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I pictured the guy's faces if they saw a stripper anywhere near me. They'd kick them straight out the door, if strippers even got in the door to start with.
Honestly, I'd feel the same way if the tables were turned. I didn't want the guys, including Ares, looking at other women dancing around and taking their clothes off. The idea gave me an irrational worm of jealousy in my stomach. It wasn't just about them looking, and maybe touching, but also about my lack of body confidence and confidence in general. I was fit enough and strong enough that my body should compete with a professional dancer, but when I looked in the mirror, I wondered what if. What if my breasts were bigger? What if I had fewer freckles? What if…
"You didn't forget the ice cream did you?" she asked.
Her words brought me back to the present.
"I'm not perfect, but I would never, ever forget the ice cream."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kennedy
"Hey." Charlie stuck his head in the office door.
I glanced over my shoulder. "Hey. I'm almost finished updating the system. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll talk you through it."
"Okay, but I have coffee." He moved so I could see his hands, a takeaway cup in each. "Kind of a thank you for not firing me. Or letting what's his name fire me."
"You should have led with coffee," I teased. "Come on in." I took the coffee he handed me and shot him a grateful smile. The one I had sitting on the desk went cold about two hours ago. The milk was probably a bunch of hardening lumps. Not even my coffee addiction could deal with that.
He leaned against the doorframe and sipped in silence for a couple of minutes. "Can I ask you something?" he asked eventually.
"That depends on what it is." I sat back and waited for the changes to update. The Internet in Dusk Bay was so fast it should be illegal. Or better yet, rolled out to the rest of Australia.
Yeah, like that would happen. Either way, the update wouldn't take long.
"What do you see in a guy like those? They both look like they want to put a collar on you and keep you on a short leash."
I tried not to bristle, because at least to some extent he was right. Mannix was a control freak who’d control every aspect of my life if I let him. Ice was… He wasn't as bad but he was protective. Ares— I suspected he might be the worst of all, if we got together. I knew from his interactions with the other guys, he'd always give me hell. But he'd bring down hell on anyone who did anythingtome. I already felt sorry for the imaginary perpetrators.
"They like to watch out for me," I said carefully. "They care about me. It's complicated, I guess. They want the best for me."
"I want the best for you too," Charlie said. "Especially now you're my boss." He didn't seem entirely happy about that.
I sighed. "If I say I want you to just think about me as Kennedy, would you? Just because my name is on a piece of paper doesn't mean I'm not another coach. And new here too. It would be nice if we could be friends."
"That depends if your boyfriends let us be friends." He looked at me intently.
"I get to decide who I'm friends with and who I'm not," I said firmly. "I'd like to be friends with you. I don't want you thinking of me as the boss, or as someone you can't come to when you have a problem, or if you think we could be doing something differently."
After a moment I added, "Do you think there are things we can do differently?" I had a sudden mental image of him pulling a giant scroll out of his back pocket and unrolling it, before reading a list of three thousand, two hundred and twenty-four suggestions. All of which would make perfect sense, but not be free.
"There's always room for improvement," he said. "New equipment. Cappuccino machine in the staff room…"
"We don't have a staff room," I pointed out. "Oh. That's your point, isn't it? That we need a staff room?" I pinched the bridge of my nose and thought about that for a moment.
There was nowhere in the old space for it, but if we considered the space next door, maybe we could steal a few metres, even if it was shared between the gymnastics and the workout gym.
"I'll see what I can fit into the plans, but a cappuccino machine is a must." What? I wasn't exaggeratingthatmuch.
I sipped my coffee and made a face. It wasn't that it tasted funny, exactly, but after the coffee at home, takeaway coffee was nowhere near as tasty.
Oh good, I really was becoming spoiled.
"That bad, huh?" he asked.
"It's fine," I said quickly. To show I meant it, I gulped down the rest of it and put the empty cup on the desk. "Thank you for the coffee." Even bad coffee was better than no coffee at all.
