who is in need of help, you help them, because it’s hard to get people to care about work because people know deep down work doesn’t care about them.”

“Basically. It’s all about the Benjamin’s.” Dex chuckled.

“Sadly.” Gary chuckled as well.

“Well thank you for your time Gary, and I hope to hear from you soon.”

“You too, Dex! You take care.”

“You as well. Bye-bye now.”

Dex put the phone down looking content. He opened his email program and read the new messages he got, and sent an e-mail to the logistics department, inquiring about purchasing a surplus Barev truck. With that done, he got up to go deal with the next issue on his itinerary.

Stepping into the maintenance hangar, Dex saw some of the mechanics huddled around the latest “hangar queen”, a Navy marked R7V-1 Constellation, in the midst of having some propeller work done for its afternoon departure.

“Where’s Dave at?” Dex asked.

“Dipshit’s wandering about in the sorting area.” The head of the maintenance department quipped with a chuckle.

“Peace and quiet here.” His apprentice teased.

“Dave has no off button.” Another mechanic grumbled.

“Alright. I’ll take care of it.”

John, a big middle-aged white wolf shook his head. “Anyone else gonna have a heart attack, or take a vacation and prevent us from firing dipshit?” Everyone laughed.

Dex ventured back into the office and into the massive sorting warehouse. Stepping through the door, he watched dozens of people hard at work getting freight unloaded, shuffled about, and palletized in preparation for flight. The propliners were too old and small for standardized shipping containers, so everything was palletized and sealed up with plastic wrap. Forklifts burbled around with the freight; some went to awaiting semi trucks for Centoh’s truck routes, and others were brought to the staging area where the aircraft loaders came to fetch with their forklifts. It was an amazing operation to watch, and Dex couldn’t believe he was the operations manager to all this. He helped directly run this well oiled operation, and it blew his mind that he was overseeing a quarter of a billion dollar hub that was only gonna grow more with the huge medical supplier deal in the works.

Dex found his target, David Hammer, standing around chatting with a forklift crew who looked uninterested in the conversation. The malamute swooped in to do damage control.

“Dave!” Dex called. “I need to have a word with you.”

Hammer was a middle aged wolf, with a pelt of mottled dark gray fur. His hair and goatee were all gray, and he had green eyes that blankly stared out. He wore his mechanics uniform of blue coveralls, but Dex never saw him doing anything in the maintenance hangar, when he wasn’t calling off for every excuse in the book. The malamute sensed that “Dipshit Dave” had ADHD, as all the red flags were evident; he was extremely manic, always on the go, and talked excessively, to the annoyance of everyone at Centoh. Dex suspected that he took medication for his condition, as some days he was really quiet and reserved, and other days, like today, he was off the walls annoying.

“Yeah, Dex?” he asked. David spoke with a very quick voice, which almost slurred his words together into an unintelligible word salad.

“Uhh, we have a talk about your FMLA request… Again… your request was denied because you have not worked enough hours to qualify, again.”

Dave’s face practically turned red. “WHAT!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?”

“You’ve missed so much work?” Dex asked, fumbling his brow. “You don’t work forty hours a week?”

“Well I got fucking shit to do at home and I have to get it done!”

“You have work to do here?”

“Ha, Dave work?” laughed the forklift driver.

“Shut the fuck up, motherfucker! Or we’ll be throwing fists!” Dave yelled.

“Okay, enough.” Dex glared. “You have work to do Dave, so I need you in the maintenance hangar.”

“Well they don’t want me back there!”

“I wonder why?” Dex remarked.

“I want to find something else to do and-“

“You are a mechanic to Centoh, so get your fucking shit and get your ass back in the hangar!” Dex shouted.

“Hey fuck you!”

“HEY!” Dex screamed. “I want you in my office, right now.”

“You’re not my boss!”

“Oh yes I am, I in fact supersede your boss!” Dex pointed out. “I don’t think you realize how thin of ice you’re walking on, Dave. Between your constant negativity, and missed work, you don’t realize how close you’ve come to be fired multiple times, and in some act of god, you’ve only been spared because we’re short staffed! But I don’t give a shit frankly at this point, because I am not going to have a hostile work environment!”

“You haven’t seen fucking hostile yet, motherfucker! You piss me off and I’ll-“

Dave was suddenly grabbed by Jerry Schultz, the menacing German Shepherd. He spun Dave around and grabbed him by the throat.

“You fuckin’ try it, and I’ll kill ya plain and simple.” Jerry said, with no emotion on his face.

Dave gulped nervously. Jerry shoved him to the concrete floor as two sentries came over and grabbed him. Dex ordered him to the office. Dave was dragged off by two of “Rob’s Little Green Men”. The malamute shook his head and walked behind them to his office.

“Here Mom, let me help you!” Molly exclaimed as she grabbed the salad bowl from Cathy. The kitchen was packed as Molly and Jennifer helped their Mom do the finishing touches on an impromptu family gathering for dinner. Out back, Bruce grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill with Jason and Sam’s help as they all stood around chatting. In the yard, all the kids played together.

“Dex is running late?” Sam asked as he checked his watch.

“He’s really running behind tonight.” Bruce remarked as he flipped a burger on the grill.

“Probably a busy day at the airport.” Jason shrugged.

Bruce brought his tray of hotdogs and hamburgers in and sat them down on the table for everyone. Just as he glanced at the clock again, the front door opened, and Dex came on limping in. His bad limp, ripped sweatshirt, and exasperated face with a paw covering his right eye immediately got Bruce’s attention.

“Dex!?” Bruce shouted. He quickly ran over to check on his son. “Are you okay!? What happened!?”

“Oh I had a rough day at work…” Dex said. He pulled his paw away to reveal a black eye that was all bloodshot. Bruce gasped a bit.

“Jesus Christ, what happened!”

Cathy ran over and looked in shock at Dex’s appearance. “Oh my god!” she blurted out.

“Dad I had to fire someone…” Dex remarked with a sardonic smirk. “…and they didn’t take it well.”

“Come on over here, let’s have a seat and rest… and let Mom get you some ice for that eye…”

Dex’s injury got everyone’s attention as dinner began. Dex chewed slowly on a hamburger as he held a ice pack to his face. He told everyone about his misadventure of having to be at the police station and file a report for the company and press charges for assault.

“So this dumbass doesn’t show up to work half the time, and when he does, he’s next to useless, and he doesn’t even work a full forty hour week!” Dex exclaimed. “I’ve never met a more miserable, unstable person until I transferred to Biloxi. Always yelling and screaming, cussing at his wife and kids on the phone, making a big scene, but every time we tried to fire this clown, something happens and we have to hold him on a bit more.”

“But that doesn’t make sense since he’s useless as you said?” Molly quipped, watching Dex shrug.

“That’s on my boss and the maintenance manager.” Dex shook his head. “He took six months off last year because he claimed he hurt his knee, tried to get FMLA and was denied because he didn’t work enough hours, and Ron let him come back because he felt sorry for his wife and kid. Wife works two jobs to make ends meet because he won’t.”

“Wow, what a deadbeat piece of shit.” Bruce shook his head.

“Honestly I’m surprised the wife hasn’t tried killing him yet~”

Jason chuckled. “Teaspoon of antifreeze a day for a month will kill a man~”

“Noted.” His wife Anne teased with a grin. Everyone around the table laughed.

“You better watch out if she takes a life insurance policy out on you!” Sam laughed.

Dex laughed and shook his head.

“So you pressed charges, right?” Jennifer asked her brother.

“I did, yeah.” Dex nodded. “But Ding Dong Dave got his comeuppance in a PMC beat down…”

“What do you mean?” Jennifer asked.

“Oh a bunch of Rob Barion’s Little Green Men beat the shit out of him and clubbed him with their rifles. I had to pull the head of the PMC division, Jerry, off Dave before Jerry killed him…”

Jennifer tilted her head in concern.

“That’s how I hurt my back. Go figure my luck, huh?” Dex chuckled as he sipped some ice water. “But not all is lost! I got myself a truck today, so I’ll be giving you your ‘Paxtonmobile’ back in a few weeks, Jason, when it comes in.”

“You got a truck?” Jason asked, looking surprised. “What kind?”

“Barev has new trucks entering their fleet vehicles, and they have a surplus, so after calling their logistics department regarding a vehicle transfer we’re getting to the airport, they sold me a Silverado. Cost me the twenty-thousand dollar bonus I would have gotten for a great two quarters, but I think it was a fair trade~ It’s a crew cab, one-ton single rear wheel, gas motor, four wheel drive, in fleet white.”

“Can I work at Barev?” grinned Sam.

Dex chuckled and wagged a finger as he snickered. “It also only has forty-eight thousand miles on it.”

“Now that’s a steal.” Jason exclaimed.

“You found yourself an awesome place to work at!” Bruce exclaimed. “They hiring?”

Dex shook his head and laughed. “So see? I made out okay today, and didn’t need to go to the hospital on a stretcher like Dave!” He sarcastically held up his ice water with a grin.

Saturday was sunny and mild, a balmy sixty-six degrees. Dex took the opportunity to take his work outside on the patio while the kids ran around and played in the colorful leaves. He sat at the round patio table, in the shade of the giant umbrella and worked on a statement to help his friend Justin up north in Chicago. As expected, he sued their former workplace for the accident that put him in the hospital in 2021. Following the questions provided by a legal document from Justin’s attorney, Dex worked on a lengthy statement, written on a yellow legal pad for him. It felt like he was writing a novel at all the operational issues and incompetence at his former workplace. He made it a point to emphasize that he was in more trouble for the wrong cover sheet than for any forklift accident. As he wrote, his face winced from the discomfort of having a black eye.

As he tore out another page and tucked it under a stapler acting as a paperweight, his phone rang. Dex grabbed it and answered his boss on the third ring.

“Dex~”

“Morning, it’s Ron here, how’s your face feeling?”

“Sore.”

“Man, I want to apologize again for what happened to you yesterday.” Ron said, sounding regretful. “I should have stepped in about this a long time ago, and-“

“It’s okay.” Dex assured. “Look, I get it, we were a little bit understaffed and we’ve been busy enough we can’t afford to lose even a deadbeat, so it’s not an issue.”

“I feel bad that you got hurt.”

“Eh, it ain’t my first rodeo.” Dex shrugged. “But this is just a reminder to why I don’t put up with people’s shit, or people’s mediocrity. If you don’t identify incompetence and problems from the get go then you only set yourself up to fail. Dave should have never come back after the first FMLA stunt. Take six fucking months off when you got told your FMLA was denied…”

“That’s on me, and I’ll own that.” Ron admitted. “I felt for his wife and kid and that’s why I welcomed him back.”

“Work is not a charity, and people aren’t entitled to a job.” Dex shrugged. “But it is what it is.”

“Well I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for something that’s not your fault. You didn’t punch me~” Dex assured. “Just don’t give me the power to fire people and then kneecap me and say I can’t. I’d rather deal with the headaches of being down a person verses having to deal with that clown show every day when he did show up to work.”

Ron reluctantly agreed to that. “Well I guess we better get our ducks in a row.”

“I’m already working on that, Ron. But what the hell he’s gonna do? Use his public defense attorney to sue us?”

“Pffft, ha, yeah.” Ron chuckled. “Just send the stuff to Columbus.”

“Will do.”

“You take care Dex.”

“You too. Bye-bye now.”

He put his cellphone back down and finished up his statement. He checked it over, neatly organized it, paper clipped it and shoved it into a manila envelope and sealed it up. He addressed it to Justin’s attorney in Chicago, and slapped two stamps on it. He sat the big envelope with his other finished paperwork to continue with more backlogged paperwork he couldn’t do the day before.

Stepping around the corner came his nephew Nathan, looking a bit unsure of himself as he walked slowly towards his uncle. Nathan walked with his paws in his hoodie pockets, his head looking down at the ground.

Looking up from his paperwork, Dex spotted Nathan and called for him. “Nathan!”

“Hey Uncle Dex.” The shy malamute greeted. “Do you got a moment?”

“Yeah. What’s up? Are you okay?” Dex asked as he paused on his paperwork.

“Yeah.” He said as he sat down beside Dex. “How’s your face?”

“Heh, sore.”

“Yuck.” Nathan remarked over the black eye. “I need some advice Uncle Dex, and I don’t know who to turn to because Dad didn’t want to hear it.”

“What’s going on?”

“Well…” Nathan said, pursing his lips. The teen looked over his shoulder and leaned in towards his uncle. “It’s about me and Haley and our relationship. We’ve been together for almost a year now dating, and all of our friends are pressuring us. Everyone keeps pressuring us on having sex… and I tried to talk to Dad about it. But when I started talking about my relationship with Haley and approaching the subject, he got all flustered and didn’t want to hear about it? He told me ‘you better not get Haley pregnant!’ and that’s where the conversation ended.”

Dex nodded about it as he looked to be thinking.

“Me and Haley talked about it… and we both don’t feel comfortable at this time about losing our virginity. But everyone’s pressuring us and we don’t like it.”

“Here’s what you do.” Dex suggested. “If you and Haley do not feel comfortable taking your relationship to that level, then you don’t have sex. That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Dex nodded. “I think it’s a really good thing that you and your girlfriend talked about it because impulse decisions could have lasting consequences, and I’m not just talking about pregnancy.”

“So what do I tell my friends?”

“Tell ‘em to mind their own business.” Dex shrugged. “Teens talk all about sex but everyone who brags about getting all the ladies at sixteen are fuckin’ liars.”

Nathan chuckled a bit at his uncle’s remark. “But I don’t know what to make about Dad’s reaction.”

“Parents don’t see their kids like that. You have to understand that. Even though we were all horny stupid teenagers once upon a time, we mature and move on to different priorities, so when we see our offspring come of age, and start to have these feelings, it throws people off. Plus I think your Dad just wants to protect you, and he doesn’t know how to approach the subject.” Dex explained. “At least that’s how I see it.”

“But you’re not like that.”

Dex leaned in and smiled. “Sweetie, I’m sex positive. Sex happens, and people want sex, and if you try and pretend that teens don’t have sex? Well I got beachfront property to sell in Kansas. If you don’t give people the knowledge, the advice, and resources to understand these feelings and desires, then people are being set up to fail. Plus I’ve seen so much crazy shit, you wouldn’t believe it.”

“I can imagine so.”

“So I want you to know that if you and Haley don’t want to take your relationship to that level at this time, then that’s perfectly fine. And ignore the peer pressure because they’re all fucking liars anyways. When you and Haley feel ready, then that’s for you two and nobody else to decide. Like I said, impulsive decisions can have disastrous consequences. And I’m not just talking about pregnancy. STD’s do happen and they’re not fun to have, and sometimes they can cause serious damage to your body. So the most important thing to do is to have the knowledge to protect yourself. Condoms, birth control, hell, pulling out before you shoot!”

“Ahh.” Nathan nodded. “Well that makes me feel better.”

“I hope that helps.”

“It does!” Nathan said, a smile returning to his face.

Dex smiled and patted his nephew on the back. “You remind me of myself when I was your age.”

“Really?”

“I was a quiet teen who kept to myself and liked to read because I didn’t want anyone to know I was gay. I missed out on a lot of friendships when I was a teen because I structured my whole life around shame, and it’s such a dreadful thing.”

“Oh.” Nathan frowned. “I’m just shy.”

“Introverts unite~” Dex smiled.

“Ha, yeah.” The young malamute laughed.

“You wanna stick around? I’m gonna make lunch for everyone soon.”

“Sure.”

“I’m making ham and cheese sandwiches.”

Packing his work paperwork back up, Dex called all the kids over. Molly and Sam’s children ran over all exited. Ripley, Tim, Mindy, and Bruce Kramer ran with their cousins, Braxton, Connor, and Jamey Malprave. They were all between the ages of six and twelve, and almost all looked like, being floofy young malamutes with gray and white fur.

“Let’s all get some lunch!” Dex called as he ushered them all inside. He had a smile on their face seeing how blissfully happy they all were. For many years Dex was apprehensive about children and he kept his distance from kids. But having come home and meeting his nieces and nephews, he came around to embrace being an uncle to them and helping his family babysit. They helped take the loneliness away that he sometimes suffered from.

Dex welcomed Nathan inside and slid the patio door shut behind him.

Laying on the loveseat, in the recliner, and on the couch, seven kids slept with Dex after lunch and a story. Dex sat slumped back on the couch, snoring lightly with a opened children’s book laying on his stomach. His big tattooed arms rested around Ripley and Tim, who slept with their heads on his shoulders.

The front door opened, revealing Cathy and Bruce returning from the grocery store. With their arms full of bags of groceries, they stepped in and saw everyone asleep. Cathy and Bruce both had big smiles on their faces at the sight.

“Aww that is so sweet.” Cathy quietly said to Bruce as they walked by. The sound of them walking by stirred Dex slowly awake, and his blue eyes opened to slowly scan the room to see all the kids asleep, and asleep on him. The big malamute yawned and gently stretched his arms. He carefully moved Ripley and Tim to let them sleep more as he got up slowly.

“Boy you really wore them all out~” Bruce chuckled as Dex stepped into the kitchen.

“They played in the yard all morning, and then we had lunch and a story.” Dex said with a content look on his face.

“You are babysitting material~” Cathy smiled and laughed as she put groceries away.

“Well I don’t know about that. I know enough to get by.” Dex laughed. He glanced back at all of them sleeping. “They do help fill the empty void I feel sometimes.”

Cathy nodded in understanding.

“You should make some new friends!” Bruce exclaimed.

Dex grabbed a couple boxes of cereal from a bag and placed them in the cupboard. “Sometimes that’s easier said than done, Dad~”

Dex helped his Mom and Dad put groceries away, and went to grab his work paperwork to continue working on them. He stepped back outside into the balmy sunshine to set back up to continue working on his backlog of work. As he prepared a batch of time off requests, his phone rang, which he reached over to grab, finding an Ohio number calling him. He fumbled his brow and answered it, expecting a spam caller.

“Dex Malprave.”

“Hi Dex, this is Rob Barion.” Came the gruff voice of Barev’s president. It made Dex immediately sit up straight in his chair.

“Oh hi Rob, this is an unexpected call~” Dex said, sounding surprised.

“I have your truck ready to go, and I’ll be able to deliver it tomorrow with a load to Biloxi if you can accept it then.” Rob announced.

“Yes, I can accept that.”

“I would also like to properly meet our Centoh operations manager who I have heard a lot about.” Rob quipped.

Dex gulped. “Well it depends on who you talk to.” He laughed a bit awkwardly. Rob didn’t laugh.

“I’ll be arriving at eleven o’clock central time tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there.”

“See you then, Dex. You take care.”

“You too. Bye-bye now.”

Dex sat the phone down and looked a bit hesitant to meeting his ultimate boss, the mercurial Rob Barion. He went back to doing his paperwork.

Sunday morning was cool at fifty-nine degrees with a light fog clinging to the ground. The sky was a light overcast, which took on a milky white color. A cool breeze coming down from the north rustled the trees that slowly grew more naked as winter approached Biloxi.

Checking the time, Dex placed his stack of finished paperwork on Ron’s desk, and left a note attached for him. He left his boss’ office and closed the door behind him and gazed around at the almost empty office. Weekends at Centoh were basically a skeleton crew, as most of the workforce was off. Dex made his way out through the side door and into the maintenance hangar, where a couple of mechanics stood around taking a break from servicing a C-47B. Dex walked by and stood by the big open hangar doors, watching the sky for the arrival of Rob’s flight. He didn’t have to wait long.

Coming in five minutes early, Dex spotted the propliner’s arrival in the landing pattern. It was Freightmaster’s bulbous Boeing, the polished silver C-97G “parts hauler”. The big Stratofreighter banked around for landing, its four radial engines leaving a prominent exhaust trail as it descended in for landing with everything down. Everyone stood and watched as the lumbering propliner touched down, its tires smoking on contact with the runway. It smoothly rolled out, and turned around to taxi to the tarmac with its outboard engines shut down. The huge Pratt and Whitney Wasp Majors had a raspy burble to them, and smoke pulsed and gushed from the exhaust piping. The tight cowlings were all stained heavily from the exhaust. The plane turned and parked with the aid of the ground crew. Dex approached as the engines were powered off.

The APU hummed in the fuselage with its turbine shriek. It powered the rear cargo doors under the tail; the clam shell doors opened and a hydraulically actuated ramp deployed down and locked into place. The forward hatch on the port side deployed with the stairs integral to the door. As the hatch opened it revealed Rob’s personal mechanic, Vlado Horvat, and his middle son, Tito. The forward cargo door opened, revealing Rob’s husband Joey Paulo, a black and tan Doberman. Dex nervously awaited Rob as he walked over to introduce himself.

“Good morning and welcome to Gulfport-Biloxi~” Dex greeted. “I’m Dex Malprave, the operations manager for Centoh Biloxi.”

“Good morning.” Vlado greeted with a handshake. “This is my son, Tito.”

“Morning~” the younger Croatian wolf greeted. “Tito.”

“Dex.” The malamute greeted. “And you must be Joey Paulo!”

“In the flesh.” The Doberman smiled so warmly as he greeted Dex. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Depends on who you talk to.” Dex joked with a slight laugh. “I must make an impression if our friendly competitor hears about me!”

“Please.” Joey laughed. “Partners and damage control specialists! That’s us at Freightmaster Systems International!” The Dober turned around to see Rob stepping down through the hatch. Dex’s expression grew more serious as Rob approached.

Rob was dressed rather casually; a pair of black work pants, black boots, and a dark blue sweatshirt with a blue baseball hat that covered his wavy locks of brown hair. Dex noticed that Rob had his pistol strapped to his hip, complete with an ominous suppressor. He walked with a clipboard tucked under his arm. “Good morning, Dex.”

“Good morning.” Dex greeted with a warm handshake. “You made great time from Ohio.”

“Well we were aided along by a handy tailwind~” Rob remarked. He grabbed his clipboard, fetched his pen, and signed off on his flight paperwork. “We’ll get your truck unloaded in just a moment. I have the paperwork in the cab.”

“Great.”

Dex watched as the ground crew unloaded the C-97. From the forward cargo hold came two palletized R-3350’s and a single R-1830 and R-2800 engine. Another pallet of spare parts came down and was rolled away with the forklift. Walking around towards the tail, the malamute watched the first work truck gingerly roll down the ramps. It was an extended cab one ton in white, a typical run of the mill base model Silverado. It was driven to the maintenance hangar and parked inside beside the other work truck. Dex then saw his truck get offloaded slowly.

Coming down the ramps was a long bed, crew cab 3500HD in fleet white. It drove straight down the ramp slowly by Rob and made a wide slow turn to park. Dex looked impressed as he walked around to examine his new whip. It had a black chip deflector installed on the hood, and the bed had a black spray-on liner. Four brand new Firestone all-terrain tires were installed on the clean aluminum rims capped with the Chevy bowtie on the hubs. He took note of the Ohio temporary tag on the license plate holder. Rob hopped out and Dex glanced at the interior. It had vinyl floors but cloth seats that were dark gray. The dash was perfectly clean, and the odometer read just 45,683 miles on it.

“So what do you think?” Rob asked.

“This looks practically brand new.” Dex remarked.

“This was an airport truck from Lainsville.” Rob pointed out. “They got a new truck, and I got this refurbished, and now it’s yours.”

“You know this means so much to me.” Dex nodded.

“Take it for a quick spin and see what you think?” Rob suggested.

Dex climbed in and buckled himself in. The cabin had the new car scent. He adjusted the seat and the mirrors and popped the shifter into drive. Giving the truck some power, he took off for the perimeter gate, which was opened by the sentries. Dex turned the wheel and made it through the gate and did a few laps around the large parking lot. Compared to his brother’s Dodge Ram, the Silverado felt heavier in turns, and it did feel slightly sluggish in accelerating. A V8 in a larger chassis couldn’t compete with the Dodge’s massive V10, outside of an improvement in fuel burn! Dex circled and parked his new one ton beside the red Ram 2500. He felt impressed and happy with his new vehicle. Grabbing the manila folder holding all his documents, he hopped out and went back inside to sign some of the paperwork and get the transfer all finished with Rob.

