We Are NOT Alone

Hours later, Peter woke up in their bed in the master suite of the villa. He could hear and more importantly smell Josh cooking in the kitchen. He guessed that Josh had carried him all the way back and put him carefully in bed. He rolled over and saw his phone was on the nightstand showing three messages. He clicked the button so he could read them. Two were from Josh and one was from his Teagan. He decided he would get his mom’s message out of the way first.

🙅🏻‍♀️

Chat with Teagan

5:51 pm yesterday

🙅🏻‍♀️: Hi, Peter, this is your mother. How’s your new time-share? I thought we agreed you would let us know when you arrived safely. Is that too much to ask? Well, don’t worry, I phoned and confirmed your safe arrival. Hope you and Josh are having a wonderful time. You should be, for the price. It’s worth it though, honey. You are my baby. Love, Mom.

Peter read the message. He decided just to be nice in his quick reply even though he was not sure she really deserved any reply at all.

Hi Mom, this is your son, Peter. The time-share is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G as always! Josh❤️it. I ❤️ it. It’s def still 6⭐️ !. Thank you for this! Josh thanks you for this. Sorry, I didn’t text you when we got here. It was our forever partnering ceremony night. I’m not six years old. Even so, I’m still sorry. Next time. Don’t worry about us. We’ll see you when we get back home. : 🌊

Love, Peter : 🌊

Peter clicked over to read the messages from Josh.

✨

Chat with Mintaka

10 minutes ago

✨: 🥰 I🌈❤️U!

✨: 🎃Are you hungry? Come for dinner soon. I bet you can smell it.

😱? : 🌊

✨: Yes!

🍝? : 🌊

✨: Your favorite.

NO! ✨ is my favorite. : 🌊

✨: 🎃 can eat ✨ any time! 🎃 ❤️ 🌊!

🙈 : 🌊

✨: It’s ok, we are 🤵🏻F💍REVER🤵🏻 now! Don’t be 🙈!

🙈 🙈 🙈 🙈 🙈 🙈 : 🌊

🎃 ❤️🤵🏻F💍REVER🤵🏻✨ : 🌊

Peter sat up in bed and stretched. He felt perfect. He looked around for a shirt to put on and then went to his suitcase. After rummaging around for a while, he went to Josh’s suitcase and pulled out one of Josh’s favorite t-shirts. He put it and a pair of extra silky and shimmy basketball shorts on and headed to the kitchen.

“Don’t you look positively dreamy in my sleeveless t-shirt steamy baby,” Josh said as Peter appeared across from him wide-eyed noticing all of the food Josh had been preparing and Josh’s choice of ‘haute couture’ for this evening’s dining.

“Thank you! You don’t look so bad yourself.” Josh was wearing only an apron. He came over and kissed Josh and nuzzled him and kissed his chest. Josh just continued preparing the food without missing a beat. “Anything I can do?” Peter asked.

“You can toss the salad!” Josh replied causing Peter to grab his ass. “No! I mean the real salad over there. You will have to resist tossing that salad until after dinner, mister.” Josh giggled. Peter went over to the real salad and began tossing the various greens, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and meat Josh had layered into the bowl. Josh continued working like an automated food preparation robot at a restaurant trade show.

“Mintaka, how much food are you making? Did you invite some guests I should know about?”

“Nope, this is all for us. Now, how about you set the table? Wherever you want to eat?” Josh asked.

“Well, I would like to eat outside, is that ok for you?”

“Sure! I will go wherever you go.”

“I will go back to the waterfall and into that pool.”

“We are going to be here a few days, we can go back anytime.”

“But, Mintaka, that was the most amazing thing you / we did. I want to do it again right away. Just in case, you know. It’s only possible here in that magical waterfall.”

“Don’t worry, Pumpkin! I don’t think it was the waterfall, I think it was you finally becoming my perfect sexual instrument. I promise, there is going to be plenty more where that came from.” Josh assured him.

Peter searched around for plates and cutlery and glasses. He set a wonderful table out on the deck. This deck had been built up higher so that the ocean was visible over the tree line as was the surrounding resort and its many beaches. He returned to the kitchen to help Josh deliver the food to the table. All tolled Josh had prepared: spaghetti with Swedish meatballs and brown gravy, not red sauce (Peter’s favorite), steaks, burgers, the salad, grilled stuffed mushrooms, ravioli marinara (one of Josh’s own favorites), and chocolate mousse with passion fruit for dessert. They set up all of the food and then snapped a photo of them and the spread together. “We need to send this to Angel, she won’t believe it,” Peter said. “Did you thank her yet for her surprise?”

“Great idea, I’ll do that at the same time.”

🐠

Chat with Angelfish

6:00 pm

Angel! Girl! How RU? We miss you! Thank you so much for the surprise. It was perfect. You shouldn’t have! You already did so much for our forever partnering ceremony.: 👩🏼‍🌾

Anyway, I cooked dinner 2nite after an amazing day at the waterfall. Many deets l8r.Yes, we have our own waterfall. Here’s a photo of us about to eat dinner. Yes, I prepared it all myself. Chef Josh : 👩🏼‍🌾

TTYL 💋 💋 💋 💋 : 👩🏼‍🌾

[Photo of Josh and Peter in front of the smorgasbord.] : 👩🏼‍🌾

Josh put his phone away, and they both sat down to eat. Peter did not know where to begin. He started filling his plate like he was at their favorite buffet restaurant in Vegas. “My gosh, Mintaka, you’ve outdone yourself.”

