Page 10 of Nate

To distract himself, Kevin looked towards the front of the gym. The door had just opened and five guys and one woman came in. All of them were tall and in ridiculously good shape. He recognized them immediately. “That’s Pollux and The Chancellor and Slade...” He trailed off without naming the rest of the group. They were all wrestlers with Frontier Professional Wrestling.

Nate looked over his shoulder. “You know them, huh?”

“Yeah. You’re probably gonna think I’m a giant nerd, but I watch professional wrestling. What are they doing here?”

“They use my gym whenever they’re in town because they know they won’t be bothered.”

Kevin’s face fell. He guessed that meant he couldn’t ask for a picture with them.

Nate looked at the group checking in at the front desk then back to Kevin. “Tell you what. You give me thirty squat thrusts with no break in between and I’ll introduce you to them. That’s in addition to the rest of your already scheduled workout.”

“Are you serious?” Kevin was all for it, but he squelched his immediate desire to say yes. “I don’t want them to stop coming here because of it.”

“It’s cool. I’m friends with Slade, we used to fight in the same underground fight club.”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “No way!”

“Our lives took different paths when we called it quits. He went into professional wrestling and I opened up a line of fitness centers.”

“So that’s why you looked so good in there earlier today.”

Nate’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

Kevin’s face flushed hot with embarrassment at what he’d almost copped to. He hoped Nate just assumed it was from exertion. “Nothing.”

Nate watched him with curiosity on his face, but didn’t press the issue. “Are you doing the squat thrusts or not?”

Kevin looked over at the group. They’d spread out on the other side of the free weights section. It would be cool to get a picture with them here instead of standing in line for hours to meet them at a con. “Okay.”

“Let’s go then.”

Kevin dropped down, touched his palms to the ground and thrust his feet back. He jumped back up. Nate started his count.

“One.”

∞∞∞

Kevin thumbed through the pics on his phone after his shower. He’d gotten in all thirty of his squat thrusts without stopping. After he’d had a chance to catch his breath, Nate had taken him to meet the guys. He’d been nervous of course, but they’d been cool, thanking him for being a fan and happily posing for several pictures with him. Nate really was friends with Slade. They’d caught up for a few minutes while Kevin took solo pictures with everyone else in the group. He’d tried not to be too star struck, but he wasn’t sure if he’d pulled it off.

He’d posted the pics on social media, making sure not to share the name of the location. If the wrestlers wanted privacy during their workouts he’d honor that. And he knew if he put the name of the gym up, they’d have fans staking the place out the next time they were in town. Kevin smiled and set his phone on the kitchen table. That had been really decent of Nate to do for him. The guy really was nice.

The timer on the oven had gone off when he walked into the kitchen. He’d popped fish and vegetables in the oven just before his shower. Kevin checked to make sure the fish flaked from his fork before he took it out of the oven. Everything looked good, so he dished it up on a plate. He’d just sat down to eat when his phone dinged. His friend, Alex, had left a comment on the album he’d just posted.

This is awesome! How did you meet these guys?

Kevin smiled and started typing.They came into the gym I just joined. I told you you should start coming to work out with me.

Lol. If I’d known that was part of the package, I might have come.

Ha! It’s not. The owner doesn’t normally let anyone bother them, but he broke the rule for me when he saw how much I wanted to meet them.

Alex posted an emoticon with raised eyebrows.Really? Why would he do that?

Motivation. Had to do thirty extra squat thrusts first.He set the phone down and took a few more bites of fish. His phone dinged again. He picked it back up to see Alex had posted a pic of the movie poster from Clueless. Kevin’s eyebrows drew together in confusion.Huh?he typed.

Nothing. You want to go to their show tonight?

Yeah, get the tix and I’ll PayPal you.

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