Chapter Text
“Leon, go talk to her already.”
Chris’s voice pulled Leon from his thoughts. Leon was bent over two dumbbells, hands curled around the handles, but he hadn’t lifted them once. The girl in red had walked in and stepped on one of the treadmills, and he’d been staring at her for the past several minutes.
“I, uh…” was all Leon could say as he collected himself.
Carlos laughed on his other side. The three men had come to the gym together to lift weights, but so far, only Chris and Carlos had made progress in their sets.
“Just so you know, Leon,” Carlos quipped. “Staring doesn’t burn calories.”
The other two men laughed. Leon blushed bright red and lifted his two dumbbells over his head. He started lifting quickly, quicker than what was probably good for him, just to hide the red in his face. And to try not to look at her again.
She had started showing up to the gym a few weeks ago. Before that, Leon had started accompanying Chris and Carlos a few days a week. For those first few months, the gym was a place for the three of them to keep their bodies in shape, vent work frustrations, and joke around a bit.
But then the mystery girl showed up. All of a sudden, Chris and Carlos were light years ahead of Leon on fitness milestones, and Leon spent most of their sessions ignoring his friends in favor of drooling over the girl across the room.
She always showed up at the same time, ten minutes after Leon and the guys arrived. She had a rotating set of gym clothes, all different variations of red and black. After a few days, Leon could predict her workout routine, her favorites seeming to be the treadmill and weights. Even looking at her from a distance, he could tell she was in impressive shape. Muscular back and arms, an energetic pep in her step. She looked strong and elegant at once, like a ballerina that could also crush your hand in an arm-wrestling contest.
Leon kept his hands busy with the dumbbells but his eyes kept flicking over to her. He watched her step off the treadmill then grab her water bottle (also red) off the stand. She flicked a towel around her neck and for a moment Leon just stared. Sweat dripped like crystal droplets from her short black hair and her skin was shiny. She tipped her head back to take a sip from her water bottle. As she did, her body angled slightly in Leon’s direction. Hard abs under her sports bra, wet with sweat.
He lost his breath immediately. Bad timing just as he lifted the bells above his head, and he suddenly stumbled backwards until he hit the wall behind him. His body made a loud thud against the wall and he dropped his dumbbells to the floor. Everyone at the gym was suddenly looking at him, including the manager giving him a nasty look. Chris and Carlos, meanwhile, were laughing their asses off.
“Don’t worry about our friend, he doesn’t know you’re not supposed to throw them,” Chris joked.
“Fuck you,” Leon mumbled under his breath as his friends helped him back up to his feet. He picked up the dumbbells and set them aside on the rack. As he did, his eyes flicked back to the girl. She was looking at him now. Had he seen her actually look at him since she first started coming here?
Her eyes were wide, just as surprised as everyone by the sudden commotion. God, she was so pretty. Surprisingly elegant features for a woman who looked like she could take him in a fight. Leon’s face burned cherry red when he realized she’d just seen that whole embarrassing fall.
Then, she brought a hand to her mouth, and started giggling. Leon couldn’t hear her from this distance, but the way her face turned pink and her face scrunched up gave it away. Great, she was laughing at him.
Leon froze while he kicked himself. Never spoke to her, didn’t even know her name, and already she probably thought he was an idiot.
Then, she dropped her hand from her face, and gave him a wink. He thought he imagined it for a second, but no, she definitely just winked at him.
“Leon.”
Carlos snapped his fingers in front of Leon’s face. Leon shook his head to focus.
“Yeah?” he said.
“Chris and I are going to take off early. There’s a new smoothie place across the street. Wanna join?”
Leon looked down at the two dumbbells on the floor. He’d barely made any progress tonight, and he wanted to get going again after that embarrassing fumble. The last thing he wanted was everyone to see him leave looking like some dumb chump.
“You two go ahead without me,” Leon said. He bent down to grip the dumbbells, then grunted as he lifted them up over his head. “I’ll stay here and play catch-up.”
~
Leon stayed at the gym for a few more hours after Chris and Carlos left. He tried not to look at anyone until everyone who was there during his fall had left. He focused on getting back on track. He moved between each piece of equipment, going through his water bottle twice, until his whole body was burning.
When the gym’s closing time grew near, Leon decided to finish off with one last crack at the weights. He set the bar for 140 pounds then laid himself down on the bench. Carlos and Chris were already leagues ahead of him in terms of what they could lift. Leon needed practice if he was going to match them.
