"I know you wanted to check this place out and I didn't want to slow you down. I can get something before work. It's really no big deal."
"Oh please!" Jamie smirked. "The way you eat, missing a meal must be catastrophic to your system! Your poor stomach must be leading a revolt right at this minute."
"It's not that bad," Ryan said as she looked at the site of the possible rebellion. "Although," she patted her stomach as she leaned her head down to listen, "I do hear the faint signs of discord."
Jamie glanced at her watch as she shot Ryan an amiable grin. "It's only 2:35 now. If you're due at work by 6 we don't have to leave the East Bay until 5:30. If you're not going to work out an hour and a half should be enough to decide if we like this place. We could easily spare an hour for you to eat."
"Gosh, it all sounds so easy when you say it like that," Ryan admitted as she closed her eyes. "I do so love lunch," she purred with pleasure.
As Ryan completed her statement Jamie looked at the sensual smile on her face and realized with a bit of surprise that Ryan no longer flirted with her. That's kind of weird. She was so flirty when we met and now she is just like any of my other friends. I wonder what changed? Maybe she really got the message that I was straight. I guess I should be thankful...it's a lot more comfortable to be with her now. But still...
"Hey, anybody home in there?" Ryan asked in inquiry.
"Oh, sorry. What were you saying?"
"I just wondered where you wanted to stop. Now that you brought it up I have to feed the beast or there will be trouble," she again patted her stomach as she grinned.
"What are you in the mood for? We can get you almost anything around here." Jamie waved her hand at the plethora of restaurants on the surrounding streets.
"Hmmm," Ryan's eyes closed in concentration. One blue eye popped open momentarily as she asked warily, "I can have anything I want?"
"Yep. Anything," Jamie answered authoritatively.
Jamie glanced at the intense look of pleasurable concentration on Ryan's face and had to smother a laugh. She could almost see the panoply of international dishes floating through her imagination.
Finally, Ryan's eyes opened fully and she said with barely contained glee, "Chinese."
"Chinese it is," Jamie replied. "And I know just the place."
Ryan sat with a steaming bowl of hot and sour soup in front of her and a blissful look on her face. "This is divine, Jamie. How do you know so many good restaurants?"
"I like to eat too, Ryan. Not as much as you do, but I can hold my own. You should get me down to the Peninsula or the South Bay. I think I have been to every restaurant within 20 miles of Hillsborough. My dad was never home for dinner, and my mother loves to try new places so we cut a swath though the whole area. A place can't be open for more than a week before my mother hits it."
"That could not be more different from my experience. My family doesn't go to a restaurant more than once or twice a year and that is only under duress," she added.
"You know, Ryan, I really don't know much about your family. Who's at home with you?"
"Well, there's my father, Martin, my oldest brother Brendan who doesn't officially live with us, but he's always there for meals, my brothers Conor and Rory and me, I'm the baby. Oops, I almost forgot my dog, Duffy, I guess he's really the baby."
"What about your mother?" Jamie asked tentatively.
"My mother is dead," Ryan stated without explanation as she bent her head to concentrate on her soup.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Jamie stated sincerely. She wasn't sure if Ryan wanted to discuss it but she asked, "Has she been dead long?"
"Yeah."
Jamie continued to look at the top of Ryan's head. When the deep blue eyes lifted Ryan realized that the question was still open so she elaborated, "16 years in December."
"My God, Ryan, you were just a baby!" Jamie cried with alarm.
Her previously somber face eased into a small smile as she demurred, "Well, not quite a baby, but I had just turned 7."
"Oh, Ryan, that must have been devastating for you," she said with sympathy.
Ryan paused for a moment, as if considering the idea. "I don't think devastating covers it, to tell you the truth. Losing your mother changes everything. I don't know if I would be a better or worse person, but I know I would be different if she was still alive," she said thoughtfully.
"How did it happen?" Jamie asked softly.
