Chapter 2: Nina Meets Gretchen

On Tuesday, Nina remembered that she needed to check out the new gym. Somewhat ruefully, she reminded herself that losing weight, and shaping up, weren't going to start until she actually did something about it. She decided to leave work a little early to give herself a bit more time to investigate the place.

After pulling into the strip mall parking lot, she took a look at the front windows, and thought, "Scott may have been right—there really doesn't seem to be much room for a gym there. But, nothing ventured..."

She got out of the car and walked over to the entrance. On the door was a slightly feminine sign that said 'New You: Full Body Development with Personal Attention', in an elegant script. Under that, in smaller letters the text read 'A Gymnasium and Spa for Women'. A smaller sign gave the hours of operation, with a notation below it that said 'Some Services by Appointment Only.'

As she read the signs Nina thought, 'For Women ... well that's good, since it means I won't have to worry about sweaty guys watching me work out. I wonder what services are only by appointment?' An image of herself arriving to lift weights flashed into her mind. She pictured a female Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator telling her that she was late, and having to come back. A smile came to her lips, as she pushed her sunglasses up on her head, and opened the door.

As she entered, the first impression was that the lobby did not look like a gym, but more like a club entrance. Ahead of her was a small reception desk, with a beautiful blonde woman sitting behind it. Surprisingly enough, the woman did not look like the typical nineteen year-old aerobics instructor. Yes, she was blonde, and yes she was beautiful, but she was much closer to Nina's age, although it was obvious that her physique was very well toned.

As Nina approached the desk, the woman stood up and Nina could see that her skin looked flawless, her breasts were fairly large, and her abs appeared to be very firm. Rather than being dressed in spandex, the woman wore a crop top and figure-hugging shorts made from soft material. Her legs were bare, except for sneakers. The shorts sat very low on the woman's hips, and with the cropped top, her entire abdomen was on display. As the woman approached, Nina was a little startled to see that the woman appeared to be bra-less. The woman's breasts were moving slightly, and her nipples were poking out the thin fabric of her top. As Nina's gaze swept over the woman, she realized that the material of the shorts seemed to have molded to the cleft of the woman's sex, and the outline of her vulva was very apparent. Nina realized that the woman must be naked under the shorts and top, and the thought startled her, although her reaction wasn't at all negative, she realized.

As the two women reached each other, they both extended a hand, and started to speak simultaneously. "Hi, I'm..."

Realizing what was happening, they both started to giggle, and stopped speaking. The woman recovered first, grasped Nina's hand, and said, "Hi, and welcome to my place. My name is Gretchen, Gretchen Long. How can I help you today?"

"Hello, I'm Nina Wilson. I need to lose some weight, and get back into shape. I was about to re-join my old gym, but they went out of business. I remembered seeing a notice somewhere that you had just opened, so I thought I'd come by and check you out."

Gretchen smiled broadly, and clasped Nina's hand in both of hers. "I'm glad you did. I think you'll find that we can cater to your needs very well, and that our approach is a little different from what you will find anywhere else."

"Oh, how so?" asked Nina.

"Well first, every client gets personal attention, usually from me. As we walk through, you'll see that we don't have a lot of equipment crammed into a huge room with fifty people working out simultaneously. Quite often, you'll be here by yourself, with an instructor to guide you and help you. We believe in making sure that each client gets a programme tailored to her needs, and her goals. If the client isn't happy with the results, she won't tell her friends about us, or worse, she'll tell all her friends about us, and we'll be gone in no time."

With a rather skeptical expression, Nina asked, "But if everyone gets personal attention, aren't your fees very high?"

Gretchen laughed. "Actually, no. I'm not really in this to make money. My business partner has more money than your average bank, and as long as we're not burning it to heat the place, then he's happy. As well, we help keep our fees down by getting our clients to help us out occasionally."

"Help you out? What do they do? Wash the windows?"

"No, no, nothing like that. We sometimes get them to come in and help with another client, like demonstrating a position or a technique that they've mastered, but that the other client is having trouble adjusting to."

Nina nodded and replied, "Ah, I understand. Like demonstrating a yoga position, or how to do a squat thrust."

Gretchen squeezed her hand and started to pull her in the direction of the door to the interior. "Pretty much. Would you like to get the full tour to help you decide?"

"Sure thing."

