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“Fine.” He rolls his shoulders back, then shakes out his arms, loosening up. “It’s actually helped on the nights I box. And it’s a good way to unwind at night.”
A smile tugs at my lips. “Great. That’s exactly what I hoped to hear.” Who knew today would be such a breeze compared to the disastrous vision I had in my head? “We’ll focus on four main areas—face, arms, torso, and legs. We’ll tense and relax these larger muscle groups at once instead of separating them out, which will shorten the overall time of the sequence by about two-thirds.”
As we begin, any lingering nerves from earlier fade until he’s like any other participant. Tense and relax, tense and relax.
And luckily, I don’t have to say the wordbutttoday.
At the end, I hand him the new shorthand instructions. “I forgot to get your questionnaire from last week.”
“Ah, shit,” he mutters as he puts on his jacket. “Can I give it to you Friday?”
Right. Friday. When he’s coming over to my apartment. “Yeah. Sure. Of course.” Okay, I’m babbling now.
I cross over to the door, holding it open for him. “Make sure to practice the new sequence twice a day like last week.”
The door next to mine opens, and Joel peeks his head out. “You finished?”
I hold up a finger. “Almost,” I whisper.
Austin steps out of the room, zipping his jacket. He glances behind me at Joel, expression unchanging, then back to me. “See you Friday.”
“See you.”
He strides down the hall, Joel coming up beside me a moment later. “Jesus, how tall is that guy?”
“I know, right?”
I return inside, gathering all my papers off the desk to bring with me before the next study needs the room. Noah and Chris were early last week.
“Wait, did he say he was seeing you Friday?”
“Oh, it turns out we’re neighbors. Isn’t that crazy?” I unzip my backpack, stuffing everything in there. I’ll sort through it later.
“So why are you seeing him?”
I pause, looking over at him in the doorway. Is it my imagination, or did he sound… accusatory?
“He’s helping me with something.” I finish zipping up my bag and swing it on my back, wishing my textbook for Abnormal Psych wasn’t so heavy. Maybe I could use that for self-defense.
“He’s also a participant in our study. Are you sure you should fraternize with him outside the Stress Lab?”
I laugh at his mock serious tone, then realize he isn’t joking. “Oh my God, it’s not that big a deal.”
“Yeah, but…” He trails off, gaze darting back and forth. “It could influence the study.”
I’m tempted to ask him how, but I don’t want to argue. “We won’t talk about the study,” I promise. “There. No influencing.”
The corners of his mouth turn down. “Do you know what you’re doing? Who you’re getting involved with?”
I move past him, adjusting my backpack so it sits higher on my back. “What are you talking about?”
He steps out into the hall beside me, glancing toward the lobby, but there’s no one there. “That guy looks like he belongs in prison or something.”
“Wow. Judgmental much?” But didn’t I feel there was something dangerous about Austin initially, too? Not that I would have gone as far asprison. “He offered to show me some self-defense moves.”
He makes a noise of disbelief. “Is that code for some kind of weird sex thing?”
I shove his shoulder. “No, you weirdo.” Seriously, what’s with him? He’s never acted like this.
