Along Comes Avery

I had been retired from the Air Force going on four years now and did not expect to find my life where it was currently at – still unemployed. On the other hand, since I retired, and had lot of free time, I ramped up my physical fitness. It became a religion to me. A ritual that I rarely broke. Monday through Friday, I was in the gym clanging and banging iron, then on the weekends, on the treadmill. I thought about the gym even when I wasn’t there. I rehearsed sets, lifting techniques, contemplated new exercises; I was a man obsessed with fitness, and created the results to show. Garnered a lot of attention from the opposite sex and proud of it.

Then one day, the attention from one particular female ramped up to a whole different level. These eyes belonged to a young gym goer named Avery.

I was doing tricep pushdowns and looked into the big mirror above the dumbbells and caught the gaze from dark eyes under a ball cap looking right at me. I made random eye contact with women all the time in the gym. Avery’s eyes on the other hand lingered longer than most.

I switched exercises at the other end of the gym away from “general population.” This gave me a wide-angle view of everybody in it. I caught her looking at me again, then turned my attention back to my exercise.

After a month of innocent eye tagging each other, she started to put herself in my vicinity. One of the major choosing signals women give when they are interested. She was serving herself on a silver platter and waiting for me to make a move. But I held my ground, because the gym was my sanctuary and I don’t shit where I eat.

Then she started to smile at me when returning her weights or barbells. Then our paths started to cross walking to and from machines and the water fountains. I was running out of excuses not to talk to her, and an introduction seemed inevitable. I just had to find my in.

I noticed she wore Air Jordans, and I owned a few myself. What would be the harm to spark up a conversation about our mutual fondness of a certain athletic shoe? It was innocent, not creepy, and nothing about her physically.

One day, she was working on a lateral pulldown machine, and a machine next to her happened to be open. I grabbed the rope, selected my weight, and noticed she was looking straight ahead. No eye contact; not even a quick glance. I did a set, grabbed my water bottle for a refresh, pulled off my headphones, and decided it was time to shit or get off the pot, as my grandma used to say.

“Nice shoes.” I said to her.

She pulled out one of her earbuds and said, “What?”

“Nice shoes. Your Jordans.”

“Oh. Yes.”

“I’m a big fan of the 3’s. You own any other ones?”

“Like twelve,” with an irritated look on her face.

“Sounds like you have a shoe problem,” I said with a sly grin.

Absolute crickets. Do I retreat and go back to my workout, or keep trying? I did the latter. Bad choice.

“Go to college around here?”

“UT.”

“Oh. Cool. What are you, freshman, sophomore?”

“Sophomore.”

“What are ya studying?”

“Marketing.”

I was getting nothing. No follow up questions. Weak eye contact. Nothing. It was time to abort and put an end to this disaster of a conversation.

“I’ll let ya get back to your workout. What’s your name?”

“Avery.”

“Nice to meet you, Avery.”

“Later.”

She put her earbud back in, got up, and walked away. She was colder than the month of January in the state of Michigan. All these past months; eye contact, smiles, close quarters – she seemed like a completely different person.

The next day I signed in at the front desk, then made my way to the locker room. Right in front of me was Avery on the dip apparatus doing ab exercises. She immediately put her head down and avoided me like the plague. I know we didn’t flow yesterday but wasn’t expecting this response. Figured I get at least a hi or something.

The next few days I skipped the gym due to my tennis elbow becoming irritated from heavier than usual workouts, which admittedly was propagated by the interaction with Avery, and my decision to initiate the interaction. After the overdue rest, it was time to get back on the horse and stop with this nonsense of avoiding the gym.

I signed in like I always do, then proceeded towards the locker room.

“Sir,” the female front desk attendant said. “Can you scan it again please?”

“Sure.”

She took her time at the computer, then went to the office. Then the manager comes to the front with her.

“Hello, Sir. My name is David. I’m the manager here. I’m sorry about this, but your account and membership have been revoked.”

“What? Why?”

“Someone had complained about you; said they didn’t feel comfortable coming here, because you harassed them.”

