Authors: Casey McMillin
Julien put up the broom and went over to Nadine. She was still sitting on the overturned heavy bag, struggling to finish her first hand wrap.
"I'll do that other one for you," he said, standing over he
r and holding out a hand. She stuck her wrapped hand in his. "You're gonna have to redo this one then because we can't have them that out of balance."
"It's not that bad," he said. He turned over the wrapped hand in his own to inspect her handiwork. It was loose with bits of wrap sticking out
here and there. "Okay, it's pretty bad." He started unwrapping it so he could start from scratch. "I'm gonna show you the pattern that I mostly follow, but it's not an exact science. I always just try to make them look pretty. That's when they feel best."
"That's definitely not pretty," she said, nodding at the hand he was unwrapping.
He smiled like a patient coach would, and she stared up at him as he worked. He took the three minutes to turn the wraps up into a tidy roll before beginning the wrapping process, and Nadine thought that probably made more sense than dealing with the tangled mess she'd been trying to use. She watched him the whole time he was working on rolling them up, and she marveled at how very much she liked how he looked. The birthmark on the side of his head looked like a beautiful, ornate piece of burgundy lace positioned between the perfect, black mohawk, and striking blue eyes. His dark lashes against the blue eyes were absolutely stunning, and the rare birthmark did nothing but add to the effect. She studied him shamelessly while he rolled her wraps into tidy balls.
He held out his hand and she put hers in it. He turned it over, positioning it right where he wanted it. "Keep your fingers spread a little bit so I don't get it too tight," he said. She spread her fingers to the max, which made him laugh. "Not that far."
She relaxed slightly and he began wrapping the long strips of fabric around her hand and wrist. He told her what he was doing step-by-step, but she found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. She kept looking up at him, and every time she did she was distracted by something else. He had a few days growth on his beard, but it wasn't thick, and just grew in little, dark patches that lined his jaw. She loved everything about his freaking face, and couldn't stop staring at it.
"The other one," he said. It was obviously not the first time he asked, because he sounded amused like she'd been sleeping on the job. Nadine quickly gave him her bare hand and he set to work on wrapping it. He didn't give instructions that time, probably because he thought she paid attention the first time. She wished she had been able to, but found it impossible w
hen she couldn't quit staring. All too soon, he was done wrapping her hands, and she flexed and squeezed them to test what sort of job he'd done.
"Nice," she said. "These feel awesome, thanks."
"You need to get some longer ones," he said, "Then I'll show you how to go between your fingers." He flashed her a smile before turning his attention to the mat. "Grab a jump rope," he yelled.
Nadine ran out onto the mat and got in line behind the rest of the girls. They jumped rope for three minutes before going right into warm-ups. Julien wasn't at all like he'd been that
first time at kickboxing, and she felt an odd sense of pride at what a good coach he was.
There were
nine girls, which meant that when they partnered-up one of them was going to be the odd man out. She knew from other kickboxing classes that the last person without a partner was stuck being partners with the coach, so when he announced that everyone needed to grab a partner, Nadine conveniently went to get a drink of water in the adjoining room. She had a perfectly good bottle of water in her gym bag, but she wanted to be stuck without a partner.
Her plan worked.
By the time she was back from getting water, everyone else had found someone to work with. Julien knew he'd be partnering with her, so he was already waiting in the middle of the room with Thai pads on.
"Waiting on you, princess," he said.
Nadine let out an embarrassed squeal and grabbed her gloves in a hurry so she could get out on the mat. Julien explained the combination he wanted them to do, and told them they'd be doing that for the next two minutes before adding on to it. Nadine was still self-conscious about her abilities in the gym, but she was a confident person in general, and knew she'd never learn anything if she didn't mess up.
Julien gave her instruction
s the whole time she was repeating the combination. "Tuck your chin, keep your hands up, stay light on your feet, keep breathing, lean this way, jab with the other hand," and so on and so forth. Nadine was breathless and exhausted after just the first two minutes, and was glad for the break while Julien went to the center of the room and explained what he wanted them to add to the combination. He used one of the other girls to help him demonstrate, and Nadine felt a stab of jealousy at how natural that girl looked throwing those punches.
Julien set the timer, and the girls went to work again with their partners. Again, he coached Nadine through the whole set, patiently explaining how she should tweak things to make her striking more effective.
