Page 134 of Heart of Stone

I’ll try calling her now. Maybe she’ll actually pick up this time.

Exiting out of the email, I dialed Krystina’s number.

“Hello, angel,” I greeted after she answered. It felt so good to hear the sound of her voice.

“Hey. How’s the trip going?”

“Incredibly boring.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Next time, you’re coming with me,” I told her.

“We’ll see,” she murmured on the other end of the line. She seemed distracted. I had been so pleased that she finally answered her phone, that I hadn’t picked up on how distant she sounded until that moment.

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine. Oh, and thank you for the flowers by the way.”

I noticed that she didn’t mention the returned necklace, but decided not to bring it up. I missed her and I didn’t want to spoil our conversation by risking an argument.

“Are you sure that you’re alright?” I asked again instead.

“I’m good, really I am. I’m just tired and a little sore. It’s been a long day.”

She does sound tired.

Perhaps that was truly all that was wrong.

“I thought Walter would have gone easy on you since today was your last day.”

“Oh, work was alright,” she assured me. “I’m just worn out because I was up early and at the gym by six o’clock this morning. I couldn’t get an evening appointment with the trainer that I like to work with, so I had to go early if I wanted to meet with him.”

Him?

The idea of Krystina having a one on one training session with another man made me uncomfortable.

Extremely uncomfortable.

Am I jealous? Since when do I get jealous?

“I didn’t know that you had a trainer,” I tried to say indifferently.

“It’s pricy, so I don’t do it often. But Eric is a good motivator and I needed him to get me back into a routine.”

Eric? So the asshole has a name.

I pictured Krystina in spandex shorts, possibly a sports bra. With her midriff slick with sweat and face flushed from exertion, she would have been a provocative sight to behold. Hopefully she had the sense to cover up with a t-shirt.

Either way, I didn’t like the situation one bit. I made a mental note to set Krystina up with my own personal trainer, someone that I knew and could trust to keep his sweaty paws off of her.

“Routine is good, but don’t over do it. You need to save some energy for the weekend,” I joked lightly, suppressing the uncharacteristic jealousy that wanted to come lashing out.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that – the weekend that is,” she said a little too quickly.

“What about it? I mean, I’ve been keeping up with the storm and I know that flights into New York have been delayed indefinitely. But I’ll make sure I’m back in time for the party at Murphy’s.”

“Oh, it’s not that. Although, I’m glad that you decided to come. This is about Saturday.”

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