JOANNA
"Alright, this has been a great last day for all of you cadets. Many of you have already surpassed and exceeded your personal goals with retesting on the fitness assessments." Joel looks down at his clipboard.
I chuckle when Oli flexes her arms—we all witnessed her big improvement of doing an actual pull up compared to her memorable attempt at the start of boot camp.
"Last team up for individual challenges, we have Coach Sage and his Cadets, Olivia Espinoza and Joanna Lozano," Joel announces.
The other participants cheer while we prepare for our individual sets. Oli decided on deadlifts while I'm doing barbell squats. I take her lightweight jacket after she unzips it, wanting to go first.
"You bitches better hype me up. I nearly lost my voice for both of you," she tells Nati, but then faces Quique. "Quique, this is the only time you can smack my ass."
Nati and I chuckle as he winds up his arm and smacks her butt hard. "You got this Girl! But did you really think we'd not hype you up?" Quique quirks his eyebrow as he presses an icon on his phone.
Nati and I join him in snapping our fingers and dancing to Lil Jon's Snap Yo Fingers. Oli's eyes shift to each of us and she begins laughing.
"Oh, shit! Are you guys for real?!" She asks enthusiastically.
Quique starts doing Lil Jon's opening of the song. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's about that time!" The other participants chuckle and join in by snapping their fingers with us.
Oli begins dancing along with Nati and me. We laugh and clap when Quique ends the song shortly after, not playing the whole thing and Oli shoves us all playfully.
"That was fucking dope!"
"It's time, Oli," Joel tells her and she nods, taking a deep breath.
"Let's go, cuz!" I tell her, squeezing her shoulders. She pops her neck and then her knuckles.
"Come on, girl!" Nati encourages as she gets her phone ready to record her.
"You ready, Espinzoa?" Sage asks after getting the barbell ready for her.
"You bet your fine ass I am, Coach." She grins at him, bouncing on her toes.
"It's ten pounds more than we originally had on your goals. Your hard work got you here, now let's see you break through this number, alright?"
"Yes, Coach!"
She gets in her stance and Sage positions himself next to her. Joel gives her the go ahead and everyone starts joining in, cheering her on as she begins.
"Come, Oli!" Sage shouts, he claps his hands. "Last set. Give it all you got! Right here! Let's go!"
She blows out air and grips the barbell, adjusting her hands and fingers and then pulls up. She keeps going, her face strains with effort as we all shout with excitement and on her final rep we rush to congratulate her.
"I'm so proud of you, prima. Look at what you did!" Wiping the tears from my eyes, when I pull away after hugging her.
She chuckles. "Don't start crying or you're gonna make me cry, JoJo! And you still have your turn, girl." She gives me a tight hug.
I take off my own zip up jacket and hand it to her, mentally preparing myself. Not enjoying the fact that everyone is now going to be watching me. Taking advantage of the attention still on Oli I close my eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply, shaking out my arms and my legs, visually picturing myself completing the reps with ease.
My eyes snap open when Joel calls out my name. "Lozano, you're up!"
I nod, lifting my hair up in a messy bun, taking in deep breaths as my friends pat my shoulders and my back giving me their words of encouragement.
Approaching Sage, who's finishing locking in the weights for me, he smiles.
"You're up to a hundred and five. That's a little over double the weight you started at. Shorter reps, okay? You're ready."
I nod, and take a few more deep breaths.
"It's just you and me here," he tells me, his fingers lifting my chin. His dark eyes drilling into mine and I smile.
He moves behind me, giving my shoulders a quick squeeze, but I jump when both of his hands alternatively slap my ass. "Come on. Let's go Joanna!"
I duck under the bar, briefly closing my eyes as the cold bar touches the skin on my neck, back and shoulders. My hands grip and re-grip the bar and then I lift it off the rack, letting my body get adjusted to the weight, my feet shift under me as I prepare for the first set of reps.
Sage claps loudly, hyping me up as he shouts. "Let's go!" I take a breath in and lower down to continue.
"Chin down, chest up baby," Sage coaches.
