Chapter 19: Joining the Resistance
Timeline: 05:00, Saturday
Location: GIG/Apex R&D Campus, Agonwood
My internal clock woke me up before the smart house could simulate a sunrise.
The room was dark. Nephy was asleep on my feet, a warm, purring anchor. I extricated myself carefully, sliding out of bed and grabbing my running gear.
I intended to grab a quick coffee and hit the pavement before the rest of the campus woke up. I needed the silence. I needed to process the fact that my two separate lives were currently sleeping within a hundred yards of each other.
I opened the front door of Unit 3 and stepped out into the cool, misty morning.
"Morning, sunshine."
I jumped, nearly dropping my water bottle.
Dan sat on the low retaining wall of my porch, tying his sneakers. He wore a faded grey hoodie with the sleeves cut off and gym shorts, despite the chill.
"Dan?" I whispered. "What are you doing up? It's vacation."
"Circadian rhythm," Dan said, standing up and stretching. His joints popped. "ER shifts ruin your sleep schedule forever. Besides, I knew you'd be out here. You always run when you're stressed."
"I'm not stressed," I lied.
"You're vibrating," Dan countered. He hopped off the wall. "I'm coming with you."
"You don't know the route."
"Then lead the way, Lon."
We took off down the path. Dan fell into step beside me effortlessly. He adjusted his pace to match mine, though I knew he could run circles around me if he wanted to.
We ran in silence for the first mile, the only sound was our breathing and shoes on the pavement.
"So," Dan said as we crested the hill overlooking the main facility. "Julian."
"Don't," I panted.
"He's intense," Dan said. "And he looks at you like you're a math problem he hasn't solved yet."
"He looks at everyone like that."
"No," Dan corrected. "He looked at me like I was a speed bump. He looks at you like you're the destination."
I stumbled slightly. Dan reached out and steadied me by the elbow without breaking stride.
"He's just my colleague, Dan. He drives the project. You know, making sure we are moving toward the deliverables."
"He wants to drive more than the project," Dan muttered.
I'm trying NOT to let him affect me every time he walks into a room, my inner-monologue practically signed. And every time someone points out some kind of attraction, all I can think about is when he's going to sneak into my room again, and if I have any chance of making him stay.
But then… Alex. I never see him as money. I feel guilty when he pays for anything, at all. What I do see him as is someone I can lie next to in a hammock and read a good book with. That when he holds my hand, it's like he's reached into head and scrubbed away all of the nightmares of the past as if it were nothing more than a bad movie about someone else. Calming. Supportive. And the definition of intimacy.
Marcus, whose arms feel so comfortable that him touching me feels like the most natural thing in the world. He's caring. He's attentive. Had our lives not gotten in the way, we'd probably be in a regular routine of waking up together, going to sleep together, even finishing up each other's sentences.
And here, there's Dan. Ellie's brother. He's goofy and light and fun. But then I've seen him at work in the ER— decisive, competent. He thrives in a crisis and never sees any job as too small or too big. And though he likes to pick me up (a lot), I know he looks out for me almost as much as he does his little sister.
I guess I have a type.
We looped back toward the rowhouses. The sun began to burn through the mist and I was still inside of my head.
"Lon…" I heard Dan's voice call to me. "Whatever it is, I know you'll work it out.
I smiled at him and wished I was tall enough to pat him on the head. "Let's go introduce you to the onsite gym," I said, pointing to the glass-fronted building near the entrance of the complex.
"Gym," Dan said, his eyes lighting up. "Now you're speaking my language. Let's see what kind of equipment billionaires buy."
We walked into the Agonwood Fitness Center. It was, predictably, nicer than any gym I had ever paid for. Floor-to-ceiling windows, rows of pristine Technogym equipment, and a free weight section that looked like it belonged in an Olympic training facility.
It was also occupied.
Marcus was at the squat rack, loading plates onto a bar. He wore a tank top that showed off the fact that his job was physical and hands on.
And on the treadmill in the corner, running at a punishing sprint, was Julian. He wore black compression gear and headphones. He just ran, his eyes fixed on the display, his mind running through different outcomes of something.
