The first thing Rachel heard as she entered the Gateway Parkour studio was the excited chatter from a gaggle of teenagers: four boys and a single girl by the sound of it.
She groaned silently. Taking a class with a bunch of teenagers didn’t strike her as fun no matter how many times she would be able to see Adam.
Leaning against the wall next to the restroom, Rachel stalled by drinking her water. Should she stay? Should she go? She pushed away from the wall. Decided. She’d leave and ask for her money back.
“Ah-hem.”
Rachel jerked, splashing herself in the face. The water dripped down her chin and she swiped at the moisture with her hand.
A skinny young man with short brown hair and dark blue eyes, the color of depression glass, stood in front of her.
“Ah, are you Rachel…” He hedged as he consulted his clipboard. “Flanagan?”
“Yes,” she answered.
He smiled and noted something on his clipboard, probably her attendance record. “Great. Please find a spot on the mat in there”—he waved his hand toward the room with all the voices—“Adam will be in shortly to start the class.”
“Okay. Yeah,” she said before giving the young man, clearly an employee, a curt nod. That decided it. She’d stay. Rachel entered the room with the city street and found a spot on the mats near the door and made a promise to herself. If the class sucked, she’d leave.
“Welcome to Gateway,” said a voice behind Rachel. Turning, she watched Adam enter the room. He winked at her as he passed by. “My name is Adam,” he said, addressing the class. “and I’ll be your instructor for this session.”
Adam came to a stop in the middle of the room and slowly spun in a circle as he caught everyone’s gaze with his. “Parkour is fun,” Adam continued. “but it is also dangerous. If you don’t follow the instructions coming from me or Zach,” he indicated the employee who’d asked her, her name, “you might end up in the hospital. Or worse.” He looked around the room and frowned slightly as if he didn’t like what he saw.
“For the next eight weeks, you are going to learn the basics. I highly recommend you do the strength building exercises at home but leave the rest for class.” He glared at the teenagers. “That means you!” he barked with a finger point. “I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
Rachel snickered at his stern tone. His words weren’t any different than her sensei's had been and she took a mental bet on who would come back next week. If this was anything like her martial arts classes, half the students would quit after today. Tuning out the rest of Adam’s greeting, she gave him a thorough once-over.
He was totally objectifiable! His whole physique was on display, from his washboard abs under his tight t-shirt to his rock-hard biceps. He was delicious.
Something on his forearm reflected the light into Rachel’s eye and she looked closer. An arm guard? Rachel shook her head. That couldn’t be right. She looked again, confirming her first impression. It was a bracer! The device took up his whole arm from wrist to two inches below his elbow. Rachel stepped closer. Why would he wear an arm guard? She didn’t remember seeing it that other night, though, she supposed it had been there. She hadn’t noticed much in her distraught state.
Adam paused in his speech, catching Rachel’s attention and she looked up. “In class,” Adam said, “you will learn the correct way to jump, fall, roll, and spend quality time building upper body strength, so you can climb your environment safely.” He indicated the obstacle course behind him. “Today, we will focus on learning how to perform a controlled fall. Zach, will you demonstrate the shoulder roll for us?”
Zach nodded and stepped on one of the exercise mats. First, he demonstrated the fall and roll after a jump. Then he did so again from a kneeling position.
“As you can see, Zach has been doing this for a while. He could accomplish the same move after a second-story fall without hurting himself. Of course, you aren’t at this stage yet, and I wouldn’t like to receive a call from some irate parent because some overeager student tried it too soon.” Adam gave the teens in the class a pointed glare. “Understood?” They nodded without much enthusiasm.
“Thank you, Zach,” Adam said, waving his hand in an “enough” gesture. Turning his attention back to the class at large, Adam went on, “You will practice this until it becomes as natural as breathing.”
After Zach resumed his position on the side of the gym, Adam went on to explain the different steps of the fall and roll. Once everyone understood the instructions, he stood and surveyed the class. “Hopefully, by the end of this class, you’ll all manage to at least not break your necks. Now, I want you to practice on your own. Yes... even you,” Adam snapped at a young woman, who jumped and giggled in embarrassment.
