and knowing that the man he still loved would be in financial ruin for some time on account of him was one of the worst feelings he could experience. He had to rectify it.
And yes, this meant that Lance was no longer in pursuit of his own dreams. But that didn’t really matter. If there was a chance this would make him feel better... and that it would make Kirk happy, then that was all that really mattered.
Oh, yes. And there was one other thing. It was a pipe dream at the moment, an idea that Lance didn’t even want to contemplate, just in case he jinxed it. But when he saw Kirk, he would know what to do and what to say. He just had to wait for the right moment.
It was thus that Lance made his way home that night feeling better than he had in the past two weeks. It wasn’t by a huge amount, but it was a start. At least that was something.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Strangely enough, Kirk wasn’t even angry. And really, he had every reason to be. After all that Lance had done to him, no one, anywhere, would have begrudged him a little rage right now. But try as he might to get mad, Kirk just couldn’t do it. He was far too worried for that.
It was just past 9am, and Kirk was powering down the busy Sydney street on his way to Hercules Gym. He no longer worked out there of course, and had assumed he’d never have to step foot in the place again. Yet here he was, gearing up to walk through the front doors just like old times. Worse too that he was going to have to speak with Lance as soon as he arrived. Heck, that was the reason he was going there in the first place.
Lance had missed his first payment. It was supposed to have been made the previous evening, followed by a quick text message to let Kirk know it had been done. But there had been no text. And after checking the account this morning, there had also been no transfer. For whatever reason, Lance had decided to ignore the deal the two had made.
Was this an act of rebellion? Was this Lance’s way of saying he wasn’t going to bother with the payments? That there was nothing Kirk could do? Was this some sort of petty way of getting back at Kirk? Or was it something much worse? He had no idea... but he was going to find out.
The gym was basically empty when Kirk arrived, but the Macro Bar was up and running as he had expected. Frustratingly, there was no Lance in sight, just Cassandra dancing behind the counter as she whipped up a couple of smoothies.
“Kirk!” she blurted at the sight of him. She instantly stopped what she was doing and hurried around the counter. “Jesus! Thank God!” She grabbed onto his shoulders.
Kirk’s stomach dropped through the floor. “What’s wrong – is it Lance? What happened? Is he all right?!”
“Huh— oh, yeah, sorry. He’s fine.” Cassandra slapped at her forehead. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have been so dramat—”
“Cass!” Kirk exploded. “What is going on? Where’s Lance?” He glanced around the gym, hoping to see the man he still admittedly loved, wandering through the equipment. “Is he all right?”
“Yeah, he’s fine.” Cassandra gave her head a shake and then moseyed back behind the counter and started up again on the smoothies. “Like, physically he’s fine. But I think he fell over and smacked his head or something. Honestly, I can’t think of what else might have caused it.”
Now, Kirk was starting to get frustrated. He approached the bar slowly, put both his hands flat on the counter and stared Cassandra down. “Cass, look at me.” She stopped what she was doing and did just that. “Where is Lance? I haven’t heard from him and I need to check – it doesn’t matter why. Is he here?”
“No.” Cassandra looked at Kirk like he was the crazy one. “He’s at the bank with Abraham. You literally just missed him.”
“At the bank? Why is he at the bank?”
She rolled her eyes. “Duh. He’s selling the bar to Abraham – at a fucking steal too, if you ask me. Which he didn’t. Just came in this morning and told me—”
“He’s selling the bar!” Kirk exclaimed. He couldn’t believe it. Surely, he had misheard. “What do you mean he’s selling the bar?”
“Exactly what I just told you.”