Trained At The Gym: A Contemporary Reverse Harem Romance

by Cassie Cole

  “Did you call the cops?”

  Paul’s eyes widened. “The cops? They make me nervous, man. Plus I wanted to show you first.”

  “It’s alright. You did the right thing, Paul.” I sighed. “I’ll need to check the desk to see if anything’s missing. There’s no cash or valuables back there, but we do have two month’s worth of credit card receipts.”

  “Naw, that’s the thing,” Paul replied. “Nothing in the desk is missing. Not even, like, out of place.”

  Huh. That was weird.

  “We should probably do a full inventory on everything in the back room,” I said. “In case he stuffed some albums under his hoodie.”

  Paul grinned. “Way ahead of you, boss-lady. I counted all our stock and compared it to the sales numbers. The numbers match up. There’s nothing missing. The boxes in the back room are still in their shrink wrapping.”

  “So this guy broke in and didn’t take anything?” I asked in disbelief.

  “I know, right?” A conspiratorial look spread on Paul’s face. “You don’t think the government, like, came in here and bugged our office, do you?”

  “That’s probably exactly what it was,” I said dryly. “Vintage record stores are obviously terrorist breeding grounds.”

  I called the police. They came and took our statements. Paul was sweating profusely by the time his interview was over, as if he expected the cops to give him a drug test on the spot. When it was over, he quickly excused himself and went for a walk outside.

  “Ms. Delaney, do you know anyone who would have a reason to break in?” one of the officers asked.

  “No. Nobody.”

  “And you’re certain the burglar didn’t take anything?”

  “We checked everything,” I said numbly. “Isn’t that weird?”

  The two officers looked at each other. “Sometimes, criminals do a dry run of a crime. Check the doors and alarms, scope the place out, and leave. Then sit nearby and watch to see what kind of response the break-in gets, so they come back later with a U-Haul truck and clean the place out.”

  “You’d better beef up security,” the other officer said. “Maybe add an alarm to the cameras.”

  “Thanks for the advice.”

  I felt uneasy about the break-in for the rest of the day. Like I had personally been violated rather than my place of business. It would have been simpler if the burglar had broken into the register. I could wrap my head around that. But not taking anything?

  What was he looking for?

  By the next day, I forgot all about the burglar. Paul and I were totally preoccupied with preparing for the huge sale on Friday. We rearranged the store aisles to look more appealing, with large cardboard displays to indicate each musical genre. We called the catering company and made sure all the food was scheduled properly, and Paul talked to a guy at a local beer supply store who would be delivering two kegs. A local rental company would deliver some speakers and tables for the outdoor part of the sale Friday morning. Paul and I unpacked all the extra inventory in the back, then labeled them with post-it notes so we could easily find and replace stock during the sale itself.

  I also ran advertisements in the local newspaper, and on social media. The Facebook ads generated a lot of attention and comments from local Denver people. That was encouraging.

  I got back into a groove at Rocky Mountain Fitness, too. The sale preparations were taking up most of my time, but I still managed to go to the gym in the morning before work and again for lunch. It was nice lifting weights with Finn on Tuesday and Thursday, and joining Max’s spinning class on Wednesday. Both of them remained professional while within the RMF walls, but they smiled extra hard at me when I saw them, and I could see a special look in their eyes.

  After a few days back, it felt good to see my name up on the scoreboard again.

  25-29 AGE GROUP

  JONNY K:_____488

  JAMES P:______462

  MARCIA J:_____314

  KATHERINE D: 290

  Brody’s absence stuck out, both on the scoreboard and around the gym. Even though I had learned he suspended his membership for April thanks to his injured foot, I kept expecting to see him walk through the front doors. He didn’t, which was probably a good thing. I might have punched him if he did.

  “Yep, everything is all set up,” I told Finn on Thursday while loading the bar in the squat rack. “Now I just have to wait. And hope it goes well.”

  “You done any advertising?” Finn asked.

  “Denver Post, and Facebook,” I replied. “I also went around to a bunch of the local businesses where I have friends, and convinced them to put up fliers for the sale. We should get a lot of foot traffic tomorrow.” I elbowed him playfully. “Say. Any chance we could put some fliers up inside RMF?”

  Finn waffled. “Eh. Technically, no outside advertisements are allowed in RMF. We could get in trouble for putting stuff up. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t sweat it,” I said. “Anyone here at RMF will be able to see the sale two doors down.”

  Finn leaned close while I stepped underneath the bar. “I still wish I could help. Maybe I can make it up to you tonight? At your place?”

  With the bar on my shoulders, I stepped back and then lowered myself in a squat, then stood back up. “I might be interested in that.”

  I completed the rest of my squats with a silly grin on my face.

  True to his word, Finn came over and gave me an even tougher workout than I’d gotten at the gym. He made love to me slowly, cradling my body against his as if he was trying to make every inch of our skin touch. I loved being surrounded by his arms, walls of muscle that made me feel safe and loved.

  But as we cuddled together in bed and Finn fell asleep, I lay awake, wired. Tomorrow would determine how the rest of my life would go.

