Lethner's Service

Chapter 11 - Small Blue Orb

The next week. .

Quinn's POV

I sit on one of the soft benches in the corner of the gym. Hayley Williams wasn’t able to finish the chorus of her song entitled Dead Horse because I remove my ear pods from my ears.

Obviously, I love Paramore. My playlist is full of Paramore’s songs –from that loud drums and sounds of Ignorance to the soft and angelic The Only Exception to the most recent ones. You know some things only fan girls like me can relate.

I take a quick glance at my dearest friend, Enid who suddenly had a change of heart the moment her eyes had a sight with that guy who bumped me at the park.

Yes, it’s Jabes I'm talking about.

Aside from Mr. Lethner’s undeniably gorgeous physical features, I don’t know why Enid is so after him. It’s our day off today and she forced me to go with her inside this gym full of gym bunnies and men wearing nothing but athletic shorts, with all those kind of arms—muscled, hard, tattooed, sweating, extending, stretching, flexing, contracting...yeah? Whatever word that ends with -ing. Plus those prominent bulges on their tight stretchable gym shorts.

I sigh and roll my eyes while looking at Enid who’s soaking her shirt with her sweat because she’s running on the treadmill. Her two-layered belly, sagged boobs, and butt are bouncing while running and just by merely looking at her, I feel like I’m the one who’s losing my breath.

I also wanted to puke when my eyes settle to her leggings –right at that very part. It looks like she had pulled her leggings all the way up to her navel.

Oh? No... Scratch that!

I think the garter of her leggings reached that part exactly below her breasts because that slice in the middle of her legs is becoming visible and prominent to my poor eyes. I shake my head dismissing all of those gross images.

She’s been running there for like an hour and she looks like a hamster running inside that treadmill like there’s no tomorrow. She really is determined to lose her weight for Mr. Lethner.

She is sexy for me. She doesn’t have to do this but I have to support her because I love her.

I shake my head again from side to side. Aside from Enid forcing me to go with her, I don’t know what I’m doing inside this place. I did not even had a single drop of sweat since I stepped inside this gym and I just find myself filling up my water bottle from the water dispenser at the side.

"Bree!" I turn to face the owner of that voice.

My dear Enid is panting and catching her breath. She looks like she just came from a shower because only the hem of her shirt is dry. Everything else is soaked with her sweat.

"Mm-hm?" I mumble while bringing the lid of my water bottle to my lips.

"I think I lost two kilograms."

Good thing I had just swallowed the water I am drinking because if not, I may have showered it to her face. I laughed at her. Is she really serious about her question? I close the water bottle before I look at her.

“You’re not serious.” I sarcastically say while softly laughing,

“What? Did I say something funny? I feel a lot lighter than the last time I went here.” she grabs her yellow towel from her gym bag and dries the sweat all over her face and neck.

She even brings it inside the sleeves of her shirt, wipes the sweat from her armpit, and tries to bring it closer to my face.

“You’re so gross!” I push her away while laughing.

This woman is really disgusting sometimes. How dare her make me smell her wet armpit?!

She smells that part of her towel which she just wiped from her armpit and sniffed the air like she smells a fragrant perfume.

“My armpit smells good. You can live in here. You’re just overreacting.” she proudly utters.

“I don’t know what you saw with that guy that you changed like this. You even deprived yourself from eating your favorite foods just to lose your weight!”

I sit on the soft bench again.

“Briella, if you can’t support me with the things that I love, you may leave this place and live peacefully.” she rolls her eyes and sits beside me.

“Enid, my dear. You know how much I love you whether you’re fat, oversized or you become sexy, petite, skinny, and malnourished. Even if I don’t agree with your life decisions sometimes, I still love you so much and you know I’m just supporting you the best that I can while you’re catching your breath running on that treadmill.”

“Oh... How sweet of you! I love you too!” she tries to open her arms and hug me but I push her.

