Authors: S. Briones Lim
Celine placed her foot on top of the bench and began tying her fluorescent colored shoelaces. “I can’t believe you talked me into working out with you. I have a feeling I’m going to regret this.”
“You’re the one who said she wanted to be right and tight for her wedding. Besides, can’t go meeting Cash Walker looking all busted.”
“You better hope we meet Cash. I’ll be eternally pissed off at you if we don’t.”
“We will,” Ruthie replied in confidence. “Just trust me.”
“Ugh, I hate this!” Celine complained, barely dragging herself from the locker room. “Working out is for suckers.”
Ruthie tightened her hair tie and smiled. “Well, I love it…At least I usually do.” She scanned the packed building and cringed. “It’s not usually this crowded. I blame the New Years’ Resolutioners. They only show up for like the first two months of the year.”
“I think that’s why I stick to hot yoga. Only the few, the proud, and the strong seem to show up.”
“Okay, Bougie.” Ruthie laughed. She placed her hands on Celine’s shoulders and nudged her forward. “Let’s go before the good machines are taken.”
The two grabbed their towels and walked towards the south end of the building, trying their hardest not to accidentally rub themselves against sweaty meatheads. It was easier said than done, that’s for sure.
Geez!” Celine exclaimed. “You weren’t kidding. This place looks like Wal-Mart on Black Friday.”
“Yeah,” Ruthie muttered. “It gets pretty annoying, but at least we’ll have time to catch up while we wait for machines to open up.”
“Catch up?” Celine laughed. “I see you every day!”
“Getting sick of me already?” Ruthie teased.
“Always.”
“What do you do all day when I’m at work?” Ruthie asked curiously.
“Wedding stuff, of course.” Celine sighed. “Sometimes I wish Noah and I had just run away and eloped. This whole wedding thing is so stressful! I have about fifty vendors to meet with—”
“Fifty?” Ruthie asked doubtfully.
“Okay, like ten,” Celine corrected, shaking her head. “Either way, Las Vegas is looking more and more appealing to me each day.”
“It’s not too late for that.” Ruthie winked and laughed. “Seriously, I had no idea that it took that much work to plan a wedding.”
“Yeah, you’d be surprised. Now I understand the term bridezilla a little better.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, you’re about as far from a bridezilla as you can get,” Ruthie told her. “Just think about it this way, you’re getting married! This coming from someone who was hung up on the same guy all through high school.”
Brian’s face flashed through Celine’s head and she immediately grimaced. “Ugh, don’t remind me. That crush was just bad news from the start.”
“Yeah, it was pretty stupid.” Ruthie avoided Celine’s irritated expression and glanced up. Spotting a rare gem in the corner, she quickly broke out into a run.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Celine yelled after her, struggling to keep up.
“Better work on that cardio, Celine! We have to get to that machine before someone else takes it!”
Ruthie was on a mission and reached the empty machine without even breaking a sweat. She grabbed the blue padded handle just as another hand reached up simultaneously. “Excuse me, I got here first,” Ruthie said in a semi-sweet, semi-“I will kill you” voice. She looked up and gaped at the handsome face that stared back at her.
“No, I think I did,” he replied with a kind smile. He took out his ear buds and laid the cord across his broad shoulders.
Gosh, even his teeth were attractive, she thought. She quickly shook her head and responded, “If you don’t mind, you can wait in line after my friend here? Like I said, I got here first.”
The man turned his head and flashed a smile at Celine, who had just caught up with the two. Breathing heavily, she smiled apologetically. “It’s all right. You can take my turn. I’ll just go after you and Ruthie.”
“Ah, so Ruthie’s her name.” He glanced back at her and winked. “Beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”
Ruthie ignored him and positioned the bar behind her neck. Without another word, she began doing the quickest squats known to man. Celine’s jaw dropped as she watched her friend complete her ridiculous looking reps.
“Well, I’m Scott,” he replied, bowing his head slightly. The corner of his mouth crept up into a lopsided grin.
“I didn’t ask,” Ruthie grunted. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and into her eye, momentarily blinding her. Not wanting to break form (or give Scott an excuse to grab the bar), she ignored the stinging pain.
