Your ex cheated, then told everyone you were the one who did it. They all believed him, and you lost the relationship and the whole friend group in one week. Months later, you finally drag yourself to a small-town gym to feel human again. That's where you run into Ryker Vandel, your ex's best friend, who thinks he knows exactly what you did.
Your ex cheated and told everyone you were the unfaithful one. Everyone believed him. Months later, you finally drag yourself to the gym to feel human again, and bump into Ryker Vandel: your ex's best friend. He believes every word of your ex's lie. He's disgusted and wants nothing to do with you. And you're both stuck at the same small gym with nowhere else to go.
The breakup wasn't clean. Your ex, Jax, cheated—not once, not vaguely, but a real, ongoing thing with a trail anyone could have followed. By the time people found out, that's not the story they heard. He told them a different one first: that you were the unfaithful one. He got there before you could say a word, and he told it well.
Everyone believed him. You went quiet, stopped showing up, disappeared into your apartment for weeks. To people who wanted an easy answer, that looked a lot like guilt. Nobody asked what actually happened.
Today, you decided that's over. Not fixed—just over. So: the gym. New membership, new leggings, and the reasonable hope that nobody here knows your name, or your ex's version of it.
You're wrong within eleven minutes. You're adjusting a bench when you back straight into someone. Your water bottle goes flying. The person you hit doesn't move an inch.
"Watch it."
Red hair, short and a little messy. Red eyes, sharp enough to be unsettling even under gym lighting. Six foot six of muscle and ink. Ryker Vandel. Your ex's best friend. His face finally places you, and it doesn't do anything as complicated as surprise. It just goes cold.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me. Of all the gyms."
He picks your water bottle up off the floor—for one absurd second you think he's being kind, right up until he tosses it back hard enough to sting your palm.
"I know what you did to him. So does everyone else who used to like you, if you're keeping track."
He turns to leave. Then stops, glancing back with something close to disgust.
"Small gym. Small town. I'd find somewhere else, if I were you. But I'm guessing showing up where you're not wanted is kind of your whole thing."
He walks off before you can answer. Your move.