23: Click

A/n: Yall ready?

The woman standing on the other side of Tucker asking for a tanning bed looked like a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model. She was tall and tan, everything about her looking polished and manicured, even though she wasn't wearing any makeup. She wore a tight black athletic tank top and workout leggings and her hair was high in a ponytail. I noticed Tucker check her out for a quick flash before rolling his eyes.

I felt a spike of jealousy.

"Go right ahead. You know how it works." His tone was short, bitter, and dismissive.

"If you say so," she replied, wiggling her shoulders like she literally shook off his bitterness. She set the timer for the tanning bed and walked to the back.

Tucker turns back to me and with a new tension in his jaw. The change in his mood is palpable. I've never seen a man get angry so fast.

"What's that about?" I asked. My voice was small with trepidation. I could feel that he was upset and I wanted to know who this woman was and how she could trigger him in such a way.

"Hah, where to start?" Tucker took a deep breath, clutching the counter.

"Excuse me, sir? The bathroom is just disgusting, please clean it up." A large man with thinning hair in a sweatsuit appeared in front of the desk and tapped the counter in front of Tucker, to get his attention.

Tucker looked at me and huffed, grunting out a "Sure."

I hear the man berate Tucker and the staff before they disappear into the men's bathroom.

"Isn't he sexy?" The woman's voice was full of satisfaction and I look back at her.

"Yeah, he's alright." I lie to avoid an awkwardness that seems inevitable. She was gorgeous and clearly used to getting what she wanted.

"Oh, he's more than alright," her voice drips out of her mouth like she's trying to seduce me. "I would know."

I bite my tongue to avoid taking her bait. It's obvious she wants to say something. "Well, he's my boss, so."

"He's mine too. I manage the Eagle Crest location."

"Oh. You're Eve?"

She smiles and lowers her voice like we're sharing a secret. "I sure am. And me and Tucker? We used to be married."

The words didn't sound real when they met my ear. Of course he had been married to someone who looked like a fitness model.

Why wouldn't he have been?

I didn't know what freaked me out the most: the fact that he'd been married when I had yet to have a serious relationship, the fact that he had been married to someone so conventionally attractive, or the fact that he had been married to someone so conventionally attractive and still let her work for him.

I felt myself consciously working to keep the spigot of emotion from turning on inside me, the voice of reason making a mental list of how to stay chill.

Number one: You don't have a claim to Tucker.

Number two: Eve is beautiful and closer in age to Tucker.

Number three: Of course they'd fall in love and get married, they're both gorgeous.

Number four: Oh my god, what if he has kids?

Number five: That would be so gross. You're too young for that. It's good you're getting out now. An ex-wife is kind of a big deal by itself but imagine like, toddlers?

Number six: Not that you have a claim to him anyway.

I managed to sputter out a response, hoping that if I sounded indifferent, she wouldn't actively seek to destroy my life. "I didn't know that. Is it weird still working for him?"

Her green eyes searched my face for some sort of reaction. "Hmm... Not like you might think. Though I'm not sure what he'd do without me. He needs me."

"Nice." I blink.

"Well, it's been lovely talking... What did you say your name was?"

"Ruby."

She flips her ponytail. "Ruby. I knew that. Goodnight."

As quickly as she appeared, she was gone.

I slipped to the back to check that Eve had cleaned her sweat from the tanning bed after she left.

She hadn't.

After fifteen minutes, Tucker re-appeared from the men's bathroom, looking more exasperated than he did on his way there. The man who had hounded him was still following close behind.

"No, I don't know why it was in that shape, but I'll talk to my staff about it. I'm sorry it got like that."

"Well, you know, you're lucky I just asked you to fix it instead of canceling my membership or writing a review about it. Or both!"

Tucker looked at me and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm real sorry about that. How about we do a free personal training session for the inconvenience."

The man smiled, his complaining in circles paying off. I knew Tucker just offered him something to get him to leave.

"Oh, sure, sounds great. This is why I come here! I'll schedule another day. Goodnight, sir." The man almost skipped out the door.

Tucker leaned against the other side of the counter. "I love this place. I love my job. But sometimes..."

I nodded in understanding.

"So. That woman left, right?"

I wondered how long it would take him to mention her. "Yeah. All she did was tan and go. She didn't clean up after herself either. Didn't know someone so hot could be so sweaty."

