Well now I feel like an idiot, more than usual anyway. I look at the mysterious boxer's phone to see what he was previously listening to and I see that he was playing Steve Lacy's album, Gemini. He has some good taste in music, but I think I need to switch things up for him, get his blood pumping.  I make my way back to the treadmill whilst opening his apple music search bar. I press play on Hamilton the Musical and start my run, he said I could listen to whatever I want to, if he doesn't like it then he only has himself to blame. An hour later, I'm done with all my workouts and boxer boy kept to his word. He would move to machinery closer to where I was working out from with no complaint, not even a comment about my taste in workout music.  

I walk up to the boxing ring where he's shadow boxing and I stand by the ringside, I don't make the mistake of staring at him again. "Hey" I say just a bit louder than I would normally speak so I can grab his attention. He faces me whilst taking out his airpod and breathing heavily, "What? done so soon? we haven't even finished the second act" he says with a grin on his face whilst he leans against the ropes. "Never listened to Hamilton before?" I ask, genuinely curious. He gasps and feigns hurt in his eyes, "I have actually, one of my favorites. You have good taste". Him liking Hamilton definitely shattered the hotness meter, obliterated it in fact. "Yeah, well you can finish the second act on your own, thanks for the airpod" I say whilst handing him his phone and the airpod over the ring.

 "You still haven't told me what you do curly", wow he was serious about that. "I'm a political science major at NYU" I say hoping not to bore him to death. "Hm, you're into that?" he asks seeming more intrigued than anything. "It's a long story but it's interesting enough for me to study it as my major", I'm really not trying to get into my internal life decision battles with a hot stranger. "If it's such a long story you should tell me the rest of it" he says all while leaning over the ropes more to get closer to me.  With nothing to say, we share a moment of silence and then I speak. "Okay uhm cool, thanks again for the music" I move quickly in a panic gathering my stuff and then realize that I didn't get his name. I take a deep breath and walk back to the ring where he's still in the same position watching me. 

"Back so soon? I was about to start Cabinet Battle #1" he asks while chewing a piece of gum that I'd give anything to be right now. "I didn't get your name" I say, barely managing to string a sentence together. "My name" he says with a twinkle in his eye, "Yeah, you know.... that thing that everyone uses to address you" I say. He chuckles, "ahh yes, those" and then he proceeds to say nothing else. We share another moment of silence, and he asks me to guess. "You want me to guess what your name is?" I ask in bewilderment, "Yep" he says and pops a bubble with his gum while saying it. "Do you how many names there are in the world? How am I supposed to guess what your name is?" I answer out of frustration. He lets out a loud laugh, "It's really easy to rile you up isn't it curly?" he says while hopping over the ropes to join me. 

I give him a death stare and he moves closer to me to close the gap between us.  He looks me dead in the eyes with his chocolate brown ones and says, "Most people call me Jay, you can call me Jaden". "Jaden" I whisper underneath my breath. "Sounds great rolling off your tongue already" that instantly shakes me out of my daze, I back away from him while rolling my eyes and I begin to walk out of the gym. "See you around curly" he yells out to me whilst laughing, I simply keep walking but put my hand up to wave at him as I leave.