Page 34 of Bewitch

“I think he takes some online courses or maybe night ones. I’m not sure.”

“I could ask him, but I’m not sure he wants me prying into his business.”

Kelly frowns and motions over to the mats. I rack the weights and follow her. She starts to do some stretches and then some pilates moves that I recognize from DVDs, and I follow her lead.

“Do you not like working with him?” she asks. “Get another trainer then.”

“I’m getting some results with him,” I say.

“Because of your hard work and energy. You would do that with anyone.”

I wrinkle my nose. “That hasn’t been the case with me with anyone else.”

“Still. Don’t sell yourself short.” She leans to one side, her legs spread almost fully into a squat. “I do know that he’s desperate to keep this job.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“His parents cut him off.”

“Why?”

“That I’m not entirely sure of, but I’m pretty sure he has some demons. I went to high school with him.”

“Was he a dick then?”

Kelly laughs. “I can’t tell if you like the guy or if you hate him.”

“Depends on the minute,” I joke.

She beams and leans over to the other side. “Ah, good stretch. Yeah, he can be a bit much, but when you have a silver credit card with no limit and then it’s taken away from you and you’re forced to pay it off… It can cause you to be a bit desperate.”

“Why work here, then?” I wonder.

“I did suggest to him that he be a male escort.” She laughs and shakes his head. “He didn’t talk to me for a month after that.”

“Makes you wonder if he considered that idea and hated that you pointed it out.”

“Oh, maybe!”

“Any, ah, juicy tidbits you can tell me about him from your high school days?”

Kelly gives me a knowing look. “I sure could. He did amazing in science. Turns out, he was flirting with the teacher’s assistant who gave him the answer keys to all of the tests.”

“No way!”

“This was found out right before graduation, too, so it was a massively big deal. Would they let him graduate? What should his grade be for all of the sciences? Basically, he ended up being given a new final in each of the science courses he took.”

“And?”

“And the bastard might’ve used those answer keys. He might not have. He aced all of those tests.”

“Oh wow.”

“Yep.”

My legs are burning because now we’re on one side, having a leg go up and down, almost touching the bottom leg over and over and over again. “I take it he must’ve really liked the teacher’s assistant then.”

“I guess. He never mentioned her again after he graduated.”

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