Awakenings - SF1 (15 page)

Ryan continued to look at her with a quizzical little smile on her face so Jamie launched into her sales pitch. "They want you to work every morning before school. I know you like to get up early and I thought that you could work the early shift to avoid traffic. So that's from 5:30-7:30. They wanted to pay you $15 per hour, but I held out for
$25," she said proudly.
She paused a millisecond for a breath. "Then they agreed to let you train people there without having to pay a monthly fee as long as you bring in 5 new members," another tiny pause. "They will charge you $10 per hour to train your private clients, but if it's a client that you bring in or that's already a member you don't have to pay at all," longer pause for a bigger breath. "Oh, and I got you 7 new private clients who each agree to pay you $125 per hour. And that fills up all your free afternoon time slots. How'd I do?" she let out all of her most recent breath and looked at Ryan's stunned face.

The silence went on for quite a while as Ryan continued to stare at her with a slightly opened mouth. "Well, gosh. I was working at a place I didn't like, making no money, working bad hours when I was tired, having no social life, and it forced me to drive my bike through rush hour traffic every afternoon. You found me a job where I work half the hours for about the same money, during the hours I like, and I get my evenings back. You also save me $250 a month in fees, and have found me new clients worth $875 a week," here she paused for effect. "I guess you did okay," she stated casually. After a moment her eyes grew playful. She rose from her chair and stood towering over Jamie. "You know what I have to do, don't you?" she inquired sternly.

"N
…
n
…
no," replied Jamie, a little afraid of her reaction to her meddling.

"This," she said as she placed her large hands around Jamie's small waist and effortlessly lifted her to her feet. Those deep blue eyes gazed at her in wonder, as Ryan leaned close and gave her chaste kisses on each cheek, which was followed by a very large, very expressive full body hug. "That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, Jamie," she whispered in her ear as tears formed in her eyes. "I don't know how to thank you," she said hoarsely.

Jamie's eyes drifted shut as she relaxed completely into the tender hug. She would have been content to stay just that way for the rest of the day but Ryan finally released her. "I have to admit I had selfish reasons," Jamie said, a bit choked up herself. "I wanted you to be available to go on some evening bike rides with me. I actually heard about some hot ones on Mt. Tam," she winked.

"We'd better get to work if you want to do those, kiddo. That's where the big girls go," she said wisely.

"You're a big girl, can't I go with you?" she inquired saucily.

"I'll take you anywhere you want to go, Jamie, anywhere at all," she replied seriously as she locked her clear blue eyes onto Jamie's smiling face.

Now that Jamie felt comfortable with both of her bikes and Ryan had her new work schedule all sorted out they sat down to devise their training strategy. Ryan agreed that Jamie needed to be on one of her bikes as much as possible. So Jamie decided to ride everywhere in Berkeley and Oakland, rather than take her car. These short rides would give her some saddle time and get her used to being on the bike. They also agreed that she needed at least two days of long slow distance rides per week. Ryan suggested that she start off at 15 miles twice a week. She would then increase the distance week by week. She also recommended that Jamie do a very strenuous hill climb every week. Jamie decided that she would start climbing the Berkeley hills behind campus.

They agreed to meet at the gym 3 afternoons a week after Ryan's last class. Since there were 6 main muscle groups Ryan suggested that they work on two groups per visit. She also suggested that they work on Jamie's legs on a day that she did not ride her bike.

On the following Monday, Jamie met Ryan at the gym at precisely 4:00 p.m. Jamie was dressed in a navy blue tank top which covered a gray sports bra. Her thigh length shorts were also gray Lycra and her slouchy white socks peeked out from her high top cross trainers. Ryan wore her new 'Women Power' polo shirt. The black shirt was cut generously, allowing her plenty of room to move but hiding her curves. 'Women Power' was written in lavender scrip across her left breast. 'Personal Trainer' was printed across the back in 2 inch block letters, also in lavender. The sleeves ended just above her elbows, effectively hiding her biceps
. I can't believe I go to the gym with her and I still don't get to see her muscles!
Black nylon warm up pants also blocked Jamie's enjoyment of Ryan's leg muscles.

Jamie was pleased to see that Ryan looked right at home even though it was her first day as an employee. She greeted Jamie warmly when she entered the work out area. "Hi there, boss," she grinned. "Have you gotten me a raise yet? This is my third hour here, you know."

Jamie just gave her a winning smile as an answer. "So today we're doing trunk and shoulders, huh, Coach?"

"Yep. Did you get your ride in this afternoon? I was kind of jealous when I was in my Chem lab, thinking about you out there pedaling away," Ryan said wistfully.

"I sure did. That trip computer you talked me into is really great. It let me keep a good cadence, just like you told me. I practiced trying to pedal in a smooth circle and trying to pull on the upstroke as well as push on the downstroke. And I've got to tell you, that bike is a dream. I would have kept riding years ago if I had a bike like that. It just feels so effortless."

"I'm really glad that you're happy with it," Ryan said. "I knew that Bill wouldn't steer you wrong, but I was a little worried that you would be unhappy with having spent that much," she admitted.

"No, not at all. I tend to think about financial decisions rather carefully, as you can attest," she said with a grin. "But once I make up my mind, I don't second guess myself," she said confidently.

"Well, I know you're going to love riding and I think you will really enjoy working out, too. You're very goal oriented and I think this challenge will hold your interest."

Jamie was delighted that Ryan knew these details about her personality without explicitly being told. "So where do we start today?"

