how completely wrong you are.” I pushed the weights in and then slowly released them. The muscles in my arms began to burn, but it wasn’t really unpleasant. At least not at first. After I’d done a few, I could definitely tell the difference, and yeah, it pretty much sucked.
Why did I need hot-looking arms anyway? I lived in Chicago, so I didn’t have twelve months of short-sleeve weather to contend with. I wasn’t really concerned about my arms. I needed to focus on my midsection, flatten my tummy, tighten up my rear, and pull in the hips. Kevin said we’d focus on a core workout, so why the arms? “How many more?”
“Five.”
“Really? I’ve done that many?”
“I told you! Just a few more and you’ll have the first set of repetitions done. Doesn’t it feel great? Do you want me to add more weight for the second set?”
“No,” I huffed. “Make it lighter.”
“That’s twelve. Rest for a second, drink some water if you need to, and we’ll do the last set.”
“Make it lighter,” I said in between gulps of water. I was going to die. I didn’t realize how much of a wimp I was. Pitiful, I know, but facts are facts. “Please. My arms are going to fall off.”
“Good! That’s how it’s supposed to feel.”
I didn’t think he looked so hot anymore. He was torturing me, and he was smiling while he did so. No way would I come back. Forget it. It wasn’t worth it. Not for anything.
But then I thought of Nate. A week later and my body still buzzed with the memory. Maybe a few more sessions wouldn’t hurt. I hadn’t seen him again since that night. The fact that I hadn’t, well, it worried me slightly—but not too much. He did work odd hours, after all.
The rest of the training session went pretty much the same way. By the end of the two hours, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to slap Kevin or thank him. Because, while I was certainly exhausted, I also felt really good. Though, I stunk. And the mirrors surrounding the entire damn gym didn’t make me appreciate my appearance any.
“This was the first half of your workout. Tomorrow, same time, good for you? If so, we’ll go over the second half,” said Kevin the torturer, as he bent over to pick up his water bottle. I had never seen butt cheeks as firm as his. Forget what I said earlier, the man was definitely hot. Working out eight hours a day will do that, I guess.
“Elizabeth?”
Oh yeah, I was supposed to answer him, not stare at his drool-inducing body. Silly me.
“First half? You mean I’ll be doing twice this much every day? I can’t do that. You’re crazy.”
“Stop saying you can’t do something. That’s the number one rule here. You can do anything, Elizabeth! But no, you’ll have two different sets of workouts, so you can switch things around. Then, after six weeks or so, we’ll change them again.”
“Why would we do this?” His enthusiasm should annoy me. The intelligent part of my brain knew this, yet it was weirdly endearing. As if he’d become my personal cheerleader.
He laughed. “Because our bodies fall into a habit, and once they’re used to something, they get lazy. They find ways to cheat so your muscles don’t get everything out of it they should.” He tapped his finger to his temple. “But we’re smarter than that.”
“I see.” I didn’t really see, but he was the expert, not me. “Well, I can’t come in tomorrow morning. I work until five.”
“What time do you go in?” Kevin asked.
“Early. Why?”
“We open at six. You could get your workout in before the day started. What a great way to wake up, Elizabeth!”
Yeah, right. Sure, that would happen. Before coffee. “I don’t think so, Kev.”
He sighed. “That’s too bad. I won’t be here tomorrow evening. Let’s see who we can hook you up with. When can you be here?”
“Um. I don’t know. Six, I guess?”
“That’s Ellen or Joy. Have you met either one?”
I didn’t really want to meet a new trainer. I hated this so much anyway, I figured I should at least enjoy looking at my torturer. “No, but what about lunchtime? Can you see me at eleven? And can we make it shorter? Like an hour or so?”
“That will work, and yeah, you’ll have a heavy and a light day, so that’s perfect.”
“Okay. I’ll see you then. Thank you for being patient with me.” This was