Personal Training

"Jesus, Carl, you scared the shit out of me."

I was late turning on the security system, because two gym regulars, Jill and Terry, tried to seduce me in the showers. This is the last thing I wanted Carl to know, especially since he's taken note of my relationship with Annie. I didn't want to known as that guy who fucked customers on a regular basis. That was bad for business and the continuation of my employment.

My boss is a little less than sixty years old, but looks older. His short-cropped hair is totally white, and he's as skinny as a rail. We are about the same height, but somehow he looks shorter. He looked at me with a jaundiced eye.

"The security company called me. Said the alarm wasn't on."

"Sorry, I heard something in the ladies' bathroom after I closed out the register. I found one of the showers left on."

He looked like he didn't believed me.

"Your car still in the shop?"

That's what I told everyone, though of course, that wasn't the truth.

"Yeah."

"Must be in bad shape, then. Maybe you need a new car."

"I was thinking that."

"I'll check around with some of my friends. Someone always seem to be selling something. Come on. It's supposed to rain. I'll give you a ride home."

"Thanks."

We settled into Carl's car, a classic Chevy Nova.

"You take very good car of this car."

"Have to. She's my baby."

The car rumbled to life and I gave Carl directions to my apartment.

"Yes, I know the place," said Carl. "When I was in high school I spent a good amount of time there painting the apartments. Annie's father owns it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Eddie was dating Annie then, and started working for her father. So he got me a job too. We were real tight, Eddie and I."

"Yeah, I think you mentioned that."

"Me, Charlotte, Eddie and Annie, we all hung out."

"Who's Charlotte?"

"My ex."

"Oh."

Carl got quiet a minute.

"Have you talked with Annie?"

The question made me uncomfortable. "Yeah. A couple nights ago."

"Is she coming home soon?"

"She said a couple weeks."

"Did she tell you Jack proposed to her?"

Something cold washed over me when he said this. Is this what she meant when she said we'd talk when she got back?

"Where did you hear this?"

"Gina, at her Annie's father's restaurant."

"You know what, Carl. I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate people talking about her like this. If she had something to tell me, she would have."

Thankfully, we pulled up to my apartment building.

"Thanks, Carl. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

Now I'm feeling a bit pissed. I couldn't believe Annie would be playing me, but on the other hand, there seemed to be plenty of people around her with which she had history. Me? I barely knew her.

As I moved up the stairs, I glanced over to my parking space. No way. My car was sitting there. I went back down the stairs, and checked it out. It was my car all right. What the hell? Looks like Lynn changed her mind. Maybe things were starting to turn around for me.

But I shouldn't have been so optimistic. There leaning against my door stood Lynn.

Fuck.

I looked her over. The lights in the walkway highlighted her stunning body, her long blonde hair and blue eyes. Only her eyes were lined with red, like she was crying.

"What are you doing here, Lynn?"

"Can we talk?"

"Nothing to talk about."

She bit her lip hard turning it a delicious red. "Please."

"Move away from the door." I said.

Lynn like she was about to start crying again.

Oh, fuck me. If she started to cry it would be all over. I mean, what guy can stand to see a woman cry? Only heartless ones, and I wasn't heartless.

I sighed. "Okay, just for a few minutes. I'm tired. It's late."

"Just for a few minutes," she agreed.

But instead of talking, when we entered my apartment, she launched herself at me. She threw her arms around my neck and planting a searing kiss on my lips. She didn't stop there either. Her tongue pressed forward and played with mine. Everything was so familiar, the scent of her, the press of her body against mine. I'm not sure about at what point I stopped thinking but it was along about the time when my cock hardened and pressed between her legs.

She stepped back and tugged at the waistband of my sweats, trying to unknot the tie. I looked down at the top of her head, her blonde hair spilling in wisps over her shoulder. The past couple months came rushing at me again, sending a chill to my heart and my cock. I gripped her hands.

"No, Lynn."

She swallowed hard. "Come on, sweetie."

I shook my head. "This isn't going to solve anything. Now if you have something to say, say it."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"We've been over 'sorry,' Lynn. Sorry doesn't cut it."

Her voice was barely a whisper. "I miss you."

"Yes, that is exactly why you repro'd my car, and shut off the phone. Oh, and kept everything we ever bought together, because you miss me so fucking much."

"This isn't about stuff."

