Page 39 of Your Pace or Mine (Running for the Romance #1)
Reggie laughed, throwing a quick look over his shoulder. “Oh, is that the latest headline?”
“Daily Mail, two days ago.”
“Charming.”
“I thought so. Enjoyed their think piece on how many professors I slept with to get my degree as well.”
“Well, I’ve got a feeling they’ll be singing a different tune soon,” Reggie replied.
“Why’s that?”
“Just a feeling.”
“Great. Cryptic and cardio,” Jamie muttered, but he followed Reggie around a bend in the path.
After a quiet jog in the April sun, Jamie was starting to feel like an actual human person again.
They made their way to the local greasy spoon for a full English breakfast. Once they’d settled in, steaming tea and plates heaped with food in front of them, Reggie’s relentless need to fix Jamie’s life seemed to return.
“So,” Reggie started, “talk to me, tell me all your woes, my friend.”
His ridiculous tone made Jamie laugh a little despite his dour mood.
“As if you haven’t seen the headlines. Come on, Reg. Other than that, it’s nothing new,” Jamie replied. “Just my usual brand of failure. I’ve managed to lose my career and Darius in one fell swoop. Jonathan was right all along, I guess, I should’ve just stayed in my lane.”
Reggie glared into his eggs at the mention of Jonathan. “Can I say something?” he asked, and at Jamie’s nod, he began. “I know you felt some sort of misplaced sense of loyalty to Jonathan because of how long he was your agent.”
“He got me a lot of jobs, Reg,” Jamie argued.
Reggie scoffed. “No, you got a lot of jobs. And he convinced you that he was helping, and that you needed to, you know... put out.”
“Put out? Is this a scene from Grease? Am I Rizzo or Sandy in this metaphor?”
“Shut up, you know what I mean. And I still think he pushed that so hard because he was hoping he’d eventually get a turn with you.”
Jamie’s face fell. “What, so I’m either a whore, or a total div?”
Reggie backtracked quickly. “That’s not what I meant at all, Jamie. I just, Jonathan was never your friend, he’s dodgy as hell, and you shouldn’t take everything he says to heart, like.”
Reggie was right. Jonathan had never been a friend to him, and how much had his little digs over the years affected him, his mindset, and his career? It was time to put all of that behind him and start a new chapter.
“He was right about one thing, though,” Jamie retorted. “I have no follow-through. I always give up. I quit everything, always have. Look at me now—I’m quitting theatre and dropping out of the marathon.”
“You are not dropping out. You’ve worked too damn hard for this.” Reggie fixed him with a stare, challenging Jamie to argue with him.
“It’s not even that big of a deal, anyway. You run marathons all the time, Darius runs marathons all the time, who cares if I do this one?” Jamie argued back.
Reggie sighed audibly. “This thing with Darius has messed with your head, Jay. You’ve worked proper hard for this, and you deserve to see it all come together, prove to yourself you can stick it out.”
He picked up his fork, punching it in the air to emphasise his point. “How many people do you think ever even enter a marathon in their lives?”
“Loads,” Jamie replied petulantly.
Reggie scoffed. “0.01% of people, Jamie.”
Jamie sipped on his coffee as he thought it through. “That’s still a lot of people if you’re talking globally, and it’s probably higher in the UK, like.”
“You’re takin’ the mick, but fine, loads, let’s pretend that’s even half true for a second.
Finishing a marathon is still a big deal, Jamie, and I think you need to do it.
You need to be reminded that you can do hard things.
You’re the one who followed the training plan.
You can do this with or without Darius or Jonathan, or anyone.
Give yourself some proper fuckin’ credit. ”
Jamie ate in silence, mulling over Reggie’s words. It wasn’t that he thought he was wrong, it was just that—he’d still lost everything. He probably could do it without Darius, but he just didn’t know if he wanted to.
Reg had so much confidence in him, though, like it was already a given that Jamie could do it.
A minuscule flicker of hope started to burn deep within Jamie.
Reggie was right. He was the one who’d trained.
He was on track for a reasonably fast time for a first marathon if everything went to plan.
