Bad Rep

NINETEEN

I swipe at the sweat trickling down the side of my face with the back of my hand as the treadmill automatically slows from a jog to a walking speed, going into cool down mode. I grab onto the side rails for support as I fight to catch my breath.

"Good job, Claire," Rhodes praises, grabbing my water bottle and uncapping it, offering it to me.

Grateful, I take it from him, chugging down its contents. When I'm finished, he takes the bottle from me and sets it aside, reaching over the control panel of the treadmill to slowly decrease the speed to a complete stop.

Legs feeling like Jell-O, I wobble off of the machine, Rhodes grabbing my elbow as I step down to make sure I don't fall over. He walks with me to the locker room, veering off to his office while I go freshen up and grab my things. By the time I emerge from the locker room his office is locked and he has his gym bag thrown over his shoulder.

"Ready?" he asks, extending his keys out to me.

I nod, taking the cool metal into the palm of my hand and leading the way to the parking lot.

For the past couple of weeks, Rhodes has made me drive around the parking lot after our sessions, trying to get me more comfortable with driving again. Admittedly, it's helped a lot, but I'm still not sure if I'm ready for the main road just yet.

On the third lap around the parking lot, my stomach squeeze's uncomfortably, grumbling loudly, making me shift awkwardly in my seat, hoping Rhodes didn't hear it in the silence of the cab. I wait a few seconds, holding my breath, hoping my stomach won't make another embarrassing sound. After a minute, when I think I'm in the clear, I ease some of the tension in my shoulders only for them to lock right back up when my stomach tightens again, making the muffled sound of a dying hyena.

Heat immediately rushes to my face and I awkwardly cough, trying to mask the sound, but it's too late. There's no way Rhodes didn't hear it.

Utterly embarrassed and flustered, I quickly pull between the lines of a parking space and throw the truck in park. "I think that's enough driving for today," I say, hating how high pitched my voice sounds.

I quickly scramble out of the truck and round the bed of it, ready to switch places with Rhodes. He's hardly out of the passenger seat when I meet him on the other side, and to my surprise, he makes no comment about my sudden anxiousness or haste.

I climb into the passenger seat as he takes his time rounding the car and climbing in behind the wheel. We both buckle up and I reach for the radio dial, finding a popular station and turning up the volume in hopes it'll drown out any other awful noises threatening to come from my empty stomach.

Rhodes drives me to my apartment, thankfully in silence, until we come up on one of the smaller grocery stores in town. "Hey, you care if I stop and grab a few things real quick?" he asks, hand still on the wheel as he points to the building.

While I'd currently rather go home to avoid any further potential embarrassment thanks to my stomach, I find myself shaking my head. He takes time out of his day to pick me up and drive me home, so the least I can do is save him a trip back in the opposite direction. "No," I lie. 

"Thanks," he says, flipping on his blinker and turning into the parking lot.

He parks and I climb out of the truck with him, the weather still a little too warm to sit out in the car and wait.

He grabs a cart and I follow him around the store aimlessly, up and down aisles as he picks out produce, meat, and spices. My stomach starts to rumble again at being surrounded by food and I wrap my arms around myself, wandering away from him for a moment.