Page 110 of Bewitch

“Not clients.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Oh, so I was the only lucky one to be called that?”

“Yes,” he says bluntly.

“And you don’t want to apologize for that?”

Lucas just stands there, saying nothing.

“I know I hurt you. I already said I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t hurt me when you walked out like that.”

“I didn’t?” Now I’m confused. “Then why won’t you return to the gym? Why do you hate me so much? You can barely look at me.”

“That wasn’t the first time you walked away from me without a backward glance.”

I’m stunned. “What are you talking about?”

“As for people like me not knowing what it’s like to be fat, you clearly don’t remember my past.”

“Remember?” I shake my head. “What are you talking about?”

“I didn’t always look like this,” he hisses. “I took months and months and months to lose weight before I even set foot in a gym. I fell in love with lifting weights, and the only way I could afford gym membership at first was by being a fitness trainer, but even though I signed up as one and, for the most part, knew what I was doing, I didn’t have any clients. Gary let me stay on because he knew I could do it, but no one, understandably so, wanted to have a trainer who was still a bit overweight yet and wasn’t half as muscular as I am now. Our bodies are works in progress. It takes time for them to change. On the outside. The inside, though? That takes a lot longer to change, if it ever does, and being fat? It’s a fear that clings to you even once you get the weight of. It lingers. I’s a part of your past, but you fear it’ll come back one day, that it’ll return. You don’t know me at all, Dawn, but you should.”

“I don’t… Why do you think I should know you? You were overweight once?”

“Yes!”

“You look—”

“I don’t want any fucking compliments from you,” he growls.

I swallow hard. His anger is intense, heated, and I swear I can feel that heat swirl around us.

My mind races. I just can’t place having ever seen him before I walked into the gym.

“You really don’t recognize me, do you? You have no idea who I am.”

“Just give me a moment…”

He shakes his head. “Well?”

True as I might, I can’t even picture Lucas having some extra weight on him. He looks like one of those Greek athletes, all muscular and chiseled. Perfection, all masculine and strong, with a power that comes from deep within.

Yet, I can see the cracks now, too, the same cracks I bear.

But who exactly he is…

“Don’t you see?” he shouts. “I was that guy in the closet with you! You were my first, and I recognized you immediately, but you made it clear from the start that you had no idea who I was. Why didn’t you recognize me?”

I gape at him. “No. No, that’s not… How did you know about that?”

“I was there,” he says.

“It… It was so dark. I couldn’t see at all. I thought… You were supposed to be someone else.”

“Yeah,” he says bitterly. “You made that quire clear there.”

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