Semblance of Normalcy

“What the fuck was that about?” Paige asks your group in utter confusion, failing miserably at controlling her volume, which Brooke and Brad warned you about before letting you back into their gym. Paige’s question expresses yours and your girlfriends’ own confusion as to why Viv would want to attack Becca for her comment earlier.

Viv left with Becca to go back to the apartment to fully flesh out their issues. You all offered to join them and skip the workout, but they both agreed it would be best to have a one-on-one talk first, and encouraged all of you to stick to the plan as scheduled, before promising they’d both behave themselves this time.

As Brooke was the one who mentioned she knew the story behind Becca’s comment, even calling Becca an asshole for it, you look towards her for an answer to Paige’s question.

“Ms. Viv was secretly in love with her Master. She introduced their common friend to her Master, and their common friend became her Mistress. Her Master and her Mistress got into a relationship, and Ms. Viv made her Master choose between her and her Mistress; and since they were already in a relationship, her Master chose her Mistress. That choice caused Ms. Viv to leave her Master and Mistress behind and move here. To this city.” Maddy surprisingly explains instead of Brooke. “Did I get that right?” Maddy looks towards Brooke for an explanation.

“Basically.” Brooke confirms with a gentle smile to Maddy.

“Ms. Hoffman has a boyfriend!?” Paige asks in disbelief.

“No~. No. Becca wasn’t Viv’s Mistress. Maddy wasn’t talking about her. She’s talking about —” Brooke answers Paige, and Stella interrupts her with her realization.

“Wait a minute… If I get what Maddy said right… that means…” Stella reacts.

“Viv was in love with Celeste’s boyfriend and made him choose between her and Celeste, yeah.” Brooke confirms Stella’s understanding of Viv’s situation.

“... And she’s hung up about Becca possibly wanting to date me since she’s afraid that history might repeat itself.” You say out loud, now that you understand what Viv went through with Celeste and her boyfriend, getting an audible “Oh~” from your girlfriends.

“Who’s Celeste?” Paige asks for clarification.

“She’s my Dad’s cousin.” Stella answers her.

“Also, Jay’s first big crush.” Cassie adds.

“She’s a friend of Becca’s too.” Tanya adds some more, making Paige realize how connected Celeste is to Viv and your group.

“First she has a hang up about having sex with you, now she—” Stella observed, but got cut off by Tanya’s reaction.

“¿¡Qué!? ¿Qué es eso de que Viv no quiere tener sexo con Jay?” Tanya asks, and Cassie answers her in English.

“Yeah. Apparently, Viv thinks that Jay might be bland in bed if they don’t do the whole song and dance that Viv is into.” Cassie answers Tanya.

“What? You girls didn’t tell me about that!” Tanya reacts, and all of you just nod to confirm that was the case as well. “Ay Dios mío, Vivían!” Tanya adds in reaction, getting a look from Brooke that she shouldn’t get too loud, which Tanya immediately apologizes for. Still, it gets Brad’s attention, and he proceeds to approach your group.

“Hi, again. I know you guys are obviously dealing with something, but I don’t want other gym goers to think we didn’t handle the situation earlier.” Brad says to your group. “Can you guys start your workouts and talk about it later?” Brad asks your group, with an awkward look on his face; not really wanting to reprimand your group, but having to as part of his job as a business owner. Tanya apologizes once more, and you all silently agree to put your talk about Viv’s past on the back burner.

“Alright, I think that’s our cue. Let’s talk about this later with Viv and Becca. Time for your workouts.” Brooke announces, taking control of the situation. “Stella. Cassie. I’m assuming you girls are going solo as usual?” Brooke asks them, which they nod to. “Paige, do you want to continue with Brad as your trainer or do you want to join Stella and Cassie instead?” Brooke then asks Paige.

“Uh~, yeah. I think I’ll just workout with Stella and Cassie instead.” Paige answers, and Brooke nods in understanding.

“Oh, and-uh~...” Brooke starts fumbling, before Paige stops her from continuing.

