His grin widens. “Ah, yes. The universal sign of emotional intelligence.”
I huff but can’t quite fight back a smile as I slide onto my stool at the counter. Not my stool, obviously, because I don’t have a usual stool. That would imply I spend too much time here. Which I don’t. Obviously.
He finishes wiping down the machine, then leans against the counter, arms crossed, looking at me expectantly. “So… to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Just passing through,” I say breezily. “Thought I’d make sure you haven’t set up some kind of underground yoga cult in my absence.”
He smirks. “Not yet. But Lucy’s been asking about you. She seems to think your presence improves the class.”
I scoff. “Doubtful.”
“Well, she disagrees.” He stacks some coffee cups, glancing at me. “You made an impression.”
I shrug. “She’s five. I could have done a star jump, and she’d think I was an Olympic gymnast.”
Theo chuckles. “True, but she was pretty sure you’d be back. She told me you like yoga.”
I hold a laugh. “Lies. Slander. Defamation.” I shift in my seat and grimace. “Although… I did do yoga yesterday. And now I regret everything.”
His eyebrows lift. “You did yoga? On your own?”
“Don’t sound so shocked,” I say, crossing my arms. “I’m very disciplined.”
He leans on the counter, smirking. “Mmhmm. So, how’d it go?”
I groan. “Terrible. Everything hurts. I think my hamstrings are staging a coup.” I roll my shoulders and wince. “If I have to do one more downward dog, I might just stay down.”
Theo grins. “See, that’s why you’ve got to stick with the class. At least then you’ll suffer with moral support.”
“More like communal humiliation.”
“Depends on how you look at it,” he says, boxing up some cake from the vitrine. “You could always come back Monday. We’ll be there.”
I hesitate, stretching my sore arm like that’ll somehow loosen the internal tension, too. “I don’t know…”
Theo shrugs, like he genuinely doesn’t care either way. “Up to you. Just saying, suffering’s more fun when it’s a group activity.”
“That sounds like something a cult leader would say.”
“If I start handing out matching robes, you’ll know to run.”
I laugh, but even as the sound fades, something tugs at the back of my mind.
Pee-Pee’s words.Do it for you.
I hadn’t really considered that before. That I might actually want to go.
Because, pain aside, yoga has been… weirdly nice. Not just the movement itself, though that part surprises me.
Exercise and I have never exactly been on friendly terms. At my size, it’s not always easy. There’s that unspoken expectation that working out should be about shrinking myself, about changing, about fixing. But yoga hasn’t felt like that.
I mean, sure, I wobble in certain poses, and some stretches feel like they were designed by an actual sadist, but none of that has made me feel like I don’t belong. My body still works in yoga—it moves, it adjusts, it holds its own. And even when it doesn’t, there’s no judgment.
And, okay, maybe I enjoyed hanging out with Theo and Lucy. It’s hard not to enjoy Lucy’s unfiltered enthusiasm, the way she throws herself into everything like she’s the main character in a high-stakes action movie. And Theo… well.
And maybe—maybe—I liked the feeling of being part of something.
I glance at him. “How did you even get into yoga, anyway?”
