A slight twinge, but Teddy pressed on.
Plié, relevé,plié,sauté—
Teddy’s hip seized at the tightening of his muscles to launch upward off his toes, and he barely stopped himself from falling when he landed.
Fuck. His pride and his hip had taken a hit. He knew better, but those were the easy moves, the basics. It was like a singer losing their voice, incomplete when they could no longer do what they were born for.
Lowering himself back to the floor, Teddy lay down on the rug again to give his hip a reprieve. He was so sick of only being able to do the same moves over and over, but he was even sicker of being frustrated. He’d originally been annoyed when Finn appeared in his life, but now he longed for that distraction, because with Finn, during their appointments, the repetitive nature of the exercises didn’t seem as mind-numbing, not with long fingers alighting at Teddy’s hips or gently supporting his back.
Teddy hummed thinking about it and stretched out more comfortably. Finn’s fingers were nice to imagine anywhere.
Then he pictured them curling around the hips of someone else, and a spike of jealousy tore through him.
Finn had an ex. A long-term ex, which Teddy might not even have given a second thought to if Finn wasn’t tending to something secretive today that couldn’t be anything good or it wouldn’t have been accompanied by sympathetic looks.
“Mrrow?” Smudge voiced something akin to a real meow for once.
Teddy looked down his body to watch the cat curiously approach and proceed to walk right onto his chest to sit on his sternum.
“Do you mind?”
A more plaintive squeak replied.
“I’m fine. Just thinking.”
Smudge flicked his tail.
“I’m not fixating. If Finn does have unfinished business with his ex, that’s none of my business. Rose said he wanted to be alone today, so it might not even be that.”
It could be worse.
Maybe Teddy should cancel their date tomorrow. He was supposed to be easing into retirement, not stressing over a man he probably shouldn’t even be pursuing.
He’d really liked that kiss, though, and it had been so chaste, so promising of what a deeper kiss might feel like.
Teddy’s phone rang on the coffee table, and Smudge dutifully chirped at him, trotting off his chest but staying close so Teddy could pet him before answering the call.
“Hello?”
“You get laid yet?”
Rick.
After extracting himself from the floor, Teddy headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water—and to give Smudge, following at his heels, some treats. “Any groans you hear are only my old bones creaking.”
“Come on, Erina told me about the pretty thing next door who helps with yourstretches.”
Teddy winced at the innuendo, much as he’d been fantasizing about that. “She would have just landed.”
“Pfft, told me over Facebook while she was still on the plane.”
“She—”
“Messenger, privately, relax.”
One thing Teddy could count on about his sister and best friend was that they had perfected the art of teaming up against him.
“Is that Teddy?” a distant voice asked—Rick’s husband, Dan. He came across louder as he stole the phone. “How are you? I made cupcakes. I should send you some for you and your friend. They’re gluten free!”
