Marco had the word etched in his skin to seal their vow. He thought they’d always be together. Three weeks later Jonny dumped him.Now, after six years, Marco’s finished college and worked his way up to head chef at his family’s popular Mexican restaurant in downtown Chicago. He’s found his calling, and he finally has his life where he wants it. Then Jonny reappears, throwing Marco’s emotions into chaos.Jonny demands a chance to explain. Marco doesn’t want to hear excuses, not from the man who left him without a backward glance. Yet Jonny claims to still love him, and he won’t be denied. Marco wants to believe him, but will the truth be enough to mend the damage Jonny did when he broke Marco’s heart and walked away?~*~This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. Dear Author,He told me it’d be forever, a forever I had permanently inked into my skin. I thought I’d always want the reminder of a love as incredibly perfect as we had together. The passion and our connection was overpowering, but apparently his idea of forever and mine were two different things. Yet, no matter how painful it is I haven’t been able to let go of the memory of him in my heart. I’m trying to live my life again, trying to find a rhythm in a world that doesn’t seem to balance for me anymore. I’ve covered more and more of my body in the tattoos of a life lived, but somehow even though I’ve surrounded it with other images, I can’t quite make myself cover up and paint over that one word.Photo Description: A muscular man sits on his haunches, his lower back and buttocks braced against a stone wall. He’s bare-chested, wearing sports pants and running shoes. His entire left side is covered in tattoos, the most visible one being the word “forever” on his rib cage.This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    He is tired of one night stands and wants to find a real relationship but he has a hard time staying away from the hook-up sites. Because… sex. Larry feels the sting of being rejected automatically because of his race. But he still has a positive attitude and rolls with the punches. He won’t ignore elephants in the room, however; which sometimes leaves people uncomfortable.“Beautiful eyes” is a snarky, young, driven professional who won’t be guilted into making a connection. He isn’t even looking for Mr. Right… but he likes Larry’s open face and broad shoulders and is charmed despite himself. Will “Eyes” give Larry a chance when his friends (or colleagues, family) seem less than enthusiastic? Can he grow up enough to accept a relationship that requires some work and commitment?Can Larry set aside his patter and flirtatiousness enough to let “Eyes” see the sensitive guy hiding?Photo Description: A screenshot of a chat session from an online dating app. The conversation is one-sided, opening with a compliment, then a selfie of a grinning young man with dark skin and a charming smile. His last message begins by announcing his race like a disclaimer: “It’s okay if you’re not into black guys… a lot of people on here aren’t.”This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    They look like best friends, but is there something more between them? Maybe one of them is head over heels and the other one a bit clueless? They would make such a cute couple :)Photo Description: In the photograph, two young men sit closely together. One is smoking, while the other appears to be talking. Their close proximity to one another suggests friendship and intimacy. Behind them, the surroundings look bleak and drab.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    He’s the bravest person I know, and I’d give up everything I hold dear for him. But it was not always that way.Oh, I loved him, but I thought I could survive without him. Worse? He thought so too. I couldn’t see past my selfish needs. I wanted from him what his weak heart couldn’t give me.He’ll be alright now, but there was a moment when he wasn’t, and fate almost took him away from me. It gives me chills just thinking about how close I came to losing him.Photo Description: A man with closely cropped, blond hair and wearing blue scrubs leans over the bed of a patient, who is wearing a hospital gown. The patient has similar hair color and the same cut. The man in scrubs is grasping the hand with the IV and leans over, pressing their foreheads together and holding the patient close with a hand clasped on the nape of his neck just above his hospital gown. The patient mirrors his hold, fingertips brushing the edge of the blue scrubs.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    Will you be strong enough to make them, to see them through? Can you risk your friendship? Can you risk letting your friend know your true feelings? Are you willing to risk anything to keep him safe?Photo Description: Two young men embrace and kiss passionately in a green field, one with a leg kicked out behind him, like he has just run across the field to tackle his friend and kiss him. They look like they are laughing and smiling, happy just to be together.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    City of Love, my ass. Now I’m sitting here in this café near the Eiffel Tower, sipping the cheapest coffee they had on the menu, heartbroken and unsure of my next steps.Without a place to live, no job, not much money left in the bank, and speaking only a little French, I guess it’s time to put my tail between my legs and head back home to Bumfuck, Idaho.Unless…Photo Description: The Eiffel Tower looms in the background as two men kiss in the foreground of the black and white image.