Imaginary Grace (5 page)

Chapter 7

Grace

A
s I walked in the front door Beth said, “Hey, I thought I was supposed to meet you at the gym.”

I stood there, all starry-eyed with my back up against the door, “I know, but Tanner asked if he could walk me home, and I couldn’t very well tell him I wasn’t actually going home, so I just came home . . . and yes, you heard me right,
Tanner walked me home
!”

“Oh my gosh, Grace, this is huge!”

“Hold your horses,” I told her, “There’s more - he took my number and said that maybe we can meet up at the gym and work out together.”

“You’re going, right?”

I sobered. “I don’t know. I want to, but I think I might be too nervous. Maybe you should come with me—you know, be my buffer in case I’m too nervous to talk.”

“Sure,” she said, “I can do that. When do you think he’ll text you?”

“I don’t know,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to sound casual. “I guess next week.”

The next three days were torture, with me waiting for my phone to ding and then getting snippy when it did with a message from someone other than Tanner. Finally, as I walked to class Tuesday morning I felt it vibrating in my back pocket. I slowly took it out and peeked at it. It was a number I didn’t recognize so I hit the button, hoping this would be
the
text.
‘Hey Grace, it’s Tanner. Do u want to meet up tomorrow afternoon at the gym?

Beth saw the huge grin spread across my face and grabbed my arm. “It’s him, right?” I nodded. “Answer him, answer him!”

“I think I should wait a few minutes, I don’t want to seem too anxious,” I said.

“Right, good idea, Grace.”

I waited about five minutes before I replied.
Sure, sound great
. I hit reply.

A few minutes later my phone vibrated again.
OK. 2:00?

And then I texted back,
OK c u there at 2
.

As I slipped my phone back in my pocket, the shock started to wear off. It was replaced by anxiety. “Beth, I don’t know if I can do this. Please tell me you’ll come.”

“Are you kidding? Of course I’ll come. This is going to be fun.”

“Okay,” I said, “but don’t say anything to embarrass me . . . and try not to be too charming.”

“You think I’m charming?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, you know what I mean.”

This day is going to drag.

The next day I waited for Beth after class so we could walk over to the gym together. We got there a few minutes after 2:00 and signed in at the front desk before dashing into the locker room to do a quick change. As we walked out of the locker room I glanced around for Tanner, then, nervously balling my hands into fists, I headed to the weight room to see if he was there. Beth followed, whispering, “Calm down, Grace, just calm down.”

When I saw him, he was in the middle of a set of bench presses, so I wiped my sweaty palms on my shirt and waited for him to finish. He had obviously been there a while-- his hair was slick with sweat and his white tank clung to his heavily-muscled chest. He saw me and Beth in the mirror and turned around smiling.

“Hey, Grace, I see you brought company. I’m just finishing up.” He wiped his brow with his towel then slung it casually around his neck. “Are you guys ready to hit the bikes?”

“Yep,” we said in unison and followed him over to the cardio room, where several bikes were lined up along the back wall. As usual, the gym was fairly empty at this time of day, so we had them to ourselves. We hopped on and started to pedal. Beth was on the bike to my right and Tanner was on my left. Conversation flowed better than expected, thanks to Beth. She chatted about anything and everything, always drawing me into the conversation with questions so I couldn’t clam up. I envied the way she was able to talk to people so easily.

Beth also got some interesting information out of Tanner. I found out that his hometown was only about forty-five minutes away, and that he had one much older brother who was married with two young sons. I also learned that Tanner and Scott shared a small apartment off campus.

We rode for about thirty minutes at a good pace, working up quite a sweat. I kept glancing at Tanner in the mirror on the other side of the room, taking in the broad glistening shoulders and wondering what those lean hard muscles would feel like beneath my hands. But I quickly shooed the thought from my mind. It was one thing for him to meet me at the gym, it was quite another to hope that he was attracted to me. I looked down at the floor, trying to divert my thoughts, wishing Beth would say something else or Gary would stop by. He always came by to say hi to Beth and me when he was working. Maybe he was off today.