And if Jamie could run a marathon, then maybe he wasn’t actually inherently a fuck-up, maybe he’d have a chance at fixing other things too.
Once they’d finished their greasy breakfasts and were making their way through yet another cup of builders’ brew, Reggie asked the waitress for a pen and started scribbling something on the back of a brown paper serviette.
“What on earth are you doing now?” Jamie asked.
“Making a list of all your problems,” Reggie replied simply.
“Well, fun as that sounds,” Jamie winced, “you’re probably going to need more serviettes.”
Reggie just rolled his eyes and asked Jamie to spell out the things that were bothering him. By the time they’d drained their tea, Jamie had a list of problems laid out in front of him.
Dance career finished
Will barely make rent this month
Huge charity fundraiser to pay off
No career plan
Lost love of life
Marathon in two days
Found a grey hair this morning
“OK, so I’m not counting number seven because I’m 90% sure it was just your imagination, and the marathon is not a problem, it’s an event you’ve trained dead hard for and you’re going to smash it,” Reggie said, “one and four are essentially the same issue. So we’ve only got three major things to figure out—this is doable, Jamie. ”
Jamie didn’t really believe him, but that little light that had ignited told him to try. “OK, so how do we fix these then, Cap’n?”
“Rent’s the most immediate need, right? How much do you need to get through this month?”
“It’s ￡950,” Jamie replied. “But I’m only about two hundred quid short, really.”
Reggie whistled lowly. “For that dump?”
“I know, but I locked myself into the contract when I didn’t know any better. I’ve got at least three months left there,” Jamie replied glumly.
“OK, well, I can lend it to you, and probably cover the rest of the charity stuff, actually,” Reggie stated. Jamie went to reply, but was stopped. “No, listen, La, you’ve got to let people help you, I won’t take no for an answer, and you can just pay me back when you have it.”
Jamie nodded his acquiescence. “Are you sure, though, Reg? That’s a fair bit of money. I’ve got some in savings still, if I go see whether I can pull it out early, then I can probably make it work for this month… or I’ll ask if the centre can extend the fundraising deadline out a bit longer…”
“Jamie, I’m sure. Business is good, okay? And I can pick up a bit extra next month. Just trust me,” he replied. “Look, we can do the charity stuff now, so that’s totally off your plate, okay?”
Reggie gave him a smug smile. It was nice to see Reggie so confident. It had been a while since Jamie had seen his eyes light up the way they were today.
“I’ll put it on my business credit card,” he said as he navigated to Jamie’s charity page.
Jamie frowned, taking a sip of his now lukewarm tea. “I get that you’re somehow minted now, but that seems like it would cause you some problems with HMRC?”
“Nah, it’s charity,” Reggie replied, but then he frowned down at his phone. “Erm, Jay. I don’t think you need me to top up your fundraiser.”
“What do you mean? I was still nowhere near it this morning. Cress has been pushing it, like… but surely it’s not done.”
“Well, just how much more than your minimum were you planning to raise? I mean, I know it’s a good cause, but…”
Jamie grabbed Reggie’s phone from his hand. “What the hell?”
He started to hyperventilate. “It had to be him, right? Look at this, it’s a single anonymous donation, Reg. It had to be Darius, right?” Jamie was oscillating between relief that this could mean Darius really did care and annoyance at him for thinking money could solve everything.
“Probably yeah, I’d bet on it,” Reggie replied. “I mean, I wouldn’t bet that much, like. But I’d bet, well, something.”
The pair were silent for a moment. Jamie’s hand tapped out anxious patterns on the table as he thought.
“What are you going to do about it?” Reggie asked.
“I don’t know.” Jamie sighed. “I want, I, I don’t know.”
“Want to work through the rest of the list?”
Jamie nodded. “I actually have an idea about the career thing…but it would be a huge change.”
“Sounds brilliant, hit me with it,” Reggie replied.
The beginnings of a plan started to form for Jamie. He knew where he wanted to be; he just needed to work on getting there. It looked like step one was to finish what he started—Jamie was going to run the damn marathon.