Fowl Play (Tuft Swallow)

33. Kodi

CHAPTER 33

“Why do we have to talk here?”

Lily and Callie unroll their rubber mats on the wooden floor of Wingspan, the new yoga studio in town. I’ve heard Brian briefly talk about the owner, Caleb Masters, as someone he’s been networking with. I spied a pile of his business cards on the desk when we walked in.

“Kodi, this is a space of healing and zen. It’s a neutral place without memories for either of you, and should be a good spot for you to approach your issues with a fresh perspective,” Callie says, centering herself in a butterfly stretch on her mat.

I grumble a little as I grab one of the community mats in the corner next to an entire tower of plants. The whole wall is windows looking out onto the town square, and the more people arrive for the Saturday Sunrise Salutation class, the stupider I think this plan of Callie’s is.

“No offense, Callie, but I don’t think this is a great location for any conversation,” I hiss, not wanting to raise my voice. I’m already used to the Nosy Pecker blasting my romantic relationships across the front page; I’m not sure that I want to give them any more ammunition regarding the platonic ones.

“It’ll be good for you—us, I mean.” Lily takes position in the center of her mat, attempting a lotus pose with both her feet pointing to the ceiling. With her thicker thighs, she ends up fumbling each time she tries to get the second foot in the right position, as it sends her legs sprawling apart whenever she tries to wedge it through the crease of her knee.

“Have you ever even done yoga?”

“It’s literally stretching, how hard can it be?”

A snort comes from somewhere behind us as Lily’s other leg snaps open, and she finally gives up on the pose. She pulls her knees to her chest, and Callie furrows her brow.

“Didn’t Brian tell you you should be doing more stretches anyway?”

I roll my eyes. “I stretch every day. PT, remember?”

“And how’s that working for you?” Lily whispers.

The room is filling in fast around us. Already, there are over a dozen of us here at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. A few I even recognize from the cornhole team, including Ginger and Geneva.

“It’s getting better.”

Geneva waves at me eagerly as I scan the room, her attention snapping to Caleb as he walks into the room with a bluetooth boombox. Immediately behind him is Brian.

Fuck.

I didn’t think it was possible for my stomach to flutter and sink at the same time, but apparently there are all sorts of things my body’s capable of where Brian is concerned. Aside from a few texts, we haven’t spoken since running into my mother yesterday.

Are literally all of my relationships imploding this week?

I close my eyes, avoiding making eye contact with anyone as I put the soles of my feet together in a butterfly stretch and take a few deep breaths. As I do, I hear the last few stragglers roll out their mats and the sound of a soft, vamping electric guitar fills the room as Caleb connects his phone to the boombox.

“Namaste,” his rich voice calls out into the room.

“Namaste,” the class responds in unison. I can pick out Lily and Callie’s voices beside me, as well as Brian’s husky morning baritone directly behind me. My heart skips a beat as my body remembers the last time I heard that deep voice rumble through me.

I open my eyes. Is it warm in here? The sign outside didn’t say “Hot Yoga,” but I swear the temperature just rose about ten degrees. I glance around, trying to see if there are any heat lamps.

There aren’t. I tug at the collar of my t-shirt.

“Thank you all for joining me for our Sunrise Yoga. The purpose of today’s class is to ease the transition from sleep into a state of mindfulness for the day ahead. We’re just going to start with a series of breaths from a comfortable, seated, cross-legged position. If at any point, you feel the need for a bolster or a pillow to allow yourself to reach a more comfortable or supported stretch, please feel free to help yourself to one from the basket by the windows.”

A few of the older members of the class rise to grab a pillow or two. As Caleb waits for them to return to their mats, I feel a hand brush against my shoulder.

Brian leans his head close to my ear. “It’s good to see you here.”

My neck flushes even hotter. “Ha, yeah. You too,” I whisper back.

Lily and Callie share a look, and I glare at them. Lily raises an eyebrow.

Ah, shit. Now she thinks something happened between us.

