Page 9 of The Shape of You


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An hour later, she and Lucy were both in the locker room, sweatingand flushed. Spencer dropped down to the bench, elbows on her knees, and lether head hang down as she did her best to catch her breath and bring her racingheart down to normal levels.

“Wow,” Lucy said, spinning the dial on her lock. “That wassomething, huh?”

Spencer was glad the other three women from their class were inanother aisle of the room. To her, they only amplified how out of shape shewas. Lucy seemed to see it differently.

“I’m really liking this so far. I think it’s going to help my bodyand my mind, you know?”

Spencer looked up at her.

“I mean, I’m never going to be a size four,” she went on. “Andthat’s fine. I accepted that a long, long time ago, believe me. I’m just me.You know? But now I’ll be me, stronger.” Her smile was contagious, and Spencergrinned back at her. “You just have to compete with yourself. Nobody else.”

Spencer nodded, understanding the concept. But knowing that andputting it into practice would be easier said than done for her. “I think I’mcompeting with Rebecca’s expectations,” she said, with a slight scoff.

Lucy wrinkled her nose. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t think she likes me.”

It was Lucy’s turn to scoff. “Nah.” She waved a dismissive hand.“She’s just tough.”

Maybe Lucy was right.Maybeit’s just me.It wasn’t like Rebecca wasn’t hard on all of them; shewas. It just felt…harder…to Spencer. Rebecca didn’t say anything, it was herattitude, almost an aura of disappointment when she was around Spencer. Was shebeing paranoid? It was possible. Though after the eye contact on the bike, Rebeccadidn’t look at her again for the rest of the session. Well, she looked ather—it would be difficult not to and still do her job—but she hadn’t looked herin the eye. Again. Spencer was big on eye contact, so having somebody avoid iton purpose was punishingly obvious to her.

Lucy bid her goodbye and Spencer took her time gathering herthings. Having no desire to take a shower in a public place, she didn’t botherchanging her clothes. She’d just go home and shower there. The locker roomswere on the first floor, the main entrance to BodyFit on the second, so Spencerhad to come upstairs in order to then go down the front stairs and out thedoor. As she passed the smoothie bar and approached the front desk, she noticedRebecca leaning on the counter and talking to a middle-aged woman with shortred hair. The woman must have said something funny because Rebecca threw herhead back and laughed, a shockingly feminine and contagious sound. Spencerfound herself smiling as she passed. Rebecca spared her a glance, but quicklyturned back to the redhead without another word.

See? Notjust me.

Spencer shook her head, picked up her pace, and pushed her way outof the gym. The atmosphere felt suddenly heavy and thick, oppressive. Spencerwanted to be out of there. Sheneededto be out of there.

* * *

“Who was that?” Sherry asked, then sucked on the fat green strawin her smoothie.

Rebecca watched Spencer’s back as she exited the building, all thewhile feeling Sherry’s eyes on her. “Nobody.”

“Wait.” Sherry said that one word in such a way that Rebecca hadno choice but to turn and meet her gaze. “Is that the one? The one whosefiancée made her go to class?”

Rebecca nodded. “That’s her.”

“She’s pretty,” Sherry said. “Not terribly out of shape from whatI can see.”

“No. She’s not.” Rebecca had to agree with that.

Sherry made a show now of craning her neck to see out the windowinto the parking lot. “And drives a hot little car from what I can tell.”

“That’s nice.” Rebecca pushed herself off the counter, ready tofinish up some things at her desk before heading home.

“Becks.”

Damn it.Sherry’s tone stopped her in her tracks. She was the only adult who could stilldo that. She was also the only person on the planet besides Nick who wasallowed to use a shortened version of her name. Rebecca turned back to face hermentor.

“Don’t you be extra rough on that girl.”

“I won’t,” Rebecca said as she walked away, trying not to sounddefensive, but pretty sure she failed.

“I’ve met you,” Sherry called after her. “Iknowyou.”

It was a little bit of an issue Rebecca had. Being a tinyspeck…judgmental when it came to this subject. She knew it, but that didn’tmean she wanted to discuss it, even with Sherry, who knew her history. Rebeccahad spent most of her teen years watching her mother do everything her fathersaid, barely thinking for herself. It didn’t matter that she seemed perfectlyfine in that life; Rebecca hated to watch it. She wanted to shout at hermother, “Speak up! Say something! Stand up for yourself!” But none of those thingsever happened, and Rebecca, despite her deep love for her mother, thought ofher as weak. Because of that, she made an immediate assessment of anybody whobehaved in a similar way. Whether or not she spent any time getting to knowthem, she formed an opinion about them. An often unfavorable one.

Had she done that with Spencer Thompson?