Falls Creek Lessons

Chapter 3

Stunned, I seared the image into my brain with one long look, before dragging my eyes away.

Chris had staggered to a stop in shock, and Paul almost ran over him before he too realised that they were not alone. With an instinct that seems embedded into the male, they both collapsed into the classical “embarrassed naked male” pose — hands over the groin, knees together and shoulders hunched forward. Paul also half-hid behind Chris. Both faces had gone a bright beetroot red.

Looking away, I saw Dan sitting slack-jawed in amazement. This was not a good way to introduce him to the other two people I was staying with. I felt my face mirror the colour of Chris and Paul’s at the embarrassing situation.

While I tried to think of something to say, anything to say, Dan suddenly smiled and rose to his feet.

“Hi, I’m Dan. I normally offer to shake hands when I meet someone new, but in your case I think I’ll pass. Your hands are better off staying where they are at the moment,” Dan said with a broad smile.

Turning to me, still grinning, he added, “I presume these are the friends of your sister and her boyfriend you mentioned. Care to introduce me?”

Blushing furiously, I waved a hand in the general direction of the other two without looking, “Chris, Paul, this is Dan. Dan, meet Chris and Paul.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Dan said, cheerfully waving a hand, “I hope you don’t mind, but we had better be off. There is a lot of skiing still to be done today.”

Dan headed towards the door, as I finally kicked my body into gear and followed. Just before we left, I heard a voice call out tentatively from behind me.

“Er, enjoy yourselves,” Chris said nervously.

I didn’t know what to say, but Dan seemed to be on top of the situation, as he quickly fired back a response with a quick glance over his shoulder.

“Thanks! I don’t think I need tell you to do the same. You seem to have that well under control yourselves,” Dan quipped.

As we put on our boots and walked outside, I struggled to work out what to say. Dan seemed to be taking it in his stride, but I was shaken and confused. With a confidence and insight that I was beginning to admire, Dan seemed to sense what I was feeling.

“Relax, man. They’re not the first gay guys I’ve met, and I doubt they’ll be the last. It’s no big deal,” he said, obviously trying to put me at ease. “They are gay, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they are,” I answered, relieved, “I just didn’t expect them to be in the lodge at this time of day, let alone doing anything.”

“No problems, mate. They obviously didn’t expect you to be coming back to the lodge either,” he said, as he put his skis on. With the ease of endless practise, he was finished and waiting for me while I was still sorting out my skis. By the time I finished, I looked up to find him eyeing me speculatively.

For a moment I was puzzled, but then it dawned on me. He was probably wondering if I was gay as well! Panicking, I quickly tried to hose down any thoughts he was having on that topic.

“I only met them for the first time last night,” I quickly stated, “and I only found out they were gay when we were in the car. I could have killed my sister for setting me up like that! Luckily there’s enough space in the main room for me to sleep there and I don’t have to share a room with them,” I finished in a rush.

Dan laughed, “Take it easy, Greg! For the record there is at least one gay towie up here that I know of, and I’m cool with him, so I’m not offended by your friends. Let’s just put this aside for now and enjoy the skiing. We’re heading back to the Eagle chairlift so I can take you to the other side of the mountain,” he finished, adroitly changing the topic.

Relieved that he seemed happy to drop the subject, I slowly calmed down. Now that the initial shock had worn off, I was ready to strangle Chris and Paul for what they did, but as it didn’t seem to have caused any problems, I thought I’d let it slide.

And I had some wonderful memories of Paul’s body to recall the next time I wanted to indulge in some self-gratification!

Yeah, I think I can forgive them.

After a shaky start, Dan’s ski lesson ended up being a lot of fun. He took me over the back of the mountain and to a slightly steeper run known as the Playground. It was also a lot wider and longer than the Nursery, which gave me plenty of room to practise in.

It was there that I learnt what was probably the most important lesson about skiing — if you can, don’t do it on weekends! Rob told me that we were better off going to Falls Creek instead of Mt. Buller because there would be fewer people. With the length of the lines for the lifts that I experienced that afternoon, I certainly wouldn’t be in a hurry to find out what Mr. Buller was like.

On the plus side, after spending the time coming down the slope teaching me the basics of skiing, Dan and I spent the time in the lines chatting about other things. When he’s not working at the snow, he lives at home with his parents in Heidelberg, in the old Olympic village. It seems that many of the houses that formed the athlete’s village for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne still exist and are being lived in today.

His dad owns and runs a garage in the northern suburbs, and Dan works there as a motor mechanic when he’s at home. He enjoys working in the snowfields, but working for his dad was a chore to be endured. His heart just wasn’t in it.

While we had different major tastes in music, we did find common ground in the classic rock and pop genres. We ended up spending most of the afternoon waiting time discussing the various merits of Dire Straits, Men at Work, Cold Chisel and U2. We also had a lot of fun arguing about whether the current hit cover of Killing Me Softly was better or worse than the original.

After practising and chatting for an hour or so, Dan told me it was time for a bit of speed. I immediately became nervous, as I didn’t think I had enough control yet. However, trusting that he wouldn’t push further than I was capable of, we set off.

I was pleasantly surprised! It seems that besides the runs with the ski lifts, there were a set of trails leading back down to the village. These were different in nature to the main ski runs. Designed to allow the skiers to return to the village at the end of the day, they were easy runs where all you had to do was to let the skis go straight with the occasional gentle turn.

After one crash — those stupid pieces of equipment called skis decided they didn’t want to run side by side, but wanted to mate instead — Dan told me that there were other home trails that were more challenging, but this was the main, and easiest, run back to the village. It also ran down to one of the main chairlifts back up the mountain, which is where he was taking me. On a couple of the straighter sections he also showed me the racing tuck. I don’t know what I was doing wrong, but regardless of what I did, he always went faster than I did. It was fun, though!

