I'd been married to my wife Rebecca for 6 years. I was now approaching 30 and she was due to turn 28 later in the year. We'd met during our time in school so had already been together for a long time before we decided to get married. When we first got married, we had lots of plans, the main one being that we wanted to settle down and start a family, but our career aspirations put those plans on hold, quickly followed by COVID meaning we were behind on our life plan by three or four years. We obviously had our own place which we both worked hard for, and we were managing to pay for a three bedroomed house on a modest joint income.
Our sex life had always been pretty good. We tended to fuck two or three times a week which was more than enough for me. When COVID hit, our sex life took a hit. The lockdowns really affected our mental health and as a result we had sex less and less. I became very inactive as well meaning that I ended up putting on a lot of weight and became generally unhealthy. And I think it influenced the way Becky looked at me. She always wanted the best for me, and she always wanted me to be the best version of me.
Once COVID had passed, I did my best to become more active. I signed up for a gym membership that cost a lot more than it should have but I used this as motivation to get myself there and make myself lose weight. I changed my diet. I ate a lot more fruit, made home cooked meals and cut down on the number of takeaways I ate. And it worked, over the course of 6 months I started to lose weight. I took my gym membership one step further and signed up to a personal trainer once a week. Anna was amazing. She showed me how to work all the different muscle groups and before long I was looking trim and toned. Yeah, I didn't have a six pack, but I now had a better body than I did before COVID and was a lot more active. I particularly enjoyed my cycling in the gym and would usually do this two or three times a week.
Joining the gym also gave me the chance to make new friends. Something I hadn't done a lot of since I'd left school and spent most of my time with Becky. It was a great way to socialise, we even organised charity events and other things which really brought us all closer together. I particularly struck up a friendship with a couple of guys. One was John, who was around 5"9 and had the body of your typical gym regular, big arms, big legs and a strong chest. He had brown hair and I'd never seen him with any type of facial hair. The other was Martin, he was around 6"3 and built very similar to John but because of his size, it looked completely different on him, he had jet black hair and one of those big bushy hipster beards everyone was growing lately. I, on the other hand was just under 6ft tall, and like I mentioned earlier was now nice and toned with blonde hair and light stubble.
My usual gym schedule was Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and then I would have my PT session on Anna on a Monday. I was in the middle of my usual workout on the bike on a Sunday, I normally aim to do 30km before doing some weights. By the time I'd hit around 22km, my legs were starting to ache, and my muscles were tightening up. Just before I reached the 25km mark, I felt something go tight at the top of my left leg, just below my ass. It was a sharp shooting pain that made me come to a complete stop. After that I hobbled my way home, thinking I just had a bad cramp and that it would be fine in the morning.
I felt slightly better the next morning but still felt a little tight. I managed to make it through work and headed to the gym after for my session with Anna. Everything seemed okay when we started warming up and I thought I'd gotten away with it. Then she put me on the treadmill which turned out to be dangerous. Luckily, I was wearing the clip which forces an emergency stop because as soon as I started to run, it twinged again, and I had to stop. Anna helped take the weight off my bad leg and walked me to one of the chairs behind the office desk.
'What the hell happened?' She asked seeming genuinely concerned.
'I felt something tighten up yesterday when I was on the bike. Woke up this morning, didn't feel as bad but turns out it just got a whole lot worse.' Anna handed me an ice pack which I strapped to the top of my leg.
'Definitely no more training for you for a couple of days. You need to rest up and see how it goes. Let me know in a few days if it's not getting any better,' Anna said before making sure I could get to my car and make it home.
I got home and Becky wasn't very sympathetic, and she give me the 'I told you so' talk after she'd said I should've rested for longer before trying to get back in the gym. Over the next few days, nothing seemed to get any better and in some cases it got worse. The strain seemed to be working its way into my thigh as well. And because of my lack of movement, it meant no sex and Becky was willing to give me any pleasure if she wasn't getting any. So, I heard plenty of moans when she was using her toys, but I didn't have it in me to jerk myself off, it was still sore.
By the time it came to my next PT session with Anna, I had to contact her and apologise but there was no way I could do a session yet. It felt like it was getting better, but I was still struggling with any strenuous activity.
'Oh man, that sucks,' Anna said when I told her. 'Give it another few days and if it's no better, I think I know someone who can help.'
'Thanks Anna, really appreciate it.' I hung up.
The next few days came and went, and there was very little change in the way I was moving. I was still walking with a limp and even had to resort to working from home a couple of days just to give myself a few days extra rest. On the Thursday, whilst I was working from home, my phone started to ring, and it was Anna.
'Hey, how's it going?' She asked me in her usual cheery manner.
'Still not getting any better. Well, that's a lie. It's not as bad, but still extremely tight when I've not moved for a while,' I told her.
'Okay,' she started. 'I know a guy who is a sports massage therapist. If I give him a call, he's more than likely to give you your first massage for free as a friend so he can assess what it is you need.'
'That sounds good,' I told her. 'I'm willing to try anything now.'
'Great, I'll give him a call and set it up,' she paused. 'But I must tell you one thing...'
'What is it?' I questioned.
'Mike is gay...' she seemed to pause for dramatic effect.
'And?' I said laughing.
'Oh,' she seemed surprised. 'Quite a lot of guys refuse when I tell them he's gay, you know the whole macho masculinity thing.'