This didn’t bode well, Cleo thought. The class was going to be challenging for sure.
Maya was standing on her own some way off, staring, it seemed at the horizon. She was still wearing her neon headband, but had changed from leggings into a black T-shirt and shorts.
She must have sensed Cleo’s gaze, because she turned and caught her eye. Cleo felt obliged to give a nod of acknowledgement and was dismayed when Maya strode across the grass towards her.
‘Did you two know each other before?’ Maya asked matter-of-factly, referring to Cleo and Tash, who were side by side.
Cleo said no, they’d only met yesterday.
‘I thought you handled Lesley’s accident on the way here very well,’ Maya went on. ‘It’s always useful to have a nurse or doctor with you on holiday. In fact, it should be compulsory.’
The unexpected compliment surprised Cleo and she thought the comment which had followed might have been a joke, because the corners of Maya’s mouth turned up. But as the rest of her face remained expressionless, Cleo couldn’t be one hundred per cent sure. In any case, she decided to take the words at face value.
‘Oh, I’m not much of a nurse these days. I gave it up. What do you do?’ she asked, deliberately deflecting the conversation away from herself.
Maya pulled back her shoulders and stood up tall. ‘I’m a stockbroker,’ she said grandly. ‘I work for one of the leading UK investment firms.’
‘That must be pretty stressful,’ Tash commented. ‘But I guess it’s very well paid. Do you enjoy it?’
‘Mostly,’ came the reply. ‘I’m used to long hours and working under intense pressure. The financial markets are incredibly fast-paced and I like the fact no day’s ever the same. It’s an exciting environment to be in.’
Her eyes gleamed as she spoke, and Cleo decided she wouldn’t want to have to compete with Maya in a work context. She’d bet she was scarily determined, razor-sharp and utterly ruthless.
‘Which firm are you with?’ Cleo asked next. ‘My ex-husband was a stockbroker, too.’
She shuddered slightly, remembering Paul’s late nights and how, like a fool, she’d believed him when he kept telling her he had stuff to catch up on in the office.
Her question seemed harmless enough, but she noticed Maya flinch and her shoulders seemed to sag a little. She hesitated a few seconds before replying.
‘Well-er-actually I’m-I’m on a break at the moment,’ she said at last, with a stutter.
Cleo was puzzled. This was a contradiction, surely? Maya had definitely given the impression before that she was still working.
‘Oh,’ Cleo said, ‘so are you on a sabbatical or something? How nice!’
Maya’s eyes flitted this way and that. ‘Sort of. Yes. I, um, I decided I needed a bit of time off. I mean, I know I said I love the pressure but you can get burned out if you’re not careful. It’s important to unwind.’
She made it sound as if taking a break had been her choice, but Cleo’s antennae twitched. She was well aware of what a cut-throat business stockbroking could be.
It was strange that as soon as Maya had realised Cleo knew someone working in the same field, she’d completely lost her cool. There must be more to her story than met the eye. Cleo would have liked to probe further, but Maya quickly closed the subject down.
‘I hope this class is better than yoga,’ she said with a sniff. She was already back to her old, superior self. ‘I don’t rate Ima, but I think Henrietta’s teaching HIIT. She might be an improvement.’
‘I liked Ima’s class,’ Tash chipped in.
Maya shot her a stony stare.
‘Each to his or her own, I suppose. I’m used to more dynamic instructors who know how to push their students without compromising on safety.’
Cleo felt Tash wince and her own cheeks grew hot. Did Maya have any idea how arrogant she sounded? Probably not.
Curiously, though, now she’d revealed a chink in her armour, Cleo found her more interesting and human. Perhaps she wasn’t quite so perfect after all.
It wasn’t long before the rest of the group arrived and Henrietta explained the drill. There were six ‘stations’, some distance apart, involving different bits of equipment, including various types of weights and balance balls.
At each station, you had two minutes to repeat the exercise as often as possible – squats, sprints, ab curls, high and low planks and lunges were all on the agenda – before moving to the next post.
The idea was to work pretty much every part of your body.