"Let's go, prima! You got this, don't bitch out, girl!" Oli shouts. Nati and Quique also yell to keep going. My legs are starting to lose strength and every part of my lower half is on fire. I grunt out with the exertion.
Sage yells, coming up behind me. "Up, Up, Up!"
I grit my teeth as I lower down again and growl on the way up. "Eyes on me, baby!"
My eyes shift to Sage's in the mirror. His dark eyes focused on mine. "You and me, two more, let's go!"
I shake my head feeling my energy depleting out of me quickly. "Don't you quit Joanna!"
Taking in a deep breath, I blow it out with a growl as I rise back up and he's in my ear. "Come on, just one more, baby! You can do it! I'm right here with you!" I lower down and scream as I push myself back up and hurry to rest the bar on the rack. The elation and pure joy that erupts inside of me is indescribable. I duck under the bar and jump on Sage, wrapping my arms and legs around him.
"I can't believe it!" I laugh breathlessly.
"You did it, baby!" His arms squeeze me. Even though I'm fighting to catch my breath I kiss him feeling so happy.
I vaguely hear Oli announce to the crowd, "It's okay, everyone! They're dating!" Sage and I both smile and chuckle in between our kissing. His arms lower and his hands squeeze my ass.
"I'm so damn proud of you."
"Thank you, so much! Your voice kept breaking through all the noise." I peck his lips again before he lowers me down. "Those hands of yours are going to have to massage my legs and butt later."
"Your wish is my command." He gives me another quick kiss and then my friends swarm around me, hugging and clapping my shoulders, congratulating me.
"It's time for the certificate's ceremony. Come see me before you leave." Sage kisses my head, then walks away to join the other trainers.
After a few minutes, we're herded back to the mats and sit in a large semi-circle facing the trainers who are talking amongst themselves. Joel breaks away from the group and gets everyone's attention.
"It's always bittersweet when a boot camp comes to an end. We are all proud of the progress each of you have made over the last eight weeks. Some of you stood out in your journey here. That's how it is in life, right? This is not to make anyone feel down or bad about themselves in any way, because as I said you've all made progress in some form or another."
"And you all have been given the tools to keep going and keep putting in the work and time to get what you want out of yourselves and life. We will also be handing out your psychology videos from a couple of weeks ago, please watch them when you get a chance. One thing that exercise displays is how hard we can be on ourselves in comparison to how others see us."
"We do want to recognize participants who went beyond their own goals as well as those goals that we as trainers set. First up..." Joel starts listing off winners that fall under categories for 'Best Mile Time', 'Most Improved Flexibility', 'Highest number of reps for Pushups, Pull-ups, Squats', 'Longest Wall Sit'.
"For most improved strength, we all witnessed that today with Joanna Lozano doubling her squatting weight."
My face heats up as I stand and make my way to grab my certificate and shake hands with each of the trainers including Sage, who winks at me.
"Next, a new category, but I think you can all agree it's one that was needed for this round of cadets. We have the most improved and best hype-up attitude goes to...Olivia Espinoza."
I jump when Oli screams next to me. "He said my name right?!" We laugh and nod and she screams again before she goes up to the front, hugging each of the trainers.
She holds her hands up like a boxing champion before Joel gives her the certificate. "Oh my gosh, thank you!" She looks at the certificate, endearingly.
"I have never won anything before. This made the longest eight weeks of my life worth it. I want to thank my crew, Quique, you know your my boy, my girls Nati and JoJo and of course Coach. My hate and loathing for you grew to respect and admiration." I stifle my laugh at the change in Sage's face from smiling to frowning as Oli keeps going.
Joel pats her on the shoulder. "Thank you, Oli. For that enlightening and first time ever in boot camp history, Thank You Speech. If you don't mind taking a seat we have one last recognition to give." Oli waves to us, blowing kisses before finally taking a seat again.
"Okay, so here we are. This is the winner of all the categories, the creme de la creme. This individual had the most inches lost, the most weight lost, and overall improvement with the fitness assessment test and ultimately the winner of the cash pot. Drumroll please." He addresses the trainers and they all start slapping their thighs in unison, mocking a drum beat. "This season's boot camp winner is...Natalia Rodriguez!"