She’s soaked with her sweat and I don’t want my face to be buried in between her big breasts. Enid smirks and grabs my water bottle. She brings it in her mouth and I hear that sound of her throat when she gulps and swallows the water.

“Aren’t you bored of sitting here? Why don’t you try those bikes? The yummy gym instructor told me that’s a good leg and cardio exercise.”

“I don’t think I can last a minute with that. You know I went here with you because you forced me right?”

Yes! Enid forced me like literally pulling my arm.

“Wearing that leggings and sports b*a is useless. Wait? Don’t tell me you came here just to flex your body to those bunches of sexy and yummy guys?”

“What?” I exaggerately asks,

I don’t know where Enid got that idea.

“What is it in my body that I have to flex? These ribs?” I laugh while asking her. She looks at me from head to toe back to my abdomen.

“When will I have that kind of body?” Enid asks like a hopeless kid dreaming of her favorite toy. “How can I avoid those foods?” she sighs with pouting lips and furrowed eyebrows.

I tap her shoulder.

“You have something that others dream to have. You just don't realize but you are sexy.”

She smirks.

“Plasticity at its finest!”

I shake my head.

“Okay fine! Go lose your weight!”

“How?!”

“You can do it. Trust me. But first, do me a favor.”

“What?”

I stand in front of Enid and softly pinch that soft, cute, fluffy, and prominent flesh in between her legs.

“Ouch! What are you doing?” she slaps my hand while cupping her private part.

“Your v****a looks like that letter V with that freaking slice in between. Did you intentionally pull your leggings all the way up to your navel to catch the attention of those men? A piggy bank’s coin hole is located on its back and not on its p***y! Pull your leggings down a bit before I insert a coin inside that slice, b***h!”

Enid looks at that very part and stretches her very tight black leggings. She pulls it down a bit until the sight of that disgusting slice isn’t visible anymore.

“Happy?” she sarcastically asks me and quickly pinches my precious girl too.

“Aw!” I hardly laugh while slapping her arm.

She really is not contented without making revenge. I really felt like few of my pubic hairs were pulled out when Enid pinched me there. I haven’t shaved my girl down there, you know.

We’re laughing hard inside the gym when someone interrupts with us.

“Hello, ladies!” I turn my back to face the owner of that voice. It’s the gym instructor.

“Hi, Phil!” Enid waves her hand at him like they’ve known each other for decades.

“We have a suggestion box right at the side of the glass door. It will be nice if you drop your suggestions there so that we can improve the services inside this gym.” the gym instructor smiles at me.

His teeth are so white and perfect. I wonder if those were real. He’s wearing a gray sleeveless shirt and gym shorts. I don’t know why but I don’t like his built. His body has the likeness of Johnny Bravo. His arms are way too muscled and I think if I punch him, my fists will get swollen.

“Sure, we’ll drop by there before we leave.”

The conversation is just between Enid and this gym instructor whose name is Phil but his eyes are glued to me. I don’t know why.

Do I have dirt on my face? Do I have eye boogers?

"You didn't tell me you have a beautiful friend here, Enid." Phil says while his eyes are still glued on me. "Hi, I'm Phil." he lends his hand and smiles at me again.

I stare at Enid with questioning eyes and she’s actually looking at me too. I raise both of my eyebrows giving her shall-I-accept-his-hand? kind of look. She also raises her eyebrows like she’s giving me the permission to do it. We obviously understood each other just my looking into each other’s eyes.

I turn to Phil and shake his hand.

“Briella. My name’s Briella.” I introduce myself and shyly smile.

He smiles too. Okay, we smiled to each other. What now?

Let go of his hand, b***h!

My subconscious suddenly interrupts. I forgot to let go of his hand when we did shake hands.

“Nice meeting you Briella.” he smiles at me again. He really is fond of showing his white and beautiful teeth.

“I’ll go and drop something on your suggestion box. Enid wants to try those...” I scan my eyes to the gym equipments around the place, “...those leg press machine. Yes, s-she wants to try it. Right? Enid? Yes? Yes, she wants to try it.”

