Gravitational Pull

by Jill Prand

Dear Author,
We have been best friends since forever and now we’re both in our mid-twenties. You have always been there for me, through thick and thin. You even set me up with your workmate, now my girlfriend. I’ve been with her for a couple of years now and I do love her, but I’m slowly realising that while I do still love her, I’m no longer in love with her. Because it’s you I’m in love with, and have always been. I don’t know why I’m just realising this now because I’ve never made a secret of my attraction to both men and women, and you have been just as unapologetically open about the fact that you’re gay. Do you feel the same way about me? You haven’t had a steady boyfriend since we were in college. Is that because you it’s me you want? I don’t want to risk our friendship, but I don’t think that I can deny my feelings for you any longer. We could have something great, something that will last for the rest of our lives if we can just take that last step towards each other…

Photo Description:
These two guys in the picture are best friends Dustin and Eric. They’ve been secretly in love with each other for a long time but neither one wants to risk their friendship. One day at the gym, Dustin can’t fight the pull anymore when Eric spots him at the bench press.

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, Contemporary, Romance, Friends To Lovers, Short Stories, LGBT, Contemporary Romance

26 pages, ebook

First published July 10, 2014

About the author

Living in Northern New Jersey originally from Long Island, Jill Prand is a wife and mother of two girls. She's been an avid reader all her life, spending Sunday afternoons curled up with a good book. "We had a huge bookshelf in our den when I was a child with a diverse set of authors like Ayn Rand, Stephen King, Mario Puzo & Danielle Steele. I cut my literary teeth on Walter Farley, Judy Blume and SE Hinton before raiding my parents library." Jill is currently working on the Walking Series as well as a stand alone novel. She loves to hear from readers.

Reviews

[Steelwhisper · Rating 1 out of 5]

This squicked me out. Badly. Like watching my neighbours fuck.

[SheReadsALot · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is most certainly not for everyone...but it works for me!

I enjoy reading infidelity in romance, especially if the cheaters end up being together. *shrugs*

This story is a sticky situation.

In my opinion, cheating is when one or both parties in a committed relationship have a sexual (emotional too) relationship (could be one time or more) without their partner's knowledge.

An open relationship is when the both parties in a relationship have agreed upon having sex with other people and remain in their relationship.

So the setup for this story: Dustin is bisexual, has a girlfriend of two years, has "bisexual urges" - he takes care of by having sex with other men (with his girlfriend Amy's consent and sometimes participation) and has lusted for his gay best friend, Eric, for years.

Eric is a one-man man. He set his coworker Amy up with Dustin...but he lusts for Dustin as well. Now that sticky part comes into play.

Both men finally succumb to their lusts. But it's considered infidelity? It's a story tag, I'm not spoiling. To me Dustin didn't cheat but both he and Eric felt they did.

My rating is swimming in the 3-4 stars mark. The writing is decent, parts felt rushed, it kept to the prompt(mostly). But the ending felt too neat for me. And then Amy...the victim? Eh, I don't understand why acted the way she did. I'm guessing it's because she works with Eric and has to see him during the work week. Was Eric not included in the open relationship agreement? Dustin could fuck any other guy but Eric? I do think the way Eric tried to hide Dustin after their first night together made them look guilty. He could have just been upfront. *shrugs*

So sticky situation. A relationship gets burned and a new one forms from the ashes. For the rushing, the odd phrase here and there: "trembling like a Chihuahua" during a sexy times scene ruined the moment for me as did thinking of "Like a Virgin" and MANTEARS, I'll rate lower.

Thanks to the author and the team behind it.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best friends to lovers story that has the twist of one of them being the stolen lover.

Awkward realism is the best way to describe this short story. I totally got Dustin and Eric and how things evolved. Is this story going to make a lot of people happy? Maybe not. But, there was a stark acceptance of the situation without apology or varnish. Maybe too realistic for romance.

[Ro]

I am curious- when Dustin gets his "bi urges" what's E going to do?

[Kristan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The moment I read "she understands my bi-urges, and doesn't blink an eye when I visit the local gay bar" (for a hookup), I knew this wasn't going to be for me. I think anyone who is Bi would take offense to that; Bi means being attracted to both sexes, not having to be with both. What a terrible generalization of an entire group of people, it implies that everyone who is Bi cheats. It's ridiculous.

