ybe. I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet. Who the hell knows? I’m excited to find out though.
* * *
“Well, hello there…” Noah’s eyes light up the moment he sees me. The happiness shines through which warms me up and makes me feel amazing. “How are you today, Mia?”
I can’t stop myself from going red. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to talk to Noah without blushing. He just brings the coy side of me out… some of the time. “I’m good thank you. How are you today?”
“Much better since you’ve walked in.” I shiver really obviously and that makes him grin. “Well, I know you haven’t come here to talk to me so I’ll let you get on with your work out.”
I feel a wrench as I walk away from him. I did come here more to speak to him than anything else, but I can’t say what I want to quite yet. I need a good distraction for a moment.
“Wow, he is so into you,” Kayleigh hisses at me. “Ask him out already.”
“No, not yet. I can’t.”
“Can I go and speak to him? Maybe I should show him your paintings…”
“No way, don’t. I might do that at another time.”
“You won’t. I don’t buy it.”
“Didn’t you just say that I’ve changed? That I’ve come out of my shell?”
She cocks one eyebrow at me, barely believing me. But she doesn’t say another word. We hop onto treadmills next to one another, not the new one, thank goodness. It still amazes me even now how much I’ve improved in such a short space of time. I’m running harder, faster, I’m not running out of breath as easily. I still don’t fully know if I can run a marathon, but I’ll get a lot closer.
“He’s looking at you,” Kayleigh hisses at me. “Go and talk to him now.”
“What do I say?”
“Thank him for the donation. That’s a good place to start. See what happens from there.”
I breathe deep a couple of times. “Yeah, I can do that. Thank you for the donation, I can say that.”
“Go now, while he isn’t talking to anyone.”
I know that if I don’t do it right away, I’ll talk myself out of it. So, I bring the treadmill to a halt and I grab my drink to take a sip. While the liquid slides down my throat I twist to see him, my heart skipping a beat as I do, and I see him alone, I know that I need to move. I jump off the machine and I take the brave steps towards him. I can almost feel Kayleigh holding in a hopeful breath behind me.
Noah drags his eyes up and he breaks into a sunshine grin. His smile lights up the whole room and it really warms me up. When he gives me the intense gaze the rest of the world melts away.
“Hey, is everything okay, Mia?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you. Thanks for the erm, donation.”
Shit, that didn’t come out as planned.
“Oh, well it’s such an awesome thing that you’re doing and a very worthwhile charity.”
“Well, that was very nice of you all the same.” His eyes lure me in, they switch my brain off and my mouth gets carried away with itself. “I’ve been painting.”
“You have?” He looks so happy it aches in my chest. “That’s amazing. You’ll have to show me some of your work. I want to see it, then I can pick which pieces I want for the gym.”
He’s still saying this, he is still acting like he wants to display some of my work. I can’t believe it.
“You can’t actually hang my work up or I’ll have to work out somewhere else.”
“No way! You have to stay here. You should be proud of what you created.”
I giggle girlishly and tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “That’s what Kayleigh said.”