Post by Justin Fischer on May 31, 2012 14:48:51 GMT -5
I walk up to and pull the glass doors open. It’s a gym that I am very familiar with, one I've been frequenting for years.
I can see that Samantha is working today when I walk into the club. She does this shrill screaming thing that girls do when they’re excited and runs from behind the counter to crush me in a hug.
“Sam…need to breathe….please….” she should wrestle; that girls got a lot of upper body strength.
She giggles and lets go. “Sorry Justin….I just haven’t seen you in awhile and after my email I thought maybe you were mad at me….”
“Naw. It’s your day; you have a right to say what you want. Don’t worry, I’ll behave.”
“Good…because you know how much I like Lexi and Pete does too.”
“Right…” Sam hardly knew Lexi. They’d met a few times at family get togethers, since my father always considered Lexi his other daughter…but Sam was bubbly and she got a long with everyone.
“Are you here to see Pete?” she asks after a few minutes of silence.
“Yah, I mentioned stopping by the other day. He probably forgot…guess he didn’t mention it?”
She shook her head. “He doesn’t really tell me much sometimes. Actually we haven’t really seen much of each other today. He’s had a lot of sessions.”
My brother, Peter…he was a personal trainer here in New York. Sam worked at the front desk. They’d met when Peter applied here. Why did Peter move to New York from Toronto? Well, he said that he needed to be away from the family because he felt suffocated. I always laughed because that was exactly how I felt and why I always moved around a lot but I just hadn’t had enough balls to tell my father that.
“Do you think he’d be free to take a lunch break with me?”
She smiled. She was cute in an immature sort of way but hey, my brother was madly in love with her and if she made him happy than it made me happy. “I’ll page him up to the front.”
She went behind the desk again and her voice rang out over the P.A. System, calling Peter Fischer to the front.
I hadn’t seen Peter in a few weeks…not since I’d been down last helping Lexi with her move. This was actually the most we’ve seen each other in a long time. Within minutes I could see him coming from a room near the back of the gym. I hated him sometimes. I prided myself on my looks, but Peter…he had everything. Not only was he more buff he was also 2 inches taller. Not that 6’2 was anything to scoff at but next to Bliss I was the shortest.
He saw me right away and smiled at me. When he came up he immediately punched me in the shoulder.
“Hey little brother…What brings you by?” He reminds me of my Dad. Another thing Bliss and I had in common was that we were the two siblings that looked and acted the most like our absentee mother.
“Lunch…do you have time to grab some?”
He stares up at the ceiling a minute and then nods. “Sure, I don’t have another client until 2...I can give you some time.”
He notices Sam at the desk and goes behind to embrace and kiss her. She giggles and pushes him back toward the doors.
“Have fun boys.”
***
The first part of the lunch was mostly silent. We ate our hot dogs in central park…well Pete’s was a veggie dog and mine was all beef but he as a health nut. He lectured me a little about the dangers of processed food for about 2 minutes and then it was silent again until he finally got up the nerve to ask me the real reason why we were having lunch.
“So why did you really come down Jus?”
I look up at him. He’s not stupid. He knows that usually when I show up out of the blue it’s because something’s on my mind. Peter seemed to be the one all of us ended up talking to when we were bothered. Don’t know why, just turned out that way.
“Is it Lexi?”
“No…” I denied.
“Right. Look it’s alright to be jealous. You did have her first but you have to let her go, she’s not going to come back to you, especially if you start acting like a mega jerk.”
“I can’t help it. You saw the show… you saw what the lunatic did to me…”
Peter rolls his eyes. “I saw what you did to him.”
“Its part of the game…you know that…”
“Well then you should know better be the bigger man. What did you say to him at the end that got him so fired up anyway?”
“Nothing…” It was none of Peter’s business. It had been a lie anyway.
“Look I think your making a big mistake messing with Lexi’s love life.”
“That’s nice Peter….I know what I’m doing. I’m saving her the trouble of having to sign divorce papers again.”
“Whoa…she getting married again?”
“No…no. They’ve only been seeing each other like a month but still...she’s already saying she loves the guy….it’s a big mistake…”
“Not yours to correct even if it was.”
I sighed. Peter wasn’t going to side with me, especially when it came to Lexi. He was almost as protective of her as I was.
“You should look at other options. How long has it been for you anyway?”
I smirked. “One day.”
Peter slapped me on the back almost made me choke on my coke. “Really? Well I underestimated you.”
“Just a fling. I don’t think it will turn into anything.” I wasn’t going to tell him that I seduced the little interviewer just as a way to try and make Lexi jealous or that I wasn’t planning on calling her again.
“Well don’t discount it just yet. Take her out again….”
“Not really my type.”
“Not your type…you slept with her….”
“Not the dating type.” I smile and toss the paper from my dog into a garbage bin.
