A New Personal Best for Her

Alice pulled the car into the empty gym parking lot. At a little before midnight on a Sunday night most of the other bays were empty by now. She adjusted her ponytail in the mirror and checked her face. Her hair still didn't look quite right but she'd been adjusting it the whole way down and there was just nothing for it now. She looked down and wriggled around in the half-top she had on until it pushed up her cleavage just a little more, then took a self-affirming breath and got out the car.

Light spilled out of the 24-hour gym. At this time of night the place felt almost poised for action, waiting for the hordes of people that would arrive around dawn. Alice much preferred the quiet solitude she got when she worked out late at night. She constantly told herself it was why she came here in the middle of the night but that wasn't true.

Alice swiped in and the doors slid open. Seth had his feet up on the front desk, staring thickly at the computer screen in front of him. There was music emanating from the speakers and as Alice approached she could see a music video playing in the reflection of the cabinet behind him. The vision was blurry but she was fairly certain he was watching twerking videos while he worked. She nodded at him as she walked past hoping he'd stay focused on the video.

'Evening Alice,' he said from her periphery.

'Hi Seth.'

'Enjoying the new booty classes?'

She could hear the smirk in his voice, feel the eyes on her ass. She hated that she'd dressed to look hot only to have this lecher take the opportunity when it wasn't for him. She also hated that he took great pains to look up her records to see what she'd been doing all week.

'Yes, thanks. Tony's a great trainer, he really knows what he's doing.'

Alice turned around and smiled briefly. Seth's eyes flicked back up to meet hers and for a moment she boiled, looking back at his smug face. As she walked away she marvelled at how anyone so detestable could be so overconfident in his ability to talk to, well, anyone. He was muscular, that was unarguable. He worked at a gym so it was likely a big part of what he spent his free time on. But neither that, nor his over-kempt fashion cut, made his approaches any more tolerable.

She got rid of her bag in one of the lockers and made her way to the treadmills. Over the sound of the pumping workout mix being played on the overhead speakers she could start to make out the sound of repetitive motions being carried out by a machine. Her heart started beating faster.

She came around the corner and flushed red. He was on the rowing machines like always. Right on time. She didn't know his name, hadn't ever talked to him or even approached him, but she felt like she knew him deep down to his core. For six months now they'd been exchanging glances from across the room, averting eyes and sneaking looks. When his back was turned she just stared in a trance. Which was actually fantastic for when she was doing cardio - she could lose herself for hours like that.

Tonight he was wearing a black muscle tee. It didn't bulge like the one on Seth but that was because the mystery guy was thinner, more wiry. She'd never seen him with his shirt off but she imagined he was completely toned under there. That was part of what she loved about him. He wasn't just there to get massive arms and a huge chest. He spent more time on the cardio machines than he did on the weights. That made him smart and sexy, even if he was a little shy.

She got on one of the treadmills behind him and started her warm-up. Just like before she fell into a trance watching his body pump back and forth, back and forth...

The kilometers were rolling by but Alice found herself falling out of her trance. She felt distracted and it was only when she looked around that she realised Seth had been lounging around on one of the benches behind her that she realised why that was. She frowned at him but he just grinned back at her.

Feeling a little put-off she switched off the machine and got down to towel-off.

'You like that machine, huh?' Seth said.

On hearing a voice the mystery guy turned around to see what was happening. For a heart-stopping second he locked eyes with her. He looked away again a split second later and went back to his rowing, leaving her to deal with the creep. She half-smiled as a kind of polite dismissal and made for the kettle bells.

'You know it's not polite to stare at other members. Some people come here just to work out,' Seth said, following behind her.

Alice nearly snorted at the hypocrisy. She bit back a retort.

'Ok, thank you,' was all she could muster.

Seth snorted and veered off towards the bench-presses.

Alice got on with her workout but the positioning of the kettlebells meant she was facing a huge set of mirrors that gave her a perfect view of the goings-on behind her. And what was going on involved Seth now talking to the other guy. He looked confused but after a moment he got up from his machine and followed Seth over to the benches. It looked like he was getting ready to spot Seth, which was ridiculous because the weight on the bar looked as heavy as he was. But either out of politeness or confusion he held out his hands below the bar to catch it if it dropped.

