West Coast

Chapter Seventeen

The man shrugged. 'Nothing, man. Just taking a break.' He carefully looked Cas up and down. 'Seems like you could do with a break too. You wanna come inside?'

Cas drew Hoagie closer, looking up at the building.

'It's pretty quiet in here, usually,' the man prompted.

Cas hesitated, then said, 'All right.' It could be a good way to stop the prickling feeling on his skin when people looked at him.

It was indeed quiet inside the gym. No one else appeared to be there. It was clean, and open, and Cas liked the large potted plants sitting in the corners.

There was a large desk, with a computer, and a woman dressed in her gym clothes behind it, leaning over the keyboard and staring at the screen. She looked up as they came in, and her eyes widened.

'Hi, Cas,' she smiled. 'It's good to see you again.'

Cas bit his lip. 'I'm sorry, I...'

'Oh, my bad,' said the woman. 'It's been a while. I'm Alice.'

Cas looked around the room. 'This was my gym, wasn't it?'

'Yep. You were one of our regulars. One of the better looking ones, anyway.'

The man who had brought him in scoffed. 'Not as good looking as me, though,' he said.

'Whatever you say, Zane,' said Alice, rolling her eyes.

Zane walked off into the gym itself, and Cas hovered awkwardly in the reception area.

Alice looked at him thoughtfully. 'You know, I think you still have a membership here... let me see...' She tapped a few keys on the keyboard and grinned. 'Yep, here you are. Awesome... this membership entitles you to use the equipment whenever, and gets you a session with a personal trainer three times a week - you know, if you want it.'

'That... could be good,' Cas said, 'but Hoagie-'

'Can go anywhere you go,' Alice said. 'I went to that town meeting last week. Sheriff Mills is very persuasive.'

Cas didn't say anything.

'It's okay,' Alice said. 'You don't have to anything, but if you want, you can go through and check out some of the equipment. Zane's one of our trainers too, and you can ask him about anything. He's smarter than he looks.'

Cas glanced back at the front door.

'Oh, and we have a private accessible bathroom, if you ever need it.'

Hoagie had been sitting at Cas's feet the entire time, but he couldn't help but notice the gentle wag in Hoagie's tail as he watched Alice. 'Well, I suppose if Hoagie thinks you're trustworthy...'

Alice smiled again. 'I gotta get back in there, but I hope I see you around here again soon.' She too disappeared into the gym.

Cas stood there for a while, staring at the door, but eventually made himself go inside.

There were a couple of people running on the treadmills, but none of them noticed when Cas walked in, or at least pretended not to notice. He saw Alice look up at him, but then she suddenly seemed very interested in a scratch on one of the benches.

He took his time walking around and examining all of the equipment. He didn't know what all of it was for, but some of it seemed very familiar. He must have spent a lot of time here.

He decided not to use any of the equipment that day, and instead went home to think about it. It would be a lot easier to get some exercise in the gym, rather than running around with Hoagie, but then Hoagie wouldn't get much exercise if Cas just stayed at the gym.