Page 44 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

“Of course. This is BlackWater Maddie.” Becky said laughing.

Maddie laughed at her own stupidity. Of course they had a gym. This was BlackWater. “How come no one showed me?”

“Sorry I probably should have thought of it sooner. Did Homewell not have a gym?” Becky stated.

“Yeah but it was full of old equipment and creeps.”

Becky laughed. “Wanna see ours? I reckon you’ll like it.”

Maddie nodded grinning. She hadn’t been that set on the gym she’d found down the road from hers anyways and to know there was one right here all this time made her more amused than it probably should. God you need to get out more, she thought to herself.

She followed Becky down the stairs and felt her jaw drop when she saw the basement beneath.

“It’s not bad is it?” Becky said grinning at her reaction.

“It’s amazing.” Maddie said.

“Guessing you didn’t get this at Homewell then?”

“Not even close. Our gym was alright but it’s nothing compared to this.”

Becky grinned. “This is literally my temple, this place.”

“I can imagine. Look at all the equipment and there’s tennis and squash courts too.” Maddie stated.

Becky laughed then. “I wasn’t referring to the facilities Maddie, I was looking more at the hardware…” She said smirking and then making an obvious glance in the direction of a seriously muscly guy doing chin ups just over from them in a very, very tight top.

Maddie laughed too. The more she got to know Becky the more she liked her because she didn’t seem to care what people thought either, she just said things how they were although she didn’t ever seem to be as blunt as Maddie was.

“Beneath this floor is a pool, and there’s an ice bath and hydrotherapy pool too.” She said.

“There’s another floor?” Maddie asked.

“Come on, let’s get changed. You look like you’re dying to get stuck in.”

Maddie grinned. This place was officially her favourite bit of BlackWater.

They left the changing room together and Becky headed over to do some cardio for a warmup. Maddie walked over to the mats and started stretching, flexing each of her legs and bending right over. Then she stretched her arms and her hips. Once she was done she headed for the weights. It had been ages since she’d had a good workout. A proper workout.

She normally did dedicated days, legs one, arms the next but she decided to do a bit of an all-rounder, working on her quads, her butt, her core and then her arms. When she was done she headed over and did a set of chin ups and Becky watched.

“How did you get so good at those?”

Maddie shrugged. “It was all part of the training for Blackops.” She said.

“How long were you in there?” Becky asked.

“Pretty much my whole army career. It was tough but it was good. I saw some pretty scary shit though.”

“I can imagine. I thought about enlisting but it wasn’t really my thing.” Becky stated.

“How did you end up working here?” Maddie asked her.

“I’m ex-GCHQ. Transferred across.”

“Seriously?” Maddie replied.

“Yeah. You sound impressed.” Becky said grinning again.

“I am.”

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