Page 5 of Unicorn Unashamed

Chapter Three

An hour later, and Josh was taking another breather. The first thing he did after downing some more water was stumble to the bathroom to reapply his scent blocker again. The stuff he used was good enough for most cases, but not even the more heavy-duty blockers that his insurance did cover could last through a sweaty workout session without fail. Josh hadn’t had a problem yet, but he figured that there was never any harm in being careful. The last thing he wanted to do was have Raymond sniff him out and thus make Raymond uncomfortable.

When he emerged feeling slightly more human—and slightly less wobbly—it was to find Raymond texting on the phone.

Raymond looked up at him. “Okay, so I’m talking to Curtis. He says he’s totally cool with you joining us, if you want to.”

“Okay.” He was glad that his breathlessness could be chalked up to the exercise, and not the idea of going out with Raymond later. Even if Josh was going to be the third person in the party, just the idea of seeing Raymond outside of a session was enough to make his head spin.

Stupid virile period. Normally Josh was way less head over heels. Or at least, way less obviously head over heels.

Raymond’s phone flashed again, and he glanced back down at it. “Sorry, the only thing is that Curtis was going to bring someone too, maybe, so we’re talking about that… do you mind waiting one more minute before we get started again?”

Josh raised an eyebrow. “Mind that I’ll be getting a longer break?”

Raymond snorted. “You pay for a full hour and a half, you’ll be getting a full hour and a half, this break aside.”

Josh laughed. “Okay.” He’d never complain about more time with Raymond, even if he spent most of it sweating his ass off. And tonight you’ll get even more time with him. He rolled his shoulders, trying to appear nonchalant. “Finish talking to your friend. I’ll be over here. Resting.”

“Okay, Mr. Dramatic, I don’t work you that hard.”

“So you’re saying I don’t get my money’s worth with you?”

Raymond grinned. “Love you too, man.”

Josh’s stomach absolutely did not do a flip-flop. Raymond was just like that. He said stuff like that all the time. And Josh was going to react to basically anything Raymond said to him right now anyway. He just had to keep on going like it was no big deal.

“Okay,” Raymond said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “All set. I’m yours for the rest of our session.”

If only. Josh nodded. “Okay, what’s next?”

Raymond grinned and pointed to the balance board. “Hop up. Left leg first.”

Josh groaned and did as he was told, doing his best to keep his balance as Raymond led him through a new series of movements.

“Oh, uh, there’s one more thing,” Raymond said as Josh concentrated on not falling off the balance board as he did his kettlebell sets.

“Yeah?” Raymond sounded nervous, but Josh couldn’t imagine why. “What’s up?”

“So I said that Curtis is bringing a friend?”

“Yeah. We’re double-dating.” The flirt just slipped out, and Josh had to hide his wince.

Raymond just chuckled though, still looking nervous. “Right, so uh. I promised that you’re really awesome and laid-back, so it’s not an issue or anything but Curtis wanted to make sure I told you ahead of time so you wouldn’t be too taken aback and also warn you kind of that—”

“Raymond,” Josh interrupted, knowing that if he didn’t Raymond would continue to nervously ramble. “Just tell me.”

“Curtis is bringing Simon Walsh.”

Josh jerked in surprise, cursing as it threw off his balance and made his board touch the ground. He took the minute to gather his thoughts as he got back onto the board, but it didn’t help. “Okay.” It was all he could come up with. “I mean that’s… kind of stupidly cool. But it’s not a problem.”

Raymond exhaled. “I didn’t think it would be. I just, you know, wanted to make sure you wouldn’t freak out or something. Not that I thought you would.”

Josh chuckled. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“Oh, you know what I mean.” Raymond rubbed the back of his neck. “Honestly, it’s mostly for Simon’s benefit, you know? He’s in the public eye a lot, and that’s stressful.”

“Yeah.” Josh didn’t keep up so much with celebrity news and gossip, but he definitely wasn’t the only unicorn who followed Simon’s career simply because he was a fellow shifter. It was kind of nice to see a unicorn rise in Hollywood ranks despite all the stigma attached to being one, but Simon also still had to deal with a lot of people calling him out for being flighty, or emotionally unstable, or other shit. “I can imagine. But don’t worry, I promise I’ll be cool. Thanks for the heads-up.”

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