Thank you. For the sex and also the other stuff.
I sipped my hot chocolate and watched the screen, hoping he’d reply. He didn’t have to. I hadn’t asked a question, but part of me wasn’t ready to be done talking. I’d almost given up and reached for my e-reader again when my phone buzzed.
JAKE
I meant to ask when you were here. Would you like to go to the Hope and Help Benefit with me? My friend’s got a table he needs to fill and it’s worth more than my my skin to avoid disappointing his wife. Not that I don’t want to spend the evening with you. I do. That would be the good part. I promise not to wear a T-shirt.
I laughed at the movie reference even as my heart climbed up into my throat. Jake had asked me on an actual date. One I couldn’t say yes to.
ME
I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m already going with someone.
ME
A client.
I hurried to add the last bit so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea, even as part of me wondered if it really was the wrong idea. John saw it as a date. Part of me had too, the part that had been trying to make peace with dating a client.
JAKE
Dammit. It’s going to be hard to justify the itchy clothes if I don’t get to wear them with you. Maybe another time.
Jake asked me to spend the night and then he asked me on a date. I wanted both of those things which meant I wanted to date Jake. I thought about it for a moment, checking my feelings. We might not have started as a relationship, but it turned out that was exactly what I wanted. At the very least, I needed time to see if we could be something more to each other. I shoved aside, for a moment, thoughts of what it would be like to share a space with Jake. I could deal with that later, if we actually became the kind of people who did that together. For now, I wanted a chance to find out what else we could be to each other.
I couldn’t cancel on John. Regardless of whatever else he might hope to be, he was a client. An important one. He needed to meet the community, and I needed to do whatever I could to facilitate the approvals for his project.
ME
I really can’t get out of the benefit with my client but I’m helping my friend throw a party for her partner. Want to be my plus one?
His response was immediate, and I pictured him propped against the pillows in his bed. The bed I should be snuggled up in with Jake curled around me.
JAKE
It’s a date.
Clutching my cooling cocoa, I grinned until I thought my cheeks would hurt. There was no mistaking or second-guessing this time. I had a date with Jake.
24
“There was supposed to be pastry.” Alex slid into a wobbly warrior pose, letting out a groan as she sank into the stretch. “I thought you all held planning sessions at Meredith’s.”
“Yoga calms the mind and clears space for plans.” Meredith eased deeper into the lunge; her pale arms reaching gracefully out to either side. She’d braided her long red hair into a single plait that stretched down her back. She looked like she belonged on the cover ofYoga Monthly, even with the tabby cat winding his way around her legs.
“Whatever you say, Yoda.” Alexa straightened and stepped back into mountain, startling the calico who’d worked up the nerve to approach her yoga mat.
“We’re getting food after, right?” asked Charlotte, looking slightly alarmed.
I shared Charlotte’s feelings, if not Alex’s temporary aversion to yoga. Especially not the cat kind. I couldn’t imagine downward dog with baby goats, but the cat yoga class was a treat. Growing up, my mother would have sooner gone out with chipped nails than allow an animal in our space. Despite the urge to have someone living to come home to, I couldn’tsee myself as a pet owner. I worked too much for a dog, and I couldn’t reconcile the potential risk of claw marks on my furniture with having a cat. Kitty cuddles and yoga made a decent compromise.
I’d slept surprisingly well considering it hadn’t been the bed I’d really wanted to be in and woke up thinking about Jake and our date. Or obsessing about it depending on how you wanted to look at it. I could use a little mind clearing this morning, with eggs Benedict after.
“I booked a reservation for us at that place on Decatur,” I said, moving into downward dog. “A client recommended it. They’re supposed to have an exceptional brunch.” I made psss psss psss noises at a big orange tom cat who sauntered over to bump his head against my forehead.
“I’ve heard of that place. That sounds great,” said Kindra. Of the five of us, she seemed to be most into the spirit of early morning cat yoga. She’d abandoned the active poses and settled into full lotus, stroking the tortoise shell who’d nestled itself in her lap. I could hear the purring from my mat.
“But they have real food, right? That they cook?” Alex, stretched out in downward dog, turned her head and blew her dark hair out of her face to pin me with an upside-down gaze.
