Priest (A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Love Story) (61 page)

I turned right on the next street I came
to and made my way through suburbia. The houses all seem to be poured from the
same molds and the lawns were exactly the same height and shade of green. I
passed them with the gym looming in the distance and let myself wonder briefly
if I would ever be a part of that kind of life…Would I ever live in a nice
house on a nice street and drive a nice car. Would I have dinner every night with
my nice husband and tuck my nice baby into bed at night? Or, was I destined to
be alone, carrying around everyone else’s problems on my shoulders.

I arrived at the end of the street and on
the far side of the gym. I saw Mark getting out of his sleek black Camaro. I
waited out of sight until I saw him disappear inside. I’d asked Jeff and Sam to
take over his sessions. For some reason he had gone from Mr. Polite and
Respectful to a horn dog in a matter of weeks it seemed. Maybe he broke up with
his girlfriend or something…I had no idea. I also had no desire to go out with
him, and even less to have to tell him no every single day. Since Paul hadn’t
been around for a week, he seemed to be getting more determined.

I slipped into the front door and clocked
in. Debbie was at the desk. “Hey girl! You look all fresh and pink-cheeked. Are
you having a good morning?”

I smiled at her and said, “Average at
best. The pink cheeks are from walking here.”

“Oh you should have called me. I would
have picked you up.”

“It’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with my
car. I just felt like walking. I needed to work off some frustration.”

“Sexual…I hope?” I didn’t need to turn
around to know it was Mark’s voice.

Before I had a chance to say anything
Debbie said, “Knock off the sexually harassing comments Mark or I’ll have Sam
show you the door.”

Mark held up his hands, palms up. “Hey
ladies, you know I was just kidding. I’m sorry, Jessie. I thought we were
friends.” I ignored him and Debbie continued to glare until he went back out onto
the floor and continued his workout.

“Thanks,” I told her.

“Hey girl, we’ve got your back. Quit
trying to handle everything all alone.”

“Everything?” Debbie sounded like she knew
something that I hadn’t told her.

“Victoria told me that she noticed you and
Paul were getting close…now Sam said he hasn’t been around at all and he wasn’t
even sure if he’s going to show up for his fight Friday night. I didn’t want to
say anything because you haven’t, but I’ve been worried about you. Men can be
such assholes sometimes. I know you keep your business close to your chest
honey and I don’t mean to pry. I just want to make sure that you’re okay.”

She was right, I hated for people to know
my personal business, but it was nice to have friends who had your back. “I’m
good. But thank you,” I told her. That was enough information. They could guess
about the rest of it if they wanted to.

“Just remember I’m here…we all are, if you
need anything.”

I knew she was more than just nosy. She
was sincere and the people I worked for and with were the kind of people I
needed in my life. I needed to work a little harder on cultivating those
relationships. I thanked her again and went in the back to change my sweaty
tank. After I got the washer fixed I left some clean ones in my locker, just in
case.

By the time I was changed and wearing
fresh deodorant my client, Justin had arrived. Justin’s twenty-four and he’s
been running marathons since he was a kid. The advantage of that is of course
that he knows his body by now and what it can do and what he needs to do to
improve it. The disadvantage is that by the young age of twenty-four, his body
has already gone through hell and back and since he wasn’t ready to retire, it
was headed for more. Luckily for Justin he’s smart and he knows how important
proper training is to keep him from dropping dead in the last stretch of a 30K
run.

“Hi Justin!”

“Hi Jessie, how are you?” Justin was on
the mat stretching. He has one of those long, lean runners body’s. It’s lean
muscle though, when he stretches or tenses, every visible muscle in his body
becomes perfectly defined.

“I’m good. How about you?” He stood up
straight and started stretching out his neck. He was taller than your average
marathon runner. Most of the guys I’ve trained for marathons weren’t much
taller than five seven or eight and weighed one-forty soaking wet. Justin was
close to six feet and I’d be willing to bet he weighed in at one seventy five.
That was okay though because like I said, he knows his body. He knows where he
needs to push and today he was here to work on his quads. In a 30K race he was
going to need more than speed and stamina on a cellular level. He was going to
need a sturdy frame to hold him up.

“Good,” he said, now stretching out in
lunges. “Do you run, Jessie?”

“Just for fun,” I told him. “I’ve never
gone so far as to enter a marathon.”

“You should try it. It’s really a lot of
fun. It gives you this free feeling that you can’t describe, you have to
experience. You have a runner’s body you know?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I didn’t want to discuss
my body with him, even if it was a harmless discussion. “Are you ready to get
started?” I could tell by the look on his face that he got it…I wanted this to
be strictly business.

“I’m ready,” he said.

“So tell me what you’ve been doing for
your quads.”

“Mostly sprints and squats.” I nodded,
that was a good start.

“That’s good, but let me tell you the best
way to train your body. The best way to train is to work through functional
exercise. Do you know what that is?”

“Sort of,” he said.

“Well let me re-iterate it for you,” I
told him with a smile. I’m fresh out of college. I like reciting the book stuff
sometimes. “Functional exercise is any workout that imitates the movements that
you perform every day when you’re at home or work…anywhere, really. When you
climb a flight of stairs or just step up onto your porch at home or step up
into your lifted pick-up…”

“How did you know I have a lifted
pick-up?”

“Had you pegged for the type,” I told him.
“As I was saying…Anytime you do those things you are more or less doing the
same movement you do when you do step-ups here in the gym. Of course the
step-ups are more exaggerated, but they’re the same. Make sense?”

He grinned, “You’re telling me I’m going
to do step-ups, right?”