I softly push Enid towards Phil and the latter almost lost his balance when Enid trips on his foot. I quickly walk towards that suggestion box and leave both of them. I actually don’t have anything to write or drop inside. I just don’t like how Phil looks at me. He looks intimidating.

I grab the small paper and the pen on the table and start to write something on it. Wait? What will I write anyway? I think, the ambiance of the place is good. The instructors are polite and approachable, the equipments are complete and in good condition, everything looks perfectly fine.

I smile when a hilarious idea pops up my creative mind.

“Everything is perfectly fine. I just want my friend, Enid Tonely to be as fit as she wants. It will be a great gift for me. Thank you.” I even put a small heart at the end of the sentence and shade it completely before folding it into half and insert it inside the box.

I wish it’s Phil who will read the paper inside or are they really reading it? I’m hoping someone from here with a good heart reads it and helps my friend.

I turn my back and watch Enid happily doing some leg exercise with Phil. She really is exerting her effort to fulfill her life’s greatest goal and I am genuinely happy for her. She looks at me and smiles. I also smile at her and show her my thumb which means she’s doing well.

Just when I am about to go back to the bench, my body jerks a little when I heard those dangling bells hung just above the glass door. Someone just opened it.

And when I turn my back to check who it was, my pupils dilated.

After a week of not seeing him, here I am again –crossing paths with him.

Isn’t this world too small for us?

. . .

. . .

Jabes' POV

I never had any appointments with any of my customers after that night with Emery last week. I just came from Dr. Morgan’s clinic for HIV and STD examinations and I thank the heavens above for I am doing well and the results are all negative.

After my examinations, I decided to have some workout sessions in my favorite gym –the Phil's Fitness Club. If I am not mistaken, I missed two weeks of workout because of my busy schedule and I’m pretty sure that my friend, Phil will be surprised if he sees me today.

I park my car at the space before grabbing my gym bag. I miss how my body sweats whenever I do series of boxing on the punching bags and my favorite workout routine –the cable biceps bar. I hang my gym bag on my right shoulder and as I push the door open, the long dangling bells hanging above it produce a sound that caught the attention of the people nearby especially the lady who wears that pink sports b*a, tight black leggings, and white sketchers shoes.

I know she’s a new member of this fitness club because I have never seen such body before. I mean there were sexy bunnies here but not like that body of her which has the likeness of an hourglass. Those black leggings just perfectly fit to her curvaceous buttocks. I wonder what it feels to slap those butt cheeks.

My lips open in shock when she turns her back upon hearing the sound of the bells.

The f—

Why is she in here?

After few days of not seeing her, I never expected that our paths will cross again. I can visibly see the shock on her face, the same exact expression when we met at the hotel lobby. I smile at her but she just nonchalantly turns her back and sit on that bench.

“Mr. Lethner!”

“Jamie boy!”

Phil calls my name in chorus with that woman… If I am not mistaken, I’ve seen her before.

Right!

At the hotel, she’s also a hotel receptionist. I smile at both of them who immediately stops with the leg exercise from the leg press machine. I put my gym bag at the side and approach them. The lady really seems to be enthusiastic because I can see the sparkles on her eyes and how that wide smile reaches almost both of her ears. Phil grabs my hand and hits my left shoulder with his shoulder which we usually do when we see each other. It’s like a brother thing which guys like us understand.

“Man! Where have you been?” Phil asks me smiling while that woman is still staring at me.

She looks so cute with that sweat shirt. It has a motivational and heavy print on it that says Go Girl!

“I had a lot of appointments the last weeks that’s why I –“

“Bree, wait up! Where are you going? Hey!”

I stop mid-sentence when I heard the woman calling Quinn who’s now holding her water bottle and bag, walking towards the door like someone is running after her. Phil and I both turn our backs to her while her friend grabs her from her arm.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“I need to go home, Enid. I still need to fix myself. Remember? I’ll be going to aunt Jelly’s dinner with my family tonight?”

