The Schedule Board By The Door

The gym posts closing shifts on a whiteboard by the front doors, updated every Sunday. I tell myself I check it for crowd levels. Ten pm on a night he's not closing and the place is nearly as empty anyway, so that theory doesn't really hold up.

I go on the nights his name's on the board. I've stopped going on the two nights it isn't, told myself both times it was because I was tired, which was true, except I wasn't that tired on the other nights this same week.

He does the closing walk-through row by row, wiping down handles, stacking the plates back onto the rack in order. I've learned his route without meaning to. If I get there late enough I end up on whatever machine he's about to reach, and he says something short about the weight I loaded wrong, and I say something back, and that's the whole thing. That's what I'm doing this for.

Tonight the board had a note under his name. Reduced hours starting next month, some scheduling change nobody explained. I stood in front of it longer than a person checking crowd levels needs to.

I don't have a version of this where I ask for his number. I don't even have a version where I say I go here for him. I just have the board, and whatever excuse it gives me until his name isn't on it anymore.