Too Personal Trainer

Seven

 “You should come along,” Jax had asked her. “Kira is coming, to support Ty."

 “And I would support you, I guess?”

“I need all the support I can get,” he had said. “I haven’t played in years.”

Marlow didn’t know whether to agree. It would get her out of the house for the day, sure, but it didn’t get her away from Jax – her main goal.

“It will get you out of a session at the gym,” Jax had said, trying to persuade her.

“Okay,” Marlow answered. “I’ll go.”

But looking back on that conversation now, as Marlow sat on a small brown bench with little kids surrounding her in their green sport kits, she wondered what on earth was going through her head when she agreed.

Maybe it will be fun, she had thought. Plus it’s a trade for a session at the gym.

Oh, how now she wished it were the gym she were sat in, and that it were Jax in front of her, and not little kids with eyes full of hope, excitement.

“Please!” a little girl begged.

“Yeah, come on!” another sighed. “Don’t be boring!”

Boring? Marlow exhaled a deep breath. The kids thought she were boring!

“I don’t have the right shoes,” she told them. And what a lie it was. On her feet were not heels, or dolly shoes, but black pumps.

“You can play in them,” the girl tugged at her hand. “Please, miss!”

Marlow could feel Jax and Ty watching her. They were stood by the football nets, the goal in which the kids eagerly wanted her to kick the ball into.

“Okay, okay. I’ll play. But not for long.”

She had caved.

Jax walked over to her as she stood from the bench. “You’re really going to play?”

“It seems that way, doesn’t it?”

“Couldn’t resist them, huh?”

“They are cute little things,” Marlow sighed, watching the kids scramble off into their places so they could start the game. Or match. She didn’t know what they called it. “You seem comfortable here, with them.”

Ty had joined them now. “He does. And the kids love him. You’ll have to come to my PE classes more often, Jax.”

“And have them favour me? That wouldn’t be fair on you.”