Chapter Five

Gracie did what many women did when they wanted to avoid a broken heart: she filled her life with work, work, and more work. Pouring all of her energy into the gym, Gracie added an extra class a day to her schedule, and even considered going forward with her plans to open Full of Grace Fitness Gym II.

Though Gracie’s mind was racing with thoughts of contractors, sites, amenities and more, she couldn’t shake one non-work related detail from her mind ... Marcus.

There was something about seeing the pictures of her and Marcus that had Gracie’s what ifs spinning faster than the wheels on her car on the way back from Paris. Since then, he had been on her mind. While she was going through her fresh breakup with Dillian, she couldn’t help but think about her and Marcus’s breakup close to five years earlier.

At eighteen, the responsibilities of a relationship were more than she and Marcus had bargained for. They said “I love you” faster than their actual bond developed. They didn’t realize until weeks, months, even years later that it takes work to create a successful partnership.

The one saving grace about the breakup was that the two decided to remain on speaking terms; however, they never saw each other to have the chance to speak.

Marcus shocked Gracie when he proposed that they rekindle their flame if by the age twenty-five, they hadn’t walked down the aisle of holy matrimony. Thinking back about the perfect match she thought she had with Dillian, Gracie wondered if Marcus had found his.

Age twenty-five had come and gone by a year and a few months. The idea that had once been so clear was now just an easy memory about their young relationship. There was no way he could have really meant that. Now that the years had passed by, she would never know.

Gracie learned from her caring parents that Marcus lived in Houston and was an assistant football coach at one of the most popular universities. Despite this information and her constant thoughts of Marcus, Gracie thought it was best to let go of the far-off fairy tale. She didn’t know why she had suddenly chosen to let Marcus enter her daydreams, but she couldn’t get him out. Trying her best to do something other than think about Marcus, she penciled in her new appointment with a well-known contractor for the following day.

“Now we have five, four, three ...” As Gracie counted down to the end of another high-powered aerobic class, she smirked at the exhausted faces of her pupils. A few of them fell to the floor.

“That’s all for today, class,” Gracie said. “Sorry for the hard workout, but hey, that’s what you pay me for, right?” Gracie yanked her headset off and joined in with the limp laughter of her class.

Later, in the foyer—which resembled the lobby of a hotel with its open area, high ceilings, and elegant decorum—Gracie sat behind the front desk, which had a full view of the entrance with the young receptionist.

“Has Kendra come out of class yet?” she asked.

“Uh, yes, Ms. Gregory,” Latriece replied. She looked over her schedule book. “You just missed her by five minutes actually. She said she had to run a quick errand but would return shortly.”

“Dang.” Gracie sighed. “I needed to let her know about the appointment tomorrow.” Gracie snatched up her two-way pager and punched in her request for Kendra to clear her schedule for the latter part of the next day. Gracie’s head was down when a sports utility vehicle pulled up at the drop off point.

“Whew!” Latriece exclaimed. “I wonder who’s rolling in the big body.”

“Girl, if you don’t act like those ...” Gracie cut herself off before she said that Latriece reminded her of those video honeys who fawned over men’s rides. Gracie looked up and felt her body implode when she saw who the “big body” belonged to.

Coming from the back of the building where the classes were held, Michelle said her good-byes. “See you on Thursday, Gracie. Take it easy.”

Shaken out of her zombie trance, Gracie Gregory barely got a good-bye out to the young lawyer who had recently started taking her class.

“Uh, oh. Bye, Michelle. See you then.” She waved to her new client and watched as Michelle waited on the passenger side of the truck as the driver finished his walk around the truck and held open the door for her. The tall, well-built gentleman was none other than Marcus Jeffries.

She thought she would faint! Gracie couldn’t walk down the hall and into her office fast enough to call her mother and tell her who she had just seen.

“Momma! Oh my goodness. You won’t believe who I just saw.”

“What? A ghost I guess by the way you sound,” Catherine said as she let out a laugh. She cleared her throat and took on a serious tone for Gracie’s sake. “You sound all excited. Who’d you see, baby?”

“Marcus! Can you believe it? I mean, I had been thinking about him ever since I saw the picture of us, and he just appears! Oh my goodness.”

“Really? What did you say to him? Where you see him at?” Half-way covering the phone with her hand, Catherine told Jacob who Gracie had seen. “She saw Marcus.”

“He didn’t see me, well, we didn’t see each other, I mean. Well, I think his girlfriend is in one of my classes,” Gracie finally managed to stammer out.

“Uh, oh.”

“Uh, oh, what?”

“Nothing. I wonder if it’s the girl he brought down here with him to meet his folks. How does she look?”

After a brief description, Gracie’s excitement was already dwindling. However, she didn’t know how, but she was determined to get information on Marcus, even if it had to be through his girlfriend, Michelle.