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After a quick callto Missy to make sure she was all right with keeping Wrigley a little bit longer and stopping by her place to throw on some workout clothes, Mia sat on a stationary bike with Zoe on one side and Brooke on the other.
A young woman with two long, dark braids and way too much energy sat on a bike perched on a rectangular pedestal, facing them. A row of mirrors covered the wall behind her. “I’m so glad you guys are here,” she said. “My name is Ashley and I’ve been a spin instructor for three years. Have any of you taken a class before?”
Zoe and Brooke each raised a hand, making Mia more insecure as she shifted her feet attached to the pedals. “What have I gotten myself into?” she asked with a shaky laugh. The idea of giving Chet some space had prompted her to accept Zoe’s invitation, but second thoughts had her yearning to be anywhere but here.
“Don’t worry,” Ashley said. “I’ll make this as painless as possible.”
Brooke secured her brown hair in a high ponytail tail then gripped the handles. “I’ve only taken a couple classes and it was years ago. If you’re in pain, I will be too.”
Ashley laughed. “I’ll take it easy. Zoe mentioned wanting to experience the class, seeing if it’d be a good fit for what ya’ll do so I’ll do a quick twenty-minute session, giving you a good glimpse into how things usually go. I want to give my students a good workout, but I also aim to give them a place for self- reflection. A time to let out whatever’s holding them back.”
Mia swallowed hard. Now wasn’t the time to self-reflect and let the torrent of emotions inside her loose. But she was literally locked into this now. She had no choice but to get through, hopefully in one piece.
Picking up a little remote, Ashley aimed it at the wall and turned the lights down. Music blasted to life from a speaker mounted in the back of the room.
“Let’s get started,” Ashley said, her smooth voice coming to life from a microphone hooked on her ear. “Find the beat of the music. Moving your legs, hands on the front of the handlebars.”
Mia mimicked Ashley’s pose, moving her legs and picking up the pace to match the rhythm beating through the room. Song after song played, the instructor barking out different positions and orders that her body struggled to achieve. The muscles in her legs screamed. Her lungs burned. Sweat poured from her hairline.
What seemed like hours later, Ashley stepped off her bike and brought a handful of electric candles to life, illuminating the dark room. “We’ve reached our hill, ladies. Standing out of the saddle, I want you to make those wheels sticky.”
Mia stood, her feet still attached to the pedals, and turned the small knob on the bike like she’d been taught and groaned. She shifted her weight from one leg to another, using all the energy she had left to push the pedals.
“I want you to think about what hill you’re climbing in your life.” Ashley swung her leg over her bike, pedaling while standing like the rest of them, but no breathlessness broke up her words. “What do you need to push past? What do you need to conquer to put you on a better path to meet your goals? What’s holding you back?”
The words slammed against Mia’s chest, making it even harder to push the air from her lungs. At this point in her life, it was easier to ask what wasn’t holding her back.
“Now take those thoughts and emotions and fears and doubts and know that you are capable of pushing through anything this world throws your way, just like you’re able to push up this hill. That you can accomplish anything.”
The positive sentiments mixed with the music and the pain shooting up Mia’s legs and shattered the dam holding back all of her emotions for the past few days. Tears dotted her eyes as she struggled to keep the wheels of her bike spinning, to get to the top of the hill. Something inside her urging her to keep moving, keep going, as if getting to the top of this imaginary hill would prove something—even if only to herself.
“You made it to the top,” Ashley yelled through the mic. “Now, it’s time to speed back down that hill.”
Mia’s tiny moment of relief was quickly replaced with dread. The slow, steady beat pulsing through the room changed, the tempo becoming faster.
“Go ahead and sit back down. Take off all the resistance on your bike,” Ashley commanded. “Once we get down this hill, class is over, so give me everything you have left.”
Mia wanted to laugh, but it’d take way too much energy to do anything besides struggle for her next breath. She sat, relieved to take the pressure off her shaky legs. She turned the little knob in the opposite direction and the wheels moved easier. She pedaled to the beat of a song she hadn’t heard since high school, nostalgia giving her a little extra motivation to get this stupid class over with.
“When the hook comes on, I want you to grit your teeth and pedal as fast as you possibly can to the finish line.”
Mia sucked in a deep breath and mopped the sweat off her brow. The lyrics changed to the familiar chorus, and she moved her legs so fast she was afraid her damn bike might actually charge forward. Closing her eyes, she ignored all the pain engulfing her—pain in her muscles and the pain in her heart. She needed to accomplish her goal today, to see a positive result based on her effort. Something to wipe away even the tiniest smudge of depression from her afternoon.
“You did it!” Ashley let out a whoop of joy. “Slow those legs, ladies. Let your heart rate climb down. Take a second and know that you are amazing.”
Amazing? Mia felt more like an out-of-shape woman who’d fall on her face as soon as she stepped off the bike. But she was proud that she’d made it through the class. Even if she may regret it in the morning when she couldn’t get out of bed.
After a brief cool down, led by the way-too-perky Ashley, Mia unclicked her spin shoes from the pedals and draped herself over the handlebars. “I don’t trust myself to stand yet.”
Brooke chuckled. “Same. That was intense.”
“Good or bad intense?” Ashley asked, then brought the lights back to full force.
“Ask me tomorrow,” Brooke said. “But I liked it. It’s a good workout, but it’s more than that. You were great at really making me dig deep within myself. To make this a mental exercise as well as a physical one. That’s exactly what we like to do at Crossroads Mountain Retreat.”
Mia sniffed back tears. So she wasn’t the only one who’d been impacted by the encouraging words being barked out by the instructor.
A hand on Mia’s shoulder lifted her head. Zoe stood beside her, her cheeks red and wisps of auburn hair dancing around her face. “Are you all right?”
