Chapter 26
Shelley
Since next year I’ll need to do my internship and gain work experience, this is probably the last official summer break I’ll have until I’m old enough to retire. And my new sister-in-law is insisting we use it to attend morning yoga.
If North Bay is going to be my home for the next few months, I want to make an effort to fit in with Danielle and her friends.
So, even though I could be taking a rare opportunity to sleep in, I dutifully report to the parking lot of my apartment building at eight-thirty, wearing my leggings and a sports bra covered by a loose tank.
Danielle is already waiting. “You look amazing!” She cheerily starts a conversation as she bounces up to me.
There’s a canvas tote bag on her arm and a metal water bottle in her hand.
“Alice texted. She’s checking on something at the studio, but she’ll meet us over there.
Regina said she might join us and bring her daughter, Emily. ”
I groan, digging through my purse to produce my sunglasses, then sliding them on to protect myself from the brutal assault of early morning light. “Too early. Too many words. Not enough caffeine.”
“Not a morning person, I take it?”
“Didn’t get a lot of sleep,” I admit.
After we demolished a large pizza, Jordan insisted on staying late last night to help me unpack my boxes.
By the time he went back to his apartment, I was still buzzing with energy from the way his presence jolts every cell in my body to attention.
I couldn’t sleep, so I stayed awake reliving our first night together, the video call where he read my email, then last night. ..
Danielle’s voice pulls me out of my daydream. “Oh? Mike said when he left yesterday Jordan was going to stay and help you unpack. Were you two working late?” she asks as she walks me to her book van.
“Um, yeah. I guess we lost track of time.” My eyes slide over to gauge if she read anything into that statement, but she only adjusts the radio dial and continues making small talk as we head into town.
Downtown North Bay consists of exactly one street.
It’s a tiny waterfront peninsula which boasts almost every business in this town.
Most of the storefronts do double-duty, like Brew-Ha-Ha, the coffee house/comedy club/karaoke bar.
We park outside a building with vinyl letters on the window that read, “Fringe. Hair & Yoga.” I shake my head and follow as Danielle leads us inside.
The bottom floor is a beauty salon with three adjustable chairs situated in front of mirrors.
We go up a set of wooden stairs to the yoga space, which I’ve been informed also doubles as a meeting room for Honey’s spicy book club twice a month, and we spread our mats on the floor.
It isn’t long before some familiar faces join us, along with a few more people I don’t know.
Our instructor is a tall woman with wild, red hair and a jade necklace.
She introduces herself as “Samantha around town, but here in our shared space, please call me Anthem.” She greets us each individually with a tiny bow before she presses play on an old boom box, which sits atop a wooden stool in the corner.
The sound of an acoustic guitar drifts into the air, but the music is so low it almost feels like I need to close my eyes to hear it.
Anthem invites us to borrow pillows, bolsters, and blankets from her stash and demonstrates our first position.
I’ve taken yoga classes before at my gym back home, but this one is different.
She explains, probably for my benefit as the only newbie, that this is a restorative yoga class that focuses on gentle stretching, relaxation, and stress relief.
“That sounds like exactly what I need,” I whisper to Danielle before I tuck a bolster pillow at the end of my mat.
As reluctant as I was to come this morning, I find I’m really enjoying myself.
I don’t usually have a chance to focus on nothing but relaxation.
Law school is a lot of things, but a chill environment is not one of them.
The yoga class ends up being a welcome break.
I think I even fell asleep for a little while when we were doing Savasana.
I didn’t realize how much I’ve been craving girl time without having my sisters nearby, and Alice and Danielle seem happy to stand in.
Emily is adorable trying to hold her balance in tree pose.
When the class is over, I’m so relaxed I feel slightly hungover.
I will definitely need to find a yoga studio when I return to D.C.
Alice quickly excuses herself to head back to Just Art.
It’s cute that she and Jake thought they were hiding their feelings for each other for so long when it’s obvious she can’t stand being away from him for more than an hour at a time.
I wonder if she can tell Jordan and I are doing the same thing now?
After we wave goodbye to her friends, Danielle turns to me.
“Should the two of us do a sisters’ brunch over at Brew-Ha-Ha?
They have the raspberry white chocolate scones on Mondays.
And I feel like I never get to see you while you’re at school.
I know it’s old hat to you, but I’ve never had a sister before, and I’m excited! ”
“Welcome to the club. My treat, since you’re driving me around today.” Unlike Jordan, Danielle takes me up on the offer immediately.
We head over to the coffee shop and I buy a chai latte and a scone for each of us, then we sit down to catch up.
I make a mental note to ask for a job application before we leave.
Maybe I could get a summer job here and start paying down some of my loans.
Danielle tells me about the challenges of building her new book delivery business, and how tough it’s been to share Mike’s time with the new team, and I offer a few stories about school.
I want to tell her what’s going on with Jordan, but there’s no way to guarantee she won’t take the information back to my brother.
When a new text from Jordan comes through, I can’t stop myself from looking.
Danielle’s eyes scan my face, then she points to my phone. “Is that a guy, perhaps?”
“It’s nothing.” I shrug and try to play it cool, but her knowing nod tells me she’s forming her own theories.
“Doesn’t look like nothing to me. That’s an I like him face.”
Danielle and Alice are the only people in this town I could talk to about what’s happening, but Alice isn’t here, and I don’t want to ask Danielle to hide this from her husband.
“Okay, fine. But it’s just a little crush.”
She leans in, setting her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hand. “Oooh, care to share?”
I shake my head and raise my cup to take a long sip. “Never mind me. Tell me about married life.”
“I know you know this, but Mike’s so great,” she gushes, launching into a story about how he put out a small kitchen fire when Honey got distracted gossiping on the phone with her friend Edna and left an oven mitt too close to an open flame.
“Wow. Yeah. Good thing he was there,” I agree.
“I know, right? I don’t know what I would do without him.”
Even when he’s not here, I can always count on my brother to suck up all the attention in a room. This time I’m grateful for it.