Picking Up the Pieces (30 page)

             
“The food is really excellent, Shane. You’re quite a cook,” Adam said between bites.

             
“Thanks. It helps in my business to be able to cook well. Sort of like practicing what you preach.”

             
“Do a lot of the people at the gym ask your advice on their diets?” Adam asked.

             
“Some do. But I’m a nutritionist by day, so that’s when I give most of my advice.”

             
Amanda snorted. “By day? What are you, a superhero?”

             
Adam’s face contorted slightly at Amanda’s comment. He hadn’t been around her enough to understand that she showed love through sarcasm.

“Ignore her, Adam.
I do,” Shane said simply.

“You couldn’t ignore me if you tried,” Amanda balked.

Shane sat up straighter in his chair.

Challenge accepted.
I grabbed my glass of wine and sat back in my chair, awaiting the fireworks.

Poor Adam looked like he had just stumbled upon a den of rattlesnakes.
He clearly knew that a war had been waged, and he didn’t want to give allegiance to one side and risk pissing off the other. And I didn’t blame him. He’d get verbally bulldozed by either of them.

“Lily told us you’re an architect?” Shane was trying to get the conversation rolling again.
He couldn’t make a show of actively ignoring Amanda if she didn’t have an opportunity to speak.

“Uh, yeah.”
Adam’s eyes were darting between Shane and Amanda. He may not have known either of them well, but he knew enough to understand that this was far from over.

“That’s interesting.
What do you build?”

“Houses mostly.
My crew is currently putting up a housing development about an hour from here.”

Shane nodded.
“Guess we have that in common.” Adam looked perplexed so Shane continued, “Building. You build houses, and I build muscles. I imagine both are equally gratifying.” Shane’s lips twitched, and I wondered if anyone else noticed. His response sounded fairly douchey, and I guessed from his attempt to suppress a smile that it was intentional.

Well played, Shane.
Amanda wouldn’t be able to resist a smartass comment after that pompous display.

“He’s also working on building quite an ego, Adam.
I’d tell him to show it to you sometime, but, well he just did.”

There’s my girl, right on cue.
I almost felt bad for taking such enjoyment in watching Shane play Amanda like a violin. But it wasn’t often that she found a worthy opponent, and I reveled in it.

“Umm, yeah, it’s pretty gratifying. I guess.”
Adam picked up his wine and took a large drink.

“Oh, so you’re going to ignore me too, huh, Adam?”
Amanda charged.

“No.
” Adam sounded horrified. Exactly what he’d been trying not to do had happened. He’d made an enemy. “I didn’t . . . I mean, I wasn’t ignoring you. I just didn’t know how to respond to what you said.”

Adam looked
to me for help, but I just shrugged. I figured he should get the full experience that my friends had to offer.
That’s what
I’d
gotten from his flock of assholes. Plus, I thought of it like immersion therapy. I’d immerse him in the crazy and eventually he’d get used to it.

“So respond now.
Shane here has quite an ego, don’t you think?”

I looked at Shane and watched him roll his tongue around his mouth.
He’d underestimated Amanda. If he was going to ignore her, she’d have to outsource and drag someone else in who Shane couldn’t ignore. And Adam was that someone.
Poor bastard.

“I don’t
. . .” Adam looked around helplessly. “I don’t know him well enough to make that assessment.”

“Please,” Amanda said as she batted a hand in Adam’s direction.
“Don’t be worried about hurting his feelings. He doesn’t have any. Answer the question, Adam. First impression of Shane and his ego: what was it?” Amanda was leaning on her arms, which were crossed on the table.

“I . . . I . . . Jesus Christ, you people are driving me insane,” Adam blurted out as he ran a hand over his face.

Shane and Amanda looked at each other and then burst out in howls of laughter. I couldn’t resist chuckling along with them, though I tried to tone it down for Adam’s sake. He looked completely frazzled.

Adam stared at the two of them for a minut
e before finally sighing deeply. “Glad you two find me so amusing.” One side of his mouth was turned up into a slight smile, which was appropriate because I could tell he was only half kidding.

