The Fling (5 page)

“Annie? Annie!” Megan screamed into the phone.

“What?” Annie replied.

“What are you doing?” Hiding. Plotting. Drenching my own underwear with thoughts of Oksana’s nipple piercings.

“Nothing. What did you say?”

“We have to do something before your wedding,” Megan said. She was speaking for Shane and Feather. Megan took her maid of honor duties seriously. Annie’s mother was obsessed with the grand adventure, the venue, and the number of guests, but Megan helped keep everything tasteful. The invitations, the dress, the small gifts for various participants and family members, Megan had seen to all of that. There would be no mistakes on her watch, but she knew Annie was the bride and she wanted to make Annie happy. She was shocked that Jeff had taken off to Europe, still she was perfectly fine with skipping any semblance of a bachelorette party. Shane and Feather felt like they had been robbed. Megan hadn’t let them do anything beyond trying on their dresses. Their whining wouldn’t change Annie’s mind. She had what she wanted.

“Really, it’s okay.” Then Annie heard Shane’s voice in the background.

“Shane thinks we should go to Lucky Strike and get wasted while we bowl,” Megan said. Annie watched as an older woman, Mrs. Barstein or Farstein or something walked into Elite Fitness. She was actually running late.

“Annie?”

“What?” She finally turned off her car. She had to go inside.

“Where are you?” Megan asked, annoyed.

“I’m about to work out.”

“She’s working out,” Megan repeated for Shane. “Hold o—”

“What’s the name of your gym?” Shane asked in a rush. Annie’s fingers froze, clutching her keys.

“Why?”

“I’m looking for a new trainer,” Shane said. “Quick got asked to do stunts for some lame movie and that’s all he talks about now. He’s driving me nuts.” Annie had met Shane’s trainer, Quick, once. He was a great trainer and a total jerk. Shane was smart to look for someone else. Anyone else but someone who worked with Oksana. She knew their time together was limited, but Annie wanted that time to be theirs. The last thing she needed was Shane coming up with the bright idea of joint sessions or something just as intrusive. The thought of even running into Shane while she was with Oksana made Annie break out into a nervous sweat she imagined still smelled like wine and Chinese food. She needed more time.

“Oh. Uh, I remember my trainer saying they are booked till the end of the summer,” Annie lied.

“Shit. Okay. Here’s Megan.”

“No, actually I have to—”

“Hey.” Megan was back on the phone before Annie could make her escape. “So we’re going bowling. Just to get Shane to shut up.”

“Sure. Let me just see what my schedule is like.”

Megan scoffed and Annie immediately knew why. “We both know it’s not worse than mine.” Megan worked a shade under a thousand hours a week in the legal department at one of the major studios. The fact that her boss had let her leave work early that night was a small miracle. No doubt she’d mapped some sort of work-related errand into her escape.

“Right. Well, we’ll figure it out.”

“Okay. Kisses!” Megan said in her best valley girl voice. Annie laughed.

“Bye.”

Annie ended the call and slipped her phone into her bag. She felt so bad. Like a little kid getting away with something less than a crime, but enough to be punished for. She was lying to her friends and Jeff, sort of, even though he’d technically agreed to what had happened between her and Oksana. She felt like a criminal for wanting more.

Annie climbed out of her car and was reminded how unseasonably humid it had been when she left her office. The heat from the day lingered as the sun began to set. She pushed aside any further preparations and walked, shoulders back, right into Elite Fitness. Immediately, her eyes landed on Oksana as she busied herself re-racking a few low-pound weights across the room. She didn’t see Annie, giving her a few more seconds to hide her anxiety as she walked toward her fate.

