by Holly Hall
“Ikea,” he answered, spinning out of his chair. “You find the place okay?”
“It was hard to miss, with all the battle cries and beating of chests.”
“Some of our members take their workouts seriously.” He held up a finger. “No judging.”
“No judging,” I echoed, topping it with a salute. I hadn’t known exactly what to expect, so I’d gone the safe route and dressed in leggings and a loose tank-top. Thanks to the compressive quality of said leggings, everything was exactly where it was supposed to be and potential booty jiggle would be minimized.
“Let me show you around, and you can tell me what you think.”
The real tour went about as well as the virtual one did, although the machinery was ten times more intimidating up close. People worked with ropes and atop benches, on the floor or on machines, and there was no shortage of sweat. And tears, I suspected—that would’ve been the case with me. Outfits ranged from sweat-suits (misery) to sports bras and microscopic shorts (no thank you), and everyone seemed focused on their chosen method of torture as if their lives depended on it. I couldn’t tell if I was more awestruck or nauseated by it all.
This place was a physical reminder of all areas I was weakest. Cheers to that.
Theo was so in his element as he described the various equipment, and I’m sure he meant to be encouraging. My anxiety, however, had progressed into panic mode.
“What do you think?” Theo asked, once we returned to his office. The way his chest swelled, I could tell he was proud.
I recalled what Holland and I had spoken about and felt myself shrink a little. Getting to know someone like Theo would involve being game for anything—embodying the “fun girl.” You know the type; every group has one. And being that girl would involve taking this grungy warehouse gym in stride and jumping into the experience headfirst.
I couldn’t do it. Holland would have no problem feeling at home here, among the grunters. Slamming weights and hurling insults at each other. I couldn’t even pretend to be that girl. “There is no way,” I said, resigned.
Theo had the grace to tilt his head in confusion. “Why not?”
“I don’t fit in here.”
“That’s subjective.”
“Is it? Because I think you can tell that this”—I gestured from my head to my toes—“isn’t quite suited for all that.”
He sat on the corner of his desk, and I prepared for another motivational speech. “There are people from all walks of life out there. Terry? He’s lost a hundred pounds and is battling it out with the last fifty. Camilla is a single mother of three. Jackie, who’d never exercised at a gym until this year, is training for a fitness competition. And beyond all that, there is no rule saying you don’t belong here.”
“And that’s all really admirable.” I was sweating just at the prospect of it. I wrestled against the urge to fan my armpits. “It’s a lovely place. Well, lovely probably isn’t the word for it, but it’s great. And totally not me. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.”
“I thought you might say that,” Theo said, and where I’d assumed I’d see disappointment, there was only satisfaction. “So I made other plans for us today. I hope you don’t have to rush anywhere.”
“Uh, no.” I shook my head. “I’m all yours.”
I was rewarded with another glimpse of his crooked smile as he gathered his keys, flipped off the lights, and led me out of the office and through the front door.
“Where are we going?” I huffed, my legs working double time to keep up with his long strides.
“Don’t you want to be surprised?”
“I hate surprises.”
“I thought you’d say that too, but you’re guaranteed to like this one. Unless you don’t have a soul. You have a soul, don’t you?”
“Have I told you about my boss, the dementor? Yeah, not too sure about that one.”
Theo chuckled again. “Lucky for you, I have a Patronus in mind.”
He was familiar with Harry Potter terminology. Somewhere in my head, another tally was placed in Theo’s “Pro” column.
There was no way to tell where we were going—we were surrounded by warehouses and I was unfamiliar with the area. And by the smug look on Theo’s face, I was willing to bet he wouldn’t crack. So I was left to half walk, half run beside him until we reached our destination. Theo turned to look at me as we rounded the corner, witnessing my automatic grin when I read the lettering on the next building.
“The animal shelter?”
“Yep.”
“Are we adopting an animal?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he held the door open for me, “but we will be playing with them.” I tried not to squeal with delight, while kicking myself for not thinking of doing this sooner.
Theo signed us in on a sheet of paper titled “Dog-For-a-Day Program”, then checked in with an employee who took us out a rear door. The kennel area was a cacophony of noise, and dogs big and small looked on as we traversed a walkway bordered by chain-link. Their expressions ranged from joyful to nervous, and everything in between.
My mood fell the farther we walked, because for each kennel we passed, we were breaking another heart by not lavishing them with attention.
“Any preference for who you want to take out?” the staff member asked.
“Any two that haven’t been out today.” Theo looked over at me in question, and I confirmed with a nod. I got the feeling I was learning more about his heart today.
“You got it.” The guy made a serpentine up and down the aisles, and he returned with a russet-colored, mid-sized canine.
She bounced around at Theo’s feet, trying to steal a kiss when he bent to pet her. “You’re ready to go, aren’t you, Jazz?”
I offered a hand for her to sniff, but she seemed equally as wary of me as she was enamored by Theo. “You know her?”
“Yeah. She’s been here a while, unfortunately. She’s sweet, but she takes a minute to warm up to strangers.”
When the employee returned a second time, he was leading a dog who I guessed weighed as much as me and was almost as tall. I assumed it was a mistake when he offered me the leash. “Me? Really?”
