I went into my room and got changed. I so did not look like a gym bunny. I had paint streaks on every t-shirt I owned. Well, apart from the good ones but I didn’t want them getting all sweaty and gross. The only socks I could find weren’t a matching pair. The tights, well I rocked them so it wasn’t a complete loss.
“You ready?” Chad called. At least getting to see Chad’s body in action at the gym would be a definite plus. Except that it wasn’t, because I had to stop thinking of Chad as a man.
“Is this going to cost much?”
“Na, I’ll get you a guest pass.”
I couldn’t talk in the car. I was too nervous.
We walked into the gym and I nearly tripped over just on the step near the door. Not a good sign at all. I would die in that place. It wasn’t even one of those nice gyms. The reek of testosterone and man sweat reminded me of just how many days it’d been since my last sex. I didn’t need any cardio to get my pulse rate racing. Dodgy music pounded out through the loudspeakers, way too loud for comfort.
Chad set me up on a treadmill at a nice easy walking pace to warm up and took off to do his own thing. Well, I thought it was a nice easy walking pace for the first couple of minutes. Then it got uncomfortable. I’d have turned the speed down on the machine but Chad would know when he came back and, also, I wasn’t sure the machine would go any slower. I was so unfit.
After that, he took me around the weight stations. He got me doing lunges.
“You are a total liar, Chad. I hate you!”
“Huh?”
“You said this wouldn’t hurt.” It hurt. Trust me, it hurt. I knew it would hurt even more the next day. Chad was an evil man.
“You’ve only done five lunges!” But he said it with that cheeky glint in his eyes. It made the pain worth it to see that again. “Do another five more and you can stop.”
It took all the grit I had in me to do those next five lunges.
“Okay, can we go now?”
“We’re just getting started. And it’s only the first set.”
God, he made me work out body parts I didn’t know I had. All kinds of nasty torture.
“Are we going to do those?” I asked and pointed to a guy working out on the other side of the gym.
“Chin ups? They’re a bit advanced…”
“Yeah, but they look so kickass.”
“I guess we could do some modified form.”
We went over to the chin up bar and waited for the guy to finish. He’d taken his shirt off and tucked it in his back pocket. A snake tat spiralled around the muscles of his arms, which flexed each time he raised himself up. A sheen of sweat glistened on his skin. I bit my lip and watched. Shitola, it’d been a long time.
Chad cleared his throat. When the guy moved off, Chad stepped up and showed me what to do. He totally felt threatened by the other guy. He did that guy thing they do when they feel like someone has stepped all over their man turf. Watching him heave his body up and down like that though, I had no complaints.
Well, I had one. He could’ve taken his shirt off like the other guy had. Damn it. At least he was sleeveless.
“Did you hear a word I said?”
I nodded. Then thought he might make me do the same thing. “Nope, not a word.”
“Come here.”
I walked up and he put his hands each side of my waist. A shudder went through me. A shudder of hot thrills that ran into every nerve ending. I took a deep breath and tried to think of anything except Chad’s sweaty body almost touching my back. It was totally the closest I’d been to sex in recent memory.
I reached up and grabbed hold of the bar above me. And the thought went through my head that there was a bar I’d much rather grab. His hands squeezed tighter around me. So firm and sure. He raised me up until my head was level with the bar.
“You are supposed to use your arms too. I’m here to help, not to do all the work.”
“I’m working, I’m working.”
He lowered me down.
“Use your strength this time”
I noticed the difference without Chad helping. I could feel every muscle straining. I groaned and grunted but didn’t seem to get any further. I gripped the bar tighter and my grunts became guttural and deep. I didn’t even make noises like that during sex.
“I said use your strength.”
“I did. I used all my strength.”
We tried a couple more. I got hotter with each one.
“Well, I won’t need to do much else today,” Chad said. “You’re much heavier than you look.”
I dusted my hands off and poked my tongue out at him. I was not that heavy.