Taking his new truck for a spin into Gulfport, Dex took Rob and Joey out to go grab lunch. Dex took them to a meat and three that he liked, a place that was as Mississippi as Mississippi could be for gastronomy. The small eatery was nestled in a strip mall, and the inside was narrow and long, with white tiled floors and walls, and a set of booths on both sides. They took a seat by the front window and got their orders placed.

“How do you like being back home verses Chicago?” Rob asked as he squeezed his lemon wedge into his ice water.

“I think I’ve adjusted for the most part.” Dex explained. “I know I’m feeling better, that’s for sure. Getting there.”

“Well that’s good.” Smiled Joey.

“You know you do really good work, Dex.” Rob complimented. “What’s your secret?”

“My secret?”

“Yeah, how you manage workers.”

“I set expectations and I hold people to them. Accountability is a great thing.”

“Exactly.”

“I worked twenty-one years for a company where accountability was not a concept anyone in management understood or cared for, and it drove me nuts that people got away with practically murder.” Dex explained. “So when I came over to Centoh, I told Gary that I was going to run it with accountability emphasized, and Gary told me to do it my way, so I did.”

“Well you did really well.”

“And it’s not hard. You see problems, you resolve it. Not shuffle it around like Saunders-Babbit. If workers aren’t working out you have to let them go. It’s sad, but it is what it is. Work isn’t charity, and you’re not entitled to work.”

Rob nodded. “That’s exactly right. People get complacent if you don’t keep their feet to the fire. Years ago I worked for the school district’s broadcast channel, WNCS-TV, and you wanna talk about a bunch of stupid retards in charge, look no further. They would bitch about our obsolete broadcast equipment that I cobbled together for us to use, and when I’d ask them if they were going to get us new gear, they’d tell us no. But they’d sure love to bitch, and I’ve give it right back to them. Fuck ‘em.”

“At Saunders-Babbit, I got yelled more for little mistakes than the major stuff. This ding-dong that drove a forklift recklessly put two people in the hospital and nothing happened to him. No drug test, nothing. But I got yelled at for using non company paper in my personal desk printer, because our paper sucked. I got yelled at for using a different cover sheet. But Mark could put people in the hospital and nothing. Brandon could work sixty-eighty hours a week for a sub-forty hour a week job, and nothing. Zero accountability. It’s stupid.”

“What a shitshow.” Joey chuckled. “I’m thankful I got to work in my family business for sixteen years.”

“What do you do? I know about the air cargo ops?”

“Well that’s a more recent innovation, but I’m a gunsmith for the most part.” Joey explained. “I went from being a stripper at a gay club to a gunsmith.”

Dex blinked and looked surprised. “Well that’s an interesting career transition.”

“Yeah.” The Doberman grinned playfully. “I did it for a few years and got tired of the shit and it was leading me down a dark path, so I left.”

“Ah.” Dex nodded. “I know about that dark path that you speak of. That’s how I ended up coming back home. It’s just funny when I look back. Everyone talks about how accepting and inviting the gay community is, but people are pricks deep down. And if you don’t fit some kind of preconceived idea, or unrealistic expectation of what beauty is, then you’re doomed or something.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Joey nodded. “I got a lot of attention for my looks, and I made a hell of a lot of money! But people treat you weird. I had guys treat me pretty harsh because they think I’m just a sex worker all the time. Nevermind that I have wants, needs, desires of my own.”

“Exactly.” Rob nodded.

Joey continued. “I had guys reject me because I’m bi, because I’m from Brazil, the list goes on. It’s stupid, is what it is.”

“I’ve been told so many times that I didn’t fit in here or there, or I was too big, too tall, not big enough, not enough ink, too much ink, the list goes on.” Dex explained. “I kinda thought being accepted meant to be kinda slutty and party around and sleep around.”

“Yeah, I believe that. There’s a lot of unhealthy signaling in the gay community.” Joey quipped. “At how I see it now at forty.”

“I let all that drive me to do drugs and it went out of control and I fucked my life up and am clawing my way back.” Dex explained, looking regretful in front of his boss.

“Well the key is that you saw the problem and you’re doing something about it.” Rob shrugged. “A lot of people hit rock bottom and just stay there until they die.”

“Well no, I don’t like where I was…” Dex grimaced. “But I don’t know where this path is gonna take me.”

“You have to sometimes blaze your own trail~” Joey smiled. “It’s isolating at times, but you’ll be happier in the end. I think conforming to some unrealistic expectation is just toxic and does more damage.”

“Toxic is an understatement.” Dex shook his head.

The waitress came with their food. Dex got a slice of country ham with some collard greens and macaroni and cheese, while Rob got a fried chicken breast, some green beans and mashed potatoes, and Joey got a slice of meatloaf with collards, and some corn. The conversation quieted down some as they ate their food. The eatery got a few more patrons who came in and sat down not far away.

“I must remark that this is quite an interesting company to work for.” Dex said with a mouthful of food as he swallowed.

“Why do you say that?” Rob asked, raising a brow.

“Well I worked for a company for a long time who didn’t give a shit about workers. And you hear all the time in the era of the great resignation of companies who don’t give a shit about workers. Yet at Barev’s facilities, I’ve seen that when people bring up problems usually they are resolved, or mitigated.”

Rob fumbled his brow a bit. “That’s the role of management. And if you’re gonna run a business, you have to take care of people, that’s it. If people are going to give you their time, their strength, and their knowledge, then you gotta take care of them, it’s plain and simple. I worked for a school district who’d fuck people over if it was financially convenient, so me and Maverick said we’d never do that if our business took off.”

“That’s why I appreciate it, because had my accident happened at Saunders-Babbit, they would have gotten rid of me because of the drugs.”

“You were faced with a problem and we’re not like that.” Rob shook his head. “Gary would call me all the time and tell me how you were solving problems and coming up with solutions that even he couldn’t think of. He told me you had the biggest set of balls he’s ever seen on someone when handling difficult workers, and workplace exigencies. And that’s what got my attention.”

“Like I said earlier, it’s not hard to do, you just have to hold people accountable.” Dex shrugged.

“The last guy, the guy you replaced in Chicago. He was a pussy ass bitch who’d fuck everything up. Gary didn’t have the heart to fire him because he was, and really, he was a nice guy, but I can’t have an ops manager passing the buck to the hub director… so I personally fired him. I don’t have time for tomfoolery in the company.”

“So I’ve heard.” The malamute quipped. “Plus, when you’ve been pushed around and treated meanly in the gay community, it’s not hard to get a thick hide for when shit hits the fan!”

“Tell me about it.” Joey laughed.

“I wanted to find my place in Boystown… and it didn’t quite work out… and now I’m trying to find my place again… and I must admit that… it’s kind of lonely.”

“I understand.” Joey nodded. “There was a time I felt like that too.”

“You did?” Dex asked.

“Yeah.” The Dober nodded. “I thought I had all these gay friends, and when I became a gunsmith, and especially when I met Rob, they all kind of… left.”

“They just drop you like a hot potato?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s what happened to me when I met my friend Braxton, and later, his boyfriend Christos. I thought I had this nice circle of friends and then they just dropped me… saying I was trying to be something I’m not.”

“I think that says more about them than you.” Rob pointed out.

“Yeah.” Dex nodded.

“Don’t let others take your joy away.” Joey said, offering his advice. “And think about quality over quantity of friends. That’s what helped me. Now me and Rob have our circle of friends we all interact with.”

“Ah. Well I don’t have any at the moment.” Dex frowned slightly. “But I have my family, and my nieces and nephews, and that helps take the loneliness away.”

“Baby steps!” Joey smiled.

Dex saw out of the corner of his eye someone get up. He turned his head to see a guy in a camouflage jacket approach, a middle aged gray wolf with a graying beard.

“Hey why don’t we stop talking about this stupid ass queer shit! Some of us wanna eat!” the wolf said with a hick drawl.

“Don’t listen in, and you’ll be okay.” Rob responded with an insincere smile.

The wolf got into Rob’s face. “You faggots wanna fight?”

“A faggot huh?”

“That’s right!”

Rob grabbed the wolf by the collar of his shirt and yanked his face into his. Rob shoved his 10mm Glock against his face as he stared intensely at him. The wolf’s face was ashen, full of terror.

“Go the fuck away.” Rob said in a deep, aggressive, but quiet voice. “If you don’t like our conversation, then don’t listen in. ‘Cause I don’t care of your nigger this, beaner that fuckery over from your booth, motherfucker. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Rob shoved him to the floor, and the wolf retreated back to his booth. Dex’s eyes were huge as he saw Rob casually sit his pistol down on the table and resume taking a bite of his food as if nothing had happened. “So anyways.”

Dex’s eyes darted back and forth nervously as he took a sip of his water and gulped.

After work, Dex made his way to the BMV to get his license plate. He sat behind the wheel of his new truck which cruised along the highway in cruise control, enroute to Biloxi’s BMV after finding out Gulfport’s was closed due to a car crashing into the lobby. More unusual, his father rode along with him; Bruce sat in the passenger seat, looking occupied as he read something on his phone. The aging malamute looked unusually melancholy, and Dex sensed that something was amiss with his Dad. Bruce claimed he wanted to ride along to get take out for dinner, but Dex felt that there more to his reasoning.

Passing a slow car in the right lane, Dex put his turn signal on and smoothly merged back into the right lane as he checked his GPS. They were enroute to be there in thirteen minutes. Dex glanced over at his Dad, who looked glum at his phone.

“Are you okay, Dad?”

Bruce looked up at him. “I think you know why I wanted to ride along with ya.”

Dex nodded. “I think you want to talk about something that’s bothering you.”

Bruce nodded in agreement. “I found out earlier today that my best friend, Greg, died, from leukemia.”

“Oh no.” Dex muttered. “Dad, that’s so sad to hear.”

“His partner Clint called me while I was at lunch at work to tell me he died.”

“Partner? I thought Greg was married to Barbara?” Dex asked. He raised a brow in confusion.

“This is why I wanted to ride with you, because I thought you’d understand it better.” Bruce revealed. “Barbara died in November 2020 from Covid-19, and Greg had been battling leukemia on and off for several years. And as you know Greg and Barb were married like me and your Mom for a very long time. High school sweethearts. Well several months after Barb passed, Greg came to my office at work and he asked if I had a moment, and I did, and he told me that he was coming out of the closet- he was gay.”

“How did you react to that?”

“Well I didn’t really know what to say?” Bruce admitted. “You know, me and him go back to when we were teenagers. We were best friends since I was thirteen years old. We’ve worked together for practically forty years. He told me that he wasn’t going to live a lie anymore, and that he was battling leukemia and he wasn’t gonna spend his twilight years living a lie any longer. And it really shocked me, Dex. It really shocked me that he could spend all those years married to Barb, created a beautiful family with her, two wonderful, beautiful daughters, and a successful son in the Army, and live like that, knowing that deep down that isn’t the life you want to live?”

“Some people can’t be gay, if you know what I mean.”

“What do you mean by that, Dex?” Bruce asked.

Dex pursed his lips and chose his words. “Dad you have to understand that for a lot of gay men, our lives are structured around shame. We are a heteronormative society that takes for granted people’s straightness. You can put a picture of Mom on your desk and nobody says a thing. Nobody cares. There’s still a great stigma and shame about being gay to a lot of men, because families can and will reject those who dare to come out. And in some countries, you get killed for it, or thrown in prison. Throughout history, gay people have existed in the shadows of society, blending in, and hiding their true desires to avoid humiliation, or worse. That’s what Greg did.”

“I just can’t believe he did that. He was the happiest person in the world! I never thought anything would be amiss. He loved his wife unconditionally, and he told me that all the time. He loved her.”

“It’s complex. He did genuinely love her, even if maybe his sexual feelings weren’t there all the way.” Dex nodded.

“That’s what he told me.” Bruce nodded back. “He said that he married Barb because there wasn’t any alternative for him. It was be married, or if he dared come out, be disowned by his family. And he said he ‘chose to live’. I just can’t put myself in those shoes. And I think about what I’ve taken for granted… and then to hear Greg tell me this stuff… and then your experiences, son, I’m… sad at comments I’ve made in the past.”

“The past is the past. The best thing you, or anyone, can do, is learn from it and grow from it.” Dex remarked. “Everyone young and old has the capacity to learn.”

“The last year of his life, I saw Greg so happy, even when it was clear he was dying. But he said he was so scared trying to live his life being openly gay. He told me there were days he didn’t know what to do, but he lucked out meeting his partner at this community center thing in Biloxi? You know they were together for only six months… but Greg seemed to be madly in love with him and happy, even as his body shut down slowly. When I last talked to him… just a few days ago… he told me everything was gonna be okay, because he made peace with himself. And then he died.”

Bruce shook his head. “Six months. He got to love someone for six months. Such a small window of time when I think about the forty-four years me and your mom have been married, and the almost fifty years we’ve known each other! And we’re still learning about each other every day! Greg had six months. And that doesn’t seem fair.”

“Life isn’t fair sadly.” Dex mustered a smile. “And coming out doesn’t guarantee happiness, Dad.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Heh, it sure didn’t work out at first for me!” Dex laughed with a sardonic cackle. “I never told anyone this before. But when I was nineteen, I went to my first pride parade, in the summer of ninety-eight in Chicago. I was so excited to experience this, and then I got the shit beat out of me by three guys in an alley. They slammed me into the wall, punched and kicked me and bloodied me up, called me a faggot, a queer, a fudge packer as they hit me. Until two leather clad daddies grabbed and beat the shit out of them in turn.”

Bruce was horrified.

“I was so frightened. I was so shook up and I was in tears. And those two big burly guys took me over to this club, and got me cleaned up. And I remember one of them, he was a big dude all tattooed up and had his leathers on, he pulled me into his arms and he held me up to his chest until I calmed down. And he said ‘sweetie, did you think it was so easy being gay?’ I’ll never forget the kindness of that man, even under those horrible circumstances. They took me back to my dorm, and that was the last time I ever saw them.”

“My god… someone did that to you? Because you were gay?”

“Yep.” Dex nodded. “But it’s not just that. There’s a lot of pressure in the gay community itself. It’s a community of a diverse group of people all facing the squeeze of oppression. There’s a lot of unrealistic expectations to live up to male beauty and perfection, and a lot of people get hurt from it. People have their cliques and if you’re not in, you’re out. And I was one of those who kinda fell through the cracks for whatever reason. And I really screwed myself up and am paying for it now.”

“Greg told me he felt lost and scared. He said there were times it was really lonely, because a lot of his family didn’t accept the news. His kids didn’t care apparently. They wanted him to be happy, and they were a big help. He said he was thankful for his kids’ support.”

“Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter, at least in theory~” Dex chuckled. He took his exit off 605 and made a right onto Rt. 67, which took him to the DMV on the right. They pulled in to begin the long wait to get a new license plate.

In the parking lot of the BMV, Dex attached his new Mississippi license plate to the license plate holder, replacing the flimsy paper Ohio temp tag. He neatly folded it up and placed it in a trash can close by. He glanced over to see his Dad ordering hotdogs from a hotdog stand that was set up in the parking lot. Dex walked over to grab his hotdog and drink. They walked over to a desolate picnic table that sat off to the side under some now naked trees. Dex took the moment as a nice bonding moment with his Dad.

Today’s trip surprised Dex at the introspection of his usually gruff and stoic father. For all his life, Dex thought of his Dad as the typical macho father, willing to do whatever it took to keep the family going. He’d work long hours without complaint, never missed work, and never whined about stuff. But today his father seemed really bothered by his friend’s passing, his grief showing through.

“Do you see yourself getting a partner, Dex?” Bruce asked out of the blue.

Dex chewed on his hotdog as he thought of what to say. He swallowed and responded. “You know, I just don’t know.”

“I see all your brothers and sisters getting married and being happy, and I want to see you happy with someone!” Bruce explained. “You don’t deserve going through life alone.”

“It’s easier said than done. And being in a relationship for the sake of being in a relationship almost certainly means you’re setting yourself up to fail.” The malamute chuckled as he took another bite of his hotdog.

Bruce sipped on his soda. “I want you to be happy, Dex. And me and your Mom want to see you be happy and find someone you love.”

“I’m forty-three years old, and I’ve had one really brief relationship when I was twenty-nine, which lasted approximately five weeks and two days before he left me for another guy but not before telling me he gave me gonorrhea!”

“What do you think is the reason for that?”

Dex shrugged. “Probably a lack of confidence on my part, a gay community that emphasizes hedonistic hookup culture, self-loathing because a lot of guys like gay sex but don’t want their feelings validated on it, and weird desires of validation through sex and sex only.”

“I see.” Bruce nodded.

“Gay people do fall in love and have normal relationships that are monogamous, or almost monogamous, and raise children and I’ve seen it firsthand. But a lot of people don’t. It’s just the way it is. And if I couldn’t find myself a nice boyfriend in the gay mecca of the midwest? What are my chances in backwards Mississippi? Where just a year ago, we got rid of the confederate flag off our state flag?”

“Never say never~” Bruce smiled. “If Greg could do it when he was dying, and if your brother’s boss could have a partner… you can too~”

“We’ll see.” Dex smiled. He got up with his Dad to throw their trash away and go head back towards Orange Grove to actually grab dinner somewhere. Dex took off in his Silverado and hopped back onto the highway to head back the way they came.

“So lemme ask you, Dad. What made you change your mind?”

“What do you mean?”

“Years ago, you told me you’d never accept me bringing a boyfriend home, and now you and Mom want me to partner up. What’s next? Kids?” teased Dex.

“Heh, heh, I’ve learned a lot over the past couple of years.” Bruce responded. “I’ve had a few things that have… rocked my world view, like my friend Greg coming out… the stupid politics in this country… and church.”

“Church… I notice you and Mom don’t go to church anymore? You always went on Sundays.”

“Yeah, I stopped when Reverend Riley got busted.”

“Busted?”

“He was arrested for soliciting sex with a minor online…” Bruce grumbled. “Motherfuckin’ piece of shit, that pedophile…”

“Wait. Holy shit, when did this happen, Dad!?”

“About three years ago.” Bruce started to explain. “Reverend Riley was busted trying to meet up and have sex with a twelve year old boy. And then all these allegations of sexual abuse and molestation came up. Over seventy people spanning fifty years, came forward to reveal that he abused them. Seventy people! Going back to 1969! When I was nine years old!”

Dex fumbled his brow. “I always felt uncomfortable around him…”

“I put my trust in God in that man… I believed in him, I believed in his promises… and he could take my trust… and do something so fucking god damn sick and perverted… I wanted to kill that sumbitch, for taking my trust and potentially endangering all of you! Those victims… all of you could have been those children…”

Bruce shook his head. “After that I gave up on church. I didn’t give up on my faith. I feel like my faith and my view of the good book have changed. I feel that if God, the omnipotent being that created the expanse of time, our universe and everything in it… if God has that power to do all that, and create us? Then I think we could never even begin to comprehend. And certainly the lord would have more important things to worry about that… abortion and gay sex? Wars, famine, the destitute here? But it’s gay sex and abortion. And I realized that my blind faith was pushing you away from us. And my blind faith enabled that son of a bitch.”

“I wouldn’t beat yourself up, Dad.” Dex shook his head. “People are manipulators, and people manipulate faith to suit whatever agenda they want. It’s sad, but it is what it is.”

“Yeah. Sadly.” Bruce shook his head.

“You know I really appreciate this conversation, Dad.”

“I do too. Because it’s really helped me vent a lot of pain in my heart.” Bruce smiled. “I’m sorry for the past.”

“It’s the past for a reason. Let’s just build on it and learn from it~”

“I like that.” His father smiled.

“I do too.” Dex smiled back.

“You’re working on bettering yourself for the future… so hang in there Dex. You might find your dream partner. Someone will appreciate you for being you.”

“Ha, that’ll be the day.” Dex chuckled as he drove on home.

2023.

New Years Day was a cold start to 2023. The sky was overcast and hung low, its clouds looking as turbulent as the sea that crashed against the beach. A light dusting of snow had made its way to Biloxi, turning the Mississippi landscape an unusual shade of white. A frigid wind whistled through the naked trees by the beach, twirling snow flurries that sputtered from the tumultuous clouds.

Leaning against his truck, Dex stood watching the waves churn and the sea foam white. It was the first day to the new year, and the malamute took a moment to reflect on everything that had happened the year before, and what lay ahead for him in the new year. It was a new year, for new chances, and he planned on making the most of it.

The day before, on the last day of 2022, Dex finished up his physical therapy. He was given an excellent prognosis by the orthopedic specialist, and his doctor cleared him as well. After a grueling year and a half of physical therapy, his body had almost completely recovered from the accident. His exercise helped him shed off the pounds, but his body stabilized to more of a “dad bod” verses the leaner lines he had before. It was just the consequence of aging. He was going to be forty-four in a few months. He got his health back, but the toll of the past year and a half made his hair and beard gray up even more.

It was going on almost seven months since he returned home to Biloxi. He was feeling better, his career was going well, but he did feel somewhat lonely, a feeling mitigated somewhat by his family. But he missed his social life, his friends. He felt unsure of where to go or what to do about sex and relationships. He certainly didn’t want to screw up like before with his blatant hedonism. As he thought, his phone beeped, signaling an incoming message. He grabbed it from his pocket to read a new text from someone he had been talking to on Sniffies.

“I’m at the Motel 6, whenever you’re ready.”

“Cool. On my way.” Dex wrote back.

The malamute gulped and turned to hop back into his still warm truck. He took off go embark on this new test of his confidence, his first hookup in a long time.

The Motel 6 in Biloxi was two buildings side by side on a big concrete lot. It was a gray building with blue accents, and a big blue sign out front. It was the typical, low cost, slightly sleazy motel for overnighters and couples looking for a quickie.

A rough looking F-150 sat backed into a space, its driver, a young Mexican wolf, leaning against the hood all bundled in the cold in his beanie, Carhartt jacket, and fancy Rock Revival jeans that were flashy, distressed, faded, and bedazzled in the pockets. Fancy snakeskin boots, pointed at the toe, completed the young wolf’s getup. He looked up through his polarized sunglasses to see Dex arrive and pull up beside him. He hopped out and smiled at him.

“Hey Fidel~” the malamute grinned.

“Hey.” The red wolf smiled. He turned and led Dex into his motel room. Dex closed the door behind him and locked it.

Dex took his jacket off and threw it on the second bed, as did the wolf. Dex walked over and began unbuttoning the wolf’s nice western shirt, revealing a snug white tanktop beneath that clung to his toned frame. Fidel pulled Dex’s sweatpants down, revealing a nice pair of salmon orange underwear with a black elastic band and his big bulge. Fidel undid his belt, unzipped his jeans and let them drop, revealing a red and black jockstrap that Dex was impressed with. Dex took his sweatshirt off, and stood in his black tanktop and briefs. Fidel rubbed his bulge, stomach and chest and smiled at him. Dex did the same as they leaned in for a kiss. That cute wolf had a nice tongue piercing.

“Wanna shower?”

“Sure~”

Dex slid the jock down, and watch as Fidel’s fat uncut cock plopped out. It was dark tan with a really nice hood over the fat head. “Nice.” The malamute muttered. Fidel did the same, and whistled when he saw’s Dex fat, pierced cock. Fidel put an arm around Dex as they went to the bathroom.

The shower was big enough for both of them, as they shared the hot stream of water that filled the bathroom full of steam. Dex watched as Fidel rinsed his coal black hair off in the water as he lathered his paws up with soap. Fidel stepped back and Dex ran his paws all over the red wolf’s brown and gray pelt to soap it up. He felt his muscles and caressed his back up and down. Fidel relaxed to the treatment.

“So you said you’re a roofer?”

“Yeah~” Fidel nodded. “It pays the bills!”

“Heh, I know that feeling.” The malamute chuckled.

“Yeah, I work hard, and sometimes play hard.” The wolf chuckled. “But man… you try and hook up and everyone’s a fucking flake.”