After one last set, he told the class they had one minute to go get water, then they need to get gloves back on and get on a bag. They spent ten minutes on the heavy bags before he took them through a series of jumps on this ladder thing that he put on the floor. Nadine was exhausted by the time he lined them up for some cool down stretches. Before dismissing the class, Julien announced that they should all come out to the fights that up-coming Saturday night to support Christian and all the other fighters from the gym.
Nadine had no idea Christian was fighting and she couldn't decide if she thought that was good news or bad. On one hand, she liked the idea of knowing someone who'd be competing, but that's the exact same thing that made her anxious about it. She'd never seen anyone she
knew
get in a fight before, and didn't necessarily know if she'd like it or not.
Baton Rouge was an hour away, but she heard some of the girls making plans to go, and knew she'd run into other gym people there even if Lindsay couldn’t
make it. Nadine purposefully took a long time putting her shoes on so she could see Julien one last time before she went home.
"
You going to the fights?" he asked, standing beside her as she finished triple-knotting her shoelaces.
"Of course I'll be there," she said. "I didn't know Christian was fighting."
"You didn't? Yeah, Christian, and we have three or four other guys on the card too. It's gonna be fun."
Nadine shrugged one shoulder. "I guess I can sort of understand that now that
I've gotten to know you guys a little bit and see how much you love what you're doing," she said.
Julien smiled. "What are your kids doing for the program?"
Nadine gave him a confused look.
"You said you have a Christmas program to go to before the fights."
"Oh yeah," she said. She beamed at him like a proud teacher. "They're so cute. We're doing a production of the night before Christmas, in French of course. There's a reception after with desserts. They're so excited."
"I wish I could see it," he said.
His sweet comment had
her
wishing he could see it and every other school function she ever had. She imagined him coming with her to school functions looking all dangerous like he did, and smiled at the scene she pictured in her head. She liked the idea of walking into a room on his arm, and hoped she'd get to act it out in real life.
"We'll probably all go out after the fights if you want to come with us," he said.
"Are you staying in Baton Rouge?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that. Those of us who are going out afterward are gonna go ahead and get hotel rooms even though it's just an hour drive."
"I probably won't do all that," she said. "I'll be traveling, and Lindsay has to work at the mall Sunday morning. She might even have to work Saturday too, there's a chance she won't even be able to get off and can't make it with me."
"Are you still gonna go?"
Julien was standing next to Nadine as he waited for her to answer, and as she looked at him, she wanted to say, "Of freaking course I'll be there. I'll be wherever you say."
Instead she said, "
I'll try. I got my ticket already just in case."
"I'd like you to go," he said. He reached up and smoothed a stray lock of hair that had come out of her ponytail, and she marveled at how this guy managed to make her feel like she couldn't get adequate air into her lungs.
"What's up, J-dog," Eli said peeking his head into the room. "You all done in here? I have someone coming in for a private."
Eli, like all of the other instructors there, gave private lessons to make extra money. Julien nodded and continued strai
ghtening the hand weights they'd just finished using.
"Who you got here," Eli asked, gesturing toward Nadine.
"Nadine," Julien said, without thinking.
Eli laugh
ed. "Nadine from the book?" he asked. Eli wasn't one to ignore an elephant in the room, so he was going to call her out on it without hesitation. She looked at Julien with a helpless smirk, knowing he was sensitive about the book Eli was mentioning.
"Nadine's never read the book," Julien said in an impassive tone, as if that should be enough to make Eli stop asking questions
right that very second.
Eli just looked at
Julien as if he didn't understand why he wanted to be straight-faced about calling a girl Nadine. "Okaaay," Eli said sarcastically. "Nice to meet you Nadine who's never read the book." He smiled and stuck out his hand and Nadine shook it.
Julien looked at Eli like he wanted to kill him, and Eli looked at him like he should probably lighten up.
It was an awkward encounter for everybody, but Eli apparently didn't know what was going on and handled it pretty well given the circumstances. Julien felt like that could have gone much worse.
"Did
everyone
read the book?" she asked. He'd hoped to just change the subject, so he cringed a little when she brought it up.
"No, no, Eli probably didn't even read it. Everyone's just heard the characters' names and they tease me about it."
