Like clockwork, his phone beeped with a text. Even though they said their goodnights during their “midnight calls”—as Ajiri called them—they still texted again afterward before properly going to sleep.
Ajiri was right. He and Obiora were obsessed with each other.
And Ejiro didn’t hate it one bit.
TWENTY-EIGHT
THIS IS IT, OBIORA THOUGHT, eyes stinging as Jennifer talked passionately to him about her fitness journey. He’d just finished taking over one of Esther’s classes—as was becoming his usual for the past month—and Jennifer had stayed behind to talk to him. She was on the bigger side of the people in the class, and from day one, she’d felt self-conscious about it. But Obiora loved these people so fucking much because they’d done their best to make Jennifer feel like she already belonged, regardless of the fact that she was new, and they hadn’t once given her reason to feel discomfort.
Soon enough, she’d relaxed and grown bolder, and begun to truly enjoy herself, which was Obiora’s goal for what he was becoming to accept were his clients; not Esther’s, his. Working out and sticking to a routine was hard as fuck, so Obiora tried his best to make his class as fun and engaging as possible to keep them inspired.
“You don’t understand,” Jennifer was saying, clutching both his hands in hers, her eyes shiny with tears. She was short, pretty, and round, with smooth dark skin and shoulder-length violet braids. “I thought I needed to be skinny to feel better about myself, but I think what I really wanted was community—this kind of community—where I can work out and just … be me. I wanted to say thank you. You don’t know how much this class—how much your training means to me. How much it’s helped.”
Obiora had to swallow. “You’re welcome.”
She smiled, gave his hands a gentle squeeze, then she went over to the locker rooms to change.
Obiora watched her go, his throat thick with pride. He’d done that. He’d helped put that confidence in her stride, that carefree brightness in her smile.
Each time one of his clients said something along the same lines as Jennifer, Obiora felt like he could fly.
Esther drifted to his side. He hadn’t noticed when she’d come in. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
She sounded so smug Obiora couldn’t help but laugh.
“I think I’m going to do it,” he said after a moment, still staring off into the distance.
Esther knew what he was talking about instantly, without him even having to explain. There was a grin in her voice when she said, “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He finally turned to look at her. “Please wipe that smug grin off your face.”
She laughed and punched him playfully in the shoulder. “Fucking finally!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Obiora said, rolling his eyes, but he was grinning.
“The classes are yours whenever you want it, you know that, right?”
Obiora felt bashful. His heart raced at the thought of doing this, for real. “I’m still going to need an actual licence, like, there are a lot of—”
“Semantics,” Esther interrupted, waving him off. He grinned. She grinned back. “I prefer doing house calls, anyway. The one on ones. You’re really good with the group setting, so I want you to have it, whenever you’re ready. They practically already see you as their trainer anyway, so, as I said, the rest is just semantics.”
It didn’t sink in until he was home and had texted Ejiro, as he usually did. They’d officially been dating for a month since Ejiro had left the competition, and Ejiro had been coming over to his twice a week since then. Whenever Ejiro left his home after a visit, Obiora missed him something painful, but the way they talked to each other literally all the time did its best to soothe the ache.
Hey, babe. Are you home yet? He sent it when he got home, ending the message with the tongue emoji because he knew how the emoji made Ejiro blush.
The reply was instant: Yeah, I’m home!, with the kissy face emoji. How was work, baby?
Obiora felt the usual mixture of heat and warmth when Ejiro called him “baby”. It made him think of their phone call last night, of Ejiro’s breathy gasps and throaty moans vibrating in his ear as Ejiro had fingered himself for the first time until he’d come long and hard and explosive. Obiora didn’t think he’d ever come so hard himself, and that was saying something, considering ever since the first time about three weeks ago, the passionate, mind-blowing phone sex between them had become an almost nightly occurrence.
Pushing aside the flush of heat at the memories, Obiora replied: It was great, love. Can I call you?
Yes, please, Ejiro sent, with a soft smiley emoji.
Ejiro picked up on the first ring. “Hey, baby.”
Love and desire began to make a delicious cocktail in Obiora’s belly. “Hey, love. I just got home. Going to shower and then head to my parents’. What’s in store for you today? You finished working on that new chapter for your Patreon?”
“Yes!” Ejiro said, his voice filled with excitement. “You were right. I actually managed to finish it before I went to work this morning.”