“Each one of you will find fifteen feet of free mat space and then practice the roll. Zach and I will come around to give you pointers. And remember, always protect your head!” Adam finished his explanation, and the group dispersed to find some mat space.
Rachel sighed, positioned herself near the other adults, and did the exercise a few times the way Adam expected it, before switching to a standing position. The move was already second nature to her and she hoped the rest of the session wouldn’t be so mundane. She hadn’t paid the exorbitant fee to learn something she already knew.
After a few more minutes of half-heartedly working on the roll, she sensed someone’s eyes on her. Looking up, she caught Adam staring at her and she winced. Being caught slacking at her dojo was worth fifty push-ups at a minimum. Hopefully, Adam wouldn’t make her do that many. As she prepared for another roll, the foam mat dipped, warning her that someone now stood beside her. When she checked, she found Adam looming over her. She mentally cursed. Here came those push-ups.
“It’s good to see you again, Rachel.”
“Likewise,” she said.
“Did your arm heal all right? No permanent injury?”
She shook her head, surprised.
“Good. I worried about you.”
Rachel’s eyebrows dipped down in a perplexed frown. “You did? Why?”
He grinned. “You were shaken that night. Who knows what might have happened while your attention was compromised. I would have hated to see you hurt again.”
“Well, I was fine,” Rachel grumbled.
“That’s good,” he said, nodding once before he walked away to help some other students.
An hour later, while taking a break and wiping sweat from her eyes with her towel, Adam spoke to the group again. “Good work, everyone. Please take a few moments to do some stretching: your legs, arms, and sides. Some of you may experience sore shoulders tonight and tomorrow. When you get home, ice your muscles, and take it easy a day or two. When you feel up to it, I want everyone to work on some basic resistance training for next week. You will work on push-ups; do as many sets of ten as you can. Also, it would be a good idea to pick up jogging since there is a lot of leg strength needed in Parkour. Thanks. And see you next week.”
Rachel retrieved her bag and water bottle before retreating to the small bathroom in the main hallway. Arriving at the studio in workout gear was okay but going home on the Metro all sweaty was not.
As Rachel left the small bathroom, she noted how quickly the studio had emptied after Adam had dismissed the first class. “Typical. I’m always the last to leave aikido,” she grumbled to herself as she put on her coat and hefted her bag to her shoulder, but the noise from the main room caught her attention. Since everyone else had left already, she assumed Adam and his employee were practicing.
Curious, she peeked around the corner into the training area. Her eyes widened at the sight of the two men fighting. They both had stripped out of their shirts and had ditched the sweats for athletic shorts.
Even from the distance, Rachel could spot several scars on Adam’s torso. It looked like he’d been injured severely several times. Car accident? A distinctive set of scars adorned his lower belly. They almost looked like cigar burns, they were so perfectly circular. Abused as a kid? She hoped not, but it made the most sense. Of course, now Rachel’s curiosity was piqued. What had he lived through?
She also gave Zach a quick once-over and was surprised to see he had well-defined muscles in his chest and arms. Another few years and he’ll be a looker too, she surmised, appreciative.
It wasn’t until she finished admiring their asses that she studied their sparring. But once she did, she stood enthralled, as they tackled, twirled, and flew at each other. Clearly, Adam was the most experienced of the two; he had the speed and grace of a seasoned combatant and Zach, though less skilled, surprisingly managed to hold his own.
Every few moves, Adam would get around Zach’s defenses and land what appeared to be a killing blow, announcing “you’re dead” in a monotone voice. Other than that small bit of dialogue and the occasionally annoyed mutter from Zach, they were virtually silent. To her eyes, it seemed more than a simple training exercise. It looked like a serious fight. But why?
I should leave, she thought, her fingers curling around the door frame. Yet she stayed rooted in place. Adam, in a particularly daring move, ran up one of the brick walls, grabbed the edge of a balcony, pivoted as if he were on a pommel horse, and vaulted back toward Zach. She quickly ducked out of sight but feared Adam had seen her when he did his latest move.
Shit.
How would she explain her presence when she shouldn’t be there?
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