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She notched two fingers to her forehead in a salute. “Aye aye, boss.”
Like I was handling a pin-less grenade, I set the coffee cup onto the floor next to me and kept unpacking boxes with Kelly’s help. Only a few regulars were in, using the bags and the weights, so the gym was quiet.
After how long I’d worked there, the noises hardly even registered to me anymore. The clang of weights hitting a rack, the laughter of people talking, the music playing over the speakers, and the rhythmic tapping of someone on a speedbag in the corner should have all been comforting and made me feel better.
But everything was just … off. I couldn’t find my bearings in the place that was my touchstone.
“How many for your class today?” I asked Kelly.
Her face scrunched up as she thought. “Twenty-five, I think? I checked about an hour ago when I got here.”
“Yeah, why are you here this early?”
“I wanted to get in a workout.”
I glanced at her taking a leisurely sip of her coffee. “How’s that going for you?”
“Quite well, as I am helping my beautiful manager unpack these beautiful gloves from her hiding spot,” she said with a magnanimous gesture. Picking one up, she studied the design. “Now I get why Amy didn’t want the logo on the wrist strap. She knew what was coming.”
The pair I was holding lowered slowly into my lap because I hadn’t even realized it.
A change had been on the horizon for longer than I realized, peeking over the edge of my days unnoticed. It was me who hadn’t been paying attention.
Kelly chattered happily in my silence, but very little of what she said registered. Beyond the boxes, Aiden was familiarizing himself with the computer programs we used and reviewing the policies, schedules, and day-to-day information I knew like the back of my hand.
And I was hiding behind boxes because my reaction to him made me feel like I was bungee jumping naked from the Space Needle. A teenage crush was nothing to be embarrassed about, but there I was. Hiding.
“Iz,” Kelly said. By her tone, she must have been trying to get my attention.
“Huh?”
She grinned. “You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?”
“I …” My shoulders fell. “Not really. I’m sorry.”
Kelly waved that away. “I said that you should go in there and thank him for the coffee.” An innocent enough statement, but then she fluttered her long eyelashes.
My head tilted. “Are you high?”
“Never on Wednesdays,” she answered gravely. Her wide smile broke across her face, and I found myself laughing under my breath. “I’m only half kidding. You should thank him, but honestly, that man is gorgeous, and he’s single, and you two have a million things in common.”
I wanted to shove a towel in her mouth to shut her up because hearing her talk about us together had my palms going a little sweaty.
“Kelly,” I said quietly.
She beamed.
“Stop talking about it.”
Kelly sighed.
An alarm went off on my phone, and I cursed under my breath.
“What?” Kelly asked.
“I forgot I have a bridesmaid dress thing with my sisters.” I blew out a hard breath.
“Am I invited to Molly’s wedding?”
