Please kiss me.
With a groan, I turn and blink at the clock. It's almost 3:00 a.m. Shit.
I force my eyes closed again but am immediately bombarded by the image of Laney's lips begging for mine.
Fuck.
If I'm not going to get any sleep I might as well put together her training plans. I can’t spend anymore energy moping over turning her down.
I did it for her own good.
My sordid history doesn’t belong anywhere near her angelic persona.
In these few short weeks all my training thoughts have included Laney. I’ve come up with couples workouts we can do together. Every time I think of a workout for myself I mentally modify it for her.
Not that she needs much adjustment, she’s so fucking strong.
Jotting down her training plan only takes me twenty minutes. Sleep feels no closer than it did when I was lying in bed so I turn in my counter stool and look at my kitchen.
I’m going to make her food.
She mentioned eating free meals from the restaurant and the other food I saw in her kitchen is boxed or instant. It’s amazing her body has been able to perform as strongly as it has with the fuel she’s been supplying it.
I spend the next two hours making micronutrient packed mason jar meals for Laney. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are made for the week and I tripled my normal homemade energy bar recipe and will give her most of them.
At 5:05 a.m. my alarm went off and I silenced it before returning to the kitchen to clean up. Now that it is after five thirty in the morning I figure I can text her.
"Do you want to meet up to run?" I say out loud as I type the words into the text message. I reread my opening to Laney and let out a groan as I delete the question.
The blinking cursor taunts me.
Normally I would have texted her the night before to make the plan. She doesn’t always respond right away but she will by midnight.
Last night the time came and passed and I still hadn’t texted.
The fridge full of food reminds me of why I’m doing this.
For her.
To help her.
And it’s working.
Her times are improving and she’s beating the targets I set. I’m impressed by her drive. By her commitment.
She’s everything I could want in a partner.
Except she can’t be.
I close out of the messages and pull up the weather. It's a late June Chicago heatwave which means the water at the lakeis warming up. And, oddly, the warmest time will be in the evening. The sun will heat the water all day and I feel much more comfortable getting Laney in the water if it's warmer.
I only replied with a thumbs up to her last text so I could open with something about her achievement.
I am genuinely proud of her and the work she's putting in. She'll get exactly what she's working for. It's only a matter of time.
I'm impressed with your results. I think your body is responding to the VO2 training.
There, message sent. Now all I have to do is wait for her reply.
