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  “He’s Worth It”

  M/M Straight to Gay First Time Romance

  Jerry Cole

  © 2017

  Jerry Cole

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is intended for Adults (ages 18+) only. The contents may be offensive to some readers. It may contain graphic language, explicit sexual content, and adult situations. May contain scenes of unprotected sex. Please do not read this book if you are offended by content as mentioned above or if you are under the age of 18.

  Please educate yourself on safe sex practices before making potentially life-changing decisions about sex in real life. If you’re not sure where to start, see here: http://www.jerrycoleauthor.com/safe-sex-resources/.

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images & are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.

  Edition v1.03 (2017.06.16)

  http://www.jerrycoleauthor.com

  Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: Shannon Harvey, Ken P. Anne Shure, C. Mitchell, Julian White, D. Fair, Sabrina Marks, Dotty Hill, Michelle Beer, Jim Adcock and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.

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  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Authors Note

  Books by Jerry Cole

  Chapter One

  Chris looked at the brochure in his hand and wondered whether he should turn around and drive away. No one was going to blame him for it.

  He closed his eyes and thought about the reason he was here. He could picture the last time he had seen his ex-girlfriend. She had been standing in the middle of the living room, eyes bulging, strands of messy hair framing her face. “You’re a fucking loser!”

  “Fuck you,” Chris had replied between gritted teeth. He was sitting down, his hands tight fists at his sides.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Chris had said.

  “You’re such a loser,” she’d replied. “I can’t believe I ever thought you’d amount to anything.”

  She had turned around and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her so hard that one of the lamps in the foyer had fallen down. It made a noise like it had smashed, and Chris had had enough.

  Although Chris was superstitious, he had never really believed in signs before, but took it as one anyway.

  There was no one to blame him anymore. Sophia had moved out, and his parents didn’t care what he did as long as he had enough money to pay his rent and his utility bills. They had liked Sophia, and they weren’t happy that they had broken up, but she had put her foot down. Chris hadn’t exactly begged her to reconsider. He hadn’t admitted it to anyone, but he was pretty happy that she had broken up with him.

  They had been together for five years, and their relationship had been on its last legs for at least four. Sophia was pretty, she was smart, and she was ambitious. She was just not very friendly, and they had very little in common. When she moved out, she had taken mostly everything with her because most of the things in their apartment actually belonged to her.

  Chris got stuck with the lease, though, because he worked closer to home than she did. And anyway, she had already made arrangements to move somewhere with her friend, or maybe it was with her new boyfriend. Chris didn’t know, and he didn’t feel like asking.

  She had walked out and had told him that he wasn’t ever going to be anything. After drinking a lot and texting her even more than he should have, he had started going to the gym and picking himself back up. Then he had decided to start doing something that he had always wanted to do.

  Acting was something that Chris was always interested in, but when he was seeing Sophia, he barely had time to pursue his own interests. At least, that was what he had told himself, though he wasn’t sure if that was really true or if it was more because he couldn’t be bothered to do anything if his life was pretty much sorted out. He was going to become regional manager, he was going to marry Sophia, and they were going to have two children. It was going to be great.

  Sophia was going to have an administrative job and then she may have become a stay-at-home mother. They had talked about it, a few times, but never for too long. It was one of those things that they were supposed to talk about, and that Chris really thought had been worked out, but it had been listed alongside a plethora of reasons why Sophia couldn’t be with him anymore. Truthfully, Chris had stopped listening about halfway through. But she had been right about one thing—he had no passions. After he was more or less over the break-up, he was going to get into acting.

  So there he was, in a parking lot.

  The volunteer acting troupe met every Wednesday, from five to nine, at the studio behind Mrs. Black’s jewelry store. That was what the brochure said, anyway. He had picked it up at the coffee shop near the electronic store where he worked.

  Chris hated to admit it, but he was a creature of routine. He liked doing the same thing every day. He didn’t even like it when his shifts were changed, though that happened less and less now that he was a manager. He wondered if these evening meet-ups were going to become part of his routine.

  He got out of his car and walked up to the jewelry store. A sign above the door read STUDIO with an arrow toward the side of the building. Chris cleared his throat and started to make his way to the back.

