A Beautiful Struggle Read Online Free PDF Page B

my timer went off. Turns out, Elliot is a really nice guy, and
if I could just get past visualising him naked all the time – we could actually
be friends.
    “What’s that for?”
    “It’s to tell me to turn around so I can
get back in time,” I answered stopping but jogging on the spot. He did the same
and looked at his own watch frowning.
    “There’s still almost half an hour until
the end of lunch, another five minutes, and we will loop around,” he told me
moving his arm in an arching motion to demonstrate, causing his muscles to flex
and my mouth to go dry.
    “I want to have a shower and what not. It's
fine for you to rush back and rinse off - you don’t need to put your make up
back on,” I called out as I started to run away from him.
    “Neither do you. You'd still look great
without it,” he called out after me.
    I laughed, “That’s not helping,” I called
back.
    Elliot stopped running on the spot and held
his arms out to the side. “Helping what?”
    Helping me not visualise you naked! “Good bye Evan,” I called over my shoulder, before running back to
the office, leaving him to finish the circuit on his own.
    ***
    I walked the last stretch along Phillip St
leading to my office for a cool down and did a quick stretch before going
inside to ride the elevator back up to my floor. There were maybe 15 people
waiting for the next one to arrive, and I wasn’t very excited when I saw that
Bianca was one of them. She of course noticed me straight away.
    “Oh, it’s you. I thought you were a man!
What are you wearing?” she sneared, looking at my running gear like it
was covered in cockroaches.
    I took up the challenge and looked at her,
slowly sliding my eyes over her clothing and down to her shoes with an
unimpressed look on my face.
    She rolled her eyes and huffed out some
air. “Why don’t you use the gym upstairs like everyone else so we don’t have to
look at you like that?”
    “I’ll tell you what Bianca,” I levelled
with her, already tired of her horrible attitude towards me. “Why don’t you go
and fuck yourself?”
    Her mouth fell open, and I could hear some
muffled snickers from the people waiting around us. She narrowed her eyes and
was perhaps going to say something in retort, but the chime signalling the
arrival of the elevator cab pinged causing a surge forward of the people
waiting around us.
    We both joined them in the cab in opposite
corners and when the doors opened she was quick to storm out in front of me. I
pretended not to notice and made my way to the bathrooms to shower and change
before my lunch break was over.
    The glory of watching her mouth fall open
faded quickly, and I regretted my outburst and wished I could learn to keep my
mouth shut. As satisfying as telling her where to go was, it wasn’t something I
should be doing in a work environment.

Chapter 4
     
    “Hi Mrs Mahoney,” David called as he
sauntered into the kitchen where I was standing talking to my mother. I was
drinking a glass of water, and she was busy cooking the pasta to go with the
cabonara sauce she had prepared for dinner. He walked over and kissed her on
the cheek and then leaned over and did the same to me.
    He stood next to me and leaned up against
the kitchen bench, stealing a piece of garlic bread. “So what are we talking
about?” he wanted to know.
    “Hello David, I was just about to tell
Katrina that I played tennis today,” my mother informed us.
    “You did? That’s great! Are you going to
keep going?” I asked in response, pleased that she was getting out of the
house. She used to play tennis when my brother and I were young; I remembered
having a great time hanging out with all the other kids while the mothers
played and chatted, but she gave up due to wrist problems, became a home body
and never went back to it.
    “I will, I think. I’m not sure yet. I will
see how my wrist feels tomorrow… Although I did meet the mother of someone you
might know from