Chapter 3

I pulled up in front of Bethany's gym that she had bought not too long ago. She had gotten a weird inheritance from a distant relative that she never knew she had. This was one of those completely unusual times when it really was an eccentric old Uncle no one had known about. She was smart, the first thing she had done was invested half of it. Then she turned around and bought this gym, where she teaches self-defense and some other horrible, hard exercise classes.

I sighed as I walked through the door and saw the other woman with their cute little workout outfits and skinny as a freaking rail. I always felt out of my element whenever I walked into the gym. Today was no different, I found myself pulling on my sensible slacks and buttoned-up shirt. I looked at them with obvious envy as I strode to the front desk trying hard to blend into the background. I tore my gaze away from them and spotted Bethany, who was sitting in a high back chair that allowed her to look taller than her 5'0".

She waved at me jubilantly and continued her conversation with the woman in front of her. I was astonished when the woman leaned in and whispered something to her that made Bethany blush. The woman smiled appreciatively and sauntered away with enviable grace. Bethany was still trying to pull herself together when I stepped up.

"Wow, Bethany. That girl was totally hitting on you," I commented in disbelief.

Bethany reeled back in shock. "No! She was just complimenting my outfit."

I shook my head at Bethany, unwilling to argue with her. Bethany was not stupid, but she was blind to subtle advances. Mostly because Bethany wasn't a subtle kind of girl, she was a serious up in your face happy-go-lucky woman that chased down what she wanted straight on. I envied that in her, the ability to go head-on and damn the consequences. Me, I liked taking more of a backseat approach to everything. I was the logical type that always thought things through before I made a move.

It was one of the reasons why being a sub had been so appealing. There was no need to think about what I was doing and the rules were clear. A Master makes the decisions and a sub just lets go.

That was if I could actually let go.

The moment in the hallway came back to me. Once again, I found myself touching my lips remembering how his had felt. How my body had just melted under his dominance. It just blew me away that I had finally submitted.

Of course, it is just my luck that I finally responded to a man that didn't want to be a Master, period.

"Earth to Vie!" Bethany called, snapping her fingers.

Snap, snap.

"Huh?" I responded, looking up.

"Where'd you go?" Bethany asked.

"Nowhere," I insisted, not willing to divulge my thoughts to her.

As if Bethany could read my mind, she just gave me a skeptical look and opened her mouth to call me on it.

"So, you needed me to look over your books?" I interrupted quickly.

She glared at me, not fooled even a little bit by my rapid change of subject.

"Yes, I need you to look over my receipts from the last week. I think I fouled up somewhere," Bethany responded, getting down to business.

I rolled my eyes at her playfully. "I have no idea why you wanted to manage a place like this if you can't even use a calculator properly."

"I can use one properly, it's the calculator that likes to lie. It's like scales they are always wrong!" she defended herself pouting.

I shook my head walking around the counter. "Why would you care if the scaled lied to you? It could say you were ten pounds heavier, and you'd still be pixyish."

Bethany hopped down off her chair and glared at me, or rather glared up at me. "That's not funny!"

"Yes, it is, Tinkerbelle!" came a response from behind her.

She turned and glared at the muscle head guy that had walked up to the counter.

"Tom, do you remember a week ago when I took you down to the mat? Do you want that to happen again? Call me Tinkerbelle one more time," she growled menacingly.

I covered my mouth to stifle my laughter as the meathead's face turn redder and redder. Bethany was a fierce little thing, and if she said she would take you down she would. As I said, she was a spitfire.

I bet Trev would like a woman like her, I thought to myself with a self-deprecating sigh. Shoving that depressing thought out of my head, I hustled into the backroom to get on the books and find out where she screwed up this time. The last time she transposed a number and the time before that she had forgotten a receipt that had been upwards of a few hundred dollars. I took one peek at her insane paper mountain, receipt eating desk and tried hard not to cry… really, really hard.

I set my purse on the only safe place in the room, which was directly at my feet, and got to work organizing, rearranging, and… shiver… filing.

The whole process took me three hours, and by the time I was done, I felt drained. Still, I had yet to find the error in Bethany's bookkeeping. I had just smacked my head against the desk for the second time when Bethany's door opened, and the woman herself came sauntering in. She was covered in sweat from head to toe but still managed to look like she was glowing instead of perspiring. She really did look like Tinkerbelle, especially right now.

"Hey, hon! How's it going?" Bethany asked brightly as she slumped in the chair in front of me and took a big chug from her water bottle.

I gave her a cheesy smile. "Great! I have a question? Is there anywhere you have not thrown a receipt?"

She paused mid-drink and managed to look sheepish. "That bad, huh?"

"Bethany, it has literally only been a week since I've been here and it looks like it's been a month," I chastised her.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I told you I was helpless when it came to stuff like this," Bethany whined back at me.

"I do enough work around here that you should just hire me full time," I grumbled quietly as I found yet another slip sticking to the bottom of an organizing tray that I had bought her.

"That's a great idea!" she cried, standing straight up.

I looked up at her in disbelief. "I was only joking, Bethany."

"I know, but can't you see how perfect it is? You're good at this sort of thing, I don't want to do it. I can spend more time teaching classes and you can spend more time…" She waved her hands at the now almost spotless desk, "you know, organizing stuff."

"Are you serious?" I asked, looking up at her from under my eyebrows.

"Yes! It's genius!"

"If you hire yet another employee. That'll be more paperwork for you to have to do," I warned her.

"You mean for you to have to do. Because I am officially making you Manager of Kick Butt Studios!" she said proudly.

She jumped up and did a quick jump kick in the air, along with a few air punches as if she were fighting an imaginary opponent.

"Yes!" she cheered as she did her play fight.

I just rolled my eyes and groaned, wondering what I had gotten myself into. She continued to dance around excitedly, still fighting the invisible enemy before stopping at the desk, obviously having defeated them.

"So, what you think, boss, you wanna go get some lunch?" Bethany asked. "I'm sure we can expense that right since you are a whizz at accounting."

I smacked my head on the desk a few times as she began to run down a list of restaurants that we could go to. I should have known that was coming, I thought to myself hopelessly.