Free From Comfortable Distances by Jodi Weiss Page B

hers, but turns out she’s subbing it tonight.”
    Tess laughed. “Thanks for
the tip,” she said. “Now I’ll know better.”
    “Let’s face it, we come
here to detox,” Dale said. “Not to get stressed out even more by a yoga
teacher. And she is a great teacher, it’s just the after-class lecture that’s
too much for me.”
    “I guess that if you take
her class, you need to come prepared to dart right after it.”
    “Oh, she’ll track you
down after class if she wants to. One night after class, I swear she followed
me to The Bakery to badger me about becoming a yoga teacher. The funny thing is
that I heard yoga teacher training is sold out,” Dale said. “At least that’s
what the Grinch behind the desk was saying to someone last night, so I’m not
sure what she’s doing.”
    Tess smiled—the Grinch. “I
presume you’re not interested in becoming a yoga teacher,” she said. The
elevator hit the ground floor with a thud so that they both stumbled.
    “That’s why I prefer to
take the stairs,” Dale said as they waited for the elevator door to open. “Not
a chance about me becoming a yoga teacher. I may not know where I want to live,
but I know that I don’t want to be a yoga teacher. My mother is already on my
case about being a social worker and working with runaway teens. She thinks I’m
throwing my life away. Imagine if I told her that I was leaving that career to
become a yoga teacher? She’d have me exported to Brooklyn at the least.” She
laughed. “That was a joke,” she said.
    “And should you ever get
exported there, you could live in a very beautiful brownstone,” Tess said.
    The air was cool, crisp,
fresh. Tess wished for a moment that she didn’t have the 40- minute drive home,
that she could just get under the covers now and let sleep take over. In her
lazy state of mind, she would easily join Dale’s Brooklyn boycott.
    “How often do you come
here?” Tess said.
    “Most nights,” Dale said.
“And weekends.” She laughed. “I guess I’ve gotten a little addicted,” she said.
    “I hope to see you here
soon,” Tess said.  She meant it. “Just not Tuesday night at 6 pm.”

Chapter 9: In Search Of
     
    “So you think that
surprising her with a house is the best plan of action?” Tess said. She was
stopped at a red light. Kyle, beside her, was scanning his blackberry. He shook
his head at whatever he was reading before he surfaced again.
    “Absolutely. She’s the
one who wanted to move out of the city in the first place. After 9/11, she said
she was done with the city. That’s what led me to look at places outside of the
city.”
    “Kyle, 9/11 was two years
ago at this point and she is still living in the city.”
    “And your point is?”
    “I think it’s wonderful
how much you want this to all work—I mean finding a dream house for the two of
you, but I don’t think that surprising her with the brownstone is the best plan
of action for you right now.”
                Kyle put down his blackberry and
watched Tess. She was driving up and down Montague and Hicks Street in Brooklyn
Heights, looking for a parking spot.
    “Aren’t you supposed to
be coaxing me to buy the property?” he said.
    “I only coax people if I
think they’re doing the right thing.”
    “Look, you called, told
me that you had another offer, and I dropped everything to meet you to see the
brownstone again. Right? Isn’t that what happened? But now you’re telling me
that you don’t think I should buy it?”
    “I called you because I
gave you my word that I’d call you when I had another offer, which I do. And
it’s a good offer, but I wanted to play fair and let you know. You’re the one
who wanted to come here to see it again—that was your request.”
    “I saw how you were when
Dale was around the other night,” he said.
    She imagined that Dale
hadn’t mentioned their meeting up at the yoga studio. A car was beeping her;
she started to move again.
    “I know you