‘Nope.’ He folded the chair and swung it over his shoulder in one deft move, starting to walk towards the path back to the village.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t have a whole day of productive, meaningful activities scheduled.’
Nathan paused to allow me to catch up with him. ‘Oh, I do. But I allowed some flexibility in the schedule, given that I’ll be doing them with you.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Did I forget to mention? Breakfast was only part one of the challenge.’
I was speechless as I kept walking, the brilliant after-effects of my hour in the sunshine haemorrhaging onto the muddy path behind me.
‘Don’t panic.’
‘Then tell me what the hell you’re talking about.’
He reached out and grabbed my hand, face serious, but those crinkles betraying his excitement. ‘A whole day, sunset to sunrise, out.’
‘Urr.’
‘Come on, you’re here now, might as well keep going for a few more hours. And once you’ve finished, you’ll be ready to conquer anything.’
I stopped, fighting the urge to bend over and retch into the bracken. ‘No, thank you.’
Nathan took my other hand, ducking his head to look me in the eye. ‘You can do this.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘You didn’t think you could eat breakfast out here in broad daylight, and you smashed that.’
‘And that was really, really enough for one day. I know my limits, Nathan, I am freaking out right now. Just getting myself through the village, into my house and under my duvet is challenge enough. How the hell am I supposed to manage a whole day?’
‘One minute at a time.’
‘That sounds like a very long day,’ I virtually screeched at him. ‘Can I at least know what’s going to be happening?’
‘First, we need a shower.’
Well, my anxiety was somewhat bamboozled by that statement.
Nathan’s mouth fell open as blood flooded his cheeks and neck. He dropped my hands as if they were electric eels. ‘That came out wrong.’
I actually laughed. ‘I should hope so.’
‘Crap.’ He tugged at his hair in agitation. ‘I had planned on us getting… changed… at mine, but now it seems… inappropriate.’
‘If I was a football mate, or another personal trainer from the gym, would it be appropriate?’
‘Yes. But I don’t let my clients even know my address.’
‘So, we’d better make a decision.’ What a bizarre conversation to be having on an ice-cold Sunday morning, the words echoing through the woods around us. ‘Am I your client, or a friend?’
Nathan hesitated, looking around as if the answer lay buried in the brambles or swinging from a branch. ‘What do you want to be?’ he asked, haltingly.
‘Right now? I really want a shower.’And I really NEED to get inside a solid building. ‘Maybe we can temporarily suspend our client-coach relationship until we’ve left your house again. I’ll pretend I don’t know where you live and forget it ever happened.’
He frowned at the path, then up at the clear sky, before his non-crinkled eyes settled on me. ‘I suppose it’s no worse than spending the day together in pyjamas.’
We resumed walking.
