Picking Up the Pieces (Pieces, #2)(86)

Everyone thought that was hysterical. Everyone except me. “Very funny, Lily. It can’t be that bad. You act like I don’t work out regularly.”

“Aww, did I hurt your feelings,” she said as she put her arms around my waist and looked up at me with pouting eyes. “Well, get used to it, Carter. It’s not the only thing that’s going to be hurting today.” She placed a quick kiss on my lips and darted toward the mats to join the stretching that Kate, Shane’s co-worker, was leading.

What followed was the longest hour of my life. The workout really hadn’t seemed so bad when Shane had previewed it for us, but hearing about it and enduring it were two different things. After finding my back squat max, Shane informed us that the WOD was about to begin. I turned to Lily. “That wasn’t the workout?”

She laughed. “No. We always start with muscle building and then we move into the actual WOD.”

“Shit,” I muttered. I had felt good on the back squats, managing to build up to three hundred and thirty-three lbs. But if I had known that there was still more to come, I may have taken it down a notch.

The WOD consisted of three power cleans, six push-ups, and nine air squats. We had to cycle through this as many times as possible in three minutes. Then, we would rest for a minute and repeat. Five times!

What made it even worse was that Amanda had taken a break from bookkeeping to elect herself my own personal cheerleader. "Come on, Adam, dig deep. Deeper," she grunted animalistically during my squats. This was followed by her yelling "Up, down, up, down. Faster, Adam. Oh yes, faster," while I did the push-ups. Thankfully, she evidently had a difficult time thinking of any sexually charged comments to accompany the cleans. Until the fourth round when she commented, "Wow, you must be really used to bringing things up to your face," and winked suggestively at Lily.

I had hoped Shane would drag her away from me so that she would at least stop distracting the other people in the class. But, since he was clearly enjoying her one-man comedy act even more than she was, he never said a word.

Lily also seemed to be having a great time at my expense. But I was so winded from the workout, the only retort I could muster was sticking my tongue out at her as she laughed like a hyena when Amanda tried to lay beneath me for my last round of push-ups.

It was sweet in a way: how they were trying to include me in their jokes and gibes. I just wasn't into it. I didn't know them well enough to enjoy being ridiculed by virtual strangers. Maybe Lily and I just weren't meant to hang out in a group. Or maybe we both just befriended *s.

By the end of the fifth round, my legs were quaking and my arms were hanging lifelessly at my sides. I slid down against the wall and tried to catch my breath.

Lily sat next to me. “Did you like it?” she asked hopefully.

“Who in their right mind would like that?” I wheezed.

“Look around. Lots of people,” she giggled.

“You’re all nuts,” I said as I struggled to my feet.

“Agreed.”

I looked over and saw her smiling as I threw my arm around her shoulder. “Carry me out of here, beautiful.”

We headed for the exit, but Shane intercepted us. “How was it?”

“Brutal. I give you guys a lot of credit. You’re way fitter than I am if you can do that every day.”

“It gets easier,” he replied. “So, Amanda wanted me to ask you guys if you wanted to stop for dinner. I have a few things to finish up here, but I’ll meet you guys in fifteen minutes.”

Lily looked up at me. “We’re all sweaty and gross,” I complained.

“That’s no big deal. There’s a little place around the corner a bunch of us go to all the time. It’s super casual,” Shane explained.

Lily was still looking at me, the pout coming back to her face. But I couldn’t do it. It was bad enough I had just let Shane torture me for an hour. I just wasn’t up for hanging out with him afterward too. “Why don’t you just drop me back off at my car and then you guys can go?”

“But I want to hang out with you more before you have to go home to Eva.”

“That’s not very long from now anyway. I told my mom I’d be home by eight. And I’m beat. It’s fine; I’ll see you this weekend.”

“Okay,” Lily relented, though she definitely wasn’t happy about it. “Tell Amanda that I’ll come back and get her in fifteen minutes,” she said to Shane as we walked out.

“No problem. Oh, and Adam, if you want to join our little family here, just come on back in anytime.”

“Thanks, Shane,” I said as I continued to shuffle toward the door, “but I’m not sure this is for me.”





Chapter 33: Lily


It had finally arrived: spring break. I had been longing for it since Christmas, and now here it was. There was only one thing standing in the way of complete and utter elation. And that thing was the Swift Middle School Spring Concert. There were really very few things that were worse than a bunch of puberty-stricken boys trying to sing. And one of them was a bunch of hormone-fueled girls thinking they were all Kelly Clarkson. This is going to be straight-up hell.

The concert was set to start at six the Friday night before my week of freedom, so I decided to corral Tina and Trish and drag them to happy hour. Maybe a slight buzz would make the kids seem more talented. Though it was more likely that it would get me fired because I’d probably be unable to prevent cackling at their vocal abominations.