I also finally saw Cloud Nine that the others had mentioned that morning. The chairlift at the bottom of the home trail took us right up to the building. Dan and I took a quick stop there for a cup of hot chocolate and a toilet break before heading down for another run down the home trails. The place was quite amazing! Here, at the top of the mountain, in the middle of nowhere — at least that’s the way it felt — was this large, well-provisioned restaurant. Dan told me that the chairlift was the main method of supply for the place. One night earlier in the season, the Ski School held their annual ball here at the top of the mountain. They used the oversnow machines to transport everyone back and forth. The idea of a black tie affair in the middle of the snowfields somehow appealed to me. It was something to think about for next year.

It was just as the last lifts were shutting down that Dan finally took me down the home trails back to the village and our lodge. After making plans for him to come and get me later on that night and waving goodbye as he skied off, I turned to enter the lodge.

To my surprise, Chris was just coming out. Dressed in his ski jacket, jeans and hiking boots, he was obviously not going out skiing.

“Hi, Greg. I’m just off to the shop for a couple of things for breakfast tomorrow. Do you want me to get you anything?” he asked. He seemed a bit tense.

Reflecting that he’s probably worried about Dan and me interrupting him and Paul earlier in the day, I thought about whether or not I should make him squirm. Deciding that my delay in responding was probably causing him enough stress for revenge, I let a grin cross my face.

“No, I’m fine. Thanks anyway, Chris. Oh, and sorry for messing up your romantic afternoon too. I didn’t mean to.”

A visible wave of relief crossed his face, “Thank, Greg. We should’ve been a bit more careful.” With a glance at the lodge behind him, he instinctively lowered his voice, even though no one would be able to hear us anyway. “Look, can you not mention it to Rob and Diane? It’s a bit embarrassing.”

“Sure, Chris! Just remember you owe me one,” I answered, as I gave him a mock punch to his upper arm.

As he headed off, I turned and entered the lodge. Whether it was because skiing was fun, when I wasn’t falling over, or just that I had a pleasant afternoon with good company, but I was in a really good mood. As I stripped off my jacket and put it away with my boots in the drying room next to the entrance, I was keen to continue the good times into the night and the rest of the weekend.

So it was a bit of a shock when I was ambushed as I entered the main room.

“Where have you been?” Diane almost shrieked at me, “The last lift was closed almost half an hour ago! I was just about to send Rob to the ski patrol to start a search party!”

Paul, who was stretched out on one of the couches, was looking at me nervously while Diane was doing her tirade. Knowing what was concerning him, I flashed him a grin and wink as I ignored my sister.

“Hi, Paul! How was the skiing?” I asked nonchalantly.

“Don’t you dare ignore me!” Diane screamed, grabbing me by the arm as I started to walk to the kitchen.

“I’m not ignoring you,” I lied, “I’m just waiting for you to calm down.”

Rob chose that moment to step out of their bedroom. The look of relief he showed when he saw me standing there was palatable. It looked like he had been getting ready to go out, as he immediately stripped off the jumper he had on.

“Hi, Rob! Did you have fun today?” I asked cheerfully, knowing it was going to infuriate my sister. How many hints does she need to begin to understand that she is not my mother?

With a strength that took me by surprise, Diane wrenched me around to look at her. Looking at point blank range into her eyes, I started to feel guilty. She was angry, true, but it was out of concern for me. Maybe I needed to settle her down a little.

“Where have you been, Greg? I was worried sick about you!” Diane said, forcibly. At least that was a step down from screaming.

“Dan and I were having such a good time that we caught the last lift back up to Cloud Nine. It just took me a bit of time to come back down the mountain after that. I am a beginner, after all,” I reminded her. Actually, we had caught the lift after the last lift because Dan sweet talked the girls operating it into letting us go up anyway. It helps to be skiing with one of the locals! All he had to do was to promise to tell the operators at the top that we were the last passengers.

Slightly mollified, she released me. As she gave me the once-over, I grinned happily at her. I wasn’t quite as content as I was before I came inside, but I knew I could still show her that I had had a good time and that there was nothing to be concerned about.

“So, where did you ski?” Rob asked, curiosity shining through clearly.

Glad of the distraction, I dropped into one of the chairs and looked over to where Rob was standing.

“He took me over the Playground and then we did a few runs down the Wombat’s Ramble. We raced a couple of times down there, but naturally he always won. He’s just that much more experienced,” I remarked.

Paul sniggered. As I raised an eyebrow at him, he explained.

“Nothing to do with experience, Greg. He’s probably got longer skis that you. In a straight run, longer skis go faster than shorter skis, but they are also a bit harder to turn in. That’s why they always give shorter skis to the beginners.”

“The bastard!” I exclaimed, “Lucky I refused to take the bet that he offered me.”

Paul grinned at me. “What was the bet?”

“Double or nothing on the drinks I owe him tonight,” I replied, as I got out of the chair and knelt down on the floor to sort through my bag for a change of clothes. I had just realised that the ones I had on were beginning to smell.

“Drinks?” Paul asked, puzzled.

Pausing in my search, I sat back on my heels and thought for a moment. I then realised that Paul didn’t know about the payment schedule for the lesson.

“Dan was charging me two beers an hour for skiing lessons. We skied for three and a half hours, so I owe him seven beers. He was trying to make it fourteen!” I responded, indignantly, as I returned to my search for clean clothes. “I’m tempted to buy them for him anyway and see if he’s capable of getting back to his lodge by himself.”

Rob interrupted, “Don’t joke about things like that, Greg. I know you’re not serious, but I know of at least two deaths up here because some drunk wandered off during the night and froze to death. If you’re binge drinking, always make sure you’re part of a group.”

Pausing yet again in my search, I looked up at Rob to see if he was serious or not. A glance around the room showed Paul echoing the concerned look that Rob was giving me. Diane was looking at Rob and seemed as startled as I felt.

“When was this?” Diane asked.

Rob grimaced, “I’m aware of a few deaths up here, but I can’t remember all of them. I know several were blamed on alcohol, but I’m only certain of the two I mentioned. They were both several years ago, but the problem still remains. The biggest time of risk is when it’s snowing heavily, as it can be so easy to get lost in a whiteout.”

