Friendly.

“I’m so sorry, you’ve just missed the yoga class. We have a class every day at nine.” Lisa explained to the young woman.

“Damn…” She said softly.

Chris made his way behind the counter, “Oh, this is actually the owner of Johnson’s Gym: Chris.” Lisa introduced him.

“G’day” Chris smiled politely to the woman.

“Hi” She smiled back.

“Were you looking to become a member?” He asked.

“I’m not sure…” She considered for a moment. “I was just going to pay for the yoga session. That’s all I really like to do… That and the treadmill. So I'm not sure.”

“Yeah it’s up to you.” Chris smiled reassuringly, their eyes meeting gently, “It does work out to be cheaper for a membership if you end up coming to three sessions a week.” He quickly ran her through the pricing options.

“Hmm…” She thought for a moment, “Do you guys do student discounts?”

“Oh yes we do!” Chris had completely forgotten the option, “I’m so sorry I forgot to mention that.” He read her the discounted prices. “So… with the discount you only need to come to two sessions a week for it to be cheaper.”

“Awesome! Sign me up then.” She beamed.

“Great” Chris got the appropriate paperwork and filled out the application on the computer system. “Now I do need to see some ID for the discount.”

“Oh yeah, no problem” She said fishing out her wallet and college identification, handing it to Chris.

Chris read the young woman’s ID: Brittany Nguyen was nineteen years old and was attending USC Marshall.

“All right Miss Nguyen.” Chris said finalising her membership and handing her back her ID. “Welcome to Johnson’s Gym”

“Thank you!” She grinned, “Excellent pronunciation by the way.”

Chris laughed, “All part of the excellent service we provide here at Johnson’s. Would you like to take the tour?”

“I’d love to” said Brittany.

“What are you studying?” Chris said making small talk.

“Oh Marshall is a business school.” She replied.

“Ah very good. I always thought I should have gone to business school.”

They walked together approaching the main gym floor, “Why didn’t you?” She asked.

“Well, I couldn’t really afford to. Time or money wise” Chris explained, “My dad left me in charge of our original branch back home before he died and things have just been going nuts since then.”

“I’m sorry about your dad.” She said genuinely, touching him on the shoulder.

“Oh that’s okay, it happened a long time ago. Fuck almost twelve years ago now.” Chris shook it off.

“How many branches does Johnson’s have exactly?” Brittany said changing the subject.

“Well, this is our first in America, and first outside of Australia for that matter. But in Aus we have forty-four branches.”

Brittany’s eyes popped. “Forty-four? And you’re the CEO?”

“Yes and yes” He said extremely proud.

“You must be fucking rich!” She blurted out and immediately covered her mouth, Chris just laughed, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that… My filter isn’t great sometimes…I just...”

Chris continued to laugh, “That’s absolutely fine. Yes, I have done quite well for myself. Now…The tour…”

Throughout the tour of the gym Brittany kept close to Chris, he caught her checking him out several times. She was more than a whole foot shorter than Chris, standing at five foot one, and the difference in frame and build between the two was almost comical.

“And finally we have the pool area.” Chris said holding the door open for Brittany to go first.

“Thanks,” She said walking past. “Wow!” She exclaimed, amazed at the large area.

“Yeah it’s pretty cool. We have three state of the art saunas over there: one for men only, one for women only and a larger unisex communal one. The showers and the changing rooms are over there.” Chris said, pointing to a branching hallway.

“Oh this is so cool!” She said, “It will be so nice to have a swim after a workout.”

The two returned to the reception lobby politely chatting.