She didn’t answer and just kept staring.

All I could hear was the hum of electricity spitting between us, as we both stayed rigid and still.

“You spend too much time in your own head.” I twisted towards her and ignored the air around us. “You haven’t played netball in years. You have your job, and you have us. Maybe you just need something else to focus on.”

“Like your sport.”

“Sure.”

“And girlfriends?” she continued, but it was my turn to furrow my brow into a frown. I looked down at her as she moved her eyes towards mine, the question written all over her face.

“I don’t have girlfriends. You’re my only girlfriend.” The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it because I would fucking love to call her that finally.

“But we’re not actually girlfriend and boyfriend.” Her eyes popped wide in alarm. I didn’t say anything and let the words settle to see what she made of them. This was new territory for us. Hell, I’d only wanted to know she was happy, not ask her to be my girlfriend, although I wasn’t going to say no.

“I don’t… we aren’t…” She stumbled through the start of her sentence before she got up from the bed and grabbed her bag. “I think I should go.”

“No, why? Come on, Grace, it’s just a word. It doesn’t mean anything. You’re a girl and my friend. That’s it.”

She turned to wait at my door. “Is it though?”

I wasn’t sure what she was saying or asking. At least, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. What I wanted it to mean was that she acknowledged there was something between us, and I wanted her to be my girlfriend. The fact that I’d never had a girlfriend was down to her. Sure, there were girls at parties and stuff. They were happy to suck my face thinking they’d get to hang off my arm and get the kudos around school, but that never happened. I loved Grace more than any other girl I’d ever meet.

Although all those thoughts ran through my head, I didn’t say anything. I let the moment hang in the air between us—unspoken. And I could see that she felt it too. Her hand was resting on the door, her other, wrapped tightly around her bag strap as if holding onto it was a matter of life or death.

She felt the same way. I’d bet my fucking life on it.

There was just one thing to take care of.

Oliver.

He stood in the way. He was confusing her, mixing her feelings up and causing trouble, as always.

She shook her head and walked through the door, her decision made. Her feet bounced down the stairs, and a few moments later, I heard her leave.

“Fucking great.”

I barely caught a glimpse of Grace over the next few weeks. She hardly spoke to me when we were at work, and she didn’t come over as freely as she used to. It was like that stupid fucking conversation had put a physical wall between us. And it made me fucking mad. I spent as much time as I could at the gym so that I wouldn’t throttle something at home.

Zuri was there a couple of times and gave me some pointers. His instruction helped channel my rage towards something. Turns out, I was good at following his drills. It wasn’t hard. Watch what he did, do it myself, and repeat until I felt like I was going to hurl.

“You’re good. Now you need to fuel that body as well as work it. Protein powder, good diet, sleep,” Zuri told me. The next time we met, he had a container of some power crap I was supposed to drink with milk or water.

“It will make you bigger. Stronger. If you want a shot, you do this.”

So, I did.

As the weeks drew on and the Grace-shaped gap in my life became too fucking big, I filled it with everything Zuri told me to do. My studies suffered, mostly because Grace wasn’t there to translate what I had to do and give me the motivation I needed. But right now, I didn’t care.

My body was already changing. It wasn’t like I grew muscle overnight—more that I could feel the difference in my body. I wasn’t so tired, my recovery from each session was quicker, and my strength was improving. Zuri seemed happy about that, but he didn’t let up and kept pushing me at the gym.

All the time at the gym, the questions about Grace mounted and became harder to ignore. I fucking missed her. It wasn’t fair, and I knew I couldn’t cope much longer with the cold shoulder treatment.

At least Oliver was away. If he were still here, there was no way I’d allow him to fill up her time while we figured this out. And we would—I knew we would. She was a part of my life and always would be. She just had to figure out if she was brave enough to admit her feelings or not, and if she needed a helping hand from me? Well, perhaps I’d left it long enough.