On that sombre note, the conversation died for a few minutes. Grabbing some clean clothes, I retreated to the shower to freshen up.

When I returned, Chris was back and there was a lively debate about what to do for dinner. Paul and Rob were suggesting we go to the Falls Creek Hotel for a sit-down dinner and a couple of bottles of wine. Surprisingly, Diane was firmly against the idea. I would have expected her to go for it, as she loves that sort of thing. I don’t know what Chris likes, but the way he was supporting Diane seemed to surprise Paul. Even stranger was the fact that Diane and Chris didn’t seem to be putting forward any ideas of their own. They were merely shooting down the suggestions from the other two.

When they finally noticed me, I found myself the centre of four pairs of eyes.

“Greg, it looks like you get to cast the deciding vote,” Rob stated firmly, glaring daggers at Diane. “Where are we going for dinner?”

As I paused to consider my answer, Diane and Chris seemed quite anxious. Chris dropped back behind the others and started miming something where the others couldn’t see. As I struggled to work out what he was trying signal, without making it obvious who I was looking at, I tried a delaying tactic.

“What are the options again?” I asked Rob.

While I ignored the answer, I watched Chris point to Rob with one hand and Diane with the other, before bringing his hands together and moving them off to the side. After a couple of repetitions, I finally worked it out. Diane and Chris had somehow organized for her and Rob to go off together for dinner and they were trying to keep it as a surprise for Rob.

“Well, what do you think?” Rob finally asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t really know.” As Rob raised his hands to throttle me in exasperation, I added, “Why don’t we wait and ask Dan’s opinion? I hope you don’t mind, but I told him he can join us for dinner.”

Rob spun around in disgust and stormed off to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. As Paul started to question his boyfriend, Chris grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to their room, leaving me alone with my sister.

With a smile, I asked her quietly, “So where are you and Rob going?”

Startled, she quickly looked across at the door to their bedroom. Lowering her voice, she leant forward and asked, “How did you know?”

“Chris pantomimed it behind all your backs while Rob was explaining the options. I think he’s explaining it to Paul now, so that leaves Rob as the only one in the dark.”

She smiled and then stepped forward and gave me a hug. “Thanks, Greg. I want Rob to have a special night, and the surprise is going to be part of it. Chris organised it while he was out shopping.”

“So where are you going and how long before you tell Rob?”

“There’s an upmarket lodge called the Astra. I would’ve liked to surprise him when I get there, but I can’t work out how to do that, so I’m going to tell him just before we go out.”

She pulled her head back to look at me without letting go and frowned slightly. “You’ll be okay with going to dinner with just Paul and Chris?”

“And Dan,” I reminded her. “I’ll be fine. Paul and Chris are cool, at least most of the time. Dan’s a nice guy too, so don’t worry about me.” I reassured her.

Still frowning at me, she started to chew her lower lip. I could tell she wanted to say or ask something, but wasn’t sure if she should.

“Spit it out,” I said gently. “What is it that you want to say?”

Sighing, she let go of me and turned side on to me. She didn’t move away, but it was clear she didn’t want any eye contact.

“I suppose I just don’t know this Dan guy you’ve met. I know you haven’t had a good trip so far, and I don’t like someone I don’t know coming in and possibly making it worse.”

I laughed gently. Turning her around so she was looking at me again, I said “Sis, I had a really good day today. If I have another good day tomorrow, you can accept the blame for getting me addicted on skiing. I had a lot of fun and I may have made a new friend. I’m happy with how things are going. Don’t worry about it.”

Thinking for a moment, I had an idea to help her out and show her what sort of person Dan was at the same time.

Lowering my voice to make sure I wouldn’t be accidentally overheard by Rob, I asked, “How about we let Dan choose where we go to dinner? If I get a chance to speak to him privately for a moment, I’ll get him to pick a place near the Astra. We can then all go out and when we get there, you can tell Rob about your dinner plans. The rest of us can then make our real dinner plans. What do you think?”

Diane’s face lit up. That earned me another big sister hug, which was accompanied by a whispered, “Thank you.”

“If you can take Rob into the bedroom for a couple of minutes when Dan gets here, I’ll take care of the rest,” I suggested. “I hope you two have a great evening. You both deserve it!”

Though she drives me to distraction sometimes with the way she likes to organise things, I do love my big sister. She has her flaws, but she’s never been malicious. I can’t believe it, but maybe the sleeping arrangements had just slipped her mind. For the moment, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

When Dan arrived, everyone was waiting in the main room. Rob was over his snit about the dinner arrangements and had reluctantly agreed to let Dan choose the place, though he reserved the right to object if he had heard bad things about it.

At the knock on the door, I shot up to answer it. Carefully closing the door to the main room behind me first, I opened the outside door.

“G’day, Greg!” Dan said cheerfully, as he stepped inside and took off his ski jacket.

With one eye to the inside door, I rushed my reply, “Hi, Dan. A couple of quick things before you meet the rest. Rob and my sister don’t know about the incident this afternoon, so can you keep that quiet? We’re also trying to organize a surprise dinner for Rob. I’ll fill you in when we get a chance.”

As Dan took off his boots, he looked at my quizzically. “You like life complicated, don’t you, Greg,” he remarked.

I shrugged. Normally, no, but sometimes it makes things fun.

Preceding Dan into the main room, I was a little surprised to see everyone watching expectantly. Pausing slightly before continuing in, I realised that none of them had a chance to say much to Dan before and were interested in who he really was.

Stepping back and taking a dispassionate view, I had to say that he gave a good first impression. He was wearing a good quality denim jacket over black T-shirt and black jeans. The clothes gave an impression of smartly dressed without being over the top. It wouldn’t be out of place at any bar in Melbourne. The only thing that looked unusual was the green Maori tiki he wore on a leather throng around his neck. It was certainly striking against the plain shirt and it matched the colour of his eyes almost perfectly. I’d seen bone examples, made for the tourist trade, before but this one looked like a genuine greenstone tiki.

