A little over two hours later, Sasha was tired, sore, and dripping in sweat, but feeling both exhilarated and blissful. She'd felt the exact same way after finishing her very first yoga class as a girl of fifteen, and more than a dozen years later her practice still felt like the place she had always been meant to be. It fulfilled her in different but equally important ways - physically, emotionally, spiritually, artistically. Considering her background - the gypsy-like existence she'd been compelled to accept until she'd finally rebelled against it as a teenager - yoga had provided a haven, a place where she belonged, something that would always be constant in a life that had never been stable or the same for very long.
She was walking past Studio One, the largest of the three and where all of her own classes were taught, when Micah Walters waved at her from the open doorway. Micah taught the eleven a.m. class on Sunday mornings, and while his class was nearly as popular as Sasha's, the major difference was in the rather noticeable gender imbalance among his students. All but a handful of Micah's students were female, most of them young, attractive, and all too eager to flirt and giggle with the handsome, buff yoga teacher. Even now he was surrounded by half a dozen females, all of them wide-eyed and adoring as they vied for his attention. He was admittedly a good-looking guy, not especially tall but extremely fit and leanly muscled. Micah rarely if ever had a shirt on inside the studio, and was more often than not garbed solely in a pair of short, close-fitting athletic briefs. He was tanned and sported more than a dozen colorful tattoos along his back, arms, and torso, a small gold hoop pierced his left lobe, and his dirty blond hair was clubbed into a short ponytail at his nape.
Ever since Micah had joined the teaching staff here at SF Flow a little over a year ago, he'd been trying almost nonstop to get into Sasha's pants. The fact that she continued to gently but firmly rebuff him only seemed to make him more determined. He didn't accept her excuse that the owners of the studio frowned on co-workers dating. And while that particular excuse was indeed a real one, the main reason that Sasha hadn't taken her fellow teacher up on his multiple and very aggressive offers to go on a date was because guys like him immediately turned her off. Micah was too sure of himself, too vain and egotistical, and way, way too much of a playboy for her liking. She didn't expect a commitment from a guy, especially on the first few dates, but she also refused to simply be another notch on his bedpost, one more female for him to fuck and then forget.
But there was no polite way to avoid Micah at this moment, not when he was making a big show of calling her over. He bid good-by to several more of his overeager "groupies" - as one of the other teachers here had teasingly dubbed his smitten students - and then slid an arm around Sasha's shoulder, pulling her in close for a hug.
"How's my favorite goddess on this beautiful summer day?" he murmured in her ear.
Sasha forced herself not to cringe at the combined odors of garlic and sweat that emanated from Micah's body. She knew that he took garlic supplements as part of his fitness regime, and while she certainly appreciated the various health benefits of garlic, she also knew better than to ingest the capsules before teaching a class of several dozen students all packed into the same heated studio. One of the negative side effects of taking garlic supplements was the way the odor could emanate through one's pores and sweat glands, and for that reason it was a bad idea for someone in Micah's profession to use them on a regular basis.
"I'm good," was all she told him in reply, offering up one of her usual serene smiles. "But I'm pretty wiped out after teaching class and then doing two hours of my own practice, so I'm anxious to head home and relax for awhile."
Micah gave her a mock scowl. "Ah, and just when I was going to try and convince you to let me buy you lunch. One of these days, sweet Sasha, you're going to give in and say yes. I'm not going to keep buying that line about management frowning on co-workers seeing each other outside of business hours."
She shrugged, using the opportunity to slip out from under his forced embrace. "You're more than welcome to discuss the matter with Serge or Morgana. Though you might want to hold off on that chat for a bit. I understand they're still peeved at you about that incident with one of your students."
Serge and Morgana were the married couple who owned SF Flow. Serge still taught classes occasionally, though he devoted most of his time nowadays to his massage practice. In addition to handling all of the bookkeeping and personnel matters, Morgana taught pre-natal yoga and offered monthly workshops for expectant mothers. And while they were two of the most down-to-earth and open-minded people Sasha had ever known, they drew a hard line with any of their teachers dating their own students. Micah usually got around that particular problem by slyly suggesting to whatever pretty student who caught his eye that she should quietly start attending a different class. Sasha had lost count months ago of how many of Micah's former students had wound up in one of her classes - and how many of them he'd pissed off when things had ended rather abruptly between them.