Communicating Vessels [COMPLETED]

Chapter 25

"It's legs first, then body, then arms. And on the recovery, it's the same thing but in reverse. Arms, then body, then legs."

Arthur was sitting on the sliding seat of his rowing machine, teaching me how to row and demonstrating at the same time. Apparently my first instincts about how to row were completely wrong. I had the tendency to pull with my arms and legs at the same time, but it turned out that I was supposed to decompose each movement. When taking a stroke, meaning pulling on the oar while it's in the water, one should push on their legs first, then lean their upper body back, and then pull with their arms. And on the recovery, which means the slide back to the front, one has to do the same thing in reverse order. Or so Arthur was saying.

"You see," he explained, "a lot of people think that rowing is more arms than anything. But the fact is, it's a legs sport. Well, it's an all-body sport, but it's mostly legs."

I could listen to him talk about rowing for ages. Not that I was super interested in it, but he seemed very passionate about it and it was entertaining to see his eyes light up when I put some effort into understanding his hobby.

"Come on, give it another try!"

He stepped off the machine and I took his seat. I strapped my feet on the footplates, seized the handle, and started rowing. As per his advice, I exaggerated the decomposition of the movement, feeling very stupid in the process.

"You're doing so well!" He encouraged me. "Keep decomposing, we'll focus on making it more fluid once you've gotten the knack of it. Try to keep the handle at a constant height. You're making circles with your arms, but you should always keep the handle parallel to the water, I mean the floor. No up and down movements."

He made me row like that for more than half an hour, stopping me regularly to correct my form along the way. It was exhausting but, according to him, I had made significant progress between my first stroke and my last stroke. This was satisfying. I'm not sure I would ever do as much erg as he did for fun, but I could understand the addictiveness of it. The regular rhythm was soothing. I could easily imagine putting on some headphones, locking my eyes on the ocean view, and losing myself in the exercise.

"All right, I'm done!" I exclaimed while letting go of the handle, which loudly slammed into the machine when it sprung back.

Arthur frowned at me. His erg was his precious baby. I ignored him. Surely there were tons of exhausted rowers who let the handle slam back, the machine would survive.

"I need a shower, do you want to join me?"

"Abril..." Arthur chastised me, which in turn made me laugh.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to shoot my shot." I shrugged.

I left while Arthur hopped back on the erg. He hadn't had a chance to get his session done since he had preferred teaching me how to row instead.

When I opened the tee-shirt drawer of the guest bedroom after my shower, I smiled. Instead of only plain white tees in all sizes, there were now shirts in a variety of shapes and colors. I checked the sizes; all the colorful tops were in my size.

How adorable was that?

I put on a pink shirt that matched my hair over some leggings and I headed to the main room.

I jumped in surprise when I saw someone standing in Arthur's living room. Someone who wasn't Arthur. It was a woman. A gorgeous woman, might I add. She was tall and carried her thin body like a ballet dancer. Her chin was slightly tilted up, accentuating her long neck. Her hair was long, strawberry blond, and arranged in a perfect Hollywood blowout. She was wearing a navy blue bodycon dress that reached just below her knees and nude stilettos. She transpired grace, elegance, and money. And bitchiness. I could just tell that this woman was going to be a bitch. Who was she?