Page 78 of Tides That Bind

I shut my mouth, but it doesn’t matter. I couldn’t speak at the moment if I even wanted to.

“What’s wrong?”

Everything,I think to myself.

“It’s not supposed to happen this way,” I finally whisper. “Please. Not like this.”

“Harper? What’s wrong?” He steps over to me and I see the look in his face, the confusion as to why this part of the rug, the beautiful, plush soft white rug I waited forever to go on sale for is wet. It takes a second. But then Riley’s face changes. And he gets it.

“Nothing’s wrong. Everything is fine.”

I keep repeating it even though I start to cry.

“You’re supposedto be helping me.”

Caroline doesn’t even look up from her laptop. “I thought you just needed moral support.”

The ladder nearly tips when I reach up. “Can’t you at least hold the ladder?”

“I don’t get why you didn’t pay someone to do that,” Caroline huffs, getting up.

I wait impatiently until Caroline secures the bottom of the ladder before I reach out again. “I…hired someone to put up the anchors,” I grit out. “But he can’t come back to put the hoop up untilnextweek. It just came today.”

The muscles in my arms ache, particularly my left where the stitches have dissolved but the spot is still tender.

“Ah…got it.” I finally exhale when the hook finally attaches. I let go, bouncing slightly and clapping my hands together.

“Harper!” Caroline shouts from below me.

I steady myself. “Sorry.”

“Oh, great.” Riley’s voice sounds. “She’s at it again.”

I find him standing at the curtained-off partition.

“Why do you need the ladder?” he asks me. “Couldn’t scalethe walls today?”

I roll my eyes before I reach out, grabbing the chain securing the aerial hoop to the ceiling. “What are you doing here?”

Caroline lets go of the ladder and Riley immediately rushes to replace her. “The books you need are in my car. I’ll go get them.”

“Needed some supplies,” Riley says, letting go of the ladder with one hand and touching the hoop. He motions at the two hammocks. “What are all these torture devices?”

Still holding the chain of the hoop with one hand, I use my other to motion around the room, giggling when Riley immediately grips the ladder with both hands. “This,” I say, “IsFlow by Harper. Or it will be. At some point.”

Riley raises an eyebrow.

“I want a space specifically for aerial yoga,” I say. “That’s why I have the hammocks, but I’m waiting for the others to come in because the seafoam was backordered. And this”—I pause, tugging on the hoop—“is really just for fun right now. I probably won’t be teaching anything with an aerial hoop for a while.”

Narrowing his eyes, Riley stares at the hoop. “What do you do with it exactly?”

I chew on the inside of my cheek and look at the ground. I normally would have to pull myself up into the hoop and not climbdowninto it. “Want to see a party trick?”

Before Riley can answer, I grab onto the cord holding the ring and step from the ladder. He gasps and even though I’m not looking at him, I can sense he sways back and forth, unsure if he should stand under me or move back.

I haven’t been on a hoop in well over a year, so instead of showing off obnoxiously in a way that might get me hurt, I settle for something simple.

“They call thisMan on the Moon,” I tell him as I squat quickly so I can lower myself into the space and sink into the bottom curve of the hoop. Riley moves back just enough that I don’t kick him when I twist, holding the top with my left handwhile I press my accompanying shoulder into the circle’s curve.

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