“Sooo,” Bailey’s hips twisted back and forth in a small rocking motion, like maybe he was feeling as awkward as Nate. But the motion made Nate’s mouth go dry. He made a valiant effort to focus on Bailey’s words instead of his midriff poking out beneath his shirt. “Where are you headed?”

“Work,” Nate said.

“Oh, me too!” Bailey beamed. Nate furrowed his brow because the car shop was about twenty minutes away on the other side of town in the industrial park, so if Bailey was on his way to work, he wouldn’t be in old town bugging Nate.

Bailey noticed his confusion and laughed brightly. “I’m picking up lunch for everybody.”

He held up the plastic bag, which Nate could now see actually contained boxes of food. It smelled absolutely incredible, too – like savory meats, fresh bread, and melted cheese. Even though he ate before heading here, his mouth watered with interest.

“Clarke’s.” Bailey shook the bag. “They make the best damn sandwiches this town has to offer.”

That was correct. Plastered to the window of their front door was a little sticker proclaiming that their establishment was the winner of the Best Damn Sandwich award the town council gave out last year as a part of a PR week where they went around awarding small businesses and restaurants.

“They do,” Nate agreed, then after another couple seconds of silence, jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve gotta head to work,” he said, even though he was at least an hour early.

“My car’s parked that way,” Bailey started walking down the sidewalk and Nate, helpless to do anything else, fell into step beside him.

“Do you like their cheesesteak eggrolls?”

“Um,” Nate’s mind scrambled to think about whether or not he had ever actually gotten Clarke’s eggrolls and came up completely blank. “Yeah, they’re pretty good.”

“They are.” Bailey nodded and they lapsed into silence. Nate listened to their footsteps falling against the patterned brick and wondered if he should bring up the other night. He was a little terrified to, for several reasons. Bailey had not yet, so maybe he should just act like it had never happened. But why else would they be having awkward small talk instead of avoiding each other or descending into an argument.

It was not like Nate’s tone had been very nice when he barked at Bailey about going into the road. He lifted his ballcap and scratched his forehead, feeling a little bad about being so short with Bailey before even greeting him. Making him feel doubly guilty and wrong-footed was the fact that Bailey seemed unphased by the curt remark, when under usual circumstances he would have blown up at him about minding his own business. Something had definitely changed between then and now Nate had zero idea how to interact.

The pressure to say something – anything – was like water rising around him, reaching his shoulders, then his chin, and soon he would drown if he did not do something about the tension. But he refused to say something about the weather. A flower petal fell in front of his face. Talking about the flowers would not be much better than the weather.

Thankfully, Bailey broke the tension.

There was a rustle of plastic, a whiff of Bailey’s woody scent, and then Nate’s ballcap was gone. He glanced down to find Bailey grinning at him with wide, innocent eyes, even as he pulled the stolen cap over his head backwards, making tufts of his candy pink hair splay out beneath it.

Nate reached to grab it back, but Bailey ducked away in a cascade of giggles. Instead of the usual twinge of irritation, Nate only felt mild exasperation. It washed over him like a warm, gently breeze, dragging a smile to his lips and stopping him dead in his tracks.

When Bailey realized Nate was not following him anymore, he flitted back to his side and rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay. I’ll give it back.”

But he did not. Instead, he peered up at Nate and bit his lip. He looked a lot younger with Nate’s cap on backwards like that. It was a throwback to when they were kids, and Bailey would wear caps instead of crop tops. He used to have a buzzcut when they were little because he would pull his hair out without even realizing he was tugging on it. Now, it was pretty pink to match the rosy hue of the lip he had caught between his teeth.

“I really enjoyed the other night, you know,” Bailey murmured, “I’m sorry that I dipped so quickly.”

At the sight of his small smile, the sidewalk tilted beneath their feet and all the awkwardness drained away. Nate cleared his throat and grabbed his cap off Bailey’s head so he could flip it and put it on the right way around.

“It’s all good,” he said, “And so did I.”

The way he put the cap on smushed all of Bailey’s hair down over his eyes. He laughed and pulled it off to card his hair back so he could see where he was going and begin walking forward again.

In another couple of steps, he stopped in front of his Camry and pulled his keys out. “Well, this is me.”

Nate wondered if he would get into the car with the cap still on his head. The thought didn’t bother him. He kind of liked the idea of Bailey wearing it around.

“Hang on a second.” Bailey opened the driver’s side door and leaned across the seat to set the food bag down on the passenger seat. He stayed like that rummaging around, one knee on the driver’s seat and the other foot planted on the asphalt. Nate could not see what he was doing, because all conscious thought had been eclipsed by the sight of Bailey bending over.

