“Yes, I’ve made my decision, and I’ll do what you want.”
I felt him let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you and I promise you won’t regret it,” he said as he kissed my neck. He broke our embrace and led me to the bedroom.
“Why don’t you get into your pajamas and get some sleep. We need to get up early to go for a run before we head to the hospital, and I want you to think about my job proposal. Remember, I’m an impatient man and I want an answer ASAP,” he said as he moved to the door.
“Just one more thing,” I said. Ian turned around and looked at me. “I won’t move back here.”
His glare burned through me when I said that. He opened the door and left without saying a word.
****
I was up all night, thinking and worrying about Stephen, but he wasn’t the only one on my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ian. Could this man be husband material? Could I change him? There was still so much I didn’t know about him and yet I told him my deepest secrets. I threw back the covers, put on my running clothes, and headed downstairs to meet Ian.
“Good morning, Charles.” I smiled.
“Good morning, Rory. It’s good to see you. I’ve missed your smiling face here in the mornings.”
“Thanks, I’ve missed you too. Where’s Ian? We have a running date.”
Charles looked at me in confusion. “Mr. Beckman is back from his trip and Ian went running with him. They left about ten minutes ago.”
“Who is Mr. Beckman?” I asked in a pissed off tone.
“Andrew Beckman, Ian’s best friend.”
I took a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “That was nice of him to ditch me like that and not even tell me. I guess I’m not going running now, because I’ll just feel like an ass if I run into the two of them.”
“You can always use the gym downstairs,” Charles said.
I knitted my eyebrows as I looked at him. “There’s a gym downstairs?”
“You didn’t know that?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t know that.”
“I’ll take you to it. Follow me.”
I followed Charles down the stairs that were located to the side of the laundry room. I just assumed it was the basement. When I reached the final step, I gasped. It was a full-on gym.
“Are you kidding me? Why didn’t Ian ever tell me about this?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe he just assumed you knew.”
“Thank you, Charles. I’ll just do my workout here.” I smiled.
I looked around at all the equipment. He had everything. Hanging in the middle of the room was a punching bag. Perfect. I found some cotton hand wraps and wrapped my hands before putting on the gloves. They were a little big, but I could manage them. Once my hands were wrapped and my gloves were on, I stepped in front of the punching bag and lightly tapped it. Moving from side to side, I started with several jabs and then cross punches. Jab. Jab. Cross punch. Side kick. Jab. Jab. Cross punch. Round kick.
“Wow,” a male voice said.
After my last round kick, I turned around and saw Ian and his friend, Andrew, staring at me. Andrew started clapping.
“That was hot,” he said.
“Rory, what the hell are you doing?” Ian asked with irritation.
“I’m just doing a little workout since I was stood up for our run this morning,” I said as I removed the gloves.
“I’m sorry. That was my fault. I stole Ian away. By the way, I’m Andrew.” He smiled as he walked up to me and held out his hand.
I would’ve shook it, but my hands were so sweaty and still taped. I looked at him and smiled. “Hi, sorry, my hands are—”
“Andrew, this is Rory Sinclair,” Ian interrupted. “You better go shower. We need to leave in a bit.”
The tone of his voice had a hint of anger in it. What the hell did he have to be mad about? Am I not allowed to use his gym? I felt better anyways because I pretended that bag was him. I was still pissed at him for standing me up, though. I glared at him and then looked at Andrew and smiled.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said as I walked up the stairs and took a shower.
I wrapped the large white towel around me and opened the bathroom door. I jumped when I saw Ian sitting on the edge of the bed.
“What the hell, Ian?” I said as I stood there and looked at him.
“What the f**k were you doing and where did you learn that?”
“I was working out. We had a date, remember?”
“We didn’t have a date. We were going to run together. Don’t you dare get the two confused,” he snapped.
Was he serious? “Okay, fine. You stood me up. I went downstairs to let you know I was ready and you were gone.”
“So. Andrew called last night and he’d just gotten back from his month-long trip to Europe and he asked if I wanted to go running this morning so we could catch up.”
“So? You think that it’s acceptable that you just leave me and don’t say a word?”
“I don’t owe you any explanations, Rory. I hadn’t seen my friend in a month. I see you every day.”
Can you say “fucking ass**le”? “So, you don’t see anything wrong with what you did?”
“No, I don’t. Now explain to me how you knew how to use that punching bag.”
“Can I get dressed, please?” I asked with a raised voice.
“Fine. I’ll meet you downstairs. You can explain it to me on the way to the hospital.”
The hell I will. As soon as he walked out of the room, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and called a cab. There was no way I was going anywhere with him. I quickly got dressed and threw my hair up. I quietly tiptoed down the stairs and looked around. I didn’t see Ian, but Charles was in the hallway. I brought my finger up to my mouth, signaling him to be quiet.
“Where is he?” I whispered.
“He’s out on the patio, waiting for you,” Charles whispered back.
“Good, let him wait.”
Charles smiled and gave me a wink as he walked back to the kitchen and I walked out the front door. The cab dropped me off in front of the hospital. Before I could open the door, someone opened it for me. I looked out and saw Ian standing there. Shit. Shit. Shit. I stepped out of the cab and walked straight towards the door.
“STOP!” he exclaimed.
I stopped and took in a deep breath. He closed the cab door and walked up behind me while clutching onto my hip with his hand. “Paybacks, Rory. Is that what this is?” he mumbled in my ear as his hot breath on my skin alerted every sense in my aching body.