“Oh Justin…when are you going to realize that women are not objects…”
“I know that but the one woman I want I can’t have so all the others seem mediocre.”
“That ship has sailed. Let’s change the subject….tell me about your first match…”
I laugh. “Taufik, a submission specialist” I put up quote fingers with the ‘submission’
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Because I haven’t been witness to this so called skill set. He claims to also have been trained by some MMA god…”
“Wow…”
“He’s not a MMA though. Just knows the submission moves. But I’m good at submission too.”
“That you are little brother. You always got me but then again, I wasn’t really into the wrestling as much as you Jer were.”
My oldest brother Jeremy, a.k.a Titan was 6’11 and had just recently retired from wrestling in some little fed in the Midwest. I hadn’t spoken to him in months. Apparently, last I heard he and Bliss were fighting again…not surprising. He tried to have a tight reign on her and always managed to derail her dating plans.
“What else do you know?”
“Not much, I have to give him some credit, he did cut through the others in his debut match, it’s just it was a dark match so it doesn’t exactly give him a whole lot of credit.”
“Don’t ever underestimate your opponent. They may surprise you.”
“I know that. He’s an ass with a big bloody mouth and some of his comebacks want to make me hit my head against a wall.”
“You already did that…” Peter said with a laugh and I punched him. It didn’t faze him and if anything my knuckles stung a little after impacting his hard shoulder muscle.
“Don’t let your anger get out of control, you may think it’s your strength but it can also be your weakness.”
“I disagree.” And I did. I was planning on letting my Anger work in my favour this weekend. I was going to use everything I had to get Taufik down on that Mat and tapping for mercy. Then we would see who was better at submission.
“Just don’t do anything stupid.”
“Do I ever?”
Peter rolls his eyes. Yes I have done some pretty stupid things in my past, like letting Lexi slip through my fingers and right into Ryan’s arms and then again right in Drake’s. I was determined to prove to her that I was the one that she should be with. Fuck all my other reasonings from before, I wanted her and I was going to get her come hell or high water.
First, my goal was to bring down that Singapore jerk and make him look like a pussy in front of his new little girlfriend. I’d seen him with her recently. Turns out that Drake and I weren’t the only ones frequenting the Affinia. She wasn’t hard on the eyes…lord knows why she wanted to be with a guy with a face of a mackerel but to each their own….maybe she’d want to try a different brand of fish…. The ideas continued to flow through my mind, even long after I’d left Pete at his club and received another rib crushing hug from my Sister in law. A thought occurred to me, I was going to hit him where it really hurt, the heart.
I can see that Samantha is working today when I walk into the club. She does this shrill screaming thing that girls do when they’re excited and runs from behind the counter to crush me in a hug.
“Sam…need to breathe….please….” she should wrestle; that girls got a lot of upper body strength.
She giggles and lets go. “Sorry Justin….I just haven’t seen you in awhile and after my email I thought maybe you were mad at me….”
“Naw. It’s your day; you have a right to say what you want. Don’t worry, I’ll behave.”
“Good…because you know how much I like Lexi and Pete does too.”
“Right…” Sam hardly knew Lexi. They’d met a few times at family get togethers, since my father always considered Lexi his other daughter…but Sam was bubbly and she got a long with everyone.
“Are you here to see Pete?” she asks after a few minutes of silence.
“Yah, I mentioned stopping by the other day. He probably forgot…guess he didn’t mention it?”
She shook her head. “He doesn’t really tell me much sometimes. Actually we haven’t really seen much of each other today. He’s had a lot of sessions.”
My brother, Peter…he was a personal trainer here in New York. Sam worked at the front desk. They’d met when Peter applied here. Why did Peter move to New York from Toronto? Well, he said that he needed to be away from the family because he felt suffocated. I always laughed because that was exactly how I felt and why I always moved around a lot but I just hadn’t had enough balls to tell my father that.
“Do you think he’d be free to take a lunch break with me?”
She smiled. She was cute in an immature sort of way but hey, my brother was madly in love with her and if she made him happy than it made me happy. “I’ll page him up to the front.”
She went behind the desk again and her voice rang out over the P.A. System, calling Peter Fischer to the front.
I hadn’t seen Peter in a few weeks…not since I’d been down last helping Lexi with her move. This was actually the most we’ve seen each other in a long time. Within minutes I could see him coming from a room near the back of the gym. I hated him sometimes. I prided myself on my looks, but Peter…he had everything. Not only was he more buff he was also 2 inches taller. Not that 6’2 was anything to scoff at but next to Bliss I was the shortest.
He saw me right away and smiled at me. When he came up he immediately punched me in the shoulder.
“Hey little brother…What brings you by?” He reminds me of my Dad. Another thing Bliss and I had in common was that we were the two siblings that looked and acted the most like our absentee mother.
“Lunch…do you have time to grab some?”
