Page 46 of Resistance Training
She watches me as she exhales and I press in closer.
“Good?” I ask.
“Very,” she replies. “Have dinner with me tonight.”
“No.”
“As friends.”
I arch an eyebrow.
“As former friends.”
“No.”
“As trainer and client.”
The truth is I can handle my feelings about Vivian in the past. Handling my attraction to her now, in the flesh, is something else entirely. I had to get out of some sticky situations that first year I’d started out as a personal trainer. Working with clients in their homes. Since opening my own gym, I usually only agree to training straight men, happily married couples, and baby boomers. Anyone else gets assigned to Gwen or Curtis. AndI’ve had to become more judicious when it comes to taking on married couples and female baby boomers, because there are a lot of flirts out there. Bottom line—I’ve never dated a client or a member of my gym.
And I’m not going to start with Vivian.
“No, thank you,” I say.
She presses her foot against my chest, and I dig the tips of my thumbs into the flesh of her thighs.
She gasps and then groans.
I lean in a little more. If anyone were to see us on the floor here, this would look perfectly legit. I’m helping her target her IT band and her piriformis. I guide her foot toward my right shoulder, and she sighs. I’m getting deep into her glutes without even touching them.
And that’s just how it has to be.
CHAPTER 12
VIVIAN
It’s Saturday and I’m kind of blue, so I’m treating myself to a visit to Powell’s City of Books.
I can’t eat my feelings anymore, so I’m going to buy my feelings a lot of books and then stay home with them for the rest of the weekend.
Yesterday I received a letter, in the mail, from Jeremy. I had recognized his handwriting before I saw the return address—his office in Seattle. It was such a thin envelope, I’d thought maybe he’d sent me an old receipt that he’d found or something, but it was just a handwritten note on his company’s letterhead. It said:
Dear Vivian,
I know that you have heard about my engagement by now.
I didn’t call you because I didn’t know what to say.
But you know now, so…
See you at Aubrey and Eric’s wedding.
I hope you’re doing very well, Vivian.
Tell Hairy Styles I miss him.
—J
I told Hairy Styles that his former housemate misses him but that he is still a stupid idiot lying cheating asshole who hasn’t apologized for anything and isn’t coming back. And then I told him that it has nothing to do with him, because the stupid idiot lying cheating asshole still loves him even though he isn’t here. Then I burned the note and the envelope in the kitchen sink while listening to nineties angry girl music.
