Noah (2 page)

When they arrived, they were both surprised to see there were no other women.
Veronica
peered at the ticket she held in her hand. “Are you sure this isn’t an all male gym?”

Nellie didn’t look so sure herself but quickly
disagreed
.
“That’s silly. I’ve never heard of an all male gym.”

“
I
have.”

“Why would
the guy offer me the passes if it was an all male gym?”

Veronica
looked around. It was a far cry from the gym at the mall that was for sure. For
starters,
t
he place was in great need of a paint job. There were a few treadmills and stair climbers on one end of the gym. Four weight benches and weights on the other end. A row
ing
machine, lots of punching bags and
a
big boxing rin
g
in the middle of the gym. This was definitely a boxer’s gym.

She followed Nellie up
to
a
m
a
n
with
a clipboard
who
s
tood
near
the punching bags and showed him the tickets. “We’re here for the free week of training.”

H
e
was an older guy with a full head of graying hair. He
looked them both over and smirked. “You ever train before?”

Veronica
attempted to suck in her gut and stood up straight.
What seemed like a lifetime ago,
she was actually on her college tennis team. And before her mother fell
ill
she used to get together with a few of her colleagues and play
ed
regularly.
Now she dreaded what a little workout might do to her.

“No, not really but we’re here to start.”
Nellie said, her chin up.

The
man
glanced over to an open door where a few guys stuck the
ir
faces out
star
ing in their direction. As soon as they saw him looking, they jerked their heads back in.
Veronica
could hear them laughing.
Wonderful
. They were already being
mocked
and
s
he hadn’t even started
j
iggling her flab
. This was going to be worse than she imagined.
Veronica
exchanged glances with Nellie before they both turned to the guy in front of them. 

The man leaned over into a box next to him and grabbed two
clipboards
with small index cards on them.
“
Read and sign these
.
Lemme see
what I
can do
.” He walked away toward the very door
with the
laughing
guys
.

Veronica
tugged at Nellie’s arm
, who’d already began to read what appeared to be a liability waiver
. “I don’t think this is such a good idea after all.”

“Stop,” Nellie’s tone was f
irm
. “We’re going to do this for at least a week. You can’t stay cooped up in that house forever,
Roni
. I won’t have it.”

The idea of having one of those young guys
,
who were obviously already ridiculing them
,
stand over her and train her while she nearly passed out from doing a couple of
sit ups
was really beginning to panic her. “Maybe you
and I
can just go walking every night. You know, at the park. We can do our own work out.”

Nellie
arched
an eyebrow.
“No
,
you’re not getting out of this. It’s just one week. After that, we’ll decide what we’ll do. But for now we’re doing this.”

Veronica
sighed, defeated. Nellie wasn’t going to budge.
Veronica
knew how she could be once her mind was made up.
Just as she finished signing the waiver, she
looked up
to see two more young guys enter the
same
room
as
the man they’d been talking
to
, then heard more laughter.
Her stomach tightened even more now.
She knew leaving th
e
comfort of her home was a mistake
.

~
*
~

Determined to convince Jack that he was ready to start training
,
Noah
walked into the gym office with a purpose. As soon as he and Gio
w
ere
in
,
the guys already there started laughing.
Noah
frowned. “What’s so funny?”

None of them said anything.
Abel
smirked walking out of the office.
Hector could barely contain himself. Jack was the only one not laughing. He held a
clipboard
and handed it to him. “You wanna train
, Quintanilla
? Today’s your lucky day. I got two out there that walked in with free
one
week passes. You got a week to prove to me you can do this.”

Noah
could
hardly believe it
. For
nearly
a
year
now,
he’d been trying to convince Jack he could do t
rain
ing
like the trainers Jack so meticulously hand picked
. First Jack said he
’d give him a shot when he turned ninet
een
,
then when he turned
ninet
een almost a year
ago,
it’
d
been one excuse after another. Jack had hired him years ago as a maintenance boy.
The
pay
wasn’t
much but he
also
got to work out at the gym and train with some of the other boxers for free. In
exchange,
he
maintained the equipment,
helped keep the place clean
, threw the towels in the washing machine then dryer,
and wiped down the exercise machines—no brainer stuff.

After watching other trainers for
years,
he knew he had it in him to train and the pay was much better than his maintenance position.
Since his shoulder injury had put his boxing on hold for at least a
nother
three
months,
going pro or even semi-pro w
h
ere he had the potential of actually making some money from his fighting would be pushed out even longer
.
He needed th
is
money
now
.

