Tony Falls tossed the last hay bale into the back of the truck before shutting the tail gate. Dusting off his jeans, he brushed away as much of the loose hay as he could before climbing into his truck. Inside the truck Richard, Tony’s trusty Cane Corso, was already sprawled out on the bench, exhausted from a long day of work.
“Whataya say we head into the city and get us one of those overpriced coffees and a pup cup?” Tony asked.
Richard gave a loud bark, as if to say, ‘hell yeah!’, causing Tony to laugh.
“Atta boy.” He said, patting Richard’s ribs.
Cranking the old Ford to life, Tony made his way down the dirt road and back to the barn just behind his house. After ditching the hay, he headed back towards his truck, when the sound of a man calling out to him stopped Tony dead in his tracks.
“Um excuse me! Sir! I know I’m technically trespassing but...”
The world came to a screeching halt as Tony came face to face with a man Tony hadn’t laid eyes on in nearly a decade.
Tony’s ice blue eyes caused the man to stop dead in his tracks, like he’d just been tagged in a game of freeze tag. The man’s Range Rover sat idling, as Tony and the man just stared at one another, and as cartoonish as it was, Tony rubbed his eyes, unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Despite the two decades that had passed since the last time Tony had laid eyes on his high school sweetheart, Marvin, Tony couldn’t help but notice how Marvin looked just as good as the day Tony met him all those years ago.
Tony’s heart pounded so hard against his ribs, the rancher could feel his skeleton rattle. The sound was loud, like waves crashing into the sand.
“Marvin?” Said the rancher, his voice filled with wonder and confusion.
Marvin rushed towards Tony, and for a moment, Tony thought that the other man was about to hug him, but instead, Marvin’s fist came crashing into Tony’s face, knocking the rancher flat on his ass.
“Motherfucker!” Tony hissed, his hand flying to his nose.
Blood rushed out into Tony’s hand, forcing him to pinch his nose to keep the blood from pouring down his face.
“I deserve that.” Tony said, looking up at the other man.
Marvin’s eyes were wide and rage filled.
“Damn right you do! You deserve that and a whole fuck-ton more than that!” Marvin barked.
Marvin’s chest rose and fell as if he’d just gotten done running several miles.
Launching forward, Marvin filled his fists with Tony’s checkered black and blue button down, and yanked Tony to his feet.
Despite the blood coming from Tony’s nose, Marvin slammed his mouth against Tony’s, and like a light when a switch is flipped, Tony instantly began kissing the other man back.
As strong lips worked against his, Tony felt himself traveling back in time; in an instant, he went from being a forty-five-year-old farmer with two bad knees, to being a seventeen-year-old running back again.
Even after all this time, Tony still tasted the same; like cheap whisky and mint gum.
When neither man could breathe anymore, the pair withdrew from the kiss; their chests quickly rising and falling like the tide during a time-lapse.
“Quite a zero to sixty, huh Marv?” Tony laughed as he stared at the other man.
Marvin chuckled.
“Have we ever been any other way?” He asked, arching a brow.
Tony stroked his beard as he thought about it. Over the four decades that the men had known one another, they’d always been all or nothing, best buds, lovers, and family, or mortal enemies; there was never an in between.
“Guess not.” He said, causing the pair to laugh.
Tony paused for a moment and stared at Marvin, what the hell was he doing in his driveway? When Tony had finally joined Facebook a few months prior, he wasn’t even sure he’d find anyone he knew. Though sixty isn’t old, Tony had been attending a lot of his peers' funerals lately, and Tony feared that all of his closest friends had already passed on. But then he found Marvin’s page, and a status update from earlier that day, told Tony that his high school sweetheart was still kicking.
After finding him, for weeks, Tony checked Marvin’s page every day, hoping to find the courage to message him; but Tony never had it in him. Weeks became months, and as the snow on the ground vanished, and the grass returned, thoughts of Marvin became more and more frequent.
So, one drunken night, Tony decided to message him, and what started as a lighthearted catch up quickly turned into reminiscing about the past.
With every message scent between the two, Tony felt the sparks of what once was begin to flicker.
Talking on messenger turned into texts and late-night phone calls, and Tony felt himself falling for Marvin all over again.
Tony felt like a kid again, spending his day texting Marvin, and ending them with phone calls that usually ended in the wee hours of the morning.
“Got time for a drink, or did you just stop by to deck me?” Tony asked with a chuckle.
Marvin nodded his head towards Tony’s house.
“Lead the way.” He said.
So the men hopped into their cars, and after making it to the house, Tony cleaned up, and made lunch before sitting out on the porch with Marvin. The two talked late into the evening, and despite having returned to town to visit his mom, when Tony cracked open a bottle of his finest whisky, Marvin knew that seeing his sister would just have to wait ‘til tomorrow.