THREE MONTHS LATER...
TORYN STOOD IN LINE AT BLINK, waiting for her turn on the line. She couldn't believe she was applying to work here. It stunk of sweat and terrible body odor, but she needed a job and she was thinking of places that were walking distances from where she was staying, that way she wouldn't have to spend money out of her paycheck going and coming from work.
Most other applications she filled out for other places had asked for mental health records and once she listed them, they never called back. She was hoping the gym wouldn't discriminate. She had read online this particular business didn't go into such personal information. They just asked for a criminal background check and drug screening. Both were things Toryn could past with flying colors, so she was open minded about this one.
"Next!"
Toryn stepped up and was met with a very cute specimen of a man. He had on his little uniform, but he looked like a teenager so she kept her face straight and didn't let her eyes roam. She would never entertain a little boy. "Hi, I'm here to turn in a job application I printed out online and filled out." She said sliding the sheet across the counter.
The boy picked up the paper and looked behind him, calling out to an older female. The lady seemed to be in her fifties and wore a different colored shirt then everyone else. Probably the manager. The kid gave the paper to the woman and the woman scanned it as she then looked at Toryn.
"Okay, we'll review it and we'll be in touch if we're interested." She said.
"Okay." Toryn said, turning to leave. She glanced back down at her phone as she trudged to the elevators. So engrossed in her phone, she collided into someone.
Her cellphone went flying. It landed so hard the back came off and the battery came out. Toryn looked up and glared at the perpetrator. Others looked on to see if the two would exchange words but before the man could even open his mouth Toryn sucked her teeth loudly and went to save her device.
She stood there and began grumbling as she put the battery back in and watched as the phone automatically powered itself back on. Toryn knew the man was standing there, his smell hit her nose. He stunk. They were in a gym though so it wasn't a turn off for her like it would be under normal circumstances.
"Your phone okay, sweetheart?" He had a deep voice.
Toryn said nothing as the phone came back on, loading every app and whatever else had been open before it hastily cut off. Brandon smirked, not liking her bitchy attitude. He couldn't stand females like that, especially ones who came to the gym like her. She had on leggings, black heels and lots of perfume. She was obviously just here to get attention from men.
"You don't need to have an attitude baby, it was an accident." Brandon said.
Toryn looked up for the first time, noticing how handsome he was. He was six foot one. The same height as Takashi maybe. He had tan brown skin and a normal caesar cut. His body was covered in a thin sheet of sweat and his clothes were damp, carrying a slight smell. Sweaty. It was tolerable, though. She noticed he had nice muscles but he wasn't overly big like a bodybuilder. He had a little bit of a triangle shaped nose but his lips, teeth, eyes and voice were perfect. He was a strong 7.5 out of 10.
"It wouldn't have been an accident if you would have taken those damn earphones out your ears!" Toryn snapped, quick to notice the red and black Beat earphones in his ear.
Brandon raised an eyebrow. "This is a gym sweetheart, everyone here is wearing earphones. We listen to music to help us workout, it's motivation. Maybe if you were paying attention instead of doing something on your phone I can guarantee is not important, you would have saw me. You're the one in here with the heels and the tight spandex on sweetheart. Obviously you're at the wrong place."
Her phone buzzed in her hand indicating a text must have finally downloaded from earlier. She wanted to set him straight and let him know she was here to apply for a job, but it was none of his business. Instead she cut her eyes at him, glancing at his whole Under Amor workout gear.
"Don't worry about why I'm here, just keep lifting your little weak ass five pound weights. And take a shower when you're done."
Brandon smiled, watching her ass as she walked off. "Good day to you too ma'am..." he mumbled, with the shake of his head as he headed over to the weight benches.
*****
BRANDON HEARD A KNOCK ON his office door which made him look up from his computer screen. He had hundred of emails to write and although he would make his secretary do them, he was writing to some very powerful people and didn't want anything to be messed up.
"Come in!" He called.
Janice stepped in dressed in an electric blue skirt suit with thick black stockings. Her brown hair was straight down, falling around her waist. Her name tag over the left breast pocket of her suit. "Sir, Mr. Young is downstairs. He says he needs to speak with you now."
"What? Now?" Brandon asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "Does he have an appointment today? I don't remember him scheduling."
"He doesn't, but—"
"Okay, then send him away." Brandon shrugged resuming his typing. He didn't really care for Mr. Young. Although both were businessmen, he acted like appointments didn't apply to him. Because he would never be able to walk into Mr. Young's building demanding to see him without having had scheduled a meeting.
