Pushing hands into the foamy yoga mat, Chelsea arched her back and tilted her head backwards. Everyone around her did the same, including the cute instructor out in front. His thick, sculpted arms attracted wistful looks from many attendants of this all-female yoga class.
Chelsea allowed herself a glance or two as well. She wasn't nearly as blatant as her friend on the other mat, who practically devoured the young hunk with her gleaming, hungry eyes. The slender brunette brought her chin towards her generously exposed cleavage, a smoldering gaze from under her long eyelashes fixed unerringly on the handsome stud.
"Kelly!" Chelsea scolded her in a loud whisper. "Did you forget again that you're married?"
"Hmph! Maybe I would remember it better if Dave wasn't always at work," she said, referring to her perennially absent husband. "I bet he's banging that huge-breasted secretary of hers, so why shouldn't I --"
"Because our Colin here has a
girlfriend,"
an auburn-haired woman chimed in from behind them, as she followed Colin's instruction to bend her spine the other way now. "And I hate to say it but I saw that chick on the treadmill the other day, and she's clearly hotter than either of us."
"Oh really? And how does Chelsea fare in this comparison?"
The redhead scoffed with a smirk. "As if you had to ask! You know there is no competition. With those big knockers and that perfect wide ass, Chelsea would wrap Colin around her finger if she so much as winked at him!"
"Miranda!" the woman in question exclaimed, a blush coming over her face. "Don't say silly things like that!"
Chelsea's cheeks got even redder when she realized that several people around them stared at her and squinted disapprovingly. Her sudden outburst was thankfully the only part of their hushed conversation that reached the onlookers' ears. It also meant she bore the brunt of other women's silent judgments, which were no doubt mixed with an unhealthy dose of envy, as they all had a good look at Chelsea's smoking hot body.
The awkward moment lasted only a few seconds, for a timid voice came from the back of the small studio.
"Sorry! I'm sorry! I know I'm late!... Excuse me... Thank you..."
"Mrs Richardson," said the instructor, smiling at the flustered woman. "I'm glad you could join us. Your friends left you a spot right there." He pointed at the mat next to Miranda.
"Hey, Courtney," the woman greeted her friend with a grin. "Bad traffic?"
"Yeah, I wish it was just that," her taller friend replied with a sigh. She got on her hands and knees, pushing her shapely ass up as she assumed the downward dog position.
The rest of the class passed without incident. About half an hour later, Chelsea and her friends thus found themselves in the gradually emptying studio. They had their eyes on Kelly, who kept casting longing glances at the instructor and his strapping, enticingly muscular physique.
"Good job today, ladies," he told them, flashing a polite smile. "See you all next week as always?"
"Sure!" they all replied, while Kelly gave him a wink and a coquettishly pawing wave.
As he left, after reminding them that the next class started in fifteen minutes, the group's attention eventually shifted to the latecomer Courtney.
She was a statuesque, well-built, very fit yet pretty modest woman, who had her long brown hair braided in a thick ponytail. Like her friends she was in her thirties, albeit closer to three-O -- as opposed to four-O -- than Kelly and especially Chelsea. She would get her fair share of attention from the opposite sex, which, as it turned out, was one of the reasons for her late arrival.
"Here, at the gym?" Miranda asked with a frown. "Some pricks were leering at you when you walked by?"
Courtney shook her head. "No. Well, yes. But they weren't just looking. I mean, we're all kinda used to guys stealing glances at us, right? Chelsea in particular..." She looked at the shorter blonde, whose cheeks were once again flush with coy redness. "Nothing wrong with it, I say, and it's not like we are completely innocent in this regard either."
Everyone looked at Kelly, who responded with an exasperated eye roll. "Shut it, okay?"
"Anyway, these guys," Courtney continued, "they, uh, they didn't just look or stare. Heck, I would take getting called a hot babe or whatever, because they were clearly just dumb eighteen- or nineteen-year-olds. But when I walked by the benches, one of them actually reached with his hand -- and he was laying down, and lifting a dumbbell with his other hand -- he reached out and fucking slapped me on the butt!"
