5. LARRY
5
LARRY
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t quite expecting that to happen as quickly as it did. But the old saying goes that the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else, and when the guy looks like that I’ll happily oblige. I could have sucked that dick for hours, and if I didn’t have to get to work, I probably would have asked him if he could host, and then… well… what could be better than spending all day in bed with a man who calls me a “good lad?” That’s new. That’s very new.
It was what I needed, though. I feel lighter than air. I mean, the adrenaline is absolutely still coursing through my veins because I am not the kind of guy to just go at it with someone in gym steam room but… I don’t know… maybe I can be that guy.
Wesley and I had been together for such a long time, in the end we didn’t have sex like that anymore. I try to pinpoint the last time we’d had sex at all, but I guess he hadn’t needed to given that he was off and having a lovely time with… what’s his name again?
I know it’s Andrew, though it’s more fun to pretend he’s forgettable rather than burned onto my retinas until the end of time.
But it’s fine. I’m moving on. I’m moving on to random men at my gym who are way, way out of my league. Maybe I’ll see him again. Maybe this will become a regular thing and going to the gym will suddenly become my favourite activity because there are two kinds of workout waiting for me here.
Don’t get ahead of yourself. But I simply can’t help it.
I stay in the steam room for a little while longer, cleaning up as best I can before I wrap my towel back around myself and head back to the locker room. There are a couple more people in here now, some who are post shower, some who are just about to go and start their workouts. He, whatever his name was, is nowhere to be seen. It’s probably for the best. How I would be able to shower if he was there behind me?
I get in the shower and clean myself off, still a little bit jittery though it has definitely taken the edge off the day.
Next thing to do is make sure I nail my first day at my new job. Absolutely nail it to the wall. This truly is the beginning of a new chapter in my life and I need to make sure I get off on the right foot.
I pull my shirt out of the locker and button it up, my suit trousers pressed to perfection, that gorgeous crease down the front of them. I put on my tie and pull on my jacket, checking myself in the full-length mirror before I head for the door.
I’ve always thought I scrubbed up pretty well. My last job didn’t need me to wear a suit, just a shirt and a pair of jeans, so the chance to properly look my best today is just another thing to add top the list of things making me feel good. I’ve got my rocks off and I get to put a suit on? I’m absolutely winning at life today.
I grab my gym bag and head out the door, pulling out my phone to see that I’ve got a couple more messages from Rosemary.
ROSEMARY
Are you there yet? How’s it going?
I shoot a message back.
Can you chat?
Have you fucked it up already?
Call?
My phone lights up in my hand, Rosemary’s name emblazoned across the top of the screen. I answer it lightning fast.
“Someone’s keen,” she says. “You’re okay, aren’t you?”
“Perfectly fine,” I say. “Better than fine actually. I’d go so far as to say good.”
“Why are you jittery? Have you had too much coffee or is this how your nerves manifest?”
“I’ve just had a very good morning,” I say. “Ask me what happened.”
Rosemary pauses. “Do I really want to know?”
“That depends on whether or not you want to hear about me hooking up with someone at my gym.”
“What the fuck?” she screeches. “Hang on, I’m heading out the back. Mandy, I’m taking my fifteen!”
I hear her breath coming in short as she walks through the bookshop and out the back, then a door slamming and the sound of her collapsing onto the sofa.
“Okay, start at the beginning and leave nothing out. You leave out details, you die.”
I take a scenic route from my gym and through the park, heading towards the office. The nerves start to creep back in as I get closer to town, to where I know I’ll be for the next eight hours, to the next step in my comeback.
“Well, well, well,” she says when I’m done. I sit down on a bench, taking a few steadying breaths. “Sounds like someone is bouncing back just fine. I’m happy for you, Larry. You deserve a bit of excitement.” She pauses. “I mean, maybe a public space isn’t the best place to be going about it, but I’m just glad you’re happy.”
“Very happy.”
“Well then,” she says.
“Thanks,” I say, feeling a warmth spread through me. “I think it’s what I needed to shake the nerves about my first day.”
“You’ve got this,” Rosemary says firmly. “You’re going to do great. Just be yourself, and remember that you’re more capable than you give yourself credit for.” She sucks in a breath. “I need to get back onto the shop floor, and looking at the time, you need to head in for your first day. You can do it.”
“I absolutely can.”
“Larry two point oh is well under way!”
“Yes.”
“Go get ’em!” she says. “And call me later to let me know how it goes.”
I hang up the phone and make my way to Duncan that was a very wet handshake. Bloody hell. This man’s cock was in my mouth two hours ago.
“Thank you,” I say. “I look forward to working with you.”
What the hell have I got myself into?