*FYI, this is Chapter 3 of 3 that'll be shared here on BC!*

CHAPTER THREE: A FEW NEW ITEMS

“I’m sorry, did you just put that up or something?” I said, panicking. “That definitely wasn’t here when I came in last time!”

“It most certainly was,” Monica insisted. “It’s not supposed to be a ‘gotcha’. Simply the rules.”

I stood there for a few seconds, refusing to accept this reality. Did she seriously think I was gonna abide by this?

“Monica, I’m not about to work out in freaking drag, okay?”

She shook her head and put on her best consoling voice. “Oh shush, Charlie. No one’s expecting you to wear a prom dress. This is a gym. Our expectations are incredibly fair.”

I was peeved regardless. “Well, this sucks for both of us, because as you can imagine I didn’t pack any women’s clothing.”

“That’s okay!” Monica said with delight. “We have some for sale.”

“For sa—“ I said, cutting myself off. Jeez, she really thought of everything...

“Look, I’m sorry this is catching you off guard. But you’ve got thousands of dollars in your account, so you might as well spend it, right?”

Another woman walked in behind me and just like the last one, greeted Monica and walked down the hall.

“They’re here for the 7 PM CrossFit class,” Monica said. “You’re welcome to join. Pending your outfit, of course.”

Clearly my hands were tied. Through no fault of my own I had literally thousands sunk into this gym, and I’d already spend $150 of that on a month’s membership.

“I’d rather not have a bunch of people watching me prance around in women's clothes,” I stated.

“That’s totally fine. The Equipment Zone is all yours. It’s usually empty around now. But I’m telling you, the classes are fuuu-uuunnn…”

I didn’t care for Monica’s teasing. “If the Equipment Zone is where I can get the most privacy, then that’s where I’ll go,” I replied reluctantly. “Just… just give me the most masculine thing you have.”

Over the next 5 minutes, Monica presented each eligible item of clothing sufficient for entrance. There was a large variety of leggings, shorts, tank tops, and a few skirts. Desperately trying not to stand out, I settled on the one black tank top and some black women’s workout shorts.
“Great! And assuming your shoes are relatively gender-neutral, those will be fine too.”

I took the clothes into the single bathroom and locked the door behind me. Pfft, some ‘locker room’. There wasn’t anywhere to actually lock my things!

Nevertheless, I took off my button-down, slacks, and other work clothes and stripped down to my underwear. I held up the black shorts in the mirror and audibly groaned at how tiny they were. I’m only 5’2” and they still seemed short! I slid them up my legs and secured them over my briefs. I felt ridiculous standing in this bathroom wearing clothing designed for the opposite sex.

The tank top didn’t help me feel much better. The length was fine, but having never worn women’s clothing before, I was surprised that it narrowed at the waist and widened at the hips. I guess that makes sense given the typical woman’s build… but it looked more than a bit silly on me.

It was undoubtedly a girl’s outfit — no question about that — but I suppose it was as close to androgyny as I was gonna get. I put on my shoes, stuffed my work clothes into my gym bag, and bravely exited the bathroom.

“Fits like a glove! You look great, Charlie,” Monica pointed out as I trudged back through the lobby.

I decided to pretend I didn’t hear her. Monica offered to watch my gym bag for the duration of my workout and directed me down the same hallway I’d seen many women disappear.

There were two doors at the end of the hallway: the women’s locker room on the right, and the door to the workout areas on the left. Since I was clearly not welcome in the former, I took a left.

I’d never really been in a gym before but from the little I knew, I was quite impressed. It was a smaller space, but appeared to have everything you’d need. Machines for your legs, arms, and back, a full rack of dumbbells with various weights, and a fleet of treadmills, ellipticals, and stair machines for cardio. At least I wasn’t getting screwed out of quality.

Just as Monica predicted, the Equipment Zone was empty except for me. But every couple of minutes, a new woman would enter the space and take an immediate left through a door labeled ‘Studio A’.

Studio A was home to the upcoming 7 PM CrossFit class — and, presumably, every other class Iron Athena offers.

