The Price of Her Hustle

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A woman I knew well used to go to the gym all the time.

She posted on Instagram almost every day—tight clothes, curves on display, the kind of photos that made it obvious she knew exactly how she looked. She once told me the only thing she looked forward to each day was getting off work and heading straight to the gym.

I said, “You addicted or something?”

She said, “Honestly? Yeah.”

A few years later, she got rich. Not billionaire rich, but the kind of rich that changes how a person moves through the world. She landed a massive account and cleared over two million on that one deal alone.

Then she quit her job.

She bought a BMW sedan, picked me up in it, treated me to food and drinks, and asked me to come work with her.

So I did.

I went with her.

And even after starting her own agency, she still went to the gym almost every single day without fail. Sometimes even when we were buried in project deadlines and should have been working late.

One time I tried to talk her out of it.

“Can you skip today?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “That’s how I unwind.”

Then she told me something else. The client who’d given her that huge account? She’d met him at the gym.

“The gym was the beginning of everything for me,” she said. “I can’t forget where I came from.”

She hadn’t.

There was a little changing nook attached to her office. She used it to switch clothes before heading out. She’d shown it to me before—clothes hanging up to dry, everything from bikinis to designer leggings to underwear.

She said she sweated like crazy when she worked out, so she had to air things out.

She also said those private things couldn’t be seen by the staff.

I said, “Do I count as staff?”

She looked at me and smiled. “What do you think?”

Then she changed into leggings and headed to the exclusive fitness club nearby.

That left me in the office, stuck supervising three people through overtime. A planner, a copywriter, and an intern named Olivia Reed.

When I stepped out of Paige Mercer’s office, I happened to meet Olivia’s eyes. She dropped her gaze immediately and bent over her desk as if she were suddenly very busy with something.

A week later, Paige took me to meet the client who’d given her that big break: Nathan Sterling.

That was when I realized their relationship wasn’t as simple as business.

In front of him, Paige slipped off her blouse.

Nathan put a hand on her waist and told her her training was paying off. That much, maybe, could still be explained away. But then his hand lingered. It rubbed once, slowly, where it shouldn’t have.

After we left his villa, Paige said, “Every connection starts with wanting access to people. Especially for people like us.”

She said that for people from the bottom, places like exclusive fitness clubs and golf clubs were the easiest way to reach the top.

“Golf’s too expensive,” she said. “But the gym? That I can do.”

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She could do it. She had the kind of body that drew attention—full chest, not very tall, which somehow made her look even more sharply put together. And she’d trained herself until she looked like she really belonged there, like fitness was part of her identity, not a costume.

I said, “No wonder you’ve always been so clear about what you wanted.”

She looked out the window and said, “I came to New York to reinvent my life. I was never going to surrender to a salary under ten grand a month.”

I asked, “What if the people you meet at the gym want something else from you?”

“That’s normal, isn’t it?” she said. “Think about it. Everyone’s dressed in a way that shows off strength, discipline, physical appeal. Of course people are going to be attracted to each other.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Did anything happen between you and him?”

She turned to me. “That’s a narrow way of looking at it. Do you think I’m the one who lost out?”

I didn’t answer.

She laughed, reached over, and patted my shoulder.

“Get in,” she said.

On the drive back, she said, “The reason I introduced you to Nathan was to make us look professional. I needed him to see that I have a real team behind me, that we’re not some amateur operation. That way he’ll be more willing to introduce us to other people—or even invest in us.”

Then she paused.

“There’s one more reason,” she said.

She stopped there and didn’t go on.

I looked at her and asked, “What is it?”

“I’m not actually going to cling to him,” Paige said. “He’s married. Men like that are most afraid of women who turn into a problem.”

“Why would bringing me along make him think you won’t?”

She glanced at me. “Are you really that dense, or are you pretending?”

I didn’t answer.

When we got out of the car, she dropped the BMW key fob into my hand. Then she closed my fingers around it and gave my hand a brief squeeze, making a point of telling me to park the car in the space.

She stayed where she was, watching me do it.

After I parked, I came back and tried to return the key fob. She didn’t take it. In the same calm tone, she said, “You should know that you were the last person to park this car.”

I held it out again. She still didn’t take it.

She told me to pick her up every morning from then on, straight from her place.

She was living in a luxury gated condo complex now.

She even gave me the building entry code. She said if she was still asleep when I arrived, I could just let myself in, go to her room, and wake her up.

That same night, I parked the BMW downstairs from the studio apartment I was renting.

The next morning, I drove over to her place.

I’d been there before. I was the one who had helped her move in, after all. But this was the first time she’d ever given me the code.

I keyed it in and went inside, then knocked on her bedroom door.

No response.

So I turned the handle and stepped in.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

She was still asleep. Morning light rested on her face, soft and gold, making her already delicate features look even more striking.

I called her name quietly. After a few tries, she opened her eyes.

“You’re here,” she murmured lazily. “I’m still exhausted, but I have to get to work.”

Then she stretched.

The blanket slipped down from her shoulders.

That was when I realized she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

I jerked my head away so fast my neck hurt.

But she just got out of bed as if nothing was wrong.

I heard the bathroom door close, and only then did I dare look back.

She was still standing outside it, smiling.

She hadn’t gone into the bathroom at all. She’d just made the sound on purpose.

“Oh,” she said, “I forgot there’s no toilet paper in there.”

My face went hot instantly.

She picked up a box of tissues from the coffee table in the living room and strolled toward the bathroom at an unhurried pace.

This time, she actually went in and shut the door.

In the car, I said, “Maybe from now on I should just wait downstairs?”

She turned in the passenger seat and looked at me, surprised. “Why?”

“I mean… about that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine. I’m used to sleeping naked. I’m pretty sure I told you that even back when I wasn’t making money yet.”

“Right,” I said. “Yeah.”

“You should still come up. Unless it’s too much trouble for you…”

I didn’t say anything.

“You could always just stay at my place.”

Her voice dropped at the end.

I still said nothing.

“Your place is pretty far from mine, anyway.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I don’t mind the distance.”

That was how we arrived at the office.

When we got out of the car, I spotted Olivia Reed in the distance.

Olivia saw me too. Saw Paige standing beside me.

She immediately broke into a small jog, like she was afraid of ending up in the same elevator with us.

After that, I picked Paige up every day.

Over the next few months, she landed several more clients. Most of them she’d met through the exclusive fitness club, all from the same social circle. Some had been introduced by Nathan Sterling.

The agency stayed busy the entire time.

There was none of the instability a startup was supposed to have.

She was energized every day, all drive and momentum, her body lean and tightly held like she was always ready for the next thing.

One of the male planners in the office—Jason Carter—seemed especially attentive to her.

She told me he was always bringing her little things, small gifts and desk accessories and whatever else he thought might please her.

One time, she even handed me one of the little desktop decorations he’d given her while we were in the car.

Then she looked at me and said, “You need to put in a little more effort.”

But Olivia seemed to be avoiding me.

At lunch, she would slip away early.

When work got assigned, all she ever said was, “Okay,” or “Mm-hm.”

The easy back-and-forth we used to have was completely gone.

A month later, after Paige came back from another workout session, Olivia suddenly texted me.

Marcus, can we talk?