  Tomorrow, I would learn whether or not my store was doomed.

  39

  Katherine

  Pacifica Vinyl’s grand opening was at two in the afternoon. So we scheduled our sale to begin at noon.

  The morning was a flurry of activity. The speakers, tables, and other small equipment were delivered first, then the two kegs. They didn’t come with any containers or ice, so I had to drive to Wal Mart to buy two plastic tubs and bags of ice to put them in to keep them cold.

  The catering arrived after that, along with a balloon arrangement in the shape of a vinyl record. I smiled at it as we tied it down. It was fifteen feet in diameter above the store. That would definitely catch the eye of anyone two came within two blocks of the store.

  Darryl had offered to help, but when he arrived his wife and the twins were with him. “They insisted on helping,” Darryl explained while giving me a hug.

  “You didn’t have to do that!”

  My sister-in-law hugged me. “I’ll hear nothing of it. We’re here to help.” She pulled a pair of sanitary gloves out of her purse, put them on, and began arranging the catering food on one of the tables.

  I crouched down next to Ethan and Nathan. “Are you two going to be my big helpers today?”

  “Only if you give us some music!” Ethan chirped in his high-pitched voice.

  “Negotiating, are we?”

  Darryl laughed. “I promised I would buy them each a record if they helped. Their motives are hardly altruistic.”

  “We’re going to sell all the music!” Nathan announced happily.

  I kissed my brother on the cheek. “This just sounds like child labor, but with extra steps.”

  “It’s not illegal when it’s family,” Darryl grinned.

  He tapped one of the kegs and started playing music out of the massive speakers. Music boomed down Magnolia Street as I opened the front door.

  The sale had begun.

  Customers were slow to arrive. Not surprising—these things took time. But a line began to form outside Pacifica’s front door. People waiting for their grand opening.

  “Why aren’t they coming over here while they wait?” I grumbled. “W
e have food! And beer! And vinyl records for sale!”

  At one o’clock, we still hadn’t received any customers. Impatient and frustrated, I walked over to the Pacifica line. “Excuse me, everyone? I just wanted to announce that we’re having a big sale over at Vinyl High Records. It’s a local business, not a big company. There’s free food and beer.”

  The people in line looked uncomfortable. One of them came over to me with an apologetic look on her face. “Pacifica is offering a limited edition Led Zeppelin box set to the first fifty people. That’s why we’re in line.”

  “Damnit,” I said. I should have offered a raffle or something like that.

  “After you get your free album, be sure to come over to our store!” I said to the crowd as I left.

  I paced inside the store. We had tons of inventory, food, alcohol, and excitement going on here… But zero customers. It was like my worst nightmare come true.

  Then someone came walking down the street wearing gym shorts and a dry-fit shirt, like he had just come from RMF. He took a free sandwich, perused the aisles inside the store, and finally went to the check-out counter to buy two albums.

  One is better than zero, I thought.

  Slowly but surely, people started finding their way over to the store. Most of them came from the opposite direction of Pacifica. Many of them looked like they had come from Rocky Mountain Fitness. Soon there was a substantial line of people in line for beer, all of whom then wandered into the store and started shopping.

  “Welcome to Vinyl High!” I said cheerfully to one guy. “Did you wander over from RMF, or did you hear about us ahead of time?”

  “My trainer mentioned it,” he replied.

  The next person I asked said something similar. “My instructor mentioned it during spin class.”

  The more people I asked, the more it was clear what was happening. Especially when one woman claimed, “Someone at the gym told me we would get bonus workout points for buying something here. I’m in first place in the 30-34 age group—I have to stay ahead.”

  By then, the store was bustling. “Paul, can you hold down the fort for a few minutes?”

  Paul gawked at me from behind the cash register, where a line of people were waiting to check-out. “Better hurry, boss-lady. We might need to open the second register when you get back.”

  There was a steady stream of people on the sidewalk outside, all coming straight from RMF. The friendly girl at the front desk inside the gym frowned at all the people leaving. “Is there a fire drill that I missed? What’s going on?” she asked nobody in particular.

  I stalked through the gym up to the spin room. Max was inside, spinning at the front of a crowded class.

  “Keep up that pace!” he told them. “Every point you earn will be matched later…”

  He saw me by the door. “Oh.”

  “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

  Max spun down and hopped off the bike. “Keep pumping! Five more minutes!” he told his class before meeting me outside. “Hey. What’s up?”

  “You want to tell me what you’re doing?”

  He smiled easily. “Just incentivizing people.”

  “Keep talking.”

  “I found a way to use my employee login to give out bonus points in the system. So I’ve been telling everyone that I will match every point they earn today… As long as they visit your sale and show me a receipt from a purchase.”

  “Max! You’ll get in trouble!”

  He shrugged. “I’m only here for two more weeks. Then I start training full-time for Kona. I can’t think of a better use of my time than helping you.”

  “What about Finn?” I demanded.

  “He’s not part of this,” Max quickly said. “I mean, he’s helping spread the word, sure. But I’m the one making the promise. I’ll take all the blame. Hey, shouldn’t you be at your store?”

