Samuel (seven) - Finale

The next day, Samuel arrives at work the usual time, bumps into Matt, Matt says, (tse) "Hey buddy! How did that date go?"

"What date?" Samuel tries hard to disguise his surprise.

"Oh, I thought you guys were going on a date when I saw you in front of the gym with that chick"

"No...no, we're just friends"

Then Samuel goes back to his work and pretends to be busy till 4:30 comes, Samuel rushes to the gym and changes his clothes. He walks around the gym as casually as he can and he sees her, Mandy, who is on the treadmill sweating away. He goes near her and gives her a wave, indicating her that he'll be in the other area, she waves back and acknowledges it then goes back looking straight ahead. He walks over to the weights section and starts his back routines. Half an hour later, she comes over, hair wet and all, she says, "So, what are we working on today?"

"Back and bis"

"Oh great! Can you show me some back workouts? I've always wanted to know what are the other ways with dumbells than just using the machines all the time"

Showing Mandy all the positions that he knows of, he tries to be as to the point as he can while being a gentleman. When it's all done, the woman says, "Wow, thanks! I've never known that there are so many different varieties"

"Yeah? Thank you. I didn't know I know so much till I've shown you. Hey, you wanna grab some dinner?"

"Uh.. sure! Meet you in front of the gym like... 15 mins?"

They goes to the panini place nearby. Samuel tells her she's very diligent in working out, not many women there are that serious about it it seems. She tells him that he is too, and that most people go there to pick up. Then they laugh and finish off. As they walk down the alley, Samuel asks, "Hey, you wanna go somewhere to have a drink or something?" The woman looks at him and smiled that smile with her eyes. "Yours or mine?"

On their way, Sharon calls, "Hey, 你在幹嘛阿？"(What are you up to)

"喔，我在回家的路上。有甚麼事嗎？"(Oh, I'm on my way home, what's up?)

"沒有阿，剛剛跟朋友吃完飯。你今天晚上沒事嗎？"(Nothing much, just finished dinner with some friends. What are you up to tonight?)

"其實我現在有事，我明天再打給你吧。" (Well, actually, I'm kinda busy right now. Can I call you tomorrow?)

"（停頓）好，那掰掰。" (*Pause* Oh ok, later then)

They walk up the stairs to the rooftop, the light behind them shows the silhouette of two people, then turn into one.

The next day, Samuel wakes up alone in the messy bed. A note is left on the nightstand: See you later. He gets to work and goes on his day with his new-found chirpyness. He even starts conversations in the office.

"Hey Matt, how's it going?"

"Oh well, the usual. What's up with you? Looks like someone got laid these days!"

"Well, yeah, been dating these days. Things are good I guess."

"Good for you! Where did you meet?"

"Well...err...a friend of a friend's. How are your twins these days?"

"They're good. The mom's being a real pain at the moment cos she's complaining that I'm not giving her enough alimony, which is totally BS if you ask me"

"What are you going to do?"

"Let it be, cos she's not getting any more from me. No sirrrrieeee!!!"

"That's good. Hey, you still go to the gym?"

"Yeah, but I now go in the morning cos I've also quite drinking for a while. You know, just to be healthy for a change, god knows how much I've abused my body when I was young."

"Oh all right then. I'd better get back to work!"

"Yeah, chief"

So the two men go back to their position and work the day away. For days, it's been like this. Samuel goes in for work, works out, then have a date or not with one of the ladies. Day in, day out. Pretty much the same thing starts all over again as he lays in bed either by himself or not.

Despite the sameness of his days, he is discovering a different life altogether from the women he's dating and something else in himself. When he opens his fridge, it is no longer filled with beer bottles, but yogurt, fruit, leftover pasta, vegetables and eggs and all kinds of perishables. When he wakes up in the morning, a song would pop into his head and he'd be singing it till he hears it somewhere else. His place is also cleaner, and he even begins planning on repainting the place. Everything seems just right and wonderful.

Tonight, he's out with Mandy on a date. After he had kissed the woman good night, he thought of walking home to enjoy the spring night's breeze. With a turn of a corner, a speeding red Ford came charging through the alleyway, slamming into the man with great vigor. Even with the weight that Samuel has put on over the months, he still went flying for a few good feet. Laying there with limbs spread out like crooked branches, he exhaled with his eyes opened.

