The Summer Deal

Twenty four - You know where to find me

I should take the limo while it still waits for me outside.

But the fact that Noah ignored me as I do to people who have no purpose in my life anymore was bugging me. It was not that he was not allowed to ignore me. Noah can ignore me all he wants. He can ignore me if we were simply crossing a street in opposite directions, or while standing in a line behind each other. He can ignore me and go sit somewhere else for breakfast in the hall. I don't care. But I will sure damn care if I simply happened to be standing right next to him, all dolled up and ready to spend the night out.

Or maybe he can do whatever he wishes to do. After all, I had blatantly ignored him for the entire day today despite his calls and messages. It would only be fair if he decided to get even.

I tried to peek through the horizontal glass gap in the middle of the thick wooden door to look for any signs of life in the gym. Huh. Maybe Noah was done with his workout, and maybe I was just wasting my time instead of getting the hell out of here. Still, I pushed the giant door open and quickly covered my ears.

I gritted my teeth in frustration. So I missed a tiny possibility of the door being soundproof and some maniac playing loud rock music. "Hello?"

Of course, no one would be able to hear me beyond the band who screamed about world abomination.

The gym looked completely deserted. It was covered in white walls and huge glass windows overseeing the beach and the city. There was another door inside labeled as a steam room. Every piece of equipment was clean, polished, and untouched as I ran my fingers over it. I was not the gym-going type of woman or athletic. I hadn't swum in years before last week's unfortunate incident. The least I used to do for taking care of my body was going for a midnight jog in a park. That stopped a couple of weeks ago.

I managed to find the music stereo in the corner and lowered the volume, hoping that someone might notice it, and that's when I heard it. Someone dropped something on the floor so loud that it managed to shake the floor beneath. I realized there was a wall dividing the room into two halves, so I quickly strode to the other side and let out a breath of relief when I saw Noah sitting with his back facing me while focusing on his hand lifting a small dumbbell with double weights.

I blew out a pink bubble and let it burst when I noticed how his biceps were flexing with ease every time he lifted the weight. He was wearing nothing except black shorts and a white, sleeveless tank shirt which left nothing for my imagination.

"Noah."

He didn't respond.

Carefully, I touched his other arm and felt him shudder for a brief second. He turned around, surprise evident in his expression when he finally saw me, then removed his earphones and dropped the weight on the floor with a loud thud.

"Sarah," he managed a whisper in awe and cleared his throat. "What are you doing here?"

I waved awkwardly. I had no idea what to say to him. "Hello."

"Wow," he stood up, and I instinctively took a step back from him. His height suddenly intimidated me. I was considered taller than every woman I had ever met in my life—I have to thank my father's genes for that—but Noah was taller than me by an inch or two despite wearing high heels. He took his own sweet time checking me out which made me feel a little hot from the inside. His gaze landed on my foot and just like that night, I hid it behind my other foot while ignoring how his eyes darkened in something wild for a mere second before he focused on my face, on my lips.

"Wow," he said again. "You look..."

That thing in my chest began to pound in my ears, eagerly waiting for him to finish.