I grew warm under his examination. I liked my body. It wasn’t too muscular but was well defined and most importantly, strong. Sure, the look wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I didn’t train so that men would find me attractive. Still, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little proud of the results of my hard work.
Trying to will my growing blush away, I said the first thing that came to mind. “If any of you guys ever want to train before or after one of our sessions, let me know. I could always use a partner.”
“How about tomorrow?” Ezra immediately asked.
I hadn’t expected any of them to take me up on the offer this quickly. Clearly, I’d misjudged.
I nodded at the drummer, keeping my expression carefully neutral. “Sure. Let’s meet at eight.”
By the time we bid the guys goodbye and got into the car to drive home, it was almost nine. Relief swept through me, like I’d just finished a final exam and knew there’d be no more classes on Monday. I hadn’t realized just how much tension I’d been holding all evening until it bled into the air around me and disappeared.
“That was so fun,” Molly gushed, scrolling through the pictures she’d taken and labelling the ones she liked the most. She was animated, her eyes bright in the reflection of the glowing screen.
I put the car in Drive and began to pull out of the lot. “Next time, if there is a next time, could you try not to embarrass me?”
She snorted, obviously not threatened by my tone.
“I couldn’t embarrass you in front of those guys if I tried. Ade, they’re all crushing on you. Hard.”
I furrowed my brows, trying to remember if my sister had had an opportunity to sneak some alcohol at dinner. “What are you talking about?”
My peripheral vision dimmed as she tapped the phone off and lowered her hands into her lap. Something about the movement struck me as particularly serious.
“They were staring at you all night, Ade, looking away when they thought you might catch them, then drifting right back when your attention was elsewhere. It’s like you have some kind of a gravitational pull on them.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I dismissed. “You’re imagining things.”
I could feel her looking at me, trying to read something in my face. “You didn’t notice it because you were too focused on making sure I didn’t tell them too much about who you are. Next time, pay attention and you’ll know exactly what I mean.”
I bristled at her calm, assured tone. “They’re my coworkers, Mol. My employers, actually. They don’t need to know all that much about me, and I didn’t appreciate you volunteering information like it was yours to give. It’s not professional.”
“Why are you trying to draw this firm line between them and you? People make friends at work all the time. People get married to their coworkers, for God’s sake. Our parents worked together right out of college and were married a year later. Half the people at their wedding were coworkers who felt responsible for getting them together. Mom showed me pictures from the wedding and pointed out the crying office manager who set them up on their very first lunch to go over some reports. You’re being weird about this. I think I know why, and it has nothing to do with you wanting to be professional.”
Sometimes I forgot how shrewd my sister could be. It was easy to classify her as a typical Gen Z teenager, obsessed with appearances and likes and online popularity, but beneath the superficial outer layer, she held a deep understanding of people and the world around her. I didn’t know if it was instinctual or a result of what we’d gone through, but she’d managed to surprise me many times.
“You’re overthinking it.”
“I’m not,” she countered. “You see something in them that scares you. They are what you could’ve been if you hadn’t given up on your dream after a single rejection. Not only that, I think you’re starting to realize you can still choose to pursue that dream, but the prospect of putting yourself out there again terrifies you. So you’re keeping your distance, treating it like any other job. Pretending it’s not fate sending you a message.”
I kept my mouth shut, not knowing what to say. I wanted to tell her she was wrong, that she’d misread things, but I couldn’t do it. I felt at home in the studio, much like I did inside a concert venue. Despite the tension with Abel, I was thoroughly enjoying working with the guys, and spending all day making music. Was I worried about getting used to this? About filling my head with old dreams that hadn’t panned out once and were unlikely to ever pan out? Yeah, I was. But that was because I was smarter now than I’d been at seventeen. Being chosen for this four-week project was just a lucky accident, and lucky accidents didn’t translate into a career that paid the bills.
And if fate was sending me a message, how was I supposed to interpret the fluttering sensations I got when Ezra smiled at me, or when Silas taught me something, or when Cole pulled me into a friendly embrace? What about the goosebumps that erupted over my skin whenever Abel’s intense gaze landed on me? If fate was doing anything, it was playing some messed-up mind games with me.
Molly sighed at my silence, and there was something akin to pity in the sound. “Don’t be so quick to cut them off, Ade. All I’m asking you to do is to give them and yourself a chance.”
That night, I lay in bed, staring at my ceiling and the faded glow-in-the-dark stars I had stuck up there when I was thirteen. My phone buzzed on the nightstand beside my head. It was Molly sending me the pictures from the dinner.
I clicked on the first thumbnail. She had taken a shot before we were ready, when Abel and I were still looking at each other, and the rest of the guys stood angled in our direction. My breath hitched in my chest. I couldn’t read their expressions, but there was something possessive in their body language. Their attention was all squarely on me.
What if Molly was right? What if they were interested in me?
No. That was a possibility I couldnotallow myself to explore. This gig was too important, I needed that twenty grand, and I was enjoying the process way too much to jeopardize it by doing something stupid. As I began to drift off to sleep, another thought flickered inside the darkness of my mind.
If I felt like being stupid, who would I even choose?
ADELINE
In the morning,Ezra showed up at the gym seconds after me, just as the clock ticked past eight. He wore a loose hoodie over what looked like a tank top, and shorts that stopped mid-thigh, sparing very little of his muscled flesh from my sight.