I mean, she’s right, but I don’t want to give her that kind of satisfaction before we’ve had our talk. If she realizes that Brian and I fooled around after she sent him to my apartment to do just that, she’s not going to feel the least bit sorry about going behind my back.

“Okay, now try to focus on sitting tall as we breathe in. Picture a string at the top of your head pulling all the way to the base of your spine…”

Lily’s breath tickles my ear as she leans in and whispers beside me. “I know I love to feel a stretch at the base of my spine…”

I close my eyes and purse my lips, ignoring her. Just trying to focus on the breathing. In…out. In…out.

“As you breathe in, feel the tension in your body, and then release it on the exhale. In: tension, two, three; out: relaxation, three, four. In…”

In: Lily’s smug little face. Out: shoving everyone out of my business.

In—my face, out—of my business.

In…out…

“Hmmm, in and out. Kinda makes you think of something else, you know?”

I grit my teeth at Lily’s teasing. Her voice is low enough that only I can hear her, but I do my best to ignore it. I know, in her own way, she’s trying to make me laugh and break the tension between us. And another time, another day, with another guy, maybe it would work.

But the fact of the matter is, Brian isn’t a joke to me. Fake relationship or not, the help and confidence he’s been giving me is real. And that isn’t just about sex. It’s about so much more than that, with my knee, with my rehab…

With the rest of my body…

In, out.

In, out.

“Now on this next inhale I want you to reach your arms up and over your head, feeling that stretch in your spine and your shoulders…”

I open my eyes, lifting my arms with the rest of the class, then exhale and let them sweep to my side. It actually does feel nice, after sitting at a desk all week, and my back crackles a little as I breathe in and out of the stretch.

Lily’s hand brushes mine on the way down, and she giggles.

“Sorry.”

Ignore her…

In, out.

In, out.

“Alright, now this time as you breathe out, I want you to collapse forward and reach to the floor with your fingertips. Inhale, round your back, exhale, walk your fingers out a little more, deepening that stretch in your back.

“Now slowly rise to hands and knees, and we’re going to do cat/cow…”

He explains the next pose, in which we round our back on the exhale (cat), and then arch our backs on the inhale (cow), sticking our butts in the air and raising our heads to the ceiling. Which of course, means everytime we breathe in, my ass is directly in Brian’s face.

“Enjoying the view there, Brian?”

“Oh my God, shut up, Lily!”

I rise to a seated position on my knees, scowling at the woman beside me, totally disrupting the class. Faces turn to me in various states of right-side up and upside-down depending on who’s a cat and who’s a cow at the moment, and I feel absolutely humiliated at my outburst. I shake my head, muttering “excuse me,” as I scramble off my mat and run to the door.

Tears prick my eyes on my way there, and by the time I finally slam it behind me and sit down in one of the wooden chairs lining the entryway, they’re fully streaming down my cheeks.

What the hell is Lily’s problem? She does realize that her immature comments are not helpful, right? We’re twenty-four years old, for Pete’s sake, way too old for that kind of nonsense. Especially in fucking Tuft Swallow, where those sorts of things will be front-page news the next day.

The door clicks, and I look up.

Brian’s come out to check on me.

“Hey,” he mutters softly, sitting down beside me. “What’s wrong?”

“You didn’t hear her in there?”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t hear Lily say anything.”

Well, fuck. I guess she was being more discreet than I realized.

So now I’m the one who looks like an asshole.

I rub my face with my hands. Inhale, exhale.

I never want to stop rubbing my eyes. “She’s being a fucking idiot.”

“What did she do?”

“She still hasn’t apologized.”

“For what?” He tilts his head quizzically. I peek at him between my fingers.

“For sending you to my apartment to fuck my troubles away!”

His eyes widen. “You’re still angry about that? After what happened?”

He places a hand on my arm, but I swat him away. “Yes, Brian, of course I’m angry. She literally went behind my back. You, at least, told me what the deal was and didn’t go along with it. Well,” I pause. Realizing that isn’t quite true. “I mean, you didn’t do it because she told you to.”

I freeze, terrified, staring at him. “You didn’t, right?”

