Can't Control

Chapter 3: Lynn & Shayna

Samara's POV

I awoke to the alarm on my phone going off at 10 AM. I reached over and shut it off, taking my time rolling out of bed. I didn't have any work on Sundays at the MMA gym or 4 Aces Tavern; it was my only full day off during any given week now, but still it was nice to have a day to myself. Not that I planned to spend it all alone. I'd set my alarm knowing that Shayna would be waiting for me at the gym at noon; waking up at 10 gave me enough time to eat breakfast and get ready for the gym, as well as just taking some time to myself to watch an episode of true crime or a body mod show. Shayna always trained with me in her free time between clients during the week, and the time changed almost every day that we worked out together, as she had about 20 clients whose times varied by the day. I hadn't worked out yesterday or the day before; I worked both of my jobs on Fridays and Saturdays now and that took up nearly all of my time.

Thinking about last night, my mind immediately shifted to the guys I'd met. The one with the striped sweater really stuck out to me. I wished I knew his name; I'd love to see him again. I had never had someone stand up for me, or any employee for that matter, at a bar that I'd worked at before. I wondered if this is just how Denver was compared to Scottsdale. The couple bars I'd worked at in Scottsdale hardly ever had any trouble, but at the dive bar I worked at whenever there was an unnecessarily rude customer or douchebag trying to cop a feel, the customers around pretended not to notice and all minded their own business. It was always up to the other staff members to get involved. And sometimes those asshole-customers would wait in the parking lots and fight it out with the staff. I had really appreciated what those gentlemen did for me, and I was glad to not see that creeper again outside.

I was also baffled that the gentlemen had given me my phone back after finding it. No one ever did that, and I didn't have the money right now for a new one. It would've been such a hassle to go to the cellphone retailer to get a new one; I always ended up there for more than an hour or two dealing with that shit, as this wasn't the first time I'd misplaced my phone. I thought that I had been more careful about where I had put it after the last time I'd lost a phone, because that time I had never gotten it back. Last night it probably fell out of my pocket while I was running around the bar, or I could've dropped it after that creep had tried to grab me. It would feel strange to do so, but I'd just have to leave my phone in a locker in the back room from now on. Until I got used to it, I'd probably have a minor panic attack for a minute before remembering that it was stored in the back.

After throwing on some tight gym shorts and a light hoody, I headed to the kitchen to make myself a fruity protein shake for breakfast. Then I walked to the living room to sit on the couch. Lynn had recently started drawing and painting, and her new artwork was posted on several walls in the apartment now. She used a mix of permanent marker and water color to make some beautiful full-body and face portraits of ladies that she called her Nebula Girls. Originally, she had started these pieces as a hobby, but I'm sure she was planning on selling some of these soon. By this point, Lynn had already left for the day to head to Icon, as she had to be to work by 11 to open the studio. I had time to relax on the couch for one episode of this tattoo show that specialized in cover-ups. The gym was about six blocks away, so it wouldn't take me long to walk there from the apartment.

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Once I arrived at the gym, Dana was at the front desk, probably covering for this douchebag Nick, and greeted me as I entered. This particular employee had a tendency to not show up for work whenever he felt like it, as in he was too hungover to come to work. I figured Dana was going to fire him soon if it kept up any longer.

I spotted Shayna near the treadmills, and she waved at me to come over. We got started with some light jogging to warm up as she told me about how her last couple of days had gone. She mentioned that Saturday she had met this "Amazon of a woman" while she was at a club and was hoping see her again for some "heavy petting" as she put it. Yeah, she was definitely hoping to get some V, and she really had a thing for women that were exceptionally taller than her. "How was your first weekend at 4 Aces? Better than your last job at a bar, right?"