“I only made you go to the raw food place one time.” I dropped to my knees, and the orange cat wove back and forth between my forearms while I twisted my head to avoid getting a face full of tail. “And it was good. Admit it.” I’d been on a clean food kick at the time, but I still thought about the green juice with star fruit and kiwi. Maybe I could figure out how to recreate it and get some use out of my mostly neglected kitchen.
“It was grass in a glass.” Alex sank into cow pose, and the cat who’d been playing with her hair seized the opportunity to jump on her back, making biscuits on her butt before curling into a ball.
She glanced over her shoulder at the new passenger before sinking slowly into child’s pose. Yoga might be good for clearing the mind but cat yoga—while adorable—was a bit of a free-for-all.
“They cook the food.” I gave up and followed her into child’s pose, snuggling the kitty to me with one arm before it decided it wanted to sit on my head or something equally objectionable. It immediately began purring and bumping its head against my cheek. Which might make me a cat yoga convert.
For the first time in the whole class, the room was quiet. I glanced around just long enough to see my friends and the rest of the participants cuddled in various positions with an assortment of felines. Some in the child pose like the teacher instructed but many, like Kindra, simply holding purring cats. My kitty snuggled in my arms and started a rumbling purr that had me reconsidering the whole no-pets rule.
After class, I sent Jake a text while I waited in the yoga studio lobby for my friends. I had to get out of there before I did something crazy, like roll my new furry friend up in my yoga mat to smuggle home.
ME
I just did yoga with a cat. Did you have any pets growing up?
JAKE
Yes, a dog.
JAKE
Do you mean you and the cat did yoga together or was it like goat yoga where the animals just run all over the place?
ME
Like goat yoga but no hooves which I think must be much better. What kind of dog? What was his name?
JAKE
A mutt with some kind of terrier. He came from the pound. We named him Turing.
The name sounded familiar. I thought for a moment, trying to place it, before giving up and googling it.
ME
Like the computer science guy?
JAKE
Exactly like that but without the opposable thumbs.
“Business or personal?” asked Kindra.
I’d been so caught up in my conversation with Jake, I hadn’t heard her approach.
“Personal,” I said, still smiling to myself. It had always been personal with Jake butgetting to know youconversations were a new experience. One I wanted more of.
“It’s good to see you smiling like that over something personal.” She put a hand on my arm, and I leaned into her. “Do you want to talk about him?”
“He’s my friends-with-benefits guy.” It felt wrong describing Jake like that now. “It’s just turned into so much more.”
“What’s turned into more?” Charlotte pinned me with her attorney gaze, while Alex and Meredith flanked her.
“Nothing that can’t wait until I’ve got a plate with hollandaise-covered eggs in front of me,” I said, putting off the inevitable.
“That’s fair,” said Alex, swinging her rolled yoga mat over her shoulder. “Lead on.”
We made the short walk to the restaurant my client recommended and took a seat at one of the tables in the garden.
