Author: [bmwm3] Kathy the Triathlete

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Early next morning Kathy took Hannah to the airport.  She gave me a brief hug goodbye as I loaded her suitcase into the car, and I found myself wondering when -and indeed if- I would see her again.  After Kathy's car pulled away I gathered my things together and went home, I had work later in the afternoon and a hundred things to do before that.  I was in fact just about to leave for work when Kathy called me.
"Guess what!" She shrieked.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm gonna be on TV!" She said excitedly.
"Doing what?"
"The local news wants to interview me after my placing in the race!  I'm so excited!"
"That's great news." I said. "I'll have to talk to you later I'm heading to work."
Sure enough the next day the journalist arrived with all manner of cameras and equipment to do the interview.  I was sitting on the couch with Kathy at the time, and when it became clear I was going to be in the way I headed back to my place.  I would be able to watch it along with everyone else on the evening news.
I arrived at Kathy's that evening to find her brother Jake and his fiance there, along with two other friends.  They were all here to witness her big moment.  Naturally the piece was left until the end of the program, after all the local and world news and most of the sport.
"In the recent headline triathlon event of the Summer Sports Festival, local athlete Kathy Green defied all expectations to finish with the leading pack.  By far and away the best placed local competitor, we caught up with our latest local superstar to see what went into that incredible performance."
Kathy squeezed my arm as we waited expectantly.  All in all it was a fairly standard sort of interview, Kathy outlined some of her background and her training.  They even took the cameras out to her garage to have a look at her home gym.
"Most of your competitors have professional trainers with them twenty four hours a day, dietitians and nutritionists to monitor their eating.  You have none of this, how do you compete with them?"  The reporter asked.
"You just kick your own butt, every single day,"  She answered.  It's hard but you have to be working harder than them to stand any chance of beating them"
We all listened intently as the interviewer continued her questions.  I was thrilled for her of course, but I was also waiting for the moment she mentioned me.  Call me selfish if you like, but it's not every day you get spoken about on TV.
"And what is it that keeps you motivated when you feel you have reached your limits, when the training all gets too hard?"
This had to be it.
"You just picture some other girl somewhere, still training while you're quitting." She answered with a detrmined stare. "If you don't finish well you can't be thinking 'if only I'd trained harder'."
The piece finished and we all gave her a round of applause.  We talked for a while before the others began heading home.  I didn't contribute a lot to the conversation, a little miffed at not being given any credit for the help I had given Kathy during her preparation for the season.  On one hand she had been the one doing the training, it was her sweat on the floor and her muscles aching.  On the other hand I had organised a place for her to train that was far better equiped than her garage and done every possible thing to help her.  It wasn't that she didn't mention me as such, but just the whole angle of the interview was how she had done everything on her own with no help from anyone.  As everyone left Kathy turned to me.
"So what did you think?  You've been pretty quiet."
"Yeah it was great." I answered.
"But....."
"Aw it's stupid really." I said. "I just thought with everything you've said to me before about the help I've given you I thought maybe you'd have mentioned me once in that whole thing."
"You can't seriously be pissed off at that." She said to me with a furrowed brow. "The interview was about me not you."
"Yeah I know." I said. "I just thought that maybe when you were asked about how you got through the tough times you might have recognised the help I've given you."
"So a free holiday and letting you fuck my friend wasn't thanks enough?  You need everyone to know I couldn't do this by myself?"
"No Kath it's just..."
"I worked myself to death to achieve what I have and if you can't just let me have my moment then maybe you need to have a good look at yourself."
I already knew this was a stupid argument as I walked out the door that night but pride is a powerful thing.  Still we had fought before and we both needed time to cool off, I would go see her tommorow.

As I pulled up at her house the next day she was already on her way out the door.
"Hi," she said, "I can't stop to talk right now so lets say you're sorry, I'm sorry and later we'll do it.  I'm late."
"Where you off too?" I asked.
"PulseSport want to talk about sponsoring me, it's great but we'll have to talk later. Bye!"
She blew me a kiss as she closed her car door.  As she pulled out of the driveway it dawned on me that this was a fairly big deal.  PulseSport were a locally based sportswear brand who had only been around a short time but had gained a big presence by sponsoring prominent events and athletes.  Anything they could offer Kathy would help her enormously.
Later in the day I recieved a phone call from Kathy.  Her voice almost quivered with excitment as she recounted the details of her meeting with the PulseSport marketing people, and what they had offered her was potentially life changing.  First of all she would be paid.  All her competition and training wear would be supplied by them free of charge, also they would be able to get her entry in events interstat and possibly overseas.  They had a plan to promote PulseSport as a sexy sporting brand and for them Kathy fit the bill perfectly.  They would capitalise on her recent exposure to make her the local face of PulseSport.  She would occasionally fill a PR role for them at certain events and would appear in their catalogues, brochures and flyers.
This deal had the potential to open up a whole new world for Kathy.  She was understandably thrilled and I was thrilled for her.  The PulseSport people were seemingly keen as well as they had already booked a photoshoot for the upcoming catalogue later in the week.
I took her out to dinner to celebrate but for one of the few times I can remember conversation was difficult.  Her mind was on competing and winning, she was a long way from the restaraunt table that night but I couldn't have been happier for her.
Later in the week Kathy stopped by to show me the results of her photoshoot.  She had copies of the actual photos that would be used in the upcoming PulseSport catalogue.  They had used a gym theme and had Kathy dripping in spray on sweat, staring directly into the camera with an icy stare.  She had shots taken of her in just about every item of clothing in the current line, either curling a dumbell or wiping sweat from her face.  As you would expect the lighting was perfect and accentuated every sinew of her athletic physique.
"So what do you think?" She asked, almost nervously.
"I'm proud of my girl." I answered as I kissed her on the cheek.
She did look incredible in all these shots, even though some of the stuff she was modelling was way too revealing to be classed as serious workout wear.
"If I didn't have the real thing I just might have kept a few of these." I joked to her.

The next few weeks were a time of change for the both of us.  In addition to Kathy's continuing work with PulseSport I quit my job.  The food industry had gotten stale for me and I had been considering a change for some time.  I had subconciously been putting in less effort at work and when my boss pulled me aside for a chat I knew then was the time to go.  As fortune would have it I was able to secure a job at Peter's recreation centre, the one with the gym Kathy and I had made such creative use of in her off season.  I would be in charge of organising the majority of the team sports to be played on the courts in the evenings.  The social basketball, netball and indoor soccer programmes were my responsibility.  It was good news for Kathy as well as even though I had nothing to do with the gym area of the centre, she could get discounted membership of the gym and it's extensive facilities.
Things were moving much faster for Kathy as well.  PulseSport's marketing department was in overdrive as they explored every possible avenue to push their brand.  They had her competing in another race in three weeks time before travelling interstate two days later for a photoshoot in a nationaly circulated sports magazine.  It would actually turn into two flights as this week she had to fly over to meet with the magazine's people and the photographer.  All this meant that we didn't get to see as much of each other as we would have liked.
My first few days at my new job turned out to be fairly frantic.  It was luck I had found this position as the previous programme manager had just left, but in the intervening days a lot of the administration of the programme had fallen into disarray.  After sorting the mess out and getting everything back on track I had the chance to take in my new surroundings and meet a few of my co-workers.  There was a photo-board up at reception with a name, picture and title of all the staff.  Peter had left me with Colin, a young trainee to show me around.  Colin was a very friendly, switched on kid and I liked him immediately.
As I already knew the basic layout of the place Colin gave me a run down of all my fellow staff members on the photo-board.  There were about three personal trainers, pool staff, aerobics/spinning instructors and a couple of referees for the sports.  As I would be working most closely with the referees, Colin suggested I meet them first, as her was about to lead me away one photo caught my eye.
"Who's this?" I asked, pointing at the photo of a pretty black haired girl.
"Ah," Colin laughed, "she's hot huh?  That's Jessica.  She mainly works in the gym with clients and stuff, you won't see her much probably."
"Too bad." I laughed.
I was introduced to one of the referees, Dave.  He was a large scottish man who combined his nightly refereeing duties with general maintenance around the centre.  The other referee, Maria, would not be in until the evening.
I settled in quickly and in a few short days I was feeling comfortable in my surroundings.  I had the sports fixtures running like clockwork and had the oppotunity to meet most of the other staff, but to my disappointment had not been able to catch a look at the beautiful Jessica.  I was speaking to Colin late one afternoon and mentioned this to him.
"She's been around." He laughed. "Maybe you're just unlucky.  Have you met Tom yet?"
I had.  Tom was born here but both his parents were Japanese.  He also worked in the gym and seemed like a decent bloke.
"Well here's a bit of goss," Colin said eagerly, "he wants Jessica bad.  Everyone seems to know except Jess herself."
"Well if the photo is any guide I don't blame him."  I replied.
"Yeah but because Jess has also got some Japanese in her Tom almost acts like he has first call on her, he'll get real pissed off if he sees you talking to her for too long."
"I can talk to whoever I like." I said. "Plus I'm sure we'll be fine.  I have to say she doesn't look Japanese."
"You can't really tell from the photo," Colin said, "she's only like an eighth or something but if you look at her eyes you can sort of see it.  Really exotic sort of thing... she's so hot."
Just at that moment there was a tap at the door.  To my surprise it was Kathy.
"Hey baby!" She smiled as she walked in and kissed me on the cheek.
She was wearing her new PulseSport training gear and looked the picture of athleticism.  A shiny silver sports bra and tight black shorts that hugged every curve of her hard rear end.
"Hey you!" I smiled. "What you doing here?"
"Just come for a quick workout." She said. "You know I've been entered in that race in a couple of weeks, gotta get some work in make sure I'm ready."
As she walked out the door it dawned on me how long it had been since I had seen Kathy.  With her constant activites with her new sponsor and my new job we hadn't spent any time together.  The other thing I noticed was how slim she was looking, not lean as in fit, but actually very slim.
I turned to Colin, who's jaw was about on the floor.
"That's your girl?" He asked in disbelief.
"That's her." I answered.
"Nice work." He grinned to me. "How'd you manage that?"
"With a lot of lying." I only half joked to him.