What was also immediately obvious was that he exuded a cheerful confidence that seemed to imply that he could fall into any situation and survive.

“Hi, Chris, Paul. Good to see you again!” he said, as he waved a hand in their direction. Paul gave a half-hearted, “Hi”, while Chris just waved a hand in Dan’s direction. Both looked very nervous. I could understand that. They didn’t know if Dan was going to say anything about the afternoon’s shenanigans.

Turning slightly towards the other two, Dan extended his hand as he walked over to them “That makes you two, Rob and Diane. Pleased to meet you.”

“G’day, Dan,” Rob said with a smile as he shook Dan’s hand. “Thanks for looking after Greg for the afternoon.”

I bristled. There he goes again, implying that I need someone to watch over me. How long is going to take for him to accept that I’m an adult now?

When Diane shook his hand, she glanced across at the other guys before turning back to Dan with a quizzical look.

“Hi, Dan. When did you meet Chris and Paul?” she asked.

I could see the guys start to go red, before they turned away, as if in a private conversation. They both looked rather tense.

“Oh, we ran into them while we were on our lesson,” Dan replied, affably. As Chris and Paul visibly relaxed, he added cheerfully “If anything, we saw a bit too much of them.”

I had to turn away and head into the kitchen at that. If I had stayed there, Rob and Diane would have seen me struggling to keep from laughing. Chris had gone an even brighter shade of red, while Paul’s jaw had dropped open before he relaxed and settled his face into a grin. They had their back to Rob and Diane, but I could see them clearly. I don’t think Dan will have any trouble holding his own against those two. It looked like Paul had already decided that he liked Dan’s sense of humour, though I’m not sure what Chris was thinking.

“Really!” Diane exclaimed, “I wouldn’t have expected them to be on the same runs as Greg.”

“It was on one of the home trails,” Dan explained, as Paul came over to join them. He seemed to have gotten himself under control, but Chris was still bright red with embarrassment.

“Now you have to admit that we were there first,” Paul interjected.

“I’ll concede that,” Dan admitted, “and I’ll even concede it was the surprise at seeing us that made you almost run into Chris.”

I could see Chris trying to sink into the ground as Paul and Dan sparred with their innuendo, while trying to avoid giving the game away to Rob and Diane.

“What were you doing on the home trails?” Rob asked, curious.

“I wanted to give the Village a go,” Paul replied nonchalantly.

“The Village is usually pretty difficult,” Dan pointed out with a grin. “Did you find it hard?”

At that, Chris joined me in the kitchen. He just wanted to hide. I was busy biting my lip to stop me from bursting out with laughter.

“Yeah, it was hard,” Paul agreed, “So I only did that ride once. It was pretty bumpy. After that we headed back to Ruined Castle for the rest of the afternoon.”

As Dan continued to exchange pleasantries with Paul, Rob and Diane, though with a considerable reduction in the innuendo level, I put the kettle on. A strong cup of coffee should help set me up for a heavy night of drinking. Throwing a questioning glance across to Chris, he nodded with an almost palatable sign of relief at the change of topic.

“Thanks, Greg. Can I have a cup of coffee?” he asked.

At that, I was inundated with orders. Shrugging philosophically, I started to make cups of tea and coffee as requested. At least it diverted the conversation away from what Chris and Paul had been up to during the afternoon.

Noticing Diane dragging Rob into their room, I caught Dan’s eye and waved him over and Paul followed him. With all four of us in the kitchen, I explained the situation.

“Dan, Diane has organised a surprise dinner for Rob. Rob thinks we’re going to ask you to pick a place for dinner. What we’d like you to do is to pick a place that requires us to walk past the Astra. That’s when we’ll tell Rob and drop the two of them off. After we have done that, we can decide where we really want to go for dinner.”

I paused to see how Dan was reacting. Instead of his usual grin, he had a thoughtful look on his face and his eyes seemed a bit unfocused. He seemed to be thinking. As a slow smile crept across his face, he looked across at me.

“I know just the place. We may even go there anyway, but we’ll see about that afterwards,” he said.

When Rob and Diane came out of the bedroom, both of them had gotten changed. If I didn’t know what Diane had planned, I would’ve said that they were trying to go one better than Dan in the dressing stakes. They were both dressed at the upper end of “smart casual”. I think Diane had ordered Rob into his clothes, as he didn’t look particularly comfortable in them.

Handing them their drinks, I mentioned that I had explained to Dan about making a recommendation for dinner.

“The Silver Ski has a new chef that is supposed to be excellent. I’ve been dying to give it a go, but just haven’t had a chance,” Dan piped up, on cue. “It’s quite reasonably priced, at least for a sit-down meal. If you want something cheaper, it’ll probably be pizza at the Man.”

With quick agreements from Chris, Paul and myself, Rob was very much left without a choice. After watching him struggle for a few seconds to find an objection, he eventually gave in and agreed with the rest of us.

Shortly afterwards, we were all trampling up the hill to where the Silver Ski, and the Astra, were located. Dan and Paul lead the way, but I noticed Chris dropped back to where Rob and Diane brought up the rear when Dan started to question Paul on the details of his “hard ride on the Village”. At least Chris’ red face could be blamed on the cold air. I decided to hang just behind the leaders and enjoy the conversation. I don’t think there was any doubt left, as to whether or not Dan is comfortable with gay guys.

As we walked along, I made a conscious decision to try to cultivate Dan as a friend. When, and if, I eventually came out of the closet, I’m going to need as many friends as I can get. Dan looks like someone who I will be able to depend upon if I eventually found myself crossing that bridge.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves outside the Astra. Without making it too obvious what they were doing, Dan and Paul has stopped walking while still continuing to chat.

As the other three joined us, Dan shot me a questioning glance. As I didn’t know the answer, I fired the same glance at Diane, who looked nervously around. With a sigh, I realised she didn’t know how to tell Rob, so I decided to do it for her.

“Okay, Rob. It’s been nice knowing you. If you’re ever in the same neck of the woods again, please feel free to say hello.”

