"...clean up the locker rooms. Not super fun, I know, but you're the best man for the job, babe!"
Your face fell slightly at the revelation of why you were here. Seeing your expression, Lihua stepped in. “Just the Affected zones, of course. It’d be crazy to expect you to do the entirety of them!”
You held up a hand “Wait, what happened to Carlos?” Carlos was the affected son of Manny and Kenneth from Small Wonders, who you’d hired as a janitor as a favor to your friends.
Fariha shrugged, her tone oddly neutral. “It’s the strangest thing, boss. The little guy must not have come in this morning. Pity, he’s always fun to work with.”
You scrutinized her carefully. For a moment, you could swear that you saw the slightest bulge on the underside of her sports bra, before Mari lifted her hand so that you were standing before her face. “I know it’s probably not what you were expecting, Matt. But it’d be a big help.”
Knowing that even if your suspicions were correct, Fariha probably already had a diversion planned if you called her out, you sighed and nodded. “Sure, Mari. No problem!”
Mari smiled, bringing you to her lips for a quick kiss. “Thanks, hon!” Walking over to the affected walkway recessed into the wall, she set you down before heading off to the main office. As she left, you took a moment to watch her walk away, still amazed after all this time how quickly your wife could take your breath away. But only for a moment.
Well, Maybe slightly longer than a moment.
Smiling to yourself, you headed down the hallway, before pushing open the door to the locker room.
When you and Mari had first started renovating Focused Fitness, you'd originally planned to create a fully isolated Affected locker room, with its own showers. But the quite the contractors had given you to not only fully remodel the lockers to add the extra space in the walls, but to also fully redo the plumbing, had been far too much. At the time, you'd agreed with the assessment, but since then there'd been enough small, minor incidents with the Affected-friendly renovations conveniently failing, that you were beginning to suspect that the contractors had simply disliked Tinies.
So instead, you'd simply had rows of affected lockers set into a small recess along the elevated walkway on the back walls of each room, with said walkways splitting off into the fitness center itself, and over to the showers. Opening the cleaning closet, you grabbed a spray bottle and rag, and got to work wiping down benches and lockers, collecting discarded towels and tossing them into hampers.
As you made your way down the line, you couldn't help smiling slightly at how many lockers showed obvious signs of use. Twenty years ago, simply going to the gym- or anywhere else, really- was an insane risk most affected wouldn't even dream of taking. Seeing how just a few simple accommodations could make such a difference to so many people, and that you had a small part in it, you couldn't help but think that maybe the worst was over. Maybe things were changing- had changed, for the better.
You were so wrapped up in your thoughts, you didn't hear the locker room door open, didn't notice the shadow looming behind you before it was too late. The first you knew of it was the sound of a locker door slamming. Startled, you turned to face the source of the noise, and your eyes were met with the sight of an unaffected woman, mid-changing.
1: “Come on, lapushka, I know you can do it.” The fitness center's powerlifting coach and former Olympian, Ludmila Petrova, huffs as she tries to fit the stretched-out form of her wife, Veronica, over her chest. (RESERVED)
2: “Well, well. So this place does keep Tinies on staff.” You’d never met her before, but you knew from Rio’s descriptions that this must be Jennifer Lewis, the toned redheaded woman who'd just bought the Focused Fitness brand from her. who looked down at you with an almost impatient look. What did she want with you? Does she know who you are?
3: “So…” Fariha leaned against a locker, smirking down at you. “How’s the workday treating you, big boss man? Figured out what the prank is yet?” You were pretty sure you had, but her expression seemed to suggest otherwise.
4: “Oh, hey there Matt!” It’s someone you know.
5: “Oh, hi there little guy!” It’s someone you don’t.
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