Expect the Unexpected

by Lou Sylvre

Dear Author,
I’m gay and thank God my best friends are okay with it. This was supposed to be a weekend with the boys, and we had my uncle’s freaking awesome house just to ourselves. Pool, lots of alcohol and my four best friends, it was going to be the perfect weekend for sure! But the thing is, three of those best friends ended up in bed with the flu since they were stupid enough to go skinny dipping in the fucking rain two days ago, and now it’s just me and Josh (can change the name if you want) alone for two days in this house. Well, you can think it would still be great, as isn’t he my best friend too? Yes, he’s the one I’m most close to and that’s the problem. I really want to be way more close to him, if you know what I mean, and I don’t know how I will manage to hold myself back this time. Sometimes I think Josh gives me signs that he wants something more too, but how can I be sure? He’s the silliest guy I ever knew, and everything is a joke to him, so how can I know he’s serious? Should I try to take my chances and find out?

Photo Description:
Picture shows a blond man, naked, midair in a jump into a pool, and another man across the pool taking a picture of him.

This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.

This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

Genres: M M Romance, Friends To Lovers, Romance, Contemporary, Short Stories, Gay For You, LGBT

30 pages, ebook

First published June 17, 2014

About the author

Lou Sylvre loves stories and likes to conjure them into books. When the stories are about love, the sweethearts on her pages are most often men who end up loving each other and likely saving each other from unspeakable danger. As if you’d want to know more, she’ll happily tell you that she is a proudly bisexual woman—a mother, grandmother, and cat-herder (with a dog). Her love of languages is no doubt a result of her interestingly mixed up heritage. Her over-the-top love of her rainbow-colored demi-tasse set cannot be adequately explained. She also loves music coffee, chocolate, and wild roses. As a writer, she works closely with lead cat assistant Boudreau St. Clair. Lou grew up in the Los Angeles area, where barefoot was always best for a kid. She now lives in the lush, rainy part of the Pacific Northwest, and hearing from a reader unfailingly brightens the dismal weather. Her email is louwrites@rainbowgate.com.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
amazon.com/author/lousylvre
http://www.sylvre.rainbow-gate.com
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLouSyl...
https://www.facebook.com/sylvrebarwel...
https://twitter.com/Sylvre
https://mewe.com/i/lousylvre
https://www.instagram.com/sylvre/
(and she’s pretty sure she still has a tumblr account…)

Reviews

[Exina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The romance was rushed and unbelievable despite the fact that Josh and Sam were in love with each other for six years. Their full names were overused, the dialogues were unrealistic, their interactions way too sappy (beach, fireplace, playing on a piano, and singing, oh, come on!).
I skipped the last couple of pages.

[* A Reader Obsessed * · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

This is just how a friends to lovers story should go!

Sam has been crushing on his straight best friend for forever. Little does he know that the feelings are mutual. When a private “self pleasing” session broadcasts noisily and sexily just how much Sam wants Josh, it’s the needed impetus to push these guys to start communicating their feelings.

If you want something sweet, sexy and short, then this DRitC gem is perfect for when you need a light palate cleanser.

Enjoy!

[~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semicolons~✡~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 delicious stars

This story is a sweet, chewy brownie with melty, steamy bits.

Sam and Josh have been besties forever, then Josh catches Sam with his cock out poolside, screaming Josh's name. A big misunderstanding ensues, but not for long.

Such a fun, light, best friends to lovers story. And the cherry on top? Sex on the beach, baby!

[Meags · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

I found this story reminiscent of M.J. O'Shea's Things I'll Never Say... which is a compliment because I fricken adore that story.

Best friends Sam and Josh are secretly pining for one another, but it takes an awkward (but hot!) voyeuristic encounter to get the ball rolling with their romantic confessions and inevitable sexy times.

This was short, sweet and sexy - I can't ask for much more than that when purposefully reading a story under 30 pages.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and awkward GFY, friends to lovers story.

Ever have one of those moments you do something you'd normally never do and then get caught? Yeah…SURPRISE! Give a few points for nice embarrassing interlude and subtract a few for crappy deductive abilities on Sam's part. Plus, Sam is getting an ass whooping for his stupid stunt. I'll let Josh settle that one. Oh, and Josh gets one upside the head, too. Cute and sexy if you like doltish dudes.

[JJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't bad until the sapfest at the end kinda ruined it for me. Also, the dialogue on the beach seemed a little awkward to me. I liked the setup of the story though. If sap makes you do this:



you should read it. However, if you, like me, react like this:



don't :)

[Meep · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple little story that rushes along, it all felt very teenage to me. I didn't get the holding back for six years then kaboom GFY all that time.

The characters had a weird habit of full-naming each other that felt awkward and I never got why.

There's a lot of internal thoughts oh god, oh god in italics spliced in there, I'm not a fan of that why is it so popular? and those thoughts included a strange Yoda wise voice at one point.

Also the colour is ORCHID pink --> this seems to be important?! It is pretty.

It's teenage fun with outdoor masturbation, a vouyer kink (that I found odd) and a splash of emotion. Perfectly harmless but not quite for me.

[Mandy*reads obsessively* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another LL picture prompt and I think the author fulfilled the requesters wishes.

A really cute little friends to lovers, years of longing and a sneak a peek at the other while he's jerking-off and things come to a head. that was purely accidental, no pun intended, but as long as it's here! I'll just leave it. Lol

[Sandi ♥'s way too many M/M books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just what I needed. Perfect! Sam and Josh ** I loved them ** And so happy how things as crazy as they seemed, finally came together. Thank you so much for your free read as part of this amazing group, you as always rock Lou!!!

[Ro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an awwwww type of thing. And, I really want to check out Ricks pool!

[Julesmarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friends-to-lovers gfy/ofy are my favorite trope combo, so it's finding one that makes me go "meh" isn't common.

Best way for me to sum up: my strongest emotion at the end was confusion over why the dogs were content to sit on the beach for hours and hours and hours and didn't wake him up to make him feed them.

Favorite Quote:
Sam must have regained some of his faculties after the shock, because he didn't let the dogs eat Josh.

[Christina Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was cute. I love a good friends-to-lovers. So, I was really excited for this one. It started great, but then got a little (ok, maybe a lot) corny. But I always feel that way if the sweet stuff ventures too far into diabetes territory.

I would recommend if you’re looking for some quick, adorable fluff…potentially interspersed with a few eye rolls.

2.5 Stars

[Pixie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me. Too over the top with the loves and hiding out at the beach and naked swimming. I got stuff to do…DNF’d at 71%.

[Sunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

aww...that was cute :D

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute 'lil butt
Offered for FREE from the M/M Romance Group's Love's Landscapes event. Thank you too all the amazing authors who participated!

2.5 stars A 2.5 star rating from me often means that it wasn't bad or offensive to me in any way, it just didn't connect. I was kinda bored and skimmed most everything from the masturbation scene on not including dialogue. I liked the beginning up until Sam ran away, and then there were long narrative from each of them describing the beach and their clothes and all other manner of who-gives-a-fuck. It's a 30 page story, it should all be relevant. Instead I found myself thinking that I would have liked it better if it had been condensed to 15 pages.

On a side note, how the fuck old were these guys? It read like teenagers or maybe early twenties at the latest, but I'm pretty sure they mentioned jobs that require college degrees. So that seemed off.

[Hey Hey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first 10 pages. But the communication on the beach felt off, forced, mushy.
Josh watching Sam out by the pool was hot.

I would of liked to seen more of how they work out going friends to lovers. Epilogue, well I always want one of those.
After all they did wait 6 years! Which would made them 12 when they first wanted each other? Surely they aren't over 18? I don't know.

[Trisha Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aww, that was really cute.

I have a thing for best friends to lovers and that was definitely this story. Sam and Josh were really lovely together and I was so glad there was no major angst in this. All you get is a little misunderstanding that's resolved pretty quickly and a really light, easy story. The ending was also really nice and it made me laugh a little.

Recommended if you want something short, easy and cute.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty solid 3 stars.

This was a nice read that felt like it could've been longer. By which I mean it felt a bit stunted in areas, as if heavily edited to fit into a short story format. I don't know if it had been cut or if that's the normal authorial style but it made me feel a little unfinished, particularly as I thought the writing of Josh's evolution of feelings was very good, likewise Sam's but then the ending sort of fell flat. Not even sure I can explain why, it just did.