He curled his fingers around the bar, then dropped the whole thing from the bell rack and began pumping. His body was tired from the long day, hot and dripping, but he forced himself to lift up and down. He let out a pained groan with each one. Up, down, up, down.
“Ten more,” he gritted through his teeth. “You can do ten…”
He couldn’t. After three more, he set the weight back on the rack above him. His chest rose and fell with labored breath, his heart ramming so fast he’d thought he’d pass out. His hands fumbled for the stand next to the bench for his water bottle.
“Need some help?”
Someone took his wrist and placed the water bottle in his hand. Leon brought it immediately to his lips and swung it back. He sucked down several gulps of the now lukewarm water before gasping a breath.
“Thanks,” he said, dropping it next to the rack. “A few rounds on the rack and my brain starts to—”
Halt a stop, which is exactly what happened when Leon saw who had handed him his water bottle. The mystery girl stood by the rack right by his head. Red sports bra, red leggings, even red sneakers. She cocked her head and gave him an inquisitive look. Leon’s heart dropped into his stomach.
“Don’t sweat it,” she said. “Or do, I guess.”
Leon froze right there on the bench. His eyes were wide and for several seconds all he could do was stare at her. He wondered for a moment if exhaustion-based hallucinations were a thing, and if too much exercise could give you one, because there was no way that girl was actually talking to—
“You okay?” the girl asked. She raised an elegant eyebrow and cocked her head. “You look like someone just stunned you.”
Leon quickly shook his head. Get it together, man.
“Sorry,” he said. “Just…uh…”
He took another big swig from his water bottle. For all the hours he spent daydreaming about this mystery girl, he never could think of a script to say to her. He saw Chris and Carlos hit on girls all the time, but the skill never quite rubbed off on him.
“Just…finishing this set,” he said.
He gripped the handle of the weights, tightening and flexing his arm muscles as he did. But the girl didn’t look impressed. She just raised an eyebrow.
“Finishing?” she said. “I’ve seen you pick and put down the weights several times.”
Leon’s face flushed further. She had been…watching him? He had been on the bench for up to an hour, how did he not notice her?
“Well…you know…” his mind scrambled for words. “I’m behind on my buddies, just playing catchup.”
Nice, Leon, he thought. Nothing makes you look cool than making your friends sound cooler.
“Well, your problem is obvious,” the girl said. “You’re moving too fast. You’re prioritizing speed over technique.”
“Well…I’m behind on my buddies…and this place is closing soon…”
“Sure, but if you rush it, you get a rush-job. If you go slowly, you can isolate the muscles you want to improve on. Plus, you don’t want to depend on momentum to keep you going. The strength you build up over time should do that.”
The girl spoke like she was an expert on this sort of thing. Leon wondered if she was a personal trainer or something.
She can personally train me anytime, his brain whispered.
He tore his attention back to the weights. He wasn’t about to make himself look more like a bumbling dork in front of her. He needed to focus and get this set in, preferably while she was still watching and he could at least try and look cool.
Leon shifted the weight off the rack and started pumping again. He forced as much energy as he could moving up and down, but it caught up to him fast. He could feel the sweat beating down his face but he kept going. But it didn’t take long before he caved and dropped the thing back on the rack. His pink chest rose and fell with each heaving breath.
“See?” the girl said. “You’re trying to do it too fast. You’re burning out too quickly. You need to move at an easier pass.”
Leon wasn’t sure exactly what pace she could be talking about. He saw Chris and Carlos pumping iron at much faster paces without the same problems. God, he really was running behind was he?
“Here,” the girl said. “Let me help.”
All of sudden, the girl lifted a leg and dropped it over the other side of the bench. Leon glanced down and his whole body stiffened like a board. She was standing over him, his body between her legs. Leon suddenly felt like he was several sizes smaller than her.
The girl curled her fingers around the center of the weight’s pole.
“I’m going to move with you and count,” she said. “Stay at my pace, okay?”
Leon’s face turned the color of cherries. Thank god he was sweaty from exercise to explain why he was so flustered. But still, he was hyperaware of her crotch hovering just over his.
Leon’s gym clothes were pretty modest and banal. A white tank top that slung to his body with sweat, some blue basketball shorts and white Nike sneakers. But he might as well have been naked with how he felt with the girl’s eyes on him.
“I…uh…” Fuck, he couldn’t even talk with her over him. “I mean…sure…I can…”
The girl gave him an encouraging smile. It looked sweet, and did nothing to help the stirring leon felt in his baggy shorts.
“Just grab the weight, and move as I count,” she said. “I’ll set the rhythm, you just follow.”
