Everyday Gay: A Kissing Book

By Su Penn

Kevin's been single since his last lover moved away two years ago, and he's more than ready to find someone new. The trouble is, he's hung up on his unattainable new neighbor, Tyler, who is a good fifteen years younger, six inches taller, and ten times more beautiful than Kevin. Even worse: so is Tyler's boyfriend Ryan.

Tyler has just been broken up with again, but that's OK. The handsome, virile, and built are practically lining up for their turns to f*ck him, date him, and dump him. He's been on this train so many times he knows all the stops by heart. But then an energetic little guy with no fashion sense moves in down the hall, and Tyler likes him. A lot. He doesn't understand why, he doesn't know where it's going, and, worst of all for his much-battered heart, he doesn't know how it will end.

Features: a cisgender flamboyant fashion god with shampoo-commercial hair and an unironic affection for fairy figurines; a trans guy with an enormous and excessively affectionate family and a very troublesome cat; snarky yet supportive friends; flirtatious strangers; one too many ex-boyfriends; several cups of tea; a minor misunderstanding, a tragic misunderstanding; home-brewed beer; the novels of Jane Austen; and, in a surprise appearance late in the book, Ukrainian folk dancing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Su Penn
• Release date: Jun 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370517817

Book preview

Kevin's been single since his last lover moved away two years ago, and he's more than ready to find someone new. The trouble is, he's hung up on his unattainable new neighbor, Tyler, who is a good fifteen years younger, six inches taller, and ten times more beautiful than Kevin. Even worse: so is Tyler's boyfriend Ryan.

Tyler has just been broken up with again, but that's OK. The handsome, virile, and built are practically lining up for their turns to f*ck him, date him, and dump him. He's been on this train so many times he knows all the stops by heart. But then an energetic little guy with no fashion sense moves in down the hall, and Tyler likes him. A lot. He doesn't understand why, he doesn't know where it's going, and, worst of all for his much-battered heart, he doesn't know how it will end.

Features: a cisgender flamboyant fashion god with shampoo-commercial hair and an unironic affection for fairy figurines; a trans guy with an enormous and excessively affectionate family and a very troublesome cat; snarky yet supportive friends; flirtatious strangers; one too many ex-boyfriends; several cups of tea; a minor misunderstanding, a tragic misunderstanding; home-brewed beer; the novels of Jane Austen; and, in a surprise appearance late in the book, Ukrainian folk dancing.

Licensing and Fair Use

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit Creative Commons or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

Under this license, you may share this material in any medium or format; or adapt, remix, transform, or build upon it.

However, you must give appropriate credit to the creator of this work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes, and you must distribute the material under the same license.

This book is available at any price point you choose, including free. We suggest that $1.99 is a fair price.

If you want to share the book with friends, we hope you will ask them to download their own copy rather than sharing yours. We are not concerned about piracy or finances, but would be glad to know we have readers.

Su Penn

p.s. Do us a favor, and drop us a note if you spot a typo or a formatting error. The glory of e-publishing is that these things can be fixed.

Everyday Gay: A Kissing Book, by Su Penn. Date of publication: July 2017.

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Sincere Thanks To

The real life Kevin and his troublesome cat Damian, who were the initial inspiration for the story.

All the trans men I've loved and still do.

2016 US National Figure Skating Champion Adam Rippon, for being graceful, ethereally beautiful, and gay as fuck.

My partner David, who read every single draft.

My children, Carl, Carter, Eric, and Yev, who will never read my book but think it's wonderful that I wrote it.

All the friends who read the first draft and said encouraging things about it.

Llyra, Julie, David C, Neil, Daniel, Judy Anne, Johanna R, Mary, and one unknown donor who pitched in to help with final production costs and promotional materials.

The delightful James at Go On Write, who designed the cover.

Table of Contents

Before the Story

Licensing & Fair Use

About Trans LifeLine

Thanks

The Story

Tyler Can Dress For Any Occasion

Kevin Goes to the Bro-B-Q

Kevin is a Barbarian

Kevin and Tyler in Hollywood

Tyler Invites Ryan to Dinner

Tyler Falls Into a Revery

Kevin is Very Disappointed in Himself

Tyler Wakes Up

Another Bro-B-Q. Because Bros.

Kevin Takes a Holiday

Tyler Relies on Kevin's Basic Good Nature

Jack Brings It

Tyler Opens The Door

Kevin Passes a Very Important Test

Ryan Opens The Door

Tyler and Kevin Have Brunch

Kevin is a Victim of His Own Imagination

Kevin Takes Off His Clothes

Kevin and Tyler Enjoy The Honeymoon Period

Tyler Gets Cabin Fever

Tyler Makes a Promise

Kevin Appreciates the Tact and Discretion of His Friends

Kevin and Tyler Have a Happy Ending

After the Story

Tyler's Booklist

Kevin's Booklist

About the Author

Everyday Gay

A Kissing Book

by Su Penn

Tyler Can Dress For Any Occasion

Any fool can tell you how to dress for a first date, Tyler told his friend Ryan, "but you are in the presence of the world's foremost authority on dressing for a last one."

Ryan was sitting on the edge of Tyler's bed, watching Tyler dress. Do tell, he said drily.

Tyler turned from the mirror to face Ryan, hands on his hips. Well, your first date ensemble should be alluring without making you appear desperate, right?

Ryan said, I suppose so.

Well, the final date outfit should also be alluring. You should put some effort into dressing in such a way that your date is reminded of how very attracted to you he is.

Why go to the trouble? Are you trying to get him to change his mind?

Tyler laughed. God, no. But you do want to inspire a sense of regret, and arouse feelings of...well, arousal.

And you do this why?

