Training in Love

by Manuela Pigna

  “Fine, why?” Nic’s gaze has an intensity that I’ve seen very few times.

  I shrug. “No reason. Don’t you see each other anymore? Now you always talk about Andrea… you only go out with him now?”

  He relaxes a little, as though his suspicion we dissipated, but not completely. “Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve seen him… Yes, actually, since we met up again, I’ve been going out a lot with Andrea…”

  I don’t answer, creating another moment of embarrassed silence.

  Linda steals a look at me, clearly bewildered. She doesn’t understand my intentions.

  After a few seconds Nic says, “Would you like to see him? Gianca, I mean.”

  I glance at Linda and decide to do another exercise from Andrea’s book, that is, live the moment and not wait to be thin to do things - to not put your life on stand-by over a few kilos of flesh. “Sure, why not.”

  Nic inhales sharply, now completely serious, then he turns to Linda and points his finger at her. “Before going out with Gianca, she can go out with me, I say!”

  “Too bad she doesn’t want to go out with you, but with Gianca!” Answers Linda crossing her arms.

  No. Too bad that she wants to go out with Andrea…

  I sigh, shaking my head. Two minutes of living the moment and I’ve already made a mess. I’ve done so little of it that it looks like I’m not capable of it. “She doesn’t want to go out with anyone really. She’s too busy with other things,” I quickly specify, speaking of myself in the third person, anyway, just like the other people here present are doing. “And so what do you mean?” I say to Nic, “with ‘go out with me’?”

  Nic crosses his arms on his chest, mirroring Linda’s position. He takes a moment to shoot her a dark look and knit his eyebrows in a way that makes the piercing he has on the left one point up as though it were a small silver sword. “She forbade me to do anything with you - to go out, to try on anything with you or even to think about it,” he answers keeping his eyes fixed on Linda.

  “Linda!” I exclaim to her.

  She drops her arms and makes a contrite face. “Do you mind? I did it to protect you! This guy here is not the least bit serious! He’s not right for you!”

  “No, I don’t mind, but what if I liked him?”

  “Hey!” Nic interrupts.

  “I knew you didn’t like him, I always know when you like or don’t like someone,” she answers with a look full of hidden meaning. No, I didn’t fool her before.

  “Hey!” Nic cries again.

  “You were still in the wrong,” I tell Linda. “You should know your brother-in-law. By saying something like that, you just encouraged him!”

  “Hey!”

  “You’re right…” Linda admits right away.

  “He probably would never have thought of it on his own,” I point out gently.

  Linda nods.

  “Will you stop talking about me as if I weren’t here?” Interrupts Nic. “And what do you mean you don’t like me?” He asks me, a little grumpy.

  I smile. “I like you plenty, but not in that sense.” And seeing his long face I add, “And you don’t like me.”

  Nic looks at his shoes, frowning and then visibly relaxes. “Maybe it’s true, but it would still bug me if you went out with Gianca…”

  “Why?” I ask curiously.

  “Because… he’s not right for you.”

  Linda bursts out laughing and I chuckle too. “Everyone’s really good at knowing what’s right for me, huh?” I shake my head as they smile.

  “So that means I won’t go out with him,” I conclude shrugging my shoulders with a smile on my lips.

  “Wow, you really liked him a lot, huh?” Linda teases me and Nic laughs.

  “I hope you’ll be able to point out someone right for me, because those who aren’t, aren’t terribly useful…” I say, feigning bitterness and taking both of them by the arm.

  “I have someone in mind,” says Nic.

  “Me too,” Linda adds immediately.

  But I don’t have the heart to inquire.

  9.

  It’s Sunday again and I’m standing outside of the pool. I’m waiting for Linda. This week I haven’t been going as I should have either and she, as promised, is coming to encourage me, but she’s really late. I send her a message and after a few seconds I get the answer – I’m late, go ahead and start, I’ll get there right away.

