There was a sudden loud crash followed by peels of laughter. Whilst Vanessa’s attention had been diverted the ‘Dumpies’ had moved on to the weights area, newly vacated by the ‘professionals’. One, the fattest of them, was lying spread-eagled on the floor with a bar bell across her chest, laughing so much that the tears streamed down her face, her colour clashing horribly with the subtle shades of the room.
 Angela was in a quandary. Should she stay with the hunk, which she wanted to do, or should she go to help. She smiled an apology, quickly covering up the look of annoyance that had preceded it, and made her way over towards the ladies. The one who had been floored by the barbell was now on her feet but being supported by her friends, too weak with laughter to support herself. Luckily no one was hurt.
 
Angela replaced the contrived look of concern with a smile and turned to resume her duties with ‘the hunk’. To her complete dismay she found that he had been hijacked by one of the most glamorous women in the room and seemed at the moment to have eyes only for her.
 
A myriad of emotions could be discerned on Angela’s face and for a moment the supremely confident and condescending person that Vanessa had met just a little while ago was replaced by someone young, naïve and inexperienced. Vanessa caught that fleeting look of disappointment, anger and rejection and for a moment felt sorry for her. She knew that feeling.

"Oh good! I see that Melanie is giving you her expert advice. If there is anything I can do please ask." And Angela left the gym with a slight sagging of the shoulders to return to her receptionist duties.

Vanessa thought that maybe some sit-ups would help to trim back her slightly rotund middle. She lay back on the mat as she had noticed others had done, bent her knees with feet flat on the floor, put her hands by her ears and attempted to lift her back off the mat. Complete and utter failure. She lay exhausted trying to summon up the will power to try again. As she lay with her eyes closed she realised that this was a popular resting-place. A spot where people seemed to stop for a conversation. She lay still and listened.

"Did you see what she was wearing? Red! On someone of her age, and colouring. A lamppost could easily have looked better in that than she did. She said it was Versace – more like Dudley market copy. If she loses much more weight she’ll disappear. She’s had so much cosmetic surgery that even her own mother wouldn’t recognise her. I think she’s got a problem with her self image!"

Vanessa wondered whether she had a self-image problem, or was it Clive’s problem. She blamed herself for the collapse of her marriage but surely there were faults on both sides!

She was about to try another sit up when she was intrigued by yet more revelations. She looked through her eyelashes and could see two women deep in discussion. One could almost believe that they were twins or clones. Why did everyone have to look the same? They had long blond hair tied into a ponytail topped with a baseball cap and tight fitting clothes that sported the obligatory designer label.

"You won’t believe this!" she heard one say. "Alex did my hair last week and he had the most juicy bit of gossip about Anastasia. She went out with Laurie and he took her to Quandos, you know that new night-club in town. Everyone’s raving about it. Nando’s taking me next week. I can’t wait!"
 Vanessa wondered whether all modern young women were obsessed with looks, gossip and having a good time. What had happened to commitment and family?
 

"Anyway as I was saying. There they were in Quandos, drinking cocktails, with Anastasia primping and preening as she does, when Laurie suddenly…"At that voices reduced to a whisper and hard as she tried Vanessa never did hear the rest of the story.
 
She wondered whether people at the office talked about Clive in that way. She could just imagine that snotty cow Julia saying
‘She deserves all she gets. She doesn’t take care of herself. I’m not surprised that Clive looked elsewhere!’

She’d had enough. Too much exercising and soul searching so she went to the changing room to collect her belongings. Should she have a sauna? No she couldn’t face that today. Too intimate and too close to people she did not know.

Whilst she was trying out the perfumes she heard voices coming from the showers.

"I drove past on Saturday. It’s had a complete makeover, you wouldn’t believe it was the same place. You know where I mean? It used to be ‘Somebody’s Parrot’. I can never remember whose, and now it’s the Admiral’s Perch!"

Vanessa looked down at her wedding ring and twisted it round on her finger. On impulse she pulled it off and put it into her handbag. She was tired of being ‘Somebody’s Parrot’; the time had come for her to be her own person, to makeover her life.

