You'd Have to Ask - 5. Chapter 5

Boys will be Boys

Cole goes back to his house. He goes in and takes a shower and puts on his mountain biking clothes. In the kitchen he eats a quick breakfast. When he is done he calls Mark to see if he can come out and play. Mark defers, Mary has plans for an afternoon picnic.
Cole then calls Lance. He is not sure if the guy is working or not.

Lance picks up the phone after a number of rings. “This better be good!” He says.

“Lance, hey its Cole, did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but its OK, I should get up soon anyway”

“What are you doing today?” Cole asks

“Well I have to work tonight, but I am free for most of the day. May try to sneak over to the parents and steal a meal. Why do you ask?”

“Sorry, I am never sure when you are working. I should know better since I work shifts too!” Cole laughs. “Anyway, gonna go and do some biking, wanna come?”

Lance thinks about this, he hasn’t done any biking for a while and he needs the exercise. “Sure Cole, when do you want to meet?”

“Why don’t you come over here and we can head out from my place”

“Sure, I guess I could, it’ll take me half an hour to get ready.” Lance says.

“Well don’t speed, I’ll wait”. Cole says.

“Make it three quarter of an hour, I gotta put on my face!” Lance laughs.

“OK see you when you get here!”

Lance pulls up in his Jeep an hour later. He goes round the back and removes his bike from its rack.

“Hey put your bike in the back of my truck. I figured we’d head west and find some good single track”, Cole says.

Cole looks at Lance, the boy has certainly grown up. The guy has developed into quite the looker. Lance is wearing a Fire Department t-shirt and black spandex shorts. Not much is left to the imagination. Lance has curly naturally blond hair, He keeps it short, and he has blue eyes and a handsome face. His body is lean and muscular. It has to be for his job.

Lance comes over to the truck and lifts his bike into the back. He climbs in and high fives Cole.
“Great day for it!” Lance says loudly, he opens the window and hangs his arm outside as they drive west about ten miles. Cole sees a place to pull off and park.

“How’s this?” Cole asks.

Lance nods and says that this would be fine. Cole pulls the truck into a space and parks.

“Well come on, time’s a wasting!” He says.

They head to the back of the truck. Cole looks at the scenery there are more hills here, as they are getting closer to the Rockies.

“How’s the job?” Cole asks.

“Couldn’t be better” Lance lights up with a smile, “I love my job!”

Lance thinks that it could be a whole lot better, if one asshole was to go away. Lance has prided himself on being able to handle his problems, so he says nothing to Cole. Besides the problem has to do with his being gay and Cole would know nothing about that.

Arriving at the base of the mountain bike course, Cole parks on the side of the road. They both get out, put their helmets on and then grab their bikes.

Cole admires Lance’s bike, a fully suspended Trek. “They must pay well at the fire department!” Cole says.

Lance looks at Cole’s bike; an older Kona with front shocks “I guess it pays better than the Police Department” Lance laughs.

“Hey I don’t do too bad, got different priorities” Cole feigns offence.

They mount up and start off on their ride. Cole leads the way. He notices that the ground is still wet from a recent rainfall.

“We are gonna get dirty!” Cole yells with boyish enthusiasm.

“Way dirty!”

They spend the afternoon ascending and descending the technical course. After an hour they take a rest. Both guys are covered in mud.

“So what’s new in your life? Still seeing Kat?”

Cole ponders his answer. “Yeah, I was over at her place last night”

“Woohoo!” Lance exclaims. “Wish I was busy last night, well I was but I was stuck at the station with a bunch of married guys”

Cole laughs to himself about Lance’s openness, ”I wonder if I’ll ever be that open?” he asks himself.

Cole looks at the scenery, it is beautiful here. Lance looks around too, but more often than not he checks out Cole. Somehow Cole has never minded the attention he has received from Lance.

“I gotta go take a wiz,” Lance says. He lays his bike down and heads over to a tree.

Cole watches the young guy. I wonder why he has not snagged anyone yet? He certainly has the looks and he has a great outgoing personality. Should ask him sometime.

Lance looks at Cole as he comes back, “Was he checking me out?” he thinks.
“Nah, not Cole, look up ‘straight’ in the dictionary and sure enough Cole’s picture would be there”

“Well let’s get back at it!” Cole says after he drinks some water.

This time around the course fatigue is starting to set in. Lance is lagging behind on one descent and he wipes out and hits a tree. He is not seriously hurt, but his arm has a scrape on it.

Cole hears the crash and he jumps off his bike and runs up to Lance.

“You OK bud?” He asks.

“Yeah, I’m OK, it’s just a flesh wound!” Lance smiles as he says this.

Cole helps the man down the hill. When they get to the truck Cole opens the glove box and digs for some iodine and bandages. The book is sitting in there where he last put it. It winds up on the seat.

“There, good as new!” as Cole tends to the wound “I’m going back to get the bikes, you stay here”

Lance watches Cole head off. He liked the attention he got from his friend. He examines his helmet. “Well I guess I am going to have to buy another one of these.”

Lance notices a book lying face down on the seat. He picks it up and turns it over. Lance cannot believe Cole has this book.

When Cole is back in the truck he sees the book lying on the seat. “Damn, I should have left this at home!” he says to himself.

He looks over at Lance, who is sitting there quietly.

“So, what should we do now, pizza and beer?” Cole asks.

“Yeah that sounds good Cole, but is there something you want to tell me first?” Lance asks.

“Lance, could you give me some time, I want to talk to you, but now is not good.”

“Cool, I can handle that” Lance says “Boston Pizza?”

“That’s all the way back to town.” Cole says “Why don’t you come out to my place and we can order in?”

“Sure, sounds OK to me”

They get to the house and take off their muddy shoes and socks.

“The shower is upstairs, you go first” Cole says.

“You don’t have to ask me twice”

“Wait a second, I gotta get a picture of this!” Cole says.

He grabs the camera and he sets it up to take a delayed picture. Cole races over and stands next to Lance. They both have stupid grins on their faces.

“I have to get a copy of that,” Lance says.

“Sure, right after I send it into Mountain Biking Magazine” Cole laughs.

Lance has his shower, while he is alone he wonders about Cole. He has always been attracted to the man. Finishing up, he comes out and dries off. Cole has put a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt for him.

“Done Cole!” Lance yells, “Thanks for the clothes”

Cole comes upstairs and has his shower. He comes down wearing his normal attire. They look like twins. Cole smiles at that.

“When you were in the shower I ordered us pizza” Cole says as he goes to the fridge and gets some beer. He uncaps them and gives one to Lance.

“Let’s go outside” He says.

There’s a table and some chairs out in the yard, as Cole has not had a chance to finish the deck yet. Lance takes a seat, as does Cole.

“Here’s to a great day!” Cole says as he offers to clink his bottle with Lance’s.

“Back at ya!” Lance says.

The sit and talk about the changes happening to the town. They want to build an industrial park by the highway.

“In a way I hope they don’t, Red Deer is not too far and they already have one.” Lance says, I like it the way it is”

“That’s progress Lance and besides it will help the town grow”

Cole hears a vehicle pull up, “Pizza’s here, be right back”

Cole returns with the box and two more beer.

The guys chow down, not realizing how hungry they were until they started eating.

When they are finished eating they kick back.

“I think its time I better get going. Have to work tonight” Lance says.

“OK, thanks for coming over!” Cole says.

Cole helps Lance put his bike on the back of the back of the Jeep.

“I’ll come by some time and drop these off” Lance indicates the clothes Cole lent him.

“Anytime you’re ready, have a quiet night at work!” Cole says as he watches Lance pull out. The Jeep kicks up gravel as Lance guns it.