“It’s good to see you too, Tate,” I said with a smile.
“You boys here to train for tomorrow?”
Wenodded.
“Yeah, but we promised Lena we’d work with her as much as we could today,” Cal said as he glanced over to Lena, who was already warming up in the ring.
“Well, if you guys need to hang out after I close this place up like you used to, it’s not a problem,” Tate offered, a knowing glint in his eye.
“That would actually be amazing,” I said, my heart skipping a beat. “That way we can take our time working with her.”
Cal caught it immediately. It had nothing to do with working with Lena, and everything to do with wanting to be back here alone with him like we used to.
“Agreed,” he said with a nod. “Thanks, Tate.”
26
APRIL - ORLANDO, FLORIDA
Now playing: THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND - Bad Omens
Wehadbeenatthe Performance Center all day working with Lena, helping her with her technique and trying our hardest to get anything done with her level of ADHD. Keeping her on focus was like asking a small child to sit still at a jungle gym, never going to happen.
But when she stopped talking about something random long enough to focus, she was damn near perfecting moves in ways I’ve never seen a man or woman do. She was gifted, gifted in a way only some of the greats dream of, and it wasn’t always highlighted in the women’s division of this industry. She was so much more than a beautiful young woman. She was talented, technically sound, and a hell of a fight in the ring. She even gave Cal a run for his money when he told her to do a quick improv grapple session. Her speed was something I don’t think I ever possessed, her flexibility made her lethal, and the height she would get on her aerials was borderline scary.
We probably could have helped her out and trained ourselves while the PC was open. Honestly, there was no doubt in my mind that we could have done both. But we didn’t want to. Neither of us did. We both wanted time alone in this place. Time alone in the place we found each other nearly a decade ago, where I found my soulmate, even if he is fucking annoying sometimes.
Lena left about twenty minutes ago. Tate gave us the okay to stay, and now, here we were. The gym lights were mostly off, except for a few. The ring was illuminated by a single spotlight over the center.
Cal and I were outside of the ring right now, lacing up our boots and taping our wrists, getting ready to finally train on our own together in the ring that inevitably brought us together.
“You know,” Cal started with a smirk as he watched me lace my boot. “Back then, before I knew that you were into guys, I used to think to myself, ‘What would he do if I just kissed him?’ while we were rolling around in that ring.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I would have punched you, probably.”
“And then you would have wanted me to fuck you, probably,” he scoffed.
I rolled my eyes. Was he wrong? Probably not.
“I wasn’t into guys either,” I said snidely.
Cal raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you weren’t? What do you call it then?” he asked as he stepped closer to me.
“I was intoyou. Just one guy, thank you very much,” I said with a small smile.
Cal let out a satisfied noise of amusement. “So it’s just a me thing, huh?”
I nodded. “I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m gay, but given as you love to remind me, you’re the only man I’ve been with, so, yeah. It is a you thing, you fucking problem,” I said with a laugh as I stood.
“Let’s go train,” Cal said with a grin. He put his hands on my shoulders, spun me around, and smacked my ass, hard. It felt even more intense somehow since I was just in a pair of my tights to train in.
We climbed into the ring and started running a few drills, talking about spots for ourWrestle Empirematch, what the match producers wanted us to do, moves of our own we wanted to throw in to make it better, and how we were going to battle it out in a sold-out football stadium for an hour. The thought was horrifying, yet exhilarating all at once. We still hadn’t trained with Evan yet to work out what his take was on the match, but in a way, this felt better. Cal’s and my in ring chemistry and the way we were able to communicate in the ring was unmatched. If we had our shit together first, it would be even easier to make Evan flow in the mix after.
We ran through the big sequences. Moving with a synergy that felt less like wrestling and more like dancing. Cal caught me out of midair effortlessly. I flung myself into hurricanrana, making sure my high flying was perfect. There was even a spot where I had to actually pick Cal up and drop him, a move back seven years ago they wouldn’t have had me do because I was so much smaller. But now? Now I could handle his weight.
“Fuck, you look good like that,” Cal groaned as he locked me in a hold.
“Bet I look better on my knees,” I panted back, countering him.