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Later that night I had about an hour to go.  The last matches were being played and I had completed all my work, so I decided to go for a walk.  I had meant to go and see Kathy while she was here but time had gotten away from me and she would be long gone by now.  This close to a race she would be tapering her workouts off and be aiming for a quick forty five minutes to an hour, get the blood pumping and get out.  Therefore I was shocked to find her still in the gym when I walked up the stairs.  She was on the stationary bike riding about mid pace and looking totally exhausted.  I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" I asked. "You look shattered you've got a race coming up."
"I know that." She puffed as she looked up at me with a slightly detached sort of expression. "I have a lot of stuff coming up...I have to be ready."
I was about to argue when Colin appeared at the top of the stairs.  There had been a fight in the indoor soccer match and I needed to go and deal with it.  By the time it had all been calmed down and I had written out some suspensions the gym was closed and Kathy must have left.
I finished off my paperwork and as it seemed I was the last to leave I did a quick round to make sure everything was locked.  I noticed a light from the top of the stairs.  Obviously the gym lights had been left on so I headed up to turn them off.  It wasn't until I got to the top of the stairs I noticed the sound of rapid, heavy breathing from the corner of the room.  A slender female figure was on the incline bench, holding her legs straight out in front of her and very slowly moving them up and down.  She was wearing a tight, yellow top and black track pants and I recognised her as Jessica from the photo.
"Um hi." I said. "Just closing up."
"Oh." She opened her eyes with a start. "I didn't realise it was so late.  You must be the new guy."
"That would be me." I smiled.
"I'm Jessica." She said as she stood up and shook my hand. "I'm usually a personal trainer here but I always get roped into running aerobics as well, which is why I'm here tonight."
"So you cool down after a workout with another workout?" I asked her, trying not to obviously ogle her toned body.
"It was only oldies aerobics." She sighed. "Plus I like to get a good hard workout in after everyone else has left.  No-one wants an out of shape trainer do they?"
As Colin had told me she definately had an exotic look about her, especially around the eyes.  Her straight black hair was tied into a ponytail, and she looked amazing with her face blushed slightly pink from her effort.
"I heard there was a bit of a fight downstairs." She said as she gathered her towel and bottle.
"My first one." I joked. "But nothing major."
We continued to talk as we made our way out to the car park.  She seemed like a great girl, and had I not been with Kathy I would have been all over her.  But either way I was looking forward to getting to know her better.
Seems I wouldn't have to wait long as the events of that night turned out to be a reasonably regular routine.  I would be left to lock up and I'd find Jessica getting a quick workout in, we'd leave together and have a quick chat on our way out.  Kathy was stopping by most days as well.  The only time I was getting to see her was before or just after her workouts, and for a girl with a race in a matter of days she still seemed to be pushing herself extremely hard.  For some reason though I just felt I couldn't talk to her lately.  She seemed very disconnected and our conversations had become a little awkward.  I wasn't concerned about our relationship - we'd been through worse - but I was getting concerned about her.  She was not herself, this was not the way she prepared for a race.  Also she was looking thinner, and for a girl with almost no bodyfat at the best of times that wasn't a good sign.
Apart from this, things were going very well.  Kathy was happy with her PulseSport deal and I was happy at my new job.  The atmosphere was good, Peter was a good employer and I got on with everyone well.  I'd be lying though if I didn't admit I enjoyed Jessica's company most of all.  She was very beautiful and in very good shape, despite being very slender her body was tight and toned.  She was the type of personal trainer every man would dream of.  I was just thinking this when she knocked on the door of my office.
"Heya!" She chirped. "How's it goin?"
"Great," I answered, "how are you?"
"You'll never guess who is in the gym."
"Who?"  I asked.
"This chick." She said as she handed me a new PulseSport flyer.
I laughed.
"What?" She asked.
"This is my girlfriend."
"Bullshit!" She said, screwing up her nose.
"No really." I said. "Her name's Kathy, she's my girlfriend.  We've been together a while."
"She's awesome." Jessica said. "I wish I had a body like hers."
"I don't think you've got much to complain about." I smirked.
About half an hour later Kathy stopped by to let me know she was leaving tonight to get a hotel closer to where the race was being held.  It was three hours drive away so I couldn't blame her for not wanting to drive there on the day, especially as I'm sure PulseSport would be footing the bill.  Her face was red and sweaty and she had her wet hair tied back.  Her new black jacket was open and showing off her abs and her sweat stained sports bra.  I still wondered about how hard she was training but what was done was already done and my questioning couldn't help her confidence.  I kissed her goodbye and she let me know that straight after the race she was flying interstate for the magazine photo shoot and wouldn't be back until mid next week.  Normally we would have made sure to spend a night together before such a long time apart but this time we just kissed and she left.  I guessed this was what happens after you've been in a relationship for a while but for some reason I felt uneasy.
Saturday morning I was not supposed to work, but I had some things to finish off and with Kathy gone I had nothing else to do so I went in.  The centre was only open until one in the afternoon and I knew Jessica often trained clients on the weekend.  As I pulled up I saw her walking out to her car.  I pulled up next to her and gave the horn a beep. 
"Morning." I said as I wound the window down. "Done for the day?"
"Yeah, finally." She sighed. "I don't know why some people get trainers if they don't want to train."
"It's called concience." I joked.
"Yeah." She laughed. "But what are you doing here?"
"Kathy's away at a race and I have a few loose ends to tidy up.  Thought I'd get it done while I had the chance."
"Aw you miss her.  If I was a guy I'd miss her." She laughed. "I know what you need."
"What do I need doctor?" I asked sarcastically.
"Well I was going out tonight but now I'm not, why don't I come over and we'll put on some dvds and just chill for a bit?"
Now I knew this was something I should say no to, but like I've mentioned so many times before I'm only human.  So when those eyes and that body offered to spend some time with me I agreed.  Plus what was the harm in two workmates hanging out?  I couldn't take my eyes of her, but I had no reason to think she was doing anything more than being friendly.  She knew I was seeing Kathy, plus the likelyhood of another gorgeous woman being interested in me was unlikely in the extreme.

