On Friday, Rory and I ran again and he talked about working with me on some cross training to help me gain some strength. He admitted that I could probably outrun anyone who tried to catch me, but added that if that person caught me off guard, I wouldn’t stand a chance fighting him off. I accepted his offer of help.
After our run, I discovered that Ari and I had the house to ourselves, a nice change of pace. The rest of his family had gone out Christmas shopping and we took advantage of the quiet to go down to the beach to play around for a while. Ari got me a little closer to the ocean than I had ever been before. Thoughts of Mia came to me and I very quickly shot back a few extra feet.
“Of all the things there are to be afraid of! How did I find a girlfriend who is scared of one of the things I love the most?”
“I can’t help it,” I shrugged. “I just can’t get near the water. It scares me.”
“I’ll get you in that ocean one of these days, Ava, and you are going to love it!” he responded.