Every time Kate thought about him, she ran a little harder. Sometimes, if she thought about him hard enough, she would increase the speed by a few points, punching the buttons hard as she panted. She would show this machine who was boss. She would show him who was boss.

She wiped her flooded brow and kept her pace as she reached out for her water bottle dripping with condensation and took a drink. She turned on her ipod and jogged along to the bouncy music she had selected that morning.

She turned to look at the other women prancing along as if it were easy as walking out to fetch the newspaper from the lawn. They really pissed Kate off, so she pushed herself some more. She tried instead to think about how long it had been since she had actually set foot in this gym.

The thought of that only made her believe that she was a quitter and she felt the need to hit the emergency stop button…but that was too embarrassing to handle. She would just have to keep running nowhere for twenty more minutes.