I finished up my work then went home and washed my car while waiting for Jessica to arrive.  I have to admit I was slightly apprehensive, although I wasn't sure why.  Sure I found her attractive but she had given no indication she had anything else on her mind other than a dvd night with a friend, mainly to give me some company with Kathy having gone away.  My nervousness only hightened when her car pulled up.
"Heya!" She chirped as she got out of her car.  She wore jean shorts and a pink t-shirt, my sunglasses hiding the amount of attention I was giving to her slender, toned legs as she walked towards me.  "I hope these are ok I had to raid my dvd collection."
She had brought Borat, Family Guy and a couple of others I hadn't heard of.
"I'm sure they will be, come inside." I said, trying to sound relaxed.
"Nice place," she said as she walked in, "Do you rent or own?"
"Own," I responded proudly, "what do you want for dinner?"
We talked about nothing while I made a quick dinner for the two of us.  She really was pretty.  She had her long black hair down and one leg crossed over the other as she sat on my couch, I noticed the muscles twitch in her toned arm as she reached forward to pick up the glass of coke I had given her.  I finished in the kitchen and handed Jessica her dinner.  I put a dvd in and sat next to her on the couch.  We talked for a while about more nothing, old jobs and some of the people at work.  Inevitably the subject of Kathy came up.
"So how did you meet?" She asked me.
"Saw her out running one day, got to talking and it went from there." I answered, no point in telling all the details.
"She's unbelievable.  The way she trains, she's in such awesome shape." Jessica said.
"I'm actually a little worried about her at the moment." I answered.
"Why?"
"She's just signed up with PulseSport and they've got her running around like a headless chicken for them.  They've told her she's competing in this far away race and her preparation has been all over the place.  She's been training way too hard for someone who has to run a race soon."
"I'm sure she knows what she's doing though." Jessica answered.
"Well let me ask you, in all the time she's been training in the gym have you seen her pick up a weight?"
"No don't think so." She answered, "Lots of treadmill and bike, really intense stuff.  Don't think she did weights."
"Well for her that's wierd." I said. "She usually does alot of weights.  Plus this close to a race she wouldn't normally be killing herself like that, she'd be just breaking a sweat and leaving."
"Maybe she's been given some advice by someone." She shrugged. "But she has really good stamina, I'm fit but I couldn't have kept going that hard for that long."
"You don't know the half of it," I said, taking a drink. "In her off season we got to use the work gym after hours.  She used to get me to come up with all these insane challenges for her to do, kind of see how far she could push her body."
"Pretty hard would be my guess." Jessica added.
"Yeah.  She would sometimes train for hours.  Tears, puke, we got the whole lot."
"Wow."
"She just wouldn't quit." I told her. "She could never bring herself to admit she couldn't take anymore."
"What kind of stuff did she do?"
"Well I think the hardest would have been when I drew a line on a bucket and got her to fill up to that line with her sweat.  That nearly killed her."
"That's crazy." Jessica was obviously impressed.  "I thought I worked out hard."
Conversation then turned to Jessica and how she got started.  It didn't surprise me to learn she did gymnastics as a kid, or that she was near to olympic standard.
"It was wierd," she said, "I remember going on a school excursion to the beach.  I was nine and had a six pack.  None of the boys even had a six pack at that age, and there I was with biceps and quads and everything.  When I quit I wanted to maintain my fitness still and when I left school I got into the fitness industry."
"Can you still do any of your old gymnast stuff?" I asked.
"Yeah," she grinned, "but I think these shorts are a bit too short to put my legs behind my head.  Kept my six pack though."
"Really?" She had my attention now.
"Yeah take a look."
She slid her shirt up to reveal a slender and cut midsection.  She arched her back and then crunched down hard, bringing all her obliques into sharp focus.
"Any good?" She grinned proudly.
"Damn that looks hard." I said, impressed.
"Touch em." She told me.
She lay back while I rubbed my hand across her warm, stone like stomach.  I was being careful to make it look like an interested examination of her muscle tone, rather than me getting aroused by her hard and defined muscles moving under her silky smooth skin.
"A few crunches there then." I joked.
"Just a few...thousand." She grinned as she pulled her shirt back down.
"So what was gymnastic training like?" I asked.
"Just fun when I first started." She answered. "But every time you go up a level it gets harder, by the time you reach the top it's downright brutal."
"How so?"
"Well sometimes you have to train injured.  You work on the bars and stuff until your hands bleed, then there's the conditioning sessions.  Its just three hours of non-stop strength and flexibility training.  You stretch yourself beyond all limits and then they have you doing V-ups, handstand pushups and anything else they can think of."
"What's a V-up?" I asked.
"It's like a sit up but you lift your legs as well.  You keep your legs straight and basically make a V shape.  I'll show you."
She got onto the floor and without the slightest hint of effort showed me a V-up.  She did a couple and then held at the top.
"To make it even harder when we got to the top of the rep we opened our legs and reached forward through the middle." She explained without the slightest strain in her voice.
She demonstrated what she had just explained.
"How many of those did you have to do?" I asked.
"As many as we could in twenty minutes, I used to get around 1100 on a good day.  A bit under one a second."
"Shit, I'm not sure even Kathy could do that." I was impressed.
"I couldn't do it now." She said. "I still train my abs pretty hard but not like that, people want a trainer that looks the part so I train so I look good.  It's all I need."
"You're still pretty toned all over."
"Yeah," she said, rubbing her arm. "not too bad.  I wouldn't mind getting a bit more size in my arms.  They look good flexed but just relaxed I'd like bit more on them."
As if sensing my wish she rolled up her sleave and flexed her bicep.  Her slender arm grew a sharp, hard ball of muscle.  Not overly big, but very defined.
"Well you look fine to me." I said.
"Thanks," she smiled, "but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  It's just in between training clients and running the aerobics and everything, that time while you're closing up is the only time I get to work on myself."
"Well maybe we can stay back late one night, give you a chance to get a bit more training in."
"You'd stay back for me? I might just take you up on that."
We spent the rest of the evening laughing away at the TV and making useless talk about nothing.  Regardless of the fact she was an insanely hot girl I found I honestly enjoyed her company.  I began to think back to the time when Kathy and I were like this.  It was a funny feeling because there was nothing really wrong with our relationship, there was just something a little odd about her lately.  I'm sure she was just feeling under a bit of pressure.  For as long as she had been competing she was responsible only to herself and now a company had put a lot of money into her and needed her to perform.  She was the type of person who would strongly feel the need to repay the faith they had shown in her.
Jessica had noticed me thinking.
"I know that face." She smiled. "Stop thinking about her I'm sure she's fine."
"I know." I sighed. "I just can't stop thinking about how she's doing."
"Why don't you call her?"
"Check the time!" I laughed.
"Wow." She said. "It's getting late.  In fact I should probably get going soon."
She began to organise her bag and keys when I asked her,
"You're mates with Tom aren't you?" Haven't really spoke to him much yet."
"Yeah he's a good friend." She replied. "Are you asking me because you're interested or because you've caught wind of the rumours?"
"A little from column A and a little from column B!" I answered in my best Homer Simpson voice.
"Well yeah he's a great guy and we are great mates, but that's it.  A while ago my car broke down and he drove me to work for a while, before you know it all these rumours are flying around but there's nothing to them.  Why do you care anyway?"
"I just heard he gets shitty if any guys get to friendly with you, seeing as I've really only just started at work I don't really want to get anyone offside." I answered.
"He's protective of me because he's seen me get screwed over by guys before," she answered, "I'm sure you'll have no problems, I invited me over remember?"
"I'm sure you're strong enough to take care of yourself." I smiled, taking the opportunity to give her bicep a little squeeze.
"Yeah don't mess with me." She smiled through playfully gritted teeth. "Kathy will be home in a few days," she placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, "then you'll see everything is fine.  Take it easy."
She picked up her handbag and her keys, "See you at work." She chirped.
I really liked that girl.

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I had expected to hear from Kathy the next afternoon to hear how the race went but was not totally surprised when I didn't.  It was symbolic of the growing distance between us since her sponsor came on the scene and although I was happy for her I had come to despise PulseSport and the whole deal with them.  Working in a place where her tight, glistening body was plastered on every second flyer and pamphlet in the place.  I called her a couple of times over the next two days but her phone was off on both occasions, there was every chance her battery was flat and she had left her charger at home but still I was keen to talk to her to say the least.  Either way, I imagined I'd see her in the next two or three days when the shoot for the magazine was done and she would come home.
I had placed myself in front of the TV, beer in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other.  With car racing on the TV I was set for my own personal perfect night alone.  I was really getting into it when my phone suddenly rang and sent me about three inches off my seat.  My heart skipped a beat when a saw Kathy's name appear on the display.
"Hi baby." A very faint voice said.
"Hey babe.  I've been trying to get you what's been happening?"
"I'll tell you everything when I get back, I'm getting in tommorow morning."
Her voice was still quiet and croaky.
"Are you ok? You sound awful." I asked.
"Fine, see you tomorrow baby."
Not for the first time in this whole experience I found myself counting down the hours to something.  In this case getting Kathy back and asking her what the hell was going on.  Talking to her just then dispelled a lot of my doubt about the state of our relationship, but had replaced it with a lot of concern about her wellbeing.

I had just arrived at work the next morning when I got a text message from Kathy, she was finally home and if I had the time she was going to stop in at the gym to see me.  If I had time!  I told her I would make time and eagerly awaited her arrival.  I couldn't wait to hold that body again, look into those eyes and feel her lip on mine.
"Douchebag..." I quietly said to myself as I sipped my coffee.  It seemed I had let myself fall for this girl, but as far as girls go I could have picked a worse one.
I had actually become engrossed in some totally thrilling court maintenance scheduling when there was a tap at the door.  There she was, just standing there smiling at me.  I jumped up and put my arms around her, kissed her hard and held her for a minute or two.
"I missed you." I said to her quietly.
"I missed you too." She said back.
After the standard tender moment I sat down and she took a seat on the opposite side of my desk.
"So how did it all go?" I asked her.
"Ah...." She looked down and her voice began to quiver, "...not so good."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Well.." she paused again, "it turns out I'm a complete idiot."
I gave her a quizzical look and she continued.
"You know I didn't get a perfect prep time, it was all a rush and everything.  I figured this was my one big chance to really make something of this whole triathlon thing.  I've been doing everything alone for years and I guess I just wanted to make sure I didn't let this opportunity pass me by.
Tears began to well in her eyes and I handed her a tissue and let her go on.
"You're gonna think I'm a complete idiot but I know how the world works.  Kournikova never won anything but made it big anyway because of the way she looked, she became a star.  I guess I just wanted to see if I could reach the big time."
"I'm not really following." I said.
"I was training for that photo shoot." She said with another tear. "I took a good look at myself in the mirror and thought I needed to slim down a bit."
"Slim down from what?" I asked, "You have almost no fat on you anywhere, where did you want to lose it from?"
"I don't know," she sniffed, "I just wanted to look as slim as I could so I cut right down on my food and did almost non-stop cardio for hours.  I thought if this shoot went well I could...it sounds so stupid...become famous...I guess...further my career or something...I dunno."
She grabbed another tissue and went on.
"I got to the race and I was just terrible, I had no energy from the start and was near the back when I collapsed and had to be taken to hospital."
"Fuck!" I said. "You've been in hospital! Anything else I should know?"
"Well of course they cancelled the photo shoot.  I have a meeting with my sponsors tomorrow, I think they might be done with me." She began to cry again. "I've blown it."
As I looked at her I noticed she did look different.  She looked gaunt and sick, that sparkle was gone from her eyes and she looked a total wreck.  I stood up and held her, I couldn't believe how she had been so stupid but now was not the time to bring it up.  She knew she had made a bad decision and was suffering for it.
"I have to as you a favour." She sniffed. "Can you come with me tomorrow?"