The gym was busy, but like usual, the noise level was kept to a minimum, just some light bass pumping through the speakers overhead. Through the glass windows on her right she saw that spinning class was well under way. She smiled at the owner, Paulo, as he chatted with Mrs. Barstein or Farstein, who seemed in no hurry to actually begin her workout now that she was indoors. Two guys who always worked out together were side by side on treadmills facing the street. They looked strangely similar. They were both ripped, dark hair cut the same way, naturally tanned, good-looking in this uniform way. Annie couldn’t tell if they were a couple who had transitioned to that looking and dressing alike phase, really good friends who’d met their match, or brothers. Maybe she’d ask Oksana when she ran out of things to say.

She tripped over the edge of the mats as she stared at their twin glutes and when she righted herself and the spike of adrenaline cleared, she was feet away from a grinning Oksana. It was a friendly smile, familiar, but she wasn’t flirting.

“I see I didn’t convert you completely,” Oksana said. Annie shrugged off the comment, having pushed the gym rats out of her mind. Her thoughts and her whole body focused on Oksana and Oksana seemed to notice.
This
part felt like a scene from a movie. Annie entered this odd cone of silence. She couldn’t hear anything, but she could feel the beat from the music above them. The air was too cool to carry anything beyond the rubber scent of the weights and the mats, but she was searching for the smell of Oksana. Her memory found it immediately and it filled Annie’s nostrils and rolled over the surface of her tongue. She licked her lip. Oksana’s skin suddenly grew darker but brighter at the same time.

Annie imagined if she had hair, Oksana would do something adorable with it like anxiously tuck it behind her ear. But instead she gently tugged at her studded earring and glanced at the floor. “Hi,” she said, just as sweetly.

“Hi,” Annie replied. She moved closer, too close, but Oksana didn’t move away. “I feel like I should say something inappropriate.”

“Like what?” Oksana asked. She swallowed as if preparing to be horrified.

“Like how beautiful you look today.”

Oksana looked away, blushing even more, but Annie could see her smiling as she ducked her head. “Can we please just work out?”

“I’m sorry. Sure. Let’s work out.” Oksana kicked a foam roller to the middle of the floor and motioned for Annie to sit down on the mat. Annie plopped down on the floor and slid the roller under her calves.

“So.”

“What am I supposed to say to you?” Oksana asked.

“I don’t know, but this is lovely weather we’re having.”

“It is. Any plans for the weekend?”

“Yes.” Annie smiled. “I’ll be doing my best to remain appropriate.” Something changed between them then, like the ice had been broken and they slid easily into their workout.

Beyond her usual instructions, Oksana was unusually quiet as Annie stretched. She flinched every time they touched. When she gripped Annie’s hands to stretch her back, Annie noticed her palms were cold and a little clammy. Annie sensed she was more nervous than uncomfortable, but all the things that came to mind to say to help soothe Oksana would get her tossed out of the gym and Oksana fired, so she kept her solutions to herself. They barely made eye contact as they walked over to the treadmills. Annie almost asked about the jogging twins, but she thought better of it. Maybe she was coming on too strong.

She settled into a brisk walk, then poked Oksana in the shoulder. “You okay?”

The confidence seemed to settle back into Oksana’s shoulders. “Yeah. I’m glad we’ve already got your money. You don’t need me anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at yourself.” Annie glanced down at herself then up at her reflection in the window. “You’re in perfectly good shape. I’m sure your dress fits like a glove.”

Annie didn’t want to think about her dress. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“No. We don’t like to give refunds.”

“Oh, well, as long as you have my money.”

Oksana chuckled lightly, tapping the monitor on the treadmill. “I’ll be right back. Don’t touch that incline.”

“I promise I won’t.”

She looked forward again and watched Oksana’s reflection as she headed to the other side of the gym and disappeared into their main office. When Oksana came back she seemed like her old self, the person Annie had grown to know before their one night together. The shift in her demeanor Annie took as a sign to really back off. She was acting like she had no control over herself, flirting with Oksana in the gym, but as their workout continued Annie couldn’t ignore the way Oksana was looking at her when she thought Annie wasn’t looking back. She felt so aware of her body and even more aware of the way Oksana was watching her. As she counted through sets and waited for Annie to catch her breath or take a drink of water. Annie couldn’t ignore it. Once they were finished, Annie took a chance, thinking Oksana’s response to a request she’d never made before would give her the answer she needed.

