Page 6 of Road Trip with a Vampire
Bikram Yoga—popularly calledhotyoga—needed very high temperatures. I nodded, smiling. “Yes.”
Katie’s eyes lit up. “Finally!”
“The repair people showed up and fixed the thermostat at last,” I explained. “It should be plenty hot in there today. I’ll see you in class?”
“Yes,” she agreed. The rest of the Early Crew had shown up by this point and were talking among themselves as they waited in line behind Katie to be signed in.
When Becky and I had decided to open this yoga studio eight years ago, I’d hoped it would help me feel connected to this community and grounded in my new life. It had worked better than I could’ve imagined. Not only had running Yoga Magic helped me build community for myself, but we were creating community for others, too.
No one in the Early Crew had known each other when they’d started coming here eight years ago—and now Katie had an entire Gen X posse willing to help bury a body the next time her ex was an ass. Retirement communities from across the county came to our Friday Chair Yoga series; I had it on good authority that two new mah-jongg groups had sprung up as a result. And according to Becky, a couple who’d met for the first time at one of her Pilates classes had gotten engaged two weeks ago.
While I’d initially started this studio to give my own life more purpose, this space had become a touchstone in other people’s lives, too. It was all so much better, so muchsweeter, than I ever could have imagined.
I couldn’t help smiling as I signed in the rest of the Early Crew, then watched them file into the Walnut Room.
Hopefully they’d forgive me later for the ass-kicking workout I had planned for them.
Days when it was myturn to open the studio began very early. They tended to end early, too. By eight that night, I was in my pajamas, my bedside reading light on as I cracked openSense and Huntability,the latest paranormal romance I’d picked up from Redwoodsville’s used bookstore. People from my old life might have found it a bit on the nose that I was now moderately obsessed with a series about a sexy werewolf falling in love with the human hunter who was determined to trap him at all costs, but I didn’t care.
Everyone needed an escape.
I grabbed my readers from the table and slid them on as I cracked open the book. I didn’t technically need reading glasses—my eyesight had been better than twenty-twenty for centuries—but someone had once told me glasses made me look intellectual, and I’d always been a sucker for flattery.
Before I’d gotten past the book’s initial meet-cute in a dark and deserted alley, though, my phone buzzed with a series of new texts.
Lindsay:We have a situation
Lindsay was Becky’s twenty-eight-year-old cousin, who’d joined our team a few years ago when Yoga Magic had started offering night classes. She knew not to text me about studio stuff after I was off the clock unless it was serious.
I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose and read on.
Lindsay:I’m about to start the last class of the night, and a hot man I’ve never seen before has positioned himself right outside the Sweetgum Room. He’s insisting on seeing you, and only you, right away
Lindsay:When I told him you weren’t around he got attitudinal
Lindsay:And by “attitudinal” I mean really grumpy
Lindsay:I don’t know what to do
Lindsay:I have to teach but he won’t leave and I’m not sure leaving him alone here is a good idea
Lindsay:(Also when I say he’s hot please know this is not an exaggeration, this guy is hot like burning)
I groaned.
If a strange man had shown up and was making Lindsay uncomfortable, I couldn’t ignore this.
Zelda:I’ll be down in five
Zelda:What does he want?
Lindsay:He won’t tell me
Lindsay:Says he’ll only tell you
Wonderful.
Last year a local college student pursuing a marketing degree had made us some promotional videos as part of one of her classes. One of them was of me teaching hot yoga. For reasons I never understood, it had gone viral on TikTok. It had been a while since a weirdo who’d seen it and claimed to be in love with me had found their way into our studio.
