TREADMILL Week 160 & What I #AmReading – Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Treadmill Goals/Tracking

• Get on the treadmill (or equivalent exercise) daily
• Pace is fine at 30 min/mile, although I may up it on occasion
• Time range between 30 minutes and 1 hour per day
• Distance 1-2 miles per day
• Read the chosen book. I’m officially modifying my original rule of not reading the book-of-the-week off-treadmill. I’m usually going to look at length and try to divide it up somewhat evenly per day, even if that means either closing that book early (if it’s short) or continuing after (if it’s long).

Week 160: December 15, 2019 – December 21, 2019

DAY	PACE	TIME	DISTANCE
Sunday	30 min/mile	30:43 min:sec	1 mile
Monday	Shoveled Drive	45 minutes	Dunno
Tuesday	30 min/mile	30:06 min:sec	1 mile
Wednesday	30 min/mile	30:49 min:sec	1 mile
Thursday	30 min/mile	30:30 min:sec	1 mile
Friday	30 min/mile	30:12 min:sec	1 mile
Saturday	30 min/mile	30:17 min:sec	1 mile

What I’m Reading

Note: Although I will try to avoid them, my weekly reading snippets may or may not contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

What I #amreading: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends…

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

My favorite lines this week…

(Everything is from Alex’s POV)

✿✿ SUNDAY ✿✿

And there Henry is, in the flesh, as classically handsome as ever in his tailored three-piece suit, all tousled sandy hair and high cheekbones and a soft, friendly mouth. He holds himself with innately impeccable posture, as if he emerged fully formed and upright out of some beautiful Buckingham Palace posy garden one day.

His eyes lock on Alex’s, and something like annoyance or adrenaline spikes in Alex’s chest. He hasn’t had a conversation with Henry in probably a year. His face is still infuriatingly symmetrical.

✿✿ MONDAY ✿✿

Alex is taking notes in a policy lecture when he gets the first text.

This bloke looks like you.

There’s a picture attached, an image of a laptop screen paused on Chief Chirpa from Return of the Jedi: tiny, commanding, adorable, pissed off.

This is Henry, by the way.

He rolls his eyes, but adds the new contact to his phone: HRH Prince Dickhead 💩.

✿✿ TUESDAY ✿✿

They’re rounding the corner for their eighth lap now, and he’s starting to see some flaws in this logic. Straight people, he thinks, probably don’t spend this much time convincing themselves they’re straight.

✿✿ WEDNESDAY ✿✿

“I’m not…historically great at talking about things,” Henry says.

“Well, I’m wasn’t historically great at blowjobs, but we all gotta learn and grow, sweetheart.”

“Wasn’t?”

“Hey,” Alex huffs. “Are you trying to say I’m still not good at them?”

“No, no, I wouldn’t dream of it,” Henry says, and Alex can hear the small smile in his voice. “It was just the first one that was… Well. It was enthusiastic, at least.”

✿✿ THURSDAY ✿✿

His dive is infuriatingly graceful.

“Can’t you ever just do one thing without having to be so goddamn extra about it?” Alex says, splashing him as soon as he surfaces.

“That’s bloody rich coming from you,” Henry says, and he’s grinning like he does when he’s drinking in a challenge, like nothing in the world releases him more than Alex’s antagonizing elbow in his side.

✿✿ FRIDAY ✿✿

The sound of Alex’s phone buzzing on his nightstand startles him out of a dead sleep. He falls halfway out of bed, fumbling to answer it.

“Hello?”

“What did you do?” Zahra’s voice nearly shouts. By the clicking of heels in the background and muttered swearing, she’s running somewhere.

✿✿ SATURDAY ✿✿

“Sorry,” Nora says. She sits down heavily. “I drank like nine Red Bulls to get through all of those and ate a weed gummy to level back out, so I’m flying at fasten-seat-belts right now.”