I could feel Kathy's tension as we entered the offices of the PulseSport company.  I had tried to be reassuring on the drive over but in truth I didn't know what to expect.  We spoke to the secretary and she directed us to a large office at the end of a line of offices, at the large table were sat three men.  Only one had the look of someone who I would consider 'sporty', by that I mean he was slim and had a tan.  The other two were fatter and pale, advertising men or bean counters I was sure.  The slimmer one was introduced as Michael while the other two were named Tony and Geoff.  It became clear that Michael was going to be doing the majority of the talking which was a good thing, I figured someone who may have at least a sporting background would be more sympathetic to a fellow athlete.
"So why don't we run through what happened?" Michael started, leaning back in his chair.
Kathy explained what happened, with brutal honesty.  Explained the pressure she felt to look right for them and get noticed, explained what she had done in training and her complacency about her performances.  All three of them fired questions at her relentlessly and as the sparring went on I could feel Kathy getting annoyed.  I was getting a little irritated at the fact that they all seem to have missed.  They had Kathy flying all over the country, to events and photoshoots and so on.  Her itinary following this event had been just as brutal before her poor result, trade shows and more promotional bullshit for another month in advance.  Geoff was halfway through a speech when I stopped him.
"Sorry to cut you off there but I have got to say something." I interjected.
Geoff opened his mouth but Michael raised his hand to stop him.
"Go ahead." He said to me.
"Well it seems to me everyone is overlooking one major point of this whole thing.  She is an athlete, she needs time to train and time to prepare for events.  She needs downtime and she's proven she can get the job done when she is able to run to her own schedule, you guys have had her running all over the country for you.  Is it any wonder she's not performing at her peak?" I asked them.
Tony spoke up, "You do remember this is because of Kathy taking on an insane dieting and weight loss regime rather than training properly for her events don't you?"
"I do understand this is because of the giant carrot you've been dangling in front of her since she signed with you." I started to get angry. "I understand you want to promote yourselves but you can't do it by pressuring her and making her feel as every single step she takes may be her last one representing you.  It's up to you where you want the emphasis to be, on the sport or on the glamour.  You want a rakish model posing in photos for you I'm sure you can find one, you want an athlete here she is.  That's the deal."
"Can you excuse us for a moment?" Michael said sternly.
As we left the office I saw the look of horror on Kathy's face.  I could read her expression, she thought I had just told her sponsor to fuck off and she was back to square one.
"At least it's all out in the open now." I said. "If they keep on pressuring you you'll do better without them." I hoped she believed me more than I did.
Before she had time to doubt me the office door opened and we were invited back in.  Michael leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingertips together, staring at the ceiling as if searching for the right words.
"You disappointed us Kathy," he began, looking directly at the nervous wreck next to me, "PulseSport is only a young company although all three of us have been is business for a number of years.  We did not believe that we placed an undue amount of pressure on either your performance or your time, but it does seem as though we gave you a... skewed perception of what we expected from you."
He shifted in his chair, glanced upwards in search of more words and continued.
"Despite this you have been good for us, awareness of our product has grown in recent times and we believe the exposure hasn't done you any harm either so we are proposing this.  We will scale back your promotional commitments and in return you will get back to your former condition and your results will improve.  If not we will have no option but to terminate our agreement as we signed you on as a successful athlete and we need you to stay that way."
Kathy accepted and we all shook hands.  As we walked out to the car she turned to me.
"I'm still shaking!  I thought that was it, it was all over."
"It takes more than a little hiccup to stop my girl!" I said to her. "Now I'm taking you to see someone."

We pulled up out the front of the gym and I took Kathy to my office and told her to wait.  I went up to the weight room to find Jess exactly where I hoped she would be, working with a client.  She had a chubby bald guy lying on a mat doing some stretches, I caught her attention and beckoned her over.  She told the baldy to take a break and came over to me.
"What's up?" She asked.
Snapping my mind of her tight purple workout gear I remembered why I was there.
"I need a favour."
"Sure name it."
"I need you to train Kathy."
"Ah.. well," she paused, "I think I might be a little out of my depth.  Helping couch potatoes lose a few waist inches is one thing but as for a serious athlete, I don't think I really have the experience."
"I don't need diets or full programmes or anything like that." I went on. "She just has a short time to get back into race shape and needs someone to kick her ass basically.  Just get her in here and push her until she gets back to competiton shape, that's all I'm asking."
"It's not really that simple..."
"I know." I interrupted. "That's why I don't do it myself.  I figure your limited experience is better than my none.  Come on, will you help her...me?"
"Ok." She said. "I'll ask a couple of people and see what I can sort out."
"Thanks I owe you." I said gratefully. "Do you want me to introduce you?  She's downstairs."
"I have to get back to him," she gestured to baldy still lying on his mat, "but I'll speak to you soon."
I went back downstairs to Kathy.
"I was gonna introduce you to Jess, she's a personal trainer here.  She can help you get back into shape fast for your next race."
"But?" She asked.
"But she's with a client.  She did say she was able to help though.  I guess you and her can just make a time and.."
"I can look after myself you know." Kathy snapped.
I was slightly taken aback.
"I don't need some 'professional' telling me how I need to train for a sport I've been doing for ages." She continued.
"I just thought you could use some help getting out the hole you're in." I said.
"Well you should have asked me," she went on, "It's not like I've gone undergone chemotherapy or something I just trained the wrong way trying to keep my sponsor happy and lost some strength and stamina.  Turns out I couldn't afford to lose it and it was a mistake.  I got myself into it and I'm perfectly capable of whipping my own ass back into top form.  Tell your mate thanks but no thanks."
I grabbed my keys and gestured for her to follow me back to the car.  Who the hell was this bitch?  Maybe I had overstepped some sort of secret athlete's boundary but this was not the same girl I had met all that time ago on the beachfront.  This wasn't the girl that had taken me on that fantastic holiday and it certainly wasn't the girl I'd fucked blind on so many nights.  We drove back to her place in silence and she got out without saying a word.  With a token spin of the tyres I left her there, if she wanted to be a bitch she could do that alone as well.

A couple of days had passed and my temper had cooled somewhat.  True Kathy had been difficult ever since PulseSport had come on the scene but she had been under pressure so I could forgive her that.  It was early morning and I went to check my mail, and was surprised to find an envelope with no address on the front.  There was only my name - in Kathy's handwriting.
It read:
Baby,
I'm sorry I have been so distracted lately.  I thought this thing with my sponsor was my one big chance to really make something out my life but it hasn't turned out like I wanted.  Yesterday I rang up and told them it was off, that I was done with them.  The whole thing may work for other people but not for me.  Sport has always been a very personal thing to me.  It's my one escape from boring day to day life and it's a world where I'm in charge of my own destiny, this whole sponsor thing took it out of my hands.  I became responsible to others and that's not why I love to race, I love it because I'm only responsible to me.
I didn't tell you because I knew you'd try to talk me out of it, and part of me is doing the same but I know this is the right thing.
As you read this I will be on a plane to England.  I'm staying with Hannah for a while because I need to clear my head and get back to being me.  I will be away for a few weeks and missing you like hell, but I'm gonna rock your world when I get back.
I love you baby,
Kathy

Surprised was not the word.  I couldn't believe she had just taken off like that.  After I got over the initial shock of it I realised it was probably a necessary thing for her to do.  The Kathy of the last few weeks had been more of a chore than a girlfriend and if she needed to get away to turn back into the old Kathy, then so be it.

[bmwm3]

