Valkyrie

Chapter 8

I went home and grabbed my gym bag. I needed to work out some frustrations and throwing around heavy things sounded like a good idea. The gym was almost deserted when I got there, only a few lone people scattered around with plenty of personal space in between. Exactly like I liked it. I chose a treadmill at random and held onto it while I stretched, deciding that some cardio would be good. I hadn't been for a run in a while, either working or too tired to put forth the effort. I shoved my ear buds in and cranked up the volume, drowning out all the other sounds around me and losing myself to the beat and the rhythm of my arms and legs pumping, sweat starting to drip down my back despite only wearing a pair of black leggings and a dark blue tank top, old sneakers thumping on the belt in an easy stride as I zoned out. Jogging alone wouldn't be enough to raise my heart rate so I bumped up the speed and the incline until I was in more of a loping run, long legs eating up the belt of the treadmill and ticking off the miles. I felt a few people stare before their eyes drifted away to other things. I was used to the stares. When you're six-foot-tall and look like a fabled Amazon done in shades of gold, people tend to stare.

I finished up on the treadmill, my heart a steady thump in the middle of my chest, before moving on to the free weights. The usual meatheads were there, grunting as they curled and squatted with way too much weight while standing in front of the floor to ceiling mirrors, trying to be subtle about the silent competition that seemed to always be going on between them but not really succeeding. I try to avoid eye contact, keeping my head down while I pick weights and do my thing as far away from them as I can get. I don't go to the gym to socialize or get hit on. I go to the gym to workout. I just want to be left alone. I mind my business and hope that everyone else will, too.

"You sure that's the weight you want?" I stopped in my reach for a sixty-pound dumbbell, squeezing my eyes shut and saying a silent prayer to whatever was listening for patience. I should have turned the volume up on the Trivium album I was listening to and maybe I wouldn't have heard him. If I don't hear them, they're easier to ignore. Once I hear them, I can't ignore them. It's like some sort of unwritten law of the universe or something. "The lighter weights are on the other end," he continued. I internally rolled my eyes. I know for a fact that I do not look like I need lighter weights.

Every once in a while, someone, always a male, would come up and ask if I needed help with the weights or to give me pointers on my "form" or my "technique" in a thinly veiled attempt to get my attention. I would politely refuse and tell them I was fine, thanks though, before I moved away as far as I could. Most of them took the hint and left me alone but there was always the one that didn't get it. Like the guy standing behind me. I'd seen him there a couple of times before, pestering other females. I guess it was my lucky day.

I opened my eyes and stared at him in the mirror, his dark eyes meeting my pale ones before they drifted over the back of me, lingering on my wings before drifting further down. He was short and stocky with the overdeveloped muscles of someone that spent too much time at the gym and the strangely orange-tinted skin of someone that spent too much time in a spray-tan booth. His dark hair was pulled back in a messy man-bun and he had a neatly trimmed beard that hugged a narrow jaw. I supposed some people would find him attractive but whatever appeal he had, didn't even register with me. With the exception of Trey, I hadn't felt any attraction to anyone for a long time and this dude-bro wasn't even in the same ballpark as Trey, let alone the same league. They weren't even playing the same game.

Besides, I'd probably break him.

"I'm sure, thanks," I said, easily pulling the weight off the rack. I grabbed the other dumbbell and moved away from him, going to the other end of the gym to mind my own business like he should have been doing. I was in the middle of a set of lunges, moving my way down the empty walkway on the edge of the gym floor, going from one end to the other, when he came sauntering over. I was so not in the mood to put up with anyone's nonsense. I tried again to ignore him but he just wouldn't let me.