When we got outside, he said, “I’ll have the other files sent over to your place.”
“I’m at the gym all day until around seven tonight. Madden’s working,” I explained.
Madden also worked at the police department. He was leader of the SWAT team and they had some training to get done. Training that had kept him from dealing with his six o’clock class for the next week, forcing me to teach that one today, too.
Which pissed me off thoroughly. I didn’t teach classes.
However, Jasper and Sophia both had something going on today, too, as well as our regular coach who taught mostly everything at normal hours—he was a single dad and had a young boy that was now six months old.
Which all meant that the only other person that could take over was little old me.
“I’ll send them to the gym, then,” Chief offered.
I felt my throat constrict.
The chief’s phone rang and I jerked my chin at him. “See you later.”
He jerked his own chin in response and placed his phone to his ear.
I walked away from the house and didn’t look back, my mind spinning with possibilities.
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.