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“You’re allowed to have a night off.”
Lydia peeked at him over the top of her menu. “Who are you and what have you done with my trainer?”
He took the menu from her hands. “I gave you those nutrition plans to make sure you were eating enough to fuel your body for all the exercise you’re now doing. A night out, eating the best nachos in Hell’s Kitchen and drinking a few beers isn’t going to change anything.”
“Best nachos, huh?” Lydia continued to eyeball him as they ordered. She was obviously suspicious that the same man who made her do burpees and run miles had talked her into eating The Brainchild: Loaded Nachos with Everything You Want and Everything You Never Knew You Needed.
Luke smirked. “I’m not a walking, talking robot of health and fitness all the time.”
“You’re saying what happens in Presto, stays in Presto?” Lydia asked as their beers arrived.
Luke picked up his glass and clinked it against hers. “Trainer Luke is gone for the night.”
“I do like Trainer Luke, but he’s just such a mood killer, you know?”
“Oh, totally. I mean sometimes a guy just wants to crush some Oreos in peace.”
Lydia giggled, and Luke didn’t know why, but his heart skipped at the sound. Away from the gym, Lydia felt different. She was passionate and bubbly and scowled at him far less. Though he supposed that could have something to do with the fact that he wasn’t asking her to run a mile here. Or maybe she was still just basking in the thrill she’d gotten from exploring the youth center. He was actually still thinking about the way she’d nudged his shoulder on the bleachers, softly resting against him as she waited for him to tell her how much the youth center meant to him.
“Back at the youth center you said you’d been going there since you were a kid?”
Luke nodded, pulled from his thoughts, though a lingering heat smoldered in his chest. He sipped his beer. “Yeah, I was there almost every day after school with my older brother and sister. Sometimes even before school. My dad passed away when I was eight, so we spent a lot of time at the center while my mom worked.”
“I’m sorry,” Lydia said. “That must have been hard.”
“It was,” he agreed. “But my mom was a superhero. She worked a lot to make sure we never wanted for anything. I think that’s why the center is so important to me. That place took care of us so my mom could work without worrying where we were in the evenings or who was helping with our homework. She was so busy and exhausted all the time, but the volunteers at the center stepped up. Filled the void. It’s also where I fell in love with sports and fitness.”
Lydia leaned against her hand, smiling at him in a way that told him she was listening to his every word. Luke realized this was the first time he’d ever really told anyone outside his family about what the center meant to him. Not that it was a secret. It was sometimes just hard to dredge through the memories that ultimately connected back to his father. It was also difficult to find the exact words to explain everything the center represented. It was easier to show someone, to have them experience that part of his world, but there’d never been anyone he’d cared to show before.
“I can tell those kids really like having you there,” Lydia said. “Even if it’s just to trash-talk you on the basketball court.”
Luke chuckled. “When you’re young, exercise doesn’t feel like a chore, it’s just fun. So I tried to keep that in mind as I helped the center design a fitness program.”
“Did you always know you wanted to get into the fitness world?”
He shook his head. “My mom always prized education. She wanted us to go to school forever it seemed, so we could do these amazing things. Both my siblings went off and did their master’s degrees. My sister even got her PhD. I finished my undergrad, but I dropped out of my master’s program when I realized the academic world wasn’t for me.”
Their nachos arrived, and Lydia took a heaping bite, closing her eyes and humming in approval. She wiped her hands on a napkin and washed everything down with a sip of beer. “There’s so much stigma around dropping out, but when I hear people have done that to pursue something else, I’m always really impressed.”
“Yeah?”
“How many people finish their degrees with no idea what they actually want to do with their lives? Their entire goal is just to get to the end of their program and have that piece of paper. And then what? The people who drop out to pursue their passions are the ones who’ve really figured out what they want out of life.”
Luke nodded in agreement. “That’s true. Though I think it broke my mom’s heart a little.”
“Hasn’t she seen how much you love what you do?”
Luke shrugged, chewing tortilla chips and cheese. “My siblings are both so successful, I think my mom has always subconsciously measured my success against theirs. And at some point that started to rub off on me. I’ve always felt like I have to prove to them that I can make something of my life doing what I love.” He didn’t see his siblings often, mostly at holidays or on special occasions. It wasn’t that they didn’t get along, they just didn’t spend time together the way they once had, and whenever they did get together, Luke got the impression that his siblings still looked at him as the baby brother who was trying to figure out his life.
“Some people would say you’re already winning if you’re doing what you love.”
Luke took a sip of his beer, getting to the bottom of his glass. “I like those people.”
“But you want to do more,” she said softly. A car horn sounded, and as Lydia glanced down the street, where twilight painted the backdrop of the city in blues and grays, Luke thought that maybe she also yearned formore.
“What I really want to do is open a gym,” he said. This was the first time he’d spoken the words into existence outside of his apartment or the bank or in whispered meetings with Jules, and it felt ridiculously good. “I’m actually working on a business plan right now. Trying to get a loan.”
“A gym?” Lydia’s eyes widened, not in shock, but in agreement. “That’s a fantastic idea. You’d be a great business owner.”