"Well, what else do we have now, Lynn?" I walked over to my fridge, took out a beer and popped open the cap. I didn't necessarily want the beer, but I needed to do something other than look at her.

"How about one for me?" she said.

I pulled out another beer and put it on the counter the divided the kitchenette from the living room. She walked over and sat on one of the three stools there. Lynn took the beer between her hands, looking at it instead of me.

"I got scared," she said.

I just stared at her.

"I turned the big five oh, you know, and suddenly I couldn't ignore the fact I was getting old. That promotions I should have gotten were going to younger people, that I didn't have the house in the suburbs, or the two point four kids..."

"And a husband that could pay for it all."

"Abel."

"No. I get it, Lynn. It's fun to have a younger man as a fuck toy, until the shit gets serious."

"That's not what I meant. Jesus, Abel. It wasn't about you. I just couldn't compete anymore, and I thought eventually I would fail you too."

I shook my head. "Well, I never could compete, with all that, with what you could have had. You told me you didn't want those things, and I believed you. But you were lying, to me and to yourself. That's where it went wrong. Fucking that guy, that was the consequence of that."

Taking a long pull on my beer I saw the past five years shone in sharp relief in Lynn's face. It wasn't all her fault. It was partly my fault because what I wanted, what I needed, was so out of step with how the rest of the world lived.

"Baby, I need you," she said. "Let's go home."

A lot of things went through my head. I wanted to say, "Let's go to bed," but, shit, everything in me kept saying no.

"You go your home. This is mine."

"Able, it's late. It's a long drive."

I sighed. "Then go sleep on the bed. I'll sleep on the couch."

"Abel."

"Last offer, or no deal."

She bit into her lip then, and nodded. I pointed to the bedroom, and I went in and got one of the pillows and a sheet from my closet. She said goodnight as I closed the door on her. I fixed the sheet on the couch, and half lay on propped on my elbow. Sipping my beer, my mind ran over everything that happened tonight, especially what Carl said about Annie. I took my cell phone from my pocket, looked at it thinking about calling her. I had a reason. She hadn't said anything about the roses.

She picked up.

"Hey," I said.

"Something wrong? It's late."

"Yeah, sorry. Just wanted to make sure you got the roses."

"Yes, they were beautiful. Thank you."

"You know, woman, you need to get back here soon. There are all sorts of rumors floating around about you."

"Rumors, what rumors?"

"That your boss asked you to marry him."

Silence.

"Annie? You there?"

"Yeah."

"Well, did he?"

It sounded like she sucked in a breath. "Yes, but..."

"Well, I'm happy for you. Congrats. Really."

"It's not like that. It's complicated and I can't talk now."

"He's there, isn't he?"

"Abel, don't do this. It's not what you think."

"What else do you expect me to think? But hey, we didn't know each other all that long. I wish you all the best. Goodbye, Annie."

#

Jack stirred beside me as I hugged my knees to me, cell phone still in my hand.

"Something wrong, Annie?" he said, sleep still in his voice.

"Everything and nothing," I said.

"We'll talk about it in the morning," he said turning over, his back now to me.

I cupped my eyes with my other hand. Abel telling me goodbye was nothing less than I deserved. I don't know what the hell I've been thinking. I wondered who opened their big mouth and then it hit me. Gina. It was a phone call so short I haven't thought about it since. I had called to make sure everything was okay at the restaurant, and I joked with her about Jack's proposal. I think I made it pretty clear to her how ridiculous it was. But Gina's sense of drama was always a little bit on overdrive. How it got to Abel I'll never know, but it did.

What an idiot I am.

At some point the cell phone fell from my hand, and exhaustion claimed me. Half rendered dreams strolled through my sleep as pieces of the men in my life. I felt my husband's touch, like the memory of a summer day that dissolved in the haze of a hot day. The scent of Jack melted into that, and I saw shit-eating smile he had on his face the first day we met. And then there was Abel, his body half lit by lightning through a window.

The crack of thunder that woke me up sounded like a slow tear in the fabric of the sky. A flash of light followed after it, along with another sharp crack. I jumped in my bed. But the image in my head wasn't the lightning, the thunder, or the dark haired man lying next to me. It was an image from my dream, Abel, his magnificent body moving in the dark, a woman under him, a woman that wasn't me.

