Unexpected Chemistry

Hannah

“Welcome to Capture the Flag Day!” Mallory announced over her headset as she clapped her hands together and bounced a little on the balls of her feet.

Wait... what?

I stood at the end of my treadmill, looking over at Mal. She looked entirely too excited about this one.

“We’re going to start with a short, ten-minute endurance interval, and then we’ll break up into our numbered pairs.”

Pairs?

Oh shit. Someone else’s performance was going to rely on me. I wasn’t ready.

“Everyone, get to your stations. Chop chop!” She clapped again, and everyone quickly got on their assigned equipment. “Treadmills, let’s go straight into base pace. Strength floor, you’re with me. Let’s hit it.”

I tried to calm myself down a little as I started briskly walking on a medium incline. While I was kind of freaked out, I knew I had to do this. Someone else was counting on me, and I knew that I needed to bring my A-game.

I tried to look back at station six on the floor, but all I saw was a tall male body doing crunches with a hat.

Hopefully, this dude didn’t mind being disappointed. I would try as hard as I could, but I wasn’t the fastest or the strongest.

“All right, treads, let’s push it in three... two... one...”

My mind cleared as I walked quickly, working my leg muscles as I finished out the rest of my time on the treadmill. We swapped with the other group, and I moved back to the weight floor.

Mallory talked us through the floor exercise, and I went through all the motions during the time we had allowed.

Then came the moment of truth.

“All right, ladies and gentlemen. Head over to the numbered stations on the weight floor,” she instructed as people stopped what they’d been doing. “Say hello to your partner, and let’s get moving.”

I wrung my sweat towel in my hands nervously as I waited for the group to come off the treadmills. My breath caught in my chest as I saw J, the man from the gym I rammed into on Friday, heading straight toward me.

“Hey there, partner, are you ready for this?” he asked with a friendly smile.

“Sure?” I squeaked.

His smile widened, and I found myself completely enraptured by his attitude toward me. He didn’t seem fazed in the least that he got stuck with me as a partner.

“Is this your first time doing this?” he asked as he adjusted the hat on his head, a flash of sweaty auburn hair peeking out.

“Am I that obvious?” I bit my lip.

“You'll be fine. I promise I won't keep you on the rower too long,” he said sincerely.

My eyes widened as I looked past him to the rowers. The short distances I could handle, but my endurance wasn’t the best.

“Okay, here’s your interval times for each round. Check the video screen if you need a reminder,” Mallory instructed as she pointed up at the mounted television.

“Your flags are on the rower tanks. I expect every team to hit two thousand meters with a green flag. This is a very attainable goal. I know all of you can do it.”

“Orange is for three thousand, red is for four thousand,” she continued. “You elite rowers should be able to smash those goals easily.

“Let’s see if any of you are up to the challenge of beating our elite rowing master, Big J. He’s the man to beat tonight; he’s taken the men’s record for endurance rowing in this studio for the last three years.”

I looked over to where J was leaning against the wall next to me. He was so much taller than me; I felt tiny next to him.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I leaned in, and he dropped his head down in my direction.

“What was that?”

“I said I was sorry,” I repeated.

“What for?” he asked as he tilted his head to the side.

“That you got stuck with me.”

He shook his head and turned to face me fully.

“You’ve got no reason to apologize. That seems to be a bad habit of yours.” He raised an eyebrow at me.

Thankfully, the lowered lighting and the fact that I was hot covered the blush I felt in my cheeks.

“I’m…” I started, but he shook his head.

“Nope, don’t say it.”

My head nodded, and he gestured up to the computer screen.

“Do you understand how this works?” he asked, and I followed his line of sight.

“Not really.”

He laughed at the panicked face I must have made.

“We’re going to have you start at the rower while I do the floor exercises. Get yourself into a pace that you can maintain. Don’t go too hard, or you’ll burn yourself out.”

I nodded.

“I’m not concerned with how far you row, just that you keep moving. After I’m done with the floor exercises, I’m going to do the first run on the treadmill,” he explained.

“Once I’m done, you’ll get off the rower and head to the floor. Make whatever modifications you need to the exercises to be comfortable. There’s no shame in doing push-ups from your knees.”

“There’s another type of push-ups?” I winked, and he laughed.

“Sassy... I like it.”

And there was the blush again.

“I’m not trying to insult you with the next part,” he said as he looked down at me intently.

“All right…”

“Do the distances marked for the walkers. You are not going to hurt our team by doing your best within your capability range,” he said cautiously.

“If you feel comfortable in a light jog, go for it. If not, walk the hell out of that treadmill.”

