Page 13 of Unworthy
“I came to apologise.”
Yaz looked surprised for a moment, and then she rolled her eyes. “Mia’s been reading you the riot act, hasn’t she? My brother is giving me the same bullshit. I’ll tell you what I told him: it’s all cool. I don’t need an apology. You have your opinions and I have mine. No reason we can’t just jog on and let it go.”
“I don’t want to jog on.” At the back of my mind, I knew I was being completely unreasonable. The way I’d treated Yaz of late would make her suggestion the most sensible course of action. But the truth was, I didn’t want to just agree to disagree and be cordial when we saw each other. I didn’t want indifference from her. Yaz gave me another bewildered, annoyed look before looking over my shoulder and smiling. It felt like her smile sucked all the air out of the room, rendering me completely incapable of speech.
“Hi, beautiful ladies,” Yaz said through her smile. I turned to be confronted by five women holding five babies. Some were newborns, some looked about a year old. All five women plus the two babies that weren’t asleep were staring up at me. Most of the women were make-up free and had various unidentified foodstuffs on their activewear. One stood out as being surprisingly well groomed. She gave me the kind of predatory smile I was used to receiving from women in general. The others looked horrified that I was there. “Come through,” Yaz ushered them in, “Heath was justleaving.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I was?”
“Yes, you were.”
“I can’t stay for the class?”
Yaz narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “You want to stay for a postnatal yoga class to strengthen your pelvic floor?”
“I’m sure my pelvic floor could do with a little tune up.”
One woman let out a short giggle.
“Heath, you’re wearing a suit.”
“He could take the jacket off,” one of the more bedraggled women suggested, her gaze shifting from shock to interest as she swept my body from top to toe with her eyes.
Yaz rolled her eyes. “He’ll make you guys feel uncomfortable. We’re here to loosen up and let our chakras flow with positive energy. His energy is all wonky. He’ll bugger it all up.”
“I won’t feel uncomfortable,” another of the women said as her baby started gumming her face. I noticed she had one eye rimmed with eyeliner and the other without.
“His energy seems straight to me,” the one with the lopsided ponytail commented with a cheeky grin. “No wonky chakra from where I’m standing.”
“Well, if it’s okay with these lovely ladies,” I said, “then I don’t see why I can’t stay.” There were various rather enthusiastic murmurs of agreement from the other women.
“He can go at the front,” someone put in. I glanced at her and noticed her eyes were pointed at my arse. “No objection from me.”
“There we go,” I grinned. “You wouldn’t want to be sexist about it, would you, Yaz?” I took off my jacket and pushed up my sleeves.
“He’s staying,” one mum said forcefully, pushing me up towards the front of the class. I winked at Yaz and she rolled her eyes, muttering about how I would “disturb the energy.”
I heard one woman murmur to another that I could “disturb her energy any day.” I smirked as I stole a yoga mat from the side. The smirk was quickly wiped off my face as I tried to follow a series of yoga moves that appeared to require the level of flexibility of a contortionist. It took all my efforts not to do myself an injury. And with Yaz proving just how flexible she was directly in front of me, I was in danger of a very unchild-friendly reaction. Preventing that was sucking quite a bit of my attention. When I lost my balance and nearly squashed a baby who had crawled under my downward facing dog, I gave up and started laughing. Another baby got in on the action, standing on wobbly but sturdy little legs before sitting his butt down right on my head.
“I’m so sorry,” his harried mum said as I manoeuvred the baby off my head and sat up.
“It’s fine,” I told her with a smile. She stared up at me and her eyes went unfocused for a moment.
“You’re really beautiful,” she said under her breath before her face flushed bright red. “Sorry, sleep deprivation seems to have melted the filter between my brain and my mouth.”
“Heath,” Yaz’s uncharacteristically sharp tone echoed around the studio. “You’re obstructing Gayle’s view. Maybe it’s time you left.” I glanced back at Gayle behind me. She was fast asleep on her mat. Her baby was one of the active ones that had attacked me, and he was now heading her way. Before he could wake up his mum, I swept him up in my arms and moved to the side of the room. I became like the pied piper of babies then. All the mobile ones crawled my way. I decided the best plan of action was to lie on a yoga mat and let them use me as their own personal soft play. There was a fair bit of drool and snot involved, but I counted myself lucky that nobody vomited.
“Er… Yaz?” one mum called. I looked over at Yaz and my eyes met hers. She had a similar dazed expression to the mum earlier as she watched me. “Yaz! I don’t think we can hold this position for much longer!” Yaz’s head snapped around and her face flooded with colour under her tan. As she moved into a new position, one of the newborns started crying. Before the mum could pick her baby up, Yaz stepped over to them and offered to take her. She then performed the unlikely feat of completing the rest of the yoga class, splits and everything, with a baby nestled into her chest.
Yaz
“Heath, I really don’t have the energy for this.”
The last of my new mum yoga ladies had left. I’d had to practically push Gayle out of the door in the end. I could cut the post-natal hormones in the studio with a knife. None of these poor ladies were ready for Heath, and certainly not a Heath who was lying on the floor playing with their babies. Getting that image out of my own head would be a problem.
“I don’t know why you’re still here, but I’ve got a full day so…”
“I’m not leaving until you accept my apology.” He was back to looking stubborn, and I was losing my patience, which just wasn’t me. I was centred, I was Zen, I was in control. I didn’t lose my shit or raise my voice. I didn’t let other people annoy me. But when it came to Heath…
