I snorted. “It would take some kind of miracle for me to fit into that.”
Her eyes filled with mischief. “I’d kind of like to see you try.”
“As entertaining as that might be for you, I really don’t want to be responsible for obliterating a perfectly good piece of clothing.” She shrugged as I stood up. “I have a couple spare shirts in my car,” I said, extending my hand to her. She took it and we walked around to where I had parked on the street. I unbuttoned my shirt and gingerly took it off, then I dug around in the trunk of the car and pulled out three t-shirts I had stowed in there. Luckily, I had parked under a street light, but it was still a little hard to see which shirt was which. I finally found the plain green one I was looking for and threw the rest back in the trunk. I looked over and saw that Glory was staring at me. More specifically, she was staring at my naked chest. Her eyes had glazed over and her mouth was hanging slightly ajar.
I fought back a smile as I observed her. “Glory? Are you okay?”
Her head snapped up and then she looked down in embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, risking a glance back up at me. “It’s just that... you’re kind of a work of art.”
I felt myself redden. Girls had complimented my physique before, but this was the first time it actually mattered. Suddenly I was extremely grateful for all those hours I had logged at the gym.
“Thank you,” I said bashfully, quickly pulling the shirt over my head and down over my torso.
“You must exercise a lot.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I was bullied in school, and a friend suggested that I start working out. I’ve made it a habit ever since.”
“Sounds like a good friend.”
“She was an amazing friend,” I said meaningfully.
A couple seconds passed before Glory spoke. “I’m sorry again for staring.”
I could see that she was feeling awkward, so I decided to level the playing field. I took a step toward her. “Glory, believe me, I’ve done my fair share of staring at you. I just don’t think you’ve noticed.”
“I might have noticed once or twice,” she responded with a sly smile.
I felt heat creeping up my neck. She was so attractive when she looked at me like that.
I cleared my throat. “Then we’ll call it even,” I said. But actually, we weren’t even, because I hadn’t seen her withhershirt off. I wisely decided to keep that technicality to myself.
“Thank you for everything today,” Glory said, moving closer. “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like I was really living.”
She took another step closer, and for a moment I thought she was going to kiss me, but then she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me, which was almost as good. I pulled her in and we stood like that for a while. I relished having her body pressed against mine, her head resting below my chin.
“Thank you for making these past couple weeks unforgettable,” I murmured.
She pulled her head back a little to look up at me. “I wish you weren’t leaving,” she admitted.
I smiled. “Me too.”
“You’re working all day tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I groaned. Logan had convinced Jeremy to move the photo shoot to the next day and I had promised I would be there. Then in the evening we had out last concert.
“And you’re leaving the day after that?” Glory confirmed.
“Yeah, on Saturday, at noon,” I replied. “Can I take you to breakfast?”
“Yes,” Glory replied contentedly, burying her face back into my chest.
“And then I’ll be back soon.”
“You better be. I still have a lot to teach you before you can call yourself a decent artist.”
I laughed and squeezed her tighter. We held each other in silence, and then Glory started moving her hands around my back and shoulders, kneading me in a weird way.
“Um, Glory? What are you doing?”