“Tell me about it.” Dex chuckled. “This is my first hookup in… well going on almost two years.”

“Wow.”

“I had a lot of shit happen that fucked me up, and now I’m getting back on my feet.”

“Well best of luck to ya.”

“Thanks.”

Fidel leaned forward and braced himself on the cool tile wall as he felt Dex soap up his firm butt. A curious finger teased his hole as Dex slipped a paw down to tease and tug at his big soft balls and floppy member.

“Fuck man, that feels good.”

“You like that?”

“Yeah~” Fidel smiled. “Man I need your cock so bad…”

“Oh you’ll get it.” The malamute chuckled. “Now just a reminder that I fuck raw…”

“That sounds fuckin’ hot.” Fidel said as he leaned back against Dex, who put his big tattooed arms around him. “I need a hot daddy breeding me for once… not this stupid shit excuse of flakes I get on Sniffies~”

“The worst.” Dex shook his head. “And everyone here compared to Chicago is all anonymous profiles and in the closet…”

“So you lived in Chicago?”

“I did. For just a hair under twenty-five years.”

“What made you come back to this dump? I’d love to move to Chicago if I had the money…”

“Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener. Big cities don’t automatically mean happiness for gays. I came back here because I almost died in a car accident, and it was time to be back home with my family.”

“Are you happy here?”

“Almost there.” Dex smiled.

“Well that’s good.”

Trading places, Dex washed his hair, and relaxed to feeling Fidel wash his body over. The young wolf massaged his back and shoulders, and fondled with his butt and balls too, which Dex let as he leaned against the wall, enjoying the hot water running down his tattooed back. He rinsed himself off, turned around and pulled Fidel into a deep long kiss.

The bed creaked, Fidel grunted, and Dex huffed and puffed as he fucked the young wolf doggy style. His big paws gripped Fidel’s hips as Dex worked his hard, pierced cock in and out of his tight, sloppy hole. Fidel moaned into the pillow as he jerked himself off. Dex placed one paw on his own hip as he stretched his back and slowed his fucking a bit; he was starting to get close. The anticipation after a long period of abstinence, his sensation of a nice tight hole to fuck, all was pushing him to an early nut.

“Oh fuck, it’s getting closer.”

“Cum in me, baby. Lemme have it, sexy daddy…”

“Oh now we’re talking…”

“Yeah I need daddy’s pent up cum… oh cum sexy Dexy!”

“Oh yeah? You want it?” Dex huffed. He bit his lower lip, his balls tightening.

Gripping Fidel’s hips, Dex really worked his cock hard. The malamute closed his eyes and grunted as he let his long pent up load loose. He groaned at the overwhelming sensation as he came, his curved barbell tugging and teasing his sensitive head. He hilted himself in as Fidel came himself all over a towel. Letting a big sigh of relief out, Dex laid down and over Fidel. He smiled and patted Fidel’s head and gave the side of his face a kiss. They smiled at each other as they laid there for a moment to catch their breath.

Dex climbed off and grabbed a towel to wipe his cock off. He wiped Fidel off and threw it over to the floor. He laid down and pulled Fidel close to him for some cuddles. The wolf smiled as he laid his head on Dex’s shoulder and placed a paw on his chest. Dex gently rubbed his lower back as they laid there.

“You doing okay?”

“Sore.” Teased Fidel. “Fun, lots of fun.”

“Well I appreciate you a lot. That was my first time since mid 2021.”

“A long time.”

“Oh yeah.”

“That’s a lot of nut.”

“Ha~”

Fidel nuzzled Dex’s chest. “You’re not like some guys I’ve fucked.”

“Yeah?”

“My last dude was a fucking prick.”

“You get that.”

“Was great, and then when were done, he just pushed me away, got dressed and left.”

“Some guys blow hot and cold. They’re like that because they don’t want to validate their feelings.”

“I’m sick of that shit.” The wolf shook his head. “Or it was fun and they ghost you.”

“Yeah, been there, done that.” Chuckled Dex. “I like a nice snuggle after a good romp.”

“Same here.”

Dex yawned. “And maybe a nap…”

Fidel chuckled. “I like that idea too.”

Dex grabbed his phone and set his alarm for an hour and a half and sat it back on the nightstand. Fidel put his head back on Dex’s chest and laid there contently as his eyes grew heavier. Dex gave his forehead a kiss as he drifted off to sleep.

Dex felt his blue eyes grow heavier, and he laid there, looking up at the ceiling, feeling so content, and in a way, relieved that he could still perform in bed. Maybe there was hope for him afterall. It was the first day of the new year, a new twelve months of possibility. Dex fell into a content, spent sleep with Fidel curled up with him.

Four Months Later.

Dex stepped out of his truck looking content on a sunny Thursday afternoon. It was his forty-fourth birthday, and again, his workplace surprised him with a cake and his third Golden Plumbicon Award for outstanding service to Centoh Intermodal. Dex grabbed his laptop bag and locked the truck as he walked up the porch and unlocked the door to go inside.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” came his parents with big grins. They both held a rainbow iced sheet cake that had two rainbow candles that read out “44”.

“Oh my god! Mom and Dad!” Dex exclaimed. He looked a bit embarrassed at the pride colored cake. “You didn’t have to!”

“It’s your birthday!” Cathy exclaimed with a big grin. “You’re only forty-four once!”

“Oh god don’t remind me!” Dex laughed. “You’re gonna make me all fat with this cake!”

“Oh c’mon, you don’t eat sweets all the time.” Laughed Bruce. “We got some presents for you!”

“Oh boy…” Dex chuckled as he went to the kitchen with them. “It better not be a rainbow jockstrap!”

“No!” they laughed.

Dex sat down at the table, and his parents sang “Happy Birthday” to him. Dex took a deep breath and blew out the candles to his parents clapping.

“Whacha wish for?” Bruce asked.

“Good luck and happiness.” Dex admitted.

“It’ll happen!” Cathy smiled as she cut him a slice of cake.

For his birthday, Dex got two presents from his parents; a meteorology book on severe weather, and a new jacket. He sat and had cake with his parents and talked about his uneventful day at work. After his dessert, he went upstairs, showered and changed, and retreated to his bedroom to read his new book.

Sitting in his recliner, Dex looked relaxed as he read by the window. As a young teenager, Dex had envisioned himself as a storm chaser after seeing the movie Twister with his brother. Jason became a member of Skywarn, and had gone on a few chases during severe weather in the state. But weather lately had been calm, which prevented him from getting a chance to go storm chasing with him.

The telephone rang, and Dex glanced up to see his brother Sam calling him. He reached over to grab it and answer it via speakerphone.

“Hey!”

“What are you up to, Dex?”

“Just reading- why what’s up?”

“Is there a chance you could come pick me up? I had a mishap with my truck at Connor’s place…”

Dex leaned forward in his chair. “Are you okay?”

“I am! The truck’s not. I hit some debris on the road and it apparently did more damage than I thought because my transmission bled out on me here at Connor’s. I’ve tried to reach out to him and Jason, and nobody picked up or replied to my texts… so I’m kind of stuck here.”

“Hold tight I’ll be there!” Dex exclaimed.

Putting his book on his desk, Dex got up, threw his shoes on and quickly made his way downstairs.

“Where are you going?” Cathy asked curiously as she checked on a pot roast in the oven.

“Sam’s truck broke down, and I’m gonna get him.” Dex explained as he grasped the doorknob and opened the door.

“Be safe~” Cathy waved as Dex nodded and left.

Making a right turn onto Route 49, Dex put his foot on the gas and built up speed as he began heading north. It was a fifteen minute drive to Sam’s location, at his boss’ home which happened to have one of their farm fields located at. Dex hit the cruise control and leaned back in his seat. His route took him to South Swan Road, a rough country lane near some woods and farmland. Dex was bounced about by the uneven, potholed road. He kicked up a cloud of dust behind him that washed out his view behind him from the sun’s glow. His GPS took him to a long gravel driveway with a mailbox beside it. He slowed up and turned left to traverse the shallow hill and its beautiful bright green grass that swayed in the breeze.

Atop the shallow hill was a big white farm home, complete with a large front porch that held a swing. A giant maple tree provided shade. Dex marveled at the scenery as he pulled up, finding Sam’s truck sitting by the farm field, the gravel colored red around it by a big puddle of transmission fluid. Dex parked and hopped out to see Sam come around from behind his big fifth wheel trailer.

“Hey happy birthday!” Sam greeted. He managed to muster a smile for his brother as he hugged him.

“We gotta stop running into each other like this.” Dex smiled back. “So what the hell did you do?”

“I’m driving here, and some dipshit’s box of short rebar came off their truck and spilled all over the road and I heard this clunk, clunk, clunk! Didn’t think anything of it and went here to plow the field, and then I come back to grab a drink and the truck bled out! I tried to call everyone and nobody but you picked up!”

“Seems like that’s the case all the time when you’re in a pinch~” Dex remarked. He knelt down slowly to peer under at the truck’s undercarriage. “Yeah that pan is fucked.”

“Always something!” Sam laughed morbidly. “And look, here comes Connor now~”

Dex glanced over his right shoulder to see the big green Ford SuperDuty arrive with a cloud of dust billowing from behind. Connor saw the sight, pulled to the side and parked. He hopped out, wearing a casual pair of black gym shorts, a yellow tanktop, and a baseball cap. Dex blushed a bit at his beauty.

“The hell did you do here?” Connor pointed.

“That’s what I tried calling you about!” Sam laughed sarcastically.

“Oh fuck! That’s what I forgot to bring!” Connor exclaimed. “God damnit, I’m sorry Sam!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Sam nodded. “I guess I’m leaving this here overnight.”

“What did you do?”

“I hit road debris and apparently fucked my transmission pan all up.”

“Oh yeah that’ll do it~” Connor nodded. He took notice of Dex. “And hello there, Dex!”

“Oh hey.” The malamute smiled.

“Welcome to my scenic lil’ abode!” Connor said, gesturing with his beefy, tattooed arms.

“Oh this is a lovely place.”

“Hard work and dedication. I love it.” Grinned the malamute. “Bought this place about nine years ago and put some T-L-C into it~”

“I love the scenery. It’s so quiet.” Dex remarked.

“Sure beats a shitty apartment.” Connor chuckled. “Sam! Let’s get your truck unhooked, and we’ll leave the trailer there, and we’ll push your truck into the barn. I wanna get that shit soaked up, and we can work on the pan tomorrow.”

“Sure!” Sam agreed. “Mind if I could use your help, Dex?”

“Not at all~”

Getting the fifth wheel unhitched from Sam’s Silverado, the truck was carefully placed into neutral and Connor and Sam pushed it to the barn close by. Dex guided the truck into Connor’s barn, which served as his workshop. He pressed the brake and carefully pushed the shifter into park and removed the key from the ignition which he handed back to Sam.

“My baby’s wearing out~” Sam chuckled. “I felt I was close to buying a new Silverado but then my septic tank blew up in my face, and interest rates blew up too. When it rains, it pours, Dex!”

“Small world.” Dex joked as he walked with Sam back to his white 3500HD. Sam climbed into the passenger seat and Dex hopped in and buckled himself in. He glanced over to notice Connor walking towards him. Dex rolled the window down and watched as Connor confidently leaned against the side of the truck with a smile on his face.

“You doing anything tomorrow evening, Dex?” Connor asked.

“Not that I know of.”

“You interested in maybe getting some dinner here?” the big malamute asked with an inviting smile. “I know Jason and Sam really well, and I’d love to meet their eldest bro. I hear a lot about ya~”

Dex blushed. “Well I’m flattered! And sure.”

“Wanna come over around six?”

“Sure~”

Connor grinned. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dex.”

Connor gave Dex’s arm a playful rub as he stepped away. “Have a good night, Sam! I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” Sam waved.

Dex took off and saw in his rear view mirror, Connor standing and watching them depart.

“Oooh, Dexy’s got a date!” Sam grinned.

“NO!” Dex exclaimed. “It’s just dinner!”

“Oh yeah, sure.” Sam teased with a big grin. “That’s like my former girlfriend asking me to come over for a drink and it’s right in bed!”

“Here we go, my brothers trying to hook me up on a date!” Dex exclaimed with a laugh. He shook his head as he turned onto the road. “Connor is pretty damn handsome~”

“He’s a really nice guy.” Sam nodded. “He really cares about his workers unlike a lot of places.”

“That’s how it is working for Centoh.” Dex remarked. “I finally work at a place where people in charge actually know what the fuck they’re doing and care about the needs of the worker bees.”

Sam shook his head. “I really hoped this year I could have gotten that old blue sled replaced. Putting that replacement bed on and its one rusty fender… and then having to rebuild the transmission in 2020… she’s been a great truck! But almost four hundred thousand miles later… and kids… and farm duties…”

“Life sucks.” Dex chuckled. “I lucked out buying this from work. It’s the inflation that’s been killing everything. You shrink the economy during Covid and then it balloons back out, and inflation takes off, coupled with all the spending for it, and world events… it’s a real clusterfuck. Just think, we’ve been through two major recessions, and the world health crisis in a century.”

“I rather not live through multiple world events.” Sam chuckled.

“Nah, you’d rather just fall into your septic tank.”

“GOD that shit was nasty.” Sam grimaced with huge eyes. “I’m just walking, going over to inspect something near the leach field and then the damn ground gave out and I fell in!”

“Yuck!” Dex exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Sam exclaimed. “Talk about landing in a shitty situation.”

“I hope Deb rinsed you off with the hose!” Dex laughed.

“There was not enough soap in my mind…” Sam shook his head. He couldn’t help but laugh. “Only I could fall into a septic tank…”

“Never say never, Sam.”

“Just like you saying no earlier- Never say never to dating my boss!”

“CHRIST! You couldn’t resist!” Dex exclaimed, blushing.

“You think Connor’s cute!”

“He is cute! But to have my brothers, my STRAIGHT brothers try and hook me up with my boss!?” Dex exclaimed. “God damn, even my gay friends never did shit like that!”

“We want you to be happy!” Sam exclaimed. “And maybe that would in turn benefit me and Jason. Family benefits!”

“OH MY GOD WITH THIS SHIT!” Dex laughed hard. “I’m gonna put you back in the septic tank!”

“Bullshit, motherfucker!” Sam laughed hysterically.

Brushing the wrinkles out of his tanktop, Dex looked at himself in the mirror and scrutinized every inch of his body. He ran a big paw through his wavy locks of gray and brown hair that were neatly brushed back atop his head. He grabbed some cologne and sprayed it on his chest. Putting the bottle away, Dex scrutinized the colorful zapotec patterns of red, blue, and yellow that made up his tanktop. It went well with his black satin gym shorts. He put his black baseball cap on backwards, grabbed his sunglasses and tucked them into his tanktop’s pocket. He left his room stuffing his wallet, phone, and keys into his pockets.

“Where are you going, sweetie?” Cathy asked as she looked up from the table.

“I’m going to dinner with a friend~”

“Be careful~”

“I will!”

Dex hopped into his truck and took off for Connor’s place. It was an uneventful drive that Dex took to mentally prepare himself. He didn’t know what to expect, and it made him feel like he had butterflies in his stomach. He sat in silence driving to Connor’s place, down the narrow country road that took him out to the countryside. He slowed up and made the left to drive up the dusty driveway to Connor’s farm house on the scenic little hill.

Cresting the top of the hill, Dex arrived and saw Connor working under Sam’s truck. He parked off to the side, which got Connor’s attention. As he crawled out from under Sam’s truck, Dex hopped out fiddling with his keys as he stowed them in his pocket. Connor was covered in dust and transmission fluid that had stained his snug wifebeater dark red in places.

“Hello!” Dex smiled.

“Howdy-ho!” Connor exclaimed as he tried to brush the dust off him. “You made it!”

“I like to stick to a schedule.” Dex chuckled. “Old people things.”

“Hey I feel you there.” Connor laughed as he stretched one of his big tattooed arms. “Next thing you’ll know you’re gonna tell me you go to bed at ten!”

“How did you know?” Dex snickered.

“Christ, I’m pretty messy.” Connor chuckled as he looked at himself. As he tugged and messed with his tanktop, Dex took notice of a nipple ring on his nicely inked chest. The malamute liked that on a rugged guy like Connor.

“How’s the truck?” Dex pointed.

“Well I got the pan replaced, but that transmission of your brother’s is pretty worn… He’s gonna need that rebuilt…” Connor shook his head.

“Oh joy.” Dex shook his head. “Always something, right?”

“Yeah~” the burly malamute chuckled. “Well shit! I should get myself cleaned up, huh?”

“You need some help!” Dex said before immediately blushing. Connor gave him a playful grin in return.

“I would totally not be opposed at all~” the malamute responded happily. “Bros helping bros in the shower is fun!”

“Heh, ‘fun’.” Snickered Dex.

“Come on inside!” Connor offered.

Following Connor inside his farm home, Dex stepped inside to a very beautiful home, furnished in rustic Americana. The walls were adorned in barnwood, all grayed and weathered with age, knotted and chipped in places. The hardwood floor was glossy teak, glistening from the evening sun shining through big picture windows that overlooked his farmland. A big TV hung on the wall, and surrounding it were pictures of Connor’s family. Dex looked around in awe at how nicely decorated his home is.

“Wow.” Dex muttered. “This is beautiful!”

“Thank you!” Connor grinned. “I love it. I worked really hard to get all that barn wood.”

“I bet.”

“Could I offer you something to drink?”

“Not yet, Connor, but I appreciate it.”

“Well, I gotta hop in the shower… so why don’t you come with me~”

“Sure~” Dex smiled.

Going upstairs, Dex stepped into Connor’s big master bedroom. It was similarly decorated in a rustic theme, with the warm glow of the floor lamp making the walls take on an amber tone. Connor switched on the light to his bathroom and stepped inside to turn on the shower. Dex poked his head in and saw that Connor had a big walk in shower, complete with a stone wall and floor.

“How did you afford all this?”

“Did you see my Onlyfans page?” teased the malamute with a grin.

Dex gulped. “No?”

“Ha!” he laughed. “Well I did this through a lot of hard work in getting my business set up, oh, and an Onlyfans page! And social media. Sign of the times!”

Connor crossed his tattooed arms and ripped his wifebeater off, revealing a big dad bod and his nicely tattooed chestpiece. Both his nipples were pierced, with silver captive bead piercings. He took his jeans off and quickly ripped his sweat stained boxers off, his huge uncut member flopping out. Dex blushed and whistled. “Hot~”

“I am hot! Literally!” he laughed. “Come on, you gonna join me clothed?”

Dex took his tanktop off, and loosened the drawstring to his shorts. He took them off and his boxers, his pierced member getting a nice compliment from Connor as he stepped inside with him. Connor slid the frosted glass door shut as the steam enveloped them.

Connor grabbed his shampoo and lathered it into his dark brown hair atop his head. As he massaged his scalp, Dex squirted some body wash into his paw and worked it into Connor’s tattooed chest. “Let me help you~” Dex remarked as he massaged Connor’s chest and stomach. “Oooh, solid.”

Connor leaned his head back and rinsed his hair off. “Heh, thanks. You’re quite the stocky guy too. Hot.”

“Dad bod now.” Dex chuckled. He went lower and ran his paws through Connor’s red pubes and felt his thick hung member. It was a light tan color, with a nicely tapered hood over a fat cockhead. He gave that a friendly tug with his soapy paw and felt it grow chubby for him.

“Nothing wrong with a Dad bod!” laughed Connor as he turned around to show off his tattooed backside. Dex put more soap on him and rubbed him down as Connor contently purred to the massage his back got. He spun himself around and rinsed himself off. He took some of the body wash and scrubbed his face and rinsed that off too. “Your turn, stud!”

Dex chuckled and put some soap into his wavy hair and massaged it. As he did that with his eyes closed, he felt Connor’s big paws rub his chest and stomach. It felt so good. Connor scrubbed him down and even played with his cock, which made him get really hard to the other malamute’s amusement. He turned around to Connor’s motions with his paws and got his back soaped up. Connor even gave him a very nice shoulder massage that Dex enjoyed. He rinsed himself off and felt Connor put his arms around him with a smile.

“Your brothers are right, you are an awesome fella.” Connor smiled. Dex turned bright red.

“Oh boy.” Dex laughed awkwardly. “Didn’t think I’d ever get set up for a date by my bros.”

“They said I should meet you because you’re a nice guy. That’s what Jason and Sam say.” Connor smiled. “Well I like what I see!”

Dex slowly turned around to gaze at Connor affectionately. “Well, I like what I see too.”

Dex closed his eyes and felt Connor’s lips gently press against his. His mouth opened a bit and he felt Connor’s tongue gently get placed against his in their kiss. Connor broke away with a confident grin on his face.

“I like that.” Dex smiled.

“I do too.”

Dex got another kiss from Connor as they caressed themselves in the shower.

“You wanna fuck before dinner?”

“You know… I’m feeling more like some cuddles if that’s cool?”

“Oh that’s great too. Let’s do that.” Connor agreed. He reached over to shut the water off and open the frosted door, the steam gushing out as they exited to dry off.

The evening sun glowed through the curtains, casting the room in a sort of bronze color. Dex laid curled up beside Connor in bed, his head resting on Connor’s shoulder as they cuddled. No words were said; Connor had his arm placed around Dex and scritched at his middle back, while Dex gently caressed his chest and played with one of his nipple rings. It was the best feeling in the world to Dex, the warmth of another man in bed. He gently nuzzled Connor’s shoulder as he laid there with his eyes closed. They laid like that for what felt like an eternity as the sun slowly set lower in the sky.

“Your brothers tell me you’re a creative, thoughtful, wonderful brother. So why don’t you tell me about yourself? I’d love to hear it from the man himself!” Connor asked.

Dex chuckled and rolled onto his side to gaze at Connor. “I guess I’m this- I’m a former cumdump trying to find myself after losing control of things.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I guess I rather get that out there, in my effort to be open and transparent…” Dex chuckled, looking a bit regretful.

“Nothing wrong with that.” Connor smiled.

“Well that’s not the reply I was expecting.” Dex admitted. “Usually guys either think it’s hot or they’re terrified and want to call you a whore!”

Connor laughed. “Guys are stupid, and I tend to not listen to what the peanut gallery has to say! Especially when everyone wants and craves sex. It’s all just hypocrisy.”

“I must admit that I fucked things up and let problems get out of control. I got fucked up on coke and that went out of control, and I whored myself out because I thought that’s what I had to do to be popular… I look back and made a lot of mistakes that led up to my car crash that brought me here…”

“I remember your brothers… they came to me last year, around May, and they told me they needed my advice, and I said I wasn’t sure if I’d be the best advice giver, but Sam insisted that I’d understand more because I’m gay, and they told me you had contacted them, you were in a lot of trouble, and they weren’t sure what to do.”

Dex propped his head up with his arm. “So what did you tell them?”

Connor rolled over and laid on his side to look at Dex. “I told Sam and Jason that you were the same person, the same brother as before. You were the same before you came out, and now you’re just honest with them. I said they needed to keep an open mind and understand that for us gay men, there’s stuff that they wouldn’t get or understand because they don’t have to live looking over one’s shoulder all the time, as I’m sure you know what I’m getting at.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“The thing I stressed was that you needed to be loved by your family, and to not let your sexuality take front and center to any issues. I think your brothers were more along than your parents, but they said things have ironed themselves out.”

“We had tensions and arguments, and I think they finally got around to seeing what I meant.” Dex nodded. “In all, after living in Chicago for almost twenty-five years, it’s actually kinda nice to be back home, nevermind the whole ass backwards state.”

“Yeah about that.” Connor chuckled. “I’m originally from Vicksburg. That’s where my family is from, and I moved here after my divorce.”

“Divorce eh?”