Gretchen let go of Nina's hand, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, then gave her a little hug. "Let's go," she said.

Nina thought the gesture was a little overly friendly, especially since she could feel Gretchen's breast rubbing against her arm. She didn't say anything, or try to pull away, not wanting to offend the woman. She decided that Gretchen was probably just one of those affectionate, touchy-feely kinds of people.

Pushing the inner door open, Gretchen guided Nina through, her arm dropping from Nina's shoulders to the middle of her back. As Nina walked in front of her, Gretchen let her eyes sweep over Nina's rear and legs, nicely exposed as they were in the short dress she was wearing. She also noticed Nina's 3-inch heels, which brought her up almost to Gretchen's height.

As they entered, Gretchen began her narrative. "In this room, as you can see, we have the usual assortment of exercise equipment: treadmills, elliptical machine, rowing machine, weight machine, and resistance training equipment for any conceivable muscle group. We also have pull-up bars, and various other bits and pieces that can be arranged into different forms to suit different body types, or exercise or demonstration needs."

Nina was surprised at the small size of the room, and her disappointment showed on her face. "You certainly have a range of equipment, but you don't have very many of them ... like you only have two treadmills, and one rowing machine."

Gretchen waved a hand in the air. "But remember, we also don't have fifty people in here at once. Normally, there would be no more than two or three in this room at once. That's one of the reasons why I stressed the personal aspect of our training."

Somewhat skeptically, Nina asked, "Then I guess you really will have to control your membership numbers?"

"Definitely. Don't you worry about that. Oh, and before I forget, while you're in this room, there is a dress code for working out. It's the only room like that, and it's because this room is right off the lobby. Unless you're in a private session, and the front door is locked, you must be properly attired while you're in here." Gretchen was staring into Nina's eyes while she said this, as if she was looking for some kind of reaction.

Nina looked at her rather quizzically. "Properly attired? What does that mean? Is there some specific workout wear I have to have?"

Gretchen smiled a little mysteriously, and said, "No, nothing specific. It just means that you have to be dressed. You can't be naked, or flashing too much skin. It might scare off future customers. It's also for security reasons."

"Naked? Why would I be naked while I'm working out?"

Gretchen smiled again, "Well, the rest of the club facilities have no dress rules, and as you'll see, you'll be naked in most of them. Shall we continue?" Once again, Gretchen looped an arm around Nina, and guided her toward a blank wooden door at the back of the equipment room.

"This door is always locked, even when the gym is in use. To open it, you have to have a key fob, which you get once you become a member. We keep the door locked for security, since in the next part of the club there will be naked women, and we don't want anyone just wandering in off the street. We take the security and comfort of our members very seriously." With that, Gretchen reached into the pocket of her shorts, and took out a small key fob. With the push of a button, the door lock clicked, and the light above it went from green to red. "Once you release the lock, you only have fifteen seconds to open the door, or it automatically locks again. As well, you only have thirty seconds to get through the door and close it, or an alarm will go off."

Gretchen reached out and pulled the door toward her, then guided Nina through it, once again bringing her arm down off her shoulders, this time sliding her hand all the way down Nina's arm, and onto her hip. As she prodded Nina forward, her hand slid around from the side of the hip to the top of Nina's ass, before applying a little pressure. Gretchen noted how Nina accepted the touch without complaint, and her lips compressed into a thin smile.

She steered Nina into a small locker room. Just to one side of the door. "You can leave your purse in one of the lockers. You won't need to worry about locking it, since we're the only ones here today. Normally, this is where you would also leave your clothes."

Continuing her monologue, Gretchen pointed out a room on the right. As they entered, she flipped on a light switch. The room was dominated by what looked something like a doctor's examination table, although it was heavily padded, even over the headrest and what appeared to be extensions for the arms and legs. It also looked like it could be adjusted into any number of configurations. Nina noticed a number of shelves of what looked like different oils, as well as many towels and blankets. Oddly enough, there was even a drain in the middle of the floor, and what looked like a hose hanging down a little way from the ceiling.

Gretchen walked into the room and put her hand on the table. "This is our massage therapy room. The table is the most advanced we could find, so it is completely padded everywhere, and is fully adjustable. It is also completely washable, since it does get covered in oil, and we need to be able to easily scrub it down. This room is fully soundproofed, and has its own heater, so we can make it very comfortable for bare skin. We have found that clients really like a good massage after a hard workout, and it often helps to prevent muscle injury in case you overdid it a little."