Brandon was thirty, a CEO of a lotion company called Melt. Melt was a company that made shower gels, perfumes and a bunch of other hygiene products but were mostly known for their lotions. Brandon didn't run a billion dollar franchise, but he was worth $40 million. He was trying to get bigger business deals too so his franchise could grow. He wanted to be on a Johnson & Johnson level one day.
"Sir but mister Young is a very prominent business man. Are you sure you want to upset him?" Janice asked.
Brandon leaned back in his seat as if he thought about it. It was one of the main reasons people liked him in general. He respected everyone's opinion not caring if they were on his level or not. Janice has been with his company for five years so he valued her say-so as a friend more than as a worker. Brandon sighed, "You're right, send him in."
Janice nodded and walked out. Brandon leaned back in his seat and let his mind drift off. He began to think about that girl at the gym. That girl he bumped into. He wondered if she came there a lot. He liked her a little and he knew exactly why. She was normal. He dated a lot of people who've been on reality TV, girls who were plastic surgery Barbie dolls and the whole nine. The last time he had been with a normal woman was probably in high school. He missed that. He thought about going to the gym again sometime this week just to see if she'd be there.
The door opened and Mr. Young stepped in. He had a big frown on his face as usual. But his company was great at promoting products for others. That's why they connected on a business level. Mr. Young took a seat and Brandon leaned forward making them shake hands.
"Can I get you something to drink? Beer? A water perhaps?" He said turning toward his mini cooler.
"I have a proposal for you."
"Shoot it." Brandon said.
"Melt products are starting to become more recognized now and people want to start sponsoring it."
"That's great!"
"Right, they want to give you a commercial. But of course since I recommended I get a finder's fee."
Brandon leaned back in his seat, this was what business was. Of course he could go off and try to get his own commercial, but Mr. Young more so had the connects. He was more educated on media and marketing, while Brandon was more business savvy.
"Twenty percent for me and eighty percent for you."
"No," Brandon said, immediately. He sat up in his seat and began to type his unfinished email.
Mr. Young was taken aback. "No?"
"No. You want twenty percent for a finder's fee? My products are already a thing. My company is already a thing. You have the connections, true. But that ratio you're asking for, is as if you're my manager. Ninety-five percent to five percent."
"Ten." Mr. Young debated
"Five."
"Ten."
"I still have employees to pay, ninety percent is not gonna feed everybody. Five percent."
Mr. Young took a long breath then huffed. The truth was whether he helped Brandon or not, his products were guaranteed to blow up sooner rather then later. So Mr. Young knew he would get to the top regardless. He just wanted to be credited for it. "Fine. Five."
Brandon smiled from ear to ear. "You got yourself a deal."
*****
TORYN STOOD BEHIND THE COUNTER dressed down in her Blink uniform. It was a gray t-shirt with black pants. Her name tag was on and her glasses were right up to her face. A line was forming as most people were purchasing things.
At the gym they sold gym wear like sweatsuits, shorts, sweatpants, headbands, and even headphones. They also sold lots of health drinks like water, vitamin water, carrot and vegetable juice and things like that. Some were purchasing things before they started their workout and others were purchasing items as they were leaving.
"Next." Toryn said after ringing up two bottles of Gatorade. The woman paid and left.
Brandon stepped up in line and smiled hard. "Hello."
"Hi." Toryn said, straight faced. "May I help you?"
Brandon placed a single bottle of water on the counter. He had finally found her. He came in yesterday and she wasn't here, but he tried again today and happened to run into her. Now that he knew she worked here, he knew where he could find her. He read her name tag. Toryn. It was a very pretty name.
"One-fifty." Toryn said.
Brandon placed two dollars on the counter. "Your phone okay Toryn?"
Toryn paused and looked at him like he was crazy. She knew he read the name tag so she wasn't alarmed by that, but she was lost on the first part. "Excuse me?"
"Your phone. I bumped into you here and you broke your phone."
She then remembered him as the stink guy from last time. This time he smelled good, like he had taken a shower. But then again it looked like he hadn't started working out yet. "It's not broken, but okay." She handed him his change and looked away.
"Next please."
Brandon didn't take any hard feelings to it. He smirked and walked off.
Toryn rang up the rest of her customers before she was just standing there with nothing to do again. The bad thing about working here was being here for hours and smelling the odors of people. Now that it was nearing Summer it was getting worse. That and standing behind the register for hours sometimes without one person buying something.
Other coworkers were busy helping customers out with things, so Toryn pulled her phone out having nothing else to do. It's been three months and she hadn't spoken to Takashi all but four times. All four conversations under three minutes. Now that Toryn was working, and Takashi also claiming he was busy, they didn't really speak. It was like a small crack was forming in their friendship and they both knew it, but nobody was saying anything. On top of that, Toryn's memory was beginning to chip away again.