“I was married to a woman for about a decade. I knew I was gay from at least…shit… seven? But there was no way I felt I could be openly gay… not with my crazy family. We’re Irish and German… a fucked up combination~ Ha! My Dad was a troubled Vietnam vet, and my Mom was the burned out mother who dealt with an alcoholic, and at times abusive father… I did not think I had any option to be gay… so I sucked it up and married this gal that went to my church, and we had three kids. My two oldest boys, Luke and Talon, are in that photo there on the wall. Twenty-two and nineteen. And me and the misses had a daughter, Claire, but sadly she passed away when she was four from a congenital heart defect that just could not be resolved sadly. And that took a real toll on our marriage, and we filed for divorce in 2010 after she passed away.”

“That’s sad.” Dex frowned.

“So I came out a few years later at thirty-four. So yeah, I’m a late bloomer.” Connor laughed. “Can you believe that some gay dudes don’t want me to fuck them because I banged a woman? Can you believe this shit?”

“I can!” Dex exclaimed. “It’s part of the unrealistic expectations that some gay dudes have. You have to look perfect, be perfectly hung, be perfectly built, perform perfectly in bed… gold star gay is what I believe the term is.”

“It’s fucking stupid is what it is.” Connor snickered. “I’m forty-five now, I don’t have time for that shit.”

“Turned forty-four yesterday.”

“Well happy belated birthday!” Connor grinned.

“Heh, thanks.” Dex smiled.

“I came out with my was thirty-four, and for a time I felt like a damn teenager again. They say something that when you come out, you’re like sixteen, plus the number of years you’ve been out of the closet… so it was kind of painful at times… relearning yourself in your thirties and feeling like you’re so far behind… and when you try and be nice to people, and you get treated like shit because you’re not a flippant faggot or something.”

“That’s the worst thing. I went to Boystown thinking it would be this tremendously accepting, accommodating plate, and oh nooooooo…. It’s ruthless. The gay life is ruthless for those not prepared for the bitchiness.”

“Fucking pathetic is what it is.”

“I agree.” Nodded Dex.

Connor playfully rubbed Dex’s chest. “What hobbies are you into? What do you like to do?”

“Well I like to draw sometimes- in fact some of my ink and stuff here are my designs.”

“Oh neat!”

“I do some photography, I like nature, outdoors stuff, and severe storms. I like meteorology, and at one time I wanted to be a meteorologist.”

“You saw the movie Twister didn’t ya?”

“How’d you know?” Dex laughed.

“Your brother has that beautiful red Dodge Ram, like it came right outta that movie.”

“Oh yeah. She was my whip for a while when I was getting back on my feet.” Dex chuckled. “Not long ago, me and him went out storm chasing in it. Didn’t catch anything more than some thunder… but man was it fun.”

“Till you fill up that fuel tank for that monster vee-ten!” laughed Connor.

“Well when your job pays well…” Dex snickered.

“That’s where the Onlyfans page comes in!” Connor grinned big. “Dude, I made a quarter million just doing gay farmer porn last year.”

“Oh boy.”

“Me and my cute ranch hand, Ryan.”

“Ranch hand? Or fuck bro.”

“What about both?”

Dex and Connor laughed.

“It was a life saver to get the funds needed to start the welding fabrication shop, and some new gear when I was hit hard by the fucking tariffs from the Orange Julius in office at the time…”

Dex shook his head.

“What do you dream of in the future for yourself?” Connor asked.

“Me? Well… I mean continue getting my life back on track, and… maybe someday having a relationship, which hasn’t happened yet, and I’m starting to think at my age! Probably never!” exclaimed Dex.

“Never say never.”

Connor leaned in and gave Dex a kiss. “Wanna get dinner? My stomach is emptyyyyyyyyy~”

“Sure!”

It was twilight, and the first stars began to appear in the purple and blue sky. Under the warm glow of the rope lights strung up around the deck, Connor and Dex enjoyed a meal of Chinese takeout, after Connor’s grill broke down again.

“So you were married once?” Dex asked as he fiddled around with his chopsticks. Connor resorted to using a fork to stab his food.

“I was in fact! I was twenty-two when we got married. And we made it to just about ten years.” Connor recalled. “And people ask me if I really loved her, and I did! I think people forget that one can have a multitude of feelings. I knew I was gay, but at the time I did not think I’d ever be able to be openly gay.”

“Well back then I mean, the role models for gay guys were like… fashion… Broadway… Will and Grace…” Dex nodded. “Certainly nobody I could relate to!”

“And my father wouldn’t have accepted me, oh no, no, no. My old man was in a way a really terrible person.” Connor recalled. “I vowed to do the opposite of what he did! My Dad was a bigot, he drank too much, he fucked around with other women, and I’m convinced me and my siblings have a half-sibling somewhere… He was a very unemotional man, and in a way, an absent father. But he got his just desserts when his health really started tanking from Agent Orange exposure in ‘Nam. I lost him when I turned twenty-five.”

“Isn’t that sad?”

“Yeah.” Connor shook his head. “Right before he died, when he was in hospice care, he told me everything that had happened in ‘Nam. He said how it fucked him all up, and he regretted his words and decisions. And I told him there was a chance for him to make it right with the lord, and I hope he took that advice because he passed about two weeks later.”

“So what does your family think about you being openly gay?”

“My Mom wasn’t happy about it at first, but she’s come around, especially after she met Paul. Oh how I miss him…”

Dex nodded.

“I felt lost after getting divorced. And it wasn’t a bitter, angry, hateful thing. We both realized that caring for our sick daughter took so much time away from our marriage that we never really had a chance to do anything with it. And when she passed away, there was such a void that I think both of us just checked out years before, and Claire’s passing made us realize that. So we got divorced, and she remarried and had two more kids with her new husband. I moved to the coast to begin living my life as an openly gay man, but it wasn’t easy, as you can attest yourself.”

Dex smiled sarcastically. “People are mean.”

“Yeah.” Connor chuckled.

“When I moved to Chicago for school, I think I spent the entire time in college being scared to death to make any move. And when I finally got the confidence to start clubbing, going to gay bars, people were just… it’s like they find any fault to go after you. People were really mean. I was shocked.”

“I think my first time going to a gay bar… I was thirty-three? Something like that, and I met this dude, really cute, guy a few years younger than me… and I told him I was a divorcee and was looking for my first time with a guy, and, no kidding, he got up and walked away, and I asked him where he was going, he turned around, and bluntly said he wasn’t gonna hold my fucking hand. I was taken aback by that.”

“Yep. Case in point.” Dex remarked. “I’ve had that happen a few times.”

“See, I’m just me? I don’t consider myself a ‘bear’ though that would be my type. I don’t like labels… I’m just me, Connor Magruder.”

“I thought being gay meant you had to whore yourself out and party because that’s when I started to get popular. Little did I know I was being looped into a toxic friendship!”

Connor chuckled. “Well I did get a lot of guys in bed for a while… and viva la Prep because daddy’s gotta breed his boys.”

“I’m on Prep as well~” Dex added. “Get off using the hole!”

“Yeah!” Connor exclaimed.

“I take it you’re a top?”

“Yep. I tried to bottom one time, and it really hurt…” Connor grimaced. “You ever have it burn when you poop?”

Dex gave a blank stare in response.

“Too much?”

Dex nodded yes jokingly.

“So that’s why I’m a top.” The malamute grinned.

“Well you’re luck ‘cause I’m more of a vers-bottom.”

“Ohh la-la. I like hearing that!” Connor grinned.

“Heh, I bone this cute Mexican guy I met at the first of the year. Young construction guy, very cute, oh my god, fantastic in bed. Fidel is his name.”

“Oh my god you bang Fidel too!” Connor laughed. “Christ! We should get a four-way sometime.”

“Oh boy.” Laughed Dex. “See? You run into this all the time. Our people’s dating pool is too small.”

“Heh, dating pool, more like fuck pool.” Connor chuckled. “He’s a cool dude, unlike a lot of the flakes you run into. Or the closeted hot messes.”

“About that…” Dex grimaced. “It ain’t Chicago that’s for sure.”

“Who haven’t I been hit on? Pastors… church goers I went to church with… lord have mercy.” Connor grinned.

“You’re hot stuff~” Dex teased with a big smile.

Connor grinned and wagged a finger in agreement. “Gonna toot my own horn there!”

Dex was really impressed. He really, really liked Connor and his laid back personality. He was funny, and a charisma that Dex found charming. And he was so handsome, so drop dead gorgeous. For the rest of dinner, Dex felt so charmed by the handsome malamute who entertained him under the glow of the deck lights.

A round of applause was drowned out by the roar of propellers as Centoh Biloxi welcomed the arrival of their third DC-7CF from Greybull. Limping in on three engines, the unpainted, worse for wear looking Seven Seas taxied onto the ramp with its squeaky brakes chirping as it stopped before everyone. It would now undergo a deeper overhaul and repainting to return into the service of Centoh.

Dex walked over to the plane once the engines were powered off. The number two engine was shut down and its prop was feathered from some kind of malfunction during the flight. The cockpit window slid open and out stuck Hup Hupner. His real name was Kyle, but for whatever reason everyone called the gray wolf from Centoh Chicago “Hup”. He was seen as one of the best pilots for Centoh, having the type rating for every plane in the fleet, which was why he was chosen to ferry the DC-7’s from Wyoming.

“What happened here?” Dex pointed amusingly.

“We were halfway here when she started backfiring real bad, so we powered ‘er off!”

“Good enough!” Dex exclaimed. “Thanks, Hup.”

Going back inside the office, Dex had a conference call to attend with Ron Gaughan regarding another business opportunity, this time from Centoh’s corporate office. It was another huge deal to assist in flying vehicle parts and components for General Motors from their plants in Mexico and Texas. Jaska talked about the opportunity while Dex made notes on his legal pad and Ron talked logistics.

“Now what are we talking about additional aircraft capacity?” Dex asked Jaska. “We have dedicated here at Biloxi, a dozen DC-6B’s, four Convairs, five DC-3’s, and now the four DC-7CF’s and a single DC-7BF, but with these potential new flights to Texas and potentially Mexico… we’re going to need to think about our capacity while meeting the needs of Centoh’s trunk routes.”

“I’m also wanting to hear any updates on the jet fleet plans Rob was talking about in my conversation with him?” Ron asked as well.

“I have spoke to Rob and Mark Prince about the jet fleet plans, and it’s still up in the air. The idea at this time is that any future widebody acquisition through Precision would be for international routes to Europe for the military contracts, and transcontinental trunk lines. The props would continue their nominal routes.”

“I see.” Ron nodded.

“To answer your question, Dex, you have those DC-7’s when they come online, and Rob saved a couple C-97C’s and would like to send them south to enter service.”

“Oh boy… double bubble trouble!” exclaimed Ron with a laugh. “And we’re getting the spare parts and Wasp Major engines for that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Good deal. We can make that work.” Dex nodded, jotting it down on his pad. “What’s the ETA on that?”

“I’ll get with Rob and see how the process is coming along and I’ll get back to you.” Jaska responded. “The negotiations with GM are still in the early process, but I’m sure with Rob’s regular fleet purchases through GM, it might help grease the wheel…”

“Good point.” Ron chuckled.

“Well keep us updated, Jaska! And thank you for your time.”

“You’re welcome! Take care.” Jaska concluded as their conference call came to a close.

Dex glanced at his notes and looked up at Ron. “Moving right along.”

“We’re really picking up steam, and I love it.” Ron exclaimed as he tapped his finger on Dex’s desk. “If we get the jet fleet then I know for sure they’re gonna invest in more hangar space for us.”

“I sure hope so.” Dex nodded as he sat his notepad beside him. “Well time for lunch, Ron.”

“Yeah, I agree to that.” The husky said as he checked his watch. “I’ll be back in sixty.”

“Sounds good.” Dex nodded as he got up to leave his office. He had plans to have lunch with Connor at his favorite meat and three.

Dex sat in awe looking at Connor who sipped on a glass of cloudy lemonade. His big paws worked his knife and fork in carving up his fried chicken breast on his plate with collard greens, mashed potatoes covered in chicken gravy, and sweet corn. Connor had the meatloaf with his meal.

“How’s your work day treating you?” Connor asked with his deep masculine voice.

“Pretty darn uneventful. It’s great to have a job you like.” Dex remarked with a smile.

“That’s good!” Connor laughed. “I’m having a kinda so-so day.”

“Oh yeah? What’s wrong?” Dex asked as he sipped his lemon water.

Connor fumbled his brow. “Oh I had to let someone go this morning, and I kinda feel bad. He was a nice kid, and he meant really well, but he was not a good worker no matter where I put him in the fabrication shop. He’d fuck up a cup of coffee. So I had to let him go, and he was so upset he cried. And I feel for him! He needs to get some counseling, or take some medicine for his ADHD because he wasn’t working.”

“I’ve dealt with that…” Dex shook his head. “We had a mechanic who’d do everything but his job, and was in my opinion mentally unstable. I fired him and he punched me, ha~”

Connor shook his head with his eyes closed. “Crazy.”

Dex looked more disgusted as he brought up the memories of Brandon Vlockner at his old career. “And this stupid momo from Saunders-Babbit. Brandon Vlockner, the only person I know who could turn a sub-forty hour a week job into a sixty hour a week misadventure.”

“Milk that time clock teet!” the malamute laughed.

Dex snorted. “More like get protein shakes under the desk of your dipshit best friend plant manager…”

“Some people are good at that.” Connor grinned.

“So I’ve noticed.” Dex laughed. “I’ve seen so many idiots in my time working, and the caliber of worker has been kinda going downhill…”

“I notice that too.” Connor nodded. “It’s hard to find guys to work the farm, and do fabrication. It’s a hit or miss- you’re either really good, or you suck, and not in a good way that I like guys to!”

“Oh boy.” Dex laughed. “You have a way with words, Connor.”

“I try.” The malamute chuckled. “I take you have a hard time getting workers?”

“It’s a hit or miss…” Dex shrugged. “The loaders and sorters… that’s not too bad, but to get guys with radial piston engine experience… whoa boy… it’s a real tough challenge. The guys who have a lot of experience are pretty old now, and we have to have a boot camp to teach people the A and P license for this anachronistic technology. It’s insane.”

“That sounds complicated.”

“It’s wild when you think about it. But Rob Barion loves these old piston-liners, and they do have some versatility to get a lot of cargo into a small airport… and there’s a neat charm to them. A lot of the aircraft have a personality to them. I never once was really into planes and I only took this job because it was a job… but it’s grown on me a lot. I find myself watching them take off and land more and more. And I like to read up on them to learn about them. I think it helps me with my adult daycare- I mean, job.”

“Ya never stop learning.”

“Never~”

Dex grabbed a napkin and dabbed at his muzzle and wiped his goatee. “What got you to go into your own business?”

“Tired of dealing with other people’s bullshit.” Connor responded as he sipped at his drink. “When I was married I worked a couple factory jobs, and it paid the bills, but it was a lot of headaches, and a lot of unrealistic expectations by a bunch of bean counters more interested in their numbers than anything else. I worked a hell of a lot of hours for not much pay… And on the side, I helped Dad with our family farm, which I inherited after he died, since my brother and sister didn’t want it.”

“Ahh~”

“And it’s kinda fun! You can plot your own course! But it has its own headaches too. You have to take the credit and the blame, but that’s something not everyone in leadership understands. But it worked out for me in the end, and with some extra cash from my… well… social media posts…”

“Social media…” Dex teased with a sly grin.

“I was able to buy a couple more plots of land to farm, and start my fabrication business!” Connor exclaimed. “Spend money to make money!”

Dex shook his head with a smile. “That’s funny.”

“Kill two birds with one stone.” Connor pointed out jokingly. “Do my own thing and satisfy people’s fantasies!”

“Well there’s a lot to fantasize about~” Dex smirked with Connor grinning and wagging a finger in agreement. The malamute laughed with Connor and felt so happy in his presence.

Connor surprised Dex by paying the bill for him as they left. Dex walked with him back to their trucks which were parked side by side.

“I had a lot of fun, Connor.” Dex smiled as he got a hug from Connor.

“I did too~ You still coming over this Friday?”

“Oh yes! I have it down on my calendar!”

“Now you know you’re becoming an old fuck, when you gotta mark shit down on a calendar!”

“Ha! Yeah.” Dex laughed.

“You have a safe drive back to work.” Connor concluded as he leaned in and kissed Dex’s cheek. The malamute smiled as he climbed into his Ford. Dex’s face turned bright red as he turned to hide it from Connor. He went to climb into his truck as Connor took off. He waved as he departed for the road.

Dex sat in his truck with his face still blushed. He felt so blissfully happy in the presence of that studly malamute. He gently placed a paw where Connor kissed him at and reflected on it. Were these feelings genuine? He thought about it as he left to head back to work.

As the sun set outside his curtained window, Dex sat in his comfy recliner reading his meteorology book. His record player put out some Elton John to break the silence as he sat reading about hailstorms. He flipped the page looking and feeling content in his little bedroom abode.

His laptop signaling an incoming video call, which got his attention from his book. He got up, sat the book down on his desk, and woke his laptop up to see Braxton contacting him. It brought an instant smile to his face. He plugged in his headset and sat down to take the call. Accepting it, a window popped up, showing Braxton on the other end.

“Hey!” Dex greeted.

“’Sup!” the gray wolf exclaimed. “How are you doing, Dexy?”

“Fantastic on my end.” Dex smiled. “What’s up on your end?”

“Oh just relaxing after work.”

“How’s Centoh working for you?”

“I love it!” Braxton exclaimed. “It’s a nice upgrade over the last gig.”

“Oh that’s an understatement.” Laughed the malamute. “Anything is better than Saunders-Babbit.”

“Oh yeah. Speaking of that shit show I thought you might like this.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Justin got a big settlement for his shoulder injury after dum-dum hit the rack that fell on him, and Brandon got fired.”

“Oh really!”

“Dipshit got his ass reamed by Clyde for working a hundred hours in a week, so he started rushing around and fucked up a bunch of stuff, and district fired him after so many customers started dropping Saunders-Babbitt.”

Dex shook his head. “About a decade and a half overdue, but better late than never…”

“How is Centoh down in Biloxi?”

“Oh fantastic.” Dex responded. “Things are operating smoothly.”

“You laying down the law?”

“Get your shit and leave~” Dex smiled with a snicker.

“Ha, that’s great.”

“Hey, Dex!” waved Christos in the background.

“Hey!” Dex happily greeted. “How’s Christos doing?”

“Oh fantastic!” Braxton answered for him. “He just got a job promotion.”

“Tell him I said congrats. I miss you guys a lot.” Dex admitted.

“We miss you too.” Braxton nodded. “We walked by your old apartment, and now some lesbian couple lives there. Door’s still purple!”

“Well they have taste.” Dex chuckled. “Life goes on I suppose.”

“Someone has money for that place.” Braxton chuckled.

“Hey listen, I got something on my mind I want to ask you.”

“Yeah, Dexy?”

Dex bobbled his head around looking awkward with a smile. “I’ve been seeing someone.”

“Oh?”

“He’s this gorgeous farmer slash businessman. Big sexy malamute with tattoo sleeves like mine. Oh so sexy.”

“Now that sounds hot.” Braxton laughed. “What’s his name?”

“Connor. He’s my brothers’ boss.”

“Did they like hook you two up?”

“NO!” Dex laughed. “But we’ve been seeing each other, and having lunch, and some light play… and there’s just something about him that… feels special… like something’s brewing… but I don’t know. What was it like when you knew Christos was going to be your boyfriend?”

“Well…we clicked. That’s kind of the only way to put it.” The wolf explained. “We’d have lunch and hang out, and there was just a chemistry that clicked really well. But it helps that we’re both laid back.”

“I don’t want a repeat of what happened in the past where I thought I had someone and then they dumped me and gave me the clap…”

“You can’t let the past scare you.” Braxton suggested .

“I’m forty-four and that was my only boyfriend. So I’m a bit rusty!”

“It’s hard to say because people are people, but trust your gut, Dex.”

“Connor’s special and I enjoy hearing him talk and laugh.” Dex recalled with a smile. “He invited me over this Friday.”

“Oooh, so see? He seems interested in you.” Braxton smiled.

“He’s so hot in bed too…”

“I can imagine.” Braxton chuckled. “Just take it easy and don’t over think it. I think if it’s meant to be, he’ll let you know.”

“I appreciate the advice.”

“Always. That’s what friends are for~”

In the heat of the moment, Dex was in the middle of a steamy escapade with Connor and his farmhand. On all fours, Dex had all nine inches of the big malamute in his muzzle, while his ass was ridden rough by the young farmhand, a sable furred husky, named Ryan McCormick. Dex was in heaven getting fucked deep and hard by the young husker and his thick shaft. His strong working hands gripped his hips as he slammed them into his rump. Dex worked his muzzle on Connor’s thick tan shaft that throbbed in his muzzle. Connor huffed and held onto the top of his head.

Running a paw through his sweaty locks of hair as he exhaled, Ryan felt himself getting closer. His grunts and groans gave it away as he thrust even faster. “Gonna give you a huge pent up fuckin’ load, Dexy…”

Dex pulled his muzzle of Connor’s cock and licked the tip teasingly. “Gimme it, baby, I need it so bad…”

“Lube him up for me.” Grinned Connor.

Ryan grinned back. “Sure will~ Ohh! Ohh! Ohh!”

Dex felt the husky slam himself all the way in and a huge sigh of relief follow as he came, breeding the malamute. Dex moaned and closed his eyes, his mouth agape, which Connor placed his cock back into his muzzle. Dex resumed sucking.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck…” Ryan huffed. He let out another huge sigh of relief as slowly, his uncut tan shaft slid out. Dex moaned as the fat cockhead slipped out. Ryan gripped his cum and lube slicked cock and gave his foreskin a few strokes to squeeze out the last drop of cum. He traded places with Connor, who had a big grin on his face. The rock hard malamute knelt down, spat on Dex’s hole and rubbed his throbbing cock on his ass, which made Dex moan. His massive shaft was fed into Dex, which slid in effortlessly. Connor let out a groan of pleasure as he began to immediately fuck. Dex closed his eyes, buried his face into the pillow and moaned loudly. He was having the time of his life as Ryan caressed his backside.

“Oh my god… this is just what I need to unwind~”

“More like unload…” Ryan chuckled with a grin. Connor grinned and wagged a finger in agreement. “Unload my huge cum load into this sexy Dexy!”

“I need it so bad…”

“Oh I know you do… and Connor won’t fail to deliver!” he laughed as he fucked fast and hard.

So turned on and pent up, Connor couldn’t last. It felt so good banging that sexy malamute that he just couldn’t last. Connor closed his eyes and moaned as he came in Dex, filling him up with his second load. Connor laid out over Dex, pressing him into the bed as he panted and relaxed. Dex was panting too. Connor slipped down and felt Dex’s rock hard cock. “I think someone needs a release~”

“Oh yeah…”

Connor got up and rolled Dex over onto his back. His pierced cock jutted skyward as Connor stroked it with a smile on his face. He knelt down and placed it into his muzzle as he began to suck away. Ryan knelt and rubbed Dex’s tattooed chest. Dex’s eyes rolled into the back of his head; the sensation was just too much, and he moaned loudly, arching his back as he came into Connor’s muzzle. Connor swallowed every drop as Dex collapsed his head onto the pillow. He breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling steeply. He was joined by Ryan and Connor who curled up with him for an afterglow cuddle session. They laid there without saying a word for half an hour, all content.

“Well I best get cleaned up to get goin’~” Ryan announced as he got up first. Dex got up with Connor, who put his beefy arms around Dex. Ryan went to the bathroom to get cleaned up and dressed. The husky soon returned dressed in his tight jeans, button up shirt, and cowboy boots. He donned his black Stetson and adjusted it atop his head.

“You have a good night, stud, and I’ll see you in the field tomorrow!” Connor smiled.

“Gotcha, boss~” Ryan smiled. “Have a good night, Dex.”

“You too, Ryan~” Dex smiled.

The husky turned to depart. Dex turned his head and was instantly met with a kiss from Connor.

“So whacha think?”

“My butt’s sore~” Dex teased.

“Big dick life!” the malamute grinned with a playful laugh. “You’re a lot of fun, stud.”

“Thanks. You are hot.” Dex smiled.

