I laughed. “If you say so.”
I could tell I was getting a rise out of him and it's exactly what I wanted?for the topic to get off of Natalie.
“You're a dick, man.”
“Ahhh, I'm just busting your balls. I love Crystal; you know that. But you should bring her to the gym sometime.”
“Let's just finish this workout and get the hell out of here.”
I loved my brother, but he was easy to get to if I really wanted to. When he met Crystal, she was a sweet piece of work. All ass and tits, and everything was firm. They had been together for two years now, and she just gotten a little too comfortable in the relationship with her fighter boyfriend and had eaten one too many bags of chips. She no longer went to the gym, and although it was true she wasn't fat, she could definitely stand to lose the 20 pounds she packed on. Craig was sensitive about the issue because he didn't like the extra weight she had gained. They often fought about it because Crystal didn't like him bringing up her weight. Anyway, the two of them had issues, and if I ever needed to change the subject, bringing her up was a great way to do that.
We set ourselves up to do chin-ups, and we worked at doing 25, which was a sick amount. When I finished my set, every muscle in my upper body burned, especially my arms, which felt like noodles. Next, Craig did a set of 15 chin-ups, and then we went to do shoulder presses.
We continued on through our workout, hitting chest, shoulders, and we finished up with abs. We continued chatting about nonsense, and the conversation never went back to Natalie, which I was relieved about.
“When was the last time you talked to Mom?” Craig asked me.
“I don't know; last week I guess. Why?”
“Oh just wondering. She invited Crystal to some benefit, and she wants me to go with her. Are you going?”
“I haven't heard anything about it, and if I had, I would have declined. I don't have time for that shit, man. Mom always has these benefits and charity things, and dressing up to go save the owls or whatever other crusade she gets on is fucking ridiculous.”
Craig howled with laughter. “You got her right on the nose, man. I think Mom has too much time on her hands. She should have gone to work after we all grew up. Too many brunches with the ladies have gotten to her head.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I feel for you, man. But you can always tell Crystal to go stag; it wouldn't be the end of the world. She would still get wined and dined. I think a plate at these events goes for like $500.”
“Yeah, I know. It's crazy.”
“Anyways, I'm fucking beat. Let's hit the showers.”
Craig nodded, and we trudged out of the weight area. By now, my coach had left for the day, and there weren't too many of my teammates left around. I was looking forward to hitting the shower and getting cleaned up since I was covered in sweat, and I smelled worse than a pig.
We got into the locker rooms, and I grabbed a towel from my locker. I stripped down and put my sweaty clothes in the mesh pocket of my gym bag, so that I could take them home to wash later. I headed to the shower and opened the door to turn on the tap. Warm water poured out, and I adjusted it until it came out hot. Steam started to rise out from the shower, and I stepped in. I quickly rinsed off before grabbing the bar of soap. I soaped down my entire body, scrubbing off the sweat and grime of the gym. I rinsed again, and grabbed some shampoo out of the bottle on the shower ledge. I scrubbed my hair and rinsed, not bothering with the conditioner. Now that I was squeaky clean, I leaned my head back into the showerhead, and let hot water course over my body, pulling some of the pain and soreness with it. There was nothing better than a hot shower after a hard workout. I believed it not only cleaned my body, but my soul as well. I just felt so much better prepared to take on the world afterwards. I turned off the faucet, and opened the shower door. I stepped out, closing the door behind me, and grabbed my towel. I quickly dried off, and went to find my clothes.
I got clothes out of my gym bag and dressed before I checked myself out in the mirror and did a quick body flex.
Man, I looked good.
I checked my phone for messages while I waited for Craig to get out and get dressed. I heard the shower shut off, and he got out to dry himself off and get changed.
“Hey, Jet
, I'm going for lunch with Crystal and Dad. You should come.”
I groaned inwardly, but didn't say anything. The last thing I wanted to do was to go have lunch with my dad. My dad was not a fan of my MMA career aspirations. He thought it was a cool hobby to have, but it didn't make any sense to him as a career. If I went to lunch with them, we would get into yet another debate about how I should take over the billion-dollar tech business he created from the ground up. Sometimes I thought that was all the old man ever talked about. I was bloody sick of it, and I had no intention of going into the family business, so I fervently wished my father would get over it, already. I loved my brother, however, so I thought I would go on his behalf.
“Yeah, I guess that would be cool.”
“Don't sound too excited or anything,” he laughed.
“No, sorry, it's not that. I just don't want to get into another argument with Dad. It's frustrating.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. It won't be like that though, I promise. I'll stop him if he starts in on you again.”
“I'll hold you to that, man.”
“Hey, maybe you should get Natalie to come. You know, since you guys are fuck buddies now. Dad would just love that you are dating an art student. It may even distract him from focusing on you at lunch.”