Authors: S. Briones Lim
Cash swallowed, causing his Adam‘s apple to bob up and down. “Did you say something?”
“Shhh,” she whispered, placing her fingertip on his lips. “I didn’t say anything. Just keep going.”
With an answering grin, Cash trailed his fingertips along the length of her torso. His fingers were delicate and gentle, almost as if he was playing a silent tune on the instrument that was her body. The combination of his soft touch with the vigor of this thrusts just about silenced her anxious thoughts. As Ruthie’s eyes rolled to the back of her head in ecstasy, one last wry thought entered her brain.
At least you’re being safe.
“Why yes, I am,” Ruthie whispered, shutting the voice up for good.
***
“I feel a bit woozy,” Celine complained, gripping onto Brian’s forearm. He automatically reached out and grabbed her waist, steadying her. Celine giggled in response.
Brian shook his head. “Man, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea feeding you those shots.”
“I only had three,” Celine replied, holding three wobbly fingers in the air.
“Yeah and three is like ten for a lightweight,” Brian responded with a frown.
Still holding onto her waist, he ushered her past the crowds of New York’s K-Town. The lights weren’t as bright as they were in Times Square, yet the streets were still buzzing with energy. Celine giggled, stumbling over her feet as she pointed at the different sights. Instead of being annoyed, Brian found her actions kind of cute and joined in her enthusiastic laughter.
“Okay, so where are we going?” she slurred, turning her head from left to right.
Brian’s eyes lit up. “Ah, I’m glad you asked! I have the number one cure to any social anxiety disorder.”
Celine’s eyes narrowed. She gazed up at him, which was a bit hard to do considering she was practically glued to the side of his body. “I don’t have-ah a dees-orrrder.”
Brian threw his head back and gazed up into the sky, laughing. Even in her drunken stupor, Celine took a moment to admire his square jawline. Brian peered down at her and replied, “Just trust me. Where I’m taking you, embarrassment is meant to wipe away any remnants of worry.”
Celine stopped walking, causing Brain to smash right into her. She stumbled forward and fell onto her knees.
“Shit!” Brian exclaimed. He grabbed underneath her armpit. “Are you okay?”
Frowning, Celine turned to him and pouted. “What do ya mean ’barrassment?”
***
Ruthie felt a light tug against her scalp while Cash played with a lock of her hair. Highlighted strands of brown wound around his fingers as he hummed a familiar tune in her ear.
“Is that…?” Ruthie began to ask.
“You know, when I sing this song during performances, I try to picture what I deem to be the most beautiful woman in the world,” Cash whispered, sending a trail of goose bumps to cover Ruthie’s pale skin. “I thought it was only fitting to sing it when I was in the company of the most beautiful woman in the world.”
A wave of butterflies fluttered around her stomach. Smooth didn’t even begin to cut it when describing Cash Walker. Ruthie turned so she was facing him, resting the side of her head on his outstretched arm. She hugged his torso and let her eyes drift closed as she listened to him sing.
***
“And that’s the way I’ll love you,” Celine crooned. She knew she probably sounded horrible, but she didn’t care. She was having the time of her life! She gripped the microphone in her hand and pressed the mouthpiece close to her lips. Her eyes darted across the television screen, attempting to keep up with the highlighted words.
“All night! I’ll hold your body tight!” She closed her eyes, forcing a high note from her throat. Opening her eyelids, she spotted Brian silently clapping from the corner of the room. The other guests were singing along sloppily, whooping and hollering as Celine stepped up onto the wooden table and began to dance around.
Brian wasn’t kidding; karaoke was the best way to get over any sort of public speaking induced fear. The two found themselves in a basement level karaoke bar. A disco ball hung in the lobby and as Celine had first watched it spinning around, she couldn’t help but want to kick Brian in the shin. If he expected her to get up in front of strangers and sing—SING!—he had another think coming. To her relief, the karaoke bar was unlike those she had seen before. Patrons actually rented private rooms! Celine didn’t know which was worse, singing in front of strangers or singing in front of Brian. Well, she didn’t have to wonder because she ended up doing both. Somehow Mr. Charisma was able to worm his way into different private rooms with no difficulty at all. Celine was astounded, as he never once named dropped Intensity to get his way. He just used old-fashioned charm.
