it's the dirtiest clean I know Who: Max and Daniel What: After self-defence class, Max lays into Daniel about his sudden and inexplicable happiness. Where: Pax Gym When: Monday, March 27, 2017 around 9pm
It had been a good class, and they’d gotten a lot done. They were still working on the new move from last week, but now it was just acquiring muscle memory so that it would become second nature. Max was pleased with the progress everyone was making, especially Nish who she’d been eyeing like a hawk all night. She’d told her at the start of class that her doctor had finally cleared her to start participating again, though she still watched for any sign that the woman was still even a little bit off.
But Nish wasn’t the only one she was watching.
All night Daniel had been...different. Max almost wanted to use the word ‘beaming’, but there wasn’t any difference to his usual charm and smiles he offered their students. But she could just tell something was up. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the more she watched him the more suspicious and curious she became. What was going on?
Once the class was dismissed and everyone took their leave, Max and Daniel stayed behind as they always did to clean up the mats and reorder the space back to how it was before they’d arrived. Once the last of the stragglers finally left she turned on him. “Spill,” she said, with a directness that clearly said she was not backing down on this. “You’ve been….giddy all night, and I want to know why.”
Daniel spread his hands. On his face was the closest approximation of an innocent smile he could muster. "Can't a guy be glad to see his hard work comin' together?" he asked. "Or maybe I'm just glad to see Nish back in action. I'm allowed to be happy for friends, too."
Max watched him closely, tossing another mat onto the pile. “Yeah, you are. I'm happy too, but that's not it.” She paused in her movements, watching him work. Specifically watching his expression while he worked; while he watched her watch him. She crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes. “Something else happened. Something good, and I'm gonna find out what it is. And don't tell me it's the cake Nish brought for us cause you haven't eaten it yet.”
He waved her off, then moved to help her with the mats. It was not an ideal distraction, but it would have to suffice for the time being. "I bet it's great, though," he said. "I've heard good things about Alice's shop. I need to stop by there sometime." His grin had not abated; it was clear he wanted to crack, but something held him back all the same.
Max raised one eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest as he came up with more evasions to her line of questioning. “Alice’s treats are excellent and seem to cause a strange euphoria that has nothing to do with the sugar, but that’s not the point,” she said in an accusatory tone, as if that was also somehow his fault. “You’re happy," she said, pointing it out like it was something strange. “And you’re avoiding telling me why which tells me it’s something you’re either embarrassed about or…” she paused mid-sentence, her eyes widening with sudden understanding.
“Daniel’s got a giiiirlfriend,” she said in a singsong voice, grinning from ear to ear. Then paused, “or…boyfriend?” she asked, her eyebrow rising again to emphasise the question.
Daniel laughed aloud. He straightened up, rubbing dust from his palms. "I don't have anything official," he said, "so mind your own nosy beeswax. But yeah, I got a thing goin' on. And it's really, really good. So yeah. If I'm a little more obnoxious than usual lately, that's definitely why."
Max smiled triumphantly. “I knew it!” she laughed. “You totally had that ‘new love’ glow. But you gotta give me something, though, come on!” she prodded, elbowing him a little in the ribs as she passed him to pick up another mat, stacking it on top of two more and carrying it towards the pile against the wall. “At least give me a gender,” she said, “so I don’t have to say ‘they’ all the time.” She’d known Daniel to date both genders, and she’d seen him equally excited over both. Max herself had always thought of herself as very firmly hetero, though lately she’d been having dreams that...very clearly weren’t. And she wasn’t really minding them, either.
He could scarcely resist teasing. "Why are you so worried about my partner's genitals, Max? Jesus, woman. Incorrigible." The faint flush in his cheeks did not fade, though, and as he retrieved broom and dustpan from a corner closet, he found himself walking with a spring in his step. "Fine. He. You can say he." He looked up from his sweeping, one index finger raised in mock warning. "But that's all you're getting, so don't even try."
She grinned widely at his warning, but it didn’t dissuade her in the least. “I’m just looking out for my bro,” she said with a wink. “If he does anything to hurt you, you know that he will get a swift punch in the throat,” she added matter-of-factly. She stacked the last of the mats against the wall and then boosted herself up onto them, legs dangling freely in the air as he swept under them. “And if you ever need anyone to scope him out for whatever reason, you know who to call,” she added, just to see his reaction.
"Aw, gettin' all protective on me?" He laughed. He moved over to her makeshift perch, pushing on her shoes with the tip of the broom. "I'm touched. But I'll be fine. I'm workin' very hard on scopin' him out myself, thank you." She let it go, but still eyed him with the look of a mama cat watching her kittens play.
He bent down, sweeping up the detritus into the pan. As he walked to the dustbin and dumped the pan, he looked over his shoulder to her. "You're not jealous are you? You can't be hurtin' for workout partners. I bet you've got a waiting list goin'."
Max smirked, pushing off from the mats to land on the floor once the sweeping was done. “A few, mostly nameless idiots I picked up at a bar just to scratch the itch. You know me, I’ve always been kind of… independent,” she said with a little smirk. “Besides, sometimes a girl can have a lot more fun on her own,” she added with another wink, letting him work that one out for himself.
It took him no time at all to do so; he laughed again, nodding as he headed back to the closet. "Sometimes," he agreed. "Nothin' wrong with the single life. I hope you're livin' it up. The circles you travel in, I bet you find your fair share of interesting partners. And places. And positions. Why limit yourself?"
She grinned and shrugged, as if to say ‘why indeed’. “Maybe one day I’ll find myself a nice sugar daddy and settle down,” she mused, “but not today. Today I enjoy the hunt.” She started to gather up her things and stuff them back into her gym bag, tossing it over her shoulder. “Beer?” she asked him, thinking of maybe driving to Jay’s for a drink or two before flaking out for the night.
"Not tonight," he said, shaking his head. He stepped in front of her, holding the gym door wide. "Client visits tomorrow morning. Not all of us keep rockstar hours, you know."
She grinned up at him. “So I should not call you at 3am when I just got home from a job and I'm wide awake and wired? Gotcha,” she said with a wink. She followed him to the elevator and rode with him to their floor, walking down the hall to her door and he kept going. “Later, Cinderella,” she called after him with a wave, “don't turn into a pumpkin!”