Shane held up one of his
hands and tried to rein in his laughter enough to respond. “Sorry, Adam. I know Amanda and I take a little getting used to.”

“Yeah, sorry, Adam.
We get a little carried away sometimes,” Amanda added.

“Sometimes?” I asked skeptically.

“Okay, all the time,” Amanda conceded.

Shane served dessert and we chatted a bit more about nothing much in particular.
Adam was nearly silent, obviously spent from his ordeal with the two of them. I figured I’d put him through enough, so after we helped clear the table, I spent a second talking to Shane, announced our departure, and we said our goodbyes.

Once we were tucked safely in the car, Adam turned to me.
“Are they
always
like that?”

I shrugged.
“Pretty much.”

“I don’t know how you hang out with them so much.
I’m exhausted just from
watching
them argue.”

“You’ll get used to it,” I smiled.

“I doubt it. I’m going to need a month to recuperate before we hang out with them again. I should be good by the wedding.” He huffed out a laugh.

“You don’t have that long.”

“What do you mean?” He looked alarmed.

“I told Shane and Amanda we’d see them Wednesday.
At CrossFit.”

“Why the hell would you tell them that?
I said I didn’t want to go there.”

I patted his knee lovingly.
“I know what you said.” I smiled sweetly as he groaned and started backing out of Shane’s driveway. Even though I had told Amanda, and myself, that Adam’s forgetting my birthday was no big deal, it did sting a little. So I felt there was no harm done if he stung a little too. Plus, maybe he'd let me ice down his muscles afterward. What girl would pass up that chance?

***

Monday rolled around and I was already counting down the days until I got Adam to CrossFit. But, at least for today, I’d have to settle for going by myself. I had brought a bag with me to work so that I could head for the gym as soon as I left, but Amanda had asked me to go to a later class so we could go together. She’d spent the rest of the weekend at Shane’s, so I guess she was going through Lily withdrawal.

             
Since I had extra time before the gym Monday night, I was able to get there a few minutes early. I plopped my belongings on the ground against a side wall and waited patiently as the previous class finished up the last of their exercises. I kept my eyes fixed on the door, knowing that if Amanda was late, Shane wouldn’t hesitate to make her row just like any other CrossFitter. When I saw her breeze through the entrance, I let out a sigh of relief—for her sake—and glanced over toward the other class, who had just finished up and was coming this way to get their things.

I began to make my way over to the workout space
to get ready for our warm-ups, when I stopped dead in my tracks.
What. The. Fuck? What is he doing here?
Though he was leaned over tying his shoe, his face obscured by his own body, there was no mistaking him. His broad shoulders and tanned muscular arms were showcased by his snug, sleeveless Under Armour shirt. My breath hitched as my eyes roamed involuntarily down his body to appraise his firm ass in dark mesh shorts. And as he stood, the small speck of doubt I had about his identity disappeared entirely when he ran a towel across his sweat-glistened neck and dark messy hair.

Max fucking Samson was
there.

I couldn’t figure out why I’d been so shocked.
He’d told Shane he’d take him up on his offer to try out CrossFit. I knew that. But there was something about having him there—in a place I almost considered a second home—that felt too invasive.
Jesus, Lily. He’s just in your gym, not your vagina. Get a fucking grip.

I’m not sure if it made it
better or worse that Max didn’t seem fazed at all by
me
. He strolled confidently over to where I stood, picking up his keys from the floor on the way. “Thanks, Shane.”
Oh, shit. When did Shane come over here?
I’d been so involved in my shock at seeing Max, I hadn’t even noticed that Shane had come over to talk to Amanda. “You weren’t kidding. This is a killer workout. I appreciate the opportunity to come by,” Max added.

I could tell Shane was tempering his excitement.
“Yeah, man. Anytime. We’d love to have you back.”

The two shook hands before Max shifted his eyes toward me.
“Nice to see you again, Lily,” he said tentatively. “Enjoy your workout.”

“Uh, thanks.
Nice to see you too.” We both hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to finalize our uncomfortable goodbye.
Will it be weird if we hug? Will it be weirder if we don’t?

