No Rep (Madd CrossFit 1)

I got that from my friend Jacob. Well, actually, Jacob was a friend of Mavis’s, who then happened to become a friend of mine out of association.

He had a truck—I didn’t ask Jacob for the use of his truck because he always tried to barter for more. More as in a date. Which I did not want to give him.

Jacob was a nice guy, but I wasn’t ready for anyone that looked like Jacob.

Jacob was pretty. He was a chiropractor. Had soft, supple hands that had never seen anything rough in their life. They were so soft, in fact, that I was fairly sure he got manicures on a weekly basis.

Speaking of Jacob, I had a missed text from him from last night.

I’d gone to bed around nine seeing as I couldn’t physically scrounge up the energy to do much more of anything but sleeping. I’d even forgotten to dry my hair before bed, and now it was a wild nest of corkscrews.

Ignoring Jacob’s text, as well as the mess in the kitchen from last night, I ran out the door with my keys in my hand and my phone now behind my pair of shorts, but still practically in my underwear.

By the time that I got to the car—I always, always ran when it was dark, or if I was by myself—my phone had slid down to uncomfortable levels.

Fishing it out of the front of my pants as I got in the car, locked the door, turned the key in the ignition, and then reached for a sanitizing wipe on the seat next to me.

After cleaning my phone off, I threw it on the passenger seat and then backed out of the driveway.

My eyes lit on a disturbance down the street with police cars in front of it, but I didn’t slow or check it out.

Mostly because I knew how it felt to be the center of attention, and I didn’t much like that feeling. So I tried not to put anyone else in that situation if I could help it.

I arrived at the gym with about two minutes to spare until class started.

I was all but dragging my ass inside the doors when I heard his voice.

“I want everyone to head out for a four-hundred-meter run.” Taos headed for a big bay door at the back of the gym. “You run out until you see the four-hundred-meter sign and turn back.”

I froze in the entrance, unable to make myself go. The darkness was heavy this morning. What little light that there was cast shadows everywhere. Anyone could be hiding in them…

Memories of my assault peppered my poor little brain, and I couldn’t make my feet move.

Recalls of a time when things were really bad for me practically hit me over the head.

It was dark. Really dark. I knew that I shouldn’t be running in the dark on this particular trail, but I had somewhere to be at nine in the morning, and if I didn’t get the run in, I wouldn’t get my long run of the week in, and that would just throw my entire week off…

A strong arm gripped my hand, and I blinked, looking up right into the face of the man that had saved me.

My mouth fell open, and I stared at those eyes that had held such kindness and compassion that night that had changed my life.

How had I not noticed it until now? Those eyes have been my saving grace.

Granted, a lot had happened that night, my brain was confused. But I dreamed about those eyes every single night.

The face was a bit harder to see that night—my vision had been fuzzy—but not that fuzzy.

“You want me to run with you?” he asked.

He didn’t remember me.

Then again, I’d been a swollen, bloody, and bruised mess when he’d seen me.

The only thing that’d been the ‘same’ had been my eyes and my hair.

“I don’t do so well running in the darkness.” I swallowed hard. “Something happened in the dark… I just can’t do it anymore.”

“I’ll run with you,” he promised. “I’ll stay right by your side. Okay?”

I nodded mutely.

Then together we set out.

But outside wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

It was later in the morning than it had been the night I was attacked. There were also lights that illuminated the area, making it almost impossible not to see.

There were shadows, yes, but they weren’t shadowy enough to cause me to think that something might pop out of them.

Like he’d done.

“I didn’t expect to see you here so early,” he mused as he ran, sounding like he was running at a very light pace.

I, on the other hand, was too busy huffing and puffing to answer him clearly.

“Have to,” I panted. “Work.”

He grunted. “What do you do for a living?”