Sweet Reunion

by Melanie Shawn

  Sam smiled smugly, “I'm just happy, after all that talk the other night about my romantic experience or lack thereof, that we're now doing an activity that is solidly in my wheelhouse, and you guys will have to catch up!”

  Lauren looked over at her, “So then you've done this before?”

  Sam shook her head, “Well, no, not this exact thing. But I'm an athlete, and this is something physical. I've got you all beat without even trying.”

  Karina laughed, “Not everything's a competition, little miss Olympian.”

  Sam shrugged, “Most things worth doing are.”

  “I think we may be narrowing in on the attitude which has made your romantic life difficult,” Karina retorted, to which she got only a sassily stuck out tongue in response.

  Just then, a tall Latin beauty bounced into the room, and an air of excitement entered the space along with her. She was dressed in chic black pants that almost looked like cargo pants, but they were shinier, and had bright pink tassels hanging off of them at various intervals. In a matching shade of bright pink, her T-shirt was solid around the bodice, but had been shredded at the bottom to hang in long pink ropes around her taut mid-section. Completing the ensemble was a coordinating pair of shocking pink sneakers. Amanda suddenly felt like she was in junior high, and the coolest girl in school had just walked in.

  The women in the room, who had previously been milling around casually, standing in small groups talking or off to the side stretching, scurried to the places they had saved with towels or water bottles, and discernible rows took shape from the front to the back of the room.

  There were a couple of small arguments about whose space was really who’s, that were quickly settled, but they did cause Sam to lean over and whisper to the other three, “You see? I told you it was a competition!”

  The instructor, after plugging her iPod into the sound system, putting on a headset microphone, and tying a bandana around the top of her long, flowing black curls, jogged to the front of the room.

  “Hi, everybody, I'm Lilly and I'm going to be your instructor this morning. Is this anyone's first time?” Amanda was relieved to see hands shooting up around the room, not just her's and her friends. There were at least ten others in the room full of 60 women (and even a few men) who were going to be stumbling through the routines for the first time.

  “Awesome!” Lilly enthused, “The main thing to remember is that nobody gets everything the first time – or even the tenth time! So don't feel bad that you can't hit every step. Just do your best, keep moving, and most of all – HAVE FUN! Also, try to remember that even though it's human nature to feel like all eyes are on you, the truth is, everyone else in the room is so focused on their own workout, that no one's paying attention to you. That's the great thing about coming to class – it's the one time in your week that's all about you – no kids, no boss, no spouse...nobody wants anything from you right now. This is YOUR hour to lose your inhibitions, feel the music, and just DANCE! So, are we ready?”

  The room answered in the affirmative, but Lilly was not satisfied. Jumping up and down, and waving her hands in the air, she called excitedly, “Are. We. Ready?!”

  The room exploded in whoops and hollers, and even Amanda, who wasn't normally one for big public displays or joining groups, felt herself getting swept up in the enthusiasm.

  The music started in a burst of syncopated beats, with guitars, drums, and horns blending to form a raucous melody that made Amanda start to unconsciously bounce on the balls of her feet before the choreography even started. Lilly placed herself at the front of the room and began to authoritatively swing her hips in rhythm with the music. As the hour progressed and the songs changed in both tempo and style, Amanda was amazed at the way that Lilly almost magically transformed her movements to match the feeling of the song, and seemingly so effortlessly.

  Amanda watched Lilly's graceful hips and feet swaying and swinging, watched her tossing her head around in wide, graceful arcs which caused her silken black curls to fly through the air like an extension of her body, watched her arms swing and float as if they weighed nothing, watched her fingers as they painted beautiful pictures in the air as if to illustrate the music – and she was honestly amazed that she herself was able to command her own body to do anything even closely approaching the poetry in motion that was Lilly's movements.

  However, by closely watching Lilly's feet and hands and trying to imitate just their placement on the floor and in the air – getting fancy with the movements could come later – Amanda was proud to admit that she was achieving a decent approximation of the dance steps. Moreover, she was having a blast! She couldn't remember the last time that she had just let loose and danced, it's not as if her life really lent itself to situations where that would be an option, and it felt so good to just let her body move to the music.

  This was made even easier by the way that Lilly provided helpful cues as to what movements were coming next. By pointing in the direction they were about to go in just seconds before they headed that way, spinning her hands in the air right before the choreography would call for them to spin around, or calling out well-timed instructions through her headphone mic, Amanda almost felt as if she could just shut off her brain and let her body copy Lilly's movements. It was the purest sense of freedom she had felt in many long months.

  Lauren also seemed to be having a good time, and was catching onto the dances at, Amanda judged, about the same rate that she was. Samantha, for all of her big talk, was the one among the four of them who seemed to be struggling the most. Her athletic frame seemed to physically struggle against the graceful flow of the movements, and she seemed constantly about half a beat behind. She never seemed to just relax into the rhythm of the music or to embrace the delicacy of the movements. Her steps were more like stomps, and the more frustrated she became with her performance, the more trouble she had.

