Once my car and my credit card is paid off, I’ll be able to save up for school. I can finish my last semester, and then pay for my teaching certification, and become a real teacher and not just a substitute. Then I’ll make even more money. Maybe I’ll buy us a house. Everything will work out.
Janie and I dance to music while we drive to the nicest Italian restaurant in town. I order garlic bread and salads as appetizers, and then pasta and wine for my meal. We go all out. And the food is unbelievably amazing. Probably because this place is known for having great food, but I can’t help but think that emotionally, this food is exactly what Janie and I needed. One night to go out and enjoy ourselves. One night without a stupid sandwich, or frozen pizza, or bowl of cereal for dinner.
Janie and I have a great time, too. We talk about her school work and the two boys she thinks are cute. We talk about my new job, and I tell her that I get a free membership to work out there whenever I want, and they said that my family can work out free as well.
This is the most we’ve talked since she first moved in with me. Things are great. There’s a light shining in both of us tonight, and it’s like we can both sense that life is going to get better.
And maybe this is why I don’t see the dog in the road.
Janie and I are laughing and joking while I drive to the ice cream shop. I’m looking at her and I’m not focusing on the road like I should be. Then her eyes go wide and she points. I turn, and see him. A big, black shaggy dog standing right in the middle of the road. When he sees me, he freezes.
I slam on the brakes. But it’s too late, he’s too close. I’m going to hit him. And even in the split second it takes me to make this realization, I know I can’t hit a dog with my car. He’ll never survive. And I would be heartbroken to hurt a precious animal.
So I swerve, yanking the wheel to the right, trying to avoid him. It works.
But my car slams straight into the ditch. Janie and I fly forward, smashing into airbags that deploy with a loud hiss. The sound of the windshield shattering is almost musical, if not for being overshadowed by the awful crunch and bang of metal crumpling as my car bounces through the ditch and hits a telephone pole.
In the seconds that follow, everything is deathly silent. And then I gasp for air.
“Ow,” Janie says beside me. The sound of her voice sends a relief flooding through me. She’s okay.
I look up, and feel around. I’m okay. I’m hurting from the seatbelt that dug into me, but I’m okay. Nothing is broken. I look over at my niece, and she gives me a wary look.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She nods. “I think so.”
My car door opens and I startle. An older man is standing there, a panicked look on his face. “Are you okay, miss?”
I nod quickly. “Yes, yes I think we’re okay.”
A few more bystanders show up and they help us out of the car. I wrap my arms around Janie, grateful that we are both whole and not broken to bits like my poor car. Besides a little bruising, we’re okay. The older man who showed up first on the scene tells us it’s a good thing my car was so safely built that it protected us. The front is all smashed up, but the rest of my car is fine.
I get where he’s coming from, about how we got pretty lucky. And we did. But as a tow truck hauls my car away to the body shop, and I’m standing here stranded on the side of the road, I have no idea what to do.
“I guess we should call for a cab or something,” I say, looking helplessly at Janie.
She’s cradling her elbow which has a pretty large purpling bruise on it. “This sucks.”
“Yeah, it does,” I say, holding back tears. I’ve never been in a wreck before and my body is still shaking from the trauma of it all.
We sit on the curb and I call my insurance company to let them know what’s up. I’m hoping I can get a rental car or something, but then the insurance agent tells me some pretty crappy news. Last year when I renewed my plan, I had changed it to the cheapest plan possible, which means I don’t have rental car coverage. And my deductible is fifteen hundred dollars. They can fix my car and get it back to me in a couple of weeks, but not until I pay the deductible.
I tell the insurance agent I’ll call him back.
And then I drop my head into my hands and cry.
“What is it?” Janie asks, her voice soft.
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay to get my car fixed,” I say into my hands. “And I need to get to work. I can’t be without a car. And I can’t afford to rent a car.”
“I’ll get a job,” Janie says.
I shake my head. “School is your job.”
A shiny red convertible rolls up to us where we’re sitting on the side of the road. I straighten, a little wary of strangers. My purse is right next to me and I’m not in the mood to be robbed right now. But then the window rolls down and I recognize the older man as Jason, a middle-aged teacher at the school where I work. “Tasha?” he says, peering at me and glancing at Janie. “You okay?”
“I wrecked my car. They just took it to the body shop.”
“Oh wow,” he says. “Are you okay?”
I nod. “Just carless.”
“Hop in,” he says, gesturing with his hand. “I’ll take you home.”
I stand up. Jason and I aren’t exactly best friends, but we’re coworkers and I trust him for the most part. Plus, I’m not about to turn down a free ride. “Thank you so much, I appreciate it,” I say as I climb into the passenger side and Janie gets in the back seat.
“Not a problem at all,” he says.
I hold back the tears that still want to fall. My car is wrecked, and I am still broke, but at least we have a ride home.
5
Noah
Jon holds up a roll of paper towels. “Would it be better if we put these over here?” he asks. “Seems like a better place for them.”
