Between Us

Luke didn't believe in love at first sight. He thought it was the stuff of bad movies-the kind he'd watch alone on Friday nights, a craft beer in hand and cynicism his constant companion. Ten years of relationships had taught him that love, when it existed, was a matter of quiet maintenance-and that he had always been the only one doing the upkeep.

So, when he opened the folder of photos Marcus, the personal trainer, had sent him-raw material for the gym's summer campaign creatives-he expected nothing more than just another day at work.
The folder contained perhaps eighty photos. Members on treadmills and weight machines, smiling for the camera with that forced positivity of people who know they're being photographed. Luke went through the usual mechanical process: selecting, discarding, and organizing by framing and lighting.
Until photo 47.

A woman mid-squat, her face set in concentration, beads of sweat on her forehead, eyes closed as if she were somewhere entirely her own. There was something about the image that had nothing to do with her body-though her body was, without a doubt, something Luke noticed. It was the expression. A blend of discipline and vulnerability he hadn't known could coexist in the same person.

He stared at it longer than he should have.
"This one," he murmured to himself in the empty apartment, as if someone were there to hear. "Who is this?"
He saved the photo separately from the others-a gesture almost childlike, like someone tucking away a note they shouldn't have read.
It took two days before he called Marcus to ask-trying to sound casual-who the student in photo 47 was.