  His hand was trembling when he opened the door. He was sure that it was the right doo
r, because there was a sign posted on it that had the initials of the voluntary acting troupe, but he thought that he would have been able to hear more people inside. He knocked on the door, and when he heard no response, he thought about walking away. He was about to do that when an old man wearing black pants and a dark green button-up shirt opened the door. The first thing that Chris noticed about him, other than his clothes, was his white beard. He was an older man, but the beard made him look more like Santa Claus than anything else, even though he was small and slim.

  “Hi,” the man said warmly. “I’m Manuel.” He extended his hand.

  Chris took the hand and shook it. “Chris,” he said. “I saw this flyer that said you guys meet here every Wednesday.”

  “Come in, come in,” Manuel said. His voice was warm and clear. Chris glanced behind him, trying to see if there was a group of people that he had just missed, but there was no one there.

  At least, no one that he could see.

  “So, you’re an actor, Chris?”

  Chris laughed in response, shaking his head. “Not really,” he said. “I mean, I’m trying. But I’ve never acted before, which is the reason why I’m here.”

  “Great,” Manuel said. “Well, come on in.”

  Chris looked around, once again trying to find anyone else who might be there, but only found two people sitting on the floor. The girl caught his attention first. She was wearing a low-cut blue dress with white sleeves, and white leggings with sparkly silver stars on them. Chris had never seen something that looked quite like that before. Then he noticed the person she’d laid her legs over. Chris thought it must have been her boyfriend, at first, because she seemed extremely comfortable touching him, but there was something about him. Maybe it was the way that his jeans looked on him. They were far too small for him, but he still managed to pull them off. They were ripped just above the knee, and he was wearing a thin black belt that wouldn’t have looked good on anyone else.

  He had brown hair that was so light it looked slightly reddish, and some strands had been colored blue and green. It was understated, though, for rainbow colored hair. That wasn’t really what Chris was looking at, though. He was busy looking at this man’s face, as though he was an attractive girl or something. He didn’t really understand it, but there was something totally compelling about the guy sitting there. He was what most would consider conventionally attractive: a pronounced jaw, high cheekbones, and strong eyebrows. He was clean-shaven, and he had big, bright, dark eyes. There was no way to describe him other than as magnetic.

  Chris didn’t really understand his reaction. He hadn’t ever had a physical reaction that strong to seeing someone, never mind someone who happened to be a man. Things had been strange with him ever since he had broken up with Sophia—or more accurately, since she had broken up with him—but they weren’t this strange.

  He cleared his throat, trying to make himself feel normal again. Both of the people sitting on the floor looked up at him. The girl smiled; the guy cocked his head. Just cocking his head was enough to make Chris’ heart leap in his chest, which made his cheeks red. He was flustered, and confused, and this wasn’t his best showing. Though there were only three people there, he knew that if this was going to become something that he did, he wanted it to be good.

  On reflection, he thought bitterly, that was probably what had been holding him back all along. He didn’t want to appear as though he didn’t know what he was doing, even though it was obvious that, in fact, he didn’t.

  “I’m not....”

  “You’re not what?” said the man.

  Chris shook his head, hating how red his cheeks were, not really understanding why. Everyone at the Actors Volunteer Troupe was a volunteer. It said so in the name. That was why it seemed so strange that he had trouble answering. He cleared his throat again and shook his head. “I’m not an actor,” he said. “Well, I’ve never tried to be an actor before.”

  “Ohh,” the guy said, clapping his hands together. “Fresh blood.”

  “Yeah, you could say that,” Chris said from the corner of his mouth. “I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Chris, Chris Whittaker.”

  “This is Mags,” the guy sitting on the floor said, patting Mags on the knee. Chris had never heard a name like Mags before. “I’m Jacob.”

  “Hi,” Chris replied, waving his hand at them.

  “Hi,” Mags said, tucking her long black hair behind her ear and smiling at him. He took a second to note how pretty she was. Mags had a huge smile that made her light eyes sparkle. She had an upturned nose and a beautifully symmetrical face. If she had short hair, he thought, she might actually look like a sixties starlet or something. So why was it that he was more interested in looking at Jacob, who was staring at him with amusement?

  “So you’re new to this whole thing?” Mags finally said, stretching.

  “Yeah, I…” Chris replied, his gaze darting around the room. “Yeah. I thought there would be more people here.”

