I walked into the doors of Lifecycle Fitness. It was a huge wide open space with various bits of scary looking equipment around the room. The thing that stood out the most to me was the vast blue carpet that covered the whole room. There were also motivational sports murals on the walls with inspirational quotes. Whippet came bounding over to me.
“Are you ready?” he smiled
“Err no, is it too late to change my mind?” I said half-jokingly. He laughed.
“Well we’ll start with a warm-up” he said walking me over to the punch bags over towards the back of the room.
We started with some knee ups combined with palm hits to the punch bags. Then jump squats, then push ups and finally some step jumps.
“Oh my god, Are you trying to kill me?” I wheezed
Again he laughed. I was starting to realise the occasional jog along the beach and swim session was not enough to maintain a decent fitness level.
“Ahh, you’ll be in shape in no time” Whippet winked.
I don’t quite know how he managed to do it but even with the punishment he was delivering, I still didn’t hate him. Only he could inflict pain and still have a smile on his face. I liked Whippet. He was funny, always upbeat and could always make you laugh - even when delivering torture. He was the kind of guy you wanted to be your big brother.
After an hour of punishment, I was dripping wet, beetroot red and could hardly move. I knew tomorrow’s pain would be worse.
“You need to do your stretches now so your muscles don’t seize up” He said. I limped over to the floor mat and he showed me some stretches and then I dragged myself off to the showers.
“Same time tomorrow Alex” Whippet shouted as I walked past the reception desk on my way out
I could see why Whippet or Ryan, as I was now trying to call him, was so popular. He pushed you but not further than your limits, and he managed to make you laugh while doing it. The next couple of weeks I hit the gym 5 times a week and it showed. My face wasn’t as red at the end of the workouts and my clothes were feeling looser. Itchy had even let Ryan into my apartment and they’d thrown out all my junk food – including my chocolate!!!! I was mad at the time but I guess they meant well (and it didn’t stop me sneaking the odd bar in every now and again).
I got into a routine of going to the gym each morning and got to know Ryan quite well. He’d become a really close friend. One morning after a workout I’d received a voicemail on my phone from Mike, the Editor of my paper. It just asked me to call him as soon as possible. I thought it was strange. I had always dealt with Julie the Deputy Editor. I decided to call when I got home. I was going to go for a quick ocean swim at Bronte first though. I left my stuff at the lifeguard station with Maxi & Jesse who were on duty.
“Jeez, Alex. Your phone has been going crazy since you left” Maxi said
“Yeah, it must’ve rang 10 times” Jesse added
“Oh right” I said as I towelled off my wet hair and reached into my bag for my phone. I saw I’d had 12 missed calls and a few text messages. My voicemail icon was flashing and there were emails too. As I was just dialling to retrieve my messages my phone rang again so I answered.
“Hello” I said worried, frantic thoughts tore through my mind.
“Oh Alex, where have you been? Its Mike” the voice on the other end of the phone replied
“Oh hi Mike, I was just trying to call you back. Sorry, I’ve been for a swim”
“Alex, I have some news. I’m sorry but the paper has gone into liquidation and has ceased trading today. You have a week to gather up your things and vacate the apartment. I have arranged for your return ticket you just need to contact our accounts department when they open tomorrow to get your flight booked. Alex, Thank you for all your hard work. Again I’m so sorry that this has happened. It’s come as a shock to all of us here. Take care and I’ll see you when you get back”
I stood in total shock. Could this really be happening?
