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Katelyn leans close to her and tells her something I can’t hear. Amy glances at me with wide-eyed astonishment, and my self-consciousness increases two notches.
Shania begins the lesson soon after, and it doesn’t take long before yoga is the first item on the list of activities that relax me. It’s the only item on the list, but it’s a start.
We end the session with meditation, which involves clearing the mind. But clearing the mind is as easy to do as swimming in the ocean during a hurricane. My thoughts race all over the place. To my time in Beckley. To my marriage.
To Troy.
To the assignments Robyn gave me. To work.
And back to Troy.
To Angelique’s journal. To the Morse code message Troy left me.
And that circles me back to Troy. So much for meditating with an empty mind.
After class, Violet walks me to my bike. “Let me give you my number, and I can pick you up next week.”
“Are you sure that’s okay with you? I don’t want you to go out of your way if it’s any trouble.”
“Honestly, it’s no trouble at all.”
“Thank you.” I tug a smile on my face again. I want to spend more time with Violet and get to know her better. But the thought of her husband being Maple Ridge’s chief of police makes my stomach churn and burn.
Hopefully I never have to meet him. I don’t care if he ends up being a nice guy. Just. No.
* * *
Thursday after work,I sit on the couch and continue where I left off last night with Robyn’s assignment. I began brainstorming the lists after I got home from yoga. Combined, the two lists contain only six items.
I type on my phone the word that’s been buzzing in my head for the past few hours.
Photography.
It’s been over seven years since I last held a camera. Is it like riding a bike? You never forget?
I turn on my phone’s cell data—thankful my Wi-Fi will be set up tomorrow—and google prices for the Canon camera body similar to the one I once owned. The camera, the sturdy tripod, and the lens I’ll need add up to well over two thousand dollars.
Ouch.
I’m not all that surprised. I’d worked two part-time jobs to earn enough for the gear while I was in college.
Two years. That’s how long it took me to save for the camera and gear. Two years of working two jobs, of sacrificing time spent with friends, of balancing work and school. But it had been worth it.
It took me two years to buy everything I needed to produce beautiful, award-worthy photos.
It had taken my husband ten seconds to destroy it.
I deletephotographyand come up with a few more items, including canoeing and hiking, before putting the assignment aside.
Troy called three hours ago to see if I was free later this afternoon. He told me he was driving me somewhere but wouldn’t tell me where. According to him, it’s a surprise.
Hopefully, it’s a better surprise than the one for the cost of the camera and gear.
One bad surprise is more than enough.
35
ANGELIQUE
