Chapter 3

Two years seemed to fly by. For Sasha, they had been very good years. Not only had she settled comfortably into her new lifestyle, but her client base had continued to grow steadily as well. Best of all, her income had continued to grow to the point that she felt comfortable enough to take The Studio to the next level. There was only one thing stopping her, her lease.

Her ex-boyfriend, Matt, had cautioned her when she made the decision to open her own studio, to opt for a single five-year lease, thus limiting her potential exposure if the business failed. Her lease was due to expire in three months. She dreaded what she was sure to be a large increase in her rent. Before she could commit to a substantial investment in her business, she had to know if she could afford it.

Her new lease came in a certified letter three weeks later. As she compared the new lease to her old one, Sasha determined that nothing had changed except the amount of her rent and the insertion of a clause which gave her the right to renew her lease term for an additional five years at same rate, only her common area charges and real estate tax escalator amount would be re-determined at the time of renewal. What pleased her most was the amount of her monthly rent had only increased by one hundred dollars; an amount her monthly budget could easily handle.

Sasha placed an order for nine of the latest models of the Pilates Reformer machines. When they arrived, the driver would only deliver the boxes as far as her back door. It was up her to bring them into the building. They were heavy, but nothing that she could not handle by herself. After stacking eight of the boxes in one corner of the room, she opened the last one and found the assembly instructions. Overwhelmed at what, to her, seemed like a something written in a foreign language and not having any of the necessary tools, she just sat on the floor.

‘How am I going to get this done? I haven’t a clue where to begin.’ That’s when a thought popped into her head.

‘Maybe I can pay that cute maintenance guy to put these together. I’ll ask him tomorrow morning when he is collecting the garbage.’ Sasha got up earlier than normal the next morning, dressed in her best, and most flattering workout clothes. She placed two of the chairs from her waiting area, outside, prepared a cup of coffee for herself, and was outside relaxing in the refreshingly cool early morning air when she saw his truck enter the parking lot.

She waited until he had replaced the garbage bag before she stood and approached him.

“Hi, my name is Sasha; would you like to join me for a quick cup of coffee? I have something I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Well, it’s a little early for my coffee break, but sure, why not. My name is Rick.”

“How do you take your coffee?”

“Black, no sugar.”

“That’s easy; I’ll be back in two minutes.” She turned, walked back to the doorway, and disappeared from view. However, not before Rick had taken in and thoroughly appreciated the view of her shapely bottom and her long, well-formed legs.

When Sasha returned, she handed Rick his container of coffee and asked,

“Can you join me for a few minutes?”

“Of course I can, it will be a pleasure. I don’t often meet the owners of the companies that rent these places. I’m normally dealing with the store managers or sometimes just the owners’ reps.”

He sat across from her admiring her beauty. The Valley had no shortage of good-looking blue-eyed blondes. As far as he was concerned, Sasha was a step above any that he had met before.

“So, Rick, I see you work for the Landlord’s building maintenance company,” she said pointing to the writing on the door of his truck. “You must be very handy with tools and experienced at putting things together.”

“I’ve been known to handle myself fairly well around hand and power tools.”

“That’s wonderful. Can I hire you to do a job for me? I ordered some equipment for my studio. I had no idea that they would have to be assembled. The driver left the boxes at my back door; after I carried them inside, I opened one and discovered that there was no way I could put them together.”

“Well, normally, I wouldn’t be able to help you. We have strict rules against working on any of the tenant’s equipment or furniture and fixtures. However, if I do it on my own time; I don’t think I’ll be breaking any of the company rules. Let’s go inside and I’ll check out your equipment and see if I have the right tools for the job.”

His unintended sexual innuendo was not lost on Sasha; she just chose to ignore it for now.

They entered the building, walked through the waiting room, and crossed the large room to the far corner. As he walked, Rick could not help looking at the large, mirrored wall. He recalled that a dance studio had previously rented this space and that Sasha had elected to keep the two walls of mirrors. It made the space appear to be a whole lot bigger than it actually was. He especially liked the fact that he could watch Sasha from two different angles as she glided across the floor.

After studying the instruction manual, Rick looked up at Sasha saying, “You see this KD at the end of the item number on the packing slip. That stands for Knocked Down, meaning the unit comes in pieces and requires assembly. That being said, I don’t think this should be too difficult as long as they have given you all the pieces. What are they for? I thought Pilates was just a form of yoga type moves, done on a mat?”

“You are partially right, the main difference between Yoga and Pilates is that Yoga uses movement for improving the flexibility of the body and gradually increases the flexibility of your joints. Pilates, on the other hand, focuses on trying to relax the muscles of the body’s core and provide strengthening of the numerous muscles of the body. The equipment in these boxes is known as a reformer. Basically, it is used to intensify the movements that we do in our floor classes by adding resistance to the exercise. Pilates exercises builds strength into the muscles of the body’s core. Flat abs, strong backs, toned butts and firm thighs are all the results of our workout. By using the Reformer, we accelerate the process, encourage the lengthening of the body, and train the body to sustain that length.”

“Listen to me, I sound like a commercial.”

“No, you sound passionate about what you do; there is nothing wrong with that.”

Both of their faces turned a slightly darker shade as a small emotional bond seemed to be growing between them.

“Based upon what I’m seeing I think this project is going to take some time, more time than one evening after your last class. Why don’t I do this on Saturday? What time is your last class?”

“My last class on Saturday ends at three.”

“Great. Where are you going to want these set up? I can move them into position now; that will save a little time on Saturday.”