"Well," Dan said, cracking his knuckles. "Looks like the party is already here."
"We don't have to stay," I suggested, sensing the shift in the air.
"No way," Dan said. He walked straight over to Marcus.
"Morning, Marc," Dan boomed. "That looks light. Need a spot?"
Marcus looked up, grinning when he saw Dan. "Morning, Danny. I'm just warming up. Grab a bar."
I walked over to the mats in the corner to stretch, hoping to make myself invisible.
Ellie walked in five minutes later. She looked sleepy, clutching a travel mug of coffee and wearing yoga pants and an oversized sweater.
"I woke up and everyone was gone," Ellie yawned, sitting down on the mat next to me. "I assumed the testosterone lemmings had migrated here." She gestured to the weight area. It had turned into a scene.
"I think they're just rekindling their bromance."
Marcus and Dan were trading sets on the bench press, adding weight with every turn. They were laughing, joking, spotting each other—the easy camaraderie of old friends.
But Julian had stepped off the treadmill and silently walked over to the free weight section. He grabbed a set of dumbbells—heavy ones—and started doing rows on the neighboring bench. He moved with precise, mechanical efficiency. He didn't look at them. He just worked, his focus absolute.
"Look at them," Ellie whispered, taking a sip of coffee. "It's like a nature documentary."
"It's just a workout," I said, pulling my leg into a hamstring stretch.
"It's a flex-off," Ellie corrected. "Dan is lifting for volume to show he's reliable. Marcus is lifting for power to show he's strong."
She looked at Julian.
"And that one? He's lifting to kill."
"He's just exercising," I defended weakly.
"Lonna," Ellie said, turning to face me. "He's doing isolation reps with eighty-pound dumbbells while staring at himself in the mirror to make sure his form is perfect. He's performing."
"Or he likes looking at himself," I shrugged.
At that moment, Dan sat up from the bench. He wiped sweat from his forehead and looked over at Julian.
"Hey, Chef," Dan called out. "You want to work in? Or do you only lift sauté pans?"
The room went quiet.
Julian set the dumbbells down. He didn't drop them; he placed them.
He stood up, adjusting his cuffs. He walked over to the bench press where Marcus had just racked the bar.
"How much is on there?" Julian asked.
"Three-fifteen," Marcus said. "Dan just did five reps."
Julian nodded. He laid down on the bench.
"No spot," Julian said.
He grabbed the bar. He un-racked it.
He did ten reps. They were slow, controlled and at a perfect tempo. He re-racked the bar and sat up, barely breathing hard.
"Sauté pans can be heavy," Julian said to Dan, grabbed a towel, and walked toward the exit without looking back.
Dan stared at the bar. "Okay. That was annoying."
Marcus laughed, slapping Dan on the back. "I told you. He's intense."
Ellie leaned over to me.
"Okay," she whispered. "I get it."
"Get what?"
"Why you haven't come back to West Virginia."
"It's not about them," I hissed. "It's about the work. The data."
"Uh-huh," Ellie said, watching Marcus and Dan strip the weights. "Sure it is."
She nudged me.
"But seriously, Lonna. You have the Childhood Friend, the Golden Retriever Doctor, and the Dark Romance Novel Billionaire all sweating in one room." She took a long sip of coffee. "If you don't pick one soon, I'm going to start placing bets."
"Alex," I blurted out. "There's Alex, too."
Ellie looked at me. "The one who bought you the blazer? The one who put us in the suites?"
"I mean, yes, but…"
Ellie smiled. "The Sugar Daddy."
"He is not a Sugar Daddy. He's my boss," I said in a stern whisper. "And you just called your own brother a Golden Retriever."
Ellie ignored my protests. "So Alex is the one who gave you the space to figure this out," Ellie observed. "He's the one who isn't currently measuring his worth in iron plates." She gestured to Dan and Marcus, who were now doing pull-ups. "It seems Alex is playing a different game," Ellie said. "And I think he's winning."
I looked at the door where Julian had exited. I looked at Marcus laughing with Dan. And I thought about the car ride with Alex. A foundation. "Maybe," I whispered.