Vanessa found her way to the coffee shop and sank down thankfully into a large leather armchair. She looked around her; it was all very tastefully done. There were

large, pleasing murals on the walls depicting various Italian scenes; the colours

were designed to promote a restful feeling after the rigours of the gym. In the

background Pavarotti was singing in a soulful voice.

She glanced at the menu -  juices, coffees, (Italian of course), healthy snacks and some little pastries for those who had worked hard enough to deserve them. She decided that she had worked hard enough and chose a black coffee and a small almond cake to go with it.
Whilst she waited for her order to be brought to her, and for Angela, she closed her eyes.

Would her life ever get onto an even keel again? She supposed it would, but she had a big emptiness within her that would take a lot to fill.
 

The sound of voices woke her from her reverie. She opened her eyes and saw that the fat ladies had come into the coffee shop. They were laughing and joking and didn’t seem at all phased by their work out in the gym, or by the ‘accident’. They each ordered a pastry and a coffee and set to with enthusiasm when they arrived. She heard snatches of conversation about family and friends.
One of them was telling a story about her silver wedding anniversary. Vanessa thought back to hers, it had all seemed so perfect.
 

It had been August the second; they had invited family and friends to join them for a celebratory meal at the Blue Door, a pub restaurant out in the countryside. The food was perfect, the company could not be matched and Clive had stood up at the end of the meal and made a speech. She had felt so proud of him and felt so lucky to be married to him.

"I’d like to thank Nessa for all the love and devotion she has put into our marriage over the last twenty five years. I know I’ve not been the perfect husband but she has always been there to support me. She has nurtured our children and it’s mainly down to her that they have grown into people we can be proud of. I think we can call them our friends and not just our children."

Vanessa had kept a copy of this speech and it wasn’t until recently that she realised that he had not once said that he loved her or made any references to their future together, as husbands usually did on such occasions.

Angela came into the coffee shop and sat next to Vanessa. "I hope you enjoyed your little taster of what we have to offer here at La Salute." As she spoke to Vanessa she ran her fingers through her hair, smoothed down her shorts and inspected her nails for any sign of damage.
Vanessa caught the eye of one of the fat ladies who raised her eyebrows and gave Vanessa a very knowing smile.

"I have a number of different workouts you might like to look at and choose one which you think will best suit you. If you would like to book your fitness assessment at reception desk on your way out we will also give you a mud wrap, at a discounted price, in our beauty salon."
 At this Angela gave Vanessa an appraising look as though to say "and you could do with it!"
Vanessa could hear laughter from the fat ladies corner of the room. She didn’t dare to look because she knew she would laugh too.
 
Angela caught a glimpse of the ‘hunk’ who had just entered the coffee shop. She quickly, but decoratively, unwound her legs and got to her feet. "Ciao Vanessa. Hope to be seeing you again soon." She made her way over towards him, leaving the smell of expensive perfume in her wake.

The fat ladies were about to leave. The one who had laughed came over to Vanessa.

"Hi. My name’s Jo. Don’t take any notice of Angela. She’s harmless really. We’re usually here at this time each week. Why don’t you join us for a coffee next time?"

Vanessa stopped herself from saying she wouldn’t come again and instead said

"Yes. That would be nice. Thank you. My name is Vanessa by the way."

"Well Ciao Vanessa." Jo laughingly said as she went back to join her friends.

Vanessa got to her feet left the coffee shop and went to the reception desk. There was no sign of Angela, a middle-aged lady, who gave Vanessa a big smile, had replaced her and said, "You must be Vanessa. Angela left these for you. I hope you enjoyed your first time here and that we’ll be seeing lots more of you."
"Do you know, I think you will. And I think I’ll take up that offer of a fitness assessment and a mud wrap. It can’t do any harm can it? And who knows it might do some good! Ciao."

Vanessa left La Salute Health and Fitness Centre looking forward to returning the following week.

As she walked to her car she smiled to herself wondering whether she should remind Brian, or Bruno, as he now liked to be called, about that time he had tried to kiss her when she was a sheep and he was Joseph in the Christmas Nativity.

Her step was slightly springier and the black hole within her seemed to have filled a little.