I wrote this chapter a few months ago. I sometimes skip around when I’m writing because a certain scene comes to me with such vivid detail. I loved writing this chapter and have been dying to get the rest of the story up to this point so I could publish it. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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Alex’s POV:
I sat in that hotel room trying to be patient. I knew Anjali eventually had to come back to the room. Her purse was still in the room. I needed to keep my cool so that when she did come back I was prepared to speak to her.
I picked up a magazine to distract myself and as soon as I got settled, I heard a phone ring. I knew it wasn’t my phone because the ringtone was the song Zoobi Doobi from the Hindi movie 3 Idiots and I immediately knew it was Anjali’s. She almost always used a Hindi song for her ringtone. I walked over to the nightstand to see who was calling her. I looked at her iPhone and saw “Jordan” flashing. I just stared at the phone stunned that he was calling her. He said that nothing was going on between them yet he was calling her. Why was he calling Anjali? To warn her?
The call went to voicemail and I heard the phone beep once the voicemail had been left. I picked up the phone and I know I shouldn’t but I wanted to hear the voicemail. I had to know, this was my marriage for god’s sake. I had a right to know. So I tried to listen to the message but I needed the passcode to gain access to Anjali’s messages. I tried our anniversary date, Anjali’s birthday, the kids’ birthday, my birthday, but nothing worked. Why was the code so difficult? I began to wonder if Anjali had done this on purpose because she was hiding her affair from me.
I was now so far from calm. My mind was racing. Jordan knew Anjali’s schedule better than I did. This morning when he told her that he wouldn’t be at her yoga class she looked so disappointed. Maybe Jordan had lied this afternoon. What was he thinking when he called Jordan that he would just admit to him if he was having an affair with his wife.
Maybe he should have taken up yoga. Yoga was always Anjali’s thing. Over the years he had seen Anjali perform dances or go on set when she was choreographing a dance, but he rarely went to her yoga studio. One of the few times he went to Anjali’s yoga studio was when he was courting her.
It seemed just like yesterday that he had walked into the yoga studio on the upper East side to see Anjali in action. Just thinking about that evening so many years ago made him ache to hold Anjali.
His thoughts wandered to that evening….
Alex slipped into the yoga studio where Anjali taught and watched her teach the last half hour of her class. They weren’t planning on seeing each other today, but he missed her and he wanted to see her even if it was just watching her. He stood hidden so he could watch her without her noticing him. He’d never taken a yoga class so he didn’t know what to expect or how her class compared to any other class.
Anjali walked around the studio as she called out the poses. “Let’s work on our core and developing strength. Sometimes I find it’s more difficult to hold one pose for a long time than it is to go through several poses because of the concentration and focus you need. One of my favorite poses to hold is the plank pose. So get into the position as if you’re about to do a push up and we’re going to hold this pose for over one minute. You might be wondering why I like this pose – so let me enlighten you. When you do this pose properly you are pushing your feet towards the wall behind you while you push your head towards the wall in front of you. You should feel the opposing tug of push and pull of the pose. Keep playing with it until you get the right balance between push and pull.”
She continued to walk around and correct several students, sometimes pulling their legs, sometimes straightening their heads, for some positioning the arms directly under the shoulders and having the student straightening them. All the while she continued to talk about the pose. “While you are definitely pulling the feet and head in opposing directions, you are also pushing your hands into the ground while you push your torso into the air. So once again these are opposing forces. If you’re doing this correctly you’re focusing on all directions, North, South, East and West. Can you feel the difference when you focus on all of the directions? Play with the pose and shift your focus from one direction to another and observe what you feel. When you get each direction right, you’ll feel that you’re floating and no direction will stand out. When you hold a pose you get the opportunity to observe and play with it more rather than quickly moving through it.”
“How’s everyone doing?” Anjali asked. There were a few groans and a few greats. “Come on 10 more seconds, and now lower yourself down and go back into child’s pose.” The students held child pose for a minute or two and then Anjali said, “Okay class is not over yet, so don’t get too comfortable yet. We’re going to hold another pose where once again we’ll be working with opposing forces. Please stand up and get into tree pose. Let’s start with standing on our right foot and lifting the left foot to your right inner thigh. If that’s too difficult than lower your foot just don’t place it near your knee or you risk an injury. Lift your arms above your head and if you can have your hands touch in prayer position. The feet should be planted and grounding into the ground while you’re arms are reaching for the sky. So you’re grounding and reaching at the same time. We’ll hold this and then switch to the other leg.” She paused to take a breath.
“If you’ll notice most of the yoga positions are about balancing opposing forces. You are doing this physically, but this is in essence what Eastern philosophy and religion ask you to do in your life too. So Hinduism which Yoga is based in asks you to balance your opposing feelings, habits, etc. The physical practice of yoga is no different it’s just the physical aspect while the spiritual aspect asks you to balance the opposing forces in your life. So while you are holding the physical pose think about what in your life do you need to balance? Because in life neither extreme is good. For example, you don’t want to be a pushover, but you also don’t want to be the person who’s bossy. What is the right balance between standing up for yourself and going with the flow? Are you the person who is always worrying about the future or are you the person who can’t get out of the past? But, to balance you need to learn from the past and plan somewhat for the future but not be so worried that you miss out on today the present. Are you the person who spends too much money and goes beyond your means or are you the person who hoards it all? You need to save but you also need to enjoy the pleasures of life. Switch sides. What is the right balance? You need to ask this question about everything in your life. Do you starve yourself so you can fit some image the media has set out for you that you don’t enjoy the pleasure of eating a nice meal and breaking bread with your friends or are you the person who eats with no regards to your health such that you abuse your body. Both are wrong. Are you the lazy couch potato or are you the obsessed exercise freak? I know each of you knows both of these types of people and what do you think you them? Each extreme is scary, so find the balance. Think of the things in your life that you balance well and then think of the things that you don’t balance as well and work on those. So as you work through each pose physically remember this is a lesson worth taking outside of the studio and applying to your life too. Okay, I’m done with my life lessons of life. Please do a dozen surya namaskars (sun salutations) at your own pace.
