“You ready?” I asked.
He shrugged, pushing a stray blond hair out of his face. “Yeah, we don’t wanna be late, do we?”
We were definitely going to be late, but I let it go for the moment. What I couldn’t let go of was how overwhelming it suddenly was to be in the car with him. The smell of him spoke to some depraved part of me that was lurking deep in my gut.
I gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter than I usually would, the leather cracking beneath my palms the entire way to the gym.
The moment I parked the car, Elias jumped out like his ass was on fire, leaving me behind. He’d never been so eager to get to work before. I grabbed mygym bag and headed inside, nodding at the other trainers and staff.
After dropping my bag off in one of the lockers, I met my first client of the day by the treadmills. Elias was already at the front desk, checking people’s memberships.
I tried to stay focused. Truly, I did. But it was so fucking hard when all I could think about was my best friend and how nice his uniform looked on him and how good I knew he smelled. If only I could get closer to him. Stand right by him and take a whiff, inhaling the scent I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind for the last few days.
Instead, I was forced to steal glances when he wasn’t watching or when he was talking to a member. I just couldn’t keep my eyes off him.
My client was running on the treadmill, giving me time to look over at the front desk. Elias lifted his head, glancing from side to side, not seeming to notice that I was staring. When he looked back down, his hand cupped one of his pecs, gently massaging it. I furrowed my eyebrows. Did his chest hurt or something?
It’d make sense if he’d been working out, but he claimed he hadn’t. I tilted my head, watching as he squeezed and poked around. Right in the center, a dark spot started to form on his light blue shirt. It looked like it was right over his nipple.
As my client started to run faster on the treadmill, his feet pounding against the machine, Elias shot up from his chair at the front desk and started to runtoward the employee bathrooms. He looked frantic and confused, and I wanted to go after him. I wanted to see what had startled him so badly. I was just about to step forward to run after him when I heard a yell and a thump.
I turned to see my client on the floor, having fallen from the treadmill while I wasn’t looking. When I looked back over my shoulder, Elias was gone.
Chapter 2
THIS ISN’T A WET T-SHIRT CONTEST
Elias
Holy fuck. Holy fuckity fuck fuck.
I barreled my way into the bathroom, heart pounding.
The only thing that had kept me from losing my absolute shit over the ache and tingling in my chest had been the knowledge that I didn’t fit all the symptoms. But as I stared down at my blue shirt, taking in the darker blue stain around my right nipple, my heart sank.
What did this mean? Nothing? Everything? Was I on the verge of death? I ran into the singular stall in the back of the room, slamming the door shut behind me and locking it before slumping against the wall and sliding down until my ass hit the ground.
I lifted my shirt frantically, trying to see what was going on. After touching my nipple, I pulled my hand back, examining the almost clear fluid clinging to myfingertip. My heart slammed against my ribs, echoing in my ears so loudly that I could barely even hear my own thoughts.
Rubbing my finger and thumb together, I tested the liquid, trying to figure out what it was. It sank into my skin quickly, absorbing before I could come to any logical conclusion, which, of course, just made me panic more.
I reached down, pulling and squeezing until another burst of fluid bubbled to the surface. Staring down at my chest in shock, I watched the way it beaded up, then rolled down the underside of my pec and toward my stomach.
It felt kind of… good. Which really didn’t make any sense if it was indeed something like breast cancer.
I squeezed again, blinking at it in fascination as more fluid welled up.
The door to the bathroom opened, slamming against the wall, and I froze, holding my breath. It felt like a lifetime before they finally left—without washing their hands, which was fucking gross—and I breathed a sigh of relief when I was alone again.
The liquid that had been clinging to my slightly puffy nipple had dried, but my shirt hadn't. I couldn’t go back to work like that, but I also wasn’t sure how I could leave like this either. There wasn’t a way to hide it, and I didn’t have a change of clothes with me.
Link might, but that would mean seeking him out and asking him. It would meantellinghim. And I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t.
I needed a doctor and to not tell another soul about this outside of that.
Pulling my shirt down, I stood up and left the stall, then paused in front of the mirror and looked at myself. Fuck. There really was no way I was going to hide whatever was happening to me.
If we had black uniforms, it might be easier, but the shirt we had was so light that any staining was easy to see. And to make matters worse, this one had shrunk in the dryer or something because it was stretched too tightly across my chest.
