Maddie woke up to the sound of her beeping alarm clock and quickly began to get ready for the day. As she switched her phone off of airplane mode she began her morning routine, which consisted of getting ready for a 7:30 workout at the gym. She glanced at her phone, looking disappointed that she hadn't gotten any texts overnight.
As she got ready for the day in front of her mirror, she admired herself. She was proud of her body -- at 5"5' and 110 lbs she was petite and fit, and she liked that about herself. As she slipped up her tight-fitting gym shorts she admired her ass and toned abs in the mirror. She knew her outfit would attract attention at the gym, and was hoping to do just that. Her dirty blond hair, bright blue-green eyes, and stunning features generally turned heads among new gym-goers during her morning workouts.
She left her apartment 2 minutes later than usual because she had forgotten the one thing that made her stand out in 2022-- the pager. She carried the little black box with her wherever she went. The pager went with her to work, to the club, and it joined her on vacations. The only place she didn't bring it was the shower, and even so, she always kept it on the shelf in the bathroom.
Maddie was used to the attention of catcallers and hecklers in New York, and usually pretty good at ignoring them. Unfortunately, on this particular morning, her headphones were being charged in her bag on the way to the gym, so she turned and looked when a voice told her "hey pretty lady, could you spare some change?" The voice belonged to an ancient looking homeless wheelchair-bound man sat next to her on the subway platform.
"Sorry sir, I don't have any money," she replied politely.
"Please, any money would help," he persisted -- "or you can just give me a little kiss."
"I told you I don't have any money." She replied, coldly.
"Thanks for all the help, you fucking bitch" He snarled, rolling away. "If I could use my legs, I'd tie you up in one of these bathrooms and do things to you you never thought of before"
Watching the man roll away, Maddie smiled to herself under her mask and thought 'he has no fucking idea.'
As she walked into the gym, she looked at the pager -- nothing. The pager hadn't gone off for nearly 2 weeks. She struggled to remember when the last time it had remained silent for so long and was fairly certain this stretch was unprecedented. 'There's no way he knows about this weekend'" she thought to herself.
There were 3 kinds of people in the gym at this hour. The majority of people were your generic "weekend-warrior" types who exercised before work maybe once a week. Then you had the hardcore crew -- of which Maddie was one -- people who showed up every day to keep their body in peak physical condition. She was one of maybe a dozen who came every day. Then there were the creeps. Usually men, who came and sat on the reclining bikes to get off watching the few dedicated women come in and sweat during their morning workout.
Several of these creeps were watching her do bent over rows, when Chris, one of the other gym rats, sat on bench next to her and said "So why do you carry that pager, Maddie? You some kinda secret superhero?"
"It's for work, dude, you know that!" She said, laughing as she changed weights for the next set.
"Alright, alright fine," he said "So when are you gonna let me buy you that drink?"
She turned at looked at him. She had to admit, he was tall, blond, and handsome, but it would never happen "You know I'm not dating right now," she said, shrugging him off.
"So what exactly are you doing right now, then, if you aren't dating," he asked.
She paused before answering, "it's complicated". Boy, that was the understatement of the century.
When Maddie came back to her bench from getting a drink of water, Chris was still there, holding the pager. "C'mon dude, leave it alone" she said, holding out her hand waiting for him to give it back.
"I'm seriously sorry! It started vibrating and fell off the bench so I grabbed it... but I think I deleted the message," he said.
Her heart began to beat fast in her chest, "It...what....you.....what?!" She asked frantically. "There was a message-- a code I think, 6399, but it's gone now" he said.
"Fuck you, Chris," she said, packing up her things and heading for the door "don't touch my stuff every again."
Maddie hurried to the street, where her Uber was waiting to take her to 182 Franklin. The driver noticed she was nervous the whole way to her destination, and asked "everything OKAY Ms?"
Yeah... I think I pissed my boss off, and I'm just nervous to see how much trouble I'm in", she replied. "Bosses are the worst, they just love to fuck ya however they can." He said, trying to encourage her.