He actually looked over at her while he was waiting and saw Alice watching. He smiled a little and she couldn't help but smile back.

Seth said something that grabbed his attention back. He looked annoyed now. In fact he abandoned the bench-press and came back over to Alice, mystery man in-tow.

'What'd I say about staring, miss? This is Tom and he nearly just killed me because he wasn't paying attention. Spotters need to be concentrating or someone could end up crippled or killed. I don't know if you know this but I was about to bench-press about 150 kilos.'

He stared for a moment at the both of them but no one said anything.

'Wait,' he said, 'Do we have a little gym romance thing going on here? Are you guys trying to be cute right now? Have you even spoken before?'

They both flushed red and Alice had the strong impression Seth knew perfectly well they'd never spoken. He was obsessed with her. Had to be. Maybe she'd been so distracted by this Tom that she hadn't noticed she'd been getting stalked in her own gym.

Seth began to laugh loudly and obnoxiously.

'No I understand. She's cute isn't she?'

Tom averted his eyes and said nothing.

'Nah, it's ok, I know you agree. But thing is, dude; I was here first. I mean, that's only fair right?'

Tom frowned up at him now and finally spoke.

'Excuse me?'

'Ok, ok, so we're all gettin' distracted by that tight little ass. I get it, man. I'm not blind. But you can't just come in here and have your pick at the buffet line. We've all been working hard in here; you, me, her. So how 'bout this, whoever earns it gets the right to date her. Yeah?'

Alice couldn't help but interject. It was lunacy.

'Uhh, this may be news to you, Seth, but I have absolutely no interest in dating you.'

He smiled back unperturbed.

'Hell, I knew. Maybe I'm just bored but I like this competition idea. So how about this; just for fun, whoever does the most push-ups gets to hug Alice here. Nothing crazy, just a hug. I just want to see if I can beat you,' he said.

'That's completely not okay with me. I have the right to choose who touches me.'

'Mmm,' Seth mused, 'Well only the winner gets to choose, so you can compete too. And if you win, you choose who you hug. Come on, it's incentive to work harder. That's what we're here to do, so prove that you can work harder than everyone else.'

Alice really didn't like the idea but something spoke to her about pushing herself to the limits. He was right, she was always looking for dumb knew ways to get more out of her body. Maybe the threat of being gripped by that enormous douchebag would do just that. And chances were that her or Tom were just as likely to win being that they had significantly less weight to lift than Seth.

'What do you think,' she said quietly to Tom.

He looked up at her, his bright eyes bored into hers and nearly made her legs jelly.

'I love competitions,' he looked sideways at Seth, 'won a few triathlons in my time too.'

'Hell yes!' Seth shouted. 'Oh, by the way this is super not okay with my managers so I'm just gonna get the doors and cameras.'

He ran off before they could ask him what that meant and then they were alone.

'My name's Alice by the way,' she said in the silence.

His smile was as honest as it was beautiful. 'Tom. Really nice to meet you.'

'Triathlons huh? Wow, I'm impressed.'

'Thanks. I really love staying active. A few years back I was diagnosed with diabetes and it kind of woke me up, made me get up off my ass and start looking after myself. Guess I'm an addict now.'

'That's...'

'Done,' Seth interrupted. He leered at Alice. 'Time to get on your hands and knees.'

'Very clever,' she muttered, doing as he said.

They all got into position and Seth counted them in with the music. They were all strong and for the first 20 they kept a good pace. Her core was strong but Alice began to feel it in her arms as they pushed onwards. In her periphery the other two still appeared fresh. She tried not to be distracted by Tom's iron-flat body rising up and down, now was not the time to think about that.

By 30 she was straining.

Tom breathed heavily out of his nose and a tingle of fear ran down Alice's back. It scared her...and galvanized her. She used it to keep pushing. Her arms were burning but she got to 34 and suddenly her arms gave way. She lay on the ground panting and a mixture of bitter disappointment and anger filled her as she breathed.

Facing away from them she could the boys reach 49 and someone faltered. They kept on but by 60 one was audibly straining and at 63 they dropped. Alice was afraid to turn around.

'Shit,' she heard Seth breath, 'Got a few tricks up your sleeve, huh?'

She smiled. Turning around she found Seth on his stomach, just like she'd been, and Tom sitting up grinning. Both were breathing heavily, sweat trickling down faces and necks.

