Free The Trainer by Jamie Lake Page B

concern, Chris felt panicked. Mason stopped when he was close enough to kiss him, leaning down conspiratorially, with the shadow of his tall frame shielding Chris’ eyes from the bright sun.
    “Hey, I’m sorry... ” Mason said, stepping up to him. “I can’t keep acting like nothing’s up. It’s weird and disrespectful.”
    “What do you mean?” Chris asked, fishing for more.
    “I mean, we should probably talk about yesterday,” Mason said in a low tone, as if there were other people around he didn’t want to overhear.
    “What about it?” Chris asked, not sure what he was going to say next.
    Mason took a deep breath, “I’m not sure, really. You’re a really great guy, Chris and I like hangin’ with you. I like training you and I don’t want that to change.”
    Oh, great. I’ve heard this speech before, Chris thought.
    “So...” Chris said , fishing for more information.
    “It’s just...I've never... I’ve never done anything like with a guy before, and...”
    “No, I understand,” Chris cut him off.
    “And it’s just my daughter. If we ever did anything and my ex found out, she could...”
    “No, you’re right , we should...we shouldn’t even go there.”
    Mason paused for a second , trying to read Chris’ feelings, “You’re...are you cool with that? I mean, like I said, you’re a really amazing dude, and maybe if things were different, something could happen. I really like you Chris, and that massage was pretty hot. I mean I actually got super hard, which was a first.”
    “Look, you don’t need to explain yourself,” Chris said , backing off. “If you want to cool it, we’ll cool it. We can still train and hang, and we don’t even need to hang really.”
    “No, that’s not what I mean,” Mason asked, his face looking quizzical and confused.
    “Yeah, I get it. Let’s just keep training. I’ve got a bunch of work to do, and I have to cut it kind of short today.”
    Mason felt a little taken aback. This wasn’t what he expected; the terseness of Chris’ tone hit him like a slap in the face , and he was starting to regret saying what he did. But Chris just hurled the medicine ball and resumed his training.  Was it just Mason’s imagination, or was he being extra aggressive? They continued training, not talking much between each of the repetitions or sets. All business, just like Mason said he wanted.
     
     
     
     
     
     
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    CHAPTER 15
     
    C hris threw himself into his novel the rest of that day with gusto. He ate a healthy lunch of red beans and brown rice with a fresh mango, but he felt blocked whenever he sat down to work. He couldn’t stop thinking about Mason. So he turned on the TV, then the DVD player, trying to watch some movies for inspiration, but mostly to drown the thoughts in his head.  But nothing was working.  The truth was, he felt like crying. His nose stung and his eyes burned. This was so stupid to be upset about this, he told himself.
    He’s a straight guy , and Chris had only known him for a few days. He didn’t want to get involved with someone like that anyway:  too much confusion, as was already apparent. That was so Chris over a decade ago:  trying to figure out who he was. Thinking that straight guys could be converted like they were Coke loyalists trying out Pepsi. Now, Chris thought he should be way past that. If shoulds and woulds were raisins and nuts, he’d have a big bowl of granola, right?
                  About halfway through the day, Jessica stopped by with a pile of drafting she had edited, and a bunch of gossip that had nothing to do with anybody Chris knew. He was distracted the whole time, staring at the floor or out the window, thinking about Mason, about his little adorable daughter, about the awkward conversation they had earlier.
                  “Hello?” Jessica asked, “Earth to Christopher?”
                  “What?” Chris looked