The Better Side of Me - Jerry Cole Page 0,14

had been right too; it wasn’t that hard. Lance had all the information he needed. It had just been a matter of actually sitting down and doing the work.... and not panicking every time a new challenge arose.

By the time they were done, it was getting onto 9am and the locker room had long since started to fill up. There were half-naked men peppered throughout, not to mention the smell that came with it. But Lance barely noticed. Not only was he too excited to pitch his idea to Abraham again, but he was also just a little enamored with Kirk.

“You really are something else,” he said as they finished up. He could not have been more serious. “Really.”

“Oh... stop it.” Kirk winked and waved him down. He then blushed scarlet and looked away. “It was nothing.”

“No, seriously. Thanks.” Lance stood up and held his hand out for Kirk to shake.

Kirk eyed the hand like it was a snake and then, slowly, reached out and shook it. “No problem – and let me know how it goes too. I want to be your first customer when the place opens.”

“Deal,” Lance agreed with a chuckle. “Play your cards right and I might even give you a freebie.”

“Only if it’s in the budget though, right.”

“Duh,” Lance winked.

It was small step in the right direction, but Lance could feel the importance of it. He would go to Abraham again, he would demand another meeting, and he would lay out clearly everything he had done today. And most importantly, he wouldn’t break down into a panic when he did it. Then, surely, Abraham would get behind his idea. There was just no way he couldn’t! And all of it was thanks to Kirk.

Kirk said his goodbyes and left the locker room soon after, and Lance watched him go with amazing curiosity. He had been dismissive of the little man when they’d first met. Shy, weak, and a little boring to boot; that assessment had been completely wrong. There was something special about Kirk, something that Kirk was so desperate to hide and that Lance was only just beginning to see. Despite himself, Lance found that he was already looking forward to seeing him again, whenever that might be.

How very strange.

Chapter Five

Kirk liked to think of himself as an enigma. For instance, for someone that hated being the center of attention, and who often became panicky in large crowds, Kirk had always considered himself to be very good at his job. This was strange when taking into account that he was a university professor who spoke in front of large classrooms and packed auditoriums every single day.

It was confidence related, of course. Kirk had long since come to realize that he lacked confidence in the same way that fish lacked wings; it just didn’t exist on his person. But this was only true when he was forced to do or say something that he wasn’t good at. If there was ever a chance of him embarrassing himself, he would collapse into a heap rather than put himself in that situation. The problem with this was that he considered himself bad at almost everything.

But it was different when it came to teaching. When Kirk stood in front of a roomful of hungry minds, eager to learn, ready to lap up his opinions like thirsty dogs in a pool, he thrived.

The auditorium that Kirk currently stood in was filled with perhaps eighty students, but it had the potential to be as many as two hundred. They were spread out, laptops open, eyes trained on him, ears perked up and listening to every single thing he said. It should have been daunting.

“... Caesar was constantly fighting himself. He knew what he had to do. He just didn’t know if he could do it.” His voice was a little more high-pitched than he would have liked, but it carried through the room like a wave. “Rome was the greatest city of the age. Of all time! And it could have been even greater. Caesar knew this. And he knew how to do it! But to do what actually needed to be done... well, that was something else—”

Kirk’s pocket suddenly began to vibrate from the cell, tucked away in there. He grimaced and indicated to his class to wait a moment. He then shoved his hand in his pocket and stopped the call.

“Oooooohhhooooo” the students mocked in unison.

“All right,” Kirk teased. “I’ll make sure to write myself up,” he said