When Beth did speak, it was to say she couldn’t pedal another minute, but I didn’t believe it for one second. Smiling to myself, I watched her hop off her bike and head to the water fountain to refill her water bottle. Then, with a quick wave, she left me alone with Tanner. We pedaled for another five minutes or so before calling it quits ourselves. Winded from the ride, we didn’t speak as we filled our water bottles and took a long drink. Suddenly it hit me how I must look and I quickly grabbed my towel and mopped the sweat from my brow. Tanner did the same, but he didn’t look one bit self-conscious as he did it.

“Well, Grace, I really enjoyed this. We’ll have to do it again.”

“Yeah, me too,” was all I could muster.

“I’ll see you in class on Friday,” he said and started to walk away, but then he turned and added, “Your stamina is very impressive.” His mouth kicked up into a sort of half-grin as he turned and walked off toward the locker rooms. With a sigh, I watched him disappear, then headed over to the free-weight room to look for Beth. I found Gary in there instead.

“Hi, Gary. I thought you were off today.”

“Na, I was just busy showing some new members how to use the machines in the other room, and they weren’t catching on too easily.” He laughed, but a second later I saw him stiffen ever so slightly. I looked up at him questioningly, then felt an arm drape lazily over my shoulder.

“Hey there, Gary,” Tanner said, “you taking care of my girl? We did quite a number on the bikes, earlier, didn’t we, Grace?”

Stunned at this sudden turn of events, I just muttered, “Yep.”

Gary looked at Tanner and again I noticed a subtle, almost aggressive change in his expression. For a millisecond nobody moved. Then Beth came in chattering, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Grace, we better get going; did you forget we’re supposed to meet Jenna and Brianna at the library in an hour to work on that project?”

Okay, she just totally made that up,
I thought, but that didn’t make me any less grateful.

“Uh…yeah, I guess I forgot about that.” Despite my strong desire to get out there, it was with some reluctance that I slipped out of Tanner’s grasp. “I’ll see you Friday, Tanner.” Then I turned to Gary and said, “Bye, Gary.”

As soon as were back in the locker room Beth grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me down an empty row of lockers. “Holy crap, Grace! What was going on back there?”

“I don’t know,” I answered. “I was talking to Gary, then all of a sudden Tanner’s arm was around me, and things got weird. It all happened so fast.”

“Wow, Grace, I think he’s
really
into you.”

“It seems like it, yeah,” I agreed, “but I don’t know.”

“Grace, I saw it – that guy is
definitely
interested. I wonder if he’ll call or text you before class on Friday.”

“Yeah, I wonder…”

I made sure I got to class extra early on Friday so I could get settled before Tanner walked in. I hadn’t heard from him since the “arm-around-the-shoulder” incident and was feeling a bit uneasy about seeing him.

I positioned myself with my head bent down, pretending to read with my elbow resting on the desk and my hand on my forehead, half-covering my eyes. I stayed in that position, not moving, until I heard his voice and a few seconds later saw his sneakers pass my desk. He sat behind me and poked me with the cap side of his pen.

“Watcha readin’?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing special,” I said without turning around.

“So turn around and talk to me then.”

I slowly peeled my eyes away from what I was “reading”, removed my hand from my forehead and turned to face him.

“Much better,” he smiled. “So what’s up for the weekend? I hear there’s a huge tailgate party tonight before the game. You going?”

“Um…I don’t know…I guess we can. I’ll check with Beth.”

“Cool, why don’t I come by around 7:00 and we can walk over together?”

“Sure, that sounds great!” I answered, a little too excitedly, I thought, and quickly turned back around in my seat.

The professor started his lecture, but my mind was spinning. Could this be like…a date? I slowly maneuvered my phone out of my bag and sent Beth a quick text telling her about the latest development (a.k.a. the Tanner tailgate party/possible date). She quickly texted me back:
O.M.G.! I’m in!
I smiled to myself and slipped my phone back into my bag. I sat through the rest of class with that small smile etched upon my face. College life was so awesome!

Beth and I were all dressed and ready to walk out the door by 6:45. I was dressed in my uniform (jeans, Converse, hoodie) with my hair in a long wavy pony; I had given up trying to do anything more daring with it for now.

