"What the fuck was that? That wasn't a squat!" Ronnie yelled at me from the other side of the gym.
"What are you talking about?!" I shouted back at him as I pushed hair off of my forehead. "I just did fifty fucking perfect squats!"
"That last one was terrible! Absolutely poor form, you're getting lazier and lazier. Start all over!"
"No!"
"Defiance only makes your workout harder, motherfucker."
I cursed some more under my breath as I started all over, loudly counting each squat from the beginning. I moved slower, sarcastically making sure my form was how he wanted it as I shot him death glares. He didn't care; he found amusement in my anger and frustration each time we were in the gym.
As much as I liked Ronnie, there were times I fucking hated him.
Mostly when it was a gym session.
I had probably been here for about forty minutes, and I was completely dying. This was one of the most difficult sessions I'd ever had with him. I couldn't tell if he was making these workouts harder or if I was slowly getting out of shape. I hadn't been to the gym in a little while, so it was probably me getting weaker.
It had been a few days since my parents had made their surprise visit, and my mom had been texting me every day just to say hi. She'd ask how Summer was and what my plans for the day were. It was a nice gesture, kind of weird since she never did this before, but it was nice.
Summer had been coming over almost everyday, either just hanging out or having a brief heated moment in my room or bringing me a smoothie in the afternoons when I got back from the kitchen. I didn't even ask her to do that. She had just randomly showed up when I had gotten back one day, and she continued to show up after that. I never complained because I always loved seeing her. I did feel bad about her always spending money on smoothies, but every time I brought that up to her, she just told me to shut up before her lips were on mine.
I stood up after the fiftieth squat, breathing deeply from exhaustion, and scowled at Ronnie, "Fucking happy now?"
"I guess," he shrugged as he gestured for me to follow him towards the free weights. "Let's work on arms for the last bit of the session."
That felt like the longest gym session I'd ever had with him before. I was just so exhausted, I probably could've collapsed. The thought of Summer bringing me a smoothie once I had gotten back to the apartment was very appealing.
As per usual, I sat in Ronnie's office for a little while after the session. I had changed my clothes into some dry ones and situated myself into one of the chairs opposite his desk. Before everything with Summer had been settled, I had gotten so used to coming in here for a 'therapy' session. Even Ronnie had gotten used to acting like a therapist for me, he just expected me each time.
He walked into the office and sat down in his chair, opening up his water bottle and pouring some protein powder inside, "So what's up with you now? Shit or no shit?"
"No shit."
"Well that's a surprise," he chuckled, shaking up his bottle. "Any new developments with your chick?"
"We're officially together."
"Isn't that exciting. Is that all the news you have?"
"Kind of. She met my parents and-"
"Wait, she met your parents?" He asked as he leaned back in his chair. He folded his hands behind his head and raised his brow at me. "It must be really serious if you're introducing her to the 'rents. Gettin' wifed up, eh?"
"It wasn't meant that way," I frowned. Although once I began to think about it, it was a lot more serious than I realized. I mean, if it was just another fling, I would've shooed her off when my parents showed up at my place. But I voluntarily introduced them to Summer, and the light, happy feeling I got from that lunch was enough to prove that this wasn't just some silly relationship. "My parents had just randomly made a visit out to see me, and Summer just so happened to be coming over at the same time. It was accidental."
"But you didn't tell her to go away and meet you later. You introduced them."
"Yeah. It went well, though. Much better than I thought it was going to go. I mean, I was afraid that Summer wouldn't want to go out to lunch with them or that my parents wouldn't like her or that they wouldn't get along at all. I really wanted them to like each other because who wouldn't want their parents and their girlfriend to get along? It just makes you feel so much better knowing they love who you love. And I kept worrying that bad things were going to happen, but nothing went wrong and-"
I stopped myself as I realized I had begun rambling. I must've sounded like an idiot to Ronnie, but then again, I always sounded like an idiot to him.
He widened his eyes at me before he started laughing. But that wide-eyed look he gave me made me frown at him. I'd never seen that look of his before, as if he had just witnessed something so alarming.