Noah
threw his gym bag on the floor and glanced at the clipboard
, still smiling
. It was the standard workout sheet.

“They’re total beginners.” Jack said. “So you’ll have your work cut out for you.”

“Are they training to box?”
Noah
glanced at Hector, who held his fist against his mouth stifling a laugh. “What’s with
you?
”

“Nothing,” He nearly squeaked the word
out,
before hurrying out of the office.

Gio walked out of the restroom. He’d gone straight to it as soon as they got there
,
so he’d missed everything. “Ready to work out?”
h
e asked.

“Nah,”
Noah
smirked, lifting the clipboard at him. “I’ll be training today.”

Gio’s brow’s went up. “Really?”

“They’re waiting
,
” Jack said. “You should get out there.”

Noah
winked at Gio, who still looked surprised but smiled. If anyone knew how bad
Noah
wanted to move up to trainer, it was Gio. Not only did he know how bad he wanted it but how bad he
needed
the raise. Ever since he turned eighteen
he’d been paying his foster parents so he could continue to stay with them. They insisted he didn’t have to pay them but it didn’t feel right.

Once he turned eighteen the state stopped paying them to keep him there and with four other foster kids and two of their own he knew they needed the money. He’d even moved into their garage to make room for the new foster kid they picked up once they were no longer being compensated for him, but what he really wanted was to get his own place.
That wasn’t going to happen with his maintenance boy pay.

The gym was busy as usual, and tonight he noticed two women there when he walked in. That was rare. Although it wasn’t an all male gym, it was known mainly as a boxing gym. Women
came in once in a while, but most of the time it was with ulterior motives—they were there on the prowl.
Most
women
, like
most of the girls he went out with,
preferred the fancier gym at the mall.

He glanced around as he stepped out of the office
,
searching for his would-be trainees. He saw a couple of unfamiliar guys punching a bag. Being there almost daily he knew just about every one of the members
so he figured these two new faces were it
.
Leaning back into the office, he asked, “Is it the two guys by
the
punching bags?”

“No,” Jack said
,
stepping out and standing next to him. “That’s who you’ll be training.”
He pointed at the two women he’d seen when he walked in.

Suddenly,
Noah
knew why the guys had been laughing. He turned back to Jack
,
wondering if this was a joke. Jack lifted a shoulder. “They’re here to be trained. So go train them.”

“For boxing?”

Noah
knew
girls
who
box
ed
, but these two
women
didn’t look in any shape for it. They weren’t even dressed appropriately. Loose fitting sweat
suits were
not going to cut it in the ring.

“I dunno. They didn’t say. Go find out.”

Noah
glared at Jack. If this was
Jack’s
idea of a joke, he was going to be pissed.

“
What?
” Jack
aske
d. “I really was looking to give you a shot at training this week. These two just happened to walk in today and I got no one else available. So they’re women. What’s the big deal?” He smirked. “You might even score.”

Noah
still glared at him. “Ha, ha,” They both looked old enough to have been married for years. “They’re probably in here to lose weight from the last kid they had.”

Finally
movi
ng his glare
away
from Jack
,
he glanced toward the women who stood awkwardly by the door. The heavier one seemed to be inching her way closer to the door.

“Get over there before they bail.”

Reluctantly
,
he walked away from Jack and toward the two women.
As he reached
them,
the shorter mousy looking one smiled big while the
heavier
one stood a bit guarded
ly
behind her,
making no attempt to
hide her unease. He reached out his hand to the mousy one. “Hey, I’m
Noah
. I hear you’re here to train.”

She shook his hand. “I’m Nellie,” she said then turned to her friend. “This is my friend
Ron—” She stopped when her friend gave her a look. “Uh, Veronica
.”

Veronica
held her hand out, barely making eye contact with him before glancing away.

“We’re looking to get into shape. Neither on
e
of us have worked out in a while, so you’ll have to go easy on us.”
Nellie said
,
handing him the clipboards with their signed waivers.  

Noah
took them
,
laugh
ing.
“No such thing
.” He noticed
Veronica
’s big eyes grow even bigger, but he wasn’t holding anything back. If this was his chance to prove himself to Jack, getting these two out-of-shape
women
even slightly trained
would be quite the feat. “Might take more than a week, but Jack
’
s rates are more than reasonable. Not only that, he’s been known to extend the free period to a few weeks if you ask nicely.”