Page 7 of Unbelievable You

She shrugged one shoulder. “Someone would have carried you out. Just happened to be me.”

Another person called her name and she made a frustrated sound and did that nose-rubbing thing again.

“Bye, Hunter,” she said, walking backwards two steps so she was still looking at me.

“Bye, Stace.”

She gave me one last tight smile and turned around to rejoin her friends.

“You want me to find her? I can totally find her,” Cade said that night when she and Reid came to hang out with me. Cade was so busy now with Eloise that we had to be strict in scheduling our times to hang out. Before they’d met, I’d seen Cade nearly every day. Now if I wanted to hang more than once or twice a week I usually had to drive out to the suburbs. Eloise’s house was absolutely stunning, but still. I felt like an intruder there.

“No, I don’t want you to find her, if I wanted to find her, I could do that in a few seconds. It doesn’t matter.”

Why had I told them about seeing Stace at the gym? What was wrong with me? Now they wouldn’t shut up about trying to find her and writing some story where we were destined for each other. Well, Cade was, but her brain was currently poisoned by love. Reid was just living out her fanfic dreams through me. Reid might have a crusty exterior, but she had the heart of a romantic. Cade and I had been sworn to secrecy about her writing or else she threatened to stab us with one of the knives she used to slice limes for the bar.

“Hunter, we can see that you like her. We know you,” Cade said, nudging Reid, who agreed. We were all in my apartment eating various desserts. Cade had brought cake that Eloise’s friend had made, I’d baked some cookies (from frozen dough), and Reid had been in charge of drinks, as usual, but she’d also brought some crispie treats that she’d made for some reason. They were good, full of gooey marshmallow and she’d mixed the crispy rice cereal with the fruity kind. I was actually impressed, even though they weren’t that labor intensive to make. Reid worked as many shifts at the bar as she could, and as a result she was nearly always too exhausted for things like making desserts.

“I don’t like her. I don’t even know her! She’s literally just a firefighter who carried me out of a building. I’m grateful. That’s all.”

Angrily shoving a cookie in my mouth, I glared at my two best friends, hoping they’d drop it.

“You know, your glare is only good on people who don’t know you well enough,” Cade said, smirking at me and leaning over the island to snatch another cookie from the plate I’d set out.

“Reid, back me up here,” Cade said.

“She’s right,” Reid said, pointing at Cade. “You like her.”

I clenched my teeth. I really needed to get a handle on this.

“Fine. I will admit that there is an attraction, but I’m attracted to a lot of women. That’s nothing new. Attraction happens all the time.” It was meaningless.

Cade grinned as if she’d won some sort of contest and I rolled my eyes.

“Can we please discuss something else? You two have been on this for way too long. Reid, tell me you have some good bar stories.”

She thought about that for a moment, chewing on one of the treats she’d brought.

“Okay fine. There was a fight the other night and it turned out to be some kind of throuple drama that ended in everyone hugging and making up and sharing a three-way kiss.”

Now that I had to hear about.

Monday was another busy day and I barely had time to eat. I had another class to teach at the gym and I wondered if I’d see Stace. I didn’t think that I would. What were the chances that she’d show up again at the same time as me?

That didn’t stop me from jumping and my eye twitching every time I saw someone with blonde hair and biceps. Even guys. One or two thought I was checking them out and I had to quickly grab my phone and pretend I’d gotten a message or call.

Of course, one of them came up to me as I was leaving my class and gave me what he probably thought was his smoldering smile. If I liked men, it probably would have worked on me.

“Hey, haven’t seen you around? You new?”

That was his opening line? Even if I wasn’t a lesbian, that was pathetic.

“Yes,” I said, trying to throw him “get away from me” vibes.

“Aw, are you shy?” he said, leaning closer to me. Okay, this one wasn’t going to take a hint.

“Excuse me, I have somewhere to be,” I said, starting to move past him, but he stepped in my way.

“Come on, maybe I can book a private yoga class or something with you. Can I get your number?”

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