That night Elle wondered which would be more bizarre, Brooke at law school or a Shopper Stoppers meeting. Her mind wandered from the Rule of Perpetuities. It was impossible for anything else to be this boring, Elle thought, slamming her Property book shut. The phone rang, and figuring nobody could have anything worse to say than the words printed in her casebook, she answered the phone without even screening.
“So what’s up on the job scene…or should I say job scheme?” Eugenia asked, always amused by Elle’s romantic ploys.
“The internship is great…and it’s actually yielding a way to see Warner!” Elle exclaimed enthusiastically. “The firm is adjacent to a building that has a gym, and we’re allowed to use it. Warner works out twice a day, so I’m sure he’ll take advantage of it. My lit bag and my gym bag are dutifully packed for tomorrow, and I’ve been working out every day.”
“So have you seen him there yet?”
“Not yet. It’s only been two weeks, and I hadn’t figured out his schedule yet, but now I’ve got it. I’m positive I’ll see him there tomorrow. We used to work out together every day,” she added in a dreamy tone.
“Well I was just calling to catch up, since I never see you anymore,” Eugenia said, but Coerte beeped in on call waiting before any good gossip could be exchanged.
Elle giggled as she hung up the phone. She was genuinely happy for her friend. Exhausted from her desperate, useless attempt at trying to understand her Property reading, she fell asleep immediately.
The next day, Elle got to the gym around 4:30, figuring from the schedule she saw pinned to Mia’s bulletin board that Warner would arrive around 5:00.
The usual crew of secretaries and paralegals were on the StairMasters while bankers, lawyers, and other businessmen pedaled the Lifecycles that were strategically located behind the StairMasters.
Five o’clock arrived, and as Elle looked up from a compromising position on one of the machines, the unlikeliest candidate entered the gym. Sarah. “Great, now it’s Sarah and Warner who work out together,” she muttered; but he was nowhere to be seen.
Sarah took a nervous glance around, her pale arms clutching her Property book! Elle couldn’t believe it. Noticing that the Lifecycles were all being used, Sarah headed for a StairMaster. Elle watched her. Clearly Sarah hadn’t seen her yet.
Elle stood up, and Sarah’s mouth gaped open. Elle’s blonde hair was still hanging perfectly, her makeup un-smudged, and her pink leotard, cut to show maximum cleavage, was clinging to all the right places.
Elle’s usual stiletto-gouging walk was now a long athletic stride. All eyes shifted to watch her athletic beauty as soon as she hit the floor. “Sarah!” Elle exclaimed in mock surprise as she approached the StairMasters. “I didn’t know you worked out here.”
“Well, today’s my first day,” Sarah admitted. She was maintaining an unsteady balance as she tried to keep up with the advanced level she had set the machine on. Stair-Master ruin stared her in the face. “I’m not used to these things,” Sarah said as she gasped for air.
Elle reached over and lowered the level to novice. “Maybe I can help you,” she said tentatively.
“Warner wrote out a schedule for me to follow,” she said, and indicated a piece of paper with Warner’s unmistakable scrawly handwriting sticking out of her casebook. “He said you used to do it twice a day, but I’m so exhausted from this…I don’t know if I can do…step aerobics.” She glanced at the sheet dubiously.
“Step aerobics? I can’t believe I ever put myself through that torture. Did Warner mention my step aerobics instructor was Brooke Vandermark?” Elle asked.
“You’re kidding!” Sarah exclaimed. “Not that she doesn’t look like she could have been.” Sarah poked irregularly at the buttons until the machine stopped.
“I’m really glad Warner doesn’t work out here. He’s dying to use this gym, but he doesn’t want Christopher to think he’s a slacker. I would have died if Warner had seen me! But I’m even more embarrassed that you did, to be honest,” Sarah said.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You’ve seen my answers in Property,” Elle joked, glancing down at Sarah’s casebook. “How about we make a trade?” Elle offered.
“Well…what kind of trade?”
“I’ll show you how to find your way around the gym and work out with you, minus the step aerobics, if you’ll help me out in Property. I’ll need your notes and some tutoring weekly and your outline at the end of the semester.”
“It’s a deal,” Sarah agreed, “but only if we can start tomorrow with the gym tutoring.”
Elle laughed. “No problem.”
The two girls showered and then headed back to Miles & Slocum for Elle’s first Property session. Although Elle had passed all of her first-semester classes and was feeling increasingly confident, Property, only a second-semester course, was still a stumbling block. Sarah helped Elle with the cases that weren’t covered by the commercial outlines, and Elle even withstood briefing a case for class the following day. She was determined to succeed at the entire law school game, Property included.