The rest of his week followed a similar tempo. Mel would wake up every morning with Mars' alarm, open the Milky Way, get text messages from Brad at a more reasonable time of day —which he mostly ignored—, go to class, eat lunch with Mars at the cafeteria, go to afternoon classes and then tutor freshmen whom he was surprised even made it into university with how desperately they needed guidance for research and writing. It was still too early in the semester for his favorite kind of student to need his help: jocks. Unlike Mars, whom besides being incredibly hard-working, was also lucky to have Mel for a roommate, most student athletes let their coursework pile up through the semester and wound up taking up as many of the tutoring slots in Mel's schedule as he could fit. The last couple of semesters it was how he'd found many a very hot guy to hook up with as well, and unfortunately how he had met Brad during his second semester in university.

Saturday morning rolled in at a snail's pace, usually he'd only work the afternoon shift but another of his coworkers caught the flu so he offered to sub in for them, and how he was coincidentally in the middle of his break at the Milky Way when Brad called him.

"Hello gorgeous, are you ready for our date tonight?"

"As soon as I'm done with afternoon shift." Mel answered by way of hello.

"Perfect, I'm taking you to that new restaurant in Main Street I've been texting you about, nobody should be bothering us there."

That was one of the things that annoyed Mel about dealing with Brad, it was always on his terms and it was always in secret. It wasn't that he minded keeping his hook ups private, in fact, he preferred it, but Brad wanted Mel to hang on his every word and cling to him while also constantly treating him like a shameful secret. A new restaurant was the perfect setting in Brad's mind, too expensive for the average student, and too recent to be interesting to the ones in Brad's circles.

"Ah great!" He feigned interest, sometimes Mel wished the man would simply admit to himself that all he wanted from Mel was someone to warm up his bed. "I got this new outfit—"

"Can't wait to take it off of you." Brad cut him off. "I'll pick you up at eight."

The line went dead and Mel almost wished the day continued to drag on as it had, however, time never seemed to be on Mel's side. Afternoon came and went and Mel was putting on makeup when Mars got home from Saturday training.

"Looking hot man! Got a date?" Mars complimented him, leaning against the bathroom doorframe, Rover in his arms and peeking curiously at Mel before sneezing at the cloud of perfume that permeated the bathroom.

"Bless you bud." Mel booped Rover's nose and turned back to check his work in the mirror. "Yeah, I'm staying over at his place after, so don't wait up." Mel smiled but Mars frowned.

"Is it with him?" He asked.

"This is the last time, I swear." Mel sighed. Mars also didn't approve of his situation with Brad, he didn't like that he treated Mel like a dirty secret.

"You deserve better than this, Mel." Mars said locking eyes with him in the mirror, not an ounce of fake sympathy in his expression.

"Sadly, the best man I know still claims to be straight so I gotta make do with these losers in his place." Mel replied and Mars laughed. It was only half a joke, really, if Mars ever gave "swinging Mel's way" a shot, Mel could see himself falling for his roommate. 

Fantasy and reality were vastly different realms, and in reality Mars was as straight as they came, so Mel wouldn't break his own heart by fostering romantic feelings for the best friend he'd ever had… for the first friend he'd ever had. No, Mel knew better, and more so, he knew that he didn't deserve someone as good as Mars, nobody that good would ever want him and he'd known that for years.

Mel's phone went off and Mars left Mel to pick up the phone call in order to seek food for himself in the kitchen.

"Hey, I'm almost ready." Mel answered the call.

"Good, I'm five minutes out, wait for me at the curb." Brad said and immediately hung up. Mel sighed, retrieving his favorite boots from his closet, putting them on and looking at himself in the mirror they had hung next to the front door. 

He was wearing an all-black and skin-tight outfit composed of a sheer lace long-sleeve shirt and pleather pants that, together with the high-heeled boots made his ass pop. He'd accessorized with a long silver necklace and matching makeup. Mars was right, he looked hot and for the first time that day he was glad to be going out someplace rather than going straight to the hookup part of his dates with Brad. He bid Mars a goodnight as he locked the front door and gingerly made his way to the ground floor, it was freezing cold outside but still he walked out and waited for Brad on the sidewalk. It took longer than fifteen minutes for Brad's truck to pull up next to him.

