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“Movements. Things sounds vague.”
“Right. Movements.” Lauren faced the camera again. “Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m a sports massage therapist here at the gym, and today I’m going to take you through three simple movements you can do before training to get your body ready and reduce—”
“Not reduce. Beth checked with the insurers. We can’t claim injury prevention.”
“I wasn’t going to say injury.”
“You were about to.”
“I was about to say reduce the chance of feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus tomorrow morning.”
Beth made a noise into her mug.
Carly ignored her. “Too casual.”
“It’s true.”
“It still needs to be credible.”
Lauren’s smile thinned. “Okay. Credible.”
She started again, standing a little too straight, hands clasped in front of her.
“Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m a sports massage therapist here at the gym, and today I’ll be demonstrating three simple movements that can be incorporated into your pre-training routine to support mobility and general preparation.”
Beth slowly lowered her mug.
Even Carly knew it was awful.
“Better?” Lauren asked.
“No.”
“Great. Good. Fun process.”
“It sounded like you were reading the back of a supplement tub,” Beth said.
“I was aiming for credible.”
“You looked like you’d been taken hostage.”
Lauren pointed at her. “Thank you. That is exactly how I felt.”
Carly’s grip tightened on the clipboard. “It needs to look professional.”
“It will,” Lauren said. “But if you make me talk like I’m applying for a mortgage, nobody’s going to watch it.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“It kind of is.”
Carly had her reasons lined up before Lauren had finished. Brand consistency. Medical claims. A week of posts that had vanished without trace, and no room to waste this chance. But Beth was looking at her too, biscuit halfway to her mouth, saying nothing for once.
The reasons suddenly sounded thinner.
Lauren softened first. Annoyingly.
“Let me do one take my way,” she said. “If it’s rubbish, we delete it, and I’ll say movements in a professional voice until we all lose the will to live.”