  I roll my shoulders and go in. I calmly change, put on my bathrobe and leave the locker room, heading towards the pool. Before taking off my bathrobe I look around for a moment, I don’t know why I do it. If Linda had arrived I’d have seen her in the locker room… I’m shaking my head over my stupidity when I see him.

  He’s a few steps away from me and he’s looking at me with a small satisfied smile on his lips. He’s already taken off his bathrobe, because those who have a body like his haven’t any problem being in a bathing suit in front of perfect strangers.

  I should have known right away that he was here by the number of female faces turned in his direction.

  I, however, am furious. Furious.

  I’m furious with him and with myself. With him for obvious reasons. With myself because I wasn’t able to stop blushing in front of his perfect body. His pectorals popping out over his crossed arms - hollow my eye! – his shoulders are sculpted and his biceps are a little larger because of his position. His skin has a golden hue to it, uniform over his whole body. For once, his magnificent hair isn’t visible because he’s wearing a blue swim cap. But, good grief, who is it that actually looks good in a swim cap? It’s unfair to be that beautiful.

  And, most of all, it’s not fair that he ignores my wishes every blessed time.

  I march towards him belligerently, as much as the plastic flip-flops will allow me to. Along the way I thank Jesus, Joseph, Mary and all the saints in heaven that I didn’t take off my bathrobe right away.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I greet him politely, crossing my arms in turn.

  He continues to smile as if nothing was wrong. “Why? This is the public swimming pool so anyone has the right to come and swim here. I came to swim.”

  I narrow my eyes, “Don’t be sly with me Andrea, you might as well confess right now.”

  He drops his arms to his sides, leaving his chest completely exposed.

  Oh. My. God.

  I swallow, concentrating on his face, but with my peripheral vision I can see perfectly the lines of his pectoral muscles, his upper, lower and lateral abdominals. When I get home I have to start doing those exercises I found once in a women’s magazine for developing peripheral vision - you can never know when they might turn out to be useful.

  “I wanted to check in person,” he says simply, totally unaware of what he’s doing to me. To me and all the other girls present.

  “I told you that I would follow your program. I’ve done it up to now and I would have continued to do it,” I lie shamelessly. “I told you there was no need for you to come. Well then, why are you here?” I respond, still furious.

  “Come on, don’t be a baby Olly,” he has the courage to reply.

  “Andrea, I’m serious. I didn’t want you to come. You never do what I ask you to do… You aren’t showing me any respect like this.”

  When I say this last phrase his eyebrows shoot up and he almost takes a step backwards. He seems embarrassed. “No… I… I respect you Olly. You must never think something like that…”

  Hell, beautiful people have it easy. I’m on the verge of forgiving him because of his contrite face, which is, in any case, beautiful. Contrite looks good on him.

  I don’t say anything.

  He raises his hands, and I ask you, how can a person stay focused?

  “If you want me to go, even if I paid the entrance fee…”

  I regard him for a moment, trying to understand if he’s serious or not. “Would you really?” I decide to ask him.

  He just nods.

 
I sigh. “You just couldn’t resist checking to see if I did it correctly, right?”

  He smiles and says, “That’s it, and then someone who cares about you told me you were having a little difficulty sticking to it by yourself…”

  I sigh. What a traitor!

  I drop my arms, taking great care to not let my bathrobe fall open. “Ok, you can stay.” And as I say this his smile widens. “But!” I raise a hand and he pretends to stand at attention. “But - first, you have to get in the water now and stay turned around towards the windows until I’ve taken off my bathrobe and gone in too, second, you can take off your swim goggles and leave them on the bench, and third, if you want to swim too, you have to always be in front of me and I’ll follow. Is that clear?”

  “Yes ma’am!” He says brightly, taking off his swim goggles and going to put them on the bench on top of a white bathrobe.

  “I forgot…” I say when he comes back towards me, “For today I’m not paying you. You know that, right? You wanted to come of your own free will, so…”

  He tilts his head and looks at me as though I’ve stated the obvious. “Olly…”

  I nod and just say, “Fine.”

