Page 55 of What It Means To Be Found

I felt the grin spread across my face before I could stop it, making her frown loosen a little as she took in my expression. I shrugged; Just checking. How much had she learned?

Have you been learning ASL? I asked, forgetting completely that it was my turn to squat. Eloise’s cheeks turned pink again, was she embarrassed?

Yes, Eloise signed, glancing over at our friends who seemed to be in their own world; I am in a class.

I smiled fully at her then, making the corners of her lips turn up as well.

That’s great, I then turned around and positioned myself under the squat rack. Why was she learning ASL now? When we first met, she hadn’t taken a class for it or anything. Last I heard, she didn’t know more than the core words they used at the early intervention clinic with kids. Beck and Susan relied on ASL half the time to communicate without their hearing aids, and Courtney was basically fluent, so did she just not want to be left out?

Was it to show me up for being an ass to her over a year ago?

I wouldn’t blame her if it was.

Even if she was learning the language out of spite, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I would directly benefit from Eloise learning my preferred form of communication. It would make things easier on my end, in general.

Maybe Eloise would understand how blunt of a language ASL was.

Maybe I wouldn’t put my foot in my mouth as often around her.

…Maybe we could get to know each other better.

I finished my set, robotically reracking the weight before I stepped away to grab my sweat towel and water bottle. I wiped off the damp skin on my neck before turning back to glance at her.

Her eyes were hooded as she watched me, not bothering to hide her interest as her clear blue eyes took in their fill. Everywhere her eyes touched made heat break out over my skin. As if her gaze was physically caressing me. She was openly checking me out, still standing in the same place that she was as she spotted me.

I glanced over at Courtney and Josh, who were aware of the blatant ogling Eloise was doing. Josh wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, while Courtney gave me curious looks as her eyes bounced between Eloise and me.

I took another swig of my water bottle, tipping my head back to give Eloise a show of my neck, and wanted to pump my fists in pride when I saw her gaze go towards my throat again. She licked her lips and blinked as if she was coming out of a daze.

Weirdly, neither Courtney nor Josh mentioned anything about that awkward moment.

Well, awkward for them. It wasn’t awkward for me. If Eloise liked what she saw, that meant that she’d probably want to get together again. Which was something I was very, very interested in.

15

ELOISE

I wanted to have sex with Logan again.

However, I was a huge chicken and didn’t know how to bring it up again.

I thought he might have wanted to have sex with me, too, if the way he looked at me at the gym meant anything.

I thought for sure our hook up would be discovered right then and there. There was already a close call with Courtney and Josh the morning after Logan snuck through my window. I unintentionally winced as I sat down at the kitchen table, still half asleep. So the sound of Courtney throwing her head back and cackling startled me, before Josh blushed and tried to smother her laugh for my sake. She eventually calmed herself enough to ask me who I had over that night, and what we did that made me so sore.

I blushed right along with Josh, and then lied and said it was a random dating app match.

Courtney reached her fist out for me to bump, and congratulated me for getting back on the horse. And then Josh made a joke about how hung the horse must have been for me to waddle downstairs like that in a half-asleep daze.

And then I promptly changed the subject.

Because I definitely wanted to get back on that horse again, that was for damn sure.

I just had the self-confidence of a child. Every time I thought about sending Logan a direct text asking for another round, I panicked and deleted it. I had managed to send him a text after reading the note he left me, though. The note made me horribly embarrassed, but also laugh.

I realized at that moment that I wouldn’t have granted him the same humor if the roles were reversed, and I wasn’t into that kind of playful banter in bed. I really had a lot of pent-up bitter feelings toward the guy, and if I wanted to have sex with him again, I probably needed to work on that.

So I would text him memes from the movie we never got around to watching.

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