Page 17 of In Her Own Way
When he racked the barbell, she said, “Good form.”
“You, too,” he said, but this time not in a teasing way. Good. He understood that she knew what she was doing. Not that she cared about his opinion of her, it was good to know she didn’t have to convince yet another man that she was capable of something ‘girls’ weren’t supposed to be good at or even supposed to do. She’d had enough of her mother’s badgering about acting like a girl growing up. But that had only lasted ten years, right? Until her mother ran away from home. Whatever.
“You look way too serious,” Kimo said. He picked up his phone from a stack of boxes and turned on some music. Ahh, there was a Bluetooth speaker on the box, too. She hadn’t noticed it before. Wait. There were more boxes in here. Like all the others, they were brand new, but now they were stackedalmost to the ceiling. He must be moving in slowly. Maybe a carload at a time.
“Good?” he asked, gesturing to the speaker.
“Yeah,” she said. The hard rock song playing was slow and heavy on bass. It was perfect for working out. It was a little loud, but there were no neighbors behind the storage facility, so that was fine.
She checked her watch. Plenty of time to get in some more arm work. She spotted a jump rope. Excellent. It was a heavy-duty, real jump rope. She would end her routine with some real cardio, rather than living-room-apartment cardio.
“Hey,” Victoria said when Kimo finished another set. “I’m here Tuesday through Saturday evenings. Are those nights good for me to work out here?”
“Yeah, I’m here almost every night, but I’ll make it a point to be here Tuesdays through Saturdays after work. You kick me out after a while anyway, and it’s not like I have anywhere else to be.” He took a swig of water from a reusable plastic water bottle with an Indianapolis Colts logo on the side. “Are you a Colts fan, Victoria?”
What the fuck?Now he’s making small talk? Whatever.“Sure,” she said, but truth be told, she had switched allegiance to the Bengals. Living in the Cincinnati area for so long had converted her, but she still held a soft spot for her childhood team.
“Victoria?” he said, sounding serious. Even the loud music couldn’t detract from his shift in tone. “Can I buy you a drink sometime?”
Victoria burst out laughing. “Wrong team.”
He looked confused and blinked his eyes a few times, trying to understand what she meant.
She shot him a look as if he were a moron for not figuring it out.
“Oh,” he said, realization dawning on his face. “You’re into chicks. Got it.”
She nodded.
“You got a girlfriend?” he asked.
She didn’t answer him while she finished her set. “No.”
“Why not?”
The look she shot him made him put both hands up as if warding her away or pushing her back. “I withdraw the question,” he said, making a calming motion with one hand. “But…”
“But what?”This should be good, she thought.
“Loosen up that heart of yours, Victoria,” came the unasked-for advice.
“What the fuck, Kimo?”
Undaunted, he continued, “If you do, she’ll show up. Seriously, I believe in that shit.”
She laughed. “And you, who got kicked out of your girlfriend’s house, are the expert onmylove life.”
He shrugged. “It’s hard to trust people. I know. But the universe knows your heart, my friend.”
“Maybe I’m not looking,” Victoria said, steeling her jaw.
“Everyone’s looking. We’re always looking. Humans aren’t hard-wired to live alone. We need family.”
“Loyalty to family,” she said out loud before she could stop the words. “Family first.”
“Yeah, exactly. Something like that. The universe knows what you need, Victoria.” The last he said quietly, and she barely heard him over the music.
She didn’t respond and went back to her arm routine. She checked her watch; she’d probably been there long enough and needed to patrol. The Metallica song ended, and in that brief gap between songs, she thought she heard the sound of metal sliding against metal.
