Jasper’s gaze flicked over him. “Of course you did.”
The gym was small.Mostly empty. Bennett climbed onto a treadmill and started running like he could outrun the feeling sitting under his ribs.
Jasper sat on a bench nearby, scrolling through his phone, sipping coffee like this was a perfectly normal way to spend a business trip.
Bennett lasted twelve minutes before Jasper spoke again.
“Do you always exercise when you are stressed?” Jasper asked.
“Yes.”
“Does it help?”
Bennett increased the speed. “No.”
Jasper laughed softly. “That tracks too.”
Bennett ranuntil his lungs burned, until the buzz in his skin felt like relief. Then he stopped, braced his hands on the treadmill rails, and tried to breathe through the residual tension.
Jasper stood and offered him a water bottle from the cooler, as if it were a peace offering.
Bennett took it because refusing it felt petty.
Their fingers brushed when the bottle changed hands.
It was nothing. Barely contact.
Bennett’s entire body reacted as if it were something.
He closed his grip around the plastic and forced himself to look anywhere but Jasper’s face.
Jasper did not move away. Jasper did not joke. His expression was suddenly focused, careful.
Bennett swallowed hard. “Thanks.”
Jasper’s voice was quiet. “You are welcome.”
The air between them shifted.
Jasper’s gaze dropped to Bennett’s mouth.
Bennett’s pulse jumped.
He hated that his body was telling on him.
Jasper spoke first, soft and steady. “If this is too much, tell me. We can adopt a phrase, like ‘green light?’ to check comfort.”
Bennett stared at him. “Too much of what?”
Jasper held his gaze. “This.”
Bennett’s throat worked around nothing. “You are imagining things.”
Jasper’s smile was faint. Not smug. Just knowing. “Maybe. Or maybe you are.”
Bennett should have stepped back. He didn’t. He stood there, holding the water bottle as if it were an anchor, letting the moment stretch until it became dangerous.
Then Bennett forced a laugh that sounded wrong in his own ears. “You have an ego problem.”
