The Challenge

Chapter Fifteen

Everyone is slow to move the next day, herself included. The whole cast is hungover, tired, irritable, and she's not in the mood to face everyone. It's like her foster days, when a new group would enter a home and everyone is cranky from being shoved off to a new home. So, she sneaks off to the gym to find peace and quiet and maybe sweat out some of the toxins still in her body. When she gets there though, she discovers Graham already there....spotting Regina.

She swallows thickly, her body burning hot from the sight of Regina in skin-tight yoga pants and a sports bra. She's straddling a bench, pulling the bar down behind her back and dear, sweet baby Jesus, she didn't know this woman was so ripped. Her back and shoulders clench deliciously tight which has Emma staggering on her way to the treadmill.

"Hey, Swan," Graham cheerfully greets her, running to her side and abandoning Regina. "Wanna try those leg exercises we were talking about?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," she stammers, her eyes subconsciously, flicking toward Regina's back and that tight little bottom decorated in spandex.

"So, they have these boards we can stand on," Graham excitedly begins explaining as he places them on the ground. "They are a bit slick, so we step on these discs and we slide one foot, forward and backward, essentially doing a squat."

Emma nods along, placing one foot on the disc and the other steady on the board. She places her hands upon her hips to keep herself grounded and steady, then she follows Graham's lead, sliding the disc all the way back, her knee never touching the ground though and then slides right back up again. One, just one and she already feels the stretch in her thighs and glutes.

She completes one rep of twenty and then switches legs even though she's feeling a little shaky. Once they are all through, Graham pats her on the back and excuses himself to refill his water. Emma decides to stretch her stiff muscles, settling on the ground and reaching for her toes. Out of her peripheral, she tracks how Regina stands from the machine she was working on and sashays over to the treadmill with an extra swing in her step.

God, who allowed this woman to be so hot?

Regina gingerly climbs onto the machine and begins running, not jogging, which ultimately leads to her full bottom bouncing directly in Emma's line of sight. This is stupid. She feels like she's not even in control of her own body anymore. It's like she's bewitched, clearly Regina put her under some spell that has her craving her touch. And Emma never has been the one who needs physical attention.

She feels this urgency to say something, she needs to at least engage with the witch who cast a spell on her but her mind is blank. Truthfully, she wants to apologize for her outburst and jealousy she projected last night in the bathroom but she has a feeling Regina will murder her in her sleep for revealing too much.

"Hey," she lamely begins instead.

"Hey," Regina dryly answers, never glancing in her direction.

Green eyes roll automatically as she sighs. "Uh, I just wanted to say...sorry...for being drunk last night and uh...collapsing onto your bed," she settles on saying, knowing it's safe and hoping Regina will pick up on the sincerity in her tone and know she is apologizing for much more than that.

"People drink and do stupid stuff, nothing new," Regina flippantly replies, never gifting Emma the satisfaction of seeing her face.

"Right," she breathes out a heavy sigh and switches to the butterfly position with her legs. "Still, I'm sorry," she sincerely urges once again but she receives nothing in response.

Thankfully, Graham comes breezing back and fills the silence between them.

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