The Only Way is Up

Part Two

Climbing the stairs back to the office, he picked up the phone and called Mike, as one of the joint owners he wasn't always on site, but that didn't mean that he could dump on Max. He was about to tell him that.

Except he didn't answer.

He toyed with the idea of a message, a long ranting answer phone message, but then he knew that was beneath him. He wasn't that childish. He had to suck this up. He knew that it was a test, and he wanted to succeed, unfortunately he needed Mike and his colleagues as much as they apparently needed him.

Grabbing his helmet, he returned to the gym floor and called out to Carl, an older man who was manager, supervisor and caretaker all in one.

"I'm going. I have things to do. I'll see you later."

He nodded, waved, and it left Maxim to leave the building. The sun was shining, spring, his favourite time of year. It almost made him smile, not that he smiled much these days. A year ago he had the world at his feet, and now? Now he was a personal trainer to a...how old had she said? Thirty five?

Still angry he pulled out his keys then climbed astride his motorbike, freedom he thought with relief as he fired the engine.

Within twenty minutes he was on the open roads the throb of the bike taking over his body. It wasn't the thrill he'd grown up with, but it helped, it was a second best that helped distract him from the failure of his own life. With a twist of the throttle, he opened up the engine and whizzed off into the distance.

Nicole turned on the TV and collapsed onto the sofa, reality TV and Pringles, that was how she was going to recover from her hour of hell. Probably not the right way, she glanced at the glass of wine on the table and groaned, definitely not the right way. What would her Hitler say to that?

Reaching for the glass she flipped two fingers in the direction of the door.

"Take that bully!"

It was rewarding, even though he wasn't there to see it, it was therapeutic. But a guzzle of wine to her empty stomach wasn't the best sensation, so she popped open the tube of Pringles and shoved a handful in to her mouth in almost a defiant manner.

Her body ached, her heart was broken, and now this man seemed to have shattered what was left of her spirit. Kim was right, a year ago she'd never have let some young boy make her feel like shit, but the weak shell that she'd become had done just that.

She wanted to cry, but she'd cried a dozen rivers in the past, there were no more left, and she wasn't about to let him, that upstart be the reason for it. She was a big account manager at one of the biggest banks in the country, and he was a personal trainer. She could do that, she could judge, she could look down her nose at HIM.

The phone rang, her id showed Kim's number; she was too emotional for a phone call. Disconnecting, she text a reply, 'In the car, shattered from first gym session, call you in the morning?'

Her reply came back almost instantly, 'Come for dinner tomorrow?'

'Late meetings. I'll come the day after, have gym session at four...can come straight to you?'

She was putting off seeing her friend, but she didn't want her to see her defeated, she had thirty six hours to prep for the next session, and she'd be there. She'd stand up to the situation.

Though two hours later filled with just potato snacks and fermented grape she wasn't quite so confident.