Page 74 of Summer with the Single Dad

Why was she crying?

She made to get up and leave the room, but Lotus was suddenly beside her, her soft hand on Justine’s shoulder, urging her to stay seated and recline. “We carry an extreme amount of tension and emotion in our hips,” she said, addressing the class. “It is normal—and also wonderful—to cry or feel a flood of feelings when we do deep hip opening postures. Don’t push those feelings away. Embrace them. Welcome them.” Her eyes met Justine’s. “It’s okay. This is a safe space.”

With a lump in the back of her throat and hot tears still tumbling down to her temples, Justine nodded and lay back into savasana. A hand on the other side squeezed hers and she glanced over to find Brooke smiling at her.

She smiled back and exhaled through thinly parted lips.

Closing blurry, tear-filled eyes, she engaged in more deep breathing, following Lotus’s final guided meditation and allowing all thoughts—good and bad—to stay out of her conscious mind.

Focusing on her breathing was good.

Meditation was good.

By the time they said “namaste” with their hands at heart-center, the tears were gone and the knot at the back of her throat had shrunk.

“Oh, that was soooo good,” Jordana said, all doe-eyed and smiley.

Brooke nodded as she rolled up her mat.

“Did you know that about hip openers?” Justine asked as she took a sip from her water bottle.

The two women nodded.

“I’ve cried a lot in yoga over the years,” Jordana said. “Especially during my divorce. I was known for a while as “the crying chick,” apparently.”

Brooke snorted.

Lotus was busy saying “goodbye” to other people, but she made her leave of them and floated back over to where Jordana, Brooke, and Justine stood. She singled out Justine. “You okay?”

Justine nodded and huffed a small laugh through her nose. “I think so.”

“Hip openers are powerful.” Curiosity burned in her pale-blue eyes, like she wanted Justine to elaborate on why she cried.

“Seems like it.”

Lotus seemed lovely, and so did Brooke and Jordana, but she really didn’t know these women very well, so opening up to them wasn’t on the agenda. At least not yet.

Or ever.

Justine had never really opened up to anybody. Not really. And she didn’t have girlfriends. She didn’t have a village, or a tribe, or girl posse, or whatever. She had acquaintances. And she and Tad had friends—couple friends. Most of them were other doctors. But none of them had reached out since she left. Since she and Tad split up. Which meant, clearly, they’d all picked their team, and it wasn’t Team Justine.

That lump in her throat was back, but this time for an entirely different reason.

She didn’t have any friends and up until this moment, she’d never really felt the longing for any. She had work, she had Tad. What more did she need?

Apparently, a whole heck of a lot.

Fresh tears pricked the backs of her eyes and she swallowed past the chestnut at the back of her tongue.

With eyes that could see down to Justine’s very soul and probably read her mind, Lotus rested her hand on Justine’s shoulder. “I hope we’ll see you here again sometime.”

“I’m sure you will.”

Lotus gave her a final, friendly squeeze, then floated away on her little cloud like some fairy goddess in Lululemon leggings.

“Booch and Bagels?” Jordana asked, tucking her yoga mat under her arm.

“Um, yeah,” Brooke said. “I hear they just rolled out a Strawberry Mint Kombucha that I’m dying to try.”

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