Not for the first time in recent history I found myself making do without Kathy.  All the early experiences of our relationship seemed a lifetime ago now and to be honest while I was missing her I really didn't mind her being away that much.  I'd been missing the way things used to be for a while the only difference now was she wasn't being moody and difficult in my face, she could be moody and difficult in England.  She'd match the weather.
The basketball finals were being held at work and because there were only two teams remaining in the competition, once the game itself got underway I really didn't have a lot to do.  A new team had joined our five-a-side soccer tournament and rather than make them wait until the start of a new season, Peter preferred they start paying us right away and I re-write the programme to include them.  Once that was done I had nothing to do, but I had to hang around until the game finished so I could hand out the trophies and all the other bits and pieces that finish up the comp.  I thought I'd go take a walk around and make sure everything was closed and locked, as the basketball was the last thing to take place that night.  I poked my head into the pool room where Jess was running her last aquarobics class.  She was such an awesome looking girl, her body so tight and fit in her black one-piece swimsuit.  Of course she was made to look even better when surrounded by flabby old women, doing their best to complete the incredibly strenuous task of moving their arms around slowly.  Jess spotted me and gave me a wave, I waved back and left her to it.  As I turned around I saw Tom - the guy Colin had warned me about - walking down the passageway with his bag, obviously on his way home.  I had met him before but as we didn't really work in the same areas we had never really had a conversation.  He looked across at me.
"Catch ya later Tom." I said.
He continued walking, sort of giving me a dirty look but not enough that it was too obvious.  Only when I refused to drop my gaze did he finally reply,
"Yeah see ya."
Surely he couldn't be getting his nose out of joint because he saw me talking to Jess?  Too bad if he had.
About twenty minutes later Jess found me in my office, playing computer solitare.
"Did Colin pass on my message?" She asked.
"Nope, haven't heard from him." I replied.
"Damn kid," she said, "I wanted you to let Kathy know I could stay back and train her tonight while the gym's closed.  I can't believe he didn't pass it on I told him two days ago."
"It's irrelevant anyway," I told her, "she's gone to England to stay with a friend.  Chucked in the whole thing with her sponsor, everything."
"What?" Jess asked in shock. "She only just signed up with them really didn't she?  What's she thinking?"
"She just didn't deal well with the expectations I think." I explained. "There was a bit of difference between what they wanted and what she thought they wanted, it all went to shit."
"Is she still gonna race? She can't be quitting all that."
"I don't think she will, she just needs to remember what she loves about it.  Sort of get the fire back."
"That's a shame because I had done a lot of research and ended up speaking to a friend of mine that helps athletes come back from injuries," Jess said reaching into her bag and pulling out a piece of paper. "She gave me a couple of examples of some really killer workouts they use to help them gain their strength and stamina back.  Mainly drop sets and intense cardio with almost no rest in between."
"Drop sets?" I asked.
"Probably the best way to really push the muscles limits." She explained. "You start off with a heavy weight and when you reach failure you drop to a lighter weight and push out a few more reps.  You do that until you get down to the lightest weight, but by then it can feel just as heavy as the weight you started with."
"What's the theory behind it?" I asked.
"Well the last rep or two as you reach failure are the ones that do you the most good.  Instead of just doing two or three of those you end up doing about thirty." She smiled. "Of course it's also one of the most painful ways to train, every rep hurts like your last one before failure.  When you do hit failure you just drop the weight and do it all again, the lactic acid never gets a chance to dissipate.  It fries your muscles but it's really effective."
"Sounds fun." I said. "But Kathy's not here so I guess it doesn't matter.  Thanks for doing that though."
"No problems." She replied. "What are you doing for the rest of the night?"
"Just waiting for that game to finish then I'm off."
Then I had an idea that appealed to me greatly.
"Hey here's a thought," I said, "the gym's free, we're both free, your always saying you don't get the time to work out that you'd like.  Why don't you try that workout?  See how you go?"
"I'm not that fit!" She laughed. "That workout's designed to make Kathy beg for mercy and I'm not half the athlete she is.  It would kill me."
"Give yourself some credit," I said in my most persuasive tone, "you don't get a lot of time to train so you may as well make the most of it when you get the time.  Just see how far you get."
Jess made a face and thought about it for a second.
"Ok I'll give it a go." she said almost resigned. "But don't expect any heroics."
"You used to do top level gymnastics, I'm sure you can take it." I smiled.
I waited until the basketbal finished and presented the two dollar trophies to the grinning, sweaty winners.  My mind was on sweat happening elsewhere at that moment and as soon as I had finished the formalities and everyone had left I locked up and met Jess in the upstairs gym.  She was over by the window warming up with a jump rope.  She was wearing a pink sports bra and and black shorts so tight they seemed painted on to her tight rear end.  She stopped skipping and turned to me.
"I'm actually looking forward to this." She said. "See what I can do.  Hope you don't mind I brought this for inspiration."
She held up Kathy's PulseSport flyer.  There was my girl staring coldy out at us, weight in hand with fake sweat dripping off her every cut and ridge.
"She has a fantastic body." Jess said almost in awe. "Let's see how close I can get to her."
I watched Jess walk to the weight rack and pick up two of the heavier dumbells.  I watched as her shoulder muscles moved under her skin as they suddenly bore the weight of the lumps of metal in her hands.  Her body seemed to have almost no fat on it whatsoever, certainly none was visible.  Where the straps of her top gripped tightly to her shoulders they didn't even press her skin down even a millimetre, her body was just so firm.  Same story where her shorts clung to her toned waist.
She had started with almost the heaviest weight she could lift and she quickly began to show the strain.  She only managed seven reps when she had to drop down to a slightly lighter weight.  Again she squeezed out as many reps as her muscles would allow, her shoulder muscles seeming to separate into several smaller muscles as she raised her arms again and again.  She started to struggle again and went to put the weights back on the rack.
"You know your supposed to do every set to failure right?" I asked her.
She glanced at me and without saying anything picked the weights back up.  She strained through two more reps before stalling halfway through the next one.
"Failure.... happy?" she grinned at me as she grabbed the next pair of weights.
She pushed herself to total failure through six more sets, although by the last two she was only managing about three reps before her muscles cried enough.
"How you doin?" I asked.
"Feels like my shoulders have been deep fried." She half joked.
She forced her way through two more sets before she ran out of weights to drop down to.
"That's pathetic!" She gasped as she finished. "How can such a small weight feel so damn heavy?"
She stretched out her shoulders and turned to me, "So what's next on the list?"
"Biceps." I said, trying to hide my enthusiasm.  It didn't work.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" She smiled at me. "Watching me suffer.  I can tell already this is gonna hurt."
She went over to the rack and began to load a bar up with weights.  She checked it with a curl before adding one more plate each side.
"When I ask can you take some weight off?  Quicker than me doing it I don't want to rest too much."
She immediately started curling the barbell.  Her biceps balled up hard against her milky white skin as she strained with the heavy weight.  She curled until she could curl no more.
"Ok," she said, "pull one off each end."
I did so and she started curling the bar again.  Her cheeks were turning pink with the effort and her forehead was starting to get moist with sweat.
"You got some nice veins popping up there." I said, cheekily running my fingertip down the vein that raised up every time she lifted the bar.
She started to groan as she squeezed out the last few reps before asking me to drop the weight again.
"This is starting to hurt...just so you know." She told me through gritted teeth as she continued to pump her biceps hard.
She pushed on through the pain to take every set to the absolute maximum.  Even though the weight was gradually getting lighter it wasn't hard to see every set was getting harder for her.  Her gasps and groans were getting louder and her sense of humour wasn't quite what it was when she started.  A couple of times I tried to joke with her only for her to ignore me and keep working.  Her arms looked fantastic.  Every time she curled the weight her normally slender and toned arms swelled into tight knots of veiny muscle.  Arms shaking, she squeezed out two more reps.
"Ow!" She gasped. "That feels amazing."
"What? You're liking it?" I asked, somewhat surprised.
"Yeah." She answered. "It burns like hell but feels really good."
I took the last pair of plates of the bar and she managed about seven more reps with just the bar.  She gave a little shriek through clenched teeth as she stalled halfway up the last one, and dropped the bar.
"That was intense." She said, catching her breath. "All my shoulders and arms feel like jelly.  They're still shaking."
She stretched her shoulders and rubbed her biceps while flexing her arm up and down.
Looking at the schedule Jess's friend had written for her I found the next exercise.  Cardio, high intensity, ten minutes on the stationary bike.
"You might actucally break a sweat now." I teased her.
"I'm sweating!" She laughed, wiping her forehead.
"Not properly, not yet." I replied.
She got on the bike and wasted no time.  Standing up on the pedals she didn't spare herself at all, she obviously wasn't planning on pacing herself for ten minutes.  Pedalling furiously the definition in her quads popped out of her thighs rapidly, and even her triceps and shoulders were responding with every stroke of her legs.  Despite the pace she was breathing slowly, deliberately and deeply.  Her face and neck were pink with the effort.
"How long?" She almost shouted.
"Still got four and a half minutes." I told her, checking my stopwatch.
She sat down on the seat and concentrated all her energy on making those pedals spin.  She leaned forwards and rested her head on the handlebars.  As she moved into the final minute she momentarily looked up, face now dripping sweat and an expression of real pain.
"Come on." I told her. "Thirty seconds to go give it all you've got!"
She sat halfway up and drew in a sharp, deep breath.  Then pushed like crazy.  Her legs were almost a blur as the bike creaked under the strain of this sudden intense punishment.  She held her breath as she gave everything for the last half minute push.  I counted her down.
"Four....Three....Two....One....Ok!"
"Ahhh....fuck....oww!" She sighed, laying her head on the handlebars to catch her breath.  "That went forever!"
"You did good." I said, handing her a towel.
She climbed off the bike and took a drink.  As she leaned her head back and sucked down some water I watched a drop of sweat run down her neck to her chest.  She was the perfect image of the ideal fitness girl, slim and toned, damp with sweat and sipping water with her towel over her shoulder.  She wiped her face once more turned to me.
"What's next?"
"Ahhh..." I said as I picked up the paper. "Legs by the looks of it.  Yeah drop set on leg raises, then leg curls."
"Can we do that one later my legs are finished... what's after that?" She asked.
"It's very clear about the order, I'm guessing legs are next for a reason." I told her.
She sighed and took another quick drink before taking a seat on the leg raise machine, moving the pin in the weight stack downwards to the most she could cope with.  Her quads suddenly stood out, defined by the strain of the first rep.  She groaned loudly.

[bmwm3]