"Excuse me miss, I need your help."
Toryn looked up and saw Brandon, she rolled her eyes not finding him amusing. He was handsome she couldn't lie, but very annoying.
Brandon pulled his head back, "You rolling your eyes? I should snitch and get you written up, that's terrible customer service."
"What do you need?"
"I can't find the weights I need."
Toryn huffed and walked from behind the counter, letting him escort the way. He sat on the weight bench he had been using three seconds ago as Toryn stood with a hand on her hip, watching all the metal weights stacked neatly against the wall. Each having a number on them to clarify how heavy they were. It went from five all the way to three hundred pound weights.
"How much are you trying to lift?" She asked, thinking he just called her over to show off how much he could lift.
"I need the ten pound weights."
Toryn narrowed her eyes and pushed her bottom lip out at him then when she noticed what she was doing, quickly fixed her face. When she looked she noticed all the ten pound weights were gone. She immediately knew some females must have had them somewhere else in the gym. Toryn sighed, putting a finger up. "Hold on." She said going in search of the weights.
In the gym there were three weight lifting sections. It was a big gym with three floors and each weight lift section had their own set of weights which were not suppose to be removed from that section. A lot of times there would be so much people lifting weights in one area, people would end up taking weights from another section and going to a different area of the gym.
Toryn was correct when she noticed an unusual amount of women all doing squats while holding weights.
She walked over and waved her hand since some of them had earphones in. "Excuse me, we have a policy that you can't remove weights from a different section. You have to stay in the section you got the weights from. You either have to return them or use it in that section."
One female, looked Toryn up and down, thinking she was just bored and had nothing to do. "And where's the policy for that, honey?"
Toryn pointed to the dark brown plaque right above the weights that had a message engraved in it. The girl looked up and read it.
Please do not carry weights to another section of the gym. It creates a hassle and a disturbance. Stay in the area you are using the weights in. If the weight lifting area is overcrowded, go to another weight lifting section or use a different machine until the crowd disperses.
The girl sucked her teeth, she was a blond hair blue eyed yoga instructor who took her health very seriously. She definitely wasn't going to take the weights back, so she gave them to Toryn instead. Her friend also walked over and gave Toryn her two ten pound weights as they walked off to find another workout method.
The weights were not heavy so Toryn easily carried two in each hand as she escorted them back over to the section they originally came from. Brandon smiled from ear to ear as he watched Toryn approaching with the weights in her hand. He started clapping. "Okay, look at you. Little strong self."
Toryn didn't mean to even entertain him, but the way he said it made her giggle. She rolled her eyes, giving him the two ten pound weights she knew he didn't need. He was bored and just wanted to bother her. She put the other two back and was getting ready to walk off.
"C'mere, you ain't gonna spot me?"
"No, that's why you bring friends. And they're ten pound weights you don't need anybody to spot you. I'm suppose to be behind the register so bye."
"If I'm talking to you, it's not like you could get in trouble. I'm a customer which means you're doing your job. You suppose to make the customer happy."
He wasn't technically right, if she was away from her post for too long she could get in trouble, but she was bored as usual at this job, so she decided to let him entertain her for a few minutes. She sighed, "Three minutes."
"How old are you?"
"Why?"
"Just a question...I'm thirty."
"Twenty five."
"Okay okay...my name's Brandon." He didn't want to take a chance and say his last name in case she might know him. He wasn't an A list celebrity, but his products were on shelves at stores, and he's been on TV a few times, he was recognizable.
"Why do guys come to the gym to flirt? You don't find that weird?" Toryn asked, hand on her hip.
Brandon smiled, his teeth sparkling. "No, not at all. Especially with someone as pretty as you. I know your dad use to be left hooking dudes for you all throughout high school."
"He's been dead since I was six. He died in the army."
Brandon damn near dropped the weight on his foot. He caught it and turned back to Toryn, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm so sorry for your loss."
Toryn twisted her lips to the side, "Mm." She wasn't mad, just amused. She began to walk off.
"So you gonna give me your number so we can go on our second date?"
Toryn looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. He was crazy for sure.
"What? We just had our first date, girl. Your name is Toryn, your twenty five. You had an awesome dad who served in the military and went out like the gee he is. You a young girl working here at Blink doing what you gotta do to make your money...oh yeah, and you hate spotting people. You rather be behind the register. See how much I know about you?"
Toryn smiled, he was funny. "I'll think about it." She said walking off. She got back behind the register and found a sticky note, writing her number on it. She knew before he left the gym he was going to ask for it. She figured why not. Toryn looked up and caught Brandon looking at her. She turned away and started laughing. Goofy. He was her type already.
Maybe it was a step in the right direction. And this time, she felt it.