Maria's Morning at the Gym

(Maria PoV)

I wake up before the sun, feeling fully rested. My bed feels oddly empty. I never felt alone in my bed before. Must be John’s fault.

Mornings renew the persistent buzzing in the back of my head that I should get to the gym. The buzz motivates me through my morning routine: warm-up stretches, brushing my teeth, skin care, makeup, making breakfast. Each task is completed easily.

I get dressed in my work outfit, a high-waist flowy skirt with a side slit, white-button up 3/4 sleeve shirt , and heels. It’s easier to wear my work outfit and change twice at the gym so it doesn’t get wrinkled from being in my bag.

Mat and I reached an agreement: I would make John breakfast for our morning gym sessions and she’ll make us all lunch. I prepare some pre-workout shakes, nothing that will weigh us down. I also cook up some eggs, sausage, and potatoes in a skillet along with protein pancakes and smoothies for after work out. Hearty food to feed our muscles.

Now off to the gym.

Mornings are for powerlifting. I never imagined that I would be one of the people slamming big weights. I'd been missing out.

My perks help me and my trainees do triple the volume each session and recover enough to do it again the next day.

It’s like steroids without the downsides.

Today my trainee is a sweaty hunk of man in a sleeveless muscle top and shorts that leave most of his quads out for my viewing pleasure. A pleasure I return with my own outfit, a green crop top over skin tight gym shorts. We take turns checking each other out during our sets. I set up four stations for supersets. Hip hinge, upper body push, squat, upper body pull. My training Perk lets us finish the four set without rest. We take short rest breaks in between to adjust the weights and then start over. He's as eager as I am to start the next set.

Our training intensity has drawn some attention. No one has asked to join us, but people are stealing glances. Why shouldn't they? People pick a gym based on how well the gym markets the fitness dream. The two of us together would make a good ad. In fact, I use the time between sets to grab John for a selfie. He puts his arm around my waist and we pose for longer than strictly necessary.

The tightness of John’s training gear draws the female gaze. His once loose-fitting shirt and shorts are now packed with newly-earned muscle. The bars slam out a steady rhythm. The rush of training makes me giddy. The thrill of pushing out one last rep.

I’m glad John gave me LifeQuest. I was wasting away before, now I feel like my life can go somewhere. My current quest reward: “Promotion to head librarian” I never thought that would be possible. Somehow I'm now planning the most important events to keep the library funded. The work is a heavy lift, but I feel like I'm the right person to do it.

In the library, I care for people’s minds, in the gym, their bodies. Makes me wonder what else I can accomplish. I’m already helping Cotton and Rita. I’m looking forward to helping the girls Coach Jenny brings to me. Why stop there? Jenny needs someone to nurture her and protect her from her ditzy impulses. She can't be the only one.

The gym, the library, both are my domains, my home. Both are filled with people who need my nurturing. I can make my home a place of warmth and growth. For the first time in my life, I feel like someone others can look up to. I'm not worried about being skinny enough or being good enough. I want to see how far I can go, how strong I can be. I have to be strong to care for everyone.

Sweat, electrolytes, and calories need to be replaced while we work, that’s where the pre-workout shakes I’ve prepared come in handy to keep us going. We take a short break after finishing our big lifts. I wipe the sweat off of John's body while he eats his protein bar. He pulls me into his lap where I eat my own protein bar. A moment of peace before our session continues.

We finish with accessory and isolation movements, following similar muscle antagonist supersets. During these sets, each lift, each squeeze, each pump is euphoric. Using the dumbbells and machines, it's easier to be distracted by a touch here, a rub there, too often to be unintentional. John has to know I'm touching him on purpose. I can see how much he likes it.

All told, I fill our 60 minutes of training with a week's worth of volume. I still haven’t found the limit of how hard we can work. Training with John different from training others, the energy is different. There's a hunger, more than just sexual, a hunger to grow and improve. It’s like our bodies are as eager to work as our minds are for knowledge.

The real thing that was special, underneath the hunger, there's warmth. His first quest was for me to eat a full meal. Many of his first quests and rewards were to take care of myself. No wonder I want to take care of him.

As we finish our last set, we head to the showers and agree to meet in the sauna. Too bad it's not more private.

Momma's hungry.