“If you ever touch my girlfriend again, I’ll break your jaw.” Rory’s voice is deadly steady. “And if by some chance you find a trainer and I seeyou in a ring one day, rest assured you won’t walk away.” I watch Evan’s eyes dart back and forth. Poor idiot walked into the wrong gym.
Oliver releases his hold and Evan stammers backward before rushing out of the gym. Rory immediately looks AJ over and makes sure she is okay. Oliver checks me, but I ignore him. I haven’t talked to him since I dropped him off at his house. I helped get him cleaned up and made sure he was asleep before I left.
“You realize that was dramatic right?” I break the silence. Everyone looked at me but AJ.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Her entire focus is on Oliver. And I watch his eyes leave mine and drop to the floor. Eli and Maxwell start to shuffle to the lockers. “Don’t you dare try to run away.” She berates them, never taking her eyes on Oliver. She is obviously still worked up over what just happened and that’s feeding into her anger over seeing Oliver all bruised up.
“I’m fine.” His voice is clipped.
Rory steps forward and she turns on him too. “No. I had that handled. You can’t just threaten to break everyone’s legs all the time.” She glares at him. Rory, knowing what is good for him, steps to the side and gives an apologetic shrug to the guys as he comes and joins me on the opposite side of the mats.
“It was just a rough fight.” Eli offers. I notice he leaves out that it was a roughsecondfight.
“You don’t even have to fight at that damn place. I don’t know why you are so persistent in doing it.” AJ reaches Oliver and tilts his chin up, inspecting the bruises and cuts. She even lifts his shirt because of course she knows he is hurt there too. “You need to heal. Go home.” As angry as AJ is, there’s a small fraction of her voice that is tinged with sadness. She hates seeing any of us hurt. “You’re sparring Rory today. Don’t suck.” She points to Eli. “And you can teach his classes today since I need him.” She instructs Maxwell.
Oliver opens his mouth to speak and then closes it. His eyes find mine over her shoulder, searching for something but I can’t give it to him because I don’t know what it is. He turns to walk away, even though it’s clear he doesn’t want to.
“I should have been there.” Her words are so soft that they nearly get lost in the empty space. Rory goes to hug her, but she shrugs him off. “Get warmed up. We have new drills to work today.” AJ pushes everything she is feeling down and gets to work on picking up our mess on the mats. I know better than to try and talk to her right now. Instead I find myself walking outside to catch Oliver before he leaves.
“She won’t be mad for long.” I try to make the situation better. He turns around from his car, pulling his sweaty shirt over his head. He opens the back car door and reaches into his gym bag to grab a new shirt.
“And you?” He asks as he puts the clean shirt on.
“What?”
“Will you stay mad for long?” He leans up against his car.
I sigh, “I’m not mad at you.”
“You’re just avoiding me.” He sucks his bottom lip in his mouth before slightly shaking his head.
“I’m not avoiding you either.”
“You could have stayed Saturday night instead of leaving after I fell asleep.” He accuses. And I feel out of my comfort zone. We never talk about anything that we do after we do it. It happens and then we move on. It’s what we do.
“You needed rest.”
“I wanted you.” His words, mixed with the obvious hurt in his eyes, slap me in the face.
“You didn’t ask me to stay.” It was a weak excuse and I know it. Whatever is happening between us. This space we keep coming back to and pretending like we didn’t want to stay in feels suffocating at this moment.
He’s quiet as he studies me. He takes his time, looking over every inch of skin and stitch of clothing. He takes in my hair and watches my chest stutter as I try to breathe evenly. “Next time I will.” He gets in his car and drives off without even saying goodbye.
OLIVER
Mia
We could remodel your bathroom? Make it moody so it matches your personality.
Or we could finish the brick wall.
Maybe build a bookshelf? Do you read?
Obviously not since you aren’t responding. Don’t be a dick, Oliver.
Oliver
Don’t touch my bathroom.
