My text to the girls had been the equivalent of the Bat Signal.
Julep packed a bag and caught the next flight into Boston. I picked her up at the airport just as Riley and Giana were finishing up at the stadium for the day, and we were all shocked when Riley was so quick to blow off her class that night and Giana didn’t show up at the hotel with a book in her hand.
We checked into a hotel entirely out of my price range downtown, thanks to Holden and his big signing bonus, and after smothering each other in hugs and getting all dolled up, we piled into a cab and headed to an unknown location of Julep’s choosing.
When the cab dropped us off, we stared up at the sign with mixed emotions.
“Oh, hell no,” I said.
“Hell yes!” Giana combatted with a squeal and little claps of joy. Her eyes were that of a kid on Christmas morning.
Riley was quiet, but crossed her arms over her chest like she wasn’t thrilled with the idea either.
But one look at Julep told me we weren’t getting out of this.
“Come on, babes,” she said, linking her arms through ours. “Time to introduce you to chrome therapy.”
I was still groaning as she dragged us inside the pole studio, which was mostly dark save for some party lights. Loud, beat-driven music greeted us, along with the owner of the studio, who was wearing nothing but a black high-rise thong and triangle swim top along with high heels that were at least eight inches tall.
“Welcome to Spintensity,” she said with a wide smile. I noticed then that she had some impressive ink on her thighs and shoulders, and she seemed to appraise me with the same appreciation. “I hear we’re celebrating a bride tonight?”
Julep did a little spin and a curtsy. “That would be me.”
The instructor whistled, looking Julep up and down. “Does your future husband realize how lucky he is?”
“If you saw him, you’d be saying I’m the lucky one,” Julep combatted.
“Doubtful,” she said with a smile. “I’m Joany. I’ll be your party guide tonight. I take it from the notes that you’re seasoned,” she said, pointing at Julep before her finger dragged over the rest of us. “And you three are fresh meat?”
“The freshest,” Giana said excitedly, stepping forward like a sacrificial virgin. “Can you teach me how to climb the pole?!”
Joany laughed, exchanging a look with Julep before she waved us farther inside. “We can try. But first, let’s get you three changed into some shorts and start with walking around the pole.”
I thought she was kidding, but after she walked us through the studio set up and we each stood behind our pole of choice, that was exactly how the class began — by walking. Joany and Julep made it look effortless, of course, both of them strutting sexily in their heels. Riley, Giana, and I, on the other hand, were barefoot and still looked like we were the unstable ones.
It was so embarrassing it was hilarious, and we all laughed and teased each other as Joany attempted to show us how to look sexier while we circled the chrome.
When we moved on to spins, Riley shocked us all — thanks to her upper-body strength and a core that should have been illegal. Joany walked us through beginner spins with names that confused me even more — Fireman, Goddess, Hollywood — and Riley did each one without more than just a simple demonstration.
Giana and I, on the other hand, were banging into the pole hard enough to leave bruises.
Still, the laughs came easy, and the more we worked on spins and tricks and dance moves like body waves and twerks, the less Leo was on my mind. Soon, I was completely wrapped up in the experience with the girls, in celebrating when they achieved something and laughing together when we all failed.
We were all sweaty and sore by the end of the ninety-minute session, but Giana was determined as she squeezed tacky grip out of a bottle and into her hands, rubbing them together with her eyes laser-focused on the bell at the top of the pole. Apparently, it was a tradition and an honor to ring it once you were able to climb to the top.
“Okay, so you’re going to want to really squeeze your knees together and use the power in your thighs to hike you up the pole,” Joany explained as she demonstrated climbing. “Once you’ve extended your legs, switch your arms and now your bottom arm becomes the top one, and you use that upper body to lift your knees to your chest, squeeze, and repeat.”
She did a couple climbs before sliding back down and gesturing for Julep to go next. Of course, that bitch climbed while the pole was spinning, her long hair flowing behind her and her body moving with all the fluid grace of a gazelle. It was mesmerizing to watch.
Infuriating, too, because when you had a friend that gorgeous and talented, it was hard not to hate her just a little bit.
We all clapped when she was on the floor again, and then it was Riley’s turn. She struggled a bit in the start, but once her muscles understood the assignment, she repeated the movement Joany had showed us until she was all the way at the top. Her movements were more athletic than Julep’s, which made sense considering who she was, but her smile was the biggest I’d ever seen her wear when she rang the bell as the rest of us cheered from below.
