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Therapy
“Miss Dillard, punctual as always, please have a seat,” Susan motioned. She'd been Lita’s therapist for the last
month, exactly one day after Lita moved into her apartment. But ever since the first visit, she always insisted
that Lita call her Susan, to show that her office was a friendly space. But it wasn’t and Lita knew that, simply
from the fact that Susan never called her Lita. It was always Miss Dillard.
“So, what's new on my mother’s agenda?” Lita asked, dismissing any pleasantries at the door. She slumped onto
the overpriced leather couch with a scowl.
“Your mother says hello, as always, and once again, I'm here to remind you she only wants what's best for you.
We're here today to discuss the gym again. It’s important for you to take better care of yourself. Have you found
a suitable location? | have a few suggestions that your mother has approved, if you'd like.”
“No thanks, Susan. | found one yesterday. Here's the receipt,” Lita snipped, practically tossing the half-crumpled
piece of paper into Susan’s hands. The woman cleared her throat and cleaned her glasses slowly before taking
up the piece of receipt paper in her hands.
“Mmm, there's no nhere. It just says Athletic club on the line item. What's it called? Where is it?”
“It’s pretty far, but I like the drive,” Lita smiled with an attitude, “Giveslots of tto think. And | prefer to
keep the nto myself. | was told | could select my gym, and I did. It shouldn't matter where it is. Anyway, |
figured the cost would satisfy mother, ensuring I've chosen a location suitable for a family of our caliber.” Lita
hated to speak that way. It was elitist and implied others were lesser because they were not wealthy. But it was
the language both Susan and Lita’s mother loved to hear. It validated that Lita was absorbing their training.
Susan nodded thoughtfully, “Yes, | suppose exclusive gyms don’t need to advertise on their receipts. The word of
mouth is sufficient. Yes, | think she'll be pleased with this.”
Susan tucked the paper into a file folder and grabbed her notepad, “Shall we get started?”
Lita nodded.
“How is your aggression today, on a scale of 1-10?”
Eleven, Lita thought. “Two,” Lita answered aloud.
“And your anger?”
Twelve, Lita growled in her own head. “One,” she sighed, tired of answering the slitany of questions every
day.
“How many pills are you taking a day?” Susan pointed her nose down at this one, trying to scrutinize Lita’s
answer.
“Two, sas always,” Lita shrugged, knowing it was closer to five or six at this point.
“And your sleep? Have you been having nightmares?”
“Not as many. I've been getting about four or five hours of sleep, but after the gym yesterday, I got six.”
“Lovely, lovely. And the best part is it'll do wonders for your complexion and hair, which have becrather...
lackluster.”
Lita had never had a therapist before James died, but she didn’t think Susan was doing it correctly. She wasn’t
encouraging or affirmative. She constantly took little jabs, and sometimes it felt like Lita was listening to her
mother in the flesh, with all the elitism and prejudice. But in the end, Lita would happily sit there every day until
school started if it meant she could have sfreedom. After that, she'd only have to go weekly to maintain her
freedom as long as her grades stayed up. And if all of it meant she’d be able to go to a school on the other side
of the country from her parents, she was willing to do anything. Joining the gym and the possibility of getting out
from Brian's thumb were bonuses she couldn't pass up.
“How about your appetite? You look like you haven't been eating again...” Susan made a clicking sound with her
tongue and Lita cringed. It was probably the single most irritating sound in the world, and it was dismissive.
“I ate an entire garden salad with avocado last night after the gym,” Lita assured, knowing full well she had only
picked at it for an hour and then drank a bottle of Gatorade. But it was better if Susan didn’t know that part.
In all fairness, Lita had been famished until Brian showed up, demanding they have dinner together. When she
sat down to take the first bite, her appetite died, like it always did after he reminded her how little tshe had
left.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt“Wonderful!” Susan smiled, “I ass| have Brian to thank for your meal? It must be nice, living with such a
handsyoung man, and at a prage for marriage, too.” Was she referring to Lita’s 18 years or Brian's 23?
Neither seemed prfor anything of the sort.
“As I've told my mother already countless times, we do not live together. We are on a break until May. We live in
the sbuilding. That's all. It was her arrangement, not mine.”
