Elijah #4
Each time we fed our desire, or tried something new, each time we deepened new feelings, we had been committing ourselves to the inevitable.
It was only last night that we had agreed that reality could no longer be ignored and that soon, probably sooner than either of us would like, we would face the consequences of our choices.
The real question, the one we hoped we could answer but wouldn’t know until we’d been put to the test...when we were finally pressured by the repercussions of our choice...would we find a way to grow or shatter and break apart?
“Look,” Milo’s voice boomed from behind me, startling me out of my dark thoughts and making me turn to face him as he stood at the mouth of the hallway, hands jammed on his hips.
“I’ll go to the gym with you, even though I know you’re just being a dick because I woke you up, and…
why do you have that look on your face?”
I smirked at him. “We’ve talked about this; sometimes normal people do this thing called thinking.”
He tilted his head. “Yeah, okay, sure. Joking aside, that looked like some intense thinking. Feel like sharing?”
I looked at him, seeing his aggressive stance shift into one of concern, and shook my head. Reaching out, I patted his shoulder. “Nice try. You’re not going to lure me into a heart-to-heart that will get you out of working out today.”
He hesitated before rolling his eyes. “God forbid a man should show concern for his...uh...huh.”
“Maybe we should avoid labels for a little while,” I said with a snort.
I knew he was playing along with my joke for the moment.
The real question was whether he would remember my little fugue and bring it up later, or if it would escape his memory after being sufficiently distracted.
The third option was that he would remember, but weeks from now, and bring it up out of nowhere, leaving me fighting to remember what he was talking about.
“I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself thinking too hard. ”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, snatching his bag and stomping toward the door. “Let’s go already. I want to get this over with.”
“Okay,” Milo wheezed next to me as the treadmill finally slowed to a halt. He stepped off, his face red and covered in sweat. “Maybe you were right.”
“I usually am, and yet everyone says it like it’s something new,” I scoffed as I wiped my face and grabbed the bottle of disinfectant and a clean rag to wipe the machines down.
“And the whole way here, you proclaimed it would be a quick thirty minutes, in and out. And now look, it’s been almost two and a half hours. ”
“That’s only because you wanted to make a liar out of me,” he said, wiping his face and reaching for his water bottle.
It hadn’t been two and a half hours of steady workout.
The light cardio we usually started with had lasted almost half an hour, just talking while casually walking on the treadmill.
We’d done plenty of other machines, but nothing with any real intensity or focus.
We’d done enough to build up a sweat, but we’d been content to talk while we worked out, taking breaks to chat and people-watch.
It wasn’t as special as last night’s dinner, but it was nice to do something we usually did but hadn’t done together in weeks; somehow, it had always ended up with us going alone or with someone else.
Now, something as banal as us going to the gym had become a new bonding experience.
Part of it was that we, or at least I, were approaching everything with a new understanding.
An understanding that things had changed drastically between us, affecting the original, fundamental aspects of our relationship.
It had pervaded everything we did and was never more apparent than how much I thought about it while we did something as normal as working out.
Then there was the other thing I hadn’t accounted for but wasn’t surprised by.
I had warmed up quickly to the idea of being attracted to Milo, so I probably should have realized that working out with him would stir up some feelings.
After all, if watching him lounge around in lazy day clothes on the couch was enough to make me want to jump him, I should have realized that watching him use his muscles and get covered in sweat would also be a trigger.
It certainly didn’t help that Milo had been pretty obvious in how he kept looking at me while we worked out.
Not so obvious that someone glancing our way would see him staring, but enough that I was aware that his eyes kept drifting my way.
There had even been a couple of times I’d noticed him turning away and making a quick ‘adjustment’ before continuing to work out.
Say what you want, but having someone obviously attracted to you was one hell of a turn on, and I had to keep myself distracted before I made a display of myself.
I didn’t know how much the jockstrap would hide if I got aroused, but I definitely didn’t want to test that in public.
