No Rep by Lani Lynn Vale

CHAPTER 4

Thighs before pies.

-Coffee Cup

FRAN

I was sore.

Sore wasn’t actually descriptive enough for how I felt.

Handicapped maybe.

I wasn’t sure.

What I was sure about was that I was going back to that class.

Though, I was sort of bummed out this morning.

I had to go to the six o’clock in the morning class instead of the six o’clock in the evening. And from what Mavis had told me, Taos didn’t teach any other classes but the one in the evening, meaning I wouldn’t be seeing him today.

“Stupid job,” I mumbled as I wobbled on shaky legs to my bathroom.

I looked around at my brand-new rented townhouse.

I was the first person to move into the townhomes, and the one I was in was so new that you could still smell the fresh paint.

I’d put my stamp on the house, though, by adding flowers to the front flowerbeds and the small area right around the mailbox. I’d gotten a couple of lawn chairs from Lowe’s, too, allowing me to be able to utilize the front porch.

My alarm went off and I groaned, looking back at the bedroom over my shoulder and decided that it could just continue to go off.

I was too sore to turn around and walk back for it.

Which caused me to have to listen to my alarm going off, louder and louder, until I’d finished in the bathroom.

Waddling to the bed, I leaned over it and snatched my phone out of the middle before turning the alarm off.

That’s when I smiled at my background photo.

My sister had taken one of herself, which happened to be a very unflattering selfie of all the rolls that she could manage under her chin.

Swiping it open, I sent her a text that said one word.

Me: Dead

She replied within ten seconds.

Mavis: It’s called the CrossFit walk for a reason.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved the phone down into the front of my underwear—seriously, I wasn’t wearing a bra so where was I supposed to put it?—then headed to my closet.

My eyes landed on all my old workout gear.

All the old workout gear that wasn’t nearly as flattering now as it had been once upon a time.

Seriously, I knew that because I’d tried on nearly every single piece I owned to find something to wear to the gym yesterday. But now, there I was having the same dilemma.

In the end, I chose to wear the booty shorts. They stretched, had a wide waistband that seemed to hold in the pooch the best, and looked good with a crop top. That, and the shorts were a little more forgiving around my thighs. Or maybe it was because the shorts came up to almost where a pair of underwear would sit.

“I should change,” I said, looking down at my shorts.

They were tight.

They were short.

They were… indecent.

“I should change,” I repeated as I started to head back into the closet.

However, just as I was about to change—or at least look for something else to wear because again, I didn’t have much that fit anymore—my alarm went off indicating that if I didn’t leave now, I’d be late.

Sighing and taking one last look at my underwear shorts, I snatched my tennis shoes, a pair of no-show socks, and headed for the front room.

The living room/kitchen area was great.

Great as in, really pretty, had great color on the walls—beige—had exposed wood and beautiful, warm looking wood floors.

But that really was it.

I didn’t have any furniture yet because I didn’t know anyone with a truck, and I refused to pay the ridiculous prices of having a couch delivered from the store in town.

Meaning, there I was without a couch.

But it worked out well because I had a bed in the middle of the living room for when people came over and wanted to sit.

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?”

I grimaced, frowning at the ground. “I used to be a nurse. I used to work twelve-hour shifts at the hospital. But I… quit.”

I could practically feel his gaze on me as he said, “Why?”

I considered whether or not to answer him but decided to just be open about it.

“I administered a wrong dose of medication, medication that had been given to me by a fellow nurse and I stupidly didn’t think to check it. And instead of the nurse owning up to her giving that medication dose to me, she started rumors about me at the hospital. And I didn’t like looking like a complete dumbass. So I… quit. Now I do odds and ends. Run errands for people and stuff like that,” I explained.

He tilted his head. “Did you report the other nurse who gave you the medication?”

I nodded, even though I was panting heavily now, I continued to speak. “She fucked up a few months later by administering her own wrong dose of medication, although hers was lethal. She killed the guy, then admitted that she’d screwed up before with me. Said that she was having trouble seeing, and that she was going blind. Then admitted that she started rumors about me to keep the heat off of her while she was going blind. They tried to call me back, to get me to come back, but I refused. The damage was done.”

“Wow,” Taos said as he passed the others in our class who’d already turned around. “It sounds like she needed to get fired. Then they needed to do something to entice you to come back.”

