Alice pulled the car into the empty gym parking lot. At a little before midnight on a Sunday night most of the other bays were empty by now. She adjusted her ponytail in the mirror and checked her face. Her hair still didn't look quite right but she'd been adjusting it the whole way down and there was just nothing for it now. She looked down and wriggled around in the half-top she had on until it pushed up her cleavage just a little more, then took a self-affirming breath and got out the car.
Light spilled out of the 24-hour gym. At this time of night the place felt almost poised for action, waiting for the hordes of people that would arrive around dawn. Alice much preferred the quiet solitude she got when she worked out late at night. She constantly told herself it was why she came here in the middle of the night but that wasn't true.
Alice swiped in and the doors slid open. Seth had his feet up on the front desk, staring thickly at the computer screen in front of him. There was music emanating from the speakers and as Alice approached she could see a music video playing in the reflection of the cabinet behind him. The vision was blurry but she was fairly certain he was watching twerking videos while he worked. She nodded at him as she walked past hoping he'd stay focused on the video.
'Evening Alice,' he said from her periphery.
'Hi Seth.'
'Enjoying the new booty classes?'
She could hear the smirk in his voice, feel the eyes on her ass. She hated that she'd dressed to look hot only to have this lecher take the opportunity when it wasn't for him. She also hated that he took great pains to look up her records to see what she'd been doing all week.
'Yes, thanks. Tony's a great trainer, he really knows what he's doing.'
Alice turned around and smiled briefly. Seth's eyes flicked back up to meet hers and for a moment she boiled, looking back at his smug face. As she walked away she marvelled at how anyone so detestable could be so overconfident in his ability to talk to, well, anyone. He was muscular, that was unarguable. He worked at a gym so it was likely a big part of what he spent his free time on. But neither that, nor his over-kempt fashion cut, made his approaches any more tolerable.
She got rid of her bag in one of the lockers and made her way to the treadmills. Over the sound of the pumping workout mix being played on the overhead speakers she could start to make out the sound of repetitive motions being carried out by a machine. Her heart started beating faster.
She came around the corner and flushed red. He was on the rowing machines like always. Right on time. She didn't know his name, hadn't ever talked to him or even approached him, but she felt like she knew him deep down to his core. For six months now they'd been exchanging glances from across the room, averting eyes and sneaking looks. When his back was turned she just stared in a trance. Which was actually fantastic for when she was doing cardio - she could lose herself for hours like that.
Tonight he was wearing a black muscle tee. It didn't bulge like the one on Seth but that was because the mystery guy was thinner, more wiry. She'd never seen him with his shirt off but she imagined he was completely toned under there. That was part of what she loved about him. He wasn't just there to get massive arms and a huge chest. He spent more time on the cardio machines than he did on the weights. That made him smart and sexy, even if he was a little shy.
She got on one of the treadmills behind him and started her warm-up. Just like before she fell into a trance watching his body pump back and forth, back and forth...
The kilometers were rolling by but Alice found herself falling out of her trance. She felt distracted and it was only when she looked around that she realised Seth had been lounging around on one of the benches behind her that she realised why that was. She frowned at him but he just grinned back at her.
Feeling a little put-off she switched off the machine and got down to towel-off.
'You like that machine, huh?' Seth said.
On hearing a voice the mystery guy turned around to see what was happening. For a heart-stopping second he locked eyes with her. He looked away again a split second later and went back to his rowing, leaving her to deal with the creep. She half-smiled as a kind of polite dismissal and made for the kettle bells.
'You know it's not polite to stare at other members. Some people come here just to work out,' Seth said, following behind her.
Alice nearly snorted at the hypocrisy. She bit back a retort.
'Ok, thank you,' was all she could muster.
Seth snorted and veered off towards the bench-presses.
Alice got on with her workout but the positioning of the kettlebells meant she was facing a huge set of mirrors that gave her a perfect view of the goings-on behind her. And what was going on involved Seth now talking to the other guy. He looked confused but after a moment he got up from his machine and followed Seth over to the benches. It looked like he was getting ready to spot Seth, which was ridiculous because the weight on the bar looked as heavy as he was. But either out of politeness or confusion he held out his hands below the bar to catch it if it dropped.
He actually looked over at her while he was waiting and saw Alice watching. He smiled a little and she couldn't help but smile back.
Seth said something that grabbed his attention back. He looked annoyed now. In fact he abandoned the bench-press and came back over to Alice, mystery man in-tow.
'What'd I say about staring, miss? This is Tom and he nearly just killed me because he wasn't paying attention. Spotters need to be concentrating or someone could end up crippled or killed. I don't know if you know this but I was about to bench-press about 150 kilos.'
