Hopefully, my body would love me after giving this a try. I doubted it, but one could dream.
The last time I tried yoga, I’d ended up leaving about halfway through the class. My joints had been so angry at me, my muscles protesting the entire time. I’d been fucking embarrassed. And as a professional athlete, there was truly something horrifying about that. It picked at all the soft parts I did my best to hide. The parts that screamed I was never good enough to be a professional athlete to begin with. The part that screamed I should have listened to my coach about stretching more. It was clear I should have taken better care of myself over the years.
I had a spreadsheet for all the exercises I was doing now. I even made a weekly schedule table and checked each color-coded day off when I completed them. Even though I was off the team for now, I had to maintain some sense of normalcy, andhaving my life organized helped. It was what got me through college and through the pressure of maintaining my grades while being an athlete.
Keeping my life down on paper was something I preferred to do even with BDSM relationships. I had an entire spreadsheet full of kinks and how I rated them, along with blank forms for if and when I was with someone. I always deleted old files if the relationship ended, too. But Ilovedhaving everything outlined in little details.
I was a freak inallthe sheets.
I liked having references to what my partner or partners liked. Although, I was a little rusty to all of that now.
The idea of filling out kink spreadsheets with Mateo and Avery was a huge turn on. And the moment it crossed my mind, I used all my strength to push it back out.
I carried my mat across the grass, adjusting my sunglasses to keep the sun from blinding me. The sun was barely up, but the heat already had sweat trickling down my back.
Yoga in the park. Who even was I? The sidewalk eventually turned into a path that cut through grass, leading to a gazebo large enough to host ten people. I counted a few familiar faces as I walked up, my lungs squeezing a breath out.
I hadn’t thought about the fact that I’d be doing yoga with people who knew me. Also hadn’t thought about the fact that Avery and Mateo might be here.
Avery was wearing yoga shorts.Fuck me.
“Hey, look who it is,” Austin called.
He grinned as I approached, clasping my shoulder gently and dragging me into a hug.
“Morning,” I grumbled, forcing myself to not immediately focus on Avery and Mateo and the way they were standing as far away from each other as possible.
Had I missed something? I was no mind reader, but the energy between them was off. Avery wouldn’t look at him. Mateo was only looking at her.
Two women stood next to Avery and one of them smirked at me while the other one with pink hair stared me down like I’d committed some sort of crime against humanity.
Avery smiled at me. “Surprised to see you here, Minnesota.”
“I told him about it,” Austin said proudly. “And for once, all of us got off our asses on a Sunday morning.”
“Hey,” Dallas quipped.
It’d been a while since I’d seen him, but I’d know Dallasanywhere. I held out my hand as he approached and he pulled me into a hug before drawing back.
“How are you?” he asked.
“Hanging in there. Regretting getting up this early.”
“You and all of us,” Mateo mumbled.
“I have zero regrets, actually,” the pink-haired woman said. Tattoos crawled up her arms and my eyes widened when I realized they weren’t flowers—they were poisonous plants. She arched a brow at me. “I’m June.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“This is Evie,” Avery said, gesturing to her other friend.
Evie beamed and waved. “Hi, Levi. Welcome back to Whynot.”
“Thanks,” I answered.
Her attention turned back to June and Avery, and the three of them formed a tight knit circle. Occasionally, June would shoot Mateo the side-eye.
I very much felt like there were two teams here, and I was batting on the wrong one.
