Page 22 of The Weight of Love

Wow, I thought you were gone since I haven’t seen you around the gym.

10:36 AM

Cowboy: Hardly. I’m just laying here in bed, thinking about you, actually.

10:38 AM

That’s a dangerous habit. We’re supposed to be friends, remember?

10:40 AM

Cowboy: Friends who happen to have really great…cardio sessions.

10:55 AM

Really, really great cardio sessions. But they seem to make you hate me after.

10:55 AM

Cowboy: I don’t hate you. I don’t think I could.

10:59 AM

Cowboy: I’m sorry I have been such a distant ass lately. I don’t know what I’m doing.

11:30 AM:

Cowboy: Where’d you go?

1:24 PM

Sorry, I was making pies.

1:25 PM

Cowboy: Pie? Oh god, now I’m hard just thinking about pie. I freaking love pie. You know that show, Supernatural? Yeah, I’m pretty much Dean when it comes to pie. I wish I had some pie right now, lol.

1:27 PM

Do I need to bring you some pie? Just as friends.

We switch to a phone call so I can free my hands and keep up with his pie obsessions while I finish baking.

“As friends, huh?”

“Well, Cowboy, those were your terms, remember? After we hooked up, you were the one who got all moral about it. I was happy just enjoying the ride—lots of hot sex and no strings.”

He goes silent, and it throws me, making me second-guess my efforts to play it cool and hide just how much he’s really been on my mind.

“You’re really stuck on that, aren’t you?” His voice carries a mix of curiosity and something else I can’t quite place.

“I mean, you set the terms. I’m just trying to do what you asked, you know?”

“Hmmm.”

“Don’t ‘hmmm’ me, Mister. You know I’m not wrong.”

His silence stretches before he finally speaks, “So, all this time, it’s just been about the sex for you? You haven’t seen me as anything more? Have you been with other men?”