Page 9 of Catching My Dreams

It was all lies. Big, fat, ugly lies. Something had happened. Something that still made Ella want to both die of embarrassment and murder a certain brown-haired man.

“Oh.” Riley sounded oddly disappointed. “I just hoped…”

“That he and I would call a truce and become best buds?” Ella filled in for her. “Sorry, but that’s never going to happen.”

“I see.”

“Good.”

Riley cleared her throat and downed the rest of her coffee, managing not to choke on it like Ella had. “Okay, well, I’ll get out of your hair now. I just wanted to come by and say sorry. Again.” Her face lit up. “Oh, and I also wanted to ask if you wanted to join a self-defense class with me?”

Ella blinked, not sure where that question had come from. “What?”

Riley started playing with the end of her braid again. “I found a place in D.C. that has weekly classes for beginners, and I thought it would be cool for us to go together.”

“You want to take a self-defense class? With me?”

Riley’s cheeks tinged pink, and she shrugged. “I thought after what happened with—” She cleared her throat. “After what happened, it might help you feel more…prepared?” Her words lifted at the end, turning her statement into a hesitant question.

Prepared. It was the perfect word despite Riley’s uncertainty. Because there was no doubt in Ella’s mind that Brett would be back. Which was precisely why Ella had started taking self-defense classes already.

She’d used to be able to pretend that the dreams she had at night were just dreams. That even when she called the police to report what she’d witnessed, she didn’t need to worry that the monsters she’d seen would ever come after her. But she could no longer ignore the monsters lurking in the dark. It was why she went to the weekly Krav Maga class even when all she wanted to do was pop some painkillers like the drug addict she was and curl up in bed until her migraine went away.

She just hadn’t told anyone about it because she didn’t need Asher’s pity and concern or Noah’s scathing barbs. She didn’t know what he could possibly find to insult her about for learning how to defend herself, but he would find something. He always did.

“I actually already have a class I go to on Thursday evenings,” Ella explained.

Riley’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Oh, that’s great. I didn’t realize.”

“Yeah, I started them at the beginning of the semester.” Between her classes, assignments, cheerleading practices, as many yoga sessions as she could fit in, and a weekly Krav Maga class, she had been keeping herself as busy as possible.

“Cool.” Riley stopped tugging on her braid and bent down to pet the Yorkie who had followed them into the kitchen. “I’ll leave you and Archie to it then.”

“Do you want to come with me?” Ella found herself asking.

“Huh?” Riley looked up from the black and tan ball of energy that was now lying on his back to get his belly scratched.

“To the Krav Maga class. Do you want to come with me?”

Riley beamed like Ella was giving her a lifetime’s supply of peppermint mochas. “That would be amazing. I’ve always wanted to learn how to kick some serious ass.”

“As opposed to unserious ass?” Ella asked dryly.

The other woman groaned. “You and Asher share the same annoying sense of humor.”

A smile fought its way onto Ella’s lips. “I prefer the term charming.”

Riley scoffed. “Yeah, you and Asher both.”

“He managed to charm you, didn’t he?”

The woman bit her lip, but her cheesy grin couldn’t be held back. She was so smitten it was adorable. “He has his moments.”

“Oh, shut up,” Ella said with a laugh that was entirely genuine. “You’re head-over-heels in love with him.”

“Yeah,” Riley agreed, her face practically glowing with happiness. “I am.”

Something twinged in Ella’s chest. She could have pretended it was heartburn or chest pain caused by her ridiculously high levels of stress, but she knew it wasn’t anything like that.

---