“Harassed them. Who?”

“Not at liberty to give that information out.”

“I’ve been coming here for three years; talked to one person…ever.”

“That may be the case, but we have zero tolerance for anything of this nature. Safety and comfort of our members is the number one priority.”

“Listen. I come here, workout, then bounce. That’s it. Don’t I get a chance to defend myself?”

“Nothing personal. Just following the rules of our gym and company.”

“Can you at least tell me if it was male or female?”

“Sorry. I’ll refund this month’s fees. Have a good day, Sir.”

The manager walked away and left me with the female attendant. The very next moment, Avery walked by. I made sure to look at her, but she didn’t acknowledge me or the attendant. She just sashayed herself out of the building. I looked at the attendant with utter shock.

“Sir, between me and you -- and please don’t say anything -- it was her.”

“Fucking knew it. Sorry.”

“It’s Ok. You’re not the first guy she did this to.”

“Then why is she getting away with it?”

“They don’t want to get sued or blasted on the internet. It’s a business and a reputation to keep.”

“All I did was ask her about her shoes. That’s it.”

“I know the other guy she did this to. He said she’s got some daddy issues; a little crazy too.”

“Did they date?”

“For a little bit.”

“Thanks for telling me. Really appreciate it.”

“No problem, Sir. I hear LA Fitness is nice.”

“Guess that’s my next stop.”

I took a few weeks off from the gym to give my nervous system, body, and my head some time to recharge. I was still upset about what happened with Avery. The frustrating thing besides getting banned, is that I had no intention of anything serious with her. I was just being nice and wanted someone I could say hello to at the gym.

I walked into the new one ready to throw some serious iron around. It was chest day, and I always started with incline bench. I performed a light set to warm up, then I spotted her, or she spotted me. A brunette. I whipped my head the other way and wanted nothing to do with eye contact. I just focused on the weights and the ceiling, forcing my brain to not look in her direction. Out of my peripheral, I noticed she started to walk towards me. Then she was standing right in front of me, looking cute in her gym clothes, holding a water bottle and towel.

“Excuse me. Do you go to the EOS gym off Dale Mabry?” she asked.

“Used to.”

“I thought that was you. What are you doing here?”

“Needed a change of scenery.”

“I noticed you were in there a lot. You looked serious and into your workouts.”

“Yea, I was.”

“I like that. You’re there to workout, not to pick up women, like most of the men there. Got so annoying. Why I started to come here.”

“Aren’t you afraid it’s gonna happen here?”

“Yea, but it’s an older crowd. More respectful here. Bunch of college kids at that gym.”

“Did you notice that it smelt like weed, everywhere you went at that gym?”

“I did, now that you mention it. What do you think of this place?”

“First time here, but so far, no issues with it.”

“Love the locker rooms here. There so big. And clean. And they don’t smell like weed.”

I laughed at that comment. She was right; they didn’t smell like weed.

“I’m Angie.”

“Stephen.”

“Working chest today?”

“Yea. You?”

“Same. You need a spot?”

I looked at my weight, looked at her, then pulled off my headphones and set them down on the ground.

“I could use a spot. Just added another ten on it.”

Angie set her bottle down, got behind me and was ready to go.

“How many you going for?” she asked.

“Let’s shoot for five.”

“I got ya.”

I pushed two twenty-five for five, with help from Angie. I racked the weight and stood up.

“Thanks. That last rep got me a little nervous,” I said.

“You had it. I’m gonna get back to my workout. See ya around the gym.”

“Thanks again for the spot.”

“Of course.”

An hour went by, and I finished my chest workout with dumbbells. I saw Angie walking towards me in the mirror. I turned towards her, and she put her hand out.

“Can I see your phone?” she asked.

I handed it over, watched her type something, then returned it.

“Text me. We’ll get a protein shake sometime.”

“Ok.”

“See ya.”

Angie walked away. I opened my text messages to see her number and a text she sent. It read “Great meeting you. Looking good.”

I wonder if she likes chocolate or vanilla protein shakes. Who cares, at least she doesn’t wear Jordan’s.