Tucker laughed and I looked at him a little closer than I would have if the woman was a stranger. I looked for fondness in his laughter or light in his eyes, something that would tell me that he still wanted her, even a little bit. Something to reinforce that he should be with someone so beautiful again.

There was nothing.

"Do you think she's hot?" He said.

"Who wouldn't? You do." The words came out of my mouth with a tiny bit more spite than I had anticipated.

Tucker raised his eyebrows, taken aback. "Trust me, I don't."

"No, it's okay," I said casually, waving my hand like what he thought meant nothing to me. "You checked her out when she came in and you must have thought she was hot enough to marry."

Tucker's jaw went slack and I instantly regretted not holding my tongue. I was so bad at keeping my mouth shut.

"So she let that out of the bag. Are you mad?"

"Would've been nice to hear it from you." My ears began tuning out certain sounds, until it was narrowed down to me, Tucker, and a few treadmills running. "I'm gonna go clean something."

I slip from behind the desk and give the gym the best cleaning I had ever given it. Even as people begin to thin out and empty the gym, I kept cleaning until I could face Tucker again. At least, until I knew I could talk to him without projecting my bitterness.

I was fine. Everything was fine.

"Are you ready for a break yet?" Tucker leaned in the corner with his arms crossed.

"I'm taking a break for the rest of the night. From task work, anyway."

Tucker gave a slight smile. "I don't mind, as long as you help the guests."

"Yeah, of course."

One of the last few guests approached the desk and asked for a tanning bed. Tucker let him in and we stood together in silence.

"Since now you know something about me, can I know something about you?" Tucker asked.

I didn't know what he possibly could have wanted to know. "Anything."

"What made you say no to Ben?"

Now it was my turn to be taken aback. That must have been what they were talking about when I came in.

"Do you want me to be honest?"

He nodded.

"I didn't want to."

"But you did."

I laughed. "Yeah, since none of you around here can handle your wine apparently. That's how you ended up in my apartment, by the way. I thought you were going to fall asleep in the bushes. That's why I let you in."

"Don't change the subject." His eyes held mine intently.

"I'm not. He and I hung out once and he got himself drunk." Tucker nodded and I continued, "Then he panicked and told me that he has sex with all the girls who work here and wanted to add me to the list. Then he said that I scared him or something like that. Didn't exactly make me want to follow through."

"Did he make you uncomfortable? Did you..."

"No, we didn't, and I don't want to. I don't want to be a number on someone's list. I don't want to have sex with someone who needs help to make a move on me. And I definitely don't want to be told I'm scary."

I scoffed and watched the man who had been in the tanning bed leave the gym. There were only a few people left and they didn't look like they would be needing help anytime soon. I grabbed a spray bottle and rag to clean the used tanning bed.

I stood in room number four, staring at the bed. It had been wiped down, dry and clean, looking almost unused, but I sprayed again to be sure.

I turned to set the bottle down on the stool in the corner.

"Oh, Jesus, Tucker, you scared me."

He stood in the doorway, licked his lips fast, and gulped. I became very aware all of a sudden, of everything. His closeness. The buzz of the fluorescents. The desire in his eyes. The faint smell of cleaner and his cologne. The way my body felt drawn to him. The tension between us, suspended in the space between the door frame and the stool, waiting for one of us to break it. I mirrored his lick and gulp and my heart began to beat slow and strong.

He steps forward and moves quickly, slipping his hand around my waist and pulling me in. I meet his body and rub my hand up his chest and around his neck.

I lift on to my tip toes and let Tucker place his mouth on mine. He kisses me long, hard, and deep, with an urgency that I've never seen mastered so well. His fingers make tiny circles on my waist.

His kiss didn't feel like a sloppy last-call kiss to establish that we'd be going home together and it didn't feel like an awkward, quick goodnight kiss. It was hot and hungry, passionate and powerful. A man's kiss. He's kissed before.

When he pulls away, I catch my breath and feel small and light in his embrace. I forget what words are and how to stand. I lower myself on to the stool behind me and exhale as he loosens his arm from my waist.

"Mmm," I say, slumping my back against the wall. I look up at Tucker, who rubs the back of his head. My eyes drift down, and down, to his belt buckle of his khakis, and then ...

I feel my eyes widen.

"God. I, uh. I need a second." Tucker leaves the door frame and I try to remember what normal feels like.

So how about that? Drop a vote and/or comment  if you liked what you read, and go ahead and speculate what's next.  Thank you so much for the love! XoXO