Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
“Good.” I believe her. She’s proving to be nothing like her sister, Lucy.
It’s then she looks me up and down and squints. “Why are you dressed like that?” She’s staring at my gray track pants and black shirt. She’s dressed in a shirt that comes down to her knees, and she has fuzzy socks covering her feet.
I look back outside, then turn to face her. “You run. I run. We are going to run together. Now.”
Her face is shocked as she stares at me. “You want to run with me?” she asks in disbelief.
“Did I stutter and not make sense?”
She bites her lip and looks down. “You don’t even like me. Why would you want to run with me?”
“We are going to get to know one another. So that starts with me running with you today.” My eyes scan her body. “Now, hurry up and get dressed.” I turn and start my stretching routine. When I don’t hear her move, I turn around, and she’s still standing there staring at me as if I have grown a second head. “Theadora.” My voice seems to snap her out of her trance, and she turns, running to her room. She doesn’t keep me waiting too long, and soon she’s out, dressed in tights and a long-sleeved shirt and joggers. Her hair is up in a messy ponytail with AirPods in her ears.
“I don’t talk when I run, so keep up and shut up,” she tells me. I smirk at her as she starts to stretch. She bends over in front of me, and it takes everything in me not to reach out and touch her ass. When she stands, she stretches one arm and looks behind her, at me.
“Can you keep up?” she asks.
“The question is… can you?” I take off, and it doesn’t take her long to catch up. Theadora runs next to me, never once slowing her pace. She’s fast. I knew she liked to run, but I didn’t expect her to be this quick. When we get to a crossing, I come to a stop, but she stays jogging on the spot, and before I can say a word, the light changes, and she’s off again. I never expected I would have to keep up with her, but somehow, I do. When we reach the end of her trail, she slows down and jogs on the spot while removing one AirPod, and she isn’t even out of breath.
“Did you run track?” I ask.
“Yes.” She looks at me, waiting for me to keep talking.
I damn well didn’t expect to be outrun, but she has great stamina. “Go. I’ll catch up.”
She eyes me suspiciously and does just that, starts running back in the direction we came.
Theadora is sitting out the front of her house with two bottles of water in her hands when I get back. She passes me one as I sit next to her.
“No one keeps up with me, don’t be ashamed.” Her voice is playful. But what she doesn’t know is that I succeed in almost everything I do. Losing is never an option. “Don’t be so sour,” she says, nudging me. “You will set your face in a permeant scowl one day.”
I turn to look at her and see her smiling. It’s genuine. Until she realizes I am not, and I watch as it drops from her pink lips.
“You are good. Why have you stopped?” I ask.
“Why are you here?” she asks, back to avoiding my question.
I think on it a bit. I could tell her the truth, but that would do no one any good. So, instead, I offer her a half-truth. “You are meant to be a means to an end. Instead, I am getting lost somewhere in the middle.”
She’s quiet, and when I turn to look at her, she’s staring up at the sky.
“I’m not Lucy. I don’t chase or want to be chased by someone who is bad. Bad and me just don’t mix. It doesn’t entice me nor make me all hot and bothered. She has always wanted the bad boy, while I am more than content to have a man who tells me every day how much I mean to him, instead of letting me guess.” When I don’t speak, she turns to look at me. “So, use me the same way you would her, Atlas. Because I don’t want this game. I didn’t sign up for it. All I want is for this to be over so I can go back to my normal life.”
I stand at her words. She looks up at me with her sky-blue eyes, and I wonder how someone can be so perfect.
“You and Lucy are different, that is no lie,” I tell her. “One is better than the other, that’s for sure,” I say while walking away to the waiting car.