Chapter 31 - Park Run, Fun?
They had their usual two-training-session week, both at the penthouse; now they were incorporating the Vacunaut suit each time.
Callum had stayed over several nights. He was out on Friday, meeting up with Matteo and some old friends.
He brought them up to date on the story of him and Julian, something he was now getting used to talking about.
Saturday, with a slight hangover, he had a full day at The Iron Works with a school event and was so exhausted at the end of it that he messaged Julian to let him know and just crashed into bed at his apartment.
***
Julian opened an eye, saw who it was, and smiled.
“Babe,” he whispered, bleary-eyed, looking at the clock, “what are you doing here so early? I thought you needed rest”
“I’m rested, and we are doing a half-marathon today in Central Park. Surprise!”
“Oh man, you know how much I hate to run,” Julian said, turning over to face away from him, Taking the sheets with him, wrapping them around his body and exposing his muscular back and ass.
“Come on, you big lump,” said Callum, slapping one of his hairy cheeks.
“Ow, that hurt,” Julian complained, but did start to move.
They got ready. Callum insisted that Julian wear cycling shorts under his normal shorts for extra support, but mainly because he loved to see Julian in them.
Distracting yes. Sexy as fuck, also yes.
He told him they were important for increasing circulation as his body heat increased, giving him a little grope, causing everything to swell.
They both wore white cycling shorts under black running shorts, with a white compression top and an armband phone holder case.
They looked like clones, but they also looked good as they munched a light breakfast before being driven to the park.
Callum had all their details on his phone, so he registered them and got their chest stickers with running numbers and wristbands for tracking.
They peed, drank water, and were soon lined up with everyone else at the starting point.
It was a beautiful day for it. They were having another spell of glorious blue-sky days and unusually mild temperatures.
They started at a steady pace under Callum’s guidance and fell into a good rhythm, following the route around the outside of the park first, then through the park, around the lake and fountain, snaking their way amongst the crowd.
They were mostly silent, focussing on breathing and maintaining pace.
Julian found it more difficult than Callum.
He’d never liked running, but he kept up, and they stayed together the whole circuit.
Julian was very glad to see the finish line, though, after 2. 5 hrs.
Both of them were soaked, tops see-through, shorts sweaty. They handed their wrist trackers in, collected their medals, a bottle of water, and walked back through the park.
“I hate to admit it, Cal, but I did quite enjoy that. Never liked running, always thought I wasn’t good at it, but managed that ok.”
“You did well. We should do this more often. You’ll find the more you do, the easier it becomes. I’m proud of you. You did it.”
They decided to linger in the park and relax. It was such a warm day, and they both wanted to relax in the shade to cool off, watch the end of the race, and just enjoy some downtime.
The grassy knoll they found afforded a great vantage point across the finish line, so they sat and watched the other runners as they crossed the line and celebrated their moment of glory.
They both removed their sweaty tops, which they stretched out on the grass, hoping to dry.
They sat bare-chested for a while under the trees, chatting and drinking their water.
After a while, Julian felt his top, and it was almost dry.
He rolled it up to make himself a small pillow and lay on his back in the sun.
Callum looked across at him, completely relaxed, eyes closed, just enjoying the moment.
The sun was diffused through the trees as the branches swayed in the breeze, casting interesting shapes across his face as he was bathed in a golden light.
Callum took his phone out and snapped a picture.
Julian looked particularly handsome in this moment, and he wanted to capture it.
He quickly edited the photo, pleased with the results.
He admired his good looks and couldn’t resist touching Julian’s cheek tenderly, prompting him to open an eye.
“What’s up?” Julian asked sleepily.
“I just took a really nice picture of you,” Callum replied, proudly showing him the photo on his phone.
“Wow, that’s cool. The lighting is really nice, Cal. You have a real eye for a picture.” He took the phone and brought it closer to his face for a proper look. “You should do more photography; I think you’ve got real talent. What camera have you got?”
Callum sighed. “Well, I don’t actually even have one at the moment. Long story.”
“And we have all the time in the world,” Julian said.