“I should be the one that apologizes, Brooke. I—” Paige tells Brooke, before Brooke offers her a hug, making Paige pause her sentence.

“Water under the bridge?” Brooke asks Paige, and Paige returns Brooke’s hug and answers her, “Water under the bridge.”

“What about you, Maddy?” Brooke then asks Maddy, after breaking away from her hug with Paige.

“Oh, I-um… I’d like to train with you Ms. Brooke if that’s alright.” Maddy answers Brooke who gives her a wink and a thumbs up that it’s more than alright by her.

“So, I guess it’s just the three of us then?” You ask Tanya and Maddy with a chuckle, but Brooke corrects your assumption.

“Oh no~, you’re not training with me tonight. You’ve been reserved.” Brooke tells you.

“I’ve been what?” You ask her.

“Chad! Your gym bro’s ready for his workout!” Brad shouts out.

“Finally!” Chad shouts. “Bro!” Chad adds before he waves his hand to say hi, before motioning for you to come over to him. You look at Brooke and Brad to see if they were joking, and they both have smiles as they stifle their laughter. Cassie and Stella seem to be stifling laughs as well.

“As much as we know how Chad can be, he’s actually a really good weights coach.” Brooke assures you.

“Wait, I thought Chad was just a gym member?” You ask Brooke, as Chad never mentioned he was a trainer for the gym.

“He is. He’s not actually under our employment as a trainer since we don’t pay him a salary, but he has a free membership in exchange for training people we pass onto him… and acting as security, janitor, guy who opens up if we’re running late —” Brooke starts listing off.

“Basically, the gym would die without him.” Brad says in summation.

“Our female clientele almost died with him though.” Brooke jokes, and her and Brad have a good laugh about that.

“By the way, my brother’s actually been excited to speak with you.” Brad informs you.

“About what?” You ask him.

“Honestly, I have no idea. He wouldn’t tell me. He’s been giddy like a schoolgirl since I got here though.” Brad answers you, and his description about how excited Chad is just sends shivers down your spine in fear of the reason behind Chad’s excitement.

“Have fun with Chad, Dad.” Stella teases you, before she, Cassie, and Paige, separate from the group to do their own training regimen.

“Alright, it’s time to make every girl in this gym envy your backside, mami.” Brooke tells Tanya before slapping her ass cheek to get her going.

“Talk to you later, papi.” Tanya tells you. “Come on, Maddy.” She tells Maddy, who says her goodbyes as well, before joining Brooke and Tanya to a separate part of the gym.

“BRO!” Chad once again excitedly greets you, having made his way to you instead of waiting for you at the spot he was in.

“Alright, I’ll leave you two to it. I better get back to Courtney.” Brad says before stepping away from you and Chad.

“So, who’s your fitness inspiration, bro?” Chad asks you, making conversation.

“Uh~, I don’t get what you mean.” You answer him honestly.

“You know, what do you want your body to look like as a result of working out?” Chad rephrases his question.

“Oh! Uhm~, hmm~... I always liked how Brad—” You answer the first look that comes to your mind but Chad cuts you off.

“— Pitt looked like in Fight Club.” Chad continued your answer for you. “Yeah. Every dude answers that.” Chad shares with you.

“Well~, I am a dude, Chad.” You answer him with a chuckle.

“Yeah. Just manage expectations, bro. You ain’t getting there with your gym schedule. Plus, even if you do, that body isn’t maintainable without torturing yourself with strict dieting either. I can help you sort of get there, but without a strict diet, you’ll still probably be a quarter of the way from getting that body.” Chad explains. You can’t help but be impressed at how insightful that was from Chad. I guess he would know a lot about working out and getting fit.

“Honestly, I’d be happy if I could get Stone Cold Steve Austin’s body back when—” You start telling him, but he cuts you off once more.

“Bro! For real!? Say no more! That we can do realistically. Let’s get to it! We’ve wasted enough time chatting.” Chad tells you, pumped up.

“It’s time to pump some iron!”