Samuel (seven) - Ignorance is Bliss

Sharon lives at the end of Shida road, in an apartment with two other girls. The place is clean, but the building is old and the white paint is all chipped and bubbling out. The granite floor is opaque from lack of waxing. Samuel steps in and asks, "Do I need to take my shoes off?"

"隨便你" (Whatever you like)

He looks around the place, the place is filled with furniture of the past tenant, mostly just looks like a patchwork with no style. The fake leather sofa with glass coffee table sits in the room, on the side are two chairs that originally belonged to an oakwood dining table set. Samuel sits on the sofa, looking at Sharon, the girl says, "你要喝甚麼？"(What do you want to drink)

"你有啤酒嗎？" (Do you have beer)

The girl walks to the kitchen and comes out with two Bar beer, the cheapest ones you can get in 7-11, then sits down beside the man. They crack open the beer, then she touches his thigh, and asks, "你為什麼沒有打電話給我？我以為我們上次玩得很高興。(Why haven't you called me? I thought we had a good time last time)"

"是阿，很好玩啊。是我最近都太忙了，所以才沒有打給你。" (Yeah, it was fun. But I've been busy these days. That's why I haven't called you.)

"其實我想打給你，但是我不想要讓你覺得我很隨便。所以我只有問Tammy知不知道你的消息。"(Actually, I've been wanting to call you, but I didn't want you to feel that I'm easy, so I only asked Tammy if she knows anything)

"他說甚麼？" (What did she say)

"沒有，他說沒跟你連絡了。但是，一切都不重要了，因為你現在就在我家。" (Nothing, she said that she hasn't talked to you for a while. But nothing matters anymore, because you're in my house now)

He looks over, her face is so young, glowing with a pink brilliance. The ignorance of being young is not so visible anymore. She looks at him, with a tinge of admiration.

The texture of youth is almost like touching a really soft yet firm lambskin purse. The pores are so small and the texture explodes with sunlight. After the sighs and groans, the two are left breathlessness then give in to slumber.

From night comes day, Samuel watches the girl beside him breathing smoothly. As the sun rises, he leaves without a sound, walking down the road of early morning Heping East Road, everything seems a bit lighter, brighter, and simpler. He knows nothing of what awaits.

Samuel (six) - Sex?

Since he joined the gym, Samuel has been going religiously and learning eagerly. Somehow, nights after work have become something he looks forward to as he can see his own changes in the massive mirrors in the weights area, his attitude has also changed about himself and towards others. He is... somewhat more confident.

Later on the afternoon on Tuesday, he got a call from the uni student Sharon.

"Why haven't you called me for so long?" the girl interrogates

"Uh... why should I call? *smile*"

"Well, I just saw you that night then I haven't hear from you since then"

"Do you want to do something tonight?"

"Um... like what?"

"Whatever you want, I need to go to the gym though. I'll be done around 7pm. We can meet somewhere around that area or whereever you prefer"

"OK, I'll see you there at 7"

Samuel hung up the phone, waited for time to pass, then off the gym he went. Right now, the place is blasting with trance music. But Samuel always pays no attention to that since he is so focused on his routines. Now, his soft yet toned back and shoulders are glistening with sweat. Today he works on chest and tris. As he is doing the 10th rep of his third set, a woman walks up to him and asks, "Can you help me with something?"

Shocked, Samuel tries to get the last rep up on the bar and catch his breath as he sits up. "What? I'm sorry, what do you need?"

"Well, I see you here very often and I wonder if you can teach me how to do this machine"

The woman is standing by the leg press machine that is right next to Samuel. Now he realized that the woman is dressed in tight dark purple crop top with light make-up, pink lipstick, and black spandex workout pants. Age around 35 and quite pretty looking. Samuel was caught speechless and stumbles, "Here, you need to first sit on it, then lift the handle on the side. I think you can start with 25lbs on each side"

"Twenty-five pounds? You think I can press that much?"

