Free Bending Over Backwards by Samantha Hunter Page A

yoga-inspired lifestyle as I can. Diet is probably the one thing I have more or less failed at completely. I try to eat well—but I also like red meat, ice cream and junk food.”
    “Balance in all things, right?”
    He lifted his beer to tip it against hers and wished they were sharing a kiss instead. Jasmine looked much more like herself, the strain almost gone from her features. But this wasn’t the time to push romance; she needed a friend. Leo could do that.
    “Balance, of course, can never be a steady state—we’ll always fall in and out of it. But it feels so good when we have it, it’s hard to give it up,” she said, digging in. “We always want the ideal, but the reality is that we usually love what we shouldn’t.”
    Leo wondered if she was talking about more than diet now.
    He murmured something unintelligible in sort-of agreement and focused on his own dinner, enjoying himself as they chatted about food, likes and dislikes, as well as her yoga philosophy.
    She loved her work with her heart and soul, and he respected that. It also made him sad, he realized, to have lost that part of his life. He must have loved his work, too, but in spite of his flash of memory earlier in the day, he still couldn’t recall his actual job. In fact, the longer he was here, the longer he was away, the stranger it all seemed.
    “How did you get into it? Yoga, that is.” He shook off the blue feeling that suddenly overcame him.
    She looked down, fussing with her food before she answered.
    “I was going through a tough time about ten years ago. I’d just moved here and had no idea what I was going to do. I was broke and I was out of a really bad relationship. I picked up a job waitressing, which was about all I was qualified to do. One of the girls at the restaurant went to yoga. I went to a class with her and I loved it. My practice grounded me. It helped me feel settled for the first time in years. Focused. I found something that filled the empty space in my life, I guess, and I grabbed on to it and didn’t let go. Now here I am,” she said, taking a big bite of potato salad.
    Leo knew there was more to it. The way she was slow to trust, the way she took care of herself and didn’t want to rely on anyone. He wondered what in her past had left that “empty space” and asked as much, especially about the bad relationship. Everyone had scars, he knew, inside and out.
    She shrugged again, breaking eye contact. “The relationship stuff is ancient history, and the rest was family issues.” She met his eyes. “I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s in the past, and this is too lovely an evening to dredge it up.”
    Leo nodded. “I understand. I didn’t mean to pry.”
    She smiled, visibly relieved. “Thank you. I needed this, and the company, the distraction, more than you can know.”
    Leo was more at peace than he had been for a long time. The sun was down below the water, darkness falling over the beach. The evening air was cool as it usually was, and he took a deep breath, as if absorbing the moment into himself.
    “Feel like a walk?” he asked Jasmine.
    “After all of that food, definitely.”
    They brought their plates back into the kitchen and then walked back out to the beach.
    “I forgot how much I loved the ocean,” he said as they walked through the shallow waves left by the diminishing tide. “I also loved things about the city, but I grew up with the beach outside our front door.”
    “It’s wonderful, even in winter. I like the cold, stark gray of it off-season too, though it’s not for everyone,” Jasmine agreed. “I lived in the city, and we took holidays near the water, on my father’s boat. He was usually bringing along someone he was trying to impress. It was never like this. Quiet, peaceful. I couldn’t wait to get home.”
    She got quiet, as if she’d said more than she meant to.
    “You didn’t get along?” he ventured.
    “We did, when I was young. Less so