You don’t have to be mean about it.
Vaguely, he wondered if other people had conversations with themselves like he did. It seemed normal enough to him, but he figured other people’s brains didn’t sass them all day long like his own did. So rude.
How was Tobias supposed to figure out Chase? He didn’t exactly have anyone else he could talk to about it. No one had ever talked to him like that, or had ever been so forward with him. He couldn’t help but be thrown off by it all.
Tobias had spent most of class daydreaming about Chase and determining his seriousness. Until Josh broke him out of his trance.
“Chase, is it creepy to go to the kids’ classes to watch?” Josh shouted, his voice echoing through the gym.
Chase had stood, his tight-fitted shirt clinging to all his lean muscles, ending their practice for the day, and blinked at Josh.
Josh was a sweet himbo—a word Tobias had only recently learned—and completely harmless, but the question threw Chase.
“I mean, yeah, a bit,” Chase said. “Why don’t you take the class and show the kids how even big, strong men do yoga, not just moms? So far, we’ve only gotten moms to sign up.”
Everyone started packing the equipment around them, but Josh kept talking about the class.
“Really? I can participate without a kid?”
Chase glanced at Tobias, who shrugged noncommittally. Tobias didn’t have a problem with it. The more the merrier while they were getting the word out aboutthe gym’s new programming. Chase turned back to Josh, who must have been thinking the same thing. “For the first week, sure. Although, be prepared in case some of those moms flirt with you.”
“Me? Why wouldn’t they flirt with you?” Josh asked.
He shrugged. “They might, but they’ll probably think I’m cute, whereas they’ll be drooling over you.”
Tobias couldn’t help but scoff. Imagine anyone seeing Chase and not immediately wanting his attention. He had a welcoming personality that drew a person in, made them want to get to know him, touch him… Tobias realized a moment too late how quiet the gym had gotten, and he froze. His scoff had gained everyone’s attention.
“You don’t think they’ll drool over Josh, Tobias? Or are you saying Chase isn’t cute?” Riley asked, his eyebrow raised. It was like that eyebrow taunted him and analyzed all of his private thoughts.
Tobias sputtered. “I-I didn’t— Of course, he is. I mean…Urrgh.”
Flustered, he stormed off toward his office. Tobias had a lot of skills, but sounding calm when he was flustered wasnotone of them.
He flopped onto his desk chair and busied himself with some paperwork as everyone made their way out of the gym, the muffled voices of his members growing clearer asthey neared the exit.
Apparently, Riley and Josh were being harassed by one of their clients. The two of them ran a graphic design company together and had even helped him with his own logo and branding. Hopefully, this client would leave them alone soon. Tobias could hear them clearly when Cole’s voice rang out.
“You know what you should do? Tell him about Elena and say you’ll sic her on him if he causes any more trouble,” Cole said. “That would get me in line.”
“I really don’t want to know about your mating habits, bro,” Riley said.
Tobias had no intention of hearing anything else onthatsubject, so he shouted, “Take Cole and his mating habits out of my gym.”
“Aye-aye, coach!” Cole shouted, the echo of the front door closing the only sound in the gym.
A moment later, Chase appeared in his doorway, and Tobias begged the universe to keep Chase from bringing up the debate over his cuteness.
Obviously, there was no debate. Chase was one of the cutest guys he’d ever seen in his life, but he couldn’t explain those feelings. Not yet, anyway. Maybe not ever.
“Hey, I wanted to check in with you about the acroyoga seminar,” Chase said, and Tobias tensed for an entirely different reason. He’d completely forgotten about agreeing to do it. “A little bit of good news, badnews about it. The bad news is part of the roof caved in at the studio they were set to use for the seminar, so they don’t have a place to hold it. The good news is they’ve decided to make it an online thing, a webinar. So now we don’t have to drive anywhere and we can do it here.”
Racing thoughts attacked Tobias. It was one thing having to touch and hold Chase in front of a room full of yogis focused on the work, but to be alone in a room with Chase and having no one there as a buffer would make it so much more… intimate.
“Does that mean we don’t actually do the practice? Since they won’t be here to help, I mean,” Tobias asked.
“They’re encouraging us to still try the movements if we’re comfortable, and if we can set up cameras on both sides of our mats so they can shout out advice to people.”
What could possibly go wrong?