Once again the compassionate one, Celine stuck her hand out. “Nice to meet you, Scott. I’m Celine.”
“At least one of you is nice,” Scott joked. He watched Ruthie for a little while longer and finally turned away. “I guess I’ll do some free weights. Nice to meet you both.” He waited for Ruthie to reply, but she remained focused on her reps. Silently, he turned on his heel and began to walk away.
Celine waited until he was out of earshot and hissed at her friend, “What was that about? You were really rude to him!”
“I wasn’t rude to him! I was…”
“You were what?”
“Flirting?”
Celine threw her head back and burst into laughter. “That was flirting? Seriously?”
“Not everyone’s an expert in relationships like you,” Ruthie snapped.
“I never said I was,” Celine replied, crossing her arms. “I just think the best way to flirt is by not acting like a bitch.”
Ruthie replaced the bar and began stretching her arms. “I was not acting like a bitch!”
“Um, you totally were,” Celine replied, braving a glance at Scott. He was busy lifting weights and paid the two no mind. “Do you want my advice?”
“Not really,” Ruthie shot back.
“Just quit ‘flirting’ with him and go over there and ask him out!”
“What?” Ruthie gaped. “Are you effing kidding me?” She shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t throw myself at a guy like that.”
“You won’t be throwing yourself at him.” Celine rolled her eyes. “You’re a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants. Get this whole flirting thing out of the way, because seriously, you’ll never win him that way.”
Ruthie huffed and shook her head. “Let’s change the subject. You wanted me to train you for the wedding, so here I am. Get on the machine and do three reps!”
“Okay, stop yelling at me. Geez, I didn’t know you were that sexually frustrated!” Celine growled
.
***
Celine rolled into bed that night sore beyond belief. She grabbed her phone and dialed Noah’s number, wincing as her thigh muscle screamed bloody murder. Hopefully hearing Noah’s voice would help make her feel better.
“Hey, honey,” he answered the phone in one ring. “What have you been up to?”
“Getting beaten to death by Ruthie,” she muttered.
“Sounds kinky!”
“Trust me it was more torturous than anything.” She laughed.
“I’m intrigued.” With a chuckle he asked, “How’s it going living with her?”
Celine paused and answered thoughtfully, “It’s been good. As much as I miss you, this is really good. I love it here.”
“Uh oh,” Noah teased. “Having second thoughts about moving in with me?”
“No. Of course not,” Celine assured him. “It’s just that your place is a good thirty minutes away, not counting traffic. As much as I keep telling Ruthie nothing will change after the wedding, I’m afraid it might.”
“What’s going to change? Your friendship?”
Celine shifted uncomfortably. “Well…Yeah.”
Noah chuckled softly. “I can almost guarantee that nothing is ever going to get between you two. Hell, I feel like I’m the one third wheeling sometimes.”
Celine giggled. “Shut up.”
“No, seriously! Listen, you tell your best friend that I won’t let anything happen to you two, okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled, leaning back against her pastel blue pillows. She sighed and shut her eyes. “I hope you’re right.”
“Tired?” Celine asked. She lifted her bronze leg so her foot sat against the glove compartment. Taking out a tube of Cherry Blossom scented lotion, she squeezed some out and began rubbing it into her skin. Ruthie groaned and reached over, knocking Celine’s foot off the panel. “Hey!” Celine yelped.
“No feet on any part of my car!” Ruthie scolded, never taking her eyes off the road.
“They have to be on the floor,” Celine teased.
Ruthie shot her a quick look. “Don’t be difficult.”
Celine laughed and placed the lotion back in her purse. “I really don’t mind driving. You worked all day today, might as well give the stay-at-home worker a chance behind the wheel.”
“No! You are not driving my car,” Ruthie replied sternly. Huffing, she added, “I’m surprised Noah even trusts you with his.”
“Hey! That greatly offends me,” Celine said in a fake southern belle accent. She placed her hand against her chest in dramatic fashion. “I’m actually a very good driv-ah.”
“Says the two speeding tickets, a parking violation, and one rear-ender?” Ruthie shot back.
