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Cora had never exactly been a runner, unless she was chasing a ball and she certainly was less fit today than she ever had been, but she was determined not to embarrass herself in front of Agnes. She set her treadmill to the same speed as Agnes’ and started running.
She was soon so out of breath that the world around her was spinning. Cora knew that she should stop, or at least slow down, but Agnes didn’t show any signs of tiring on her treadmill, and Cora wanted to be able to keep up with her.
She only realized that she had gone way too far when she felt herself tipping over, her head lurching wildly.
The next thing she knew, she was in Agnes’ arms, and Agnes was lowering her gently to the floor.
“Cora? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Speak to me.”
Cora pulled in a deep breath. “Sorry. I just got dizzy for a moment.”
“When was the last time you ate?”
“About two hours ago.”
“Hm. Not a blood sugar thing, then, probably. I guess you just overexerted yourself.”
Cora wanted to vanish into a hole in the ground and never return. So much for not embarrassing herself.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I must seem pretty pathetic.”
“Nah, you’ll get there. I admire your enthusiasm. Maybe just take it back a couple of notches till your body gets used to exercise again.”
“Yeah, I will.” If only to avoid further embarrassment.
Agnes was kneeling down next to Cora, and a couple of the gym trainers were eyeing them in concern. One of them started to head over and Cora quickly got to her feet, not wanting to cause a scene.
Thankfully, she didn’t wobble at all as she stood up, and the trainer surveyed her for another moment before turning away to talk to one of his colleagues.
“Here, have some water.”
Cora took the bottle Agnes handed her and gulped a few sips down. “Thanks for… Well, I’m glad you were here.”
“Me too. If you’d like, we could train together again sometime?”
Cora couldn’t imagine why Agnes would want to train with her again after this mortifying display, but she wasn’t going to question her good fortune.
“That would be great. When?”
“I usually come every day after work.”
Well, that explained why Cora had run into her so quickly. With Agnes coming every day, it wasn’t exactly surprising.
“Tomorrow after work, then.”
“I’ll see you then, Cora—if not before.”
The thought made Cora grin.
4
Agnes
Agnes glanced again at her watch. It wasn’t like her to count the hours until her working day was over. She loved her work, but right now, there was something even better on the horizon.
In just forty-five minutes, she’d be training with Cora again.
Cora was getting so much fitter. At first Agnes had been surprised at Cora’s lack of fitness. Cora definitely looked the part, but she suspected it had been longer than Cora had admitted since she last trained. Now she was warming up with the weights that she had lifted when they first started training together a couple of weeks ago, and her running endurance was getting better by the day.
