“Sounds romantic,” replied Thor, trying not to laugh at the inappropriateness of the reward for losing weight.
“Well it is a bit, because her mum and dad had their first date at the dogs with a kebab. She didn’t want to go dog racing, though. I took her out for lunch today too.”
“Well it’s looking good, mate, no wonder you’re on a mission. It’s good to have a goal.” Thor handed him a bag of ropes. “Here, help me carry some of this stuff back, I’m looking forward to getting home tonight, it’s been a long day.”
Kyle took the ropes.
“Actually, I also wanted to ask you about Gemma,” he said, “the girl who nearly threw up.”
“She didn’t come tonight, did she?”
“No, but I know she wants to, she’s probably a bit embarrassed. I met her in the supermarket yesterday; she wants to lose weight but she doesn’t know how to do it and none of her mates are interested. I feel a bit sorry for her because she’s actually quite nice.”
“So what are you getting at?” replied Thor, a little confused.
“Well I wondered if you could help. She doesn’t earn much so I wondered if I paid for a session with you, you could get her started with a gym programme and diet plan or something, but don’t tell her I paid for it because I don’t want her to get the wrong idea. I could just say you’ve got an offer on at the moment for a free session if she’s interested, and then I could help her with training sessions in the gym.”
Thor looked at him. Kyle really was a genuinely nice guy.
“Would she come for a one to one, do you think?” asked Thor, taking the ropes and stacking them neatly on the shelf.
“Yeah, I think so. She said she’d like to but she couldn’t afford it.”
“OK then,” replied Thor. “You pay for one and I’ll throw in one more for free. If you’re prepared to do that then I’ll do my bit for the human race too. Just tell her to call me.”
“Seriously?” replied Kyle.
“Yeah, but don’t tell anybody,” said Thor, grinning, “I’ve got a living to make. Right, I’m off for some grub.”
“Thanks,” replied Kyle.
“No problem, I’ll see you Saturday. Did you get the invite for the night out by the way?”
Kyle, rummaging for his car keys in his rucksack, remembered the text.
“Yes thanks, I’ll be there.”
“Great. Oh, Kyle,” said Thor as Kyle headed for the door.
“Yes?”
“Try not pick up any more needy women. I’m a personal trainer, not a bloody missionary.”
* * *
Pleased with himself, Kyle headed for the supermarket. He didn’t really need anything but hopefully Gemma would be working. He hoped she wouldn’t be annoyed with him for suggesting a one-to-one session with Thor; she’d said she wanted one, hopefully she hadn’t changed her mind. He threw a few things into a basket. He needed bananas and another packet of strawberries for Kelsey and if he bought some chicken and a packet of stir fry veg, he could have that tomorrow. Once again, he didn’t have any plans for Friday night, he’d probably go to the gym again and get an early night. On his way to the checkout, Kyle eyed the ice cream; he was tempted but he was so focused on losing weight, he resisted. The pleasures of ice cream would be short-lived. It wasn’t worth it.
As he reached the checkouts he looked for Gemma and, spying her, he stood patiently in her queue. Looking up as she waited for her customer to enter their pin number, she caught Kyle’s eye and, blushing slightly, she smiled as she turned her attention back to the woman in front of her. As the woman departed, she turned to Kyle who was busy unloading his basket.
“How are you?” she asked. “I’m feeling guilty now for not going to the class but they were short-staffed.”
“Any excuse,” replied Kyle.
“Yeah, you’re right, I couldn’t face it after the arse I made of myself last time. Have you got a bag?”
“No, sorry,” replied Kyle, “I wasn’t planning on coming in but I spoke to Thor this evening and he’s offering a few free sessions and I said you would like them. You’ll get two hour training sessions and he’ll set you up on a gym and diet programme that you can do by yourself. He said for you to call him.”
Gemma looked worried as she handed him a bag. “Oh, I’m not sure. Are you sure it’s free?”
“Definitely, trust me. He’s really nice.”
“I know, but—”
“Do you want to try and lose weight and get fitter?”
“Yes, but—”
“Well then, this is your chance, He doesn’t usually offer free sessions and I said you were really keen, so he picked you. I’ll help you with the gym programme after he’s set it up for you, it’s good to have someone to go with. Here, this is his number, he’s expecting you to call.”
Gemma took the piece of paper. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Are you OK?” asked Kyle, now slightly concerned. He hadn’t wanted to upset her. “I didn’t mean to upset you, I just thought…”
Gemma smiled.
“No, it’s OK, I’m fine. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting it and it’s really nice of Thor to give me some training.”
“So, will you go?” asked Kyle, handing over some cash as an elderly chap joined the queue and unloaded four lagers, a tin of baked beans and a frozen lasagne. Kyle couldn’t help but notice. He felt sorry for him; the old guy was probably lonely. He knew what it felt like.
“Probably,” replied Gemma, “seeing as you’ve gone to the effort of organising it, I can’t really say no, can I?” Handing him the change, she smiled at him.
