Serial Dating

Date Material

Milo led the way to the stairwell that could, potentially, fit the width of a bulldozer. It was so goddamn wide, Lee wondered what the purpose of such a stairwell was. Lee stood at the landing just before the gym basement, realizing that an entire ten Lee Asanos could stand shoulder-to-shoulder and still have room for more on the stairwell.

Milo and Rushil were already at the end of the stairwell by the time Lee's focus returned. He hurried down, shoveling Noods in his mouth so that he could just be done with the bowl sooner rather than later. He didn't want to walk through the entire gym eating.

The basement appeared to be some sort of free weight room. There was a wall of mirrors like this was a ballet class and Lee came severely underprepared. When Milo walked through, Lee wasn't all that surprised to see that everyone seemed to know who Milo was.

There had to be about six guys in the basement that day and every last one of them waved to Milo. They passed a burly looking fella with familiar-looking biceps.

Lee's palms grew clammy. He chucked his Noods in the nearest trash bin as if it was evidence. Rushil snickered at him from where he stood near Milo as the guy clasped onto Roland Ball's hand and reeled him in for a bro hug.

"Hey man, what's goin' on?" Roland said, and, as they pulled away, he gave Milo a fond pat on the cheek and sort of caressed his ear. It was weirdly intimate for two bros at a gym.

Is this another dimension? Am I dreaming? Lee thought, because not only that, but Roland, the USFC Hunter quarterback, was shirtless.

"Christ, your jersey doesn't do you justice," Lee said, out loud.

He slapped his hand over his mouth when both Roland and Milo turned to look at him. Rushil let out a startled laugh and whispered, "What the fuck..."

Roland took a confident step away from Milo and gestured to his defined six-pack. Lee stared at it, his mouth watering. "It's good, huh?" he said before perching his hands on his hips. He thought better of it, though, and turned with a Greek sculpture pose to show off his biceps like he was about to throw discus. "You like?"

"I thought showing off was my job," Milo whined.

Roland turned his back on them, flexing his biceps. The muscles in his back visibly rippled and God, Lee didn't know that was possible. He shivered and clasped his fist against his mouth as he nodded and said, "Yes, good. Very good." His voice cracked over three different syllables.

"I hope you realize that all guys go to the gym just to glean compliments off of unsuspecting women," Rushil said.

"Damn straight," Roland said, pinning Rushil with a wink as he turned back around. Rushil blinked, unfazed. He turned, deadpanned, onto Lee, who was all but trembling under the mighty glory of Roland Ball.

Roland clapped Milo on the back, and Lee realized that he had been entirely too distracted by all of the exposed muscles that he hadn't realized Milo's eyes were on him. Milo startled, looking up at his teammate as Roland said, "You got Coach's email?"

"Yeah, meeting at seven. Got it," Milo said with a firm nod.

"Perfect. Well, I'll leave you all to it. Nice to see you again, Rushil. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow, huh?"

"Yes, I'll definitely be there," Rushil said. As Roland walked off, Lee raised an eyebrow at his lab partner. Rushil blinked at him and said, "What?"

Lee laughed and shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

As they walked down the length of mirrors, Lee found himself staring after Roland Ball. Lee saw photos of him all over his social media—from media coverage of the latest game to the feeds of his friends posting pictures of him being a general goofball. Roland had a plethora of photos—an entire portfolio, really—of pictures of him kissing the cheeks of every football player on the team.