Page 12 of Isolated
The man was crazy, but he always knew just what to say to push me. I went for one more. At the very tail end of it, my legs protested, and I struggled. Landen placed his hands on my upper ribs and gave me that added bit of support to finish out the rep.
He remained vigilant in that support as I stepped forward and put the bar back on the rack. When I turned around to face him, I said, “I was so close.”
“Are you kidding? Six reps at a new weight? That was excellent.”
“Yeah, but you had to help me on the last one,” I reasoned.
“Barely,” he reassured me. “And that’s why I’m here, anyway. You should be proud of yourself for what you just accomplished, Iris. I am. It seems like this was the perfect time to try for more. Those good vibes are carrying through to all aspects of your life.”
Not necessarilyall. I wished I could have summoned the courage to tell him where I was still struggling, but I was far too much of a chicken. Instead, I smiled at him. “Thanks, Landen.”
“You’re going to do a couple more sets, right?”
Nodding, I confirmed, “Yes. Probably three more. But I need just a minute to recover. Do you want to get a warm-up set in?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I’ll wait until just before your last one.”
“Okay. That works. So, did you have a good weekend?”
Landen shrugged. “It was okay, I guess.”
“Do anything fun?”
“I went to a wedding on Saturday.”
My eyes widened. “Oh, that had to be so much fun.Unless, of course, you aren’t much of a dancer or social butterfly.”
A soft chuckle escaped. It was the most I ever really got from Landen when it came to him demonstrating any level of amusement. “I’m certainly nowhere near being the social butterfly that you are, but it was one of my buddies from work who got married, so I had plenty of people there to socialize with.”
“And what about the dancing?”
He shook his head, looking away. “I didn’t… I didn’t take anyone with me, so I steered clear of the dance floor.”
Landen hadn’t taken a date to the wedding? Surely, he could have easily gotten someone to join him if he’d attempted to ask. Had he not been allowed to invite a guest, or did he purposely not ask anyone for some reason?
“That’s a shame,” I murmured, turning to position myself under the bar for my next set. Meeting his eyes in the mirror, I said, “It sounds like you missed out on enjoying the best part of any wedding.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Lips twitching, he shook his head. “Come on. Let’s not give these legs too much of a break.”
Doing as he’d suggested, I lifted the bar off the rack again and went about completing my second set. I’d managed six reps again, but Landen needed to offer some support on the last two the second time.
I took a shorter break after the second set, wanting to get some cardiovascular benefits by keeping my heart rate up in between them. After the third set, Landen swapped in with me to get a warm-up set in before I did my final one.
“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk straighttomorrow after this workout,” I told him as we added more weight to the bar for his workout.
“Ah, you’ll be alright. That’s the best feeling, don’t you think?”
“Being unable to walk?”
“Not necessarily that. I was thinking more along the lines of just feeling that soreness because you got in a good workout.”
I shrugged. “I guess. I mean, I love working out, but I’d have much rather preferred feeling sore because I spent my Saturday dancing the night away at a wedding.”
He studied me for a few beats. “If I had known you were so interested in dancing at a wedding, I would have asked you to come along as my guest.”
If only…
That would have been the greatest birthday present ever. Perhaps even better than the promotion. I loved my job, and I was excited about any success I saw in my career, but the reality was that I would have been happy to go without the promotion if it meant that I might see some success in my romantic life.
