Title: Casual (Sex) Friday
Author: Evie Kiels
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Length: 15k
Genre: m/m Contemporary Romance
Heat: 4 – Spicy & Smutty
Sex Frequency: 4 – Very Often
Keywords/Tags: Short Story, Dating, Voyeurism
Rating: Pretty Good

BLURB

Ben is not a fan of Fridays. Every Friday Calvin asks him out, and every Friday Ben turns him down. One incredibly boring date was enough for him, and he can’t figure out why Calvin won’t let it go. After delivering yet another Friday brush-off, Ben retreats to the park to try to decompress from the work week.

When Calvin shows up at the park, the very last thing Ben expects is to end up spending his Friday night with a man who is suddenly anything but boring.

REVIEW

It is the end of the workday on Friday and all of Ben’s coworkers are leaving the workplace. As usual, Calvin has come to ask him out again… and Ben will turn him down again. Calvin doesn’t seem to get the message, and even remains upbeat and positive when Ben tells him, frankly, that he will not go on another date with him. The first did not go well, and Ben does not want to go through another night of absolute boredom, talking about baseball and hiking (which he isn’t remotely interested in). So, why would he go out with Calvin again? Even if his clothes are harboring a ruggedly built body and he won’t seem to give up.

But, after a surprising and very awkward meeting in the park where Calvin seems like a whole different person, Ben is swept along into an evening that surprises him and keeps him on his toes. And when Calvin next asks him for a date, Ben just might have to say yes.

This story started out quite strange. I didn’t really get the feel for it, or the characters at first. Calvin is a bit of an enigma, but seen through Ben’s eyes this makes sense later in the story. Ben is very tightly wound, and almost seems prudish at times. Though his sexual desires are not, his behavior towards life is so highly strung and vulnerable, that it takes numerous small chinks in his armor for Calvin to break inside and find out who he really is. Once I started to understand Ben, through Ben getting to know the real Calvin and not the first-date, trying-to-impress Calvin, it made sense that Ben would think that Calvin is the boring one, all while Calvin seems to have seen right through the rather plain and boring facade that Ben puts out to the world.

This was all expressed rather nicely through the sexual kink they explore. It is the catalyst and the motivator to the relationship until Ben allows himself to actually get to know Calvin. I won’t go into what that is, specifically, because I liked not knowing what this story was really about, but the fact that Ben is a voyeur says quite a bit about the man he’s become in his quest to remain jaded and overly cautious in dating.

As the story ended, I really appreciated the effort the author used to explore the relationship and the characters. It is what didn’t make sense to me at first but later made all the sense in the world, and by that point I really liked both of these guys together and had high hopes for their future together.

I have only read a few things by this author, but I have come to enjoy her work and am very much looking forward to what she writes in the future!


Posted by in 4 Pretty Good, Authors J-L, Contemporary, Heat 4 - Spicy & Smutty, Romance, Sex Freq 4 - Very Often, up to 15k Tags: , , , ,