“Yup. Before and after.” She watches me as I copy her motions. “Are you sore today?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything because I didn’t want to seem like a wimp, but yeah, my calves are fucking killing me.”
“This run will loosen them up.”
“Take it easy on me, okay?”
“Easy? We’re running farther today. You have to keep pushing yourself, or you’ll never do better.”
We walk down on the sand. “Maybe some of us don’t need to do better.”
“You’ll thank me one day.”
“I doubt it. But a deal is a deal. Let’s go.”
It’s hard to keep up with her. She tries to talk to me, but it takes everything I have to just breathe. My lungs burn. My legs feel like they’re giving out. But I make sure I go farther than I did yesterday to prove to her I can. Once I know we’re well past that point, I stop and fall to the ground.
“Good job. You made it almost half a mile. But you shouldn’t lie down, you should keep moving.”
“I can’t.”
She holds out her hand to help me up. It’s ridiculous thinking a small person like her can help up a big guy like me, but I take it. Her hand is soft. It’s nothing like mine. I’ve got permanent calluses from playing guitar. I idly wonder if she cares.
“Walk for a minute,” she says. “Then we’ll go again.”
“You really are a slave driver, aren’t you?”
She giggles. “Maybe I get off on torturing you.”
I get a sick feeling in my gut and take off running.
She runs up alongside me. “Was it something I said?”
“Can we get this over with?”
I don’t make it far before I have to stop again.
“You didn’t rest long enough,” she says. “Listen to me, I know what I’m talking about. I went through this not too long ago.”
“You haven’t been running long?”
“About eighteen months.”
An unfamiliar feeling washes over me. That’s how long she was with her ex. He was the person who got her into it. Something gnaws at my gut when I think of him doing this with her.
“Can I ask you something?” she says.
“Shoot.”
“How is it that you hate Ronni, but she showed up for what I can only assume was a booty call at your hotel room last night?”
I wondered if she was going to bring it up and hoped she wouldn’t. I’m not exactly proud of what I’ve done with Ronni. “I’m not gonna lie. We hooked up once or twice.”
“But why? Seems to me she treats you terribly.”
“She’s discreet, or she was before last night’s debacle. She doesn’t expect anything. And she doesn’t ask questions.”
“Questions about what?”
“Everything.”
She studies me thoughtfully. “Were you in a relationship that ended badly?”
I gaze at the ocean. Nothing could be truer. “You could say that.”
“I’m sorry. I guess we’re two peas in a pod.”
The thought of Ella enduring what I did makes me sick. “No, we’re not.” I start running again.
We pass the place we ran to yesterday and turn around. On the way back, her phone rings. She checks it and puts it away. It rings again. She doesn’t look this time. When we stop again, I have to ask, “Was it him? The ex?”
She nods.
“Does he call you a lot?”
“Yes.”
“So block his number.”
Her eyes become distant. “I can’t.”
“Has he left messages?”
“Every day. I don’t want to listen to them, but I can’t help myself.”
“Is he stalking you?”
She shakes her head.
“Did he leave one just now? Let me hear it.”
“That’s kind of private, don’t you think?”
“El, I’d be a douchebag if I didn’t worry about your safety. You can’t possibly be subjective. Come on, play it.”
Reluctantly, she pulls out her phone and plays the message on speaker.
“Ella, please return my calls,” he says. “I’m getting worried about you. I haven’t seen you running in the park all week. I know you had a head injury. I’m going nuts, thinking something has happened to you. I love you. I know you know that, but I’m going to remind you every day. We belong together. Call me back. Please.”
She seems to be on the verge of tears, and I feel like a dick, forcing her to listen.
“You didn’t tell him you were going away?”
“And risk him following me?”
I go on high alert. “You think he’d follow you?”
“Probably not, but I wasn’t about to call him. Every time I hear his voice …” She turns away and stares out at the water.
“Every time you hear it, you want to take him back.”