"Come on," Ellie said, standing up. "Let's go save my brother before he tears a rotator cuff trying to impress your ex-boyfriend."
I followed her, but I couldn't help glancing at the treadmill in the corner. The screen was still lit up. Julian had run six miles—at a six-minute pace.
Even here, everything was about absolute control. He created so much chaos in everyone else's lives—like a bored deity moving things around just for the fun of it. It was like he was preparing to either grant miracles or to set everything on fire just to see what it would be like to start over.
And I had the terrible feeling that my world was about to be singed.
Ellie and I headed back to the housing first. We left Marcus and Dan to do… guy things? We figured they would be there for a while. And it was nice to have some time with another girl. Ellie and I could talk about anything or nothing. She knew that I couldn't say much about the work we were doing, so we kept it to the things that happened as they drove across the country.
"What is Dan even doing in this pic?" I asked as I looked at some of the pictures she had on her phone.
"Yeah, he wanted to get a lot of pics of him trying to eat the Corn Palace.
"He's… ambitious," I said, looking at the photo of Dan with his mouth unhinged like a snake, trying to bite a building made of corn.
"He said he wanted to consume the heartland," Ellie laughed, swiping to the next photo. It was a selfie of the two of them in front of Mount Rushmore. Ellie looked composed; Dan was making bunny ears behind George Washington.
We were sitting on my porch, enjoying the mid-morning sun. It felt normal. It felt like Sunday mornings back in Morgantown, just with better weather and significantly more expensive landscaping.
"So," Ellie said, setting her phone down. "The guys."
"We're not doing this again."
"We're absolutely doing this again," Ellie said, leaning back in her chair. "Because I'm your best friend, and I can see you spiraling."
"I'm not spiraling. I'm… analyzing."
"You're terrified," Ellie corrected gently. "You're terrified because for the first time in your life, the variables aren't just physics equations. They're people who actually want to be in your orbit."
She looked out across the Commons toward the gym.
"Marcus is safe," Ellie said, ticking off a finger. "He's history. He's comfort food. You know exactly what you'd get with him—movies, inside jokes, and someone who always remembers how you like your coffee."
"That sounds nice," I admitted.
"It is nice," Ellie agreed. "But nice isn't what made you move across the country."
She ticked a second finger.
"Then there's Dan. My idiot brother. He's exciting in a 'let's go on an adventure' kind of way. He's loyal. He'd fight a bear for you. Heck, he'd probably try to eat the bear."
I laughed. "He probably would."
"But he's also… he's simpler than you, Lon. He sees the world in black and white. You see it in eleven dimensions."
She ticked a third finger.
"Then there's Julian. The Dark Lord of the Gym."
"Don't call him that."
"He's intense, Lon. He's the kind of guy who burns bright and hot. He challenges you. He makes you angry. He makes you think. But fire burns, Lonna. You can't build a house in a fire."
I looked down at my hands. "And Alex?"
Ellie smiled.
"Alex is the ground," she said simply. "He's the one who built the house so you wouldn't have to. He's not trying to fix you, or challenge you, or protect you. He's just… waiting for you."
She reached over and squeezed my hand. "Just promise me one thing."
"What?"
"Don't pick the one who needs you to be smaller so he can feel big."
I thought about Julian's controlling nature. I thought about Dan's protective streak.
"I won't," I promised.
"Good," Ellie said, standing up and stretching. "Now, I'm starving. Do you think your billionaire boss stocked the fridge with anything that isn't organic kale?"
"There's bacon," I said, remembering the fridge inventory. "Lots of bacon."
"Marry him," Ellie declared immediately. "I don't care about the rest. Marry the bacon guy."
"You know, it would be okay if I just focused on work, right?" I asked.
Ellie smirked. "How can I live vicariously through the neighborhood cat lady?"
I laughed, following her inside.
For a moment, in the safety of my kitchen with my best friend, the anomaly felt very far away. The pinholes, the entropy--the chaos—it all felt manageable.
But as I pulled the bacon out of the fridge, I caught my reflection in the stainless steel.
I looked happy.