Not that the public was all that thick. One of the advantages of that gym, besides its excellent facilities, was that it was in the heart of several business blocks, not residential.
So it was busiest in the early morning, lunch time, and shortly after work let out, and that was about it.
The standard busy times for most other gyms, like later in the evening or the middle of the day on the weekend, were dead times.
So that meant we didn’t have to stumble over people or wait for machines.
“Here,” he said, taking the bottle from me and wiping down his machine. “Any reason you decided to amp up the workout?”
“You didn’t have to follow suit,” I said with a snort. “I just wanted to run a little harder than we were.”
“Right, because I’m going to stand around and watch you outdo me?”
“I can’t decide if I want to give you shit for being unnecessarily competitive or make a joke that you don’t want me to outdo you, just plain do you.”
He looked up, his cleaning coming to a stop. “Really?”
I grinned at him. “What? Did you have a preference?”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to tease me...in public?”
“From the way you’re staring at me, I guess I’m doing better than trying.”
“Jesus, someone’s cocky...please don’t make a joke about my word choice.”
“Let’s just say that if there weren’t people around, I would have grabbed my junk and told you something is cocky.”
He groaned. “I’m glad that like...eight people count as a deterrent from you making this worse.”
I glanced around, seeing half a dozen women working out, two standing next to a machine, talking animatedly.
Only a few men were left; two had just come out of the locker room to start working out, and another couple had already gone in to change and come back out to chat with the front desk worker.
Not one of them was paying attention to us.
..well, no, one of them was. One of the two guys who had just started working out was looking our way, so I was glad I hadn’t groped myself.
In fact, the guy’s attention was locked onto us.
I casually looked away, keeping sight of him in the mirrors lining the walls as Milo found a space to stretch.
I noticed the guy watching even more closely, especially when Milo made a display of himself by bending over to stretch out his thighs and calves.
It was normal after a workout, but even I had to admit it was a decent show.
“You’re being checked out,” I said with a snort, beginning to stretch as well.
His eyes swept the gym before looking back at the floor. “Those two guys?”
“Yeah. Didn’t know it was both, though.”
“Pretty sure you’re about to get checked out too. By both of them. Don’t get too excited, though.”
“The only person I’m interested in checking me out is you,” I told him, mimicking his next pose and glancing in the mirror casually to see that yes, both of them were paying attention to us. “Still think it’s you they’re looking at.”
“Probably because one of them is that jackass who tried to proposition us last month.”
“Who?”
He sighed. “Of course, you don’t remember. He was really pushy, trying to get a threesome with us.”
“Oh, wait,” I said, snapping my head up. “Was that the one who got more interested when we tried to put him off by saying we were brothers?”
“That’s the one.”
“Wow, apparently he’s still angling.”
“The only angling he seems to be doing right now is finding the right angle to stare at our asses. I don’t know what’s worse, the thought that he’s trying to see yours more or mine.”
I knew the answer because the annoyance flaring in my chest told me I didn’t want him looking at Milo.
In all fairness, I didn’t want anyone looking at him right now, though I didn’t blame them if they did.
This guy, though? I remembered him; he had been gross, making me feel like a piece of meat, and had gotten on Milo’s nerves with his piggish behavior—the last person who should be staring at Milo’s admittedly round, tight, and bouncy ass.
Okay...so that was a loaded, exceptionally horny, and possessive thought.
“God, I hope he’s not going to come over here,” Milo grumbled, straightening up.
It looked like the guy was going to make his way over.
Not that it surprised me now I remembered who he was, I remembered just how damned persistent he’d been.
Taking ‘no’ for an answer hadn’t been his thing, and I doubted he would be any better this time.
The only thing that had put him off was when Milo was aggressive and rude.
“He’s going to approach us,” Milo added with a sigh. “Let’s just go change and get out of here.”
“What? So he can accost us... you in the locker room?” I scoffed. “I think the fuck not.”
“Then what?” he asked, giving me an amused look. “Mr. Protective...or is it Mr. Jealous?”