He was trying to shrug it off, and Nadine knew enough about Julien to know that, for whatever reason, he didn't really enjoy discussing the book. She didn't push him.
They left Eli in the striking room going over his curriculum and started walking toward the front door. When they came to the hallway, he put his hand at the small of her back to steer her around the corner. She tried not to physically flinch at the
contact, but it was really hard. Her heart was beating about ninety miles an hour, and she had to work to steady her breath—all this from a touch of his hand on the small of her back. Then just as soon as it began, it wasn't happening anymore. Damn it.
There were several people in the lobby, all of
whom had been coming to the gym for a while. Julien figured most of them had at least heard of the book, and his ultimate goal was to get Nadine out of there as quickly as possible so no one would accidentally say something. He told himself to relax, that if she'd been coming to the gym for a few weeks already and still didn't know about it, then maybe it was safe to assume no one would mention it.
"I cant believe Christian's fighting in the fights and he didn't tell me," Nadine said to John David as they approached the front desk.
"Yeah, I thought you knew," John David said. "His picture's right there on the front of the tickets."
"Are you serious?
" she asked. She opened the front pocket of the duffel bag that was slung over her shoulder, fished around, and pulled out the tickets she purchased on the way in. Sure enough, there was a picture of Christian standing toe to toe with another shirtless guy. Christian had no tattoos at all and the other guy was full of them. She wondered if Julien had tattoos.
Nadine knew she probably d
idn't have the right since she'd only been coming to the gym a few weeks and she barely knew the guys, but she couldn't help but feel proud of Christian for having his picture on the ticket. She was definitely excited to see the fights. She put the tickets back in her bag and smiled up at Julien. "I can't wait. Thanks for telling me about it."
He grabbed her by the waist again, and she almost swooned right there in front of everybody until she realized he was helping her out of the way so someone could pass behind her. It didn't really matter why he was doing it, his hand lingered there for a few seconds, and
she felt a surge of the warm-fuzzies all over her body.
"I have to get ready for my next class
, but I'll walk you out," he said. This statement drew curious glances from more than one person in the lobby since Julien Breaux didn't usually go around walking girls to their cars.
"You've got my phone number," Julien said as he stood in the open door of Nadine's car. She had a small, black, convertible Volkswagen that looked to be ten or twelve years old, and he tried to think back to what Nadine drove in the book but didn't think Shea had mentioned it.
"You have mine too," she said.
He'd been thinking about her car, so it took him a second to realize she was talking about her phone number. He gave her a smile and a half shrug. "I guess I'm gonna have to text you then," he said.
Her green eyes sparkled up at him and he hated himself for being so affected by
the sight of her.
"Not if I text you first," she said, reaching out to close the car door.
Julien watched Nadine drive off before he checked his watch to make sure he had enough time to make a phone call. He dialed Shea's number.
It was rare for her to see
Julien's number on a phone call instead of a text, so she picked up the phone right away.
"What's up?"
"Hey, have you thought of anything?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, about the book. Has anything come to you?"
"No Julien, nothing has
come to me
. You'd be the first person I'd call if anything did. And I don't even know what you mean by that anyway."
Shea could hear him sigh from over the phone.
"What?" she asked.
"It's just crazy. I just never felt like this. I hate not being able to control my feelings."
"Julien, I assure you that nothing you're feeling is a result of me cooking up a spell or anything. I promise there's nothing to worry about on my end. Can't you just come to terms with the fact that you might be having real feelings for someone finally?"
"What made you use me?" he asked.
"What?"
"You heard me. What made you name the guy Julien and give him a birthmark like mine?"
Shea sighed. "I told you. I just liked a lot of details about your life and thought they'd make an interesting basis for a character. I used your first name, your job
, and your birthmark. The rest of it I made up off the top of my head." There was a long minute of silence before Shea spoke up again. "Just
like
her if you like her, Julien. We'll deal with tragedy prevention if it comes up, but for now just feel it out. She may just be a really good actress."
"
It doesn't matter if she's an actress or not, I love her. I can feel it in my bones. I just pretended she needed to move out of the way when someone walked by just so I could touch her back and when I did, I felt like my hand could catch on fire. I want her more than anything I've ever laid eyes on Shea, and I'm not sure I like the feeling."
