You'd Have to Ask - 32. Chapter 32

The meeting lasted about two hours. When it was over Cole and the Chief headed back to Lacombe and arrived just as the shift was over.

Cole said bye to the Chief as the man went straight to his car to go home. Cole took the keys to the Explorer into the Station and handed the logbook to the desk Officer. Cole could here the Sergeant running through the role call. He waited for them to finish.

Mark was the first one out the door he saw Cole in his civies and asked him what was going on. He had heard that Cole and the Chief had gone off together at about lunchtime. Cole said it was just some follow up to yesterday. He hoped that Mark would leave it at that.

The Sergeant came by and indicted he wanted to see Cole in his office.

“Yes Sergeant.” Cole said as he stood in the open doorway.

“Come in Wheeler and close the door and have a seat.”

Cole sits down.

“I haven’t completed updating the schedule yet, is there anything I should know?”

“Yes Sergeant, it looks like I won’t be partners with Officer Comry next week. I guess you could say I am on leave.”

“Fine, I’ll indicate that on the schedule.”

“Well good luck Wheeler, that’s all. I’m sure I will get a run down from the Chief tomorrow. You are here tomorrow?”

“Yes Sergeant, I am here for the rest of the week. I will sign off on Officer Pritchard’s evaluation before I am gone.”

“Good to hear.” The Sergeant says and then cleans up his desk. “I have dinner waiting for me at home, is there anything else?”

“Not that I can think of Sergeant.”

“Good man. See you tomorrow.”

Cole gets up and leaves. He heads out to his truck, some Officers are slow getting out on patrol, they look at him and some whisper to each other.

Cole is thankful he is going to be working in Edmonton for a couple of weeks.

Mark is still in the parking lot and comes over to Cole’s truck, as he was about to get in it.

“What’s up?” Mark asks.

“Really can’t talk about it Mark, but I am going to be on leave for a couple of weeks.”

“Did they make you do this?” Mark says referring to the Chief and Sergeant.

“No, it’s not like that at all Mark. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Mark grabs Cole and forces his friend to look at him.

“Really there is nothing to worry about, for either of us. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Great good to hear that.”

“So what’s up with them?” Cole nods to the Officers in the midst of pulling out on patrol.”

“You know how it is, the word is out you have been meeting with the Chief, some of their noses are bent out of shape.”

“If anyone of them wants to do what I’ll be doing they can have at it!”

“Yeah, well that’s the point we don’t know what’s going on. So they are making things up.”

“Anything going around about the other thing yet?”

“No, no-one seems to know about that.”

“Well someone does” Cole reaches in his pocket and pulls out the note, “I found this in my truck yesterday.”

Mark reads the note, “Geez Cole, you tell anyone about this?”

“Not yet, I don’t have a clue as to who put it there.”

“The only person that I would think knows is Bart and he hasn’t been having his little conferences yet. Not that I know of.”

“Mmm interesting. Hey I could use you for something though.”

“Yeah what’s that?” Mark asks.

“Well I was thinking that we could have a little chat with the guy in cells.” Cole says, “I need you as we have to get Bart away from there so I can have a heart to heart with the guy.”
“Maybe I should be the one having the heart to heart, Cole.” Mark says and makes a fist.

“Well it wasn’t going to be that kind of encounter, but I will have to think about how to handle it. Besides I don’t need you to beat the guy up I am capable enough by myself.”

Mark laughs, “But you might break a nail!”

“Fuck off!” Cole says with a smile, he is used to Mark’s sense of humour and knows the man means nothing personal against Cole.

“Well I am off, you take care.” Mark says.

“I will, hey I got a date this weekend.”

“Now you can fuck off, I don’t need to know about this!” Mark exclaims and turns to go.

Cole laughs and gets into his truck. He watches his friend head back to the patrol car.

Cole heads over to the gym. He hasn’t been getting too much time in there lately.
While he is there he uses a treadmill for a while. He remembers running with Greg in Edmonton. “Might get a chance to do that more often.” He thinks.

The gym is not very crowded as people are probably home eating. Cole does his whole weight routine without having to wait for any machine.

