Rick did what she asked and had just put his sneakers against the side wall out of the way, when Sasha returned with a rolled-up mat.
“I usually have my students sign a contract for the different programs they sign up for. It makes it clearer for both me and my students as to what our responsibilities and liabilities are. Between you and me, we’ll just settle for a handshake for now. This is your mat, please bring it with you to each class. I don’t keep many in stock and the floor can get really hard after a while without one. Roll your mat out just like mine and stand facing me. We are going to start with the basic movements. At first you are going to have to watch me closely, I will call out the name of the movement and demonstrate it once, then you will do the movement while I supervise and correct you position. Don’t be embarrassed if you have to do each exercise several times before you do it correctly. All of us have gone through this in the beginning. In time, the movements will become second nature to you.
First, with your feet slightly separated I want you to reach up with both hands and try to touch the ceiling. Now bring your hands down in an arc until they are straight out in front of you, Now bend at the waist, keeping your back as straight as possible and holding your belly button against your backbone; don’t forget to breathe. Good, straighten back up keeping your hands out straight until they are parallel with the floor. That’s one. Now continue and give me four more.”
This went on for fifty minutes. With each new exercise Sasha explained precisely how she wanted the exercise done and reminded him to hold his stomach in and breathe. By the time fifty minutes was over, the material around his neck was wet with sweat. He could already feel the burning in his abdomen and his legs felt like wet noodles.
“Great job, Rick. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The next morning, Rick was barely able to get out of bed. His arms and legs were sore, but it was nothing compared to his stomach muscles and his butt and hamstrings. They were on fire.
“How does she do this every day, all day long.”
Instead of the pool, he chose the hot tub. After twenty minutes he almost felt normal again. That is until he got out of the tub and walked back into the house to get dressed. The sun was just peeking between the mountain peaks when he left the house. By the time he switched vehicles, the pain was back. At each garbage receptacle, he stopped the truck and slowly collected and replaced the bag. When he got to the can by Sasha’s studio, he found her leaning against the wall, with a container of hot coffee and a bottle of Advil.
“I figured you could use these. You men never learn. Don’t try to be a hero. For the first couple of classes your muscles are going to hurt like hell. Take the pain relievers. Soon it will be all over, and you won’t feel like this the next morning.”
“Thank you. How do you do it every day?”
“I’ve exercised all my life, if it wasn’t gymnastics, it was yoga, or Pilates, I even dabbled in martial arts for a while, but I didn’t like getting hit and I could not separate my anger from my responses. Soon, no one would get in the ring with me. Not even the guys. I’ll see you on Monday morning. By the way, get two egg sandwiches from now on for yourself.”
When Rick finally dragged his ass into the office, Debbie took one look at him, laughed, and got him a cup of coffee and a couple of Advil tablets.
“How did you know?”
“From the pain on your face and the way you were walking.”
“Come in and shut the door.”
After she was sitting in front of him, he smiled at her and began to speak.
“I want to thank you for not saying anything. If you had, Sasha would have questioned how we knew each other, and for right now at least, I don’t want her to know who I am.”
“So you’re the one. When I first started taking classes with her, she was angry almost all the time. I think it was an old boyfriend that treated her badly. After a while she wasn’t mad anymore, but she wasn’t happy either. In the last year or so, I’ve seen a big change in her. She’s always smiling now. She still pushes us hard, but now it’s about making us better.
Last night, after I went to bed, I kept thinking about seeing you and her personality change. You’re the guy she was talking about when she said she had a new man in her life who she really liked. She’s a little frustrated at his apparently lack of response to her flirting. I should have known it was you. Your father told me to keep an eye on you. He felt that between the two of us, we could make sure you didn’t make a mistake in your love life. Now all the pieces are falling into place. Her personality change, you’re not wanting her to know who you are. Her lease renewal.”
She saw the look of shock on his face.
“You didn’t think you could slip that one past me now did you? No increase in her base rent for the next five years and only a small increase in her escalator clause. I know you are not dumb, the only thing it could be was that you were in love with her. I’m right, aren’t I? It’s serious between you two. Only she doesn’t know who you really are. You are playing a dangerous game.”
“It’s not a game, you know me better than that. I’m not a player. I just wanted to be sure that she loves me for the man she thinks I am and not for what I have. You understand, don’t you?”
“Yes, I understand, but will she?”
“I want you to be my eyes and ears when you’re with her. I just need a little more time; I want to be in tip-top shape when we finally get together. I don’t want her to be disappointed in me.”
“Rick, don’t be silly, you are already a very desirable man, if I were only twenty years younger, you’d already be mine. And I don’t mean because of the money you have. There are going to be at least five broken hearts scattered around this company when you finally come out of the closet.”
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
______________________
On Monday morning as usual he brought breakfast, only this time he brought two egg sandwiches for himself and her protein omelet. Before he had a chance to open the first one, Sasha took them both, opened them, took the tops off of each roll, turned one over onto the other and took that top piece of bread as well.
“There, that’s better. From now on, you are on a high protein, low carb diet. You are going to be doing a lot more exercising than you are used to and your muscles are going to need that extra protein. I want you to come here every night at seven from now on. My treat. You wanted to get in better shape, now you have no choice. I’ll be able to tell if you are slacking off on your diet.”
Chapter Five
For the next six weeks, Sasha whipped his ass into shape. She watched as his face slimmed down, his stomach flattened, and his posture improved.
One evening after his third week on the reformer she caught him looking at his sculpted abs and his solid butt.
“You think you’re getting pretty hot, don’t you. Well you’re not there yet, not by a long shot buddy boy. When you can do this; then you’ll have completed the first phase of your transformation.”