Afraid to love

Chapter 18

I go to my room, feeling a bit of excitement in my body. Why? Because I'm going somewhere, or because I am going somewhere with Daniel? I'm worried it's the latter.

I find some tights and a sleeveless black top. Over it I pull on a white oversized sweatshirt. I tie my hair up in a high ponytail and exit my room. Daniel hasn't changed clothes, he merely added a zip-up hoodie that he leaves casually unzipped.

"Ready?" he asks, I nod, "let's go" he says and opens the door for me. I grab my phone and walk out. My ID and credit card in my pocket, just in case I need them for the gym.

We walk down the flight of stairs, I stay close to him as we walk over to his car. I hate that since the attack, I've been genuinely scared of being alone at night. I hope he doesn't notice that I'm practically glued to his side. When we get to his car, he opens the passenger door for me, I get in and he shuts it behind me. He makes his way over to the drivers side, then glances my way before turning on the car,

"Don't be scared, Sofia, you're with me" he says, pulling out,

"I know... I... I'm not scared"

"We'll get him, you'll see"

It's only a short drive, he parks in front of a two-storey building with a "Dynamo Fitness" sign printed above it. He steers me to walk in front of him to the entrance. When we get in, a young guy at the reception greets him and smiles at me. He doesn't ask for payment or ID. I guess being with Daniel means a free pass.

As we walk in, a bunch of people wave or grunt their greeting at Daniel, they all eye me curiously. Daniel just nods at some of their greetings, but doesn't speak, he walks us over to the treadmills,

"Today you follow my routine" he says, looking down at me,

"Sure, bring it on" I say,

"Good" he nods towards the treadmills, "half an hour, go as quickly or slowly as you want"

"Okay" I say, he takes off his hoodie, leaving the singlet on, I quickly look away. Yes, I should be used to his arms by now, but I am not. I never will be. I leave my shirt on and get on the treadmill, I start of slow and gradually increase my speed. We're both running relatively fast by the time thirty minutes is up. Though tiring, I find the treadmills fun, I am all about cardio. We're both breathing heavily after the run,

"Squats next" he says, walking over to another section of the gym. I follow, he goes to what I presume are power racks and starts adding a bunch of weights to his barbell, once done he places it on the lifting rack,

"How heavy do you want yours?" he asks,

"Not really sure, just like normal weight" I shrug,

"And what's normal for you?" he smiles, I shrug, unsure,

He places a 20kg mass on either side of my barbell and places it onto the second rack,

"Try that" he says,

"How do I lift them?" I ask, he goes over to his side and shows me how to hold the barbell, and then squat down with it. I don't know how heavy his barbell is, but it has a bunch of weights on either side, looks much worse than my one.

I go to my rack and try lifting. I manage to lift it off but then almost drop it to the ground, luckily he's there to stop them from falling,

"That's too heavy for you?" he asks with a playful smirk, "let's try 10kg on each" he shows me how to lift them again, and though it's still heavy, now it's doable,

"Three sets, 15 reps, okay?" I nod, though I'm not too sure what he's talking about. Soon enough I find out, he wants 15 squats, three times, a short break between each. I'm dead by the end of it, my arms feel like jelly.