Page 53 of What It Means To Be Found

Eloise was a woman, and it was a universal truth that women talked to each other about who they hooked up with. Did she tell Courtney about what happened between us in her bedroom? I wouldn’t be upset if she had. Maybe I would have been upset a few years ago, but after being friends with a raging feminist like Courtney, I now understood how important it was for women to discuss these types of things with each other.

Not just to gossip, but for their own safety.

Such as, to learn what a sexually healthy relationship was, versus not.

To know if the guy behaved inappropriately during the hookup.

Sometimes, though, it was just to gossip. Usually, women only gossiped if it was either a great experience or a hilariously bad one. I was fairly confident that our experience in her bedroom wasn’t bad. I would argue that it was great, actually.

Still, I wanted to know if I needed to brace myself for any sort of interrogation from Courtney after hooking up with her friend whom she thought still hated me.

Eloise’s skin flushed under my gaze, making a smile form on my lips that I quickly tried to hide with my hand as I rubbed it down my face.

“So, what are we doing today?” Eloise asked, her voice a little higher than normal as she tucked her hair behind her ears, even though she was already wearing a headband.

“Ass and legs,” Courtney replied, adding weights to the squat rack I was previously using.

Josh was watching Courtney add the weights with an obvious look of admiration in his eyes. His fiancée was fit, and he clearly appreciated that.

“Cool, is this one available?” Eloise asked, pointing to the empty station next to Courtney and Josh. I nodded and followed her over to that one.

“I’ve never lifted like this before,” Eloise spoke, pointedly going out of her way to avoid my gaze as I set the bar on the rack. “Can you show me how to form myself, Court?”

“Logan can,” Courtney replied, getting into position underneath the bar as she wrapped her hands around it, “Josh is going to spot me here.”

“Oh, okay.” Eloise sounded nervous, which immediately set off alarm bells in my head. If Eloise didn’t want me to help her, I wasn’t going to force her. I had set some tens on either side of the bar before I paused and gave Eloise a questioning look. She stared at me with her wide blue eyes, her teeth gnawing on her bottom lip hesitantly as she contemplated while Courtney and Josh ignored us.

Are you okay? I asked Eloise, remembering to dramatically mouth my words for her so she could understand. Her eyes glanced between my hands and my lips, and she took a moment to inhale a deep breath before she nodded and surprised me.

I’m N-E-R-V-O-U-S, Eloise signed, slightly mouthing her words.

I blinked at her.

That was pretty good. It was clean, I didn’t see an error with her fingerspelling at all.

She smirked at my expression.

Nervous, because of me? I asked, showing her the correct sign for the word.

She nodded.

I frowned, then took a step back away from the weights to give her space and reached for my water bottle that sat on the ground in between the two stations.

“Alright, show me how to do this, big guy.” Eloise’s voice sounded like it had an edge to it, like how she spoke to me before we hooked up. Before we both admitted that we wanted each other. I lifted an eyebrow, seeing that she was glancing at our friends next to us before she stood underneath the bar that I had racked and gave me a challenging look.

I took a sip from my water bottle, watching her.

Her gaze dropped to my throat as I swallowed, and the gulp she subtly made before she dropped her eyes to the ground made heat run in my veins.

Oh, maybe I did make her nervous, but in a good way.

Chin up, I told her, sauntering back over to her. Her cheeks flushed again, but barely. She was putting on a show as if my presence didn’t affect her the same way her presence affected me.

This probably brought me more joy than it should have.

“You’re crushing it, love,” Josh encouraged as he stood behind Courtney, his hands hovering underneath the bar just in case her muscles gave out. His eyes could have had literal stars in them as he watched his fiancée squat.

Courtney grunted before racking the bar and standing to her full height, shaking out her arms and stretching her shoulders.

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