"What the hell were you thinking?" Elizabeth barrelled through the door and threw her bag onto her bed. "Did you not consider - oh, I don't know - maybe asking me first?"

Ella's head popped up from the magazine she was reading and she smiled "Ahhh - You met Henry then?" She looked back down and continued flipping through the pages. "You can thank me later."

"I'm not planning on thanking you at all. You're lucky I don't kill you for that little stunt. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was?"

Ella laughed, her eyes still fixed on the magazine "Oh no - You didn't puke or faint or something did you Lizzie?"

Elizabeth picked up the closest thing to hand, which happened to be a rather tattered paperback of 'On the Origin of Species' that had been sitting on her desk, minding its own business, and launched it at Ella. It bounced off of her foot, landing on the floor with a thud.

"Ow! What was that for?" Ella looked up again and was met with a scowl "What's got your knickers all in a bunch?"

"You have! You're a constant pain in my arse." Elizabeth was starting to run out of steam and as her anger subsided, she sank face down onto the quilt, hiding her face in the pillow.

Ella moved across the room and perched on the end of the bed, pushing Elizabeth's feet to the side. "Alright - What happened?"

"I nearly pepper sprayed the poor guy." The words were muffled but Ella caught the gist. "And I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm insane."

"Oh Lizzie! You're not safe to be let out on your own, you know that?"

Elizabeth rolled over "I had no idea who he was! And when he started harping on about meeting me for a session, I didn't know what to think."

"He's a personal trainer, you muppet."

"Well I know that now! But it might have been a good idea for you to have told me that beforehand."

"And if I had told you - Would you have gone?

"Yes."

"Lizzie?"

"Ok - Probably not!

"Exactly!

"You still should have told me something! When he said I matched the description he'd been given, I thought you'd set us up on a blind date."

Ella grinned "Well, would that have been such a bad thing? I mean, he's cute, you're cute and you haven't been on a date in forever."

"So this whole thing has nothing to do with the charity race at all - You're just finding random guys to hook me up with? I'm the charity case now, huh?"

"Don't be so touchy Lizzie! You were never going to manage this race without some help and that's where Henry comes in. Please tell me you're going to at least give this a try?"

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and shot Ella a look of exasperation "It's not like I really have much choice! Thanks to you being a sneaky little bitch, I couldn't say no! I didn't want to waste his time and now I've agreed to train with him three times a week."

Ella chuckled "You've actually agreed to step away from your books for that amount of time? Bloody hell - How on earth did he convince you to do that? I can't even drag you out for ice-cream."

Elizabeth's eyes grew big "I don't go out for ice-cream - You know that."

"Ahhhhh shit! I'm sorry sweetie, me and my big mouth! Do you want to throw another book at me? You can even choose one of those heavy math ones?"

Elizabeth cracked a smile "No!"

"How about a hug instead?" Ella held her arms open "You know I only open my mouth to change feet."

"Yeah, I'm well aware." Elizabeth crawled to the end of the bed and into her friend's waiting embrace. Ella was the only person Elizabeth had confided in about her parents and it had been the best decision she'd made. There was no pity or judgement, just friendship and Elizabeth hadn't realised just how much she'd needed it. She didn't have to hide anything or put on a brave face and it felt good to have that freedom. They bickered and pissed each other off constantly, but they always had each other's backs.

When they moved apart, Ella put her hands on Elizabeth's shoulders "You know I care about you right?"

"Yeah." She smiled "I know."

"And you know whatever I say comes from a place of love?"

"That's debatable, but go on."

"I think it's only right that I tell you the truth -."

Elizabeth suddenly felt a rush of concern "About what?"

"I'm sorry to tell you this - But you stink!" Ella burst into a fit of giggles "Get your ass in the shower, girl! She managed to dodge the pillow Elizabeth had thrown her way "And for god sake burn that shirt."

"You jerk! I thought you were being serious."

"Oh, I am. Your first session must have been a good one, you're all sweaty."

Elizabeth busied herself grabbing her toiletries and towel "You owe me for setting me up like this!"

Ella shrugged, "I'll do the toast at your wedding."

Henry wasn't sure what to expect from his second session with Elizabeth. The first one had been somewhat awkward and he wasn't entirely certain she'd bother turning up again, but he was hoping she would. She was definitely going to be a challenge, but he kind of liked it that way. It pushed him to do better. Physically, he was confident that he could get her to achieve her goal, but her mentality could prove a problem. She'd assured him she was committed, but truth be told, he wasn't convinced. They had arranged to meet just after lunch when they both had free time and the gym should be fairly quiet which he preferred.