Rob looked at me, perplexed. As his brain tried to turn that into something sensible, I smiled at him.

“Apparently, my sister has made other plans. This is where the two of you get off and have a nice romantic dinner for two. Now get going before the rest of us decide to be sick at how soppy this is,” I said, pushing him gently towards the lodge.

As Rob started looking around wildly, as if he couldn’t understand what was going on, Chris smiled and said, “Go, you stupid idiot. It’s time for you two to have some quality time together.”

With a look of radiant joy on his face, Rob slipped his arm around Diane’s waist and walked her up to the door. With one last grateful glance back at the rest of us, they entered the lodge.

Paul looked at Chris, “Two down, two to go. What was the plan for dumping these two guys again?”

Before Chris could respond, Dan jumped in, “If you start taking your clothes off, I’m out of here. I’ve seen enough for one day, thank you very much!”

With a laugh, I asked, “Before we get sidetracked, where are we really going for dinner?”

Dan answered, “I was thinking we could have a pre-dinner drink at Christies before we work that out. Have any of you been there before?”

At the chorus of No’s that echoed back, he grinned, “Good, then that’s settled. Let’s go.”

Christies wasn’t far away. A cocktail bar hidden at the back of one of the lodges, it was pretty quiet when we arrived. The decor was what I would call “60’s American Diner”. Not your typical cocktail bar decor, but the menu board behind the counter revealed that it doubled as a place for milkshakes and hot drinks during the day. I was a little surprised at that, as I wouldn’t have thought milkshakes would be that popular in a ski resort, but it was obviously surviving so there had to be some demand.

Dan settled us into a corner booth where we all looked at the menu that adorned each of the tables.

“If you haven’t been here before, I was going to suggest the Virgin’s Delight. It is really, really good. I’m sure you’ll all enjoy it,” Dan offered.

Looking at the description in the menu, I didn’t see any problems, so I agreed. The others did as well, so it was quickly settled and Dan headed off to order the drinks.

I noticed Paul looking after him with a frown.

“What’s wrong, Paul?” I asked.

Dragging his attention back to the table, he started chewing his lower lip. Staring at me for a long second, he sighed.

“It’s nothing, Greg. Just some old memories playing tricks on me.”

Chris looked concerned at this and reached over the table to grab Paul’s hand. Paul quickly shook it off and gave a quick glance around the room to see if anyone noticed.

I was surprise at that, and was wondering what was wrong with Paul, when Chris apologised!

“Sorry, Paul. I was just worried, that’s all.” Chris said, quietly.

Seeing my perplexed look, Chris explained in a soft voice, “Paul doesn’t like many public displays of affection. It’s different when there are only friends around, but in a strange place it makes him nervous.”

Thinking about it, I suspected that it had something to do with when Paul was attacked. It must be very painful for both of them. Chris seems more relaxed about it, but not being able to publicly show how much you love someone must make both of them tense. I know it would for me. Well that’s something I don’t have to worry about, at least. The way I’m going, the chance of me ever finding someone to fall in love with seems to get more remote with each passing day.

When Dan slipped into the seat next to me in the booth, the general sombre mood evaporated and we started to plan our evening.

“There are really only two significant nightspots up here; the Frying Pan and the Man. I was going to recommend the Man for after dinner. There is a wet T-shirt competition on tonight!” Dan remarked, enthusiastically.

“Chris and Paul won’t really enjoy that,” I pointed out, neglecting to mention that I wouldn’t either, though I’d fake it if I had to.

Dan frowned, “I’m not sure, but they usually have a wet jocks competition beforehand for the girls. If we showed up early, Chris and Paul could watch that.” Pausing, he smiled at the gay couple, “From what we saw this afternoon, they could probably enter too, if they wanted, but I don’t think that would be fair to the girls who’ll be judging it.”

Now that sounds more exciting! I know what I’m voting on doing tonight. I just need to work out how to get everyone else to agree without making it obvious. Hopefully we’ll just have a general consensus without much discussion.

The decision making process was interrupted by the arrival of our drinks.

Paul and Chris sat, stunned, as they looked at the drinks the waiter placed in front of them, before Paul smiled and remarked to Chris, “I think I’ve found a new favourite drink. We’re going to have to learn to make these at home.”

Dan was sitting there with a grin from ear to ear, as I just stared at the drink in front of me, gob-smacked.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?” I eventually exclaimed, never taking my eyes off the garnish on top of the drink.

The drink was called a Virgin’s Delight, but it never occurred to me what that would mean. It was the decoration that threw me. I had been expecting nothing, or maybe one of those little cocktail umbrellas.

I was sadly mistaken.

They had taken a banana and used toothpicks to attach two pink marshmallows next to each other on one side of one end. The banana was then placed on top of the glass so the other end curved upward, using the toothpicks to hold it in its upright position. Whipped cream was then placed around the base of the banana, leaving the two pink marshmallows exposed on the underside of the banana. They had sprinkled fine chocolate flakes on top of the whipped cream on the other side. To finish it off, there was small trickle of thickened cream on the tip of the upright end, to which they had added just a touch of desiccated coconut.

The whole image would definitely be a delight to any virgin… and any gay guy!

My problem was that I didn’t want anyone to know I was gay.

Still open-mouthed in astonishment, I looked across the table at Chris and Paul.

“Well, Greg, there are a number of techniques you can use,” Paul started to explain while trying to keep himself from laughing. “If you know the banana well, you can start by licking the cream off the end. Then…”

I raised a hand quickly, “Too much information!”

Turning to Dan, I gave him a furious stare, which he happily ignored.

“How are you going to eat it?” I demanded.

“Well,” Dan started slowly, “Some of the girls like to lick the chocolate off the cream first. They call it shaving the banana. However, others…”

“AAAAHHHHH,” I called out, raising my eyes and clenched hands to the ceiling. Everyone was out to get me!

As the others started to laugh, I looked at my drink again. I could tell that Dan was going to wait until I started before he showed me the correct way for a straight guy to handle this. As I wondered what to do, I suspected that the answer was for the straight guy not to order it in the first place!