Leon’s nervous eyes flicked around the room. He realized the gym was empty. It was so close to closing time that everyone else had gone home. The manager was probably in the back in some office room. Leaving Leon and the girl in red all alone.
He flushed thinking what someone would see if they walked in right now. If an employee wandered into the main gym area. If someone came back to fetch a water bottle or bag they forgot. The see Leon on the bench, only two layers of clothes preventing the red girl from—
“On the count of three, lift the weight,” she said.
Leon was trembling slightly all over. Not just the nervousness of being spoken to in such a bossy manner by a pretty girl, but feeling the shape of her crotch right above his, just barely touching him.
“Oh…okay…” he said.
“One…two…three…drop.”
Leon grunted as he lifted the weight off the rack. He held it up in the air, his arms shaking and the sweat returning to his brow.
“You’re going to lift on my count, alright?” the girl said. “Let’s try for ten first, and then we’ll see if we can go further.”
Leon was shaking and clenched all at once. It was like some strange form of torture he’d never heard of. Trying to stay composed, trying to keep the weight from falling and crushing him, all the while the prettiest girl he’d seen was centimeters away from sitting on him.
“Ready?” the girl said. “One…”
Leon huffed in a breath and pumped the weight up, then down. He was wet and pink all over. He tried not to look at the girl directly, because if he did, he would absolutely get stumped long enough to hurt himself.
So, he followed her lead. She moved the weight with her hand to control the pacing. Up, down, up, down. It felt painfully slow compared to Leon’s normal pace. But he could feel the burn in his arms, the kind of pain that said the exercise was working. So he kept going, and tried not to start staring and blushing at the girl standing over him.
“Six...seven…eight…”
The girl counted every pump Leon did. Ten wasn’t that many, but at this pace Leon wasn’t used to, it may as well have been one hundred.
Leon was running out of juice. He could feel it. The slower pace only seemed to drain him more, he just wanted to pump all of them out and be done with it. But the girl wouldn’t let him, keeping her hand on the metal handle between his hands.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Leon held the weights up with trembling arms. He couldn’t bring it down to his chest again, or he’d drop the whole thing on top of him
“I…” he hissed between clenched teeth. “I can’t…”
“Yes you can,” the girl said. “Just give me one more, okay?”
Then, Leon felt the girl put her entire weight on him. His eyes flicked down, and the space between him and her disappeared. She sat right on top of him, her weight pressing him down on the bench so he couldn’t move if he wanted to. All the blood in Leon’s body rushed down and he felt his cock twitch. Oh god, could she feel it? Leon cursed his traitorous body.
“Come on, one at a time,” the girl said.
She pulled the weight down by the handle, forcing Leon to bring it down. He groaned against the pain in his arms and chest, but he managed to dip and lift the weight.
“Good, now one more,” the girl said.
Up, down. Leon’s body was a battlefield, the pain of lifting weights with the hot flush in his pants. It was overstimulating, and it took all his nerves to not collapse the weight onto the floor. He managed to keep to the girl’s pace, until finally he made it to nine.
The girl smiled down at him.
“Good boy,” she said. “Now, just one more.”
Those words sent Leon’s body into a flare. His fingers were sweaty and could barely grip the weights as his arms shook. It wasn’t exhaustion. He could power through exhaustion. This was a man trying not to melt under a beautiful woman.
The girl shifts her hips up a bit to move closer, her crotch briefly brushing against his. If Leon’s cock was twitching before, now he was stiff as the bench under his back. She smiled down on him and chuckled.
“Not gonna give up right before the finish line, are you?” she said.
Her tone was teasing and didn’t help Leon’s hard-on. Even worse, she kept moving her hips on top of him, nudging across his bulge, and it sent a flare up his body. Leon was damn near panting like a job and he swore…he was getting close…close to something…
Did she…know? Was she aware of what she was doing to him? And did she…seem to like it?
Moreover…did he kind of like it?
Leon bit hard down on his lip. The girl took the weight handle in both hands.
“Come on, big boy,” she said. “Give me just one more.
Leon gritted his teeth, steeling his whole, and with a shuddering groan he brought the weight down to his chest, then shakily brought it up.
“Perfect,” the girl said. “See how the slower pace really pushes the muscles better?”
Leon’s brain was too soupy to answer. There was a buzz in his muscle. He felt heavy and light at once. The girl gave him a sickly sweet smile, as if she wasn’t the reason his whole body felt like a nuclear reactor. Finally, she slipped off of him, leaving his cock hard but no longer touched. Leon grunted as he dropped the weight back onto the rack.