When he hits the locker room he sits on the bench. He is really beat. He never has much energy on Dayshift, that’s part of the reason he hates them so much. He strips off his clothes and heads to the showers.

Cole takes a long shower because it feels good to have the water rushing over his body. He is lost in his thoughts, thinking about all that is going on his life. He starts to think about Greg coming to visit for the weekend and his heart rate climbs. He imagines them running in a field. They are on a trail that looks like it is not used very often.
On one corner he sprints around the corner and hides. He hears Greg run by and he jumps out of the bushes tackling the man into the grass on the other side of the trail.
Cole is lying on top and Greg is cursing at him. Cole shuts him up by planting his mouth on the other man. Greg’s mouth relaxes and soon they are kissing passionately. Cole presses his body down on Greg’s. He feels his cock press against the other man’s. Their arms pull each other closer and closer together, their cocks frantically rub up and down against each other’s bodies. Pretty soon he can feel the familiar rush as he gets closer to orgasm and he can tell by Greg’s reaction that he is getting close too.

Cole hears another shower start up and he opens his eyes. A man is standing there looking at Cole. The man is actually looking at Cole’s mid section. Cole looks down and sees he has a raging hard-on. He turns away from the man quickly, his cock stays hard but his face is really red.

“Must have been a pretty good dream.” The man says and winks. Cole looks at his and he notices the man is spending a lot of time washing his own crotch. He can see that the man is getting a hard on.

“Yeah, not bad, damn!” Cole says, “Must be something in the water.” He then heads to the towel rack. The man is eyeing him lewdly while Cole dries off. Cole heads to his locker and dresses quickly. His hair is still wet as he goes outside. When he is in the truck he is both embarrassed and excited. “Woo Woo” he yells as he peels off out of the parking lot and back to Bentley.

It’s Tuesday night and he realizes he hasn’t spoken to his friends in awhile. Cole calls Kat first when he gets home.

The conversation is short with Kat asking what is new and Cole telling about his parent’s acceptance of Cole. He tells her about all the support Mark has given him. Then he tells her about Greg coming to visit for the weekend.

“Hey that’s enough about me, what new with you Kat?”

“Well I finally met someone too.” Kat says.

“That’s great Kat!” Cole exclaims, “Maybe we can double date sometime.”

“That would be good Cole, but I think it will be awhile.”

“Why, what’s up?”

“I don’t know Cole, its just all of the change it has me sort of up in the air.”

“This sounds like something we should do face to face Kat.”

“Yeah, but I think I still need a little time.”

Cole listens to her voice, it doesn’t sound like the normal upbeat Kat he is used to.

“Yeah sure Kat.” He says slowly.

“Hey Cole, it’s not you. It’s just that I moved here because my life was too hectic in the city. I was enjoying actually enjoying the way things were going here.”

Cole was going to speak, but he realizes that until recently he was a part of Kat’s life here. He knows her well enough to let her work this out.

“Well you know my number, feel free to call when you want to talk.”

“Thanks for understanding Cole.”

“Listen, I have a project that I will be working on so you had better use the cell.”

“Going to be unavailable Cole?”

“Well it is a case I am working on and I might be out of town for a couple of days here and there.”

Kat knows better than to pry so she doesn’t ask where he will be.

“Well that’s great news for you Cole, your family and friends are all coming around and you met someone.”

“Thanks again Kat, you have been a lot of help through all of this.”

“No problem Cole, well I gotta go, you take care.”

“You too Kat remember I am just a phone call away if you need me.”

“Yeah I remember. Besides you are gonna have to be in the shop sooner or later for a hair cut.”

Cole feels his hair as she says that, “Starting to feel pretty long right now.” Cole laughs, “Good night Kat.”

“Night Cole.”

Cole sits at the table, he feels a bit of guilt and wonders if Kat was falling for him. He dismisses that idea, sure he has had women fall for him before, but Kat is different.
“Or is she?” Cole picks up the phone again.

“Hello”

“Lance how is it going, busy?”

“Nah, the bf and I are just taking a break before we go at it again.” Lance says in a deadpan voice.

“You have someone there?”

Lance laughs, “No Cole I have no one here, Kurt went home this morning. I was just pulling your leg!”