As he approached the building, he noticed her sitting on the bench outside, the same tatty band shirt on and a book balanced on her knee. He knew nothing about her other than she needed his help but she seemed rather - Scatty, for use of a better word.

"Hi Elizabeth, you made it?"

Elizabeth dropped the bag of Cheetos she'd been munching on, into her lap and wiped her hand in her leggings "Oh - Hi Henwy." She already had a mouthful but swallowed quickly "Why wouldn't I have made it?"

"No reason - It's good to see you."

"You didn't think I'd show up - Did you?"

Henry smiled "I'll admit I had my doubts, but I'm glad you did. I want to see you achieve your goals."

"Well that's good because that's what I'm paying you for." She smiled back at him with just a hint of sass. "Shall we get started?"

"What were you eating?" He eyed the bag in her lap.

"Cheetos."

"And the bottle by your side?" He pointed to it with a disapproving look.

Elizabeth looked down at it "Chocolate milk."

Henry shook his head as he reached for the bottle and the Cheetos and promptly threw them into the nearest trash can.

"Hey! That was my lunch."

"In order to get the best from your body Elizabeth, you need to fuel it properly. That is not a balanced diet by any stretch of the imagination."

"But I like them." Elizabeth looked at him with disgust.

"If you want to be ready for this race, you have to be committed to it. Not just the actual training but all of it. No more Cheetos and chocolate milk or any other junk."

"What exactly do you class as junk?" She definitely needed clarification on this. "Is pizza okay? I mean, it does have tomatoes on it. That's a vegetable, right?"

"Actually, it's a fruit but pizza is definitely not okay."

Elizabeth tilted her head and raised a brow at him.

Henry let out an uneasy chuckle "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

She nodded "Yes Henry, I'm messing with you! I do know how to eat healthily."

"So what was that then?" Henry pointed to the bin.

"That was a 'I'm running late and need to grab something quickly' kinda lunch."

"Well no more of that! You'll be puking if you try and work out with that in your stomach."

"I will not."

It was Henry's turn to raise a brow.

"Urghhhhh fine! I'll commit to this properly but I want you to know that I'm going to hate you just a little bit." She flashed him a sarcastic smirk.

Henry laughed "Well that's good to know! Although I'm pretty sure you'll hate me a lot more by the time you do the charity run. If you were to ask any of my previous clients they would probably tell you they want me dead."

Elizabeth stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder, dropping the book into it and heading for the entrance. "Well, I'll be sure to regularly update you on my level of disdain for you." She looked back over her shoulder to Henry who hadn't moved. "Are you coming or will you not be getting paid for this hour?"

Henry sighed "What am I getting myself into."

Henry quickly discovered exactly what he'd gotten into, less than fifteen minutes later, when he found himself rubbing Elizabeth's back as she puked into a trash can. He'd started her off with a fitness test on the treadmill, but as he increased the speed, she had turned decidedly more green until she slammed her hand down on the stop button, jumped off and dashed to the edge of the room.

"What did I tell you about that chocolate milk?"

"That's not helping." She groaned as she continued retching "Where's the sympathy?"

"I don't have any! If you want results then I will push you. If you want a babysitter I'm not that guy."

Elizabeth straightened up and took the bottle of water Henry was holding out for her. "I think my disdain has moved up a notch." She rinsed her mouth and handed it back to him "You're an asshole."

"Look, Elizabeth! If you want someone to hold your hair back while you puke and tell you how perfect you are, get your boyfriend to do it. I'm here to get results for you. If that's not what you want, then we'll call it quits now." Henry felt a pang of guilt when he saw the look on her face, but a little tough love never hurt anyone and he could really see promise in her.

"I do want results!" She wiped her brow with the towel "And I don't have a boyfriend."

"Well I'm glad to hear it."

Henry was smiling at her and she felt her stomach flip. It was probably the chocolate milk, but there was something about him that she was drawn to - And she really didn't do the whole crushing nonsense so it was a foreign feeling to her. "You are?"

"Yeah! If you have no distractions then you can really focus all of your energy into this. Now are you ready to try the fitness test again or do you need a break?"

"I'm ready - Let's do this."