**

My alarm annoyingly wakes me at 5:00a.m. on Monday as usual. I like to get a run in every morning before I open up the shop, mainly because of the large amount of sugar consumption that happens regularly between Joey and me during work hours. Dressing in my running gear, I grab my phone and keys off my nightstand and go downstairs into the large kitchen. I live in a small loft above the bakery and have since I opened the place three years ago. It’s practical for me living at my job since some days I’m required to get up in the middle of the night to work on something for a client. My loft consists of one large room that I separated into two with a decorative screen, giving my bedroom area some privacy from the living room and kitchen. It is small, quaint, and cheap. Renting the room above the bakery only costs me $850 a month which is relatively inexpensive for the downtown Chicago area. Below the loft, the stairs dump out into the large kitchen/work space that I spend the majority of my time in, with a doorway that leads out to the main bakery. I make my way through that doorway and smile at Joey’s face that is pressing against the glass, peering inside. He never misses a run. I step outside and lock up behind me, seeing his angry expression glaring at me as I spin to greet him.

“Well, thank God you aren’t dead. What the f**k? I called you a million times yesterday.” He stretches his back by twisting from left to right. “I believe I told you that I wanted details.”

I bend down and reach for my toes and he does the same. “I’m sorry. I needed to mentally check out yesterday. The wedding was a bit much.” Understatement of the century. Stretching my hamstrings, I stand up and press my hand against the window of the bakery to steady myself.

“And are you going to just stand there and not tell me what the f**k that means?”

“I’m sure you already know everything, you gossip queen. Hasn’t Juls spilled the big surprise?”

We start jogging down the sidewalk together, our feet hitting the pavement at the same time. It’s already hot as hell outside and that just ups my annoyance level.

“What big surprise? Juls spent the rest of the reception sucking Ian’s face and God knows what else and I ate my weight in cake after I saw Billy flirting with a waiter.”

“Oh shit. I’m sorry, Joey. That really sucks.”

“Whatever. He ended up driving me home and I did him in the back of his Denali as punishment.”

I push his arm but he doesn’t budge. The man is a mountain of muscle. “Jesus. Well I guess you showed him.”

“Oh I did. Now, what surprise?” We make our usual trek down Fayette Street on the deserted sidewalk, Joey initiating the pace as he always does.

“Reese is married.” God it still sucked today saying it out loud. And why did my heart physically ache at the sound of it. I couldn’t be that affected by a wedding hook up, no matter how good the sex was. I stop running and look back at Joey who is frozen on the pavement, his blond curls already sticking to his forehead with sweat.

“He’s what?” He starts up again, momentarily stunned and I move with him.

“You heard me. Fucking married. Of course, he didn’t mention this before, during, or after our hot as hell sex in the men’s bathroom. He just simply asked me ‘what the f**k was that’ after he came, told me he was sorry, and went on about his business.” I push my legs faster as we run up a small hill, feeling the burn in my thighs.

“What a dick. Are you sure though? I mean, I didn’t see a ring and you know I hunt that out first thing.”

“Yea, so do I. Apparently, Ian told Juls that he was married. He probably didn’t wear his ring so he could f**k me blind. Oh and I almost forgot, to top the night off, Justin followed me outside and alluded to me f**king him since married men are my thing now.” Asshole.

Joey snaps his head towards me, eyes wide. “Are you f**king serious right now? Where the f**k was I when all this was happening? Oh that’s right, I was eating my God damned feelings.” He picks up his pace as I struggle behind him.

“Slow down! Your legs are miles longer than mine.”

“Crap, sorry.” He returns to my side. “I’m sorry about Reese cupcake. I really am. But---”

“Don’t f**king say it, Joey.” I knew exactly what his next words would be.

“I’m just saying---”

“Shut it, Holt,” I spat as he spins around to face me, effortlessly running backwards.

“You could be the sexy mistress. If the sex was that good, why give it up?” Now I started sprinting and hear a squeal from him as he catches up within seconds.

“Are you mental? I am not going to be his f**k buddy on the side. I don’t care how amazing the sex was or how hard he made me come. Fuck that shit.” I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand, the sweat already starting to build on my skin.

“Ooohhh how hard did he make you come? Was he huge? Please tell me it didn’t have some weird hook to it like Billy’s did.” He shakes his head quickly. “I’m not quite sure how I feel about that yet.”

“Jesus Christ. It is way too early to talk about dick sizes and which way they curve.” I pause. “But for the record, he’s massive and as straight as you pretended to be in high school.”

“I f**king knew it. You lucky bitch.”

We ran in silence the rest of the way around the neighborhood, the only noises coming from us being our breathing and the sound of our shoes striking the pavement. I ran fast and hard, desperately trying to push the memory of Reese and our hook up out of my mind and hoping to run away from it. But that wasn’t going to happen, at least not today. And it wasn’t happening for my running partner either. I could almost hear Joey’s mind working as we ran, most likely coming up with all the possible secret rendezvous scenarios between Reese and myself. Needless to say, the five mile trek today was both mentally and physically exhausting.