  However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Karina was the one among the four of them who seemed to truly have rhythm and natural talent. All those years of rehearsing dance numbers for live performances, Amanda reasoned, must have given her a lot of dance experience – maybe she had even had professional dance training. Amanda had been to several of Karina's concerts over the years, but had never been seated close enough to get a real sense of Karina's movements as she danced onstage – her body had been but a tiny speck from where Amanda sat, and the big screens behind the stage which magnified her performance did not do justice to the grace with which Amanda could now see that she danced. Karina was a natural.

  The class went on like this until a point about three quarters of the way through, when the opening strains of a song started pumping through the sound system that sounded somewhat familiar. Amanda, along with the rest of the class, began enthusiastically following along with Lilly's choreography, until she noticed that Karina was standing stock still next to her. Amanda touched her shoulder to see if anything was wrong, which seemed to bring Karina around from her short trance, and she started dancing again.

  When the lyrics started, Amanda felt like slapping her palm to her forehead. It was Karina's voice! That's why the intro portion of the song had sounded familiar, this was Karina's latest single, the one that radio stations had dubbed “The Song of the Summer.” It had been everywhere the past summer – radio, television, it had inspired YouTube parodies and memes – you name the place, and “Baby You're the One” had probably made an appearance there.

  Baby you're the one

  Let's go have some fun

  Got you on my mind

  Thinkin' bout you all the time

  It's love love sent from above

  Baby you're the one.”

  Amanda, Lauren, and Sam recognized the song as Karina's pretty much simultaneously, and turned to her with excited faces. To them this was a big event – they'd never been out with Karina when one of her songs spontaneously began playing, although Amanda reasoned later, that must happen to Karina all the time.

 
As her friends' attention turned toward her, Karina shook her head subtly yet firmly, letting them know unequivocally that she wanted nothing more from them at that moment than for them to remain cool. However, even though all three of them immediately acceded to Karina's wishes, the damage was done.

  A few people in the row directly ahead of them had noticed the exchange and turned around to look. Although no one had recognized Karina before, now the combination of the song playing and her friends pointing her out via their excited responses caused a few of the younger women in the room to widen their eyes in wonder. Before too long, the news had spread. Throughout the room, people were leaning over to those standing next to them and making poor attempts at subtlety as they glanced at Karina and talked, heads bent together.

  All through the rest of the class, the four of them could feel attention laser focused on the area where they stood. Although the class did their best to hide it, a celebrity showing up in their midst was not an everyday occurrence, and their surreptitious glances throughout the last few songs were too frequent to not be noticed.

  As the final notes of the cool down and stretch were fading away, Karina said, “As soon as this song ends, I'm gonna run up and talk to the instructor real quick. If I don't, it will seem rude. You girls come with me, or else I'll get swamped with people trying to talk to me before I get to her.”

  After the song faded out, it was a short jaunt over to the sound system, which was where Lilly had also headed, to take off her headset and collect her iPod. Karina approached her with a wide smile on her face.

  “Hi, Lilly, I'm Karina,” she began, “I just wanted to thank you for the great class.”

  Lilly turned around, and when her eyes alighted on Karina's famous face, they widened significantly. “Oh my gosh!” she said, flushing, “Oh my gosh, wow, it's so great to meet you!”

  She laughed, flustered, “Oh, wow, that must be what people were talking about toward the end of class. I didn't realize...” she paled perceptibly as the next thought occurred to her, “oh, man, if I would have known somehow that you were going to be here, I never would have used your song! How embarrassing!” and with that she buried her face in her hands.

  Amanda was amazed yet again that even this woman, so confident and in control of the entire class only moments before, was suddenly flustered in Karina's presence.

  “No, no, I loved it!” Karina lied to make Lilly feel better, but then continued on with statements that were actually true. “There was obviously no way you could have known, and besides, I found it incredibly flattering. And the choreography was really fun!”

  Lilly looked up, and although the vestiges of celebrity-generated-shyness still clung to the edges of her bearing, pride in her work and Karina's warmth and openness had conspired to make her almost entirely comfortable in the conversation. “Thanks, that means a lot coming from you. I do most of my own choreography.”

  “Well, you're really talented,” Karina assured her, “and I will definitely be making it a point to stop into class every time I tour through Sacramento from now on.”

  Lilly flushed with obvious pride, and Karina gave her a hug, and waved a friendly goodbye as they exited the room.

  Karina's ambassadorial duties were far from over, however. Just outside the entrance of the studio, a rather large group of women had gathered to talk to Karina, to get her autograph, and to snap pictures of themselves with her. Karina's warm smile, which you would definitely have to know her quite well to be able to tell was 100% false, was in full strength through the entire encounter.

  As time wore on, and it was clear that the women were too enthralled with Karina to make any move to leave, and that Karina felt that it would be seen as rude to cut the encounter short, Lauren took matters into her own hands and went to speak to the front desk. As usual, Lauren's strategy was a winning one, because when the spa staffer came over and warmly but firmly said, “Sorry ladies, I need to steal Ms. Black and her group away now. She's running behind schedule!” it allowed Karina the graceful exit of appearing to be as disappointed by the turn of events as they were.

