Page 36 of The Prime-Time Experiment

“I had a plan. Then I didn’t.” The simplicity of the statement seemed to land harder than the detailed explanation would have.

“The environment was already difficult for me to process. The noise, the movement, the unpredictability. I was managing those variables.” She paused. “Then you introduced another one.”

“Me.”

“You,” she confirmed.

For a second, neither of them spoke.

“I thought you were annoyed because I made you exercise.”

Riley considered it. “I do not enjoy exercise, so I understand why you assumed I was simply avoiding it,” she said. “But that was not actually the problem.”

Declan stayed quiet. “You told me the session would occur on Friday.”

“Right.”

“So I prepared for today.”

Her gaze dropped briefly. “I had already allocated the energy for it, I knew what I would wear. I knew when it would happen. I had mentally organised it.”

For a moment, Declan was quiet. Then he rubbed a hand across his jaw. “Right.”

Riley waited.

“So from your perspective,” he said slowly, “I told you one thing, watched you prepare for it, then changed it at the last minute because I thought it would be funny.”

Riley considered that. “That is a concise summary.”

He groaned, dragging a hand down over his face. “Fucking hell.” For the first time, Riley saw genuine regret settle across his expression. “Yeah,” he muttered, shaking his head once. “That sounds a lot worse when you say it out loud.”

Declan looked away briefly, staring somewhere over her shoulder as he worked through it. When he looked back, something in him seemed more settled. “Alright,” he said. “Then we start again.”

Riley’s attention fixed on him.

“Properly this time, from the beginning.” He leaned back slightly. “No carryover from that first session. We’ll set a baseline, we build from there, and we do it the way we should’ve done it the first time.” He looked over at her. “And I’ll extend your contract a week.”

Riley blinked. “That isn’t necessary.”

“Maybe not,” he said. “Still doing it.”

She studied him for a moment, trying to understand the reasoning. Declan held her gaze. Then, more quietly, he said, “I’m sorry.”

The words weren’t wrapped in humour or softened by a smile. “I thought I knew what you needed better than you did.” His jaw tightened slightly. “And instead of listening when you told me something wasn’t working, I pushed harder.” A small shake of his head. “That one’s on me.”

Riley went still. Apologies, in her experience, usually arrived attached to something else. An explanation. A reason the behaviour had been unavoidable.

This one didn’t. He just took accountability for his actions. She wondered whether he was less like an asshole than she initially observed.

“I accept the reset,” she said eventually.

It wasn’t exactly an answer to the apology, but it was the closest thing she had. Declan seemed to understand that. He nodded once. “Alright,” he said, pushing himself upright. “Come on.”

He headed toward the stairs, leaving enough room for her to follow without needing to navigate around him. The gym revealed itself gradually as they descended.

Riley’s attention moved through the space automatically, building a map of it before she consciously realised she was doing it. Equipment had been grouped by purpose rather than appearance. Walkways remained clear. Nothing felt crowded or competing for attention.

It felt considered.