Page 77 of The Titan and the Trainer

Julian was breathless, and tears ran down his cheeks. “I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. You are incredible, Cal.” He kissed him slowly and tenderly, completely in contrast to what had gone on moments before.

Callum wiped Julian’s tears away. “I thought I wasn’t going to be able to take you, but somehow it ended up being the most amazing experience of my life,” Callum said, tearing up himself now, too.

“One day I too would like to know that sensation,” Julian said, now wiping away Callum’s tears.

“Yes, I’d like that too,” Callum added with a smile.

“I’ve never…” Julian began, but Callum silenced him with a finger to his lips. Julian smiled and blew air out of his mouth before leaning in to him, his tongue wetting Callum’s suddenly dry mouth, as they both got lost again in their embrace.

“Are you okay, Cal?” Julian asked when they surfaced for air.

“More than okay thank you. I’m glad we waited, but that was more intense than I ever imagined.”

“Eight weeks, young man. Eight weeks that have changed our lives completely,” Julian said, with a big smile.

As they looked at each other, Callum mouthed silently, ‘L-word’.

Julian just nodded and kissed the man he ‘L-worded’.

Chapter 30 - A Family Affair

Sun. 9th Mar. 25

On Sunday morning they woke, but rather than the usual playtime they often enjoyed whilst lounging in bed, Julian was up, showered and dressed like a man on a mission. He was practically falling over himself to get them out of bed, breakfasted and ready.

“What is going on, Julian?”

“Just a little surprise.” Julian was being mysterious and definitely up to something, Callum could tell. But he had no idea what.

He ate a quick breakfast of cereal while watching Julian, who was sending and replying to various messages on his phone. Callum tried to grab it off him at one point, but fat chance. Julian was quicker.

“Get ready, handsome, and wear something nice. Maybe one of those new T-shirts. Be ready for 10:30 a.m.”

The plot thickened.

Callum went to shower and get ready, selecting one of his new T-shirts and skinny blue jeans from his ever-growing collection of clothes now residing at the penthouse. Julian’s outfit was no clue: similar casual gear, jeans and a formal white shirt, so they couldn’t be doing anything too posh.

Just before 10:30 a.m., Julian came back to the kitchen with a gift bag that had a large bouquet of yellow roses poking out of the top and something else inside he couldn’t see, maybe a bottle of wine?

“Right, come on then, surprise time,” he said, gleefully taking Callum’s hand.

He led him downstairs and through the business centre, to the lift at the far end. OK, thought Callum, where on earth are we going? Maybe the main lift was broken, and he hadn’t noticed? Julian called it, and the doors opened. They stepped in, and Callum assumed they would go down, but Julian pressed the button marked ‘HP ’, which was the top of the list. What does HP stand for, Callum wondered?

The lift ascended, and as it rose, Callum heard a loud shuddering noise, causing him to flinch. What the hell? He looked to Julian, who just smiled. The lift stopped, but the noise continued. The doors pinged open onto the roof of the building and framed in front of them, a large black helicopter sat with blades spinning, noise deafening and gale-force wind blowing.

Julian took Callum’s hand, who was now in a state of shock, indicating to keep his head down as they walked together to the helicopter.

Markus was standing by the door and helped them in. Callum just went along with it, wondering whose helicopter this was, why they were getting in it, and where they were going. A million questions whizzed through his mind as Markus belted him in and handed him a headset, indicating he should put it on. The noise-cancelling was an instant relief from the deafening whirring of the blades above them.

They were the only two in the main cabin, which had seats for eight people in two facing rows of four. Through the partial partition, Callum could see the pilot as Markus got into the other front seat.

“You can speak, Cal,” Julian’s voice came through, as he indicated a mouthpiece that flipped down on the headset. He pulled his down.

“What are we doing?”

“We are going somewhere for a nice lunch, Cal.”

OK, thought Callum. He doesn’t want to tell me. I’ll go with the flow.