Authors: Casey McMillin
Part of her thought Julien would come out into the
audience, but he never did. It was probably better that way since she didn't really know what she'd say to him anyway.
"You girls hanging out in Baton Rouge after the fights?" John David asked.
"No, we would have already left by now, but I sort of wanted to leave with the crowd," Nadine said.
Lindsay gave her a pleading look that John David couldn't see, but Nadine shot that unspoken idea down real quick. She definitely wasn't going to hang around to watch the Julien and Raven show.
"I’ll probably stick around for a few minutes to congratulate the guys," John David said, "but I'll definitely walk you girls
to your car if you want. I haven't decided if I'm going to stay the night either. I thought about going out with everybody and crashing in one of the hotel rooms, but I might just head back home."
"I could always put a room on my mom's credit card if we decide to stay," Lindsay said. "She'd be fine with that if I told her it was because I was drinking."
"I don't think that'll work out. I still have some packing to do," Nadine said, "Plus, I thought you had to work."
"I got someone to cover my shift," Lindsay said.
Nadine cut her a look, and Lindsay didn't say anything more about it. Once the last fight was finished, Nadine and Lindsay went to the far side of the hotel ballroom to wait for John David and everyone else from the gym.
Most of the gym people
went to the doors that led to the locker room area so they could find and congratulate the fighters, but Nadine didn't quite feel like getting in the mix, so she and Lindsay stayed where they were.
"Why don't you go over there?" Lindsay asked.
Nadine gave her a half-smile and shrugged one shoulder. She was staring at the light fixture on the opposite wall when she heard Lindsay say, "Oh, there's that one you told me about. The one with the birthmark."
Instantly,
that same nervous excitement hit her. She looked toward the corner of the room where everyone from gym had gathered to talk to the fighters.
Sure enough,
Julien was standing there. He smiled and slapped Christian's shoulder proudly. He had on jeans and a black, tight fitting T-shirt with the gym's logo on the center of the chest. The back of the shirt said, "war all the time," and she thought if he was any hotter she might not be able to stand it. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. She watched as he held brief conversations with everyone standing around him.
A couple minutes into the meet and greet
, Coach Christina and the girl who was sitting next to her during the fights approached Julien and both gave him hugs. Christina put a hand to his shoulder and began talking to him. Even from across the room, Nadine could see that the coach was telling him something sensitive. The other woman chimed in a little bit, and Julien did a little talking as well before he put his head in his hand as if he was frustrated or something. Christina rubbed his back as if he could use a little comforting. Julien said something else to them, but instead of responding to him, they both started scanning the perimeter of the room, searching for something.
Nadine didn't even have time to gather her wits before they were pointing at her. Julien squinted in her direction, and smiled. Her heart started racing instantly. He said something
else to Christina and her friend, gave them high-fives, and squeezed out of the crowd sideways, headed in the direction of Nadine. He was wearing that easy smile she loved when he approached her, and she hoped against hope that she'd be able to muster up some conversation skills.
"
Did you enjoy the fights?" he asked. He closed the distance between them so quickly and his deep voice had taken her off guard again, which caused, Nadine to have a little trouble regulating her breathing.
To her own shame, she sounded
breathless as she replied. "Yeah, of course. We loved it."
Julien stuck his hand out to Lindsay. "I'm Julien," he said.
"Lindsay," she said. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Oh yeah? All good, I hope."
"Of course," she said.
Julien reached out and gave a little punch to Nadine's shoulder. "You hanging around Baton Rouge?"
Nadine looked at Lindsay who shrugged as if to say,
"I tried to tell you we should get a hotel room."
Nadine wasn't about to voice her biggest concern about the ring girl because she knew that no matter how she brought it up, it would seem desperate and insecure.
"Come on," Julien said. "We're all going out after this, and I sort of already had my heart set on you going." He reached out and touched her arm in
a pleading gesture, and Nadine couldn't help but smile at the contact.
"We didn't really plan for that," she said. She threw her hands up helplessly. "No clothes or toothbrush or anything."
Julien looked at her like he understood. "You think you could just hang out for a little bit before you head back?"
Nadine looked at Lindsay since she was the one doing all the driving. Lindsay smiled and nodded.
"Good." Julien gave Nadine a sincere smile like he was really glad she was there. "Come back over here with me so we can figure out where everybody's going."
The three of them started walking back to the spot where the gym people had congregated. Some
of them had already dispersed, but most of them were still standing around talking.
"Where's the party?" Julien asked.
"Everybody's just going to Maggie's," one of the guys said.
Nadine had heard the emcee announce about a hundred times that the
"official after party" was taking place at Maggie's, so she wasn't surprised at the news.
Julien looked at Nadine and Lindsay.
"Do you want to follow one of us or do you think you can find the place?"
"
We're parked in the same garage, and I'm walking them to their car," John David said, coming up to stand beside them. "If they decide to go out for a little bit, I'll probably just come too."
Julien gave John David an appraising glance that had an edge of warning to it
before looking back at Nadine. "I'm not driving," Julien said. "I can ride with you over there if you need me to."
"That's all right," Nadine said. "Go ahead and finish what you're doing,
and we'll meet you over there."
"You sure?" he asked.
She assured him they'd make it fine, and started their journey to the parking garage, only stopping to hug and congratulate Christian on the way out.
