Nodding my head along to the music playing from my earbuds, I trudged my way out of the staff changing rooms. 

It was another day at work, and instead of manning the boxing classes, they had put me on the rota to personally train somebody in strength and conditioning. I was a little annoyed because these classes were usually a lot duller than the boxing ones and mostly consisted of me yelling at some dude or another that it didn't count as a plank if you're sticking your arse that far up in the air. 

Of course, I say it in kinder words...

All dressed up in my black sports bra and high-waisted leggings, I was on my way to the equipment room so I could start my workout before my client arrived.

As I was about to push open the door, I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I jumped a little in surprise. Pulling my earbuds from my ears, I turned around to see who was behind me. Instead of seeing my manager as I expected, my eyes landed on the striking green eyes of Nathan woods. 

"Nathan?" I asked in confusion as I surveyed him from head to toe. Instead of wearing his regular shirt and jeans, he wore some fitted jogging bottoms and a sleeveless blacktop. Naturally, this caused my eyes to drift towards his upper arms which were thickened with a rather impressive amount of muscle. 

He cleared his throat, and I snapped my eyes back up to his sharply. "Hmm, yes, what?" I stuttered out like a fool. I blushed when I realized he hadn't even said anything. 

"I mean, what are you doing here?" I said, correcting myself.

His mouth pulled up into the smallest of smiles as though watching me lose my cool was an absolute enjoyment for him.

"I'm here to work out," he said simply.

I narrowed my eyes. "But...er..you don't normally come here," I mumbled slowly. "Well, I mean you did one time for that boxing lesson which you randomly ran out of after I touched you," I rambled.

Before I had a chance to interrogate him further, the door to my boss's office suddenly swung open. Her eyes zeroed in on us almost immediately, and her thirty-something, overzealous self eagerly marched over to us. 

"Oh wonderful, you must be Mr woods?" she said stopping in front of Nathan with a bright warm smile.

 "Yeah, I am," he said with a nod, returning her smile with a polite one of his own.

"Sophie, was the personal trainer you wanted, right? You did say on the phone, you specifically wanted the blonde girl who teaches boxing?" she clarified as she looked between the two of us with a smile.

 I had to take a moment to make sense of the shocking words that were leaving my boss's mouth. I mean, I had to have misheard her because there was no way Nathan would ask for me on request. I mean, would he?

I immediately snapped my head towards Nathan and stared at him with questioning eyes. Nathan quickly broke eye contact and instead seemed rather fixated with staring at the floor.

  Oh my god, he had...

"Oh wait, I was supposed to keep that a secret, wasn't I?" my boss gasped as she slapped a hand over her mouth. 

Nathan's eyes deadened as he looked back at her, and he looked as though he was holding back on saying a lot of choice words. This made the situation that much more funny to me, and I bit my lip to contain my laughter. No wonder Brandon had a crush on her; she was awesome.

My boss winced. "I really am sorry, Mr woods. If it makes you feel any better, I think it's wonderful that you're actively pursuing your crush. Good for you," she smiled as she gave him a congratulatory double pat on the back.

 All tact was lost from me at that very second, and I let out a loud snort which I poorly tried to cover with a cough.

 Luckily my boss thought nothing of it and continued to look between the two of us fondly. "Well, I hope you two have a good class," she chirped before turning to leave.

As soon as she had walked a safe enough distance away, I burst into laughter and bent forward as I struggled for breath.

"What?" Nathan grumbled. 

Finally regaining my breath, I straightened myself out and stared at him with a wide-ass grin on my face. "Nothing, I just find it cute that you asked for me on request," I drawled as I took a step closer to him. "Would somebody like to admit that a certain girl might have grown on them? Perhaps enough for them to want to spend extra time alone with them," I teased as I gave his chest a playful poke. 

He made a growling sound in annoyance and ripped my hand away. "You're a tolerable acquaintance, not my friend, and I only asked for you because I didn't want the effort of interacting with a stranger," he grumbled before turning away from me and storming into the main gym room.

I laughed and quickly pushed through the doors to catch up with him. Doing a quick glance around the room, I saw there were only three other people in the room who were all spread out on various equipment. 

Excellent, plenty of space to torture him. 

I came to a stop once I caught up with him. "So, are you ready to start, or should we chat a little longer about your extremely deep obsession with me," I chuckled with an overly flirtatious wink.

Nathan gave me a flat look. "I'm going to go with the option that involves less of you talking, so let's start already," he spat out sarcastically.

 I couldn't help but smile even wider at his moodiness. I'm not sure when or how this started to happen, but watching him get all moody was oddly starting to seem quite cute. Weird...

"Okay, first, we need to warm up with some stretches. You can copy mine, or you can do some of your own, it's your choice," I explained.

With those last words, I hopped onto the ground so I was more comfortable before starting to do a few light arm stretches. Once I was done with that, I did a few low lunge stretches to lengthen out my hamstrings and calve muscles. My knee still ached a little, but my bandage was helping to alleviate some of the soreness. I briefly glanced to my side and smiled a little when I saw Nathan doing a poorer attempt at what I was trying to do.

I shook my head at him with a chuckle and crawled to his side. "You should keep your body square, and you shouldn't push your weight too far forward," I explained softly as I put my hands on his abs and angled him in the right direction. 

I braced myself for one of his rude, 'don't touch me' snide remarks, but it surprisingly never came. I guess his attitude had changed slightly since our last gym session. 