He stares up at the ceiling a minute and then nods. “Sure, I don’t have another client until 2...I can give you some time.”
He notices Sam at the desk and goes behind to embrace and kiss her. She giggles and pushes him back toward the doors.
“Have fun boys.”
***
The first part of the lunch was mostly silent. We ate our hot dogs in central park…well Pete’s was a veggie dog and mine was all beef but he as a health nut. He lectured me a little about the dangers of processed food for about 2 minutes and then it was silent again until he finally got up the nerve to ask me the real reason why we were having lunch.
“So why did you really come down Jus?”
I look up at him. He’s not stupid. He knows that usually when I show up out of the blue it’s because something’s on my mind. Peter seemed to be the one all of us ended up talking to when we were bothered. Don’t know why, just turned out that way.
“Is it Lexi?”
“No…” I denied.
“Right. Look it’s alright to be jealous. You did have her first but you have to let her go, she’s not going to come back to you, especially if you start acting like a mega jerk.”
“I can’t help it. You saw the show… you saw what the lunatic did to me…”
Peter rolls his eyes. “I saw what you did to him.”
“Its part of the game…you know that…”
“Well then you should know better be the bigger man. What did you say to him at the end that got him so fired up anyway?”
“Nothing…” It was none of Peter’s business. It had been a lie anyway.
“Look I think your making a big mistake messing with Lexi’s love life.”
“That’s nice Peter….I know what I’m doing. I’m saving her the trouble of having to sign divorce papers again.”
“Whoa…she getting married again?”
“No…no. They’ve only been seeing each other like a month but still...she’s already saying she loves the guy….it’s a big mistake…”
“Not yours to correct even if it was.”
I sighed. Peter wasn’t going to side with me, especially when it came to Lexi. He was almost as protective of her as I was.
“You should look at other options. How long has it been for you anyway?”
I smirked. “One day.”
Peter slapped me on the back almost made me choke on my coke. “Really? Well I underestimated you.”
“Just a fling. I don’t think it will turn into anything.” I wasn’t going to tell him that I seduced the little interviewer just as a way to try and make Lexi jealous or that I wasn’t planning on calling her again.
“Well don’t discount it just yet. Take her out again….”
“Not really my type.”
“Not your type…you slept with her….”
“Not the dating type.” I smile and toss the paper from my dog into a garbage bin.
“Oh Justin…when are you going to realize that women are not objects…”
“I know that but the one woman I want I can’t have so all the others seem mediocre.”
“That ship has sailed. Let’s change the subject….tell me about your first match…”
I laugh. “Taufik, a submission specialist” I put up quote fingers with the ‘submission’
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Because I haven’t been witness to this so called skill set. He claims to also have been trained by some MMA god…”
“Wow…”
“He’s not a MMA though. Just knows the submission moves. But I’m good at submission too.”
“That you are little brother. You always got me but then again, I wasn’t really into the wrestling as much as you Jer were.”
My oldest brother Jeremy, a.k.a Titan was 6’11 and had just recently retired from wrestling in some little fed in the Midwest. I hadn’t spoken to him in months. Apparently, last I heard he and Bliss were fighting again…not surprising. He tried to have a tight reign on her and always managed to derail her dating plans.
“What else do you know?”
“Not much, I have to give him some credit, he did cut through the others in his debut match, it’s just it was a dark match so it doesn’t exactly give him a whole lot of credit.”
“Don’t ever underestimate your opponent. They may surprise you.”
“I know that. He’s an ass with a big bloody mouth and some of his comebacks want to make me hit my head against a wall.”
“You already did that…” Peter said with a laugh and I punched him. It didn’t faze him and if anything my knuckles stung a little after impacting his hard shoulder muscle.
“Don’t let your anger get out of control, you may think it’s your strength but it can also be your weakness.”
“I disagree.” And I did. I was planning on letting my Anger work in my favour this weekend. I was going to use everything I had to get Taufik down on that Mat and tapping for mercy. Then we would see who was better at submission.
“Just don’t do anything stupid.”
“Do I ever?”
Peter rolls his eyes. Yes I have done some pretty stupid things in my past, like letting Lexi slip through my fingers and right into Ryan’s arms and then again right in Drake’s. I was determined to prove to her that I was the one that she should be with. Fuck all my other reasonings from before, I wanted her and I was going to get her come hell or high water.
First, my goal was to bring down that Singapore jerk and make him look like a pussy in front of his new little girlfriend. I’d seen him with her recently. Turns out that Drake and I weren’t the only ones frequenting the Affinia. She wasn’t hard on the eyes…lord knows why she wanted to be with a guy with a face of a mackerel but to each their own….maybe she’d want to try a different brand of fish…. The ideas continued to flow through my mind, even long after I’d left Pete at his club and received another rib crushing hug from my Sister in law. A thought occurred to me, I was going to hit him where it really hurt, the heart.