  He gets in the water and stays turned towards the large windows. I take off my bathrobe, still keeping an eye on him and slowly get in the water without letting him out of my sight. Then I get closer, satisfied. “Here I am.”

  Andrea turns right around. “But I’d like to see how you swim first of all. If I stay ahead, how can I correct your posture?”

  I look at him darkly. “Well then, stay out completely, but just for enough time to see how I swim and then get back in and do as I say.”

  He nods happily. “Ok, do me two laps of freestyle, two of breast-stroke, two back-stroke and two butterfly.”

  I nod reluctantly and start to go.

  “Where are you going?” He grabs me by the wrist.

  “I’m going to number four. I hate swimming in the lanes by the edge.”

  “Ok.” He gets out of the water, going to position himself near the number four diving board. Now he’s half nude and wet, with drops of water that sparkle all over his body.

  A number of heads turn in his direction and I can’t help asking myself what I’ve done wrong in this life.

  I sigh and quickly reach lane four. As soon as I get there I shoot him a last look. He makes a sign with his head and I begin to swim. The sooner I begin, the sooner I’ll finish and the sooner he gets in the water the less he’ll see me in my bathing suit from above.

  When I finish the second lap of butterfly, I find him already in the water. He seems very close, so I hang myself on the floating divider opposite from him in order to put some space between us.

  He has a dismayed look on his face. “Well, I have to say that I didn’t expect this…”

  “What?”

  He shakes his head. “Technically… you’re perfect.”

  This time it’s me who displays a satisfied smirk. “I know.”

  He looks at me a little annoyed. “Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

  “I told you I did it well…”

  “You said you did it well, not that you were perfect…”

  I shake my head. “Come on, let’s get on with it. I don’t want to stay in the water all day…” Quite the contrary, I want this moment to end as soon as possible.

  As usual, he loses no time laying out an insane program. I’m afraid I’ll vomit once I get out of the water. Since by now it’s useless to argue, we begin.

  Andrea swims as he does everything else – elegantly powerful. I have the feeling he holds back for my sake. The last laps, however, he lets me do by myself. I accept only because he assures me that he’ll wait at the end of the pool.

  When I finish the workout I feel hot in the face, breathless and wiped out. Tomorrow I’m sure I’ll be hard pressed to lift my arms to wash my underarms in the shower.

  “Good, now rest for a minute and then we’ll do the last thing before going.”

  I look at him wide-eyed. “What more? I can’t do any more!”

  He smiles. He smiles that smile that doesn’t promise anything good. “You and I will race.”

  “I don’t think so!” I almost yell.

  “Oh come on… I’ll let you pick the stroke…”

  “I don’t give a crap about picking the stroke, because we aren’t doing any race, you can forget it!”

  Andrea sighs theatrically. “Her first answer is always ‘no’, always a complaint, always a problem…”

  I limit myself to glaring at him.

  “Let’s make a bet, to make things more interesting.”

  I laugh sarcastically. “Andrea, we aren’t even going to talk about it. And I’ll tell you why right away. First of all, it makes no sense to race when the difference between the two participants is so complete that you already know who will win from the start. For the above mentioned reason, it’s even more idiotic to make a bet, you’d do better to tell me right now what you’d like me to do. And lastly, it’s totally unfair to make me do a race now, when I’m completely wiped out from the workout that you made me do. And I’d also like to point out that you’re nice and fresh compared to me because for the last six laps you’ve been sitting around.”

  He nods. “Well then, let’s do just two laps and I’d say breaststroke, since you don’t want to choose the stroke.”

  “No, breaststroke no!” I almost yell. Again. Then I catch myself and look around. Luckily the noise of the water has muffled my volume a little and no-one is looking at us. “I told you before that I hate breaststroke…”

  He shrugs his shoulders. “You said you didn’t want to choose the stroke…”

  I’m practically grinding my teeth. “There are times when I seriously believe I hate you, you know?”