“What? No, Kodi, of course not!” Genuine hurt flashes in his eyes, and I find myself believing him. “Everything that happened that night after I walked in the door had nothing to do with Lily.”

I let his words sink in. “She asked if you were enjoying the view.”

“What? When?”

“Just now. Before I yelled at her. When we were in cow pose.”

His face flushes, and he coughs. I swear I see a laugh sparkling in his eyes. “Ah, I see.”

I cross my arms, eying him. “You were fucking checking me out, weren’t you?”

He shrugs. I smack his shoulder.

“Hey now, can you blame me? I may have advised you to come here as a doctor, but I never said I was a saint–if you’re coming to yoga you better believe I’m gonna check out your ass whenever the opportunity presents itself.”

I try to glare at him, but I can’t quite keep the smirk from my eyes. “Pervert.”

“Guilty as charged.” He reaches out to rub my shoulder again, and this time I don’t push him away. “Wanna go back in there for hip openers?”

“Is that the doctor asking, or the pervert?”

“Both.” He grins.

I shake my head at him, then sweep the flyaway hairs out of my face. “I don’t want to sit next to Lily again.”

“We’ll roll out our mats in the back, by the windows. I won’t even be behind you this time, I promise.” He moves his hand down to my knee, and squeezes slightly. “I do think it’ll be good for you.”

I sigh. “Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”

“That’s my girl.”

The class ends with all of us in a position called dead bug, where we’re flat on our backs with our limbs curled up in the air, sinking our spine into the floor. When Caleb announces for us to take our time rising to a seated position, I stay on my back for a little longer than most of the group.

In fact, the only people left in the room by the time I roll upright are Lily, Callie, Caleb, and Brian.

“You alright there, Kodi? This was your first time. How did it feel?”

Brian reaches out a hand to steady me as I rise to my feet and take inventory of my body. I really think about Caleb’s question before answering, consciously trying to separate how I feel mentally (like shit) versus physically (pretty good, actually).

“Good. I liked it. Especially after spending all week at the desk.”

“It’s great for that,” Brian agrees. Caleb nods to him, and he pats me on the shoulder as he shifts his stance to the instructor. “Hey, Caleb, why don’t we talk a little more about that member discount idea I was telling you about…?”

The two of them move to the front of the room, and Lily gets out her wallet.

“This one’s on me, girls.” She puts the money for the class down by the boombox as the three of us leave. Brian locks eyes with me, and gives me an encouraging half-smile. My heart squeezes.

Everything that happened that night after I walked in that door had nothing to do with Lily.

“Thanks for paying, Lil,” Callie says, breaking the silence as we all walk aimlessly down Main Street. It’s a beautiful day outside, the perfect temperature for a morning stroll, and we end up heading in the direction of Bun in the Oven on instinct.

“Yeah, Lily. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

More silence stretches for about half a block, before Callie finally snaps.

“Ugh! I can’t take it anymore! This friend group doesn’t work when the two of you are fighting. You need to kiss and make up, okay? Now. Or no lattes.”

She freezes on the sidewalk in front of us, tossing her yoga bag to the ground and crossing her arms.

Lily takes a deep breath, and turns to me. “Kodi, I–”

“Stop.” I hold up my hand. Unlike Callie, I don’t have a bag to carry, so I find myself fidgeting as I talk. “Do you know why I’m angry with you?”

“Umm…” Lily blinks at me. “Because I said you were taking your unresolved anger at Coach out on the cornhole team?”

I pause for a moment as I take that in. Huh.

That’s what she thinks I’m angry about?

“No,” I start to say, then shake my head. “Actually, well…a little, but no. That’s–wait.” I take a deep breath, pinching my nose to refocus. “So you think it’s okay that you sent Brian to my house to have sex with me to get me to calm down after our fight? Like some kind of prostitute?”

“What??” Callie screams, arms flying down to her sides as she gapes at Lily. “You did what now??”

