“Looking forward to it!” Jules answered enthusiastically.

“We are, too” Thad responded.  “Have a good feeling about this.”

“I do, too.  Thanks for the opportunity.”

“No, thank you, Jules.  We really like what you’ve got going on in The Play Room.  And we’re hoping this will be just one of many parties we can do there!”

Jules smiled.

“Okay, I gotta go,” he said, preparing to ring off.  “Got a meeting next door that’s already started.  See you on Friday!”

“Uh huh,” Jules answered.  “Friday.”

“Ciao.”

“Later.”

She pushed the door to the martial arts studio open, still smiling.  “Good morning, Jules,” her instructor greeted her formally, as he walked around the front desk of the studio, while she dropped her phone back into her side pocket.

“Good morning,” Jules answered, feeling pumped.  Just a great day, so far.

“We’ll be joined by Christine, a student in my weekend class.  She couldn’t make it to the class this past weekend, so she wanted to do a make-up class today,” he told her, in the calm measured tones Jules had always heard him use, ever since she’d started taking classes with him.  “You can spar with her.  She’s been taking Krav Maga classes for many years now, much longer than you have.  So it will be good for you to practice with her.”

Jules nodded, still feeling excited about the conversation she’d just concluded.  A lot of options to play around with for that party.

“Get your focus back on this, Jules,” her teacher said, in sharper tones than she’d ever heard him use with her.

She gulped, acknowledging that he’d caught her daydreaming.  He was a strict taskmaster, and had always emphasized mindfulness with his students when they were in his classes.

Her attention snapped back to the present.  “Um … okay.  Sorry.  I’ll go get ready for class.”

She hurried to the women’s locker room to remove her warm-up suit.  She quickly slipped out of it after selecting one of the empty lockers, then folded her clothes neatly, and laid them over the gym bag she’d tossed into the locker.  After she shut the locker door, she saw a slight blonde woman eyeing her from a locker several feet away.

“You in the 9 o’clock class?” the woman asked.