Prologue

Wednesday morning. Spin class ... with the Marquesa de Sade! It’s not that I had anything against the entirely too perky young blond that lead the morning spin class session at the club, I mean she was easy on the eyes and wearing spandex and crop tops it didn’t take a lot of imagination, if you know what I mean. But, I hate the idea of sweating like a pig on a spit, indoors, when if the weather would simply cooperate (or I lived in warmer climes!) I could be riding outdoors! So, here I am two months into what passes for winter here in Washington, on a stationary trainer, in a sweltering exercise room, in the dark of the pre-dawn morning being told to ‘sweat more’ by a perky blond with zero body fat, who I know has a whip hidden somewhere on her spandex clad body, just waiting for the chance to start the beatings! As a joke, we all went in together and bought one of those black pirate t-shirts that said: “The beatings will continue until morale improves...” At least we thought it was a joke...

“Okay you slackers!” Joy called out without the slightest hint of being the least bit winded, “Once more around the lake, and we can call it a morning!”

‘Once more... ‘ the words everyone in class hated more than anything else ... have you ever been in a physical training class? You remember, like junior high P.E., where the teacher was just a bit sadistic? What was the one thing they always said that set off a round of moaning? ‘Once more’, right? Well, once more around the lake meant that we had another twenty-five miles of simulated suffering before we were done with this session. About an hour and a half of being flogged by a woman whose parents had a very sick sense of humor. Joy: What kind of name is that for someone who could have been a Grand Inquisitor for the Inquisition?

“Nate!”, her whip crack voice cut through my internal woolgathering on the qualities of sleeping in and not paying cash money to be tortured in a room that is hotter than Hades, “Are you slacking on me?”

“No M’am!”, I said with a sly grin, “Not slacking, M’am!”, and I gave her a mock salute to prove my sincerity. Ever have one of those ideas that seemed like a good one at the time, but quickly turned around and bit you squarely on the ass?

Joy stuck her tongue out at me, then said, “Okay, since Nate is feeling frisky this morning, let’s take the hill standing, shall we?” The groans and dirty looks that met this announcement did nothing to improve my mood.

The hill on the simulated course is at the mid-point in the program. The stationary bikes begin to add resistance in an effort to simulate the demands of climbing. Doing it standing up the whole way hurt all the way to the ends of my hair!

Just at that moment, the voice of the ‘Boss’ cut into my head, reminding me that you ‘never let an opponent know that you are suffering’. My relationship with Joy and the whole spin class suddenly snapped into clear focus: spin class, and by extension, sweet, innocent, sadistic Joy was an opponent! Now, I knew how to react, even how to cope with something that had been bugging me for two solid months.

With a smile on my face and a song in my heart, I rose up and rode the hill like it was the easiest thing I had ever done on a bike. Hell, even Joy’s smile cracked a little when she saw me throw down like that. And I believe that we have clearly established that I hate climbing, right? Even from the great beyond of retirement, the ‘Boss’ still could get me up to that level I didn’t even know I had. From here to the end of the session, there was nothing that Joy could throw in my way that would keep me from smiling at the challenge.

Chapter 1 »