looking awfully smug this evening, and Yasmine had a feeling it was related to Drew, who’d seemed dreamy and distracted all week—and hadn’t wanted to say a word about his date with Cass.
Noni was in her place at the head of the class now, and they started their warm-up breathing, which always bored the hell out of Yasmine. She pretended to go along with the exercises while she whispered to Cass, “When are you going to give me the scoop on Drew?”
A mysterious half smile played on her lips. “That’s going to take a while. You’ll have to wait for dinner to hear the complete story.”
“Does that mean you like him?”
“Patience, my dear.”
Twenty minutes into the exercise routine, Yasmine was ready to sneak out and grab a doughnut, but Cass was all about the floor work. She may not be a stripper anymore, but she still acted as though she might have to bare her ass to a roomful of men at any given moment. Yasmine didn’t see the point of spending her whole life worrying about a few extra pounds here or there.
“Imagine your spine elongating as you reach up toward the sky,” Noni was saying, as Yasmine tried to decide if she was more in the mood for Thai food or Mexican.
Cass would never go for Mexican after a workout, and sure enough, another half hour later when they were dressing in the locker room, she scoffed at the very idea.
“We just worked out! We need to eat something light and healthy.”
“Thai is as light and healthy as I’m going to get. Want to try that place on the next block?”
“Okay, so long as you fill me in starting right now on what’s happening with you and the office hottie. It must be interesting because you look like you haven’t slept in days.”
At the mention of sleep, Yasmine suppressed a yawn. “I’m just not sleeping well. I’ve started feeling like someone’s watching me again.”
“Oh, sweetie. I swear that’s all just the residual effect of having been the object of an FBI investigation once in your life.”
“But maybe they’re investigating me again.” Maybe they’d picked up on her little foray into crashing the terrorist Web site and had decided to make some crazy example of her again.
Or maybe Cass was right.
“Haven’t you ever been in a crowded room and felt like someone was watching you, and when you looked around, you found out someone really was watching you?” Yasmine asked.
“Sure, but of course people would be watching me. I dress to impress. I think you just need to get your mind focused on something positive. Like giving me the scoop on your hot and heavy weekend, ASAP.”
“Well…” Where to start? “We spent one long, blissful weekend together.”
“And?”
“And lots of sex happened. Lots of talking happened. Some eating happened. More sex happened. It was fun.”
“You are so not getting away with the Reader’s Digest version.”
They stood in front of the mirror touching up their hair and makeup, and Cass gave her a look through the mirror that let her know she meant business.
“Okay, fine,” Yasmine said as she wrestled her hair into a new ponytail. “I’ll give you every boring detail if you want.”
“Just the important stuff.”
What was the important stuff? The question had barely formed in her head when she had an answer. A big, all-caps answer that she totally hadn’t wanted to admit to herself. She might have been able to lie to herself, but she couldn’t lie to her best friend.
“I know this is going to sound crazy,” Yasmine said, “but I’m totally falling for him.”
“Falling, as in, falling in love?”
Hearing the word spoken out loud gave her butterflies, but it certainly didn’t ring false. “I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m definitely falling into some heavy emotions with him.”
“You should write greeting cards. ‘I’m falling in heavy emotions with you.’”
“Don’t be a smart-ass.”
Cass had stopped applying her mascara and gave Yasmine an appraising glance. “Okay, I’ll admit that for you—the one who’s sworn off taking risks—to be confessing to heavy emotions already? It’s a big deal.”
“It’s scary.”
“I think it’s awesome.”
For Cass, who generally wasn’t prone to such enthusiastic exclamations, to make such a statement meant something was up. Yasmine would have wagered a bet that it had to do with her own feelings for Drew.
They left the fitness studio and headed toward the Thai restaurant, but Yasmine couldn’t wait anymore for the details. “So I told you mine. Now you tell me yours.”
Cass