“Of course, sweet Pumpkin, daddy’s got to eat,” Josh said. Peter looked at him curiously. He had never referred to himself that way. Peter filled up pretty quickly, but Josh just kept on eating. He seemed to be a bottomless pit. Peter thought he knew Josh pretty well, but today, there was something new. Something more about him. Peter could not place his finger on exactly what that was just now. It was a host of things that were all Josh, but more. The closest comparison he could come to in his mind was the equivalent of up-sizing your combo at the movies. It was the same, only much bigger, almost ridiculously large. So, the customer asks for a medium and they put out the empty medium cup and then the empty large and say “This is the medium, and this is the large for only fifty cents more.” You say, “Ok,” and then they take away the medium cup and put up the extra large cup. They say, “Now would you like the extra large for only a quarter more,” but the extra large cup is not just larger, it is like a bucket you give to a kid to make sand castles at the beach. Same for the popcorn only the extra large bucket is like a normal person’s office trash can in size. You could easily wear it on your head. This was Mintaka, just more intense, more hungry, more lovable, more loving, MORE. Peter leaned back on his chair balancing on the back legs which normally he knew Josh did not approve of. Josh smiled at him.

“You’re not worried I will fall?” Peter asked slyly.

“Of course not, I would catch you first,” Josh said barely pausing between taking another huge bite of salad. “Did you enjoy your meal?” He asked.

“Babe, are you kidding? You are a pro chef. If you ever get a mid-life crisis and need a new profession, this is it. I will bankroll the restaurant in a heartbeat.” Josh was a very good cook, and he loved it. He also loved Peter’s cooking. They often took turns, but Peter knew that Josh enjoyed the physical aspects of it more than he did, so he would usually defer to Josh whenever Josh wanted. He did not want Josh to feel he was being taken advantage of, so, he always offset the burden of cooking with other chores, cleaning up, doing the dishes, doing the shopping and online ordering of the food for delivery, and so on.

“I’ll be ready for dessert soon. We can eat it together,” Josh said pausing only briefly again. Peter noticed that little by little, most of the food was disappearing. Josh was consuming an unbelievable amount of food after eating almost an entire picnic lunch himself. Then again, as Josh had said, they were burning a lot of calories. Even so, he did not know if he should be worried about these changes or not. Josh finished off the last few bites of mushrooms and ravioli, and then he paused. “That was super delicious. Now for dessert.”

He got up and left the table. Peter wondered where he was going. The chocolate moose had been chilling on ice the whole time. Josh returned with a freshly baked apple pie and pineapple upside-down cake, a half gallon of their favorite chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and a pitcher of milk. Again, Peter was stunned. This was more dessert than they would typically consume in a week maybe two. Josh handed Peter over a dessert plate and a fluted dessert glass of chocolate mousse. Having rested his stomach while Josh finished devouring the mountain of food he prepared. Peter decided to indulge a bit more in dessert than he would normally.

“Thank you, Mintaka. You had time to bake an apple pie and a cake?”

“No, I cheated and ordered those — just reheated them in the oven. They sounded really good. It’s not just apple pie, it’s caramel apple macadamia nut pie.”

“I stand corrected,” Peter said as Josh cut him an ample slice of cake and pie. “Just a half scoop of ice cream though, ok?”

“More for me,” Josh replied. Josh took some relatively huge bites of dessert, causing Peter to frown. “What’s wrong, Pumpkin?”

“Um, Mintaka. We have now eaten two meals with a broken promise.”

Josh looked at him, and then he tapped himself on the forehead. “We promised forever partnering ceremony cake style, baby! I’m so sorry.” Josh leaned over so they could do the next bite together. “I’m thinking the pineapple upside-down cake will work best.”

Peter agreed but added. “I agree, but one of us has to be upside down.”

“Like a web-crawler super-hero upside-down kiss?” Josh asked.

“Exactly,” Peter said.

Without pausing for even a moment of contemplation, Josh put his palm on the table and like a gymnast flipped up balancing the full weight of his body turned upside down with his feet in the perfect form together. He bent his elbow to lower his face down for the interlocking forever partnering ceremony cake first bite/kiss mashing a piece of the cake into Peter’s open mouth. Peter’s mouth, however, was not open to receive the cake, but due to the sheer awe of Josh’s sudden maneuver. This was the second display of perfect world-champion quality athleticism Josh had unexpectedly demonstrated that day. He almost choked on the cake, but recovered and then pushed a piece into Josh’s open mouth.

“Ok, now, where’s the kiss?” Peter leaned over and upside-down kissed Josh still startled, at which time, Josh then flipped back down onto the floor with his feet landing perfectly, no little jump at the end to cost him a few tenths of a point deduction. “Stuck the landing,” he said.

