She snapped her mouth shut.
They started off easy. The sun was rising, hazy and humid already. Theo did his best to keep his eyes straight ahead, instead of on the bouncing curves in Lycra next to him. He kept a steady pace until she had a hard time talking to him.
"I need a break. Let's sit down here on this bench," shegasped, pointing to the end of Main Street. Theo looked at his watch. He had spent the night researching a popular 5K program, and he had all of his stops planned for her.
"A little bit farther," he coaxed.
She bent down with her hands on her knees, huffing and puffing, but she let him bully her into another respectable few yards.
They did an easy loop around the village, through the green where people were fishing in the canal and passed moms running with their kids in strollers. He was proud of Amber, although he wasn't ready to give her any praise. He knew she'd stop if he did, but she kept up and eventually stopped complaining. He had a feeling that had more to do with not having any breath to spare.
Back up in her apartment, she dragged herself to the shower with a limp wave of her hand. "Shower. Bye. See you. Later," she said, panting.
Theo grinned and made his way to the kitchen. He found the blender in the same spot he had left it, took out all the glass containers of lettuce, apples, celery, carrots, spinach, kale, and seeds he had brought over, and got to work.
Fifteen minutes later, Amber padded out of the bathroom in a short colorful kimono robe. "Oh," she said in surprise, "I thought you went home."
"Drink this," he said, handing her a tall glass of green juice.
She looked at it, then at him, as if he had betrayed her. "You made me run, and you're making me drink that? What did I ever do to you?"
He laughed, something he realized he did often with her around. “This isn’t part of our dare. It’s just good for you. Drink this and I'll make you an omelet.”
She looked like she was going to dig her heels in, but then asly look crossed her face. “Fine,” she said, “but I want you to do something for me.”
"What?" he asked warily.
She marched over to her giant work bag and pulled out a file folder. "I'll drink this," she held up the glass, "if you add these events to your calendar."
Theo took the file silently and read it over. It was a copy of his calendar for the next two months. All of his usual weekly meetings and events were on there, but she had shuffled a few evenings around to add in an outdoor movie night, the Northfield carnival, and Fourth of July fireworks along with a few other local events. Aside from the carnival when he was kid, he hadn’t had the time for any of these events. There always seemed to be something else more pressing, or Neal had him scheduled to attend something that attracted an older demographic.
"What did you take off my calendar?" he asked.
"I didn't get rid of anything. I just managed your time more efficiently, which is what you hired me for, right? Come on. This is fair. If I’m going to train for a race, you have to agree to experience the magic of a small-town summer.”
"Okay. I’ll go,” he said, surprising himself. He grinned. “That was a great tagline, by the way. ‘Experience the magic of a small-town summer.’ You sure you didn’t major in marketing?”
“I majored in beer pong,” she said with an eye roll. But then, “Really?” she asked, a pleased smile spreading across her face.
He pushed the glass toward her. “Yes. Now drink up, Red Hot,” he said.
She put the straw in her mouth and sipped the green juice. She kept her eyes on his and sucked slowly. When she pulled the straw away, she licked her lips and grinned. “You just wait. I am going to make this your best summer ever.”
Chapter Eighteen
“I think I pulled a hammy,”Amber said. She sat on the chair in front of Charlotte’s desk, looking over her legs morosely. No pretty heels today. She had to wear her flats after Theo had tortured her with his running schedule. She hadn’t really thought he meanteveryday, but the man was a sadist.
He had shown up at her door at six-thirty on the dot every morning for the last week looking disgustingly chipper and dragged her along with him on his torturous runs.
To add insult to injury, he bullied her into drinking his disgusting green juice and eating eggs when they were done. She hadn’t had sugar since last week, she thought balefully. It was true she didn’t really crave it, but still. It was the principle.
Theo was out with Neal at a meeting, and she was in Charlotte’s office nursing her sore feet. On top of her sore legs and lack of sleep, she was working harder than she ever had before on the gala planning. While Cheryl from the Grand River Hotel was the one executing the details, it was still more work than she had ever done before, and to make it even more stressful, if her idea flopped and no one came or they hated it, it was Theo who would suffer. She was so notcut out for this.
“I think you might be overreacting just a bit,” Charlotte said. She leaned back in her seat and Amber took a moment to admire her. Charlotte was killing it with the new look. Her fitted dove gray blazer with a blush-colored camisole made her skin look luminous, and she wasn’t trying to blend into the wallpaper anymore. “You’ve survived Theo’s bootcamp for what, a week? I have a lot of money in the pot that you’ll make it until the 5K, so you can’t quit now.”
Amber narrowed her eyes. “Todd, what did you bet?” she called down the hallway.
There was a beat of silence. “I’d rather not say.”
