Bejewelled

Ch 15

Cinda answered her door that night, and was surprised to see both Grey and Manny on her doorstep, “Lori.” She said and shook her head, when both of them just grinned at her. That woman would tell anyone anything, she waved them both inside, they were both still wearing their uniforms. They came straight from work, it appeared.

“What can I do for you both?” Though she had a fair idea of why they were both standing at her door grinning at her all stupidly, considering the phone call she’d gotten today and the one she had made to Grey.

“We need a plan of action, so you can take down Gabe at the fun run.” Manny said to her, sitting down on her only piece of furniture downstairs at this point, a soft grey 3 seated plush lounge. It was so comfortable she quite enjoyed lying on it herself.

“He’s way too cocky about always winning that damn race.” Grey shook his head. “Loves rubbing it in our faces.”

“How many years has he held the title?” Cinda asked, curious herself. She’d not kept track. Though Grey had told her she still held the town's record. That was interesting to her. Gabe was taller than her and had longer strides, and now he was way more muscled out than he used to be, and though she had continued to run it against him, right up until he’d met Priscilla, he’d not been able to beat her.

She had a natural running talent and he had to train to run, that was the difference between them. But still, it seemed, he couldn’t beat her time. Part of her wondered if he could but just didn’t.

“3 years now.” Manny smiled up at her “you can still beat him, we presume, and we’re happy to help you out on that.”

“Are you now? I just plan on out running him, I always could. Don’t see why I wouldn’t now, I still run.”

“It won’t be that easy, he’s only about 35 seconds from your PB.” Grey piped up, “and he’ll be training even harder now, he’ll have to best you in person and you know it.”

Cinda smiled and shook her head. “He's always got to win, hasn’t he.” She said, “well gentlemen what’s the plan?” She did like the idea of beating him in person. “I assume you have one?”

“Not really. Nothing we’ve ever done has ever made a difference to him. That man is stubbornly focused, seems to be able to just zone out all others when on a run. We thought you might come up with something diabolical. You always know how to push his buttons, pick one and we’ll help you push it.”

That got her attention. “What buttons would those be?” Cinda enquired with narrowed eyes.

The look she saw go between them told her a lot. They knew something about her and Gabe’s relationship, what it was she didn’t know, did they know the whole truth or were they just guessing from the amount of tension that was always between them, and if it was just a guess, it was a very good one.

“You know which button Cinda, heck torment the man yourself or find another to play with.” Grey laughed softly, “I believe that would be good enough to put him right off his game.” Grey stated, and she saw Manny chuckle, clearly they knew something.

“You offering yourself up, Grey? How would Kiren feel about that?”

“Hell no, not me. Kiren would kill me and you.” He snorted, but I heard Johnny is coming back for the fun run, he’s currently single, I believe.

“You would be the only choice if you truly wanted to throw him off his game, like that anyhow.” Cinda acknowledged them and their guess. If they were tormenting Gabe with it, so be it, that was just more amusement for her in the long run. She leaned on the wall and wondered if Grey knew that Gabe had seen the two of them together, by the frown on his face, she doubted it. Though he would know that Gabe knew they had dated, all of them did, it had not been a secret apparently.

“No, any of us directly would tick him off. I’d be willing to bet Johnny would play along.” Manny laughed.

Oh yes, they all knew something was between them, it was very clear, and they wanted her to use that something to push him to the point of distraction. Whether it would actually work she had no idea, likely just to piss him off, she thought. And that would make him run harder.

“You still want his friendship, I presume. That would pretty much end it, I think. I am his sister, after all.”

Both men looked at each other, then turned to look right at her and in unison snapped “She’s not my bloody sister.” Their mimic was almost perfect, she heard not only Gabe’s voice but his in connotation as well, and then the two of them burst out in a gale of laughter.

She laughed out loud herself as well, mostly at the two of them. She couldn’t stop the smile as she said, “Say that a lot, does he?” guessed somethings never changed with the man. That was some insight, considering that eventful day, she didn’t know that he still said it, and apparently they must give him what for, where she was concerned. If he had to use that expression with them often enough, for the two of them to mimic him exactly. It almost pleased her to know this about him.

“Look, you can come up with something that doesn’t involve me I’m sure, I am happy to run against him, but I will not cheat, I will beat him fair and square. That should be enough to bring him down a notch, yes.”

“No.” Manny shook his head “he’s expecting something, and we won’t disappoint.”

“Then if he is expecting something, the best thing you can do is nothing, is it not? Keep him guessing to the point he is distracted about when it will happen.”

Grey frowned at her. “You’re no fun, you used to be.”

“Mm, had a tough week I guess.” She shrugged “go on home boys, play your game if you want, but I will run a clean race.”

She saw them out. They weren’t very happy with her, they thought she would be in on any plan to stir him up. But that wasn’t the way it worked with her and Gabe.

