"So, whaddya think?" Zander asked, his lips curled upward in a hopeful smile.
"Uh, yeah, sure," I said, without the faintest idea of what I was yeah sure-ing to.
"Well, which one of my ideas to help promote the gym do you think we should start with, then?"
Damn, I really should have been paying more attention. Luckily, I was saved by the nighttime doorbell ringing. I looked at the time; it was quarter past eleven. Kinda late for a walk-in, but it got me out of the conversation, so I leaped to my feet.
"Tell you what," I said to Zander, who also got up. "Start with one idea, your choice, whatever you think will work best, and let's go from there, yeah?"
"Thanks, boss," he said. "I really think it's influencer marketing. That's so big right now. Everyone is on social media, and I think if we get a good name, someone to really represent the brand well, it could be a huge thing for us."
"Yeah, yeah, that sounds great."
I opened the door to my office, which was only a few feet behind the front desk. I pushed the button to let the latecomer in and stood at the desk, ready to greet them. I looked over my shoulder to see Zander following me.
"It's late," I said to him. "I'm happy to handle this if you want to go…"
"Hello?"
My ears pricked up at the familiarity of that voice.
I snapped my head around and there he was, not on all eight TV screens as I was used to seeing him, but just one person standing right in front of me, on the other side of my front desk.
Liam “Am I Seeing This Right?” Wright.
"Oh, hey, look, Hudson, it's that guy you always make us turn every TV screen over to wa—"
My elbow found Zander's side, and thankfully, that just so happened to be where his shut the fuck up button was located.
"Hello," I said in as normal a voice as I could muster.
What the hell was happening here? How was it that Liam Wright was standing right in front of me, looking all sorts of weatherman-gorgeous? He must have come directly from the studio, because he was wearing the same outfit he'd had on earlier in the evening.
Suddenly, I wished that the counter wasn't so high so that I could look down and get a better view of his amazing…
I snapped myself out of that inappropriate, unprofessional thought by saying, "How—how can I help you?"
I tried to smile. I think I might have been smiling. I couldn't tell. I couldn't feel my face, or my feet, or my hands, anymore.
This was precisely the reason why I had avoided approaching him six times before. I was turning to mush.
"I'd like to join the gym," he said. His voice just sounded so familiar, which I guess made sense, since I'd been hearing it every day on the news for the last eighteen months. "Oh, and I'll need a personal trainer as well."
Was it possible to be both floored and speechless at the same time? The answer to that question was a resounding hell yes. Trust me, it was coming from a guy who was on the floor, unable to speak.
"We can definitely arrange that," I said after a much-too-long silence. My eyes were glued to him as my hand tapped around the counter, desperately searching for the paperwork and a pen.
"Here you go," I said, once I had finally found them. I looked down and was surprised to see my hands trembling. I quickly pulled them back and placed them firmly on the counter.
Why the hell was I shaking?
I mean, I had seen the guy in the flesh six times before. Although now that I thought about it, every time I had seen him, I'd started to shake and feel a little light-headed. I'd just assumed that was because Porter was around, and he tended to have a mildly nauseating effect on people.
"Do you have a trainer available? I'd like to start as soon as possible. Preferably tomorrow morning, please," Liam said as he looked up from the paperwork he was filling out.
"Yes, of course," I said, and then my brain left my head because the next words out of my mouth were, "My name is Hudson Madden. I'm the owner of Elite Fitness, and I would love to turn you on…"
Shitty shit, shit, shit!
I cleared my throat. "Take you on."
Liam's gaze remained focused on the paperwork, so hopefully, he hadn't heard my slip-up. Zander, on the other hand, had clearly heard it, judging by the wicked gleam in his eye.
"Are you sure, boss?" he asked with a smile, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Of course I'm sure," I said, delicately and discreetly taking his hand off my shoulder and shoving it sharply behind his back.
His smile widened. "It's just that, you know, you haven't taken on a new client in years."
Liam's head snapped up and his eyes darted between the two of us.
"Is there a problem?" he asked.
Yeah, I was about to fire my best employee if he didn't shut the fuck up.
"No problem at all," I said, taking the paperwork from Liam. Our fingers didn't even touch, and damn if that didn't disappoint me way more than it should have. I barely glanced at the paperwork. "This all looks good, what time would you like to start tomorrow?"
"I work midday to eight, so I need to be in the studio by ten. How does eight sound?" He made every word sound like perfection.
"Eight is great," I said, with a little too much breathiness for my liking.
"Are you okay?" Liam asked. His dark gray eyes bore into my soul.
"Never better, why?" I gulped. And smiled. And tried to stand up a little taller.
"No reason," he said. "You just look a little...pale?"
"I'm all good," I said, silently willing the color back to my face.
"Alright, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" Liam said cheerfully.
"You will indeedly."
Oh god, I had just used the word indeedly.
Was that even a word?
And this time, I could tell that he'd heard.
Color was returning to my face—a deep beetroot red.
I kept the closest thing to a smile that I could on my lips as Liam turned around and walked out. I was so embarrassed that I almost forgot to check out his amazing ass as he left. Almost. Hey, I am human after all, and that ass was out-of-this-world spectacular.
“Oh my God,” Zander exclaimed once Liam had left. “This is freaking unbelievable. We were just talking about this!”
“Talking about what?”
Even though he’d left, my eyes were still fixated on the now closed front doors Liam had walked through only moments ago.
“Influencer marketing. This will be so good for the gym, Hudson. If we can get Liam Wright to tag us in a few posts, man, that will bring people in like crazy.”
Influencer...tag...huh?
My mind was like Liam, it had left the building.
How did I even begin to process standing face-to-face and talking with Liam Wright?
"Oh, and boss," Zander said, the teasing tone in his voice waking me up. "I'm no expert at this sort of thing, but have you got a thing for Liam Wright?"
I turned to him and tried to summon my most stern face. "No, I do not have a thing for Liam Wright. I just happen to enjoy the weather and I think he does a great job of...bringing it to life."
"Yeah, I can see you do," Zander said, with laughter erupting from his mouth as he pointed at my groin.