“Yeah, actually.” I nod, looking over the layout of our paper towel holders and trash cans that are scattered throughout the gym. “That’s a much better place.”
“Cool,” he says as he starts moving them around.
I’ve been training Jon this morning since it’s his first day on the job. He’s already proving to be a great addition to the team, and not just because he brought bagels in for everyone as a thanks-for-hiring him gift. (Although, if you ask Brent, this fact makes him the greatest human to have ever lived because Brent loves to eat.)
I walk him through everything I can possibly think about when it comes to working here, and I hope it’s enough. He catches on quickly though, and he’s great with the guests. When one of Brent’s elderly personal training clients arrives, Jon talks with her and makes her laugh so hard she gets tears in her eyes. This is exactly the kind of vibe I want in the gym. Happy, fun, carefree.
When people are happy, they tell their friends. They come back. We succeed.
After a couple hours of training, I leave Jon to hang out up front and I head to my office with a second bagel. He got them from the coffee shop next door, and they’re pretty good. I might start buying them every morning for the team, but then Kris might feel left out since he’s never here in the mornings. I chuckle to myself. Kris doesn’t get emotional feelings like that. If he realized he missed out on a bagel, I don’t think he’d mind one bit. He’s just not that type of person.
I have all of Jon and Tasha’s new employee paperwork on my desk since I had them fill it out after their second interview last Friday. Now that I’ve filled out the paperwork on my end, I collect them all and walk a few stores down to JR Bookkeeping, who handles our payroll.
A pretty brunette with wavy hair smiles up at me from the reception desk. “Who let this guy in here?” she says, teasing me.
“Psh, I’m your favorite customer,” I say, stealing a mint from the candy dish on her desk.
Dani is Brent’s girlfriend. I actually met her first when I started coming here to get payroll done. It was me who gave her the gym membership that she used and
then met Brent when he offered to be her personal trainer. So in a way, I’m responsible for Dani and Brent finding their soul mates. They should take me out to dinner or something to thank me.
“New hire paperwork?” she says, reaching for the documents in my hand.
“Yep.” I hand them over. “Two new employees. Direct deposit.”
“I’ll get this put in the system,” she says. She leans forward, resting her chin on her hand. “So tell me about the new employees.”
It’s a weird question to ask, since I don’t know why she’d care. Plus her own boyfriend can tell her all she wants to know about them. But then I see the knowing smirk on her face and I realize what’s going on.
“Brent told you, didn’t he?”
“Told me what?” she says, but her voice is way too fake-innocent for me to believe that she’s actually innocent.
“He thinks I’m crushing on the new girl I hired, but that’s not true.”
“I said nothing of the sort,” Dani says with a wry grin.
I roll my eyes. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Nooo,” Dani says with a little laugh. She holds out her hands to placate me. “He means well. He’s excited for you.”
“Why’s that?” I ask.
“He thinks you need a girlfriend. Says it’ll do you good to stop being single.”
“I like how he gets a girlfriend himself and suddenly thinks he’s some relationship expert.”
She laughs. “I can’t wait to meet your new employees.”
“Don’t make it obvious when you meet her,” I say, giving her a wide-eyed warning look.
She feigns innocence. “Don’t make what obvious? I know nothing about your secret crushes.”
“Ugh,” I say playfully. “You and your boy Brent are the worst.”
She laughs. “Trust me, I know.”
I spend most of the day working in my office, updating our website and tending to emails. Now that we have new employees, I want to add a short biography paragraph about them on the gym’s website. Me and the guys already have our biographies on there, so our new employees deserve a spot, too. I take Jon’s picture and upload it, then get him to write me a short bio of himself. I’ll do the same thing once Tasha gets here. My stomach flutters at the thought of her. I’ve been trying really hard not to think about her. Well… maybe I’m not trying that hard since I can’t seem to get her out of my mind.
After all, she’s Kris’ responsibility since he’ll be training her on the evening shift tonight. I tend to leave work around five and she starts work at four, and I’ll only rarely ever see her since I keep to my office most of the time. I shouldn’t be thinking about her at all.
I walk up to the front of the gym in search of my phone, which I left at the front counter. Brent is training a client in the private training section of the gym, and our after school rush has begun. Three o’clock is when all the college and high school students get out of class and head here to work out.
I’m standing behind the counter next to Jon, just killing time, when I see a red sports car roll up to the front of the gym. Tasha steps out of it, leans in and says something to whoever is driving. My heart speeds up at seeing her. Those tight fitting professional work skirts she wears are just the sexiest thing ever.
I stand up a little straighter and try to school my face into an impassive coolness so she doesn’t realize how eager I am to see her. But she doesn’t walk into the gym. Instead, she walks over to a bench that’s on the sidewalk in front of the gym and sits down. I expect her to make a phone call or something, but she just sits there, staring off at the park that’s across the street.
I check the time. It’s 3:40.
A few more minutes go by, and I can’t help myself. I step outside. “Hi,” I say, offering her a polite smile.
She startles when I speak, but then she smiles back. “Oh, hello. It’s a nice day outside.”
