I suppose like a lot of guys, the iron bug bit me in high school. I started lifting as a means of getting bigger for football. Many an hour was logged in the weight room in the quest for strength and size. Even while trying to stay focused during all those hours and all that hard work, it was hard not to develop a fine appreciation for the male physique in all the various shapes and forms that were on display in that sweaty, musky chamber on a daily basis.
My grades didn’t qualify me for college, but my competitive nature wouldn’t let me sit still. So, after dabbling in bodybuilding for a few years, I settled on power lifting and racked up enough trophies to fill two wall cases. Now closing in on thirty years since high school, my joints have forced me to retire from the contest arena, but I still keep active with regular workouts at Jake's Gym, an old school facility located in the rear of a building with the only access by way of an intimidating dead-end alley. The weights, benches and racks have a slightly rusted hue from the perpetual Pittsburgh humidity, and plenty of dents from the years of brutal and constant use.
As for the owner, Jake, I suppose he’s a lot like his gym, a little beat up but at his core, all power. At six foot two, with a salt and pepper beard, bald on top, and muscle upon muscle from years of experience in the iron game, he can be an imposing figure. About five years my senior, Jake has become a trusted confidant and mentor. And to me, he’s without a doubt the sexiest man alive. Hardly a night goes by that I don’t jack myself to sleep fantasizing about him and waking up with stained sheets. When I’m not at work, I try to spend as much of my free time in the gym, watching his every move out of the corner of my eye. If I could live there, I’d gladly take up residence just to be closer to him. Now, before you go thinking that I’m some sort of stalker, let me relate what happened last Friday night.
I had just finished an all-out balls-to-the-wall workout, looking forward to the upcoming weekend. Jake and I were the only ones left, and after locking up, he began to clean and straighten while I headed downstairs to shower up. Jake had converted a bathroom into a makeshift locker room with a fiberglass shower stall, a few chairs and a used bank of lockers that he had bought from an area high school that had recently upgraded its facilities.













