Page 79 of Your Pace or Mine
“Jamie, I’m sure. Business is good, okay? And I can pick up a bit extra next month. Just trust me,” he replied. “Look, we can do the charity stuff now, so that’s totally off your plate, okay?”
Reggie gave him a smug smile. It was nice to see Reggie so confident. It had been a while since Jamie had seen his eyes light up the way they were today.
“I’ll put it on my business credit card,” he said as he navigated to Jamie’s charity page.
Jamie frowned, taking a sip of his now lukewarm tea. “I get that you’re somehow minted now, but that seems like it would cause you some problems with HMRC?”
“Nah, it’s charity,” Reggie replied, but then he frowned down at his phone. “Erm, Jay. I don’t think you need me to top up your fundraiser.”
“What do you mean? I was still nowhere near it this morning. Cress has been pushing it, like… but surely it’s not done.”
“Well, just how much more than your minimum were you planning to raise? I mean, I know it’s a good cause, but…”
Jamie grabbed Reggie’s phone from his hand. “What the hell?”
He started to hyperventilate. “It had to be him, right? Look at this, it’s a single anonymous donation, Reg. It had to be Darius, right?” Jamie was oscillating between relief that this could mean Darius really did care and annoyance at him for thinking money could solve everything.
“Probably yeah, I’d bet on it,” Reggie replied. “I mean, I wouldn’t bet that much, like. But I’d bet, well, something.”
The pair were silent for a moment. Jamie’s hand tapped out anxious patterns on the table as he thought.
“What are you going to do about it?” Reggie asked.
“I don’t know.” Jamie sighed. “I want, I, I don’t know.”
“Want to work through the rest of the list?”
Jamie nodded. “I actually have an idea about the career thing…but it would be a huge change.”
“Sounds brilliant, hit me with it,” Reggie replied.
The beginnings of a plan started to form for Jamie. He knew where he wanted to be; he just needed to work on getting there. It looked like step one was to finish what he started—Jamie was going to run the damn marathon.
Chapter 20
Darius
3 days to the London Marathon
Darius knew he should’ve blocked everyone from the group chat the second he’d left it. He hadn’t, out of some misplaced sense of responsibility over their marathon times. Now he was regretting it.
Chi
You need to fix this.
Darius
Fix what?
Chi
Jamie’s depressed and says he isn’t racing.
Fuck. He hadn’t thought this would affect Jamie so badly, which was a bit naïve, probably. He just always seemed like he could let things roll off of him, like his snark and general enthusiasm for life could shield him from anything. Darius should have known better. He’d seen the real Jamie over theirshort time together. Of course, he was letting the press get to him.
Darius
He’s blocked me everywhere. What do you expect me to do?
