And So It Begins

Noah

Determined to convince Jack that he was ready to start training, Noah walked into the gym office with a purpose. As soon as he and Gio were in, the guys already there started laughing. Noah frowned. "What's so funny?"

None of them said anything. Abel smirked, walking out of the office. Hector could barely contain himself. Jack was the only one not laughing. He held a clipboard and handed it to him. "You wanna train, Quintanilla? Today's your lucky day. I got two out there that walked in with free one-week passes. You got a week to prove to me you can do this."

Noah could hardly believe it. For nearly a year now, he'd been trying to convince Jack he could do training like the trainers that Jack so meticulously handpicked. First, Jack said he'd give him a shot when he turned nineteen; then when he turned nineteen almost a year ago, it'd been one excuse after another. Jack had hired him years ago as a maintenance boy. The pay wasn't much, but he also got to work out at the gym and train with some of the other boxers for free. In exchange, he maintained the equipment, helped keep the place clean, threw the towels in the washing machine then dryer, and wiped down the exercise machines—no brainer stuff.

After watching other trainers for years, he knew he had it in him to train, and the pay was much better than his maintenance position. Since his shoulder injury had put his boxing on hold for at least another three months, going pro or even semi-pro, where he had the potential of actually making some money from his fighting, would be pushed out even longer. He needed this money now.

Noah threw his gym bag on the floor and glanced at the clipboard, still smiling. It was the standard workout sheet.

"They're total beginners." Jack said. "So you'll have your work cut out for you."

"Are they training to box?" Noah glanced at Hector, who held his fist against his mouth stifling a laugh. "What's with you?"

"Nothing." He nearly squeaked the word out before hurrying out of the office.

Gio walked out of the restroom. He'd gone straight to it as soon as they got there, so he'd missed everything. "Ready to work out?" he asked.

"Nah," Noah smirked, lifting the clipboard at him. "I'll be training today."

Gio's brows went up. "Really?"

"They're waiting," Jack said. "You should get out there."

Noah winked at Gio, who still looked surprised but smiled. If anyone knew how bad Noah wanted to move up to trainer, it was Gio. Not only did he know how bad he wanted it but how bad he needed the raise. Ever since he turned eighteen, he'd been paying his foster parents so he could continue to stay with them. They insisted he didn't have to pay them, but it didn't feel right.

Once he turned eighteen, the state stopped paying them to keep him there, and with four other foster kids and two of their own, he knew they needed the money. He'd even moved into their garage to make room for the new foster kid they picked up once they were no longer being compensated for him, but what he really wanted was to get his own place. That wasn't going to happen with his maintenance-boy pay.

The gym was busy as usual, and tonight he noticed two women there when he walked in. That was rare. Although it wasn't an all-male gym, it was known mainly as a boxing gym. Women came in once in a while, but most of the time it was with ulterior motives—they were there on the prowl. Most women, like most of the girls he went out with, preferred the fancier gym at the mall.

He glanced around as he stepped out of the office, searching for his would-be trainees. He saw a couple of unfamiliar guys punching a bag. Being there almost daily, he knew just about every one of the members, so he figured these two new faces were it. Leaning back into the office, he asked, "Is it the two guys by the punching bags?"

"No," Jack said, stepping out and standing next to him. "That's who you'll be training." He pointed at the two women he'd seen when he walked in.

Suddenly, Noah knew why the guys had been laughing. He turned back to Jack, wondering if this was a joke. Jack lifted a shoulder. "They're here to be trained. So go train them."

"For boxing?"

Noah knew girls who boxed, but these two women didn't look in any shape for it. They weren't even dressed appropriately. Loose fitting sweat suits were not going to cut it in the ring.

"I dunno. They didn't say. Go find out."

Noah glared at Jack. If this was Jack's idea of a joke, he was going to be pissed.

"What?" Jack asked. "I really was looking to give you a shot at training this week. These two just happened to walk in today, and I got no one else available. So they're women. What's the big deal?" He smirked. "You might even score."

