Muna
As my feet sprinted on the treadmill deck, racing at the pace of my heartbeat, I wondered why anyone would choose to do this four to five times each week. This was torture. Working out was torture, and even though it was the only thing keeping me sane at the moment, it still felt like hell each time.
I was drenched in sweat, and gosh! I hated sweating. From time to time, I puffed air out of my mouth trying to catch up with my breath. This was crazy. People in here sounded like animals. They were groaning and grunting, dropping heavy weights on the floor like they were fighting demons.
I hated working out so damn much, but it was good for my mental health. Weird right? Or maybe not weird. I did work out from time to time though, but never by four in the morning. This was my first time, just like it was my first time visiting the gym more than two times a week. It was actually my fifth time this week.
And in case you're wondering why I was turning into a gym fanatic. Here it is; A month ago, I walked into my boyfriend of barely a year, butt naked on the bed with my best friend. I couldn't believe my eyes. It felt like a dream... a nightmare rather. At first, I was shocked, then livid at both of them, but my stupid ex-boyfriend and bestfriend weren't even sorry. I couldn't handle all of that since it was my first ever heartbreak, and weeks later, I packed up my things and moved to a new city, away from them.
You can call me a Coward, I wouldn't mind but my heart wasn't able to bear the pain and facing them, having to see them around broke me, so I chose to run away, I ran very far away.
It had already been two weeks since I moved here, where I had no family or friends. All I had here in Manhattan, New York was my life which kind of sucked, and over three million YouTube subscribers, a million Instagram followers and hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers. It was safe to say that I had people online, who cheered me on and were ready to eat up anything I put out there. But then, after all of that, I always crawled back to my lonely life.
Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! Beep!!!!
My finger pressed the treadmill speed-up button, and my sprints quickly heightened, matching the surge of my heartbeat. I was drowning in my thoughts and before I knew it, it became a little difficult to control my sprints. I was running out of breath and my shaky finger could not locate the speed decline button. Before I knew it, I lost my balance and was roughly tossed out of the treadmill, shoving something on my way down and finally falling on it.
And just like that, I landed on the public gym floor of my apartment building, but suddenly something moved beneath me.
"Shit!" I groaned.
"Fuck!" That raspy voice was sure not mine. "Fuck!" The voice groaned again, and I realized what I was lying on.
I was lying on a human body, a man's body at that.
The feeling of embarrassment washed over me, and my heartbeat raced in shame. I glanced around the gym, and the look I got from the two other people close by was not pleasant at all. It was nothing close to the 'sorry about that' look that would be given to someone, who had fallen and was hurting. This was the same look I got the day my clumsy self tripped and fell on the sidewalk. It was safe to say that many people in this city were not nice at all, at least not to me.
Quickly, I shot my face up, looking at the man, who had a massive scowl on his face, staring down at me and probably wondering why I was still lying on his lower frame. I pulled my weight off his body, but the sharp pain that sliced through my hip bone had me sitting on the floor. I needed a minute. A minute to recover from the pain, a minute to once again remind myself how much of a joke I was.
"Are you fucking blind?" He rose to his feet and even though he wasn't yelling, his voice was cold.
I pulled myself off the floor, wincing at the pain that once again made its presence known in my hips. "I- I am so--"
"Don't fucking touch me." He retraced his steps back, avoiding my hand which reached out to him by reflex.
I swallowed but not because of the embarrassment that engulfed me earlier, I was quickly getting irritated and angry. I knew I messed up, I wasn't supposed to be angry. But of all the things to be in the early hours of a Thursday morning, why would anyone choose to be rude and insensitive?
He ran his fingers through his ruffled brown hair, which was the same colour as his charming eyes, piercing into mine and reaching my soul. Anger was shooting obvious flames in those brown eyes of his.
"Sorry, I was just-"
"Your dumb ass don't know how to use a fucking treadmill, eh?" He grumbled, walking away from me and towards the line of about five treadmills.
I quickly caught my jaw from hitting the floor, "what the heck?" I gritted through my teeth with my brows furrowed at him, and my gaze trailing behind him.
I could be so many things, but I sure wasn't dumb.
Clad in a black T-shirt and loose grey shorts, he climbed the treadmill next to the one I fell off from. He was a good-looking man with average muscle mass and a very fit body. He was more than five inches taller than my five feet seven inches self. But I didn't care about all of that, I was angry.
I huffed, not wanting to believe the last words he said. If it wasn't for Carl and Amelia, I wouldn't be here to face this. I marched in his direction, with anger built up to my chest. It was okay to be angry but there was no way, I would have someone talk to me like that.
"Excuse me," I said, folding my arms across my chest and shooting my gaze up to him.
He tilted his face down and for a minute, his sharp facial features had me almost forgetting why I was here. He clenched his chiselled jaw as his feet started moving on the treadmill with his gaze still on me. I opened my mouth but before a word could form in my throat, he turned his face away, pulling his headset from his neck to above his head, blocking his ears.
