“You’re fucking gross,” I said, shaking my head. Nick had a way about him that always worked to lighten my mood.
A long-legged brunette with bouncing tits ran up to his side. He ignored her.
“Naw,” he continued, “It’s the easiest way to hit my macros. I can’t get huge unless I’m stuffin’ the protein.”
“Why don’t you take me back to your place and stuff me?” squealed the brunette.
He shot me a look that I’d already seen too many times.
“Whaddaya say big man? I bet she has a friend.”
The girl puckered her lips and gave me a pouty stare. I’d seen that look too many times as well.
“I think you already know the answer. But hey, I can’t fault you for trying.”
“Aww,” whined the girl. “Why not? It’ll be a lot of fun.”
I nodded at Nick and turned to the gym. As I walked away I could hear her start to argue with him. It was something about him not remembering her name. If I heard right, he told her it didn’t matter. Apparently he was right because she still left with him.
I tossed my shirt in the hamper as the office door swung shut behind me. There was a stack of promotional posters on the desk that I was supposed to sign and return to the promoter. Until you sign two hundred and fifty posters, there’s no way you can understand just how bad it hurts your hand. If they were for kids or charity or something, I’d already have done it. But the promoter just gave them out to sponsors and his connected friends so I didn’t really care.
Running the hill gave me time to calm down a little. The aggression I was feeling earlier had faded to a dull roar in my chest.
When I checked my phone and saw there were no messages from Bria it hurt more than I would have expected.
She’s so much better than that place. Why did she get that upset? I get that she can’t be in the middle of stuff like that at her workplace. It doesn’t look good. But why couldn’t she just explain the situation? That guy was a fucking creep who needed to have his jaw broken. They can’t expect her to put up with his harassment.
Maybe we’re not as perfect of a match as I thought we were. It all sounded good in theory, but how the hell did she expect to maintain her current lifestyle when she’s with a guy like me?
Maybe she didn’t mean what she said. But that didn’t seem like her either. Did she just need some space?
I needed to figure out what the hell I was going to do.
29
Bria
“It’s already been ten days,” I whined to Kaitlyn over my vanilla ice cream.
“So why don’t you call him? You have his number.”
“Because he’s the one who screwed up. It’s on him to make the move.”
“You’re the one who’s always telling me to grow up, Bria. And here you are acting like this is high school. Just call him and have an adult conversation.”
“It’s different with him. He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to change. He’s too much of a prick.”
“Wow. That’s kind of rude to say about the guy you’ve been talking about starting a life with.”
“It’s true though. He acts like he owns every room he walks into.”
“But I thought that’s what you liked about him.”
“It is. It makes my knees weak. But I don’t know if I can deal with the fallout.”
“You mean like when he beats the shit out of your unstable ex-boyfriend and saves the day.”
“He didn’t save the day. I was fine. He just took things too far.”
“Well, all I know is that I would have paid a lot of money to see it,” she giggled. “I’ve been hoping for someone to smack the smug look off Kevin’s face for years.”
“You don’t even know what it’s done to me at work,” I said. “Ever since it happened things have been so much different.”
“Like how?”
“Like everybody avoids me now. Nobody wants to be seen talking to me because Jones is so pissed off.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Not really. I mean, I went up to apologize to him but he wasn’t hearing it. He’s really good friends with Kevin’s dad I think…”
“So what,” she said.
“So, right before I went on vacation he was telling me about how great I was doing. He wanted me to take the bar so he could bring me on as a lawyer. Now, all he says is that I need to re-evaluate my priorities and decide if I have what it takes to represent his firm.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“I know. It’s like the whole thing has sent me back to square one. He’s taking me off the projects I was working on and giving me busy work. It’s like he doesn’t care anymore if I get any solid experience. That’s why there’s no way I’m calling Luke. This is all his fault.”