“He’s a gentle giant, trust me. Jazz will jerk Theo around more than this guy will,” he reassured me.
I extended a hand cautiously, and while the employee was passing me the leash, the giant himself licked my knuckles, just once. Almost thoughtfully. “Aren’t you a gentleman?” I gripped the nylon in both hands just to be safe. “What’s his name?”
“Shorty,” he answered with a smirk.
“Shorty, huh? That’s like calling me Goliath. Nice to meet you,” I said, giving Shorty a scratch behind the ears.
Outside the shelter, I followed Theo and Jazz past the cramped dog runs and continued up the sidewalk. I was nervous to be walking Shorty so close to the street, wary of losing control and him breaking loose. But he was perfectly content to plod alongside me while his tongue lolled from his mouth. Life had slowed him down, it seemed, but that was okay with me. Meanwhile, Jazz’s nails scraped the ground as she zig-zagged in front of Theo on the sidewalk. She looked back at him every few strides, giving him what looked like a huge grin. And Theo allowed himself to be dragged.
I felt weirdly at ease with the outing when I forgot about the fact I was outside the apartment with my hot neighbor, who’d lured me here under the pretense of showing me his gym. He’d known before I’d even arrived that I wouldn’t love Grind, yet he’d invited me anyway. I wasn’t sure about the motives behind all this effort, but my hormones, it seemed, weren’t going to wait for me to classify him as a threat.
“You okay back there?” Theo called, squinting back at me in the sunlight.
“Yep!” I said cheerily. I was enjoying myself so much I hadn’t noticed the sweat trailing down my spine. It was now August, and summer hadn’t released its grip on Chicago.
“We’re going just a couple more blocks,” he said, turning back around.
&n
bsp; His position offered me an unimpeded view of his back, broad shoulders tapering into a long torso and a bubble butt. Yep, I said it, Theo hadn’t been skipping his squats and it showed. Add in the thin workout shorts, and I was eating my heart out. He didn’t have to know I was appraising his body like a dessert table. It was Shorty’s and my secret. Speaking of, I glanced at Shorty and thought I saw an accusatory twinkle in his eye, but maybe it was a trick of the light.
Another block later, I set eyes on our destination: a park. It couldn’t have been more than a few acres in size, but the emerald grass beckoned like an oasis among all the concrete.
We made for the shade cast by one of a few large trees, and I followed Theo’s lead and dropped onto the grass. Jazz took that as an invitation to assault me with kisses, the wag of her tail so aggressive it wiggled her entire body.
“Looks like someone else is a fan of you,” Theo said, reclining on his elbow.
“You mean, aside from you and Shorty?” I cracked. As if on cue, Shorty collapsed next to me, panting while he rested.
“You could say that.” A flash of white teeth, then Theo closed his eyes and emitted a sigh. “This is nice.”
“It is. Do you come here often?”
He cracked an eye at me. “Smooth.”
“I’m about as smooth as crunchy peanut butter.”
“Crunchy peanut butter?”
“Don’t act like you don’t see it, Theo. You’re over here with your muscles, and your gym, walking shelter dogs. Meanwhile, I’m crunchy peanut butter.”
“I love peanut butter. You’re making me hungry.”
“I’m not kidding!”
“Look, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable back there. I know that environment isn’t for everyone, but I wouldn’t be in business if I didn’t know how to talk people into trying it out. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
I blew out a sigh, momentarily regretful of my defensiveness. “You didn’t. I’m just used to everyone I meet literally looking down on me. Add in that I was awkward AF as a teenager, reading or working on sets for the theater department instead of playing sports or wearing trendy things, and I’m pretty sure I have a firm grasp of this world and my place in it.”
He shook his head and let out one of his pffft noises. “Everyone was awkward as a teenager.”
“That may be true, but there are levels to the awkwardness, and there’s a huge disparity between top of the food chain and the bottom feeders.”
“I refuse to use the term ‘bottom feeder’ when it comes to you.”
“You didn’t know me.”
“I know you now. And in just a few weeks, I’ve found out you’re hardworking, passionate, tenacious. Three things that aren’t just handed to you.”
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those ‘you can do anything you set your mind to’ guys.”
“It comes with the job. I warned you the first time we hung out.”
“That was before I knew I would get swindled into hanging out with you at the park. I thought I was going to live out my days satisfied with just knowing I had a hot neighbor across the hall, not having to explain myself to him.”
“You think I’m hot?”
“Ugh, you’re exhausting.” I rested on my side, stroking Shorty’s smooth back while my cheeks blazed. His kind face was white, giving him the appearance of a wizened old man. He’d lived a lot of life. I could tell by looking into his soulful eyes.
“I don’t mean to preach, and I hope you’re having a good time. Seriously.”
“I am. Once you get past the whole muscle-man appearance and endless cycle of models going in and out of your apartment, you’re not so bad.”
He crunched upright to a sitting position. “Is that what’s been giving you a complex?”
I looked away. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Hardly a conversation goes by where you don’t dismiss me. Like because I’m Theo and you’re Ava, I somehow don’t deserve the time of day, and I was beating myself up over trying to figure out why. It’s the women.”