“I didn’t do that!!” Lily’s eyes bulge out of her head as she frantically tries to backtrack the conversation. “Holy shit, Callie, you were there. Brian saw our fight at the park that night, Kodi, and he asked why you were so upset. He could see something was hurting you, and he wanted to help.”

“Yeah. So you sent him to my house to seduce me with shrimp lo mein and Doritos. Which is totally unfair, by the way! You should know better than to use my love of lo mein against me.”

“I did not!” Lily stomps her foot. “Callie, back me up here. All I said was that this whole season has been really stressful for you, and has brought up a lot of old feelings from high school–which is true. And that I was really grateful that you had someone like him to help distract you from all of that, because I’d never seen you be with someone that made you so happy!”

“That is pretty much exactly what she said, Kodi. Along with telling him your favorite foods.” Callie’s face is gentler now, more one of concern than outrage. I glance between them.

Honestly, of all the things I thought Lily capable of, handling Brian’s concern with that much…grace was something I never would have expected.

Have I been seeing Lily all wrong? Am I actually the one that’s more immature in this relationship?

“What–what did he say to that?”

Lily’s eyes shine with a shy grin. “He said that he’s never met someone like you before. That he never would have known how much you were struggling if he hadn’t heard our fight. And that he wanted to make you feel better.”

“So then she said that he should take you out on a date to distract you on Friday night so you’d cancel cornhole practice–oof!” Lily elbows Callie in the arm and talks over her.

“You ended up calling off practice anyway, so it didn’t matter.” She shrugs as Callie rubs her arm. “But what happened? Why did you think that…”

When she trails off, I see the cogs turning in her brain, and my stomach twists. I brace myself the second I see the light bulb go off above her head, the most evil smile spreading across her face.

“OH MY GOD, KODI GANDER. YOU DID IT, DIDN’T YOU?”

Callie gasps, dropping her bag and covering her mouth with her hands as she connects the same dots, a mischievous twinkle sparking to life in her wide eyes.

“Keep your voice down!” I hiss, grabbing Callie’s bag and shoving them down the sidewalk to avoid any potential eavesdroppers out for a morning bird watching stroll. “That’s not what we’re talking about.”

“It is now!!” Lily squeals, grabbing my free hand with both of hers. “Tell. Me. Everything! Is he actually as big as you remember? Was it romantic?? Did he know it was your first time, or–”

“Oh my God, wait—how far did you go?” Callie seizes her bag from me. “I thought you were just friends and faking the whole dating thing! Are you actually dating now??”

“No, guys, we’re not actually dating now,” I mutter, keeping my voice low and glaring at them to do the same. “And we didn’t do it…all the way.”

The two women squee. I want to sink into the sidewalk. This is potentially the most embarrassing moment of my life.

“Okay, okay, describe it in softball terms. Which base are we talking here?” Lily is suddenly all business, back straight as she lists the bases off on her fingers. We finally arrive at the cafe, and Callie holds open the door for us as Lily barrels through any of my attempted gestures begging her to quiet down. “You’ve already blown through first, so that isn’t even really an option. Second would be heavy petting, so we’re talking under the clothes above the belt or over the clothes below the belt.” She stares at me pointedly, she and Callie practically vibrating in anticipation of my response.

“Um…we, uh…we went past that.”

“You scored a fucking triple with Doctor Hottie and didn’t tell me??”

Thankfully, her voice reaches a high enough register that it comes across more like squeaks than words, and I highly suspect that only dogs within earshot would be able to discern her meaning.

Mortified, I nod.

The two women grab my hands and literally hop up and down with their excitement for me. I can’t help but laugh at the ridiculous sight they make.

“Oh come on, you two, it isn’t that big a deal.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, girl,” Lily says, stepping forward as we inch towards the front of the line. “This is a very, very big deal. Now tell us: how was it?”

My face catches fire as I look at anything other than my friends. “Amazing.”

As Lily and Callie pepper me for more details, I glance around the cafe at the other patrons. And then my eyes catch the headline of the Saturday edition of the Nosy Pecker staring at me from one of the tables.

Tee Time with Daddy Dearest: Gosling and Gander Return to the Nest!

Oh no.