Page 37 of Nate

He ended up staying with Kevin through the rest of his workout. They didn’t say anything personal, just worked together in a quiet and familiar routine. When they were done, Kevin extended his hand. Nate took it, not sure what to make of the gesture.

“You’ve been great helping me out. I really appreciate it. I want to honor my word on creating that app for you if you haven’t hired anybody else to do it.”

Nate was surprised Kevin was still willing to do the project for him. “No, I haven’t.”

“I finally have space in my schedule. Come over tomorrow and we’ll get to work on it. You know where I live.”

Nate smiled a little, still not clear whether they were only communicating for business purposes or something more. “Yeah, I do.”

“See you tomorrow then.”

Nate watched as Kevin went back to the locker room. Was Kevin willing to work things out? Going by the impersonal way they’d talked to each other for the past half hour, he wasn’t sure. But he had a chance to spend some time with Kevin and he was damn sure going to take advantage of it.

∞∞∞

Kevin looked at himself in the mirror. He looked good. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt as usual. But he looked healthier, more fit, filling out his clothes nicely. The apartment was clean, his desk cleared off so he and Nate would have room to work. His plan was simple. Get Nate up here, calmly get started working on his app and try a little flirting to let him know he was still interested.

The apartment buzzer sounded so Kevin clicked off the bathroom light to go over and let Nate up. Just like before, he opened the door to watch Nate walk down the hall. He looked as good as ever, tall and blond, his stride long, loose and confident. He noticed that Nate had dressed up a little, replacing his athletic clothes with dark jeans and a dark gray polo. When he came in, the scent of his cologne teased Kevin’s nose, reminding him of their workouts at the gym. And in bed.

“No sneaking in behind little old ladies this time?” he asked as he closed the door behind him.

Nate smiled. “Not this time.”

“Have a seat.” He’d pulled the armchair over next to his desk for Nate to sit in while they worked. “Do you want anything to eat or drink? I have healthy snacks since it’s not Friday.”

“Whatever you have is fine.”

Kevin brought over the veggie tray he’d made up, along with two glasses of iced tea. He set everything down on the desk before taking a seat. “All right, tell me what you need.”

Nate looked at him for a long moment, before he started explaining what he needed. “I’d like guests to be able to set up a calendar for their workouts, with reminders. A schedule to plan what exercises they should do, a tracker for their progress and a reward system tied to Nate’s Gym.

“That’s a lot. It all sounds good, but let’s begin with the calendar.” They got started, Kevin explaining how he could set it up and getting more details on how Nate wanted it to look on smart phone screens. He was always at ease talking about work and he’d grown so comfortable with Nate, that before he knew it, an hour had passed and he’d done nothing to let Nate know he wanted to get back together. He grew quiet, unsure how to change the subject from work to them.

“Are you okay? I just said I wanted an angry hippo to pop up on the screen when guests logged a fast food meal and you said no problem.”

Kevin laughed, pushing a hand through his dreads. “Sorry. It’s just... I had this plan. I was going to get us going with work and then segue into what I really wanted to talk about. But I couldn’t think of anything to say to change the subject from mobile apps to relationships and now I’m just blurting it out like a goof.”

Nate smiled. “Kevin, did you invite me here under false pretenses?”

Those big, dark Bambi eyes peeped up at him from beneath curly lashes. “Maybe.”

As far as he was concerned, Kevin didn’t have to say anything else. All Nate needed was that look to be right back where he was before, on the way to falling in love with him. But Kevin had something to say, so he would let him say it. “So then, if the app development was just a ruse, why did you really want me to come over?”

Kevin swiveled his desk chair to face him. “I wanted you to come over so I could tell you I’m an idiot. Nobody who was so adamant that Detective Kaos always do the right thing could pull the dirty trick I suspected you of.” He grinned. “And clearly Vanessa has never had sex with you like I have. No way you’re gay for pay.”

“She said that? I’m firing her ass tomorrow.”

Laughing, Kevin put a hand on his chest. “Don’t. Just leave it. She made a play and she failed. If it wasn’t for my own hang ups and social anxiety, she would never have been able to convince me of that. And in all seriousness, I’m sorry I doubted you.”

Nate didn’t say anything to that. He’d figured Vanessa had said more than she let on and he couldn’t let that type of behavior go in his company. But that wasn’t important right now. Right now it was all about Kevin. “I’m sorry that she made you doubt what I feel for you. I can tell you to trust what we have until I’m blue in the face, but it won’t happen until you’re ready.”

“I know. I Googled social anxiety and low self-esteem. I found some ideas for relaxation and redirecting negative thoughts into positive ones.”

“Hmmm... so does that mean whenever you start to think I don’t really like you for you, you’ll think of how you got me so turned on explaining all the slash ships in The Avengers that we didn’t even make it through the movie before I had you underneath me?”

Nate watched as a blush worked its way up Kevin’s neck to his cheeks.

“Something like that. Anyway, I wish I could think of something cool to say, but I can’t. I’m hoping you’ll just think I’m adorkable and take me back.”

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