Tough Girls

At midnight, Rick was still huddled over the entrance desk scribbling ideas on scraps of paper and then balling them up and tossing them. Yes, what he'd said to Kat was right... they needed to send a message that affluent women would find health, beauty and inner fulfillment by working out at Kat's gym. The problem was, everyone wanted that demographic. He needed to come up with something different, something that spoke to a fundamental need.

So, he called his sister.

"Do not tell me you're in jail again."

"Not yet."

"I'm busy. Got a big case coming up and working some extra hours so you're costing me ten dollars for every minute you keep me on the phone. Tell me what you need."

"Say you're married to a rich guy, you're not getting younger, and you're worried about getting replaced. What message would motivate you to pick my gym over some other turkey's?"

"Hell, I'm too busy to work out. I don't know. Maybe something about being tough, being strong, being independent, making that asshole husband of hers afraid to cross her."

"Got it. You can send me the bill for ten bucks. Thanks."

"You don't know how lawyers work. Minimum is an hour. Bill for six hundred on the way."

He laughed and hung up, then went to take his next-to-last bio-DNA pill.

The convulsions weren't any better although he stood in the gym shower to wash the blood off of him as it drained from every pore.

When they faded away, he didn't feel any different. Could the bio-DNA be wearing off? That was a scary thought.

He went out to the boxing ring in the middle of the gym's main room and leaned on one of the ring ropes. It reminded him of that long-ago Netflix show, GLOW.

Strong. Independent. Capable of inspiring fear in overbearing husbands. Maybe reinventing the gym's boxing history, but with a female focus was the path.

He headed back to the desk and started over with the marketing approach. This gym wasn't about toning muscles and losing weight. This gym was all about creating tough women who wouldn't let anyone shove them around. Besides, he loved the idea of bio-DNA executives being pussy-whipped by their wives, girlfriends, or both.