Golden Ticket Day 3: Charlotte
"Wakey, wakey, rise and shine!"
What was going on, what time was it, where am I?
Instead of my previous life as a sad, hungover, lonely git, I woke up clear headed and ready to face the next morning.
It was Charlotte's day with me and I was ready to go.
"Good morning to you, too. Are we off straight away?"
"Yes we are, today is workout day. Get your running gear on."
She was already ready; I was in my trainers and shorts pretty quickly and, after a bit of warm up, we were off. Charlotte seemed to know how to push me that little bit further each day. Not too much but enough to make sure that I wasn't too comfortable. We didn't even pause at her favourite spot, but pressed on. Once back at the main building we paused and I thought that was it, time for breakfast.
"Another lap?" she asked me.
"Really?"
"Choice: another lap and you get a massage, stop now and no massage."
That was a no brainer, I thought, knowing who the masseuse would be.
"Okay, let's go."
This lap was harder, no respite, tough pace all the way. But finishing it was really satisfying.
"I bet you couldn't have done that even two days ago! Now a bit of cool down and some breakfast."
We went through our usual routine; it was becoming more familiar to me now and I was confident I could do it without Charlotte's help.
Breakfast tasted great, all the healthy stuff, and I knocked back the delicious freshly squeezed orange juice since I'd lost more fluids doing the second lap.
"So, James, about today."
"Yes, what have you got planned?"
"Well, I'm not Beatrice, you know, I can't just, well,..."
Her voice trailed off and she looked down. She looked up again.
"I'm not like her, but I don't want you to be disappointed that it's not nonstop sex all day. I'm just different, that's all. I'm sure you had an amazing day yesterday and I can't match that."
"How can a day with you be anything less than a pleasure for me? Anyway it's not as if it's a competition."
"That's what you think!" She looked away again, unable to meet my eye. "Sorry, I'm just the competitive type, you know..."
I moved quickly on.
"Look, you've been looking after me every day, taking me for a run, pushing me a little bit further each time. You obviously care about how I am, about my health."
"I guess that's how come all of us have fallen in love with you each day, you know just how to say the right things."
"I'm just saying what I think, you know. Here I am, for some reason, enjoying a wonderful week with five wonderful people, any one of you I'd have been delighted to spend a few minutes with, let alone a whole day. I just take each day as it comes, and I know today with you is going to be a special day."
"Thank you!" She came over and kissed me on the cheek, before sitting down next to me. She took both my hands in hers and faced me.
"I know you haven't been leading the healthiest of lifestyles recently, so my plan for today, and as much as I could of the other days too, was to get you back to how you used to be. It can be difficult to change your routine, so coming away somewhere like this is good. You know, to appreciate the pleasure of exercise, the adrenaline rush. So that's the plan - by the end of today I want you to know how to keep yourself fit, know how to warm up and cool down, take care of yourself. You've got a good body",
She paused and stroked my arm affectionately.
"... and it would look better still if it was in good shape. Now go and get your massage. Then I'll see you in the gym."
I toddled off happily in the direction of the therapy and as yesterday, Annabel was there to greet me with a chaste kiss. "Good morning, gorgeous", she whispered, "will it be the usual?"
"Yes, please."
I lay face down on the table and enjoyed the exquisite pleasure of feeling Annabel's hands all over my back, buttocks, thighs, calves. Then she rolled me over and gave my quads some more attention, before going back up to my shoulders.
"Ah, that's so good. I'm so relaxed I could go back to bed again."
"Alone, with me or with Charlotte?" Annabel asked cheekily.
"I'd love it to be with you, but I don't actually think there's time, I've got to get to the gym now, more workouts, you know."
"At least all day workouts are easier for me to deal with than yesterday." Annabel sighed. "That was just too much, I didn't want to watch. Not too tough for you though, all that attention."
"I can't lie and say I didn't enjoy it, no, but the day with you was very, very special, not something I'm ever going to forget."
She looked up a bit at my last comment.
"Okay, run along and lift some weights. I think you'll get another massage later."
"Good! Bye for now. Which way is the gym?"
A little later I found myself doing boot camp circuits in the gym with Charlotte. She'd give me some weights to lift, then on the cycling machine for 5 minutes, then some bench pressing. She seemed to know exactly what weights to give me, 3 lots of 10 each time, how to push me. I'd been to a gym before, at school, at university, but never been properly instructed. While we worked our way round the room, Charlotte made notes on her iPad. She was quite assertive, telling me exactly what to do, how to do, how not to do it. It was totally absorbing, and I really enjoyed it. We alternated many different weights with aerobic stuff such as cross trainer, running machine, steps, more cycling.
I was having such a good time. All day sexathon with Bea was amazing, without doubt, but that was a once in a lifetime experience. Spending time with someone like Charlotte who was thinking all the time about me, and making sure, in the long term, that I was on the way to a better lifestyle, was something very caring and showed that my health mattered to Charlotte.
"James, I've been making notes as we go. I know there's far too much to take in when we do a long training session. So I record the activities you should do. I'll set you up a login for the site so you can go round your local gym with everything there to help. On each activity there's a link so you can get advice on what to do, and what not to do."