I grab my keys off the counter and check the time, only twenty minutes late. Not bad.
“I’ll be back by dinner,” I tell him, already headed toward the door.
“Four o’clock,” he says, following behind me.
“That’s before dinner.”
“That’s the point.”
I turn around and kiss him one more time, and he grabs my shirt to keep me there longer. “Four o’clock,” he says again, against my lips.
I don’t make any promises, but I’m planning to be back by four.
Ryan is already there when I get to the gym. “You’re late again,” he says, but I don’t apologize this time.
It was worth every second.
We start our usual routine, talking about anything and nothing while we lift weights in front of the mirror. I don’t look away from my reflection anymore. Mike likes how I look, and that’s enough for me.
“You seem different,” Ryan says, watching me too.
“Different how?”
We walk over to the bench press, but he doesn’t adjust the weight yet. I take a seat on the machine across from him, taking a sip of my water. “I don’t know. Happy. It’s weird.”
I can’t argue with that. I feel good today. I have for a while, actually. Light in a way I haven’t felt in years. Like something in my body has finally started to loosen after everything that happened with Jason. But I can’t tell him that, because then I would have to tell him what the reason is.
Who the reason is.
“Things good at the house?”
I shrug. “They’re fine.”
“Pierce doing alright?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
He goes quiet for a moment, and I think maybe we’re done with this particular line of questioning.
We’re not.
“You two hang out a lot,” he says, and I think he’s trying to sound casual, but I can tell right away that whatever he’s getting at is anything but.
“He’s my roommate.”
“You know people are talking.”
That gets my attention.
“About what?”
Ryan meets my eyes. “About you and Pierce.”
“What about us?” I ask, keeping my voice level, even though my heart has started to pound, and my skin feels prickly all over.
“Just that you’re…” He pauses, searching for the word. “Close.”
“He’s my roommate,” I say again, but it’s starting to feel like it doesn’t have much meaning here.
