The Guy Who Loved the Gym

Courtney walked towards the table and couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. The face looked like Ben’s from the picture. But it couldn’t be him. But the face did look like him. 

“Ben?” she said and he looked up at her.

It had to be Courtney as no one else would have known his name, and the face did look like her profile picture. But she wasn’t what he was expecting. She wore a red tank top and her arms were quite muscular. She wore a short pair of shorts and her legs were thick and muscular as well. Her face in that picture on the dating website looked so pretty and he had just pictured a pretty petite girl. He still thought her face was very pretty but he never would have pictured this muscular body to go along with it.

“Yes, hi Courtney,” he said, and it confirmed it was her when she didn’t correct the name.

She took a seat across from him at the table. He had such skinny arms. Online dating sure could be a strange thing sometimes.

“I thought you said in your profile that you love going to the gym,” she jumped right into saying. She was always blunt like that.

Her statement annoyed him a bit. He did love going to the gym. Why would she imply otherwise?

“Yes, I do,” he said.

He looked defensive to her. What was he defensive about? He was so skinny it was a reasonable question to ask.

“There is no way you go to the gym a lot,” she came right out and said. 

“Can I start you two off with something to drink?” the waitress said as she approached them.

“Sure hun, I’ll take a Labatt’s Blue,” Courtney said. “Draft. And I’ll take the cheeseburger and fries.”

“I’ll just have a water to drink,” Ben said. “And I’ll take the Cobb salad.”

Courtney couldn’t believe this guy. But she figured she wouldn’t cause the waitress any awkwardness so she waited for her to leave before she said anything.

“Get a beer and something real to eat,” she said to him. “No wonder you are so skinny.”

“I like to try and be healthy,” he said. “That’s why I like going to the gym.”

“OK stop with the act like you’re some gym guy,” she said to him. “Jumping on a treadmill doesn’t mean you’re a real gym guy.”

“I lift weights,” he said, and she thought it was kind of cute that he was getting defensive. “I’m pretty strong, actually. Can bench two hundred pounds.”

“Oh big deal that you can bench 200 pounds,” she said and he was really starting to feel insulted by her. “Most guys can do more than that and just because your muscles got used to that one motion and are able to lift a bit more weight doesn’t mean you are strong.”

“I’m a lot stronger than I look, and stronger than you think.”

She didn’t like to be a bully. But she couldn’t help it with this guy. And who was she kidding, she did like it.

“I don’t buy it for a second,” she said. “Come on, let’s arm-wrestle.”

He watched her put her arm on the table in the arm-wrestling position, looking like she was eager to do this. He looked around wondering if this was going to be awkward but it didn’t seem like anyone was paying attention to them. He looked back at her and he knew he was going to look like a coward if he didn’t accept the challenge.

“One, two, three, go!” he listened to her say excitedly.

She immediately took control of the match as she started pushing his arm down and looked at the look of humiliation and powerlessness on his face as he tried his best to stop her but couldn’t. She had no interest in dating this guy as she wanted one that was stronger than her so she was at least going to have fun with showing him up. 

She looked at the guy trying so hard and she almost felt sorry for him but not really. All of his efforts he was putting in at the gym and now he couldn’t even beat a girl. She chuckled thinking about what his workouts would be like from now on. He gave her a tiny bit of resistance the rest of the way but he could not stop her.

When she had his hand close to the table Ben continued to resist, not being able to accept the fact that he was losing to a woman. She slammed his hand to the table and took the victory. He immediately tried to pull away but she kept a hold on his hand for a few second to humiliate him further. He felt completely humbled and he felt like he was less than her because he was weaker.

“Ha-ha-ha,” she laughed and he could feel his face getting red. “I beat you.”

“Here’s your food,” Courtney heard the waitress say.

She looked up and saw the waitress holding the tray of their food and drinks with just one hand. The waitress was a tall and thin woman but Courtney was confident that Ben wasn’t strong enough to hold that much with just his one arm like that.

“That’s gotta be a good arm workout carrying all of those trays around like that,” Courtney said. The waitress smiled and Ben did not. “I bet you could beat my date here in arm-wrestling.” Ben wanted to run away. He could not endure any more humiliation. But he watched the waitress smile.

“I doubt it,” the waitress said and she looked a bit embarrassed. :”But I’ll give it a try, why not?”

The waitress set the tray down on an empty table that was next to them and Courtney watched her put her arm on the table in the arm-wrestling position. She looked at how scared Ben looked to do this. He locked hands with her and the match began. At first they started even, though Ben looked like he was trying his hardest and the waitress looked like she just didn’t believe in herself. 

But once she got some confidence from Ben not being able to move her arm, she took over. Courtney watched with great pleasure as the waitress took over the match and started easily bringing the arm down of this guy who bragged that ‘he loved going to the gym.’ He was too weak to do anything and Courtney watched the waitress pin his hand for the victory. The waitress looked excited and proud. Courtney had come on this date wanting to find a guy she could start hanging out with. That didn’t happen but she had made the waitress’s night and humiliated a guy so that was the next best thing.

Ben watched the waitress going to get their food from the other table. Courtney had completely humiliated him and now he still had to have a full meal with her.