Then Chad wanted me to do another set of EVERYTHING. The whole idea made me groan. But Chad seemed so happy helping me out and ordering me around. It’d be worth the pain and agony of another set to let him have his fun. I guess I could keep up the suffering.
Every single lunge made me wince with pain. Every time I picked up a barbell, I twinged with agony. Then we got back to the chin up bar.
“Can you do it again?”
My body said no but my libido said yes. I wanted Chad’s hands on me again. I wanted to have the length of his body against my back. I wanted to feel the deep breath on my skin as he exerted himself in picking me up.
Sweat beaded on my skin each time I raised myself but I never wanted Chad to let me go. Even if I couldn’t move my arms tomorrow, I’d do this until –
I fell in a heap on the floor. Bastard Chad had let go!
Chad told me to get down on the mats. That sounded dirty but it was just to stretch. I lay on my back and Chad moved in to raise my leg up. He pushed against it with his body, stretching it toward my head. His hands worked my thigh and my calf. I was sure he was doing that on purpose. I tried to catch his eye. It was more than my sex starved body could handle. Then he moved on to the other one. I wanted his hand to move down my inner thigh.
God, I had to get out of this situation. If I had his hands on my body any more, I’d end up jumping him for sure and that was not what this was about.
And I should not be tempting him.
“Hey, I took up all your gym time,” I said, easing myself away from him. “You didn’t get to work out.”
Chad sat down beside me, doing some stretches of his own.
“That’s okay, it was fun.”
He grinned at me in a way that made my heart flutter.
“Yeah, it was but I’ll be dead in the morning.”
“You can have a rest day before we start up again. You’re not bad, for a beginner.”
I smiled at him and some cross beam of our gazes caught, tangled up, so that we ended up just sitting there on those smelly mats looking at each other. The world seemed to bump and spin. I was sure it was just some weird blood pressure thing from all that extreme exercise. I had to look away but I wasn’t sure I could.
“I’ve got to jump in the shower,” I said. I must’ve looked awful, all red and sweaty-faced.
I made that shower good and cold to watch all the dirty Chad thoughts out of me.
CHAPTER TWENTY
When I entered the studio, there seemed to be a buzz in the air.
“Have you heard?” Jayne asked.
I ran through all the things I had heard lately and realised none of them would cause the slightly crazed look of joy she had in her eyes, so I shook my head.
“Rebecca Forsythe is up on academic probation. They found out she cheated on her mid-term Art History exam. She has to go in front of the academic board this week.” Jayne gave a little jump of excitement. “She might be expelled.”
Neither of us had to say anything but we were both thinking that, now Rebecca’s dishonesty had been exposed, Jayne’s name would be in the clear. Of course, no one with a lick of sense would believe that Jayne had ripped off Rebecca but there are a lot of people in this world without a lick of common sense and it’s not nice to be accused of being a cheater when you’re not.
We hug
ged. Then I cried out in pain.
“Why the distress? Do you have some love in your heart for Rebecca?”
I tried to rub my aching shoulder blade. The pain was a constant thing that had turned more urgent when I threw my arms around Jayne.
“I went to the gym with Chad last night. And hell, I’m suffering now.”
Jayne’s eyes widened in shock.
“Wow, you have it for him bad. You went to the gym with him? Even Tristan doesn’t go that far for his infatuations.”
“It’s not like that.”
She shrugged in a way that said she didn’t believe me. I could hardly explain the whole situation to her so I let it go.
This was brilliant. If Rebecca had a black mark on her record then it meant that even if I didn’t go on the exchange, it wouldn’t be her that would be going. I wondered then who would get the exchange. They’d only announced the winner then the runner-up. There had been no third place announced. It could be anyone who had taken part in the competition. Not that it mattered so long as it wasn’t Rebecca. Even one of her po-faced minions would be okay.
Jayne left to find Tristan and I set up to start work.
