Page 132 of The Love Position

‘I know, but Isaac went fucking psycho, Char, and I don’t want you to be with anyone who could flip out and harm you like that.’

‘James! For god’s sake! Back then, Isaac was burnt out, sleep deprived and stressed out of his mind. That’s why he left all of that and became a yoga teacher. He’s a completely different person now, and the most gentle and caring man I’ve ever met. And anyway, Isaac attacked a man who’d harmed a woman. If you were strung out, and Victor Thornfield attempted to assault me, Mum, Estelle. How would you react?’

‘Look, I hear what you’re saying, and I don’t deny I’d want to kill him, but I genuinely don’t think I’d attack him like Isaac did. I’m just worried for you, Char, and I don’t want to see you hurt in any way.’

‘Will you respect my decision to be with Isaac?’

James let out a heavy breath. ‘Yes.’

‘Have you told Mum and Dad?’

‘No, they don’t even know he’s there with you.’

‘Please don’t say anything. We’re coming back in ten days and I want to introduce him to them myself. And please never tell them what you know. It happened over twelve years ago. Everyone deserves a second chance.’

He didn’t reply.

‘Promise me?’

He huffed. ‘Okay.’

After the call ended, Sophia sat in the quiet of the room, trying to organise her thoughts. She was overwhelmed with information and the pressure of writing and submitting homework every day in order to pass the course.

Inside her aching head was a whirr of hamsters on wheels. She was overthinking everything. Her brain didn’t have enough food to fuel it, nor enough sleep to make it function properly.

Was this how Isaac might have been feeling all those years ago? Like he couldn’t think straight and was running on unstable emotion and adrenaline?

And had she been wrong about him? Was Isaac just as bad as Marcus, just in a different way?

Getting to her feet, she went to the door. She had to find him.

She had to reassure herself that he wasn’t who James, or any of the women at the ashram, thought he was.

23

‘Sophia! Wake up!’

Crawling out of the darkness of sleep, Sophia couldn’t even find the energy to open her eyes.

‘I didn’t hear the frikking bell and we’re gonna be late,’ Jessica continued, pulling Sophia’s covers off. ‘Shake a leg, Sugarplum. Only twenty-eight hours until burger time.’

Dragging herself out of bed, Sophia staggered to the bathroom.

‘Just pee and brush your teeth,’ Jessica called through the door. ‘Everything else can wait.’

The sky was pale, the air cool as Sophia and Jessica left the room.

Up ahead, Swami Vishnu was almost at the temple, Isaac on one side of him and Ganapati on the other.

Sophia hurried on, her crutch thudding on the boardwalk with every step. She hadn’t managed to talk to Isaac, and her insecurity and anxiety were now beginning to win the war against her logical self. Tears pricked her eyes as she watched Isaac’s graceful movements as he opened the low gate and helped his guru into the temple.

Will I always be second to Swami Vishnu? Is it Isaac’s judgement that’s off about him, or mine? Was anything with Isaac even real?

Right now, a week on from their last trip to the mainland, it all felt like a dream.

Jessica pushed a tissue into Sophia’s hand. ‘You win.’

‘What?’

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