John David had his friend Chad from the mall with him. Apparent
ly, he'd been talking to some other friends, because she didn’t even notice him until they were leaving. The guys were parked one level lower than Lindsay and Nadine, so the girls got in John David's truck and he gave them a ride from level three to level four.
Nadine told
the boys to go on ahead of them since she was having second thoughts about going to Maggie's. John David agreed to leave, but only after they promised not to spend too much time in the parking garage, which was, by that point, nearly deserted.
"What's up with you?" Lindsay
asked after the guys drove off. "First you
don't
want to go, then you
do
, then you don't again. And why do you get so freaked out around that guy with the mohawk?"
"I don't get
freaked
out
."
Lindsay laughed.
"Oh my God, Nadine. You shoulda seen your face."
"Stop,
please tell me you're just joking."
"Okay, I'm joking, you played it off. B
ut I can tell you like him."
"You can? How?"
Lindsay shrugged. "I just can."
Nadine paused for a few seconds,
considering that. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"Maggie's
, duh."
"I hate for you to have to dri—"
"We'll just go for a little bit. I'll have one drink. It's no big deal. I'll be fine."
Nadine Googled the
name of the bar and set her GPS to give directions. The girls took an intentional wrong turn so they wouldn't be the first ones to make it to Maggie's. Nadine was watching the GPS on her phone and knew they were getting close. It had taken them about fifteen minutes to get there, and when they arrived, they used the mirrors on the visors to check their hair and makeup.
"All those guys are hot," Lindsay said. "But I guess that has a little something to do with the fact that they could kill people with their bare hands."
"You like tough guys now?" Nadine asked. She was teasing because she knew Lindsay liked to hang out with artist types.
"I don’t distinguish," Lindsay said. "I just call it like I see it, and there were about ten hot guys standing around with all the people from your gym. I wouldn't mind running into one or two of them in here." Lindsay gestured at the building.
Nadine looked thoughtfully at Lindsay from over the center console. "The one with the mohawk—he's mine, you know."
Lindsay didn't even pretend not
to know who Nadine was talking about. She looked at her, smiling sweetly. "I know."
"This is one of those times when I wish I was a smoker," Nadine said
, out of nowhere.
"You
do
?" Lindsay asked, almost shocked.
"Yeah. I smoked for a little while
when I was in lycee back in France. It's times like this when I wish I still did. You know, to calm the nerves and maybe give me something to do with my hands."
"
Are you nervous? That's so cute! That means you really like him. I can't believe you used to smoke. I can't imagine you doing that."
"Why not?" Nadine asked, almost a little protective of smokers everywhere.
Lindsay laughed. "I don't know, I guess I just never thought about you doing that."
"I don’t. Not anymore at least. I was just thinking if I
did
, I'd want one right now."
Lindsay put the car in park, stopped the engine, and began digging in her purse. She pulled a pack of candy cigarettes out of her purse, opened the little box, and handed one to Nadine. Nadine had no idea what it was until Lindsay put one in her mouth and faked like she was taking a drag off of it.
Nadine laughed and mimicked her friend. "Where in the world did you get these?" she asked. She opened the mirror on the visor to check herself out.
"My older sister always gets me weird candy for my birthday. I had candy necklaces and pop rocks too, but I ate those already."
"I thought your birthday was in July or something."
"It is."
"You've had these in your purse since then?"
Lindsay looked at Nadine like she thought she was worried about the expiration date. "They're just sugar. They probably don't go bad for like two years."
Nadine giggled. "I don't care about that. I just think it's so funny that you happen to have one of these in your purse when I wanted a smoke."
"Ask and ye shall receive," Lindsay said.
Nadine chewed the last bits of the sugary piece of candy as the two girls walked down the sidewalk in front of the bar. The windows were mirror tinted, and she couldn't see what was going on in the bar until she pulled the door open. She knew it must be packed in there because of the state of affairs in the parking lot, and she'd been right. Nadine was somewhat relieved at the number of people that were already there. She was extremely nervous, and for some reason, found comfort in the idea of blending into the crowd. She was scanning the faces a mile a minute looking for one face in particular. It only took her a few seconds to spot him.
The place was full, and Julien was with a big group that looked like they took up at least two or three
tables. They were in the middle of the room, and Nadine felt a little too shy to just walk right up to him.
"Let's go to the bar," she said.
"I see your friends right there," Lindsay said, pointing.
Nadine grabbed her hand and pulled it down as if lig
htning might strike it if she kept it out there. "I know. I saw them. I just wanted to go the bar for a minute first."
Lindsay agreed without saying anything even though she knew Nadine was just stalling because she was too embarrassed to walk over there. They found a spot where they could stand at the bar, and Lindsay took out the box of candy cigarettes. "You need to relax, girlfriend," she said, handing Nadine one. Nadine smiled and took it out of Lindsay's hand.
She put it to her mouth and pretended to take a pull and then went through the motions to complete the drag, complete with removing it from her mouth with two fingers and blowing fake smoke into the air.
"There's no smoking in here, ma'am." An extremely intimidating voice said.
"Oh, no, it's just a piece of candy," Nadine said, before she could register who'd said it. She turned around to see the very tall, dark, almost menacing form of Julien Breaux. She had absentmindedly put the candy cigarette back into her mouth as she turned around to see whoever was talking to her, and it hung from her lips loosely and at an odd angle as she all but ogled at him.