It was Preston.
Twenty-Five
By three o’clockon Christmas Eve, Northlife Fitness was nearly empty. A few die-hards remained, squeezing in last-minute workouts before the gym closed at four. Most of Drew’s regulars had opted to skip their training sessions this week. Except Hannah. She never canceled unless she was on vacation or seriously ill.
As Drew went through the motions of working with her, he tried to stay focused. Just because he felt like complete shit didn’t mean he could half-ass his job. But for the past two nights, he’d barely slept. Whenever he closed his eyes, his breakup with Rosie played on a loop. The anguish in her voice when she’d accepted his decision. Her tearful face as she’d left the wedding. The agony he’d felt, wanting desperately to text her but not knowing what to say.
Worse yet, he couldn’t get Evelyn’s parting words out of his head. Though he agreed that Rosie deserved someone who could give her what she wanted, the thought of her with anyone else twisted his stomach into a knot.
“Drew!” Hannah set down her kettlebell with a thud. “You’re drifting off again.”
“Sorry. Let’s move on to the shoulder press machine.”
“We already did that. What’s wrong with you?”
He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. He was screwing up, big-time. How did he expect to handle his new role as the gym’s fitness manager if he couldn’t get through a simple training session with a longtime client?
Hannah glanced up at the big digital clock on the gym wall. “If you want to end things early, that’s fine with me. I’m sure you’re eager to join Rosie and her family tonight.”
Yet another thing he was missing. He’d been so excited to participate in her family’s Nochebuena celebration. Now, he’d be spending the evening in an empty apartment. Even his roommates had gone home to be with their families.
Rather than craft another lie, he admitted the truth. “I’m not going. Rosie and I aren’t together anymore.”
To his surprise, Hannah grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the padded bench near the rack of kettlebells. She sat on it and motioned for him to join her. “Sit. You need to tell me what’s going on.”
Even if she occasionally treated him like a grandson, he didn’t feel right unloading his woes on her. But when she scowled at him, he was too intimidated to argue. He sat beside her on the bench. “There’s not much to tell. Things didn’t work out between us, but it’s okay. We were only together for a couple of months.”
She harrumphed. “So Rosie didn’t mean anything to you?”
Was that what people would think when he told them about it? If so, he’d have to come up with a better way to frame their breakup. He didn’t want to sound like a selfish jerk, even if he felt like one.
“No, I cared about her. A lot. But I wanted to keep things casual, and she didn’t feel the same way.”
“Casual.” Hannah let out a snort. “Is this a millennial thing?”
Age-wise, he probably qualified as Gen Z rather than millennial, but he didn’t want to contradict her.
“Your generation is missing the point,” she said. “Why deprive yourself of something meaningful? Don’t you want more than just a bunch of casual hookups?” From the disgusted expression on her face, she clearly wasn’t a fan of the idea.
As a woman approached the kettlebell rack, Drew waited until she’d grabbed a ten-pound bell and returned to her spot on the mat before he responded to Hannah.
“I don’t have a great track record with romantic relationships,” he said. “Probably because my parents set a terrible example. They criticized me and my sister constantly but saved their biggest insults for each other. I spent years listening to them argue.”
Talking about it brought back depressing memories of hiding out in his room and blasting his music. Anything to avoid hearing his parents’ raised voices. The few times he’d tried to intervene, they’d turned on him.
“I’m sorry to hear it,” Hannah said. “It sounds like they did a lot of damage.”
“Yeah. They didn’t hit me or anything, but it still left a mark.”
“So, now you have difficulty trusting people enough to let them in?”
He was grateful she understood how he felt. “That’s it exactly. My sister says I have serious trust issues. Most of my…um…relationships have been casual because it’s easier that way. Less to lose, you know?” When she nodded, he forced himself to keep going. “With Evelyn, things were different. I tried to give her more of myself, but it wasn’t enough and…”
“And then she left you for that low-life Jared.” Hannah’s voice was tinged with acid. “A snake in the grass, that one.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “A total snake. So, when I got involved with Rosie, I didn’t want to take that risk again.”
“But you like her a lot, don’t you?”
