Page 21 of The Titan and the Trainer

He practically ran up the four flights of stairs to his apartment, fumbling the key in the door. He was so desperate to plug his phone in. The minute he did, he got undressed and straight into bed. It was extremely cold in his apartment. The radiator was making the clanking noise again, which meant little or no heat. He was going to have to raise it another time with the super.

He lay awake in bed, in the darkness for what seemed like an eternity, just waiting for his phone to turn on.

The minute the white Apple logo appeared on the screen, followed by the passcode, he unlocked it and went straight into his WhatsApp messages. Nothing from Julian. The last message was his response, saying:-

Callum: I can make 4 p.m. work. See you then.

Little did he know that Julian had agonised for hours whilst Callum was at work about whether to text him or not since they parted. Brow furrowed, he’d been checking his phone constantly for hours, pacing around the apartment, then in bed, before finally succumbing to sleep. He was sure there was nothing wrong, but would have loved a little message about Sunday, knowing he’d get to spend more time with Callum, before he finally fell asleep, dreaming about the day they’d had.

***

Back home, phone in hand, Callum hesitated. He didn’t know what to say, plus it was now almost 5 a.m. Did Julian put his phone on silent overnight? He didn’t want to risk waking him up at this early hour. Should he just wait until morning? No. He decided to text. Julian wasn’t the sort of guy you let down, especially when you promised to do something.

He decided to inject a little cheeky humour into his messages, in an attempt to distract Julian from any disappointment over the delayed response…

Callum: Hey, my hairy, beary, solid, fit, man mountain! I’m so sorry about the really late message, but I had no time to charge my phone, forgot my charger, couldn’t find one at work, blah, blah, blah. Basically, as you already fully realise, I’m just your ditsy personal trainer - thank God I’m handsome, hey! LOL.

Would Julian know what LOL meant? He deleted it, then re-typed it again. Just be me, he thought! Also, saying he was handsome felt a bit odd, but he left it in.

He pressed send, then wrote the next message:-

Callum: Anyway, I’ve checked my social calendar and it’s absolutely blank, so I’m very happy to do whatever you want tomorrow, as long as it’s with you. x

He put a kiss, then deleted it. Was it a bit infantile? But he felt childish about them. He wanted to send kisses. He pressed send. Then, he wrote a final message, added a few more kisses and an explanation:-

Callum: xxxxxxxxxxx (1 kiss for every day since I met you!) LOL

He hit send. Hoped it was okay? Took one last look at it, undecided. He put the phone on the nightstand and tried to sleep. He thought about the day. So much had happened, it made his head spin. He needed time to process everything fully. But as he drifted off to sleep, he knew one thing with absolute certainty... he felt really happy.

Chapter 11 - Coffee, Vivian Ward?

Sun. 19th Jan. 25

Sunday mornings were usually a lull for Callum. Typically an upbeat and happy guy, it was on Sundays that he often felt tired and lonely.

He usually worked at the club on Saturday nights, so it was always a late one, and he was normally exhausted from the week, what with the gym, boot classes, 1:1 executive coaching and dancing Fridays and Saturdays.

On Sunday he would typically just chill in his own company. Occasionally he’d see family or friends, but most of the time it was the day to relax, do laundry, buy groceries, tidy the apartment, maybe even do some painting or visit a gallery, if he had the energy. But for Callum, this Sunday was just agonising.

He’d woken up around 10 a.m., the first thing on his mind: Julian.

He checked his phone. Sadly, there were no messages from anyone called Julian, but he did see with glee that he had four new messages from ‘Client Newman’. He sniggered and promptly updated his name in Contacts to ‘Julian’. He realised he had no details about the man other than his name and number.

The first message was old Julian, a bit formal, professional…

Julian: Good morning and thanks for the message. It made me very happy to see it at 7 am when I woke up.

The second message was fun, more like the Julian from yesterday and last night…..

Julian: “hairy, beary, solid, fit, man mountain” Jesus Cal, I’m not some piece of meat you can abuse…. it makes we wonder if you just want me for sex …. but actually …… that could also be quite nice …. LOL

As Callum read that, he was worried after the ‘you just want me for sex’ part but then felt relief at the ‘that could be quite nice’. This told him that Julian was relaxing into things, even at this early stage.

The use of the LOL was also noted.

This was Julian 2.0. A new, evolving version of the ‘hairy, beary, solid, fit, man mountain’ he thought, with a sense of pride, a warm smile crossing his face.

The ‘that could be quite nice’ resounded with Callum. It also clearly impressed his dick, which was suddenly getting very stiff. This guy had an automatic erection effect on him…