“I want eight of them spaced out evenly across the long wall opposite the long-mirrored wall. The ninth one will be mine; that will go on the opposite wall. This way I can demonstrate each move and watch my students as they do their work.”

“That’s good,” he said, picking up the first box. “Geeze, these are heavier than they look.”

As he carried the first box across the room, he felt, more than heard, footsteps behind him. Glancing sideways, he spotted Sasha following him with the second box.

“I think we should place them against the wall for now, we wouldn’t want any of your students tripping over them.”

It took three trips to place six of the heavy boxes into position, the last two Rick moved the short distance to their proper places, while Sasha cradled the opened box in her arms and walked to the front of the room.

With that task complete, Rick followed Sasha outside, just as several women were crossing the parking lot heading towards them.

“Rick, thank you for doing this for me, how much do you think it will cost?”

“Don’t you worry about the cost, I normally get paid by the hour, but I work a very long hour. See you on Saturday at three.”

With that, he grabbed his coffee cup, climbed into his truck, and drove off with a friendly toot of his horn.

“Sasha, who was that, a boyfriend perhaps?” “He’s yummy.”

“No, he’s the maintenance man for the shopping center.”

“Well, if he’s not already taken, maybe you could introduce me to him some time.”

“You never mind about him, just get your butts in there, we have work to do.”

Rick almost forgot to do the rest of his morning work. All he could think about was Sasha. It had been a long time since he had seen her up close. She was even more beautiful than he had remembered. Her blonde hair was cut short, had just a hint of a curl, revealing a long, sensuous neck. She was taller than he expected, probably an inch shorter than his six-foot frame. When she walked, she seemed to almost glide effortlessly across the room, her back straight as an arrow and her head held high. In short, she was long, lean, and lovely.

What surprised him the most was her apparent strength. Those boxes each must have weighed at least seventy pounds, yet, she seemed to lift them almost effortlessly. The image of her bending over to pick up one of the boxes dressed in her sleek stretch pants, which clung to her like a second layer of skin and accented her sculpted legs and firm butt was burned into his mind forever. That, combined with her ever so slight Russian accent and her hypnotic blue eyes, the color of the Arizona sky on a clear crisp winter day. He knew he was already falling under her spell. He would have to be very careful.

_____________________ For the next four days he could never quite get her off his mind. Finally Saturday came. In the morning, after he took a shower and dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a company golf shirt, he planned out how he wanted to handle this. He would get to her studio about ten minutes after three o’clock; that would assure that she would be alone. He didn’t want to arrive too early: he didn’t want to appear overanxious to see her.

He would also bring an extra set of the tools he would need, just in case she wanted to help him. Hopefully, the whole job would only take two or three hours to complete. At that point, he would invite her to have dinner with him. If she agreed, they would have a pleasant casual dinner, and he would allow her to pay the bill; if not, he would charge her about forty dollars for his labor, either way he thought she was getting a fair price.

Rick arrived at ten minutes after three, retrieved his toolbox from behind the driver’s seat of his truck, and walked to her back door. After knocking several times on the door, it suddenly opened and there she stood.

“Hi Rick, I was expecting you to come to the front door; you didn’t have to come through the back door.”

“It was easier this way. I got a parking spot right outside the door. This way if I need any other tools, I can get them quickly, and when I’m done, I can load the boxes and packing materials to haul away.”

“OK then, can I get you anything to drink before we begin, water, soda, or coffee?”

“No I’m good for now; let’s get started.”

They entered the main room and proceeded to the back wall.

“We’ll start with these. Do you want to watch and learn how to put one of these together?”

“I was hoping you would allow me to help.”

“Good, we’ll go step by step. I’ll complete each step and you’ll watch how it’s done, then you can work on the next one, and I’ll supervise. Then, we will each take one of the next ones and work side by side. I don’t think you’ll have much of a problem after the first one; they seem to be engineered really well. If you have any questions just ask. It will go a lot quicker that way, than if I have to do them all by myself. I just happen to have an extra set of tools for you to use.”

He opened the first box, cut it apart to use to cover the floor, and placed all the parts on the cardboard. Sasha did the same. The frames were made from dense hardwoods and were pre-drilled to accept bolts to create a rectangular box. He placed each piece on the cardboard, opened the bag of hardware, identified which bolt to use and, using a ratchet set, began to assemble the frame. As he worked, he explained what he was doing and why. Sasha, looking over his shoulder, and mimicked his technique.

Next came the legs; each was pre-drilled and were to be placed into the corners of the frame. They were two different lengths. The longer legs were for one end and the shorter ones for the other.

“Sasha, please come here and hold the frame while I attach each leg.”

When he had completed the installation, he turned and held the frame that she had been working on while she installed the legs. When they were installed, Rick stepped back and looked at what they had made. To him they resembled a medieval torture rack, which he imagined some of her students would think as well.

Rick was tempted to ask her if she wanted him to tighten all of the bolts on her assembly. Then he thought better of that. She was a woman who prided herself as being just as strong as a man; and based upon what he had already seen of her strength, he had no doubt that she was. She would take his question as an insult; that was the last thing he wanted to do.

The next steps were to hang all the remaining parts to the frames. Rails were hung on the inside of the frame; a rack with hooks was fastened to the low end and a stabilizing bar with pulleys was connected high on the other end. Another set of pulleys was fastened to the frame below the high ones, and nylon cords with handles, were threaded between the pulleys and attached to a heavy vinyl covered platform that road on the long rails. The last step was to connect a set of springs to the inside of the front frame and the sliding platform.