Page 110 of Walking Red Flag

We stood there for a solid hour while the rest of the race participants slowly started to trickle in.

Artur stood next to me, offering his body as a shield to the cutting wind that felt like it was ripping through me.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“All racers, head to the starting line!”

My stomach, which was already in knots, went nuclear.

The nervous ‘I have to pee’ feeling took root, and I made a mad dash toward a porta-potty that was luckily unoccupied.

Artur stayed back and gave me a head nod, allowing me to walk up to the starting line by myself.

When I got there, anger stole over me.

Hazel and her friend, Rayann, just so happened to be directly in front of me at the start line.

Both of them were dressed in pink matching outfits that made me want to gag.

The man beside me shifted from foot to foot, brushing my shoulder with his.

He looked down at me apologetically and said, “I can’t believe I’m having to run this in the snow. It’s freakin’ March.”

“It is,” I agreed. “I’m from Dallas and we’ve had sunny, eighty-five-degree weather for the last month.”

“Oh, I’m from Mansfield.” He smiled down at me, and though he tried to make the smile seem genuine, he didn’t quite accomplish it. Something was off about it, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. “Small world.”

I just offered him a smile and took a half step away from him.

He didn’t comment and neither did I as we all bunched up tight.

“Ready for some fun, racers?” the woman came over the bullhorn in front of us.

Since I couldn’t see her over the crowd, I didn’t bother to look.

Instead, I studied my gloves, picking at a string that was coming loose on my middle finger.

“Racers, let’s run!” the announcer finished.

“Fuckin’ finally.”

A text came through on my watch and I glanced down at it.

Cutter:

You are so fucking cute.

Cutter:

Run safe, Mrs. Clayborne.

The nerves fled my belly as I covered my watch with the sleeve of my shirt and looked up just in time for the crowd to start moving.

The two pink assholes in front of me took off through the arches of the start line and then disappeared around a corner.

I finally got my chance to run through and started to run.

So far, so good.

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