“Why?” I blurt.
“That’s what time I’ve always gotten up,” he tells me simply.
“Why?” I question again, not wanting to seem like an asshole, but unsure why anyone would choose to get up that early if they don’t need to.
“My father woke me and my brother up at that time for morning PT.”
“Morning PT?” I question.
“My father was a drill sergeant in the army. He believes that exercise, structure, and routine are how good soldiers are made.”
“But you weren’t a soldier, were you?”
“No, I wasn’t,” he says robotically.
“How old were you when your dad started making you get up for…PT?”
“I was ten,” he says simply.
“And you’ve been getting up at that time ever since?”
“Yes.”
A single word. A simple response, but it’s more telling than I think Knight realizes.
“Yesterday you said lunch was at one?” I question.
“We eat breakfast at 0700 hours, lunch at 1300 hours, and dinner at 1900 hours.”
“Every day?”
“Yes. I prefer a tight schedule.”
“I’m not really a morning person,” I tell him, feeling uncomfortable admitting it, even though I doubt anyone actually enjoys getting up this early when they don’t have to.
His grimace is barely visible, but I see it.
“You’ll get used to it,” he says.
“I don’t want to get used to it,” I argue. “My day usually starts much later. I don’t schedule appointments before eleven a.m., then I work late so clients can come to the studio after their normal workday.”
I watch him take in the information, then eventually nod. “We can have breakfast at 0700, then you can arrange your appointments around lunch and dinner as usual.”
“Did you wake me up earlier?” I ask, a vague memory of him trying to wake me up and me going back to sleep filtering into my mind.
“Yes. We get up at 0500 hours.”
“Oh my god, you tried to wake me up at five a.m. for no reason?” I hiss.
“We work out at 0500.”
“Stop saying we,” I shout. “Wedon’t do anything.Youget up at the ass crack of dawn. I don’t and never will.”
“You’ll get used to it,” he tells me again.
“No, I won’t, because I’m not getting up at five a.m.”
“But we work out at?—”
