Eloise

I watch helplessly as Gabe leaves my physio room. My heart is beating a million miles an hour.

As I collapse into the desk chair, I glance at the clock. He was only here for fifteen minutes. At least I have another fifteen minutes to try to compose myself before my next patient arrives.

My walls are still spasming. How was he able to do that to me so easily?

Gabe walked in here and filled the room with his presence. There was nothing I could do to resist him.

Being totally honest with myself, I didn’t want to resist him. I wanted him to take control of my body. Even before he touches me, my chest fills with butterflies, and my walls flood with want.

“I can’t believe you,” Marcy says, as she bursts through the door.

I throw back my head. I can’t deal with her right now. I’m trying to figure out what just happened with Gabe. Why did he leave like that?

“I can’t do this now,” I say.

“Well too bad. This needs to be discussed.”

“You’re not my boss, Marcy.”

“Who said anything about being your boss? I saw him first. He was mine.”

I pause, trying to comprehend her words. She thinks she had a chance with him?

“No, he wasn’t,” I say, my mind wandering back to being in his tattoo parlor chair.

“Of course I did. He came to reception first, didn’t he? We flirted, and I know he wanted me. Besides, he’s not your type at all. You’re a goodie goodie.”

Willing her away, I say, “I knew him before he came here. He only came here to see me.”

Marcy closes her mouth and breathes heavily through her nose. I close my eyes and think of Gabe, and the ways he’s made me feel over the past day.

“Do your parents know about him?” she snaps.

“No,” I say on reflex, my mind still on Gabe.

“I guess you owe me.”

“What?”

“For my silence.”

“You mean you can’t just be a decent human being about this?”

She shrugs, and backs out of the door.

For the second time this morning, I drape myself over my desk. I get the feeling she’s not going to drop this. I should’ve known from the start that Gabe was a bad idea.

But I had so much fun with him last night. I can’t deny that. And I don’t think I can deny myself my feelings for him any longer.

The rest of the morning is painful. At least my patients are all straightforward, and I don’t have to think about what I’m doing. During lunch, I don’t bother eating and hide in my room, avoiding Marcy.

And thinking about Gabe.

All I can do is think about Gabe.

At one o’clock sharp, there’s a light tap on my door, and without opening it, Marcy says, “Your next patient is here.”

“Thanks. Can you send all my patients to my door when they get here?”

At least that way, I won’t run into her or my parents in the hallway.

“Sure, I’ll do you another favor today.”

As if keeping her mouth shut is a favor.

The afternoon is long and drawn out, but at least it gives me time to think.

Gabe’s right, there’s nothing meaningless about the way he makes me feel. Part of me wants to send a text and tell him right away, but that doesn’t seem like enough.

My last patient of the day is a man who sprained his wrist sliding into first base at his softball game. He’s well over six feet tall, and is just as wide. I decide to use him as a shield.

When the session is finished, I grab my backpack and walk out with him. As we pass reception, I walk on the far side of him. I run ahead of him when we reach the entrance hall, and I manage to make it out of the building without Marcy seeing me.

I fall into my car, grateful for not running into either of my parents.

Pushing the button to start the car, I put it into gear and turn left out of the parking lot. There’s a red light, and I stop. It turns green but the next light turns red, and I stop again. It happens three more times. I’m hitting every red light between the medical center and my apartment.

When the light goes green, I swing the car in a massive U-turn and head to Gabe’s. I get all the way to the tattoo parlor without hitting a single red light.

The same parking spot in front of the door is open, and I pull my car into it. My heart is racing faster than it was the first time I came here.

Gabe doesn’t work Thursdays, but I don’t know where the entrance to his upstairs apartment is. I don’t even know if he’s home.

I get out of the car, and half open the door to the tattoo parlor, intending to ask how to find him. But there are five or six big, burly, tattoo-covered guys standing by the counter, and I chicken out.

My feet move fast, and carry me across the front of the building, and down along the side. It’s a solid brick wall, but I keep moving. When I reach the end of it, I skip sideways to avoid a puddle and turn the corner.

Gabe’s truck is parked beside a motorcycle. A solid brown door is at the far corner of the building. A solid black door is beside it.

There’s no sign or number to indicate what door might be what.

I push the doorbell beside the brown door, but don’t hear anything.

I push the doorbell beside the black door, but don’t hear anything.

I try pounding on both of them.

The brown door swings open, and my heart stops.

Gabe fills the doorframe, wearing only his boxers. His legs are also covered in tattoos, something I couldn’t see in the dark last night. His nipple piercings shine in the bright sunlight.

My breath is fast as I survey the man I want.

“Come for more meaningless sex already?” he asks, his voice flat.

Shaking my head, I say, “There’s nothing meaningless about it, we both felt it. I’m done fighting.”

A closed-mouth smile springs across his face. He places his hand on my shoulder, and lightly runs his fingers down my arm. My skin prickles everywhere he touches me.

When he reaches my hand, he grabs hold of it and pulls me into his apartment. I follow him down a narrow hallway and up a flight of stairs. He still hasn’t said anything else, and I’m filled with butterflies.

His living room is large, but sparsely furnished, with a futon couch, a black La-Z-Boy and a coffee table with a few empty beer cans on it. A massive TV hangs on the wall, with several types of video game consoles lined up underneath it. A few free weights are in the corner.

“Nice bachelor pad,” I say.

“What were you expecting?”

“This is exactly what I was expecting. Well, maybe I was expecting you to be wearing clothes.”

“I had a shower.”

I bite my bottom lip, suddenly feeling awkward and self-conscious.

The feelings vanish when Gabe wraps his arms around me.

In a low voice, he says, “You’ll be glad you stopped fighting yourself.”

“And you?”

“I’m fucking ecstatic. We belong together, Jewel, I just needed you to see that.”

He pulls me onto the futon, and I collapse onto his lap. I’m in the comfort of his arms, and the butterflies vanish.

“You’re mine. You realize that, right?” Gabe says, and nips my neck.

I don’t even bother trying to fight the massive grin on my face.

“I do, and you’re all mine,” I say.

“Absofuckinglutely. I think I’ve been yours for as long as I can remember.”

“You think? How you did you go from the little boy who sat behind me, to a man looking the way you do, anyway?” I drag my finger over the ridges of his abs as I speak.