The Invitation

By K.Y. Shelton

Cynical ex-football hunk Jesse needs his wedding booth photography business to keep pulling work to pay his bills. But when a job puts him face to face with an old friend who’d abandoned him years ago, Jesse is furious. Aaron, the nerdy shy guy who vanished without a trace after high school, is taller, broader and alive.

Jesse knows he needs to speak with him. But the hundreds of guests keep both the photo booth and the best man Aaron busy with activity. And the neurotic wedding planner watches on with an eagle eye. With time running out, Jesse must make a choice. Forge his professional reputation, or confront the old friend who'd broken him all those years ago.

The Invitation is a stand-alone sweet and clean gay new adult romance story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: K.Y. Shelton
• Release date: Apr 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533766199

Book preview

The Invitation

K.Y. Shelton

Copyright © 2016

K.Y. Shelton

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All Rights Reserved

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook or any portion of it may not be reproduced or used in any way without the express permission of the author.

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This work contains adult material and is intended for mature audiences only.

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About K.Y. Shelton

K.Y. Shelton is a kick-ass software engineer by day who also enjoys his wild side by writing MM romance. He dreams of one day performing for adoring fans on a big stage in a Broadway musical. But till then, he is content writing stories full of larger-than-life personalities finding connections where they least expect.

Shelton grew up in a red-roofed house in a quiet suburb in Western Australia before studying to be an engineer. He likes eating mangoes, and in his spare time, he enjoys working out at the gym, seeing what's on in theatres and reading on the sofa with a warm cup of coffee.

Story Summary

Cynical ex-football hunk Jesse needs his wedding booth photography business to keep pulling work to pay his bills. But when a job puts him face to face with an old friend who’d abandoned him years ago, Jesse is furious. Aaron, the nerdy shy guy who vanished without a trace after high school, is taller, broader and alive.

Jesse knows he needs to speak with him. But the hundreds of guests keep both the photo booth and the best man Aaron busy with activity. And the neurotic wedding planner watches on with an eagle eye. With time running out, Jesse must make a choice. Forge his professional reputation, or confront the old friend who'd broken him all those years ago.

Chapter 1

I stood in the corner and fought my urge to panic. My fingertips loosened the top button, giving me relief from the tight collar. Damn formal events. They weren’t my thing. Ironic then that I was a wedding booth operator.

At least on this occasion I was lucky. The foyer where I’d set up the black-curtained booth was in the back of the venue. After being bombarded with sickening platitudes of love and ever after, it was probably best I stayed out of the spotlight.

Every wedding reception, after all, was about the bride, the groom and their precious guests. That’s why unimaginable piles of cold hard cash were splashed weekend after weekend on event halls, five star food, planners and of course — lucky me.

So what was I, the former college jock, doing seven years after graduation? Why the fuck was Jesse Bawler running a wedding photo booth business?

It was a question I asked often, and the answer remained the same. It came to me like a stroke of luck. Or perhaps bad luck, when I split hairs over my unlived life in the football league.

After I got knocked back post-high school, I went straight to college, just like I thought I should’ve. It was summer when I dropped out of my photography major for the third time. I’d had it with sucking up to professors and loaded exam questions. Why the fuck did I need to learn art history anyway? I just wanted to work.

I’d hit bottom. Before moving back to the crappy slums, I was in my third-floor college room for the last time. I chain-smoked my last five ciggies in the window by the oak tree and let my putrid smoke mix with the furnace-hot air. Stressed wasn’t the word. I was on edge. I couldn’t make rent. And there wasn’t enough money for a move. So up my camera equipment went on Craigslist. I looked through other ads to give me an idea of how low I needed to lowball. But then something caught my eye.

Wedding Photo Booth Equipment and Business, to sell.

The picture showed a bunch of feathered caps, costumes and the curtained booth itself. I clicked. I read about a money-for-jam business and a retiree who wanted to pack it in. My frustrations with my useless professors and teachers vanished. I didn’t have to answer to anyone. I didn’t have to go back and work at Denny’s. I could answer to myself with a business. A phone call later, I’d negotiated to pull some favors, trade off my digital camera