My Stalker

My Stalker

Chapter 1

I walked into my apartment, I just came from the gym after a long day at work. The apartment was dark, so I knew my roommate, Pete, wasn’t home yet.

I met Pete in my second year of college, I answered an ad that he had posted looking for someone to share an apartment. I was living in the dorm at the time and the guy I was roommates with was a jerk. I went to look at the apartment and Pete and I hit it off right away. I told Pete that I was gay before I moved in, I wanted to be completely honest with him. He made it clear that he was straight and had a girlfriend.

Pete kind of reminds me of George Kittle, the tight end for the 49ers. He wasn’t as tall or big, but he had the blonde hair that he flipped straight back, square jaw and an athletic build. I knew he was off limits, but at least I could appreciate his looks. Neither of us was shy about going shirtless or walking around in our underwear in the apartment.

We quickly agreed on boundaries and set up ground rules, we were respectful of each other’s space and by the end of the school year we were great friends. We even went out to the bars together and started hanging out with each other’s friends. Our place became the meeting place before anytime we went out with friends. It was a typical student apartment, small and had old furniture, so as soon as we graduated and got our first real jobs, we started to look for a better place. We discovered that neither of us could afford a single bedroom apartment, so decided to stay roommates. We found a newly built two-bedroom place that was cheaper than two singles. It had a nice living room and kitchen, each bedroom had its own bathroom so we both had our private space, it worked out perfectly. Pete had several girlfriends come and go and I had guys that I dated, but never had a serious relationship in the time that we lived together. I started to think that I was ready to find something a little bit more stable, Pete seemed to still be playing the field. We both had gotten decent jobs, he at a bank and me at an insurance company, they were entry level positions, but we felt we were on our way.

I was sweaty after my workout, so I went to my room to take a shower. After I showered and pulled on a pair of shorts, I walked out to kitchen to see if I could find something to eat for supper.

Pete walked in, “hey Blake.”

I smiled back to him, “hey, you just getting off work?”

He threw his bag on the couch, “yep, had to get the month end reports done today, the system decided to crash, and I had to wait two hours for the IT guy to show up.”

I said, “that sucks, I was just going to cook this frozen pizza, you want some?”

Pete walked to his room, “sure, just going to change my clothes.” He handed me a six-pack, “I’ll need one of those in a minute,”

I grabbed two bottles and put the rest in the fridge and put the pizza in the oven. I handed Pete his beer when he walked back into the room, he was just wearing a pair of shorts, like I was. We sat at our table and talked about our day, after we had finished our first beer, Pete got each of us another as I pulled the pizza from the oven. We finished eating and cleaned up, grabbed the last two beers, and sat down to watch some tv. Pete was flipping through the channels, I picked up my laptop to check my email. I deleted all the junk emails without reading them and opened the one my mom had sent. It was just the typical family updates, as I was typing a reply I said to Pete, “mom says hi.”

Pete settled on channel, set the remote down and smiled, “tell mom hi back for me.”

We had been friends long enough to have met each other’s family and had been to both of our parents’ homes many times.

I scrolled down, sorting through some more junk emails, then it caught my eye.

Sender: #1fan.

Subject: Hey!

I was confused, what was this about? I clicked on the email.

Hi Blake,

I hope you had a good workout tonight after work. I wish I could have been there to watch. I can tell that the work you are putting in is producing results. Keep it up. I’m sorry if this sounds creepy, but maybe someday I will work up the courage to talk to you in person.

Until then,

Your Number 1 Fan.

I just stared at my screen, not sure what to make of the email. Should I reply? Who sent it? How did they know I worked out tonight?

I must have had a strange look on my face, Pete asked, “you ok?”

I looked up from my screen, “I don’t know, I just got a weird email.”

“What does it say?” He asked.

I read it to him. He thought a minute, “do you know who sent it?”

I shook my head, “no, I don’t have a clue.”

He asked, “what are you going to do?”

I shrugged, “what should I do?”

Pete said, “damn, I don’t know, so you have no idea who sent it?”

“No, I don’t.” I answered.

I showed Pete the email, he read it and said, “ok, let’s see if we can figure it out. Have you met anyone new that might want to go out with you?”

I shook my head, “no, not that I can think of. I have been busy at work the last couple of weeks, all I have done is go to work, the gym and home. Hell, other than our trivia night, we haven’t gone out to bars in a long time.”

He said, “maybe someone at work then, or are there any new guys at your gym?”

I thought a moment, “not that I noticed.”

“Ok, let’s make a list of who it might be. Let’s start with guys you work with.”

“Well, of the five guys in my department, 2 are married, 1 is engaged and I know 1 has a serious girlfriend. Alex and I are the only single guys.”

