Yoga Matts and Third Wheels

Selki was excited to wake up today, for it was her first day off in almost a week. She takes a deep breath after sitting up in bed feeling content with the day so far. Call her an optimist, but she felt as if nothing could make this day worse. She gets out of her comfortable bed and slips on her fuzzy rabbit slippers, although she was only twenty-four she still saw the cute little slippers and just had to have them. Making her way into her apartment's kitchen she makes herself a cup of freshly brewed coffee, putting the right amount of sugar and cream she nods her head in approval and lazily ambles towards her balcony door, throwing it open with a soft swoop she steps out onto the patio letting the cool spring breeze hit her bare shoulders in her tank top. The sun was just coming up as the birds started singing their morning melodies, the smile never leaves Selki's face as she sits down on the patio chair and sips her very warm coffee. This morning was quite slow for Dublin, normally around this time she would hear a symphony of car horns, people stuck in morning traffic, trying to get to work, all with the same idea of leaving at the same time. Today though, there is barely one honk that sounds through the streets below. It was definitely a rare occurrence, but Selki didn't think any more of it and travels back inside, getting ready to do her day-off errands. There wasn't much she had to do, yoga was always a must though, her religion is her body, and she believes that to achieve a certain Zen she has to be at one with her body, her friend Alyson owns a little yoga, and meditation place on the end of her street, that she goes to frequently

"Good morning Sel, are you ready for today's session, we have a couple of new faces joining the class today, as well as some old faces too." Alyson greets her with an enthusiastic smile and attitude, Alyson has the type of personality that rubbed off on everyone. If you were having a bad day your best bet was to go to Alyson, you'd be happier in no time. Selki and Alyson were the complete opposites of one another but also very similar in many ways, their friendship had blossomed in college, being paired as roommates freshman year they hit it off almost right away, on the first day of being roommates Alyson had eaten Selki's chocolate creme-filled pastry she had gotten from a local bakery shop, she was fuming, but they found out they shared a love for the same bakery shop, and the next day Alyson came back to the dorm with two chocolate creme-filled pastries and coffees instead of one and called a truce.

"I'm always ready for yoga, no matter the time." Alyson laughs at her knowing that she's serious, Selki would come back from being at work all day and call up Alyson for a yoga and meditation session to unwind from the events of her job. She never explained her occupation to Alyson, but she knew it must have been an important one since her best friend seemed to always be stressed after the late hours. Alyson had tried pushing on information about Selki's job, but the other woman always laughed it off as being the same old boring job everyone else had. "I'm glad to hear, and I was thinking after the session we could go to Lovely Bites?" she grins at the thought of eating a couple of deliciously made pastries she's come to love.

"You've got my attention now." Selki replies and heads into the studio where twelve other people are stretching and warming up on their own yoga mats. She pulls out hers and gets to work stretching yesterday's work out of her body, being out in the field all day left her body feeling as dull as a kitchen knife being used to cut down a massive tree. "Alright ladies, and some gentlemen, we're going to start off today's session with the cow pose, stretch out your back and breathe out, let all the stress and tightness out." Alyson's soothing voice starts the lesson, guiding us through each pose, and explaining it to everyone. Selki follows each pose to peak perfection, her breathing technique flawless. Before no time she was feeling better than before, and as they finish the session with the corpse pose she sighed heavily content with it. All of them respectfully clap for Alyson's lesson and start to pack up their yoga things some people making plans with the others in the studio.

Selki packs up her own things and makes her way over to Alyson who has a small gathering around, so she decides to stay back for a moment waiting for them to disperse so they could go fetch their well-earned treats. As they do she smiles at her best friend proud, Alyson always looks so content running her yoga sessions, helping people in reconnecting with themselves. "Alright let's go get those pastries." Alyson's excited voice pulls her from her thoughts and she smiles even wider, linking her arm with Alyson's she walks the other woman out of the studio the others from the class closely following behind. They heard people talking about their behavior towards each other, it was always a rumor that started, the women were closer than any other group of best friends, and a lot of peers thought they were in a relationship, but that was not the case at all, they loved each other like sisters, a love that ran deeper than any other connection they each had.

They make their way towards Lovely Bites chatting about anything they have done since they've last seen each other for longer than the spontaneous late-night yoga sessions each night. "So I've met a guy, his name is Alexander, he's from America, but moved here to be a teacher." Selki looks at her best friend thinking about the last relationship Alyson had, which ended messy, really messy. "Before you go on to ask if he's an okay guy, I actually brought you here to meet him." She gives her best friend a look that says it all as Alyson throws her hands up. "I know I know, but he's really sweet and not like the other guys I've dated before." She's heard that one before, all Alyson now needed was to top it off with, "You'll like him, I promise." There it was the good old line that made Selki break down each time. "Okay fine, but any inkling of weird and I'm dragging you away and you're blocking his number." She waggles a finger at a grinning Alyson before being dragged into what she could only describe as a nightmare waiting to happen.

The bell on the top of the door dings as the young women walk arm in arm together, right away a man with jet black hair waves them over, or more like Alyson, this must be Alexander then. When they walk up to the table Alexander jumps up and gives Alyson a hug a huge smile on his face, "I've missed you." He greets the blushing woman kissing her cheek, Selki's jaw goes slack, and the man looks over to Selki, he seems to be hesitant before extending a hand to her. "You must be the best friend, Selki, it's nice to... finally meet you." She narrows her gaze at the man in front of her, offering one of her hands in return. "It's nice to meet you too." She smiles and looks over to her friend to see if she's picked up on the changed vibe in the room. Fortunately, her best friend stays unaware, smiling away. That was a good thing, standing before Selki appearing as her best friend's new boyfriend was a coworker of hers, an agent like herself.

"Please have a seat and I'll get the waitress to come back over." Alexander addresses the two and the trio sits down, Selki glances over to the pair that was now sitting next to each other, one red-faced and the other visibly sweating from nervousness. As he should. Selki thinks to herself, being at the top of the company's list people below start to see you as a threat. A brown-haired shy looking waitress comes over and gets the women's orders before rushing off. Selki pulls out her phone and starts to lazily scroll through one of her various social media apps as the couple across from her talk about cute date ideas and other things like that.

She was starting to feel the third wheel feeling start to take hold as the waitress comes back with her chocolate creme-filled pastry and cup of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream. Not once did the couple flinch away from each other and it was sickening to Selki, she downed her pastry and washed it down by chugging her hot chocolate, she leaves the correct amount of euros for her side of the bill and leaves the two to coddle each other or whatever they were doing across from her.