"Come on, push through it." I encouraged her.
Push through it she did.  Every single time she took it to the absolute limit before dropping the weight, and she never lowered it by more than one plate at a time.  Sometimes she sat with her head leaned back, moaning through the pain.  Other times she would lean forwards, massaging her screaming quads.  With the pain intensifying with every set she was a mess with only two plates to go.  Nearly screaming as she raised the weight and whimpering as she lowered it the sweat now ran freely down her face and had begun to stain the fabric covering her chest.  After she forced the last weight up for the final time she quickly stood up to grab another drink.
"This is hard." She breathed. "You can't tell me Kathy trains like this all the time?"
'Kathy who?' I thought as I watched her towel off her sweaty chest.  "Not always," I smirked, "sometimes much harder."
She rolled her eyes at me then set up the weight for the leg curls.  Taking a deep breath she lay face down on the bench and hooked her legs under the padded bar.  What followed ran to the theme of the evening so far, a lot of moaning, straining and sweating.  She pushed herself very hard, even more impressive for a girl who was very fit but rarely took herself to the absolute limit.  She wasn't used to training at this intensity and dealing with this level of pain, and here she was training in a way that is known to be one of the most painful methods in existance.  Once or twice near the end of a set she asked me to lower the weight, and I had to encourage her to squeeze out another rep or two.  I must admit a lot of my attention was taken watching her glutes squeeze hard inside her tight shorts, repeatedly clenching and releasing and sometimes shaking with effort.
When she had finally exhausted herself curling only one plate, I had to help her to her feet as her legs, like her shoulders and arms before them now felt like hot jelly.
"How am I doing?" She breathed as she stretched out her long, burning legs.
"Good," I answered honestly, "you're hanging in there."
"It's been a long time since I've trained so hard," she said, taking a drink, "and since I've looked so gross in front of a guy."
"You look freakin awesome." I told her. "Tight clothes, tight body, what's not to like?"
"You have a girlfriend buddy." She pointed at me, smiling cheekily. "Plus I think when we're done here I'll be so gross you'll only be worried about staying a safe distance away from me, now what's next?"
"Ten minutes on the rower." I read to her aloud. "As many reps as you can manage.  This will be good I remember Kathy nearly destroyed that machine one night here."
"We'll see what I can do then." She said, taking a deep breath as she sat down. "I'm gonna go for it."
She reached forward and grabbed the handle.  I started the stopwatch and she began, awkwardly at first but after adjusting her seating position she started to crank out the reps with as much aggression as her tired body could produce.  She was breathing in time with her rows and was probably managing about one rep per second, which given the size of the movement is pretty quick.  Her back muscles rippled with every movement and after a minute or two the sweat was back, running down her face.  She was giving this one everything.
"How long?" She gasped.
"Still six minutes."
"Ahhh.....ok." She moaned.
She was grunting every time she tore the cable back towards herself and was struggling to maintain her pace.
"Come on baby, keep going, keep going." I urged her on.
She gave her best but couldn't keep up her pace from the first few minutes.  Legs destroyed from the previous exercises, she wasn't even using them to push backwards anymore.  Rather she was just pulling the bar towards herself with her arms and even that looked like it was starting to become too much for her.  For the last few seconds she was barely moving the bar at all but still giving her all, and she was nearly in tears by the time she finished.  I handed her the water bottle and as I stood over her I could feel the heat radiating off her body.
"Next!" She almost laughed. "What have you got for me?"
"Abs time, your favourite!" I said. "Don't see that you need much work in that area though."
I was referring to the fact that her top had been soaked through from her intense workout so far, and her wet top clung to her abs making every muscle visible.
"Well I should be able to work a lot harder then shouldn't I?" She smiled.
"It's cable crunches, how heavy are you going to start?"
"Heavy as I can." She answered, kneeling down next to the weight stack.
She adjusted the weight and grabbed the handle, and she trembled with effort as she struggled to bring her nose down to almost touch the floor.  I had guessed she had gone for slightly too much weight but she managed to do three reps with it before lowering the weight and pushing on.  Her nose almost kissed the floor as she crunched her abs down hard, she was mercilessly squeezing the most out of every single rep.  For someone who had began the workout somewhat tentatively, she now almost seemed to be embracing the intensity of what she was doing.  Kathy had told me when you reach a certain point your body releases endorphins giving you a natural high despite the pain from the muscles.  It seemed as though Jess was at that point now as she ripped the cable down over and over almost enthusiastically, unafraid to scream if she felt the need.
"Look at the floor!" She exclaimed once as she stopped to change the weight.
She was looking at the smattering of liquid that was her sweat on the floor.  As she went on she began to hold herself in place at the bottom of the movement, sweat dripping off her nose and her forehead as she winced.  She would only hold for a second but it definately gave the impression of increasing the intensity another notch if the noise she was making was anything to go by.  Trembling as she tried to pull the handle down for one final rep she found herself in limbo, not able to move down beyond halfway.  With a scream she let the handle snap out of her hands and what remained of the weight fell onto the stack with a clang.
"I'm going to start calling you Sharapova!" I teased her, making reference to the tennis player once dubbed 'the scream queen'.
She grinned at me as she took a drink, and adjusted her weight once more.  Grabbing the handle for one final effort, she began to bend forwards.  She got most of the way down before the shaking began and she stalled there, unable to complete the rep.  She kept fighting it for as long as she could but inevitably gravity won out in the end, finally forcing her to release the handle and collapse on the floor.  She lay on her back, breasts rising and falling rapidly as she sucked in much needed oxygen.  Her saturated clothes stuck to her body, revealing every muscle in her stomach as her abs sucked in and out with her breathing.  Two strands of wet hair clung to her pretty face, still perfect and almost doll-like despite the redness from the distress she had just suffered.  She finally caught her breath:
"That was awesome...." she puffed, "just great."
"You serious?" I asked, surprised.
"Kathy ain't got shit on me!" She smiled.
"You'll like this bit then," as I picked up the paper once more, "Depending on the condition of the athlete," I read, "This circuit may be completed more than once, three times being recommended for the elite athlete."
"Oh shit..." Jess laughed, hands over her eyes.
"I think you're done." I smiled.
"I think I need a shower..." she said.

[bmwm3]

It was with some surprise that I read of Murray's retirement on the noticeboard at work.  Murray had been the maintenance man as well as fill in referee, fill in cleaner, and fill in anything else that was needed.  The old man's list of skills stretched as long as your arm and the fact he had finally decided to call it a day would definately have an impact on life at work.  But everyone is entitled to enjoy their later years and Murray had decided now was the time, Peter had organised a retirement dinner for him and like everyone else I was only too happy to go.  The dinner was being held at a nice pub on the beachfront, not far from my old workplace in fact.  This suited Murray and his wife perfectly as they were never ones for anything fancy, a nice simple place with nice simple food and good friends.
Jess and I arrived together as my place was on her way.  She wore a dark blue dress that had to be seen to be believed, the way it hung on her amazing body was head turning to say the least.  Most of the old guys - Peter, Murray and co.- sat down one end of the long table we had booked, and us younger rabble tended to gravititate towards the other.
"We all like Murray but don't need to watch false teeth chew." As Colin put it.
As it was I sat opposite Jess with Colin next to me and Tom next to her.  I figured if I had to look across the table at someone it may as well be her.  With the steady flow of good food and alchohol the conversation was rolling along quite nicely at both ends of the table.  This may or may not surprise you, but in situations like that most focus seems to be on me.  I start telling one person a story and before long everyone else is listening and suddenly I'm telling the whole table, it's not intentional but that is how it tends to be.  Tonight was no different.  I was halfway through one of my favourites about the time one of my friends managed to get his car up to its doorhandles in the ocean when I sensed a change in the mood.  Colin was laughing, Jess was struggling to breathe with laughter but something else was off.  Before long it became apparent what it was.  Tom jumped to his feet:
"Why don't you try a bit harder cock?" He hissed, his voice dripping with venom.
"What's up with you?" I asked.
Everyone's attention was now on Tom, not just those in our group but almost everyone in the place.
"Why don't you just fuck her already we can all see what your doing!" He was slurring just slightly, barely perceptable but explained the current situation somewhat.
Jess jumped up and grabbed hold of Tom's arm.
"What are you doing you idiot?" She asked through gritted teeth.
"I'm fucking sick of it!  I'm just fucking sick of this shit!" Tom yelled shaking her off and storming outside, Jess followed.
I went after them but Jess turned to me.
"Just leave it, I'll talk to him."
Eventually the stunned silence melted and everyone went back to their meals.  As for us, we tried to ignore the angry body language of the people arguing outside the large front window by our table, and eventually a screeching of tyres signaled Tom's departure.  I went out to Jess who sat slumped on the window ledge, not having a clue what I'd say when I got to her.  All my earlier story telling wit had abandoned me so I went back to a trusted line,
"What was all that about?"
Jess looked up at me, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but would you mind taking me back to yours?  I just want to go home."
I went back inside and said my goodbyes to Murray, who along with the rest of the oldies had resumed their loud conversation.  We drove back to my place as that's where Jess had left her car.  She wasn't really drunk, just emotional and tipsy so I tried to weed out of her what happened outside between her and Tom.  She sat down on my couch with a long sigh.
"I still ache all over from the other night." She said.
"I'm not surprised, but what the hell happened tonight?"
"Fucking Tom.  Just being Tom the way he is lately."
"Meaning?" I asked, hoping to lead her to giving an actual answer.
"Meaning he's been getting pissed off at the amount of time we have been spending together.  Turns out he has feelings for me." She explained.
"So he finally told you? He must have been drunk."
"You knew?" She asked angrily.
"Guys can tell, we all had our suspicions." I said.
"Perfect." She sighed. "He has been such a good friend to me, now everythings fucked."
"It's not the end of the world." I told her, putting my hand on her thigh.
She put her hand on mine.
"No it's not," she said, "I still have you."
With that she pulled my hand up onto her shoulder and placed her other hand around the back of my neck.  I pulled her to me and kissed her.  We kissed long and hard and I gripped her waist with my free hand, pulling her closer until she was almost sitting on my lap, then I ran my hand up her leg and under her dress.  Not time to go for it just yet, I rubbed the outside of her firm thigh.
We both stood up and she pulled off my shirt and in turn I ran both my hands up her legs and onto her tight ass, lifting her dress up as I went.  My hands got up as far as her waist, my hands slid along her silky skin and I dug my fingers into her hard obliques.  She breathed in sharply and pressed into me even harder, I slid one hand up over her juicy breast and reached around behind her to unhook her bra.  Suddenly she pulled away.
"Shit!  What the hell am I doing?  She cried.
Frantically pulling her dress back down and leaving me shirtless on the couch she ran out the door and into her car, driving away in the second screeching tyres display of the evening.  I believe as we both went to bed that night we were thinking the same thing, how did we get into this and what the hell do we do now?  At the start of the evening everything was fine, now I'd betrayed Kathy, one co-worker would be avoiding me, another probably wanted to punch my lights out, and what Jess was going to have to go through with Tom didn't bear thinking about.  There was one difference between Jess's and my thoughts that night for certain, I went to bed with the biggest boner you've ever seen.


