Dirty Laundry: A Tucker Springs Novel #3

occupied, and the waiting list on the clipboard at the front desk was half full of names. The weight machines were almost as busy, and the free weight area bustled with activity, mostly men of various bulk grunting and preening to outdo each other. As Denver approached, however, almost all activity ceased as every regular smiled and waved and offered him some sort of greeting. He wasn’t two reps into his first routine before Tiny himself came over to greet him.
    “Denver! How’s it going, man?” Tiny, who stood a head shorter than Denver but was almost as wide in the shoulders, clapped Denver hard on his left biceps.
    “It’s going.” Denver replaced his hand weight and leaned on a support pillar beside him. “How about you?”
    Tiny’s grin strained the dark patch of chin pubes tickling his bottom lip. “I’m here for the usual, big guy.”
    Denver rolled his eyes and outwardly gave the appearance of one jovially put-upon, but inside his guts tightened in the usual unease whenever Tiny brought this up. “I told you, man. I just wanna come lift.”
    “Bullshit. You’re gonna end up giving free advice to everybody who shows up the whole time you’re here. Same as always. I don’t know why the hell you won’t let me pay you.”
    “Because I ain’t going to get certified,” Denver reminded him, flexing his gloved hands.
    Tiny held out his hands. “Full tuition and a twenty-thousand dollar sign-on if you agree to a three-year contract with me. While you get your degree, I’ll put you on the books and find something for you to do so you’re still pulling a salary. And free membership, obviously. Hell, I’ll throw in membership for your friends if it’ll get you on board.”
    “At the rate you’re going, by Christmas you’ll propose marriage on top of it,” Denver drawled.
    “Will that win you? Because I’ll do it.”
    Denver surveyed Tiny’s stocky frame in mock consideration. “Naw. You ain’t my type.” He headed toward the stacks of weights. “How come you’re so hot to hire me, Tiny? You got plenty of already certified yahoos running around trying to get your attention. I know, ’cause I’ve seen them.”
    “Because none of them know weights like you do. Because I know I’m getting memberships from guys who want to build just because they know you come here. You want to know how many times a day I get asked when you’re likely to come in next? Now imagine what’ll happen when I put you on advertisements as an on-the-floor trainer and PT for hire.” When Denver only frowned at him, Tiny sighed. “Thirty thousand. I can’t go higher.”
    Denver became very focused on attaching the weights to his bar. “It ain’t money that’s holding me back, Tiny. I’m just not interested is all. And I told you that already.”
    “You tell me that every time, but I don’t believe it.” Tiny pursed his lips and shook his head. “I know you want to do it. I watch you with the guys you help. I know you aren’t some kind of noble idiot who won’t take payment. I know you aren’t looking to go out on your own, either. So what gives? What’s holding you back?”
    “I gotta get back to my workout,” Denver said, the knots in his belly starting to affect his voice.
    “Is it that you just hate school that much? That you don’t want to go? It doesn’t take hardly any time at all, and you can stretch it out depending on where you take the classes. Some you can do over a weekend, but I think you’d feel better if you took one of the six-month deals. I’ll take you however I can get you, though.”
    Yeah, it was the school part tripping Denver up. The GED exam he doubted he could pass before he even considered studying physiology and all the other crap he’d never be able to do. He didn’t say anything, though, just kept adjusting his weights.
    Tiny sighed. “I’m not giving up. I’ll wear you down eventually. Just think how nice it would be to go hang out at Lights Out without having to work there. How nice it would be to have your evenings free and get paid to do what I already know you love to do—with a real salary too.”
    For the first time since Tiny had started his offers, Denver did think about it. He thought long and hard about how it would feel to be able to go flirt with Adam whenever he felt like it, how much sexier he’d look to a grad student as a personal trainer than a high school dropout working as a bouncer at a bar.
    It would feel fucking great, is what.