Lily nodded and swiped her thumb across the screen. “We’re getting better. Pretty soon I won’t have much to edit at all.”She directed a grin at Sebastián. “Thank you for helping. I know you have better things to be doing.”
Before Sebastián could respond, a booming voice cut him off.
“Sullivan. Parker. My office. Now.”
A muscle in his neck twinged as he whipped his head toward the voice. It was unmistakable. Neal. The man stood in the doorway of the group classroom, his arms crossed and his jaw tight.
How long had he been standing there? Had he seen the whole thing?
Lily straightened and shot Kieran a look he couldn’t interpret. “Sebastián, would you mind folding up the ring light and putting it in my gym bag?”
“Yeah, no prob.” Sebastián turned off the light and nodded toward the weight room. “Buena suerte.”
As they followed Neal, Lily didn’t say a word, but her hand did bump against his—once—and he wasn’t sure if it was accidental or on purpose.
They were so fucked. He hadn’t been hiding how much he was enjoying his self-defense lessons. She hadn’t either. Or maybe she was playing it up for the camera. She’d mentioned how #ThatGymGuy was moving up in the trending list. No, biological arousal was hard to fake, and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind she hadn’t enjoyed their time together over the weekend.
He could tell Neal they weren’t dating. There wasn’t a rule against it. They were just fucking.
No. It didn’t matter if he and Lily were both consenting adults. With a small business, relationships were a ticking time bomb of possibility. He’d decided when he became a coach that no relationship was worth risking the gym. They couldn’t afford South Side MMA’s staff to implode and drawbattle lines. Not now that Lily was attracting so much attention to them through social media. The kind of damage she could do as an influencer was catastrophic, and it would be his fault if it got that far.
They crowded into the office, and Lily settled herself into one of the chairs with one of her professional smiles. It didn’t meet her eyes. “What can we help you with, Neal?”
“I have to say, Lily. When I hired you, though hopeful, I thought it would be a long shot. We’ve struggled to get new membership over the years, and our main demographic has remained solidly in the male and over thirty bracket.” Neal didn’t sit down. He continued standing, his bulk filling the room.
Kieran kept his back to the closed door. After the meeting, he could talk to Neal. Tell him the flirting was entirely one-sided and that it ended today. He could talk to Lily afterward. Maybe she’d understand.
“And while our membership hasn’t grown exponentially, I have seen an uptick in younger clientele. Mostly women in their twenties and thirties. They say they found us through Hit It.”
Lily nodded and folded her hands in her lap. “Is it enough to keep the gym alive?”
Disappointment rippled over Neal’s face. “Not enough at this rate. We need more support than likes and follows.” Then his face hardened again.
Kieran winced. That didn’t sound promising.
“The self-defense tips aren’t enough to get us out of the hole. We need to go bigger.” Neal’s brown eyes focused on Lily. “I want the two of you working together on content for the Local Legends tourney. Anything you can. Highlights. Sparring. Even just candid moments.”
That…wasn’t what he’d been expecting. Kieran glanced atLily. Her professional mask remained in place. This couldn’t be real.
“I know you two don’t exactly get along.” Neal eased into his office chair with a grunt. “But can you at least pretend to like each other?”
Pretend to… Kieran’s brows slammed together. Had Neal even watched their videos? Considering the man still used one-cent phones from his phone carrier, it was possible he hadn’t.
Lily’s head tilted. “How much do you need me to like him? You don’t expect me to kiss him, do you?”
He had no business getting hopeful over her question. He swung his gaze back to Neal.
“No, no.” He waved his hands as if it were an outrageous question. “I’d never ask you to compromise yourself.”
Kieran crossed his arms over his chest and barked out a laugh. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, Neal?”
His boss leveled him with a glare, but his eyes crinkled with humor. “Do you remember what you were like at eighteen?”
Barely. “Point taken.”
Neal leaned over his desk and wrote a note on a pad of yellow legal paper. “And while you’re at it, I’d like to see more of the gym staff. Show off our team. Show all of Chicago we’ve got some of the best fighters in the city, and we can train new recruits, too.”
Lily spending more quality time with his fighters? That meant more time with Carter. Oh, he’d love to see the look on Carter’s face when he realized Lily was no longer interested. Kieran smirked and opened the door. “We’ll try our best, boss.”
