“I didn’t say you were, but funny how your mind went there though. I'm just not interested in being taught how to do a shoulder press.” I laughed a little. He dropped the dumbbells and walked away.
I picked up my weights and stared at myself in the mirror, my long, brown hair was slicked back to a high, tight ponytail. My shoulders were well defined and so was my body. I wasn’t too muscular, but I was fit thanks to my big brother. I positioned my weights over my shoulders and pressed up towards the sky.
Once I finished my set, my eyes wandered again and there he was, still staring at me through the mirror in front of us. Had this been at a bar and I was a little drunk, I would have had the courage to walk up to him and say hi. However, this was my brother’s gym and I was full of sweat marks and no makeup. There were too many negatives to make this a positive for me.
Once I finished up with my shower, I dressed and headed out. Jessica saw me and painted on a smile.
“Oh, hey Kass, your brother wanted me to give you this.” She handed me a gym card, which had my name on it and the worst picture he ever took of me. Bastard! He probably was giggling when he did this.
“My name is Kassia,” I corrected her, as I glared at my card. I was so going to kill him.
“But your brother calls you Kass,” she noted with annoyance.
“Yes, but he’s my brother, unless my parents had another child and never told us.” I hated how much these girls tried to make friends with me, all under the guise of getting closer to my brother.
“Sorry,” she bit out.
“It’s okay.” I smiled back.
The elevator dinged and I ran to catch it. I was still looking at this stupid photo of me sticking out my tongue at him. I was drunk when he took it. My eyes were crossed and my hair was a mess. He was going to change this or I wasn’t coming here. As I ran to the elevator, I didn’t notice that I rammed into my sexy boxer from before.
We both collided into each other as the door closed behind us. He had grabbed my arms, preventing me from falling.
“Are you okay?” he asked. His was voice low and rough. My mind stopped.
He was the perfect package. The body, the tats, the eyes and now the voice. Damn it! It was way too long for me. I needed a man. ASAP!
“I'm sorry, I didn’t see you there,” I finally said, realizing my card was no longer in my hand. I frantically looked around for it and saw it beside him. He followed my line of sight and smiled. He reached down to grab it, but I yelled out “NO!”
He stopped and gave me a ‘what’s wrong with you, lady’ look. I dropped my face, giving up. I’d humiliated myself enough. He proceeded to pick it up. That’s when he knew what was wrong with me.
“Nice pic,” he noted.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said dryly, taking it out of his hand.
“Kassia,” he murmured my name. I looked up at him. “It’s a pretty name.” He smiled softly.
Did I just see dimples? Damn it all to hell! He continued to look at me, his light grey eyes drawing me in. The elevator dinged, letting me know it was time to be released from his gaze.
“Thank you,” I said again as I headed out. He followed from behind, but not close enough that I felt freaked out.
“My name is Jason, by the way.”
“That’s nice.” I waved over my head and scurried away.
Just great! My first outing in I don’t know how long, and I finally meet someone I might be possibly interested in and I go and humiliate myself. Way to go, Kass.
It was one o’clock and the sun was scorching the sidewalk, making it hotter than it was. I loved it. Well, I loved it enough to know that I was going to a highly air-conditioned home. I enjoyed the heat and the way my body almost dripped with sweat. I just loved the smell of the sun on my skin and the stifling air around me. Summer in New York couldn’t get any better than this.
I saw a small gelateria and I began to crave some gelato. I pushed the door and a small bell chimed. There was a bit of a lineup, but I didn’t mind. I was going home and the only time I was going back out was tomorrow night. The girls cussed me out that I hadn’t had time to see them, and they wanted to dance.
Tara and Genna were a duo who brought trouble into my life since the tender age of sixteen. Well, since I moved to our last home. They made my last years in high school as fun as possible. After what had happened, they reached out and wanted to bring me out of my problems. The thing was they brought more problems to me. They used to call us the three musketeers for a reason.
We’d lie to our parents about being at each other’s homes for the weekend, so we could drive up to Montreal to party or head into the city and party all night. We did everything together. Each of us had our own story to tell and our own problems to deal with. Within our friendship, however, we found a sense of sisterhood, which was hard to explain to outsiders.