Early-September 32
"You have any sweat clothes here?" Jimmie asked, closing the front door.
I was already undressed, heading to the bathroom. "Ummm...maybe? Why?" I turned in and sat on the toilet. I had really had to pee.
"We're going to start you working out," he said, passing by into the bedroom. "Might as well be today. Before we eat."
I could see him at the drawers, looking for his own exercise outfit, stripping off his clothes. I wasn't ready to do exercise. I was tired. I wiped and flushed, washed my hands and stared at my face, wondering how I'd become this person. The face staring back at me looked the same, mostly. Maybe a wrinkle in my forehead that hadn't been there, maybe my mouth a little more downturned. I was tired. "Where?" I turned into the bedroom to look for something to wear.
"Here," he waved vaguely toward the floor, my eyes drawn to his pubic hair and cock, just before he pulled his shorts up. "In the complex."
I sighed, finding my sweatpants and a t-shirt, looking for my sports bra.
"I'll meet you at the door when you're ready."
"Remind me," I shouted across the apartment, "why we're exercising?" I actually had been missing my workouts since we'd gotten into our lives together. I had gained a few pounds, but more concerning, was feeling like a maggot: my muscles had lost some tone, and my anxiety seemed less controlled.
"If we're going to do this thing, we're both going to need to be a lot stronger."
I'm not sure I heard him exactly, his voice muffled from the kitchen, but I finished dressing and joined him in the living room. By then I'd moved on and was too tired to care.
"Water bottle," he handed me one, "and they have towels there."
Down two flights of stairs and down a long hall to a part of the complex I hadn't been in. A small workout gym with equipment, changing rooms, and an entrance to a swimming pool. "Jimmie," I said quietly, even though we were alone, "I had no idea there was a swimming pool here!" I actually liked swimming.
He smiled and shrugged, bringing me into a kiss. "I, hmmm, I never really got into swimming."
"I love it," I said, looking through the glass door. "I'd definitely be down for swimming." I looked back at him. "What are the hours?"
He shrugged and checked his screen. "24 hours." He turned back to the gym. "Let's get started for now in here, and later on, maybe after dinner, we can come down for a swim."
The gym was well appointed: ellipticals, stairs, two treadmills, two complex weight systems, and a set of free weights. Along the swimming pool wall were mirrors, along the back wall, floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the complex's grounds.
"You know how to use this stuff...?" he waved at the weight machines.
Several looked familiar, a couple I'd never seen before. "Most of it." I glanced back at him and moved to one of the treadmills. "So why isn't this, like, swarming with people?" I looked over at him as he started his own machine up.
"Dunno. I haven't been down here for months. But, I suspect it's just the time of day." He shrugged and focused on his rhythm and breathing.
I'm no exercise buff, but I do like to move my body. It helps get me out of my head, and, when you're working out, even in a room full of people, you are expected to focus on yourself; you're excused from interacting. That's not to say people aren't checking each other out, or even posturing. It's gotten so obvious in some of the gyms I've been in that even I notice it. But even then I can ignore it.
We were twenty minutes into the programmed sequence, and my mind drifted, surprised for a moment that I was still fully dressed, that I didn't have a tail or collar on, and that we were just a couple, working out at the gym. I felt the tension easing from my muscles, and with it, the tension from keeping a secret from Jimmie. Even though I was still angry, I was mostly relieved: I hate keeping secrets. Keeping everything straight with Hodgson and Marybeth had been stressful enough. Knowing Jimmie knew, and knowing he wasn't responsible for this whole mess...
well, he isn't completely innocent...
The thought pricked my anger at Marybeth, or Hodgson or Johnstone...it didn't matter who...
but look at what you and Jimmie have gotten out of it!
I grunted. Maybe. Maybe we wouldn't have gotten together if Marybeth hadn't set us up, or maybe we would have anyway. And maybe I'd be his horny bitch in heat without whatever the fuck is going on in the freezers.
Because face it, Annie, you're deep into it, and that's nobody's doing but yours.
I sighed, pushing into the final cycle, letting my blood pump the thoughts away.
*-*-*-*
"Hey," he said, holding out my water bottle to me. "I think that's enough for the day. It's a good start and I don't want you getting hurt."
I looked up at him from the bench I'd been lying on, the weights lowered. I was soaked: my bra showing through my shirt, my sweatpants stained between my legs. "I'm okay, Jimmie." I took the bottle and swigged. "I'm pretty into this stuff." I waved it around the room, still wondering why we were the only ones here. "It's only because of what we've been doing that I haven't been exercising as much as usual."
He smiled and nodded slightly, his eyes burning into me. I could tell he was going to go somewhere I wasn't interested in going. "Don't even think about whatever you're thinking, Jimmie. Not here. I'll tap out before you can even finish the sentence."
His expression changed: eyebrows raised, smile thinner but still there. 'Innocence' was the best I could figure.
Yeah, right.
But I enjoyed the shift in our relationship since our fight. We'd found a line and he respected it.