“That was great,” she says, sighing.
I roll onto my side and look down across her sweaty body.The softness of her pale belly below her ribs, her hips rounding out her leggings, her delicate hands by her sides on the floor.I try not to imagine her looking like that draped across my bed naked.I try my hardest.
Chloe is looking at the ceiling, but I can see her eyes flicker in my direction once.Twice.
“You know, you got really strong, Bug,” I say quietly.And really pretty.
“You’re no string bean yourself, Dials,” she says, finally looking at me.Right as we’re getting comfortable, she abruptly pulls herself up.“But I asked you not to call me Bug.”
Then the universe really kills the moment when Barrysuddenly bursts through the glass doors.He has two mobile phones on the go; one is tucked under his chin as he furiously texts on the other.One of his dogs is at his feet, the other with a nose in the garbage can by the door.
“I’ve found them!”he says into his phone.“Matt.Chloe.I have news!”
“Hi, Barry,” I say, pulling up to standing, wiping the sweat from my brow with the bottom of my T-shirt.Barry glances at the strip of skin above my shorts and then ends his call.
“You need to work on your core,” he says, touching his own rounded belly, before he looks mock offended.“What?I don’t gotta race.I’m allowed a keg instead of a six-pack.”
I can’t help but chuckle.For all his ridiculousness, I’m kind of warming to Barry.
“Come on,” he says, motioning toward Chloe.“I got some promising news.”
“You do?”she asks, as warily as I feel.It honestly could be anything.
“Sponsors, my friends.Sponsors.”
“Oh, that’s great.Like...who?”I am bracing myself as I join Chloe, who has dropped onto a bench, sucking on her water bottle, her eyes firmly on Barry.
I look back at Barry.I’m half expecting him to reveal the big financial savior is some scammy crypto exchange.But instead, he folds his arms and turns to me looking triumphant.“Hot sauce.”
“Hot sauce?”
“Hot sauce!”he says again.“Big Ronny’s Ring Burner, to be precise.”
“What?”
Chloe lets out an awkward laugh, before swiftly checking herself.“Ring Burner?”she says, biting her bottom lip.Wait.He’s not having the name of a hot sauce called Big Ronny’s Ring Burner painted on the side of a fifteen-million-dollar car...is he?
“Car, kit, and, um...helmet?”he says, looking at me sheepishly.
“No,” I say, shaking my head.
“They’re paying a damn fortune.”
“I’m not having Big Ronny’s Ring Burner on my helmet,” I announce emphatically, with a sweep of my hands.“Forget it.”
“Well, actually, you’ll have their catchphrase,” Barry says.
“Oh, this will be good,” says Chloe, biting her lip as a giggle escapes her mouth.
“Mind My Hot Rear,” he says evenly.“Right across the back, inside a little fart cloud.It works with the whole driving thing.I think it’s a nice matchup.”
“Mind My Hot Rear,” Chloe repeats, wrestling the grin from her face.
“Chloe likes hot sauce.She can wear it.”
“You’re the one with the hot rear,” she says, biting her lip again to stop from laughing.“On thecar, I mean.”
“I used to be sponsored by Bulgari,” I say pitifully, and at this Chloe actually turns away from me, her hand to her mouth, her shoulders shaking in laughter.