Cole laughs too.

“So what’s up Cole?”

“Well my parents are cool with me now thanks to Mark and his wife. I met some guy and he is coming down for the weekend. Nothing much, what’s new with you?”

“I think we should talk more often Cole, I don’t think I can keep up with how fast your life is changing!”

“Tell me about it. So are you still seeing that guy from Calgary?”

“Yeah, I am. Things are going great and he works in a job that allows his to work from home. He is thinking of moving up here with me.”

“Geez that was fast Lance!”

“Hey buddy gay relationships are like that.” Lance laughs some more.

“Does that mean you’ll be divorced by the end of the year?”

“Well I hope not Cole, Kurt and I are both at a phase of our lives where we want to settle down. I think we are ‘bar scened’ out.”

“That’s funny, Greg is in the same position I think. He says he was tired of empty relationships.”

“Are you ready for that Cole?”

“I am not sure, Lance, I am leaving it open. I know I am ready for something, I mean I can’t keep going to Edmonton or Calgary to get laid.”

“I did it for years and to tell you the truth until Kurt came along I thought I’d be doing it for years to come.”

“I hear yah, I did call for another reason though, Lance.”

“Kat?”

“Yeah how did you guess?”

“Well we had a talk over beers a couple of days ago.”

“Anything I should know”

“Yeah, I guess there is bud.” Lance pauses.

“What?”

“Well it appears our friend fell for you.” Lance says.

“But how?”
“I think it was an accident Cole. At first she felt safe because you knew she was into girls and that anything you two did was transitory.”

“Transitory, you mean like a one night stand?”

“That’s it, she thought of you two as fuck buddies. No strings sex.”

“Well that’s what it was. I mean the sex was good, but she did make it known that it would stay good as long as we didn’t fall for each other.”

“And you being a stand up guy kept your part of the bargain, but then something changed.”

“My coming out?”

“Well yeah, she wasn’t falling for you before then, but then when you came out she realized that she may lose you for good.”

“’You don’t know what you’ve got til its gone!’ To quote Joni Mitchell”

“So anyway that’s where it is at. But there is a good side to this Cole.”

“Yeah, she met someone. That didn’t take long.”

“I think she needed a push and you were the one that gave it to her.”

“Why is she still down then?”

“Not sure, but I think she just needs some time.”

“I am psyched about this weekend man!” Cole says as he decides to change the subject

“That’s great Cole. Got anything planned?”

“No, I have decided to play it by ear. We’ll probably do some running and go to the gym. Other than that nothing.”

“Running, the gym? Sure glad you never asked me out on a date!” Lance says.

“That’s not all Lance, I just haven’t planned anything I want it to be relaxing, not organized. I have been on enough organized dates.”

“Come to think of it Cole, I really don’t plan anything for Kurt’s visits. We just enjoy each others company.”

“Yeah, well Greg seems to be pretty easy going. I am going to be a cordial host, besides we have enough in common that we should figure out something to do.”

“What is it that you see in him?”

“I honestly can’t describe it. It’s just a collection of things.” Cole says. He thinks about what it is that makes him want to see Greg again as opposed to Mike or Rick. “What is it about Kurt that made you pick him?”

Lance laughs, “I don’t know, it seems like a pile of things and I can’t put my finger on any one thing.”

What Lance just said was what Cole feels. It was enlightening and scary at the same time. “Is this what love feels like?” He asks himself.

“You still there Cole?”

“Err yeah sorry about that, what you just said is how I feel too!” Cole says.

“That’s cool Cole. You’ll have to let me know how it goes.”

“I sure will Lance and by the way thanks for the other thing too, I honestly didn’t know Kat felt that way.”

“Well I figured you should know. It was a shock to me, Cole.” Lance says.

“Well I better let you go, I need to get some sleep. I am on days.”

“Good night Cole, call me anytime.”

“Night Lance.”

Cole hangs up the phone. He turns off lights and goes upstairs and gets ready for bed. He tosses and turns and can’t get to sleep. First he tries to solve all of his problems, work, Kat and coming out. He can’t seem to get a handle on any of them. He finally goes to sleep imaging Greg and him out running.