Latecomers. She hated latecomers. It just seems that if you have any respect for the workout, your own fitness, much less the teacher, you would show up on time! Body pump is not for wimps. And latecomers are wimps.
Brandy had been teaching body pump at Uptown Fitness in Chicago for 2 years. She took her job and her fitness seriously. Her body was toned and trained and she could push her students hard. Her 5'6" frame and long blonde hair exuded confidence. She was in charge here. She would make the latecomer pay for his tardiness!
After the initial annoyance of having someone come into her class late wore off, she noticed that this latecomer was actually pretty fit himself. Making him pay for his untimeliness might be fun. She wondered if he could keep up with her for the remaining 40 minutes of class.
Brandy stepped up the intensity of her usual class workout a couple of minutes after he arrived. By the time Lady Gaga's "Me & You" had finished, some of her regulars were starting to look at her as if they were a bit annoyed by the intensity that she was setting, but the latecomer seemed to keep up just fine, without breaking much of a sweat. Going into the home stretch of the workout, the playlist hit "Burn" by Ellie Goulding and Brandy decided to take it up another notch. With this move, almost everyone in the class was backing off a bit from the intensity that she was setting. Except for the latecomer. He seemed able to match her move for move for the rest of the class.
By the end of the workout, Brandy realized that while she had been trying to out do this newcomer, she had been focusing on him almost exclusively. And while she focused, she realized that she much enjoyed watching him work out. He was almost six feet tall with brown wavy hair that seemed to tolerate quite a workout without getting too messed up. His arms were smooth and well toned with well defined biceps and triceps as well as forearms. His thighs bulged with each step move making Brandy's heart pump a bit harder that the workout necessitated. Yes, he was no stranger to working out, and she found herself wondering what it would be like to touch his well toned musculature.
As the class ended, several of Brandy's regular students said, "bye" and joked about the likelihood of being sore the next day before leaving through the door. After just a few minutes, Brandy found herself alone in the room with the newcomer.
"Nice class" he said.
"Thanks. It would have been better if you had been on time."
"So that's what got under your skin and made you want to run all of the students into the ground!"
"Actually, I wasn't concerned about them, just trying to teach you a lesson."
He laughed, "Lesson learned. I won't be late again, Brandy."
"I'm sorry, you're a step ahead of me. You are...?"
"Oh, your name was listed on the class schedule. I'm Aidan" he said as he extended his hand to her.
She took it and replied, "Nice to meet you. Next time be on time!"
"Yes ma'am" he replied.
As the conversation was going on, she found herself continuing to survey his body. Those arms were a sight to behold. She thought about reaching out to touch them, but realized how inappropriate that would be. But the thought alone seemed to make her heart skip a beat and her tummy to feel a bit odd.
He continued, "I was wondering, do you do personal training sessions?"
"Occasionally" she replied. "For a few clients."
"I was wondering if you could take me on as a client. See, I'm new to town and in the past few weeks of transition, I've not had much time to work out. I really need to catch up and it seems that you're more that up to challenging me!"
"I suppose I could take one more client" she said with a small grin. "Would next Tuesday at 8:00 be ok?"
"Tuesdays at 8:00 would be great, but I was really hoping to get started right away. Are you free to stay for a session right now?"
A bit surprised, she replied, "Wow, you are anxious to get back into the routine, huh? I'm staying around a bit, but the gym closes in 15 minutes so tonight seems to be out of the question."
"Oh, no worries, I spoke with the manager when I came in and explained that I would like to arrange a personal training session late tonight. I must have been persuasive because he agreed to let me stay if I could find a trainer that was willing to work late."
"So that would mean we will be here alone after everyone else leaves?" she replied just a bit nervously.
"Yes, but you can trust me. The manager has my driver's license and there are video cameras all around here it seems!"
"You're right, I've certainly never felt in danger here. I'll admit that the idea of making you pay just a bit more for being late to my class does seem interesting!"
"So it's settled. You have me for an hour starting right now. You've been working out aerobically for a little bit now, so let's head to the resistance machines."
Brandy knew exactly where she was taking him and quietly to herself admitted that she was being a bit selfish with her choice. She couldn't wait to see those arms in action and she was sure that her own heart rate ticked up a notch as she led him to the biceps curl machine.
"Set the resistance at 60 percent of what you think is your maximum." she told him.
Aidan moved the pin almost half way down the stack of resistance plates. He sat on the seat draping his upper arms on the arm rest and grabbed the handles of the machine with both hands. As he gripped the handles, his forearms flexed and as he started the exercise, Brandy couldn't keep her eyes off of his upper arms as his muscles tightened and bulged against the load.
"Ok, let's do 15 reps at this weight." she instructed and he continued without too much difficulty through the set.
As Brandy watch Aidan work out, she couldn't seem to keep her mind straight. She found herself unusually attracted to this man whom she had only met about an hour previously. These feelings were very unexpected and caught her off guard. After the set was over, she was a bit flustered and for the first time ever wasn't sure what to instruct her client what to do next. So, she told Aidan to grab a swallow of water and repeat the same set at the same resistance.