Chapter 7: FIRST SIGHT

In theory, Ashleigh's plan was great. But nothing worked out as planned. She'd sweated her hair until it was soaking wet and once she got to the locker she'd had to wash it. Her hair was too short to just pull back into a ponytail, and it took her forty-five minutes alone just getting her short hair blow dried and curled into a passable manner. She spent fifteen more minutes on makeup and ten minutes to get dressed. She'd only had time to grab a breakfast wrap and a bottle of juice and to get up to her office where she gobbled it up.

Kendra and Lance came into her office and looked her up and down. "Did you work out?" Kendra asked in disappointment.

"I did!" She said defensively. "My freaking legs are knotted up and I'm limping," she added.

Lance gave her a doubtful look. "Girlfriend, you look like you just left the spa. Make-up and clothes are flawless."

Ashleigh smiled. Lance was so sweet, even if he thought she looked too good to have just put in over an hour on her first workout—still, he thought she looked good.

"I am not coming up here looking like those other women with the sweat stains under their arms and hair all jacked up and spending the day wafting in my own funk."

They talked for a few minutes and Ashleigh's friends finally believed her when she tried to stand in her heels and groaned in pure pain and then limped to the coffee pot.

The next day she brought hair gel so that she wouldn't have to worry about straightening her hair again. After placing her things in the locker she headed for the gym. Once again she heard music playing; The Dave Matthews Band, Ants Marching. Not quite the music you'd think about working out to but she liked the song.

Again the same man was on the treadmill. Again he was wearing all black with a hood concealing him pretty well. She pretended not to watch the way he made running the treadmill look effortless. She almost fell off the thing when she'd done it the day before.

Today she wore navy sweatpants and an oversized shirt. She did her stretching, or tried to. Her muscles were so tight that she could barely bend. She plopped down on the floor and stretched her legs, and tried to reach for her feet. Well that wasn't going to happen. She lay on her back and pulled one leg then the other up against her body. She peeked over at the sexy guy. He just stared straight ahead and didn't look at her once. Hmph. She guessed that was good. She didn't need to worry about some guy checking her out while she was straining just to touch her feet!

It took her about seven minutes to get loosened up enough to hit the elliptical machine. Ten minutes in to it and Ashleigh was asking herself, 'Why am I torturing myself like this? Who really cares…?

And then she thought about DeAngelo and Shaunda and the woman's perfect body. Her throat tightened. Ashleigh's eyes glazed but this time not with tears, with determination. She pushed herself when she wanted to stop—when she would have stopped she just kept going. One day at a time, she said this to herself when the stitch formed in her side.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step…

~*~

After leaving the gym and showering, Christopher returned to the monitoring room. A few of the guys were there watching the lady workout but they weren't hooping and hawing because they didn't want to attract Bruce's attention. With a sigh, Christopher joined them.

"Dude, look at her go." Roddy said.

"We're taking bets that she's going to black out."

Christopher watched the woman pushing herself. She was on the treadmill again and this time she was going at a run. After a few more minutes she finally stopped and the hooping and hollering grew a bit louder as money passed hands.

"Fifteen minutes!" Someone said loudly. "That's my girl." They disbanded and went about their duties. Christopher lingered. She'd dropped down on the mat on her back. She was breathing hard. Shit, she was going to seize up doing that. Her arm was across her face. He leaned in closer.

She was crying.