Gingerly picking up the banana using my thumb and forefinger, I lifted the garnish from the top of the drink and placed it on the table besides the glass. It made a mess, but there was no way I was going to try to eat it in public. I then picked up the drink and took a sip. The drink itself wasn’t too bad, but I don’t think I’d be asking for it again. The stress would just be too much for me.

Dan pouted, “Ah, Greg. You’re no fun!”

Refusing to rise to the bait, I just stared at him over the top of my glass as I slowly sipped the cocktail. Let’s see what he does!

Smiling at me, he broke the banana in half and ate the top half. There weren’t any sexual connotations when he did it that way. Paul and Chris, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to out-do each other with how much sexual innuendo they could put into eating theirs. It was only when Chris caught my glare from across the table that they remembered where they were and whom they were with.

“Um, Paul? I don’t think our present company needs to know all our secrets. Perhaps we should cool it a bit?” Chris said.

Paul went bright red at that. Flashing me a sheepish grin, he apologised, “Sorry, Greg, Dan. We just got carried away.”

Damn him for having such as cute grin! How can I stay annoyed when he does that to me?

“No problems, mate,” Dan replied with a smile, “After all, I started it when I ordered the drinks. They normally only put the bananas on the drinks for the girls, but I asked them to do it for all our drinks. I thought you’d appreciate it.”

“Oh, we did!” Chris exclaimed, “Possibly a bit too much.”

“I didn’t need to know that!” I said, tensely. Needing a quick change of topic, I added, “Now what are we doing about dinner?”

With my subtle attempt to divert the conversation into safer waters apparently successful, we continued to plan what we would be doing. Without too much discussion, we all agreed to go to the Man after dinner for the wet T-shirt and wet jock competitions. As they were not scheduled to start for some time, we decided to go to the Silver Ski as originally suggested by Dan.

I also got a pleasant surprise when it came to pay the bill. Dan said that he’d be happy to pay for his drink, or I could pay it and count it towards three of the beers I owed him. Re-checking that I hadn’t misread the price of the cocktail, I quickly accepted. He was being generous, as the price was certainly less than the cost of three beers.

Dinner was a very pleasant affair. The food was good and plentiful, and the service was unobtrusive. By unspoken agreement, the conversation was kept light-hearted. Reverting to my more normal quiet mode, I let Chris and Dan steer the conversation. As that looked like the normal behaviour for both of them, it kept the talk moving along with very few awkward silences.

It turned out that Dan barracks for the St. Kilda football club, which immediately put him in Chris’ good books. It also made for fun, as Dan would switch sides between supporting Chris when it came to football, and Paul when it came to the blue-collar versus white-collar worker arguments.

“So, what’s the significance of that thing you wear around your neck?” Paul asked Dan at one point.

The pride with which Dan answered was clear, as he straightened his back and squared off his shoulders.

“It’s a genuine Maori tiki. My great-great-grandfather made it and it’s been in the family ever since.”

“You’re a Kiwi?” Chris asked in surprise. “You don’t have an accent and you don’t look like a Maori.”

Dan shrugged his shoulders as he slumped back into a more relaxed posture. “Technically, I’m not a New Zealander. I was born and raised here in Australia, but my parents are both from New Zealand. As for Maori blood, I think I barely qualify. To the best of my knowledge, I’m only one-sixteenth Maori. This tiki has been handed down to the eldest son since my great-great-grandfather made it. If I don’t have a son, it’ll be sent back to New Zealand to go to one of my cousins. As I understand it, I’m the custodian of it while I live, until I’m ready to pass it on.”

Leaning forward, he continued in lowered voice, “It was apparently made in the slopes of the active volcano Mt. Raupehu and should be taken back there on regular occasions, or it loses its mystical powers.”

Straightening up, he smiled and added, “At least that’s my excuse for going back to the Whakapapa ski fields every few years.”

I stared for a second, before asking, “Fuck-a-what?”

Laughing, he said, “Whakapapa. That’s spelt W-H-A-K-A-P-A-P-A. In Maori, W-H is pronounced like an F, so…” and he let his voice taper off.

That diverted the conversation off into the merits of skiing in New Zealand. Paul had been skiing at the resorts around Queenstown, but hadn’t tried anywhere else. Dan had skied in quite a few places in New Zealand, but I didn’t recognise any of the names. Chris seemed to know most of the places, even if he had never been to any of them.

After dinner was finished, we trudged through the slush on the roads on the way to the Man. Situated near the bottom of the village, we saw several other groups converging on the same building. There was also a noticeable level of noise coming from there. It was definitely not a quiet little corner of the world!

We were half way down the path to the entrance, when I stopped and looked down at the ground. While everywhere else was either snow or slush covered, the concrete path was clear. There was water on it, but no snow or ice.

“The path is heated,” Dan explained when he saw what I was looking at. “They have enough traffic along here that the heating costs are more than offset by the savings in insurance from injuries caused by slipping on ice.”

It made sense once it was explained. Like most things in life, once they are explained you can understand why something has been done a particular way. If only understanding other people was that simple.

Entering the Man, we were hit by an almost physical wave of noise. After the quiet of the alpine night, the busy sound of a large crowd of young people enjoying themselves was stunning by contrast.

Checking our jackets in at the door, we worked our way towards the bar. It was time to get into some serious drinking, especially as I would be buying most of them.

We were two drinks into our drinking spree and I was enjoying the music that was being piped through the room, when an announcement was made, asking for contestants for the wet jocks competition.

“Why don’t you enter, Greg?” Dan asked. As I hesitated, he added, “The prize is a set of new skis. You’ll be able to use them the next time you come up, rather than hiring them. They’re worth over a couple of hundred dollars, so it’s not a small prize.”

If I was sober, the answer would have been an easy “No,” but I was feeling really relaxed. I wasn’t drunk, but my natural shyness was being gently eroded.

As I thought about the idea, I looked over at Chris and Paul.

“What about you guys?” I asked, stalling for time.

