7
Ty
“Okay, okay, I’m good,” I said, struggling with the bench press. Kelly managed the bar while he pulled it up and placed it back on the rack.
“Dude, that was really fucking impressive,” he noted as I sat up, huffing as I struggled to catch my breath.
Sam was planking on a nearby mat. “Yeah, it was hot from this angle, for sure.”
Kelly laughed. “Oh my God, dude. We don’t need you getting one of your gym boners, so…”
“Then don’t come to the gym with me,” Sam warned in his usual playful tone, which made Kelly and me laugh.
Sam and Kelly worked out with me most Wednesday and Friday evenings, when we didn’t have practice for any of the leagues we were part of. Kelly and I knew each other from college, and Sam worked with Jesse and had become a friend through flag football.
I slid my phone out of my pocket, checking for a message.
“Okay, seriously,” Kelly said. “That’s like the tenth time you’ve checked your phone since we’ve started today.”
“Whatever. I’m just keying in my stats,” I told a half-truth as I pulled up my app to input my reps.
“You think I haven’t worked out with you enough to know you don’t input them after every set?” Kelly asked, and I could see Sam in my periphery offering an equally skeptical look.
“Whatever. You’re up, slackass.” I hopped up, wiping the sweat from my brow as I swapped places with Kelly.
We continued working out, then hit the showers. When I was finished, I practically raced to my phone to see if Liam had messaged me back. And it was surprising how at ease I felt when his name popped up on my screen.
We’d had such a fun time when he’d been in town a week earlier, but it seemed Liam only came into my life long enough to disappear again, each time leaving me more curious about him than I had been before. It wasn’t long after he left that I made plans to see him again in Boystown. But two more weeks felt like an eternity, even though I knew seeing him again was inevitable, even though I felt as if fate itself would draw us back together again.
I didn’t consider myself religious, but Liam made me prone to a peculiar sort of magical thinking. I didn’t discourage the sort of delusions that accompanied my thoughts about him, because if anything, they excited me, filled me with eagerness each time I received a text message from him, which we’d shared plenty of since he’d gone back home.
He’d been catching up on some of the shows I’d recommended on Netflix and messaging me about them. He said he was getting started on an episode ofBlack Mirror, which I’d told him to message me about once he’d finished.
What…the…hell.
I laughed at his message and texted back:Right? Pretty fucked up. Speaking of which, J and E intro’d me to this movieMartyrs, and if you’re looking for a mindfuck, you won’t do much better. But only the original, not the American remake.
I set my phone inside the locker, glancing at the screen to see when he replied as I slid my briefs and pants on. Sam stepped around the corner into the locker area, just a towel around his waist. He gave me that same skeptical look he’d offered when we’d been working out. Then he searched around, as though to make sure we were on our own before stopping at his locker next to mine. “So guy or girl? It’s exciting that it could be either when it comes to you.”
“I don’t feel like I have to explain anything to you guys.”
“No, but you can explain it tojustme.”
“Sam, mind your own business.”
“That’s like the opposite of why we’re friends. Now tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with this trip you’re taking to Chicago so I can call you a fucking liar.”
I laughed. “Whatever.”
“And don’t think Jesse hasn’t told me that hottie Liam McKinney is in Boystown, and—”
“Okay, now you might want to stand down, Sam,” I said, giving him a playful yet firm glare.
“My lips are sealed.”
“Usually around a dick,” I teased, and he laughed as Kelly came around the corner, sliding in between us as he stooped down to his locker, right beneath Sam’s.
Sam slipped behind Kelly and thrust near his ass a few times. Kelly didn’t move, just shook his head, laughing.
