Searching

These past couple of days have been a blessing. Steve came to visit me at the gallery to watch me paint, and he would take me out to dinner when I was done. He accompanied me to different things, like grocery shopping and running small errands. It was nice to do those little things with him rather than doing them on my own. We have grown comfortable with each other, and it was the best thing I have felt in the longest time.

Today I was meeting him at Stark Tower, just so I can surprise him this time. He always seemed to come to me, which I felt bad for. This time it was going to be completely different. When I looked up to the tower, and then phoned Tony. Tony allowed me access for entry into the building, and I rode the elevator to the floor that Steve would be on. I told him “thank you” before hanging up my phone, placing it in my purse as I waited for the elevator to reach my destination.

The elevator dinged as it stopped, and the doors opened. Seeing that it was my floor, I walked out and looked around. It was a nice gym area. Steve told me that he usually spent his mornings in the gym, just so he doesn’t get “rusty.” I completely laughed at him for that. He was a super soldier he was never going to be rusty, but I didn’t question his choice of words.

I walked further into the gym, hearing someone punching something. It was Steve. I spotted him punching a punching bag, sweat was on his forehead. The white shirt he wore had been tight, showing off his built physique. You can say that I was in an awestruck state when I saw him. When we were together, he had always been wearing a long sleeved shirt and blue jeans, making it hard for me to see his muscles. Now I saw them.

He had punched the bag so hard that it fell off the hinges and flew into the wall in front of him. It shocked me. I sometimes forgot that he was a super soldier that was stronger than a normal person. He made it look so effortless when he picked up another one to replace the one that he knocked down. Though before he could start punching at the bag, I had cleared my throat and he looked at me.

“Oh, hey Krissy, I didn’t notice you there,” he spoke, and walked over to me. I smiled at him as I held his towel up for him, and his water bottle. “Thank you.” He took both of the items from me, placing the towel around his shoulders and then drank some water.

“I came to you first this time,” I said, watching as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead. “Good job at taking out the punching bag.” He laughed at that, shrugging his shoulders.

“I can go through about ten of them each morning if I feel in the mood to,” he told me, running his hand through his hair before looking at me. “What brings you here so early?”

I looked down at my wristwatch, seeing that it was eight in the morning. Clearly I was not paying attention to time when I woke up this morning. “I wanted to surprise you,” I replied, “I was wondering if you wanted to go get some breakfast with me?”

“I have a better idea,” Steve stated, and I looked up at him curiously. “We can just have breakfast here, if that is okay with you?”

“Sure, I would-” I was cut off by my phone ringing, and I went through my purse to find it. When I did, I looked at Steve apologetically before answering it. “Hello, this is Krissy,” I greeted on the phone.

“Where are you? Are you forgetting that you have a meeting with the me this morning?”

I froze, realizing who was on the phone. I bit my bottom lip as I looked at Steve, and then looked away before taking a few steps away from him so he wasn’t so much in ear shot. “I completely forgot, I am sorry. I will be there in a couple of minutes,” I told the woman on the phone.

“It’s okay, just be here as soon as you can, okay?”

“Gotcha,” I told her, and then hung up the phone as I looked at Steve. “I am sorry, but I have to go. Maybe we can meet up for lunch later?”

“Alright, that’s fine,” he told me, a look of sadness crossed his features, “I will be here.”

He smiled at me, but I knew that he wanted me to be there with him. If only I could stay there, but I did have things to do. My mind had completely lost track of the days when I was with him. Every day I looked forward to see him. Honestly, I was a puppy dog. He was the only one who had crossed my mind while there were other things to be tended to. Life went to a halt when I was in the same room with him. It was a weird attraction that I have never experienced before in my life.

When I walked out of the gym area with him, I wanted to hold his hand. All I could do is pretend. He walked me to the elevator and enveloped into an embrace that felt like it lasted for eternity. He beamed at me, and I returned the gesture.

“I will be back later,” I commented as the elevator doors opened, letting out a ding that it had arrived. He nodded to me as I stepped in. Before the elevator doors closed, I sent him a salute and he saluted back to me without skipping a beat. The doors closed and I sighed, leaning against the elevator railing.

I knew he was going to question me for leaving so soon, and I knew that I was going to tell him the truth about my past. Perhaps it would be a good thing to tell him, but I was afraid that he was going to try to do something about it. There was one way to find out.