Chapter One
“I got an interesting notification from my gym app,” Tish said over the phone. “One hour-long massage credit.”
Misty smiled. “You’re welcome. I got my membership, and my first free training session is today.”
“Nice! Who’d you get?”
“Spencer. Do you know him?”
“Maybe. Remind me what he looks like?”
“About our age, brown hair, brown eyes, cut as anything.”
“That doesn’t exactly narrow it down,” Tish said. “I’ve probably seen him around even if I haven’t spoken to or worked with him, but you should be able to handle him.”
“Hope so.” After they hung up, Misty Googled ‘Spencer Whitford trainer’ so she could go into this knowing a little about the guy who’d be working with her. A small handful of results, including his Instagram page, popped up.
She followed the link to see a collection of motivational quotes, exercises of the day, and pairs of images showing the correct and incorrect forms for a bunch of moves.
Not the most interesting page she’d ever come across, but it seemed to show that he knew what he was doing.
It also showed well-toned arms, muscular legs, and an ass she could’ve bounced a quarter off of.
She knew she wasn’t supposed to think about authority figures like that, but she couldn’t ignore it.
She put down her phone, rubbed her lucky rubber duck’s head, and got up to get dressed for the session.
She’d noticed everyone else in the gym wearing neutral colors, making her stick out like the newbie she was.
She wanted to fit in, yet she didn’t own anything that would let her blend with the rest of the crowd.
Between the corporate swag and her own designs, it made sense to buy only performance leggings as opposed to the matching sets Tish seemed to live in on gym day.
She looked through her drawer of workout gear for something at least a little subtler than yesterday’s outfit.
All the while, she mused that if it got Spencer looking at her for reasons beyond the training session, that wouldn’t be so bad, either.
In the end, she decided on a black tank top, a pair of black leggings printed with cherries, and her favorite sneakers. She adjusted her ponytail after putting her tank top and sports bra on, made her way past the divided living room, and headed the few blocks to the gym.
Spencer was waiting for her at the front in a gym-branded t-shirt and gray shorts.
He led her to a table in the cafe. “A few things to go over before we start. Any health issues I should know about?”
“Nope.”
“Are you on any medications?”
“Does my IUD count?”
“Hormonal or just barrier?”
She thought back to the day she’d had that sucker inserted. “Had to be hormonal. I got it for medical purposes as much as contraceptive.”
He made a note on his tablet. “Are there any exercises you especially don’t like doing?”
“Does anyone like burpees?”
His lips quirked, but he didn’t smile. “I can’t promise that you won’t have to do them at your combine, but I can assure you I’ll keep them out of your program as much as I can.”
“Much appreciated.”
He nodded. “Some people appreciate hands-on assistance, like to correct a stance, but others don’t like to be touched when they’re working out. Where do you stand?”
“You can touch me.” Misty had no objections to adjustments like the one he’d cited, and her answer would have been the same if they’d met literally anywhere else.
“Okay. Before we start, I’d like to weigh you and get some measurements.”
She was momentarily confused. “That is literally the last reason I want training.”
He nodded. “I get that, but it’ll give me an idea of how much we should be starting with in the way of weights. You don’t have to look, and I won’t say anything out loud, if you don’t want.”
Misty appreciated the consideration and followed him to the back. “How tall are you?” he asked as he closed the door.
“Five foot nine and a half.”
“Thanks.” He entered that into a digital scale before pulling away. “Step right up.”
After that was done, he guided her past the studios to an area at the back of the gym.
Half of it was populated by all types of machines, and the other half was devoted to weights.
He led her past that to an empty area where the floor was marked with measurements.
“Sprint from here to the orange cone on my signal,” he said.
Misty got in position and took off on his “Go!”
The cone at the 100-meter mark was in sight before she knew it, and she beamed back at Spencer. He smiled back. “I saw some jumps on the list of fitness requirements. Why don’t we check on that while we’re here? Go back, get a running start, and jump forward.”
Misty got a flashback to track as she followed his orders.
The long jump had never been one of her events, and it looked like that hadn’t changed since college.
Spencer didn’t comment but directed her to a strip by the wall and had her do a vertical jump.
Having not done that before, she had no idea how she’d just performed.
Spencer wasn’t jumping for joy, and yet he wasn’t grimacing or shaking his head.
She decided to take the latter as a positive sign.
His glance moved from her to his tablet. “You’re fast, and that’s going to serve you well. But how fast are you going to be with a 600-pound sled? Let’s go to the weight area to get a better idea of that.”
He led her to one of the weight machines and had her sit down on a bench with what looked like a footrest. “We’ll start with leg presses. Have you ever used one of these?”
As soon as he said leg presses, something clicked in her memory. “Not since high school.”
“Let’s start with eighty-five pounds and see how you do,” he said, keying in the amount.
“To refresh your memory, your legs are going to do all the work of pushing this forward. There’ll naturally be some core involvement, but if you feel like you’re putting too much of your back into it, let me know. ”
“Okay.” Her feet met with resistance, and she pushed it out of her way. She wouldn’t have called it easy, and yet it didn’t seem overly onerous.
“Good,” Spencer said after five reps or so. “Maybe we can do a heavier weight next time.”