"So you have a masseuse on staff as well?" queried Nina.

"No, not as a separate person. For the moment, I give the massages, as I'm fully trained. We also have a client who is going through training, so we're planning to use her from time to time. That's another example of having a client help out to reduce her fees."

After looking at the table for a moment, Nina scrunched up her forehead, and asked "Can I ask a question about the table, and the massages?"

"Well, of course. Ask any questions you'd like."

"Well, I was wondering about the leg extensions. They look a lot like the stirrups on a doctor's exam table, or a birthing chair. I was wondering why you'd need them on a massage table."

Gretchen chuckled a little, and said "Well, yes, they do look like that, and in a sense they serve the same purpose. They act to support the legs when it is necessary to massage the inner thighs, either from the front or the back. The side extensions do the same for a person's arms. Here, let me show you what I mean."

With that, she spread the leg extensions apart, until there was room to stand between them. Then she turned to Nina. "Come over here, and stand where I am."

Nina moved to the indicated position, and Gretchen said "Kick your shoes off for a minute."

Once Nina had removed her footwear, Gretchen stood behind her, and put her hands on Nina's waist. She turned her to face the table. "Bend forward, reach your arms out, and climb up on the table. I'll help you." Gretchen tightened her grip, and practically lifted Nina up onto the table, then slid her forward.

"Now" she said, "Spread your legs out a bit, and we'll adjust the leg extensions."

Nina tried to spread her legs, but the skirt she was wearing proved too restrictive, and she said "I'm afraid I can't go too far, so I don't know if you'll be able to demonstrate very well."

Without warning, Gretchen reached forward and slid her hands along Nina's outer thighs. As she reached the hem of the skirt, she kept pushing, and slid the hem all the way up Nina's legs. Before Nina could react, she brought her hands back to Nina's ankles, and pulled her legs about three feet wide. This manoeuver kept the skirt right at the top of her thighs, and also exposed much of her panties to view.

"Gretchen! What are you doing!" yelled Nina. Nina finally did try to close her legs, but Gretchen was standing between them, adjusting the leg extensions.

"Nothing to worry about. Your skirt was in the way, so I moved it. Nothing is on display, and besides, there's only you and I in here. I'm sorry if I startled you. I should have warned you about what I was doing.

"To show you what I meant about being able to massage the inner thighs ... It's much more comfortable with your legs supported by the leg extensions than it would be in normal stirrups, or if they were just hanging off the end of the table." As she was saying this, Gretchen moved to one side of the table, and reached over to the upper part of Nina's leg. She placed both hands on Nina's thigh, then pressed and squeezed, working her way to the inner part of the thigh.

"As you can feel, I can now massage the main muscles in your thigh without any worries about your leg not being supported. She continued the massage for a moment, moving her hands along the thigh toward the knee, and then back almost to Nina's rear. As Gretchen's hands started getting close to her panties, Nina tensed a little, but didn't say anything.

"Now" said Gretchen, "Roll over, and I'll show you something else about the table."

Nina tried her best to roll over without showing too much, but in the end it was pointless. Her skirt flopped up over her belly, and her panties were largely on display. Gretchen noted with some disapproval that they were plain cotton, and didn't clearly show whether or not Nina had trimmed her pubic hair.

Once Nina was on her back, Gretchen again pulled her legs apart, and positioned each foot onto one of the extensions. She then started to tilt each extension just behind each of Nina's knees. This caused her legs to rise up from her hips to her knees, then bend over the extension, and down to her foot. Each foot was cradled on a little pad. After positioning her legs, Gretchen reached behind the extension on the left, and brought out a wide cloth band that she wrapped around Nina's leg just below her knee. A second later, she wrapped the right leg in a similar band.

Nina started to think that something was amiss, as she noticed pressure on each of her legs. She started to close her legs, but the cloth bands had her tightly secured to the leg extensions. As Gretchen stepped between her legs and looked down at her, Nina finally realized that the elevated position of her legs left her very exposed.

In a slightly panicky tone, Nina looked at Gretchen and stuttered, "G-G-r-retchen, what are you doing? I'm not sure I like this."