“You can’t rush greatness.” Erin narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “The best love stories take time.”
“Uh huh,” I mumbled around a mouthful of the powder. Once it dissolved in my mouth, I spoke again. “I’m headed to the gym, you wanna come?”
“Emmie.” Erin shot me a flat look, like she was disappointed I asked.
“What? You enjoyed the Pilates class a few weeks ago.”
“No, I didn’t, it was like two hours long. I almost died and couldn’t walk for like three days afterward.” She put her hands on her hips.
“The class was only an hour,” I laughed, remembering the way Erin hobbled like a penguin for days after. She couldn’t sit down without wincing and groaning. The entire class, shecouldn’t stop muttering under her breath about how much she hated it and would never go again.
“Yeah, laugh it up. Some of us aren’t athletes that workout for an ungodly amount of hours.”
“I don’t work out that much. Max is twice a day.”
“Twice too many.” Erin made a yuck face.
I slid past her out of the kitchen and paused for a second. “You sure you don’t want to come?”
“Em.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll be back in an hour, and then we can decide on dinner.”
“Don’t forgetRuPaulis on tonight,” Erin shot over her shoulder as she made her way back to the couch.
“Sounds good.” Leaving her to her writing, I headed for my room to quickly change. I felt itchy and restless, partly due to being around my dad. It was like I had so many feelings bottled up I didn’t know what to do with them.
It took me less than ten minutes to wash my face, pull my hair into a ponytail, and throw on a cute light pink workout set. As I snatched up my headphones, Mateo’s face popped into my mind. He was also another reason I felt off-kilter.
Just one interaction with him was enough to throw me off, and I wasn’t sure why. He was just like any other guy. He was bound to disappoint. Most men did. Yet, his face stayed in my head as I slipped out and headed down the stairs to the gym in the apartment building.
The last thing I needed, or wanted, was a man to come into my life and flip it upside down. I had enough on my plate as it was, and my main focus was regionals next month. So despite what Erin was saying about Mateo, it was never going to happen.
5
MATEO
Grunts filled the gym all around me, the sound of metal weights clacking against one another. Sweat dripped down my forehead as my own breath came out in spurts. My legs threatened to give out as I repped out two more sumo squats to finish my set.
With my thighs burning, I dropped the weights with a clang, chest heaving as I put my hands on my hips and paced in a small circle. It wasn’t a good leg day unless you were making up swear words in your head the entire time.
“Next time, remind me not to workout with you,” Perry panted across from me. His face was red as he bent over at the waist. “Are you trying to break your legs or something?”
I did go a little hard on the workout, today but I needed to silence my head. Working out was the best way to do that. It was hard to think when your lungs were burning and your body was being pushed to its limit.
“It’s okay if you can’t keep up.” I threw him a smirk before chugging half my water bottle, my white muscle tank soaked with sweat and clinging to my skin uncomfortably.
“I can keep up just fine. I could do another circuit round.” Perry straightened up, acting like he didn’t just curse me out the whole workout.
“Okay. One more round?”
The smile on my face grew at the way Perry’s jaw slackened. He should have known that I didn’t back down from a challenge. The Boone competitiveness was strong in my family, and it only got worse with age.
“I forgot, I have plans later, and I don’t want to be late for them.”
His lame excuse made me chuckle. “Definitely don’t want to be late.” Bending over, I grabbed the weights I was just using to put back on the rack.
“But seriously, man, you solid?”
