I opened my mouth to tell him he could go fuck himself when another voice spoke first.
“I think that’s going to be a no.” Both me and the Blond Guy turned to find an extremely tall man with brown hair and bulging biceps standing a few feet away. He had colorful tattoos all over both arms and looked like he wasn’t messing around. Plus, he was taller than the guy shooting his shot with me.
“It’s a no, right?” he asked me, and it took a second for me to understand that he was intervening on my behalf.
“I’ve got this, thank you,” I said, putting my hand up to ward him off.
He grinned and it was a much friendlier smile. “Oh, I know. Just thought I would lend a hand,” the new guy said. The original guy was quiet, as if he was waiting to see how this played out.
Silence fell and Blond Guy’s confidence drooped. “Listen, I was just—”
New Guy cut him off. “We all know what you were just. Leave her alone. This isn’t a dating app.”
This was too much.
“If you two want to get your dicks out and start swinging, be my guest. I’m out of here.”
I pushed between them and started walking to the locker room.
Fortunately, neither of them followed me and I thought I was in the clear until I heard someone say, “hey wait!”
Expecting the first guy, I turned around and prepared to read him the harassment clause that he had signed to use this gym, but it was the guy with the dark hair who approached me.
“I’m sorry. About that. And about him,” he said, jerking his thumb backward.
“It’s fine,” I said. “You didn’t have to get involved.”
He nodded. “I know. But I saw someone in distress and my rescue gene kicked in. I’m a paramedic. I guess I can’t help saving people.”
Okay, that was charming, I had to admit. He seemed like an actually nice guy.
“Got it,” I said. “Well, I guess thank you then.”
“I’m Torrin,” he said, putting his hand out. Friendly, this one.
“Uh, Hunter,” I said. “I teach yoga here sometimes.”
“Oh, great. What kind of yoga?”
I told him and he seemed legitimately interested.
“I need to do more yoga. I work out for my job and I feel like I get stuck only doing weights and cardio and forgetting about things like yoga. I’m glad I ran into you. You’ve given me something to think about,” he said.
Good for him. I was happy to help.
He pulled his buzzing phone out of his pocket and read a message before typing out a response.
“Sorry, my sister was just checking in. She’s a firefighter and she’s on call tonight. We always check in with each other when we’re working.”
His sister. A firefighter.
No, surely not. He looked nothing like Stace, apart from having huge arms.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him his sister’s name, but I didn’t.
“That’s sweet,” I said instead. “Listen, I’ve got to get going. It was nice to meet you, Torrin. Hopefully I’ll see you in one of my classes.”
He nodded. “Yeah, you definitely will. Have a good night. Hopefully without any more annoying people.”