“Of course,” she said.
“Great!” Tanner turned to me. “I’ll see you in a few minutes. Room three.” He walked off down the hallway.
Olga walked around the reception desk. “So there are a few things you need to know.”
“Okay…”
“First, you must shower before entering the sauna.”
“Sauna?”
Olga smiled. “Yes. This is a Finnish sauna. The very best in the city.”
“What about the pitch meeting?”Does Tanner conduct his pitch meetings in a Finnish sauna?Rich people were so weird.
She ignored my question and led me down the hall to the women’s room.
“There are fresh towels there,” she said, pointing to a stack of pristine white towels. “Please sit on one in the sauna.”
“Quick question. How likely am I to get a horrible butt fungus today?”
Olga looked shocked. “This sauna is a place of health and purity. There is no butt fungus.”
“Pinky promise?”
“I do not know what that means. Any other questions?”
“Uh…” I had so many questions. Mainly I was wondering why the hell Tanner conducted his meetings here. But I also wanted to know more about their sanitation methods. I still wasn’t convinced about the whole no-butt-fungus thing. I didn’t think I was going to get any more out of Olga though. “Nope. I’m all set.”
“Excellent. Enjoy your sauna. If you’d like a lemonade or a sausage, just order through the app.”
A lemonade or a sausage? What the actual fuck?
Before I could think anymore about that gag-inducing pairing, the water in one of the showers cut off and a girl in a towel stepped out. Then she walked straight out of the bathroom, not bothering to change.
By the time she was gone, I realized that I should have followed her. Because I literally had no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing. I would have just left, but I was still so jazzed about getting to playShark Tankwith Tanner. Even if I had to listento the pitches while wearing a towel and sweating my ass off. Honestly, I would have been sweating my ass off either way from my nerves, so it probably worked in my favor that now I could blame it on the sauna.
There were still a few showers running, so I stripped out of my work clothes and threw a towel around my naked body. Yeah, I know I was supposed to shower. But I didn’t want to mess up my makeup and I didn’t want to get foot fungus, so the public shower was a no-go.
I waited patiently for another girl to finish showering, and then I followed her out of the bathroom. She walked down the hall and through a pair of double doors. And then we were freaking outside. On the roof of a skyscraper. In the middle of New York.Why did no one ever talk about the fact that there were five giant wooden saunas on the roof of this building?In winter it might have felt like Finland up here. But in late spring, it was already starting to feel a lot like a sauna.
Except for the wind, which nearly tore my towel right off my body. I reached out just in time to avoid giving all the nearby office buildings a great look at my naked body. In retrospect, I really should have kept my underwear on.
Oh well. No going back now.
I found the sauna labeledthreeand walked inside. Within half a second, I wasdrenchedin sweat. But for the first time, it wasn’t nervous sweat. Well, maybe a little bit. But mostly just good sweat. If that was a thing. It was more humid than Florida in the middle of summer.
My focus quickly shifted from the awful humidity to Tanner. Because he was sitting right by the stove with a towel wrapped around his waist. His skin glistened with sweat, accentuating every muscle.Damn.Now I was soaked everywhere, and not just from sweat.
“I was beginning to think you’d chickened out,” he said, waving me over.
“No way.”
His eyes went to the heels I was still wearing. “Uh, you know you’re supposed to go barefoot, right?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“I have to admit, heels and a towel is a good look for you.” He patted the spot next to him. “Take a seat.”