I took solace in knowing everyone else was here for CrossFit, so I probably wouldn’t be bothered. But there was one huge problem with the setup: The wall between the Equipment Zone and Studio A was a giant glass window.

If I wasn’t self-conscious enough already wearing a women’s outfit, I’d also be watched like an animal in a zoo. Freaking fantastic…

But I had no line of defense. I could only control my own actions. So I put my head down and got to work on the weights.

While the ladies started their class, I was hard at work on the list of exercises Brendan had put together for me. He’d linked a helpful website with short videos of an instructor demonstrating each lift. So the pattern went: watch the video, test it out with a light weight, rewatch the video to correct my form, then complete the lift.

But damn, was weightlifting hard! Brendan gave me a few weight recommendations, but he was far too optimistic with each, since I struggled to complete even half the reps.

I gave it a solid 30 minutes of effort, but fell significantly short of the goals he set for me. Oh well, I guess you gotta start somewhere.

Last on the list was 30 minutes of cardio. I knew there was no way I’d be able to run for 30 minutes like Brendan planned out, but wanted to give it a try. Well overdue for a water break, I briefly retreated to the water fountain near the door to the Equipment Zone.

“Hey!” I heard a voice say as I leaned down for some water.

I lifted my head up, terrified it would be someone who recognized me. But nope, it was just another woman taking a break from the CrossFit class. And holy shit was she beautiful…

“Are you new? Haven’t seen you around before,” the woman said, a little bit out of breath.

She was glistening with sweat from what looked like an intense 30 minutes. But despite the sweat, her long blonde hair looked beyond gorgeous in a high, feminine ponytail. She had a full face of makeup and a similar black outfit to mine.

“I’m… uh… yeah. I just joined.”

Upon speaking, something must have clicked for her. “I… oh. I’m so sorry,” she stuttered. “I didn’t realize any men came here. I totally thought you were a woman for a second.”

Fuck. This was exactly the conversation I wanted to avoid! I started spitting out nonsense, visibly rattled.

“I… Well, Monica said it was okay. And my company—”

But the woman sweetly chuckled. “Hey, hey, it’s alright! I’m ain’t mad about it. Just an observation.” The woman extended her hand. “I’m Jill.”

We shook. “Charlie,” I said. “Really, I don’t mean to invade your space. I promise I’ll stay camped in the Equipment Zone.”

“Pfft,” Jill said, swatting the air. “Nobody gives a crap about that. We just don’t want aggressive, toxic men runnin’ around. You look like you wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

I shrugged and blushed. It wasn’t exactly the compliment I wanted from a pretty woman, but I took it. Plus, with Jill’s cute, subtle southern accent, it came across sweetly.

“By the way,” I gestured to my clothing. “I’m only wearing this to follow the dress code. I don’t usually…”

She held up her hand again. “Trust me. You’re fine. Any guy who’s willing to follow our dress code couldn’t possibly be a problem.”

I stepped aside so Jill could take a sip of water.

“Seriously, welcome. Consider joining a class sometime! Monica owns the gym, but I teach all the classes — I’d be happy to introduce you to some of the regular girls.”

“Oh, you… you teach?” I stammered. I was trying so hard to avoid peeping through the glass wall that I hadn’t even noticed she was leading the class.

“Mmhmm!” she said with a smile. “Good money on the side, and I love doing it.”

Jill returned to the studio and took her place back on the elevated surface in front of the class. Wow… what a girl…

Hopping on the treadmill, I felt a lot more at ease than I had over the previous 30 minutes. Jill’s welcoming attitude actually did wonders for my confidence. Not’ 30 straight minutes of running’ confidence, but enough to get by.

The treadmills faced directly toward Studio A through the glass, so I had the displeasure of witnessing the double takes from the ladies as, I presume, Jill casually dropped that it was not a woman in the other room, but in fact a man. Though on the flip side, not a single one ran out of the gym in fear, or laughed their butts off at the fact I was wearing women’s workout gear. It was somewhat curious, but overall… accepting… reception.

