Seven miles.
My calves began cramping.
By the eighth mile, I was struggling with my breathing and my cramps passed “aching” and went straight to “cramping.”
Honestly, I had no clue where we were, much less where the venue was. What made it worse was that Sacha looked sweaty but not nearly winded enough. What the hell was he? A cyborg?
It was probably another half a mile before I decided… that was it. I couldn’t keep going without dying.
“Hey, hey,” I wheezed as I came to a stop.
It took a second for him to slow down and turn around. His face was pink, perspiration dotting along his temples. “Are you all right?” he asked sounding just slightly out of breath.
I was sucking in air through my nose raggedly as I nodded, pressing a hand flat to the part of my stomach that was the most deprived of air. “I can’t… I need to stop.”
Those gray-blue eyes swept over me for a second as I stood there, one hand on my hip, the other over my belly button. My loose shorts were clinging to my legs and my shirt was definitely plastered to me. Then there were the pit stains. I didn’t even want to think about the pit stains and the damp spots on my shorts. Whatever. Who cared. Sacha saw me after the show was over every night when my mascara was runny and I smelled like week-old socks. Plus, it wasn’t like I was trying to get a boyfriend or anything.
“I don’t… run… for distance,” I panted.
He took a big visible inhale through his nose and nodded. “That’s okay.”
“You… can keep…” I didn’t think I was out of shape but apparently, I was. “You can keep going,” I rushed out. “I can get back by myself.”
Sacha shot me a look as he moved closer to the side of the building to get out of pedestrian traffic. “No. I’ll walk back with you.”
“Walk back?” That came out sounding as panicked as it was meant to. “The entire way?”
“Yeah.”
All I could do was stare at him. Did he not know I was on the cusp of death?
The sheer terror on my face earned me a laugh from the tall man. “I’m fucking with you. Let’s walk a little, and then we’ll catch a ride back.”
“If… I… wasn’t so…”
He grinned, cutting my threat off. “Let’s go. Are you hungry?”
I nodded.
“Want to get something to eat?”
I managed to nod again.
We walked for almost twenty minutes in silence, taking our time. I was still too out of breath to talk so I focused on calming down. Eventually Sacha hailed a cab and we both climbed in.
It was the choked laugh from the other side of the backseat that had me turning my attention toward him. He was sitting with his back to the corner, a smug smile on his face. “Are you gonna live?”
“Barely.”
His eyebrows went up as he smiled even wider. “You went a lot further than I thought you would.”
Wait a second.
“Julian and I usually only do five miles,” he explained.
I stared at him; there could be no other way to describe what I did besides maybe referring to it as a glare. I sat there with my chest expanding and retracting while still trying to recuperate, processing what the hell had just come out of his mouth. “Are you joking?”
He shook his head.
