Chapter Five
Liz
After almost tripping over my feet, I turned towards the door and bolted.
I grabbed my bag from the change room, ignored Dani’s confused expression at the front desk, and pushed through the front door into the street.
I tiptoed across the cooling concrete of the sidewalk until I could stop in a doorway of a business down the street and put my shoes on.
I can’t believe I just did that.
What choice did I really have though? It was either run or say, Oh hey, Nate, I know I’m paying you to teach me self-defence, but we can’t practice together anymore because touching you is giving me a huge lady boner, and I’m not learning shit.
Yeah, running was the only option. I was a grown woman at the ripe old age of forty, and I still couldn’t admit I had a crush.
What did it matter if I did? He was twelve years younger than me.
A single dad and business owner with a lot on his plate.
He’d be crazy to be interested in a woman who was starting her life and career over in another town.
Not to mention, one who may or may not be dealing with a stalker.
When he had dropped me off at home after our last session, I had paused.
I wanted to invite him inside but couldn’t manage to bring the words to my lips.
He had paused too. He must have known what I was thinking.
Instead of sticking around, he revved his engine and drove away. That should tell me something.
That was what I should be thinking about.
I’d gotten a threatening letter. Well, not threatening exactly, but one that made it clear what they thought of women working in trades.
Now, I kept seeing the same car around. Coincidence?
Maybe, but I didn’t think so. Not knowing who or what was out there and what the hell they wanted should have been enough to keep my mind on my training and off all the sexy possibilities those jiu-jitsu positions held.
It didn’t, and now I was running away like a coward.
I rolled the possible suspects through my mind for the hundredth time as I walked towards my condo. Someone I knew or a stranger? A threat or a prank? My imagination or a serious problem? These questions all made me very tired.
I wish I knew more about what to expect.
Training with Nate had me feeling a little more prepared, but I had no idea if it was enough.
I was Canadian, so I was not going to run out and buy a gun.
Should I keep a baseball bat under my bed?
Get a big scary dog? Move? I sure as fuck wasn’t going to quit my job.
Even if I did, I knew I’d probably find a man who didn’t want women working in my field anywhere I went.
Whether they would be willing to act on it or not was another question, but I wouldn’t be jumping from job to job searching for acceptance.
This was my life, my career, and my choice.
I still wanted to learn more self-defence and get into MMA training in general.
All the things I loved about my job translated over to the mat.
The physicality of it. The thrill of learning a new skill.
Being able to tangibly see and feel that I was working my body and my mind was addictive.
It was all the things I loved about lifting weights but with added punching.
I didn’t want to give it up. The older I got, the more I realized that I needed to prioritize myself and no, that didn’t make me selfish.
I would do the job I loved regardless of what some faceless asshole thought about it.
I would train my muscles and my body in a way I wanted to, whether it was at Nate’s gym or somewhere else.
His may be the best in town according to the online reviews, but it wasn’t the only option.
My goals were more important than the insta-lust I’d developed for my trainer.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see Nate’s number flashing on the screen.
I hit silence and shoved it back in my bag.
He was probably confused as fuck right now, wondering what happened.
Maybe he would just think I got my period or something and leave it alone.
Of course, when I didn’t come back, that cover story would be blown out of the water.
I glanced around the parking lot when I got back to my condo but didn’t see the silver car.
After I was inside, I locked up and closed all my blinds.
Whether the car was there or not, I wasn’t taking any chances.
I had to work early tomorrow, and I was both physically and emotionally drained from my training session.
I threw a container of leftovers into the microwave and called my sister, Natalie. “How’s my favorite mom-to-be?”
She laughed. She was only two years younger than I was and had almost given up on the possibility of happily ever after when she met her now husband, Jake.
They had gotten married so he could use her medical benefits and ended up falling in love.
He was the sweetest, most protective, and caring guy when it came to her.
I couldn’t approve of them more. Now, I was going to be an aunt.
New town, new job, new role, and now, new threat.
“Still tired and nauseous, but hopefully that won’t last much longer. I miss you.”
My heart constricted. “I miss you too.” Natalie and I had always been close, but it was only in the last year that we lived in the same town. I moved here right around the time she fell for Jake.
I was happy for her, but it was hard to share my sister with another person.
They were each other’s perfect match. Two sides to the same coin.
She was still my person, but she had a bigger life now.
I could never put my sister’s happily ever after in jeopardy by getting her wrapped up in my current drama.
Every time my ex and I split up, she had been there to pick up the pieces.
To tell me that it was for the best. She could see things from the outside that I ignored.
I thought it was sweet how Kyle had always wanted to know where I was, or who I was with.
She could see how controlling it was. When I cancelled plans to avoid upsetting him, she saw it as the glaring red flag that it was.
Even when I went back to him over and over, she stayed by my side.
I owed her a little peace. She was in her own happy bubble, and I would be a shit sister if I popped it by making her worry about me.
“Once you’re feeling better, we will get together more often, I promise. We can do some shopping for everything you need for when the baby arrives.”
I laid back and listened to her gush about her plans for the nursery, while the gears of my mind worked in the background.
Kyle was really the most obvious suspect in this whole shit show, but we had been split for a long time.
He had reached out over and over at first, expecting me to come back to him as I had every other time.
When I found a job in Kamloops and took over Natalie’s lease, he seemed to have gotten the message.
I went about moving my life, and redecorating my sister’s very pink space.
I hadn’t heard from him since. It could be him, but honestly, I wasn’t sure I had ever meant enough to him for him to bother with all this.
Besides, why did the note mention my job specifically?
He had never liked that I worked with mostly men, but when I explained that I was in my truck alone most of the time he had dropped the subject. Mostly.
When Natalie started to yawn, we said good night, and I lay in my bed listening to every little sound.
The wind, the hum of the fridge, the creaks and groans that came with an old building.
Every one of them was transformed into a threat as I lay alone in the dark.
I distracted myself by going through every one of my coworkers in my head, wondering if any of them hated me enough to leave me that note.
We were a big crew. Lots of contractors coming and going for different parts of the job.
Normally, I was the only woman among them.
A lot of the guys I worked with regularly, I checked off the suspect list immediately.
They were mostly middle-aged guys. Friendly, chivalrous, and hard-working.
We all watched out for each other. Did they treat me differently because I was a woman?
One hundred percent, yes. But it came in the form of watching out for me, treating me like a little sister or even a daughter rather than like they wanted me gone.
There were others though. Usually, the younger guys for some reason.
Nothing outright hostile but avoiding eye contact, brushing past me instead of saying good morning.
I had heard the odd joke between a few of them that I was sure their mothers would not have approved of.
I’d heard them refer to me as the diversity hire.
Just throw one woman on the crew so we don’t look like misogynistic assholes.
They didn’t think I was qualified, but was that enough of a reason to leave that note?
It was at a work event and the person had to have known what car mine was, which they would have.
I rolled onto my side. I hadn’t slept well since this all started, and I knew tonight would be no different.