“Get ready, teams! We’re ready to capture those flags!” Mallory cheered from the aisle between the rowers and the treadmills.

“You okay?” J asked as he placed his hand on the outside of my elbow.

“Yeah… rower first, right?”

“Yup. You got this.” He held his fist out for me to bump, and then I followed the group toward the rowers.

I adjusted my footplates and grabbed the handle, bending my knees to get into a starting position.

“Go!” Mallory yelled out.

My pace wasn’t the fastest, but I kept moving, watching the little screen track how far I’d rowed. The machine’s rhythmic whoosh put me in a trance, and I kept my pace consistent as I waited for my partner.

He was the first person to the treadmill, and I may have glanced up a few times to watch the muscles in his shoulders move while he ran. I may have also admired the snug cut of his shorts, but I was trying to stay focused.

“Ready?” He appeared in front of my rower and helped me loosen the foot straps, grasping my hand and helping me stand.

He peered around the monitor and took in the distance I’d rowed.

“Nice. Now hustle to the floor so we can get to the next phase.”

I nodded and walked quickly over to the strength floor. I grunted my way through the squats, push-ups, and bicep curls.

J was killing it on the rower, his muscular legs pushing him back and then springing forward. He saw me watching as I approached the treadmill and gave me a nod.

“You can do this,” I murmured to myself. I set the machine and watched the little numbers climb gradually as I power-walked my heart out.

When I got to my assigned number, I stopped the machine and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

“Round two,” he said as he unstrapped his feet and popped up in front of me. He held his hand up for a high five. “Nice job.”

“Thanks. You too.”

My palm slapped his, and he winked before jogging back to the weight floor. I looked at the distance tracker as I strapped in, and my eyes widened. We had already plowed past the three-thousand-meter mark.

My legs burned, but I kept a consistent pace as I waited for him to finish his part of round two. We swapped out smoothly with another palm slap, and I tried to push through the discomfort with the floor exercises.

When I got to the treadmill, I hopped right on and set my pace for the same push I had done last round. I focused on the numbers and then quickly hopped off to switch.

“Nicely done.” He nodded as we passed again.

Exhausted, with my hands shaking, I buckled my foot straps, determined to finish. I hadn’t even noticed that there was a little red flag already in our holster.

J was a machine. Damn.

By the time he finished running, my tank was heading toward empty.

“You got this. You’re so close,” J squeezed my shoulder and nodded toward the weight floor.

“I got this,” I murmured to myself as I gritted my teeth, my arms full-on shaking as I did my ten push-ups.

The treadmills looked so far away, but we were so close to being done.

“Just a few minutes left. Make it count,” Mallory called out.

My previous pace felt brutal, but I pushed through it and tried my hardest.

“Thirty seconds left... give it all you've got!” she yelled again.

Even though I knew I would probably regret it later, I dropped my incline and pushed the speed up to 5.5. I was only a half-mile away from reaching my distance.

“Fifteen seconds!”

My lungs were burning, my calves were protesting, and I was so tired. But I kept going.

“Five seconds!”

I pushed my legs as hard as I could and slow jogged my little heart out.

“Stop! Walk it down and rack 'em up!”

Wiping the sweat out of my eyes, I pressed stop and looked down at the distance tracker. I had gone 0.02 miles past my goal.

I finished it.

J was standing at the base of my treadmill when I stepped off, his hand outstretched.

“Very nicely done,” he said sincerely.

“I’ll…” I panted as I tried to formulate words.

“Calm down, catch your breath,” he encouraged as he maintained his grasp on my hand.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

His head shook as he squeezed my fingers.

“Look around; there are regulars who didn’t finish. You did. Be proud of that,” he said.

“Ooh. It was so close…” Mallory started as she held a bundle of flags in one hand. “But the rower master gets to keep his title. Team number six killed it with 6,800 meters. Nice job team two at 6,400.”

“I’m…”

He quickly shook his head and pointed his finger at me. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Uh…nice job?” I quickly corrected as I looked away from him.

“That’s better.”

“You probably could’ve gone farther with another partner,” I pointed out.

“Maybe... but you kept us in there. They would have beaten just my rowing. You put in a solid effort too.”

“Thanks,” I responded shyly. I wasn’t the best at accepting compliments.

“You did amazingly well for your first time.” His eyes drifted to my mouth as I bit my lip. “You’re Hannah, right?”

I nodded. Maybe Ty told him who I was.

“We haven’t been properly introduced.” He held out his hand.

“They call you J, right?” I asked as I placed my palm in his. His hands easily dwarfed my own.

He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

“Technically yes... but most people around here refer to me as Coach Jordan.”