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I blushed, even though it was just the two of us. “Thanks.”
When it came to friends, Jocelyn was one of the better ones. Cute, funny, level-headed… and tough. New York tough. The kind of tough I learned all about when I moved out here two years ago, from my sheltered little town in Southern Texas.
“Treat it like a date,” Jocelyn advised. “You haven’t had one in a really long time. A good one, anyway.”
“You don’t think that would be unprofessional?”
“Do you really care?” Jocelyn smirked.
I thought about it for a second. “I care about losing him as a client.”
She waved me away dismissively with one hand. “Shop with him. Flirt with him. Enjoy yourself for a change. If he flirts back, you know the drill. And if not?” She shrugged. “He’s gay.”
I laughed so hard I almost spit my coffee. “He’s not gay!”
Jocelyn threw me her most seductive wink. “Then go have fun with him.”
Three
HOLLY
“C’mon, three more reps!”
I pushed hard, through the pain, feeling the burn in my thighs as the platform above me moved smoothly up and down. I always loved the leg press machine. The sheer amount of weight on each side made you feel like you could put up really big numbers.
“Two more…”
Except today, when I was doing it for the first time in months.
“Another two…”
“Hey!” I grunted. “You said that last rep!”
“Yeah, well you half-assed that one,” Donovan barked. “I don’t accept half-reps. If you followed through you’d be done by now.”
I reached down into my core and pushed, shoving the weights away and finishing out my set. My perfectly-sculpted trainer engaged the locking clamp just as my legs went limp.
“There you go,” he smirked back at me. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
I gave Donovan my dirtiest playful look. “No. It was absolutely perfect.”
“Perfection is when I can bounce a quarter off your ass,” he shot back. His look went stern. “But you already know what I’m going to say next, don’t you?”
“Yeah yeah,” I acknowledged. “It wouldn’t hurt this bad if I came on a regular basis.”
He nodded as he threw me my towel. “Damn straight.”
I mopped my forehead as I looked Donovan up and down. As always he was flawless, from his square jaw and handsomely stubbled chin right down to his powerful biceps and rock-hard abs.
Jesus, did his arms get bigger?
It was the first time I’d actually seen him since my breakup. The first time I could really drink him in without feeling guilty, as if I were doing something wrong. Our playful banter was something I looked forward to during our sessions. It was cute and funny, and it also kept me in line.
“Fitness is like a relationship,” he finally winked. “You can’t cheat and expect it to work.”
In reality I wasn’t cheating. I’d been coming the last few weeks, I’d just been avoiding him.
“You avoiding me, Holly?” he squinted.