Tensions remained high at work.  Tom had taken a couple of days off after the incident at the dinner and when he returned he was barely noticeable, not talking to anyone and generally trying not be noticed.  Jess and I were at least able to speak to one another but it was only making conversation, things remaining very awkward between us.  I say honestly I had no problem, if she had been able to forget the whole thing and continue on with life then so could I.  She obviously felt worse about what had nearly happened between us than I did, although it did make me question which one of us was reacting badly.  I was the one in the relationship after all, yet I wasn't bothered nearly as much as her.  As a result of this we hadn't been hanging out together, leaving me alone in the evenings.  I had male mates I could hang out with, but I hope I don't have to explain how staying up late watching dvds with another guy isn't quite the same.
One evening just as I was thinking about going to bed I got a welcome distraction.  The phone rang.
"Hi baby." A familiar voice said softly down the phone.
"Kathy..... it's so good to hear you." I said.
"You sound exhausted." She said.
"It's been a rough couple of days." I replied. "How are you?"
"Sooooo good!" She said. "I feel like myself again.  Like a total recharge of the batteries, I feel great."
"That's really good to hear... I've missed you."
"Oh baby I've missed you too!  I wanted to let you know I'll be home next week, and to say sorry for taking off the way I did."
"It's fine, I can't wait." I said. "What have you been doing?"
"First few days just hanging out with Hannah, having a holiday of sorts.  Last few days got back in the gym, Hannah's got a race coming up soon so we've been training together.  It's been good."
"Are you going to race?" I asked.
"Nah.  Haven't really had long enough to prepare, and also didn't need a repeat of last time we had a race together.  Remember that?  It was hell!"  It was so good to hear her laugh.  "Just got back from the gym actually.  Hannah's gone out and I'm in the bath..."
"Really?" I smiled at the mental image.
"Yeah, I'm sitting here in the hot water.... giving my aching muscles a nice rub."  She said cheekily.  "I trained so hard baby....I was just dripping sweat, Hannah too."
From this point on all the issues with Jess, Tom and work were the furthest things from my mind.  All I could do was picture Kathy's hard body in the hot and soapy water.
"I'm just rubbing my left bicep." She cooed. "It still aches I really pushed it....it's so hard....I flex it and it just swells up.  If I flex it really hard it splits right down the middle and this vein comes up right over the top, but it hurts to flex it too hard.....ouch!"
I said nothing, just listened.
"A lot of female athletes have really tiny breasts," she went on, "I've always liked how mine never got any smaller, no matter how hard I train.  I mean, they're so round and full....not too firm, but not too soft....bigger than a handful, I'm just kneading them in my hands right now....wish you were here to do it for me."
I could barely stand it, I wanted her now more than I ever had.
"When I squeeze out the sponge over them, I love the feeling of the warm soapy water running over my nipples.  It's like having you lick them.  Oh god I would kill to have you lick them right now!"
She was getting pretty worked up, nearly as much as I was listening to her.  Kathy had never been the shy type, but I had never expected anything like this. 
"The soap runs over my breasts down onto my stomach.... and if I tense my abs all the water pools in the dips!  It runs through the dips and into my belly button.  Wow if I tense one side at a time I can direct it around my stomach... this is so wierd!  I worked my abs so hard today.  I used one of those crunch machines and after I'd finished my normal workout I held myself in the crunch position for five whole minutes.  It hurt so much I was crying like a baby by the end, aw if I rub them I can still feel the ache.  I'm just rubbing my obliques with both hands.....really pressing in with my thumbs....ow...aw wow they're sore....just as I get about halfway down....ow shit.  I must have pushed them harder than I thought, you'd love this baby they're so cut."
She was right, I did love this.
"Now I'm down rubbing my quads.  I did the most insane set of leg raises today, I'm glad my thighs never get really bulky cos I love doing them.  Mmmm....feels so nice, just working my way up my thighs.....ooh hang on....aaah yeah."
It didn't take any more than that for me to realise where she was at now, to be honest my thoughts had been around that area for a while.
"Ooh... mmmm....just slipped a finger inside me.... fuck I wish you were here!  I'm rubbing myself nice and slow....just the way you do before you fuck me blind.  Get me nice and wet...although I'm in a bath so it's kind of hard to tell.  I'm squeezing my tit hard with my other hand....it's so slippery and wet....oh baby I miss you...tell me what you'd do to me if you were with me!"
For the first time I had to think of something to say.
"I'd get you on your hands and knees in that bath and fuck you hard from behind.  I'd squeeze your tits so hard you'd scream." I said.
Not the most original stuff I know but I'd been put on the spot and my brain had stopped functioning normally a while ago.  Still, it seemed to do the trick.
"Oh god I need something, I need something.  Shit!" She said frantically.
"What's up?  What do you need?" I asked.
"One of these little body gel bottles will have to do....oh baby I miss you so much!"  She moaned.  "For the next couple of minutes you are a bottle of body gel... I'm lifting my pussy out of the water... my abs are so fucking cut...  I'm squeezing my tits... and this little bottle is going in.... oh my god!"
For the next two minutes or so I listened to her bring herself to the climax of pleasure.  Water sloshing,  occasionally banging the side of the tub, moaning, groaning and then some screaming.  I couldn't help but think it didn't sound a lot different to one of her workouts...  Then, with a long and loud moan she was done.  I'd been done a while, and I hadn't touched a thing.
"Oh baby." She said. "I can't wait to be able to do that for real.  When I come home I'm your bitch.  I will do anything you want, absolutely anything.  I just want to have your hands on me again."
"I like the sound of that." I said.  "Is Hannah coming back too?"
"Cheeky prick." She laughed.  "Am I not enough woman for you?  Maybe I should just come back and kick your ass instead."
We both had a laugh and said goodnight, although as I remembered later it was closer to midday for Kathy over in England.  I missed her a lot, couldn't wait for her to come home.
Meanwhile of course I had real life to contend with.  Tom as far as I was concerned could go to hell, but I needed to fix things with Jess.  And soon.
The good thing was although she was gorgeous, fun to be with and liked me, that phone call had reminded me of why I was with Kathy.  Jess was a great person but I could never picture her doing anything like that, there were just certain things that made Kathy unique.  I was glad I could sort things out with Jess without any mixed emotions about us just being friends.
Of course life, well my life in any case, is never that simple.  It just so happened that the first time we bumped into her during the next work day she had just finished teaching an aquarobics class, and as I told her I wanted to talk to her all I could focus on was how her one piece swimsuit perfectly followed the lines of her tight body, and how her nipples were trying to poke through the thin fabric.  It seemed I had covered this up well enough though as she agreed to the talk, my place, tonight after work.
I was watching TV when I saw Jess's headlights swing into the driveway, and as she got out of the car I noticed her wearing trackpants and a t-shirt as if she was trying to dress as uninviting as possible.  I guessed it was a good thing that I wouldn't have to be trying to ignore her long, smooth legs and toned arms while I spoke to her.
Jess sat on the couch with her legs drawn up to her, chin resting on her knees.  I offered her a drink and she took some orange juice, all the while I was racking my brain on how best to begin this conversation.
"I just need you to know I'm not like that." Jess said suddenly, inadvertantly removing my problem.  "I've never been someone who will do anything with a guy who's in a relationship.  I chose my partners very carefully and.... I'm sorry that happened."
"You don't have anything to apologise for." I replied. "We were both drinking that night, things like that happen at work fuctions all the time."
"I never wanted to do anything to lead you on or anything like that." She went on. "I've been really concious of that for a while.  We've become pretty good friends and when that happens there's always a chance that in the right situation something might happen.  I've been trying really hard to avoid anything like that."
"You're not the one in the relationship I am." I said. "If anything it's my responsibilty not to put myself in these situations, not yours.  I wanted to talk about it because I don't want things to be awkward between us.  I'd like it if we could continue on like this never happened."
"I'd like that too." She smiled. "I just needed to know we were both wanting the same thing.  I wouldn't want to be hanging out with you as friends if you wanted something more."
"So we're cool?" I asked.
"We're cool." She said, standing up and hugging me. "I'd better get going though, but I'm glad we talked."
As she got in her car one of her sentances lingered in my head. 'I wouldn't want to be hanging out with you as friends if you wanted something more'.  That sentance was more open to interpretation than I had first realised.  Did it mean she wouldn't want to hang out with me if I wanted more than a friendship, or she wouldn't want to be just friends if that wasn't what I wanted?  It was too late to find out now and I eventually told myself to stop being an idiot, I had somehow managed to get a gorgeous athletic girlfriend and as I had told myself a million times before the chances of another one being interested in me would be very low indeed.  I would just have to wait for Kathy to get home.
I didn't have to wait long.  I was just getting ready for bed a couple of nights after clearing the air with Jess when a text message flashed up on my phone.  It was a photo of Kathy in front of her bathroom mirror, her bathroom mirror, naked and getting out of the shower.  'Still up baby?' was the message written beneath the photo, and if I hadn't been before I certainly was now.
Ayrton Senna would have had trouble driving to Kathy's place faster than I did, and before I even had the chance to knock on the door it had been flung open for me.  Kathy grabbed me by the arm and pulled me inside, dropping the towel she had around her and throwing her arms around me.  I pushed her hard up against the wall and took her hard waist in my hands, kissing her on the mouth and then worked my way down her neck and biting her near the collarbone.  Her body suddenly tightened as I did so, as if shocked by the sensation, then she giggled naughtily.
"Lets go to bed." She ordered.
I had forgotten how hard her body was, all those tight and trained muscles wrapped in that smooth skin.  Every movement of her body made some small, unseen muscle squeeze against my hands, each one a testament to her hours spent sweating in the gym.  It was making her sweat now that occupied my thoughts first and foremost as I pushed inside her for the first time.  She didn't want kisses or cuddles, no tickles or foreplay, she wanted hard fucking and she wanted it now.  As I took hold of one of her nipples between my teeth I ran my hands down her shoulders and onto her biceps, prompting her to flex them both hard and I was surprised at the way they exploded under my palms.  I bit her neck again and ran my hand down her side and onto her thigh, which she drew upwards and placed her foot across my back.  Next her hands that had been gripping my shoulders let go and took hold of her feet, pulling her legs upwards and outwards until she lay there basically doing the splits.  She began to scream as I fucked her as hard as I could and after a couple of minutes she came, about three seconds after I did, I didn't feel the need to tell her that.
I rolled off Kathy and she lay there on the bed, breathing deeply.  A thin sheen of sweat covered her skin as she lay spread out on the bed, eyes closed and smiling ear to ear.
"That was fantastic." She breathed. "God I missed you."
I stroked her stomach, tracing the outlines of her abs with my fingertips.
"I missed you too." I said. "How was England?"
"Great." She replied. "For the first week Hannah and I just hung out, she showed me around - she says hi by the way - and then we got into the gym and trained so hard.  It was brilliant."
"So you feel better then?"
"So much better.  First thing tomorrow I'm going down to your work and train my ass off, I'm so pumped right now I just have energy to burn.  It's like I've been recharged."
She couldn't have been too energetic as she fell asleep in my arms.  I pulled her body close and drifted off to sleep myself, having no idea just how much my life was about to change.