After having just looked, it appears that this is the authors first attempt at MM romance, in which case, I wish they had educated themselves more on what makes up the categorization of the group of people they are writing about. I applaud the author for writing in this genre, but the characterization leaves much to be desired.

I agree with Lucy, I guess now that he's with Eric, he'll have to visit the straight bars to satisfy his straight urges. Hope Eric's okay with that...

I did not like the cheating, only because I couldn't understand why Dustin didn't just leave Amy Especially since he was no longer in love with her and didn't want the relationship to go any further. He also said he wanted something else that wasn't her..

This wasn't for me, though I imagine it will work well for others.

Thank you to the author for their time and participation in the Loves Landscapes event.

[K]

Short contemporary story of best friends Dustin and Eric. Dustin is bi and in a relationship with Amy, who Eric set him up with but whilst she's hinting about commitment and marriage, Dustin has realised that he's in love with Eric, who is gay. Things come to a head and the pair declare their love and end up in bed, which, a little predictably, is where Amy finds them. This one didn't really work for me, I think mainly because I couldn't tell the difference between the two MC's, who narrate alternately in first person present tense.

[Riina Y.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a great story, thank you Jill :)
----
I don't understand the mean words from other readers. I'm sure the story wasn't meant to offend anyone! *sigh* It's not all about you, guys. This is just another story, fiction, and if it bothers you, then that's sad but okay. Why do you have to be so mean? Seriously.

Life can suck, love usually sucks and some guys and girls just have urges other's don't have.
I don't see where Jill was offending anyone with this. Again, it's just fiction.

[Bitchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setup- Dustin and Eric have been friends for years. Eric is gay, Dustin is bisexual. Eric works with Amy and set him up with Dustin, and they have been together for two years now. Amy knows Dustin is bi, and is fine with him visiting the occasional gay bar for a hookup, and has even taken part a few times. Eric is secretly in love with Dustin, Amy is hinting marriage, Dustin loves Amy but isn't In Love with Amy, and Dustin is finally realizing that what he REALLY wants is Eric, and they finally admit to each other that they have feelings for each other.


I don't know that I saw this as cheating, since Amy knew Dustin slept with guys once in a while, and seemed to be perfectly ok with it. This knowledge made her anger at finding him with Eric make no sense, unless it's because it was someone they knew and not just a random stranger. I thought this could have been longer, and dealt more with the fallout at the end. Tension at work, Amy or Eric finding another job, anything other than "but we'll be ok".

Oh, and I hate when dudes cry over stuff like "we're finally together". Save the tears for heartfail and tragedy, not finally fucking.

[Riayl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uh, no. No to both the main characters. No to the cheating. No to the "bi urges" (wtf?).

Just, no. *goes off in search of brain bleach*

[Cerulean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: This was my story prompt for the M/M Group's Love's Landscapes writing event. I do not know the author outside of this.

I really enjoyed this short story. I appreciate the time and effort the author put into it and thought she did a great job with my original prompt and with making the boys her own. I really felt the chemistry between the boys and sex was steamy!

Having read some of the other reviews, I see some people are offended by the mention of "Bi urges", and while I can see that can certainly be taken in a way that would cause some people to be affronted by it, if it's taken in the context of the story I honestly don't think the author meant for it to infer that all people who are Bi have to satisfy dual urges. I think it was to show a juxtaposition for Dustin's love for Amy against his deeper love for Eric. He does say that he wants to find the one person who makes him forget about everyone else. That one person being Eric, of course. Not saying those who did find it an affront have no right to, just that I don't think it was intended the way it was maybe interpreted.

As for the cheating, I'm not a big fan of it in romance, but sometimes it feels realistic to the story and the characters (as in this story) and, let's face it, it does happen.

It was a short story format, and some aspects of it did feel a little rushed or incomplete. I would love to see it expanded out to a longer format some day, if the author is so inspired.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars. OK, but not really for me.

