When they arrived, they were both surprised to see there were no other women. Veronica peered at the ticket she held in her hand. “Are you sure this isn’t an all male gym?”

Nellie didn’t look so sure herself but quickly disagreed. “That’s silly. I’ve never heard of an all male gym.”

“I have.”

“Why would the guy offer me the passes if it was an all male gym?”

Veronica looked around. It was a far cry from the gym at the mall that was for sure. For starters, the place was in great need of a paint job. There were a few treadmills and stair climbers on one end of the gym. Four weight benches and weights on the other end. A rowing machine, lots of punching bags and a big boxing ring in the middle of the gym. This was definitely a boxer’s gym.

She followed Nellie up to a man with a clipboard who stood near the punching bags and showed him the tickets. “We’re here for the free week of training.”

He was an older guy with a full head of graying hair. He looked them both over and smirked. “You ever train before?”

Veronica attempted to suck in her gut and stood up straight. What seemed like a lifetime ago, she was actually on her college tennis team. And before her mother fell ill she used to get together with a few of her colleagues and played regularly. Now she dreaded what a little workout might do to her.

“No, not really but we’re here to start.” Nellie said, her chin up.

The man glanced over to an open door where a few guys stuck their faces out staring in their direction. As soon as they saw him looking, they jerked their heads back in. Veronica could hear them laughing. Wonderful. They were already being mocked and she hadn’t even started jiggling her flab. This was going to be worse than she imagined. Veronica exchanged glances with Nellie before they both turned to the guy in front of them.

The man leaned over into a box next to him and grabbed two clipboards with small index cards on them. “Read and sign these. Lemme see what I can do.” He walked away toward the very door with the laughing guys.

Veronica tugged at Nellie’s arm, who’d already began to read what appeared to be a liability waiver. “I don’t think this is such a good idea after all.”

“Stop,” Nellie’s tone was firm. “We’re going to do this for at least a week. You can’t stay cooped up in that house forever, Roni. I won’t have it.”

The idea of having one of those young guys, who were obviously already ridiculing them, stand over her and train her while she nearly passed out from doing a couple of sit ups was really beginning to panic her. “Maybe you and I can just go walking every night. You know, at the park. We can do our own work out.”

Nellie arched an eyebrow. “No, you’re not getting out of this. It’s just one week. After that, we’ll decide what we’ll do. But for now we’re doing this.”

Veronica sighed, defeated. Nellie wasn’t going to budge. Veronica knew how she could be once her mind was made up. Just as she finished signing the waiver, she looked up to see two more young guys enter the same room as the man they’d been talking to, then heard more laughter. Her stomach tightened even more now. She knew leaving the comfort of her home was a mistake.

~*~

Determined to convince Jack that he was ready to start training, Noah walked into the gym office with a purpose. As soon as he and Gio were in, the guys already there started laughing. Noah frowned. “What’s so funny?”

None of them said anything. Abel smirked walking out of the office. Hector could barely contain himself. Jack was the only one not laughing. He held a clipboard and handed it to him. “You wanna train, Quintanilla? Today’s your lucky day. I got two out there that walked in with free one week passes. You got a week to prove to me you can do this.”

Noah could hardly believe it. For nearly a year now, he’d been trying to convince Jack he could do training like the trainers Jack so meticulously hand picked. First Jack said he’d give him a shot when he turned nineteen, then when he turned nineteen almost a year ago, it’d been one excuse after another. Jack had hired him years ago as a maintenance boy. The pay wasn’t much but he also got to work out at the gym and train with some of the other boxers for free. In exchange, he maintained the equipment, helped keep the place clean, threw the towels in the washing machine then dryer, and wiped down the exercise machines—no brainer stuff.

After watching other trainers for years, he knew he had it in him to train and the pay was much better than his maintenance position. Since his shoulder injury had put his boxing on hold for at least another three months, going pro or even semi-pro where he had the potential of actually making some money from his fighting would be pushed out even longer. He needed this money now.

Noah threw his gym bag on the floor and glanced at the clipboard, still smiling. It was the standard workout sheet.

“They’re total beginners.” Jack said. “So you’ll have your work cut out for you.”

“Are they training to box?” Noah glanced at Hector, who held his fist against his mouth stifling a laugh. “What’s with you?”

“Nothing,” He nearly squeaked the word out, before hurrying out of the office.

Gio walked out of the restroom. He’d gone straight to it as soon as they got there, so he’d missed everything. “Ready to work out?” he asked.

“Nah,” Noah smirked, lifting the clipboard at him. “I’ll be training today.”