"What is it this time," Jack groaned. He pushed up, and looked at me. "I didn't realize you were such a light sleeper. After we marry, I might insist on separate rooms."

I didn't say anything, immersed in my thoughts.

"Annie?"

"I made a mistake. I have to go home."

Jack's dark eyes were full of concern.

"What mistake?"

"I shouldn't have come here."

"Oh, Annie. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about JuJu and that whole mess. It was a mistake and I shouldn't have done it. Can you forgive me?"

"Jack," I sighed. "It's not that. Look, you've always been my friend, and you always will be. But you and me? Married? We don't have a chance in hell. We are just too different, need different things. I spent too much of my life married to the wrong person for the wrong reasons to make that kind of mistake again."

"You loved Eddie," he said.

"Even love isn't enough, sometimes. Do you know what Eddie and I argued about that night, the fight that caused the crash?"

"You didn't tell me."

"Well, I found him fucking someone in the hot tub. And it wasn't the first time he screwed around on me, Jack."

"I see," he sighed.

"I worked as hard as I did because after awhile I couldn't bear to go home and look at him, it hurt so much. But we had the kids, they were in college, and well, I didn't want to mess that up for them, you see? So I hung on. But the bastard, he just didn't understand. For him, no big deal right? But all the hours I spent at work, he thought I was being unfaithful to him. And for some reason, that mattered."

"I never did like that guy."

"We had more stupid arguments about you and me than ever should have happened."

"I didn't know," he said softly.

"And now? Where am I? In bed, with you, the man who never found a pussy he didn't like."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"No, I'm not thinking, Jack. And it's about time I did."

And round of thunder ripped through the atmosphere, and I jumped. Jack pulled me closer to him. He rained little kisses down the side of my face, down my neck, murmuring "sorry" over and over. Jack bent his head and found one of my nipples, and licked it, swirling his tongue around it. It felt good, but this was wrong. Very wrong.

"Jack," I said. "This isn't a good idea right now."

He pulled back and sighed. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"Maybe you thought you'd try to make me feel better. And I appreciate it. Just not tonight."

"Then let's get some sleep, for heaven's sake." With that he pulled me to him again and wrapped an arm around my waist. "Wake me up again, and there will be hell to pay," he whispered in my ear. "I won't take no for an answer."

#

I couldn't sleep. The couch was none too comfortable, but then again neither were the thoughts that kept rolling around in my brain. Then the rain started up, hard driving thing that smashed against the windows of my apartment despite the overhang over the walkway. I watched the lightning streaks from the couch, and then the thunder started up. One clap was so loud it rattled the windowpanes.

My bedroom door creaked open.

"Abel?" Lynn said.

"Yeah."

"You know how am I during thunder storms."

I sighed and got up.

"Yeah."

When I got to the bed, she was already in it. When I climbed beneath the sheets, she slipped her arms around the neck. She drew herself closer, working her body in as tight as she could against mine. She was naked under those sheets, and my breathing sped up a bit.

"It feels good to hold you," she said. "I've missed that."

I stroked her hair away from her face, remembering the good things between us. Truth be known I missed her too, missed this, the closeness we had. If I kissed her, it was because of all those things, not the bullshit that came later.

Yeah, I kissed her. And she kissed back, sucking my tongue into her mouth, hungry for it. Her hips squirmed against me, and my hand dropped to her clit, fingering her little knob while she moaned. My fingers became increasingly wet as her cream flowed onto them. I slid my forefinger into her pussy, keeping my thumb on her clit. Her hips moved in time with my strokes and soon I added a second finger. She jammed her hips against my fingers, moaning and begging.

"Please, more. I need more."

I bent my head, found a nipple and sucked on it hard. The little nub got hard under my tongue, and I lashed it without mercy, licking and pulling at it with my teeth. She gasped and her back arched.

"Oh, god, I gotta, I need to..."

I know what she needed. I pulled back a minute to take off my boxers, and grab a condom from my nightstand. But before I rip the foil, pleasure shot up my cock. Lynn had it in her mouth, gripping it with both hands, moving her head around in a swirling motion that made the room swim. She took my balls in one of hand and massaged them together.

"Oh shit," I said. Tingles of pleasure shot up my spine. I pushed my cock further into her mouth, going as far as she'd let me, the warmth of her tongue on the underside of my dick. I wanted it to go on forever, just that feeling. But the rush inside my balls and cock that flood my brain told me it wouldn't. I pulled away before I got past the point of no return.