“I’ll make sure Shane goes a little easier on you next time,” Amanda said to assuage some of the tension.
“He likes to ride people pretty hard sometimes.”

I saw Max smirk at the sexual connotation of her comment.
Would there ever be a time when his mind
wasn’t
in the gutter?

“I never heard you complaining,” Shane fired back at Amanda with a wink.

“Looks like you’ve got your hands full with this one, Shane,” Max said, pointing at Amanda. “Thanks again. I’m sure I’ll see you before the bachelor party. Ladies, it was nice seeing you both again,” Max added politely before heading toward the exit.

“Sounds good!
I look forward to it,” Shane called out over the blaring music as Max made his way to the door.

“Jesus, Shane, you might wanna adjust your broner.
People can see it through your shorts.”

“My what?” Shane asked, only half-listening as he looked over Amanda’s head toward
the door where Max had just exited.

“Your broner.
It’s a boner for another dude.”

“Oh, shut up.
That’s not a real thing. You just made that up.”

“It is too a real thing.
I may have made up the term ‘broner’—which is awesome, by the way—but your man crush on him is totally real.”

“I don’t have a man crush on him.
He’s just a cool guy who likes sports and is in great shape. We have a lot of the same interests.”

“What would those other interests be? Gazing at each other longingly and lying on
his back as he does push-ups? I can’t believe you invited him to the bachelor party. You know it’s gonna be a joint party. Lily will be there. And she sure as hell isn't gonna feel like hanging out with Max Samson for a whole weekend.”

“That’s why you had me come later, isn’t it?” I asked.
“You knew he’d be here.” I appreciated that Amanda had stopped me from going to the exact same class as him, but it was
more
awkward that she hadn’t prepared me to see him. I wasn’t sure where he and I stood, so a little heads up would’ve been helpful. And now I’d have to spend an entire weekend with him in Atlantic City for Shane and Amanda’s party. I thought back to the last time Max and I had been in Atlantic City together.
Shit, I’m really fucked.
Even though this time I was sure we wouldn’t be having any secretive, sexual encounters, Adam wouldn’t be so sure. “If Adam knows Max is going to the party, he’s gonna lose his shit.”

“What’s the worst that Adam thinks could possibly happen?
It’s not like you’re gonna screw Max there or somethi—” Amanda stopped abruptly when she realized her mistake. “Yeah, never mind. He’ll probably be pissed if he finds out.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about, Lily,” Shane tried to assure me.
“He’s bringing his girlfriend to the bachelor party weekend. Now I gotta start class. We can talk about this later.”

Girlfriend?
I wasn't sure why, but this news filled me with more dread than my impending conversation with Adam. I blew out a breath. "Today sucks," I muttered before starting my jumping jacks and contemplating running away from home.

Chapter 32: Adam

“Today is the day, Adam. Let’s go.” Lily was positively giddy.

             
“I know, I’m ready.” I was behaving purposely reluctant, though was actually feeling the opposite. Not that I was
excited
to go with her to CrossFit, but seeing her so happy was contagious. I started shuffling papers on her dining room table.

             
“What are you doing?” she accused more than asked.

             
“Just making sure my will is in order before I let you drag me to my death.”

             
“You’re so dramatic,” she murmured as she rolled her eyes. “Now, come on. If we’re late we have to row, and I prefer to not
begin
my workouts exhausted.”

             
I followed her out of her apartment and used my key to lock her door. As I looked down at her house key on my keychain, I shook my head slightly, smiling. Who would’ve ever thought that we’d be here when we got back together in December? It still didn’t seem real.

             
“Old man, what the hell are you doing?” Lily’s shrill yell pierced through my happy moment.

             
I ran to catch up with her, barreling into her from behind and wrapping my arms tightly around her. “Letting you drag me to your gym.”

             
Her arms wrapped around mine as we moved awkwardly, but lovingly, down her hallway. “I let you drag me out with your friends, so you’re going to CrossFit with me and you’ll damn well like it,” she said with mock seriousness.

             
“You don’t like it when I make you go out with my friends, so why do I have to like it when we go to your gym?”

