The pain in her chest had nothing to do with the workout and everything to do with seeing Bull.
Jase walked her to the metal staircase leading to her apartment. “I’ll see you tonight around six.”
“Yes, I will be there.”
“Good. Take care.” He turned on his heel and left.
Maddie didn’t wait around to watch him go. She walked up the stairs, taking them slowly and gripping the rail a little harder than she needed to.
Her legs felt like jelly.
Inside her new apartment, she leaned against the door.
Bull had looked fine. The short glance she had of him, she saw that he was … happy.
She closed her eyes, pressed her lips together, and clenched her hands into tight fists. “It’s fine. I am fine. Everything is fine.”
It was all a big, fat lie.
Opening her eyes, she tried not to think of the pain, of his horrible yet truthful words. It wasn’t like she’d never heard something like that before. All her life, people had told her how her weight didn’t match up, or her looks. She was ugly and fat.
She went to the bathroom, stripped out of her clothes, and took a quick shower. With the clock ticking, she didn’t want to be late for work.
She finished her shower in quick time, changed into her uniform, and headed into the diner.
Beatrice liked the morning rush, and she was behind the main counter, ringing up customers as they approached. Maddie gave her a smile, grabbed her apron from around the back, said morning to Carl, and got to work.
The diner was always a popular place, and what she loved most was that there was no time for chitchat. Everyone always had something to do.
She got a few nasty comments, but she pretended not to hear them.
Since Beatrice had kicked out the Chaos and Carnage MC, there was no risk of her bumping into any of them.
“I feel like we don’t get time to talk,” Beatrice said at around three in the afternoon.
Maddie chuckled. “Don’t you love it like this?” She sure did. Moving from table to table, she did the same job, but with each new customer, it was different.
By five thirty, she was exhausted, but it was the end of her shift. She said goodbye to Beatrice and Carl, heading out of the diner. She went around the back to her home and walked upstairs.
She didn’t have time to dawdle.
Changing into a new set of workout clothes, she didn’t bother to shower before heading toward the gym.
She was so nervous.
This wasn’t the place for her, but she forced herself to enter the large building. There weren’t many people around, but Jase was at the front desk, glancing through some files when she entered.
The clock showed it to be exactly six o’clock.
“Hey,” Maddie said.
He looked up, and the frown he had disappeared. “Maddie, hi.” He closed the files and placed them in the cabinet behind him.
“I’m not too late?”
“You’re right on time.” He clicked his pen shut and rounded the counter. “Come on, I’ll get you set up on a warmup. This is what you will do every single time you come here to be trained.”
He pointed out the ladies’ changing room, then waited for her on the opposite side that gave her access to the rest of the gym.
There were one or two people, but not a whole lot, and she was more than thankful. She didn’t know if she could stand to work out surrounded by a lot of people.
Jase surprised her by not taking her straight to a bunch of machines, but instead, to a large, open mat.
“You’re going to start stretching. Like this morning, but I want you to focus on warming yourself up. Did you have a good workday today?” he asked.
“Yes, I did. Is that relevant?”
“No, it’s not. I just making small talk.”
“Ah, okay. Then, yes, it was busy. I like busy.”
“You do?” he asked.
Maddie nodded.
“Care to share why?”
She shook her head. “No reason. I just like to stay busy. I’m sure you have a lot of busy clients.”
“That we do.” He smiled. “So, do you think you can do this every day before you start to work out?”
“Yeah, I can. Why do we do this?”
“It stops you from causing yourself an injury. Warming up is really important, and I don’t want you to skip it.”
He led the way through the gym. “I figured we could get started on the treadmill.”
“Ah, yes. Running but not on real land.” She smiled.
Jase chuckled. “Funny.”
He pressed the buttons, and she started at a slow walk.
As she did this, he walked around the treadmill, watching her. “I’m checking to make sure your movements are correct and you don’t need any other guidance on how to properly hold yourself.”
“Makes sense.”
She hated being observed, but after a few minutes, she was able to forget about it.