"Sorry, sweet cheeks, had to make a small detour." Was Brad's half-assed apology when Mel climbed into the truck shivering.

"Yeah well, shouldn't have told me to wait outside then." Mel's teeth clattered as he snapped back, trying to turn the heat up but getting his hand swatted away from the dashboard.

"You know the rules, nobody touches the dashboard but me." Brad pointed a finger at him as he joined traffic, at a red light he took Mel's appearance in and reached for his face, caressing a thumb from his cheek to his lips. "It's not my fault you chose to ignore common sense and not grab a coat, even if you do look absolutely delectable in that slutty little outfit, doll."

"Thanks." Mel resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Brad's sorry attempt at flirting, grinned and looked the other man up and down, he was wearing a button down and dark wash jeans under a wool coat. He looked every piece the basic dude-bro that he portrayed himself to be, down to the excessive amount of expensive cologne that wafted off him, Mel hated it. "You look handsome too." Mel said more out of need of filling the silence than anything else. Brad took the compliment with a smirk and as the light turned to green, he placed his hand on Mel's thigh with a firm squeeze.

Brad spent the rest of the drive telling Mel about the classes he was taking that semester while caressing the inside of Mel's thigh, driving him ever so slightly close to an edge he hadn't been close to in weeks. The one downside of school breaks was that Mel had to rely on battery powered company that didn't quite scratch the itch. The restaurant came into view with bright colored lights and the hum of the music coming from within, a line of people waited outside, whether to be seated or for their cars to be retrieved, Mel couldn't tell. Brad pulled up to the valet stand and, getting off the truck without turning off the engine, started walking towards the entrance, leaving Mel to catch up to him.

He hadn't quite managed it before Brad had already talked to the hostess and was being led to a booth seat towards the back, away from the stage where a live band was finishing their song. Mel was struck by how actually beautiful the place was, a combination of elegant restaurant and modern club kept the crowd speaking loudly and bodies moving on a too-small dance floor. It wasn't Cosmos, but Mel could already see it becoming a campus favorite.

When they finally reached their table, Mel tried sitting across from Brad, but the other man rolled his eyes and switched to Mel's side of the booth, effectively locking him in and hiding him from view. It set Mel's nerves on edge but he ignored it in favor of relishing in the warmth emanating from the other man's body as he wrapped an arm over Mel's shoulders and locked their lips together. Mel shivered as Brad's free hand roamed over his chest, fingers catching on his piercings a little too often to be accidental but Mel didn't care. This was the whole point of dealing with Brad, getting a fancy free meal and getting off, which was why Mel didn't mind Brad's hand wandering a little too far south in the questionable cover of their sitting arrangement. It almost didn't matter that Brad was always pushing his boundaries, back when they first started hooking up Mel had told him that he didn't do kissing. Brad had called him weird for it and acquiesced at first, but during their second hook up he argued that it felt like Mel was using him if they didn't kiss… and Mel couldn't argue with facts so he relented, much to his own displeasure to kiss during their "romantic"outings, because despite keeping his sexuality a shameful secret Brad fancied himself a Casanova.

"There you go, all warmed up." Brad said after pulling away, arm still resting on Mel's shoulders as he signaled a waiter to come take their order. As usual, he ordered for both of them, but then again, Mel usually liked whatever Brad picked for him. Tonight, he'd settled for steak for himself and seared tuna for Mel, paired with red wine for both of them. When the waiter left again Brad turned to appraise Mel's appearance once more. "I'm definitely going to love peeling these clothes off of you when we get back to my place." He mused, kissing Mel softly before biting his lip, pulling a gasped moan from him before letting go as the waiter returned with their wine. "So, what have you been up to?"

Mel told him about his uneventful winter break, accepting the wine glass and taking a couple of sips in between anecdotes of spending Christmas at his aunt's place, gushing about his baby cousin, and Mars' shenanigans with his pets. He didn't think he imagined Brad's grip tightening on his arm at the mention of Mars, but maybe it was just the wine taking his thoughts to odd directions. He was starting to feel slightly light-headed when the food arrived, Mel really should have eaten something between breakfast and now, he was starving. It took him no time to work through his meal, though Brad for his part, seemed intent on making his own last.

