Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Now I preferred the quiet, open spaces.
I did five squats with the twenty-pound barbell before I returned it to the ground. I wasn’t as strong as I used to be. Working in the stables all day had given my legs perfect muscle tone. But it’d been a month since I stopped doing that, and it was taking some time to pick up the strength again.
I wiped my forehead with the back of my forearm and then stood with my hands on my hips. When I looked at my reflection in the mirror, I saw a tall man with dark brown hair walk up to my side. He held two free weights, both heavier than the single barbell I was using.
He started to do biceps curls, a charming smile on his face. His eyes were on me in the mirror. Under his gray shorts, the muscles of his toned legs were visible. His t-shirt hugged his powerful body, showing the outline of his strong arms. But no amount of working out could make his face handsome. That was all natural. “I’ve been trying to find an excuse to talk to you all week, but I haven’t been able to come up with anything original or smart. A woman like you must get hit on all the time, so I tried to think of something witty…but that didn’t happen either.” He set his weights on the ground and turned to me, his hand extended. “So I’m just going to introduce myself. I’m Nox.”
I wasn’t looking for a date right now, but he seemed like a nice guy, and I didn’t want to be rude. If he wasn’t just feeding me a line, then it would be cold to shut him down right off the bat. “Sapphire.”
He shook my hand, his blue eyes pretty in contrast to his masculine face. “I thought I recognized you. You’re that model.”
“Guilty.” Without makeup and special clothes, I probably looked like a whole different person. I was surprised he recognized me, even when he knew my name. “It’s nice to meet you, Nox. I hope when you’ve been watching me all week you haven’t been laughing at my workouts.”
“Never,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ve got great form.”
“Thanks to all those YouTube videos I watched.”
He smiled. “That’s what YouTube is for.” He tapped his foot against my barbell. “You’re lifting good weight. For someone at your size, that’s perfect.”
“You seem to know stuff about working out.” Since he was all muscle and no fat, I guess that wasn’t surprising.
“A thing or two,” he said. “I opened this gym five years ago. Fitness is my passion.”
“This is your gym?” I asked in surprise.
“Yep. But if you have any complaints, that’s for the manager,” he said with a laugh.
“No, of course not,” I said. “I like it here. There’s plenty of space. It’s nice.”
“Thanks,” he said. “This introduction went pretty well. For a supermodel, you’re pretty easy to talk to.”
Now I laughed. “So not a supermodel.”
“So, how about we have dinner tonight?” he asked. “You like sushi?”
I loved sushi. I hadn’t had it since I left New York—the first time. It would be nice to get out of my apartment and socialize with someone who wasn’t a model or a photographer. And it would be nice to think about someone else besides Conway. But it was way too soon. I was hopelessly hung up on Conway…and I would stay that way for a long time. “You’re very charming, Nox. But I’m not dating right now…” My lips fell into a frown. I felt the comfortable air between us slip away when I hit the brakes on our casual conversation.
Nox didn’t seem discouraged. “Well, you’re still looking for friends, right?”
“You can never have too many friends.”
“So how about we just hang out? Two friends getting sushi.”
I wanted to say yes, but I couldn’t. “I don’t want to waste your time.”
“I don’t think making a new friend is wasting time. How about that place on Fifty-Seventh and Broadway? I’ll see you tonight at seven.”
If I didn’t go out tonight, I would just sit in my apartment all alone. I would watch TV and stop myself from digging into a pint of ice cream. And then I would think about Conway…wondering if he’d just woken up and gotten his day started. The idea was so depressing that I would do anything to avoid that fate.
Avoid picturing him walking up next to someone else.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll see you then.”
We each ordered a sushi roll and shared the two varieties. With our chopsticks in hand in the small restaurant, we ate our dinner and enjoyed our sake.
“My dads left me everything they had in their trust, so when it was handed over to me, I decided to invest in something. So I bought three gyms in Manhattan. I have their place near Park Avenue. I could have sold that too, but I decided to keep it. Living there makes me sad sometimes, but it also makes me feel closer to them.”