The Better Side of Me - Jerry Cole Page 0,27

body still aching, he pushed himself off the bed and to his feet. He had to get out of here. He had to get back to his apartment, lock the door, close the blinds, crawl into a corner somewhere and then re-assess the rest of his life and all the bad decisions he’d made up until this—

“Morning, sunshine.” Lance was sitting at the dining room table, enjoying what looked to be a fresh cup of coffee. As handsome as ever, maybe even more so in the morning sun, he smiled at Kirk as he took a sip from his mug. “You look pleasant.” Indeed, the sun seemed to shine off of his shaved head.

“Shit!— I mean, hey!” Kirk shouted by accident. He stumbled backward, nearly tripped up but caught his footing. “Morning.”

“How’d you sleep?” Lance could not have looked more relaxed. He wore his usual gym gear, and from the looks of things he might have even worked out already. How the hell was that even possible?

“Oh... right... yeah I...” Kirk’s eyes shot over the room They landed on the front door. The exit. “I’ve got to go.” He stumbled toward the front door without even looking at Lance. How could he? He was beyond mortified and just wanted to get the heck out of there!

“What?” Lance half stood. “You’re leaving?”

“I had a good time last night.” Kirk was at the door. He threw it open. “I’ll... I’ll talk to you later.” Out the door now, Kirk slammed it closed without so much as looking back at Lance.

Free of Lance’s apartment, Kirk hoped that he might have started to feel better. Of course, this wasn’t the case. If anything, he felt worse! Not only had he made a fool of himself last night, but now he had utterly embarrassed himself again! He could have hung around a little, tried to make the situation less uncomfortable. But instead he had run away like a child. God, he could only imagine what Lance thought of him now.

Kirk had never felt so ill. He stumbled from Lance’s apartment building and onto the street. The cool morning air lashed at his face and again, made him feel even worse. Kirk pushed through the feeling and started the long walk home.

What the hell had happened last night? Well, Kirk knew what had happened. Lance had invited him to dinner to ask for a favor. Obviously, Kirk had agreed, if for no other reason than he wanted to spend more time with Lance. But that had been where the night should have ended. If they had finished dinner and then parted ways, Kirk would have counted the night as a success. In fact, based on how he was currently feeling, he wished that were what he had done!

So, Lance was gay then. At least that was out of the bag now. But was it even a good thing? Kirk had just humiliated himself in front of the man. If Lance was gay, if Lance had any feelings toward Kirk, surely, they were a thing of the past? They had to be! And as to what happened last night? That kiss? That moment... it must have been a slip. Lance must have been feeling lonely, or sad, or drunk. Surely, something like that could and would never happen again!

As if by pure serendipity, Hercules Gym suddenly appeared across the road. Just the sight of the place made Kirk’s stomach churn. And then he remembered Lance telling him that he had taken over Kirk’s training, and Kirk thought he might be sick. As it currently stood, he wouldn’t mind if he never saw Lance again.

It was a spur of the moment thing and had he stopped to really think about it, Kirk might have done things differently. But when considering how he felt, and what he had done the previous night, he truly believed there was no other option. So, still feeling like absolute shit, Kirk limped across the road, entered Hercules Gym and cancelled his membership.

“Are you sure?” the muscular receptionist asked when Kirk demanded that his membership be cancelled from today.

“Yes,” Kirk groaned. His stomach was churning inside of him and if he wasn’t careful, he might have just thrown up over the receptionist too. “From today.”

“There is a cancellation fee,” the receptionist warned. “But if you wait until the end of the month, that fee is waived.”

“It’s fine. I’ll pay it.” Kirk swallowed and handed over his card. The receptionist took the card, swiped it,