“Yes, well... good things take tto blossom, Miss Dillard, sometimes we all need a little push here and there.
And with proximity, it’s only a matter of time.”
Lita looked at the clock, “As much as | enjoy our chats, looks like tis up. Sttomorrow?”
A week later
Lita collapsed under a swell of air. Or rather, the lack of air. Her lungs didn’t seem capable of pulling in enough
oxygen to sustain her. She was so out of shape, it was sad. The two minutes she'd spent running a slow cool
down felt like ages and Gymhead, Alex, was no help in that department, smiling like an infuriating idiot as she
suffocated from the inside. She pushed harder against her exhaustion, nearly ready to pass out.
“Water break, psycho fan?” She glared at him, but she kept going. Her legs felt like jelly, ready to slip off her
body at any moment. She was stumbling with each step. In another moment or two, she would probably hit the
moving band of the treadmill and embarrass herself completely. Maybe she’d be lucky enough to knock herself
out so she wouldn't have to hear Alex’s barking laugh again. Then she considered the marks that falling might
leave behind and how Brian might react to them. She stumbled again, this tout of fear instead of exhaustion,
grabbing the stabilizing bars for support.
“You're going to fall if you don’t stop,” he teased, but beneath that he seemed impressed, if not a bit concerned.
Lita stumbled once more before he pressed the button to force stop the machine. After a twenty-minute cardio
warm-up, a forty-five minute weightlifting regimen in which he claimed you don’t stop, you switch muscle
groups, a fifteen-minute water break that ended with the protein bar Alex tossed her, and a back breaking series
of exercises designed to teach her body control, Lita was well past the breaking point. She'd stopped feeling her
legs thirty minutes ago. It was a miracle the cool down hadn't killed her. Still, that fire in her chest burned with
indignation.
“Shut up. Gymhead,” Lita managed between strangled breaths, “But. Thanks.”
She still couldn't understand what kind of personal training this was. Was he spending the last week trying to
train her or kill her? She hobbled over to the water fountain and gulped, spilling most of it down onto her
oversized hoodie. With how much sweat had already soaked in, she could hardly tell the difference. It was as if
her entire body were devoid of all its water at the end of every training session. She couldn’t even be bothered
to care if she smelled. Had Alex warned her about wearing layers? Yes. But he didn’t understand why she
couldn't take them off.
At spoint, Lita expected to be placed with other women, the so-called ring bunnies, but it hadn't happened
yet. Instead, Alex spent the last week punishing her body. He probably remembered it differently, but the way
her muscles tightened and ached, punishment was the only comparison. Underneath all the pain, though, Lita
felt so relieved she could cry.
It was enough relief that she pretended not to see Alex and the others snickering about her during the break.
Plus, Lita had improved like crazy, mostly because whenever she was about to pass out, Alex stuffed a protein
bar in her face. She always left exhausted, which helped her sleep and over the last week, it even helped her
gain a small appetite as long as she could avoid Brian when dinner tcame. Something about exercising was
working to pull her out of her own head, she just wasn’t sure if it was the training or the fact that during training,
she wasn’t thinking about all the things in her life that gave her anxiety.
“Alright. Let's call it a day. | have to lead a real workout now,” Alex grumbled as he walked away. “Fifteen-minute,
full body stretch before you leave, wannabe.”
“Wait!” Lita called after him, ignoring another of many rude nicknames he’d given her. “I want to stay and
watch.” Her foot slipped as she tried to get his attention and she tumbled into him. Thankfully, he opened his
arms to help brace her, but she found her face against his chest, only separated from his skin by a thin tank. His
muscles were warm and as she pushed away to right herself, she missed it. Why did she miss something so
simple as a hug? Even as messy and uncomfortable as that one had been. She didn’t really miss the hug. She
missed James. And feeling safe. No part of her was afraid of Alex. He was an asshole, sure, but he didn’t have
that sfire in his eyes that Brian often had. A hard edge like a blade, constantly looking for something to
wound.
“The hell is wrong with you?” Alex snapped, pushing her off of him with gentle arms. He waited until she seemed
steady before he let go. “You got two left feet or what? And why do you want to watch other people work out?”