His smile was infectious. It was big and
toothy and his blue eyes shone when he did it. I felt compelled to smile back.
“Yes Justin, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.” I took him over to where I
had the step bench set up and we started with just the barbell. I had him do a
few reps just to get his form down. “Step up and use that leg in front to
propel yourself up. Bring your back foot up and raise your knee up as high as
you can. Good. Now, while you’re keeping the tension on that front leg, step
that other foot back down. Good. Now we add weight.”

We ran through a few sets of those,
increasing the weight as we went along. Justin didn’t complain at all even
though I knew by the final set or two his legs had to be on fire. When we
finished, I had him walk it off for a bit and get some water. After about ten
minutes of cooling down we moved on to barbell lunges.

“Okay,” I told him, “Same premise but
instead of step-ups, we’ll be doing lunges.”

“We’ll?” he said with a laugh.

“I pay my dues,” I told him with a laugh.
“Okay, same thing, empty barbell first with one foot forward, the other back,
both knees bent. Keep that forward foot parallel to the floor and don’t let
that back knee touch the ground.” On this one as we added weight I could see
him getting tired. I had to remind him a few times to pick his knee up and keep
it off the floor. When he finished I said, “Good, walk it off and get some more
water.”

He did and when he came back he said, “So
Jessie, do you like Need to Breathe?”

I looked at him strangely. I was thinking
“stalker.” How did he know that? I love that band…but how did he know? Was
hanging out with Paul making me paranoid all of a sudden?

“Um…why do you ask?” I said.

He laughed, “Are you always so suspicious?
You look like you just found the shrine of you I keep in my locker.” My eyes
must have gotten bigger because he winked and laughed and said, “I’m kidding,
Jessie. I asked about the band because they’re playing at The Greek Theatre
tonight and I have two tickets.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“You have two tickets and the concert’s
tonight and you don’t already have a date to go with? Why not?”

“I was trying to work my nerve up to ask
you.” Again, he had to say, “I’m kidding! I have two tickets, the concert is
tonight and my buddy who was going with me cancelled last night because his
girlfriend apparently objected to him going out with me…I can’t understand it.
I’m a really great guy.”

It was my turn to laugh. “I’m sorry. I’m
not usually so paranoid. It’s been a weird couple of weeks. But I do see we’ll
need to work on that ego too while you’re here. Need to Breathe huh? Wow…I
actually love them.”

“We can make a night of it. The concert
starts at eight. I can pick you up at six and we can have dinner first…”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. Why hadn’t
I just said no? The last thing I needed was more complication in my life.
“Squats now.”

“Ah, my favorite form of torture.”

I smiled, “Mine too.”

He picked up the barbell and said, “Front
or back?” Sometimes squats are done with the weights on the shoulders and
sometimes with them held in front of the chest.

“Both,” I told him.

“You do like this torture,” he said. I had
him start with it in front. While he was working I was running all of the
reasons why I shouldn’t go out with this guy through my mind. He was a client,
I was physically attracted to him so time alone in close quarters might be
dangerous…and most of all, he wasn’t Paul. What if Paul came back tomorrow?
Would he even care that I’d gone out with another guy? What if I turned down Justin
and sat around and waited for Paul…and he never came back. Shit! I went over
the reasons I should go then. I had no idea if Paul would ever be back. Paul
and I hadn’t gotten to the point of being in a committed relationship even if
he did come back. Justin was really cute. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and
that wholesome boy-next-door look to him. I absolutely loved Need to
Breathe…And the final reason I should: At the very least, going out with this
guy would get my mom off my back about my ex…maybe.

By the time he was finished with the
entire exercise, he was whooped. He got some water and walked around on the
mats a bit before picking up his towel and wiping the sweat off his face. “So?”
he said when he finished.

“So what?” I asked.

Shaking his head he said, “I think you’re
into more than one kind of torture. So how about tonight?”

“I guess…it might be fun.”

“Wow, curb the enthusiasm.” Another good
reason for going, he made me laugh. It was something I needed these days. There
was nothing wrong with just going out as friends.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, “I meant to say
I’d love to go.”

“Much better, but by the time I pick you
up can you work on your inflection a little more? Put some real feeling into it
for me?”

I laughed again. “I’ll do my best.”
 

CHAPTER
TWO

While I finished my day at work I thought
a hundred different times about calling Justin and cancelling. He had left me
his number. I shouldn’t do this. I was still screwed up over Paul. I knew I was
being ridiculous…Paul and I slept together a couple of times and we had shared
some pretty personal stuff…but that didn’t constitute a relationship just
yet…and I knew that, rationally. My heart however was telling me that I should
give him the benefit of the doubt. He would be back and with that in mind, I
should be loyal. I had to believe he really liked me. He had shared a lot with
me about his life. I think a lot more than he chose to share with most people.

I walked back home slowly, batting the
pros and cons back and forth in my head as I did. The pros won out today and I
convinced myself that since it was just dinner and a concert it didn’t have to
be a date. It really could just be two friends hanging out like I said. After
all, I wasn’t going to sleep with this guy tonight. Not that if I’d met him at
a different time….Justin is a really hot guy. But once again, he’s not Paul.

“Hey baby,” my mother and roommate greeted
me as I walked in the door.

“Hi Mom.”

“How was the day?”

“It was good. How was yours?”

“I filled out a few applications online,”
she told me, obviously proud of herself.

“Wow Mom, that’s great. Where did you
apply?”

“Some restaurants,” she said, vaguely. I
had no idea if she was really applying for jobs. She told me she did every day,
but I couldn’t very well check out all of her stories. Besides, she probably
wouldn’t stay single for long anyways and then she’d be someone else’s problem
for a while. I know that was a terrible way to think of it, but she was my
mother and this is who she is.