'Well you got it,' Seth said, eyeing Alice once or twice.

She'd nearly forgotten she was the prize. She made eye contact with Tom and they both laughed. He crawled over to her and gave her a long hug. She tried not to enjoy it too much but the combination of their heavy breathing and the sweat mingling together gave her a little thrill that she hoped Seth wouldn't notice.

They all sat leaning against the treadmills. It was silent for a few minutes while they recovered and it began to get a little awkward. It looked like Tom wanted to get back to his exercise but Seth read his expression and pre-empted him.

'So what's next?'

'Huh?' Tom said.

'Well you got to hug her, what do I get?'

'You didn't win,' Alice said.

'No...not the first round,' Seth grinned.

Alice narrowed her eyes at him.

'Oh come on, that was way more fun than working out. Really,' Seth continued, 'what was your personal best for push-ups before, Alice?'

'26 or 27,' she replied.

'Exactly, so you killed it! I'm just saying, if you really want to push yourself this is obviously the best way. And,' he smirked, 'we all get something out of it.'

'It's so dumb though. Playing to hug me? Really?'

'You're right. How 'bout this time one of us gets to kiss you.'

They were silent for a moment while they considered the idea. Without meaning to Alice felt herself flush a little at the thought. Something about being competed for appealed to her baser instincts of being with a winner but she internally shouted herself down for thinking that way. She already knew Tom was a fine specimen, there was nothing stopping her from asking him out and seeing where that took them, without the input of this man-ape beside them. But...

...but he should've been asking her out. He'd had months worth of opportunities. Clearly there was something holding him back and she was too stubborn to be the one to make the move. It had to be him, working for her, showing her he cared enough.

'Ok,' Tom said, and Alice realised she'd been silent too long.

Seth looked at her and cocked his head, 'Well, we'll take that as a yes then too.'

He laughed and hopped up.

'Ok, last place chooses the challenge then.'

They both looked at Alice and so, startled, she stood up and looked around for inspiration. She didn't have to look far.

'The treadmills,' she said.

Seth groaned loudly, 'We'll be here all night!'

'No,' Alice interrupted, 'we're doing sprints.'

She saw Tom's lips quirk up a little and threw him a quick wink. Something told her Seth wasn't going to be a big contender in this one.

'The rules are,' Alice went on, 'Uhhh...ok, whoever can hold 15 kilometers per hour for the longest.'

Seth groaned again, 'Boring. Make it 20.'

'You're on,' Alice quipped.

Seth sniggered and went programming them each a treadmill. They each leapt up and the tracks began moving instantaneously.

They picked up speed fast and they were all sprinting within 10 seconds. Alice was barely ready for it and it seemed Tom hadn't been either. His gait was barely finding a rhythm when he misplaced his foot in desperation and fell badly off the back of his treadmill. It was all she could do to keep focused on running as she saw him pick himself up out of the corner of her eye. Seth, meanwhile, was going strong. His massive legs were thumping away while she was doing her best to maintain. It seemed she'd badly misjudged and after only 30 seconds she flagged just the slighest touch. That was all it took. Her position fell back centimeter by centimeter until she dropped off the treadmill fuming.

Seth pumped his fist shouted something dumb. Tom handed out cups of water he'd gotten in the interim and they all caught their breaths. Alice couldn't even look him in the eye.

'Caught your breath yet?' Seth said.

Alice didn't respond, she just frowned at him silently. Unperturbed, Seth walked over to her until his chest was pressing just a little against her chest. For her part Alice stared resolutely at his collarbone. Then in one quick movement grabbed the back of her head and mashed his mouth against hers.

She felt the urge to pull away but he was in control now. She felt his tongue force its way into her mouth, swish against her own tongue. And on impulse, hers swished back. A random thought pressed its way into her mind and she wondered if Tom was watching.

Seth finally let her go and Alice made a show of wiping her mouth and walking away. She could see that Tom had been staring though.

'My turn to choose then?'

Alice looked up at him in surprise.

Seth chuckled, 'It sure is, buddy.'

'Then I choose one-handed pull-ups,' Tom announced.

'Ooh, I see what you're doing. So what's the prize this time?' Seth responded.