"Get on your knees." I said. She didn't move a second, and I thrust my fingers into her pussy again, stroking her. She gasped.

"It's that, or I'll keep during this until you beg me."

"You want me to beg," she said.

"Oh, yes" I said, my mouth getting dry. My thumb moved around her clit. But then I moved in between her legs and brought my head down to her clit. I gave it a little bite, and she jerked. The smell of her juices flooded my nose as my tongue met her slick folds. My tongue licked, poked, and prodded, as her pussy gushed even more. It was luscious, and my tongue probed even deeper, sinking inside her sweet hole, swirling around inside it. She leaned into my tongue, her wetness sliding down it like melted butter.

"Oh, baby," she cooed. "More, I need more."

I moved two fingers to replace my tongue, and rubbed back and forth, but slowly. I knew what she needed to come, and I wasn't going to give her exactly that.

"Bastard, you're torturing me," she complained.

"Beg me. Beg me to fuck you from behind," I said.

She tried to wiggle more onto my fingers, but I used my other hand to hold her hip down. She looked at me, desperation in her face. She didn't exactly like this side of me, but then again, when all was said and done, she didn't complain about it either.

I put my thumb on her clit again, swirling around the delicate folds that hid it.

"Come on, baby. Tell me what you want."

She made a little mewling noise. "Fuck me."

"How, Baby. How do you want me to do it?"

She gasped as I pushed my fingers forward. "From behind. Fuck me from behind."

"On your hands and knees." I said retrieving the condom from the bed. As she did so, I ripped the package, my hands almost shaking from my own excitement and rolled it on. Her hips rose in front of me, and I pointed my dick with one hand while gripping one hip with the other. Finding her slit, I rammed my cock inside her. She gasped and I started fucking her hard, driving as deep as I could, holding both hips. Her pussy pulsed around me. Neither one of us was going to last much longer.

"Cum now," I said my voice a hard rasp, as I pounded her driving into her with all the strength I had. She cried out, the muscles in her cunt wrapping tightly around my cock, and I gave way with a final rush that sent flashes of light across my eyeballs.

#

I woke up alone. Feeling the sheets next to me Lynn wasn't there. Then I heard the front door opening and closing, and I smelled coffee.

Lynn and her coffee.

"Hi, sweetie," she said. "I got you a breakfast sandwich."

I got up, pulled on my sweats and walked to the living room. She was sitting at the counter. I went to the refrigerator and took out some orange juice.

"So," I said after taking a swig from the carton. "What's the program, Lynn?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've got to go to work soon."

"Call out," she said.

"Lynn, do you see anyone here helping to pay the bills?"

"You can come home," she said with a smile.

"I think it's a little early for that. One good fuck does not a relationship make."

"Oh, is that was that was, a good fuck?"

"I see what you mean. It was an okay fuck."

"Abel!" But she laughed.

"Seriously, what's with my car? Because if you are going to keep it, I've got to get another one."

"No, I'll sign the title over to you. It was wrong of me to take it." She pulled an official looking piece of paper out of her purse, and took out a pen.

"Here." She scribbled her signature on the back and slid it toward me.

"Thanks," I said.

She moved around the counter to me. "I tell you what. I'll hang around until you get out of work, and then you can drive me home. Or not." She traced the outlines of my tattoo on my shoulder with her finger. "So sexy," she said in a low voice. I put my hands on her waist and kissed her. Her lips opened and her tongue found my mouth. She teased my tongue with hers.

"I...really...need...to...go," I said as she continued to attack my mouth. Oh, fuck. She wasn't going to stop. I swallowed hard.

"Lynn."

"Hmm?" She decided then my right nipple needed attention, taking it in her mouth and sucking on it. I moaned. She switched to the left nipple and then reached into my sweats to take my cock into her hand.

I couldn't take it. I pushed her to the wall by the stove and unbuttoned her jeans. She pulled on my sweats and they fell to the floor around my ankles. I pulled my feet clear, and gripped her ass. Lynn wrapped her legs around my waist, and had her arms around my neck. I pulled her away from the wall, and walked her into my bedroom, my cock tip angled between her legs. I dropped her to the bed, and climbed on top of her.

"Oh, baby," she said.