Page 26 of Hello Darling

I stroke my jaw with my fingers. “No. Course not. Too on point.”

She laughs at that.

“Wonder Woman?”

She smirks. “Also too on point.”

“Sexy cowgirl?”

She rolls her eyes, but she also looks a bit nervous. Dear me, I’m getting warmer.

“Sexy…sailor? Sexy sailor.”

Her eyes widen and she blushes. Nailed it. Dear God how she blushes.

“Well now. Anchors away—were you a captain or first mate?”

“None of your business.”

“I wholeheartedly disagree. Interesting choice of alias,” I tease, mimicking her and her insightful probing from yesterday. “What—are you secretly dying to sail the seas? Or were you just hoping to meet some nice seamen?”

She nearly chokes on her coffee this time.

“You alright?”

She stares up at me and says: “Shouldn’t you be focusing your curiosity about humanity on the character you’re about to play in the movie?”

“Indeed I should, but he doesn’t have quite as many interesting layers as you do.”

“Well then maybe you should be focusing on the very important workout that you had us open up early for.”

“First of all—your brother offered to open up early for me—I would never have made that request. Secondly…Yes. Why don’t I get to it.”

“Why don’t you.” She gestures for me to proceed, remains behind the desk. It’s almost as though she feels the need to blockade herself from me. And she should.

Perhaps I ought to take it down a notch. “Cheers.” I take my coffee and start to walk away towards the inner sanctum of the gym.

“Oh hold on,” she mutters, as I feel her rush past me. She jogs towards the men’s change room, pushes the door open and reaches in to switch on the lights. “There,” she says. “Don’t want you tripping around in the dark and then suing us.”

“I promised not to sue you. I am a man of my word.” I place my coffee in the cup holder of the treadmill, and then unzip my coat and watch her as I remove it, trying not to grin as I notice her eyelids flutter as her attention swiftly passes from my bare biceps, down to my crotch in these dangerously thin sweatpants, and then round the room.

She shakes her head, then powers up the treadmill and starts making the rounds, turning on all of the machines. “I assume you’ll be listening to your own music with your headphones, but do you have a preference as to what you’d like me to put on?”

“Yes. Your Halloween costume.”

She catches her breath before laughing it off. “I meant music-wise. On the house stereo system.” I can see her blushing from here. God, how she blushes.

“Well, I think it would be rude if I used my headphones if it’s just you and I here. I’ll leave it to you to pick the soundtrack. Something to get me all jazzed up for my workout, preferably.”

She smirks, turns and skips over to the front desk.

Seconds later, Billie Holiday begins to drone from the speakers. “A Foggy Day.” A fantastic song. Incredibly slow, until it picks up a bit. I laugh. She is adorable.

“Not the right kind of jazz?”

“It’s perfect, in fact.” I start stretching.

“Oh good.”