“Does that not make sense?” I asked on a laugh.
“Let’s get one thing straight—none of those women are my girlfriend. I’m single. Maybe I should’ve been clearer about that in the beginning.”
“Hey, I’m not judging. Partaking in certain activities is only natural. If ladies of the night are your thing. . .”
“They’re my clients!”
“The plot thickens,” I said dramatically.
“My nutrition clients. I told you about the meal-plan thing, and you’d be surprised how many people have never boiled their own pot of water, much less sautéed any vegetables. I do some instructing at my apartment. Basic cooking principles.”
And his nutrition clients all happen to be female and gorgeous. “Well, nobody can say you’re not dedicated.”
“Look, I’m tens of thousands of dollars in the hole with my gym. I do what I can to retain clients, and if that requires teaching them how to grill chicken, then it’s well worth it.”
I nodded understandingly. “Is your secret ingredient black lace panties?”
That confounded him for a moment. “Black lace. . . Ohhh, you’re talking about that night in the laundry room. I was washing towels from the gym, another perk of the job.” He shrugged. “They get thrown in bins in the locker rooms, and sometimes things get mixed in. I’m sure the owner of those panties was just as flustered realizing she’d left them as you were when you saw them.”
“I wasn’t flustered.”
“Sure, you were just mulling over it for weeks.”
“Sorry.”
“You could’ve asked about it,” he pointed out.
“What would’ve been the point? You wearing panties after-hours is none of my concern.”
He didn’t bat an eye at my joke. “The point is that we’re friends. Right? This is what friends do. They talk about how whipped Theo must be by his company, that he’s willing to teach cooking classes and wash sweaty towels every night to stay afloat.”
I smiled sadly. When you got past the appearance thing, we weren’t so different after all. “And how whipped Ava must be, if she was willing to go to a garage gym for a bonus.”
Ignoring my teasing, he said, “They’re really offering a bonus for that? What kind of place do you work at, and can you get me a job?”
“Trust me, I think the sweaty towels are preferable to my fire-breathing boss.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse. She expects the moon, then gets pissed when we deliver it because really she wanted Mars.”
“Interesting analogy.”
“It would be funnier if it weren’t true.”
Somewhere in our conversation, Jazz finally settled down enough to lay in the grass while Theo scratched her belly. “Well, I stick with it because I love it and I’m in debt up to my ears. What’s in it for you?”
I cocked my head. It was easy to complain about Leigh when she piled more onto my plate than one person could reasonably handle, but I remembered why I was where I was. What all the late nights and long days were for. “All my life, I’ve been afraid of something, but my career is the one thing I’ve given my all and pursued relentlessly. I set a goal to one day create content for a media company, and even though I’m not exactly achieving that, the role I’m in now is a stepping stone to what I want.”
“How is that going, by the way? Made any good matches lately?”
How he so smoothly transitioned between light and heavy topics was beyond me, but I appreciated the break. “Why, thinking of hiring me?”
A corner of his mouth tugged up, but his gaze shifted downward when he answered. “I’m not sure I’m a good candidate.”
“You playin’ the field? Testing the waters?” Holland would be proud of that one.
“Ha. No. My last relationship did a number on me. Not sure I want to go through that again so soon.”
I sat up a little straighter. Little by lit
tle, I was getting more insight on Theo. “I feel you on that one.”
“Yeah.” He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, then gestured to the two dozing dogs. “Anyway, we should get these guys back.”
At the first sign of movement, Jazz sprang to her feet, raring to go as if no time had passed. Shorty and I were slower to stand, but where his issue was probably his joints, mine was that my ass had fallen asleep from sitting on the ground so long.
Our departure was tearful, on my part at least, and I promised Shorty no less than a dozen times that I’d be back. Theo just chuckled and steered me out the front door.
“I don’t know how you do it,” I said, my tone miserable. “I want to save them all.”
“One day, I’ll be back to rescue one of them. The walks will have to suffice until then.”
“I want one too. Then my fate will be sealed and I can officially be a dog lady. Still single, but not as lonely.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“It’s my best quality.”
We walked two more blocks before I noticed we weren’t headed back to the gym. The L stop was this way. When the platform was in sight, I said, “Thank you for this, even though it didn’t work out.”
His smile looked like he knew something I didn’t. “Oh, it worked out. Show them my gym and tell them you picked a spot. You’ll be off the hook and I’ll have a new client.”
“We have to write down what we do, the equipment we use, stuff like that. How am I going to get away with that?”
“By doing what we just did today.”
“By playing with dogs?”
“Alternative Workout Therapy. Ever heard of it?”
I planted my hands on my hips. “No.”
“That’s because I just made it up. But, you come to the gym every week, and I’ll have something new for you to do. It’ll all be physical, but you’ll have so much fun you won’t realize it.”
“You’re either a genius or full of shit.”
“Probably both,” he said. “There’s just one problem.”
“What?”
“You’ll have to stomach seeing me on a regular basis.”
I laughed as I waved good-bye, but my thoughts wouldn’t pipe down the whole ride back home. I hadn’t planned for this. Although he’d meant it as a joke, it was an epic problem indeed.