Page 5 of Allure

Delusional.

She’s always been blinded to the truth.

It’s a Porsche 718 Spyder. All silver. At least she didn’t spend a super exorbitant amount of money on me. I always hate it when she does because it makes me feel… I don’t know. Undeserving. Tainted.

I don’t want anything from my father. He’s dead. He’s gone, and that’s enough for me, but he still is finding ways to haunt me.

No matter. I’ll find a way to sell this. Donate the money. I’ll figure out transportation later.

But that's the thing. All of my mom's money is tied back to my father, and my savings are too. For now, at least, I have no choice but to use his money.

Jet lag hits me, and I take a nap and then shower and change into my yoga gear because, honestly, I have no idea what else to wear. I climb into my Spyder, cursing my father the entire drive over. Maybe I should've walked, but it's fun. Everything will be fine.

Man, why does it seem like Dawn’s nerves have transferred over to me? Fun times. Not.

As soon as I walk in, there’s a slight odor. Body odor? It’s not heavy, but there’s definitely sweat in the air. I guess that’s not too surprising.

A fair amount of people are walking around in bare feet. They’re wearing white tops and pants with various colored belts tied around their waists, the knots in the middle huge. There’s a rack on the wall with so many colored belts on it, white at the bottom then yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, red, brown, and black.

Outside of a few glances, no one approaches me, and I stand there, water bottle in hand, keys in the other, not sure what to do, where to go. The class starts in ten minutes.

Just then, a guy exits a room. Locker room, maybe? It's down the hall, so I can't tell, but I'm not worried about the room. He's well over six feet tall, and he's facing my way, talking to someone so I can see just how large his lips are. His black hair is curly, tamed, not wild.

Holy hell is he hot as fuck. He looks to be maybe twenty, twenty-one.

I’ve always had a thing for older guys, especially ones that I shouldn’t want to be with. Guys who are unavailable. Already in a relationship, married, emotionally unwilling to be with someone long-term.

Wait, that last one is me.

I take a few steps toward Hunk when a woman comes up beside me.

“Your first class?” she asks.

“Um, yeah. Unless I had to call first to schedule that?”

“No, no. It’s fine. It’s nice that you picked a Monday. Sensei isn’t always here to teach classes personally, but he always makes sure that he does on Mondays and Fridays. Come. You can take your sandals off in the locker room. This way.”

She brings me to the locker room. The one for women is the first one, the guys beyond it.

The woman is short. Seriously short. Maybe five feet but not any taller than that. She looks a little like a puff in her white top.

She notices my looking. “This is a Gi top,” she explains. “If you sign on, you’ll get one. The pants, too, and a white belt.”

Hers is brown.

“You’ve been training for a while,” I assume.

“Three years now. I was hoping to have my black belt by now, but I became pregnant with my fourth child. I trained until I was eight months pregnant, though, and was back on the mat four weeks after I gave birth.”

“That’s insane.”

“Well, when you want something bad enough…” She holds out her hand. “I’m Jackie.”

“Brooke. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You look like you have the look of a fighter,” she says.

“What does that mean?”

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