“Yeah, it is,” I say gazing up at the sky. I’m realizing now that this was stupid. I walked out here for what? To talk to her? But what do I have to say?
“I got here early,” she says, breaking the awkward silence. “So I thought I’d just wait so I don’t show up weirdly early for my shift.”
I chuckle. “You’re welcome to come inside and hang out. We won’t force you to work until four.”
“That sounds great,” she says, standing up. “It’s way too hot out here.”
I hold the gym door open for her and she follows me inside, the floral scent of her perfume making my whole body react to her. Just being near this girl is making my heart pound, my stomach hurt, and my skin feel like it’s on fire. Maybe I won’t be able to handle this as easily as I’d hoped.
Brent says hi to her at the front counter, and they share some friendly small talk. I use the moment to breathe deeply and try to compose myself.
“Wow, that’s awful,” Brent says.
I snap back to attention. “What’s awful?”
“You are crap at listening, dude,” Brent says. I realize that whatever they just said was totally lost on me because I was trying to mentally get over my crush on Tasha.
“I was just telling him about my car,” Tasha says, her gorgeous blue eyes locking on mine. “I got in a wreck this weekend and now my car is at the body shop.”
“Oh wow. Are you okay?”
She nods. “My car’s not, though. They said it would be a week or two to fix it.” Her teeth dig into her bottom lip, and she seems worried about something.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say.
She shrugs one shoulder. “My co-worker gave me a ride here after work, which is why I was early. I’ll probably be early every day until I get my car back.”
“Better than being late,” Brent says.
“Do you need a ride home?” I ask, the words just blurting out of me. The idea of driving her home at night for a week or two, and getting to know her while we’re all alone in my truck seems like a great idea.
“Um… no,” she says, her brow furrowing. “I mean, you don’t work the night shift do you?”
“I work all shifts,” I say. It’s a lie, and Brent is staring at me in a way that makes me want to blush from head to toe. “I’m just saying, if you need a ride, let me know.” I try to shrug it off like it’s no big deal.
“Thanks,” she says. “But I’ll be fine.”
“You want a bagel?” Brent says, sliding the box of bagels across the counter to her. When I look at him he’s giving me a knowing look. Like he knows I just made a fool of myself by being way too eager to talk to this girl and his bagel question was a way of changing the subject so I could save face.
My lips flatten and I give him a look back. A look that I hope he understands as a thank you.
6
Tasha
In the women’s locker room, I change out of my school work clothes and into my new gym work clothes. The guys told me I can wear athletic clothes with my Roca Springs STAFF shirt since this is a gym and we don’t need to dress formally. It feels great wearing a pair of black spandex leggings, my Nikes, and a T-shirt with my hair pulled into a bun. Athletic clothes are so much more comfortable than my stuffy work outfits. Since I work at a private school, they require that all the teachers dress like we’re going in to court each day or something. Once I get my teacher certification—if that ever happens—I’ll go work at a public school that’s a little more lax about these things.
Noah starts off training me by walking me around the gym and pointing out every single thing about it. He shows me every machine and how it works, as well as what to do if a client has a problem with it. I’ve never really used the weight machines before, but they’re all pretty easy to learn. I’m trying to memorize everything he tells me so he’ll be glad he hired me. The last thing I want to do is get stuck and have to go ask a bunch of stupid questions to my boss.
Noah and Brent teach me the computer software at the front desk, but it’s pretty simple. I could have taught mys
elf if I needed to. Brent’s girlfriend Dani stops by and introduces herself. With the way she and Brent give each other googly loving looks, I’m guessing I’ll probably see her a lot. After they leave, Noah turns to me.
“Ready to get your picture taken?”
“Huh?” I say, reaching up and touching my hair. It’s just in a messy bun so I’m not at all prepare to take a picture.
“I’m adding you to the website,” he says as he gets out his phone. “We all have a biography on there.”
“Oh. Okay.” I reach up and pull down my hair tie, letting my hair fall to my shoulders. I shake it out, and then stand against a wall with the gym’s logo on it.
Noah grins as he holds up his phone to take my picture. There’s something in that grin that does something to me. I don’t know. My breath catches. Why did he make that grin?
And why did I react like that?
“One, two, three,” he says. Then he lowers his phone. “Perfect.”
“Can I see it?” I ask, walking up to him. He turns the phone toward me, then drops it right in my hand. I’m a little startled. My last boyfriend did everything possible to keep his phone from me. If he wanted to show me something, he’d show me the screen, but keep the phone firmly in his hand. I wasn’t allowed to touch it.
My brain snaps back into focus. Okay stupid, he’s your boss, not your boyfriend.
I look at the picture, and I guess it’s okay. I don’t look terrible. I hand him back the phone. “Looks good.”
“Come help me write your bio,” he says, nodding his head. I follow him to his office, and I’m filled with a rush of nerves when I step in here again. Last time I was here, I was being interviewed. But now I have the job. This job that will be so beneficial to my life.
Flirting with the Boss: A love at the Gym Novel Page 3
