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The old Sully would have kept his mouth shut, but one goal ofThe Sully Projectwas to develop a circle of friends in town. Friendship demanded trust and vulnerability.
Sully took a breath and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Uh, so, we went on a date two days ago.”
“What?” Hue said. “Why am I just hearing about this now?”
“Maybe because you went on a paranoid rant about one of your tenants on the whole drive over,” Sully answered. “Plus, I thought you didn’t care.”
“I am NOT being paranoid,” Hue immediately interjected. “That woman has kittens in her house. I almost caught her today. I was so close!” He gritted his teeth. “The plan was perfect. Beautiful. I came in to check all the appliances, like the caring, upright landlord I am.”
“So caring,” Sully muttered.
“I have it on good authority there are kittens in the house, but she must have gotten wind and stashed them somewhere. The woman has, like, 10 litter boxes in her house, but only three cats? I don’t think so.” Hue laughed to himself. “It’s kittens. She’s just so damn sneaky.” His eyes gleamed with malice. “She thinks she’s so smart, but I’ll catch her one day.”
Yep, the poor man definitely needed more friends. Cam raised an eyebrow at Sully, and all he could do was shrug helplessly.
“So, how about you both pick up an empty barbell,” Cam said, easing the conversation away from kitten conspiracy theories. “We’re going to practice good deadlift movement patterns before we put weight on the bar.”
Cam demonstrated the deadlift technique. “Shoelaces under the bar, straight back, press your feet into the floor, fire those glutes.” Then, he turned to Sully. “How’d the date go? Spill.”
Sully tried to mimic Cam’s movement, keeping the bar close to his shins. He had no idea how to fire his glutes. “It was… great,” he admitted. “Well, not at first. It started out kind of awkward, but then things turned around and we had a wonderful night.”
“Did she demand caviar covered in gold flakes?” Hue asked as he awkwardly tried to copy Cam’s smooth movements.
“Actually, you’d be surprised at how down-to-earth she really is,” Sully answered.
Cam allowed the two men to load their bars with two 35-pound plates. “You can go up in weight when your form is perfect and you’ve earned it,” he informed them while sliding multiple 45-pound plates onto his own bar.
He then performed a set of five touch-and-go deadlifts, the packed bar moving like it was filled with helium. Both Hue and Sully stood in silent respect during the set.
Cam put down the bar and nodded to Hue. “Set of five. Engage your glutes and press into the floor. And don’t even think about rounding your back.”
As soon as Hue was moving through his set, Cam pegged Sully with a look. “Did you start building a connection? What signals was she giving?”
“What’s the big deal?” Hue muttered as he easily cranked the weight off the ground. “It was just a date.”
Cam shook his head in pity. “I see why you brought him here,” he said to Sully. “Hue is going to need some serious rehabilitation.”
“I know, right?” Sully agreed.
Hue snorted. “I’m fine. I’ve got Janet.”
“Janet?” Cam raised an eyebrow. “Sex doll?”
“Woman-shaped pillow?” Aniyah asked from the lat pull-down machine.
“Left hand?” Cam guessed
“His dog,” Sully said.
“Ooooooh,” the gym co-owners said together.
“Sully, you’re up,” Cam said, pointing to Hue’s bar. He glared at Hue. “We’ll work on you later. For now, Sully, tell us everything about the date.”
As more and more weights slid onto the bar, Sully described his night with Alanna.
“The kiss,” he murmured at the end. “It was… God. Out of this world. Like a supernova.” He remembered the warmth of her skin, her needy fingers pulling through his hair, the scent of vanilla on her sweet neck.
The barbell felt like nothing in his hands. He could lift a thousand pounds just thinking about another kiss with Alanna Sandoval. In fact, something else on his body was beginning to bulk up, and it wasn’t his hamstrings. Sully dropped the bar and step back.
