Page 57 of The Weight Of It All
“So if it makes no difference, then tell me.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nope. Come on, weights time. I’ll give you a few minutes break. Have a drink of water, and we’ll be using the free weights today.”
He left me alone for a minute, giving me time to get my breath back and to stew over what time he could run three kilometres in. By the time he came back, my lungs were no longer on fire and I was breathing normally. I had the twelve-kilo dumbbells set aside on the flat bench.
“Lie down with your back on the bench, feet flat on the floor,” he said as he walked back over to me.
I’m pretty sure he said something similar to me in my dream last night…
He ran me through some lifting, me lying on my back on the flat bench doing chest flies and him on his knees at my side. “Keep your abs tight,” he said, touching my stomach. “Keep your arms even. That’s it, perfect. Can you feel that in your pecs and core?”
I could feel him touching me in every cell of my body. “Yeah.”
Then I had to think horrible thoughts, because lying down on a bench in gym shorts with him this close and touching me wasn’t great for modesty. A hard-on right now would be horrifying.
“Okay, do another rep,” he demanded.
Concentrating on lifting the heavy weights and notdropping them on my face worked well for killing hard-ons, and by the time I’d done another ten, I was sure I had it all under control.
But then he made it worse. “Okay, now stand up for me. Next up is bent-over rows. Like this…”
He rested one hand and one knee on the flat bench and lifted the dumbbell from the floor to his side. Which was fine for him, albeit very nice to look at, but not so much for me. Because being in a bent-over position with him close by sent a warm rush of blood straight to my cock. I did as he did, with one hand and one knee resting on the flat bench, trying really hard not to imagine him standing behind me, my gym shorts pulled down just enough to give him access, and him taking me deep…
“You okay, Henry?”
Shit, shit, shit. I’d forgotten to keep lifting the dumbbell, and God knows if I’d mumbled anything out loud. I cleared my throat. “Yes. I’m super fine, just dandy.”
Super fine, just dandy? What the fuck, Henry?
“Is that Mary Poppins?”
Weights forgotten, I stood up straight and looked around the gym. “Where?”
Reed burst out laughing. “Never mind.” He took the weights from me, and it was then I noticed Emily, Reed’s closest friend, standing over near some client by the rowing machines, but she was watching us?or Reed, more to the point?and she was smiling. Reed was suddenly beside me. “Okay, on the floor, Henry. Face down.”
“I’ve had better come on lines,” I said without thinking.
Reed just laughed. “I should hope so.” I got down on the floor, as did Reed next to me. “Plank, thirty seconds on, ten seconds off, three rounds. And go.”
“Ugh,” I whined. “Planking is ridiculous.” I had somuch more to say on that subject, but planking and holding conversations was something I couldn’t do at the same time.
Reed apparently had no trouble. “So what have you got planned for tomorrow night?”
I could only shake my head, and when the thirty seconds was up, I flopped to the ground and groaned. “I can only talk when I’m not planking, so I have ten seconds to say that I have no plans for tomorrow evening, and I’d like to meet whomever invented planking and poke them in the eyes.”
Reed chuckled. “Okay, that’s ten. Up for another thirty.”
I lifted myself off the ground to resume the hellish planking position. I was starting to tremble, and Reed was doing it so easy, he looked like he could be watching TV.
“So if you’re not doing anything, I still need to make that lamb salad, and you now have to make me that Turkish tart with beetroot that you sent me the photo of, so I was thinking you might want to do that tomorrow night?”
Jesus that sounded a lot like he was asking me on a date.
“That’s thirty seconds,” he said, lowering himself to the floor.
I crumpled to the mat with anoomph, though now my inability to speak wasn’t from exercise. “I um… I’m…”
He gave me a smile that was almost sad. “Okay, that’s ten. Last thirty seconds.” He lifted himself effortlessly into the plank position, and I had to reef myself up with every bit of strength I had left.