I’d had a flicker of an idea the night before. It was one of those ideas that involved really painful stuff like self-sacrifice and putting someone else first. I wasn’t really down with that kind of thing. I was more about things like comfort and self-indulgence. The idea wouldn’t leave me alone though.
Grandmother had said I couldn’t forfeit on the deal. She hadn’t said I couldn’t lose on purpose. All I had to do was sleep with someone, and get caught by Chad, and he’d win. All the money would be his and he could afford the treatment for his mother. That would mean I had to give up my exchange. That seemed like a huge ask. I’d tried to brush off the idea but hearing the news about Rebecca Forsythe made it feel like fate had stepped in. The big hand of fate was pointing me in one direction. And, unfortunately, that direction was not in the direction of Italy.
I wasn’t as if I even believed in fate or any of that other hippy bullshit. I mean, Mum was always talking about putting things out into the universe and letting a higher power take care of them. That had got her exactly nowhere. I actually knew exactly where Mum would stand on this issue. The same place she stood when Grandmother offered to pay my tuition to a fancy private school. While she had no problems with shipping me off to Grandmother’s to spend time with that evil woman, Mum had absolutely drawn the line at taking money.
It meant saying goodbye to Italy, which I could handle, but it also meant saying goodbye to Chad. I could never let him know why I was doing it. His lame sense of righteousness would mean he’d sabotage me and that would defeat the whole purpose.
Chad would think I was a dirty whore who didn’t care one bag of beans for him. It’d break his heart, but not nearly as much as his mother’s death would.
It wasn’t as if I had any feelings for him that mattered anyway. Soon, one way or the other, the agreement would be over and he’d be gone from my life.
What he thought of me and stupid respect meant nothing to me at all. I couldn’t even let those thoughts in.
“What are you doing, Lucy?” Jayne said when she returned.
I realised I’d just been daubing paint randomly on my canvas. I rushed to grab a rag to scrub it off before it dried.
When we finished up for the day, Jayne wanted to go for drinks. I actually wanted to stick around in the studio so I could get work done. End of semester was coming fast and I wanted everything perfect for my assessments. Her arguments were persuasive though.
“Just one. You can always come back to the studio.”
“Yeah, you know that won’t happen.”
“But Rebecca’s defeat won’t feel real until we celebrate it.”
As we left, some of Rebecca’s minions stood around in the hallway. Jayne gave them a sly smile that actually came out looking creepy.
Tristan joined us at the bar. It was pretty quiet for once. I checked my email on my phone. I had a message from the exchange coordinator. She wanted me to go to her office and finalise all the paperwork. I needed to organise visas and insurance and all that kind of thing. Grandmother had arranged my flights and everything but I needed to take all that paperwork in so they had it on file. It sounded like the most boring way to spend the afternoon but I couldn’t get out of it.
I couldn’t give up the exchange. It was pretty much in the bag.
“Where’s Chad?” Tristan asked.
“He’s decided I’m trustworthy enough to leave alone occasionally.” I didn’t tell them the rest of it. The “Chad thinks I’m in love with him” part. They would have a field day with that.
“Lucy, that’s not fair. It means we miss out on Chad time.”
I didn’t actually think my life should involve making sure Tristan had something pretty to look at. He should get used to not hanging around with Chad. Chad wasn’t forever.
“You call him if you want to see him.”
Tristan got out his phone. I didn’t actually realise that Tristan had Chad’s number. Then it hit me that Chad was probably with his mother. Tristan shouldn’t be imposing on that.
“No. Don’t call him. He’ll probably drop by later.”
Tristan smiled.
By our second drink, we’d gone through every possibility of the consequences for Rebecca. Tristan was really gunning for jail time but I was pretty sure that would not happen. Unfortunately.
Jayne and Tristan were at that stage where the whole world was wonderful and their words slurred.
I tried calling Chad but he didn’t answer his phone. Maybe something had happened with his mother. Once I got to thinking about it, a whole world of worry opened up in front of me. I couldn’t let myself get caught up in all that.