  “It’s usually busiest right when we’re preparing for an event,” Manuel said from behind him. “The summer is our quietest time. You picked an interesting time to join.”

  “Well, I... I’ve always wanted to join,” Chris said quietly. “But honestly, it’s one of those things where I just never got around to it. You know how it is.”

  “Well, we’re glad to have you,” Jacob replied, getting to his feet. “What normally happens now is that Manuel gives you a list of events that the county puts on, which looks super intimidating, but you just put a little mark next to the events that look interesting to you. Then Manuel calls you closer to that time. You get cast then.”

  “That sounds....” He didn’t want to say scary. For some reason, he didn’t want to seem weak in front of this stranger. “I’m a little concerned. Should I be concerned?”

  “No, don’t worry,” Manuel replied. “Jacob just likes to scare off all the potential talent. Plus, he doesn’t like competition.”

  “Competition?”

  “You know, another good-looking young guy,” Manuel replied. “You two are probably going to be going up for the same roles as each other.”

  “Oh, well, I can’t act,” Chris said, smiling at Manuel. “So I don’t know if there’s actually any competition here.”

  “I do like a healthy competition, though,” Jacob said, pouting. He walked up to Chris and started to look him over. Chris wasn’t sure what to do. He had never felt like he was being sized up like this, but it was a professional thing, and he couldn’t really stop Jacob.

  “Well, there’s no way you’re getting it,” Chris replied, smiling thinly. “Because like I said before, I can’t act.”

  Jacob nodded. “Well, the good thing about a volunteering acting troupe is that you get free training,” he said. “There’s a reason that a lot of people come to us first.”

  “So there are... classes?”

  “Not exactly,” Jacob said. “I mean, there are classes specifically for certain things. We rehearse before a particular event, and we meet up here to prep for things like auditions and stuff. That’s why we’re here today.”

  Chris cocked his head. “To prep for auditions?”

  “That, or to talk about auditions that are coming up,” Jacob said. “That kind of thing. Discuss tools of the trade.”

  “Well, I’m—I have nothing of value to add,” Chris replied, smiling at Jacob, though he didn’t feel very happy. He felt like he was being analyzed, and he wasn’t into it. “Obviously.”

  “Nonsense,” Jacob replied, laughing and throwing his head back. His eyes sparkled right before he did, and Chris could feel his heart beating fast in his chest. Jacob put his hand on Chris’ shoulder and Chris felt dizzy. He didn’t understand why, but Jacob touching him was enough to make him feel unsteady. “How about I teach you?”

  “You—you’d teach me? I thought I’d have to pay for acting lessons,” Chris replied. “That’s why I joined the troupe. I wanted to kind of know w
hat to expect before I paid anyone for acting lessons, to be honest with you.”

  “It’s cool,” Jacob said. “You don’t have to pay me.”

  “I don’t?”

  “No,” he replied. “Like I said, I like competition. I think it’s fun.”

  “Well, I—” Chris wanted to think of an excuse to get out of it. He didn’t want to be around Jacob when there was nobody else around them. On the other hand, Jacob was being kind. He was offering to do something for him for free, something for which he probably could and probably should charge. But what Chris felt around Jacob wasn’t normal; it wasn’t the way that he felt around most people, and he wasn’t sure if he could trust himself around Jacob.

  It made him feel strange, and he wasn’t sure that he liked it.

  “Come on,” Jacob said, looking straight at him. For the first time since they had met, Chris could see the color of Jacob’s eyes. They were dark brown, almost black, and gorgeous. “It’ll be fun. I’ve been in some things. What do you have to lose?”

  Chris swallowed, nodding. “Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  Chapter Two

  Jacob decided he didn’t like competition. He was going home after an audition that he was pretty sure he had bombed. It wasn’t that he wasn’t good for the role; it was just that there were better-looking guys with tattoos and beards, and that was so not his style. The casting call had asked for someone modern, but that could have meant anything.

  He shook his head, trying to focus on his plans for the night. His car rattled as he backed out of the parking space. It was an older model, but it was the best he could afford. His backseat was full of clothes and costumes. He needed to take them out and wash them, but he couldn’t exactly do that with a non-functioning washing machine. He had started doing his laundry at the laundromat down the street, but it was too hot, and it was more important that he keep his own clothes clean. Or, at least, it seemed more pressing.