Misty smiled at that and at how she was doing so far. Maybe she’d underestimated herself and could actually do this.
“You’ll also need to get your upper body for this.” Spencer’s voice broke into her thoughts as she finished the set. “True, you’ll have three people helping you, but I understand you’ll be doing some of the work of carrying or pushing the sled.”
He moved to an area with free weights. “Lift this to your chest like so.” As he spoke, he stepped to a wider stance, picked up a 24-pound kettlebell, and hoisted it up to his chest.
He looked like he wasn’t doing anything more strenuous than picking up a cat, but the muscles in his arms practically jumped out as he lifted the weight. Misty was struck by the look of that, not to mention that of his ass as he worked. It was even firmer in person.
“Your turn.” Misty stepped up. She shouldn’t be ogling her trainer, especially not as a distraction for this.
She put her feet in the same stance and reached for the same kettlebell, but was struck by how heavy it was.
She felt her whole body going into it to get it off the ground and knew she wouldn’t be able to raise it to her chest as gracefully as he had.
“Stop before you hurt yourself, try this, and engage your core.” He tapped his toe to an 18-pound kettlebell. That one came up easier, but she couldn’t decide whether to feel reassured that she’d managed this or worried that she wouldn’t be able to manage the test.
With each circuit of weights they tried next, Misty felt her confidence ebbing. Spencer’s expression looked slightly pinched, which did nothing to reassure her. How was she going to be able to do this?
“Everything we did today was good. It shows us both what we need to work on and what maybe we don’t need to spend as much time on.
And before you go...” Spencer pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“I have your number from your membership, but I should give you mine in case you can’t make a session or you have questions. ”
“Okay, thanks.” As her phone buzzed, it occurred to Misty that she needed to get out more or go back on the apps. What did it say if her new trainer’s number was the most recent one she’d gotten? A spring fling had ended when that TA at Hunter had gone home for the summer.
****
After a sweaty, deflated-looking Misty left the gym, Spencer returned to the back offices to go over her assessment.
They were definitely going to have to rebuild her upper body strength and get her lifting a lot more before she sent the video.
Her lower body strength was impressive, but it couldn’t hurt to hone that to its sharpest point.
Not to mention the challenge of making her more muscular, but not at the expense of the speed that was probably her greatest asset at this point.
A tap on the side of his cubicle got his attention. Kurt had swapped out his gym shorts for khaki shorts and was standing there. “Got any more clients tonight?”
Spencer glanced at his calendar. “Nope. What’s up?”
“Some of us were going to grab a drink.”
“I’m in. Just give me a sec.”
An hour later, the guys were in street clothes and at a bar down the block from the fitness center. The server had dropped off their beers, and they were swapping stories about their clients.
“Alan’s doing a lot better,” Spencer finished. “And then I had a fitness evaluation for the girl who’s trying out for the bobsled team.”
Kurt frowned. “Is that a real thing? I couldn’t believe it when she said that was why she needed a trainer.”
“It’s a new thing,” Spencer corrected him.
“I did some research and saw that people have been trying to make four-woman teams happen for a while, but it’s taken this long.
They tried to fob them off by making women’s monobob an event, but that’s not the same and doesn’t let as many athletes participate. ”
“Cool, but I mean, are you really doing this? Don’t get me wrong, she’s hot and all, but—”
“But she’s a client, and off-limits.” Barry had made it through years as a drill sergeant unscathed, but a bad bout with COVID had left its mark on his vocal cords.
It resulted in a medical discharge and led to him running the gym with military precision.
While he physically couldn’t speak at the volume of a civilian anymore, his raspy voice and commanding tone still captured everyone’s attention.
Barry closed his eyes as he took a sip of his drink, and Kurt took advantage of the moment to mouth, “As long as you don’t get caught.”
The comment put an end to that part of the discussion, but couldn’t put it out of Spencer’s mind.
He couldn’t deny that if he’d come across Misty anywhere else but at work, he would have made a move.
For one thing, he’d always been partial to redheads.
For another, he hadn’t seen much of her smile today, but that only made the memory of it all the more vivid.
Not to mention being so close in height would make a lot of things easier.
Spencer’s phone lit up with a call from his dad, but he ignored it. He never felt like listening to a lecture on the difference between his dad’s life and his own, and that would kill the buzz that was just beginning.
Barry set his glass down and studied the group. “Kurt’s right, this is an unusual situation. But I’ve got to tell you, Spencer — if you can do this, you can do anything, and there’ll be no reason we can’t bump you up a tier.”
That had Spencer’s full attention. The gym had various tiers of personal trainers.
People who didn’t want to spend too much or didn’t have overly lofty goals could hire someone at the bronze level, while those training for elite athletic events (rather like the World Winter Games) could pay more for silver, gold, or platinum-tier training.
Not only did higher tiers command higher hourly rates, but the gym offered more generous benefits like dental and vision on top of regular healthcare, unlimited vacation days, three months more parental leave than usual, tuition reimbursement, and even a small student loan repayment for those who needed it.
“Shall we drink to that?” Spencer asked, lifting his glass.
Barry clinked his to it. “Let’s.”