Forty-eight hours, a vague text, and nothing else.
“Hey, come with me.” I smiled up at Everly, who was standing in my doorway. She was a paramedic with Orange County fire department and had been hanging out with me and the girls since . . . well, since Stella declared that we were a gang all those years ago.
“I have an idea, come on.” Everly held out one hand and pulled me to my feet. “Go put this on; I grabbed it from Ariel since you two are about the same size.”
“Wait? Where are we going?” I stopped and asked.
Everly clapped her hands. “Move it, time is money, go, go, go.”
I quickly followed the orders of the drill sergeant, and when I was changed, I stood back in the open doorway of my office. “Please tell me you have me in exercise clothes because we are doing a beer crawl and not something truly heinous like working out.”
“Come on.” Everly pulled me, and I had no choice but to follow.
The ride to wherever we were going was short. When we arrived, I instantly felt better. “This makes me happy, I love Wall Street, but you know we could have stayed and drank at my bar a lot cheaper.”
“Not going to a bar,” Everly replied. “Look, there are Lara and Stella.” Inwardly, I groaned. If anyone was Stella’s equal, it was Army Major Lara Bradford. We’d all hung out several times, and the two of them together usually led us to getting kicked out of more than one bar, but it was fun while it lasted.
“Great, now all we need is Harley, and we will have the speak-before-you-think trio,” I warned Everly.
“No, they will behave. We are going to take a vinyasa yoga class.”
“A what?” I turned to see Sophie coming up behind us. “This isn’t like some tantric shit, is it?” Sophie asked. “I’m not getting all sexy with you lot.”
“Sex? Did someone say sex?” Stella asked, coming to a stop next to me.
“Shut up, no, this is a stress relieving yoga, it isn’t hot yoga, but it is set in a warm room to help muscles relax. Some of the other girls from the station and I go, and it really helps, especially after the shit we see. I thought it would be great for Viv, she’s looking a little piqued here lately.” Everly bumped my shoulder and gave me a wink.
I loved my friends, I truly did, but sometimes I just wanted to be able to curl up in a ball with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and feel sorry for myself.
The vinyasa studio was on the second floor and plants surrounded the outside doorway: huge, overgrown taro plants and birds of paradise. “Ah hell no, I’m not walking through those plants, what kind of Florida person puts plants this close to their door that you have to push through to get inside? A stupid one that’s who,” Sophie said from behind me. “Hasn’t anyone told her that snakes like to live in planters? Hell, the crew at Wild Animal Control have to stop by Disney’s Polynesian hotel several times a day to check for snakes because people sit along those planters, the same with Animal Kingdom.”
“Thank you, Miss Mouseketeer, for that lovely tour, now let’s go,” Lara said and pushed forward.
“Go like this . . .” Stella pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth and made a strange clicking sound. “Snakes hate it, it hurts their tiny ears, they’ll stay away from you.”
“Ha, ha, very funny, snakes don’t have ears.” Sophie rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, but we all would have laughed loud enough at you that the vibration might have scared them.” Sophie leaned forward and kicked Stella in the butt.
“You’re such a bitch, but god, I love you.”
“It’s a talent, what can I say?” Stella flicked a hand in the air as if it was already known by all and then we all went in and were surrounded by more fucking plants.
“Welcome, welcome. Everly, I see you brought some friends. Please remove your shoes and grab a mat. You can find a place anywhere.”
I was the first to get moving.
“Look at her go. You’ve really changed your mind about this yoga, haven’t you?” Everly asked.
“Nope. I just figured there was only so much room in the back, so I better be first to grab it so no one ends up making fun of my ass.”
That truth was all it took for my entire group to rush to grab mats and haul ass into the studio, pushing and laughing as they scrambled to grab a spot in the back.
“Excuse me, would you mind moving forward? We’re all together,” Stella asked some stranger so she could sit in the back too.
The guy next to the woman who had moved, looked at our group. “I guess you’d like me to move as well?”
“You’re an absolute doll for offering.” Stella smiled, using her Marilyn-Monroe looks to get what we needed.
Katy and Leo scooched close so they could fit in that spot, and Piper ended up next to them.
The cloying smell of patchouli mixed with what smelled like jasmine and cinnamon filled the air. I wasn’t sure whether to light up a blunt and go all Cheech and Chong, take a luxurious bath, or get in the flipping kitchen and bake something. Scanning the room, the decor was more African with vases, dried leaves, and woven straw placemats hung on the walls like decorations.
The instructor stepped forward and rang a triangle. “Jambo.”
Everly and several others replied, “Jambo.”
“Jumbo,” Stella and Lara shouted in unison and then looked at each other and cracked up.
“I’m Willow, I’ve been granted the right to instruct you. For those who are new, Jambo means welcome. I’m happy to have you here.” She turned on the radio and the sounds of wind blowing through a field of grass filled the room. Willow spoke in a soft, lulling tone, trying