“They’ve tried.” I shrugged. “But it works out well this way. I make more money doing what I’m doing. I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want. And if I don’t want to do something, I don’t.”

Taos laughed as we turned around. “That would be very nice.”

I looked over at him. “What do you do for a living?”

Then I nearly slapped myself in the face. What the fuck was I thinking?

I knew what he did for a living! He owned a gym for Christ’s sake!

Seriously, Fran. What the ever-lovin’ fuck?

He seemed like he didn’t want to answer at first, but then said, “I used to be a police officer. I retired a few years ago after a particularly brutal case and decided to try out a different career path. The gym.”

I nodded. That sounded like a lot of fun, actually.

I was also a little bit relieved that he didn’t call me out on my stupid question.

I deserved it.

“The gym was always something that I wanted to do,” he said, filling the silence while I inwardly berated myself.

I’d always wanted to own a gym, too. But when I’d brought it up to my family, they’d convinced me otherwise. Apparently, gyms were hard to take off, and hard to keep going once they got established.

I’d always wanted to do something fitness related.

I wanted to own a gym. Be a trainer. Help people get fit.

Help people make their lives better.

Help them live longer.

Help them… live.

I knew that people were happy in all shapes and sizes, but I also wanted to make sure that they lived their best happy life. That meant being healthy.

And sadly, being healthy came with eating right and making sure that your heart was active. That you got your muscles moving for thirty minutes every day. That you put forth the effort, even when you didn’t want to.

And when the gym thing didn’t work out for me, I’d done the next best thing that I thought I might be able to hack to keep people healthy and living their best life: nursing.

Only, that didn’t quite work out the way I’d wanted it to, either.

Sadly, before any more could be said, the bay door came into view, and I realized that I’d gone on my first ‘dark’ run since my attack.

I felt… energized.

At least until I entered the door and found Maria, the cheating twat, and a woman standing there with their arms crossed, staring at the two of us.

“Find a new project, Taos?” Maria cooed.

I wanted to punch her in the throat for calling me a ‘project’ but I chose to take the higher road and walk to the side of the room where I’d placed my stuff right at the entry and shed my top layers.

That left me in my crop top, my short shorts, and my brand-new CrossFit shoes that the saleslady assured me were ‘really hard to find’ because they’d ‘just been released.’

When I came back it was to find Taos talking to some elderly gentleman that looked like he should’ve started this working out thing when his knees moved right.

“So I heard about you.”

I looked over to find Maria standing there with the same woman she was with earlier. She looked vaguely familiar, and I didn’t know why.

“Oh?” I asked.

She nodded. “I heard that you used to work at the hospital.”

The woman beside her flushed at the words, and it was then that I realized how I knew her. She’d been a nurse at the hospital when I’d worked there. Only, she’d been on a different floor.

“I did,” I confirmed.

“I also heard that you almost killed someone,” she pushed.

I narrowed my eyes. “I did.”

Maria looked taken aback at the honesty in my words. “A nurse loaded a syringe, then had to leave in an emergency. I administered that syringe with medication to the patient when I should have checked his chart. I didn’t. That’s on me.”

The woman standing next to Maria hissed in a breath that sounded like she was surprised.

As if she hadn’t quite known all the details.

Technically, I should’ve never administered that medication. Though it was something that happened quite a bit. A nurse would have something go wrong with another patient. And since the other patient was more critical, they’d give the other patient over to another nurse so it wouldn’t be too ‘hard’ on them with that added patient.

Everyone did it.

Everyone would continue to do it.

But I should’ve used my own brain and made sure.

Yet I didn’t.

And I would forever live with that.

“All of you need to gather around and grab a PVC pipe!” Taos called, saving me from talking any more to Maria, the woman that I knew for some reason hated me.

I didn’t know why.

I mean, other than the obvious of catching me looking at her ex.

Whatever the reason for her automatic hatred of me, I chose to let that flow past me, too.

I didn’t have the time, or the inclination, to deal with drama.

I didn’t do drama.

Drama was for high school.

I was an adult now.

“What we’re going to do is called pass-throughs,” Taos said when I arrived with my PVC pipe.

He then showed us how he straightened his arms and then passed the pipe over his head to the back, stretching and warming up shoulder muscles as he did, without bending his elbows.

I followed his movements, making sure to do exactly like he did, and realized rather quickly that this hurt a whole lot worse than it looked like it should.

Five minutes later, I was working on what was called a ‘snatch.’

