“You did not.”
“I totally did. Tomorrow, at five o'clock, have your ass downstairs waiting for me, preferably in some sexy yoga pants.”
“Liam, I don't want to learn strip-aerobics. I'll probably slip and break my nose on the stupid pole,” she said.
“All I'm hearing is blah blah blah. Fuck, it's kinda cold up here, isn't it? Let's head down to your place and cuddle.”
“I am not cuddling with -”
“And maybe your sexy roommate can join us, too.”
“Stop calling her that!”
“Alright, your sexy girlfriend can join us.”
Katya rolled her eyes and complained some more. He ignored her and made jokes all the way down to her place. And while he and Tori did get along, they did not have sex on the kitchen table, much to Katya's delight. And when she went to sleep, Liam didn't hog too much of the bed.
Though his hard on digging into her hip made it very difficult to sleep.
8
When Katya went to work the next morning, she left Liam in her kitchen. He was wearing only his boxers and drinking orange juice straight from the carton. Maintenance workers were already over at his place and working on the radiator, he assured her. Then he reminded her of their five o'clock date.
“It's not a date.”
At least, Katya was pretty sure a strip-aerobics class shouldn't count as a date. Either way, she told Liam to meet her at her work – she didn't get off till five, so if he wanted her to go, he'd have to come get her. She packed her gym bag along with her and at the end of the day, sure enough, he was waiting outside for her.
They went to an interesting sort of place. An old building, there were fliers for lots of different classes, mostly ones hosted by “community members”, asking only for donations as opposed to charging a fee. The class they were at was a freebie and was hosted by a ridiculously sexy young woman, probably not any older than Katya.
“I'm trying to build a client list, start private training, that sort of thing,” Candi – “with an i” – explained when Liam introduced them.
“Oh. That sounds nice,” was all Katya could think to say.
“Have you done this before?”
“I didn't even know it was a real thing till earlier this week.”
“You'll love it. You gonna join us, stud?” Candi said, poking Liam in the chest. He chuckled and rubbed at the spot.
“Eh, not this time. Maybe if the show is good, I'll sign up for the next class,” he said, winking at her. She giggled and poked him again.
“You are so bad, Eden.”
Then Candi-with-an-i bounced off to greet some new students. Katya turned to look at Liam, one of her eyebrows raised.
“Stud?” she asked.
“Hey, some ladies just like to call it like they see it,” he joked.
“Have you slept with her?”
“I don't kiss and tell.”
“Oh, please.”
“You're right. I have, but not in a long time. When she moved to town, she stumbled into the club. Was a regular for a while, then discovered stripping was her passion,” he explained, his eyes lingering on the stripper-turned-aerobics-instructor.
“Pity for you.”
“I know. She's was … wild.”
“You're not actually gonna sit here the whole time, are you?” Katya asked, glancing over the rest of the class.
There were lots of women, ranging in ages from what looked like eighteen all the way up to easily seventy years old. There were even several men in the group, one of which was wearing a pair of heels higher than anything Katya had in her closet. But mostly, it was females in their late twenties to early forties, and none of them looked anything like a stripper.
“Probably not. If I wander off, I'll be back to pick you up at six-thirty,” he assured her.
“I've lived in San Francisco for years, Liam. I can find my way home,” she said.
“And run the risk of some other guy picking you up? No, I'll be here, don't worry,” he teased.
Candi started clapping her hands, so Katya fell in rank with the other attendees. The basics of strip-aerobics were explained, and then they were led into some light stretching. While she reached down and placed her hands on the floor, Katya figured it would be an easy hour. She ran regularly, did yoga, occasionally pilates – how hard could strip-aerobics be? Especially a class that had a seventy year old in attendance? She would use the time to meditate on the ridiculous situation she'd gotten herself into, and the minutes would fly by.
But an hour later, she realized she hadn't needed to distract herself. Strip-aerobics and Candi-with-an-i kicked her ass. Katya had new respect for strippers. At first, it had seemed simple, with Candi showing them some basic moves. On all fours, flipping their hair, doing body rolls. Easy stuff. Katya had felt a little silly and awkward, uncomfortable doing those things with a group of strangers.
Then the moves got more difficult. She actually started to work hard, and she forgot about feeling awkward or uncomfortable. She peeled off her sweater at one point and chucked it against a wall, then went back to learning the routine Candi was teaching them. Katya didn't think she'd be getting a gig at a high end strip club any time soon, but she had a lot of fun, and it really was a serious workout. She felt great afterwards, and she had to admit it, she felt kinda sexy. Empowered.
Liam had disappeared during the stretching, and then she'd gotten so engrossed in the class, Katya hadn't paid attention to whether or not he came back. When she went to collect her gear, he wasn't anywhere around.
“Is there a changing room?” she asked, still panting. She'd planned on wearing her workout clothing home, having assumed the class would be easy and tame. Turned out, her sports bra was completely soaked in sweat. She wasn't in as good a shape as she'd thought. She couldn't wait to take a shower and put on some clean clothes.
“Oh, yeah! Two floors down, women on the right. Did you have fun?” Candi asked. She wasn't out of breath at all, and her Playboy-perfect make-up was completely in tact.
“Yeah, it was great. I'm really surprised at how hard it all is!” Katya exclaimed.
“Uh-huh, everyone always is, their first time. I hope you get to come back, I love getting new students,” Candi said.
“I'd love to come back, that would be awesome.”
“Yay! There's some fliers by the door, grab one. Tell Eden I said bye!”