Hudson has been in a bit of a dry spell lately, spending more time with video games and fantasy novels than searching for love. Unfortunately, when his best friends invite him out to the club, he runs into his rival Tyne, who acts like the snooty king of the gayborhood and always ignores Hudson when their paths cross.
Hudson insists he isn’t jealous, just annoyed by Tyne’s arrogance, though his friends might dispute that claim. So when the night goes south, Hudson decides to get out of the city. His friends rent a cabin in the woods to reconnect with nature.
The weekend gets off to a perfect start. A luxurious cabin with a steamy hot tub could not be further from roughing it. Then Tyne shows up unexpectedly and, to Hudson’s surprise, Tyne’s attention stirs something up in him. Is Tyne actually boyfriend material?
When Hudson receives cryptic messages from someone named GloryHole85, who invites him to a glowing glory hole that will transport him to his deepest fantasies. Will Hudson slip into the port-hole, or swallow his pride and find a way to test the waters with Tyne?
Hudson finally swung his legs over the side of the hammock and went inside to greet his friends in the cabin’s kitchen.
After a series of hugs and how-are-yous, Hudson asked what had taken them so long. It turns out his little cat nap had lasted a good hour. “Daniel said you guys left right behind us.”
Phillip and Ryan turned to look at one another with a weird, uncomfortable yet knowing expression. Hudson turned to Daniel and AJ to figure out why his friends were being coy, but Daniel just raised his eyebrows and looked at AJ who quickly busied himself making a cocktail.
“You guys stop somewhere to fuck? Or to fight?” asked Hudson with a prodding grin on his face.
“Sure you don’t want a stiff drink?” asked AJ as he measured out the liquor.
“No, I’m good for a bit,” Hudson replied. He went back to his interrogation of Phillip and Ryan. “Well? What’s going on?”
“We did make a little detour on the way up here,” said Phillip evasively.
“Oh yeah?” asked Hudson, intrigued. He sat on one of the barstools with his back to the living room. “Did you get some edibles?” He was really hoping they had brought some edibles. Rocking in the hammock as his mind left this mortal plane for some higher state of being would bring the peace and tranquility to his life that he was sorely missing.
“No,” said Ryan, drawing out his syllables.
“Come on, then. Out with it. Why are you being so weird?”
“Who is being weird?” called out a voice from behind Hudson.
That voice. He knew that voice.
No. It couldn’t be.
AJ and Daniel wouldn’t do that to him. They knew how much he despised Tyne.
Hudson collected himself. He took a deep breath and put on a fake smile as he turned around to greet his unofficial rival.
“Hello, there,” said Hudson.
Tyne reached out his hand and said, “I’m Tyne, nice to me meet you.”
This motherfucker, thought Hudson. Here we go again. Pretending not to know who I am, even after groping me on the dancefloor no less than one week ago. Two can play at that game. “Hudson. Enchanted,” he said with poison on his lips.
“I hope you don’t mind that I took the bed near the window,” said Tyne as they shook hands.
At the revelation that they would also be sharing a bedroom, Hudson turned slowly on his bar stool to face not Phillip and Ryan -- no, they were not to be blamed. They weren’t all that close. They didn’t know about Hudson’s beef with Tyne -- he turned to face AJ and Daniel. His best friends. Former best friends, he thought. The only ones he had opened up to about Tyne in the first place. He had gone on multiple rants. A few too many, he had to admit. About pompous Tyne and his parade of twinks. There was no forgiving this betrayal.
Hudson’s gaze bored holes first in AJ’s and then in Daniel’s face, yet neither of them would even look him in the eyes. They knew what they had done. AJ avoided the situation by shaking the cocktail mixer loudly. And if Hudson wasn’t mistaken, he could’ve sworn he saw Daniel struggling to restrain the corners of his lips from curling up into a delightfully demented smirk.
Daniel thought this was funny. AJ did, too. Hudson could tell. The others likely had no idea what was going on, or even that anything was going on in the first place. Hudson would make his friends pay for this. But later. He wasn’t about to make a scene now.
AJ slid a negroni across the kitchen island right in front of Hudson. “How about that drink now?”
