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“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I want you to tell me that it’s something you want to do.”
“I’m here, doing these wind sprints, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, but do you want to be?”
He looked at me annoyed. “If we’re done, then let me know. I’ll head home.”
“If we’re done? No. What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“I mean, you came here, made me some grand offer, told me how much you had been in love with me, and now you’re asking me if I wanna be here?”
I squinted and shook my head, trying to understand what was happening.
“I don’t know what to say to that. Yes, that’s what happened.”
He looked at me, frustrated. “Then I’m done.”
“Whoa! Where did that come from?”
“I kissed you!” he shouted, charging towards me.
“Oh! Yeah,” I said, looking away.
“Yeah!”
Cringing, I asked, “Can we pretend like you didn’t?”
Claude stared at me with his mouth hanging open before resigning.
“Yeah. Fuck it. Whatever.”
Seeing how upset he was, I tried to explain.
“I’m actually trying to be good. I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
“By pretending it didn’t happen?”
“Isn’t that what you do?” I asked, referring to him not telling any of his friends about the part of his life that involved me.
Claude’s anger deflated to resignation.
“Whatever,” he told me, no longer going anywhere.
“Look,” I said, gathering my words. “I just want you to do this for the right reasons. You gave up football pretty easily. If you do the workout, I want you to do it because you want to be there, not because I want you to.
“I mean, there’s a part of me screaming that I should take what I can get when it comes to you. But we know how that turned out last time. So, I just wanna know, is the workout something you want?”
Claude rocked onto his heels, giving it sincere thought. After a moment, he said, “If someone had asked me that a week ago, I would have said it wasn’t. But you being here reminded me of the things I loved. And I was born to play football.
“When I’m in a pocket with the ball in my hand, I feel alive. Nothing else matters. I miss that. And if you’re telling me I could have that again, I want it.”
A smile arose from deep inside of me.
“Then, let’s get it.”
“You think I’m ready?” Claude asked doubtfully.