"Yeah, I think so, c'mon, you can do it"

"Now you need to do 12 reps each time and repeat that twice or three times"

"That'll kill me! Anyway, thanks for the help"

"No problem"

He goes back to his station, but now he keeps seeing that woman watching him from the reflection in front of them, yet he stays focused on the weight. Then, as he is about to leave the floor, the woman in purple stops him and says, "My name is Mandy and here's my number. I really need a gym partner, and you seem to be very good at it. Give me a call sometimes, or I guess I'll just see you here."

Then before Samuel can say anything, she goes in a different direction. Samuel is left speechless again, so he saved the number in his phone and got himself ready. As he walks down the stairs to the front desk, he sees a girl wearing a brown overcoat, loafers, tights, and her long curly brown hair cascading on her back, she turns around, "哈囉!好久不見啦!" (Hey, long time no see)

"Hey Sharon" Samuel gives her a warm smile, "你想要去哪？" (Where do you wanna go?)

"去我家！" (My house!)

Samuel (five) - The Gym

After hearing what Matt had to say, he went straight to the gym around the corner of his office after work. The place is filled with blue neon lights with posters of laughing youths flexing their muscles while looking at the camera ecstatically. Almost as if they can't believe they're actually alive.

Before Samuel can say a word to the salesperson at the front desk, a man in black appeared out of nowhere and said, "Hey! You want to join our club? I can show you around, you can see!"

"Uh...sure!"

So the man introduced his name as Tom and showed Samuel the four floors of the exercising machines and weights, most of them are unfamiliar to Samuel but he didn't ask anything. After the tour, Tom said, "Now we are offering new members a discount. If you sign up for two years, you only pay NT$1,500 a month and you can go anywhere in Taiwan."

"But I don't want to go all over Taiwan, how much is it just with this branch?"

"Um... why don't you sit down and I'll check with my manager?"

After about an hour's negotiation, Samuel agreed to the NT$25,000/two years, and paid right then and there. Not that he was so eager that he wanted to start right away, but simply because it is something new to be part of his life, maybe.

Later, he went to buy some shorts and shoes and was determined to go after work tomorrow and see what all the fuss was about.

The next day, around 5pm, he changed his clothes and got up to the fourth floor. He with his new New Balance running shoes squeaking quietly along the PU floor, one hand holding the towel and the other a bottled water, Samuel looked bewildered and lost in the sea of machines and weights around him. He decided to try the treadmill and got on next to a girl in green. He tried pushing the buttons but was unable to make the conveyor belt move. So he asked:

"對不起，這要怎麼用？(Sorry, can you show me how to use this?)"

"喔，你就按quick start就可以了，再按箭頭上或下。看你要快還是慢。(Sure, just press 'quick start' and if you want it to adjust the speed, just use the arrow buttons.)"

"謝謝。(Thanks)"

"不會。(No worries)"

Then Samuel started walking, then jogging. The girl beside him just grabbed hold of the railing and kept walking uphill, not a sweat on her makeup face though for the longest time while Samuel is getting out of breathe with his jogging only after 10 minutes. So he jumped off the machine and walked around some more.

He saw many middle aged and older women in the gym, all wearing tight-skinned gym outfits, some are simply just a bra, doing the classes where an instructor is on the front. All weights in the hand and doing different kinds of lifting and pushing. The music was deafening and appallingly loud. So he walked over to the machines for weights, and sat at a machine that you're supposed to do a rowing motion, according to the instructions.

Fifteen minutes in, when Samuel is taking a breather, the girl in green walked over, and sat down to do the same machine. She said, "我不會用這個，你可以教我嗎？(I don't know how to use this machine, can you teach me?)"

"你就手握緊把手，再往後拉就可以了。(Just hold on to the handle then pull)"

"但是這太重了耶。(But it's too heavy)"

"那你就可以調旁邊的輪盤，看你要多重。(Then just adjust the dial on the side)"

Samuel was thinking whether he should do a bit more and stay along to see if there would be anymore interactions with this girl, but then he decided not to be sleazy and left the girl with her rowing. As he was leaving the gym, however, he has decided he will return at the same time, secretly hoping the girl will show up too.