Chapter Three
Later at Jones Jym, Maverick kicked my ass while rap music blared in the background of his CrossFit room. My training consisted of fast repetitions of various workouts that changed daily. Sweat drenched my body. My muscles burned. I flipped the tire one last time before running over to the rings hanging from the ceiling. Maverick had adjusted the ring height higher for me, so I jumped up, gripped each ring tight, and then lifted myself into position. I pushed through the final set of my workout, and Maverick counted every dip, holding me accountable for each rep.
“Ten more, Max!” he yelled over the music. “Come on, push through!”
Fuck me.
Shaky arms descended until my elbows hit ninety degrees and then quickly ignited again as they lifted my body back up. For most of my workout, all I could think about was the fan I’d met in the hospital after my community service shift. Ethan was a seventeen-year-old going through kidney failure due to complications from lupus. He’d been on the donor waiting list for months now, and was getting dialysis while he waited. He’d already gone through the same process ten years ago and received a new kidney back then but it failed him. Now, he’d been hospitalized for a heart attack. At the age of seventeen. He’d looked perfectly healthy lying in his hospital bed, but once we’d started talking, it was evident how much pain he was in. He’d shift in his bed and wince. Fatigue cut my visit with him short, but I’d promised to stop by again.
I left feeling like I’d been put in a chokehold, witnessing such a young guy unable to enjoy everything a teenager should be enjoying right now. Instead, he was confined to a hospital room, with a life expectancy that didn’t look good. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the thought of a teenager suffering from a heart attack. When his mom had asked me to stop by his room after my service hours were finished for the day, she’d mentioned a life-threatening illness and talked about him like he didn’t have a chance of getting out soon. I’d just assumed it was cancer. But I’d learned there was a disease out there that was just as bad, if not worse, than cancer, and Ethan was dying from it.
Now, I was taking it all out at the gym. The pain of what I’d learned and the helplessness I felt for Ethan had crept into each of my muscles and bones and buried itself into the lobes of my brain. I’d been so angry for him, so upset that an autoimmune disease could wreak such havoc on the body. But no matter how hard I pushed or made my body burn, Ethan was still sick, and there were probably thousands of other fans who were sick too. I’d made a mental note to call Paige to set up more hospital visits around the nation, because if I could help somehow, even if it was just by visiting and donating to those families in need, I’d do it. I’d do anything I could to make their days somewhat better.
Ethan made me realize that I should be doing everything I can in this life, helping everyone I met, using my blessings to give back, taking risks and chances, living to the absolute fullest . . . because it could all be gone tomorrow.
Finally done, I swung down and let my body hang from the rings for a few seconds before dropping back down to the ground. With my hands resting on top of my head, I allowed my lungs to inhale the air they desperately needed. My arms felt like rubber now, worn out and tired, but damn, it was therapeutic.
“Here.” Maverick threw a white towel at me.
The hand towel wasn’t nearly big enough to clean up the mess of sweat covering every inch of my skin, but I ran it over my face anyway, making sure no sweat ran into my eyes. He handed me a water bottle and I rehydrated, and then I doused my face and stomach with water in an attempt to cool my body down faster and wash off more sweat.
Maverick turned the music off and I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears as I pushed away the remaining thoughts from my day at the hospital.
“Man, you hate the rings, don’t you?” he laughed, turning down the thermostat.
The asshole even made the room hotter during my workouts so my body worked harder. He’d explained all the benefits of warm workouts, but I didn’t really care about the science behind it all. Just as long as it kept me in shape, that’s all that mattered.
“Of course, I hate the rings.” I took a seat on the mats and started my cool down stretches. “I’m not a goddamn gymnast.”
The rings had been my most dreaded workout, definitely giving me a renewed respect for male gymnasts. To do that shit every day for sport, no thanks.
He laughed again as he lowered himself down to the mat. Maverick almost always stretched at the end with me. I chalked it up to him being a trainer and working out most of his day. Some days, he’d join in and do my whole workout with me. Other days, he spent the entire time pushing me.