“Well you can, but you’d be cross with yourself. I think you should give it a go. At least just call him.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“I’ll see you in the gym.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
And as Kyle left her, offering some cheery chat to the old chap in the queue as she scanned through his dinner for one, he felt quite pleased with himself. Just over a week ago his life had been on a par with the guy with the beer and steak pie but already, with a change of attitude, life seemed to be picking up on the good vibes. It felt good to be back in the human race again.
CHAPTER 49
Saturday
Lying in bed early Saturday morning, Thor had to admit to feeling a bit pissed off. Friday hadn’t been that great. Firstly, Savannah hadn’t turned up; not that he should have been surprised. She was young and, despite her bravado, completely lacking in confidence and self-esteem. It was so frustrating though. He knew training with her could boost her confidence and raise her mood, but sadly the pressures and influences of the modern teenage world was a tough competitor to beat down. Sadly, he couldn’t win them all.
Staring at the ceiling, Thor thought back to his own teenage years. They hadn’t always been rosy but he was glad that he hadn’t grown up with the apparent angst and insecurities of the modern youth. Social media had so much to answer for. And it wasn’t just the youngsters, most of his older clients had hang-ups about their bodies too and, despite him trying to drill into them that most of what they were seeing in magazines or online was nothing more than a filtered and edited fantasy, they never believed him. Time and again he tried to get them to see that weight loss and fitness was about being healthy, eating well and exercising, but it was so difficult. They all wanted instant results, fuelled or more accurately un-fuelled by some celebrity diet or other and wanted to look perfect. He just wanted them to want to be healthy, eat a sensible diet, get to a weight that would hopefully keep them out of the doctor’s surgery and age healthily. If they could just see that, they would all look great. Healthy people always looked good to his mind, whatever shape they were. Thor sighed. Savannah not coming back had annoyed him. He’d called her but, as expected, she hadn’t replied so he’d had to call her mother, which he hadn’t wanted to do, but he’d ha
d to make sure that she was safe and, of course, her mum was paying. He needed to keep her in the loop. He’d left a message for Savannah, leaving the door open for her if she changed her mind. He wouldn’t hold his breath.
And then there was the Molly debacle. He was annoyed with himself for that too. He should have known better than to try and mix business with pleasure. It wasn’t professional but, thankfully, he’d not made a fool of himself. Molly was nice and definitely attractive; if he’d met her in a bar or seen her on Tinder, he’d definitely have made a move. They had similar interests; she loved skiing and she’d also done a few triathlons as well as a marathon in Alaska. Unfortunately, so had her girlfriend Meg. She and Meg were planning on getting married next year. They were planning on Norway. They wanted to see the Northern Lights. Thor wondered whether she’d guessed his motive for offering her a free session. She probably had; she’d slipped Meg into the conversation quite early. She’d enjoyed the session though and booked a couple more. He would help with training for her next triathlon. At least he’d got business from it – it hadn’t been a complete waste of time.
Thor looked at the clock. It was seven-fifteen in the morning. He had a circuits class at nine and three training sessions, one of which was Rex. He was actually looking forward to that as, from initial impressions, Rex liked to chat and have a laugh. It would be interesting to see what he could get out of him; he was intrigued to hear Rex’s perspective on his marriage.
It was time to make a move. He wondered about calling Jess, but decided against it. He’d see how the day went first.
* * *
Up early, Rachael was tucking into a bowl of porridge while skimming through the news on her iPad. Maggie had said that she would pick her up at eight-thirty, but she needed something to eat and wanted time to let it go down before heading to the circuits class. She needed some energy but she also didn’t want to feel sick. She’d have a lie-in tomorrow. This Sunday would definitely be a day of rest.
“You’re up early, my pet?” said Rex as he wandered into the kitchen. “Coffee?”
Rachael glanced up from her iPad. For some unknown reason he actually looked quite attractive this morning. She must be hormonal. He hadn’t looked appealing for years.
“No thanks, I’m on hot water.”
“Hot water? What’s the point of that?” asked Rex, pouring three spoonfuls of coffee into a cafétière. “Is that another one of Amy’s suggestions or Thor Thoroughbred’s?”
“Neither,” mumbled Rachael. He might be looking attractive, but he was still unbelievably annoying. “I saw it on a TV programme, it’s body cleansing. You should try it, although you’d need gallons of the stuff to clear out all the rubbish in your system.”
“Hey, I’ve been good lately,” replied Rex. “I’m not even having milk in my coffee, look, black, just water, not even sugar. I told you, it’s the new me.”
Rachael didn’t reply. She couldn’t be bothered. She’d found an interesting article on wives that had allegedly murdered their husbands and managed to get away with it.
“Are you going to a class this morning?” asked Rex, putting two slices of bread in the toaster. He’d have jam this morning, he couldn’t face the Marmite again. He wondered what porridge tasted like. He’d never tried it. The consistency unsettled him. It looked like wet cement.