             
“Touché, Mr. Carter. But I do
pretend
to like them. At least to their faces. Most of the time.”

             
I laughed into her shoulder. She was right, she did try to put on a good show. We’d been out with my friends a few times since their disastrous first meeting, and Lily always went in with a smile and a good attitude. That’s not often how she left, but at least she tried. It still bothered me that she didn’t get along with them, but at least the effort was there.

             
I had tried asking her what it was that she didn’t like about them, but she didn’t really have a solid answer.
“We just have nothing in common,”
she had finally responded.

             
“But you and I have things in common. And I have things in common with them. So, I don’t get how that works.”

             
“They have different things in common with you than I do.”

             
“Wow, I must be pretty common,” I joked.

             
She swatted me on the arm, but then turned serious. “They don’t like me either, Adam. Did you question them too?”

             
Truth was I had, and received similar answers. They just didn’t mesh, and I doubted they ever would. It was kind of how I felt about her friends actually. Granted, there wasn’t a palpable tension between me and the Lily Brigade like the one that existed between Lily and my crew, but my interactions with them were stilted and forced all the same.

             
Lily and I finally made it down to her car, and started for her gym. I had been actively avoiding this trip for months now. It’s not that I didn’t want to participate in something she clearly enjoyed, but I, well, I just
didn’t want to participate. I was fine at my own gym where I was able to do my own thing. The class structure to CrossFit didn’t appeal to me. But she had been hounding me about it, so I finally agreed to go and see what it was all about.

             
I regretted it instantly.

             
I walked into the warehouse-converted gym and was greeted by blaring rock music and twenty people dripping sweat everywhere, while about fifteen more watched and waited for their class to start. We stood there for a couple of minutes while the previous class ended and the drenched exercisers limped toward their belongings. I saw Shane walking toward us and plastered a smile on my face.

             
“Hey, guys,” he greeted us as he stretched his hand out toward me. “You ready for this?”

             
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

             
“Shane, I swear to God, I'm going to kill you for the mess you've made in that office. Lily, Adam, is it six already?”

             
We all spun toward Amanda as she walked up to us and gave us each a quick hug.

             
“Yeah, it’s six. I didn’t think you were going to be here tonight?” Lily inquired.

             
“Me neither, but I’m still trying to get this doofus’s books in order. Did you know he has all of his accounting in
ledgers
?” She uttered the last word as though it were dirty. “Ledgers, Lily. It’s going to take me weeks to get that shit all sorted out.”

             
“Oh stop,” Shane admonished. “It’s not that bad. And you offered to do it.”

“Not that bad?
Have you been huffing your creatine? It’s a trainwreck in there.” Her voice elevated as she thrust an arm toward the office. “And
excuse me
for wanting to get our finances in order before we get married. I should’ve never encouraged you to take over partial
ownership of the gym. ‘Go for your dream,’ I told him. Well this shit is no dream; it’s a fucking nightmare. I don’t even know how you can be sure these people are paying you every month for their memberships.” Amanda was ranting a mile a minute. I actually found it hard to keep up.

“They’re probably not,” Shane smirked.

I couldn’t understand what he got out of goading her all of the time, but it seemed to work for them. . . if fighting all of the time really
worked
for anybody. Lily tried explaining it to me once how this banter was fun for them, but I couldn't understand how that was possible. To each his own, I guess.

“Oh, so this is like a charity, then?
Kind of like what you are to me.” Amanda's lips quirked up at the corners.

These two are so fucking weird.

“Exactly like that,” Shane replied, moving toward Amanda and wrapping his arms around her. He leaned down and pecked a kiss to her cheek. Then to her nose, then her other cheek.

“Stop pecking me.
You know I hate chickens.” But she couldn’t hold in her laugh as he kept up his assault.

“Okay, dirty birds, can we get class started?
Some of us would like to exercise.” Lily started pulling on Shane’s T-shirt.

“Really
? Who? Surely you aren’t talking about yourself because I don’t think anyone would consider what you do here exercising.”

“Fuck you, Shane.
Come on,” Lily whined. “I wanna see Adam cry.”

