Page 37 of Cross Check Hearts

“Thanks.”

Warmth spreads through me at her approval. I’m hoping the tingle in my stomach from her praise isn’t showing too obviously on my face, but judging from the way she’s looking at me, I’m not so sure.

“I think you’re ready for something a little more advanced. We’ll keep that core set, but we’ll add to it today with a few more poses that should target your hip flexibility specifically.”

“I don’t know whether I should be excited, scared, or both.”

Hannah chuckles. “Probably a little bit of both. You’re gonna be sore after today.”

“Well, that’s not anything I’m not used to with you,” I fire back, and although her cheeks ignite with blush, she smiles at me.

“Consider it my way of returning the favor. Alright, let’s start from the first pose.”

“This one?” I ask as I bring my hands above my head, and she nods.

“Exactly. From there, I want you to step forward with one leg and bend your knee, like this,” she says and demonstrates a sort of lunging pose, keeping her hands raised perfectly straight above her head. “It’s called Warrior One.”

I grimace because I can already feel the stretch before I’ve started it. But I stumble through it, and Hannah shows me the rest of the routine, including a transition into a pose she calls Warrior Two and then into Extended Side Angle.

“Thanks for all the food you’ve been sending me this week,” she says as she leans sideways to touch her hands to her toes along with me.

“Anytime, hummingbird,” I say, smiling at her with my head turned sideways, and she freezes at my use of the nickname. A small tremor visibly runs through her, but she tries to play it off by coming back up and stretching to the other side.

“How’s your week been so far?” I ask, changing the subject.

“Stressful,” she answers quickly. “Tuesday in particular was shitty.”

I join her in stretching to the other side and lock eyes with her. “Really? What was going on?”

“Nothing, just the usual.”

She doesn’t elaborate, and I get the strong sense that she doesn’t want to, so I don’t push her. This is the easiest, most fluid conversation we’ve had since that night months ago at the club, so I’m not about to rock the boat now. But she stays relatively quiet throughout the rest of the session, letting me drive the conversation and answering briefly. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I can’t help wondering if I said or did something to put her off.

Fuck, I hope not.

There’s a shadow behind her eyes that wasn’t there at the beginning of our session. But it could just as easily have nothing to do with me—she did say she’d been having a rough week, so she probably has a lot on her mind.

Part of me wants to ask, if only because I want to help lighten the load if I can, but I decide to let it go.

“Same time next week?” she asks as she drags a towel across her forehead when we’re finished.

“Yeah, that should work for me. Thanks.”

“You’re doing well. Way better than I would’ve thought at the start, honestly.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment.”

Hannah laughs, her eyes twinkling.

“It was,” she says and leaves it at that as she starts rounding up the mats and resetting the room to close. I help her as usual, then wait at the door while she takes a quick shower. The hiss of the shower stops and I hear her rummaging around for a while, then her phone rings.

“Hello?” she asks as she answers it, her voice echoing loud and clear from the tile locker room. I know I shouldn’t be listening, that it’s none of my business, but short of leaving the building or plugging my ears, there’s nothing I can do to avoid overhearing it.

“Yes, Aaron, I didn’t forget. Saturday at seven. I’ll be there,” she says, and a rush of ice fills my chest when I realize what’s happening.

She has a date with that Aaron guy this weekend. The one she said she wasn’t interested in getting back together with.

“We’ll definitely need reservations. It’s Altitude. That place is always packed,” she says, and I file away the information without thinking. “Listen, I just got out of the shower at the studio, can we talk about this later? Yeah, I’ll call you when I get home. Bye.”

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