Chase continued the cooldown, ending with a savasana, or corpse pose. They basically laid on their backs with their eyes closed for a couple minutes.
The gym was quiet except for the serene music playing on the sound system, and he entered a state of calm, a place he could feel truly relaxed and—
“Ow!”
Josh’s shout had everyone’s heads popping off the floor to find out what happened. How did anyone hurt themselves during corpse pose? It became obvious when he saw Josh had made his way over to Riley’s mat andwas rubbing his face, his phone on the floor next to him. He was likely trying to take a cute selfie of them and dropped the phone on his face.
“Josh, what the hell are you doing?” Tobias snapped.
“Sorry,” he said as he rolled to his own mat, the zen in the room chased away by the interruption. “My bad, guys.”
Chase ended the class there and reminded them to stay hydrated the rest of the day.
After everyone started packing up, Tobias met Chase at the front of the room. Would he provide feedback about the class? Tell him he did an amazing job? Would he be so blown away he’d drop to his knees and give everyone a show?
The answer was none of the above, thanks to being interrupted before they could exchange a single word.
“Hey, Tobias, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to run something by you for Riley’s sister, Sophie,” Josh said warily, Riley nervously standing beside him. Chase moved to his mat to roll it up, still close enough to hear their conversation.
Tobias furrowed his brow at Riley. “Your sister? Does she want to join the gym?”
Riley took a deep breath and rushed through an answer.
“So, my sister works in the PR department for the Philly Inferno,” he said, and Chase noticed how quicklythe blood drained from Tobias’ face at the mention of his NHL team, “and the current goalie for their alumni game later this season had to drop out. She hoped you’d be interested in taking his spot.”
Oh shit. Tobias could get back on the ice?
The realization knocked away all his good sense. “No way! That would be so awesome,” Chase exclaimed as he jumped to standing and joined their conversation. He didn’t notice how un-excited Tobias looked as Chase gazed at him in wonder. “I go to that game every year and it would be so cool to see you play again…”
Chase trailed off as he took in Tobias, who froze like he’d been hit by a stun gun.
Shit. I’m fanboying. Fix it, fix it, fix it!
“I mean, not me. My parents were big fans, and uh… I better get going and get ready for the next class. I’ll see you guys later.”
Fuck me.
Chase raced out of there before Tobias had the chance to fire him for being a Grade A Creep. Who’d want a silly fan as an employee? He could only hope he did a good enough job to get another chance.
He’d have to apologize the next time they spoke. Luckily, Tobias wouldn’t be in the gym for the rest of the day, instead leaving it to his other trainers.
Chase vowed to do such an amazing job the rest of the day everyone would be begging Tobias to keep himon staff. It was his only shot at staying. And he had just started to feel like this was where he belonged.
3
TOBIAS STOOD FROZEN AS his gaze followed Chase out the door, and it took another moment before he could turn to Josh and Riley.
The Philly Inferno alumni game.
His chance to get back on the ice.
Back to his spot between the pipes.
A return to hockey.
Holy shit, I’m going to throw up.
‘Donotthrow up.’