“So are you.” Connor smiled back with another kiss. “C’mon, let’s get cleaned up~”

“Sure.”

Following dinner, Dex made his way home by nightfall. Riding on the quiet road back to Orange Grove, Dex sat in his truck driving in silence as he thought about the day’s escapades. Connor was hot, that’s what his mind immediately thought of. And his cute ranch hand was an absolute beast in bed. So young and beautiful, hung, and boasting stamina. That big malamute was his crush, and he pondered if he had feelings for him the same way Dex had feelings for Connor. But he wasn’t sure how to approach that subject. As he thought more about the sex, the more he suddenly felt guilty about it. His mind went back to the awful therapy days, the dreadful, at-times condescending therapy for sex addiction. It made Dex feel conflicted.

His therapy for sex addiction was a rather sex negative figure. He made Dex feel ashamed of himself for being such a cumdump. Dex never thought that he was addicted to sex in such a way that it was causing harm in his personal life? He didn’t go out of his way for sex that caused problems with his job, like the common stereotype of addiction. But certainly some of the risky things he did wasn’t wise either, or the drug use to numb the pain in his heart. He felt conflicted about the matter. He wanted Connor in his life, and he didn’t know how to feel about it, and he felt deep down afraid that the threesome he had would revert him back to his slutty ways.

Dex rubbed his forehead in frustration.

Friday morning was a big day for Centoh. With his backpack thrown over his shoulder, Dex was about to embark on a flight to Texas to sign the multi-billion dollar deal with Capital Healthcare Supplies, and pose for a photo-op with their management. He would be flying with Ethan Mugnano, the operations manager to Barev Four. He stood with the white wolf as they watched their ride finish up fueling.

Glistening in the morning sunshine sat “Gnadenhutten”, Biloxi’s DC-7CF. It was the first of the four Seven Seas to sufficiently finish restoration to take part in the photo-op. The “Seven” was painted in Centoh’s new paint scheme; its wings and lower fuselage were polished bare metal, while the upper fuselage was white with a bright red cheatline following the location of the former windows. “CENTOH” was written in black lettering in the center of the fuselage. The vertical stabilizer was bright red with the “CI” logo stenciled in white. The giant four blade propellers were painted a medium gray with chrome yellow tips. The fueling crew finished up topping up the fuel tanks with a load of 100LL avgas, and the ground crew packed their gear up and walked back towards the hangar with the fuel truck.

Climbing aboard through the forward hatch, Dex stepped into the crew relief compartment immediately aft of the cockpit. It was a small space with some seats, a bathroom, and a small fridge. Dex got the honor of sitting in the jump seat up in the cockpit. He sat his backpack in the coat rack area and stepped into the cockpit to see the flight crew going through their checklist.

Piloting “Gnadenhutten” was veteran “Seven Driver”, Roy Mansfield. A brown furred wolf with tousled gray hair poking out from under his hat, the sixty-one year old Roy was nearing the end of a long career flying all over the world. He had thirty years of experience flying DC-7’s, having been a longtime water bomber pilot out in Wyoming and Colorado. His copilot was fifty-seven year old George Chlebek, a fawn furred Doberman, and another longtime propliner pilot who had flown for years from Miami’s “corrosion corner”. Their flight engineer was a thirty-two year old black wolf, Eric Monroe, one of the newbies hired when Biloxi opened up shop in 2021. Dex glanced around and took his seat in the redundant radioman’s position.

“Okay, here we go.” Eric called out. He reached up and engaged the starter for engine three. George counted the blades as Eric switched the magnetos over. Dex heard the number three engine start up with a hacking backfire. The plane began to vibrate as the engines were one by one turned over. The cockpit started to faintly smell of the exhaust as the engines warmed up. The rough chugging smoothed out to a steady idle as the engines came up to temperature.

Roy spoke to the tower as he watched the ground crew pull the chocks away. He gave a thumbs up and closed his window. George released the brakes and Eric carefully worked the throttles to begin the slow roll for the runway. Dex sat back and watched from the cockpit windows as they taxied to the runway. He adjusted his headrest and felt anxious for takeoff.

Reaching the runway, Roy turned the nose wheel steering knob and the moment the nose wheel straightened out, George applied maximum power for takeoff. “Buckeye one-five-oh-three heading out!” Dex heard all four Cyclone-18’s rev up to maximum power, a deep roar filling the cockpit as they began building up speed. Being lightly loaded, it didn’t take much runway to lift off, and Dex felt them grow buoyant as Roy pulled them into a climb away from Gulfport-Biloxi.

“See? That’s how you do it~” Roy grinned at Dex sarcastically.

Dex chuckled and hit the microphone toggle. “You make it look too easy.”

“Forty years does that~” Roy chuckled.

“With the headwind towards Austin… we’re looking at probably two hours.” George called out as he looked at his tablet.

Dex was about to say something when a loud backfire started him. It was a loud bang, and the plane bucked and yawed to it. “Whoa!” Eric called out.

“The hell was that!?” George called out.

Roy looked over his left shoulder to see engine one backfiring outside his window. There were puffs of smoke and bursts of flames from under the cowling gills as the engine backfired. “We got a very rough engine one…”

There came more explosive backfiring noises as Dex watched the caution and warning lights come on the instrument panel above. An alarm sounded and Dex saw the fire light come on for engine three.

“Christ! We got a fire on three!” Eric called out.

“Go through the checklist.” Roy calmly stated. “Christ, I got problems on all four engines!”

“Pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan, tower this is Buckeye one-five-oh-three, declaring an emergency, over. Tower this is Buckeye one-five-oh-three, declaring an emergency, over.” George called over the radio.

Eric fumbled his brow. “I got fire on one!” He reached up to shut down and feather the propeller and fire the fire extinguisher. “Halon fired!”

“Buckeye one-five-oh-three, this is the tower, we hear your emergency, and we see you trailing smoke. You can come back on any runway, traffic is holding for your arrival.”

“Tower, I don’t think I’m gonna make the runway…” Roy announced. “I got little power on my engines left… quadruple failure… Tower, negative return.”

Dex’s heart sank.

“There, there, there!” George pointed. “The drag strip! The drag strip! We can make that!”

“Here we go.” Roy calmly nodded. He glanced back at Dex. “Strap yourself in this is gonna be a doozy.”

“Oh boy.” Came Ethan’s voice on the headset.

Roy cranked the yoke and banked the dying DC-7 around. With all four engines conked out, the oversized glider bled off altitude to maintain speed as Roy gingerly calculated his glide slope for the Gulfport Dragway. He only had one shot to make the runway, or else they’d smash into all the woodland surrounding it.

“Flaps~”

“Arming nitrogen gear blow-down.” George called. He reached back, pulled the pin on the arming switch and deployed it. Dex heard a loud hiss and the clunk of the gear dropping into place. “Three green lights, gear locked!”

“Committed! Brace for impact!” Roy shouted.

In that moment, knowing impact was seconds away, Dex blacked out. The ambience of the wind noise against the cockpit windows, the commotion and chatter of the crew, faded into a garbled, slurred mess of words that slowed down like time was stopping to the malamute. Dex had a vision of his life, summed up in those seconds, his mind thinking about all the terrible things he did to himself, all the years of feeling so lost, the promiscuity, the drugs, his near-death experience and the horrific pain in his recovery. All that flashed before his eyes, the hundreds of faces of his past sexual partners, the users, abusers, the anonymous faces who had their way with him, and the painful laughter from his former friends, taunting him as he laid on the ground in Chicago.

“Boy, you’ve really let yourself go, huh, Dex?” Trey grinned at him.

“Nobody is gonna date a whore like you, Dex.” Paul scoffed. “You’re just like us…”

“One of us~” Trey glared. “One of us!”

Dex’s vision ended when he felt the plane buck to hitting the drag strip’s pavement. Roy put the plane down at the very end of the drag strip and slammed his feet into the rudder pedals to deploy the brakes. The tires locked up on the sun bleached pavement and the plane screeched down the asphalt trailing smoke. The plane shook and bucked as Dex held on for dear life. His heart was pounding in his chest. There were two dull explosions that rocked them into a slide as the tires catastrophically failed.

“Gnadenhutten” came to grief at the end of the drag strip. The left wing made contact with an electronic sign, which broke in half and spun the Seven Seas to a stop. The shredded remains of the tires smoked as the last operating engine finally seized up. Sitting slightly cockeyed, it was suddenly silent.

Roy unbuckled himself and quickly got up with George and Eric. “C’mon, let’s go!”

Dex unbuckled himself and was handed a fire extinguisher by Eric as they evacuated. Ethan looked as ashen faced as Dex as they threw open the forward door and Roy deployed the rope ladder to escape. Roy got Ethan and Dex out first, followed by Eric, George, and himself. Dex nearly made it to the bottom, until his foot slipped and he fell. He landed hard on his back as Ethan helped him up.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Ethan muttered as he looked at the Seven Seas sitting crooked on the strip.

Dex blinked a few times in disbelief at what had just happened. As he brushed the dust off his polo, the malamute walked over to examine the port wing. The landing gear dug it into the soft earth beside the strip and the big propellers were just a mere quarter inch away from smashing into the ground. In fact, the tips had cut a path through the grass, like a giant, deadly lawnmower.

“Hey are you, okay, Dex?” Roy asked as he ran over. The malamute dropped the fire extinguisher and dropped like a rock. His legs went to rubber as Roy caught him. Dex was laid out on the ground as he took a slow, deep breath.

“I gotta lay here a minute, holy fuck…” Dex muttered.

“Hey!” yelled Eric from under the right wing. “Look at this shit!”

Dex laid on the ground to get his composure back as he listened to everyone run over to Eric’s yells. He heard something about the fuel, and heard the sound of someone climbing back into the plane via the rope ladder. He lifted his head up to see George climbing down with a clear plastic cup in his grip. He ran over as Dex saw them getting a fuel sample from the sample port.

“Son of a fucking bitch, this ain’t avgas!?”

“Look at the color.” Roy pointed. “Hundred low lead is sky blue, and this shit’s like a greenish straw hue?”

“The motherfuckers put Jet-A in the fucking tanks!” Ethan yelled.

“Yeah that’s Jet-A for sure. It’s contaminated…” Roy shook his head.

Dex got up and his face was bright red. He stormed over with his phone out as he took pictures of that and the plane. “I’ll see that this shit is gonna get paid for!”

In the parking lot of the local Piggly Wiggly sat a food truck, selling authentic Mexican food. Fidel paid for dinner and got his tray with some tacos and drinks placed on it. He carried it back over to the folding plastic card table were Dex sat at, writing a text on his phone. Fidel sat the tray down and sat down opposite of him. Dex still looked all shook up from his morning misadventure.

“Well I’m sorry you’ve had such a rough day…” Fidel said as he bit into his taco. “I guess almost falling off a roof is different than almost falling out of the sky.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me.” Dex said jokingly. He shook his head in disgust as he grabbed a taco and began to nibble on it. He chewed slowly, swallowed, and washed it down with some water. “My voice is a bit fucked up because I was screaming so much today. On the phone… in person with the fuel company… Jesus Christ… they sent us the wrong fuel!”

“Oh boy.” The red wolf grimaced.

“Can you believe that shit!” Dex exclaimed. “They sent us a tank full of Jet-A, not one hundred low lead. So all four engines failed and we glided into the drag strip, and they were pissed at us too. Now they had to cancel several events because the plane is grounded there until we repair it and fly it out. I had to scream at so many people…”

“Well don’t have a heart attack man~” Fidel chuckled.

“So I’m sorry I’m not in the mood to do more tonight…”

“Hey, I get it completely. And tacos are fun too.” The wolf smiled.

“Well… hot Mexican injections are hot too.” Dex nodded.

“Oh indeed~”

Dex grimaced as he looked off into the distance. “I had my whole life flash before my eyes man. I thought we were gonna bite the dust. A lot of bad memories came up… It made me think of how far I had fallen, and how far I’ve come.”

Fidel nodded as he ate his food.

“It makes me feel embarrassed at what I did in the past with my body, how I let people use me, and how I thought that’s what it meant to be to be gay. And I look back on that and I feel like a god damn fool. I really do. All the hookups, the empty, meaningless sex…”

“I wouldn’t over think it. But that’s just me.” The red wolf shrugged with his suggestion. “At least you can get all those hookups! Ha~”

“Differing perspectives.” Chuckled Dex. “I plan on hanging out with Connor later this evening at his place.”

“Oh some steamy fun?”

“Kinda~” Dex chuckled. “I’m gonna go watch a movie. Get my nerves unrattled.”

“And get molested too.”

“Perhaps.” Dex laughed. “Connor’s so hot…”

“He is…” Fidel smiled. “You know he’s got a big crush on you?”

Dex’s face instantly turned red. “He…does?”

“Oh yeah. He likes you.” Fidel chuckled. “He likes that you’re around his age too.”

“Wow. That’s interesting.”

“You’re a nice guy. What can I say? There’s a lot of gay guys that take pride in being mean, and you’re not one of them.”

“Sometimes a dead clock can be right twice a day~” Dex joked. “I feel bad being so slutty in the past.”

“That’s the past. You can’t go back and fix it, so the best thing to do is grow and learn from it, ya know?”

Dex nodded. “Good point.”

Thunder rumbled outside the big bedroom window, the momentary flash of lightning casting shadows in Connor’s dim room. Dex laid in bed with Connor, all curled up with him as they watched a movie rather aimlessly on the big TV bolted to the wall. Both laid naked, the two malamutes caressing and fondling each other while they watched the movie, and occasionally sneaking little glimpses of each other. Dex still felt shook up from his plane crash, but Connor’s warmth helped take that trauma away somewhat.

The movie came to a close, and Connor got up to eject the disc and stow it away. “You care for a drink, Dex?” Connor held up his bottle of Jack Daniels. Dex shook his head no for the alcohol, but accepted a sparkling water, which Connor poured into a short tumbler for him.

“You’re like my brother now, heh, heh, a teetotaler.” Connor chuckled as he sat down on his bed and took a sip of his Jack.

“Eh, alcohol doesn’t interest me much anymore.” Dex shrugged. “Too many bad memories.”

“Yeah I get that.” Connor nodded. “You ever get so drunk you wake up under a pile of leaves somewhere in your underwear?”

Dex gave Connor a sarcastic, blank stare. “That sounds like a personal experience.”

“Weird.” Connor grinned.

“Heh, heh.” Dex smiled.

“You doing okay, stud?” Connor asked. “You still look really shook up.”

“I am.” The malamute admitted with a nod. He took a slow sip of his bubbly water. “I… can’t believe that happened.”

“Just think of it this way~ You have a higher likelihood of dying in a car accident than a plane crash!”

Dex gave Connor a blank, sarcastic gaze.

“Oh, right.”

“Odds aren’t in my favor for both!” Dex exclaimed. He laughed cynically about the thought. “Just like with my dating, and socializing in Chicago. Odds were against me!”

“Oh come on, don’t say that.” Connor laughed. He put his arm around Dex and pulled him close with a warm smile on his face. “I think we all face hardships in our lives. But we have to weather the bad to really appreciate the good~ So don’t beat yourself up stud, because there’s people who think you’re beautiful~”

“Oh yeah?”

“I’m one of them.”

Dex blushed at Connor’s words. His smile was unwavering.

“I think you’re a beautiful fella. From the first time I met you. And… I wouldn’t mind taking this to the next level if you’d be interested?”

Dex looked shocked. “You mean like, be my boyfriend?”

“Well yeah.” Connor smiled all warmly.

Dex was taken aback by the question. This beautiful malamute, all studly and masculine, wanted him to be his boyfriend. He didn’t even know what to say to such a question, as he only heard it once in his life many years before. And those memories of that long since forgotten ex, who ghosted him, who gave him an STD, came flooding his mind again with all the shameful things he did in the past. Dex thought about the person Connor was married to, and then thought of himself filling that spot. He suddenly felt overwhelmed, and he broke down into tears.

Connor looked surprised Dex’s sudden emotional breakdown. Connor put his drink down and pulled Dex into a big hug and patted his back. “Why are you crying, Dex?”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Dex said, sniffling. “I just think about all the things in the past… and I am surprised a beautiful guy like you wants a cumdump like me… All the stupid fucking things I did in the past because I thought that’s what you did… all the hookups, the cumdumps… the whoring out…”

“No, no, no, no, no, it’s okay.” Connor assured him. He gave Dex a bit of a shake and wiped the tears out of his eyes with his big paws. “It’s okay, sweetie.”

Dex wiped his nose with his paw as he blinked slowly. Connor nodded slowly.

“Dex, I don’t care if you whored yourself out or whatever in the past. Because that is the past. We are here in the present now. You have turned your life around according to your brothers. You are taking care of yourself, and you have taken care of yourself before. The number of sexual partners don’t bother me, because I too went through a kinda whore phase in my thirties when I had just come out. Some of us just like sex. And you can’t beat yourself up over what you thought was a good thing. And we as a society, even gay society to a weird degree, cling to this puritanical concept of saving yourself, blah, blah, blah.”

“Yeah.” Dex muttered.

“One of the most important people who helped me when I was getting divorced and first came out, was someone who was an unapologetic cumdump. They loved getting fucked by guys, and absolutely had no regrets about it. It didn’t affect their career, nothing. They really just liked having sex. And the most important thing he told me was that I shouldn’t worry about what others think, because I have to do what makes me happy. He didn’t get fucked in the ass for validation- he did it because he liked it personally. I think you did all that because you felt validated by your friends, and validated that gay dudes were doing their thing with you and paying attention to you that they otherwise would not have. So I don’t care about the past, I care about the present you. And I think the present you is beautiful, Dexter.”

“You really mean that?”

“No, I’m just pulling words out of my ass.” The malamute grinned.

“Oh shush you!” laughed Dex.

“See! Made you smile.” Connor laughed with a big grin.

“So you really want me to be your boyfriend?” Dex asked.

“One in the hand is worth more than two in the bush!”

“Well you bang the two in the bush too, like me~” Dex chuckled.

Connor grinned and wagged a finger. “We can still do that too, but as a couple.”

“Almost monogamous… I like that.”

“I like that a lot too~”

Dex leaned in and gave Connor a kiss. “Boyfriend~”

Connor smiled and kissed him in return. “Dexy the sexy boyfriend!”

Connor pulled Dex into his arms as they laid in bed, the thunderstorm rumbling on outside as Connor held him in his arms and cuddled. Dex nuzzled his chest and felt so excited, almost euphoric that he was now in a nascent relationship. Now he really felt like he was either in cloud nine, or uncharted waters.

Two Weeks Later

Saturday morning was already pushing eighty degrees. The morning was bright with a cloudless blue sky hanging over the airport. Usually off on the weekends, Dex found himself at work for some overtime, to assist in getting their stranded DC-7CF flying again. Dex leaned against his truck, chatting with his boyfriend Connor, who had nothing better to do on a lazy Saturday morning, who was coming along to help him assist the maintenance crews in getting “Gnadenhutten” flying out of the drag strip. The two had an impromptu brunch while waiting in the shade of the maintenance hangar.

“All these people are screaming each other. You got us, who want to get the DC-7 outta there, you got the drag strip people pissed off they can’t hold any events because our plane is there, and then you have the FAA holding everything up as they do their investigation and slowing things down with all the government bureaucracy.” Dex explained. “So finally we got the approval to get her flying outta there, and hopefully today, we hang propellers, get that going, and get the fuck outta there.” Dex explained.

“Heh, heh, that’s how it always goes.” Connor chuckled. “You gotta jump through flaming hoops to make anything happen.”

“Especially aviation. So much bureaucracy for practically anything.” Dex shook his head. “But Rob’s bringing his maintenance team from Newark to help our guys… and we would have hung the propellers ourselves had this one not come in with a blown motor pulling our guys away…”

Connor looked over his shoulder at a DC-6BF, which sat with its outboard motor removed. A couple mechanics worked to prepare the replacement engine to mount on the nacelle.

“Looks like a well oiled operation!” Connor smiled.

“Well, looks are deceiving.” Dex laughed. “Eh, things run pretty smoothly.”

“Thanks to you~”

“Oh, it takes a village here to get things done.” Dex chuckled. “But I like to make sure the trains run on time~”

“Get your shit and get the fuck out, right?”

“That’s right.” Dex grinned. “Oh look, here comes Rob and his dream team!”

Dex pointed towards the sky as Rob and his mechanic team back in Ohio arrived over Gulfport-Biloxi. There were two aircraft, the curvaceous, short-fuselage Constellation, and a massive turboprop plane following slightly behind. It dwarfed the Constellation, its four turboprops drowning out the radial song with a deep, reverberating roar as it passed overhead. Dex felt it in his chest. Another of Rob’s “salvaged wonders”. The planes looped around and the Constellation descended in first for landing. Dex saw that it was “Challenger”, an L-749 that periodically showed up at Gulfport-Biloxi for VIP missions. It was owned by Felix Barion, and had a custom paint job of a black and gold lightning bolt cheat on its fuselage. It was guided in by the ground crew as everyone watched the arrival of the huge Cargomaster.

Rumbling in, the C-133B descended in with a slight nose down droop. It was a huge cylindrical cargo plane, with a high set wing. It had the upper fuselage painted white, outlined with a thin black line, and prominent dayglo orange on the nose, outer wing panels, and tail band. A black “Pinocchio” radome protruded from the otherwise bulbous nose. Occasional smoke puffed from the big T34 turboprops. As it flared for touchdown, the roar of the engines drowned everything else out. Smoke came off the tires as it touched down. When the Cargomaster arrived, Dex saw that it was piloted by Rob himself, and his mechanic, Vlado Horvat. It turned the opposite way and parked on the tarmac, dwarfing a C-47 on the flight line.

“It’s like being in a time capsule here.” Connor laughed as he followed Dex out onto the flight line.

“It’s great isn’t it?” Dex smiled.

Disembarking from the Constellation were the mechanics from Rob’s operations in his hometown of Newark. Dex walked over to greet them as they climbed down the airstair with their tools. Next came Felix, and his friends Ivo and Jordan, who had flown him back home the year before. After welcoming them to Mississippi, Dex walked over to see the loading ramp open on the C-133. Two white Silverado’s rolled out, and stepping into the huge cargo bay, he saw at least forty drums of fuel, all labeled “115/145 AVGAS.”

The sound of a door opening got Dex’s attention as he looked up. Towards the ceiling, there was a hatch to the cockpit, and Rob appeared through it as he climbed down the stairs.

“Good morning!” Dex greeted warmly. “Nice ride you got here.”

“Thanks, this is her fourth post-restoration flight.” Rob remarked. “Gotta put ‘em back to work~”

“Make that money to keep ‘em flying, right?”

“Exactly.” Rob pointed out. “You’ll be getting my other C-133B in a few months.”

“Another?”

“Me and Mark Prince rebuilt two of these from the ground up, but Mark decided it was redundant to his needs, to guess what? You got a heavy lift turboprop that will be stationed here.”

“Well gotcha~”

“Well let’s get this damn DC-7 outta the drag strip because I hate hearing grown ass adults whine.”

“I got a bit of extra help if that comes in handy.”

“Any help is great.”

“Gnadenhutten” looked out of place at the drag strip, as work went all out to get it ready for flight again. There had been a bureaucratic delay with the FAA to issue the all clear to fly it out, and Centoh’s maintenance crews were stretched thin with two major overhauls. During the two weeks, they managed to change three of the engines, purge and repair the fuel system, and install new tires and rims. Under the bright cloudless sky, work commenced in hanging the last engine and propellers.

Dex and Connor helped Felix and Ivo maneuver the propeller hoist, which held the huge fifteen foot props that dangled. They gingerly slid it towards the number four engine, where Jordan and another mechanic guided them in.

“Go up four inches!” Jordan called.

“Four?” Felix shouted back at the controls.

“Yeah!”

The winch groaned and the prop was lifted four additional inches to line up with the engine’s driveshaft.

“Slow!” Jordan called. He motioned for them to proceed, and the German Shepherd grasped the big prop and guided it onto the driveshaft.