Still, I feared any interaction with them, so I hung around on the treadmill until the class was over at 8. Other than a few glances my way — and one friendly wave goodbye from Jill — I was largely ignored by the women. Frankly, I’ll take it for the first day. After all, Jill’s super cute and it felt nice to get attention from a girl for once.

I scooted out the Equipment Zone and down the hallway to minimize any interactions with other female patrons. Monica was at the desk, waiting for me with my bag.

“Sorry we don’t have showers for you… Are you okay to go home all sweaty in your work clothes?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Thanks.” I stopped for a sec and looked at my shorts and tank top. “You don’t want these back, do you?”

“Why would I?” Monica seemed confused. “You bought them, didn’t you?”

“I mean… I guess I did…”

She started to chuckle. “Then I guess you’re the proud owner of some women’s workout clothes!”

I rolled my eyes. Not the way I wanted to view things.

“You know,” she continued. “If you plan on coming back, you won’t want to do laundry each time. Would you like to buy a few more outfits?”

The idea of willingly buying more women’s clothes felt crazy. But Monica had a point. Was I seriously supposed to wash my same outfit each time? That’d be quite tedious.

“Since I got all this credit… Yeah, sure. Get me a few more of the plainest outfits you have. Something black, please. I’m not trying to stand out.”

She made a note on her computer and promised they’d be ready by the next time I came in.

I changed real quick and got back on the train home. Somewhere along the way, my phone dinged with a text from Brendan.
‘Good first workout? Feeling sore yet?’

I laughed to myself, thinking about how brutally I’d be roasted if he knew about the dress code thing.

‘Went great. Thanks for the tips. Keep sending ‘em, and I’ll keep doing ‘em!’

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Last night's texts didn’t fully satisfy Brendan the next day at work. In fact, he wanted to hear all about the gym space, how I handled his exercises, and most of all if I’d talked to any cute girls.

“It was good. Really. Not much to say. Nice space, nice people. It’s clean… Not sure what else you want me to say?”

Brendan was clearly bored, spinning around in his chair. “So you said there was one particular girl. What’s her name?”

Ugh. Did I really have to go into this?

“Jill. Her name was Jill,” I spat out reluctantly.

“Ooooooh, you gonna bang her?” Brendan teased.

I blushed, definitely trying to avoid this type of conversation. “I don’t know, dude. Maybe she’s not into me.”

He smiled coyly. “Well, you’ve got literally zero competition. So if not her, you got the entire field.”

I hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come, where I’d constantly be dodging questions about girls. Did I have a crush on Jill? Yeah, a little bit. But the last thing I wanted was to talk about her too much and let an embarrassing detail slip out. It’s humiliating enough attending a girls’ gym, much less having to wear women’s clothing — regardless of how androgynous it may be.

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All week, I tried my best to avoid deep gym discussions with Brendan. I could tell he was a little disappointed with my lack of engagement, though it was worth it to not spill the beans.

But maybe fate hadn’t had enough of me lately because in the middle of work, I noticed a message arrived in my personal email inbox. I casually clicked to the new tab, and noticed it was from Iron Athena.

Immediately, I got a little nervous. Even if it’s just some dumb promotional email, I didn’t want any chance the whole office could see me browsing the website of a women’s gym.

But my curiosity outweighed my judgment. I opened the email. It wasn’t promotional. It was from Monica. It read:

‘Hey Charlie. I took the liberty of selecting some new clothing items for you to wear for future workouts. We had no more black sets of the shorts or tank tops, so I went ahead and made an order. Super high quality stuff. Two black, one pink — just because I think you’ll look good in it! Pick it up next time you’re in. - Best, Monica’

Right off the bat I was pissed. Seriously? I asked for black, and she got me pink? It’s like she’s wasting my money! But as it turned out, the color was the least of my worries.

Monica pasted a link at the base of the email. A link from the clothing supplier. And upon viewing the webpage, I nearly unplugged my desktop out of sheer terror.

The items she’d bought me? Three undeniably feminine, double-strapped, backless activity dresses.

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That's it for my sample chapters of You'll Fit Right In, but the entire 26 chapter novel is available on Kindle eBook and in Paperback! Y'all are the absolute sweetest, and I appreciate your support so much :)

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