“But she was hurting for money?” Janey suddenly wanted to know everything about this mysterious woman who had disappeared as soon as the class was over. “When?”
“She was broke.” As they rode the elevator alone, Stella went on to explain that Sara was a successful banker for fifteen years, married to the equally successful owner of a tech hedge fund. After the most recent stock market crash, Sara Strong’s husband had been indicted for investing lots of money that wasn’t his in funds in the Cayman Islands that didn’t really exist. The Feds took all their money and he was sent off to a fancy country club prison in Virginia. It didn’t help that Sara was pregnant at the time. She gained more than sixty pounds during the pregnancy and then thirty more after the birth to deal with the stress of being a single mother and a pariah in the financial services industry. She sold the one thing she had left—their house in Connecticut—and dedicated herself full-time to physical fitness and wellness while living in a studio apartment with her little girl. After a year, she lost the weight, dropped her husband’s last name, and completely reinvented herself. She first met up with Kate Wells one day at SoarBarre, where Kate had complimented her on her incredible triceps (even better than Michelle Obama’s), and a friendship grew from there. Sara became her exclusive personal trainer and eventually corralled all of Kate’s contacts into a new and intense fitness regimen designed exclusively by Sara—The Workout. Then the pair had their mysterious falling-out. Kate was banned from class, but her friends were there to stay. Workout devotees claimed they dropped 20 percent of their body weight by attending The Workout twice a week for one month.
“Wow,” Janey said. “Impressive. I’m still shocked I never heard of it.”
“Sara is all over Instagram, and she writes for all the major wellness outlets. She’s still a top private personal trainer, but she doesn’t advertise this. She doesn’t have to. The secrecy is part of what keeps it special.” Stella winked, pulling her hair out of its bun and transforming it into an elaborate braid. “I don’t know if I buy the twenty percent of your body weight. Nor do I really care. I’ll take a strong body over a thin one any day. But The Workout does make you feel great. Don’t you feel so energized right now?”
Janey did. It was as though she’d already had three cups of coffee and a bar of chocolate all before eating breakfast.
“Stella!” Janey heard a calm but energetic voice call after them down the street. Wearing nothing over her grey halter top to protect her from the cold, Sara Strong herself was now chasing them down Market Street.
Up close she had an undeniable glow, Windex-blue eyes, and the whitest teeth Janey had ever seen. She didn’t appear to be the least bit cold, even though Janey shivered just looking at her.
“Aren’t you freezing?” she asked and pulled her own coat more tightly around her midsection.
Sara laughed. “My heart rate is so high right now I could jump in the Hudson and still be warm. Mind over matter. You feel what you think.” Her accent was strange, maybe a little midwestern, but with the undertones of an Irish lilt.
Stella introduced the two women. For a moment Janey worried she’d be rebuked for coming to The Workout without a personal invitation, but Sara just smiled broadly at her.
“Janey Sweet. What a gorgeous name. Thanks for coming. What did you think?”
What did Janey think? Could she admit it began as sixty minutes of pure torture and that she now felt like she could lift a Volkswagen over her head?
“It was good. Your story is incredible. Stella was telling me. So inspiring.”
Sara waved her hand in the air. “We all have a story. What happened to me is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I’ve just been lucky to have such incredible people help me on my journey. And now you’re a part of that journey. Thank you. You’ll be back again, I hope?”
“I think I probably will be,” Janey said, knowing it was true. She felt good, and if she was able to burn as many calories as Stella claimed, she could be back to work in no time.
“Great. It’s so nice to have you.” She turned her attention to the shaman.
“Stella, I have a thousand details I need to figure out for St. Lucia. Can we FaceTime later?”
“Of course.” The two women kissed three times, once on the right cheek, once on the left, and once more on the right, and Sara sashayed back down the street.
“What’s happening in St. Lucia?” Janey asked with genuine curiosity.
“Oh, The Workout is having a retreat there. This is the second year we’ve done it. They call it ReVigor-8. Last year was incredible. Eight days of The Workout at the most perfect compound on the north coast there. It’s owned by this wonderful interior designer and her husband. They built it ten years ago as a place for their friends and family to escape New York and it is simply divine.”
For a second Janey assumed Stella was about to invite her, but the words just hung there in the air.
“When is it?” Janey pressed.
“At the end of next month. March is just the worst month to be in Manhattan. It’s the perfect time to get out of town and get to the beach.”
“It does sound divine.”
A shadow crossed Stella’s face. “I’d love to invite you, but Sara is so stingy with the ReVigor-8 invites. It’s not my place. I help her out and I run all sorts of ceremonies while we’re there, but I don’t have control over the guest list.”
“Of course not. No. I get it. I don’t even know if I’m in town at the end of March. I may need to go to Shanghai to sort out some samples.” Jesus, Janey thought, when did Shanghai become my go-to fib? I need to stop telling everyone I’m flying off to Shanghai.
“I should really get home. I didn’t take Boo, the dog, out this morning, and he is probably very, very angry with me.” She realized that she still had no way of getting in touch with Stella, but the woman answered Janey’s question without her having to ask it.
“[email protected], right? I’ll email you. I have something fun happening later this week.”
“Great.” It should have felt creepy that Stella knew her email address off the top of her head, but it didn’t. With that, a black car appeared out of nowhere in a sea of early morning taxi traffic. Stella blew her a kiss and folded her long body into the car.
“I’d give you a ride, but I’m off to Brooklyn for a townhouse cleansing ceremony. Bad juju in the place. Brutal divorce. Husband is bringing me in to clear the negative energy out before he brings the kids back from boarding school. Wife is off in Paris with her new boy toy. Never a dull moment when it comes to humans. Do something nice for yourself today!”
Janey walked the forty blocks back uptown in an effort to appease her FitWand. Back at home, she googled “The Workout” and “Kate Wells” and “Lovely.” At first glance, Janey couldn’t see anything wrong with it. The review was glowing, almost effusive.