Someone Someday (All in Good Time Book 2) Read Free Page A

necessarily."
    "How do you know if you haven't tried?"
    "Because I can't imagine feeling comfortable rolling around on the ground with people." I scrunched up my face and shook my head at the thought. "I think I have too many boundary issues for that."
    "Why don't you start with striking? That's good self defense too—and good exercise. Just come to the gym and see what you think."
    "When?"
    "Why don't you come tomorrow morning? We're doing that clinic, but I think they have morning kickboxing classes you could check out."
    For some reason I wanted to go. "Text me the address," I said.
    A huge smile spread across his face and he clapped his hands one time really loud like he was pumped. "Yes!" he said.
    I laughed. "I'm not promising anything. I'm just going to check it out."
    "You're gonna love it!"
    I opened the door to get out of his truck. "Text me the address," I said, stepping out.
    "I will. Nine o'clock." He pointed out the window toward my apartment. "Do you need me to walk you up or anything?"
    I smiled. "No I got it. Night. Thanks for the ride."
    "Nine o'clock!" he yelled as I shut the door.
    Chris text me immediately with the address and directions, and I went to bed that night wondering what in the world I'd gotten myself into.
    ***
    I had no idea what to expect, but for some reason, I pictured a much smaller operation than the one I found when I drove up the next morning. The parking lot was full, so I had to squeeze into a patch of grass at the far end. It had taken me twenty minutes to get there, and I told myself that I wouldn't want to be doing that drive on a regular basis and would end up not using the membership.
    Between the drive and the packed parking lot, I almost had myself talked into not going inside at all. I sat in my car for at least five minutes, trying to figure out whether or not I should go through with it. I remembered what Chris said about defending yourself from your back and decided to check it out. I figured what did I have to lose.
    There was a lobby area right when I walked in with a lot of people standing around. To the right, there was a counter with three people sitting behind it. I assumed those people worked there, so I turned to them wearing a deer in the headlights look.
    "My friend's doing a clinic here and he wanted me to come check it out and see if it was something I wanted to try," I said before they could even greet me.
    "Oh, sure!" one of the girls said. There was one guy and two girls behind the counter, and the one who spoke to me stood and immediately started walking around the counter to meet me. "Let me show you around and tell you a little bit about what we do here."
    She asked my name and told me hers was Jordan and then she proceeded to walk me down a long hallway that was full of framed posters and newspaper articles, explaining the credentials of the owner and instructors, saying all sorts of good things about how they were accomplished fighters. I didn't understand most of the jargon she used, but it seemed pretty impressive and I figured they knew what they were doing.
    Just then, a guy came out of the door that was at the end of the hallway. He was wearing a long-sleeve karate outfit with a belt tied around his waist, and he ran past us as if he was in a hurry.
    "You better hurry, Michael," Jordan said. "They're already warming up."
    "I know," he said, rushing past.
    "What's that?" I asked.
    "That was Michael, one of our students. He's headed to the clinic."
    "What's he wearing?"
    She looked confused for a split second before it dawned on her that I had no idea what any of this was.
    "Oh, that's the gi," she said. "That's what you wear to train Jiu Jitsu. We have no-gi classes too. They just wear spandex or whatever for that, but the clinic's gi today."
    "So Chris has on one of those outfits?" I asked, smiling as I tried to picture it.
    "Oh, yeah, I forgot you said your friend was here. You mean Chris Stratford or Chris Miller?"
    "Chris Stratford."
    "Yeah, we