Dangerously Sweet

‘It’s never too late to change your life.’

I stood in the air conditioned gym, staring up at the slogan banner on the wall.

Well, that was stupid, I thought.

It absolutely was too late to change the things that had happened in my past. That was kinda the whole point of things being in the past.

I turned to frown at some of the other slogans and inspiring posters that said things like, ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life!’, ‘Teamwork makes the Dream work!’, and ‘Keep Calm and Do Another Rep’.

Classic gym propaganda, basically.

I was only in the waiting room and I popped my head around the open door to peek into the gym room itself. Excuse me, one of the gym rooms.

Here at “Pumped Up and Overkill” everything was new and flashy and big. Not that “Pumped Up and Overkill” was actually the name of the place, I’d just been to so many gyms in the last week that all the names had started to blur together.

“Miss? Excuse me, Miss?”

I turned at the sound of the simpering voice and was surprised to see a short, middle-aged, and rather rotund man waddling over to greet me. He was wearing a crisp business suit that strained at his middle, but he certainly had a big smile on his face.

He reminded me of a man who had once sold me a car down in Texas.

“Well, hi there.” He said, extending a large, meaty hand. “Welcome to Blacksteele.”

That was the name of the damn place! Blacksteele Gym.

I guess it made sense as a name, but I still preferred “Pumped Up and Overkill”.

I eyed the hand that the man had extended to me. I didn’t want to be rude, but I hated touching people. Hated being touched, in general.

“Ha ha. Okay.” He said good-naturedly, curling his fingers and lowering his hand. “So you wanna join a gym, huh? But maybe you’re not sure. Maybe you’re not really ready to commit. If you wanna take a tour, I’d be happy to show you around. We have two indoor pools, hot tub and sauna...”

“No.” I said firmly. With my arms crossed, I gazed up at the man thoughtfully. He couldn’t possibly be a trainer. Just an office vulture. He did a piss-poor job of selling the product, though, with a physique like his. But I supposed, with two pools and a sauna, the product sold itself.

“We also have classes; Pilates, aerobics, even a hot yoga class.”

I didn’t care for the way the big man was leering at me now. Like I had worn tight jeans and a cute spaghetti strap top today just for him or something.

I tossed my strawberry blonde hair off my shoulders, forcing his attention back up to my face with the movement. “I’m not here for classes or the hot tub, okay, Mr.-?”

“You can just call me John, honeybug. Now why don’t we just step into my office so you can tell me exactly what it is you want?”

My eyes narrowed. Was that an innocent suggestion, or was he seriously coming on to me?

Disgusting. I could clearly see a wedding ring on his meaty finger.

“No. I’ll tell you what I want right here.” I fairly growled. “I want a personal trainer; for self-defense lessons. Do you guys do that here? ‘Cause they don’t seem to do that anywhere in all of the good city of Atlanta.”

“Oh...well, yes, actually, we do provide that service here. We have an award winning mixed martial arts program and the personal trainers handle that, but that’s-that’s not for you, sweetheart, surely. Come on now, why don’t I show you the new cardio equipment that just came in?”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Mason snarled.

Colin Gail sniveled and shrugged, as he was good at doing. “Don’t shoot the messenger!” He squeaked, waving his thin hands around in front of himself. “Just understand that your mother won’t sign over her share of the company to you, not until you’ve met her terms.”

Mason’s fingers curled around the edge of the desk and his lips pulled back over straight, white teeth. “Her terms are insane!”

He roared at Colin, who flinched.

“Sh-she’s just worried about you, Mason. We all are. You turn 40 next April, after all.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“And you haven’t had a serious girlfriend in all this time. Aunt Claudia put it politely, of course, but she basically called you a soulless womanizer and a testosterone filled man-child. Well, those were her words.” Colin had the audacity to smirk at Mason as he adjusted his glasses.

The two cousins couldn’t be any more different.

Colin was slight and fair, and his outfits consisted of khakis, sweater-vests, and penny loafers.

Mason Blacksteele was tall and dark. He was tan from hours of jogging outside, with jet black hair that he had secured back in a braid today, and eyes that were as hard and tenebrous as his name suggested.

He tended to favor jeans and body hugging T-shirts to show off what the company was promoting; reaching the peak of whole-body fitness and health.

Mason sighed in frustration now, running a hand back over his glossy black hair. “I don’t see what my love life has to do with anything. I’ve always put the business first, so sue me. I thought that’s what CEOs were supposed to do.”

Colin rolled his eyes at this. “You fail to see the big picture here, dear cousin. A wife represents an heir, a legacy-”

“Now I have to get married and have children?!” Mason felt himself shock pale beneath his tan.

“Not right away, of course.” Colin chuckled. “But you need to seriously start thinking of moving in that direction. You’ll see; having a woman in your life will be good for you, it has a...stabilizing effect. And fatherhood’s not so bad. Since I had Marcel and Lucy-”

“You hate your kids!” Mason protested. “You call them little termites at least once a day. Now, get the hell out of my office. And you can tell Mother that her terms are ridiculous and she needs to reconsider signing over my rightful share of the company that I bloody built!”

Colin knew better than to try to reason with Mason’s temper right then, and scuttled away.

It was because of this conversation that Mason was striding along through his gym later that day, in a truly foul temper, when he came around the corner to see a woman taking his biggest booster to the lobby floor.