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I roll my eyes, even though I know it’s only driving his point home even further. “You gotta quit with all the when I was your age stuff. You’re not that old. Are you?” I have a vague idea of how old this guy is, but I keep forgetting to google him and find out for sure.
Ben just smiles and shakes his head as he watches me eat. “I’m old enough to wonder what you’re doing on Faraday Island teaching Pilates on a three-month contract.”
That’s enough to halt my hand as it lifts the next bite to my mouth. “What do you mean?”
Ben sits back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. I suddenly feel like I’m about to get scolded. And not in a good way.
“I mean, what is it that you’re doing with your life? What’s your plan for the future?”
Surprise makes my mouth fall open, but I snap it shut quickly. The last thing I need is for this guy to spot the weakness he just uncovered. I take a deep breath and set my sandwich down. “Well, I got my Pilates certification last year in Baltimore,” I start.
“Maryland?” Ben cuts in.
I nod.
“That’s where you’re from?”
I nod again and he nods, signaling me to go on. I narrow my eyes at the sudden interrogation I find myself in, but I continue. “I got my training hours at the studio, but I need more experience to be able to land a full-time gig in the States, so I took this contract.” I’m proud of myself for how succinctly I summed it all up, but my happiness is short lived.
Ben is not impressed.
“You just threw a dart at the map and landed on Faraday Island of all places?”
Shit, does he know?
I take a deep breath and try to figure out how I can lay the rest of this out without flat out lying, just in case. “No. I had some high school friends who were doing a volunteer trip, and I joined them to get away from my hometown. While I was there, a friend I met mentioned that they were heading to Faraday, and I looked into it. The job was there so I applied.”
It’s not entirely untrue. I mean, when people asked Ainsley who I was, he introduced me as his friend. The heartless bastard.
“Your friend Sally?”
I shake my head but don’t offer any more information.
Ben considers me carefully for a long moment but lets it go. “Why Pilates?”
Finally, a subject I can speak to from the heart. “I was injured at work my first year of college. I worked at the coffee shop on campus. It was a silly thing, really, I was lifting a box of chai concentrate onto a shelf, something I did all the time. But for whatever reason, I tweaked my back. I thought it was okay, like it would work itself out, but it only got worse and worse until I couldn’t leave my bed. The doctors just gave me pain pills, but they didn’t help anything, really. My manager suggested physical therapy and from there I ended up in Reformer Pilates. I went from drugged up and bedridden at twenty-one to perfectly healthy in just a matter of months. I was already on a break from school at that point, because I hadn’t been able to attend classes or focus with all the drugs, so when the Pilates studio owner suggested that I take the training, I went for it.” It’s my comeback story, the tale of how I succeeded in healing my own body when all the doctors told me I’d be disabled for life.
The last thing I expect to see on Ben’s face is disappointment. When he speaks, my heart sinks even lower.
“You dropped out of college to be an exercise instructor?”
“I dropped out of college because I was incapable of attending due to an injury. While I was on that break, I found a different path. One that lets me help people.”
“You could help people as a doctor. Or a physical therapist.”
“Or, as a Pilates instructor.”
“You’re not exactly helping rich white women heal themselves at The Sands.”
Oh, no you didn’t.
My anger flares. “I already told you that I’m gaining the teaching experience necessary to be taken on by a studio back in the States.”
Ben is undeterred by my fluster. “Will you go back to college?”
“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” I’m nearly yelling the words, and I finally seem to snap Ben out of whatever prosecutor mode he slipped into.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I just…I have a nineteen-year-old and I’m struggling with his path. I guess the similarities in your story set me off.”
