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Kevin Day was ogling a man at the gym. Zenith Fitness was an extremely exclusive, invitation-only facility with hundreds of services, and even more A-list members. The best of the best came here to workout without being gawked at by the general public, but Kevin was staring at a short muscular blond across from him like it was his full time job.Vague harsh sounds came tumbling out of the small gap between the guy’s headphones and his temples. His face was blotchy from exertion, and redness clustered over his cheeks and down his neck.It was unusually attractive to Kevin.There was no possible way he could get this guy’s attention without approaching.His brows being knit tightly together mixed with the intense music leaking out of his headphones should have been enough of an indication to leave the guy alone, but Kevin watched him run on the treadmill from his spot on the abductor. Kevin stared so hard, the guy noticed and pulled off one side of his headphones.Kevin sprung off of the machine he was on as if compelled by a higher power. “Hey, I’m Kevin, what’s your name?” Kevin held out his hand.From a distance it had been unclear how short the guy was. The answer upon closer inspection? Very. He glared up at Kevin. “You work here?” His voice was deeper than Kevin expected. “No?” Kevin was on cloud 9. This stranger was hot, and jacked, and had a nice voice, and hadn’t the slightest idea who Kevin Day was. This stranger was also sizing him up like he was an informant for the FBI. “I’m Andrew, what do you need?” “Are you going to need somebody to spot you?” Kevin asked. “I am training legs.” Andrew narrowed his eyes. Kevin made the mistake of looking at his legs. “You have nice legs.” Kevin’s eyes widened. He hadn’t intended to be this forward. However, this early in the morning, what he had intended was a mystery even to him.Andrew looked torn between being irritated and genuinely confused by Kevin’s awkward manner.
Fuck it.
“Can I have your number?” He hoped he looked less like he was about to throw up than he felt. “Fuck off?” Andrew sounded more confused than upset. Kevin cut his losses and walked briskly to the locker rooms. “I thought you were going to the gym?” Jean questioned when Kevin sulked into the arena an hour earlier than he was supposed to. “I did.” “What happened?” “Jean it is 9am, back off.” Kevin scowled.Jean raised an eyebrow. “You injured?” “No.” He skated away from Jean and began taking shots on the target canvas over the goal.He made 47 out of 50 shots by the time he heard the latch on the entrance gate slam shut. He didn’t need to turn to know it was Jeremy joining them, but he turned anyway. Jeremy was the type of guy you greeted when he entered a room.Kevin waved. Jeremy waved back.Jean was leaning against the sideboards of the rink, elbows casually propped behind him. Kevin saw him turn his head to greet Jeremy. He said something Kevin was too far to hear and then Jeremy’s curious eyes were on him. Jeremy smiled and nodded, Jean shrugged.Jean had a good 5 inches of height on Jeremy when both of them were on even ground. With Jean wearing his skates and Jeremy holding his in his hand, Jean Dwarfed him with the extra 4 inches his skates gave him.Kevin guessed there was over a foot height difference between he and Andrew. If Kevin unfocused his eyes enough to where he could only see a dark blob of clothing and dark hair for Jean, and a tuft of yellow hair atop a blob of red hoodie for Jeremy, he could almost imagine it was he and Andrew. “Earth to Kevin.” Jeremy called across the ice. Kevin refocused his eyes and shook all thoughts of Andrew from Zenith out of his head. “What’s up Kevin?” Jeremy asked when Kevin skated up, he was lacing up his skates on the other side of the gate. “Nothing.” Said Kevin. “Jean mentioned you might have had a mishap at the gym.” Jeremy chuckled, the sound calmed Kevin’s nerves if only slightly. “I got rejected.” The admission came easier than he thought it would. “Kevin Day got rejected?” Jean tilted his head to the side. “That sucks Kev.” Jeremy opened the gate and shuffled onto the ice. “He was so hot.” Kevin mourned. “You get his name?” Jeremy slid his phone out of his pocket. “Yeah, only his first name though.” “I know the owner of Zenith, I can get you the last name.” Jeremy nodded encouragingly. “Andrew.” Kevin leaned over Jeremy’s phone to watch him type.Jeremy paused over the contact on his phone. “Wait, Kevin?” He turned his head to look at Kevin looming over him. “Weird Question: How tall was he?” Kevin shot a warning look at Jean. “Probably like 5 feet, why?”Jean snorted.Jeremy’s eyes widened along with his grin. “You’re telling me you hit on Andrew Minyard and lived?” Jeremy laughed. Recognition was evident on Jean’s face. “You are attracted to Andrew Minyard?” Jean wrinkled his nose.Jeremy opened instagram. He typed the name into the search bar. When the page loaded, Kevin saw Andrew from the gym, kind of. “Are those photos recent?” He