RILEY:That leaves sixty-six burpees.
JOSH:Sixty-nine would be better. Because of sixty-nine! Get it?
HUNTER:Nice.
RILEY:::upside-down smileemoji::
COLE:Josh, you’re my favorite.
TOBIAS:Got it. Next class will include sixty-nine burpees.
JOSH:Wait, no!
17
ONE… TWO… THREE…
Riley did all he could to focus on counting out each kettlebell swing so he wouldn’t think about his near-heartbreaking conversation with Josh the previous day.
He’d never been so thankful for Sophie interrupting a conversation and wrapping them up in her dramatics to keep him from having to answer Josh’s question.
Josh’s words kept repeating in his head.
It wasn’t a big deal.
Sure, like realizing he had feelings for his best friend wasn’t a big deal. Or like realizing his best friend didn’t feel the same wasn’t a big deal.
It wasn’t a big deal.
And I’m a fucking astronaut.
When Josh had asked him if he wanted to kiss himagain, Riley’s whole world crashed down. He had never been able to lie to Josh in all their years as friends. That man could read him like a book. Actually, better, since reading wasn’t one of Josh’s greatest skills.
If it wasn’t for Sophie interrupting them, he might have done something incredibly stupid, like ruined his friendship over some silly feelings.
She’d saved him yesterday, but he couldn’t avoid the conversation forever.
It had to happen, but he couldn’t predict how it would go. He knew how he’d like it to go.
Josh, it turns out that kiss and those orgasms we shared rewrote my entire being and I’d love nothing more than to date you and see if we can turn our friendship into something more, something incredible.
Then Josh would say,That sounds amazing. Let’s date forever and ever and ever.
No. That wouldn’t happen because Josh had already made it clear thatit wasn’t a big deal.
On his next swing of the kettlebell, his elbow gave out and he almost dropped the fifty-plus-pound weight on his head. He was doing a terrible job of focusing on his workout and distracting himself from the nerves eating him alive.
He made the mistake of taking a peek at Josh working out next to him, and couldn’t help staring. His form was perfect—like everything else about him—swinging thekettlebell over his head and dropping it between his legs in a seamless arc. For a moment, as the kettlebell hung between his legs, Riley couldn’t help thinking of what else was hanging between those muscular thighs of his.
Riley was so fucked.
He shook himself and returned his focus to the workout, moving on to a set of thirty pull-ups, an eight-hundred-meter run around the complex, and back to the kettlebell swings.
The Crossfit-style workouts Tobias liked to infuse into their programming always left them exhausted, but it was addicting. It was why they kept coming back for more torment.
Now that Gym Rat Fitness was also incorporating yoga into their workouts, their fitness was even more broadened. Riley could already feel an increase in his flexibility and his balance, unless he was looking at Josh and his balance regressed.
Once he finished his next set of thirty pull-ups, he made his way out the gym’s back door so he could complete the two circuits around the complex, enough to hit eight hundred meters thanks to the buildings on either side of the gym.
