“Nooooo, she’s my brother’s girl.” Jake holds up his hands. “But she’s about your size, maybe a little shorter.”

“Damn,” Mara mutters.

“You can try a stepladder,” I offer.

Mara glares at me. “Not funny. All right, come get me.”

Scared I’ll hurt her, I don’t hold on too tight at first. Jake shows me a better way to place my arms and we try it again.

“Come on, Lilly. Don’t wuss out on me,” Mara coaxes.

I squeeze tighter until she gasps, but she still works her way out of the hold rather fast.

Heidi volunteers to kneel down for Mara so she can finally get to play attacker.

“Good job, ladies. It’s good to practice different scenarios. Not every situation will be as calm and controlled.”

“Nor will we be wearing comfy work-out clothes,” Mara points out.

Jake taps his chin and pauses for a minute. “You make a good point. A lot of the stuff you ladies have to wear to work hampers your ability to properly defend yourself. Sully and I were talking about a class to address that, but not a lot of people want to ruin their work clothes. There are some things we can talk about. Like if you wear heels, using them to kick shins or stab into an attacker’s foot.”

“So violent,” Mara jokes.

“It’s a brutal world.”

It certainly is.

“All right, how about some floor work? This is more…intimate, so I’ll let you practice on each other.”

I see what he means a few seconds later when Hope lies back on the mat and Trinity straddles her hips.

Jake explains the basic premise and then the moves to ward off the attacker.

“This is only because I love you,” Trinity says before wrapping her hands around Hope’s neck.

“Jake.” Hope huffs, already visibly straining to get out of Trinity’s hold. “This feels unevenly matched.”

“An attacker isn’t always going to be a five-foot-seven, hundred-and-thirty-pound woman, Hope.”

“Oh, aren’t you sweet,” she mutters. “I haven’t seen a hundred and thirty since college.”

“Stop yapping and start moving,” Trinity squeezes her legs tighter against Hope’s hips. “You don’t want the guys to show up to find me still pinning you down.”

“Why?” she gasps. “They’d probably love the show.”

“Triceps, Hope,” Jake reminds her. “Hug your elbows in. There you go. Hips up.”

Mara leans closer to me. “I consider this foreplay in my house.”

I burst out laughing. “Of course, you do.”

“Same, girl, same,” Charlotte says.

Heidi rolls her eyes. “Gross.”

Hope grunts and twists. Even though I know they’re both friends, their struggle is hard to watch.

In a burst of concentrated effort, Hope configures her legs just right. She gets enough leverage to flip Trinity onto her back and rolls on top of her. “Finally.” She thrusts her fists up in the air. “Phew!”