When Aria walked into the gym, I turned and raised my arms to her. 'Oh, good, you're alive!'
She laughed. 'Hi, Jason! Yeah, sorry about that. One kid gets sick and brings it home and the next thing you know everyone's sick. And now I'm a single mom again, I've got to deal with it all myself.'
I heard the bitterness in her voice; her ex had left only two months ago. 'But the kids are feeling better now?'
She nodded. 'Nothing a week of sleep, kiddie syrup and saltines couldn't cure.'
'That's good,' I agreed with her. I picked up my weights and started my set of bicep curls. 'Could have used you last week.'
She blushed. 'Shit, the check run. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help. How did that go?'
'Almost double the normal number of checks thanks to that Marquette fiasco. Got them all in, only took ten hours of overtime.'
'I'll bet that paycheck will look nice,' Aria said.
'Oh, yeah,' I finished one set. 'I'm getting a new console.'
'Which one?'
'Which ever one isn't sold out.'
She laughed again. After a few months of sour grapes, it was nice to hear her happy. 'Well, I owe you a few coffees, at least.'
'And some baked goods!' I replied as she walked by.
She left me to my weights and headed over to the open section of the gym. Now to be honest, when I say gym I'm being really generous. It was a crappy little thing stuck into an unused suit in our office building: craigslist weights and treadmills in a room with that yellow office carpet that was fashionable when my parents were kids. Most people paid money to get into the big chain gyms nearby, with their newer equipment and the TVs running in the background, but this crappy thing was good enough for those of us on a budget.
Aria started stretching, getting ready for her yoga poses. I turned away from her. Not that I didn't find her attractive. In fact, I thought she was one of the beautiful women I'd ever met.
Aria was almost forty but looked ten years younger, at least; a trait she inherited from her Asian background, along with tan skin and dark hair. She was almost a foot shorter than I was, and despite having given birth several times looked as fit as a cheerleader. She really was beautiful.
A few times over the years, she'd caught me staring. Sometimes she would chide me with a joke; other times I provoked a sterner response. Since her ex left I'd taken steps to avoiding looking any longer than necessary, and since her gym outfit was about as tight as a single man could hope for, that meant putting equipment between me and her.
I continued my reps, looking at myself in the mirrors that every gym hung from the walls. I wasn't terrible looking; tall, over six feet, but lanky as all hell not matter how much I worked out. Pretty average face, I'd say. Average everything; nothing to get excited about.
I finished my weights and moved on to the treadmill. Thankfully it faced away from her workout area, so I couldn't stare. I just put on my true crime podcast and jogged. About ten minutes later she moved to the treadmill next to mine; there were only two, so it's not like there was a choice in the matter. She had her own earbuds in, listening to some audiobook or another. It's how we usually ended out morning exercises, silently jogging next to each other.
The ritual continued when the cloak approached 7:30 and we stopped to get ready for work. The gym had two small shower rooms, side by side, where we'd go to clean up and change. This time, however, when we were taking out our earbuds and grabbing our bags to change, she grabbed my arm. 'Jason,' she said, quietly.
'What's up?' I asked.
'I was thinking about how to make last week up to you.'
'We already have an agreement,' I replied. 'Coffees, and maybe some baked goods.'
She smiled. 'I think we can do better than that.' She reached out and took my hand. 'Come with me.'
She led me into one of the shower rooms. They were not much more than five feet by five feet, with a shower head in one corner. A partition separated the shower from a small alcove with a bench and some pegs for hanging clothes to keep them dry. A full length mirror hung from one of the walls. It was well cleaned; the building did a good job at that, thankfully.
We had never been in one of these together before. My mind was reeling at the possibilities of what she might be thinking; even in a space not big enough for me to lie down in, I could think of a lot. Or maybe she was having a joke at my expense.
That must be it. A joke.
She closed and locked the door. 'Put your stuff down and have a seat,' she said. I followed instructions, sitting on the bench. She put her own bag down and rummaged through it, pulling out a bottle of lotion. 'Ever tried this?'
'No, I don't use lotion much,' I said. Which was true, but sounded ridiculously stupid given that I was locked in a shower with a beautiful woman.
'It's a lotion I use before I get in the shower. It helps keep my skin soft. I've been using it since high school. I like having soft skin.'
'Sure, I get that,' I replied, still sounding like an idiot.
Aria smiled at me, a pleasant sort of smile. Helped me feel that whatever was coming, it wasn't a joke. 'You rub it in before the shower, then wash. It's pretty effective. I was thinking, to make up for last week, I'd let you rub it in.'
'Sure,' I said. Best to say few words, lest I continue sounding like an idiot.
'Good,' Aria replied. She handed me the bottle. 'I should get ready.'
She took a step back and pulled off her shirt, revealing the sports bra underneath. She dropped her shirt to the floor, then ran her hands over her breasts and down to her leggings.
'You've thought about this before, right?' she asked.
'Not this exact scenario,' I said. 'But yes, I've imagined this.'
Aria started moving her hips seductively, then turned around. She bent over, pulling her leggings down and exposing her butt, covered only by the underwear she'd worn during her workout. She stood and turned back, now clad only in her underwear. She had shaved her legs, I noticed; a month ago she'd mentioned she had stopped after her ex-left, but she had started again.
'What should I remove first, Jason?'
'Your bra,' I said quickly.
She ran her hands over her bra-clad chest. 'Remember that red top I wore? The one you couldn't keep your eyes off of?'
'I remember you snapping your fingers to get my attention,' I said. I worried for a moment this might be the joke, the 'haha! got you!' part of some prank.
'Well, you were being obvious,' Aria said. She slowly pulled her bra up, revealing a stretch of underboob that last far too long before her breasts broke free, jiggling to a stop right before my face. 'Kind of like now.'
'Well,' I stammered. Nothing cool or suave came to my mind. 'Yes, I am.'
Aria dropped her sports bra to the floor and put her hands on my shoulders. 'Want to slide off my bottom?'