Noah still glared at him. "Ha, ha." They both looked old enough to have been married for years. "They're probably in here to lose weight from the last kid they had."

Finally moving his glare away from Jack, he glanced toward the women who stood awkwardly by the door. The heavier one seemed to be inching her way closer to the door.

"Get over there before they bail."

Reluctantly, he walked away from Jack and toward the two women. As he reached them, the shorter mousy looking one smiled big while the heavier one stood a bit guardedly behind her, making no attempt to hide her unease. He reached out his hand to the mousy one. "Hey, I'm Noah. I hear you're here to train."

She shook his hand. "I'm Nellie," she said then turned to her friend. "This is my friend Ron—" She stopped when her friend gave her a look. "Uh, Veronica."

Veronica held her hand out, barely making eye contact with him before glancing away.

"We're looking to get into shape. Neither one of us have worked out in a while, so you'll have to go easy on us." Nellie said, handing him the clipboards with their signed waivers.

Noah took them, laughing. "No such thing." He noticed Veronica's big eyes grow even bigger, but he wasn't holding anything back. If this was his chance to prove himself to Jack, getting these two out-of-shape women even slightly trained would be quite the feat. "Might take more than a week, but Jack's rates are more than reasonable. Not only that, he's been known to extend the free period to a few weeks if you ask nicely."

Both women stared at him then glanced back at each other. Nellie shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

"All right." He smiled, trying to sound more sure about this than he felt. "Let's get started. Follow me."

He started filling out the workout sheets, writing their names down on the top of each sheet. When they reached the scale, he turned to face a wide-eyed Nellie, and Veronica's face had nearly gone white. "Is there a problem?"

"You're weighing us?" Nellie, who at this point seemed to be the spokesperson of the two, asked.

"Well, yeah. How else will we know by the end of the week if you've lost any weight?"

Veronica shook her head very slightly, but she finally spoke up. "I don't wanna get weighed if that's okay with you, Noah."

It was only then that Noah realized it was the first time he'd heard her speak. Her voice was deep and husky and a little too firm. He smiled, noticing another thing about her for the first time. Even though she was about the same height as Nellie, she was anything but mousy. It wasn't just because she was heavier either. Her highly arched eyebrows gave her a very confident appearance, almost too confident. Though at the moment, he was sure her arched eyebrows had nothing to do with confidence. She was trying to get out of being weighed. That wasn't happening. If he was going to do this, he was doing it right.

"Actually, it's not okay, Veronica. It's part of the training; I gotta keep track of your progress."

She crossed her arms in front of her, shifting her weight and unbelievably the eyebrow went even higher. "I'm not getting on that scale."

"Oh come on, Roni," Nellie said, slipping off her shoes. "What's the big deal? I'll go first."

Roni? Noah ignored the name, but he had to smirk at Veronica's exasperated expression. He stepped closer to adjust the weights on the scale and jotted Nellie's weight down. Right around what he thought for her height and body size—hundred thirty-nine. "Oh my God. I've actually lost a few pounds." She turned to Noah, her smile dissolving when she saw his unimpressed expression. "Yeah, I know I need to lose more."

"It's a good thing you're here," Noah said, setting the weight back down to zero. He turned to Veronica. "Your turn."

"I'm not getting on that thing."

"Look." He brought the clipboard down against his leg. "I can pretty much guess what you weigh just by looking at you. Why not get the exact number?"

"Because I'm not getting on that thing. So guess all you want."

Noah stared at her stubborn lips, now pressed together tightly. "Fine—one eighty."

Her jaw dropped momentarily, and she seemed genuinely scandalized, but she composed herself quickly.

"You two know how to stretch, right?" Nellie nodded, Veronica wouldn't even look at him. "Great. Start stretching, standing up. I'll go grab some mats so you can stretch on the floor too."

He glanced again at Veronica, who was obviously still upset about his guess of her weight. She should be thankful. He'd been nice about it. Though he said one sixty, he wrote one eighty-five. Walking back to the equipment room to pull out some mats, he cursed Jack under his breath. This was going to be one long ass week.