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The goal was to trim down and get stronger so I could stay in better control of the bike and shave off some time on my runs to get me even further ahead of the pack. When I first started with Colby, doing CrossFit completely kicked my ass. I’d been getting better since then, and that morning I felt particularly skilled. Of course, that came mostly from the fact that Colby was far from his usual self. He was dragging, which let me for once perform better than he was at the circuits.
I got a few laughs in at his expense, savoring my one opportunity to feel superior to him knowing full well the next time we were in the gym he would bury me. And chances where he would make sure I didn’t forget my crowing and I would come to greatly regret it. But that was a problem for future me. Right now, I was more than enjoying seeing him struggle a bit.
“So, what happened at the bar?” he asked after half an hour of sweating and forcing his body to move helped get rid of the fog.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Come on. You know what I mean,” he said. I did and was actually surprised it took him so long to bring it up. “We had just gotten there, you had one shot, and then you wandered off. You spent a few minutes talking to a good-looking girl, then came back to the table without her. Then you spent the rest of the night brooding.”
“I wasn’t brooding,” I corrected.
“You were definitely brooding. Tell me what’s up,” he said.
I considered making something up about Kelly, thinking of her as just another girl at the bar, but stopped myself. There really wasn’t any point in lying. It was what it was, and Colby was a guy like any other. He would understand getting swept up in a woman.
“That wasn’t the first time I met her,” I explained. “Her name is Kelly. I met her three years ago. On my birthday, actually. On my twenty-first, Quentin decided I had to celebrate by going out to the bar for the first time. It was just the four of us. We got shots and I was being ridiculous and dancing because I figured if he was going to push me out of my comfort zone so much, I was going to do it up right.”
“Fair enough,” Colby said.
“Well, I was trying not to look like a complete ass on the dance floor, and I saw her sitting at the bar by herself. She totally stunned me. You saw her. She’s gorgeous and I couldn’t pay attention to anything else. I ended up walking up to her to talk to her.”
“That doesn’t sound like you,” he said. “That definitely doesn’t sound like you three years ago anyway.”
Colby and I had gotten closer since he’d started training me, but he had known my family for several years. He was familiar with how reserved and quiet I was when I was younger. Not that I was the picture of bold, outgoing personalities now, but I’d come out of my shell slightly since then.
“It wasn’t. But I couldn’t resist her. We ended up hanging out for most of the night, and then we left together,” I told him.
“You spent the night with her?” Colby asked, looking surprised.
“Yep. She was the one who instigated it, but I wasn’t about to argue with her. I got her to my place as fast as I could.”
We both laughed, but then he looked slightly confused.
“Why haven’t I heard of her? Was your night together that bad she had to disappear?”
I shoved him playfully.
“No. She left the country the next day.”
“Wow. Your night together was so bad she had to leave the country.”
I glared at him. “It was incredible. But she seriously did have to leave the country. She left a note and was gone before I woke up. I haven’t seen or heard from her since. Then I walked into the bar last night, and she was just there, sitting at the bar just like she was then.”
“So, after three years she not only comes back into the country, but she shows up at the same bar on your birthday?” Colby asked. “That has to be fate.”
I shrugged. “I put the ball in her court. She’s the one who’s going to have to take the next step. I gave her my number before I went back to the table last night but didn’t get hers. If we’re going to see each other again, it’s going to have to be because she called me.”
I let the story end at that, glossing over the fact that I pretty much lost my heart during that one-night stand. I really didn’t need the jokes that morning, and Colby was already on a roll with his teasing. I’d rather keep the emotions to myself until I could figure out what exactly was going on. We worked out for a little longer, and then it was time for me to head to the racing complex. I took a quick shower in the locker room of the gym, dressed for work, and hopped in my truck to head out there. As I drove, I thought about what Colby had said. It really did seem like fate to have her show up again like that.
