Perfectly Flawed

24. No Shame

I push up, stretching with a contented sigh. My playlist is a soothing blend of acoustic covers and slow songs, and it takes me a second to realize I'm not alone in the room, I'm being spoken to. "What?" I take one earbud out.

"Oh my gosh." Kasei laughs.

"Yes?" I peek at her through my legs

"What the heck, why are you always up so early?"

"Mmmmm." I bring one leg up to the sky for a few beats before completing my knee drive, holding my thigh to my chest for a couple breaths. "Why not?" I plant my heel to the ground before thrusting my arms to the sky in a low Warrior 1 pose.

"Um. I don't know, because sleep is so much better?"

"I don't know." I hum. "Yoga and coffee is a great start to the morning."

She crinkles her nose. "Caffeine stunts performance."

"That's only the ballerina in you saying that." I breathe deeply out as I raise my back leg and twist into warrior 2 before continuing: "I'll choose to ignore that one."

Kasei laughs at me as I press my hands to the mat, walking them back to center.

"And we both know you are counting down to PSL season." I step my legs back into plank and breathe against the ache.

"Not true. It's 17 days but I'm not counting, I just saw it on insta this morning."

"Mhm." I push back into downward facing dog again.

"Whatever. I woke up early for years and hated it so I don't get why you do it willingly."

"Because yoga is amazing for you and it helps clear my mind."

"Who do you need off your mind?" She grins mischievously

I smile and shake the thoughts out before they can creep back into my space. "Nobody, nothing." I repeat the sequence again, pulling my other leg to my chest for a few beats before going down into a low lunge. "But it's not like I'm getting up randomly early for fun, I'm not a psychopath."

Kasei sits on the couch beside me with a laugh. "If you say so."

I continue my movements, rolling my eyes at her. "The only 3 things that will get me up are yoga, a latte, and inspiration."

"And sex."

My warrior tips over. "Kasei!"

"What?" She raises her eyebrows. "Don't act like I didn't hear you coming in at 8 am. Just because I chose to stay in bed doesn't mean I didn't know your walk of shame happened."

I stand back into warrior 2, ignoring her sass. "It wasn't a walk of shame, I have no shame."

"Usually I agree, but you're suspiciously leaving out details with this one and I need to know why." She narrows her eyes and I turn back around.

"We didn't have sex."

"Ohhhhh so you were guilty, walking in this morning after no sex."

"No, he was up, we were..." I trail off as the images of him pressing himself against me kissing my neck fill my head. "Anyway Kasei, it's not against the law for me to leave his place early in the morning. He had to go to work." Had to put thoughts of him jerking to me in my head early in the morning as I was still horny before he went to work, but still.

"Bummer. No action?"

I walk my hands to center again with a small grin. "I didn't say that."

"Oooooh there was action!"