“Okay, you should be able to rock it now.” Ivo called to his husband.

Connor and Dex went around and held onto the lower two blades and assisted in slowly rocking the prop onto the motor.

“Okay! That’s it.” Jordan yelled. “The prop is on!”

Dex was interested in the process of installing the propellers, though he let the professionals to the critical job of attaching the prop boss to the driveshaft. A massive, spinning propeller through the side of the fuselage didn’t sound fun, and he had heard horror stories from some of Centoh’s veterans about freak accidents with the propliners.

Through the morning and into the early afternoon, the propellers were hung and the tires given a look over by the inspector. As that went on, Dex and Connor manned the fuel pump in filling the fuel tanks with a couple thousand gallons of “purple piss”, the potent 115/145 avgas that used to power the propliners in their heyday. It had a potent smell to it, and apparently was pretty toxic with its high lead and antiknock agents. Connor cranked the manual fuel pump as the wing tanks were slowly filled from a drum. Dex watched as his beautiful boyfriend worked hard.

“You make it look too easy.” Dex smiled.

“That’s ‘cause I jerk off too much.” Connor teased with a big grin.

“Oh, sure.” Dex laughed. “Nevermind the farm work.”

Connor just chuckled. “I better get a nice check for this.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Dex snickered.

“Next time when you’re gonna land, land at the airport.” Connor quipped as he ran out of gas. He pulled the pump out and went to the next drum. “And get an electric pump.”

“Well that’s one way of causing an explosion~”

“I like to live dangerously.”

“Oh boy.” Dex chuckled.

By the late afternoon, the FAA cleared the ferry flight back to Gulfport-Biloxi. Dex had a front row seat with Connor and Roy Gaughan, who stood at the end of the drag strip, with Barev’s camera crew that was documenting the takeoff. Spectators lined up in the distance to watch as the DC-7 came to life once again. The big radial engines belched smoke as they turned over one by one. The roar filled the air as Dex awaited the moment of truth.

“Well it’s sink or swim time~” Connor remarked. He put an arm around Dex and rubbed his back as they watched.

“Well it better not sink!” Dex laughed. “We’re in the path!”

Lightly loaded, with any extra item not needed for the flight removed, highly potent avgas, and water injection available, it was now or never. At the helm was Rob and his mechanic Vlado, and a volunteer flight engineer. Commanding maximum power, Dex heard the four radials rev up with a tremendous roar and flames from the exhaust. The brakes were released and the Seven Seas took off. It rapidly built up speed as it bounced down the track. The four Cyclone-18’s belched a long stream of bright yellow and red flames. The roar was incredible with full water injection. Dex’s heart pounded from the energy as the DC-7 climbed away and roared overhead. There was a thunderous round of applause as Dex and Connor clapped with everybody. “Gnadenhutten” disappeared beyond the trees momentarily before being seen again looping around for the airport. Its gear remained extended for the short hop back. Dex breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“Wow.” Connor muttered. “That was incredible.”

“See? There’s perks to my job.” Dex chuckled as Connor gave him a kiss.

“I lucked out with you after all I did I?” grinned the malamute.

“Hush~” Dex snickered as he gave him another playful kiss.

Dex felt like he was on top of the world, a weird sense of being on cloud nine that he had never felt before with his life. Everything was going well for once; he had an excellent career, excellent money coming in, he felt that his life was back on track again, and most importantly, he felt appreciated in his relationship with Connor. Whatever annoyances he had with the magnolia state seemed so minor and unimportant in his life. He felt in a way like he was a teenager again with Connor, a blissful, yet slightly unsure approach to his newfound relationship.

Dex had plenty of time to think about things as he sat alone in the lower lounge of the bulbous Boeing. Coming home from another important meeting at the Centoh headquarters, Dex traded the luxurious propliner for Freightmaster’s austere “double bubble”, after spending an extra day in Ohio to be part of an anti-drug PSA, a deal he had with Rob Barion to obtain a pickup truck for his brother Sam. The new GMC 3500 rode above him in the cargo hold. Dex sat with his headphones on, watching the PSA on his laptop and looking amused at his role as the anonymous businessman, in a business suit, showing the cycle of abuse of drug addiction. Dex went as far as dye his hair to make it brown again, his wavy locks neatly brushed back atop his head.

“I do cocaine. So I can work longer hours! So I can make more money! …so I can buy more drugs… so I can work longer! So I can make more money!” Dex said on camera. He laughed a bit at himself.

“Yeah, me too.” He joked.

Dex stretched and looked out the round porthole of the lower lounge. They were somewhere near the state borders of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The huge Wasp Major radials roared, and Dex felt the energy go through him as he sat. The engine’s nacelles were heavily stained from the oily exhaust. It was a far cry from his days flying with friends to the beach on a modern passenger jet.

Stowing his laptop away, Dex got up and went up the half spiral stairs that led to the cargo hold. A bit of turbulence bumped him against the wall as he stepped up into the main cargo hold. The C-97 was hauling crates of spare Constellation an DC-6 parts, a couple additional radial engines, and strapped down towards the center, Sam’s future GMC 3500HD, a huge iridium gray truck that was a dually. He hoped his brother would appreciate it after his long suffering one-ton finally gave out while towing a heavily loaded trailer.

For the rest of the flight, Dex sat in the cockpit and conversed with Felix, Ivo, and Jordan, who he now considered friends of his. It helped pass the time as he watched the scenery drift by the unique “fishbowl” cockpit windows.

Returning to Biloxi, the C-97 circled around twice while waiting for traffic to clear off the runway. With everything down, the bulbous Boeing descended in for an uneventful touchdown. It rolled out, and returned to Centoh’s main hangar, where ground crews guided the lumbering propliner in.

As the inboard engines were powered off, the hydraulic tail doors popped open and the ramps deployed and locked into place. Very carefully, Dex drove his brother’s truck down the pierced steel planks and onto terra firma, where he swung the truck around and left the tarmac for the exit gate. Its turbodiesel burbled with the whoosh of the turbo releasing pressure as he accelerated.

As he drove to his brother’s home on the other side of Gulfport, Dex through about his evening plans. He wanted to drop the truck off, get his truck back, and go spend time with his boyfriend, and invite him to go meet his parents, who wanted to finally meet Connor over dinner. It would be a moment he thought would never happen, after all the years of them saying they’d never accept a boyfriend of his. How time changes everything.

Dex arrived at Sam’s home on Lancaster Cove, which was a single story brick house on the cul-de-sac. Dex pulled up to the curb as the driveway was blocked by Alice’s Telluride SUV, and Jason’s other second generation Ram, an orange and white Ram 3500 from 1994 that Sam was borrowing.

Dex hopped out with a folder full of paperwork and the title. The sight of a new vehicle got Sam’s attention as he stepped out through the front door, followed by his two young sons who ran over to give their Uncle Dex a hug.

“Hi Uncle Dexy!” the young malamutes grinned all excitedly. “Whacha doin’ here?”

“I got a surprise for your Dad!” Dex smiled as he gave them both a hug.

“What the hell is this, Dex? A new truck already?” Sam asked curiously.

“I have a gift for you.” Dex smiled. He handed the folder to his brother, who blankly stared at him. He peered around Dex at the truck and then back at him.

“You’re joking right?”

Dex shook his head no.

Sam had a blank stare on his face as he walked over to examine the GMC 3500. In the afternoon light, the metallic iridium had a beautiful shine to it. The huge crew cab, long bed dually had a mid-range interior that was ebony colored, and shiny chrome rims with all terrain Michelin tires installed. Sam walked around the vehicle looking in complete shock.

Stepping out the front door, came his wife Alice, who fumbled her brow at the new truck. “Honey?” she called.

“Oh my god…” Sam finally spoke. “Dex? Did you buy this for me?”

Dex just smiled. “I knew you were wanting a new truck for a while now.”

“Dude, this motherfucker probably cost you almost eighty grand!”

“I made a deal with my boss and he bought it for repayment to appear in a public service announcement.” Dex explained. “So she’s all yours!”

Sam laughed with a big grin on his face as he hugged Dex tightly. “I love you so much, brother.”

“Anything for you, brother.” Dex smiled back as he hugged him.

“I don’t even know how I could repay you!” Sam exclaimed.

“Just take me back to the airport so I can get my truck.” Dex laughed.

“Deal!”

The amber sun cast long shadows on Connor’s wheat field, as a gentle breeze rustled the emerald green leaves. It was a beautiful backdrop as Dex rode with Connor on his tractor as he fertilized his crops. Dex was having the time of his life just sitting on the tractor as they crisscrossed the field with the big fertilizer tank and spray bar.

“So what do you say about having dinner with my parents?” Dex asked. “My parents want to meet you.”

“Oh boy, here comes the parents.” Connor chuckled.

“Yeah, that fun phase of the relationship.” Dex snickered. “My parents are really nice, so there won’t be any issue.”

“Is there gonna be steak involved?”

Dex nodded his head.

“Sold!” Connor laughed. “I’ll do anything for a steak~”

“Oh boy.” Dex laughed with him.

“Almost. I don’t bottom, mind you.” Connor grinned.

“You should~” Dex grinned back at him.

“Ha!” Connor laughed. “I tried it once and it didn’t work very well, oh, and it hurt to poop for two days!”

Dex had a blank stare on his face. “Well thank you for that information.”

“Just saying.” Connor shrugged with a chuckle. “Plus hot asses need to be bred by my huge daddy dick!”

“Okay I can’t argue with that.” Dex smiled. “It’s just… funny to think of how far my parents have evolved. I remember when Dad told me he’d never accept a boyfriend of mine, and now he’s all excited to meet you.”

“Well yeah, ‘cause it’s me!” Connor grinned.

“You are full of shit!” laughed Dex.

“I employ two of their sons, and fucking the third!”

“HA!” Dex laughed.

Connor grinned as he leaned over to give Dex a kiss. “What can I say? That’s stud material, motherfucker.”

“Oh boy.” Dex smiled.

Connor returned to being a bit more serious as he turned around to spray another swath. “I remember my Mom was like that after I came out. For a couple of years she didn’t want to hear anything about me dating, and she was kind of upset about me coming out, blah, blah, blah. But when she met Paul, she liked him so much she got over that. So when Mom passed away in 2020, we were at peace about all that.”

“Well that’s good.”

“People are strange, Dex.”

“Yeah, no doubt.”

Finishing up with the field, Connor returned his tractor and spray tank to his long trailer hitched to the back of his truck near the road. He effortlessly drove it up as Dex got the straps ready. Connor hopped down and showed Dex how to safely strap down the tractor. He told him a story about a newbie he once had as a farmhand lose a tractor down the highway when a strap broke. He laughed about it cynically, remarking that “thank god it was an old tractor I was replacing anyways”. After securing everything they walked back so Dex could take a couple pictures of the amber sunset over the swaying wheat. Dex even took a couple pictures of Connor posing with his wheat. They slowly walked back to the truck holding each other’s paw all affectionately.

“You know, I gotta admit, I feel so naïve- like a teenager.” Dex remarked as they walked.

“Why do you say that?” Connor chuckled all curiously.

“Well I’ve never been in a serious relationship before, and I feel bad because I’m forty-four, and you know, by this point, people are in long term relationships…”

“Or alcoholic burn-outs on their second or third divorce.” Connor laughed. “Too specific?”

“Heh, heh, well I feel like I’m sixteen again… and when you’re a teenager, you don’t know what to do? And that’s how I feel sometimes… I can’t believe I’m dating you, I can’t believe I’ve come so far from the past two years… and yet… sometimes I feel like a large of my life is wasted…”

“Now you can’t take that attitude.” Connor reminded him. “You didn’t waste anything of your life, Dex. You did the best you could do with what you knew. And now you know more about yourself and what you want, and in my opinion, in a much better environment than back in Boystown.”

Dex thought about that. “You do have a point there…”

“I don’t think a lot of gay guys realize how toxic the culture can be. The lack of emotional availability, or maturity, the self-loathing, the self-destruction with alcohol and drugs… I mean, you get that in the straight world too… but it’s amplified in the gay world because of the oppression and shit like that.”

“Sad isn’t it?”

“Oh yes.” Connor nodded. “Oh, and think of it this way, you’re not my brother Tim!”

“Oh boy.” Dex smiled.

“My brother wanted to impress our Dad by getting married… because we all knew he was sick and going downhill… so what does Tim do? He goes and dates this hot mess and gets married to her… has a couple of kids… and to give you an idea of how their divorce went? Brittney made a doll of Tim so she could stick pins into when she’s furious.”

Dex blinked with a blank stare on his face. “Like a voodoo doll?”

“Kinda.” Connor laughed. He leaned in and gave Dex a surprise kiss. “So see? You could have fucked your life up like that!”

“Well as far as I know, nobody has a voodoo doll of me~”

“There ya go.” Connor laughed. “Let’s go drop this off, and let’s get some steaks!”

Dex beat Connor back to his parents house on Connie Drive. He pulled his truck into the driveway and hopped out, just as he saw his Mom come running out at him.

“Dexy!” she exclaimed. “Your brother told us you bought him a truck!”

“I did.” Dex nodded.

Cathy pulled Dex into a big tight hug. “Oh my goodness, Dex, you’re such a lifesaver for Sam.”

Dex smiled and gave his Mom a hug in return. “I worked out a deal with my boss about it, and I got something to show you later about what I did to get the funds for that.”

“You didn’t donate a kidney or a lung?”

“NO! Mom…” laughed Dex. “I featured in an anti-drug PSA.”

“Oh.”

“I still have two kidneys and lungs thankfully! I just lost my spleen, that’s all.” Laughed the malamute. “Oh, here’s Connor now!”

Connor pulled up to the curb in his big green Ford. The malamute stepped out in his usual attire of a cutoff plaid shirt that was loosely buttoned at the collar, snug Wrangler jeans, and his fancy croc skin cowboy boots that clicked on the pavement. A black Stetson covered the top of his head as his big tattooed arms swayed.

“Mom, I want you to meet someone special~” Dex smiled as he put an arm around Connor.

“Good evening!” Connor grinned confidently.

“This is my boyfriend, Connor.”

“How do ya do?”

Cathy had a big smile on her face as she gave Connor a hug. The front door opened to reveal Bruce, who ran over to greet everyone.

“Hello!” Bruce greeted happily. He shook Connor’s paw and looked so excited to meet him. “We’ve heard so much about you from Dex, Jason, and Sam!”

“Oh good, it always depends on who you hear from!” Connor laughed.

“We thought Dex would never find anyone!” Cathy exclaimed, which made Dex blush.

“Mom!” he protested.

“Never say never~” Connor smiled. “You have wonderful sons, and I enjoy dating one of them and employing two of them!”

“Well we really appreciate that.” Bruce smiled. “Come on in! Dinner is all ready!”

“Alrighty then!” Connor exclaimed as he followed them inside.

Dex brought up the rear. As he stepped onto the porch and went inside, he had a permanent smile on his face. He felt so happy to see his parents be all excited at meeting Connor. He closed the door and went to have dinner with everyone.

2024.

As Dex got older, he felt that time was growing faster and faster. It seemed incredible to him that it was now 2024, that 2023 went by so fast and now it was a new year to start fresh and anew. He had a very successful 2023; he found his boyfriend, he made a couple friends, and got a pay raise for his hard work as the Centoh ops manager. Now he was fast approaching forty-five, and it blew his mind. Ten months had gone in a blink of an eye.

A cold breeze blew down from the north as Dex carried his luggage aboard “Magnolia”, Martin Bixby’s decked out Constellation. The short-fuselage L-749 wore a custom red lightning bolt cheat design, the plane being polished bare metal with the golden “BATS Insignia” on the nose. He was followed by Connor with his luggage, and their friends, Ryan McCormick and Fidel Arriola, who were now dating themselves. “Magnolia” had an executive suite cabin, with plush chairs, a dining area, and sleeping bunks near the back of the plane. Bixby himself was already seated with Ron Gaughan, who watched as the ground crew hand turned the big propellers.

“This is the jet-set lifestyle Dex lives!” Connor teased as he took a seat towards the back with everyone.

“Pfft! Please.” Dex laughed. “I’m not constantly flying places~”

“As we park our asses in this opulent plane.” The malamute grinned.

“Dex here, the master of the understatement.” Fidel teased.

“Oh, c’mon!” laughed Dex.

“Chicago here we come!” Ryan exclaimed as he buckled up.

“I gotta get some work done, and I’ll be back here.” Dex smiled as he got a kiss from Connor.

“You got it, stud~” Connor smiled as he shed his thick brown jacket.

Dex walked up and stepped through the galley to sit with Ron and Martin. He placed his laptop bag beside him as he sat at the card table by the window, which gave a good view of the big radial engines on the starboard wing.

“Glad for you to join us~” Ron remarked with a chuckle.

“Time to do some business on this flight.” Dex smiled as he grabbed his legal pad and pencil from his bag.

“Magnolia” soon lifted off the runway, and the springy Constellation confidently lifted off and climbed away for the three hour flight to the windy city. The L-749 disappeared into Gulfport’s overcast, but soon popped out into the bright sunshine where the propliner glistened. It turned to head north, climbing slowly for its cruising altitude of nine thousand feet.

Dex sat with Martin and Ron and worked on business plans for Centoh while munching on some snacks and drinks. They were discussing about the plans to introduce widebody jets for Centoh.

“I think the major thing that’s gonna have to be discussed about for all the Centoh facilities, is the need for larger hangars to allow maintenance to be performed for the widebodies. The existing facilities are big enough for the propliners, but we need something that can handle the expected DC-10’s or the A300’s that Rob wants to bring online.” Dex explained to Ron and Martin.

“I think that will be a major discussion point, as I’ve been talking to Rob and Jaska about building a new hangar at Gulfport-Biloxi to handle widebody servicing.” Martin nodded. “From what Jaska and Rob are saying, it sounds like Lainsville and Biloxi are gonna get the major upgrades first as Rob needs Lains for his European routes, and Biloxi for the expected Caribbean expansion, a-la ‘InterIsle’ service.”

“That’s a good thing.” Ron nodded. “Job security.”

Dex and Martin laughed with him.

“That’s a really good thing.” Dex chuckled as he made some notes on his pad.

Ron leaned back in his chair and placed his arms behind his head. “So Dex? You excited at going back home to Chicago?”

“I got mixed feelings.” Admitted the malamute as he tugged on his gray sweater collar.

“Understandable.” Ron nodded.

“I got plans to spend the weekend with friends and show my boyfriend and our friends around my old stomping grounds. But I hope it’s kind of a closure I want.”

Martin leaned forward and grabbed his water bottle. “I think people forget that sometimes the grass isn’t always greener. I remember moving away from Mississippi for a long time, and feeling that going to Boston was this fantastic thing, when I was stationed in the Navy, but in the end, I chose to go back home to be with family.”

“Well it’s Boston too.” Ron grinned with a laugh.

“Yeah.” Martin chuckled.

Dex smirked as he twirled his pencil in his grip. “People get this horrible idea of what Mississippi is.”

“Mississippi burning, the civil rights era…” Ron shook his head. “But Biloxi? Gulfport? It’s a nice place to be.”

“I left Mississippi when I was eighteen and I didn’t want to ever return because I didn’t think I had an option of being who I wanted to be back home. But ironically, I went back home thinking I was gonna die, and now I’m happier than ever. Go figure huh?”

Martin smiled at Dex. “The grass ain’t always greener, that’s for sure.”

“No, no.” Dex nodded. “Well gentlemen, I think I’m gonna take a break and go check in on Connor and the guys back there.”

“Sure thing, Dex.” Ron and Martin nodded.

Dex excused himself and returned to the back of the plane, where he saw Connor asleep with his head propped up on the wall by the round window with its blind closed. Dex sat down beside him and just smiled at his boyfriend sound asleep. He took his big paw and held it, stroking it affectionately and just smiling as he slept. Dex glanced around to find everyone else napping. The radial song did have a mesmerizing effect in making people sleepy.

Snow flurries fluttered in Chicago, as an icy breeze whistled through the concrete jungle of the windy city. Bundled up against the cold stood Braxton and his boyfriend Christos, who patiently waited on the flight line for their friend’s arrival with members of Centoh’s security. The two gray wolves looked up at the sky and waited for the deep rumble of radial engines.

Emerging through the cloud deck, “Magnolia was lined up perfectly for Midway’s runway. A crosswind rocked the Connie around as it descended in with its spidery gear dropped into place. Flaring for touchdown, the L-749 touched down on the pavement, bounced once, and planted its gear firmly down on terra firma with a puff of smoke. All four engines went into reverse thrust to bleed off speed.

Taxiing onto the tarmac, Dex watched from the window as he passed by Rob Barion’s posh looking L-1049E, Centoh Chicago’s DC-6B and Convairliner, and Lainsville’s L-1049G. They made a wide turn and parked with them. The engines soon fell silent with only the hum of the APU left.

“Back home~” Dex remarked as he got up with everyone and stretched.

As ground crew pushed the airstair up against the aft hatch, the PMC’s honor guard ran up to get into position. The all black clad members of Viking Battalion lined up parade style on one side of the airstair. The head of the PMC’s division, Bruno Matix, a big burly malamute with a Medal of Honor strapped around his neck, called out the commands. He wore his winter dress uniform, a thick overcoat that was black leather with white lapels and the black clad 6B47 helmet.

“Augen, rightig!” Bruno called out. Everyone cocked their heads immediately to the right as Martin Bixby stepped out first. Ron followed, along with Dex and everyone else as they climbed down.

“Welcome back!” Bruno greeted to Dex as he extended a paw shake for the fellow malamute. Dex happily accepted it from him.

“It’s nice to be back~” Dex remarked as he saw Gary Morton approach.

“Dex! So nice to see you again!” Gary greeted as he gave Dex a hug. “Welcome back to Chicago!”

“I appreciate it.” Dex smiled in return.

“Dex! Dex!” came Braxton and Christos. The two gray wolves ran over to give their friend a long overdue hug.

“I feel so loved, guys! Thank you!” Dex exclaimed as he hugged both of them.

“Oh my god, you look great!” Braxton exclaimed.

“I stopped ripping my hair out!” Dex teased with a laugh.

“It’s completely gone gray~” Braxton remarked.

“I decided to stop trying to constantly dye it brown~” Dex shrugged. “What’s next a wig?”

“A powdered wig?” Braxton teased.

“Okay, I’m not our founding fathers! I’m old but not that old!” the malamute laughed.

Dex introduced his boyfriend, Ryan, and Fidel to Braxton and Christos, who grabbed their luggage to take to Christos’ SUV. Dex coordinated their plans as he prepared to say goodbye to attend his important Centoh meeting with the other operations managers. They had big plans for the weekend together. Dex walked off to the office he had once worked in as Braxton and Christos took Connor, Fidel, and Ryan with them.

A light snow fell on Boystown, dusting the landscape white with a cold, whistling breeze amongst the buildings. Dex and Connor walked all bundled up against the cold, holding each other’s paw as they ventured down North Halsted, Dex’s old neighborhood.

“When I first made it to Chicago… it was like I died and had gone to heaven.” Dex remarked to Connor. “I was eighteen years old in 1997. I lived in a dorm in Northwestern, and then got an apartment on the west side of town. My apartment overlooked a park where I think someone got killed at least once a day.”

“Surprise?” Connor smiled.

“Shush.” Dex chuckled.

“But when I got the money to get an apartment in the gay mecca? Oh boy, was that fantastic! At first.” Dex pointed out. “It’s just funny when you’re able to look back on it all.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty, sweetie~” Connor quipped.

“Apparently. I look back and realize how empty it felt. You’re surrounded by tens of thousands of gay guys, and yet? You feel so alone.”

“A real shame isn’t it?” Connor remarked. “When I came out I thought the same thing, but then I realized the extent of emotional unavailability, the fear of intimacy, the self-loathing closeted gay guy, so on and so on. It’s a real shame people are so fucked up.”

“Yeah.” Dex nodded. “Oh the things people didn’t like me for… Too big! Not big enough! Too tall! Too much ink! Not enough ink! Don’t like the piercing!”

