‘Ladies and gents, moving to standing strength positions now.’ Kamal is speaking softly but his eyes are burning into Amanda and me.
We move silently into warrior two: back leg straight, front leg bent, both arms held out from our shoulders. All the while, I’m trying to breathe through my anger.
‘I’m just saying, now might be a good time to find out whether Gregory loves you back.’
We move into upward warrior two, a similar position but with one arm raised in the air and the other back and pointed to the ground. I follow my fingertips to look up at the ceiling. Salt water trickles down my cheek.
‘What if he doesn’t?’ I inhale the words to myself.
Though I’m sure Amanda doesn’t hear me, she does say, ‘Then at least you’ll know.’
Will I go? Should I tell him?
We comply with Kamal’s instruction and move into triangle pose.Ouch, this one always hurts my inner thigh but the distraction from other thoughts is welcome.
‘Anyway, what’s going on with you and Williams?’
‘Meh.’ She flippantly wafts a hand. ‘Just fun.’
I exhale and bend forward between my legs so I’m looking at the top of her head.
‘Really, it seems like more than fun to me.’ My words sound strangely garbled from upside down. ‘You’ve seen him a lot over the last five weeks.’
She lifts her head until she’s looking at what must be my very red face and rolls her eyes.
‘I’m just saying.’See how you like it.
‘Actually, I’ve decided to cool it. I’m not going to see him for a while.’
‘For a while. Right. So you do intend to see him again?’
We both stand and follow Kamal’s direction to strike chair pose. We bend our legs to a seated position and thrust our arms in the air.
‘Shoulders down, don’t let them ride to your ears. Relax. Slip deeper on each exhale. In, full. Out, down.’
‘Would you stop twisting everything I say, please?’ Her words are scolding but there’s a faint upturn at the corners of her lips.
‘You like him.’
‘Stop. I don’t want all thatstuff. I’m not ready to be grown-up and serious. I’m just in a playful place. It’s like Carrie Bradshaw says: play in your twenties, learn lessons in your thirties and pay the bill in your forties.’
I smile, remembering our obsession with watching reruns ofSex and the Cityin pyjamas, with a gluttonous stash of chocolate and popcorn, at university.
‘That she does.’
‘I’m clinging to the last year or so of fun in my twenties.’
‘Let’s take it to the floor, ladies and gents, and lengthen our spines.’ We move down to our mats in response to Kamal’sinstructions. I’m grateful; my clothes are now sodden with the sweat teeming out of me and my legs are beginning to feel like jelly.
Amanda flops onto her back and sighs, throwing her arms out from her shoulders and letting her head fall to the side to look at me.
‘I thought you said Williams is just fun. In which case, doesn’t he count as playing in your twenties?’
‘Urgh!’ She groans, bringing her arms to flop across her face.
The smile that tugs on my lips is quickly wiped away by the sight of a vexed-looking Kamal standing over us. ‘Ladies, pipe down or leave. People are trying to get into this whether you are or not.’
‘Sorry, Kamal,’ we sing in unison.