[bmwm3]

I was surprised to arrive at work the next day and find Tom had showed up for the first time since the party.  Even on a good day he seemed to be a dark, almost brooding sort of character but this day he was almost chirpy.  I arrived in the afternoon as the first evening games of the new basketball competition were being played and I needed to be there to make sure all the team's fees were sorted out.  Tom was the first person I saw once through the door and he walked up to me wearing a big grin.
"Hey mate," he said with an outstretched hand, "sorry about all that shit that went down at the party.  It was stupid of me, I know me and alchohol don't mix."
I shook his hand and told him all was forgotten.  Honestly I was impressed by his having the guts to face up and apologise, I began to think maybe I hadn't given him enough credit.
The rest of the night went off without a hitch, the team payments all came in on time and there were no post game issues for me to deal with.  I drove home feeling pretty good about everything, and was planning to give Kathy a call once I got inside to see if maybe she fancied a repeat of last night.  It seemed she would, as I turned into my driveway to find her car already there.  I got out and turned towards her car, and she stepped out of hers.  I noticed immediately something was amiss as there was no hugs or kisses, just a sad and angry face set as if in stone.
"You prick." Kathy said quietly. "You fucking prick."
"What?" I asked. "What's the problem?"
"You and that fucking skank instructor from your work is the problem." She said, still controlling her obviously boiling emotions. "You went home with her after some work party?  You tried to rip her clothes off until she put a stop to it?"
"It wasn't like you're making it sound." I said, knowing it was exactly like she was making it sound.
"How was it then?" She asked, tears in her eyes.
"We had both had some drinks and she had a fight with her friend... I don't know we didn't plan it or anything, and anyway nothing really happened.  We stopped before it went anywhere."
"I think it had already gone somewhere by the time her clothes were coming off." She said. "And I have to find out about this from some random guy at the gym?  If it was so innocent why didn't I hear it from you?"
"Kathy... I'm sorry.  What else can I say?"
"You know it was bad enough finding out our entire relationship began with a lie.  I thought what we had gained from it far outweighed the initial negative of it, what I should have realised what that was the action of an arsehole.  You're a total arsehole and I want you out of my life.  I'd rather be alone than with someone like you." She cried.
I went to speak but she held up her hand.
"I'm not interested in listening to any more of your bullshit.  I gave you my heart and soul and everything I had, I let you have a three way with my friend for fuck sake!  How the hell could you need anything else?  You're a greedy and selfish son of a bitch and I never want to see you again."
"Kathy listen I never..."
"FUCK YOU!" She yelled as she jumped back in her car.
As she drove away I felt like I had taken a kick to the guts, and I realised that once again I had screwed everything up.  All of a sudden Tom's cheery mood made total sense, he had seen Kathy in the gym and told her the whole thing.  It took a few seconds to dawn on me that if Tom knew about that he either had made a very lucky guess or he had heard it from Jess.  Only one way to find out.
"Hi." Jess's voice said quietly down the line. "You're calling a bit late, I was just getting into bed.
"I'm not with Kathy anymore." I said in a cheerful tone.
There was a pause.  Obviously my sarcastic cheery tone had gone unnoticed, I think she may have thought this was my attempt at a proposition.  I didn't give her the chance to finish the thought.
"And your snake of a mate Tom is to blame." I said, losing the cheer.
"What are you talking about?" Jess said sleepily.
"Tom told Kathy about what happened between us after the work party," I explained. "The reason I'm telling you is there is only one way Tom could have found out about it.  After all the shit that happened how are you still talking to him?"
"Tom has been my friend for years." Jess replied angrily. "If we can excuse our behaviour on the basis of alchohol then I have to excuse him as well don't I?  This was bothering me and I spoke to him about it."
"Well you just cost me a relationship Jess." I said. "Glad your friendship is intact though, hate to see you get inconvinienced in any way.  Seeing as you like telling Tom everything you can tell him I'll be looking for him."
"Don't be stupid." Jess said. "What happened was our fault, not Tom's.  Yeah he shouldn't have told but..."
"It was OUR fault." I said, cutting her off. "But I'm the only one suffering."
I hung up on her and threw my phone at the couch and it disappeared between two cushions.  Jess's logic was impeccable as usual, she had no reason to terminate her friendship with Tom but I was still angry she had told him.  I think when I started getting angry with her it put her on the defensive, maybe she would have realised what Tom had actually done if not for that.  Maybe she did realise.  Maybe she didn't care.
I spent the rest of the night lying awake.  The prospect of losing Kathy hurt, hurt a lot.  The worst part though was knowing that right now she was probably crying alone in her bed, and there was nothing I could do about it.  Beneath the fiercely competitive athlete, who would train until she spewed, who would push herself through any amount of pain to be the best, beneath all that there was just a girl.  There was a girl who had given her heart to someone and had it thrown back in her face.  I was responsible for that and that hurt.

The next morning I woke after no more than a couple of hours sleep.  No need to go into work and seeing Kathy was out of the question, for the first time in recent memory I had absolutely nothing to do.  I went outside into the pleasant morning sun and checked the mail, nothing but a couple of bills.  I went to the garage and opened it up, it had needed cleaning out for ages.  My car always sat in the driveway outside the garage as I could never be bothered getting out to open the roller door everytime I went out and as a result other pieces of my life began to overflow into the unused space.  There was a folded up ping pong table and some tools, an old matress for some reason and my motorbike, wheels just protruding from underneath the old sheet I had covering it.
I had it covered to keep the dust off but as I pulled off the sheet I found it dusty anyway, one drag of a finger down it's sloping plastic faring revealing the shining red colour.  It was a 250cc Yamaha which I had bought years ago when my grandfather had passed away and I was left a small inheritance.  He was a bike nut himself and he had always tried to kindle an interest in me for it so with the money he left me I felt it fitting to buy a bike.  It wasn't overly quick but it was fun to ride, and suddenly I had my answer on how to spend my day.
It had been a long time since I rode it so I checked the tyres and oil and the fuel.  The brakes seemed fine if a little dirty and to my surprise it fired up first time, the bark of the exhaust reverberating around my garage like a wild animal coming out of hibernation.  I gave it a minute or two to warm up and pulled out onto the road.
I am lucky in that I live near the beach but also not far from the hills with their winding and undulating roads, perfect for a morning ride to blow out the cobwebs.  When you are on a bike on such roads and giving it a bit of throttle the sensation is much more akin to flying than driving.  I twisted the throttle and the bike surged forwards, at the same time blowing all thoughts of Kathy, Jess and Tom from my mind.
There are many roads that wind their way through the hills but in my opinion the best is the one that heads down to what the locals call the Cape.  It is in actuality a small seaside town built around a ferry port, which constantly runs tourists across to an island which you can only see on a clear day.  I have never been.
On arriving in the Cape you descend down a long, steep hill into the heart of the town and half way down the hill you can pull off into a lookout area and watch the ferries come in.  It is always a slightly odd sight with the large and ultra modern white ferries sitting surrounded by a couple of old fishing boats and the weathered and windswept old buildings of the town.  It was in this lookout I parked the bike and as it ticked itself cool I looked out over the ocean, there were no ferries today, only the obligatory fishing boats putting around.
I began to reflect on the events of the past day, Kathy in particular.  I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do to turn the situation around, make her forgive me and once again start anew.  I remembered spotting her running along near the beach, her lean figure so impossible to resist I bluffed my way into her house and her life.  I remembered watching her train in her garage, ignoring the heat and pushing herself hard.  There was the part when I helped her with her squats and my hand slipped on her wet body, nearly exposing her breasts.  There was her races where she gave everything of herself to finish as high as she could, and those marathon workouts after hours in the work gym when she gave everything to show she would never admit defeat.  There was our holiday with her incredible body in a bikini, and then the driive home when I admitted my lies to her.  There was the sex, the brilliant sex with her tight muscles and soft breasts moving under me as I thrust myself into her.  There was the amazing night when Hannah joined in.  There was the whole PulseSport debacle that I still believe changed her forever, her long absence overseas, phone sex, and now the breakup.
Despite how much a cared for her, it seemed that I couldn't help myself but hurt her and the question became more should I try to win her back than could I.  In the end it seemed the relationship had been started by my own dishonesty, and the same thing had brought it to a close.  Unlike the ferries, there was no going back.

[iome60]

a very nice and very sad story, wonderfully written. 
I hope this is not the end: it would be very sad to end things as they began...

[peakfan]

Very nice!  I'm curious, what was the other site you posted it to (you'd probably have to break up the name so it doesn't get censored)?  If it was in a single-page format here, it would make it easier to save.

[bmwm3]

Thank you for your comments.
I did begin working on a part two some time ago, but I don't get as much time to write as I used to.  I also have another story in its early stages.
The site it was originally posted on was gi rl s wi th mus cle but it is in the same format, as their forum also limits the size of posts.

[LB]

Great story! Continue it with Kathy wrestling him?