“The list goes on!” Connor laughed. “I was once told that my rugged country nature was intimidating, and they couldn’t go on. Alright! Their loss!”

Dex just shook his head. “Oh, here’s my old apartment!”

Dex and Connor stopped at Dex’s old apartment, with its door still painted purple. New lace curtains replaced the purple curtains he once had hung up. Dex leaned on Connor and told him stories about his old apartment and how pretty it was.

“Pretty expensive.” Connor grinned.

“I can’t imagine what the price is now…” the malamute grimaced.

“Too much!”

“You ain’t kidding.” Dex laughed. He looked up at the fluttering rainbow flag on the light pole. “It’s crazy to think how much my life has changed in three years.”

Connor put his arms around Dex and gave him a kiss on the side of his muzzle. “You’ve learned a lot about yourself.”

“I also had to be put back together… I don’t recommend wrecking your vehicle…”

“Nah, it sucks!” Connor laughed. “I had a really nice SuperDuty before that one that I had for a long time, until some ditsy ran a red light and t-boned me!”

“That’s what happened to my first car in college.” Chuckled Dex. “I had the green, they didn’t. Boom.”

“I hate when that happens.” Connor chuckled as they continued on walking into Boystown.

“I sometimes think about my former circle of friends…” Dex admitted. “Heh, they probably are doing the same thing as before. Drinking, drugs, partying, hooking up… heh, they probably fucked themselves up somehow!”

“You don’t need ‘em, so don’t think about that trash.”

“Good point.” Dex nodded. They walked a little bit more down the road when Dex’s phone rang. He grabbed it from his jacket pocket to find his old boss Clyde calling him, which took him by surprise.

“Hello?” Dex responded.

“Hey! It’s Clyde Thompson. How are you doing Dex?”

“This is a surprise. I’m doing a-okay.”

“I heard you’re visiting in Chicago.”

“That’s correct.”

“I was curious if you had a moment to come and see me and Justin? I don’t know if you heard about this… but Saunders-Babbitt shut down the Chicago factory…”

“Really… no way!”

“Maggie shut us down and I got fired… they’re moving all operations to the Minooka plant.”

“Wow.”

“So I have a nice little going away gift I think you and Braxton would like to be part of…”

“Oh boy…”

The parking garage was dim, with flickering fluorescent lighting that was cold white, and cast harsh shadows along the grungy rust stained concrete walls. Water dripped from a leaking storm drain pipe, each drop making an eerie echo that was pierced by a mighty crash.

Crashing out of the back of Clyde’s pickup truck was an ancient Xerox 1035 copier. It was the detested, loathed, and ridiculed photocopier that Saunders-Babbitt held onto for years and years. Its yellowed plastic still bore the “property of Saunders-Babbit Inc.”.

Surrounding it in the empty parking garage was Dex, Braxton, and their former coworker Justin. They were all armed with baseball bats as they circled the old copier they hated so much. Clyde watched from a distance as he circled around them. Connor leaned against the wall with his big arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

Gripping the bat in his paws, Dex loathed that ancient copier. All the jamming, misprints, and chaos it ensured him over the twenty-one years he had worked at the company. He threw his foot up and slammed it into the copier, shattering its feed tray. Justin swung his bat and busted the scanner lid, followed by Braxton who broke open the paper tray. Each blow had a deafening ring against the concrete. Dex swung his bat and shattered the glass plate, which exploded into little glistening shards.

“This is for fucking my shoulder up!” Justin yelled, the Doberman repeatedly smashing the printer to take his rage out on his former company. Braxton gave it more blows as Dex watched intensely.

“All the fucking years I put into that god damn company… all the bullshit I endured… all the prints I had to redo because of this piece of shit!” Dex growled. He smashed it further with his bat, his face twisted with rage. He hit it repeatedly with his baseball bat until he fell to his knees and began punching the guts of the printer. His big paws smashed through all the plastic, all the logic boards, as plastic flew everywhere. He was so enraged that Connor ran over with Clyde to pull Dex off. The furious malamute ripped the wiring harness out as he was dragged away.

“It’s just a printer! It’s just a printer!” Connor exclaimed with a stifled laugh. “Jesus Christ! Dex!”

Dex stepped away, but ran back to smash it again, only to slip and fall on his back with a thud. Everyone, even Dex himself, had to laugh.

When they were done, there was nothing left but a mangled pile of plastic and metal in the parking garage. Dex and everyone walked back to their vehicles feeling rather satisfied of their photocopier beat down.

“Dex, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you all those years.” Clyde admitted.

“It’s fine.” Dex motioned. “It’s fine and in the past.”

“Oh the days you’d get so mad at Brandon~” Justin chuckled.

Clyde laughed. “You know, I was going to promote Brandon, until he got fired~”

“Excuse me?” Dex exclaimed. “Promote that dumb sonofabitch?”

“Ha, Brandon’s not that dumb… it just takes him twelve hours to do a one hour job…”

Dex closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Regardless, we got shut down because Maggie claims we were costing her money and making an inferior product.”

“She just realized that now?” Justin remarked.

“I think she got drunk and rage fired everyone.” Clyde shrugged. “Regardless, it’s Minooka’s problem now! I got a job starting to run a saw at a lumber yard~”

“Oh those memories~” Justin laughed. “Remember Dex when you got Brandon good after seeing him spit that dip out?”

Dex looked at Connor. “We used to tell Brandon that he only kept his job because he got under Clyde’s desk~” Everyone laughed, including Clyde, who cackled in laughter.

Justin took over for a moment. “Dex saw Brandon spitting out some dip in the dumpster and we both go over and he’s like ‘Hey Brandon! You got a little something on your lips there, bub~’ and Brandon is frantically wiping away asking if he got it.”

Dex shook his head. “I told him he had some of Clyde’s protein shake on his lips, and Brandon’s eyes go huge and he’s like ‘WHAT!? I DON’T SWALLOW!’ I was taken aback by such a commentary. I’ve heard people deny they suck dick, but to deny that you swallow? So I told him that I didn’t need to know that he spat that shit in Clyde’s butthole~”

Clyde leaned against his truck laughing hysterically.

“Don’t get us started about the one udder comment.” Justin rolled his eyes. “I told Brandon he should be a dairy farmer because of how good he is at milking the fucking clock. He could go milk the cows, and then milk the bulls, to which he said ‘they only have one udder~’. I was speechless. That boy was retarded~”

“Well that sounds like the whole family…” Dex shook his head. “Needless to say, we all went through an adventure working there.”

“I’m amazed you made it twenty-one years, there Dexter!” Clyde remarked.

“Stubbornness.” Dex smiled. “Won’t make that mistake again…”

Clyde nodded. “I think you made it out pretty darn good, Dex.”

“It was a rough road to get here, but it was worth it, for sure.” The malamute nodded back.

Dinner was at a fancy dinner nightclub in Boystown. The atmosphere of the place was dim, with colorful lights that glowed and pride flags galore. Dex used to frequent the place a lot with his former friends for years, always in a big round booth to eat dinner and converse. Now he was in that same exact booth with his boyfriend and new friends, conversing over dinner.

“So do you feel better after you destroyed that copier?” Connor asked with a grin as he sipped on his Coke.

“Yes.” Dex laughed. “I do, in fact. I feel like a weird sense of closure from that really stressful chapter of my life.”

Braxton shook his head. “That stupid piece of shit always ate my load sheets…”

“You would copy something or print from it, and it would spit out your page, and when you went to grab it, it would pull the fucking thing back in! Back and forth!” Dex laughed. “And we’d all bitch about it, and IT wouldn’t do anything about it.”

“Hell, even for equipment there was no accountability.” Braxton laughed.

“Exactly!” Dex exclaimed.

“Remind me to never piss you off!” Connor laughed. “Dex here is pretty good with a baseball bat~”

“I can take care of myself~” the malamute joked.

“That Xerox never stood a chance.” Fidel teased.

“Again, it felt like a sort of closure I needed. And it was nice to see Clyde and Justin again.”

Braxton nodded. “I think Clyde is a good person, just not a good manager.”

“Nepotism and being under forty got you anywhere in Saunders-Babbitt.”

“And being under a desk if you’re Brandon.” Teased Braxton. “Getting those protein shakes!”

“Only place I know where you can fuck up and get a promotion.” Dex shrugged. “But that’s history. Just like how me and my old friends used to be here all the time, eating dinner, and talking about superficial silly shit. Coming back to Chicago is a great thing to reflect and see where I’ve come from and where I’m going with my life.”

“Well that’s good!” Christos exclaimed as he bit into his burger.

“Thanks to this one here.” Dex smiled as he pointed at Braxton. “This journey began thanks to meeting Braxton.”

“Part of the plan!” Braxton joked with a grin.

“I got to see a different perspective of life thanks to him, and it made me start to question things, and I’m thankful for it.” Dex explained. “I’m thankful for Braxton and Christos because they were there for me when I had nobody.”

“Well, that’s what friends are for.” Christos nodded. “You needed help, and we were there.”

“Well I appreciate it.” Dex smiled. He was about to say something when he sensed someone’s presence outside of the group, a figure approaching from the corner of his eye. The malamute turned his head to see a slender white wolf approach. Dex recognized the wolf as his former friend Trey, but as he processed his appearance, something was immediately amiss. He could tell it was Trey by his flamboyantly colored clothes, the same style Dex used to dress a long time ago, and his coifed dark hair. But there was something different about his face, and as Dex scrutinized it, it looked rather puffy, swollen, if not slightly paralyzed.

“I thought I’d recognize your voice, Dex.” Trey said, revealing himself. Dex gave a blank stare in return.

“It’s Trey~”

“Jesus Christ, what happened to your face?” Dex asked sarcastically.

Trey pursed his lips, or tried to. He looked uncomfortable, and bothered. “You know, I figured you were going to ask that.”

“I thought we weren’t friends anymore.”

“I take it all back.” Trey admitted.

“I never saw you alone, Trey, where’s the other gaggle of geese? Paul? Lenny? Johnny?” Dex asked. His face was unflinchingly cold to his former friend. Everyone else had blank stares at the wolf.

“You really wanna know do you?”

“Go on…”

Trey explained about how the four of them made a trip to Mexico over Christmas 2022. They heard about a facility in Tijuana that gave cheap Botox and they all took part in it, only to suddenly find themselves developing serious complications. The injections were contaminated, and Trey and everyone got sick. He revealed that he had to have facial surgery after contracting a flesh eating bacteria. It left his face permanently disfigured. Paul and Johnny both developed septic shock, and after a week in the ICU, both of them succumbed to their illness. Lenny needed facial reconstruction and was apparently unrecognizable. Dex heard all this and felt numb.

“Dex, I’m so sorry for what we had said in the past.” Trey admitted, looking miserable.

Dex crossed his big arms and shook his head in disdain. “You god damn fool.”

Trey didn’t know what to say.

“All the years I’ve known you… all of you cared about was that everlasting youth and getting young guys in bed with you. Now look at you. In your quest for beauty, you destroyed yourself. And now that you’re at where I was two years ago? You come crawling on back to ask for forgiveness.”

Trey’s eyes looked away momentarily. “…I was hoping you’d be a bit more sympathetic, Dex…”

“You mean like the same sympathy you showed me when I was lying on the ground?”

Trey’s jaw dropped slightly.

Dex’s face was cross. “Get your shit and get the fuck outta here.”

Trey turned and walked away with a sulking walk, the same kind of pathetic sad gait he’d see Brandon Vlockner have after he’d yell at him the same way. Dex exhaled slowly and took a sip of his water.

“Stupid motherfucker…” he grumbled.

“Whooo boy~” Connor muttered. “Awkward…”

“Holy fuck, Dex.” Christos muttered.

“I ain’t letting him take my joy away~” Dex shrugged. He grabbed a handful of fries and munched on them as their conversation slowly returned.

Dex stepped out of Braxton’s shower, the steam gushing out around him as he dried himself off with a dark green towel. He patted his fur dry and used the towel to wipe the steam off the mirror to gaze at himself. He took a moment to look at his face and just reflect on things, after his brief encounter with his former friend. Unlike Trey, whose face was now permanently disfigured, Dex had the pleasure of at least aging more gracefully.

The youthful looks he once held onto in his early forties were fading away. His face was starting to resemble more and more like his father’s, all gruff looking. Wavy brown hair had finally faded to a silvery gray, his goatee and chinstrap also taking on the same silvery gray hue. He decided to stop dying it brown, after dealing with all the hassles of getting it done. He accepted that he was getting older, and that his youthfulness was fading slowly. Dex embraced his “daddy” status.

Brushing his teeth and combing his hair, Dex stepped out of the bathroom wearing a pair of pink and blue striped boxers and a black tanktop that clung to his dad bod. His tattooed arms swayed gracefully towards the guest bedroom of their friend’s duplex home. He stepped inside to see Connor lying in bed watching TV rather aimlessly. He smiled at Dex’s presence. Dex smiled back as he closed the door and walked over to climb into bed. Connor sat the remote down and pulled Dex into his big tattooed arms for some cuddles and a loving kiss. Dex closed his eyes and melted into that kiss as he pressed his tongue against Connor’s before breaking away slowly.

“I love you so much.” Dex smiled at him.

“I know.” Connor smiled back. “I love you too, Dex.”

“Well I love you more, Connor~” Dex fired back as they snickered their way into another long kiss. Dex pulled away and rested his head on Connor’s shoulder as he caressed his body affectionately.

“I can’t believe those idiots did that to themselves…” Dex quipped, remarking about Trey. “What a god damn stupid move.”

“Well you did say they were a vapid gaggle of geese…” Connor chuckled.

“Trey cared so much about his looks. Looking youthful meant so much to him… especially when he approached forty. The whole gay death shit. Motherfucker wanted to be like Peter Pan and be young forever.”

“Once you cross forty it’s not so scary~” Connor chuckled. “I’m gonna be forty-six in July!”

“I’ll be forty-five next month.” Dex remarked. “It’s crazy. I remember the day I turned forty. It felt like a big milestone yet it wasn’t.

“Oooooh, here comes the gay death!” Connor teased.

“People say that, yet I got so many young guys who wanted an experienced fuck in bed~” Dex chuckled. “But man when I look back at photos of myself then… I look really underweight… and that’s what I thought was good… I worked out a ridiculous amount, I ate like only a salad for dinner.”

“Yuck! You need a steak!” Connor exclaimed.

“Once in a while! Once in a while!” Dex laughed. “Christ, you heard about where I worked out, I ain’t swimming in cash, motherfucker!”

Connor just gave him a big grin as he snickered with him.

“I look back and feel like I wasted a good ten years of my life because of those idiots.” The malamute said in a grumbly tone. “I remember feeling so unpopular before I met Trey, and we hooked up, and then all his friends hooked up with me, and I felt good about myself, and then Dex whoring himself out… and I thought that’s what you had to do to be popular, and well, I was wrong, frankly.”

“Don’t think of it as a waste, Dex. You just did what you thought was a good idea with what you knew at the time. You’ve learned a lot about yourself the past couple of years.”

“Oh it’s been a rough couple of years, but I think in the end? It was worth it.”

“And your face isn’t all paralyzed and bloated!”

“Yeah, that too.”

“Think of it as… what they did to you, Dex. That’s their comeuppance.” Connor pointed out.

“Yeah.” Dex nodded.

“Those who are late will always be punished by life itself.” Connor shrugged.

Dex looked up and smiled at Connor. “Well now I got a healthy group of friends.”

“And a hung group of friends too that you can cumdump all you want with us!” Connor grinned.

“Now that’s oddly specific.” Chuckled the malamute as Connor kissed his forehead affectionately.

“Almost monogamous!” Connor joked.

“I like the sound of that.” Dex chuckled. “God, I lucked out with you.”

“See? You never would have met me had you never gone back home.”

“I’d probably be dead now if I stayed in Chicago.” Dex admitted. “It’s just funny to leave Mississippi thinking I’d never get a chance to have the life I wanted back home, and now I went back home and everything worked out.”

“Funny how life works~”

“Yeah. Life has a fucked up sense of humor.” Dex chuckled.

Snow flurries sputtered on a chilly Monday morning at Midway. It was the end of Dex’s extended weekend trip, and after many laughs, and touring his old stomping grounds with his friends, it was time to go back home to the magnolia state. On the light line, the number three engine to Centoh’s DC-6B fired up with a hacking cough of oily smoke. Preparations were finishing up as the “Six” began turning over its radials. Ground crew stood by watching the process as everyone said goodbye.

“This feels like something out of Casablanca.” Dex joked with Connor. “Well… it’s time to say goodbye.”

“It was so nice to meet you two.” Connor said as he shook Braxton’s paw, followed by Christos’.

“Likewise!” the two gray wolves said practically together.

“I look forward to seeing ya’ll come down in April, and we’ll gladly show you around Gulfport and Biloxi!” Connor smiled.

“You’ll like it.” Dex assured.

“Well I got my vacation time approved, so we’re all set.” Christos nodded.

“And Gary gave me the all clear as well, plus we got the flight planned on the Convair 340.”

“Excellent~” Dex smiled.

“Well till then, guys! Take care.” Connor waved as he turned to climb up the airstair to join Ryan and Fidel inside the “Six”. Dex watched him duck down and through the hatch.

Braxton gave Dex a big hug. “Well I hope you have a safe flight!”

“I really appreciate it.” Dex said as he accepted the hug and gave Christos a hug as well. “You know… none of this would ever have happened if I had never met you, Braxton.”

“It’s funny how life works like that, right?” Braxton nodded.

Dex looked reflective. “I really appreciate you because of your kindness. You helped open my eyes to where my life was going, and you and Christos supported me when nobody else did. Why?”

“Why what?” Braxton asked.

“Why did you two do all that for me?”

“That’s what friends are for~” Braxton quipped with a happy grin on his face.

“Well I really appreciate it.” Dex smiled as he gave Braxton one more hug. “I’ll see you in April, friendo~”

“You too, friend.”

Dex turned and climbed up the airstair to step into the plane. He gave one final wave before “Hup” closed the hatch and locked it. Dex took a seat with Connor by the window and listened to the big engines burble. The malamute looked really content as Connor grabbed his paw and affectionately held and stroked it in his big strong paws.

Lifting off Midway’s runway, the DC-6 climbed away slowly, the wings rocking a bit from turbulence as they lifted off and flew over the city. Dex watched from the window as the concrete and steel landscape of Chicago passed by them. Very slowly, the city began to fade away into the clouds as they climbed into the cloudbank. Dex thought about the twenty-five years he lived in the windy city; it still in a weird sense felt like home to him, but it was feeling more like a regretful thing. It was a beautiful city, and he still loved its architecture, activities, places, and culture, but in the end, did it better his life? Dex thought about that question on and off on the long flight back to Mississippi .

A cold rain fell upon Biloxi from a dark, tumultuous sky. Rain splattered against the windows of the crowded LGBT resource center that Dex went to for his STD checks and Prep prescriptions. The lobby was crowded as he quietly sat towards the back, reading a new meteorology book he had purchased. While he read, he listened to the ambience as people conversed and joked amongst themselves. It was going to be a while before he could get his STD test done as part of his Prep regiment.

“Oh, ‘scuse me, but could I sit here with ya?” came a voice. Dex looked up to see a fellow malamute staring at him as he shed a dripping wet windbreaker. He looked slightly younger than Dex, with white and slate gray fur, and brown hair that was long and tied into a manbun atop his head. He was more fit than Dex’s dad bod.

“Sure.” Dex agreed. The other malamute sat down beside him.

“Name’s Allen.”

“Dex~”

Dex held out a paw and Allen shook it with a smile on his face.

“What are you here for? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Oh my regular STD check~” Dex remarked calmly. “I do it every three months.”

“Prep too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what I’m here for as well.” Allen said with a chuckle. “I like sex too much.”

“Cumdump too, eh?” Dex chuckled.

Allen gave a mock surprised look. “You too?”

“Former.” Dex smiled. “I used to have my fun back when I lived in Chicago.”

“Nothing wrong with that man~”

“What’s your record?”

“I think forty-nine? One guy ghosted so no fifty~” Allen shook his head with a smirk. “Guys are too fuckin’ flaky in our community… What about you?

“Forty-two, for my forty-second birthday~” Dex laughed.

“Birthday fucks!”

“Ha, yeah. And I know what you mean about flakes…”

“It’s sad you know? You meet all these hot guys, and then you see the emotional unavailability, the hot and cold sexuality, one minute they’re swarming all over you, and then they get off and that’s it, they’re done and leave.”

“It’s very frustrating. That’s the story of my life in Chicago. Used and ghosted. So many beautiful men I met and slept with and nothing more. It was just mechanical. I like some intimacy with my encounters.”

“I knowww!” Allen exclaimed. “I love being intimidate with guys, even if it’s just a fling. That’s just my nature I guess.”

“Now I can be intimate with my boyfriend.” Dex smiled. “I finally found the one and we’ve been together for almost a year.”

“Oh that’s so sweet. A cumdump finds love and becomes monogamous.”

“Ha! Almost. We got our cute extras who are our best friends, and they’re a couple too.”

“Even better~”

Dex fumbled his brow. “In a way, I feel bad looking back…”

“Oh don’t feel bad.” Allen assured him. “I hear it from guys saying they regret being slutty, and yada, yada, and I think that’s just from society’s puritanical bullshit breathing down everyone’s throats. There is nothing wrong with sex, and having lots of it. I mean, it’s in our nature, our hormones, for Christ’s sake. If we took the taboo away and people were open and honest about what they’d want, it’d be so much better. But instead we put sex on a pedestal and get all weird about it- just another example of how religion fucks shit up.”

“I must admit that I feel kind of conflicted when I think about it.”

“How so?”

“Well, I kinda became a cumdump when I started hanging out with a group of guys who were kind of into that hookup culture stuff. And before I tried to fit into other parts of the gay community, and I always felt excluded, and these guys were cool… and I guess… when in Rome. And thus I got on Prep and well to be blunt, whored myself out, because I figured that’s what gay guys do, and that’s what all the messaging in the gay community projects~”

The other malamute had a thought about it. “Dex, I think you were trying to seek validation through all that sex. Based upon what you just told me. I get the impression you’re one of those guys who just for whatever reason, fall through the cracks and don’t fit into a clique. And you found some people who liked you, and you went with it because it rewarded that sense of validation.”

“It led to a lot of problems with drugs, and then I crashed my car and almost died… so I’ve had to really reevaluate my life over the past three years.”

“Well that’s good.” Allen nodded. “I like sex. I don’t feel the need to validate my existence with sex. I like banging with guys in bed on my business trips, but I can’t live without sex. I’m not the guy who’s career suffers, or family suffers because they can’t get enough dick or ass, whatever. I’m quite content with my life, and I’m forty.”

“You look great at forty. I used to look great in my early forties~”

“Oh don’t put yourself down like that.” Laughed Allen. “You look beautiful just the way you are with that gorgeous silvery gray hair! Your boyfriend latched on to a real cutie!”

Dex blushed. “Well thank you.”

“You can’t fret about the past. That’s history. You can learn from it, and alter your life trajectory. The most important thing I tell guys who are in that situation is just find what makes you happy, and you yourself have to make yourself happy, not anybody else. That just creates the toxic mess the gay community suffers from.”

“You ain’t a kidding.”

“Sweetie I travel for business all over the US. I lived in New York, I lived in Chicago, LA, San Francisco- I don’t recommend SF… that was an expensive clusterfuck city, unless you like seeing the homeless piss and shit everywhere.”

Dex cringed.

“Big cities are fine and dandy, but too many gays think moving there will fix their problems, or make their lives better, and more often than not, it doesn’t. Yeah, is it great to be in a gay mecca where you’re not gonna get killed holding your boyfriend’s paw? But I’ve seen it first hand, and you’ve seen it yourself, the bitchiness, the cliques, the isolation the gay community brings to guys. Add to the societal oppression, and all this other shit, and it makes a quagmire.”

“Absolutely.”

