Page 16 of Grounding the Baker
“That wasn’t a no. Is there someone you’d like to invite if you weren’t working?”
“I don’t have time for all that, and who’s going to be interested in this?” He gestured to his body.
Michael had put on a fair bit of weight over the last few years, though Austin still thought he looked great. But then, his opinion didn’t really matter. What Michael thought of himself was the priority. His friend was a handsome man who’d be the perfect partner for a lucky guy, but he didn’t see himself as the catch he was.
“What can I do to help?” asked Austin, taking a seat. He wanted Michael to know he wasn’t in a hurry.
“I don’t know, Austin. I don’t have time to go to the gym, which I know is a bullshit excuse, but I genuinely don’t have time with everything here. By the time I get home at night, I’m too tired to eat anything healthy. I can start something, but it peters out by the end of the week.”
“Why don’t we go to the gym together? I know you don’t like to let people down. Would that help?”
“I don’t know. I’ve looked into going to Turkey for surgery.”
“Isn’t that a bit drastic?”
“I need to do something, Austin. I can’t do it by myself, but to have the surgery I’d need to take two weeks off from this place, and then for the next six weeks I’d be very limited with the activities I could do. And nobody could know what I’d done.”
“Why not? It’s nobody else’s business.”
“I’m at the top of the tree here. People will judge and say I’m not being a good role model because I can afford to do this but others can’t.”
“Fuck them, Michael. Sometimes you need to be selfish.”
Michael snorted.
“What?”
“Are you ever selfish?”
Austin thought about it. Sometimes he put himself first, but not often. He nodded.
“How about I make you a deal? You be selfish, and I’ll do the same.”
“Selfish about what?”
“I think you know what I’m referring to.”
Austin did not know until Michael pointed at his empty coffee cup from Sylvie’s Slice. Austin chuckled.
“Subtle.”
“I don’t share the same view as the others.”
“You did the other day.”
“I was just bowing to peer pressure.”
Austin laughed, then put his serious face back on. “Let’s make a plan to go to the gym together at least. That’s good for your heart, even if the diet doesn’t improve.”
“Fine, but after the festival.”
Austin narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You’re stalling.”
“I’m busy.”
“Fine,” he said, standing up. “I’ll speak to Rodrigo about membership.”
“He’s hot!”
