Dead Fit - 17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Friday was a typical work day for me – nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. Just the way I like them. After the last few days, I was ready for some normalcy in my life.

I saw Brian working out with Xavier sometime in the morning, but I was too busy to make googly eyes at him. And sometime in the afternoon, Trevor came in for a workout. He was in reasonably good spirits and we had a productive session. Trevor was still harboring guilt for getting me in trouble with the boss. I gave up on trying to tell him otherwise. I figured Trevor would hit his goal next week and then he wouldn't feel at fault anymore. Either that or he wouldn’t reach his goal, I’d get fired, and then he’d really have a good reason to feel guilty.

At the end of the day, I walked Ana to her car, and she gave me an update, “So I did what you suggested, Jaysen. I talked to Gary about messing up the aerobics class this week.”

“How did it go?”

“Well, he was still mad. You know how he can be, always thinking about money. Gary gave me a lecture about how reputation is everything in the fitness industry and something like this could cost the gym new clients in the future,” Ana said. Hmmm, the lecture she received sounded a lot like the one I received.

Ana continued, “I told him I was sorry and that I should have just admitted I wasn’t ready to teach the class on my own. Gary said he was glad I recognized my mistake, but that he wasn’t ready to give me a second chance for a while. I guess I’m on probation until he trusts me again.”

“So the whole conversation was about you taking the blame for all of this,” I asked.

“Yea, and I guess I’m okay with it. You know what's funny, though? As I was talking to him, I realized something. I realized Gary is always belittling people because he has low self-esteem. I thought to myself, if he would spend a little more time on grooming himself, he just might feel better about the way he looks and actually treat people nicer.”

“Where are you going with this, Ana?”

“It got me thinking about why I would notice something like that about Gary. I mean, other people would look at him and think he was just an ugly person, inside and out. But for me, I was thinking about how he probably doesn’t like the way he looks, so he takes it out on other people. And that got me to thinking how I really like helping people with their physical appearance. It’s different than the fitness training you do, though. I want people to feel good about themselves right away. What you do takes time.”

“That’s very true, Ana. Personal trainers work physically on people, but it takes time. If you want to help people immediately, fitness training may not be for you.”

Ana nodded and said, “That's what I thought, too. So now I'm seriously thinking about enrolling in cosmetology school.”

“Really? But I thought you said that you weren’t interested in school,” I asked.

“I guess I'm hoping if the classes are related to what I want to do, I may actually be interested in learning. This time, though, before I jump into something, I'm going to do a little more planning. I’m gonna talk to one of my friends who works over at G1 Salon and Spa in Naples tomorrow. Any interesting in going with me?”

“Sure, Ana, I'd love to go.” My statement was a little bit of an exaggeration. I didn't exactly relish the thought of hanging around a salon full of snooty women on my weekend, but here was an opportunity to return a favor to Ana.

“It'd mean a lot to me, Jaysen. I trust your opinion. Can you pick me up a little before ten?”

* * * * *

After work, I headed directly to Brian's condo. We'd made plans to see a production of Hamlet at the Long Beach Playhouse, but when I arrived, Brian wasn’t in the mood to go out.

“It was a really full week and I’m kind of in the mood to just kick it here. Do you mind?”

“No, not all,” I said, relieved that we weren't going to watch a mediocre Shakespeare production. I never cared much for classical literature, anyway. Too many “thee's” and “thou's.”

We watched television at his place for a while and eventually had pizza and salad delivered. Neither Brian nor I seemed truly present on our date. I attributed our lack of enthusiasm to fatigue. Brian and I both had a busy week.

By midnight, we were still lounging on Brian's sofa in front of his television. His eyes were half closed and I took it as my cue to exit. I kissed Brian goodnight and asked him if we could hang out on Sunday. He muttered something I interpreted to be agreement. Then I took off for home.

Brian was unusually tired. I just hoped he wasn’t tired of me.