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Both Briggs and I rolled our eyes simultaneously, catching each other’s glances.
“You’ll get used to it,” Briggs said, wrapping his lifting belt loosely around his hips and stepping up to the platform with me.
“Please, B,” Aaron said, flicking his friend on the shoulder. “You should be more like me. Maybe then Thalia would actually pay attention to you.”
Briggs whirled around, jutting his finger at Aaron as his eyes inspected the rest of the gym, searching for her. He must’ve been making sure she didn’t hear. Aaron had said she’d be arriving soon.
But she never showed. Apparently, she did that often. She had a gym set up at home, and while Briggs was her neighbor, he was never “man enough” to ask to work out with her there, as Aaron put it. It had been a year since Briggs met her. A year since he fell in love with her. Right here at the squat racks.
Chapter 17
Jonah
I got to the gym around 12:28. No sign of Kai yet.
I thought she’d be hungry after a workout, so I walked into the store just next door and grabbed her something to eat. Some protein shake I found.
It wasn’t until 12:46 that I saw what appeared to be her figure moving behind the window, inching closer to the exit, accompanied by at least two other people. The glass was tinted, so I couldn’t make them out fully. That was probably intentional to prevent creeps from looking in. Just as I was currently doing.
I squinted in the sunlight and kept staring from my spot on the pavement. Two people. That was definitely two people flanking her. Men, if I had to guess. They fell away as she got closer to the door, and she exited alone, her sticky cheeks stretched into a smile.
I handed her the shake, and she gasped eagerly as she took it, twisting it around in her hands to read the label. “Strawberry! I wanted strawberry today.” She usually preferred chocolate, but something about the nice weather told me strawberry. “Thanks, Jojo. I’m so sorry I’m late. You really didn’t have to come.”
“Don’t apologize. I wanted to come.”
She bumped her shoulder to mine as we turned away from the door of the gym to begin our walk home.
After only a few steps, a deep voice reached my ears. “Later, Kai!”
“See you tomorrow!” said another.
Kai turned to wave enthusiastically. Those were probably the two blurs I’d barely seen through the window. I didn’t bother to look. It was entirely unnecessary that I saw how good-looking her new friends likely were.
“Are you tired, or do you want to see the dance studio?” I asked, watching her lean her head back and down the shake surprisingly quickly. “If we see it, we’d have to go straight to the recording studio after. If we don’t, you have time to wash up.”
She wiped the back of her hand over her mouth and smacked her lips. “I have no reason to wash up. Why would you think I should wash up?”
“Because you smell like rubber mats and you have black shit smeared across your front.” I pointed to the grime drawn across her ribs, wondering how dirt could even get on that particular patch of skin.
She stuck a dirty, calloused hand in my face as punishment, and I leaned back to evade her revenge. “I’ll shower when you change your shirt.”
I jutted my fingers in her high-waisted leggings and jerked her backward to make her stumble from her path. “I changed my shirt this morning.”
She immediately charged up behind me and lifted me clean off my feet. For a sweet little thing, she was impressively strong.
She denied seeing the dance studio, insisting we headed home, just as I’d expected. She hadn’t posted a dance video in years. God only knows when the last time she even danced was, but I hoped she’d at least check out the studio eventually. She loved to dance, but she associated it with a time in her life that made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t exactly a mystery to me.
I sighed and rolled my shoulders back, letting the sun warm my skin. The sun had been my enemy for so long, but walking down the street with Kai wasn’t all that bad. In fact, I could’ve gotten used to it.
“Oh, foosballs,” she muttered. I watched as she looked at her water bottle, releasing little PG curses from her mouth. She’d just pulled the pink, metal container from her bag, putting the empty shake bottle in its spot. Around it were wrapped two black straps. “These are Aaron’s.” She turned around to yell. “Aaron!”
I breathed in and out once, my mood shifting immediately. I was going to have to meet these guys.
She scurried away from me, back toward where we came from, her gym bag bouncing as she held her strapped water bottle in the air. In the distance, I could see two men who had been walking in the opposite direction. Both turned around to watch as my beautiful girl approached. I followed, dreading the pending encounter.
I took in the smaller one first. His blonde hair and general stature let me know that he wasn’t really a threat. Not that Kai was shallow. She could love someone blonde and nice-looking. But I’m speaking within my own mind here. I’m allowed to say whatever I want. He was handsome, no doubt, but physically possessed nothing that could capture the beautiful Kai.
Not that I, myself, did either.
