Page 26 of New Girl in the City
“I went there once for Korean food,” I told him with a clap of my hands. “Can we get some after? They have the best Korean food there.”
He grinned at me. “Yeah, we can go for some barbecue, after Mel.”
My insides went warm at his grin. I settled back against my seat with butterflies in my stomach from his use of his nickname for me.
“Okay, that makes this whole thing worth it then.”
“The entire self-defense aspect of it makes it worth it, Princess. Not the food.”
“You have your opinion, and I have mine.”
He scoffed and accelerated, the city passing us by, but he didn’t tell me that I was wrong.
* * *
“This is a gym?”I tilted my head to the side and looked at the building in front of us. It wasn’t what I had thought of when he had said we were going to a gym. In fact, I didn’t think it was what anyone thought of when the word gym was said...ever.
“Sure it is.” Liam waved a hand at me and shut the door before coming around to my side and pulling me out of the truck and setting me carefully on the ground.
“That’s a factory,” I pointed out, ignoring the tingles his hands on me had caused.
“Was a factory, Princess. Was.” He nodded at the building, a hulking white brick building with large glass windows. Huge metal warehouse doors were open, taking advantage of the cool spring air, revealing a space with high ceilings, whitewashed walls and concrete floors. I saw weights along one side of the gym. Machines began where they ended, and a wall of mirrors let anyone working out observe the finer movements of their workout. All of thisdidpoint to a gym, yes, but I could still see what looked like old machinery in the gym space.
When I gestured at it Liam shrugged. “That stuff weighs a literal ton. Better to leave it.”
I laughed but didn’t say anything because my attention was now on the boxing ring, or what I thought was a boxing ring. Except that, instead of ropes there was a cage all around the mat. I stopped dead in my tracks.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“That’s where the magic happens.”
“We aren’t going in there are we?” I asked, feeling nervous. Liam had said we were going to go over some self-defense not duke it out caged death match style.
“No, Princess.” He put a hand on my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my shoes. First he had his hands on my waist and now a hand on my shoulders? It was too much for one day. “Relax,” he soothed, mistaking the jump for nervousness about the cage. “We’re going over there with the bags.” He pointed to the side of the caged mat and I saw that yes, there were indeed a few boxing bags there.
“Thank god,” I said, letting out a whoosh of breath. “I thought you were going to throw me in there with a ladder or something. Maybe with a briefcase of cash to win.”
“Never figured you for a professional wrestling fan.”
“A girl can have secrets.”
He chuckled and the hand at my shoulder lowered to press against the small of my back. “Come on, Mel.”
I jumped again but nodded as I marched forward towards the desk up front. A pretty brunette worked at a computer and chatted with a few other gym goers. When she looked our way and saw that Liam was with me her eyes lit up.
I had to tamp down the sliver of jealousy that sparked in me at the eager look she sent his way. Of course he had women giving him bright eyed looks. He was a hot and attractive man who knew how to work a suit within a stitch of its life. Of course he had women with crushes that worked at the gym he went to.
This was normal.
What wasn’t normal was me getting jealous, so when she looked at me I sent her a happy smile. Hell, they could even be dating. I didn’t need to make a fool of myself in front of a woman who liked Liam.
“Hey Liam!”
“Sophie. How’s it going?” he greeted in return.
She shrugged and tossed her hair over her shoulder with a grin. “Oh, same old same old. Glad to see you though—” she nodded her head at me, “and you brought a special lady friend?”
“Just a friend,” I corrected.