“It’s just eight in the morning for goodness sake. How dare you leave without even calling me?”

“I really need to go, Enid.” she tries to pull her arm from the lady she calls Enid but her friend is way too strong.

Enid pulls back her arm and pushes her to the bench. Phil and I are just looking at both of them arguing like siblings.

“What’s wrong with you?” Quinn rolls her eyes and tries to stand up but Enid pushes her back. She sighs in disgust.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but Enid is right, Briella. It’s just eight in the morning. Why are you leaving so soon? She’s not yet finished with her leg exercise and besides I haven’t seen you touched any of the gym equipments here nor do basic exercise since you stepped inside this place.” Phil politely approaches and interrupts them from arguing.

So Phil knows Quinn? I heard him calling her first name.

“I know but...” she stops and glances at me and avert her gaze back to Phil. “My stomach is aching. I need to –“

I softly laugh when Enid pulls Quinn’s arms which are hugging her stomach.

“Stop these dramas before I punch you. It isn’t working. If you don’t want to do some workouts then at least just stay as what you’ve promised me.”

Quinn sighs in defeat and rolls her eyes as her answer. I know she wants to leave because of me. She doesn’t want to see me and doesn’t want the idea of me being in the same place with her. After what I did to her that day, I don’t expect her to be in good terms with me.

I just grab the hem of my shirt and pull it off my body. I’ll just pretend like she’s not here and focus my full attention to those cable biceps bars.

I clip the rope attachment to the lowest level on the adjustable cable machine and grab the bar with an underhand grip. Then I fully extend my arms with palms facing forward. Without movement from my upper arms, I slowly bend my elbows and curl the bar as close to my shoulders as I can. I repeat that routine for several times until I feel my sweat coming out my body. I am about to curl the bar again when I heard a soft chuckle not far from my side.

“Oh my gosh! I’m sorry.” It’s Quinn laughing with Phil.

She’s doing some squats with him and I think she accidentally hit Phil on the face because the latter is massaging his cheek. They seem to be enjoying.

“It’s okay.” Phil also laughs while assisting and teaching Quinn on how to do proper squats. “Your hips should go lower than your knees, like this.” Phil instructs and demonstrates it to her.

“Am I doing it right?” she asks after copying what Phil is showing to her.

She bends down and tries to lower her hips and I think my throat dries up the moment I saw her lowering her hips which emphasized her big and curvaceous butt.

“I didn’t know you’re a fast learner, Briella. That’s right. You’re doing it good. And if you want a deep squat, it will require you an additional mobility. It’s great if you can do it with good form. Try your best to lower your hips as much as you can.”

“I think I can’t do it. My back aches.” I hear that chuckle again.

I don’t know if she’s aware that I’m staring at her but I’m certain that she can see me on her peripheral view. She really seems to be enjoying Phil’s company.

“It’s okay. If you cannot do it, just squat as low as you can while maintaining proper form and…” my eyebrows furrow when I see Phil’s hand on Quinn’s back.

“... you will know that you’re doing great because of this. A good indicator is the arch of your lower back.” I see how that touch made her so uncomfortable and awkward at the same time.

I know Phil is a professional instructor but I don’t think he has to do it without her permission. I’ve just witness how Quinn’s body flinched because of that sudden touch. I was about to approach them when a pair of arms grabs me from behind.

“Hi, Mister Lethner...” I turn my back and I almost scream on top of my lungs when I saw Enid.

It’s not that she scared me. It’s just that the way she looks at me and how her voice sounds. She looks like literally hungry and I’m a piece of a fresh meat for her and anytime she’ll cook me into medium rare and feast on me.

“H-hi...” I greet her awkwardly.

Since when did I get close with this woman anyway? I’ve just seen her at the hotel and as far I remember, she’s that lady who stares at me intently while I was having my breakfast with Emery at the reception.

“It’s good to see you here. You look so hot with these hard biceps of yours..” I don't know if it’s just me or is she really trying to seduce me by making her voice sounds flirty.