  I wasn’t sure how to feel. It was incredibly sweet. The store was packed right now. But they also weren’t the kind of long-term customers I was trying to attract.

  “Thank you,” I said genuinely. “It means a lot that you’re trying to help.”

  He pointed at me. “Thank me later. I’ve got a lot more gym members to send your way.” He turned back into the spin room. “Bobby! Stop slacking! You’ve got three more miles to go before your ass is done!”

  Back at the store, we were crowded with customers, both inside and out. We were even peeling customers away from the line at Pacifica, I saw with satisfaction. Nobody had wanted to be the first one to arrive, but now that there was a crowd everyone had FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out.

  Paul was struggling to contain the line of customers who wanted to check-out. That thrilled me most of all, since it proved that people weren’t just showing up for the free food and drinks. I shoved my way through the crowd to get to the sales counter, then opened up the second register.

  “Next, please!” I shouted over the din.

  Paul flashed me a thumbs-up of thanks.

  Pacifica Vinyl opened at two o’clock. I could tell because the line outside began moving, and then people walked by outside with Pacifica-branded shopping bags. But a lot of them came into my store next. Many of the people with Pacifica bags had the free Led Zeppelin box set inside, but that was it. They hadn’t purchased anything else over there.

  “Boss-lady?” Paul said when there was a brief lull in the check-out line. “I don’t want to jinx it, but we’re doing alright!”

  I knocked on the wooden countertop. “Seems like it.”

  Darryl took over for me on the register, and I went outside to make sure everything was going well there. The food and snacks were dwindling, but we had plenty of beer left. We were still on the first keg. As the afternoon went on, more and more people started drinking beer and hanging out while listening to music from the speakers. It was like a block party.

  Max and Finn came over around five. Finn gawked at the crowd. “Kat, look at all these people! Is there anything we can do to help?”

  Ethan came running out of the store. “Aunt Kat! Dad says we’re almost out of stuff on the, um, jazz aisle. I tried to get the boxes out of the back but they were too heavy.”

  Finn clapped his hands. “On it. Lead me to these boxes, little man.”

  Ethan gawked at him like he was a superhero. “How did you get so strong?”

  “Practice, little man. That and eating my veggies every night.”

  “Veggies? No way!”

  “Yes way. You see, people don’t get strong in the gym. They get strong in the kitchen.”

  “You must be the strongest person in the world!”

  Finn chuckled. “You should see my brothers, Atanas and Dragan. They make me look tiny.”

  “Woooooow.”

  They disappeared inside.

  Max wrapped an arm around my neck and gestured. “Still think my scheme at RMF was a bad idea?”

  “It helped everything get started,” I admitted. “I owe you one.”

  “Make it up to me in the bedroom later,” Max whispered. “A little victory sex.”

  I kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll be busy tonight cleaning up after the sale. But later this week? I’ll do whatever you want.”

  A naughty look glistened in his green eyes. “Not sure if you have a choice in the matter. I’m going to take what I want.”

  I giggled. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

  “I’m going to go make myself useful.” Max wandered across the street and started flagging down pedestrians who were going in and out of the department store. “We’ve got free beer over here, and tons of music!” I heard him announce.

  Darryl’s wife stepped up to me and whispered, “Who is he?”

  I tried to act natural, but a big smile spread across my face. “Just a friend.”

  She playfully smacked my arm. “I saw that kiss. And you’re grinning like you’re in love.”

  Maybe I am, I thought.

  My smile may have begun with Max and
Finn’s arrival, but it remained thanks to the huge success of the sale. People came and went all afternoon and into the evening. The store and street out front bustled like an ant colony. Our inventory in the back room dwindled, and soon our storefront stock was running low. Pacifica had a steady number of customers, but it didn’t come close to matching ours.

  It was starting to look like things might work out.

  40

  Katherine

  On a normal day at Vinyl High Records, we had between twenty and thirty sales. On the weekends, that number often hit forty. Fifty was a fantastic day.

  During the sale, we sold seven-hundred and forty nine records.

  I ran the numbers on the office computer late that night, after everything was cleaned up and everyone else had left. I didn’t believe the total, so I did all the math a second time. When the number was irrefutable, I screamed with excitement.

  As if that wasn’t amazing enough, one-hundred and fifty two people signed up for the monthly Vinyl High membership. Way more than I expected. That was guaranteed future revenue from a dedicated customer base.

  By all accounts, the sale had been a tremendous success. Even after subtracting the cost of advertising and supplies.

  I hardly slept that night, I was so excited. I probably only got four hours of sleep. Even still, I hopped out of bed early the next morning, feeling like I had a new lease on life.

  I went swimming at the gym. Without Brody there, I had the entire pool to myself. Afterward, I found Finn putting away barbell plates in the weight-lifting room. He looked handsome in black shorts and a tight-fitting black shirt, muscles glistening with sweat after his morning workout.

  “Well?” he asked when he saw me. “Have you run the numbers yet? Was it a success?”

  I threw my arms around him in a big hug. “It went better than I ever could have dreamed!”

  He squeezed me tight and laughed happily. “That’s amazing, Kat.”