A Beautiful Struggle Read Online Free PDF

up.
     “Katrina?” a newly familiar male voice
said behind me. I turned around and came face to face with Elliot.
    I couldn’t help myself and asked, “Are you
following me Evan?” with a cheeky lopsided smile on my face.
    Elliot laughed, “No. I'm not following you.
I work out most days; I go a bit stir crazy sitting behind a desk all day … and
you know it’s Elliot right?”
    “I don’t know about that,” I laughed
sarcastically. “You see, there’s this guy who works in my office called Elliot.
He’s a bit of an arsehat, grunts at people when they say hi - he looks a lot
like you, and I was confused because I thought he was the same friendly guy I
was talking to in the lift on Monday; but alas, he was not – it was some guy
who I’m assuming is your evil twin.” I said all of this with a straight face
and my hands on my hips.
    He laughed at this half amused and a little
uneasy, “Sorry about that, I just try to keep things pretty strict at work; I
don’t like being the subject of office gossip. So don’t take offence if I don’t
stop to chat, I’ve been working there a while, and it’s best to keep to
yourself around those people.”
    “Ok… how do you know I’m not ‘those
people’?”
    “I don’t, just a hunch. You running?” he
asked as he started to jog backwards along the path. I took a deep breath as I
eyed him up and down, he was wearing running shorts and a quick-dry singlet,
giving me a perfect view of how well sculpted his arms, and legs were. My head
spun a little as those dirty images flashed through my mind again, Get a
grip! I told myself, turning my focus onto the matter at hand.
    “Yeah I’m running, are you sure you can be
seen with me?” I questioned, pressing start for the timer on my watch
before I ran to catch up.
     “This isn’t the office, and I don’t
normally see any of the gossip mongers out here anyway.”
    “I guess they’re all too busy gossiping,” I
supposed.
    “I guess so,” he agreed, and we fell into
an easy pace side by side, occasionally brushing against each other - I had to
force myself to focus so my knees didn’t buckle from the bolt of lust that shot
through my body every time we made contact – was he doing this on purpose?
    Focus Katrina, you’re an athlete, and
he’s a guy you can’t have and you don’t want – stop being ridiculous! I felt angry with myself that every time I saw Elliot, I would start
imagining him naked… and on top of me… underneath me… stop it!
    “So why are you running? Do you just like
it or are you in training for something?”
    “Huh?... oh, I do triathlons,” I told him
quickly, hoping he wasn’t reading my thoughts.
    “Ah, explains why you’ve got such a good
pace.”
    “Oh yeah? Thought you’d have to slow down
running with a girl huh?”
    “I did actually. So you any good at triathlons?”
    “I’m decent. I do sprint distance, and I’ve
been in under 19s until now, so I have never really had to race against the big
guns of the sport. But I have a hefty stash of medals hanging up at home. Did
you ever do any sport or do you just work out for fun?”
    “I used to do kayaking in my late teens and
early twenties. I was ok at it. I wish I had have been good enough to compete
at worlds or even the Olympics, but I barely made it to nationals. So what
about you? Will you be trying out next Olympics? You’d still be young enough,
wouldn’t you?”
    “If that’s your way of fishing for my age,
I’m 20,” I smiled, giving him a sidelong glance, “and as far as the Olympics go
- it depends on if I’m still competing; It’d be pretty awesome to make it
though.”
    “I know wouldn’t it? Nationals were amazing
so the Olympics would be off the charts compared.”
    “And you’d have every sport from so many
different countries all in together. Imagine the after party!”
    “Ah, the after party – they’re the best
part!”
    “They are,” I agreed. We continued to run
and chat, until