Between the Push and Pull Ch. 01

"You're going to be one of the main characters?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. I thought that part was kind of obvious," the smile peeked out from wherever it had been hiding.

"You're right. It is obvious. I don't know why I thought otherwise," Ryan sighed. It was a good idea, if they could execute it well.

After their last meeting, he had spent some time googling the study Erik mentioned. Based on what Ryan read, and other interesting bits of information he found on the interwebs, Erik's idea was golden. There were a couple of websites already doing similar projects, with great success, but the market seemed far from saturated. So if they could pull off quality stuff, Ryan couldn't see this failing.

"You said you had characters already?" He didn't want to admit quite yet, but the idea was growing on him.

"Yeah, one's a go-go boy at a gay night club. The other is a PhD student studying something about the gay nightclub scene. I haven't quite figured that part out. The PhD student goes a gay nightclub and meets the go-go boy, and their first encounter could be a paid one in one of the club's private rooms. But the PhD student manages to recruit the dancer to participate, so to speak, into his research. The first video will be at the nightclub on the evening when they meet. The rest will cover the progress of the research. In the end, they fall in love. The end."

The dimple was back again, and its appearance seemed to smooth the anxiety Ryan had felt earlier.

"He wants to understand the psychology of a go-go boy. How does go-go dancing affect his value and perception of self? Are there certain types of people more drawn to go-go dancing, or does the act of go-go dancing develop certain characteristics in people?" The words just flowed out of Ryan's mouth, originating from a place that he had put to sleep long ago. And all it took for it to resurface was a few minutes of conversation with Erik.

Ryan blinked at Erik, who looked amused and confused at the same time.

"Yeah, yeah, exactly. That would work really well." Erik cocked his head to one side. "How did you come up with that so quickly?"

Ryan shrugged. He wished he knew himself. But what really surprised him was that activating that part of his mind, that part of his knowledge, didn't trigger the anxiety attacks like they used to do. This was probably the first time he'd been able to ask a psychology-related question without panicking at the work required to answer it.

"Oh, I don't know. It just popped into my head."

"Right," Erik didn't look he believed Ryan, but in this instance Ryan was being completely- well, at least mostly, forthcoming.

"Which character were you going to play?" Ryan asked, the implication just dawning on him.

"The go-go dancer," Erik replied nonchalantly. "I used to be a dancer, so that seemed to make sense." He paused and his eyes wandered over Ryan's body.

Ryan knew he looked good. He spent a good deal of time when not filming or working at the bar making sure he looked good. It was necessary when one of his jobs required him to be naked on camera.

"I thought you'd make a great PhD student. At first glance, you've got the tall and lanky body type. But I've seen your work—you're completely toned, well proportioned... everywhere."

That last word came out as a whisper and to Ryan's dismay, his apparently well-proportioned cock took notice.

"So, what do you think? Are you in?"

Ryan thought back to the other bit of research he'd done over the past few weeks. Erik had seen his work; well, Ryan looked up some of Erik's work, too. Needless to say, Erik was just as beautiful without his clothes as he did with them. And he knew what he was doing, knew how to angle himself for the camera, how to school the look on his face, and give off just the right amount of vocalization.

Oh, what the hell? If he wanted to, Ryan was sure he could put together a laundry list of reasons why he shouldn't do this. But the idea was intriguing and Erik was intriguing... so, what the hell?

"Sure," Ryan said with a shrug.

"Really?" Erik looked surprised.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Erik opened his mouth, looking like he was about to object, but then smiled. "No reason, none at all."