“You couldn’t give yourself one day off after yesterday?”
The simple mention of yesterday makes me smile. My first all-around gold. Sure, it might have been at an overall smaller competition, but it was still part of the official competition circuit, and I’ll take the wins where I can get them.
Finn wasn’t present at the competition, but the second I was able to get to my phone, I saw a hundred text messages, all from him. Apparently, he’d been streaming the event from work.
Josie called too, right after him, reassuring me that things were fine at home and that she was proud of me. After that, the day couldn’t have been more perfect.
“I can’t afford a day off. We’re two months away from the World Championships.” Although with the way my back—actually, my entire body—is hurting right now, it might’ve been a good idea to take the break. I don’t know how I’ll be able to train for the next few days since I can barely walk.
“You’re the most stubborn person I know,” Finn says.
“I prefer the word ‘determined.’”
“That’s too bad cause ‘stubborn’ is what you get.”
I grumble.
The couch dips beside my feet. “What do you need?”
“A new body. One eight years younger, preferably.”
“You act like you’re ninety-five.”
“Twenty-five is ninety-five in gymnast years.”
“Didn’t think you had your own metric system.”
“The more you know…” As I shift a half of an inch to the left, a muscle spasms in my back, and I fake sob into the pillow.
“What about another trip to the hot tub?”
My face heats instantly at the thought of that night. It’s been more than a month, and I still remember precisely how it felt to be this close to Finn’s half-naked body. How tempted I was to get closer, even though that’s not what friends do. Especially not when one of those friends has feelings for the other.
It’s so strange, that I have this physical attraction to Finn. It’s never happened to me before. Sure, I could tell when a guy was sexy or good-looking, but never did I feel the need to touch them, to kiss them. For a long while, I thought I might be asexual, but now that I’ve experienced what my body feels like when it’s close to Finn, I think that might have been a wrong hypothesis.
“I don’t think hot tub jets are going to cut it, this time,” I say. I’m not even sure whatwouldhelp. Daily PT and a hefty dose of painkillers, maybe.
“Come here, then.”
That gets me to lift my head from the pillow and glance at him over my shoulder. “Huh?”
He taps his knees. “Come here. I’ll give you a massage.”
“Um…” That’s a bad idea. I can feel it from a mile away. If being in the same hot tub as him was hard, I can’t imagine how it would feel to have his hands on me. Just sleeping on the same smelly mat at the gym the other night had me hot and bothered, and that was when we had couple dozen kids around us. Again, I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s like I’ve been trying to flick on an empty lighter for so long, and he’s the kerosene not only making it burn, but causing an explosion. “I’m fine, but thanks.”
“You’ve been whining for five minutes. Just come here and let me help already.”
I grit my teeth. I never thought one day I would avoid someone’s touch not because it repulses me but because I want it too much.
On the other hand, the idea of a massage is heavenly. My muscles feel like one tight block of cement, and at this point I’d be willing to try anything to get that pain to diminish.
“I’ve been told I give very good massages,” he says with a smirk.
“Is that supposed to sound as dirty as it does?”
He laughs. “No, that’s your filthy mind playing tricks on you.”
Yeah, it definitely is.