He stared for a moment at the both of them but no one said anything.
'Wait,' he said, 'Do we have a little gym romance thing going on here? Are you guys trying to be cute right now? Have you even spoken before?'
They both flushed red and Alice had the strong impression Seth knew perfectly well they'd never spoken. He was obsessed with her. Had to be. Maybe she'd been so distracted by this Tom that she hadn't noticed she'd been getting stalked in her own gym.
Seth began to laugh loudly and obnoxiously.
'No I understand. She's cute isn't she?'
Tom averted his eyes and said nothing.
'Nah, it's ok, I know you agree. But thing is, dude; I was here first. I mean, that's only fair right?'
Tom frowned up at him now and finally spoke.
'Excuse me?'
'Ok, ok, so we're all gettin' distracted by that tight little ass. I get it, man. I'm not blind. But you can't just come in here and have your pick at the buffet line. We've all been working hard in here; you, me, her. So how 'bout this, whoever earns it gets the right to date her. Yeah?'
Alice couldn't help but interject. It was lunacy.
'Uhh, this may be news to you, Seth, but I have absolutely no interest in dating you.'
He smiled back unperturbed.
'Hell, I knew. Maybe I'm just bored but I like this competition idea. So how about this; just for fun, whoever does the most push-ups gets to hug Alice here. Nothing crazy, just a hug. I just want to see if I can beat you,' he said.
'That's completely not okay with me. I have the right to choose who touches me.'
'Mmm,' Seth mused, 'Well only the winner gets to choose, so you can compete too. And if you win, you choose who you hug. Come on, it's incentive to work harder. That's what we're here to do, so prove that you can work harder than everyone else.'
Alice really didn't like the idea but something spoke to her about pushing herself to the limits. He was right, she was always looking for dumb knew ways to get more out of her body. Maybe the threat of being gripped by that enormous douchebag would do just that. And chances were that her or Tom were just as likely to win being that they had significantly less weight to lift than Seth.
'What do you think,' she said quietly to Tom.
He looked up at her, his bright eyes bored into hers and nearly made her legs jelly.
'I love competitions,' he looked sideways at Seth, 'won a few triathlons in my time too.'
'Hell yes!' Seth shouted. 'Oh, by the way this is super not okay with my managers so I'm just gonna get the doors and cameras.'
He ran off before they could ask him what that meant and then they were alone.
'My name's Alice by the way,' she said in the silence.
His smile was as honest as it was beautiful. 'Tom. Really nice to meet you.'
'Triathlons huh? Wow, I'm impressed.'
'Thanks. I really love staying active. A few years back I was diagnosed with diabetes and it kind of woke me up, made me get up off my ass and start looking after myself. Guess I'm an addict now.'
'That's...'
'Done,' Seth interrupted. He leered at Alice. 'Time to get on your hands and knees.'
'Very clever,' she muttered, doing as he said.
They all got into position and Seth counted them in with the music. They were all strong and for the first 20 they kept a good pace. Her core was strong but Alice began to feel it in her arms as they pushed onwards. In her periphery the other two still appeared fresh. She tried not to be distracted by Tom's iron-flat body rising up and down, now was not the time to think about that.
By 30 she was straining.
Tom breathed heavily out of his nose and a tingle of fear ran down Alice's back. It scared her...and galvanized her. She used it to keep pushing. Her arms were burning but she got to 34 and suddenly her arms gave way. She lay on the ground panting and a mixture of bitter disappointment and anger filled her as she breathed.
Facing away from them she could the boys reach 49 and someone faltered. They kept on but by 60 one was audibly straining and at 63 they dropped. Alice was afraid to turn around.
'Shit,' she heard Seth breath, 'Got a few tricks up your sleeve, huh?'
She smiled. Turning around she found Seth on his stomach, just like she'd been, and Tom sitting up grinning. Both were breathing heavily, sweat trickling down faces and necks.
'Well you got it,' Seth said, eyeing Alice once or twice.
She'd nearly forgotten she was the prize. She made eye contact with Tom and they both laughed. He crawled over to her and gave her a long hug. She tried not to enjoy it too much but the combination of their heavy breathing and the sweat mingling together gave her a little thrill that she hoped Seth wouldn't notice.
They all sat leaning against the treadmills. It was silent for a few minutes while they recovered and it began to get a little awkward. It looked like Tom wanted to get back to his exercise but Seth read his expression and pre-empted him.
'So what's next?'
'Huh?' Tom said.
'Well you got to hug her, what do I get?'
'You didn't win,' Alice said.
