He was nothing short of being an impressive male specimen. Men like Kofi normally weren't my type, but there was something arresting about him. It could have been him taken as a whole, now that we'd spent some real time together away from our normal environment. Or it could have been that thing I noticed in his eyes as we chatted.
Maybe I was having flights of fancy, but I felt like one of those women in a romance novel. All kinds of intangible things had shifted inside me when his deep-brown eyes probed mine. My mind told me I was having silly daydreams, but my heart said otherwise.
Jerry Gomez, the owner, and Kofi walked toward the door. When I looked away from Jerry, my eyes met those of Kofi in the mirror. A slow smile spread across his lips and he nodded. I sucked in my breath and smiled back. I even managed a wave. Despite my decision not to watch Kofi, I couldn't seem to take my eyes off him.
The two men shook hands and Jerry walked away.
Something told me Kofi would come and say hello. I continued what I was doing and it wasn't long before my guess panned out.
When Kofi stood over me, I realized I'd watched him cross the room. I dragged my gaze from the mirror and looked up at him.
"You're not going to get much done if you're daydreaming," he said before showing me a row of even, white teeth.
I laid the weights on the floor before I answered. "For your information, I was not daydreaming."
"Anything you say, Gina."
His deep voice rippled through me and I flexed my hands to keep from staring at him. The navy sweat suit he wore today was nothing out of the ordinary, but it made him seem larger than normal.
"I'm sure you can lift more if you try," he said.
"Huh?"
He pointed to the five-pound weights I'd put on the floor. "I said—"
My brain caught up with the conversation and I stopped him. "I heard you. I'm fine with those. I don't wanna get too ... " I wanted to say 'tough', but that was Jamaican vernacular he wouldn't understand.
"Ripped?" he supplied.
"Yeah, so these are fine."
"A little more resistance wouldn't hurt though. D'you want to try, just for the heck of it?"
I didn’t want him to think I was a wimp, so I nodded. Just for the heck of it, like he said.
Kofi picked up the dumbbells I'd been using and slotted them on the rack. He also lifted a couple and brought them to the bench.
"What weight are those?"
"Eight pounds."
The doubt must have been plain on my face because he placed one on each side of me on the rubber flooring and said, "You can do this."
I was about to put one knee on the bench, but I remembered how I'd put my backside in his face two days ago, so I changed my mind and sat on the end of the seat.
He straddled the bench behind me. "Ready?"
I looked at him in the mirror and nodded. "Yeah."
He opened both hands, but didn't touch me, and I went into action with the dumbbells.
"Hold it a tad longer at the top of each rep," he said, after I'd done a couple of curls. "Your movements are a little jerky."
I slowed things down, and he nodded. "Good."
By the time we got to the third set, I was shaking a little.
Kofi touched the center of my back. "Try not to slouch."