Giana was next, and the poor thing could barely pull her chest to the pole while her legs and arms both shook with the effort it took to get her there.
“It’s okay, it takes most girls a few classes before they can climb even that much,” Joany tried to encourage her.
But that little bookworm was nothing if not driven by a challenge, and I watched her eyes narrow in concentration and determination at Joany’s words before she hiked herself a little higher. It was a struggle the entire way, but she made it, hooting and hollering like a banshee as she rang the bell at the top before sliding back down.
“Alright, my inked queen,” Joany said to me next, waving a hand toward my pole. “Let’s see what you got.”
I watched her for a solid second before I laughed, because she had to be joking. But she didn’t return the jest, and the rest of the girls watched like they actually thought I could climb the pole, too.
“You’re kidding, right?” I asked, pointing at me and then the pole. “You really think my fat ass can get up this thing?”
“Hey!” Giana slapped my arm. “Don’t talk about my friend that way!”
“I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” I defended, rubbing my arm. Then, I grabbed the ample curves at my hips and over my stomach, my thighs, my ass, giving them all a squeeze and jiggle. “I’m just saying ya girl is thick and there isn’t any way in hell I’m getting to the top of this pole.”
“Size doesn’t mean shit in this sport,” Joany said. “Stick thin or curvaceous as hell, you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Julep smacked my ass. “She’s right. So go on, get to climbing.”
“You have a lot more faith in my arms than I do,” I mumbled.
“It’s not all arms. Squeeze the knees and engage the thighs, remember?” Riley said, and I gave her a look that said traitor. She only smiled saccharinely back at me.
With a sigh, I gave in trying to fight them on it and decided I’d prove my point. I reached up and wrapped my hands around the chrome, fixing my shin to the front of it like Joany showed us before I engaged my shoulders and lifted the other leg. Instantly, I slipped back down to the floor.
“Okay, I tried, let’s move on.”
“Ah, ah, ah, not so fast,” Julep said, and she held out the bottle of grip until I opened my palm and let her squeeze some into it. “Try again.”
My grip was infinitely better with the white goo she’d given me rubbed into each palm, and this time when I lifted my leg, I stayed put. With a grunt, I pulled my chest to the pole, switching hands before I tucked my knees up to my elbows and squeezed again.
I looked down at the ground, at how far away from it I was, and smiled.
Holy shit.
I’m climbing a fucking pole.
I tried to get a little higher, but my arms gave out, and I ended up slipping almost down to the bottom again.
This time, though, I didn’t give up.
I set my brow with determination and focused on the bell mocking me from the top.
I was going to ring that motherfucker.
“Go, Mary, go!” Giana cheered with a little clap as I reached up the pole again. The rest of the girls joined in encouraging me as I climbed, slowly but surely, up and up and up.
Sweat ran down my back and dampened my hair the higher I got, and every muscle in my body burned — my shoulders, my back, my arms, my legs, my fucking invisible abs. Everything had to be engaged, and I hadn’t used my muscles that intensely ever before in my life. Sure, yoga had its days, but I tended to stay away from the power flows and spent my time on my mat enjoying longer, deeper poses.
Not tonight.
Tonight, I was shutting out every voice in my head saying I couldn’t do it, and I was inching myself higher and higher up a chrome apparatus.
The last bit was the hardest, and I gritted through the pain and the desperate plea my body was giving me to stop as I reached up and grabbed the ribbon tied to the bell, ringing it like crazy. The girls went nuts below me, and I looked down with a victorious smile and a surge of adrenaline coursing through me.
I slid down fireman style, and when my feet hit the floor, I was immediately wrapped up in a group hug as the girls bounced around me. We laughed and cheered until we were breathless, and when they pulled away and high-fived me, every cell in my body went from buzzing to absolutely still.
I couldn’t explain what happened next.
One second we were celebrating and Joany was popping a bottle of champagne for us to toast our accomplishments.
The next?
I was sobbing.
The emotion bubbled up from my chest, making each breath shorter until the first cry escaped my lips. I wasn’t even sure what it was that had me choked up. Was it Leo and everything fucking with my head in that regard? Probably. But it also felt… bigger. More. Like I had just faced every fucking trauma that had ever held me down and I’d ripped each one to shreds.
Julep hugged me tight, and when she pulled back, she framed my arms, her eyes bright and shiny, too.
“Pole therapy,” she said.
Then, she slid a champagne flute into my hand, and with tears still drying on my cheeks, we clinked our glasses together and proceeded to get absolutely tanked.
