Chapter 89 - Down to Business

Cate stared at her reflection in the mat room’s mirrored wall as she stretched. The face gazing back at her looked tired and angry, and a little sad. Disgusted with that hint of weakness in her eyes, she snorted quietly and looked away from the mirror.

Beside her, Jon silently performed his own warmup. He and Cate had not spoken a single word on their walk over, the tension between them so thick you could cut it with a knife.

When they arrived at the gym, Cate had asked Jon if he wanted a Powerbar and a bottle of Gatorade from the instructor lounge. He had accepted the drink and passed on the bar. Even though they had skipped lunch, he wasn’t hungry. There was no room in his stomach for anything but the knot of emotions that sat there like a rock. He noticed that Cate didn’t eat, either.

And now he had to prepare himself to physically assault her. Jon didn’t know how he was going to survive this lesson. His emotions were in such turmoil that he didn’t know what he felt: anger at her for pushing him away, frustration with her stubbornness, remorse for lashing out at her in the car, regret for pushing too much with his flirting and teasing, or sadness for causing her the pain that was obviously underlying her aggression.

The two emotions he did know he felt were heartache and desperation. With every tick of the clock on the wall he moved one second closer to leaving her, perhaps forever.

He couldn’t let that happen. But he was flat out of ideas about how to get her to talk about their relationship. He closed his eyes and sent up a little prayer that soon he would have an answer, a reason to make her talk to him about life beyond this week. It would all start with a phone call.

“Jon, are you ready to begin?” Cate’s voice was quiet and even, pulling him from his thoughts. Jon looked up at her face and saw that it was controlled, devoid of emotion. She wore the mask of professionalism that she had thrown up on the day they met, after she had recovered from her surprise at finding him in Floyd’s office.

Jon sighed. Do I have a choice? he thought. He nodded. “Ready when you are.” He straightened up from his stretch and followed Cate over to the door, where they both strapped on their gear-laden web belts. “What are we starting with?” he asked.

“Baton.” Cate took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then looked him directly in the eye. “Jon, you know what I need you to do,” she said quietly.

“Trust you,” he replied, determined to keep his own demeanor professional, though inwardly he cringed. “Don’t hold back, and do the strikes.”

“Yes,” Cate replied, a tiny bit more gently. “I told you before, I won’t let anything happen that’s going to get either of us hurt.”

Jon couldn’t speak, so he nodded in reply, dropping his gaze from hers. He closed his eyes and drew in, then blew out his own deep breath, gathering his composure. Time to put on the Game Face. After a long moment he raised his eyes to meet hers. “Let’s go,” he said quietly.

Okay. Keep it together, Cate told herself. Just another student. She reached to her belt, pulling her training baton from its ring with her left hand. “Today we’re gonna cover use of the collapsible baton,” she said evenly, beginning the lesson.

“Do you remember anything from your reading about the striking and blocking techniques?” Cate knew Jon hadn’t reviewed any of the defensive tactics materials since last week, because they had spent almost every waking hour since then together. And she was positive he hadn’t done any homework last night, after he had left her at the range.

Jon’s brow furrowed as he thought about her question. “Yeah, I remember some…” he said hesitantly. “But I don’t recall specifics. And I didn’t really understand some of the descriptions and diagrams,” he replied honestly.

“Okay,” Cate answered. “We’ll take it slow. And since you’re not getting a certification, you won’t be running around out in the real world wielding a baton, we won’t have to cover most of the legal and use-of-force continuum stuff.” She saw Jon smile a little at her mention of him “running around with a baton.”

Cate felt herself relax just a bit, as she started to fall into the rhythm of her lesson. But she was still pretty aggravated at Jon’s behavior, and she was in no mood to try to lighten the somber tone of the lesson as she normally would with a class of BATs. Today it was all business, covering a serious topic. She was going to be all business.