"She had breast cancer," she replied. After a moment she looked contemplative and continued, "You know, it's funny. She was only 30 years old when she was diagnosed. She had no family history; she was thin; she ate a healthy diet; she had children when she was young; and she had good medical care. And she was dead in 4 years," she said as she looked up at Jamie with a lost look in those deep blue eyes.
Jamie wasn't able to say a word. She just reached over and tightly gripped Ryan's hand as she looked into her eyes with empathy. They sat like that for a few minutes, sharing their feelings with their eyes alone. Ryan had never looked smaller, younger or more vulnerable. Jamie thought her heart would break at the feelings she could plainly see in her friend's eyes. A solitary tear leaked out of Jamie's eyes and Ryan reached over somewhat tentatively to wipe it away with a finger.
"Wow, I don't know where that came from," Ryan sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "I guess I'm feeling sadder than normal because her birthday is coming up."
"Do you remember her well?" Jamie asked, not wanting to let go of this intimate moment.
"Yeah, I do," Ryan said with a small smile gracing her lips. "She was basically sick from the time I can remember, but she tried so hard to be there for me. I still don't know how she did it." She smiled sadly as she shook her head briefly. I'm really lucky in that my family talks about her a lot. Although sometimes I don't know if I really have all these memories or if I remember her through their eyes. I guess it doesn't matter in the end though," she said simply.
"Your father never remarried?" Jamie inquired.
"Remarried!" Ryan laughed. "He's never had a date that I know of. I guess he wasn't much of a catch when we were young. Who wants a man with 4 wild kids who's away from home for 3 days at a time?"
"You were left alone that much?" Jamie asked with alarm.
"No, we weren't alone much at all until the boys got old enough to take care of me. We have a gaggle of aunts and cousins who all live in the City, many of them within walking distance. While my mother was sick and for the first few years after her death someone stayed with us when my father was at work. After a while, Brendan was old enough to be in charge. I'm sure it was hard on him, but he never complained," she said reflectively.
"How old are your brothers?"
"Rory's 25, Conor's two years older than him and Brendan's two years older than Conor."
"Are you okay talking about all of this?" Jamie asked gently.
"Yeah, I am with you," she replied with a little shy smile as she looked up at Jamie through her hooded eyes. "I don't talk about her much with people outside of the family, but it feels good to talk about it with someone who isn't as invested as we all are."
Jamie smiled at this admission and realized that she still gripped Ryan's hand. She blushed a little as her hand released, only to have Ryan reclaim it with both of hers. "Thanks for caring, Jamie," she said as they locked eyes.
Their server interrupted the moment as he appeared carrying plates of pan fried noodles, Szechwan green beans, and stir fried broccoli with mushrooms.
Ryan rubbed her hands together with a big smile as she waited for the plates to land. By the time the server had departed her chopsticks were ready for action. She dug in enthusiastically as Jamie watched with amazement. Ryan didn't eat particularly quickly. But once she started, she did not slow down for a moment. She kept up a steady cadence that was not interrupted by unnecessary speech. She paid attention to Jamie, but mostly nodded and shook her head as required. Jamie understood that Ryan needed her mouth to eat rather than ta
lk so she kept up a running monologue, mostly about school and her classes.
After Ryan had finished every bite she leaned back in her chair in a pleasant post-prandial haze. Jamie regarded her with a smirk. "Do your brothers each as much as you do?" she asked.
"More, much more. Dinner time at our house is not for the faint hearted," she admitted gravely.
"I would love to witness that," Jamie laughed.
"That can certainly be arranged," Ryan replied with one waggling eyebrow.
Jamie was pleased with Ryan's appraisal of the gym. "This place is the bomb, Jamie," she said with a big grin on her tanned face.
"I really like it too," Jamie agreed. "Shall we get to work?" Jamie was wearing an emerald and navy blue sports bra over matching thigh length nylon shorts, exposing her completely to Ryan's considered gaze. Those blue eyes wandered up and down her lithe form for another minute or two. She began to shift nervously as she finally said, "I feel like a deer in the headlights, Ryan."
"Oh, sorry," Ryan said with a grin. "I was just trying to get an impression of your current musculature."
