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Surprisingly, I’m able to locate a loaf pan, but to nobody’s surprise, I have to remove the packaging from it. Once I dump the batter in, I put the pan in the oven.
The baking time is listed at fifty-five to sixty-five minutes, so I set a fifty-five-minute timer on my phone.
An hour to kill. Hmm.
What do I normally do? Whatever Guy wants.
Guy isn’t here, so it’s whatever I want.
I only wish I knew what that was.
My mind goes where it always goes—the gym. I already worked out today but I could do something else in there. Not herkies. Whatever hospitality fires my mom’s been putting out this week has kept her focus off me because I haven’t been ordered to do herkies once and it’s been such a nice break.
Yoga? Both my body and mind could use that.
Down in the gym, I get my phone synced to the sound system, then select “Lonely” by Noah Cyrus. Sitting in the middle of the floor, facing the mirrored wall, I start with arm and leg stretches before making my way to all fours. After cat and cows, I pop into downward dog that I eventually bring down to a child’s pose. Rolling onto my back, I continue stretches there. I’m lowering a bridge pose when a figure leaning in the doorway comes into view…directly over my crotch.
My heart picks up speed at the sight of him.
“Do you have a hidden camera in here or something?”
Arms crossed, Khaos shakes his head slowly.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Wondering what you’re doing in here. It’s not because of your mom.”
“How do you know it’s not?”
Even from over here, his tongue pressing into his cheek is noticeable.
“My dad’s married to her,” he finally says.
“So?”
“So, he tells me stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like your mom’s got bigger things on her mind right now than terrorizing the fuck out of her daughter.”
He had to be told that? I figured it was obvious.
“You can stand down,” I inform him. “I’m only doing yoga.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“You really don’t have anything better to do than sit there and watch me stretch?”
“Anything better? Silver, this is the highlight of my week.”
I’m not sure how to feel about that. Sad, I think. His week must’ve been pretty boring.
“I’d charge you for the show…”
“And I’d—”
“But you never seem to have any money.”
