Baruch warmed up on the punching bag. I watched him in amazement for a few minutes as I stretched. I'd never seen anyone's fist almost punch through the bag before. The most astounding thing of all was how calm he was. It was pretty sexy the way he pummeled the thing in a total state of Zen. The fact that he'd taken off his shirt and was working out bare-chested didn't hurt the cause any, even if he was more muscular than my tastes generally ran.

One thing Baruch had gotten into my ...