"To remind him that, although he is dumping you, you still have power over him. Also! On a final date, you may freely indulge your propensity for the provocatively ladylike, which was what attracted him to you in the first place but which he has been trying to quash ever since the two of you woke up together for the first time. Hence the shirt."

With the grace of a spokesmodel, Tyler gestured at his shirt. He was wearing a silky scoop-neck top in a lovely shade of byzantium. The sales associate had called it plum, but it had just a hair too much red in it to be a true plum, not that Tyler had bothered to correct her. Brandon would know perfectly well it hadn't come from the menswear department, and it would annoy him because he was always wishing Tyler would tone it down a little and not be always pushing it in people's faces. At the same time, Brandon found Tyler irresistible in soft drapey fabrics and would be wanting to touch him all night.

Ryan said, Are you sure Brandon is breaking up with you tonight?

Of course I'm sure. Have you ever known me to be wrong about this kind of thing?

No, I guess I haven't.

Well, there you go. I am so good at seeing the end coming that I sometimes know it before they do. It's my own special form of precognition. I don't know what I'd do without it. It's bad enough being dumped when you can see it coming. I'd be absolutely shattered if it were ever a surprise. He was putting on bracelets the whole time he was talking: one silver bangle set with hematite, one black leather braid, one black leather cord with a large blue glass bead, and one silver band etched with a flower design. He shook his wrist to settle them, looked at it for a moment, and added a twisted silver bangle and a silver chain with a small bell on it. They partly obscured his tattoo, a gauzy-winged fairy reclining in a misty moon.

Ryan said, I guess I don't understand why Brandon would spend a hundred and fifty bucks on a break-up dinner.

He wants me to feel obligated to him, and he wants to do it in a place where I won't make a scene. Tyler's tone suggested that this should have been obvious.

Ryan said, Ah. But-- He hesitated and Tyler glanced up from where he was, with great difficulty, sliding his ID, a credit card, twenty bucks cash, and some tinted lip balm into the front pocket of his second-tightest pair of black jeans.

Tyler said, Spit it out.

"Is there such a thing as a place where you won't make a scene, I wonder?"

No, there is not. But Brandon thinks there is, and he happens to be right in this case. I plan to enjoy myself. I am going to drink champagne cocktails, order extravagant appetizers, and, when we are lingering over apres-dinner cappuccino and he finally breaks it to me, maintain an air of dignified acceptance tinged with regret. I'm ready to go if you are. Have I thanked you for the ride? I think I'll catch a cab to Mystique after dinner. Brandon and I will be done by 11, I expect, and the crowd will just be getting good.

Ryan picked up his car keys. "Tyler, if you don't really like Brandon, why haven't you broken up with him?"

Tyler waved airily. "Oh, please. Where would I be if I only dated men I actually liked?"

~~~~~~

Going to the club after the break-up dinner was, in retrospect, a terrible idea.

Tyler had been more upset than he'd expected; the tinge of regret he showed while listening to Brandon's carefully-rehearsed and scrupulously kind good-bye speech had been authentic. Instead of arriving at the club ready to throw himself with abandon into the exuberant throng, he'd been heavy with a sadness that felt too big, as if this latest break-up carried the weight of all the ones that had gone before.

He should have gone home, he supposed. He'd seen friends do it often enough. I'm just not feeling it tonight, they'd say on their way out. Tyler hadn't been feeling it, but he wanted to feel it, and he had felt it often enough in that very same club that he was sure it was in there somewhere. He looked for it in the bottom of several highball glasses, and he stalked it, song after song after song, all over the dance floor.

He never found it. He did find a guy with big shoulders who asked him if he wanted to go somewhere private, but Big Shoulders had only been interested in a blow job, and Tyler, whose gag reflex was so easily triggered that he had to be sedated for dental cleanings, had declined. They were both disappointed, but Big Shoulders had been decent about it. Men weren't always.

At home, Tyler had flung himself on his sofa, one arm over his eyes, like a damsel on a fainting couch. The petty satisfaction of the gesture was quickly overcome by discomfort. His back was starting to hurt, his second-tightest pair of jeans were digging into his crotch, his nineteen-pound cat Tinkerbell was sleeping right on top of his full bladder, and he could smell himself: stale cologne, sweat, and spilled booze.

The same voice that had suggested he skip his night at the bar recommended a trip to the bathroom, a quick shower, and a nice long sleep between clean sheets. It would help him feel better, that voice said. He would wake physically refreshed, emotionally recruited, and ready to meet the new day. This was the voice of Maturity.

Tyler had never been very good at listening to Maturity.

He was more likely to listen to Drama, which preferred staying put and making the most of his suffering. Drama liked the idea of a bad sleep and a sore back. Drama, which specialized in turning disappointment to disaster, and mischance to misery, whispered in his ear that if he were still unhappy enough the next day, Ryan would come fuss over him. Tyler enjoyed being fussed over.

Drama had been Tyler's best and most loyal friend since second grade. Maturity was like someone he'd heard a lot about, third-hand, and hoped someday to meet in person. Tyler touched Tinkerbell's head to make her purr, and settled in for a long and gratifying night of affliction.

~~~~~~

If there was one thing that could pull Tyler out of both his doze and his self-absorption, it was the plaintive mews of an unhappy cat. Tinkerbell was still sleeping on his bladder and Tyler's other cat Puck had settled on his feet at some point. Perhaps the crying cat had been a dream, but no, there it was again, the unhappy and demanding sound of a cat on the wrong side of a door. Tyler worked his feet out from under Puck, who got up and left in a huff, and slid out from under Tink, who didn't so much as twitch. He opened his apartment door; there was a small black cat with a very long tail in the hallway. Tyler had never seen it before,