Now here they were, Brian swigging a beer towards the back of the tiny room with Celine singing a non-Intensity song on top of a table. Brian couldn’t help but laugh as he watched Celine spin around on the table. His laugh soon stopped when she began to swing her hips like a belly dancer.
She’s getting married.
Again and again the same sentence flooded his brain. He hated it.
Brian looked up when some very sloppy beatboxing entered his ear. Laughing, he walked over to Celine and grabbed the microphone from her. “You’re doing it wrong! You beatbox like this!” He pressed the microphone to his mouth and began making a sound that reminded Celine of a drum.
“Give me that!” Celine grabbed the mike from him and began blowing into it heavily.
Brian burst into laughter. “Yeah, sounds good, Celine! Definitely a beat boxing champ now.”
“Here you go!” One of the college-aged patrons shouted, shoving a drink into Celine’s hand.
Celine grabbed at it happily, just as Brian snatched it away. “Hey!” she pouted.
“My job tonight is to make sure you’re taken care of,” he said sternly. He looked down at her scrunched up mouth and couldn’t help but want to run his fingers over it.
“You’re drinking!” she accused him.
“I also don’t have a conference to attend tomorrow,” he reminded her.
She narrowed her eyes at him and then grinned. “Hold this,” she said, handing him the microphone. Brian nearly dropped the drink, but Celine took the opportunity to grab at the glass before it splattered to the ground. Without a moment’s hesitation she downed the shot of red and winked at Brian. The crowd cheered, but Brian just stood there silently.
“Rise and shine, Sleepyhead.”
Usually Ruthie wasn’t a morning person, but her eyes fluttered open the instant she heard Cash’s voice. She was almost afraid to wake up to a repeat from the day at the House of Rocks and immediately turned to look for her clothes. To her surprise (and relief) Cash was still in his birthday suit, sprawled beside her.
“Hi,” Ruthie whispered. She quickly shut her mouth, conscious of how her breath smelled.
“Hi yourself,” Cash answered. He gently removed his arm from under her head and pushed himself off the living room floor.
“How’d we…?” Ruthie asked, glancing at the couch.
Cash laughed. “You are a wild woman, Ruthie.” He turned and threw her a wink. “I like that.”
Ruthie blushed and sat up, crossing her arms over her chest (really, as if he hadn’t seen everything already!). She cleared her throat, “Um, what’s the plan for today?”
“Well, it’s technically my day off…”
“You get days off?” she asked dumbly.
“Mmhmm,” he answered, then paused a moment. “I was thinking of taking you shopping. You know, so you could have something to wear tonight.”
Ruthie frowned in confusion. “What’s going on tonight? Besides, I already have new clothes to wear.” Her next credit card bill would be a great testament to that.
Cash shook his head. He stretched his arms in the air, causing Ruthie to eye his flexed body hungrily. “Though I don’t doubt your impeccable taste in style (once again Ruthie regretted her earlier yoga ensemble) I just thought it would be fun to treat you. Besides, the party I’m taking you to is in celebration of me. I thought it would be nice to have coordinating outfits.”
“In celebration of you? What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Well, in celebration of Intensity really. You know, to celebrate our reunion tour.” He shook his head and laughed. “But we all know who the most important member is.” With both his thumbs he pointed to himself.
Arrogance was a big deal breaker for Ruthie and a reason why three or so of her exes didn’t work out. The fact that she didn’t mind Cash’s arrogance (especially during his Cash vs. Cash tirade) did not escape her. She pushed herself off the floor, and remembering his comment about confidence, strutted around with her head held high. In a manner very unlike her, she said, “I’m taking a shower. Care to join?”
Like a kid on Christmas, Cash’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. He dropped the shirt he was holding and made a beeline to the bathroom, grabbing Ruthie on the way.
She giggled, loving the feeling of his skin pressed against hers. Though the annoying voice tried to speak up once again, she quickly shut it down. Nothing was going to ruin the day for her.
***
Celine’s eyes fluttered open. She didn’t know what woke her, all she knew was that she had a gigantic headache that wouldn’t go away. She groaned, pressing the butt of her hand against the space between her eyebrows. She rolled over and attempted to blink sleep away.
