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“I know you did, and it does,” Ashley said softly, scrolling through Lydia’s design. “More wine?”
Lydia got up to get it herself. “We’re gonna need the bottle.”
Fourteen
Luke
The weight of rejection worsened like a bad breakup. That’s what Luke had discovered in the week since he’d failed to provide a business plan good enough to secure the funding for his gym. It hit him hardest in the quiet hours, right before getting out of bed, and all he wanted to do was drag the covers over his head and wallow. The only reason he was even moving right now was because it was time for one of his long weekend runs with Lydia. And if anything was going to get him out of bed, it was her. Not because he particularly felt like running this morning, but because he’d promised to get her across that finish line.
Luke’s heart skipped at the thought.Nope, don’t go twisting things. Don’t go assigning meaning where there is none.Lydia had made it clear that reescalating things between them had been a slipup—a mistake, she’d called it. Which it was, because here he was starting to catch actual feelings when clearly Lydia wasn’t.But what if?his mind kept whispering. Luke rubbed his hand down his face. He didn’t have the energy to sort through those complicated thoughts, especially not when he was still so full of wretched disappointment over his business plan.Keep it professional, he told himself as he rolled out of bed to brush his teeth and throw on some shorts before heading out the door.
Yesterday, he’d sent Lydia a text telling her to meet him at Central Park. It was only a fifteen-minute walk from his place, so Luke opted not to take the train.
Luke arrived first and found a bench, then reviewed Lydia’s training plan on his phone while he waited. Today was a big milestone—thirteen point one miles, to be exact. That was a half-marathon, which meant they’d reached the midpoint of her training. His plan was for them to run along the paved drive that circled the park. At six point one miles it was the longest loop, which meant they only needed to complete a little over two laps. That was going to be his selling point for this morning when Lydia inevitably wrinkled her nose at him. He spotted her strawberry blond ponytail swinging behind her from down the street.
“Morning,” he called as she approached. “Happy half-marathon day.”
“What?” She met his eye, curiosity flashing across her features.
“After today, you will have officially run a half-marathon.”
“Thirteen point one miles?” She smiled but it didn’t split her face the way he expected it to when she realized she was halfway to her goal. In fact, she looked sort of defeated. She’d been that way all week.
“You feeling okay?” he asked.
“Never better.”
That was clearly a lie. She followed him through a quick warm-up routine, and though she performed the actions, her mind seemed to be elsewhere, her gaze getting lost in the distance. As they started running, Luke could tell she wasn’t paying attention to her breathing or her stride, and she quickly fell out of step, with a cramp beneath her ribs.
“You want to tell me what’s up?” he asked as she bent over, clutching her knees.
Lydia moved to the edge of the path and flopped down on the grass, her arms thrown over her eyes to shield them from the sun. “I’m too bummed out to run. My head’s not in it.”
He sat down beside her, nudging her with his elbow. Compared to her usual complaints about the number of burpees in her training plan, this one he could actually sympathize with. “Rough week?”
She snorted, lowering her arms so she could look at him. “I got my proposal for the youth center back.”
“I had no idea. You never mentioned it.”
She picked at a blade of grass and tore it into tiny pieces. “Because they tossed it on my desk with a red line through it, which means thanks but no thanks.” Lydia scattered the tiny, shredded pieces of grass. “There wasn’t even one word of feedback. There never is. How am I possibly supposed to get better or know what to change?”
“I’m sorry, Lydia.” Luke felt horrible. He’d been the one to encourage her to hand the project in to the team. “I sort of feel like I pushed you to submit it with my stupid running metaphor.” Maybe she hadn’t been ready. He’d been trying to be supportive, but had he failed at this too? Had he screwed up his business planandher proposal?
She sat up so suddenly that he almost fell over as she turned to him. “No, God. This is not on you. Please don’t think that. You were right. I was ready to submit it, I just... I found out that the entire leadership team is gunning for partner at my firm. So the assumption is that they’re rejecting everyone else’s proposals so that only theirs end up on the boss’s desk.”
Oh.He studied the pink in her cheeks and the way her nostrils flared. She was filled with frustration, and rightly so. “That’s a slap in the face.”
“It was,” she agreed.
“If it makes you feel any better, my business plan was rejected by the bank. Actually, it didn’t even make it to the point of rejection. It was so bad, it never even got submitted. So no gym for me.”
Lydia pouted, which drew his attention to her lips, and he realized for the first time how close they were. “Luke,” she said sadly, offering condolences on the death of his dream. “Why didn’t you say something before today?”
Luke shrugged. “For the same reason you didn’t.”
“When I texted you and asked how your appointment went, you didn’t say anything, so I figured you were still waiting to hear back! If I’d known it went so poorly, I would have said something before now!”
“Hey, I brought this up to make you feel better, not to get your sympathy.”