"What?" I frustratedly spoke, crossing my arms over my chest as he kept laughing.
"You just said you love her."
"No I didn't."
"Fucking liar!" He reached across the desk and slapped me on the side of the head. "Your exact words were, 'it just makes you feel so much better knowing they love who you love.' You. Love. Her."
He burst out in laughter again as I was just sitting there trying to remember if I had actually said that.
And I came to the conclusion that I did. I seriously just said out loud that I loved her.
Freudian slip, I guess.
"Okay why are you laughing at me?" I drew my brows together as I stared back at Ronnie.
"Honestly, no offense, I never thought you would love someone, or even be capable of loving someone."
"What the fuck, why?"
"Because all you ever did was fuck around with girls! No emotions or anything. And now here you are all gung ho about this girl and letting it slip that you love her."
"Fuck you. Just because I may have had more than the average amount of mindless hookups, doesn't mean I can't love someone."
"You just didn't seem like the type."
I rolled my eyes at him as I stood up from the chair. I didn't want to listen to him sit there and tell me how 'out of character' this was for me because ... well because fuck him. So what if I've slept around with other girls? That doesn't mean I don't want to love someone or be loved. I want that. I just didn't really ingrain it in my mind until I met Summer.
"Sit your ass down, we're not done talking here," Ronnie demanded, pointing at the chair.
Groaning, I sat back down and folded my arms across my chest. He kept finding amusement in my actions, chuckling to himself and leaning back in his seat.
"Wild guess that you haven't told her."
I rolled my eyes and scoffed, "If I didn't tell myself, then obviously I haven't told her."
"Well you should, like, today. Go to her place, and lay it on her ... and then lay it on her, if you get what I mean," he laughed, finding his stupid comment to be hilarious.
"Stop."
"What? It's a harmless joke."
Shaking my head, I looked out the window that showed the gym floor. This was kind of a big chunk of information that I sprung on myself. It freaked me out a little bit. I mean, I had thought about it a few times when Summer and I were together in my room or the mornings I'd wake up and see her next to me, having fallen asleep at my place. But that was all I did: think about it. I never actually told myself that I loved her.
And now that I have, it felt good. It made me want to go up to her and tell her straight up. But it was just a tad bit frightening when I started to think of how she might react. Would it freak her out? Did she even really feel the same as I did? Would she-
No. I needed to stop overthinking everything and just move along.
"Summer's helping me with my self-confidence," I randomly blurted out. I didn't quite know why that was the first thing to come to mind, but it was a nice change of topics.
It was apparent on Ronnie's face that he was confused as to why I just said that, but he nodded his head and carried on with the conversation.
"Oh really? And how's that going? You fucking need that shit."
"It's good so far," I shrugged. I was actually getting better at ignoring all the people on the streets that gave me funky looks and all the magazines I saw with mine and Summer's faces on them. I needed a bit more work on the second-guessing myself and overthinking stuff, but I was getting there. "Doing better than before."
"Well that's good to know. Soon enough you'll be strutting around the city as if you own it. Kind of like Isabella."
"Maybe not that extreme."
"Eh, close enough," he shrugged his shoulders and motioned for me to leave the office. "Anyways, nice talking to you. Next therapy session will be Friday."
He laughed at his own joke before going back to his computer. I shook my head and walked out of the gym as I let Summer know I was on my way back. It was only the early afternoon, and I kind of wanted to go out somewhere with her. I didn't really care what we did, I just wanted to do something. Maybe it would help with easing myself into letting her know that I loved her.
How does one even bring that kind of stuff up? Like 'oh hey thanks for the smoothie, by the way I love you.' That's kind of odd to say.
As I got back to the apartment, Xander was sitting on the couch with a box of left over Mexican food and watching Full House. He turned around to greet me, waving his hand in the air.
"Why are you watching that?" I asked as I set all my stuff down on the table and kicking my shoes off at the door.
