"Wait! what?" Adam stared at him in a puzzled manner, still trying to process what he just said. "What did you just say now?"
"I'm quitting." Chris repeated, turning his back at him.
"You gonna quit everything you worked hard for just because of Jane?" He asked, staring at his back which looks tired. "Tell me, did you ever for once had any atom of love for her in your heart?" The moment he asked that question, Chris jerked up.
"Why would you think such?" Chris questioned rhetorically. "You know I never loved her, I never felt anything for her in my heart. She was just a FRIEND!" He emphasized on the friend.
"Then why are you caging yourself in here if you don't feel anything for her? If you don't love her as you claimed, then go out there and be you. Sincerely speaking I'm not happy the way you are acting these days. Not one girl has ever made you behave in this kind manner."
"I'm just feeling guilty." Chris slumped down on the bed and let's out a exasperated sigh. "I'm the reason she died."
"Ohhhh God." Adam facepalms himself. "You are getting me more annoyed if you keep on blaming yourself, yes I know you two got involved in a terrible accident and she lost her life in the process. That doesn't mean you killed her, it was never your fault, it's high time you accepted that." He digged one of his fingers in his chest ( Chris ), emphazing.
"But still if I hadn't dragged out of my parent's house, she will still be alive." He mumbled inaudibly but yet Adam could still hear him.
"I will give you a hard knock on the head if you keep on blaming yourself, I'm not saying you shouldn't grief but don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault, we all are grieving her death. You know she was also my friend and she was such a nice girl but you should not blame yourself forever. Get up and bring back colors into your life. I know you gonna meet a new Jane, it's just a matter of time."
Adam dragged him up from the bed. Now put up your working out clothes and never think of leaving everything behind!" He scolded.
Chris groaned and walks to his closet, he will have to please him if he wants him to keep quiet. He raked his hands in his closet to find his gyming outfit, he pulled out a black Nike bolt shorts and a dry stretch sweat full zip hoodie. He wore them and coupled his outfit with the Nike react metcon training shoes on his feet. Adam was already dressed up. He wore a warm long sleeve tee polo and a grey interval shorts coupled with the stripes sneakers on his feet.
"That's more like it." Adam smiled as he watched him bring out a black sports nose mask. He pulled the hood over his head and covered half of his face with the mask. Adam heaved a breath at what he was doing. "What's up with the the camouflage?"
"I feel like covering up." He answered, snatching his car keys from the night stand. "It's cold outside since it rained yesterday so I'm protecting my body."
"Alright my Lord as you wish." Adam followed behind him as they made their way downstairs.
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Kayode, as usual was at his manager desk taking in customers, it's been long he saw his boss come here and sincerely speaking he missed him and Jane. Speaking of Jane, he remembered when his boss introduced her as his wife to be, from the start he knew something was going on between those two. The way they bicker all time whenever they're here told him, there was more that meets the eyes but the two love birds won't admit that. He always noticed the way his boss looks at Jane whenever she comes here. The way he stares at her was completely different from the way he looks at other female fans or friends. He knew his boss has fallen head over heels for her and when he announced her his bride to be, he was really happy cause no girl understands him more like Jane does.
And fuck those fans and other celebrities who think they don't match together or Jane doesn't match his standard. Who says love cares about status? But it broke his heart more when he heard they got involved in an accident and Jane ended up loosing her life. It won't be same as before, his boss is that grumpy type but since Jane started working out here his demeanor changed. He will always catch him sneaking looks on her or smiling for no just good reason but now she's gone, he wondered how his boss is doing now and he's worried about him. It's been ages he came to know how the gym center is going. He normally check in every week but not anymore.
Just then his thoughts were interrupted when two men walked in, one looks like his boss and the other he couldn't make out who he was. They made their way to where the equipments are. Normally customers come in, register their names. Pay amount of different session they want but these two didn't. He quickly obstructed their way when he looked closely at the other man. That's his boss's friend, he has seen him couple of times here.
Then the other man wearing a mask was his boss, he's the only one who wears a mask everywhere he goes to avoid bizarre fans rushing to him. A smile creeped on his face the moment he saw that his boss was doing okay. 𝑷𝒉𝒆𝒘….𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔.
"Good day boss, I'm really happy to see you here." He showed off his teeth. "I was really worried about you and I hope you are fine, I heard you were involved in an accident but I'm happy you're okay. I'm really happy."
Even though his mouth was covered with a nose mask, Kayode swore he saw him smile. "You don't have to worry much, I'm fine. See I'm good and I told you, stop calling me boss, call me by my name. I prefer that."
"Alright I'll try to." Kayode smiled again. "I'm really happy you're back on your feet again."
"Me too." Chris pats him on the shoulder.
"If he doesn't need the boss, I need it." Adam joked. "You can call me boss, we're more than just friends. We're brothers from different mothers so we owned this place together." Chris shook his head and walks off to where the barbell stand is. Kayode laughed at Adam's jokes and went back to his seat.
Adam joined him as he walks over to the training bench machine, picking the barbell and started exercising. They both engaged themselves in conversation and it was flowing well but all of a sudden, Chris stopped talking and fixed his eyes on a particular girl who was on the rowering machine working out. Adam wondered if he knew the girl because of the way he stared at her.
"Do you know her?" Adam asked, following his gaze.
Chris stared at the unknown girl, her figure was exactly like Jane's, she tied her hair in a high ponytail and wore a black yoga pants coupled with the Nike half cut top she wore on her upper body. Even though he can't make out her face, she was lying down on the machine with her legs on both of the wheels. Something told him that could be Jane, he knew the doctor was lying when he told her she was dead. He won't believe this is an illusion. Jane always have a thing for rowering machine and this girl might be her.
Only one way to find out, he got up and made his way to her, Adam stopped working out and stared at him with mouth agape. He sat up and just gazed at him to know what he's up to.
The unknown girl stopped running her legs on the rowering machine. She took her handkerchief from where it laid and dabbed the sweat on her face. She stood up to get water from the water stand when she accidentally bumped into him, dropping her handkerchief. She bent to pick it up and he also bent to do the same making their forehead to bump into one another.
"Ouch." The girl winced in pain, she lifted up her eyes to see who she bumped into. "You?"
"You?" Chris almost screamed. He mistook her for Jane. Her body structure deceived him, he really thought she was Jane. It's high time he let go of the past and accept Jane's gone for good. She was no other than the girl his Mom introduced to him who took care of Rose while he was in the hospital. The daughter of her friend, he had forgotten her name. He wondered if it was Kate, Nancy or any other names.
He became mad at himself for mistaking her for Jane, that was how he mistook her smile as that of Jane. She will only remind him of her and he didn't like that. He turned and returned to where Adam was, wearing a gloom expression.