A New Friend Pt. 01

I joined a gym to tone up and lose a few pounds after my marriage failed and had been going regularly in the early mornings for 6 months. At 40 years of age, I was only a bit heavier than I was in high school but I was challenging myself to get as fit as possible. My relationship with my ex-wife had been toxic in the last couple years and I never had the time or energy to work on myself. Suddenly, I had more time on my hands and a desire to improve myself. Standing at 5'9" tall I barely tipped the scales at 160 lbs so, although I'd probably never be a bodybuilder, I was happy to be lean and fit again.

I enjoyed the quiet of my early-morning workouts when the gym wasn't as busy. I had a routine set for myself, I'd prepare some overnight oats, fix myself a thermos of coffee, leave my place early in the morning, get in a good training session and then enjoy my well-earned breakfast after I got to the office, usually about 20 minutes before the start of my workday.

Recently, my whole schedule experienced a shake-up as my boss needed me in the office at 6 AM to deal with some overseas clients. I didn't really want to give up my morning workouts but I had developed a reputation as a quiet, competent professional and our European clients liked to deal with me personally.

So, I had no other option than to work out after work. I wasn't about to give up the gains I had made.

I found the gym to be way too busy for my liking in the late afternoon, so I started going home right after work, grabbing a quick nap, fuelling up and then heading to the gym for 8 PM. It was tougher to stay motivated but I managed to stick with it. Later, I would reflect on how happy I was that I did.

So, 8:30 on a Thursday evening found me warming up for my weight workout with a 20-minute run on the treadmill. The gym was fairly quiet with a few ladies and one couple training at various stations. I plugged my ear-buds in and started a slow warm-up trot. I don't like to wear flashy gym-clothes so I had a pair of cotton shorts on and Guinness t-shirt. I hate running. I really do, but it works wonders for my waistline. Sometimes I'd do 40-50 minutes on the treadmill and forgo my weight session. That night I was looking forward to a chest and triceps workout.

After 20 minutes, I felt warm enough and headed over to the weight-room. It was empty and I started in on some dumbbell bench-presses. I was taking a quick rest after my second set when I noticed an older guy walk into the room. I say noticed because I couldn't help it. He appeared to be in his early to mid-fifties and had short-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and a matching, neat goatee. He looked to be about 6 feet tall and it was obvious that he was no stranger to the weights. He was solid and muscular but without the overly-bulky look of a hard-core bodybuilder. He was in the kind of shape that I wanted to be; bigger but not massive. The kind of guy who still looks good in a suit.

I must have been staring a little longer than normal because he smiled as he walk past me and said, "Hey." I nodded back and lay back down for my third set of presses. I moved on to triceps pull-downs as he worked on his chest exercises on the pec machine. "Looks like we're both on chest day," he remarked at one point. "Yeah, it's usually my favourite," I replied. We both continued our training session while moving around the gym from station to station, a few times we crossed paths and briefly chatted. I learned that his name was Alan but that he went by Al. told him mine (Mark).

We worked out and chatted about training and nutrition a little bit and I related my usual complaint that it was tough to eat well on a busy schedule. Al told me that he had an online resource he used religiously for quick and healthy meal prep and offered to text it to me. I said that it sounded like something I'd want to check out so he handed me his phone and said, "Enter your number and I'll fire it off to you later." I used to be reluctant to give my number out, but blocking a bothersome contact is so simple nowadays that I didn't mind. So I did. "Great," he said, "I'll shoot that to you later this evening."

I thanked him and finished my workout. Al was still training so I wished him a great night and he said he'd be sure to send me the link later. I went to the locker room, stripped down and rewarded myself with a long, hot shower. Longer than I usually do.

I gave my aching muscles all the hot water and soap they could handle. After about 15 minutes, I turned the shower off, towelled myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist and padded back to the locker room in my flip flops. Al was sitting at a bench removing his shoes and he smiled as I came in. "Good shower?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, suddenly feeling shy, "the best part of my workout."

"I hear ya!" Al said, as he stood up and pulled off his damp t-shirt.

Wow. The guy had obviously put in a lot of time in the gym, as evidenced by his well-defined arms and chest. He had a flat stomach but no over-developed abs. Before I turned my eyes away he skinned down his shorts and, standing back up, tossed them in his bag. I got a glimpse of a thick penis, hanging about 4 inches, and two heavy-looking balls. All of which he kept neatly trimmed. Luckily, I didn't think he noticed me looking before I turned away. He headed off to the shower and I got dressed and left the gym.