"Because this show is fucking great. There's actually a lesson learned in each episode. I mean," he paused as he pointed towards the screen. "D.J. feels like she's too fat and goes on a binge diet, which backfires on her because that shit's not healthy. Now that's something people need to learn these days."
"You're so fucking weird."
"Don't hate."
"Whatever."
I chuckled to myself before I went to my room to shower. As I was scrubbing my body and washing my hair, I could tell that my muscles were going to be killing me tomorrow. Might as well make use of myself now before I'm too tired to do anything else.
Hopping out of the shower, I quickly dried off and pulled on some shorts just before there was a knock at my door. I opened it to see Summer standing there with a smoothie in her hand and a small smile on her face. There was something behind that smile, as if her mind had been elsewhere, and I couldn't quite read if it was a good or bad thing.
"Hi," she greeted, stepping in my room and giving me a kiss.
"Hey," I took the smoothie from her and sighed. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"
"You look a little ... off."
She looked away from me and nodded, "I'm good. Nothing to worry about."
Just as she was about to step away from me, I took a hold of her wrist to keep her from moving. Her eyes met mine, and I could see something flash through them. She was definitely holding something back.
"What is it? You can tell me."
For a moment she kept her lips tightly together before she looked up at me and nodded, "Okay okay. But can you please put a shirt on? It's kind of distracting."
Letting out a light laugh, I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a tanktop. Once I had the shirt on, I motioned for Summer to sit on my bed as I sat down next to her. She fiddled with her thumbs, not looking at me until she finally lifted her chin.
"Well I've been thinking about this for a little while now, but I just haven't really convinced myself to tell you," her words were starting to make me very anxious as to what it was that was on her mind. I started running through all the possibilities in my head of what she would say, but I had to stop myself because most of them were negative. Summer picked at her nails as she looked up at me, her facial features softening. "I love you, Harry. I'm in love with you."
Now I hadn't been expecting her to say that, so once the words came out of her mouth, I could feel my heartbeat drastically increase. I didn't realize just how great it would feel for her to say she loved me. I felt those ridiculous fluttery things in my stomach that girls always talk about, and I just had this desire to press my lips against hers and every other part of her body.
It was exactly what I had wanted to tell her, and for her to say it first made it a lot easier for me to say.
"You know what's funny?" I asked, seeing her look up at me nervously. "I was planning to tell you the same thing today. I love you, Summer."
"Were you really?" Her whole body seemed to relax at my words, and her uneasiness settled down into happiness.
"Absolutely. Was just having a conversation with Ronnie about it at the gym."
"Well that's a relief," she laughed, still fiddling with her thumbs. "I was afraid of how you'd react to it, you know, being a guy and all."
"Hey," I frowned, seeing her still smiling. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Guys are always so weirded out when girls say they love them, especially in a relationship because then they feel tied down or something. I don't know."
"No need to worry about that with me," I grinned, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her into my body. "I'm not going anywhere ... as long as you want me to stay."
Summer smiled up at me before she shifted herself so that she was now straddling my lap. I placed my hands at her waist as her hands cupped my face. There was no hesitation as our lips connected, moving together as our tongues explored each other's mouths. I leaned back until I was lying down on the bed, not once breaking our kiss. My hands were slowly sliding up under her shirt as my thumbs rubbed circles on her skin. And just as Summer gently bit down on my lip, causing a groan from me, there was a knock at my door.
The two of us separated but didn't move from our position. I lifted my head to give her one last kiss before we both looked over towards the door.
"Yeah?" I called out, waiting for it to open.
Xander walked into my room with a smirk on his face, "Oh pardon me for interrupting this little steamy session you got here. I'm heading out for business, just wanted to let you know."
"Well thanks for the information," I laughed, gripping tighter onto Summer's waist.
He turned around, waving his hand before grabbing the door to close, "Play it safe, kids."
As the bedroom door shut, I looked back up at Summer, an amused smile across her lips. She ran her fingers through my hair at the side of my head, gently rubbing her thumb across the top of my cheek.
I smiled at her and pushed some hair behind her ear, "Let's go for ice cream."