“He doesn’t seem like a tantrum kind of kid,” I said.
“It’s rare, but sometimes he just gets overloaded. Like anyone else,” she said.
“It’s hard learning how to be a person,” I said.
She sipped her prosecco. “That’s very true.”
Piper asked me more about how I got started in yoga and I told her about my teacher training experience and how I’d met River and some of my more interesting class experiences.
“And then she put her phone on speaker. And took a call,” I said.
“No,” Piper said, looking at me in shock.
“Oh, and that’s not the best part. Her boyfriend was calling her to, uh, tell her how much he missed her and what he was going to do to certain parts of her body later,” I said, shuddering. “I didn’t even know what to do, but thankfully, River was taking the class and she literally like, herded the woman out of the class and into the hallway. I finished the class and then found her still on the phone. She stopped her conversation just long enough to yell at me and demand a refund. I gave it to her because what else was I going to do?”
Piper shook her head at the ridiculousness and laughed.
“Some people,” she said.
“I know.”
“Are private clients better than teaching a whole class full?” she asked.
“They pay more. And with private it’s a different teaching experience.” I was a little wary of talking about private classes, seeing as how I was still technically her yoga teacher. We hadn’t talked about me stopping teaching her.
“We don’t have to talk about… what we’re going to do,” Piper said. She’d been thinking exactly the same thing I had.
“That works for me,” I said. Was it responsible to table that discussion for another time? Probably not. But I wanted to enjoy tonight with Piper, and I didn’t want anything getting in the way. If that was selfish, I didn’t care right now. The beautiful woman sitting in front of me blotted out everything else.
The prosecco might have gone to my head.
The food was absolutely out of this world. Completely outstanding. I was fine with paying an arm and a leg for it. Worth it.
Even if I would have been full, I still would have cleaned my plate.
“Dessert?” Piper asked, and I hated that this evening was coming to an end.
“Absolutely,” I said.
“Let’s get two things and then share.”
Piper got the chocolate mousse and I got the special, which was a crème brûlée. I’d never had it before, and I’d always wanted to see what it was like to use a spoon to crack the sugar on the top.
“Did you want another drink? You can since I’m driving. Go ahead and indulge.”
I wanted to indulge tonight.
The conversation wound its way around to our dating history and I told her that I’d dated people of different genders and that I’d never really had a serious relationship and hadn’t dated much in the past two years.
“It’s kind of hard to do when you’re always moving around,” I said. “And I suppose I could do the long-distance thing, but I’m so busy with work that I didn’t think it would be fair to someone else.”
“That makes sense, but do you ever get lonely?”
That was the question everyone asked, but the way she asked it didn’t make me feel defensive.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I do. I love my life, but sometimes I wish I could wake up in a bedroom that was mine. That I’d decorated and created to be my own. I’d love to have a cat and a routine and a coffee shop that I go to every morning.” The words spilled out of me. The words that I didn’t share with anyone else because they’d judge me. Piper wasn’t judging. She was listening.
“Are you afraid of standing still?” Piper asked, and the question knocked me off guard.
“I’m sitting still right now,” I said.
“You know what I mean, McKenna.” The words were a challenge, and I saw a fierce side of Piper. The side that had built her own business and didn’t take crap from anyone and got things done.
I sat back in my chair and let out a breath.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just remember when I was a kid, growing up in a house with a million other people, that I just wanted to find a place that was mine. My brothers built me a tree house, but I outgrew it. I always wanted to go find somewhere else. And then I found a job that would let me search. See if I could find that place that felt right.”
“But you haven’t found it,” she finished for me.
“No,” I said. “But I keep looking, because that’s what I’ve always done. It’s who I am.”
Piper looked at me for a long time, and then our desserts arrived, but she didn’t change the subject.
“Do you think you will find it?”
I picked up my spoon and cracked the top of the crème brûlée. The crack wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it was going to be.
“I don’t know. But I keep looking,” I said.
“That sounds exhausting.” She lifted a spoon full of silky chocolate mousse to her lips.
“It is,” I said in a soft voice. “I’m so tired.”
I closed my eyes and let the exhaustion I usually pushed back wash over me. All the matcha in the world wasn’t going to take care of the weariness in my soul.
A warm hand touched mine.
“Hey,” Piper said. I opened my eyes.
Piper’s fingers stroked the inside of my wrist. It was a shockingly intimate touch.
“You don’t have to search right now. Just be here. With me.”
Her lips formed a smile and she took her hand back, to my disappointment.
I took one of those deep, lung-expanding breaths and tried to absorb every detail of the room, of the food in front of me, of the woman across the table in the black dress.
“How’s the crème brûlée?” Piper asked, and I was completely relieved about the change in focus.
“Delicious,” I said, and she dipped her spoon into the ramekin.
“Mmm,” she said. “It is good.”
I stole some of her chocolate mousse and almost moaned at how good it was.
“You look really good tonight,” Piper said, and I definitely felt her foot brushing my leg. Oh. Was this happening?
“Thanks,” I said. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the room. In any room,” I said, and she blushed.
“I think you might be biased, but that’s probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
It was true. Was it possible for someone to grow more beautiful the longer you knew them?
“I know we said this isn’t a date, but…” Piper trailed off and reached for my hand again.
“But?” I asked.
“But I’m thinking of kissing you again, which is something you usually do on a date.”
“It doesn’t have to be a date kiss. It can just be a regular, run of the mill, not-related-to-a-date-kiss,” I said.
Piper laughed. “Oh, is that what we’re going to call it?”
“Why not?”
She licked her spoon and I forgot how to breathe and the air in the room went up several degrees.