"Easy now, take a deep
breath. There are still so many ways this could all play out, and regardless of how crazy this all seems, I think it's safe to say there are enough differences between you and the book that not everything is going to be
exactly
the same. Just get to know her and see what happens."
There was silence for a few long seconds before she added, "I promise there's nothing fishy going on with me. I'm not a fortuneteller
or anything."
Julien laughed without humor. "All right. I'll talk to you later."
"You okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"I'll see you at the gym I guess."
"Okay, later."
He pushed the button to end the call, and stuck his phone into his pocket.
****
Lindsay got off work that Saturday night and was excited about going with Nadine to Baton Rouge. She was working at The Gap the night before, and Nadine went to the mall to see her in hopes that she could find something new to wear to the fights. Lindsay already had her own outfit picked out, and wanted to be in on helping Nadine put one together as well. Nadine would have been happy wearing something she already had in her closet, but Lindsay insisted she wanted to help her pick something. Lindsay probably just wanted the distraction to make her shift go by faster, but Nadine humored her and showed up at the mall at 7PM on Friday to do some shopping. She was relatively sure she'd just go with jeans, but thought maybe Lindsay could help her find a shirt or a scarf.
"I thought you'd
never
get here," Lindsay said catching sight of Nadine. She turned to the lady who was a few feet away folding shirts. "Ms. Paula, I'm taking my lunch, is that okay?" The lady gave her a nod and reminded her to clock out. Lindsay went to the back room to get her things, and within a minute the girls were walking into the mall.
"I thought we'd just get me something from your store," Nadine said.
"No, I'm tired of all that stuff. Besides, I'm starving. I have to hit the food court." Lindsay led the way, and the two girls walked through the mall to the food court where they stood in line for a place that served Chinese noodles.
"It's going to be cold tomorrow night, so I was thinking I'd wear a jacket."
"No girl you can't do that. I mean, unless you have one that looks really good—but the whole thing is inside. You won't want to carry around a jacket." Nadine usually didn't put much thought into what she was wearing aside from making sure everything was covered. Lindsay, however, loved fashion, and always wanted to experiment on Nadine.
"I don't know," Nadine said. "I may
want
to carry a jacket so I have something to cover my eyes with."
"I can't believe you
joined a gym like that when you're thinking you're going to need to cover your eyes at the sight of blood. They're going to be trying to beat the shit out of each other. You know that right?"
"Don't say it like that," Nadine said. "I'm hoping they'll do more
Jiu Jitsu and less hitting."
Lindsay laughed. "Good luck with that," she said. "I told my brother we were going to that and he said there's definitely
gonna be blood."
"Was he trying to talk you out of going?"
"No, he thought it was cool as hell that I'm going, actually. He knows that guy from your gym who's fighting. The one who had his picture on the ticket."
"Christian?" Nadine asked.
"Yeah, I've heard of him too," Lindsay said. "He's from Bossier City, that's right up there by Shreveport."
"That's awesome, your brother should drive down and come with us," Nadine said.
"I already mentioned it to him, but he can't this time. He said if we talk to Christian to tell him he says hi, though. You know he was on that MTV show, right?"
"Who?"
"Christian."
"Really?
Like a reality show?"
"Yeah,
it was on before you moved in with me. It was about MMA fighters in Louisiana. I watched it a few times. It was actually pretty good. I think it only ran one season, but Christian was on it along with a bunch of other guys from up by Shreveport. My brother said Christian's not the only one who trains at your gym now. I think there's at least one other guy."
Nadine wondered if she'd met the other guys who were on the show and, if so, who they were. She made a mental note to ask Christian about it the next time she saw him. Nadine stared out into the busy food court
as Lindsay ordered her noodles.
"Hey there's one of the gym guys right there,
" Nadine said.
Lindsay turned as she fished in her wallet for her debit card. Nadine pointed
into the mall toward the busy entrance.
"Which one?"
"Grey sweater and jeans."
"Damn, girl, no wonder you go there."
"I know, right? And he's not the only. None of the instructors look bad."
"What's his name?"
"John David!" Nadine yelled. She was leaning over the rail, trying to make her voice project so he wouldn't just walk right past them.
He turned and searched the crowd for whoever
had yelled his name. Nadine waved, and he caught sight of her and started to walk over to them. Lindsay turned to take the noodles from the cashier, mumbling her disapproval at Nadine calling over a hot guy without warning. She ran a hand through her hair to make sure it wasn't doing anything embarrassing.
