“I’m not a mess.” She tips her head back, bringing her lips inches from mine. “And I don’t kiss while I’m on duty, so don’t even think about it.”
“Too late,” I confess.
“Well stop thinking, and let’s get going,” She giggles as she spins out of my arms and jogs toward the door at the back of the room. “This workout isn’t over. Only slackers skip the run, Whitehouse.”
“There are other ways to get your heart rate up, Miller,” I shoot back, following her out into the sunny winter afternoon. “Things a lot more fun than running.”
It’s cool outside—probably no more than forty-five degrees—but after our time in the weight room the air feels good against my skin. I’m already smiling, looking forward to the run when Faith turns to me, all the teasing and laughter vanished from her expression.
“Yeah, well, I don’t do those sorts of things casually,” she says, seeming uncomfortable for the first time since we met up today. “So, if that’s what you’re looking for, we should probably stop this right now.”
I blink, but don’t grant myself the luxury of a hasty apology.
I don’t like seeing Faith uncomfortable, but I’m also not sure what I’m looking for. As much as I really don’t want to ruin our nice afternoon, I guess now is as good a time as any to have the “how serious do we want to be and are we on the same page?” talk.
I did promise her I’d be honest, after all, and I make it a point to keep my word.
“I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” I say, holding her gaze. “At first I just wanted to date you long enough to get you out of my system, but—”
“Well, that’s great,” she says, rolling her eyes. She starts to back away, but I reach out and catch her hand with mine, stopping her.
“But it’s not like that now,” I promise. “I really like you. So much. But I spent my last year of college in a really difficult relationship.”
She frowns. “Is that code for shitty and traumatizing?”
I huff out a short laugh. “Um, yeah. That. For sure. And because of that, I’m not ready to jump into something serious again right now. Not even with someone I like as much as I like you.”
Faith cocks her head, studying me for a moment before she says, “So…you just want to be friends with benefits? Or something like that?”
I shake my head. “No, it’s not like that… Well, not really.” I shrug uncomfortably, cursing myself for heading down this road before I had my shit sorted. I ought to know better than to start a “defining the relationship” talk without advance preparation. “I honestly don’t know, Faith. I just like spending time with you. You’re funny and interesting and I feel like I can be myself when we’re together. I like making you laugh and working out with you and kissing you and…I kind of just want to relax and see where that goes.”
Her forehead furrows. “As long as it doesn’t go to a serious place.”
“Yeah. Sort of?” I brace myself to be told to go to hell and rot there.
But she surprises me by saying, “All right.”
“All right?” My brows lift.
She crosses her arms and nods. “Yeah. Totally. This was honestly moving too fast for me, anyway. I like the idea of taking a step back.”
“Oh. Well…good,” I say, wondering why her words sting a little.
This is exactly what I wanted. The best-case scenario.
Isn’t it?
“As long as we lay down some ground rules,” she continues. “First, no hand holding in public. That will give everyone in town the wrong idea and you know how they love to gossip. Second, no sleeping together.” Her cheeks flush a little pinker as she glances up at the building behind me. “Because like I said, I don’t do that casually.”
“I respect that,” I say.
And I do. I can’t say I’m thrilled about being barred from her bed. But she knows what she wants, and I respect that about her. A lot.
“And third, no hard feelings when it ends.” Her eyes meet mine again, an edge in those brown depths that makes me wish we’d never started this conversation. “I’m all for having fun together, but when it’s over—for whatever reason—there’s no drama. From either side.”
I nod. “All right.”
“Good, then let’s stop talking and start running,” she says, jogging toward the impound lot. “I only have thirty minutes before I have to be back upstairs. Want to do four warm up laps, four sprints, and then four somewhere in the middle?”
“Sounds perfect,” I say, falling in beside her.
It does sound perfect—both the course for the run, and the course she’s set for our future.
It’s exactly what I was hoping for, a fun, no-strings-attached relationship custom designed to make sure no one gets in too deep, and no one gets hurt.