The gym was busy for a Thursday night, at least Vanessa thought so. Not being a gym rat like her boyfriend, she never expected so many people would be working out at this time of night. Of course, Seth was a regular two-a-dayer, so this wasn’t uncommon for him. Typically he’d have already completed his second workout for the day, but once Vanessa had agreed to start going to the gym with him after work, he pushed his 4pm workout until after dinner so that they could go together.

  Vanessa Collins was a student teacher at Cottondale Elementary School in Tuscaloosa. Her future plan was to be an elementary school teacher and she only had a year left until graduation. She had very little time in her life for a gym routine, but dating a man like Seth required some sacrifice if she hoped to be able to connect with him on any meaningful level. Seth’s whole life seemed to revolve around half-attended college classes and gym visits.

  “I like to break my workouts into certain days for certain muscle groups,” Seth told her as they walked to a mirrored wall with a cable rack in front of it. “Chest day, back day, arm day, leg day, abs, cardio.”

  “I don’t think I have that much time every day, Seth.”

  “Then we can break it down into combined sessions. Chest and Tri’s, Back and Bi’s—”

  “Can’t we just work out?” Vanessa sighed.

  Seth blushed, a little embarrassed at his own enthusiasm, and showed her how to use the cable rack. He set the handles to level ten height and the weight load at 15 pounds, then he stood on the left side of the rack holding a handle in his right hand as he braced himself by gripping the left side of the rack with his left hand. He began pulling the handle towards his cheek, engaging the bicep of his right arm.

  “Do ten of these, then move over to the right and hold onto the machine while you workout your left arm.”

  “Do you usually do 15 pounds?” Vanessa asked.

  Seth grinned proudly, “No, I do a lot more weight but you’ll need to work up to that.”

  Vanessa positioned herself exactly the way Seth had been standing and engaged the pulley to curl her bicep. She pulled very hard, and the weights flew up smashing into the top. Seth looked surprised.

  “Wow! You are a lot stronger than you look. Maybe 15 pounds is too light for you.”

  He raised the weight to 30 pounds and watched as Vanessa exercised her muscles in a smoother, more even rhythm. Next he took her to the bench press and began to show her how to safely lift a barbell without causing injury to one’s self. He’d loaded the bar with heavy weight, and Vanessa knew he was less interested in teaching her and more interested in showing off how much he could bench press. Once he’d completed his first set, he began to unload some of the weight to make it lighter for her set. He grabbed a 45-pound disk from one side and replaced it on the hook rack beside the bench. Vanessa grabbed the other one with one hand and carried it without strain to the rack herself.

  “Damn, Vanessa! How strong are you?”

  She gave a sly smile and replied, “I’m not the weakling you seem to think I am.”

  Vanessa completed four sets of reps and waited for Seth to finish his. While waiting she glanced around the gym floor at the number of hard muscular bodies strolling around in stringer tank tops and tight workout shorts. It was only natural for her to peek, but she had to admit that of all the good looking guys there tonight, her man was by far the hottest. Seth’s body was amazing, and Seth knew it, which created both an unattractive arrogance and a sexy swagger that turned her on.

  “Blanchard!” shouted a man from a nearby leg press machine. “This isn’t your usual time. You changing routines on me?”

  “Hey, Zeke,” Seth called back. “No, I’m still doing my usual times. Just have my girlfriend with me tonight so we came later. Vanessa, this is Zeke, he’s a trainer here.”

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  “Nice to meet you,” Vanessa said.

  “So you’re Seth’s lady!’ Zeke replied. “Nice. You did good Blanchard; she’s a keeper.”

  Seth was reracking weight and didn’t reply. Zeke didn’t seem to care, he just went on talking.

  “I been trying to get this boyfriend of yours to go through the course to become a personal trainer, but he doesn’t seem interested.”

  “I’m going to school for accounting,” Seth reminded his friend.

  “When?” Zeke guffawed. “You’re always here. When does all this school shit take place? I’m telling you man, three months of studying for the test and bam! You’re a trainer. This gym would hire you in a second.”

  “Seth, that sounds like a job you’d love,” Vanessa commented.

  “I don’t know,” Seth said with a pursed mouth. “I doubt Aunt Artemis would be okay with that. She wants me to be all white collar.”