Weirdly, I think the fact that Dustin's relationship with Amy was so....flexible....made me believe a potential HEA less than if they'd been solidly together. The threesomes, and the openly outside sex to quench his bi-urges (and was it me or did he also admit there was non-consensual infidelity - I think he said he cheated and sometimes without Amy's knowledge). Anyway, it all made me doubt his ability to commit to Eric. If they'd been monogamous but with Dustin lusting for Eric the whole time I'd be more forgiving I think. But to be honest, I didn't really take to Dustin, he seemed a bit selfish. So, no, not my thing, but well written and with nice alternating POV betweeen the protagonists.

[Ashli Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have never guessed that this was the author's first attempt at the M/M genre. For a short story it gave me everything I wanted in a M/M story, hot guys, steamy sex and strong emotions. Personally, I would've liked a little more of a description of the characters looks so I could have a more vivid picture of them in my head. But, overall it was a great story and I would certainly read more from Jill if she decided to dabble further into this genre.

[Jenna Galicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this story and felt connected to the characters. I thought they were sweet and I liked the drama at the end with Amy. It felt real. It was well written and I enjoyed the sex scenes. They were hot!

[Alicja]

I'm not going to rate this story because it just isn't for me. I'm doing this as part of a bingo challenge.

It's a (lot) too melodramatic for me. Basically, drama, gushing of emotions, sex, tears, sex, emotional drama, ending. Its just not for me.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice first try for the author in M/M, and I highly encourage Jill to continue writing, as I think the more she writes, the better she'll get in this genre :)

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

Dustin and Eric have been best friends forever. Dustin has been in love with his bi-best friend forever, he hooked him him with a female coworker. It was a big regret. Eric, who truly loves Dustin is afraid of telling him in case the friendship ends. But he can’t see himself long term with anyone but Dustin, who is also his roommate. One day they are at the gym and a conversation leads to other things. Dustin isn’t sure what his going on with Eric, but he is up to his limit with holding his feelings back on Eric. Eric has been acting differently recently, and Dustin, dare hope, he is the reason behind it. Communication leads one thing to another….
This is a rather quick story, but it had a happy ending, at least for our guys.

[TT · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was more sex than anything else, and mostly about two men cementing their attraction with one another (I think the build up would have been sexier to read about than the actual physical act). When the reader enters the scene, we arrive at the point where the two men are ready to confess and cannot ignore their feelings any longer. However if felt a bit shallow to me, mostly about the sex more than being together. They are prepared to ignore their friend/girlfriends feelings and expectations of marriage because true love trumps all, and it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. However I appreciate the author’s participation in the LL and the free story!

[melek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well not sure if it was an open relationship or cheating involved because even though Dustin has a girlfriend but also with amy he has sex with guys so he can fulfill his needs. But he also feels like his cheating and for the life of me if he doesn't love her why stay with her for so long. Anyway Dustin's in love with Eric and cant help it any longer but of course eric is only gay so he cant be with him and amy together plus dustin doesn't want amy an more. So yeah dustin is in a middle of a pickle. what to do.

[Sandra]

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

I loved the other story that used this pic, I feel like that makes my expectations higher...

[Hey Hey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a hard time giving this author 2 stars. Her writing was very good.
But her story plot left her no wiggle room.

I don't enjoy any cheating in my stories. Open relationships, I can handle on a case by case, but flat out cheating just doesn't work for me.

[Rayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I feel. I thought Dustin and Amy's relationship was explained as somewhat open with Dustin getting his guy fix occasionally. So I didn't understand when she suddenly blew up at Dustin for sleeping with Eric. It confused me. Other than that, I enjoyed this short story.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[GlamLawyer]

I was excited about that prompt. Bit I didn't like that story at all. It was too rushed and the plot not right for a short shot.
The writing style didn't work well for me.
My whole body trembles in anticipation, like a Chihuahua, as I turn over. is kinda distracting during a sexscene.

[Melanie~~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

[NOTE: I rate most writing event stories (free reads) 4 or 5 stars because of my appreciation of the author's participation and gift.]

[cmbookdiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally hate reading about cheating. That said this was a very well written story.Loved the authors writing style and will be looking out for more from her.thank you for this.

[Seiran · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uhm...nope not for me, but I tried!

[Koichi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not bisexual but I can understand that talking about bi-urges is biphobic. You just don't fall in love with both at the same time, right?

[Regencyfan93 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seemed to drag in the middle then ended quickly.

[Verity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come