Rookie 2 | Ethan Ramsey

Chapter 5~ Influence

Influence

"When you start making exceptions to your principles...the exceptions become the rule."
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It had been a few days, since Blue had sent the message to Gwyneth...

She entered the gym with her towel hanging around her neck and her water bottle clutched tightly in her hand.

It was a Tuesday, and keeping true to her word, she woke up early to join The Boys in their weekly workout. She knew if she was going to have to cope with her new workload, she was going to have to build up her fitness again, and eat properly.

In the aspect of the latter, she did not really have to worry too much as Ethan took care of that. She had been noticing. Ever since he had come back and learnt about her PTSD induced weight loss, he had been making it a point to make sure subtly that she had been eating properly and taking care of her health. She knew as much as he liked to act that he did not care about her, he did. He always did.

"You're early." she heard his voice, turning back to see him. He was wearing a black bomber jacket, with black sweatpants. She saw his eyes scanning her form, as she wore a black and white workout outfit, a similar design to the workout outfit she wore the first time she had joined their workout session. Her orange-red locks were bound together into two pigtails, and she smiled as she met her gaze with his.

"Woke up early." Blue replied, dropping her gym bag onto of the benches before she started stretching. Ethan followed suit, secretly content with the fact that he could spend some time with her alone before the two other hunks joined them.

He took of his bomber jacket, revealing the white dry-fit T-shirt he was wearing. He stretched out his limbs next to her as they occasionally sneaked glances at each other through the gym mirror, stretching silently without a word. It was a comfortable silence, but was filled with tension as well.

Not the bad kind. Well, Ethan might deem it as bad, as he regretted the happiness he felt when he thought they could spend some time alone. This was torture for him, watching her stretch in those clothes, purposefully angling her body in ways that made him feel all sort of things.

It's like what he had said to her at Evelyn's gallery, it was a punishment.

To want to do something more than anything...knowing that it was the one thing you can never do again.

They had signed that silent contract two months ago, when they last did spent the night together. It was mainly an one-sided argument, but they still did.

Ethan sighed heavily, making Blue turn to him. "You're thinking." she said, cracking her neck. "I'm always thinking." Ethan replied placing his hands on his hips. "True, but there's something wrong. What's up?" she asked as if she could read his mind. "Nothing, really..." he replied, averting eye contact with her.

"Yeah...you're not going to say anything to me anymore now. Might as well get used to it." Blue said sighing as she moved towards the yoga mats to do some abdominal exercises. Ethan followed her saying, "You know I'm not doing this because I want to, but because we have to, right?"

"I know. That's what makes this harder. Because I know that you want us as much as I do." she replied, laying back on the mat. Ethan did not say anything, but instead moved to kneel on top of her sport shoes, anchoring her as she did her sit ups.