"Did you want to try mine?" Brad grinned at him and Mel nodded a little too eagerly. Brad cut up a small cube of his steak and took it between thumb and forefinger. "Open up, doll."

Mel wanted to roll his eyes, again, instead he acted the easily flustered persona he put on for Brad and looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody was looking remotely in their direction. He swallowed whatever pride the wine warming his empty stomach had left him, and parted his lips with his tongue peeking out. Brad placed the meat on his tongue, leaving his fingers a scant centimeter away from Mel's lips waiting for him to swallow before he licked them clean sensually.

"Good boy." Brad's grin never faltered, even as he pulled away entirely from Mel's space and finished the rest of his meal. "Did you like it?" Mel nodded again, afraid of what noise would come out of his mouth as his skinny pants became slightly tighter for literally no reason he could think of other than the wine. Letting men think they were in control only did something for him if he got to put them in their place when the heat of the moment reached its peak. It was not something he had gotten to experience with Brad, to this day he mostly entertained him for being a free meal and an average lay, not because his weak attempts at power play did much of anything at all for Mel's libido. "Good, you can have it next time we come here."

They finished the wine bottle between bitten kisses and heavy petting, falling in their usual rhythm: Brad teasing Mel's body and Mel pretending he didn't want to cringe whenever the other man connected their lips. Feeling the other man's hands gripping, caressing, pinching and scratching any available skin made Mel feel wanted. Mel yelped when he felt Brad's hand over his crotch once more, this time with more intention behind it, something he had never done in public before.

"You're such a little slut." Brad murmured in his ear, "look at you, rock hard just from getting touched a little. Would you come if I pressed harder?" Brad did as he threatened and Mel's hand flew to his mouth to stifle a moan, he nodded desperately and Brad laughed. "Slut, let's get out of here. I'll even let you hold my jacket so you can hide your boner."

He shimmied out of it, carelessly tossed it over a profusely blushing Mel's lap and flagged a waiter for their bill. Ten minutes later they were waiting for the valet to bring Brad's car around and Mel was infinitely more thankful for the chilly winter air this time around. Brad put on music and they made the short drive to Brad's house solely to the sound of it, although for Mel's part it was because he felt a little too drunk as he wondered when was the last time he'd drunk alcohol and realizing it wasn't long enough to be this affected by it, so he blamed it on the empty stomach thing.

The moment the front door closed behind them, Brad was all over Mel and Mel was eager to finally reciprocate, a little too light-headed to truly fight for dominance. Still, Brad held him tightly, moving Mel's body to fit his own intentions rather than allowing Mel to explore on his own. They stumbled into Brad's bedroom and Brad pushed Mel onto his bed, where he started fumbling with his pants as Brad made quick work of removing Mel's boots. Brad stopped him and pinned his wrists above his head, and implicit order in his eyes as he moved on to peel of the shiny material off of Mel's toned legs, reveling the black lace thong tenting over Mel's erection. When Mel was all but naked from the waist down, Brad stepped off the bed to take off his own clothing, making Mel arch his back at the short performance he was given while showing off his own little surprise for the other man. Brad chuckled when he spotted it.

"You really are a fucking slut, huh?" He climbed on top of Mel, gripping his legs from under his knees and folding him in half. Exposed now, the thin string of the thong having slipped to the side, was the tapered end of a plug. "Wearing this our entire date… were you trying to make sure you were nice and ready for me?" Brad asked, tapping the plug after every word. Mel nearly bit his tongue trying to hold his moaning in. "No, I don't think that's it." Brad continued, starting to pull the plug out a bit one second only to push it back in the next. "I think you're just a desperate cockslut that can't handle not having a dick inside you twenty-four-seven, I bet you even wore it at work today." 

He yanked the plug out and Mel yelped, his own dick bouncing as it dribbled clear stickiness through his lace panties and over his lace shirt. Brad flicked his drooling cockhead and Mel whimpered once more, but his dick seemed not to notice even as Brad moved on to bracket Mel's legs to his chest and kissing him. That got Mel to react out of his questionable bliss.