“Hello, Ivy!” Chanel, the lead fitness instructor, greeted me as I walked in. She wore a pair of yoga pants with the Best Rounds Kickboxing logo on the thigh and a tank top that revealed her toned, russet arms. “I’m so glad you could join me on this lovely Tuesday! Go on and put your stuff in a locker in the back and meet me back on the mat. We’ll be getting started soon.”
“Thanks, Chanel.” I forced a smile at her, then turned away with an eye roll. She was too damn chipper for me, but I couldn’t be too hard on her. She’d squeezed me in and had given me a membership even though spots were limited.
This place normally reserved spaces for upper-class people, which I was not, but with a perfect woe-is-me story about how I used to be the fat girl in high school who needed to empower herself, Chanel slid me in.
I wasn’t fat in high school. I never had been in my life, but lying came with the territory. Hell, some nights I didn’t even get to eat as a teen. You’d feed me. Pick up a burger and a shake for me so I could eat during my therapy sessions.
I walked to the back where the tan lockers were, but came to a rapid halt when I saw a person already standing back there. Damn. I thought I’d beaten her here. I didn’t see her car outside. She drove a blue Tesla every single day, but I suppose she’d switched things up and gotten a new car to ride around in now.
Lola Maxwell was bent over with a bare foot on the bench in front of her, tugging on the leg of her yoga pants to adjust them. I hated that she was here so soon. I figured surely she’d prance into the studio late with some excuse about being so swamped and busy, like all rich people do, and I could study her as she trotted around in all her artificial glory.
She picked up her head, as if realizing she wasn’t alone, and a smile spread across her glossed lips. The photos she’d posted on Facebook and Instagram hadn’t done her justice. If anything, she was even more stunning up close.
I hadn’t been this close to her before. I’d always watched her from a distance, seated in my car across the parking lot or coasting by her office, but to see her standing right there almost left me stuck in place. There was a sudden urge to say something to her—the rage building up inside me and clawing at my throat.
Do you know what you did to me?
Do you realize what you’ve done?
Do you know who I am?
You ruined my life, you know that much!
I hate you!
But that would have been too easy, and I hadn’t spent a year plotting just to let it all go to shit with five little sentences. No. I needed more out of this.
I envied her skin and how it glowed with warm undertones, and how her teeth were so stark white they could probably blind you in the sunlight.
“Oh, hello,” Lola said to me, still smiling. “You’re new here, aren’t you? I haven’t seen you around before.”
It hit me in that moment, Marriott. This woman I despised so much didn’t know me at all. I’d been bracing myself for the day I would collide with her world, waiting for the moment she’d see me and automatically recognize me, guilt clouding her eyes and sweat beading on her forehead.
But she’d never seen me—I mean, she couldn’t have. She’d sent someone to tell me her name, get it off her conscience, but she’d obviously never seen me before, otherwise she wouldn’t have been smiling in my face.
Granted, I had changed my look. Shorter hair. More makeup. Nose piercing was gone, but the changes weren’t all that dramatic.
This was good. I had one up on her.
I blinked quickly and pulled myself out of my stupor. “Hi. Yes, I’m new. Signed up last week, and I’m so nervous.” I walked to a locker that was past hers and opened it. Through the corner of my eye, I watched her drop her bare foot and stand straight.
“Oh, don’t be nervous. You made a great choice by signing up. Chanel is amazing. The first couple of classes are pretty brutal, but once your body knows what to expect, it gets better. Not easier, but better.” She laughed, and it was a harmonious laugh that could make any person feel warm and happy. But not me. Fuck her and her laugh.
“That’s good to know.” I stretched my lips to smile at her when really I wanted to pounce on top of her and slap her for being such a fake bitch.
“See you on the mat.” Lola turned around with her blue gloves in hand, and I watched her walk away. Hell, even her walk was elegant. Everything about her screamed elegance and I couldn’t stand it.