She even lightly pinches my arm like we’ve known each other for a long time.

I fake a laugh with what she did.

“Phil is a good f-friend of mine and I…have a free membership here. How about you?” I try to kill the awkward vibe by asking her.

“I just started doing workouts here since last week. You know, I wanted to get rid of these.” she makes the layer of her belly moves by touching it with her hand. I just nod in response like I’m really interested with her belly.

“That’s good to hear. I know you’ll get that body you want. By the way... is Quinn also a new member here or just a walk-in customer?”

"Walk in? I don’t know. Let’s just suppose that neither is correct. She’s just my supportive friend that’s why she’s here. Besides, she doesn’t need all of these equipments and sweating exercises. I mean, look at her. You think she needs it?” she points her arm to Quinn who is now doing squats all by herself while Phil is standing and looking at her butt.

That guy really! He never changed!

“You can be sexy though you don’t have a body like hers. You’re sexy.”

“Whatever. How I wish I have that body like her. I am really convinced that Heavens have their favorites.”

I chuckle with that idea. She’s obviously envy with her friend’s body.

“You want to try these?” I ask her dismissing her thoughts.

I don’t want to focus my attention to Quinn because I don’t like the idea of having an early hard b***r in public.

“You mean these biceps bars? Are you serious about –”

I did not let her finish her line. I move at her back and grab both of her arms. I think I had just exerted an effort by doing it. After clipping the rope attachment to the lowest adjustment bar machine, I grab the bar and let her grip it underhand.

“Grip it underhand. Go! Do it!” I command and she willingly do so. She grabs the bar excitedly.

“Now, extend your arms fully. Your palms should face forward.” I instruct her and again, she did it correctly.

“Bend your elbows and curl the bar to your shoulder as close as you can.” I give her instructions and with all her mighty force, she tries to curl the bar.

“There should be no movement from your upper arm. You can do it!” I raise my voice while helping her curl the bar and as soon as she did it correctly, I move away from her. I stand in front of her and watch her do alone.

“Oh God! Mr. Lethner, I think the bar will give up.” she jokes while doing her best to curl the bar close to her shoulders. I laugh while staring at her. “I think I can’t do it further, Mr. Lethner. Should I stop now?” she says panting and catching her breath.

I cross my arms on my chests.

“How will you achieve the body that you want? Don’t stop Enid. You can do it!” I raise my voice again to motivate her.

I even show her a wink which made her blush. Enid really looks cute with those chubby cheeks.

“Oh my gosh! My arms are really tired.” she clamors still doing the curls.

“Think of your goal Enid. What do you want to achieve?”

“I want that freaking body! I want to be sexy!” she says with full determination.

“Think of something after this workout, like a prize you’ll get if you’ll do this successfully.”

“Oh my gosh! That sounds good but I think..." she stops curling the bar and catches her breath. "...it would be great if I can get a hug from you?”

I laugh upon hearing her. I’m right. My guesses are right. This lady has a crush on me. I knew it since the moment she stares at me at the hotel.

“Okay let’s make a deal. If you’ll be able to do 50 curls without stopping, you'll get a hug and kiss from me.” I tease her while softly laughing.

I even laugh harder with what she did after I told her about the hug and kiss. Without second thoughts, she immediately grips and curls the bar as fast as she can –faster than what she did a while ago.

“One, two, three, four, five... f**k! I’ll do it for the hug and kiss. Eight, nine, ten, eleven.” She starts counting those curls and I laugh even harder at her. I didn’t know she is as hilarious as this.

I suddenly stop laughing when I saw Quinn from the side. She’s staring at us and she’s laughing too. I think she’s also happy at the sight of Enid doing the biceps bar. When our eyes met, that genuine curve on her lips slowly disappears.

I know she won’t respond but I smile at her.

Unbelievably and unexpectedly, a shy, small curve forms on her lips.

Was it real?

S-she... just smiled at me too.

Should I go ahead and approach her right now?

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