Page 6 of Just Another Meet Cute

To my surprise, the guy began pushing the bar with one leg. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Realizing that I had been staring at him for at least a full minute like I was hypnotized, I coughed and turned away as my eyes scanned the gym. Where the was heck was Linh? Maybe I should escape without her. She’s a big girl; she could probably find her way to the exit.

“I’m Mike, by the way,” he said between huffs and puffs. “Did you just join this gym?”

I shifted my weight back and forth on my heels. “I’m checking it out. This is my first time here.”

He dropped the weights with a loud clack. “Ah, I figured. I’ve been here for years and I’ve never seen you before.”

“Hmm …” I started to inch away when suddenly it hit me. “Hey, do you know someone named Ia—I mean Ryan? Ryan Nguyen?”

“Ryan? Yeah, why?”

My eyes widened and I zoomed back next to him. “Is he here today? Or do you know if he’s coming? I, uh, found his keys by the door and I wanted to return them.” I even took out the keys from my bag to show him.

“Let me see.” Kevin stood on the bench and scanned the gym.

I subtly wiped underneath my eyes in case my makeup smeared. Was it too obvious to check myself out on the wall of mirrors? Screw it, I’m going to do it anyway . That’s what mirrors were for.

“No, I don’t see him anywhere. Why don’t you give me the keys and I’ll return them to him the next time I see him?” Kevin suggested with an outstretched hand.

“Uh …” Unwilling to give up the only link I had, I clenched the key chain in my hand as my mind raced. “I’d rather give it to him myself. I mean, no offense, you look nice, but I don’t really know you, so how do I know if you’ll actually give Ryan back his keys?”

Kevin looked surprised as he hopped off the bench. “I guess that’s true. How about we give it to one of the trainers? You could trust them, right?” Without waiting for me to answer, he cupped both hands around his mouth. “Hey, Tim!”

A muscular blond guy in a dark green T-shirt about ten feet away looked up at him. He wasn’t overly tall, but he had a chiseled face and a friendly, easygoing smile. “Hey, man, what’s up?”

“Ryan left his keys at the gym. Do you mind giving them to him the next time he’s here? Or maybe you could even call him to let him know you have them.”

“Oh, no problem.”

They both turned to look at me expectantly, and I groaned to myself. What was I supposed to do now? I didn’t want to give him the keys, but it’s not like I could run away with them. I mean, I could , but I probably wouldn’t get very far with all these cute trainers and buff guys surrounding me.

Why did everyone here have to be so darn helpful?

With no other choice, I surrendered the keys to Tim. Or rather, I threw them at him.

Catching them with one hand, Tim shook the keys at us with a grin. “I’ll let Ryan know that you guys found these for him.”

“She’s the one who found them …” Kevin turned back to look at me. “What did you say your name was?”

I froze. Uh-oh. I couldn’t tell him my name. What if Ryan remembered me? Then he’d know that I didn’t really find the keys at the gym. And that I lied. And that I tracked him down here. What—

Filled with panic, I backed into a bench with weights and banged my knee against the metal side.

With his forehead crinkled with concern, Tim took a step toward me. “Are you okay?”

Laughing a little too loudly, I waved him off as I continued to back away. “Yeah, I’m totally fine. It’s … leg day. I guess the machines turned my legs into jelly. You know how it is. So, I forgot I have something to do and I’m late. Uh, bye!”

Turning around, I shot Linh a quick text that I was leaving and raced toward the exit. Painful needle pricks shot up and down my leg. I could already tell that I was going to get a major bruise.

Great. A giant bruise on one leg to go with the cut on my other leg. I’ve never been very graceful, but jeez, what was wrong with me these days?

A few minutes later, Linh caught up with me at the Starbucks kiosk.

Smiling from ear to ear, she whipped out her phone and waved it around. “Lucky for you, I got Todd’s number. You know, in case we need to go back to the gym for something later on.”

“For me, huh? How selfless of you.”

“I know. Just call me Mother Teresa.”

Shaking my head, I crossed my arms and leaned back in the armchair. “Well, that was all for nothing anyway. All I got was a name. Plus, I lost the keys.”

She gaped at me. “How did you—”

“Don’t ask.”

“Well, okay. A name is all we need! A full one at least. So, what is it?”

Staring up at the ceiling, I let out a sigh. “Ryan Nguyen.”

“But … I thought you said his name was Ian,” she said slowly with a frown.

“Yeah, I thought so, too. I guess I was wrong.”

“It’s okay. We can do this. We have to look for his social media.

He has to have something. Twitter. Instagram.

Nguyen … Ryan Nguyen.” Her tongue stuck out the corner of her mouth a bit as she typed on her cell phone.

“God, why did he have to be a Nguyen though? There are literally thousands of them out there. I had four Nguyens in my sophomore class alone last year.”

“You beat me. I had three.” I held up three fingers like she was a kid who didn’t know her numbers. “Besides, you never know. We could have been Nguyens, too, if B á didn’t get adopted when she was small.”

“No, we would have been Trans. B á told me herself a while back.”

I rolled my eyes. “Like that would have been any better.”

“It would have been. There were only two Trans in my class last year.” She flopped back in her chair. The side of her shoe kicked against the leg of my chair. “I’ll keep looking, but this might take a while.”

As I watched Linh continue searching on her phone, her brows furrowed together. Something that she always swore would give her premature wrinkles someday. A pang of guilt hit me for stressing her out with my problems. Although this was kind of her fault, it still wasn’t her mess to fix.

It was mine. And even though it seemed hopeless, there was still one thing that I haven’t tried yet.

One last resort.