The next day I woke to find that I could barely walk from my workout. In particular, my thighs and ass were so sore and stiff so as to be almost immobile.
As I waddled around the kitchen, Carlie arrived home from work. Carlie worked as a night-shift nurse and we generally saw eachother only in the mornings on days of the week that we both worked.
"Hey Babe!" she said. I could not help but be reminded of Ryan's nickname for me. "How was the gym last night? Building those muscles for me?"
"Definitely," I grinned, flexing my arm in jest.
"You'll get there, babe" she said encouragingly. She walked over and hugged me, jokingly (and painfully) squeezing my ass.
"Ouch!" I said. "Sorry, real sore this morning."
"In your butt? You're doing butt exercises?" She asked.
"Yeah, apparently it will help me trim down at first before moving on to muscle building." I replied
"'Apparently'? Did someone tell you this?"
"Umm..." I flushed a bit. "Yeah, it was that guy at the gym I told you about."
"Dick? Big huge muscular Dick? He's having you do butt exercises? And you're listening to him?"
"His name's Ryan. And not really. He just mentioned it in passing and I looked it up. A lot of articles recommend the same thing."
"Ryan, huh? Sounds like you have a gym husband now!" Carlie was referring to the fact that we both had coworkers we jokingly called our work spouses. There was a Doctor she was friends with she called her "work husband" and there was another attorney she called my "work wife."
"Just remember," she continued, guiding her hands back to my butt, "no matter how many butt exercises you do for big Dick, you're MY girl outside of the gym." She squeeze my butt again when she said "girl" and started laughing.
"Ouch!" I said. But honestly her words had gotten me a bit hot and with her still squeezing my ass I leaned in for a kiss. She gave me a quick peck but then released and walked away. "Sorry babe, exhausted. I'm going to bed."
Disappointed and feeling a bit horny, I waddled out of the house towards the bus stop.
——-
I spent the day working distractedly, thinking about the fact that Ryan had my number. I still couldn't believe I had given it to him. What was wrong with me, I asked myself. I don't give my number out to people like that, especially not to some random teenage kid. I told myself that if he reached out to me that I'd ask him to delete my number.
The day dragged on. I was still very sore in my core, legs and butt. Even just sitting was somewhat painful. I distracted myself by visiting my coworker Katie - who was the one referred to by friends as my "work wife." As usual we got along well, joking about our bosses and coworkers in hushed voices, giggling as we glanced furtively around. For whatever reason, I liked to think of this as flirting but I wasn't sure Katie felt that way.
I was in the middle of telling Katie a story, my phone pinged. I stole a quick glance and saw it was a text form an unknown number. I trailed off mid-sentence and stood staring at my phone.
It read: "How you feeling, babe?
"Jerry?" Katie asked. "Everything alright."
I stared at Katie momentarily, then bobbed my head quickly "Yep - all great, gotta go though - work calls." And with that I walked as quickly as my sore ass could take me back to my office.
I stared at the phone. My heart rate had quickened for some reason.
"Who's this?" I asked, trying to throw Ryan off and discourage him from the get go. It didn't work.
"I think you know who this is babe - you were caught staring at his huge delicious cock just yesterday."
I paused, the image of Ryan's large cock draped over his leg, the outline clearly visible through the towel, filled my head.
"Hi Ryan..." I answered, feeling myself blush. I immediately realized my mistake. I had not only admitted that I was staring at his dick yesterday, but I also implied in my response that I thought it was huge and delicious. Shit! I didn't think that! But it was too late.
"Ah hah! Figured that one out right away huh Babe? haha"
I started typing, "No, Ryan. I just.." but before I could get further, Ryan followed up: "I'm just kidding babe relax! How you feeling from your workout?'
"Really sore, I could barely walk today."
"Haha ;). More of that to come I suppose babe. But sore is good! Means you accomplished something. And as I said, nothing is better for a post-workout routine than a deep tissue massage. Let's hit the gym again today and I'll show you what I'm talking about."
I suddenly remembered what I had been intending to do. I slowly typed out a message and clicked send with trepidation.
"Ryan, I appreciate you reaching out to me. But I think it's inappropriate for you to be texting me. It's strange, given our age difference. I'm not sure we should be planning to go to the gym together or anything."
There was a pause on the chain. For some reason my heart hammered inside of my chest. Then he answered.
"Babe, you're making way too big of a deal over this. I just thought you could use a couple pointers. Listen, I'm heading to the gym tonight around 9:45. No pressure, but if you're there I'll give you a few pointers, that's it!"
I thought about it for a few minutes. Carlie would be working tonight. But still, I was nervous for some reason and responded: "Thanks, Ryan. I think I'll skip today - too sore."