Love to Hate You

Chapter 12 - Cole

I grunted, and when I had a free hand I wiped a bead of sweat off my face. My legs burned, but I focused on the goal.

"Hey, buddy, I'm gonna go for a run," said Carter.

Busting ass at the gym was one of my favourite ways to spend Saturday morning, and Carter usually joined me for the punishment.

"All right, be right there." I was done with weights for the day. The swig of water I took as I followed Carter felt like heaven.

"Ugh," came a frustrated, high pitched voice. "What is wrong with this thing?"

I glanced over, and a woman was struggling with one of the settings on the hamstring machine. She made eye contact and shrugged. "Hi. Sorry to bug you but can you help me out?"

Her heavily made up eyes pleaded with me and she cocked her head to the side.

I looked around. The place was pretty empty and no one else offered to give her a hand, so I nodded.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking over the machine.

"This lever here won't move the bar over there. Thanks by the way. What's your name?"

She smiled brightly and batted her heavy lashes, but I went back to fiddling with the machine. "Cole."

"I'm Shelley. You look familiar. Have we met?"

I took a good look at her face. It was possible I'd met her somewhere before, but I couldn't really place her. I chuckled to myself. This girl was obviously there to meet someone. She had half a makeup store plastered on her face, and her top was basically a sports bra, showing plenty of cleavage.

"Who knows." I was itching to get out of there already. She was holding me up when I wanted to get back to my workout.

I raised an eyebrow as she proceeded to lay down on her front on the machine.

"Okay, let's see if it works now," she said, and I didn't know if it was just my imagination, but it looked like she gave her ass an extra little push up in the air.

I stifled a laugh and looked to where Carter was. He'd noticed our little interaction and was eyeing her like a piece of meat. Suddenly I had an idea and motioned for him. He happily took my spot with the chick and I was able to sneak away and jump on the treadmill.

Shelley... I didn't recall ever having met her, but she did look familiar.

Having showered and changed, we walked out into the still early morning.

"What are you doing the rest of the day, man?" Carter asked.

I looked around. The streets were coming to life. "Not sure."

"Got a hot date tonight?"

My thoughts immediately jumped to Lucy, who was out of town, probably sleeping off a hangover. "No, no date."

"Well, how about a double date with Shelley and her friend?"

"Nah. Not my thing. Besides, Shelley who?"

"Shelley. The hottie in the gym."

I screwed up my face. Sure, she was good looking, but she seemed a hot mess otherwise. Picking up at eight in the morning on a Saturday? Something was wrong with that girl.

"Can't you go on a normal date?"

"Come on, man. She said she wants to go out but already had tentative plans with a friend who she can't ditch. You don't have to like her. Just show up. You can leave after fifteen minutes, I swear."