Page 53 of Gym Bros
Jesus Christ.
A tray of shots appears, and Priya passes it around. Every drink looks different.
“What is this?” Calyx asks. “The variety pack?”
“I ordered one of everything,” she says.
He snorts.
“Love it,” Rachel says, reaching for a tall shot glass with something creamy inside. Calyx winds up with something the exact same shade of dark pink as his lips, and I grab a vaguely purple one.
Priya toasts to my birthday, and we drink. Mine tastes like blueberries, and I scan the tray for what I want to try next. I need two shots and twenty minutes minimum, and then I think I might actually be able to hold a conversation about something other than Calyx’s underwear.
Rachel grabs my hand once I’ve had my second shot. “Come walk the room with me.”
“Me?”
She tugs on me. Hard. “Yes.”
I slide out of the booth after her and follow her to the perimeter of the dance floor. “So, you like my friend, huh?”
“I, um…”
“Calyx,” she clarifies.
Fuck me, is it that obvious? “I—he?—”
“No, I get it,” she says. “But just as a caveat, you’re about as far from his usual type as Mars.”
I figured. “What is his type?” I ask, unable to stop myself from taking the opening even if I might be admitting something with the question.
“You know, older. Very handsome. Rich. Boring. Married.”
“Married?” I ask.
“He might be slightly cynical.”
I glance back at the table, and Calyx is watching me—or us, but he turns back to Priya when we make eye contact.
“None of that surprises me,” I tell her. Does it disappoint me? A little. But it fits.
“So…you’re interested, but not likeinterested.”
I shrug. That’s as good of a way to put it as any. “I have a lot going on, you know. Or I will once I get back to my training schedule.”
“What do you do when you’re not training to kick somebody’s ass?” she asks.
“I like baseball. Going to games. I have a new dog I’m kind of obsessed with.”
“Do you know how to have fun?” she asks.
“Fun?”
“Yeah—like—you looked like you enjoyed the goat shenanigans. A few good laughs, right?”
“I loved it,” I tell her. “Any reason to get outside—animals especially.”
“My theory on Calyx is he grew up too fast,” she says. “That’s why he dates all these old men because he doesn’t know how tohave fun. Or—maybe more like he doesn’t know what he likes—what even would be fun, because I swear to God, when he invited us to goat yoga, I almost shit myself I was so surprised.”