Alex listened to Anjali speak and watched her walk around the room helping the students and tweaking their poses. Her yoga clothes easily outlined her body making sure you knew exactly where she curved. Her discourse on opposites had whole other meaning for him. All he could think about was if you looked at her body she had a body that could make a saint have Penthouse thoughts. She had a body that made you think about all sorts of things that are for a private audience only. The balance he was thinking about was alternating about who would be on top. He’d be happy to alternate being on top and having her on top of him while they made love. Yup that’s the balance he was thinking. He’d also be happy to balancing his way with her on the bed, on the floor, on the couch, in the kitchen, on the balcony, and in the shower. Yup he could work out a balance with that. He was just thinking he’d be happy to experiment with getting the right mix of making love inside vs. outside. Here Anjali was trying to impart her wisdom on her students but his head was in the gutter – a balanced gutter of course.
All Alex could think of was the things he could do to Anjali that would make her moan softly vs. the things he’d like to do to her that would have her screaming. He’d love to grab her hips while she was on top of him and drive her hips to a rhythm of up and down slowly and then hard and fast. They could work on the right amount of slow and fast, soft and loud, and he’d be happy to take several sessions to perfect it.
The truth be told Anjali herself was a blend of opposites. Her body made you think of sinful thoughts, but then you looked at her face and into her almond doe shaped eyes covered with dark long lashes and you could lose yourself in her innocence. You only needed to spend five minutes with her to see that she lived in a bubble and her feet never touched the ground. She was the person who saw the glass as half full no matter what. She’s the person who automatically trusts unless you proved to her otherwise while the rest of us walk around assuming everyone is guilty or selfish unless they prove otherwise.
Anjali continued with her lesson, “Okay let’s do a few more poses before we go into Shavasana pose. Let’s do a few twist poses.” With that she led them through some twist poses and stretches before turning down the lights and leading them into Shavasana. She lit incense and walked around the studio as the students laid down absorbing the silence.
With that silence Alex continued with his thoughts about Anjali. He liked her innocence but sometimes it so frustrated him so much. He had been so mad when she hadn’t accepted the money from working with Tarun Jewelers. It’s the one thing he had agreed with Raj on. She should think about her future and make sure she is financially secure. He had been so frustrated with how she handed the entire amount of over to Tarun cha cha’s charity and said she had everything she needed. He had heard that after she found out about Raj she took it in stride by telling everyone if this was going to happen at least it had happened before she married him, there hadn’t even been a wedding date set so there was no wedding to cancel. She had told Ali that at least she wasn’t married with kids, because she didn’t know if she would have been able to walk away if she were in that situation. She told him it was better that she found out about his philandering ways now while she could walk away. She always saw life as the glass half full. She reminded him of himself in his younger days. There was a time when he was so trusting but then Christina changed all of that. His new found cynicism served him well in business, but sometimes he longed for the carefree attitude he used to have. Maybe that’s why he was so attracted to Anjali he both enjoyed her innocence but he was also frustrated by it at times.
“Start to move your fingers and toes and slowly bring yourself out of Shavasana. When you’re ready turn to your right side and place your right hand under your head and rest there for a few moments before getting up,” Anjali instructed. A few minutes later she had the class sitting up and going through 3 Om’s to close out the class and everyone ended by saying “Namaste.”
Yes that was Anjali, with a body made to sin and a face and personality that made you feel guilty for every selfish thought. It didn’t make sense, but maybe that’s why he was so attracted to her to have both of those traits in one person. Although, right now he really wished he hadn’t promised to be a gentleman as he watched her hug her students as they were heading out. Especially the straight guys who made sure to go up to her to get a hug wiping their barely clothed sweaty body against her. He never realized how many straight guys took yoga, but looking at how the women were dressed, it’s the perfect pick up place. In one class you get a work out, a spiritual lesson, and the chance to get laid – a three for one – a gym, church and club all rolled into one. No wonder yoga was becoming so popular. He thought to himself maybe his next venture should be in a chain of yoga studios.
After the 15th hug she looked up and noticed Alex. He smiled at her as she looked surprised to see him at her yoga studio. She untangled herself from the hugs and excused herself as she walked towards Alex.
“Hi. What a surprise to see you here,” she said.
“I missed you so I thought I’d come and see you,” he said with a boyish grin on his face. “Do you want to grab a bite to eat or drink?” Anjali looked up at him and said “Just give me a few minutes to change and then we can go.”
As she walked off, Alex thought, yes life was a balancing act and right now he needed a scotch to “balance” his libido.