Page 4 of Mike

“Hey, Andy,” Mike called out, urging the guy over with a wave of his hand.

The guy smirked as he walked in Mike’s direction. “Don’t tell me. You want a real challenge this morning. One you didn’t get with that pair. Give me a couple minutes to take care of an employee dispute, then I’ll give your ass a beat-down.”

Mike grinned. “Thanks anyway, Andy, but I don’t have time today. I did, however…” His smile faltered. How did he say this without sounding creepy? Nobody here knew he was single; that his wife had left him a year ago. He’d kept it deep under wraps because… Dammit. He’d considered it a personal failure when Mellie had walked out on him with a “dude” a decade younger than him.

Mike cleared his throat, attempting to sound casual.

“I, uh, don’t suppose you happen to know who the blonde is who just walked out? I…think I’ve seen her before at some conference or another.” Shit, that sounded lame, even to his own ears, but Andy didn’t call him on it.

“Nope. Never seen her before. She’s a knock-out though, huh?” Had Andy winked?

“I guess.” Mike tried to appear disinterested. “I just wonder if she has any close-quarters combat training. You know me. I’m always looking for a new opponent to shake things up.”

Yup. In the last year he’d taken on most everybody in the gym and on the team.

“Fresh meat, huh? I guess that makes me yesterday’s rump roast?”

He and Andy were pretty evenly matched, actually, so they both laughed, and Mike decided to drop his inquiries. At least for now. Maybe the mystery woman would show up again.

Cisco walked up and joined them, having just come into the gym. “Hi, Andy.” Andy gave a salute and walked away. “Bye, Andy,” Cisco laughed, then turned to Mike. “Gotta ask. How did the new wannabes perform?”

“Phht,” Mike snorted. “They sucked ass. No way they’re going to make the team.”

“Good. Because I’m hungry. And if you’d been on the fence about one or the other of them, you’d still be knocking them around the room and it might have cut into our lunch hour.”

Cisco was always thinking with his stomach. The man was a bottomless pit.

“Like you didn’t eat two Big Man’s Breakfasts at the diner this morning,” Mike guessed.

“Two plus an additional side of bacon, if you must know. But that was four hours ago. I’m empty again.”

Mike chuckled. “You have a place in mind?” He really didn’t even need to ask. The man’s go-to spot this summer was a taco truck that set up on Main Street, because his current female fixation was the woman behind the grill.

“Tacos?” Cisco posited.

“You’re so predictable,” Mike chuckled. “But, yeah. We can do that. I need to text Doug and Kyle.”

“Already done, my man.”

“Great. Which means you’ve also put in an advance order for your dozen tacos, and will have half of them gone before ours are even up.”

“Jealous that the owner has a thing for me?” Cisco smirked.

“Right. You wish. And no.” Maybe. A little. The proprietress was a hot redhead and he’d have to be dead not to notice.

“That’s a lie. But there’s no need to covet my territory,” Cisco retaliated. “All you assholes I hang with are happily married now, so I’m the only one of us with a pretty face who’s on the market.”

Mike managed to hold back a wince. If Cisco only knew. Mike was single, and the need for female companionship was starting to eat at him. But there was a problem. Mike had no idea how to attract women. Hell, he’d married right out of high school, and hadn’t ever looked at any female besides Mellie during their eighteen-year marriage. He was clueless how to break into the dating scene, and even if he wasn’t, in order to get on the market, he needed to come clean with his friends, and tell them he was no longer married.

But he couldn’t.

He felt like he’d been…cuckolded, and it didn’t sit well. Mike didn’t like to lose at anything, and the end of his marriage seemed like an epic failure. He wasn’t eager to broadcast that to the world.

Mike bent and picked up his gym bag, hiding his pained expression. It only took a few seconds to don his game-face again.

“Let’s roll,” he told Cisco with a crooked grin.

“You don’t have to ask me twice. You want to walk?”

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