This pushed his ass out and made his crop top slide further up his back. Nate could see the dimples in his back and the hint of the dragon curling over his side. His ass looked fucking fantastic. All Nate wanted to do was crowd Bailey up against the car so that he was trapped like that as Nate pressed flush against him.

A group of kids bounded past, off to get into trouble on their summer break. Nate blinked and adjusted his shorts. This was not the time nor the place, especially in gym shorts, to be giving himself a hard on.

Thankfully Bailey had been too distracted to notice. By the time he backed out of the car, wiggling his ass in a way that made Nate fucking feral and ninety-five percent sure it had to be on purpose, the only evidence of Nate’s ogling was the redness burning the tips of his ears.

“Here.” Bailey held something out for him. It was a little brown paper food box with a grease stain in one corner and something scribbled across the top. He took it and turned it around to see what was written, but his vision was blocked when Bailey hooked the cap haphazardly back over his head.

By the time he pushed it back, the car door slammed shut and Bailey was sitting behind the wheel. He gave Nate a little wave as he started the engine, then turned his attention to his mirrors as he pulled out of the spot.

Thankfully, this time he checked for oncoming traffic.

Nate watched him drive off, then looked down at the box. It was warm in his hands from the food and written across the top was a phone number followed by a lopsided little heart. He opened the box and found that it had three cheesesteak eggrolls inside.

His heart went a little lopsided as he glanced over his shoulder to watch Bailey’s car turn out of sight.

Apparently, Bailey did enjoy their tryst. And apparently things had changed between them. And maybe he wanted to enjoy more trysts together.

Nate could only hope.

He pulled his cap off and straightened it before continuing down the street toward the gym, feeling like his feet were hardly touching the ground.

Marian noticed straight away. “You finally wore her down, eh?”

Nate tossed his cap into his locker and narrowed his eyes. She leaned up against the counter with the cabinet of mugs open behind her head, the coffee pot burbling at her elbow, and a tub of protein powder in one hand. She scrutinized the label like an old lady who forgot her readers instead of looking at Nate as she spoke.

“What are you talking about?” he shut the locker and leaned against the door with his arms crossed.

“Practicing the gun show?” Marian’s eyes slid to his crossed arms.

Nate had a violent flashback to Bailey panting and moaning because he was strong enough to fuck him up against a wall. His face grew hot too quickly for him to tamp down the memory and play it off. Marian noticed immediately, despite not actually looking at him, and set the protein powder aside to smirk at him.

“Fuck off,” he growled when she just cocked her head back and waited for him to say something. But he could not keep the smile off his face. Marian grinned back.

“Now listen here,” she began, only pausing to reach across the space between them and smack his arm when he mouthed along to her words since he already knew what she was going to say from her tone. “I’ve known you since you were this big, and I’ve seen you with plenty of crushes before. I can tell you finally got lucky.”

Hopefully she really was on the money because she had known him since he was little, not because he was being painfully obvious to everyone within a mile radius.

“Yeah, I got lucky, but I don’t know if its going to go anywhere,” Nate admitted, because it would just be easier that way. “Situation’s still complicated, you know?”

“I don’t know,” Marian grinned. She was a chronic one-night stander, hooking up with guys from different dating apps for a first date only before ghosting them. She said she was just keeping things simple for herself, but Nate thought maybe she should go to a therapist about her fear of abandonment. But she was ten years his senior and definitely not looking for advice from some young dude she’d known since he was shorter than her hip. “But if you ever want to talk, I’ll be here.”

That was not likely. She was also one of his mom’s best friends, and there was zero chance she would be able to keep a secret from her even if she tried. His mom had an amazing, magical, terrible skill to draw whatever information out of whoever she wanted. The CIA would have been blessed by her presence had she chosen a different career path.

“I’d rather not,” Nate told her. He opened his locker again and reached for the tape so he could start wrapping his hands. He really should give his body a break, but he also needed to work out the uncomfortable shame pricking beneath his skin, and the adrenaline still oozing in his blood from running into Bailey and bumbling through an amiable interaction. And getting his number. Now the ball was in his court, technically, and he would have to work up the nerve to text him. His stomach twisted.

“So…” Marian returned to the coffee pot to pour herself a mug. “You’re going to punch it out, instead?”

“Yep,” Nate nodded and sat at the table in the center of the room.

“The ring is free if you want to go a few rounds with me,” Marian offered, bringing her coffee over to sit with him. Nate considered it. If he went for the punching bag, he could really go to town, turn his arms into jelly, and make his body numb to all of the confusing feelings he was having. But as soon as he showered the sweat off and relaxed once he got home, they would grab hold of him again. What he needed was to rebalance himself, to try and gain some goddamn control over his mind again. Sparring with Marian would help him focus and redirect all his nervous energy instead of beating it out of himself.

“Okay,” he said. Marian snatched the tape from him to start wrapping her knuckles as well.