Once, an admiring gym-goer had commented, a little tactlessly, that Megan was "as strong as an ox."
Megan had taken it as a compliment, however, in the spirit it was intended, because she'd just hit a new one-rep max for her squats – much more weight than the awestruck guy could handle, at his stage of progress. She loved being strong, and she loved that others could acknowledge her strength. In fact, they pretty much had no choice, when they saw for themselves the amount of iron she pumped!
This was part of the reason she loved the gym so much – no matter what your sex, it just came down to how much you could lift, how much progress you were making.
She was as strong as an ox, sure, and built like one – even before she took up weightlifting seriously in college she had always possessed the physique for it, with her broad shoulders and thick back, and naturally powerful thighs. Water sports were not her thing, and she was not that fond of the tanned, outdoorsy look for herself, so she had turned down invitations from both the swim team and the track and field team. Instead, she had become a collegiate wrestler and bodybuilder, splitting her efforts more or less equally between the two. By her sophomore year there wasn't a guy on the team that could consistently beat her. And as a senior, she was champion in the annual college bodybuilding contest.
So, she was glad to be as strong as an ox, and as powerful as a tractor. Megan had been mildly interested to learn from one of her former girlfriends – she felt she was bisexual, more or less straight down the middle – that she was a Taurus. She just had shrugged and accepted it, though, without much thought – her athleticism and musculature were the results of disciplined diet and hardcore heavy lifting, with carefully researched and tested training regimens. She had every reason to be proud of her body and what she'd done with it, without attributing her success to the stars!
Today she was going to hit a new high for deadlifts – 10lbs more than her previous record, for her one-rep max. She tightened the straps around the bar, gripping as hard as she could, and looked up in the mirror. She could see the lines of sculpted definition along her shoulders and arms, and her impressive forearm vascularity.
As she tightened every muscle in her body and lifted the weight off the ground, she could see her face and upper chest reddening, the muscles filling with blood, as the cords of sinew bulged on her neck. The teardrops on her thighs – all three of them – bulged, nice and big, as she slowly straightened her legs, completing the deadlift.
Oh yes, she was strong; she looked it, she knew it.
At the top of her lift, a loud and resounding grunt of triumph escaped from her lips.
"Ungh!"
"Geez, seriously? You sound like a cow in labor!"
She almost dropped the barbell with shock. As it was, she had to release it halfway down instead of setting it down properly. It landed with a loud rattle and clang.
"And you can't even set it down properly without so much noise! How brutish."
The voice was female – high-pitched, whiny, the accent redolent with hints of New England. Megan turned to stare at the rude heckler, her eyes wide with outrage, ready to deliver a piece of her mind.
The girl who had spoken so snidely was slim – tall, and slender, with hints of tone on her limbs and exposed midriff, but no more than could be usually seen on a typical "gym bunny", the kind who went to the gym in tight yoga pants to do nothing except make use of the treadmill (utterly useless and counter productive), the stepper (a bit less useless) and the bike machines (useless without the proper intensity, which gym-goers like her never had). On her face she wore an ugly sneer, accentuated by the bright-red lipstick she had on.
Makeup, in the gym! For a workout!
Against such an obvious flake, Megan's anger abated slightly. Against smaller, weaker people she didn't want to feel like a bully. She simply put her hands on her hips and said, "This, in case you hadn't noticed, is a gym, babe. If it's too loud for you, why don't you run back to your yoga room? Or better yet, your nursery!"
That should've been the end of that – few indeed were those who could face Megan full-on, with her rippling muscles and straight unwavering gaze, and not feel cowed. But this... snotty bitch just laughed shrilly. "Not just a noisy cow, but a rude, obnoxious one to boot! Really! And it wasn't even that much weight anyway!"
The other gym-goers were now looking over at their corner curiously. No one was close enough to make out all the words being heard, but the body language on display was obvious – this was an altercation. A gym was really no place for such a thing to happen.
For the umpteenth time Megan wished for the end of her membership here to arrive quickly. This was a commercial gym – the kind that serious lifters derided as a "foo-foo gym", but it did have decent power cages and enough weight plates around, and also nice showers. Megan had already signed up for a more hardcore gym elsewhere in town – she had been so glad when that place, with its giant tires and chains and ropes and salmon ladders, had finally opened for business – but in the meantime she still had two more months left on her membership. And in this kind of place... one tended to get people like this... this bitch.
She walked straight up to the other woman, who amazingly did not flinch, but still stood, casually confident, a smirk playing on her ruby lips. When they were almost chest to chest, Megan stopped, and locked eyes with her. The woman looked back fearlessly.
"Not that much weight, huh? I'd like to see you lift even a tenth of that," Megan said evenly. "And you'd better watch your mouth, or the management will have something to say about your behavior."
"The management," the woman drawled, "is more likely to take my side, my dear dumb cow. Go ahead, ask one of them over. They know me. Hey, Nate!" she called out, turning her head to catch the attention of one of the gym attendants.
Nate walked over cautiously, casting her a questioning gaze. "Yes, Nina? What's the matter?"
"This woman was causing a nuisance to other gym-goers, with her rude and unladylike grunting, and also with her loud setting down of the weights, which can cause damage to gym property!"
"Um... um, try to keep it down, please..." Nate mumbled in Megan's direction. As Megan looked on, open-mouthed, Nate shuffled off, mumbling something about his "pay grade".
"You see?" Nina said smugly. "Being a major shareholder has its perks."
Megan felt herself flushed with anger, but before she could decide what to do next, Nina stepped forward, just a smidgeon, but enough to press her left breast right up against Megan's right.