“Super-flexible there, Aerin.”

“Part of my rehab. I wasn’t like this before, believe me.  But my trainer is insistent on me pushing as far as I can go with the stretching.”

She straightened up again and winked at Rian. “You’re looking much better.  I’m sure you could do it.  So, do you want him to help you stretch or something?  Or are you gonna hit the weights first?”

Rian chugged the water bottle half-way down, swallowed, and wiped her lips. Her breathing was slowly returning to normal.  “Haven’t thanked you yet for interrupting my running there, actually.  So thanks a lot for stepping in.”

She swiped some sweat from her forehead again.   “Um .. no… no lifting today.  I’m done.  I do think I must have overdone things, like your trainer said.  Feel a pain in my hip and a knee.  I should stretch now.”

Aerin gave her a cheery smile but her eyes were tinged with lingering concern. “Just glad I could help.   It’s a good thing he told me about his concern about you earlier.  Otherwise, we both would have left this gym… and who knows what would have happened to you …”  Aerin handed Rian a fresh towel she’d swiped from the pyramid of rolled-up towels that were next to the tray of small water bottles.

Now that she had a chance to take a longer and more relaxed look at the woman, Rian couldn’t help but think that she’d seen Aerin somewhere. Rian didn’t respond and her eyebrows knit together in concentration as she unconsciously followed Aerin’s lead as they crossed the length of the gym to a corner where there was a barre that ran along the length of a wall to wall mirror.  Below one edge of the barre was a stack of mats laid out neatly against the corner.  Rian remained quiet as she finished off her water bottle, standing to one side as Aerin laid out a couple of mats on the floor and wiped them down with cleansing wipes she’d pulled out from a plastic container by the stack of mats.

Aerin had a bemused look on her face when she was done. “Earth to Rian,” she said softly.

Rian jumped a little at the prompt. “Oh, I’m sorry about that!  I should’ve helped you clean that out…”