"What are you doing here?" he said, smiling as he walked up to the girls.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing," she said. "I didn't think you ever left the gym."
John David let out a laugh. "It's rare, but it happens."
Nadine pointed at Lindsay. "I'm here hanging out with my friend Lindsay. She works at The Gap."
"I'd shake your hand but it looks like they're full," he said looking down the mountain of Chinese noodles on the tray. Nadine could tell that Lindsay was utterly mortified.
"We're sharing some noodles," Nadine said, "then we're off to find me a shirt to wear to the fights tomorrow night."
"Oh I'm glad you're going. Did your friend ever figure out if she was coming with you?"
"This
is
my friend," Nadine said. "And yes, she's coming." Nadine paused, and then remembered what they'd just been talking about, "Hey, did you know Christian was on an MTV show?" she asked John David.
He laughed. "Yeah, I'm familiar with that fact," he said.
"Is there someone else from our gym?"
"Yeah,
this other guy, Danger, was on it too, but he's not fighting tomorrow night."
"I don't know if I met him." Nadine said.
John David shrugged. "Probably not," he said. "He's just in there to train. He doesn't coach any classes."
Up until that point, they hadn't mentioned the guy who'd walked up with John David, and Nadine stuck out her hand.
"Nadine," she said.
"Chad," he replied, shaking her hand.
"This is my roommate Chad, John David said. "We're here for him because he thinks he needs a new pair of shoes every weekend."
"Shut up," Chad said. "
I didn't have to ask you twice to come up here with me."
Nadine and Lindsay were making their way to one of the tables, and the guys sort of followed them long enough to wrap up the conversation, but didn't
make any moves to sit down and join them.
"We're
gonna let you ladies get to your dinner," John David said. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow night."
"Sounds good," Nadine replied.
"I work at The Gap," Lindsay yelled as the guys walked off. They turned and gave her a smile and a wave. Lindsay reared back and socked Nadine on the shoulder.
"Ouch, that hurt. What the hell?"
"Why didn't you tell me those guys looked like that?"
"What do you mean? You said you watched that show
on MTV, you should know what they look like."
"I said I watched it like once, and when I did, it
wasn’t even that guy Christian on it. It was some other guy who wasn't hot at all."
"Well I don't know that guy Chad
he was with, but John David is at the gym almost every time I go there."
"Is he single?" Lindsay asked.
Nadine looked at her as if it were something she'd never considered. She shrugged. "I have no idea."
"Don't act like you don't know," Lindsay said. "Just tell me if he has a girlfriend. He probably does, huh?"
"I honestly don't know," Nadine said. " I just go in and go to class. Those guys don't tell me their business. I didn't even know Christian was fighting this weekend, and he's one of my main coaches. Julien's really the only one I know anything about."
Nadine instantly regretted saying that last part because she hadn't told her roommate anything about the guy that had taken over her thoughts lately, and she didn't want to get i
nto it. A few days before, Julien had warned her that he was going to be texting her but he never did. She was too stubborn to make the first move, so neither of them attempted to make contact.
"Who's
Julien
?" Lindsay asked with great interest."
"Nothing."
"Nothing? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. He's just the only one I've talked to for more than a few seconds at a time. The only one I know anything about. He's the one with the birthmark."
"You told me something about him before. I thought you said he murdered you at class."
"He did, but he was just trying to get rid of me."
"What?"
"It's a long story. He thought I was pretending to be someone else."
Lindsay looked like she wanted to ask for more, but decided to get on with it for the sake of time. "You have to help me scarf this," she said. "I only have forty-five minutes and I wanted to go by Macy's to show you this shirt I think you should wear tomorrow."
Nadine ended up getting the shirt Lindsay was
referring to. It was a dark red, long sleeve, and sort of billowed with a fitted band that went around her hips. It was low-cut compared to things she was used to, but Lindsay crossed her heart that it was still something a lady would wear. Nadine said she must be referring to a
lady of the night
, but she was just joking. She loved the shirt, and was glad Lindsay had told her about it. The style of it looked good with jeans and the color complemented her green eyes. She was getting into good shape, thanks to her new gym, and she felt awesome in her new shirt and her new body as she got ready for the fights the next night.