After seventeen hours of humiliation on social media, our CEO's public apology finally came. His profile picture changed: serious at work, no tongue out, no abs showing. You are a number. That was the kindest comment I could find. And I searched a lot… I spent a long time scrolling on Twitter while the rain flowed down the tinted windows of the gym. I was a new employee, very interested in the controversy that had erupted because my skin was at risk. My soft, toned, tight skin, skin for advertising, skin for sales, skin that would make you believe that if you trained with me, you would achieve perfect fitness and stay forever young. Not that I had advertised it much. It would have been dangerous. I knew what it was like to have your profile torn apart, so I felt relief when the social media mob scattered and dissolved with the post the CEO made to clean up the damage:

I sincerely apologize. What can I say? Sometimes I’m an idiot. I had no bad intentions, but I accept that what I said and did was insensitive. To the highest degree. I promise to try harder to make our gyms more inclusive for people marginalized due to disability. Starting with this new offer. The offer? Twelve weeks of personal training at half price for blind, deaf clients, clients in wheelchairs, clients with prosthetic limbs, or those facing learning difficulties. Twelve weeks to make amends to those mocked by the businessman-former international rugby player in a twelve-minute video on YouTube, which has now been deleted.