The Law of Attraction

On Sunday, Ed spent most of the day reading up on the law firm he was about to join. He surfed their website obsessively and reread all the information they’d sent him.

Late afternoon, he went to the gym and ran off some of his nervous energy on the treadmill before beating the hell out of a punchbag until his arms felt like jelly. Alec popped into his thoughts while he was working some of his stress out. The memory of Alec’s coldness in the morning and the way he’d dismissed Ed made him punch the bag that much harder. He was pissed off with himself as much as Alec, angry that he’d let Alec get under his skin. What did it matter what a stranger thought of him, anyway? It had been a good fuck. That was all.

This evening was Ed’s turn to cook, so he rustled up some pasta for them both. Fiona tried to tempt him with a glass of wine, suggesting it might help him to relax—“chill the fuck out” were her exact words—but Ed refused, not wanting to do anything that might compromise his alertness in the morning.

After dinner he was horribly anxious and couldn’t settle to anything. He went to his room and pulled shirts and ties out of his wardrobe, rejecting each combination. At least he had a half-decent suit, thanks to a loan from his mum and stepdad. Once he got his first month’s wages, he could pay them back and go shopping for some better work clothes.

Fiona tapped on his door.

“Come in.”

“Need any help?” She came in and stood beside him.

“Will this do?” He gestured to the latest combination that he had lain out on the bottom of the bed.

“It’s not bad, but do you have a tie with more blue in it?”

Ed rummaged around. “How about this one?”

“That’s better.” She nodded.

“Okay, thanks.” Ed hung the selection on the back of his door ready for tomorrow morning.

“Now come and watch some TV with me and stop worrying. You’re going to be brilliant.” She slipped her arm through his and led him into the living room.

They watched a couple of old episodes of Friends, which was always a sure-fire way to make Ed laugh. Fiona got him to sit on the floor between her knees and massaged his shoulders until the muscles unknotted and some of his tension finally leaked away.

“Thanks.” He tilted his head back to smile at her. “You’re a star.”

“I know.” She grinned back and then yawned. “Okay, it’s definitely my bedtime now. You should try and sleep too.”

“Yes, Mum.”

She ruffled his hair as he leaned forward to let her up. “Night, Ed.”

Ed took his laptop to bed with him and checked his emails before attempting to settle down for the night. There was one from his mum, wishing him luck for tomorrow. She’d scanned in a picture the twins had drawn for him: balloons and flowers and assorted rabbits and birds in a variety of unlikely colours surrounded the words “Good luck Ed,” written in giant bubble writing. He grinned as he admired it and then sent a copy to his printer so that he could stick it on his fridge along with other assorted pictures from the twins.

Fifteen years younger than Ed, eight-year-old Alice and Ava were the product of his mum’s second marriage, along with his other half-sister, Gemma, who was fourteen.

Ed was close to his family and went home to visit them as often as he could. The seaside town of Worthing on the south coast was only about an hour and a half away from London, but fares were expensive and life was busy.

He typed in a quick reply to his mum, telling her to thank the twins for the picture and promising to try and visit soon.

Once he’d switched his lamp off, Ed ended up tossing and turning, unable to settle and get comfortable. His brain was in overdrive with all the stuff he’d been reading about his new job, and the anxious, churny feeling in his belly wasn’t helping. He looked at the glowing red digits on his alarm clock and groaned when he saw it was well past midnight already. Ed tried to push the thoughts of tomorrow away and slow his breathing, forcing himself to relax. As his mind wandered he found himself thinking of Alec again, and inevitably those thoughts resulted in him getting hard.

Might as well, he thought as he slipped his hand into his pants and gave his cock a squeeze. A satisfying wank would probably help him sleep. He couldn’t be bothered to power up his laptop again and look for some porn, so the memories of Alec would do nicely.

Ed closed his eyes and thought of hard muscles and dark chest hair. He ran his free hand over his nipples and remembered how Alec’s chest had felt rubbing against his. He moved his hand faster over his prick, making sticky sounds. This wasn’t going to take long. He rolled onto his side, fucking into his hand as he imagined Alec’s cock between his thighs, his hands tight on Ed’s hips as he bit down on Ed’s neck.