Jo winked at her. “I channel my hot flashes. Dunno about you, but when I get one, I swear I could poach an egg in my fist.”
The woman laughed. “I was spared the hot flashes. I got the weight gain instead. Believe it or not, I used to be an itty-bitty thing.”
“Didn’t we all,” Jo said. “Don’t know about you, but I like taking up more space. I’m Jo Levison, by the way.”
“Nessa James,” the woman replied, grimacing as Jo honed in on the source of her pain.
“You get cramps like this often, Nessa?”
“I’ve never worked out before,” Nessa confessed.
Jo never laughed at anything her clients told her. She knew that for many of them, Furious Fitness was one of the few places where they were always taken seriously. “Well, that explains it. Why’d you decide to start today?”
“I didn’t. I mean, not really. I get these impulses sometimes, and today I ended up here.” Nessa threw up her hands as if to suggest she was quirky, not crazy. “I’m glad I did, though. Last time I saw the doctor, he told me I needed to get more exercise because he said I’m—” She cleared her throat to make room for the word that came next. “Overweight.”
Jo often wondered if some of the doctors around Mattauk had chosen the profession so they’d have an excuse to humiliate women. She counseled her clients not to go through menopause with a male doctor, who was more likely to see it as a condition to be treated than an evolution to be embraced. “Yeah, well, that’s his opinion,” she said. “You ever gotten any complaints?”
Nessa giggled like a girl. “Nope.”
“Then fuck that asshole.” The words slipped out, and Jo glanced up nervously. “Sorry about the language.”
“Why?” Nessa asked. “I look like some kind of prude to you?”
“No,” Jo said. “But you do strike me as the upstanding, churchgoing type.”
Nessa had never gotten so much as a speeding ticket, and she could be found sitting in the third pew of the town’s Baptist church every Sunday. “I’ve read the Bible a few times,” Nessa admitted. “I wouldn’t say I’m an expert when it comes to scripture, but as far as I know, Jesus never had a problem with the word fuck.”
This time, Jo had to laugh. “Was that the first time you’ve said it out loud?” she asked on a hunch.
Nessa grinned. “Not exactly.” But it wasn’t something she said on a regular basis.
Jo leaned toward her conspiratorially. “Felt good to get it out, didn’t it?” she stage-whispered, then sat back on her haunches. “What do you say you and I add some good old-fashioned cussing to our workout routine?”
“You’re a trainer?” Nessa asked. “I thought you owned this place.”
“I do, but training gives me an excuse to work out. I wouldn’t have started a gym if I didn’t need one more than anyone else.” That may have been true, but Jo hadn’t accepted a client in over a year. And Nessa was a newbie. Even a less experienced trainer would have a great deal to teach her. But there was something about Nessa’s presence that soothed Jo. For the five minutes they’d been chatting, she’d felt remarkably calm. There was no one in sight that she wanted to kill.
She stopped kneading Nessa’s calf. “That better now?”
Nessa looked down at her calf as if she’d almost forgotten it was there. “It is. You’re amazing.”
“Take it easy for the rest of the day.” Jo stood up and offered Nessa a hand. “Then how about you and I get started tomorrow at five?”
“That sounds good.” Nessa seemed surprised that the conversation was over. “But before you go, I gotta be honest with you. I didn’t come here for the exercise. I think I’m here to see you.”
“Me?” Jo asked, just as a man brushed past her with the gym’s assistant manager trailing behind him.
“Sir, sir!” the assistant manager called out, but the man kept on going. Despite the sign on the front door that made it clear that Furious Fitness was a women-only environment, they would still get the occasional male visitor. It was hard for some men to understand there were places in the world where they weren’t wanted.
“Excuse me,” Jo told Nessa. “I’ll be right back.”
She caught up to her employee and gave her a sign that she’d take over from there. Then she stood her ground and waited. Most of the men who made their way into Furious were there to leer. This one appeared to be on a mission. His head swiveled from side to side on his thick neck as though he were searching for someone. He wasn’t a giant, but he was powerfully built. He looked like a man whose muscles might be his meal ticket.
Jo watched as he hit the back wall of the ground floor and came marching out again toward the stairs to the second floor.
“May I help you?”
The man would have stormed right past if Jo hadn’t blocked the way with a hand held out in front of her. His momentum came to a halt when he made contact with her palm. He glanced down at her hand in surprise before meeting her eyes. Jo held his gaze without blinking until he looked away. She felt the energy streaming down the arteries of her arm toward her fingers. The gym went silent, aside from the pop music piped over the speakers. Her clients had paused their workouts to watch. Their faces glowed, their eyes sparkled, and the corners of their mouths twitched with glee. They wanted to see the man taken down. Jo wished she felt as confident as her clients. She’d only used her power twice before—both times by accident. She still wasn’t convinced that either incident had been more than a fluke.
“I’m sure my colleague informed you this gym is for women only,” Jo said.
“I did!” the furious assistant manager confirmed. “I told him five times!”
“I’m looking for someone,” the man said, his eyes now everywhere in the room but her face. He wanted her to know their conversation was beneath him.
“Who?” Jo demanded. Whoever it was, Jo would want to warn her.
The man didn’t see any need to respond. She was nothing to him but a momentary inconvenience. He’d barged into her business, ignoring Jo’s signs and insulting her employee. They were just women, after all, and he owed them nothing, least of all his respect.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to go,” Jo informed the man, hoping he’d leave without a fight.
“I’ll finish looking,” he told her. “Then I’ll go.”
A blast of red-hot rage shot through her veins and left her cells boiling. “I’m sorry. Maybe you didn’t understand. By leave, I mean get the fuck out of here. Now.”
“Step out of the way,” the man ordered. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Jo glanced back at Nessa, who already had her phone to her ear.