“Good for her,” Kurt said, nodding his approval. “So what happened over there earlier? Did she start the machine up too fast and couldn’t keep up with it?”
Adam shook his head. “No. She was doing a live update on some vlog she runs. When she ended the video, she apparently hit a button on the machine, and it sped up suddenly.”
Kurt paused before pulling out his phone and then began typing.
Adam regarded him a moment before asking, “What are you doing?”
“Looking up her vlog,” Kurt replied, tapping on his phone. “I’ve got to see that video.” He scrolled with his finger and tapped again. After a few more seconds, he said, “Ah, I think this is it.”
“How did you find that so fast?”
“Her membership form said she worked at the antique shop here in town, so I figured her vlog would be connected to the website. I was right.”
“Oh.”
As Kurt started the video, curiosity got the better of Adam, and he moved closer. The moment Preslee appeared on the screen and her soft voice reached his ears, warmth filled him, and he found himself smiling back at her. Well, at the phone screen anyway. The endearingly sweet woman was talking about some new antiques coming into her store soon, and her excitement was infectious. Clearly, she was passionate about her work.
Adam could relate.
As she wrapped up, Preslee said a quick farewell to her viewers and then reached for her phone. Adam expected that was where the video update ended and her misadventure with the stair-climber began, but that wasn’t quite what happened. Well, it was. Just not particularly in that order.
Instead, he watched her fumble for her phone, heard a beep on the machine, and then she began cursing like mad as the machine sped up to a level that even he wouldn’t dare attempt. She ran hard, breath panting out of her, as her hands held a death grip on the side bars.
Although Adam knew she was no longer in danger of injuring herself, he couldn’t help but hold his breath as the seconds ticked by. Seeing the panicked expression on her face a second time and the terror shining in her eyes up close and personal did something to him that he couldn’t explain. Like he wanted to jump through the screen and save her all over again.
No sooner had the thought occurred than the machine slowed to a stop and Adam appeared on the screen. Huh? Oh. It was when he hit the emergency stop button. Guess she hadn’t turned off the live feed when she thought she had. Which was fine. Or it would have been if Adam hadn’t known what was coming up next. Damn it. He cringed in horror as he realized that they were about to watch the one part that he didn’t want Kurt to see…again.
Kurt sat quietly with a huge grin on his face, clearly knowing what he was about to witness for the second time. Then his buddy laughed. “Ha! I knew it. You did sniff her hair. Like some kind of weirdo pervert.”
“Shut up,” Adam grumbled, shaking his head. It wasn’t like he’d leaned into the woman or buried his face into her hair. All he’d done was turn his nose toward the delicious scent wafting from her locks and inhale a little. That was it. Nothing nearly as sinister as Kurt was making it out to be.
Moments later, the video ended abruptly, as if Preslee had somehow accidentally turned it off. Adam immediately turned sideways and busied himself with some paperwork to keep from having to endure any more from Kurt. But it didn’t work.
Kurt continued scrolling with his finger, his eyes still focused on the screen. “Uh, I hate to tell you this, but I think your hair-sniffing debut is going viral.”
Adam’s head snapped up. “What?”
“Her followers are steadily increasing, and the video is being shared like crazy. Not only that, but there are tons of comments already on here. Everyone is asking which gym she’s working out in.”
“Great,” Adam said, scrubbing a hand over his face. That was just what they needed right now. Bad publicity.
After another minute, Kurt chuckled. “Man, you really need to read these comments. They’re hilarious.”
Oh, he could only imagine.
You should’ve walked down the stairs rather than up them.
This is how the war of the machines starts.
Why is that pervert sniffing your hair?
Adam shook his head. “No thanks. I don’t need that kind of negativity right now.”
“Negativity? No, you got it wrong. The comments are actually positive. Most of them are by people who laughed at the mishap and then apologized for laughing and said they were glad that she was okay. Then quite a few wanted to know which gym she was at, and to quote some of these women, they want to know who the ‘hottie’ is in the video with her.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope,” Kurt said, his face serious. “This could be a good thing for us, you know.”
“Maybe.”
Kurt sat quietly in his thoughts for a moment before speaking again. “You said she was here to lose weight, right? Maybe you could help her.”
“Yeah, I already told her that if she had any questions, you or I could answer them for her.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean you could be her trainer.”
Confusion swept through Adam. “She didn’t ask me to train her.”
“So?” Kurt shrugged. “Doesn’t mean you can’t offer your services. Besides, she seems a bit clumsy, and the last thing you need right now is someone getting hurt in your gym.”
“Preslee said she signed the waiver.”
Kurt’s eyebrow rose, probably from Adam using her first name in a familiar way, but he didn’t comment on it. “She did. But while the waiver is ironclad and she won’t be able to sue you, it still wouldn’t look good to potential clients if someone got hurt here. You know how fast word travels in small towns. And we want to promote a safe workout environment, right?”
“Of course,” Adam agreed, glancing across the room at Preslee again. “But she’s not the type of client I normally work with. All of the people I train are bodybuilders or fitness models who are trying to build muscle. All of them are here to gain weight.”
“Exactly. You’re known locally as the personal trainer with the most intense workouts and rigorous bodybuilding sessions around. That’s why we get only those types coming into the gym.” Excitement lit Kurt’s eyes. “But what if you were also known for something else? Something that could possibly draw in a lot of new gym members?”
“What do you mean?” Adam asked, not quite understanding where his friend was going.
Kurt gestured to Preslee. “The stair-climber incident speaks volumes. Lord knows she’s going to need someone to guide her. At least until she gets the hang of things. Losing weight is hard enough, but it’s even harder when you don’t have a good support system in place and someone to help keep you accountable and working toward a goal. You could do that for her. And with her vlogging about it…Well, like I said earlier, word travels fast.”
The idea struck a chord with Adam, and he realized exactly what had been missing from his gym all along. People like her. Non-bodybuilder types who needed a safe, unbiased place to meet their own personal fitness goals. Hell, Kurt was right. Preslee was just what he needed to draw a different crowd into the gym and make it the success he always knew it could be.