“Well, you can all sit here and be holier than thou about it, but I won’t for a split second believe nobody else here thinks she’s a real hottie,” Sheryl said.

“A real hottie,” Caitlin chimed in. “That’s not the sort of language we use, Sheryl. What has become of you?” She stared at Kristin. “Is it the change? Has the time come?”

They all snickered and Lou was glad they’d stopped extolling the virtues of Mia’s character. As long as they mainly talked about her looks, Lou wasn’t inclined to see Mia in a different light.

“Her trial period is up at the end of the week and I will not be letting her go,” Kristin said, ignoring Caitlin’s remark. “I’ll need to hire a new barista for the morning shift pretty soon.” She glanced at Micky. “Unless you want to come back?”

Micky pursed her lips together. “Sorry, Kristin. I’m in the yoga business now. We all know Glow would fall apart without me.” Micky glanced at Lou. Was she expecting her to back her up? Or was it an invitation to join in the banter between these old friends, amongst whom Lou still felt like a bit of an outsider?

“I can attest to that,” Lou said and quickly sipped from her wine. “Amber and I would be in ruins if it weren’t for Micky.”

“Thank you.” Micky tilted her head toward Lou.

Lou couldn’t help but smile. Outsider status or not, it felt good to slowly become part of a group of friends here in Sydney. Mixing business with pleasure was part and parcel of being a yoga teacher, because regulars she got along with would often become acquaintances or more. That was the nature of the practice. Despite the matter of Mia, she was actually glad that Glow and the Pink Bean were two businesses so intertwined, they might as well have been dreamed up by the same person.

“Mia will do the morning shift for a while longer, but not too much longer,” Kristin mused. “No offense to either of you, but I do feel her talents are wasted behind the coffee machine. In fact, she’s pitching me an idea tomorrow.”

Lou could guess what that idea was. She was also secretly relieved that the meeting between her, Jo, Kristin, and Mia hadn’t been set up yet. It was all well and good to walk up to Mia and Jo spurred on by worry in a brief moment of temporary insanity, but Lou wasn’t sure what actually sitting at a table with Mia would do to her. Although she figured she would need the practice. If she wanted to make her way from the outskirts of this group of friends to being warmly embraced by them, she would need to learn to at least be around Mia without flinching or giving away that there was no love lost between them.