Their private battles were just that, private. If they brought it out in the open, one of them would get really hurt and though she enjoyed giving him what for, it still hurt to do it, to see him walk away from her, to know he was always angry with her. That he could look at her like that, but would never do anything about it.

There was actually a seriousness to all that was said and done, and one day it would all come out, and they’d both likely end up hurting the two people they both really loved. She knew that and so did he. But for now, they were still managing to keep it between the two of them.

But for how much longer could that be done, she wasn’t certain close proximity to each other on a daily basis, was bound to be volatile to their fragile relationship.

The sun was still up, and would be for another half an hour or so, seeing as it was daylight savings. She would head out for a late run, get some extra training in, running, also cleared her head. She’d been running a lot this week, but for personal reasons.

Now she would run to train, she had completed the city to surf every year, never won it or even come close. Never really tried to, it was just something she liked to do, and it was for a good cause, as was this event. All the money went to the local hospital.

There was a fifty dollar entry fee here in town and when she’d last run it there were almost 200 people running, across the different categories. She herself only ran in the 10k cross country run, which was for everyone. But there was a women’s division, a men’s division, a street 10k run and that was the most opted for. About 20 or 30 people would run the cross country if she recalled correctly, though that might have changed over the years. There was also an under 12s children’s division of 2ks. An under 18s 5k run, there were even group entries for companies who could have a relay team for the 10k street run.

Lots of the local businesses entered into that one, because it was the real fun run, with people dressing up in costume. The prizes for the races were all from local places, free dinners, dancing lessons, and so forth, just small things, but it was more about the community coming together than anything else.

Cinda changed into her running gear, grey and pink three-quarter tights and a matching top. It showed off her abdominal area, but who was going to be out at this hour in the bush coming on sundown. She doubted anyone at all. It was still hot outside, so she opted not to wear a tank top over her running gear, like she would in the city.

She strolled out her back door and down the yard, it really did need to be mowed, she pushed out the back gate and spent a few minutes doing stretches and picking out the music she was going to listen to, before heading off at a jog. You didn’t win a 10k run by sprinting at the starting line.

You had to pace yourself at a speed that was just on your comfort zone. So if you needed to rest, you could drop it back to just below your comfort zone and then push yourself again, or at least that was how she ran, pushing herself just a little harder each time, building up her endurance with each run.

The average run for her was somewhere between 12 and 15 kilometres. It all depended on the weather, she always ran better in the rain. Perhaps it was something to do with her past or perhaps she just liked it when it rained. Still hated storms, but loved a good light drizzle or sun shower. As long as there was no thunder and lightning crashing about, she was good to go.

It was still warm outside, in the high 20's and she was sweating up a storm within 10 minutes. There was a long hill coming and in all honesty she didn’t want to run it, stopped at the bottom, she took a small zip of water and stood contemplating the hill. It was about 200 metres long and at a grade of 45 degrees, didn’t seem all that far or difficult, but on a hot day like today and at an angle like that she would feel it.

She gasped and stumbled back in shock at the appearance of Gabe next to her, her music was quite loud in her ears, so as to block out the sound of her own heartbeat, therefore she hadn’t heard him on the trail with her. How long he had been there she had no idea. He smiled, amused at her surprise. Clearly, he had known she was out here, no surprise to him, he didn’t stop either. He just kept on running, heading up the hill.

He turned and jogged backwards, a raised eyebrow at her from 20 metres away, he was challenging her, and she knew it. How long had he been trailing her she didn’t know; her mind was only on one thing out here and that was running, and that was how she liked it, he already had a head start. She would not catch him on a hill like that.

Though watching him as he shrugged the challenge off when she still didn’t move and turn away from her to continue on like the hill was nothing to him irked her. She set her mind and headed up the hill behind him, it was hard to run behind the man.

He was wearing only a pair of blue shorts and some joggers, he did have on a heart rate monitor and a hat but there was no shirt, all his muscles were out for the world to see, and she couldn’t help but watch the way they all moved. She really didn’t like this being behind him, quite distracting in fact.

She wondered as she pushed herself up the hill if he always ran half naked or was it just today because of the heat, whatever the reason she wished he had a shirt on. She did note that he wasn’t wearing any earbuds or headphones, so as she trailed him, he would hear her footsteps and know she had indeed accepted his unspoken challenge.

Cinda did not make ground on him, didn’t even try. Where she had lived in the city had meant street running, and the area was pretty flat, until just this week she hadn’t run through the bush in over 2 years, she was still getting used to it, though it was coming back to her quite quickly and she had found it more suitable than running on the concrete, a better workout too.

He stopped at the top and turned to watch her finish the climb to the top. He was breathing quite heavily, heavier than she would have expected, he had looked as though that hill was nothing to him, looked from behind as though he had cruised on up it without any struggle at all. Now she knew it had been hard for him too.