Chapter One
ELENA
By the time I shove through the revolving doors of Elevate Fitness in SoHo, my hair is frizzing from the subway steam, my purse is slipping down my arm, and my right heel is dangling from my fingers like a dead bird.
“This day has been chaos,” I mutter.
“Yousoundlike chaos,” Harper says in my AirPods. “Where are you right now?”
“Walking into the gym as we speak. Thanks for keeping me company on the walk.”
“It’s a gym, not Mount Olympus. Breathe. Channel your inner hot, powerful thirty-nine-year-old woman who is entering her prime.”
I snort. “My prime was ten years ago. Maybe fifteen.”
“Bold of you to assume you’re not at your primeright now.Especially with the revenge body. You’re about to getsnatched.”
I giggle. “I mean this is day one, but that’s the idea.”
Harper pauses. “Are you wearing the cute leggings I told you to wear? Any cute guys at this new gym?”
I come to a full stop in front of the lobby mirror.
My reflection stares back at me:
Honey-blonde hair falling out of the braided ponytail I put in this morning at 5:45 AM.
Blue eyes with faint laugh lines that suddenly feel like canyons.
Peach sweatshirt slightly askew.
Leggings with a barely visible coffee stain from my morning sprint to the office.
Fantastic.
“I just joined to actually try and get into shape, for once in my life. For the private instruction onfitness.I’m not here to flirt. And even if I was, it would beafterI get into shape. The gym bros intimidate me.”
“I know you look hot,” Harper insists through the mic. “Now stop judging yourself and go get trained by your new, hopefully hot, probably ripped personal trainer.”
“I hate you,” I whisper with a grin.Because she’s always right.
“You don’t,” she singsongs. “Now, sit down, collect yourself, and pull up a dating app. Loosen the energy.”
“Absolutely not. We’re in a gym lobby. Also? I’ve been thinking, maybe dating apps aren’t the best for my aura.”
“The universe needs to know you’reopen. I love you, Elena, and I love those manifestations you do. But unfortunately youcan’tfind a boyfriend if you don’t leave your apartment…and refuse to date anyone at your company.”
I groan, drop into one of the lobby seats, and swipe open the app. Harper is right. I’ve been taking things so seriously, and Idoneed to loosen…something. Maybe it’s my shoulders. Maybe it’s my grip on the idea that I should have been married with two kids by now.
Timelines.
“I know, I know. I don’t want to be like, a downer, but I feel like I’m behind, you know? Like I should have figured everythingout by now. I’m thirty-nine, but I don’tfeelthirty-nine.” I pause and think for a moment. “Well, except after we have one of our three margarita Mondays and I have to work the next morning.”
Harper cracks up. “You are on the right path. Stop it. I know you better than anyone, and you are asteal. Who volunteers 20 hours a month?”
“Me,” I mumble.
“Right. But you’re a good person. You’re…kind. And you’re a lover. Despite what he-who-shall-not-be-named did to you, you’re not a man-hater.”