It was nearly 10:30 by the time I got home. Luckily, I don't live far from the gym. I watched a bit of news on TV and decided to turn in for the night. I was brushing my teeth when I heard a text notification on my phone. I grabbed it off the bedside table after I crawled into bed and saw a text from a number I didn't know. It was a link to a nutrition site. Before I got a chance to click the link a second text popped up, "Here's the site I mentioned. Lots of good recipes there. It's Al from the gym BTW."

I texted a thank-you reply and he texted back, "You're welcome, have a good night!"

I responded in kind and rolled over onto my side to settle in. I thought about what I had seen at the gym; Al's toned torso and his thick cock heavily dangling. I felt a familiar tingling in my balls and my own cock stiffened to full attention. I hadn't been laid in ages and decided to look after things myself. I grabbed my phone and found a porn video I liked. This one was a threesome video of one lucky guy and two women; one a brunette and the other a short-haired blonde. This one always did the trick.

I stroked myself and felt my climax approaching much more quickly than normal. As I said, it had been awhile. Soon enough, I felt the familiar pressure-peaking sensation and stopped mid-stroke to prolong my orgasm. Unbidden, images of Al came to my mind and I rasped out a long groan as I spurted onto my stomach.

I should confess that I've always been turned on by the idea of sex with a man. Aside from one awkward experience with a guy in college, I've only been with women. I have fantasized about guys occasionally when masturbating but found that I felt weird about it, post-orgasm. Weird and ashamed. Until the past year or so, anyway. I chalk that up to maturing and becoming more open-minded. In the few years since my marriage broke up I've dated a few times and had a couple of sexual encounters but I've mostly concentrated on work and took care of my own needs. Sex with a man factored into my masturbatory fantasies more often these days and I found myself enjoying it more than I have before, with a noticeable absence of post-orgasm weirdness.

Tired from my workout and pleasantly satisfied from my late-night wank, I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

The next few days were a flurry of activity at work and I only got to the gym once that week. I thought that I'd make up for it on the weekend. Al texted me after a few days and asked how the nutrition was going. I told him that it was fine and that I had used a few recipes from the site already. I made a comment about work being too busy and not having time to go to the gym. He replied with, "No time or no resolve? Lol."

I confessed that I had been too drained to go and he encouraged me to go anyway and said that I'd feel energized afterwards. I told him that he was right and that I should kick my ass back to the gym. We texted a few times back and forth and, over the next few days, our text conversations covered a variety of topics. I enjoyed "chatting" with him and we told each other a little of our life stories. He had never married but had lived with a woman for over 20 years before things fizzled out and they parted by mutual agreement. He was a regional manager for a chain of sports equipment stores so he had to stay fit to maintain that particular image. He travelled a lot and was out of town for the week. "I'm back on Sunday night and I'm heading to the gym on Monday evening, if you'd like to join me for a killer leg workout." he texted at one point. "Sure," I replied, "I'd like that! Maybe you could kick my ass back to the gym."

He replied with a winking a laughing emoji and told me to enjoy my evening.

I had a restless sleep on Sunday night. I knew by now that I was attracted to Al. He was a sexy, fit, older man. I've always been drawn to older men in my fantasy world and the daddy-type was a turn on. I liked his mostly-grey hair and goatee and his powerful physique. I spent a few evenings masturbating to thoughts of him and wondered what his dick looked like when it was erect. I knew there was no chance of me ever finding out but there was no harm in a little fantasizing.

Monday evening finally came and I was looking forward to my workout almost as much as I was looking forward to seeing Al again. He was already at the gym when I got there and was going through some warm up exercises. He was wearing loose-fitting grey sweat shorts and a tee. "Hey slacker!" he said when saw me, "Jump in and get yourself loosened up."

We warmed up for about 20 minutes and Al coached me through a series of gruelling leg exercises. I knew I was going to pay for this session by having sore legs for a few days. I told Al at one point, "Stairs are going to suck for the next few days." He chuckled and told me that that's how you know you had a good training session.

"Yeah, I should stop being such a sissy," I replied.

He grinned and said, "I don't know, some of us do enjoy a sissy!"

