"John just went over high kicks again," Sally responded. "He was in a bad mood. I think he lost big in that tourney he entered last weekend. You know how he gets."
"Ah." Kerry lathered her hair quickly and rinsed it, feeling one hundred percent better already. Her muscles were a little sore, and she was a little tired from the session, but she'd completed the rounds without taking any hard blows, and was pretty satisfied with herself all in all. "Yeah, he's a little touchy about that, I know. Especially when his buddies show up here to watch the class."
"Uh huh," Sally said. "Rod thinks he picks the wimpiest student he has to spar with when they're here. You notice he never picks Taz."
Kerry chuckled wryly. "Well, Dar's not exactly a novice, and he knows it," she explained, rinsing off one last time and grabbing her towel. "She teaches a class at our other gym near work. We're just on break from that right now, and she wanted to learn something new."
"Yeah, me too," Sally admitted frankly, as she joined Kerry in dressing. "I got really tired of spinning. You ever try that?"
"Nuh huh." Kerry pulled on her shorts and buttoned them, then donned a clean T-shirt from her bag. "The idea of riding and riding and riding and getting nowhere just isn't my style." She ran her brush through her hair, settling her newly cut locks into place. "I mean...we run every morning. We could get a treadmill and do it in the condo, in the nice air conditioning, but we don't."
Sally followed her out of the locker room and across the somewhat worn lobby of the boxing club where they had their class. "I kinda see what you mean, but sometimes it's a lot safer to run on the treadmill in here, than on the streets, y'know?"
That was true, Kerry admitted, as they left the club and headed across the street to the small pub already leaking faint sounds of music into the humid air. It wasn't something she and Dar had to worry about, and sometimes she did tend to forget not everyone lived on a private island where that kind of crime just didn't exist.
Rod and three others from the class joined them as they approached, already having claimed a table outside under the ficus tree. The doors to the pub were wide open, as were the windows. The place hadn't had air conditioning any time Kerry had ever been by there.
Outside was cooler, even in the dead of summer. She sat down in one of the worn, wooden chairs and leaned back as the group settled in under the string of tacky colored globe lights hanging from the tree. The place smelled of the distinctive scent of vegetation, of fried food and spices. Kerry considered it just about the most perfect neighborhood dive she'd ever seen. There was even a very worn dartboard nailed to the ficus, and for a quarter you could get three cracked darts to throw at it.
"Hey, honey!" Their regular waitress scooted over on spotting them, stopping in front of Kerry. "Usual?"
Kerry nodded, and stretched her legs out as the rest of the group made their orders. It had just turned dark, and there was just enough breeze to keep the night from being uncomfortable. The waitress had left a moment before the rumbling pop of a motorcycle engine interrupted the night, its roar growing louder as it came closer. "Ah...guess that's Tom."
"You guessed it," Rod agreed, hitching his knee up and slinging one long leg over the chair arm. He was tall and lanky, dark haired and relatively good-looking in an understated kind of way. "Big ol Harley, and damn he wants everyone to know about it."
Kerry snorted and shook her head.
The rider and bike arrived then, the noise precluding any further conversation until Tom turned the engine off and parked the big cycle, displaying it to various noises of appreciation. "Nice, huh?"
"Prettier than you are," Rod called out with a chortle. "Sure you can handle something that rad?"
"Kiss my ass, butthead," Tom replied with a grin. "If you're nice, I might let you touch it." He half turned and glanced back at Kerry. "Whatcha think, Kerry? Sweet, huh?" He indicated the bike, which was a monster in black and chrome with a custom painted gas tank covered in incongruous tropical fish.
"Very," Kerry agreed readily. "I like the soft tail. You didn't opt for a VRSC?"
Tom walked over and sat down next to her, clasping his hands together. "Oh...I think I'm in love with you. A girl who speaks my language." He grinned at her. "You have one?"
"Not quite." Kerry accepted her mug of ice-cold draft beer and sipped it. "We were going for one. Went into the show room, and the guy there told Dar she'd have to buy what he was willing to sell her." She licked her lips and sighed. "One 'kiss my ass' later, we headed over to the Honda dealership and the rest is history. I like my Shadow, though. It fits me."
The group laughed. Tom groaned, and slapped his head. "Kerry...Kerry...Kerry...how could you?" He moaned. "Why didn't you try a different dealership? I got mine in Daytona during bike week. It was like a religious experience."
Kerry took a lazy swallow of her amber colored beer and shrugged one shoulder. "We use it down by the cabin in the keys. If we kept a Harley in the shed, we'd spend half our time writing police reports on it. So, it worked out for us. Maybe my next one'll be a hog."
Tom waggled his eyebrows at her. "Wanna go for a ride after we eat?"
"Sure," Kerry agreed. "As long as you don't have chili again."
The gang laughed again, and Rod threw a corn chip at his buddy. "She gotcha."
"Damn it, I like chili!" Tom whined. "Okay, here, at least get a picture of me with a good looking girl on my bike. I gotta have something to show the guys." He gave Kerry a pleading look. "You mind?"
With a chuckle, Kerry set her beer down and got up, following Tom over to the slick machine and admiring its lines as she hopped up and gingerly settled herself on the back part of the seat. "Hm."
Tom got on in front of her, and did a muscle dude pose, flexing his bicep for Kerry's admiration. Obligingly, she leaned against him and pointed at the muscle, raising her eyebrows for the camera. "Psst," she whispered. "I think Dar's are sexier."
Tom gave her a look over his shoulder. He was blond and football player style buff, and had a crew cut that was almost fifties in its rigor. "Gee, thanks Ker," he muttered. "You really know how to make a guy feel great."
Kerry chuckled, and slid off the bike now that the flashes had stopped. She headed for the table, sidestepping the outstretched feet and reclaiming her chair with a sigh.
"Okay, okay." Tom finally joined them, after he carefully made sure his new bike wasn't going to fall over onto the sidewalk. "This round's on me, since I don't have to start paying on this thing for three months."
Whistles all round greeted his speech.
Kerry relaxed, looking forward to her cheeseburger with a sense of decadent pleasure. She felt sort of bad for Dar stuck in her hotel up in New York, but she was glad to get the chance to decompress after work.
She let her eyes wander as the group chattered about Tom's new bike. The conversation ranged from the latest disaster film premier to the latest storm brewing in the tropic. "So what did you say you're doing tomorrow, Sal?"
"Canoeing." Sally looked quite satisfied. "We're going out to Uleta Park, up in North Dade. You can canoe around there for hours in those waterways. Then we're doing a barbeque at the park. Interested?"
"Mm...wish I could but I have to work tomorrow," Kerry mourned. "That sounds like a blast."
"Call in sick," Sally suggested.
"Can't," Kerry said. "Dar's out of town and I cover for her. But thanks for the invite. Maybe next time? I bet Dar'd like that too."
"You bet," Sally said. "We have a sort of adventurer's club around my complex. We do a lot of stuff like that, hikes in the Everglades, and sailing and all, you guys should hook up with us. There's an online calendar."