“Yes,” replied Rachael. It was a shame arsenic was difficult to get hold of, it was obviously a lot easier to knock someone off in the old days. If the report was anything to go by, she could have slipped him some arsenic and then blame it on the prawn biryani. Forensic science was probably a little less sophisticated then though, although today she could claim mitigating circumstances. He was a piss head your honour and his farts could make you vomit. I had to kill him.
“Good,” said Rex. “Is Maggie going?”
“She’s picking me up at eight-thirty. Are you going to football then?” Rachael replied.
“Yep,” Said Rex. “It’s not until eleven though.”
“Is Callum going?”
“No.”
Interesting, thought Rachael; surely he wasn’t training by himself.
“Why not? Are you going by yourself?”
“He’s playing golf, Steve’s going.”
“Is he?” replied Rachael, knowing full well that he was lying. “I might give Lucy a ring then and see if she fancies a coffee.”
“Well I think he is,” said Rex backtracking, “he said he was last week, he might have changed his mind, actually, I’ve just remembered, Callum said he was playing golf with him, they were one short in the draw, I forgot that.”
Yes, I bet you did, thought Rachael.
“Did you get new shorts?”
“Yes.”
“Large?”
“Yes”
“I knew you weren’t a medium, how long did they last?”
“Ten minutes. I bent over to pick the ball up and farted. Must have been the chick peas.”
Rachael couldn’t help herself and as she desperately tried to stifle a laugh, he flashed her one of his boyish grins. Briefly she wondered where they had gone wrong. He was a prat, but he was her prat. Maybe she did still love him after all.
CHAPTER 50
As the class filed out after the morning circuits, Rachael tapped Thor on the shoulder. Turning around, Thor braced himself; he wondered whether she knew about Rex’s training session.
“Yep,” he said, “everything OK? You did well again, your skipping was great today too, it’s really come on. Did you enjoy it?”
Rachael tried not to grimace as she thought about the skipping. He had no idea how torturous skipping could be for a middle-aged woman. She wondered if he was joking.
“The class yes, the skipping no, I’ll always hate skipping, most women hate skipping. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that Marnie had an accident and she said to say that she hoped you were missing her and that she’d be back to annoy you soon.”
“I had noticed she wasn’t here, probably because it was so quiet. What’s she done?”
“Fell off some mechanical bucking bronco thing in a nightclub.”
“What?”
“I know, she was bloody lucky; it was probably because she was so pissed that she didn’t break her neck. She’s just sprained, fortunately, but she’s black and blue. I was supposed to be meeting her for coffee this morning but she called off.”
“Bloody hell, she’s unbelievable.”
“Anyway, I’m just letting you know.”
Thor laughed. “What she needs is to find a good man, calm her down a bit.”
“She does. I don’t think she’s happy.”
Thor didn’t reply. He didn’t know what to say.
As the studio emptied, Thor caught up with Kyle. He’d really pushed himself hard this morning; Kelsey’s kebab was clearly proving a great incentive. Putting his hand on his shoulder, he spoke quietly.
“She gave me a call. She’s booked into a session next week.”
Kyle was pleased. He wasn’t sure whether Gemma’d go for it. He didn’t know whether she had the guts.
“That’s great, I’ll transfer the money to you.”
“Great. Anyway, got anything on this weekend?”
“Nope,” replied Kyle. He hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. “Early night probably.”
“Fancy a pint?” asked Thor, “or a mineral water and a game of pool? I’m not doing anything either.”
Kyle was taken aback. He couldn’t believe someone like Thor wanted to spend the evening with him. Blokes like Thor didn’t hang around with blokes like him.
“Yeah sure, I’m up for that, thanks.”
“Great, I’ll message you later,” said Thor. “It won’t be a late one, I’m knackered.” If he went out, it would stop him calling Jess. It was so tempting, but he needed to think things through first. He didn’t want to call Jess for the wrong reason. A game of pool with Kyle was a much safer option.
* * *
“Interesting array of milks?” she whispered, not wanting to upset anyone. “Have you tried any of them?”
“Just the almond, it’s fine,” replied Rachael. “I had an almond milk cappuccino the other day.”
“Did it taste the same?”
“Nope,” replied Rachael, honestly. “I’ve been having black coffee. Amy says the oat milk is good if you want a milky coffee.”
Maggie went back to the menu. She’d been looking forward to a frothy coffee; this all looked a bit disappointing.
“I don’t suppose they do a bacon roll?” she whispered, mischievously. “I could murder one right now.”
Rachael looked around nervously, she hoped that no one had heard that.
“Well they do, but it’s not real bacon,” she whispered back.
“What’s the point of that?” asked Maggie. “Either eat bacon or don’t eat bacon, what’s the point of eating pretend bacon?”
Rachael didn’t want to get into a discussion. She was out of her depth when it came to the ins and outs of veganism. She needed Amy for that. They should have just gone to Costa.
“I’m having avocado and tomato on sourdough,” said Rachael. “And a black coffee. I’m starving now. I had porridge this morning too.”
Trust Me, I’m a Personal Trainer Page 26