Well, either that or he had lost all strength to argue with me...

He glanced my way and smirked. "You're always looking for excuses to touch me, aren't you, Sophie?" he teased, his eyes shimmering with amusement.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my hands away from him. "That's smart talk from a boy who is so desperate to spend time with me that he shows up at my workplace," I hummed. "Am I right, or am I right?" I said flatly.

Nathan frowned and muttered something incoherent under his breath that rhymed with pitch.

"Now on to the next stretch," I announced as I jumped onto my feet. Standing with my legs far apart, I bent over and reached for my toes. I was two seconds into my stretch when I heard someone break out into a furious coughing fit behind me. 

I straightened myself and looked back at Nathan in confusion. For some reason, his eyes were hanging rather low down on my body. 

Suspiciously low...

As soon as he registered my staring, he snapped his eyes back up to mine and looked extremely guilty. "Hmm, y-yes?" he stuttered out clumsily.

I stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds, but I suddenly made the connection that my chosen position of stretching had likely caused his eyes to wander to a rather southern region of my body. 

I arched an eyebrow at him. "Natalie, did you get a good look at my arse that time, or would you like me to bend over again?" I commented slyly.

My comment must have caught him off guard as he widened his eyes even further, and he somehow managed to look even more guilty. "I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered out quickly before breaking eye contact.

His eyes darted around the room, clearly uncomfortable under the heat of my gaze.

"Well, I didn't mean to, it's just.... I...er, well...let's just get on with the session," he stuttered in a haphazard mess.

 I couldn't help but smile at how flustered he was. It was a trait I didn't think someone like Nathan could have, but right now, it looked as though he was drowning in it.

Deciding to give him a break, I chuckled and nodded my head. "Alright, let's start. What do you want to start with? Weight training? Cardio? Abs?" I suggested as I pointed to the corresponding machines that were scattered around the room.

"Let's start with weights, I guess," he shrugged. I nodded my head and gestured for him to follow me to the bench press machine. Upon reaching the area, I immediately bent down and started shuffling through the weight. 

"Should we start with one-hundred-and-thirty-five pounds?" I called out to him over my shoulder as I rummaged around for the right weight plates.

"No, give me two-hundred-and-sixty," he said plainly as he rudely nudged me out the way. I watched in bewilderment as he reached for the heaviest weights on the rack like the cocky son of the bitch he was.

Who the fuck did this geezer think he was?

I quickly intercepted him before he could remove it from the shelf and pushed him away. "You're not having that one, you idiot, that's the weight some advance people lift," I snorted.

 He didn't even blink after I said that. "Your point being?" he asked slowly.

I let out an incredulous laugh and turned away from him, needing time to process the sheer level of cockiness that was departing out of his mouth. Finally, I turned back to him. "Please tell me, you don't seriously think you can walk off the street with zero training and bench press the same amount as someone that's been doing it for years?" I snickered as I looked him up and down in amusement.

His eyes twinkled with challenge. "Wanna bet?" he smirked.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you for real right now?" I said flatly.

He didn't answer and instead walked behind me and over to the rack of weights. This time I didn't stop him and let him slide the weights onto the metal bar. Sometimes the only way for idiots to learn is for them to suffer.

As soon as he laid down on the bench press, I quickly moved behind him so I could get ready to spot him. Because boy, did he need somebody to spot him right now.

As I glanced down at his upside-down face, I saw his eyes shining right back up at me, burning with confidence. "Ready to eat your words?" he smirked. 

"No, I'm ready to call the ambulance," I snorted.

Nathan rolled his eyes and reached his arms up to grab the bar. I quickly did a glance over his positioning and was surprised to find that there was absolutely nothing I could correct him on. His hands were in the right place, his feet were planted, dare I say it, he looked perfect.

As Nathan removed the barbell off the stand, I expected his arms to buckle, so I braced myself to catch it. But they never did. In fact, his arms started to rep them. 

He lifted and lowered the bar to a steady and almost effortless rhythm. I didn't even pretend to hide my shock and stared. On his eighth rep, he put the barbell back on the upper stand with a satisfying click.

 Still laying down, he looked up at me with one of his insufferably overconfident smirks. "You were saying?" he said smugly. It was as clear as day from his technique and ability that he was quite comfortable around a bench press, but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know I was impressed by him.

I slowly closed my mouth and pretended to look uninterested.

 "Elites do more reps, with heavier weights," I shrugged. "And besides, I've seen people bench press a whole person before," I commented matter of factly.

The smug smile on Nathan's face soon faded, and he sat up sharply. "And why is that supposed to be harder? Most people weigh less than what I just did. I literally lifted around eighty pounds more than I weight," he scoffed.

"Well, human beings aren't shaped like barbell plates, so it's harder to maintain balance," I justified.

Nathan paused and pondered my words for a few seconds. Then, he slowly nodded his head with a fierce look of determination burning through his eyes.

 "Okay, you're on, let's do it," he said as he quickly rose to his feet. I furrowed my brows as he unloaded the barbells off the bar before settling himself into a lying position on the bench.

I looked down with a confused smile. "What the fuck are you doing on the benchpress without any weights?" I chuckled.

 "I don't need weights. I'm bench pressing you," he stated confidently. 

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Author's note: 

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I remember it being fun to write despite the fact it was about a place I hate. (The gym)

Next Update: Wednesday (6-8 PM - UK time)