“You coming over?” Creed asks as he walks by. “We’re cooking a shit ton of meat for some reason.”
“I ordered too much for the freezer,” Ethan admits. “So we’re cooking it all and pigging out on protein.”
“What you’re saying is you don’t get enough meat in your mouth,” Asael comments as he steps into the locker room. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
Ethan grins. “I’m going to let you keep guessing about the meat that goes into my mouth and still invite you over for meat.”
Creed rolls his eyes. “Stop. Get in the shower.” He shoves Ethan out of the locker room before giving Asael a glare.
Asael laughs, dropping his bag. His eyes meet mine.
“There are other ways to try meat,” I say.
He laughs loudly. “See? You get it!”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t talking about tacos. I feel like meat is a common ground. I love my meat.”
“Okay, okay. We’re done with this conversation,” I say, laughing. I reallydon’twant to talk about tacos—food or otherwise.
Asael grins. “What time is meat consumption?” he asks while I’m tying my shoes.
“Didn’t say. My guess is when you’re done you can go over.”
“Meat does take various times to cook depending on how juicy you like it,” he comments, nodding “Personally, I like when it leaks a little.”
“Ohmigod,” I mutter, shaking my head.
“Really?” Three comments as he steps into the locker room. “Must you come on to everyone?”
“Don’t be jealous, sweetheart. Your meat is still my favorite to make leak.”
I look up in time to see Asael wink at Three. Three just sighs heavily. We watch Asael head for the gym and then Three meets my eyes. “I swear, this is his way of warming up to come out,” Three says. “Like he’s feeling us out or something.”
“Stupid. Obviously, no one here is going to care. We have three openly gay men on the team, already. What does he think we’re going to say?” I get to my feet and pocket my phone. It gives a little buzzing vibration when I pick it up, telling me I have a notification. It can wait. I don’t want to be smiling like a loon at my phone right now.
Three shrugs. “Dunno. Gay innuendos have been his favorite topic lately. I can’t help but think there’s a reason behind it. Something driving him.”
“Obviously we all like meat to a certain extent,” I say, grinning. “Can’t tell me everyone in here isn’t fascinated with their own. But there’s a line that he’s just…”
“Jumping over.”
“I was going to say humping over. You know, keep it on theme.”
Three laughs. “I’ll catch you later, man.”
I wave him off as I head for the hall.
In my car, I plug in my phone. The notification that I have messages in the app has my fingers itching to look at it. Instead, I put my car in drive and head home.
Since leaving Florida, I’ve tried to convince myself I need to put some boundaries in place concerning Lo. Ican’tfall for this man. It’s too dangerous to everything about my life right now and how I want to live it.
I’m not going to lie and say I’ve done well abiding by those boundaries. If I had, I wouldn’t be spending so long on the phone with him every night. Or thinking about him at least once every three minutes.
The drive home isn’t far. Eighteen minutes on a good day. It’s midday on a Tuesday with clear roads so getting home is relatively quick. However, once I pull in, I’m greeted by a massive… tree?... in front of my door. No, not a tree. I can see a huge vase at the base holding many stems, but the top is wrapped so it just looks like a tree. It’s a bouquet of flowers, I guess.
For a second, I sit in my car and stare. It’s not my birthday. I haven’t won anything. There are literally zero reasons for there to be flowers here.
Grabbing my bag of sweaty laundry, I make my way to the door. This bouquet is at my hip. I’m not even sure how I’m going to get it inside.
