Page 7 of The Shape of You


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Ty nodded, and his face broke into a grin of satisfaction.“Thanks. Feels good. Thursday?”

Rebecca nodded. “See you then.” Ty headed for the locker room asRebecca put away the equipment they’d used for his session. It was seveno’clock on Tuesday evening, and the yoga class had just finished up, judging bythe number of yoga-clothes-clad women filing down the hall toward the stairs asRebecca waited for an opening in the flow of people.

“Hey.” Sherry was the last one, a white towel draped over hershoulders.

“Hi.” Rebecca walked next to her, both on their way to theiroffices. “Good class?”

“Full.”

“Not unusual.”

Their desks butted up to each other and Sherry flopped down intoher chair. “Long day for me. You?”

Rebecca tilted her head back and forth. “Not too bad. I had acancellation, so ended up with a free hour.”

Sherry sat forward suddenly, forearms on the desk as Rebecca drankfrom her water bottle. “Hey, how did the bride class go? I haven’t seen yousince. Any bridezillas?”

“Not really.” Rebecca thought back to the previous night’s class.“A couple with that make-me-skinny attitude, but the other three seemed fine.Although there was one…” Rebecca sighed and shook her head. “Her fiancée signedher up for the class.”

Sherry furrowed her brow. “After they’d talked about it?”

“I don’t think so. She said she surprised her.”

“She? Her fiancée’s a she?”

“Yes! Which makes it worse, if you ask me.”

“Oh, women body-shaming other women. My favorite.”

“Right? Who does that to somebody they love?”

“Does she need it?” Sherry’s grimace and slight hesitation toldRebecca it wasn’t a question she’d ask just any staff member at the gym.

Rebecca called Spencer’s face up in her mind’s eye, her body. Shewas beautiful. She really was. Rebecca couldn’t deny that. There wassomething…magnetic about her. “No, not really. I mean, she could use a bit oftoning. She’s not terribly strong and her stamina could use some work, butshe’s not unhealthy. She just doesn’t move enough.”

“Like eighty percent of the rest of the country.”

“Exactly.”

“So, she plays on your team. She cute?” Sherry raised one eyebrowin a lame attempt to look mischievous.

“I am not answering that,” Rebecca said, with a laugh.She is. Very.

Sherry tossed her a wink and a wave. “See you tomorrow.”

Rebecca watched her go, then turned her gaze to the windows by herdesk. BodyFit was fairly populated but would start to clear out in the nexthour, folks who made their after-work or after-dinner stops finishing up theirworkouts. As she watched the bustle of activity below her, Rebecca reflected onSherry’s question.

Spencer Thompsonwascute, though that wasn’t really the word Rebecca would use. She wasmore…pretty. Femininely attractive. Her blond hair had some curl to it, even ina ponytail, and her blue eyes were big, softly expressive. Physically, she’dcaught Rebecca’s eye immediately. Unfortunately, she came across as a bitpassive, a characteristic that tended to drive Rebecca a little nuts,considering her family history, and that lost Spencer points. Big ones. Shealso had a bit of a self-deprecating sense of humor that Rebecca had gotten atiny glimpse of, and an odd sense of protection had come along with it. Rebeccadidn’t like Spencer mocking herself. She wasn’t sure what to do with that andtried to shake it away, move her thoughts to other things.

Later, at home, Spencer was still taking up a small amount ofspace in the back of Rebecca’s mind. Unsure why—and needing it to stop—Rebeccadecided to combat it by checking the two dating sites she’d signed up on,thanks to prodding by both Sherry and Nick—and Nick’s wife, Michelle, who wasgentler than Nick in her approach, but still.

Rebecca hadn’t signed on in a few days, and as she sat down andopened her laptop, Veruca Salt hopped up into her lap for some attention andscratches on her white kitty head.

“Ready, Ruke?” Rebecca asked. “You know how much we love beingsubjected to entirely new levels of ego-bruising. Yay for dating sites!”

Veruca yawned widely, then began kneading Rebecca’s thighs—apainful process given the thin workout pants she still wore.

“Okay, what have we got?” The first site had three matches and amessage waiting for her. “Look at that, Ruke, three matches and three profileswith no pictures. Delete, delete, delete.” Rebecca and Michelle had had endlessdebates about this, Michelle being of theyou-could-be-deleting-your-soul-mate-just-because-you-can’t-see-her argument.Rebecca was of theI-need-there-to-be-at-least-some-kind-of-physical-attraction-first argument.