"Excuse me," I repeated, but he ignored me and started marching in a high-speed sprint on the treadmill deck.
My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. I glanced around the gym room, to see if the two occupants closer to us were still watching but they weren't. The buffed man, who looked like those bouncers always in front of clubs, was busy lifting a weight that might weigh two times himself. Meanwhile, the other man was busy with the chest press machine. Thank Goodness.
I had faced a lot of things in life that sparked a fire of anger in me. Including the hateful comments from trolls under my YouTube videos, and Instagram posts trying to damage my brand. But none of that could match the current fire, which had exploded in me right now, especially for the fact that there was nothing I could do about what just happened.
I glanced at him, marking the face of my first enemy in this city before shutting my eyes. I took calm breaths in and out of my body, in an attempt to calm myself. I swallowed a hard lump, which was more like my pride and sauntered away from him.
I do not like the people here.
__________
The just-risen summer sun bathed the tall buildings and shone softly on the busy city streets, which were filled with cars on a honking spree, and people in their summer clothing.
My dark skin glowed under the morning sunlight and I was clad in a ripped-on-the-knee loose Jean, a white crop top, matching the colour of my Puma kicks and a small purse hanging on my shoulder.
I decided to push the incident from earlier to the back of my mind, and now, I was headed to a coffee shop not very far away from my apartment. A place I discovered last week, and it was one of the best aesthetically pleasing coffee shops I have seen. A nice sweet cup of coffee would be great to lighten my mood and start my day. A day in a place where I knew no one and felt alone.
"Munachi, you know you can come back if you don't like it there, baby. If anyone would have to leave, it should be them, not you." My mother's voice seeped through the airpod plugged into my ears, declaring her presence back to our phone call.
"I'm fine, Mom." I tucked the strands of braids which fell on my face, behind my ear.
"And for the boy from earlier, you don't have to think about him or what he said to you. There are always people like that everywhere-" she said, reacting to me reporting Mr rudeness to her.
"Fuck off!" A male voice which belonged to one of the multiple people, walking past me yelled into his phone and I rolled my eyes, cringing at how loud he was.
"It's fine Mommy, I'm not thinking about it anymore." I lied. I had been thinking about it, thinking about this man and his beautiful brown eyes, even though all I had in my heart for him was nothing but hate and anger. "I think I need this change, change is good. I'm going to try and make friends, so you don't have to worry about me."
"If you say so. I have to finish up now, bye. Love you."
"Love you too, Mom." I managed to say before she ended the call.
Pushing the glass door open, I sauntered into the sweet and exquisite smell of coffee, which immediately filled my nostrils, welcoming me inside the warm and inviting ambience of the coffee shop. I quickly scanned my eyes around the place, noting the faces of the people already present in the coffee shop, seated on the wooden seats, placed in twos and some in fours around each wooden table.
I needed to make friends, I needed to try and for someone, who was an extrovert, I was finding it a little difficult to make friends in this city. The faces that held a smile already had someone they were conversing with, while the few other people seated alone had their attention either on their phones or magazines which they held at hand.
I marched to the counter and stood behind the small line of people while waiting for my turn to order. Subtly, I scanned the room, trying to figure out if there would be a table I could join or maybe just sit alone, like I always did, and enjoy my coffee before going ahead with what I planned for the day.
It was still a subtle check until my eyes fell on the man, who was seated at the far corner of the room closer to the glass wall. Until then, my subtle gaze turned into a glare and pinned on the recognisable face of the man from the gym.
He was calm and collected. His annoyingly charming self was seated at the far corner of the shop, clad in a sky-blue shirt with tiny black stripes, and a Rolex wristwatch resting at the tip of its sleeve. His fitted black pants matched the colour of his shiny leather Oxford shoes. His eyes were slightly furrowed as they were hooked on the laptop, sitting on the table in front of him, while his fingers worked on the keypad.
I bit the inside of my mouth, watching him slightly tug on his black tie before raising the rim of the coffee cup to his mouth. I stifled the multiple emotions that surged in me. One of them was to walk over there and push the coffee to his face, while the other was to deliver a piece of my mind. A piece I had rehearsed multiple times in the shower after my gym section, just in case I was to run into him ever again. But here he was and I wasn't moving.
His jaw was as sharp as a blade, while his brows were full and neatly shaped. From where I was standing, I could feel the heat of his gaze peering through his long lashes. Whatever was on that laptop, must be mind-grabbing because Mr Rudeness looked like nothing around him mattered.
"Good morning, Ma'am." A voice from across the counter called my attention back to what I came here for. "May I have your order?" The brunette barista with a kind smile said to me.
I glanced at Mr Rudeness once again, and back to the barista. A smirk etched the corner of my lips as a thought slipped into my mind.
First thing first, I needed to set things straight with him.
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