It was when you got the bar from around shin level, straight up over your head.

And I was absolute shit at it.

When I was my fittest, I never did any barbell work.

I always did machine weights, which didn’t have any technical movements.

It also didn’t help that Maria picked up on it like a fish to water.

I wanted to shove my new CrossFit shoes into her vagina.

Except I didn’t want to ruin my brand-new shoes.

My luck, she probably had acid instead of regular vagina fluids.

I’d probably have to amputate…

“No, like this,” Taos corrected.

He then came right up beside me, bent down as if he was about to pick the bar up, and then dropped his butt.

I frowned and followed suit, finding a completely different lifting platform when I did it like he showed me.

“Now, up. Knock your hat off with the bar,” he ordered.

I didn’t point out that I wasn’t wearing a hat.

Instead, I did what he suggested, feeling the bar move to where it needed to, bumping against my hips, before the bar sailed over my head.

I squeaked in surprise when I did it exactly how it was meant to be done.

“Great,” he smiled.

I felt my heart skip a beat.

His eyes lingered on my face for a few seconds, kind of like a long time ago they’d done when he’d been inspecting my face, trying to see if there was any damage other than the obvious bruising and swelling.

He’d looked at me with such intensity then as he held me in his arms that it was life changing.

Even now, with him inspecting my face, I could tell that he felt like he knew me.

It was somehow bothering him enough that I knew he would eventually figure it out.

The question was whether I would get the courage to tell him the story.

I hadn’t had the courage to tell anyone since that day.

That day being the worst of my life. That day staying on a constant loop in my dreams. Or nightmares.

“Coach Taos,” came Maria’s sweet, sappy, disingenuous voice. “Would you mind critiquing my form?”

“Your form is perfect, Maria. I taught you how to do it already,” Taos disagreed, rolling his eyes at me.

My lips twitched and I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up my throat.

He really didn’t like her.

Duly noted.

“Keep the weight there, and work on form,” he ordered as he started toward another person.

I smiled as I watched his ass in his thin knit shorts move away from me.

That was when I realized that not once had I looked at the front of those shorts.

Likely, my mind had shielded me from the magnificence. That, or it knew that once I’d seen the front, I wouldn’t stop looking.

I had a weakness for men in knit shorts.

I mean, yes, gray sweatpants were really fucking hot on men. But they weren’t the bee’s knees. Knit shorts were. They were thinner. Showed off more dick surface area and were seriously the best thing since sliced bread.

“Hey, Coach!” Maria called again.

I gritted my teeth and tried another snatch, this time feeling like I might actually be getting it.

“Hey, Coach…” Maria called one more time.

That’s when I saw Taos’ head whip around, and a lethal glare come rolling over his face.

I bit my lip to hold in the snicker, but it didn’t help.

The laughter bubbled out, and Taos’ glare rolled to me.

His face softened at the smile on my lips, and he was just about to say something else when my phone rang.

My head whipped around way faster than Taos’ had when he’d been glaring at Maria, and I dropped the bar unceremoniously to the ground. It bounced wildly to the side and barely missed the person to my left.

I didn’t pay it much mind seeing as it was Maria. She would’ve deserved the beating.

I ran over to my phone as fast as my poor, sore body could manage, staring at the readout.

Mavis.

Mavis: can you come get Vlad? They called me into work, and I’ve already said no too many times.

Me: Sure. Now? Or can I finish my class first?

Mavis: Now? I’m so so sorry. I really am.

I grinned.

Me: I’ll be there in ten. Is he even up yet?

Mavis: No. He was allowing me to sleep in. They are assholes for calling me in on a good day.

I laughed and gathered my things, shoving them unceremoniously into my bag with no rhyme or reason. Nor order, apparently. I wouldn’t find those wrist wraps at all when I next needed them.

“Everything okay?”

The sound of Taos’ voice behind me had shivers dancing down my spine.

“Yep.” I smiled. “My sister just needs to go to work, and I have to go watch my nephew.”

Taos’ frown deepened as he helped me pick up and shoulder my bag.

I gave him a grateful smile and headed for the door.

He came with me, walking me to my car.

A profound sense of thankfulness rolled through me.

I hadn’t realized that even the walk to the car had stressed me out earlier until now, with him walking at my side.

Only when I was in my car and completely driving off did he go inside.

I didn’t stop watching him until I almost ran into a parked car.