She gasped and sat straight up in bed. How the hell did she get home? She couldn’t remember anything about the night before except…
“Shit!” she yelped.
Celine’s hands frantically grabbed at her body, only sighing with relief once she felt her hoodie and jeans. She laughed to herself. She couldn’t believe how ridiculous she was acting. She would never, EVER cheat on Noah. Still, she had no idea how she even made it back to her hotel room.
Her eyes were drawn to the extra bed across from hers. The covers were crumpled and the pillows thrown to the side of the bed. Someone had definitely slept in it and Celine had the distinct feeling she knew who. Just then the hotel door swung open. She turned her head quickly, groaning as what felt like a spike hit her right in the temple.
“Hey you,” Brian’s chirpy voice called out from the door.
Celine managed to pry her eyes open and watched as Brian made his way over to her bed. To her relief he wore the same outfit he did the night before—blue jeans, black hoodie, and a dark grey shirt underneath. He had some bags under his eyes and didn’t look as if he had had any sleep at all.
In purely gentlemanly fashion, he sat at the edge of her mattress and held out a bottle of water and two tan tablets. “Here, drink this. It should make your headache go away,” he instructed her. There was a smile on his face, but the concern was evident in his eyes.
“How did you know that I have a raging headache?” Celine muttered, grabbing the pills from his hand. Without so much as taking a swig of water, she dry swallowed the pills, wanting the pain to disappear as quickly as possible.
Brian snorted, “Well, considering that I just spent an hour of my life holding your hair as you vomited in the toilet, I think I had a pretty good idea.”
The blood instantly drained from Celine’s face. She automatically reached for her hair and was relieved not to find dried clumps of vomit lacing her magenta strands. She looked up sheepishly and smiled. “Thanks.”
Without a word, Brian stood up. Never taking his eyes off her, he reached over and patted her on the shoulder. The action was quite strange, even for him, but he was afraid he’d bring her in for a kiss if he got any closer. “Well, I guess I’ll let you get ready.”
Celine almost choked down her water. Her head snapped to the right quickly, once again eliciting pain in her forehead. Ignoring it, she sighed with relief when she saw it was only seven. “Oh thank God!” she exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest.
“You didn’t think I’d let you sleep in, did you?” Brian took a step back. His grin faltered, knowing he’d have to leave Celine looking a mess. Clearing his throat he said, “Well, you better get ready. Don’t want to miss your conference now, do you? Judging by your awesome performances last night, I think you’re ready to speak in front of a crowd.”
Celine wouldn’t have been surprised if someone mistook her for a tomato. She felt warmth traveling through all her extremities and internally cringed. If she could crawl under a rock she would.
“No! It was cute! Really!” Brian said encouragingly.
“Right,” Celine laughed weakly.
Brian paused for a beat and drummed his fingers in the air. “Okay, I guess I’ll go now.”
“Wait a minute,” Celine called out, suddenly thinking of something.
“Yes?” Brian asked, spinning on his heel. A part of him hoped she would ask him to stay, but he knew better than to expect miracles to happen.
“I thought you didn’t like mornings. What are you doing up before eleven?”
With a chuckle, Brian walked back to the bed and leaned over to give her a hug. “Waking up early isn’t so bad when you’re with a great person.” He squeezed her quickly and straightened himself. With half a smile he glanced down at her messy bed head. The frizziness of her hair reminded him of a time long ago before Celine started to wear her hair slick straight. “Take care of yourself and good luck. Call me if you need anything.”
Celine watched quietly as he exited the room, leaving her alone, gripping onto the cold water bottle. She rubbed her eyes and groaned. She instantly regretted throwing herself against her pillow as it elicited more pounding in her head.
“This is why I never drink anymore,” she muttered.
With eyes still closed, she felt around for her phone, hoping to God that she didn’t happen to drunk dial Noah the night before. To her relief, there were no new calls on her log nor any new texts in her history. Suddenly missing her fiancé, she thought to send him a quick text in lieu of the time difference.
Miss you, babe. Good luck at the restaurant. I love you.