“Since when are we keeping count?” Celine scowled, pulling her sunglasses over her eyes.
Ruthie shook her head in disbelief. “Seriously! I can’t believe you still have your license!” Celine pouted and crossed her arms; however Ruthie didn’t care, adding firmly, “No, you are absolutely never going to drive my car.”
“Can I at least pick the music?” Celine asked, holding up her iPod.
“Fine,” Ruthie groaned. She handed Celine the auxiliary cable and added, “Please, none of your bluesy stuff. I hear it enough from your room every morning.”
“I can’t help that I love the Louisiana flare.”
“You’ve never even been there!” Ruthie laughed.
“What can I say? I was born with soul.” Celine joked. “Seriously though, you will love my playlist.” She attached her mp3 player and quickly picked an album. Soon enough the car was filled with Intensity’s greatest hits.
Ruthie squealed in delight. “Why am I so surprised right now? I should have known you’d bring this along!”
“I know, right? You really don’t know me as well as you think you do. What’s the point of going to an Intensity concert without the soundtrack to go along with it?” Celine gave her a wink.
“Stop talking! My favorite part is coming!”
The two sang along at the top of their lungs. Celine even went as far as to do the choreographed arm movement from Intensity’s old pay-per-view concert. It felt like old times again. The only thing missing was Celine’s sister, Melissa, pounding on her door, yelling for them to shut up.
The music transported Ruthie back and she couldn’t help but think about their younger years. She tilted her head thoughtfully. “So I was just thinking about our high school love life.”
“What high school love life?” Celine snorted, pushing a sweaty strand of hair from her face.
“Exactly my point!” Ruthie agreed. “We didn’t have one! Maybe that’s why I’m like this.”
“Like what?” Celine asked curiously.
“Bad with men! Always picking the wrong guy!” She gritted her teeth and added, “And apparently bad with flirting. I never got to experience what all the other girls our age did. We were always so busy crushing on the unattainables that we never got to perfect our relationship skills with actual human boys.”
Celine laughed. “Oh, I must have missed the part where we dated aliens.”
Ruthie rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean! All the other girls graduated from their ‘dating training wheels’ in high school, but we were still using helmets and kneepads in college. I blame our social awkwardness, myself.”
“None of that stuff matters,” Celine argued. “Just because we were…um, inexperienced during high school does not automatically sentence us to a bad love life. I mean, look at me! I landed Noah and he’s the perfect guy. It didn’t matter that I was such a late bloomer. You don’t need to learn how to be great in a relationship. When you’re with the right guy, you’ll know exactly what to do.”
Ruthie sighed, “You’re saying it will come easy? Just like that? Maybe it will never be as easy for me as it is for you.”
“It will never be easy!” Celine laughed, causing Ruthie to frown a bit. “All relationships require work, but the thing is when you have the right person there beside you that work seems more like play. You have a teammate on your side. You both work towards the same goal and after a while, the work doesn’t seem so bad anymore.”
“I guess,” Ruthie said doubtfully. “I’m just saying, maybe if we were able to mess up and make love life mistakes back in high school we would have fared a lot better.”
“No, I disagree. I’m happy my love life went the way it did. If it didn’t, I may never have met Noah.”
“Even if it meant hooking up with Brian?” Ruthie teased.
Celine scowled. “Yeah, like that would ever have happened. Did you know how mad I was that my first kiss was with Chad and not with Brian? Still cringe thinking about it,” she shuddered.
“Eh, Chad was cute,” Ruthie replied.
“He ignored me after homecoming! Kiss ’em and leave ’em. Guess that’s what his motto was.” Celine bit her lip in thought. “Anyway, it’s fine. Chad, Brian, whoever—I ended up with Noah and I am more than happy about that.”
“Yeah, I guess things ended up the way they were supposed to. Fate and all that.”
“Precisely!” Celine agreed.
Ruthie smiled as another distant memory resurfaced. “Did you know that Brian was actually worried about you after the dance?”
Celine perked up. “Are you serious?”
