Author's Note: This story is completely fictional and did not happen. All characters and names are fictional and were made up.
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Los Angeles, California
Bright sunlight pierced through the window of a car moving down the street. A man sat in the driver's seat, behind the wheel and a pair of dark sunglasses as he made the drive through Downtown L.A. His next stop was a gym that went by the name of Tight 'N Fit. His job depended on the gym with a funny name. Most of his life had been dedicated to eventually reaching the role as a personal trainer where he would make his living from fitness, something that the man loved. Joe Murdock was that man. Though California was not his home state, fate had tipped the scale in his favor to make a living there. He was a former athlete who turned fitness trainer. This was the safe route to go with his life after suffering some knee injuries playing college basketball. A shattered knee completely ruined what he had hoped would be a career in the NBA.
Joe earned his first nickname around work as 'Duke' from the fact he used to play at the famous university of the Blue Devils. His other nickname was 'Big Joe' due to his height. He was a Center on the team with a dominating height of 6"8. He was just 22 years old in the year of 2006 when he blew his knee and ended his college career. It came in a game during March Madness playoff season against LSU. They went on to lose that game but the damage was enough to end his hopes for entering the NBA draft. After suffering the injury, he finished his scholarship in marketing and moved out to California. Coming from a poor family, the scholarship he earned to an elite college came entirely from playing basketball in high school. It took a few years to get over the depression of having his hopes and dreams crushed, but Joe learned to move on and enjoy new things in life.
Now he was a man at 34 years old, living a good life in Los Angeles. Joe was able to still channel his love of basketball as a personal trainer. He worked with athletes for a few years, training up and coming rookies and D league players for a year before he landed the job at Tight 'N Fit. The gym was a high roller, fancy and only for those that had money deep in their pockets to pay premium for private work outs and trainers. Joe found himself working with women more than men in the past year. Every now and then, there was a young trainer who had to be taught the rules and introduced into the job. Today however, was a special day. He had a job with someone who would be a dream come true for anyone to work with.
Super model Kate Upton had come into Tight 'N Fit just a few days ago requesting a private trainer. Joe gladly took the job. It would have been a dream for most men in the country, to be able to work alongside the most famous model in America right now. Kate was easily the most high profile client he had received as of today. Before her, the most pleasure he had was working with some no-name NBA players and a few rookies. Occasionally, a player for the Lakers dropped into the gym but gone were the days when they won championships. He smiled to himself while pulling his car into the parking lot of the building. He had his own personal parking space in the back, just like anyone else who worked there. His car was a white Lamborghini Diablo. A speed demon of a car just to show off his wealth.
Stepping outside the car, the hot air could be felt over his face. Joe sighed and ran his hand through his short brown hair before he shut the door and went walking to the entrance. The security guards just smiled at him, as they knew he was a regular face. He wore a pair of jeans and a yellow shirt. His arms may not have been huge, but he still had strength in his muscles. Joe walked in and made his way around the desk before one of the assistants came walking towards him.
"Joe, you've got a visitor waiting outside your office."
"Thanks, I'll get to it right away."
That visitor had to be Kate Upton. Joe had met with her yesterday when she came to the gym requesting a personal trainer. He did not trade phone numbers with her as she had not signed the paper work yet to become his client. Kate told him yesterday she would return for that, and he figured that's why she was back. Walking through the lobby, he seen the blonde model sitting in a chairing waiting in the room. She wore a black T-shirt and some yoga pants with her hair curled up in a pony tail. He waved to her and smiled.
"Miss. Upton, is that you?"
She turned to look at him, her pony tail whipping about.
"Hey, Mr. Murdock! Happy to see you made it in time."
"Of course, I wouldn't miss this day if my life depended on it. Come on, Kate! Step right into my office, this way."
