I love my mom. I’m genuinely happy I get the chance to visit her for a couple of months, but shit, I really hoped to see Milos beforehand. Or at leasttalkedto him.
Just to find out if whatever clicked between us that day would still click outside of the shoot. Without the wharf. Without the camera. Without the snow and adrenaline and sixteen stolen seconds.
But… silence.
At least a few of my boys are coming with me for the first two weeks so we can celebrate Christmas and New Year’s in a slightly warmer climate. Even though the snow is gone, it’s still way too cold here for my Mediterranean ass. Thank fuck some of them agree so we can drink beers on the beach and just chill.
And, hopefully they distract me from this fuckshow.
He fucking stood me up.
“To be sure?” Axe’s voice crackles again. “You gave him your number. He didn’t use it, and now you’re parked outside this stupid building like some lovesick idiot.”
I sigh, helmet still on, staring at the wall like it might give me answers. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Axe scoffs. The closest thing to a laugh anyone will ever hear from him. I can practically hear the impliedidiotin there. “You’re absolutely certain you didn’t—”
“No. Nothing,” I cut him off. “I didn’t miss a call. I didn’t miss a message. There’s nothing.”
I stare at my dead screen, willingsomethingto appear from Milos. I even turned the many notifications off from my stupid social media accounts, so I wouldn’t miss it.
Fuck. I really thought there was a click there. An instant connection.
“Wow,” Axe mutters. “That’s harsh.”
He nudges me with his shoulder before pulling off his gloves and shoving them under his ass. He shrugs his big backpack off and drops it beside the bike as he kills the engine. I follow his example before he passes me a cigarette from his overly tatted fingers, ink just as dense as mine.
He pushes his helmet off and hooks it over the handlebar just like I did, then runs a hand through his unruly blond hair before lighting up thesmoke. He finally meets my gaze as he blows out a puff of smoke, handing me the lighter.
If people think my eyes are blue? Shit. Axe’s are pure ice. That husky, glacial kind of blue that makes you look twice and then quickly away before it gets uncomfortable.
I’m notexactlysure what his full background is. He only told us he was in some German special forces shit, but couldn’t share the specifics. Still, even if he didn’t tell me that, it's obvious in the way he moves, how he holds himself, in the way he scans a space without seeming to.
He’s been in our crew for around six months now, but he just fits.
Helps that he’s a scary motherfucker who doesn’t tolerate bullshit—and honestly, no one had the balls to tell him he couldn’t ride with us. He just showed up at a gas station one night while we were making stupid videos for our accounts, doing silly shit as we climbed on some random wall, waving at the camera. He threw me a compliment about my bike, and… stayed.
That was it.
No big introduction. No audition. Just presence.
Lighting the cigarette, I inhale deeply and let it settle in my lungs, trying to calm the restless edge in my chest. Not that I’m exactly agitated. Just… disappointed, I guess.
This is the third time since the shoot that I’ve come here, parked in front of this damn mural, half-hoping he might just… walk by or something. So I can ask him why. Why didn’t he call? Why he—
Shit.I sound ridiculous.
I barely know the guy. So why am I this messed up about it?
I take another drag, enjoying the quiet while Axe disappears into his own head like he so often does, fiddling with the GoPro mounted to my handlebars. We wanted to get some decent shots for the Route du Soleil, the ride down south. It’s a two-day drive, so we’ll overnight somewhere in southern France before pushing on, and some of the others wanted to edit tonight so we could show what we’re doing.
I’m not really in the mood, though.
Sure, it started out as something fun. Just us boys filming stupid shit while riding, posting clips for the hell of it. We never expected our Biketok and Bikegram to blow up like this, to become this popular.
Yeah, I participate. Albeit mostly anonymously. A few shots with my visor up here and there, but I mostly film and shoot the surroundings. The road. The nature. Just the way I like it.
I think I had something scheduled for this morning to post, but I haven’t checked if it went through okay so I pull my phone from the mount clipped near my tank and open the account I’ve been ignoring. I know it’s vain, but I’m always curious about the responses.
