Falling Hard

“Sir, it’s time to close, so I’m going to check the locker room.”

We got the place completely cleared out and locked up, and then I drove home. All night I dreamed about my woman. At first the dreams were hot as fuck as I took her over and over again, but then she’d run to a figureless man who took her away from me. I hardly slept a wink between the restless dreams, and by the time I fell into a fitful sleep, it was almost four. Thankfully, I wasn’t opening the gym. My assistant manager had that task. I worked sixty hours most weeks, but I tried to rest my body. It did no good for the owner of an expensive gym to be looking haggard as fuck.

I was due to close up again tonight, so hopefully I’d get to see her.

Chapter 2

Erica

“How was your first day at the gym?” my mother asked, wiping her hands on the towel after washing the dishes. We shared a house just off the Orange Line and Halsted. She bought it outright after the divorce and asked me to move in with her. My father didn’t care because he already had a new family a month after the papers were signed.

“It was good. A bit intense, but the place was gorgeous.” Intense was putting it mildly; my body ached more than I expected it would.

“I don’t even know why you think you need to go. You have a perfect body.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’m actually just trying to tone up and work up my stamina, which I sorely need. I feel like I ran a marathon or something.” I poured a glass of water and sat on the stool while I talked to my mother.

She leaned over the kitchen island and reached her hands out to mine. Squeezing them, she said, “Please don’t let anything your father says get to you. You don’t need to lose weight for any man. I made that mistake years ago, and you’re the best thing to come out of our marriage.” She knew that my father and I had lunch together once a week at his job. This week it had been with his business protégé, a man he wanted me to marry. I’d been trying to get away from the two of them when I saw the gym and the man walking into it.

“I’m not doing it for him or his little shadow.” I wasn’t ready to say that I’d signed up to stalk a guy who worked there. I pulled one of her freshly baked chocolate chip cookies off the platter in the center of the island and asked, “How are you handling the new marriage, Mom?

“I’m fine, really. I feel bad for the girl. Besides, I actually have a date coming up.” I gasped, surprised to hear that. My parents had been married until my eighteenth birthday when my mother had had enough of my dad’s philandering ways. “Oh goodness. I’m sorry. I thought you’d be happy.”

“Sorry. I’m totally happy for you. I want you to move on. I just hadn’t thought about it. I’m not sure why, but I guessed you didn’t want to get involved with anyone after Dad.”

“I know he’s your father, but I can’t stay alone forever,” she said, sneaking a cookie for herself. She loved to bake, but you’d never know with the way she took care of herself.

“Oh no. It’s not that. I mean, dad was a total asshole who did his best to screw anything that walked. I expected you to be afraid to try again.”

“I’m honestly fine with it all. I love you so much, pumpkin. So enough about me—is there someone out there that you’re seeing?”

“No. Maybe it’s because of Dad or something, but I’m not interested in guys.” His attitude could ruin any girl’s vision of a Prince Charming. Despite my fascination with the guy at the gym, I knew he was probably a frog in prince clothing.

“Do you like girls?”

I almost choked on my cookie and laughed. “No, not that. I’m just not eager to get married unless the right guy comes along. There is a hot trainer where I go to the gym, though.” I wagged my brows, getting a smirk from her.

“Ah, now I know why you’re going,” she teased, nodding her head in approval.

“Maybe.” It was the reason, but I wouldn’t tell her that. I hopped off the stool and washed out my glass, setting it on the drying mat, and headed up the stairs. “I’m going to brush my teeth and go to bed.”

“Hey, missy. Did you eat dinner?” she hollered from the kitchen doorway.

I was already halfway up the stairs, feeling sleepy. “Um…nope, but I’m not really hungry anyway. The cookie and water were plenty. I’m tired.”

“Ugh, that’s not healthy.”

“Says the one who made them. I love you. Get some sleep too.”