“I live right here in Biloxi because I’m happy being here close to home. Even though my parents are a bit disappointed in my life… but I don’t care! Because I don’t want to be like them, married miserably for forty years and battling on and off alcoholism, or my brother, going on his fifth marriage… I am happy with my life, and what I do. I don’t let others take my joy away. And you shouldn’t either.”

Dex smiled and nodded. “I’ve found my happiness here. I left Orange Grove twenty-seven years ago thinking I would never come back because I thought I could never be openly gay in Mississippi, and now here I am, living the best life ever that I never would have gotten in Chicago! Life plays funny games likes that.”

“The grass ain’t always greener on the other side. That’s for sure.” Allen nodded. “Hey! I like the meteorology book! I just read that one a month ago!”

“Oh you like severe storms too?”

“I do!”

The exam room door opened up. “Allen Cullifield?”

“Oh that’s me!” Allen said as he got up, only to pause. “Hey listen, Dex, I really enjoyed chatting with you. Could I add you to my contacts? I’d love to talk about severe storms and get to know you more. I can tell you’re a nice guy~”

“Sure.” Dex smiled as he read out his phone number for Allen to put into his phone.

“You take care, Dex!”

“Same to you!”

Dex watched the malamute get up and go in through the exam room doors. Dex smiled and went back to reading his book as he sat there looking content.

Friday was warm and full of sunshine at the airport. Dex sat in the shade provided by the maintenance hangar as he ate lunch and watched activity on the flight line. A gentle breeze off the ocean felt refreshing as he munched on leftovers he had packed. On the tarmac he watched a C-47 get its load of cargo, along with a Convairliner that had forklifts continuously moving palletized freight to it from the warehouse. Opposite of the twin-engine propliners, a DC-7CF received its palletized medical supplies destined for Austin, along with a bulbous C-97C, another of Barev’s “salvaged wonders”. The C-97 and DC-7 both wore Centoh’s newest paint scheme; a dark red and blue cheatline with a very thin white line between, separating the white upper fuselage from the polished natural metal undersides, wings, and cowlings. The upper fuselage now simply read “Centoh” in dark red, with “United BATS System” written in small black text. The Seven Seas was named “Zoar”, and the C-97 “Van Wert”, after two small towns in Ohio. The sound of construction battled with the airport sounds as construction was underway for the new hangar for the incoming jet fleet that was beginning to come online.

Checking his watch, Dex watched as a DC-6B arrived in, the third Lainsville flight. The DC-6BF gracefully touched down and rolled down the runway in reverse thrust to bleed off speed. As he took a sip of his bottle of water, Ron Gaughan walked up and took a seat beside him with a sandwich and a pop in grip.

“I’m told our first widebody should be coming in anytime now.”

“Oh yeah?”

“It’s an A300.” Ron explained. “Jaska is sending us one to get familiar with and get some hours on for the crew transition.”

“Well I hope we don’t get no bad weather because there’s no place to store it right now!” Dex exclaimed with a laugh.

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Ron chuckled. “Knowing our luck we’ll get leveled by a twister tomorrow.”

“Hey don’t say that… it’s been a very active season so far all over the plains and midwest…” Dex pointed out. “You’ll jinx us.”

The black and gray husky chuckled. “Yeah, I take that back actually, now that I think about it.”

“I guess if we get a chance of bad weather, we’ll ferry it up to Chicago or something.”

“I like that idea.”

“Hey I think there it is!” Dex pointed.

Ron glanced over his shoulder to see a big widebody twin-jet come descending in. It was an immaculate Airbus A300F, in the new colors of Centoh as it touched down with smoke coming off the tires. The jet soon arrived on the tarmac, dwarfing everything as it was guided in to park. Its twin CF6 turbofans had a shrill to them compared to the deep raspy burble of piston engines. They were soon powered off and the ground crew chocked the big jet.

Taking a moment from his lunch, Dex and Ron walked over to see the Airbus up close. Dex was amazed at its massive size. It was a far cry from the narrow propliners.

“Crazy thing is this A300 is thirty-five years old.” Ron chuckled.

“Even the modern jets are old.” Dex teased with a snort.

After getting a tour of Centoh’s widebody, Dex finished up lunch and went back to work. He almost made it to his office when he saw a sentry approach, one of “Rob’s Little Green Men”.

“Dex, we have an issue in the sorting warehouse.”

“Yeah?”

“A driver is apparently being annoying and bothering everyone, one of the third-party courier guys. I think he’s lost… could you take a look at this, Dex?”

“Sure.”

Dex made his way to the warehouse where he saw all the bustling activities and forklifts zipping around. Dex walked to the loading bays where he spotted the driver talking to a clearly uninterested loading manager and armed sentry. The person looked and sounded familiar, a brown wolf who looked young. “No, no, way… it can’t be.”

Dex walked up got his attention. “Excuse me, is there an issue?”

The brown wolf turned around, and Dex’s face dropped at the sight of Brandon Vlockner. Brandon saw Dex and a big smile erupted on his face. “Dex!” he exclaimed. “Holy hell, buddy! I didn’t think I’d ever see you again!”

“What the fuck are you doing here in my warehouse?” Dex asked.

“Oh! I got a CDL!” Brandon exclaimed. “So after I got fired somehow at Saunders-Babbitt… I went and got my CDL! I don’t know why they fired me! I always showed up to work!”

“Well you gotta actually do some fuckin’ work, Brandon, showing up to work is just part of it~”

“Well its bullshit because Clyde was gonna give me another pay raise!”

Dex bit his tongue and closed his eyes. His body visibly shuddered as he kept his opinion to himself. “…do you know what you’re getting?”

“Yep.” The wolf smiled.

“Get your shit and get the fuck outta my warehouse!” Dex exclaimed as he turned to leave. Brandon’s eyes went huge and he frowned, turning to walk back towards his box truck with his sad little walk at Dex’s scolding again.

Dex returned to his office and closed the door as he sat down and cooled off in the air conditioned space. He glanced around at his office and all its decorations. There was a big poster of him, Mugnano, Gaughan, Bixby, and the management team of Capital Health Suppliers all posed around the DC-7C at Austin’s airport. Beneath it sat his five Golden Plumbicon Awards, and certificates he had obtained. The malamute smiled and leaned back in his office chair as he put his paws behind his head and stretched. He loved his job.

White primer turned to a dark shade of glossy purple, as Dex and Connor painted the spare bedroom. Dex and Connor worked together on the second wall that would become glossy purple, Dex’s favorite color. The spacious room was destined to become Dex’s own little personal space, as he planned to move into Connor’s home soon. The whole room smelled of wet paint, and a box fan ran frantically to try and blow fresh air into the room as they worked.

“You and this purple~” Connor chuckled as he rolled more onto his brush. “You sure you’re not a reincarnation of Prince there, Dex?”

“If I could sing like Prince, I wouldn’t be an operations manager to a cargo airline, Connor.” The malamute laughed. He reloaded his roller brush and kept applying paint to the wall. “That’d be like you singing Jason Aldean or something!”

Connor laughed. “Try that in a small town~”

“Oh boy.” Dex laughed with him.

“The difference between me and Jason is that I’m an actual country boy, and not pretending to be one for country music! That motherfucker comes from Macon, which is not a small town! C’mon!”

“Well isn’t that how it always goes?” Dex smiled. He flinched when a drop of purple paint splattered on his nose. “Oh, god damnit!”

“Hey you got purple on your nose~” Connor smiled as he wiped it off with a paper towel. He leaned in and gave Dex a surprise kiss. “Love you~”

“I love you too, stud!” Dex smiled. He was just blown away by his boyfriend’s beauty.

Putting his roller down, Dex and Connor took a step back to the doorway and looked at the room. Like Dex’s bedroom before, two walls were now purple in a diagonal fashion, contrasting to the bright white walls and trim. Dex envisioned in his mind where he wanted his desk, his bookshelf and all the pictures to hang up. Connor put his beefy arms around him and smiled as he held him close.

“Wanna get cleaned up and fuck?” Connor asked with a grin.

“You took the words right outta my mouth!” Dex laughed.

Getting cleaned up together in the shower, Dex and Connor threw themselves on the bed and made out. They caressed each other’s tattooed up bodies and locked their muzzles together in a deep passionate kiss. Connor kissed his neck and moved his way down, licking and sucking on his nipples and kissing his way down Dex’s belly and to his hard pierced cock, which Connor began to suck on. Dex groaned and arched his back as Connor sucked his eight inches with a slurping sound. As he sucked, Connor took his bottle of lube and slicked his huge cock up. He pulled his lips off Dex’s cock and climbed over Dex who adjusted his legs. The malamute closed his eyes as he felt Connor’s huge shaft penetrate him and fill him up with his girth. Connor shuddered in pleasure as he got into position to begin thrusting deep and slow, his lips making contact with Dex’s again.

Dex loved every moment of this. Lost in his euphoria, he opened his blue eyes to peer into Connor’s bright green eyes. He huffed and puffed slowly with each thrust, his face looking sweaty and full of passion as he looked at Dex. He loved that malamute so much. He never had sex like this before, so intense, and yet, that intensity was all in his head. He closed his eyes as he felt Connor’s lips press against his.

Connor let out a deep groan of pleasure, and his body convulsed as he came in Dex, who moaned with him. He let out another deep groan as he pulled his cock out slowly. Moving his way down like before, he took Dex’s rock hard boner into his muzzle and started sucking again. He worked his muzzle fast and Dex moaned and arched his back as he came in Connor’s muzzle. He groaned loudly and gripped the bed as Connor swallowed everything.

Dex collapsed his sweaty head into the pillow as Connor climbed back up and laid his head on Dex’s chest. Dex put a paw around him and held him close as they laid there in silence for a time, to savor the afterglow of sex. Connor grabbed and held Dex’s paw as he laid there.

“You’re not gonna have a heart attack are you?” teased Dex. Connor looked up at him and smirked.

“I’m not that old, motherfucker!” laughed Connor. “Fuck that was great.”

“Great as always because of you.”

“Well it’s that big dick energy~”

“I can tell.”

“Heh, heh.”

Dex and Connor smiled at each other and shared a kiss.

“I love you.” Connor smiled.

“I love you too, stud.” Dex smiled back. “You’ve stolen my heart.”

“Well better than stealing your taxes for pork projects! D’oh!” Connor laughed.

Dex closed his eyes and laughed. “About that.”

“Everything’s gonna work out, Dex.” Connor smiled. “Just think, we’ve been together for almost a year!”

“I know! Time is fast.”

“It gets faster when you get older, so you gotta enjoy it.” Connor nodded as he laid his head back on Dex’s chest.

“It’s insane how fast time flies.” Dex remarked. “A year together… wow. I just don’t know what to expect in a normal relationship timeline? You don’t think I’m moving in too fast? What about getting married or-“

Connor lifted his head up and jokingly pinched Dex’s lips shut. “You’re over thinking it!”

Dex smiled. “Yeah, sorry. I’ve just never been in a relationship before.”

“At least I didn’t give you the clap~” Connor grinned.

“Now that sounds oddly specific.” Dex laughed. “Bastard.”

“When I got into my relationship with Paul… I felt the same way too, and the best thing you can do is just take it one day at a time. The chips will fall into place, Dex. Everything will work out.”

“Okay.” Dex agreed.

“Wanna do steaks for dinner?”

“Sure.”

Dex and Connor smiled at each other and shared another kiss.

Pulling the last shirt from the closet, Dex neatly folded it on his now naked bed and stowed it into a bankers box. He placed the lid on and put a piece of tape across the top to hold it in place for the trip across town. Dex looked around at his old childhood bedroom. It was now empty again save for the bed. The same poster from his teenage years still was on display, faded with time, a reminder of his past. Dex stood there for a moment and reflected on moving in with his boyfriend, a major milestone. He nodded to himself, grabbed the box and turned to leave.

Heading downstairs, Dex stepped outside into the bright afternoon sunshine and put the back bankers box in the bed of his Silverado, which held his dresser, and other boxes of clothing and other goods. He made sure it was secured in place as he checked his straps holding down the dresser. As he turned to head back inside, he saw his mom Cathy approach at the doorway to step out onto the porch.

“Well I got everything, Mom.” Dex announced as he stepped up onto the porch. “Everything I’m taking is going with me. All that’s left up there is the bed.”

“Okay, good.” Cathy nodded. She looked pensive as she stood there. “I want you to know Dex, that if anything should happen, you’re always welcome to come back here.”

“I know, Mom.” Dex nodded.

“It won’t be like before.” Cathy shook her head. She looked at Dex and smiled for him. “I’m so proud of you, Dexy. You’ve got your whole life back together now, and you found someone who loves and cares for you. Now I can let go of that sadness in my heart.”

“I didn’t think this day would happen.” He admitted. “But things always seem to work out in the end, Mom.”

“Me and your father regret the things we said in the past to you. That will never happen again.” Cathy shook her head. “We’ve learned as much about you and ourselves and our believes over the past couple of years.”

“That’s all in the past.” Dex smiled. He gave his Mom a hug. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Dexy.” Cathy smiled as she hugged him tightly. She looked away as she wiped tears out of her eyes.

“Aww, c’mon don’t cry~” Dex smiled. “I’m just moving across town! Not going off to war!”

“We were so happy to have you stay with us again, after all those years.”

“Well you’re coming to my birthday party this Saturday~” Dex laughed. “I’ll be back to visit, I promise.”

“I know.” Cathy smiled.

Bruce stepped out onto the porch holding a pop in his grip. “Son, you got everything?”

“I do, Dad.” Dex nodded. “Well, thank you for helping me out the past two years.”

“We’re your parents, that’s what we’re here for.” Bruce said as he put his pop down to hug his son. “I’m so proud of you, Dex. You’ve turned everything around for the better.”

“Do or die, Dad~”

“That’s exactly right.” Bruce nodded. “So always know that you’re welcome to come back here if anything happens.”

“I know, Dad.” Dex smiled.

“I’m proud of you, Dex.” Bruce smiled. “Really, I am proud of you.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Dex gave his parents one final hug before leaving. “Come to our place this Saturday around four!”

“Four o’clock?” Cathy asked.

“Yeah!” Dex smiled.

“What should I bring for food?”

“Surprise us!” Dex exclaimed with a laugh. “Later, Mom and Dad!”

Bruce and Cathy stood in the front yard and waved as Dex hopped into his truck and departed. Like the day he left for college in the summer of 1997, Dex saw Cathy and Bruce wave as he left down the road to go fulfill his destiny. Dex smiled as he saw them in his rear view mirror.

Hitting the highway, it was a twenty minute commute across Orange Grove and Gulfport to reach Connor’s home just outside of town in the countryside. Dex pulled up to his new home and backed up to the back door as Connor greeted him.

“Well this is everything~” Dex said as he dropped the tailgate. Stepping out of the house was Ryan and Fidel, helping to move things in as they began grabbing boxes.

“This is it~” Dex smiled as he gave Connor a kiss.

“I’m excited.” Connor grinned.

“I am too.” Dex smiled.

Dex carried a bankers box into the spare bedroom that would now serve as his office and personal space. He sat the box down on a gray pullout couch and opened it to hang more pictures up on the walls. The purple and white walls were adorned with family photos, and nature photos he took himself. He took a moment to glance at a picture frame that held three photos; a copy of the original photo of his grandparents upon their arrival to Mississippi in 1959, posed in front of the DC-7 that flew them in, and a photo of a chubby and weak looking Dex when he arrived to Gulfport in Felix Barion’s DC-7B, and a recent workplace portrait of him posed by the nose wheel of a Convairliner. He smiled at the progress of his health in those two photos.

Dex stepped out of his room and looked around at the rustic home Connor had, and realized this was his future. It was a weird, surreal feeling. He had his own place again, with his boyfriend. Everything did work out in the end. As he stood there taking it all in, Connor walked up and put his big tattooed arms around Dex and kissed the side of his face. “You okay, sexy?”

“Yeah.” Dex smiled. “Just taking it all in.”

“Well if you smell something I just ripped ass over there.” Connor grinned with a snort.

“I’mma spray you with air freshener.” Dex said as he jokingly shook his head.

“Big relationship milestone is the first fart, just saying.” Connor joked.

“I’ll light em up~” Dex pointed out with a grin.

“Oh boy.”

Dex brought a couple more boxes in and stored them in his room. “I’ll get with these later.”

“What’s for dinner?” Ryan asked curiously.

“That’s a great idea~ Maybe after we all take a break.”

“Yeah, in bed.” Laughed Fidel with a playful grin as he caressed Dex’s chest.

“That does sound fun…”

“Maybe Dex would like a protein shake from all of us.” Ryan teased.

“Whacha say, Dex?”

“I’m not opposed to this.” Laughed the malamute. He put his arm around Connor as the four of them turned to go to Connor’s bedroom.

Leaning against his truck on the tarmac, Dex aimed his new camera and took a picture of “Coneflower” arriving at Gulfport-Biloxi. The polished and posh Super Constellation signaled the arrival of the company president, Rob Barion, and his entourage. Dex took picture after picture as the glistening silver Lockheed burbled onto the flight line. As it slowly turned with its squeaky brakes, Dex saw that Rob himself was behind the controls of his L-1049E.

Dex stowed his camera away and placed it back into his truck as he walked over to the airstair that was just locked in place by the forward hatch. It swung open to reveal Rob himself. He stepped out first dressed rather casually, which took Dex by surprise. Rob wore dark gray khaki pants and a dark blue polo that was loosely buttoned around his neck. His husband Joey stepped out next dressed in shorts and a t-shirt that bore his firearms company logo on it. Dex wore the same getup of blue gym shorts and a gray t-shirt. Next stepped out was Felix Barion, Tony Alvarez, Ivo Horvat, and his husband, Jordan Hoover. Finally Dex spotted Braxton and Christos descending the steps, and to his amazement, Gary Morton.

“Welcome! Welcome!” Dex exclaimed as he greeted everyone.

“Happy Birthday!” they all greeted.

“I didn’t think I’d get the whole crew here, and Gary! What a surprise!”

“I didn’t have anything better to do to, so I thought I’d come and say hi.” The older wolf smiled as he patted Dex on the shoulder. “Wanted to see how you were doing!”

“Same shit, different day!” laughed the malamute as he gave Braxton and Christos a warm hug. “Welcome!”

“I hope there’s enough food for everyone~” Jordan chuckled as the German Shepherd looked around.

“We got plenty. Come, come!”

“I’ll get the company Suburban and take everyone, if you want to take your friends.” Rob suggested to Dex.

“Sure thing.” He nodded.

Braxton and Christos went with Dex and climbed aboard his truck to head back to his new place. They were waved through the security gate by the members of the Strategic Missile Troops who patrolled Centoh.

“So you got your own place eh?” Christos asked from the backseat. “Congratulations!”

“It’s beautiful man, you’ll love it.” Dex smiled as he drove.

Braxton glanced over to observe Dex as he talked to Christos. “Dex, you look so happy.”

“I am happy.” The malamute admitted. “I haven’t felt like this… ever.”

“Things have worked out for ya.” Christos nodded. “Everyone finds their place eventually.”

“It only took me forty-five years.” Dex laughed.

“Well better late than never, right Christos?”

“I work with a dude who’s like fifty, and his whole life is a hot mess.” Christos chuckled. “He’ll never sort it out with his alcoholism and shit.”

“See?” Braxton smiled.

“How’s it feel to be forty-five?”

“Feels like when I was forty-four.” Chuckled Dex. “My looks are fading, my body aches at times, but you know what? I’m happy. And I’ll take that over appearances~”

“Just get some Botox~” Braxton quipped with a cheeky grin.

“And what? Look like fucking Trey?” Dex snorted.

“I’m not saying go to Mexico!”

Dex’s face was contorted with laughter.

Returning back home, Dex parked his truck beside all the other vehicles in the long driveway. Smoke gently wafted from Connor’s big new grill as he stood flipping burgers and having a beer with Bruce, Jason, and Sam, plus his two sons who chatted with all of them. Dex stepped out of his truck and saw his Mom conversing with Connor’s older brother Tim, and his sister Helen.

“Wow.” Braxton said to Christos as they looked around the property and all the farm and woodland.

“Dex, you’ve really lucked out!” Christos exclaimed.

“I know right!” Dex smiled. “I love it.”

Cathy ran over and gave Dex a warm hug and a kiss. “Happy Birthday, sweetie.”

“Oh, thank you Mom~” Dex smiled.

“Your friends, Ryan and Fidel, they’re going to get the cake.”

“Oh I see.”

“Soooo, how’s it feel to be forty-five?”

“Not bad.” Dex chuckled. “Wish I was twenty-five again!”

“Wait till you’re my age.” Cathy laughed. “I’d kill to be forty-five again!”

“Age is what you make it to be.” Dex shrugged.

Rob and his entourage showed up, and Dex spent an hour mingling with everyone and having a good time with some food and drinks. A small table by the deck held a small stack of wrapped gifts from him from his friends and family. He looked all around and felt so loved. He soon spotted Ryan come pulling up in his truck with Fidel. They parked by the barn and hopped out to open the backseat up and pull out a huge sheet cake that was rainbow colored.

“Oh my god, you didn’t have to!” Dex exclaimed as he watched Fidel and Ryan walk past him with it to set on the table.

“It’s your birthday!” Ryan exclaimed. “You only get to be forty-five once!”

“Fine.” Dex smiled as he gave the husky a hug.

Dex walked over to the deck where Connor continued to man his grill. He took a steak off the grill and placed it on Jerry Schultz’s plate, the German Shepherd proceeding to grab a small bottle of steak sauce to take with him back to the table.

“Dex, this is a fantastic time. Thanks for inviting me.” Jerry complimented as he passed by Dex.

“You’re welcome!” the malamute said with a smile as Connor put an arm around him.

“Connor, this is amazing.” Dex admitted in a quiet voice. “I can’t believe it.”

“Believe it because it’s happening right now~” Connor smiled.

“I feel so loved, and it’s great.” Dex nodded as he looked over at everyone taking a seat at the big table while Cathy lit all the candles on the cake.

Connor gave Dex a kiss. “You’re a wonderful fella, and you deserve all the love.”

“Thanks, cutie.”

With everyone seated, Dex sat with Connor as he stared before the glowing cake with forty-five rainbow candles that flickered. Everyone clapped and sang him “Happy Birthday” as Dex took it all in. He glanced around at all his friends, his coworkers, his company leadership, and he felt so appreciated. For once, he surrounded himself by people that weren’t toxic to his life. They all genuinely appreciated him. Dex blew out the candles at the end of the song, with a thunderous applause.

“Hey you blew them all out!” Jason teased with a grin.

“I’m forty-five, not seventy-five!” Dex exclaimed.

“Whacha wish for?” his sister Jennifer asked him.

“Success.” Dex revealed. “And good luck.”

“Nothing wrong with that! Let’s get some cake!” exclaimed Sam with a laugh.

Dex grabbed the knife and smiled. “You got it~ What color you want?”

“Whatever~ Just don’t make me gay.” Sam teased with a big grin.

“It’s only gay if your balls touch.” Connor grinned with a hearty laugh by everyone.

Dex looked around again at everyone and felt so happy, almost overwhelming. He wanted to cry tears of joy at how loved he felt.

Twenty-seven years before, Dex left home with the intention of never coming back from Chicago. Eighteen year old Dex thought there’d be no chance for him to live his life as an openly gay man in backwards Mississippi in 1997. Twenty-five years in Chicago made him realize that sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. All the rejection, the snubs, all the attempts of changing himself to blend into a clique, the feeling of living a double life between his dead-end managerial job and his life in the gay village, all of it broke him in that fiery car crash three years before.

Dex returned home with the sense of his impending death, but instead, he bounced back better than ever. He continued on with his new career in the aviation world, he found himself a group of friends who loved him for who he was, and found love for the first time in his life. Most importantly, he got his family’s acceptance. Dex accepted that he was getting older now, his looks were fading away with his middle-age, and he didn’t feel as springy and young as he did before the car accident. But it didn’t matter; he was happy.

In the end, Dex found his peace, back home in the land of the delta blues.

*Lainsville is property of Hawkwolf.

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