Page 30 of Santa Has a Six-Pack
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I prop myself up on my elbows. “I could use some water, though.”
“Of course!” Matt jumps to his feet and grabs a cold bottle of water from a nearby fridge.
Before I realize what’s happening, he’s crouched beside me, holding the water to my lips. I open my mouth. The cool water pours down my throat. Over and over again. I should pull away and drink the water myself, like the fully grown woman that I am, but I don’t. I let him serve me. I close my eyes, tilt my head back farther, and just keep drinking gulp after gulp.
“Damn, Penn,” Keira says. “You look like a lusty sex hamster right now.”
That snaps me out of my post-workout haze real fast. I’m just loopy from exercise endorphins, that’s all. My behavior has nothing to do with the proximity of this man.
“A sex hamster?” I jerk up to a full sitting position. I knock into the water bottle, and it spills the rest of its contents all over me, which, I’m not gonna lie, feels pretty damn refreshing right now. “What are you talking about?”
“No, I hear what she means!” Eugene says. “You know how hamsters and guinea pigs suck on that upside-down water bottle in their cages and?—”
“Got it! Yes.” I rise to my feet and look down at the wet spots all over my biker shorts.
“But you look sexy doing it. Hence the reason I called you a sex hamster,” Keira says as if that distinction makes it any better.
“Cool. You get your footage, friend?” I move toward my purse. “Because I think it’s way past time I get going.”
“Don’t rush off, Pennywise,” Matt says.
There’s that nickname again.
I stop in my tracks. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s with the Pennywise thing?”
“What? You don’t like it?”
“I don’t hate it, but I don’t think we know each other well enough to be doling out nicknames just yet. Also, isn’t that the name of the scary clown in Stephen King’s It?”
“Maybe you scare me.”
He says it super casually, but when he locks eyes with me, I feel like there’s some deeper truth to what he’s saying.
“Tim Curry is a freaking genius,” Eugene says, breaking the moment between us. “If you ask me, any comparison to that character is a compliment of the highest order.”
“Ha. I guess I’ll take it, then.”
Matt juts his head in his partner’s direction. “Gene’s a big movie guy.”
I nod. “I’m picking up on that. Keira here is quite the film buff as well. Beyond filming her friend in sweaty, embarrassing situations.” I plead with her with my eyes. “Can we cut now? Please?”
“Yes.” Keira finally stops filming. “Thank you, guys. I believe we’ve gotten all the footage we need.”
“What, uh—what kinds of films do you enjoy?” Eugene asks Keira, and they pull off to the side to geek out on all things cinema.
Interesting.
Matt follows me to the cubbies where the members keep their belongings. “Seriously, can you hang for just a few minutes before you run off? I like to debrief after a first workout.”
“Oh, I don’t like that.” I wince.
“You don’t like what?” he asks.
“That word.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Debrief?”
“Yeah. Every time someone says debrief, I picture that person shimmying out of their panties.”
