Page 29 of Gym Bros
Deacon answers the door in an apron. Our friend Bailey is in the kitchen stirring something in a large pot. She aims a smile at the group of us. I scan for the new roommate, but there’s just Miguel. Miguel, Bailey, Ryan and Malcolm were all in an internship together over the summer. Bailey and Miguel still work at the firm they interned at, while the boyfriends have decided to do their finance-oriented YouTube show full time.
In this group, I mainly come for the free food and drinks. I consider them friends, but I’m closest to Ryan, and he and I really aren’t all that close. Bailey and I have more in common. We sometimes day drink and binge watch reality shows together on random Sundays. I join her at the stove and peek into the pot. “Chowder?”
“Yes,” she says. “It’s amazing.” She’s got her curly hair pulled up in a bun and she’s wearing her signature look—overalls and a tank top.
“I’ve heard great things about this chowder,” I tell her.
“So what’s up with you? Are you caught up on The Valley?”
I sigh. “No. I’m not. And I’m not doing anything new. I mean—I ran off my first client.” So much for not thinking about it.
“What?” She stops stirring. “Catch me up.”
I do while she hovers over the chowder. Her assessment of my dilemma is quick and unequivocal. “He sounds like a jerk.”
“He’s just a kid,” I say.
“Have you ever met a jock who wasn’t a jerk?”
“I wouldn’t call him ajock,” I say, thinking of him taking kung fu classes when he was a kid.
“I’ve never personally met an MMA fighter, but I’ve seen how they act on TV. Way worse than jocks, actually.”
“I’m not gonna try and say I get it, but I think he’s pretty passionate about it.”
“So passionate he gives up after three yoga sessions?” She snorts. “I’m unconvinced.”
“Maybe it was me, then.”
“Maybe. You’re pretty intimidating.”
“You’re hilarious.”
She arches a brow at me.
Oh. Wait.She’s being serious?
“Have you seen yourself?” she asks.
“I have. Multitudes of times. He could snap me like a twig.”
She shakes her head, lips pursed. “I don’t mean that. I mean you’re world-traveled, put together, smart?—”
“Burned out, underemployed, obsessed with my cat.”
“In need of Prozac, yes, but I can see why someone like him wouldn’t want someone like you calling him kiddo.”
“I never called him that.”
“But did you say it with your eyes?”
Did I?
I mean I’ve rolled them, but I’ve always been really careful to do that when he’s not looking unless…oh fuck,the mirror.
And how often had I looked at the time on Wednesday? Iwas only timing his stretches—mostly—but I noticed nearly every minute pass.
I’m not ready to say with a hundred percent certainty that I’m the one and only reason he never came back, but my side of the street feels awfully dirty all of a sudden. I never quite realize I’m not in the mood for tough love until I talk to Bailey.