He gave her a reassuring smile as she raised herself from the chair and followed him out of the lobby and down the hall. His office was on the left side with a big name plate that simply said 'Murdock' on it. On the opposite side was a door that said 'Johnson', one of the other trainers. He and Kate walked into the office room and she looked around. The room was fixed in white paint on the walls with a big black marble stone desk. His desk had a number of notebooks and files while his walls were decorated in photos She looked around and noticed pictures of him in what appeared to be college basketball. His degree from Duke was framed on the wall next to the photos. While she was distracted at the frames hanging up, Joe sat behind his desk and went through the contract files. Kate spoke up while he flipped through the paper work.
"Wow, you played basketball in college?"
"Yeah, that's from a long time ago."
She studied the photos and then gasped.
"Oh, you went to Duke!"
"Yes I did, Miss. Upton. Everyone around here calls me that as my nickname."
Kate turned around and smiled at him while he laid the paper down on the desk. She moved to sit down in front of the desk and grabbed the contract in her hands. Joe spoke again.
"Have a full read through of it before you sign it. Who knows? You might be calling me Duke too not before long."
She gave him a smirk before her eyes fixated over the piece of paper. Everything read as a legal form to the Tight 'N Fit gym on the first few paragraphs. It wasn't until Kate made it to the bottom did she see the demands for the personal trainers. Everything read as a stock contract, nothing exactly personalized whatsoever. Her first thought was that all trainers must have the same contract. It granted her complete control of her diet and choices for work out exercises. Each trainer was assigned his or her own private gym according to the paper. Kate read it over and then reached for a pen on his desk and signed it. Joe sat back listening to the pen sign over the dotted line on the phone. Once she was done, she lay the piece of paper on his desk and Joe smiled back at her.
"I guess you have no questions or anything since you went on and signed it. Welcome to Tight 'N Fit."
Shaking her head, Kate laughed.
"No! I've already made the payment arrangements too before you came in. So with signing the deal, I think you will be my new personal trainer now, Mr. Murdock."
"Oh please, call me Joe."
"Call me Kate!"
He held his hand over the desk for them both to reach out and shake hands together. After breaking apart the hand shake, Joe looked back at her and smiled.
"Do you have any plans when you want to begin work outs yet?"
"Yeah, I want to come in tomorrow and work with you."
Joe slowly got up from his chair while sliding out the drawer from the bottom. Inside contained keys and various other items. He went through until he found the key for his personal gym. It was silver with the number '8' on it. He sat it on the desk for Kate.
"This is the key to my private gym, I'm sure you read that part in the contract."
She nodded her head while grabbing a hold of the key. Joe continued speaking.
"You can come in any time as long as it's on the hours of the gym. There will be no one inside but you and I. If any janitors come in and you don't want them, tell them to get the hell outta there. Understood?"
Kate giggled at his words, informing her she could kick the janitors out.
"Yeah, I got it. You're gonna be showing up too right? I don't want to be all alone in there."
"Of course! I'm your trainer now, I will definitely be there."
"Great, I'll see you tomorrow morning Joe!"
The buxom blonde super model got up and moved to the door. Her hair waving around in a ponytail as she went for the door and made an exit from his office. Back in the lobby, a black man came through the front door with a duffel bag in his hands and a pair of expensive red headphones tucked over his ears. The man wore a suit in a black jacket with one button over a white shirt and then white pants down on his legs. He walked through the lobby as the blonde super model passed him up. As she walked by, the man stopped and turned to look over his head. He knew exactly who she was, for he was another trainer at the gym. Sam Johnson laughed to himself and continued walking, grabbing the headphones from his head to pull them down to his neck. The black man smiled big when he looked at Joe.
"You got her signed up, huh?"
Joe looked at Sam confused.
"What?"
The other man just rolled his eyes.
"Come on, man. Did you just have a brain fart? You know what I'm talking about!"
He looked back and laughed. By now, Kate was long out the door.
"Oh, yeah! I got her down on contract, I'm officially her trainer now as of today."
Sam smirked, turning his head to look at the empty doorway and then back at Joe.