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    As a successful chef and co-owner of Best Bites Catering, Travis Reed is happy. He gets to do all the things he loves - live in one of the most beautiful Florida beach towns, cook the food he loves, and hang out with Benny McKenna, his best friend and co-owner of Best Bites. If there is one thing lacking in his life, it is a lover. It couldn’t be Benny, though. Not when Benny made their friend-only status very clear shortly after they both came out. Benny made the decision to keep his relationship with Travis purely in the friend zone back when both men were in college. Now, ten years since he made that decision, he is beginning to waver. Something about the focus Travis gives to his craft makes him jealous, illuminating how lonely he is. A love life punctuated by a series of one-night-stands isn’t especially satisfying. And with Travis acting strangely ever since they moved in together, Benny is unsettled.When a friend asks Benny and Travis to participate in a non-profit dating event for GLBT people in the Tampa Bay, they agree to help out. What they aren’t prepared for is answering a series of increasingly intimate questions, all aimed at making couples fall in love. The idea of falling in love wasn’t on Travis or Benny’s radar, but now they are rethinking their assumptions. Could answering the right question lead to something more than they ever expected?Dear Author,We’ve been friends forever. Best friends in school. Roommates and best friends in college. Partners and best friends in business. He was the first person I told when I realized I was gay. He just said, “Me, too.” Yet somehow, in all those years, through all the ups and downs, we never even thought of being lovers. We were always best friends.Then one day, something changed. What happened? How did we end up here?Photo Description: Two unclothed men stand side-by-side at the railing to a ship, their backs to us, facing the ocean. The man on the left has his arm around the waist of the other and their heads are tipped together affectionately. Both men are similar looking: wide shoulders, shaved heads, shapely butts, and golden skin. The one major difference is their tattoos. The man on the left has two tribal bands across his right bicep and shoulder. The other man has a swirling tribal design that covers most of his back, with smaller designs on his lower back and upper right thigh.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    I live in XXX, or rather in one of the crappy suburbs of XXX. I am and have always been the poor kid, everywhere I go. It’s not my fault I have a few siblings and my parents divorced when I was little. We kids stayed with (either mom or dad) and (the other parent) never paid any support. So it’s been tight. Enough for me to skip my college dream for now in favor of making sure my (younger sibling) has the means and the money to go.When I needed a better job to make ends meet when my (parent) fell ill, my uncle stepped in. He’s one of the maintenance men in this massive building downtown. It has offices in the first ten floors and apartments above. They needed someone to fill in for the maternity leave of one of the “night portiers” as they call the position and I got the job, for now. It’s actually a glorified way of saying “you get to stare at screens all night and sit in the middle of a lobby that’s bigger than your house.”That’s okay, it’s easy money. Or was, until this one guy showed up. He’s one of the people who get to use the special elevator in the back corner. That leads to the top two floors only. Where the city’s richest people live.I’ve no clue where he was, maybe abroad or in rehab or whatever, but since he came back, he’s been hitting on me nonstop. It’s been going on for months, now. Every night I’m on shift. He’s getting frustrated, sure, but I didn’t expect THIS! What the hell is he doing? Doesn’t he know WHO ELSE needs to use the elevator and might walk into the building at any momen while he surfs up and down, doing this… THING! (I refuse to call that striptease, the elevator doesn’t even have music…)He’s hot, but we’re from two very different worlds, and a guy like that is no good for a guy like me.Photo Description: A series of animated .gifs where a handsome, bearded man strips off his clothes in an elevator. At the end of the series, he laughs.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    My father invited him over for Sunday dinner and I couldn’t even talk to him. He was too cute and I, too confused because I didn’t realize I was gay. Now, I’m a college graduate and have my first job. Heaven help me on my first day at work to catch sight of one of the vice presidents of the company. It was him, the man I’ve been dreaming about for nine years.I don’t think he knows I exist. I’m not even in his department. But every night I go to sleep with dreams of him and every morning, wake up harder than I ever had before to thoughts of being with him. I’m afraid he’ll rebuff me if I ask him out or even that I would be fired. I need this job, but after months of this, I’m beginning to think I need him more.Photo Description: A remarkably attractive man with blue eyes and dark hair is dressed in a stylish blue three-piece pinstriped suit. He stares ahead as if thinking of something, or someone, special. His hands are in his pockets, which suggests a casual attitude, but his face has an expression of fierce determination.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    Yup, we’re going to go as members of the Justice League. I’m going as Batman, but I can’t figure out who’s going as a Superman. My friends are being a little cagey. What’s going on? How did I go from not knowing who Superman is to making out with the guy?Photo Description: In a cartoon drawing, Batman and Superman are locked in an embrace, kissing. Superman is taller and clutching Batman to him. Batman has more muscles and has visible tattoos on his arms. Superman has broader shoulders and dark hair. Batman is stretching up to meet him and has one foot kicked behind him. Behind them is a graffiti-covered wall, and Superman’s rainbow-lined cape swirls around them. The prompter specified that the picture is two men in cosplay costumes at a Comic Con convention.