Tom took a moment to look Alice up and down. She was glad she was now red from the sprinting or she'd have turned just that colour when he did.

'I get to see her tits.'

Seth laughed again. 'Don't you mean; whoever wins?'

'And what about me?' Alice interjected.

Seth put a hand on her shoulder patronizingly.

'Sweetie, can you even do a one-handed pull-up?'

She snorted in frustration but a reply didn't come. It was true, she'd barely been able to manage normal chin-ups. The only consolation was that in this instance she was sure to come last which meant she'd get to choose the next one.

'Assholes,' she muttered.

With the rules agreed upon the guys went to the chin-up bars and each got into position. It was one of the quickest competitions and Alice was relieved to find that Tom's work in the triathlons had really come to pay off.

When he got down she took his hand and walked him over to a corner away from the mirrors. She thought she heard Seth say; 'Oh come on' as they left.

She sat Tom down on a sit-up frame. There was no pretense anymore, he stared directly at her tits in anticipation and even under the tight elastic fabric he could see two little bumps where her hard nipples were encased.

Alice smiled as she slipped her fingers under the lower band and gently peeled away the top from her sweaty skin. In one movement her breasts slipped out and bounced a little as they hung down. Tom's mouth fell a little open as he openly gawked.

Growing bold, Alice licked her lips a little and then leant forwards.

'Take a closer look,' she said.

Tom closed his eyes as his face was engulfed in boobs. She felt him move a little to one side and then begin to suck on one of her nipples. She too closed her eyes and enjoyed the brazen act. She was sure somewhere nearby Seth was enjoying it too. For a full minute he made use of her chest and by the end of it was squeezing her breasts with his hands.

Seth looked truly disappointed he'd missed out on the prize when they returned. Tom was walking funny to hide his erection and Alice simply enjoyed the feeling of power it gave her.

'Aww, you look sad, Seth,' she said in mock sorrow.

'Damn right. He got way more than the prize we agreed upon.'

'Well maybe some of that wasn't part of the game,' Alice smiled.

'Fine, well, it's your turn. What are we doing.'

Alice already knew what she was going to choose.

'I think we should try some yoga. Specifically, whoever can hold tree-pose for the longest.'

'What? Is yoga even a workout?' Seth looked enraged.

'Oh you're about to find out,' Alice grinned. 'You'll want to work for this one though, trust me. Because I've decided the winner gets to grope someone.'

She winked at him and Seth looked like he was about to burst.

'Which one is tree-pose?' Tom inquired.

Alice took them to the mirrors again and pointed to the image of a woman standing on one-leg, with the opposing foot pressed against the standing leg's knee, hands clasped above the head.

'Well shit,' Seth sighed.

Yet, for all his complaints, Seth wasn't too bad at it. Maybe it was the added incentive. They took their places and went still. Tom looked a little unsure but his core was holding him in good stead. Alice, on the other hand, was perfectly at peace knowing she could hold the pose for upwards of 5 minutes.

The guys surprised her when they made it to one minute but she could see them both shaking from their standing legs. Then, like clockwork, at one minute thirty Seth fell and then Tom ten seconds later. Alice held the pose another 30 seconds just to rub it in, then gracefully lowered her bent leg and came to standing.

'So?' said Seth from the ground, 'Who're you going to grope?' He leered at her and she found it mostly unappealing. Tom was quiet but she could see the victory in his eyes. He already thought he'd won. Once again she felt like teaching him a lesson about making an effort for her affection and she had just the idea.

'Oh I know just who I want to touch. Myself.'

Both men looked back in shock. She didn't wait for them to say much else. Standing in front of one of the sit-up frames she bent slowly forwards and as she did, slid down her dripping shorts and panties. Once they were to her knees she let them drop to the ground with an audible pat. For a few moments she enjoyed the stares she was getting, looking back at them from the side of her ass. Seth actually bit his lip.

She turned back and, noticing the machine in front of her, had another idea. Alice raised one knee until it was hip-height and rested it on the safety bar, then slid her hand down to her crotch and began to stroke herself. At first it was gentle but soon she forgot about her audience and was truly enjoying herself. Her fingers worked harder and harder, making her feel some of the burn she'd inflicted on herself earlier, but she didn't stop. Her panting increased until she was almost breathing as hard as she had after the sprints.