tapped the most recent photo over Jeremy’s shoulder. The photo was of Andrew and an auburn haired man holding a cat, it was posted a week ago. “His hair is a lot longer now?” Kevin marveled, taking Jeremy’s phone out of his hand and scrolling through photos. “His arms are also less built, it’s his legs that are jacked.” “He’s an Olympic rower Kevin, his arms are his strongest limbs.” Jeremy looked puzzled but Jean started laughing like a maniac. Both men turned their attention on Jean, who was doubling over. “c'est impossible.” Jean cackled. “You are attracted to Aaron Minyard? ” Jeremy’s eyes widened. “That’s right, I nearly forgot Aaron existed.” “Neil is going to keel over.” Jean wiped actual tears from his eyes. “Who is Aaron Minyard?” Kevin asked. “I think the people at the gym are catching on that I’m using your membership.” Aaron said, tossing Andrew back the keychain with his gym ID. Andrew raised an eyebrow from the backseat. “This guy was asking for my number to verify my account or something?” Aaron explained. “How did he ask you this?” Nicky looked at him out of the corner of his eye as he pulled out of the Zenith Fitness parking lot. “He came up to me and said ‘can I have your number?’” Aaron looked between Nicky in the driver’s seat and Andrew behind him with his legs across the seat. “Yeah, really sounds like a membership enforcer Aaron. Was he hot?” Nicky asked.Andrew leaned forward. “Nicky, gross.” He was hot, exceptionally so, but Aaron wasn’t going to let Nicky hear that. “Did the years of substance abuse erode a hole through your brain?” Andrew contributed. Aaron flipped him off. “Straight people are just stupid sometimes, it’s who they are, don’t be prejudiced.” Nicky winked at Andrew in the rearview mirror. “I am literally a doctor.” He complained. “I’m not saying the molly ate the part that tells you where the external spermatic fascia is, I am saying it ate the part that makes you capable of rational thought.”Aaron was idly impressed Andrew had bothered to learn a specific layer of the balls for an argument. “He’s got a point Aaron, I have heard no evidence pointing towards this guy being the Philip Marlowe of Gym-Membership fraud.” Nicky almost ran a red light. “Who the hell is Philip Marlowe?” Aaron demanded. Nicky threw a hand over his mouth and mock-gasped. “How did I raise you to be so uncultured?” Andrew rolled his eyes. “The guy was asking you out.” He concluded and leaned back against the door. It was final.Nicky shot Aaron a sympathetic look. “He wasn’t asking me out.” Aaron protested, but Andrew already had his earbuds in. After digging through Andrew Minyard’s following list Jean, Jeremy, and Kevin, who were now huddled on a bench beside the rink, found an instagram account with the username ‘draminyard’. The name associated with the account was ‘A.M.’ and the bio read ‘I guarantee you are looking for the other one’ with a link leading back to Andrew’s instagram account. The account was private, but the profile picture showed Kevin all he needed to see. “That’s him.” Kevin said. Jean was still too thrilled but Jeremy talked him down from texting whoever ‘Neil’ was about it. “You could always request to follow him.” Jeremy supplied. “He already said no.” “Kevin, we have been over this, you have the most astronomically confusing aura when you’re into somebody.” Jeremy said it nicer that Jean would have. “Remember when we joined the team and you met Jeremy for the first time?” Jean chirped. “Die.” Kevin countered. “You are in the NHL Kevin, that’s all the charisma you need.” Jean nodded sagely. “He didn’t know who I was. The puck bunny routine won’t work.” Kevin sank his head into his hands. “Kevin, name one time you successfully employed the ‘puck bunny’ technique.” Jean asked. “Worked on your mother.” Kevin cringed at being brought down to this level. Jean laughed lightly. “You’re a lot better at communicating over text.” Jeremy patted him. “The Kevin Day tinder era was something else.” Jean commiserated. “I didn’t go on a single date.” Kevin grumbled. “But you got offered many, you were very charming.” Said Jeremy. “Just send him a message, he might not even get it.”Kevin opened up instagram. That night Aaron opened up his phone to check a ‘which month which miserable Ben Affleck you are’ slideshow Nicky had sent him. He noticed a red bubble in the corner of his DM’s. It wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t often one of Andrew’s fans tried to DM him. He opened it out of curiosity and was met with a verified account, must be someone mistaking him for Andrew then.
‘Kevinday’ wants to send you a message.
Beneath a screenshot of Aaron’s own bio ‘I guarantee you are looking for the other one’ was a single line of text:
“I guarantee I am not.”
Aaron clicked on the account and was met with the hot guy from the gym. A professional hockey player, with over 2 million followers. “Are you some sort of gym-fraud private investigator by night?” Aaron typed.
“Not an investigator, but I’d like to get to know you.”