“So, how was your first day of community service?” he asked, mid hamstring stretch.
“Okay. . .” The question threw me off guard. We hardly ever talked before, during, or after workouts, so I was taken aback by Maverick asking a question that wasn’t workout related. I was paying him to keep me in shape, not to be my friend or give a shit about my day. But I was tired of walking on eggshells around him and as the conversation from yesterday’s meeting with Paige and Harper filtered through my mind, I sighed.
Goddammit, Harper.
Even though it irritated me that she’d obviously talked to him, I appreciated it nonetheless. After that meeting, it was clear that I didn’t have many people I trusted, but it was time to let the little shit go and stop worrying about what or how everyone else around me felt.
I switched legs and eyed the laces of my tennis shoes. “Did Harper tell you to talk to me? You don’t have to make small talk with me just because your woman asked you to.”
“She did,” he said honestly with a chuckle. “But I’m not asking because she told me to. I’m asking because I genuinely want to know.”
Pulling my legs together, I stretched down, reaching for my toes. “It wasn’t too bad.”
“That’s vague as hell, man,” he said, shaking his head. “Look, Harper told me how your meeting went with Paige yesterday. I just want you to know that I don’t hate you. Any friend of Harper’s is a friend of mine, and you really proved that when she was in the hospital. You made sure all of us had food and drinks. You made sure we were comfortable.”
“She wouldn’t have been in the hospital if it weren’t—”
“You can’t control your fans, Max,” he interjected. “I never once blamed you for anything but kissing her.”
I glanced over at him and the serious nature of his words fell away as a smile broke out across his face. Our laughter cut the tension in the room, and I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling still laughing.
“I’m still sorry about that,” I confessed, crossing my left leg over the right side of my body to stretch my back. With a few words, the contempt that I’d always felt from him faded away. “Community service isn’t so bad. The old guy I helped today is like the grandpa I never had. Telling me war stories and teaching me shit about boats that I’ll probably never apply. But the director of volunteer services . . . She’s hot as hell and she doesn’t even know it.”
“Whitley?” he asked as we both switched legs and stretched our right side.
“Yeah, do you know her? What’s her deal?” I sat up after the stretch was over and looked at him as he rested his elbows on his knees. “I gave her a compliment today because she looked nice, and she replied with some speech about not flirting and just keeping a low profile. It kind of pissed me off.”
He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know her all that well. She has a son and loves doing community service. That’s really all I know about her. You’d be better off asking Justin. He and Tessa used to live in the apartment across the hall from her.”
“She has a kid?” I asked incredulously. An image of her from earlier today ran through my mind, precisely the moment when I teased her about giving me a compliment. I recalled how excited I got when she’d told me she had my assignment. I didn’t have much time alone with her, but it was enough time to realize how gorgeous she was. Her hair was dark and her olive skin glowed, making her mismatched eyes really pop. At first, I’d thought my own eyes were playing a trick on me, but with a closer look, her eyes really were two different shades. The left one was green and the right one was brown. Everything about her was petite. She had curves, but they were minimal. She stood just over five feet tall, her breasts were small, and her hips hadn’t looked like they’d carried a child. She had a big heart though; it was obvious in the way she talked about her work. But she still didn’t look old enough to have a kid. She also wasn’t wearing a ring, and I remembered, because I was sure to look. “Where’s the boy’s dad?”
“I don’t know.” Maverick stood and pulled me to my feet. “He’s not in the picture, but I’m not sure why.”
“You’re absolutely no help, you know that?” I stated jokingly as I walked past him to grab my bag.
“Have you looked in a mirror?” he called from behind me. “I’m the reason you don’t have any body fat! You’re welcome!”
Smiling to myself, I flipped him the bird and headed out the door.
“Same time tomorrow?” he laughed.
“Yeah, yeah . . .”