Gym Junkie

He frowns over at me. “You’re not coming in?”

I run my pointer finger along the bottom of the steering wheel. “Nah.”

“She might be there today.”

My eyes rise to meet his. “Who might be there?”

Ben huffs out a laugh. “Don’t give me your fucking bullshit, man. Who do you think you’re talking to?”

I stare at him blankly. “What are you talking about?”

“The girl.”

“What girl?”

He rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You’re a fucking idiot.” He gets out of the car.

I watch him walk across the parking lot and disappear into the police station. I take the opportunity to call Bridget, my sister. I know she’s at Mum’s with my other sister, Natasha.

“Hey.” She sounds excited to hear from me.

“Hello, fat guts.” I smirk.

“Brock.”

“Yes, Bridget.” I grin.

“You can say that shit when you’re joking about it. Not when it’s actually true.”

I chuckle and stare through the windshield.

“I’m growing two humans inside of my stomach. The name fat guts is a damn compliment. My name should be fat everything.”

“What are you guys doing?” I ask.

“Just about to go shopping. Can you sneak away and come with us?”

It is a quiet day and I don’t have much on. “How long are you going to be?”

“Ages.” She sighs. “Come and sit on the benches outside the shops with me… please?”

“Didge.” I frown. “You know I hate shopping.”

“We can have lunch. Come on, I haven’t seen you alone in weeks, and soon, you won’t be able to go anywhere with me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m going to have two screaming kids in a pram.”

I wince. This is true. I exhale heavily. “Yeah, okay, call me in two hours.” I hang up.

Ben walks back to the car and jumps in, smiling over at me like the Cheshire Cat.

“What?”

He passes me a small piece of paper.

“What’s this?” I ask.

Tully Scott

Ben raises his eyebrows and smirks. “I got a name.”

I look over at him flatly. “Why?”

“’Cause I’m the man.” He hits the dashboard. “Drive,” he commands.

I shake my head in disgust. “If I wanted to call her, I would have called her.”

“Except for…” Ben points at me, “that small matter of her blocking your number, as well as her hating you and shit.”

I fake a smile, screw up the piece of paper, and throw it into the backseat. “Keep your nose out of my business, Statham. You’re like a big fucking girl.” I start the car and pull out into the traffic. “You want coffee or what?”

I sit on the bench outside of the clothing boutique, sipping my water.

Bridget is sitting next to me with her legs up on the chair. Tash and Mum are inside the shop with Natasha’s bodyguards loitering around. It’s funny how I don’t really notice them much anymore. Her husband, Joshua Stanton, is loaded, and due to their history, Natasha has to have protection with her at all times.

I glance over at my sister. A question has been burning in my brain and I know she’s the only one who can answer it truthfully. She’s a good girl who fell in love with a man like me.

“Didge, when you first met Ben, how did you get together?”

She smiles softly, her face becoming nostalgic. “Well, the chemistry was instant. We really liked each other, that much was obvious.”

I watch her as I listen.

“But of course, we couldn’t do anything about it.”

Ben was Natasha’s husband’s bodyguard, and the boss’s sister-in-law was strictly forbidden.

“So, you snuck around?”

“Why are you suddenly so interested?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I just know you and Ben were very different so…” My voice trails off.

“We didn’t sleep together for a long time. Months, probably.”

“Months?” What the fuck?

“No, we were just friends at first. I think Ben was scared he was going to fuck it up. He would sneak me out and I would go over to his house. We would watch movies and just hang out, you know, talk and stuff.”

I stare at her. “Talk?”

“Yeah.”

“What on earth is there to talk about for months?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, but it’s how I fell in love with him.”

I smirk.

“What?”

“Talking to that dopy bastard made you fall in love with him? God, Bridget, don’t tell anyone that story.”

She giggles and nods. “Unbelievable, I know.”

We sit in silence for a moment.

“Sometimes it’s nice to make friends with someone first. It’s how women, you know, become comfortable with a man who would normally…” Her voice trails off this time.

I stare across the park in front of us. “Normally what?”

“Normally just want to fuck me. If he had wanted that and only that, we would never have gotten together. It gave us time to, I don’t know, transition to each other’s lives and personalities. Really get to know each other.”

I stare at her again, my mind a clusterfuck of emotions.

“But what happened if you were friends and then nothing else happened?”

She shrugs. “Then I had a really cool new friend, and that would have been okay, too. You can’t just fuck random women forever, Brock.” She smiles. “One of these days, you might actually meet a woman who you want be friends with.”