Paul looked a little worried, which was understandable, but Chris seemed quite cheerful.

“As Dan said earlier, it really wouldn’t be fair on the judges. Besides, I was looking forward to watching all the cute guys,” Chris replied with a leer.

As quick as he said that, his expression changed to one of contriteness.

“Sorry, Greg. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I wasn’t trying to imply anything by it.”

I waved off his apology. “I know you were only joking, Chris. You wouldn’t be trying anything, or Paul would cut your balls off,” I said with a grin.

Glancing across at Paul, I saw that he was forcing a smile on his face, but his heart really wasn’t in it. It seems that he may be just a touch jealous and doesn’t want his boyfriend looking at other guys.

Turning to Dan, I asked, “Are you going in it?”

“Nah,” he replied with a shrug, “I’m not allowed to. They like to keep the number of locals entering these things down, as it’s mainly for the guests, not the workers. I entered one earlier in the season, and that’s it for me.”

Placing my hands on my hips, I stared at Dan.

“So you want me to get up there by myself. Strip down to my jocks and parade around in front of everyone,” I said flatly.

He shrugged. “You have a chance to win a new set of skis, and you’ll be showing all the girls what you have to offer. What’s the harm, and think of all the potential pluses that can come out of it!”

It wasn’t the girls that I wanted to attract, but I can’t really tell him that. While I suspect that any gay guys at Falls Creek will probably be here tonight as well, I don’t think this is the best way to pick one up. Not that I could anyway, even if I wanted to, given the company I’m keeping.

But, you never know what may eventuate. Staring across the room, I saw a handful of other guys lining up to enter, so I won’t be the only one doing this. Squashing my fears and inhibitions below a layer of alcohol-induced complacency, I nodded my head.

“Okay, I’ll give it a go.”

Things moved quickly then. I don’t know if it was to ensure that I didn’t have a chance to reconsider or not, but before I knew it, I was signed up for the competition and given a pair of soaking wet jocks with the Man logo on them. At least they used warm water.

I was directed to a door to change behind. Dan escorted me through it and we found ourselves outside under a small awning, along with a couple of the other contestants, who were beginning to strip.

“Okay, Greg,” Dan started, as I began to undress. “All you have to do is to get on stage, smile and flex some muscles. Don’t try to overact, just be yourself.”

As the cold started to penetrate to my alcohol-fuelled brain, I began to have second thoughts about this. One of the other contestants pushed past us to go back inside as my undressing slowed down.

Not noticing, Dan leant forward and lowered his voice. “Now, in this contest, despite what a lot of people say, size is important. They make the guys undress out here to try to keep things under control, but once you’re back inside, try to think of the girl with the sexiest body that you can, and start imagining what you’d like her to do to you. If you can do that, you’ll win easily.”

Steeling myself, I pushed my reservations aside and stripped off my jocks and quickly slid the supplied pair on. Finishing by taking off my shirt, I handed my clothes to Dan with a nervous smile. Just before we went back inside, Dan took off his tiki necklace and held it out to me.

“Here, wear this for luck,” Dan offered.

I looked at him quizzically for a moment, before accepting his offer. Why was he giving what was apparently a family heirloom to someone who was essentially a stranger? Either he’s just incredibly generous, or the story he spun earlier was just a line of bullshit that he uses when he’s asked about it. Given the quality of the necklace, and the fact that it was made from a semi-precious stone, I decided that he was just generous. It certainly reinforced my opinion of him as being one of the good guys in the world. Gaining him as a friend, even if I only saw him when I came up to the ski fields, became more important to me at that instant. His relaxed attitude to gays could become critical if my nightmare scenarios come true when I come out of the closet. I could be needing a good friend desperately at that time, and while Chris and Paul were cool, they were my sister’s friends, not mine.

“Now, remember. Think of a really sexy body,” Dan whispered, as we walked back into the main room.

It was unfortunate that my memory of seeing Paul’s naked body was still so fresh in my mind. I don’t think that was quite what Dan had in mind, but since he prompted me about sexy bodies, I found myself recalling that scene. The cold kept my body under some control, but the images in my mind were busy warring against it without my conscious permission.

I was fourth up. The guy before me tried to fool the judges by sticking a can of beer in his jocks, but it was so obvious it wasn’t even funny. Following Dan’s advice, when it was my turn, I walked nervously up onto stage, and smiled down at the judges. They were two moderately attractive women in their early twenties, but certainly no blinding beauties, especially for a young gay guy like me.

Remembering what Dan had suggested, I tried to recall my memory of Paul, but it struggled against the reality of a room full of strangers staring at me in a pair of skimpy jocks. Something must have happened, because the girls pulled out a tape measure and held it up against my jocks while chattering away excitedly. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to sink into the ground. Before I could faint, they let me go and I moved over to join the other contestants at the back of the stage. I saw a lot of girls in the audience clapping and whistling at me as I hesitantly smiled back.

The next guy didn’t last very long with the judges, but the last guy caused quite a stir amongst the girls and the tape measure came out again. Unlike me, he seemed to enjoy the attention, and rippled his stomach muscles to show off his physique.

There was a hurried whispered discussion between the judges before they asked the compere to call me back out the front. Now stone-cold sober and wondering what the hell I was doing here, I shuffled back to stand next to the other guy. With a sideways glance, I saw a guy with bleached hair in his mid-twenties. His body was well defined and tanned and, from what I saw with a quick glance, he appeared to be well-hung as well. If we were alone, and if I knew he was gay, I’d probably go for him, but standing up on a stage in front of a room full of strangers, I felt no sexual urges at all. Other things, like embarrassment, were occupying my mind.

It seemed like hours, but it was probably only about a minute before the two girls finished their comparison of our two bodies. I’m sure I was blushing a bright red before the two of us were ushered back to join the other guys.

“And the winner of tonight’s wet jock’s competition, in a close contest, is…” the compere announced, ending with the obligatory dramatic pause.

“Dale, from Queensland!”