Still, it was strange of him not to at least message me or answer his phone.
“Put your phone away, Lucy. You are one of those chicks. The kind who get all panicked if their boyfriends don’t contact them every half hour.” Tristan thought that was funny.
“You mean like you, Tristan. You’re the worst. And he’s not my boyfriend.”
For once, Tristan wasn’t in love. He was on a love break. I couldn’t see it lasting long.
“Yeah,” said Jayne. “Come and play pool. We could make some easy cash here tonight.”
I thought about it but I knew, from my snooping on Chad’s phone, which hospital his mother was at. If I turned up there, Chad might freak out but I had to check on things for myself. I couldn’t sit around there being all happy if he was having life traumas.
“That’s okay, I might head off. You and Tristan take over the pool table.”
I gave them a smile and a wave but I wasn’t really feeling it. The more I thought about Chad, the more worried I got.
When I got to the hospital, I realised I only knew Chad’s mother’s surname.
“I want to see Mrs Ferris,” I told the girl on the desk. “I’m not sure what ward she’s in.”
I hoped they didn’t have more than one Mrs Ferris in the hospital or I’d be screwed.
The girl told me the ward number without even looking up from her computer.
I hated hospitals. Well, everyone does, I guess. That hospital smell, the miserable people shuffling around in their pyjamas, the sad faces.
I took the elevator up to the 6th floor and wandered around the labyrinth of corridors looking for the ward. Now I’d gotten to the hospital, I wasn’t sure what my course of action would be. I couldn’t just barge into someone’s sick room saying that I was worried because their son hadn’t contacted me.
I found the room and waited outside, leaning against the wall so Chad wouldn’t see me. I couldn’t hear voices in the room, just the low hum of machines. A few nurses walked passed and gave me a strange look but didn’t say anything.
I thought maybe I should just leave. No one would even know I was there. But something made me enter the room.
A pa
le woman lay in the bed but no one else was in the room. She was tiny. You couldn’t imagine her having ever given birth to a hulking man like Chad.
She looked to be asleep and Chad wasn’t there. There obviously wasn’t any emergency so I figured I could just sneak out and go home.
“Hello?” the woman said.
She looked up at me from the bed.
“Hi,” I said, not sure what else I should say. “I’m a friend of Chad’s.”
“Oh, you just missed him.”
I sat down on the chair beside the bed, making sure I didn’t tangle my feet in the cords from the machines. As far as I could tell, the machines weren’t actually attached to the woman. They were just there for decoration or something. Man, hospitals were the worst.
“That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll catch up with him.”
She smiled at me and reached for my hand. I wasn’t comfortable with a strange woman holding my hand but you can’t exactly snatch your hand away from a dying woman, can you?
Now that I looked at her closer, I could see the resemblance to Chad. She had the same cheeky light in her eyes and the same smile. She wasn’t as old as I’d first thought either. She looked around the same age as my mother but her skin seemed dry and papery.
I had no idea what to say to her. I didn’t know her and I’d just turned up to find Chad. Before this, his sick mother had just been an abstract concept. I hadn’t really thought of her as a real person. But she definitely was real. And holding my hand.
I had to say something. I couldn’t just sit beside her like a big lump. The silence seemed massive.
The table beside her bed held some framed photos. One of a younger Chad with his arm around a girl who had to be his sister and another was a family photo. The photo had started to discolour but looked like they were in the middle of a water fight in their garden. The woman in the family photo was the woman in the bed but she was full of life, laughing while the others pulled stupid faces. There was no Mr Chad.
“I should be out of here in the next few days,” she said. “It’ll be nice to be in my own bed.”
She really didn’t look like she should be getting out of hospital. She looked like a strong gust of wind would blow her away. I wondered who would look after her when she got home. Chad still had a month of looking out for me.
Hands Off! The 100 Day Agreement Page 13