Nodding, Ruthie answered, “Yeah, he asked me about you the next day. He heard Chad talking about your kiss, I guess. He even put him in his place.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?” Celine wondered. Uninvited butterflies appeared in her stomach and guiltily Celine pushed them away. She cleared her throat. “That was pretty nice of him. It’s just weird he never asked me about it. I thought we were all friends.”
“Guess he didn’t want to embarrass you.” Ruthie shrugged her shoulders.
“Ugh,” Celine groaned. “Did everyone at Palo Rio High know that Chad was my first kiss?”
Ruthie nodded seriously, “Pretty much.”
Celine grimaced. “Well, this conversation has been really interesting and utterly embarrassing. At least I can say Brian finally redeemed himself in my mind. Do you remember how he ignored me after he found out I liked him?”
“And let me remind you again, I wasn’t the one who told him. It was probably that bitch, Lora. I told you not to trust her with your secret.”
Celine smiled sheepishly. “I know…sorry about that stupid fight, by the way.”
“Not a fight!” Ruthie corrected. “I am not counting that as a legitimate argument between us. We can still proudly say that you and I have never been in a single fight.”
“Okay, okay,” Celine said, laughing. She reached out and increased the volume of her favorite Intensity song. “I wonder what Brian’s up to now.”
Ruthie shook her head in amusement. “Like you said, it doesn’t matter. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”
Celine bit her lip thoughtfully and glanced back at the road. Thinking of an old crush was something an engaged woman definitely should not do. She quickly changed the subject. “I heard the hotel we’re staying in was used by Intensity back during their Force Tour.”
“Really?” Ruthie’s eyes brightened. “Do you think they’ll use it again?”
“Probably,” Celine replied. “Why else do you think I insisted that you book that particular one?”
“Good thinking,” Ruthie agreed. “So, now that we’re on the subject, let’s work on a game plan for tonight.”
“Okay, coach,” Celine replied good-naturedly. “What’s the plan?”
“Well, as usual we’ll try to find any breadcrumbs that will lead us to Intensity. We will comb the whole venue for any unguarded doors, carelessly left itineraries, or heck, even keys to their tour bus!”
Celine shook her head nervously. “I have a bad feeling about this. I don’t think we should do it. There are other ways to meet Cash! I mean, it’s not too late to call in my favor. We’re not teenagers anymore, Ruthie!”
“Then what’s the point of even doing this? It was you who wanted to relive your childhood before you took the big plunge, remember?”
“But—”
Ruthie shook her head. “No buts! We agreed to do it the way our seventeen year old selves would have done it and we’re not going to back out now.”
“Well, our seventeen year old selves were really big idiots if they thought they wouldn’t get detained and arrested for pulling such stunts,” Celine pointed out.
Ruthie threw a quick glance in Celine’s direction and tightened her grip on the leather steering wheel. “Don’t chicken out on me. We’ve always wanted to meet them! This might be our last chance. I mean, how many reunion tours do you think they’ll do?”
Celine sighed in exasperation. “Don’t get me wrong, I still want to meet them…but not to the point that we’ll find ourselves in jail. Are you forgetting how bad I am dealing with authority figures?”
Ruthie winced. How could she forget? One time during sophomore year, both girls were called into the office for breaking the school dress code (were tank tops really that risqué?). Celine spent the whole ordeal crying and apologizing to the vice principal. If Ruthie didn’t know better, she’d think Celine expected to get suspended for wearing her floral camisole to school.
Ruthie reached out and patted Celine’s thigh with assurance. “We’re not going to get in trouble. I promise!”
“You can’t promise that,” Celine muttered.
“What I can promise is that if anything bad happens, I’ll get us out of it.” Ruthie nodded her head confidently. She knew they’d be fine. She only wished Celine would believe it as much she did.
“I don’t think Noah will be too happy if I called him from jail.” Celine huffed. She crossed her arms, appearing like a five-year-old in the midst of a tantrum. “I’m not going to stop telling you that this is a very stupid idea. I really don’t want to start off my marriage with my fiancé bailing me out of jail.”
“Noah won’t have to.” Ruthie reached for the cup holder and grabbed a pair of her sunglasses. Slipping them on, she smiled. “Trust me.”