Between Boyfriends (Book 1 in the Between Boyfriends Series)

Chapter 9

"No, I'm not," she said firmly and spun around to escape just as a gorgeous older man in a uniform identical to Bob's strode through the fitness center door and stopped her with a smile. Jan was in love. He was perfect. Perfectly toned, perfectly tanned, and perfectly placed right in front of her where she didn't have to look too hard to find him.

Perfect.

"Good afternoon, Mike," Bob called from his desk in his best imitation of a receptionist. "This is Jan."

Jan smiled with her entire body. Mike reached to shake her hand and politely gripped it firmly, but not too hard. Jan felt sparks fly when their fingers touched.

"I thought she was your two o'clock," continued Bob. Jan was barely listening as she gazed adoringly at Mike, thinking how glad she was that he was not her ex-boyfriend. "I guess they aren't here yet."

"How disappointing," Mike flirted and leaned toward her. "I do hope you will be taking advantage of my services in the near future."

Jan nearly swooned at his innuendo but fought to keep control of herself, at least as long as Bob was around. I'm not interested in dating him, she told herself, but I never said I was joining a convent.

"Maybe my two o'clock won't show up and then I can take you now," Mike offered playfully.

Jan gulped. "I guess, if you get stood up, I might be persuaded to step in," she replied coquettishly.

Mike laughed. He had a deep, manly laugh that sent chills up Jan's spine.

Bob coughed. It was the worst excuse-me-but-I'm-still-in-the-room cough Jan had ever heard, but she was grateful nevertheless. She suddenly realized where she was and who she was flirting with. Mike was clearly older than her — too old, most likely, judging by the laugh lines around his eyes. More importantly though, he worked at a place that her dad frequented. That in and of itself was enough to turn Jan off.

As it turned out, Mike wasn't at all interested in her anyway. This became painfully clear after his appointment failed to show up and he'd convinced Jan to take their place — as his next torture victim. For exactly fifty-five minutes, Mike took Jan through a roller coaster ride of emotional and physical anguish. He weighed Jan, took her measurements, and discovered her body fat percentage (twenty-six percent, well above average for her age and gender).

He also put her through a three-minute step test to analyze the effectiveness of her cardiorespiratory system. He told her that her recovery heart rate was 133 beats per minute in the same tone he'd deliver the message that she was unable to bear children. He then made her do as many push-ups and sit-ups as she could without stopping and compared her numbers (zero and nineteen) to a chart that listed norms for her age. He determined that her muscular endurance, like her cardiovascular endurance, was below average.

The last trial he put her through was a sit-and-reach test. Jan relaxed when he announced this, as she was fairly confident that she was capable of both sitting and reaching. But when Mike got out the measuring tape, Jan knew it wouldn't be as simple as she hoped. Three times in a row, Jan strained to reach as far as she could, her palms barely brushing her knees, and Mike recorded how far she got. Even after taking her best score, he informed her that she was the least flexible person he had ever tested. It was a sad performance all around.

Then again, Jan was used to scoring badly on tests. She'd failed the IQ and aptitude tests her mother had forced upon her when she was four years old. Although Jan discovered years later that those tests, like the ones Mike had just put her through, could not actually be failed per se, her mother had certainly acted like she believed it.