“There you go,” the girl said. “Feels much better, doesn’t it?”
Leon assumed by “feels better” she meant that it had forced his muscles to work more. As far as feeling good in the usual sense, he felt like he had passed his soul out of his body like a kidney stone. Then, the girl stepped off of him to stand next to the bend, leaving a cold spot where she just was.
“Alright, no more torture for you,” she said in a sympathetic but teasing tone. “It’s more of a challenge, but you want to catch up to your friends, that’s a good way to do it.”
Leon dropped the weight back onto the rack. His chest rose and fell with each agonizing breath. He felt a little lightheaded, like he would faint if he tried to stand up. So he lay there for a few minutes, waiting for his mind and body to recover.
Finally, he threw his legs over the side of the bench and grabbed his water bottle. He squeezed the last bit of lukewarm liquid into his mouth and swallowed hard.
“Th…thanks…” he said.
Despite his aching body, Leon understood that the harder exercise felt, the more effective it would be. No pain, no gain, blah, blah, blah. He set his empty bottle down and wiped his face with his towel. He was sweating so much his hair was wet, strands sticking together until they looked more brown than blonde.
“No problem,” the girl said. “You looked like you could’ve used a little help.”
Leon draped his sweat towel around his neck.
“Are you like…a personal trainer or something?” he asked.
The girl shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I’ve just been into fitness for a long time. I know rookie mistakes when I see them.”
If it had been anyone else, Leon would have been offended being called a “rookie” by anyone but his work boss. But something about hearing it from a pretty girl only made him feel blushy.
“Well…uh…thanks, again,” he said.
His flusteredness must have shown in his face and voice, because the girl giggled. It was a cute sound in her throat, a contrast to the strongly built body it came from. Leon felt the girl’s eyes tracing down him. From his wet hair, to his broad shoulders, down his tank top that sweatily plastered against his torso, to his muscular thighs under his shorts. Leon stood very still, feeling exposed, as if her eyes were stripping his clothes off.
“Do you always go to the gym with your friends?” she asked. “Anyone else?”
Leon thought of the question for a second.
“Not really,” he said. “Sometimes I go alone, but it’s easier to workout when I’ve got somewhere there holding me accountable.”
It was a weird question, but he supposed it was just small talk. But then the girl stepped a little closer to him, almost standing between his open thighs. Leon lifted his eyes to hers. She had pretty dark eyes, looking at him with an expression that made him feel smaller than her.
“That’s a shame,” she said. “You are a cutie.”
Leon’s heart dropped into his stomach. He may as well have been laying on the bench again, her hovering just over him between her legs. His brain short-circuited and his tongue felt three sizes too big in his mouth.
“I…” he said. “I…uh…I, um….”
The girl giggled again.
“If your friends are ever busy,” she said. “Maybe I can hold you accountable next time you want to work out.”
Leon sat there looking at her, red as a cherry, trying to form his tongue in the shape of the word “Sure.” The girl stepped away and reached down into her handbag on the floor to fish out a pen—red ink, of course—before jotting her number down on an old receipt.
“Call me next time you’re thinking of coming to the gym,” she said, then met his eyes with hers. “Next time, I can help you finish.”
She ripped off the sheet from the notepad and pressed it into Leon’s hand. Her handwriting was elegant and surprisingly girlish. She gave him a wink.
“Name’s Ada, by the way,” she said.
It took Leon a full second to remember his name.
“Leon,” he said. “My name’s Leon…”
“Well, Leon. I hope I hear back from you before next time.”
She pulled her gym bag off the floor onto her shoulder. She gave him one last brain-melting wink before turning in her heels and heading towards the exit.
“See you,” she said.
“See you…you too,” Leon said.
Just like that, she disappeared out the gym doors. Leon stood there nearly drooling before he glanced down at the paper in his hands. Her number is written next to her name.
Leon crushed it up in his fist and pumped his fist in the air.
“Fuck you, Carlos,” he chuckled. “And fuck you Chris.”
He folded the note and zipped it up safely in his gym bag. As he readied to leave before the manager kicked him off, Leon froze with dread. He realized she expected him to call her. She was going to wait on him. He would have to think what to say to her on the phone. The thought of that alone nearly made him shit himself in fear.
He shook his head. Whatever. He could figure that out once he got home and had a good shower. For now, he needed to head to the smoothie shop before that place closed too. He had a phone number to rub in Chris and Carlo’s face.
He smiled like a schoolboy and damn near skipped out the exit door.