The girl was going the wrong way. Lisa held up her hand and then rotated it: a clockwise circle and then a counter-clockwise circle. The girl stopped. “I’m such a ditz,” the girl said. “So frazzled.” Lisa smiled, and the two girls fell into step, jogging the sixteenth mile track which circumscribed the perimeter upstairs at the 4th Street Club. Lisa liked this health club because it was open 24/7 and it had the track. It was getting on one am now, and other than the girl, Lisa was about the only one working out. She’d seen the girl before a couple of times—about the same age as Lisa, early twenties, in good shape, with a pretty smile and long beautiful black hair.

“One of those days?” Lisa said.

“Oh God,” the girl replied.

“Running helps, usually.”

“I don’t know,” the girl said. “My boyfriend and I broke up today.”

“Aw,” Lisa said.

Another lap passed.

“We’d been together almost a year.”

Another lap.

“I thought things were fine. We fucked all afternoon. I thought it was to celebrate our ... something.”

Another lap.

“It was a breakup fuck.”

“That must be hard,” Lisa said.

“Tell me about it,” the girl said. “After he left I showered for hours. I changed the sheets. Threw out the old ones. I threw out his toothbrush. I threw out everything of his I could find, but it wasn’t enough.”

“I’m sorry,” Lisa said.

“So I came here, hoping I could work him out of my system.”

Another lap, faster.

Another lap, even faster.

Two more.

Two more.

Then they slowed. Walking. Breathing hard.

“You know,” Lisa said, “I just thought of something. It’s Thursday. You weren’t going the wrong way after all.”

“You’re right,” the girl said. “That’s funny. Do you think if you’re running at the stroke of midnight you have to reverse yourself midstride?”

They both laughed.

They both went down the stairs to the locker room.

“I’m going to shower at home,” the girl said. “I live just a couple of blocks. In the Tower.”

“I might just jog home too,” Lisa said. “It’s less than a mile.”

Carrying their gym bags, they exited the 4th Street Club together.

“Nice night,” Lisa said as they walked together. At that moment the skies opened up. A deluge.

“Hurry,” the girl said, taking Lisa’s hand. “I’m just down the block.”

They entered the Tower. The elevator.

“Lucky we’re not wearing much clothes,” Lisa said.

“Or we’d be drowned rats,” the girl said.

“Kittens,” Lisa said. “Drowned kittens.”

They looked at each other.

“Drowned pussies,” the girl said.

They kissed.

They kissed all the way to the girl’s floor. And into her apartment. Where they stripped off what little clothing they were wearing. And fell upon the bed.