Everyone thought that was hysterical.
Everyone except me. “Very funny, Lily. It can’t be that bad. You act like I don’t work out regularly.”

“Aww, did I hurt your feelings,” she said as she put her arms around my waist and looked up at me with pouting eyes.
“Well, get used to it, Carter. It’s not the only thing that’s going to be hurting today.” She placed a quick kiss on my lips and darted toward the mats to join the stretching that Kate, Shane’s co-worker, was leading.

What followed was the longest hour of my life.
The workout really hadn’t seemed so bad when Shane had previewed it for us, but hearing about it and enduring it were two different things. After finding my back squat max, Shane informed us that the WOD was about to begin. I turned to Lily. “That wasn’t the workout?”

She laughed.
“No. We always start with muscle building and then we move into the actual WOD.”

“Shit,” I muttered.
I had felt good on the back squats, managing to build up to three hundred and thirty-three lbs. But if I had known that there was still more to come, I may have taken it down a notch.

The WOD consisted of three power cleans, six push-ups, and nine air squats.
We had to cycle through this as many times as possible in three minutes. Then, we would rest for a minute and repeat. Five times!

What made it even worse was that Amanda had taken a break from bookkeeping to elect herself my own personal cheerleader. "Come on, Adam, dig deep. Deeper," she grunted animalistically during my squats. This was followed by her yelling "Up, down, up, down. Faster, Adam. Oh yes, faster," while I did the push-ups. Thankfully, she evidently had a difficult time thinking of any sexually charged comments to accompany the cleans. Until the fourth round when she commented, "Wow, you must be really used to bringing things up to your face," and winked suggestively at Lily.

I had hoped Shane would drag her away from me so that she would at least stop distracting the other people in the class. But, since he was clearly enjoying her one-man comedy act even more than she was, he never said a word.

Lily also seemed to be having a great time at my expense. But I was so winded from the workout, the only retort I could muster was sticking my tongue out at her as she laughed like a hyena when Amanda tried to lay beneath me for my last round of push-ups.

It was sweet in a way: how they were trying to include me in their jokes and gibes. I just wasn't into it. I didn't know them well enough to enjoy being ridiculed by virtual strangers. Maybe Lily and I just weren't meant to hang out in a group. Or maybe we both just befriended assholes.

By the end of the fifth round, my legs were quaking and my arms were hanging lifelessly at my sides.
I slid down against the wall and tried to catch my breath.

Lily sat next to me.
“Did you like it?” she asked hopefully.

“Who in their right mind would
like
that?” I wheezed.

“Look around.
Lots of people,” she giggled.

“You’re all nuts,” I said as I struggled to my feet.

“Agreed.”

I looked over and saw her smiling as I threw my arm around her shoulder.
“Carry me out of here, beautiful.”

We headed for the exit, but Shane intercepted us.
“How was it?”

“Brutal.
I give you guys a lot of credit. You’re way fitter than I am if you can do that every day.”

“It gets easier,” he replied.
“So, Amanda wanted me to ask you guys if you wanted to stop for dinner. I have a few things to finish up here, but I’ll meet you guys in fifteen minutes.”

Lily looked up at me. “We’re all sweaty and gross,” I complained.

“That’s no big deal.
There’s a little place around the corner a bunch of us go to all the time. It’s super casual,” Shane explained.

Lily was still looking at me, the pout coming back to her face.
But I couldn’t do it. It was bad enough I had just let Shane torture me for an hour. I just wasn’t up for hanging out with him afterward too. “Why don’t you just drop me back off at my car and then you guys can go?”

“But I want to hang out with you more before you have to go home to Eva.”

“That’s not very long from now anyway. I told my mom I’d be home by eight. And I’m beat. It’s fine; I’ll see you this weekend.”

“Okay,” Lily relented, though she definitely wasn’t happy about it. “Tell Amanda that I’ll come back and get her in fifteen minutes,” she said to Shane as we walked out.

“No problem. Oh, and Adam, if you want to join our little family here, just come on back in anytime.”

“Thanks, Shane,” I said as I continued to shuffle toward the door, “but I’m not sure this is for me.”