“Josh, that was!”

“Cool, huh?”

“Well, yeah, it was cool. You’re cool. You’ve always been damn cool, but this maneuver.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ in there?”

“But, since when can you just do a one-handed handstand onto a table in perfect form?”

“I never tried it before. Maybe I’ve always been able to. You know me. I’m good at sports things.”

“Yes, but, Mintaka, that’s pretty impressive for a complete novice and then leap down and stick the landing like a puma or something.”

“You are comparing me to a puma? A puma? More like a cougar.”

“I think they are two versions of the same animal aren’t they?”

“Maybe, well, ok, but I think cougars sound tougher!”

“Ok, ok, cougar, it’s missing the point.” Josh sat down and started engulfing the desserts like he had dinner. “Never mind. Eat up.”

“I’m waiting for you to attack that carton of cookie dough ice cream first, and I’ll eat what’s left.”

“Sweetheart, you’re going to have to eat all of it. I’m too full to eat another bite.” Josh giggled. He reached over and took the carton and ate the ice cream with a spoon directly out of it. “No bowl?”

“Fewer dishes.”

“You’re so thoughtful.”

“Of course, and today, I’m going to help you with the dishes because there’s a lot.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know, but I want to.”

“Ok I accept, but only if you promise to keep wearing just that apron and do another handstand because, for some dumb reason, I just realized, I never looked up when you were inverted like that.”

“What’s wrong with you! Is that all you care about? Seeing my manhood out there on display?” Josh giggled and giggled. Ice cream started to snort out of his nose. Peter handed him a napkin. “See what you made me do? I haven’t snorted food out of my nose in years.”

“What? That was your joke that made you giggle and snort, not mine!” Peter teased him.

Josh paused for a moment and gave Peter a very serious look. “I fucking love you, dude. You are everything to me.”

“Thank you, Mintaka, you don’t have to say that, because I know that. Believe me, I can feel that.”

“Come here and sit on my lap and eat some ice cream with me then,” Josh demanded.

“Oh, see, if you offered it that way before, I would have joined you right away. You look so damn hella hot and irresistible in that apron. Why isn’t wearing just an apron like more of a thing?” He climbed into Peter’s lab and nestled down between his thighs with his legs over one of Josh’s and one arm around his torso. Josh took a spoonful of the ice cream which by now had reached optimal temperature somewhere between ‘just still a little too hard to be as creamy and smooth and delicious as ice cream can be’ and ‘starting to become a dessert soup’. He waited for Peter to open his mouth, and then he fed him like a baby even cleaning up the little bit around his lips. Then Josh kissed him so lovingly.

“Ice cream kiss!” Peter didn’t swallow, instead, he allowed the ice cream to stay in his mouth to be tasted by both of their tongues. Then, he swallowed allowing their tongues to dance together for a bit before allowing their lips to regain primary control of this kiss. Josh set the ice cream down and wrapped his arms around Peter nuzzling his neck and nibbling on his ear and caressing his entire upper torso. Then he stopped and just held him, and Peter melted into being held. It felt perfect. Just as if this was where he was always meant to be. Enveloped perfectly in the lap of the apron-only-wearing man of his dreams. This sweet, kind, smart, beautiful guy loved him this much. He was still somewhat in shock. In the past 48 hours, what could have just been a mundane reliving of some milestones was fast becoming the most life-changing event of their lives.

Peter and Josh sat there together for a while with Peter swinging his legs back and forth a bit, then Josh had a suggestion. “How about we clean up this feast really fast, and then go into the hot tub?”

“Babe, you read my mind.”

“Literally?”

“No I mean, well, maybe.”

“Interesting.” Josh put his arms under Peter and lifted him placing him down on his feet carefully and effortlessly. Josh was stronger. Peter was sure of it now. Josh walked over to a drawer and pulled out an apron for Peter to wear. “Strip down and put this on! Fair is fair,” he said.

“Oh, I did not know you had the entire spring collection.”

“Yep! I do.” Josh giggled, and they worked together seamlessly to get everything prepped for the dishwasher or washed by hand and dried on the rack. Josh leaned down and punched in the dishwasher cycle choice and then scrambled to the hot tub. He leaped over the side and plunged in. “Perfection, Peter, get your arse in here.” Peter came over and hopped in without quite as much grace or flair as Josh. He scooted around so that he was exactly opposite of Josh and put his feet up on Josh’s lap. Josh put his fingers between each of Peter’s toes and cuddled his feet. Then Peter pulled his feet halfway back, and Josh pressed the bottoms of his feet to Peter’s. They pushed back and forth in a somewhat sexy isometric exercise they had developed at home, but then Peter started to feel queasy.

“Too much, Mintaka, my stomach is still too full.” Josh stopped and then got up to sit next to him. They held hands and played footsie under the water. They stared up at the night sky which was crystal clear. Suddenly, Peter shouted, “Look, Mintaka, a shooting star.” Josh looked where Peter was pointing and they followed its short-lived trajectory together. Then, of course, they kissed and cuddled.