It takes a moment for it to register with Nati, while Oli, Quique and I scream. She finally stands and jumps up and down with us.
After the excitement and euphoria wore down—I showered and changed and went in search of Sage in his office—and well, one thing led to another and the elation continued for completely different reasons.
Sage withdraws from inside of me, his body sliding down, trailing kisses from my back to my ass while I'm still laying over his desk face down; panting, legs shaking.
I manage to drag my panties up, and switch places with Sage as he exits his personal bathroom. "I should have brought flats instead of heels, my legs are shaking non-stop."
"That's the best compliment you've given me, baby." Sage presses his lips against my temple while I smack his chest, laughing.
"It's from the challenge."
"If you say so." He shrugs his broad shoulders and wraps his arms around me. "I really am so proud of you. You killed it today."
I lean back into him smiling, as I look at us through the mirror. "Thank you. If someone would have told me I would be lifting that much weight eight weeks ago, I would have laughed my head off."
Sage kisses my shoulder. "Do you think you're going to keep coming in?"
"Of course, though probably not every day while I'm still in my busy season at work."
"Good, I'm glad to hear it."
"What about you? What do you do when you don't have a boot camp?" I ask, running my comb through my damp hair before I plug in my hair dryer.
Sage raises his voice to talk over the loud noise. "More office work to be honest, especially since Joni, the employee who's on maternity leave still has a few weeks before returning. I handle all of the payroll and need to get everything ready for my accountant as well."
I turn off the dryer and start working on my makeup. "Do you want to go out and celebrate tonight?" I ask him. "You, me and Obie."
Sage's smile is heart melting. "I'd love to, but can we plan for tomorrow instead? The other trainers and I like to get together and go for drinks to celebrate too after each boot camp, it's a tradition."
"I can't tomorrow." I finish applying my mascara and zip up my makeup bag, turning to face him. "Several of us are getting together from work to celebrate the halfway point of the busy season for us and also the completion of the new account I just wrapped up. It's sort of a big deal because of who the client is and the opportunities it could bring to the company."
"Oh..." He licks his bottom lip, a look of contemplation on his face before pulling in his lip. "Do...you want me to come with you?"
"It's not that kind of a celebration, more in house, ya know? Just work people." I smile. He nods and looks away, I set my makeup down on the sink and turn his face toward me. "Let's plan for Sunday. A game night. I've been dying to play Scrabble with you and Obie."
"I'd like that."
"Good." I kiss him. "I'll call you later." He taps my ass as I walk out of the bathroom and his office.
We never finished the conversation from the other night, but I know we need to. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm falling for him.
We're still in the beginning stages of our relationship and even though it feels like we've known each other longer than two months, maybe it's too soon to feel this strong emotion for someone. I love him. I know I do. But then there's Obie.
I may not have a lot of experience with this, but I know enough that you don't throw around words like love without being sure.
The car behind me honks their horn as the red light I was sitting at is now green. One thing's for sure: Love tends to complicate things more than anything. And life is already complicated as it is.
Parking the car, I rest my head on the steering wheel feeling drained mentally and physically. A few seconds later a knock at the window has me jumping up. I hold a hand to my chest trying to control my breathing when I see it's Mark.
Opening the door to greet him, I smile. "Morning. You scared the crap out of me."
He chuckles. "Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you're okay. You feeling alright?"
"Oh, yeah. It's been a good morning, but I just have a lot on my mind."
I pull my briefcase out and heave it out of the car, feeling the soreness in my lower half from this morning's workout.
"Here, let me take your things. You look like you're going to fall over. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I promise, I am. I beat a personal record on weight for squats."
"What do you lift?"
"I'm only a beginner, but I started out deadlifting the bar only, which is around forty four pounds and today I did a hundred and five."
"Damn, that's impressive. Today was the last day of your bootcamp, right?" He lifts my bag over his shoulder.
I sigh. "Yes, I'm kinda sad it's over, but I plan to keep going to the gym, just not as strict."
"That's good. Want to meet up for lunch? My treat for doing an awesome job in completing the boot camp."
"If you're buying. I'm there." I chuckle as we step into the elevator.