Secretly relieved that I didn’t have to go back up the front to accept the prize, I slipped off the stage with the other losers to rejoin Dan who was looking after my clothes, while Dale continued to parade his body in front of everyone.

As we headed back outside to get dressed, Dan said, “Bad luck, Greg. You certainly got the girls interested. It’s a pity that your competition was a Queenslander. If he wasn’t so tanned, I think you would’ve won.”

Pausing in my dressing to shrug my shoulders, I replied, “That’s okay. It was an interesting experience, but if I do it again, I think I need a few more beers first. It’s not something to do while you’re sober. And now that it’s finished, I think I need a few quick beers to settle me down again.”

“If that’s what you want, Greg. Here are the rest of your clothes. I’ll go inside, and order some drinks for you,” Dan said with a laugh. “Oh, and you can consider the ski lesson paid for. After going through that, I wouldn’t make you pay for my beers as well,” he added as he headed back inside.

Quickly slipping back into my clothes, and putting the jocks I was given into a pocket — they told us that we could keep them — I went back inside. I held Dan’s tiki necklace firmly in my hand. This was one thing I wasn’t taking any chances on accidentally losing.

With a sense of relief, and a certain amount of pride in doing something unusual, I went looking for Dan, Paul and Chris.

I wasn’t so happy when I found them, though. Diane and Rob were there too, and my sister did not look impressed.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” she exclaimed, exasperation clear in her tone and stance.

“Now, Di. Let him be. It was only a bit of harmless fun,” Rob said, trying to calm the situation.

I didn’t care if he succeeded in calming her down, because I was quickly becoming angry enough for the two of us. How dare she tell me off! I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions, and I’ll make my own fair share of mistakes while I’m doing it, but they’ll be my decisions and my mistakes. I don’t need my big sister telling me what to do or not to do!

Just before I let loose with a tirade, Dan handed me one of the two beers he was holding and, leaning forward, put his mouth next to my ear.

“Your sister is going to make a great mum one day. She’s certainly getting enough practice in,” he whispered to me.

That threw my anger into a spin, before it dissolved into laughter. Chuckling, I ignored my sister and pushed the necklace into Dan’s hand.

“Thanks, Dan. It was very much appreciated,” I said, still chuckling.

“My pleasure,” he replied with a grin, as he replaced it around his neck.

Turning back to my sister, I took my cue from Dan on how to handle her.

“Thanks, Mum, for the kind words of encouragement. Can I stay up late tonight? Please?” I whined, putting on my best “little boy” act.

With a speed that surprised me, Diane shrank back into a posture of contriteness.

“Sorry, Greg. I overreacted. I just wasn’t expecting to see my brother pretending to be a male stripper,” she said apologetically.

“Male strippers are supposed to be quite well paid,” Dan piped up.

Diane and Rob just stared at him, obviously not sure what to say to that. Chris and Paul broke into laughter as the confusion Dan had sown left the other two speechless.

“But I didn’t win,” I pointed out, “so I don’t think it’s the career for me. I’ll stick with painting. At least until I can build up a bit more body mass,” I added, just to see what my sister would do.

“As an expert in the area, I think you’d do quite well as a stripper,” Paul put in, stirring the pot a bit more as he gave me a very obvious top to bottom critical once-over.

As Rob turned on him, Paul added sagely, “Well he certainly has the body for it. He’s a bit shy, though. He probably should practice a lot more in front of an appreciative audience.”

“If you are volunteering to be part of the crowd, I think I’ll pass,” I interjected, before things got too out of hand, “You’re not exactly the sort of person to bring the best out in me.”

Which was perfectly true, if incredibly misleading. I don’t think I would be able to concentrate on doing a routine if Paul was watching me. It was lucky that my clothes were reasonably baggy, as otherwise the others would notice how excited my body had become at simply the thought of doing a strip-tease in front of Paul.

As they called for contestants in the wet T-shirt competition to come forward, Rob seized on that to change the topic.

“Enough of that. It’s time for some of us to be the appreciative audience instead. Greg, Dan, I’ll get us another round of drinks so we won’t have to leave during the show.”

“Thanks, Rob,” Dan replied, cheerfully.

“Yeah, thanks,” I replied with fake cheerfulness. The rubbish I have to go through to act straight. If I have enough beers, hopefully I won’t have to pretend to notice the girls as much. The others will just put it down to me being drunk. I’ve already built up a reputation of being a quick drunk at work because of that. So far, I’ve always managed to maintain control, no matter how much I drink, but that’s not the way the other guys perceive me.

The rest of the night went quite pleasantly. The wet T-shirt competition had Rob drooling, which raised a frown on my sister’s face, but Rob was too enthralled to notice. As typically happens at these things — I’ve found myself at a few when I couldn’t get out of it — a couple of the girls raised the ante by stripping off their T-shirts and paraded around topless. Since both were fairly well built, this had the guys whistling and cheering from the audience. I joined Rob and Dan and the rest of the crowd in showing my appreciation, though I couldn’t see the point in it myself. After all, even if I was straight, I doubt I’d have a chance with any of those girls. If they are that much of an exhibitionist, they would be looking for someone who wasn’t as quiet or shy as I normally am.

Even though he insisted I didn’t have to, I bought Dan a couple more drinks during the night. I decided that I should pay my debts if I wanted to see him again. I didn’t want to take a chance on losing a potential friend when I may become very short of them in the future.

Dan left before the rest of us, using the excuse that he had to get up for work in the morning. The competitions had finished, so the rest of us just spent another hour or so drinking. Rob took Diane out on the dance floor a couple of times when they started up the music, and all of us got up to dance as a group when it was appropriate. I could see that Paul and Chris would’ve loved to get up and dance together when Rob and my sister did, but there was too much risk of that causing trouble. While disappointed, they didn’t let that ruin their evening.

Overall, it was a good day. By the time we got back to our lodge, I was a happy drunk, looking forward to another day in the snow.

The only thing that stopped it from being a perfect day was the one thing I was missing — a boyfriend to share it with.

NEXT CHAPTER