  “Well, with the kind of money your family’s got you could open your own gym,” Zeke pointed out. “Hell—you and me could go in together, and I’d run the joint, if you’d just front the money.”

  “It’s a thought,” Seth said. “But for now, I’m on a date Zeke.”

  “Some date,” Zeke snarked. “A smelly gym.”

  “I’ll take what I can get,” Vanessa laughed.

  The ice cream shop was just about to close when Jake yanked Yasmine through the door and dashed to the counter. The poor counter boy, barely 18, was not happy about the last-minute customers. But Jake ordered quickly—two scoop chocolate mint for Yasmine and two scoops of Brambleberry for him. The pair at least had the courtesy to eat their ice cream outside on the picnic table and allow the teenager to lock up the shop and begin his nightly cleaning.

  “This is nice,” Jake said looking up at the stars. “It’s been such a great summer so far. Probably because I met you.”

  “I am something special,” Yasmine laughed as she tried to lick the piece of chocolate which had fallen off her cone and stuck to the side of her lip. “I love summer, too, but fall is the best. It’s not too cold, and it has Halloween and Thanksgiving and then runs right into Christmas.”

  “I guess Thanksgiving is a pretty big deal at your house,” Jake remarked. “All that family.”

  “Oh, it gets even bigger sometimes. We have relatives in Mobile that come up some years. I can remember holidays where we had twenty people or more all staying at the house.”

  “Man, that’s a big family.”

  Yasmine noticed a sadness in the way Jake said that. Almost an envy. She knew very little about the man she was seeing. He wasn’t very talkative about his life. Most of their conversations revolved around their jobs or whatever it was they happened to be doing on their date. Nothing ever went very deep or in any way revealing.

  “You don’t have much family, do you?” she asked.

  “Just my sister.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It's okay,” Jake said. “I’m used to the solitude. I’ve been alone pretty much all of my life. It’s not so bad.”

  Yasmine stared up to the sky, unsure how to reply to such a melancholy statement. She decided to focus on what lay above instead. “I think we have a full moon coming up next week. I read it’s supposed to be a blue moon or a blood moon or something rare. Maybe we should make a picnic in the park that night and enjoy it?”

  Jake shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t. I gotta do something.”

  “You don’t even know which night!”

  “I’m busy a few days next week helping my sister clear out a storage unit.”

  “Need help? I’d love to meet your sister.”

  “She and I can handle it. When you meet her, I want it to be more special than cleaning out old boxes.”

  The door to the ice cream shop opened, signaled by the irritating bell tied to its handle. They turned to see the teenager locking the door and walking away. He paused by the picnic table and said goodnight to them, thanking them for the generous tip.

  “Ya’ll don’t hang out here too long by yourselves,” he cautioned. “Not with that crazy killer on the loose.”

  Jake gave him a thankful nod for the concern and watched him walk to his car and drive away. Yasmine seemed a little nervous now after being reminded about the new situation in town—a town that had always been so peaceful up until now.

  “You getting all fraidy cat on me now?” Jake joked.

  “I just feel so creepy knowing somebody out there is killing people here in our own town.”

  “People kill people in every town,” Jake argued. “Why should this one be any different?”

  “I’ve lived here most of my life,” Yasmine replied. “Nothing like this has ever happened here.”

  Jake shook his head in slight disbelief. “I’ve been around a lot and lived in a lot of places. Things like this happen everywhere. Don’t worry, you’re safe with me.”

  “Are we still on for tomorrow night?” Yasmine asked.

  “Yeah,” Jake replied. “I’m open until next week.”

  For a moment Yasmine thought about the picnic idea again. She was a little disappointed he was unavailable, but not because of any longing to see him--quite the opposite. The setting of a romantic full moon and a basket full of food and wine sounded like a good idea to try and see if she might spark an ember between them that she hadn’t yet felt. She liked Jake well enough, and he was certainly attainable, but there was no chemistry on her part toward him. No matter how much she tried to create flames out of soggy timber, it came up short every time. She wondered if Seth felt that way about Vanessa. They certainly seemed to have no troubles in the dry wood department. She resigned herself to keep trying. Perhaps Jake couldn’t enjoy the full moon with her, but she would think of something else. Surely she could find something about him to excite her eventually.