“Kara, I’m sorry, honey, but—”
“Nope,” I say, grabbing my purse. “If you’re going to apologize for anything, honey, it had best be an apology to all of woman-kind for that ugly-ass mustache. I quit.”
“Can’t we talk about this?” he calls out after me.
I try to think of something clever to say back and can’t.
I’ve already run out of insults, and it’d just be looping back to call his cowboy boots stupid again.
“See you around,” I say as I slam the door in his face. “Probably sooner than you think.”
I don’t even clean out my desk. There’s not anything there that I’m going to need.
I’ve got a set of workout clothes and my gym shoes in the bottom of my purse, and I’ve got two hot men waiting at the gym for me.
And Chase and Eric? They’re going to be fucking thrilled for a visit from a woman of my fucking age.
“Kara,” Chase calls out, jogging over to me as I come stomping through Power Plus’ front doors. “Babe, what’s wrong?”
I consider telling him the truth—that I just failed to get my modeling contract back despite having lost all the fucking weight that got me booted to begin with. I consider telling him that my boss—ex-boss—just called me too old to model, or that I’m unemployed now with no fucking prospects for the future.
I even consider telling him how much I fucking hate Kim Kardashian and her perfect ass right now.
But then Chase pulls me against his hard, sweaty chest, and I breathe in his smell.
Just like that, it all melts away, and all I can do is laugh.
“Nothing,” I say, feeling the relief washing over me. I have a hot dude kissing my forehead and a pair of big, burly arms wrapped around my slender body. I mean, what else could a girl want? “Nothing at all.”
“Really? ’Cause I’m not a fuckin’ genius or anything, Kara, but you looked pretty pissed when you came through the door…” He pulls back, scrutinizing my face. “Is this one of those things where you say nothing’s wrong, but I’m supposed to magically know how to fix it without you telling me what it is? Because if so…”
“No.” I laugh. “Nothing like that. I’m just…is Eric around?”
“Present,” Eric says, jogging over.
These fucking men. Always fucking jogging. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen them walk anywhere for the whole time I’ve known them. They’re so full of energy, and so ripped, and so fucking hot and—
“Do you guys have any Protein Plus merch around? Size small, if you’ve got it.”
Eric nods, ducking back behind the check-in desk and coming back with a cute little T-shirt…and a thong.
“Really?” I ask, holding the G-string up and giggling.
Eric just shrugs. “A man can hope. What do you need merch for, though? You haven’t been sharing those protein shakes with your friends, have you?”
“Oh my god, no,” I say, shaking my head. “I’ve been hoarding them like a dragon with liquid gold.”
“Then what’s up?” Chase asks.
Christ, he’s cute when he’s like this. He’s like a puppy that knows it’s time to go on a walk—he knows that I have something exciting to tell him, and he can hardly wait to hear it.
Eric looks like he already knows what I’m going to say, but that fucking figures. At least he has the decency to let me say it anyway.
“I’m your girl,” I say, grinning. “I want to do the pageant and model for Protein Plus.”
They don’t even give me a chance to see their reactions. Chase just picks me up and throws me over his shoulder, and Eric smacks my ass as they carry me up the stairs.
“I knew it, man,” Chase is saying. “I fucking knew she would.”