Trevor Coelho on LinkedIn: #crisscross #vss365

It had been a week since Ray had seen his neighbor in more than passing. Just her long braid disappearing around a corner here, the faint smell of lemon on the air wafting as a window slammed shut there. Even at the gym he wasn't free from the #crisscross. "There he is," said one of the instructors of a rival spinclass walking by, not knowing he could read lips. "Yeah, heard he actually answered the door wearing~" Ray tuned it out. Thankfully most of the people in his class had enough sense to not heed rumor, or at least enough class to not talk about him. "Come on people, keep it up!" He called out. The other spinners in his class did their best and he pushed hard with them, it was why his class was full. Ray didn't even mind it was mostly guys. He did regret when he found out it was because most thought he was a powertop. "Alright, let's take it down, bring it to a cooldown folks!" He finished up and chalked out hopping off to pass out towels and drinks to people who looked like they needed it. His favorite couple was already getting up to leave. "Lance, Alex, how's the great choclateers?" Lance high-fived Ray hard, "Great man, loved the class today." "Oh yeah," Alex chimed in, "Who does your music man? It is killer." "Serious, well me. I'm into techno and synthwave stuff." Ray didn't talk about it much, but he was proud of this. "Yeah, I have a full studio in my place, when I'm not getting paid to do commercial scores I twist out clutch tunes to work out too." "So, you play instruments too, do you play piano?" "Yeah," he handed a bottle to one of the ladies leaving, "I even have a baby grande." "Well, maybe we can jam some time, my buddy and I used to play Spot's it's a little bar under the overpass." "I know that~" Ray froze. Alex looked where Ray was staring. Reb had walked in. "Oh sweety," Alex chuckled, "You need to give it up." "I can't help it, everywhere I go, there she is." "Go further," Lance teased. Ray shrugged, "I just wish I knew why she was so mad at me." Lance looked at Alex, who then turned and took a long swig of water, clearly avoiding the line of questioning. "What?" Lance sighed, "Well~" "Lancelot!" "Hon, he deserves to know." "What? What do I deserve to know?" "Well, see, rumor was she's a genuine Madame, and when those biddies saw you two, well..." "Shit!" Ray yelled so loud, his voice echoing in the hall. Unfortunately that also caught her ear, and with a glare that could have melted metal she turned and started storming off. Ray was so fast to the door he went right past her, spinning to a stop and falling to his knees before she could get out. "Please forgive me!" He looked up at Reb, desperately hoping she'd listen. His luck was not that good. She looked around at the people there, clearly about to say something to him, then closed her mouth with a snap and stormed out. Ray stood up, feeling even worse. And his mood wasn't about to improve either, as laughter filled the hall. "So how much does she charge?" #vss365