"It's that bad?" Jamie asked tentatively.
"No, of course not," Ryan assured her. "In fact you really have a great body. But you can definitely use some more muscle here," she ran her long cool fingers down both of Jamie's shoulders, stopping at her elbows, "and here," another pair of gentle tracings down the front of her thighs. "Now we haven't talked about this much, but have you thought about whether you really want to change your body?"
"What do you mean?" Jamie inquired warily.
"Nothing bad," Ryan giggled a little at her expression. "It's just that some women don't think it's womanly to show muscle. And some men don't like it either. I just wondered how your fiancée felt about you looking buff."
Jamie realized that this was the first time they had ever discussed Jack and his proprietary interest in her body. But she was quite sure she did not like the implication. "He doesn't get a vote," she replied firmly. "My body...my choice. Besides, I think women look great with muscles. I think they enhance femininity so long as they're natural looking." Jamie had a sudden interest in seeing Ryan exposed much as she was. It occurred to her that she had never really seen her muscles. Ryan was usually pretty well covered up--much as she was today. Jamie looked at her navy blue warm ups and wondered what was underneath them. You'd better not go there, Jamie. What was that about being glad she doesn't flirt with you any more?
"That's great. I'm glad you're comfortable with this. But is there anything you would like to change? I mean if we can," Ryan added.
"I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying I get to choose how I change?"
"To some extent, yes," Ryan agreed. "There are certain areas on any body that respond more quickly to weight training. But there is some genetic predisposition that affects the final outcome," she added knowledgeably.
"So are you saying that you can project those areas on me?" Jamie quizzed.
"Kind of," Ryan said. "Do you mind me staring at you again?"
"Be my guest," she replied as a warm flush crawled up her cheeks and she tried to adopt a casual pose.
Ryan stood back a step or two and crossed her arms across her chest. Once again she stared at Jamie's body; starting at the shoulders and working her way down. "Because of your height I would guess that large leg muscles would not really look great," she observed. "And I would also guess that your legs and butt tend to get big easily." She gently squeezed the muscles at the middle of Jamie's thighs and nodded her head. "I think your quads could really get big if you liked that look. But if you didn't want that we would want to work on elongating your muscles there, rather than just making them big."
Next she placed her hands on Jamie's shoulders. "You have a nice deltoid just waiting to come out here." She placed her fingertips loosely on the tops of Jamie's shoulders again and slowly traced her thumbs over the muscles just above her breasts, "And you could develop really nice pecs. And if I'm not mistaken," she said as she ran the flat of her hand slowly down Jamie's bare abdomen, starting just under her bra and stopping just above her pubic bone, "you could have killer abs." This she said with a real twinkle in her eyes.
"How can you tell that?" Jamie asked thinly as she struggled to replace the saliva in her mouth.
"You don't have hardly any adipose tissue there. Those muscles are just dying to pop out. Me, on the other hand," she lifted her jacket and her white nylon shirt to expose her tanned abdomen, "I've got a pretty thick layer of fat here. No matter how much I work on my abs they can't pop out like yours will." As she spoke she grasped Jamie's hand and placed it on the warm body part in question. "Here, feel the difference." Now she placed the hand on Jamie's stomach. "See what I mean?"
Jamie was now fully involved in the exercise. "I do, I really do. Mine feels like just skin covering muscle but yours is softer." She gave Ryan's stomach a little pat, "but there's some pretty hard muscle right under that...what do you call that tissue again?"
"Adipose tissue. That's trainer talk for fat." She whispered this last word right into Jamie's ear.
This received a chortle from Jamie. "I think your fat is in all the right places, Ryan."
She received a smile and a small laugh in return. "Part of the occupational requirements. Can't have an out of shape trainer."
