Dear Author, Look at us. You’d never believe what it took to get us to this moment. I’m older than he is and it just was a HUGE stumbling block. Add in that I’m successful and established and this cub is just getting started, and well, I didn’t give him a chance. I didn’t believe he was ready to commit, thought it was a temporary thing for him. He’s a persistent thing though, and was looking for love. Tell the story of how we got here, together, happy and secure. Photo Description: The photo is a typical candid shot of two men posing for a camera, in a darkened room, perhaps at a party or a bar. They are shirtless, showing off well-maintained “bear”-style physiques—ripped muscles and hairy chests, and faces with stubble. One man is younger, with short dark-brown hair, and the other man is older, with slightly graying hair and stubble. They are both leaning into each other, heads touching. The younger man has his arm around the older man’s waist, and the older man has his arm around shoulders of the younger man. 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.
Author
C. J. Anthony grew up watching soap operas and reading piles of books. She attributes her love of reading and romance to her mother who not only taught her to read but also made countless trips to the library lugging those piles of books home for her to read. It wasn’t a far jump to start writing her own stories, early childhood tales about flower families and travelling to the moon with her best friend. C. J.’s favorite stories to read and write include “opposites attract” pairings—couples who might appear to be an odd couple to the rest of the world, but to each other fit together perfectly, finding their own happy ever after with a little hard work and a whole lot of love. Not surprisingly, C. J. is a big lover of rom coms—she’ll gladly take Julia Roberts standing in front of Hugh Grant asking him to love her, over car crashes and shoot-em up movies any day. She also watches way too much TV and every singing reality show there is. She loves music and musicians of all genres and attending live concerts. She spends most of her time juggling a day job and a commute and freelance design work on the side and falling asleep on her couch, dreaming of a day when she can work all day in her pajamas while living in a house by the beach.
