Chapter Twenty-One #2
In what felt like the next minute, she woke up cold.
The room was dark, and white noise droned in the background; Tish must have turned off the lights and turned on the track before falling asleep in bed as opposed to on bed.
She dove under her own covers, basking in the newfound warmth before falling asleep again.
This time, she didn’t wake up again until Tish’s alarm went off.
****
Spencer: It wasn’t the same without you.
Misty:
Misty: So sorry I missed this...I was OUT after that day!
Spencer looked back at his screen, still not sure how to respond. Last night, he’d sat staring at that screen for a while before it became clear she wasn’t going to reply. He’d said too much, and this wasn’t the right way to do it.
Nor was it the time. His next appointment would be here any minute, and he needed to be ready for this.
It bugged him to no end to hear women say they wanted to get their bodies back after being pregnant (after seeing his sister in action, he could say that their bodies had been there the whole time and done extraordinary things for them), but Cathy had been a marathoner before she’d been put on bed rest for a difficult pregnancy.
He more than understood that she couldn’t jump back into things.
“How’s it going?” he asked, holding out a fist.
“Pretty good,” she said, bumping hers against his.
“Good. Let’s start on the treadmill to get your blood moving.”
“Okay.” She climbed on the machine.
Spencer programmed the settings and stepped back to watch. Cathy seemed to be moving with less effort than when they’d started, and there was an easy way to test that. “You know this song?” he asked.
She paused to listen to the gym’s sound system. “‘I Can See Clearly Now’? Yeah, why?”
“Do me a favor and sing along with a few lines.”
She looked skeptical. “I can’t sing for shit.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll be checking your breathing, not the quality of your voice.”
That seemed to satisfy her because Cathy sang along with the next verse. She’d been honest about her singing ability or lack thereof, but the words flowed easily as she moved.
“I thought so,” Spencer announced. “This is getting too easy for you because you’ve gotten stronger. I’m gonna bump it up a notch.”
Cathy beamed and moved aside to let him recalibrate the treadmill. Spencer was pleased with her progress, and yet he felt a pang in his chest. He remembered giving Misty similar advice when she’d been in training, and she’d qualified to try out for the World Winter Games.
Once the session was over and he had a minute to himself, he got his phone out.
Spencer: It’s okay. You around tonight?
The reply didn’t come for a few more hours.
Misty: Should be. What’d you want to do? Call, text, FaceTime?
He thought it over.
Spencer: FaceTime if your roommate’s not around, otherwise let’s just talk.
She immediately started typing.
Misty: Interesting. What exactly did you want to do if Tish isn’t around? ??
Spencer nearly dropped his phone. Here he’d thought it’d be good to see her face, but it sounded like she had something else in mind. Before he could answer, she texted again.
Misty: Tell me later...it’ll be something to look forward to after this session.
It gave Spencer a much-needed ego boost. As proud of her as he was, he couldn’t ignore the feeling of being left behind.
It wasn’t unlike when he’d first gotten hurt and everyone he’d met on the circuit had left to go back to tournaments while he was laid up.
He reminded himself that this was the goal.
He also had other goals to help people toward. Another text popped up, this one from a client saying he was running late but would be there soon. Spencer put his phone away and pulled up his file to get ideas for how to proceed.
Hours later and back home, he showered, wolfed down a quick dinner of leftover steak and vegetables, and checked his teeth for stray bits of it before getting on the phone. He picked it up to see a text from Misty.
Misty: Tish is around, so a regular call might be best.
He touched her contact with a feeling of being back on the competition circuit, roommates dictating when and how he could hook up with someone. When she answered, she sounded happy to hear from him.
“How’d it go today?”
“This time, they had us do some more core work before getting on the ice, and I think it made a difference. I didn’t fall as much, anyway.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah, but you should see my ass now. I could send a pic.”
“Tempting.” The sentence brought back all sorts of memories for Spencer. The sight of her ass encased in workout leggings. Hints of cheeks in her bathing suit and finally feeling it clasped in his hands as they made out.
Misty was still talking, and he forced himself back to the conversation. “Anyway, they’re going to bring a sled onto the ice in the next few days to get us used to pushing it. Then it’ll be time to actually go bobsledding.”
“That’ll be exciting.” Spencer injected some enthusiasm into his voice but couldn’t help remembering what talking to Haley was like in their last days.
In retrospect. he knew she hadn’t tried to hurt him—he’d been the one to ask about her days, which she’d spent training, traveling, and competing—but it had still been too painful.
“Oh, shit. My phone’s about to die, but I forgot to tell you—”
The call cut off, leaving Spencer alone in his apartment. Even as he experienced a stab of rejection, it was tempered with relief. He resented that he hadn’t even gotten to tell her anything about his day, but what could he have said that measured up to this?