She wiped her face one last time then shoved her jacket into her bag. “Walk me to my car?”

“Okay.” Oksana followed her silently to the door. No one seemed to notice them slipping out, not that they would have cared, but it was that type of secret they shared. A silly part of Annie thought everyone knew or was at least trying to figure them out.

When they reached the parking lot Annie fought the urge to take Oksana’s hand. They weren’t on a date. They were outside Oksana’s place of employment. Talk about inappropriate. As they turned to each other in the shadows near Annie’s car, she felt the climate change. The air of innocent, albeit, sexual flirting was gone, but so was any sense of professionalism. Somehow, at least for this moment, something between then had turned serious. Annie could feel it. She could see the look of consideration on Oksana’s face. She could tell Oksana was just as anxious to see what would happen next.

“So, I’ll see you this weekend?” Annie asked.

“First thing in the morn,” Oksana said, looking down at her sneakers. Annie looked from Oksana’s face to her hands that were braced on her waist so her elbows were out. They were silent for a few moments, then Oksana looked up.

It wasn’t anything Oksana did or the adorably quizzical expression that touched her face as she looked back at Annie. There wasn’t any practical reason for Annie to step any closer than she was, and she should have done the exact opposite of putting her hands on top of Oksana’s. The only thing going through her mind was that she should kiss Oksana. So she did.

*

Oksana had been wrestling with what to do about Annie all day. She held off on telling Paulo the truth. He asked her a hundred times if she was okay, pointing out that from the moment she walked in that morning that she’d been acting strangely for the past couple days. But she had no clue how to tell him the truth because she wasn’t ready to come clean yet. Coming clean meant facing the fact that she’d made a mistake. This wasn’t how reconstructing your love life was supposed to go. There were rules for this sort of thing. Like both people should probably be single. Still, she couldn’t ignore the texts she found at the end of every hour. She had to respond to them. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually been wet all day long. She wasn’t ready for that part to end either.

She’d decided to see how things played out once they were around each other again. No one could argue that texting and speaking face-to-face were not on the same level when it came to applying heavy meaning to communication. She wanted to see if Annie was using their distance as a way to keep her fantasy going a little longer or if, once they were together, Annie would keep up whatever this game was between them. Oksana hated admitting it to herself, but she was enjoying this game. At least until Annie actually showed up at Elite Fitness.

Oksana shouldn’t have been that shocked by her aggressive behavior. Annie had been blunt all along, but for some reason Oksana wasn’t prepared for it. She’d convinced herself that Annie would start spouting some nonsense about her wedding, but she didn’t. She even went as far as to change the subject every time Oksana brought it up. This scared Oksana a lot. She did not want to start having feelings for Annie. Real feelings beyond the “I desperately need to have sex with your fingers and your mouth” type feelings that Oksana had been fighting every moment since they met. She needed Annie to have some reason. She needed Annie to push her away before she fell into something that ended with her looking like a fool.

Instead, she followed Annie out to the parking lot, something she’d never done with a client before. Instead of telling Annie they needed to end this thing between them, they were kissing. It was kisses like this that she had been warring with since she’d woken up that morning. Annie’s lips that made her forget where she was and who she was supposed to be, or how responsible. Kissing Annie was like waking up again, like feeling joy for the first time. Joy and fireworks in your crotch.

She thrust Annie against the wall, pushing them both further into the darkness, and as Annie moaned, Oksana slid her thigh between her legs. It went on for some time, not an overwrought, sloppy meeting of tongues and lips, but this perfect caressing of mouths. Holy shit, Annie could kiss, and if they had been somewhere else, Oksana never would have stopped.