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute little story that made me smile. How could they each have wanted each other since they were teenagers but gave no indication to the other, not even as randy teenage boys? Who knows and who cares. Just enjoy the moment of this story.

[Gabi Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was perfect! And you even made gfy even if I didnt ask it, but so you know its my favorite kind of story! The boys were sweet, crazy and naughty and I loved! And I loved that Josh watched Sam that was hot! Thank you so much for writing such a great story!

[Jennifer☠Pher☠ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Lou Sylvre for this free story and thanks to all the other authors who participated in this event.

This was super cute!

[Rachel Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute, sweet story and I enjoyed it.

[Cassie Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an OK read, fairly predictable, but interesting nonetheless. Some of the conversation between the two friends felt a bit awkward, but otherwise this was a decent read.

[LostinBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I just don't get the GFY idea. Really? For six years this guy is "straight" but secretly burning for his best friend??? WTF?

[Penumbra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expect the Unexpected was written for the M/M Romance Group’s 2014 Love’s Landscapes event. This is the story of Sam Gallagher and his best friend Josh. It’s told in third person through the eyes of both Sam and Josh.

Sam and his friends are looking after Sam’s uncle’s home for four days. Everyone except Sam and Josh catch colds. Josh tells Sam he’ll drive the guys home and will return later.

Sam decides to jerk off by the pool while Josh is gone. Josh returns early and Sam is deeply embarrassed because Josh now knows how Sam feels about Josh. Sam runs out of the house even though Josh wants to talk to him. Strangely, Josh doesn’t go looking for Sam right away and takes a nap. After some searching he eventually finds Sam.

There were a couple of things that made it so I couldn’t enjoy the story as much as I would have liked. The first half of the story was almost all telling us what Sam was thinking. The second half had too much dialogue and the dialogue was probably sweeter than it needed to be. I did however enjoy the scene where Sam jerked off at the pool and the scene where Josh searched for Sam at the beach and started to panic when he found the clothes in the water.

A fast, easy read about friends to lovers, I give this story 3 Stars.

[Jeanne 'Divinae' · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had started this story before and quit because I wasn't a fan of the writing style. It came across as very choppy and hard to follow. Then I came back and re-read it and pushed on... and was happy I did. One reason, the choppy writing became more smooth and easier to understand/follow as the story progressed. The second reason is because it was actually a very sweet story about two best friends who love one another but both think their love interest would never reciprocate.

I liked the two main characters, Josh and Sammy. Also, you can't help but like Uncle Rick. Honestly, you don't see/hear much from him, but he plays a big part of getting them together... it is HIS beach house he let them use, it was HE who told Josh to track down Sammy.

[Kristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is a cute little story about best friends that have hidden their feelings for each other for many years, and finally get to begin a relationship together.

There was some great angst in the beginning; I'm a sucker for unrequited feelings angst. But, I feel like this story was limited because of its length. It progressed a little too sudden but the writing was good. The story setting was wonderful. Lou Sylvre is a new to me author and because of this short I'll be sure to check out other works written by her.

Very cute and sweet.

[m. ✨ On Hiatus ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet GFY story about longtime friends, Sam and Josh. Sam has harbored feelings for his best friend for a quite a while, but when Josh catches him in a compromising position, he's mortified and fears he's ruined the friendship. Little does he know that Josh's feelings for him aren't quite as platonic as Sam originally thought.

This story had a pretty good mix of angst and fluff, but I felt as though the overall resolution was a bit rushed and forced. I liked both of the characters and rooted for their happy ending.

[melek · Rating 5 out of 5]

THis was meant to be a a party with his best friends what turns out to be the only 2 of them. So it just start out to be nothing then started to be somethings else. Sam is caught by josh pleasuring himself self. And calling outt Joshs name. Out of misunderstanding shame embarrassment he runs away and now hosh is out to find him.

[Elin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out good, and really hot when Josh watched Sam by the pool. But when they got to the beach it felt a bit forced and a bit too shiny and too perfect. And that unfortunately continued when they got back to the house.
Still, I enjoyed it and would have liked to read more...