I was glad I was in the middle of a set of squats so the flush of heat I felt was indistinguishable from the flush of effort on my face. What did he mean by that?

The rest of the workout session passed while we chatted about nothing in particular and encouraged each other. Once, while Al was doing leg extensions, I caught sight of the outline of his cock in his grey shorts. He caught me looking but said nothing and I pretended to be absorbed in my own efforts.

Workout completed, I wobbled my way to the locker room on shaky legs. Al seemed to have an easier time of it but remarked that he was going to be sore tomorrow. "I might need to get a rubdown this week," he said as he peeled his sweaty gear off.

"God," I thought, "I'd love to volunteer for that!"

My dick stirred at the thought and I panicked a bit. I turned my thoughts to the financial issues at work and forced myself to subside. The last thing I needed was a raging erection in the communal shower.

I turned the water on and soaped up, striving to keep my thoughts on more unpleasant things like work, famine, terrorism and my ex-wife. I was aware of Al entering the shower room and turning the water on. "You were right last week - best part of the workout," he said as he squeezed soap from a bottle.

"Yeah," I responded lamely. I kept my back to him and soaped up my chest and legs. I didn't trust my body to not show my interest in Al's. At one point I bent forward to soap up the backs of my legs and caught sight of Al watching. His gaze was centered on my ass and I realized that I was probably making my smooth and (naturally) hairless buttocks bounce as I scrubbed the backs of my thighs. Involuntarily, my gaze dropped to his crotch and another flush of heat rocketed through me. His manly, circumcised cock had gone from fully flaccid and had lengthened. It was now approximating a 45 degree downward angle. I faced forward and decided that I'd pretend to be oblivious to his attention. Squeezing more soap into my hands I reached back and soaped up my buttocks and made sure I gave him a good show.

I was sporting a full hard-on at this point and decided to stop my little show and concentrate on deflating. I stood under the hot shower, my back to Al, and waited until I was flaccid again. I turned off the water and noticed that Al had already left the shower room. Shit, I hope I hadn't offended him.

I towelled off, resolving to smarten up and not make things awkward again. I walked into the locker room and Al was already in his underwear and street shirt. He acted like nothing happened and said, "I can feel my legs already. Tomorrow is going to be rough. Worth it though."

"Yeah. Hey, thanks for the workout session!" I replied.

"We'll see if you'll thank me or hate me tomorrow." he chuckled.

We dressed and said good night to each other. I was glad there was no awkwardness between us after the shower scene.

The next day he texted that his legs were stiff and asked how mine were. I replied that mine were the same but not as bad as I thought they'd be. In reality I knew that by tomorrow my lower half would be a mass of sore muscles but I downplayed it with him. "Stiffness seems to be a part of my life lately!" he texted and added the wink emoji again.

I didn't see him at the gym the next few days but we stayed in touch almost constantly over text. We worked out at different hours because of our schedules. Thursday afternoon he texted me, "Hey, if you're not doing anything tomorrow evening do you want to come by for dinner and drinks? Something lean, light and healthy with veggies?"

Fuck yes, I do! That was the first thought in my mind but what I replied was, "That sounds good, I was wondering what to do for dinner tomorrow. Can I bring anything?"

"Just your appetite." was his reply.

Friday was a very long day consisting of endless meetings. By quitting time I was champing at the bit, anxious to get home. I decided to skip my regular Friday afternoon run and went home to prepare for the evening. I tried to get a nap in but there was no way that was happening; I was too keyed up.

Al had texted me his address and he lived in an apartment building not far from me, maybe about a 10-minute drive. I decided to have a long, hot shower and do some grooming before deciding on what to wear. I had no expectations for the evening but there was no harm in indulging in a little fantasy daydreaming. My mind kept returning to the image of Al's impressive semi-hard cock and his blue eyes locked onto my ass. I shook all that off and got on with the job at hand. I finished my grooming in the shower and dried off. I went to my bedroom and picked out a pair of jeans and a casual button-front shirt to wear to Al's. The same stuff I'd wear to a bar night out. Then I brewed myself a coffee and watched a little bit of mindless YouTube before it was time to head out. I had butterflies in my stomach in and I reminded myself that this was just dinner with a new friend and tried to make myself settle down.

I tried but I was still nervous on the drive to Al's apartment.