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    He thinks he’s too awkward to live, maybe a little too shy and, very much to his frustration, simply ‘all knees and elbows’. A walking disaster zone. Tripping up stairs or running into glass doors, that kinda thing. And he’s got the biggest crush on his roommate’s older brother, Tabby, who seems to be completely out of his league. Not only is Tabby beautiful, he’s also elegant and confident, kindhearted and sort of just ‘perfect’.Tabby knows what he wants out of life, always had, and much to his parents disappointment, he continues pursuing the things that make him happy instead of pleasing them. He lives by mottos such as:‘Choose kindness and laugh often’, and ‘Do small things with great love’.When a tragedy strikes, Tabby realizes that life is more fragile than he ever wanted to admit. While he knows what he wants, Tabby isn’t fearless. The thought of losing his newfound friendship with Harlie terrifies him, but imagining all the wonderful things he’s missing out on, if he keeps chickening out, is even more painful.Perhaps he could talk Harlie into a spontaneous road trip… See if he can overcome his fears?And if fate is kind enough, he might get a chance at something very, very special.* * * Dear Author,My roommate’s brother is visiting again and sleeping on our couch. I tiptoe around and pray I don’t run into anything or cause a clatter that would wake him. All knees and elbows, that’s me— while he’s all strength and grace. Looking at him, I can’t help my wistful sigh. He’s beautiful, but that’s not it. It’s his gentle smiles and kindness. Unlike everyone else, he doesn’t treat me like I’m one stumble away from being declared a walking disaster zone.Unfortunately, he also treats me like a kid brother. He ruffles my hair and calls me ‘kiddo’. I wish I wasn’t so awkward. I wish I was sexy so he’d want me the way I want him. I wish I was the one he dreamed about as he slept on the couch.Photo Description: The photograph shows a black-and-white close-up of the face of a pretty, young man. His eyes are closed, and he appears to be sleeping, content.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    Growing up I saw him constantly, and even throughout college he has been part of my life. Why have I not approached him? Well, he’s my older brother’s best friend. And I think he’s been in love with my brother for as long as I’ve been in love with him. Now, on the day of my brother’s wedding to a woman, my love interest will have to stand by my brother and watch him start a life with someone else. How can my brother not see what he’s going to be losing? What can I do to help my crush?Photo Description: Two men, both dressed in tuxedos, are standing alone around the back of a church. They are kissing and holding each other close. The taller man has his arms wrapped around the smaller man’s waist, while the smaller man is leaning into the kiss and reaching out for his partner.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    But he’s got a surefire plan for severing that nuisance once and for all. If only he’d prepared himself for what the thread leads him to: a drunk man in a wedding dress hugging a toilet. Fate is a funny thing.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. Dear Author,These men are on their wedding night. They are wearing traditional attire according to their social/military/royal/world status. I want to know their story, and why is one of them hiding in a wash chamber. Is that a tattoo on his chest or did his husband brand him during the wedding ceremony? Why is the other so serious? Maybe he doesn’t like all the jewelry?I wonder about their world, time, professions, etc. Did they marry for love, or convenience? Maybe it was arranged, or were they drunk?I want their love to grow, as well as their need for each other. I just want them to be happy, but you can tell their first time together will be passionate. You can see it in their eyes.I’m giving them to you, dear author. Anything and everything will be good for them.Photo Description: In the first picture, a man leans back in an empty, white claw-foot bathtub. He’s wearing a white ruffled skirt with stockings and heavy black boots. His eye makeup is vivid, and he’s holding a cigarette. The second picture is of a man wearing an incredible amount of jewelry and a scowl on his face. He has dramatic cheekbones and a shock of white in his hair. He wears couture fashion.This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    Watching his friend go off with women time and again is slowly killing Tucker, and he has to make the tough decision to move away after graduation from the man he loves to avoid further heartbreak. What Tucker doesn't know is that Cameron has other plans for the two of them...Dear Author,My name is Tucker. See these two, they are Kurt and Blaine from Glee and I am a total Gleek. Their love is so perfect except it isn’t real. It’s just a TV show.My best friend says I should stop obsessing over fictional characters. That maybe if I opened my eyes and looked around I would discover a love of my own. But what does he know? He’s hot and has tons of girls chasing him. He’s totally straight. Or is he?Photo Description: Blaine and Kurt, characters from the television show Glee, are kissing each other.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love Has No Boundaries" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.

    I met the man of my dreams the other day. He had these adorable red curls (and I’m just a sucker for redheads, and curly hair, so put those two together and oh boy, droooooooool) and the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. He’s not gorgeous or anything, in fact, most people would say he was plain. But then, so am I. I don’t even have the smile or the hair, or anything like that.Can you find a way for me to meet him, and maybe even get him to smile at me?Photo Description: I look at this picture and I see baggy, tired eyes, thick brows, some shyness in the pose. I find this man adorable (because yum redheads), but I can see the plainness too. He sits, most of his body in shadow, looking over his freckled shoulder at the camera. There is no smile on his face, and the rest of his body sits at a profile.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.