Rebecca blinked at him in disbelief.
“Yeah,” Dave agreed. “She’d probably appreciate one last bootycall before settling down with the same person for the rest of her life.”
“I agree with that,” Dwayne piped in.
“You’d just be doing her a favor, you know?” Nick added,rearranging his cards in his hand.
“Seriously? You guys are horrible people.” Rebecca shook her headas she folded her hand. Smothered smiles and quiet chuckles around the tabletold her they weren’t actually serious, and even though she knew that, she felta rush of relief anyway. Then she picked up a chip and threw it at Dwayne, whowas across the table from her. He caught it in one hand, and his chuckle grewinto a laugh as he popped it into his mouth. Soon the whole table was laughing.“Horrible. You’re all horrible.”
“You wouldn’t have us any other way, Becky,” Dave said, with awink.
“Call me that again and you’ll be playing cards with a black eye,”she warned him, then winked back at him.
These guys.
Her heart swelled with affection for each of them, and before shehad a chance to tamp it down, she found herself wondering what Spencer wouldthink of them.
With a literal shake of her head—a hard one—she focused in on hercards with laser precision.
Yeah. No more ofthat.
* * *
Friday had been surprisingly quiet at work. Usually a day whenphones rang off the hook—calls from folks wanting to set up last-minute openhouses; never a good idea, as there was no time to advertise—things stayedrelatively calm. Spencer preferred it to be busy and bustling, as that alwaysmade the day go by faster. It also kept her mind off things she had no desireto dwell on. Like moving in with Marti. Like how tired her mother had soundedon the phone last night. Like Rebecca McCall’s deer-in-the-headlightsexpression yesterday when Spencer had sat down in her booth.
Those subjects took turns racing through her mind like bikes on amotocross course, jumping and skidding and banging into the side of her skulluntil she ended up with a steady, throbbing headache and an almost irresistibledesire to skip out on bride class tonight.
But no. She wouldn’t give Rebecca the satisfaction.
If Rebecca really didn’t see that she treated Spencer differentlythan the other women—differently in general, really—then there was nothingSpencer could do about it. And even if she did see that and simply didn’t wantto own up to it, there was still nothing Spencer could do about it. And why didit matter anyway?
That was the big question, the one that plagued her more than shecared to admit:Why doesit matter?
“It doesn’t,” Spencer said out loud just as Jennifer walkedthrough the front doors.
“It doesn’t what?” she asked, crossing to her desk. The office wasa large open space, with Spencer’s desk poised near the door so anybodyentering would go to her first. Beyond her were eight more desks, buttedagainst each other in pairs and arranged like islands in the large, sunny room.Jennifer’s was one of those closest to Spencer’s.
“Nothing,” Spencer said with a shake of her head.
“Class tonight?”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“Don’t you like it? I mean, I know it’s probably hard work…”
Spencer shrugged. “It’s fine. I’m just tired.” Not a total lie,but not the complete truth. It was pretty clear that she and Rebecca weren’tfriends, and that was just fine. Who knew, maybe Rebecca had a thing aboutbeing friends with clients. Spencer had a similar unwritten rule: nosocializing with work clients if she could help it. That only led totrouble…people expecting special treatment, better dates for open houses,priority listing, etc. No, it was fine. She understood. She was simply aclient. Better that it stayed that way.
Ninety minutes later, Spencer was stretching along with the otherfour members of the class, as Rebecca walked around them, observing,correcting, moving limbs slightly here and there. She looked very sleek in hertight-fitting black workout pants and matching black tank with the low-cutback, strips of fabric crisscrossing the exposed skin there. Spencer pretendednot to notice.
“Here,” Rebecca said, squatting down beside Lucy, who was onSpencer’s immediate left. “Straighten this leg more.” She tapped Lucy’s thigh.“Good. Then bend this one.” She helped Lucy steady herself with a hand on herback until Lucy found the exact right position. “There you go.”
“Oh, ow. Yeah, I can feel that.”
Rebecca turned to Spencer and swallowed; Spencer saw her throatmove. “You as well. Straighten that leg more.” She pointed at Spencer’s leftleg and Spencer did as she was told. “Now, angle that one a bit more.” Again,she pointed. Spencer obeyed with a nod. “Feel that?”
Spencer nodded, not looking at her.
“Good.” And then Rebecca was in front of the row of them. “As Itold you Wednesday, today we’re going to work our core strength. Core strengthis super important, and a lot of people forget about it. To most people, coreexercises mean sit-ups or crunches, but it’s so much more than that.” She wenton to reiterate things she’d already mentioned, benefits of having a strongcore, but Spencer was only half listening. Instead, she found herself lookingone floor up to the windowed wall of the spinning room. She could feel thethumping bass line coming from the music up there and saw several peoplepedaling away to nowhere.
