And here I sat. An emotional eater whose last experience in a gym was two years ago, and the traumathatbrought me was enough to last a lifetime.
Unbuckling my seatbelt quickly, I picked up my bag from the footwell and opened the car door.
‘Great, thanks for the lift.’ I rushed out.
A hand clamped down on my arm, keeping me from fully getting out. My right leg landed on the pavement while my other twisted at an odd angle. I looked over my shoulder at Oliver. His face had lost all the previous warmth.
‘What the fuck just happened?’ His hair draped over his forehead. I could still make out the lines that creased his brow.
Feeling too big for the small, confined space of his car, I wriggled my arm free from his grip.
‘Text me where you want to meet next week.’ I needed time to think about how to write the book, do more research and figure out how to get Oliver to divulge his past without him snapping shut like a clam.
Shutting the car door behind me—a little gentler than when I got in—I hurried to the front door. I started scrounging through my bottomless pit of a bag, breathing a sigh of relief when I felt the cold metal under my fingers. A car door closing sounded behind me. My mouth was as dry as sandpaper.
I slipped the key into the lock. This wasn’t a fancy building with a security system—if you had a key, you could get in.
‘Here,’ Oliver’s voice came, loud and commanding behind me. ‘We’ll meet here next Monday.’
I turned, my hand still gripping the key in the lock. Oliver had his arms crossed over his chest, eyeing me with a stern expression I usually only received from my family members when I was doing something they deemed stupid.
Ihatedthat Oliver was wearing that expression.
‘Here? As in this front step? Not sure that will do much for your privacy,’ I quipped.
Oliver didn’t look swayed by my attempt at levity. ‘Here, as in your flat.’ He jutted his chin towards the door. ‘I’ll see you bright and early on Monday.’
He walked backwards and then spun around, striding towards his car.
My stomach sank. ‘When you say early-’ I called, but he was already slipping into his car and pulling away.
19
OLIVER
The weights clanged together. All the air shot from my lungs as I lowered my arms from the machine, feeling my muscles burn from the two-hour-long workout I’d put myself through. George was on the climbing wall at the back of the gym, scaling it like he was walking down the street. The guy barely broke a sweat as he touched the top and rappelled back down, landing on the mat with a soft thud.
I’d paid the owner a shit-ton of money to hire out the gym for the afternoon. I was glad George had agreed to join me given his anti-gym stance—I never felt comfortable in places like this. Even if it was just us here now, I was still wary. In the past, I’d attempted to go to public gyms. I never made it more than ten minutes through my workout without getting stopped and asked for pictures. Usually, I didn’t mind. But I couldn’t deal with that headache right now.
I wiped the sweat from my brow with my towel. My body was out of condition. The past two months of drinking and sleeping till noon had softened me up. I missed the structureof the workouts and team practises. The way I could feel my body releasing all the stress from my muscles. It used to be the only drug I needed. Hours later, tension still gnawed at my arms and legs—no matter how much I stretched them out.
‘You get rid of that dark cloud hanging over your head yet?’ George sauntered across the gym towards me, wiping his chalky hands on a towel.
I stood up, shaking out my tired limbs. ‘I’m all sunshine and fucking roses.’
George scoffed. ‘We’re both surly motherfuckers. But out of the two of us, I’m the one who should be awarded that title. At least the people I bring home seemed to think so.’ He shot me a smirk.
‘You and the blonde from the bar. That go anywhere?’
George leaned over an arm of a treadmill, his biceps bulging in a way I had seen women and men swoon over. My brother honestly didn’t care what he looked like. His lifestyle and hobbies just happened to put him in good shape. Whereas I had to work twice as hard to maintain my standard fitness level.
‘Nah, not seen her since.’
That surprised me. ‘You liked her. Since when do you not pursue people?’
George looked out of the gym windows wearing an expression I read like a flashing neon sign.
He shrugged. ‘She left, and I didn’t get her number. No big deal.’