"Jesus!" Miranda gasped, along with the other two women. "That's way beyond creepy! What the hell?! I'm so, so sorry, Courtney!"
Everyone agreed, nodding their heads solemnly. They offered both their sympathy and outrage, giving their friend warm hugs and adding their own exclamations and flowery expletives.
"So," Chelsea eventually said, "what did you do? You told the staff, right?"
"I did," Courtney replied, struggling but ultimately succeeding to hold back tears. "Discreetly, of course... And they handled it well, all things considered, because like a minute later this huge massive guy approached those dumb kids and immediately kicked them out. I've been told they had their memberships revoked, and they won't be able to sign up again -- not here, nor at any other Push-Up Gym in the country."
"Good," Miranda said. "Serves them right. The one who slapped you should count himself lucky that you didn't just call the cops and press charges!"
Courtney shook her head. "Too much hassle," she said with sigh. "Besides, I learned that all of them were barely eighteen, still in high school, so I wouldn't feel great if I saddled the brat with an SA on his record."
"Wow! That
is
young! And they're fucking assaulting random women? What the fuck! The hell is wrong with men these days?"
"It's all because of the stupid internet and social media," Kelly piped in, and the group's attention quickly focused on her. "Yeah, it's true... I read about it on WhiteCloud the other day. Apparently, many young men are falling prey to those misogynistic influencers, that turn them into incels who think that women actually
want
to be treated like this!"
"What? Geez, that's awful," Courtney said. "Good on you, Kelly, that you're keeping up with stuff like this. Your boys are like what, nine and ten? They'll be teenagers before you know it, so you really need to make sure they don't see any of this crap on their phones!"
Her friend nodded. "Believe me, I worry about it all the time..."
There was a momentary lull in the conversation, before Miranda picked up a thought that had just popped in her head. "Wait, you said those guys were eighteen? That's how old Chelsea's son is, isn't he?"
All eyes turned to the curvaceous blonde, as she once again got a little flustered. "Uhm, yeah," she said quietly. "Tyler had his birthday a few weeks ago..."
"Better make sure he doesn't fall for this crap either," Kelly said. "I know he's a clever and well-behaved boy, but I don't recall you ever mentioning his girlfriend. Does he have one? It's important for guys his age to date and, well, you know"--she made a gesture with one hand, like a half of scare quotes--"or else they might eventually become incels."
"Incels?" Chelsea asked, her voice tinged with worry. "What is that?"
"Involuntary celibates," she said, this time completing the air quote. "Guys who want to get laid but can't, so they blame women for all their failures. The internet is full of them. They have this weird coded language, with 'Chads' and 'alphas' and 'Stacies' and whatnot, and it's all just a cover-up for their awful misogyny. Why do you think there's all this talk about women getting harassed online, especially in video games? It's all because of incels!"
"Oh! Oh dear, no!" Chelsea sounded genuinely distressed. "That's terrible! I wouldn't forgive myself if Tyler became someone like that!"
"Don't worry, I'm sure your son is smart enough not to fall for such idiotic tripe," Courtney cheered her up. "He would never disrespect a woman, and he certainly isn't like
those
jerks!"
"Well, I hope you're right..."
But despite the reassuring words of her friend, Chelsea remained quite worried. As she drove back from the gym, she kept thinking about her eighteen-year-old son and the state of his love life, such as it was.
She realized it was true: Tyler didn't seem to have much of a success with the opposite sex. She knew he did fancy women, if only by the furtive looks he'd give her friends whenever they came over, so this wasn't the case of a lack of sexual interest. The content of his trash can, on the rare occasions when he forgot to empty it himself, would readily confirm this fact through some very abundant, very sticky evidence.
But a girlfriend? No, not really. Not even a hint of one. His only visitors were some decidedly male friends from school, who sometimes came over to play games on the TV console down in the basement.
When she thought about it more, the last time Chelsea had seen any female ask about Tyler was when he got sick with strep throat in ninth grade. Some pale, visibly bored girl with dark hair and a mouth full of chewing gum dropped by to give him the list of topics that the teachers went over in his absence. She didn't even come inside and simply handed the pile of papers to Chelsea, running off as soon the woman had taken it from her bony hands.