I stop in front of where she stands with her back to the table, catching myself before I place my hands on either side of her body to box her in.Dude, what are you doing?I know how big I am. I know my size intimidates many women. Tina may not have shown any fear the first time we met, but that doesn’t mean she invited me into her personal space. Not yet anyway. After this noodle incident, though, I’m damn sure going for that invite. For now, I take a step back and give her some breathing room. Room she appears to need as her breath quickens and her chest heaves, forcing her tits to stretch the limits of her tight black t-shirt.Fuck, I hope I get that invite soon.
“You... uh... you’re not wearing a shirt again.”
A giant grin creeps over my face.
“Do you always exercise topless?”
A snort of laughter forces its way out of me at that reddish tint her cheeks take on. Forget the pink. I think this red is my new favorite color.
“Shirtless,” she says with a heavy sigh. “I mean, do you always exercise shirtless?”
Taking pity on her, I answer rather than tease her about her mix up. “Most of the time, yes. I hate the feeling of peeling off a sweaty shirt, so if I’m going for a run, or think I’ll be working especially hard, I leave off the shirt.” She cocks an eyebrow and somehow I know she’s asking about the senior citizens streaming into the room with my other trainers. “I usually wear a shirt when I run the Spring Chickens classes, but I lost a bet today.”
“Damn right you did, you sexy beast. Now do that titty dance I like. I won the bet, and it’s time to collect my winnings.” The elderly woman’s hands are reaching out as though to grab mypecs and move them for me when Tina steps between us and stops Miss Martha’s advances.
“Hey! Granny Methuselah. Hands off the merchandise. Your old ass must know better than that. There’s no way you’ve never been to a strip club before. Not at youradvancedage.”
A shocked silence falls over the gym.
I’m amazed when, instead of gasping in offense and clutching her non-existent pearls, Miss Martha cackles a dry laugh.
“Ooh, you’re a firecracker, aren’t you? I like this girl, Odd Duck. Don’t let her get away.”
I can’t see Tina’s face, but I hear her splutter, and I can imagine that her cheeks are taking on that lovely shade of pink again. For a woman who has no problem calling out an old lady’s objectification of a man she barely knows, not to mention the way she ordered me to carry a goat across town the first time we met, she seems to have a shy streak.
“Well... Thank you, I guess?”
“What’s your name, sweetheart? You look familiar.” Miss Martha is laser focused on Tina now, giving me the opportunity to slip out from behind her and confirm the blush I suspected colored her face is in fact there.
She’s such a contradiction.
“I’m Tina. I own Wings and Pizza downtown. Maybe you’ve seen me there.”
“That’s the place with the walk-up window, right?”
Tina nods, a smile creeping onto her lips. “That’s the one.”
Miss Martha shakes her head. “I never understood that. Why would anyone want to get their pizza through a window when you can order inside? Who wants to go walking around with a whole pizza?”
“See now, that’s where you’ve gone wrong. The walk-up window isn’t for whole pizzas. It’s where we sell pizza by the slice. Sometimes people get really crazy and order some wings atthe window, too. But you’re right. Usually, the whole pizzas get ordered over the phone or inside the restaurant.”
“By the slice, you say? Stephen, did you hear that? The pizza place in town sells their pie by the slice. Think we can stop there after our next nature walk? You know how spotting birds makes us all ravenous.”
Stephen, the Spring Chickens’ acne riddled bus driver, ambles over to Miss Martha. “Well, sure, Miss Martha. That’s a wonderful idea. We’ll have to check with the nutritionist first, of course. Some of y’all have special dietary restrictions, and we’ll need approval before getting fast food.”
“Excuse me,” Tina interrupts, her voice balancing on the edge of anger. “I am up at the ass crack of dawn every day making things from scratch, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t call it fast food. There is nothing fast about it.”
“Pizza is hardly the most healthful food, though,” Stephen says smugly. “There’s a reason you look the way you do, after all.”
White hot rage washes over me with such force I’m nearly thrown off my feet.How dare he talk to Tina that way!I’m gearing up to throw this asshole out on his ass, literally, when Tina barks a laugh.
“You’re hardly the poster boy for healthy food.” She gestures to Stephen’s ever present tumbler full of neon green soda. “I’d hardly call soda healthy, but that toxic green sludge has to be the worst of it. Here’s some free advice: Switch to water sometimes, and your skin might clear up.”
Stephen’s face reddens, and I snort a laugh. How funny is it that he looks like a splotchy mess when he gets embarrassed and Tina looks like a pink goddess?
“Well, at least I’m not fat,” he sputters before storming from the room. “Bus leaves in five,” he bellows as he stomps away. “Be on it or you’ll be marching your old asses home.”
Tina’s shoulders shake as she watches him leave, and for a moment I worry she might be upset at what that asshole Stephen said. It’s a very brief moment, though, because soon her raucous laughter echoes from the walls.