“I had a really nice Canon EOS 4000D, which I’d saved up for. It was an excellent camera, and I loved it. But I sold it when Jack and I signed the lease for The Iron Works.” He shrugged. “I was sad to do it, but we were short on the deposit for the leasehold, and I just didn’t have enough savings.”
“Oh, Cal, that’s a shame.” Julian pulled him down on top of him, hugging him, showering him with little kisses.
“Well, now I’m not quite so sad anymore,” Callum laughed. “Big, beary man mountain kisses always make everything better.” He bent his head down and gave Julian a proper kiss. He could sense that Julian was getting aroused… this was definitely not the time or place for that, so he pulled away.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Julian complained, and pulled him back down, rolling them over so he was now on top of Callum, pinning him down, arms starfish style above his head.
Julian leant down, showering Callum with big kisses, who by now was in hysterics.
“My hairy man mountain,” laughed Callum.
At this, Julian arched his back, making weightlifter poses with his arms flexed. Callum looked up at him. He was truly magnificent: huge shoulders, big arms and chest, a furry coating of hair, but not enough that it covered the definition.
“Yes, yes… you know you’ve got it. Stop flaunting it in public, please.” Callum was aware of their surroundings.
They decided they were now hungry and in need of post-run sustenance.
Callum proposed a long walk through midtown. Putting shirts back on, they set off towards the south end of the park.
They found a corner deli near Bryant Park and had a simple brunch of bagels with bacon and scrambled eggs, and coffee to go. They decided to walk home. It would be a trek, but Callum insisted it could be fun.
They followed Park Avenue South for the longest time, stopping to look in store windows and at the buildings themselves.
Callum stopped to take photos of the architecture, pointing out interesting aspects to Julian, who was fascinated by his keen eyes and what they noticed.
Callum also showed Julian how to change settings on his iPhone to take better pictures.
They ended up on Lafayette, through to Lower Manhattan and eventually Tribeca and the financial district.
When they arrived back at Peck Slip, Callum checked his watch, declaring they had done 37,720 steps and almost 18.
5 miles in total, including the park run.
This was impressive, but they were now both completely exhausted.
There was a second race that day: to the shower, in search of soap and hot water. Fortunately, Julian’s shower was so large that they could happily wash each other and rinse away the exertions of the day.
After the shower, they spent some time just lounging naked on the bed as they cooled down, looking at the photos that Callum had taken.
He showed Julian how, using an app, he could edit them, changing all aspects of the photo, resulting in some stunning effects. Julian insisted that Callum airdrop them to his phone, so he could keep them. Callum realised just how sentimental Julian was.
They lingered on the bed, enjoying relaxing together. Some gentle kissing led to eager mouths, caressing, pleasure-giving and ultimately, two happily satisfied men.
The rest of the day was spent chilling.
Callum noticed that Julian always liked to be physically touching him with some part of his body, be it a foot, a leg, an arm, or a hand. He clearly loved the physical contact and the closeness of having a partner. It struck him how this was such a contrast from when they first met.
***
Monday 17th March 25
After a lift to an early Monday bootcamp, Callum arrived at The Iron Works around 7 a.m. and opened up.
He’d planned to grab a sandwich from Evalinas as soon as either Jack or Rosie arrived, but he was too early for either of them.
Whilst at the reception, logging on to the computer to check bookings, his phone rang. He saw it was Julian.
“Hey, Cal,” he said. Callum could immediately tell something was wrong.
“What is it?”
“Well, I don’t really know how to tell you this, but my publicist has had a tip-off that some gutter-press photographer papped us in Central Park yesterday and has sold the pictures to some press agencies.”
Callum tried to understand, “I don’t get it, Julian. What does that mean?”
“It means that pictures of you and me relaxing and just being ourselves will probably make the fucking evening news and appear in all the gossip rags.” He was getting angrier as he said it.
“As for me, I absolutely have no fucks to give about shit like this, but for them to put your face in their news is a huge invasion of privacy. I don’t want that for you, Cal. I’m furious.”