Alex started about a month after I did, he was about 5’8”, slim build with sandy blonde hair that was never out of place. His clothes we always pressed, and color coordinated, his desk was always neat and tidy. I wasn’t sure if he was gay, but when we were at break or lunch, he and I were the only ones that didn’t brag about our sex life. All my coworkers knew that I was gay, but that didn’t stop them from talking about their wives, girlfriends, or dates. Alex was a little on the shy side but was good at his job and I did think that he was handsome in a nerdy sort of way.

Pete said, “ok, Alex is a maybe. Who else?”

“That’s about the only guys I interact with at work.” I replied.

‘Ok, you said the gym, how about anyone there?” Pete asked.

After some thought, “I don’t talk to too many people there either, about the only one would be Drew.”

Drew is the perfect example of a jock. 6’, red hair, green eyes, he always wears tank tops that show off his muscles and pale skin. He had that smile that showed his perfectly white teeth. He was friendly with me, and we often spotted each other when we lifted weights. I of course, checked him out whenever I could but never got a good read on him. I thought he might be checking me out a few times too but figured that was just wishful thinking on my part. I always showered at home after I worked out, so I hadn’t had the chance to see him naked, I didn’t even know if he showered at the gym either, he always worked out longer than I did.

Pete held up two fingers, “there’s two, who else can you think of.”

I looked at Pete, “wait, there’s Logan, the waiter at the place that I eat lunch when I go out my coworkers. Remember I told you about the time I thought he was flirting with me.”

Logan was a hot Asian waiter at the restaurant across the street from my office. He was about 5’6” and had beautiful brown eyes. He had a nice build, not overly muscular buy just enough to fill out his shirt nicely, not to mention an ass that made me drool every time he walked away. I wasn’t sure if his flirting was genuine or just a way to get a better tip. If it was the latter, it worked.

“Ok, we have Alex, Drew and Logan, that’s good start. Anyone else?” Pete asks.

After another minute I thought, “Mario, the guy that moved in upstairs last month, he seems to chat me up in the lobby when we get our mail.”

Mario stands about 5’8”, caramel skin and chocolate brown eyes. His hair is jet black, and he usually has it up in a man bun. I’m not always a fan of that particular hair do, but he is able to pull it off pretty well, but on Saturdays he wears it down on his shoulders, in my opinion, it was much sexier that way. When we would meet at the mailbox our conversation always ended with him patting me on the shoulder or some other form of friendly physical contact.

Pete again holds up his fingers, “that make four.”

I nodded, “oh, I almost forgot about Dustin, the guy on our bar trivia team.”

Dustin is what I would call the skater type, long hair that is either hanging over half of his face or tied back in a ponytail. He always wears baggy clothes so It’s hard to tell what his body is like. Pete and I started playing on the trivia team when we went to the bar one night and they were short a couple players. We were asked if we would sit in and the next thing, we knew we were on the team. Pete even made a comment that he thought Dustin kept watching me and thought he was into me. I just laughed, but the next week I thought he might be right.

Pete nodded, “oh yeah, I forgot about Dustin, he moves to the top of my list.”

I had another thought, “what about Ashley’s brother Evan?”

Ashley was a girl that Pete dated for a while last year. They invited me out with them one night because Evan was coming along and didn’t want to be a third wheel. He works construction and after that night, he started showing up at the bar on our trivia night. He didn’t want to play but he would just drink beer and watch. He was good looking and always wore a button-down shirt and never seemed to button the top two buttons. This showed off a nice chest covered in the same dark hair that covered his arms as well as his neatly trimmed beard. I was never sure if he was already a regular at the bar or started coming after he found out I would be there each week.

Pete said, “yeah, and even after Ashley and I broke up, he still kept coming to watch us, didn’t he?”

I sat back in the couch, “damn, that’s six, do you really think that many guys would like me enough to send me this email?”

Pete chuckled, “well, you’re certainly not the most repulsive guy in town, there are probably a lot more guys that find you attractive.”

I looked at him, “um, thanks, I think.”

He laughed, “no, what I mean is you are a good-looking guy, and you have a good personality, so it’s not that far-fetched that you have a secret admirer.”

I thought about that for a minute, I guess this is a little bit of an ego boost. We talked about it a while longer, trying to narrow the list down.

Pete said, “you know, it might not be anyone of these guys. It might be someone you haven’t thought about, or someone you don’t even know.”

I nodded, “that’s true, I wish they would have just talked to me instead of playing this little game. Who knows, I might feel the same about them, I would at least have gone out with them to see if there is a spark.”

We had spent most of the night making the list. I decided it was time for bed, I told Pete goodnight and went to my room. I lay on my bed with all six of these guys going through my head. There were definitely things that I liked about each guy, why hadn’t I ever pursued anything with any of them? Hell, I wasn’t positive that they were all gay, maybe I was misinterpreting what I thought were signals. Now, how was I going to figure out which one of them sent the email, do I just ask them? I drifted off to sleep, maybe something will come to me in the morning.