Twilight and all it's cool characters belong to lucky lady Ms. Stephenie Meyer!
…
The next day in Jake's class I managed a round house kick. Again I wasn't the only one who was shocked. Jake however seemed not surprised now. He instead smiled at me proudly. After class I went to the locker room to shower and get ready for work.
I dressed in a red wrap dress for work and sandals. It seemed to be one of my only outfits that was still manageable on my shrinking body.
It was Tuesday and I had a training session with Jake that night. I decided to say goodbye before leaving (a tradition I had made after class), and made my way to his small office at the end of the hall. His door was open slightly, letting out a stream of light onto the dark carpeting of the hall.
I was about halfway down the hall when his voice became clear. "Sam, I am telling you there is something going on. She does not smell right." There was a pause. Who was he talking about?
"I don't know, I can't place it. No of course not like one of them, that's sick man. I'll ask her when the time is right, I want to figure things out first."
I fingered the water bottle in my hand, and heard the plastic snap. I'm not sure how, but I knew Jake had heard it. "Sam, I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow night. Tell the guys hey for me. Alright, later."
As I heard the phone click shut, I resumed walking down the hall. The door swung open towards me, and Jake met me with his usual smile. "Hey Leila, great job today in class."
Even from the three feet between us I could slightly feel the heat radiating off his body. He ran so warm, but this week I seemed to become a lot more sensitive to it, and slightly curious.
His eyes held a look when they met mine I couldn't understand. It was like he was curious about me too. "Thanks, I've had a great teacher."
He laughed a warm friendly laugh at this. "Are you always so humble about your accomplishments?"
I didn't know how to answer this so I shrugged my shoulders. "I gotta go to work, see you tonight?"
"Absolutely." It might have been me, but his eyes seemed to sparkle when he said this. I waved goodbye and smiled to myself as I left.
I was in way too deep, and the guy was only being nice to me because he was paid to. Still that didn't keep my mind from wandering to places it shouldn't.
That night after work I dressed in my new workout outfit I had bought over the weekend. Smaller aqua blue shorts than I would normally wear and a white sports tank. In the locker room, I barely recognized the figure staring back at me in the floor length mirror. She was trim, still a bit of fat left here and there, but no longer close to overweight. I smiled at my reflection in slight satisfaction, and finished lacing my shoes.
Jake met me at the reception desk as usual at exactly six fifteen. His smile widened when he saw me, making me smile back in return. "Long time no see."
"Yea, I know." I followed him to the weighing station, taking in his appearance. He had on black shorts and a black loose fitting tank top today. It was much less than his normal sweatpants and t-shirts. I found myself staring at his muscular arms.
"Alright, step up and let's see how wonder woman did this week." I felt myself blushing at his comment as I stepped onto the no longer ominous scale.
His hand reached over me and slid the bar further than it had been last week, and I watched in amazement as it evenly rested at 120. Only 5 pounds away from my goal weight.
"Wow, Leila. How did you manage to loose another ten pounds?" Jake made no show of hiding his shock now. Instead he stared at me, then back at the scale.
The normal smile that I had after these weigh ins did not surface. I was excited, but I had an aching feeling that this was extremely not normal. Especially since I was definitely not dieting.
"I – I don't know." We were both staring at the scale now, so I stepped off and backed away from it. I could hardly believe what I had accomplished, it seemed impossible.
Jake shook his head and forced back his smile when he looked at me. "Alright, well I know that you're doing fine with weight training by yourself, so I wanted to do something new today."
I nodded my head, urging him to continue.
"How do you feel about going for a run outside with me?" I smiled as he spoke those words. I had not told him I had been running in the mornings, he was under the impression that all my cardio was in gym.
"Okay." I agreed.
"Great, there is an outdoor track behind the gym. I figured we would do a few laps out there. It will increase your difficulty level a bit more than the treadmill."
I wordlessly followed him to the said track. The sun was behind the clouds, but the air was still thick, and he had yet to notice my smug smile.
"Okay, if you need to slow down at any point, let me know. I don't want you overheating out here." He seemed genuinely concerned at the idea as he eyed my now tiny frame.
The pace needed changing alright. Jake was barely passing a jog, and seemed to be more like walking for him.
"Jake?" He ran ahead of me and began running backwards to speak to me. "Do you think we could pick it up some?"
His smile broadened. "Alright, would you like to set the pace then?"
I nodded in return and waited for him to fall into place besides me.
My body took over, I knew I should have started with a slow run, but my legs burst into a sprint. Jake easily kept stride, and I noticed he was not even sweating. That was strange.
I was showing off, but I couldn't help it. I pushed harder still and began to feel the sweat appear on my forehead as we made our first lap. My breathing was steady, as Jake spoke beside me. "Leila, why don't we slow down, you're gonna overheat."
I shook my head no and looked at him again. Again he was perfectly dry of any sweat, and seemed to be only jogging. "I'm not tired."
My legs pushed harder and faster. I felt like I was in a dream. You know when you can run forever without getting tired. The only thing that made me realize I was awake was the small drips of sweat falling off my face. My heart was pounding, but it wasn't from exertion, it was from the beautiful man so close next to me.
Jake had a smile on his face as we continued to sprint the hard track. After five laps he slowed down. I followed him in doing so, and found my breathing finally a little ragged. His was still as though he had only been jogging, and his eyes met mine.
There was an intense moment as he stared down at me. I don't know if it was the adrenaline of the run, or the wide smile on his face, but I felt high. Like I was on a cloud and could never come down. The sun had peaked from a cloud and was shining brightly on his smile.
I couldn't say what happened next, one minute he was staring down at me, mesmerizing me and the next his large arms were around me. Heat flooded through my entire body as his lips found their way to mine. I was sure that the heat was coming directly from his lips, because they seemed to be exploding into fire when they met mine. It was a fire I wanted to be consumed in. The passion of the kiss overtook me, and I was struggling to breath as I felt him pull me off the ground. He noticed and placed me back on my feet.
For a moment his arms stayed wrapped around me, his head hotly resting on mine. His nose was in my hair, and I don't know if it was my imagination but I thought I heard him sniff me. I pulled back without realizing the questioning look on my face.
Jake peered down at me, with a wary smile. "We should head back Leila."
I wanted to ask him why he kissed me, to say something, anything, but the breath I had lost during our kiss was failing to return to me.
I was a deer in headlights as we walked back to the gym. I had never been kissed like that. Heck I had barely been kissed at all. And that kiss, was electrifying, and hot… literally.
Jake avoided my eyes that were staring intently at him as we walked back into the cool air conditioning. I reached into my back pocket for my cell phone to check the time, and came up empty.
"Crap." I muttered.
Jake looked at me curiously. "What?"
"I think I dropped my cell phone outside. It's not in my pocket."
Before either of us could say anything, a perky blonde behind the reception desk, whose name I had learned was Becky piped in. "Is this your phone?" Sure enough she held up my small silver phone.
I sighed in relief. "Yes, thank you so much."
"No problem, someone dropped it off a little while ago. It's been ringing ever since though. I put it on silence."
Sure enough when she handed me my phone it began vibrating again. I looked at the caller id and saw my mom's name. I looked at Jake, now becoming worried. "I have to take this."
"Hey mom what's going on?" I walked over to a remotely empty section of the entrance feeling the eyes of Jake and Becky following me.
"Oh thank God I got a hold of you. Leila I need you to fly home as soon as you can." My mom's voice was tight. I recognized the tone instantly, she was trying not to cry.
