No Rep (Madd CrossFit 1)

I was still waiting to hear what baseline was.

As if he heard my thoughts, he grinned and said, “Baseline is five hundred meters on the rower, forty squats, thirty sit-ups, twenty push-ups, and ten pull-ups.”

I didn’t even think I could do one pull-up, let alone ten.

The others I had a feeling I could get through.

Though, just sayin’, but I hadn’t done push-ups in years. And even then, I’d done what Mavis had called ‘girl’ push-ups.

“Any questions?” he asked as he glanced around the room.

Yet again, his eyes came to land on me, and I felt like he was calling me out specifically.

I flushed and shook my head.

He nodded and turned back to the whiteboard. “All right. Everyone grab a band and let’s get started.”

He then proceeded to walk us through the warmup, which was, in my opinion, a workout in and of itself.

It felt good, though, to have my muscles straining.

It felt… freeing.

After we were done with our ‘warmup,’ I watched as he walked over to an older lady in the back and helped her with her squat form.

He touched the back of her leg lightly and then brought a ball up to her backside.

He then demonstrated what he wanted her to do.

The bad thing was, I wanted him to demonstrate on me.

All night long.

“You really have to control yourself,” I heard whispered from beside me.

I frowned and looked over at the unfamiliar voice.

“Are you talking to me?” I questioned.

Surely, she wasn’t.

But, sadly for her and for me, she was talking to me.

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” she smirked. “My husband is used to it, after all, but that doesn’t make it any better.”

Husband?

Husband?!

Why wouldn’t Mavis…

“Surely you remember that ugly divorce y’all went through last year, right, Maria?” Mavis drawled. “The one that you brought into this very gym and tried to ruin his career and his friendship with his best friend?”

What the hell?

“Don’t call me Shirley,” the woman hissed.

I had no heart to correct her and tell her that Mavis wasn’t calling her anything.

“And I’m back here to try to win him back. It’d be best if y’all didn’t try to stand in my way,” Maria continued as if she hadn’t just embarrassed herself.

My eyelid twitched.

I had been in the woman’s presence for all of thirty seconds, and I already felt bad for Taos having to spend even a second more with her.

“Well, good luck with that,” Mavis cheerfully replied as she caught my hand and led us away.

“Who the fuck was she?” I wondered the moment we were far enough away from both Taos and his ex-wife.

“Maria. Taos’ ex-wife. The keeper to the gates of hell.” Mavis rolled her eyes. “They were married for a few years. Shit happened that I don’t know about. Then Maria started to come here to get a rise out of him. A few of the members asked her to stop, so she did. But apparently, she got bored or something because she’s back. I don’t know all, though. Just everything that happened here. By the way, a CrossFit gym is like a bunch of gossiping girls. You won’t be able to do something in the eight thirty class and not hear about it in the six o’clock class. And vice versa.”

Gee whiz. I hoped that I didn’t do anything too embarrassing and make it to where everyone heard about it.

“Everyone back from the bathroom and ready to go?” came Taos’ lovely, deep-timbred voice.

“Ready, Coach!” Maria cooed.

I wondered if she was just trying to piss him off.

My guess was that she was.

I narrowed my eyes at Taos’ pained expression.

He looked annoyed that he even had to coach her.

And I decided, right there and then, that I was going to beat the hell out of her in the workout.

Taos grinned slightly at something that a young girl who looked more than a little frightened said to him up front, and I couldn’t help but grin myself at his smile.

Then he started pointing a remote at a clock, and I felt sick to my stomach.

“Everyone find a rower!”

Then I was on my rower, next to my sister, about to do my first workout in a very long time.

And I hadn’t even been nervous or scared or even thrown up once.

Hell yeah.

I could do this.

Taos didn’t realize it, but he was helping me.

His wife’s drama. His smile.

His voice.

They were all…

“Go!”

I hadn’t worked out in two years, and it showed.

By the time I was a minute into the workout, I felt like I was going to throw up.

By the time I was two minutes into the workout, I knew that it wasn’t a matter of if I was going to throw up, but when.

I kept glancing over at Maria, who looked like she was breezing through the workout.

But still, I kept myself in front of her.

By the last minute of me doing the workout, I was on empty.