First Chapter

 I said I would post the first chapter of my contemporary romance and voila!! Here it is. Since I still haven’t figured out the title, I’ve been referring to it as ‘Cassidy’ in my mind, since the story is told from her POV. So here it is, hope you enjoy it.

Chapter One

That man has got to be a gift from God. I almost checked to make sure I wasn’t drooling while watching this gorgeous man do pull-ups. I had seen him a few times in the gym on the weekends, but never on a weekday, which is when I usually had time to squeeze in a workout. But here he was, all muscles and sweat and I could not find it in myself to move off the sit-up bench. It’s not like I’d done more than ten crunches anyway. I hadn’t been able to workout other than a pull-up here and there in a month and my stomach was not having it today.

Mr. Gorgeous finished his set and dropped down. He turned his head so quickly, I didn’t have time to act like I was ogling him. He caught me staring and raised an eyebrow. Welp, I figured I was already caught, so I smiled and got up to walk towards him. I held my hand out, “Hi, I’m Cassidy. The Starer.”

“I’m Lucas. The Sweater, which is probably why you really don’t want to shake my hand right now.”

I bought my hand back to my side and his dark gray eyes sparkled with amusement.

“Well Lucas. I was admiring your pull-ups, in a totally platonic way.”, he gave a sarcastic nod, “Because I’ve been doing this pull-up challenge for two weeks, but cannot seem to get past two pull-ups. Three, if I practically do the worm on the third.”

He chuckled and it made me want to tell a million jokes to hear it again and again.

“Well, platonically speaking, chin-ups might be a little easier for you. Maybe I can stare, I mean watch you, do some and see if you’re doing anything incorrectly.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely now embarrassing myself like that in front of someone so sexy.”

He smirked, “So I’m sexy, am I?”

“Like you didn’t know that?”

“Doesn’t hurt to hear it every now and then.”

“Mmhmm, I’m sure you’re really hard up for compliments.”, I said, rolling my eyes.

“Well, let me take you out for dinner and you can compliment me all night.”

“Is that the best you can do? Honestly?”

He cringed a little. “It’s been a while since I asked a beautiful woman on a date.”, he admitted.

I found that really hard to believe, but I guess that was something I could ask over dinner.

“I’ll give you a pass, I guess.”, I shrugged.

“Next time, I’ll make a much better effort.”

“Already planning a second date huh? Well aren’t we confident?”, I smirked.

He only smiled. “Give me your phone. I’ll call myself from it, so we’ll have each others’ numbers.”

I took my phone from my armband and handed it to him after putting in my passcode. I watched the muscles in his arms bunch as he typed in his number before I got a hold of myself and looked at his face. He had a small smile and I wondered what was so funny. When he handed me my phone back, I figured out the smile. On my screen I saw an outgoing call to ‘The Sweater’. I burst out laughing. Once I heard his phone ringing, I pressed the end button.

“Please tell me you’re not going to make my contact name ‘The Starer.” I pleaded.

He chuckled that chuckle and shook his head. “I have a much better name in mind for you.”

“Do tell.”

“I’ll tell you when we’re eating dinner.”

“Ah, making sure I show up huh?”

“More like hoping.”, he said with sincerity in his eyes.

I smiled, “Well, at the risk of seeming desperate, I’ll text you tonight, so we can figure out the where and when.”

“At the risk of seeming even more desperate, I might text you first.”

“Oh, text away Lucas.”

He smiled and his face lit up. I figured this was a good time to make my exit while I still seemed like the cool and collected one. I put my phone back in my armband. “Well Lucas, my ‘workout’is over, so I’m gonna go, but I fully expect us to be texting tonight.”

“I’m done too. I can’t wait until tonight. Bye Cassidy.”

“Bye Lucas.”

I gathered my towel from the sit-up bench and turned around to find Lucas gone. I looked towards the exit, expecting to see him leaving. Instead I saw a now shirt covered Lucas make a right. The only things that way were the daycare and the ladies’ locker room. Curious, I walked over to the exit to see where he was going. I watched him open the daycare door and not five seconds later, a bundle of curls and tutu came bounding towards him. He barely had time to kneel before she jumped into his arms. They hugged each other so tightly I felt like I was invading their privacy just by watching. With that thought, I pushed the exit door open and left the gym, all the while thinking, “Holy shit, he has a kid.”