Ryan led her to a weight bench and sat her down. "Okay, we're going to start with your shoulders. Your shoulder muscles start here," she tapped the top of her shoulders, "and end here," she tapped the center of her upper arms. They are called deltoids or delts. There is another group of muscles here," she touched Jamie's back just above her scapula, "called the rotator cuff. There are 4 muscles there that keep your arm from slipping out of the socket. They are just under your delts. We're going to work on both sets of muscles. I usually use free weights for shoulders. I find they're a little easier to control. And control is very important with your shoulders. It's very important to do these exercises correctly because your rotator cuffs are easily injured."

Jamie loved the verbal instruction that Ryan gave when showing her the exercises. The explanations really helped her because she processed things by understanding them fully before she tried them physically. Ryan seemed to understand this and was very careful to make sure that Jamie understood the underlying issues.

"It's very important to do these exercises in the order that I show you. We're going to do a press, a lateral raise, a front raise and a back fly. You can lift the heaviest weight with the press and the lightest weight with the fly." She looked at Jamie with a serious expression, "Have you ever injured your lower back, your neck or your elbows?"

"No, I have never had any significant injuries," Jamie replied.

"Boy, would my father like to trade for you," she laughed. "He was in the ER with me every other week."

"I bet you were a wild one," Jamie agreed.

"You don't know the half of it," she admitted.

They worked their way through the exercises. Ryan was very attentive to Jamie's posture and positioning. She encouraged her, but did not push her on, like she had seen some of the trainers do. Ryan knew that Jamie would push herself, and she made it a point to reign Jamie in a bit, so she did not injure herself.

When they had finished with the shoulder exercises they moved on to the lower back. Ryan again launched into her explanation of the how's and why's of the exercises. Ryan told her that these exercises did not need weights at all. After she showed Jamie how to perform a back extension and a pelvic tilt Jamie recalled that these were exercises she had learned when she played golf in high school.

"You were on the golf team?" Ryan asked with interest. "That's pretty cool. You know, I have never hit a golf ball."

"Well, we're just gonna have to remedy that, Missy," Jamie replied. "I'd love to do something that I can beat you at," she laughed.

Next they moved to the abdominal muscles. Jamie knew some of these from her golf conditioning also. Ryan showed her 6 different exercises and reminded her that she had a lot of potential in this area.

At the end of the hour Jamie's mind was swimming. As she sat down on a bench to dry off she watched Ryan making notes in a little booklet. "Here, Jamie, I made this for you," she said as she thrust the book in Jamie's direction.

Inside the little leather loose-leaf book Jamie saw each of the exercises they had covered neatly named and described. On the leg exercises the position of the seat and the adjustment of the bars were also annotated. Under each description was a series of columns which indicated the date, time, number of reps, sets and one column where Jamie was supposed to indicated how she felt when she began to exercise, on a scale of 1-10. Jamie was absolutely charmed and her face reflected this. "Ryan, this is so thoughtful," she enthused.

"Jamie, that is the very, very least I can do for you after all you've done for me," she said sincerely.

"I like to take care of my friends, Ryan."

"Then I am very lucky to be counted among that number," Ryan replied. As she said this she slid behind Jamie on the bench and began to knead her shoulder muscles. She worked on her for about 5 minutes until Jamie was dropping her head forward in a relaxed bliss.

"God, you're good at that. Those hands should be registered with the government," she sighed.

"Well, they are, kind of. I do have a license to do this," she stated.

"You are a masseuse too?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep, these babies are trained and licensed," she held up her hands with a proud smile. "When I was taking classes to be a personal trainer I just figured I might as well be as fully trained as possible. I'm glad I did it. I really learned a lot about relaxing people after a tough workout. And it's a skill that comes in handy in my private life, too," she grinned as she waggled her eyebrows.

"Well, you've certainly relaxed me, I don't think I can move, much less ride my bike home," she moaned.

"I've got my bike here, let me give you a ride home," Ryan offered. "After you take a shower we could get a bite to eat and then you could drive back to get your bike."

"That sounds mighty appealing," Jamie agreed. "But are you sure you're willing to risk the wrath of Cassie if she's at home?"

"Yeah, I am. She just caught me off guard last time. I'm ready for her now." She rubbed her hands together in a menacing fashion as she narrowed her eyes.

They sped back to Jamie's house and were both relieved to find only Mia at home. She spoke pleasantly to Ryan for a few moments before she headed upstairs to her room. Jamie followed her upstairs to shower and change. Ryan offered to amuse herself and Jamie left her to do so.

Jamie stood in the shower for a good long soak. She dried her hair quickly and was just finishing getting dressed when Mia came in.

"What did you do to Ryan?" she inquired with a glint in her eye.

"What do you mean?" Jamie gave her a puzzled look.

"Do you want to see something kind of cute?" Mia mysteriously replied. At Jamie's nod, she beckoned her out to the hallway. They both looked over the railing to where Ryan had been left, sitting on the couch. Only now her shoes were off and she was sound asleep, her lean form stretched out on the short couch, long legs hanging over the arm. Her hands were folded peacefully across her chest and she wore a sweet, perfectly contented expression on her face. Jamie marveled at how very young and innocent her friend looked as she slept.

The roommates walked back into Jamie's room and both burst out laughing. "I'm glad to see she feels so comfortable around here," Jamie continued to laugh.

"She seems like a nice person," Mia admitted.

"I can't even express how nice she is," Jamie replied simply. "She is just an extraordinary woman."

"Does she still flirt with you?" Mia asked a little hesitantly, knowing this could be touchy.

"No. Not at all," Jamie said without hesitation. "We actually talked about it, even though it was hard for me to bring up. She admitted that she had been flirting but that she was really over it now that we're friends."

"God, weren't you embarrassed?" Mia cried. "I can't imagine asking her that!"

"That's what is so cool about Ryan. I can say anything to her. She never judges me or acts hurt by what I say. I really felt amazingly comfortable talking about it with her. I wish you could get to know her a little better," Jamie said. "I know you would like her."