Page 186 of Falling Backwards
“Holy God,” she says, wiping beneath her watered eyes as her laughter dwindles into giggles.She bends over to get the headband from where it landed on the floor.“I think this is a must, Luke.You simply must buy this.”
To keep making you laugh?Done,part of me thinks.But I steady myself and summon a mischievous counter of, “Only if youdon’tput the mistletoe where it goes.”
She tries to look appalled by this form of bribery, but it’s too silly, so she’s almost instantly grinning.
God knows I’m grinning with her.
And God knows I’ll buy the headband regardless of what she does with the mistletoe, because she has gone and attached that thing to a moment I’ll never forget.
—
“Do we really have to do this?”I ask.I had hoped to relax once we were back at my place, but Maggie changed clothes and went straight into exercise mode.“Can we put working out on hold for the holiday?”
She looks at me with amused confusion.“It’s not Thanksgiving yet.”
“Well, no, but this is Tuesday and the day is mostly over, which means it’s almost Wednesday, and Wednesday is basically Thursday, so it’salmostthe holiday.We could totally say we’re just gonna chill until the holiday is over.”
“Oh, Wednesday is basically Thursday, huh?”
“Yep.”
I have not forgotten how challenging cardio can be.On one hand, I weirdly liked how it felt to do it, but on the other hand, it wasn’t a fun use of my time.And here this girl is, wanting to do it again, as if she didn’t have a front-row seat to me riding the struggle bus through the other day’s video.
I notice Maggie is chuckling as she fixes her ponytail.With her hands up like that, her loose tank top is lifted enough for me to see some of the pretty curves of her waist and hips in her leggings.
…Okay, maybe doing this workout won’t be so bad after all.
Except for how I now want to admire her with my eyes and hands instead of do anything else.
I look to her face and see her cheeks are growing pink.She has picked up on my appreciative attention; I’m so bad at hiding it anymore.
She finally lowers her arms to her sides.“To answer your first question,” she says, “no, you don’thaveto work out, and I don’t blame you for not wanting to.It can be hard.But progress doesn’t get made unless effort is put forth, so….”She shrugs.“So I do it.”
I nod at that.Really good point.
But truth be told, half of my brain has gone back to when I realized I’m falling in love with her and when we kissed moments before that and before her work shift and before Ms.Ruth and Mitzy interrupted us outside—and back, and back, and….
“What do you think?”Maggie asks.
I blink out of my thoughts and see she’s starting to prepare the workout video on the TV.
I’m tempted to answer in a way that has nothing to do with exercise.
However, I know she’s ready to get this thing over with, and when it comes down to it, I do want to join her.And I don’t want to drag any more ass since that doesn’t do much good.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll do it.”Hearing the bit of distance in my voice, I clear my throat and add, “I might bitch about it, though.”
She doesn’t have to look straight at me for me to know the smile on her face is a cute one.“We’ll bitch about it together.”
I smile too.“Solidarity.”
“Mmhmm.”
And bitch together we do.This is a different video from that first one I did with her, and with each new move, we find something to complain about.Agitation aside, it actually is fun.Definitely helps improve my attitude about the whole thing.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to distract me from her.
The other day when I worked out with her, it was the first time I’d gotten to see her move in an exercise-y way, and it was cool, but this video is tougher in some aspects and so is she, which is flat-out awesome.Plus, it has a variation on jumping jacks and her shirt keeps briefly going back up when we do them, and it makes my hands itch to touch her.Plus again, she’s funny, and she thinksI’mfunny, and when we use our in-between-intervals breaks to get drinks of water, I get to see a little more of the color in her cheeks, and it’s both lovely and sexy—especially when there’s a smile to go with it.
