Four o'clock in the morning. I was wide awake. Again.
I'd been staying at this smart Korean hotel for four nights now and I still hadn't got over the jetlag. It was hot and stuffy in my room, even with the window open. I hate sleeping with the air conditioning on so I have to suffer the consequences and bear the sweat and discomfort.
Sometimes I get up and watch a bit of TV. Or maybe read a bit. Or perhaps listen to the radio and hope that will send me off. This time I decided I would get rid of some unwanted energy in the hotel gym.
The gym was right down in the basement. It was well equipped and quite busy at peak times but I had noticed it really thinned out at other times, so this was my chance to get the machines to myself. I pulled on my middle-aged man's Lycra, trainers and headed downstairs.
The hotel, huge as it was, seemed deserted at this hour. It was a little late for evening revelers and too early for the morning rush. I was in a No-Man's-Land time zone.
The gym was open twenty-four hours and I let myself in with my room key. The lights snapped on as I entered and my eyes got a bit of a shock with the intensity of the lighting. But the room was empty of people and I had the machines all to myself.
I crossed over to the far wall, mirrored from top to bottom, where there was a bank of running machines. I dragged myself onto one in the middle and set it going. Soon I was running, lost in my thoughts but still not at all sleepy. Damn.
About five or ten minutes into my run I was woken from my zombie reverie by the noise of the door-lock activating. I glanced ahead of me and in the mirror saw the door open behind me. A woman, also in tight-fitting Lycra sports-gear, entered the room. She had on a base-ball cap over her dark hair. She was wearing tight, thigh-length shorts, light grey with a curving pink stripe, and a looser light burgundy singlet over a dark sports bra. She looked well tanned, Mediterranean perhaps, certainly not Asian or Northern European. I guessed her to be in her thirties, early forties perhaps, very trim; no stranger to a gym then.
She clocked me straight away and did that thing of ignoring me and carrying on about her business, even though we were the only two people in the room, maybe the only two guests awake at this time of the morning.
I carried on running, watching her in the mirror, trying not to make it obvious that I was keeping tabs on her.
She started at the back of the room with some stretches. Damn, she had a terrific physique. She wasn't especially tall but she had good, firm legs with an even tan on the exposed skin. She looked strong without being muscular; she would look great in a long dress. As she reached up to stretch to the ceiling, I could see that the sports bra was having to cope with quite a considerable chest. She was well endowed there, no doubt about it.
After her warm-up, she approached the running machines. Which one to choose though? To use the one furthest away from me would seem like a snub. But obviously she couldn't use the one next to me either -- too forward. So she tried the one two machines away first... only to discover that it was a system she hadn't used before and she didn't know how to operate it.
She stood toying with it for a bit and then shot me a couple of glances.
I slowed my run down to a walk.
"Can I help?" I asked.
"Si, gracias," she replied. Aha. Spanish. Or maybe South American? Who knows?
She stepped over to the machine next to mine and I talked her through the operation and in no time at all she was up and walking.
"Can't sleep either?" I ventured.
"Si... it's the jetlag," she replied with a smile. Nice smile too, very pretty teeth. Nice big eyes too under that cap. And freckles. Her voice was low and sexy, like a smoker's.
"Yeah, me too," I said. "I hope a bit of exercise will help me get off." Hmm. That didn't quite come out right... although, in retrospect...
We continued in silence for a bit, side by side, me running and her walking on various inclines.
My programme ended and I got off the machine. I fetched a small towel and wiped myself and the machine down. I grabbed a drink of water from the dispenser. Then I headed to some of the weight machines.
The first one I chose was for the triceps; I adjusted the weights and sat on the stool. I hadn't actually meant to set it up like this, but I found myself staring almost straight at the Spanish woman as she walked. I was directly behind her, hidden from her sight in the mirror by her own body so I had an unobstructed view and therefore a chance to give her a detailed look-over.
On closer inspection her skin-tight shorts were almost sheer, so that I could see the line and color of a black thong underneath, separating her butt cheeks. Watching these cheeks move as she walked was a thing of beauty. They were firm, yes, but they undulated majestically as she strode, stretching the material with each step. The back of her legs was smooth and a gorgeous coffee color. She was in great shape.
I pushed out several reps on the machine while I scrutinized her and then realized I would really have to move or she would rumble me. So move I did, on to the next machine.