  He laughs.

  “Ok, if you really want to humiliate me let’s do this race. And we’ll do crawl,” I inform him, deadly and cold as ice.

  Andrea smiles triumphantly. “And what shall we set as a prize?”

  I huff, “I already told you, you’d do better to tell me what you want…”

  “If I win, we’ll go out one evening and you’ll answer all my questions – all of them. And truthfully.”

  He has the guts to say “if I win…” Heh. Besides, I don’t like this thing one bit. Not one bit. I have to win.

  “And what would you like?” He asks me sweetly.

  I stare at him. I glare at him blackly. I reflect. What could I ask of him to make him pay for this? To make him pay for everything? “If I win, you have to do everything I say for a week. Everything. Whatever I decide.”

  He just smiles. He’s not even worried, the creep.

  He extends his hand towards me. “Ok, it’s a deal.”

  I have to win, I have to win, I absolutely have to win.

  I put my hand in his and shake. He answers my handshake with a vigorous pumping of his right bicep.

  I’ll never win.

  Andrea looks around and since by now the pool is almost half empty, he changes lanes and goes to the fifth and nods towards me. “On the count of three.”

  I nod.

  “I’ll give you a half pool advantage,” he tells me at the last minute.

  “I am moved,” I reply with a grimace.

  He counts to three and I take off. I concentrate on pulling out all my remaining energy and strength. I push, push, more and more. I clench my teeth and give it my all, my best. I don’t look towards lane five. I don’t want to know where he is, it would make me lose precious seconds. But unfortunately I see him anyway when he enters my field of vision as I breathe in his direction. My lungs are bursting and my muscles are crying out, but he’s here, almost right next to me so I push even more.

  It’s almost done my dears, a last effort, don’t let me down now. If you let me win I’ll even give you a present. I don’t know what – two days in a spa, what do you say? But despite this incentive my muscles, as foreseen, jus
t can’t do it against Andrea’s. I see him as he passes me and when I get to the end I find him already there.

  If we weren’t in a pool and he weren’t a rotten health freak, he would probably be smoking a cigarette. He isn’t even out of breath.

  “I hate you,” I tell him breathlessly.

  He laughs and then turns serious. “Anyway, I saw you, you sneaky thing…”

  “What?” I look at him dismayed.

  “You did a flip turn to switch laps…” He says as though this should make me understand everything.

  “And so?”

  “Why didn’t you do it even once the first time around?” He asks, climbing over the floating divider and returning to the fourth lane.

  I shrug my shoulders. “Because I didn’t want to get too tired.”

  He opens his mouth as though he wants to say something, but then thinks again and closes it. Then he opens it again. He seems incredulous. “You didn’t want… to get too tired?”

  I shrug again.

  “You didn’t want to get too tired?” He repeats.

  “No,” I dare to respond, but the voice that comes out is tiny. There is something threatening about him in this moment. In fact, he slowly starts coming nearer in the water, like a furious triton, and I back up until I find myself with my back against the floating lane divider. At that point Andrea reaches me and places his arms on the line behind me, thus closing off both lateral escape routes and essentially imprisoning me in a sub-species of cage formed by his body. I swallow.

  “You’re supposed to get too tired Olly!”

  Oh no, I feel a lecture coming on…

  “Your body has to get too tired! We have a body made to move, not for staying in an armchair and only moving your thumb to change channels!”

  “Maybe mine yes!” I answer back arrogantly.

  “Maybe yours yes, what?”

  “Maybe my body is made for sitting on the sofa changing channels!”

  As an answer Andrea lowers his gaze and, being less than ten centimeters away, it ends up falling directly on my breasts. Contrary to any of my expectations he doesn’t look up right away, instead he hesitates for a few uncomfortable, and totally unexpected, seconds. And, good heavens, a blush of red climbs up his cheeks.