His eyes flicked to her wrists for a moment, but they were covered. It was as if he was constantly checking for
those bruises she'd accidentally shown. Lita shifted nervously, straightening her back.
“Look... | know what you havedoing isn’t real training. | know | couldn't possibly keep up with real training,
yet. | get that. So, can | watch you guys train? You know, so | can see what's in my future?”
He laughed quickly and shrugged, “Doll, you ain't never gonna be able to keep up with one of these workouts so
this ain't your future, beat it, this is the exclusive treserve as you can see. Gym's closed, psycho bunny.”
Lita shoved her irritation aside,
forcing herself to glare at the gym
and not Alex. She looked around and
found that the gym was nearly
empty. There were two large en,
sparring jn the ring Yione looking
Re] Ye ropes, talking to them in
q a q )
a way that implied it wasn't exactly
nice, and there were two women
stretching against the back wall. All
the casual gym goers and women
from the earlier kickboxing class
were gone, leaving Lita alone.
Someone flicked a switch
somewhere, and the fluorescents
changed to neon, filling the room
with color. It only made her want to
stay even more. The content is on
novelenglish.net! Read the latest
chapter there!
Alex continued towards the back room, “Circuits in ten, assholes! Sticks, hit the mat and stretch. Now.”
“Sticks?”
“Yea,” Alex laughed over his shoulder. “God, | hoped you would ask. He turned back and pointed at her legs.
Those are sticks. Stretch and go home.”
« nyo .
Asshole,” Lita hissed under her
breath, but she did as he said,
lowering herself to the mats to
stretch. Her body screamed at her,
rebelling against t g(sensation Sf!
| €
working héPniusc es loose. She
rolled her hamstrings over the
muscle roller. Whimpering, Lita went
through each stretch Alex has shown
her and then she cracked her back
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmover the appropriate block. Not once,
but twice, nearly crying at the sudden
relief. Alex complaining about her
posture during the exercises had
cback to bite her. The content is
on novelenglish.net! Read the latest
chapter there!
Finally finished the torturous movements, Lita stood and gathered her belongings, ignoring the sensation of eyes
on her back.
“Psycho fan,” a deep, resonating voice announced his presence and Lita felt the involuntary shudder ripple
through her at the sound, “Bad posture will kill you with Alex. Every time.”
“I' hadn't noticed,” she snapped, dryly, refusing to turn around. She heard the deep inhale and then a grumbling
laugh. Lita rolled her eyes, annoyed that he was voicing something she already realized.
“You and my Beta seem... close,” he said and there was something in his tone she couldn't place. What was it
with these people and weird names? She'd even heard someone nicknamed Delta earlier and stifled a laugh.
Then she thought of Alex’s nicknames for her and decided it wasn’t all that strange.
No one needed to tell her
mister-tall-dark-and-handswas
behind her. Alpha. She snuck a tiny
peek behind her to be greeted with a
wonderfully bare torso, inches from
her face, all glistening white skin and
tan nipples. Inconyepigntlychis Body
AL away ies over the
strange titles, pushing it behind the
flush over her skin. Heat radiated off
of him and she struggled not to make
any embarrassing sounds of surprise
as she took in a physique that only
sweat could enhance. Her eyes
followed the hard ridges of muscle
up towards his broad shoulders and
dark brown eyes. His left eyelid
twitched, his brows bunching over a
pinched mouth. He smelled so
familiar... like firewood and fall air.
Like damp leaves and the trees after
a storm. The scent did things to her,
sending pulses through her body that
she refused to examine. The content
X
is on novelenglish.net! Read the latest Like RICH
WOMEN?
chapter there!
These women
desperately want
Snatching her bag’s zipper closed, Lita tossed it over her shoulder and nearly dashed out the front door. Only a mature men!
once she had safely strapped herself in behind the steering wheel of her SUV, did she finally release the groan [JOIN NOW|
she held in. Lita rested her head against the wheel, blasting the music. This tingling under her skin was a
a I , “Waming* these rich
complication. A complication she couldn't afford. women will persue you.