Page 13 of His Hungry Wolf

“Call me Merri,” he told me as we returned to his father. “He’s ready, and he’s really good,” Merri said enthusiastically.

“Oh yeah? Let’s see it,” Coach said sending me onto the field.

Sitting at my office desk, I was snapped out of the memory by a notification on my phone.

The text read, ‘Hey Claude, Merri here. This is my number in case you need to get a hold of me. Let’s grab a bite to eat.’

I stared at the message. Why was Merri here? Was there actually a workout? Or was there something else going on like Titus had suggested?

‘Let’s meet tonight. There’s a diner on Main Street. I’ll be there at 7,’ I wrote back.

It wasn’t long before his reply arrived.

‘Excellent! Can’t wait. Thanks.’

My chest clenched reading it. What was it about Merri that got me to do things I didn’t want to do? I didn’t want the spotlight from playing quarterback. But he convinced me and we won three consecutive titles.

I had walked away from football. Yet, here I was… Hell, I didn’t know what I was doing.

All I knew was that I had been happy having Merri out of my life. Well, maybe I wasn’t happy, but I was figuring it out. And now, here I am excited about seeing him again.

I didn’t want to be excited about seeing him. He had said awful things to me. Was I so desperate to connect with someone that I was going to overlook what he did? What he had said?

This wasn’t me at all. I felt like I was slowly losing myself. Clearly Merri still had some type of power over me. And if he could convince me to ignore what happened the last time I saw him, what else could he convince me to do?

Chapter 5

Merri

I sat in my room still buzzing from seeing Claude again. I had forgotten how good he looked. I mean, he was hard to forget, but somehow he still made my heart thump. Looking at my hands, they were shaking.

No one else has ever had this effect on me. That was why I ran away from my feelings for him back at school. Every day that passed I was losing my grip on the image I had worked a lifetime to maintain.

I was the son of a football coach. All I ever wanted to do was follow in his footsteps. If I were gay, I could never have that. So I thought that if I could fight my feelings for Claude, my dreams would come true.

How had I made such a mess of things? Not able to take my mind off of Claude’s text, when my phone rang, I immediately answered it.

“Hello?” I said hoping to hear his voice.

“So you decided to pick up?” the caller replied.

“Jason?” I asked.

I looked at the caller ID. It read ‘Unknown’.

“Expecting someone else?”

“No, I… I was waiting for a business call.”

“I bet you were,” he said with the venom that had brought me to tears at the end of the last game of the season.

“I’m not cheating on you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t. But it’s good to know where your mind’s at.”

“What is it Jason?” I said not wanting to have this conversation.

“Is that how you’re gonna talk to me? You leave town without telling me and that’s what you’re gonna say?”

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