“Like what?”
“Anything,” I hear myself pant. “What’s your family like.”
“Loud.” A large smile dances its way across his lips. “I’m one of four. All boys. I’m the baby of the family.”
I hope it doesn’t show on my face that I already know about his brothers because of the social media stalking I’d done a couple of weeks back.
“Are you close?”
He bobs his head. “Very. When we’re not trying to kill each other, that is. I’m close to both of my parents too. Mum makes a roast dinner every Sunday, so I take the train up to see everyone. It’s loud and chaotic, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. What about you?”
“I’m close to mine too, but I’m an only child… unless I’ve got a hidden sibling out there, I don’t know about.”
Hudson laughs, rubbing the pad of his thumb across my knuckles in an attempt to further distract me from the pain.
I’ve got to admit it working, but only because all I can focus on is the feel of his skin against mine, the feel of him touching me, holding me, just like he did when he was spotting behind me.
Embarrassment washes through me as I remember my almost fall.
God, it had been a couple of days ago now, but I’m still not over it.
Why did it have to happen to me? Why did it have to happen in a packed gym? Why did it have to happen with Hudson behind me trying to give a demonstration to his client? It wasn’t like I hadn’t squatted that amount of weight before, or that I was on my period and loosing extra blood, or that I hadn’t had enough sugar intake that day.
I’d been fine,feltfine, until all of a sudden, the world was pitching on its side and the ground was moving upwards to kiss the palms of my hands.
“You’re blushing.”
“No shit sherlock,” I say in reflex. My hands would usually fly up to feel the heat permeating my face, but I can’t, because one is still gripping the chair while the other has been captured by Hudson.
Another guffaw escapes him. “Why are you blushing, Giselle?”
My scoff is riddled with a quiver as Charlie hits another particularly painful part of my breastbone. “Like I’m going to tell you.”
“Am I the cause of said blushing?”
I narrow my watering eyes at Hudson. He’s playing pretend innocence, like a choir boy, when we all know – Charlie included – that his façade couldn’t be any farther from the truth.
“I’m not telling.”
“That’s a yes, then.”
“Shut up—fuck.”
Charlie lifts his needle away from my skin at the sound of my expletive. “Need a break?”
I swallow but my mouth feels like it’s full of cotton wool. My hand is shaking, cupped safely in Hudson’s palm. “Maybe. Just a little one.”
Nodding, Charlie pushes back on his stool and stands. “I’ll go get you a sugary drink from the fridge. Hudson, want anything, mate?”
“Nah. I’m fine, thank you.”
For the second time this evening, Charlie disappears, leaving Hudson and I alone.
“This has never happened to me before.”
Hudson’s thumb rubs along the webbed lines of my thumb and forefinger. “It’s alright. It’s happened to me before, it’ll pass, it’s just a mixture of adrenaline and the release of chemicals in your body because of your pain receptors. Your body is just trying to protect itself the best way it knows how.”
“That… actually kind of makes sense.”