After the preliminaries they worked their way from machine to machine. Ryan had a little notebook which she used to mark every machine. She carefully adjusted each machine to perfectly fit Jamie; then indicated each of these positions in her book. She then made an estimate of the weight she thought Jamie could handle, while she explained how to perform the exercise. Ryan explained that each correct movement through the exercise was called a repetition, or a rep. Ideally, Jamie would perform somewhere between 12 and 15 reps. Ryan said that Jamie should begin to feel fatigue by the 12th or 13th rep, but no sooner. If she was tired before that, the weight was too heavy. If she felt like she could do another 5 or 6 reps without a break, then it was too light.
Ryan explained that there was no easy way to figure out the perfect weight to start with. It was all trial and error. She also said that eventually Jamie would perform 3 sets of each 15 rep exercise, with a minute rest in between sets. As for now, her goal was to get Jamie comfortable with the exercise and get a feel for her capacity.
"An important thing to remember is that you need to acclimate your body slowly to this new level of stress. Don't force yourself to do things that don't feel comfortable. I want this to be pleasurable for you," she reminded Jamie.
"So what's this I hear about 'no pain, no gain?'" Jamie asked.
"That is true to a certain extent," Ryan admitted. "Your muscles enlarge from stress. The stress of tearing small fibers and allowing them to heal is what causes them to grow. But a slight discomfort is all you really need to feel. If you are really sore, I haven't done my job well. But you need to remember that this work is stressful. You should drink more fluid than you normally do to flush the lactic acid from your system. And eating well is pretty critical also."
As Jamie performed each of the exercises Ryan paid close attention to her form. She carefully watched her face for signs of stress or too much exertion. Ryan placed one hand at the highest point that she wanted Jamie to extend, and her other hand at the lowest. On the machines where she was forced to move a lot of weight, like the reclining leg press, Ryan gripped the foot plate in her strong hands and pulled it back to reduce the stress on Jamie's legs.
After an hour, they had covered all of the exercises for her legs. Ryan suggested they stop so that Jamie was not overwhelmed with information. Jamie agreed and shook her tired legs out. "Let me help with that," Ryan offered.
"Okay," Jamie agreed, a bit tentatively.
Ryan grabbed a floor mat and instructed her to lie down on her tummy. She grasped Jamie's foot and slowly pushed her leg toward her butt. She held that position for a few moments, and then repeated the stretch with the other foot. Aft
er instructing Jamie to turn over she gripped her foot with both hands and pushed until Jamie's knee was near her chest. Again, she held the position before she switched to the other foot. Now she gripped behind her ankle with one hand and placed a restraining hand on her knee. She pushed her leg toward her body until Jamie's butt started to lift off the floor. "Keep your butt down," she instructed. "This will give you a nice stretch in your hamstrings," she said as she indicated the back of Jamie's thigh. After she had completed the stretch, she picked Jamie's foot up and braced it against her chest. She then began to massage her thigh with strong, knowing hands. Jamie closed her eyes in pleasure as Ryan's hands kneaded her tired muscles deeply.
"Do you do this to everybody?" she asked as she slowly lifted her torso up and rested her weight on her forearms.
"Yeah, pretty much," Ryan replied.
"Then you don't charge nearly enough," she said weakly as she felt herself collapse into a boneless heap on the mat.
Ryan laughed as she offered a hand down to her, "C'mon, jellyfish. They frown on sleeping on the floor." As she was pulled to her feet Ryan said, "The only bad thing about this place is that there are no showers." She looked at Jamie's sweat drenched head and clothing. "You really should not drive all the way to Palo Alto in those clothes. I'm afraid you'll stiffen up."
"It's only 4:30, we could go by my house so I could take a quick shower," she suggested.
"I think you should do that," Ryan agreed. "I could just take BART home if you don't want me to come with you," she offered hesitantly.
"Why would I..." then Jamie realized what Ryan was getting to. "Are you worried about my roommates?"
"No, I'm not worried about them. I just don't want them to hassle you about hanging out with me," Ryan stated quietly.
"Ryan, I am honored to be your friend. Anyone who doesn't like you is not worth my time," she said firmly.
Her face broke into an adorable grin as she blushed just a tiny bit. "Thanks, Jamie. That means a lot to me," she said sincerely.
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