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“Jenna. What are you doing here?”
Jenna grinned, arms wide. When Carly stepped into the embrace, Jenna squeezed hard.
“I hear you’re planning a discounted membership scheme for local sports teams. As treasurer and captain of The Blues, it was my duty to come and check you out.”
That news had travelled fast. Not that Carly was surprised.
“I don’t have much time. We’re swamped, but I can give you a quick tour.”
Jenna glanced around the main floor of the gym, still somehow smiling. Even when her eyes caught on one of Beth’s protein tubs, positioned beneath a leak.
“That’s novel,” she said, wandering over and nudging it with her foot.
Rainwater sloshed over the side.
“Repairs imminent,” Carly said, grabbing blue roll from behind reception so she could clean up the slip hazard. She crouched and blotted the floor. “Perhaps now you can see why I’m busy.”
“You’ve got your work cut out for sure. I reckon you still have time for football, though. If I can do it, so can you.”
“What happened to never mentioning that again?”
Jenna shrugged. “I lied. Call it desperation.”
“Yeah, well, I’m desperate to turn this place around.”
“For your dad?”
“Yep.” Carly balled the tissue and lobbed it into the bin. “Nothing is more important. I can’t take my eye off the ball.”
If the gym collapsed now, it wouldn’t just be a bad investment. It would mean her dad’s last piece of business was a mistake. A failure. Carly couldn’t give him that legacy, even if she had to replace every rotten carpet tile by hand.
“I get it,” Jenna said. She scanned the room again, taking in the tubs, the half-finished paintwork, the taped-off corner by the mirrors. “So what’s the plan?”
“Keep members from feeling abandoned while the roof is fixed, then give them a reason to come back with friends when we reopen.”
“That’s easy, surely? Free perks during the closure, relaunch event after. Free trial day, local sports-team discount, people posting pictures, everyone pretending they enjoy lunges. Job done.”
Jenna made community sound like something you could simply decide into being. Carly envied that almost as much as she distrusted it. She also wished she had the energy it required. Since the shoot on Friday, she’d banked one workout and one hot bath, and that was the entire ledger of her downtime. Enough to pull her back off the brink of exhaustion; not enough to keep her away from it.
“You going to help with that, then?” Carly asked.
She was ninety percent serious. If there was one person she trusted to create a buzz, it was Jenna. The other ten percent was still annoyed with her for backing Lauren.
“Sure. I can invite the team down, contact a few other clubs, mention it to my network. I might even be able to square it with Abi to come and help you set up. She’s handy.”
“Just like that?”
“Of course.” Jenna smiled. “For one teensy-weensy favour in return.”
“Let me guess. Training tomorrow.”
“Yes, but it’s not totally selfish. You said you need local bodies through the door. Football gives you a captive audience, a team chat full of people who love a discount, and at least one captain prepared to bully everyone on your behalf.”
Carly laughed despite herself. Jenna was relentless, but worse than that, she was right. The marketing argument was solid. It was the football underneath that made Carly want to step back.
“You’re very sure I’ll enjoy it.”
“Yes. I know you don’t have a great history with football teams, but maybe you need to stop letting that hold you back from something that might be genuinely good for you in about six different ways, and—”