Beth was dressed in a pair of tight low-rise jeans, boots and a low-cut turquoise blue t-shirt. I looked at her and then at myself – she looked hot. Beth saw my expression and said, “Grace . . . you know you can always borrow something of mine, right?”

I hesitated. It was the first time I thought I might actually want to. The difference in our appearance was actually embarrassing, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Maybe next time. I was uncomfortable enough without risking a wardrobe malfunction on my first almost-date with Tanner.

Just then my phone chirped with a text. I read it and smiled. “He’s waiting for us downstairs.”

Beth grabbed her phone and we headed out the door.

“Come on, Grace, hurry up before he leaves without us,” she laughed when she saw me lagging behind. I caught up to her as she opened the door and we stepped outside. Tanner was sitting on the stoop, but he stood up when he saw us. As always, my breath caught at the sight of him. He had on his trademark jeans and t-shirt that somehow only emphasized his perfection. There was a slight breeze in the air and his hair was gently blowing as he stood there with his hands in his front pockets. He could have been posing for GQ.

“Ready, ladies?” He moved to the side so we could pass down the three steps to the sidewalk.

“We’re ready,” Beth piped up eagerly, while I gave him a small, shy smile.

“Hi, Grace,” he whispered to me as I walked by him, sending a chill down my spine.

As the three of us made our way down the path leading to the main street, Beth made small talk with Tanner while I silently thanked God for giving me an outgoing roommate.

Just as we hit the edge of the parking lot, Beth asked, “Are you meeting anyone else here?”

“Yeah,” he said, “Scott’ll be here, and a couple of other guys.”

“Oh, cool,” she replied, but her voice was all but lost in the crowd. I couldn’t get over the number of people who were at the tailgate, the rows upon rows of cars parked outside the small stadium. We were about halfway through the lot when we reached Scott’s truck. Or, used to be a truck—there were so many bottles of liquor it looked more like a fully stocked bar.

“What’s your poison, ladies?!” Scott yelled as he handed Tanner a beer.

I looked at Beth, unsure, and then we both said, “Beer.”

Everywhere I looked, people were grilling, alcohol was flowing, and music was playing. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t long before the crowd got rowdy. A few fights broke out, one just a few cars down from us, that had started over team rivalry. Tanner was friendly but not overly flirtatious. I didn’t know if I felt upset or relieved.

After quite a few beers, Beth and I decided that we’d better start looking for a bathroom. We headed off towards the stadium and finally stumbled upon a row of port-o-johns. The line was a mile long, but we had no other choice but to wait. By the time our turn came thirty minutes had passed and I was about to bust a kidney.

The party was still going strong, and as we weaved our way through the crowds, I suddenly heard a familiar voice slur drunkenly, “Hey, laaaaadies…” A hand fell heavily on my shoulder and I looked up to see a very drunk Gary. He threw his other arm around Beth and began half-pulling, half-dragging us toward his truck.

A somewhat tipsy Beth whispered to me, “Gary’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

I looked at him before I answered her. He was actually kind of handsome in a clean-cut sort of way. He was average height, maybe a few inches shorter than Tanner. He had dark blonde hair that was mostly buzzed but a little longer on the top—it made him look like a rebellious military cadet. He was bulkier than Tanner but in good shape and probably worked out even on his days off from the gym. He had on a pair of tan cargo shorts and a white t-shirt with a pair of flip flops. When he turned I noticed he had some sort of tattoo on his left calf, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was in the dim light.

“I don’t know, kind of, I guess,” I whispered back to her. He and his friends were drinking some sort of mixed drink concoction. Swaying slightly, he fixed two of them and handed them to Beth and me. I took a sip, but it burned going down my throat so I just held it. Beth seemed to be enjoying hers, though. One of Gary’s friends—a tall, blonde, surfer-looking dude--caught Beth’s eye. She started talking to him, leaving me alone with Gary.

“So, who are you girls here with?” he asked.

“Uh…we walked over with Tanner and we were hanging out with him and some of his friends. We’re over in the second parking lot; Beth and I were just on our way back from the bathroom.”

I noticed an almost imperceptible flinch when I mentioned Tanner’s name. “Are you guys like together now, or something?”