Page 36 of Billionaire Retreat

“Apparently, Texas is a well-known wine-producing state,” Kenny mumbled angrily.

“By why Texas? Why not open a winery here in California?”

“California’s too expensive. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. He started taking sommelier classes and now he thinks it’s his life’s calling to grow grapes.” The way Kenny described it made it sound especially absurd.

“Not to be nosey, but how is he going to pay for a winery? I’m guessing even a cheap one is expensive.”

“Trust fund.”

“Jeez, is everyone in L.A. rich but me?”

“Some days it seems like it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. We got out of the car and entered a weird looking metal building. It looked like an airport hangar in a Salvador Dali painting. The inside of the gym didn’t have a floor. There were a bunch of little rocks under our feet with large abstract sculptures artfully displayed a few feet from each other.

“This is different,” I remarked.

“I know. Isn’t it cool?”

I smiled tightly. Cool definitely wasn’t the word I would use, but I didn’t want to say anything that would offend Kenny. Clearly, this was unlike any gym I had seen before.

After we passed the rock garden, we entered a lounge with a concrete floor. The lounge was very minimalist with just a single steel bench in front of a large metal desk. Sitting behind the desk was a beautiful bald woman wearing a long flowing robe. She smiled at Kenny, who blew her a kiss. I followed him into a studio area.

Finally, something that actually looks like a gym, I said to myself. There were about 20 large punching bags in the room and the attendees stood around quietly wrapping their hands with long pieces of fabric or stretching, doing weird splits on the floor. Boxing gloves were scattered across the room, others were resting on top of the punching bags or near the wall.

Kenny waved hello to everyone and then went to a locker and handed me a pair of gloves.

“Pick a bag, hon.”

I did as I was told and then I stood awkwardly with my gloves in my hand and then started to put them on when the other girls did too.

“Ladies, this is my cousin, Nina!” he said into the microphone hanging from his ear. “Let’s give her a great big welcome!”

“Hi, Nina!” everyone shouted, making me smile.

“Nina here is visiting from Georgia! My old stomping grounds! She’s having some man problems...”

I shot Kenny an evil look as he shared my business with the other strangers in the room.

“But don’t we all?” he said, laughing and I could hear a snicker or two. I tried to keep from blushing, but I was sure I was turning red.

“Alright ladies, find a partner. Let’s do this!” shouted Kenny, and there was a lot of howling and whistling.

I found a partner and tried to keep up with all the jab, cross and uppercut sequences, but my coordination was mediocre at best. My arms got tired as I was practicing with my partner and her jab caught me in the eye, sending me sprawling.

“Uh oh!” Kenny said, running over to me. “Now class, this is an important lesson. This is exactly why we keep our guard up, right?”

“Right,” they echoed.

Kenny happily jogged away to continue teaching class and another assistant instructor gave me an ice bag. She was nice and asked me if I wanted to quit, but I wasn’t a quitter... usually. As soon as partner drills were over we started what he called bag rounds. I barely made it through to the end of class. When it was over, I collapsed onto the floor, breathing hard, covered in sweat.

Kenny said goodbye to all the students and then leaned over me. I stared up at him.

“Hey, hon. You ok?”

I shook my head. “My body. My poor body. And my eye... my body and my eye. Everything hurts.”

“She barely hit you,” he said, helping me up.