five more minutes, I thought grumpily. I hated returning from that happy place that distraction takes you when you’re working out. Two more minutes, just to polish my form, and then I’m out of here. He should know better than to mess with—
“Ah, good morning, Emma!”
I kept staring at myself in the mirror, trying to keep my stance correct. I threw a very nice left hook, followed by a rather impressive, fully loaded right uppercut. Too bad all my best moves were always made out of the sight of my instructor, Nolan. Can I help it if my native modesty keeps me from doing my best when someone is watching?
And he knows full well that cheery crap is exactly the wrong tack to take with me, I thought, sighing. “Yeah, morning, Brad.” I glanced at the clock: six forty-eight. “You’re late. What’s up?”
“Still not a morning person, Em.” He shook his head and slung his towel over a chair. He was wearing loose drawstring trousers and a T-shirt with a Chinese dragon on it. “I wouldn’t have asked to meet you so early if it wasn’t important.”
I personally couldn’t think of anything important enough to warrant being out of bed at this hour. Or even in bed, not asleep. Brian and I had an agreement: I wouldn’t try anything when American Chopper was on, and he didn’t make a pass at me before ten or eleven in the morning, if we had the opportunity to sleep in. I nodded, but I also pretended that it was Brad’s head I was smashing with my knee, before I finally stopped and got a drink from the water cooler. “No. What’s up?”
Instead of answering me, though, Brad started doing yoga stretches. He made some interesting breathing noises, but sticking his butt out in the air like that was extremely ill-advised considering my present state of mind. I’m pretty good at kicking, especially when someone offers me a target like that. I drank some of my water and tried to think past my burgeoning headache.
A few moments later, he looked up, dreamy-faced. “Sorry, I needed to get some good, deep breathing in. Breathing is so important.”
“Yeah, I’m fond of it myself. What’s up?” And if you don’t answer me this time, I’m leaving.
He sat up and twisted to one side, exhaling deeply before he answered. “It’s really important, and a bit personal. I didn’t want to talk in front of the others.”
I nodded, trying not to cross my eyes with impatience. I also attempted one of his poses, the one I recognized as “the tree.” I made it, barely getting my right foot against my left knee as I stayed balanced, but it was harder than it looked. As I sat down, I revised my opinion of Brad’s perpetual look of anxious malnutrition; he was stronger and more flexible than I thought.
“I’m thinking about making some changes in my life, Emma. I was wondering whether you would be willing—Hey, Carla!”
Carla stuck her head inside the door; she was dressed in another abbreviated suitlet and already had makeup on. “Hey, Brad, Emma. Em, you look like shit.”
“Don’t start with me, Carla, I’ve already got Brad over here picking on me and he—”
“What can we do you for, Carla?” Brad interjected hastily. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes this time. He was worried I would reveal what we were talking about, and he hadn’t even told me yet.
“Either of you seen Scott?”
“Hell, no,” I began, but Carla looked really serious, even more so than she usually did before a session. For which she was also up too early. “Why would he be up yet? What’s wrong?”
“I just gotta find him, in a hurry. Tell him I’m looking for him, if you see him, okay?”
“Yeah, sure. Anything we can do?” I asked.
“Just let him know I need him.” And she vanished.
“She needs to relax a little,” Brad said absently. “I wonder if she’s getting enough fiber.”
“Brad, if you don’t tell me what you called me down here for, at this ungodly hour, I will scream. Then I will hit you repeatedly until I feel better about us both.”
He was foolish enough to think that was hyperbole, and did more painful-looking stretches and deep breathing. Thing was, I could tell he was trying to get himself screwed up to deal with something important. “Emma, it’s hard for me, okay? But I appreciate your eagerness to help.”
“Let’s not confuse it with an eagerness to get out of here and