  God, Amanda thought to herself, how does she stand it? Sure, someone who liked attention, liked being in the limelight, or even liked people, for God's sake – they would thrive in that kind of life. But that wasn't Karina. Karina liked to hang back and observe, making dryly hilarious remarks which cut to the heart of a situation. She wasn't the warm hostess, she was the sarcastic wallflower. And that's what her friends loved about her.

  But these people – all of these strangers that thought themselves friends because they knew Karina through her sugar-coated music – they would not have the patience or the depth or the context to understand and appreciate the real Karina. Therefore, in order to please the public, Karina had to put on this gracious mask, and wear it pretty much every time she was around anyone who wasn't one of her very dearest friends.

  How utterly exhausting.

  --- ~ ---

  Amanda, Sam, Lauren and Karina laid on their stomachs on adjoining massage tables, covered only by thin sheets, folded in half and placed strategically to hide their rear ends. As the strong fingers of each of their individual masseuses dug into their backs and shoulders, Karina slowly and luxuriously stretched her arms out above her head, and then shifted slightly to face towards Sam and said, “So, Sam. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about how you're going to kick all of our asses in Zumba class?”

  Sam smiled saucily and replied, “I was kind of struggling, actually, until this really awesome song came on, that totally inspired me! I think it went like...” she affected a perky falsetto, “Baby you're the one, let's go have fun...”

  Karina groaned and cut her off, “Touché! Let's declare a truce on the topic. I think both of us suffered an unexpected blow to our egos in there. Is it really horrible when your own music actually gets on your nerves?”

  Lauren said dryly, “I think it's at least an indication that you need to rethink your artistic direction.”

  “Amen,” Karina agreed, “Although, you know what David Garza says. DJs won't spin your jam unless you say baby baby baby baby baby...well, you get the idea.”

  “Who's David Garza?” Lauren inquired.

  “He's a musician. One that actually puts out good music,” Karina pouted.

  Sam sighed and said, “Let's just have quiet time for the rest of the massage, shall we? We can deconstruct the unsatisfying states of our respective careers while we're shopping. This is massage time. It's supposed to benefit our contemplative souls as much as our sore shoulders!”

  The girls agreed, and each settled into their own thoughts.

  Amanda's thoughts, as they tended to do during any downtime or alone time in the past week, turned to Justin. The way he flashed her his crooked grin. The way his fingers felt when they brushed her skin, even when the contact was as innocuous as taking a glass of water or a plate of food from her hands. The way that his jeans hung low on his hips, and the bare skin of his back and chest glistened with sweat in the sunshine as he performed the necessary maintenance tasks required for running Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures.

  Although she was doing her level best not to draw direct comparisons between Geoffrey and Justin, for it wasn't fair to either man, she could not help but think about how it annoyed her when Geoffrey expressed haughty disdain over the mere idea of performing manual labor.

  In fact, that brought up another very good point in her mind. True, she had been trying not to draw direct comparisons between Justin and Geoffrey, but if she were going to directly compare them, the long list of things that Justin jumped in to do eagerly and which Geoffrey had no patience for would each be a point in Justin's favor.

  For instance, and this was the critical one, how he was willing to be there for her, regardless of the inconvenience or the personal cost to him. Geoffrey had bailed right in the middle of her father's memorial service, much more concerned about catching his precious flight than supporting he
r through that ordeal, and rather than being sorry, had merely expressed annoyance that the service had gone on so much longer than had originally been planned. Justin, on the other hand, had been concerned solely about her emotional welfare.

  Also, in the grieving process that she had been struggling through since her father's death, Geoffrey seemed to have absolutely no concern for her feelings and emotions at all, whereas that seemed to be all that Justin was concerned about.

  But, thinking about the concept of Justin being there for her caused the true root of her concern about him to spring into sharp relief. Being there for her, in a global sense, was really the one area where Justin fell solidly behind. After all, wasn't he the one who had disappeared in the middle of the night 10 years ago? Wasn't he the one who had packed his things and fell off the face of the earth without so much as a jaunty wave goodbye?

  If she were to seriously consider going forward with a life with him, she would need to be given some sort of assurances that he would never do that again, assurances that so far, he had been unwilling to outright give.

  --- ~ ---

  “I like this,” Karina said, holding up a flowing sheer top under Amanda's chin, “This would totally set Justin's tongue wagging,” she continued with a wink, draping the top over her arm, adding it to the growing collection of clothing items that Karina had collected for Amanda to try on.

  “Slow down,” Amanda admonished, “We only have a matter of hours, not days, weeks, or months! I'll never get through trying on that whole pile!”

  “Oh, you'll get through it,” Karina said confidently, “You only think you won't because you've only ever been shopping on your own before, and no offense, but you're an amateur. Now you're shopping with me – and I'm a shopping goddess and quick change artist extraordinaire. You're gonna do fine.” And with that she flashed a grin and piled on two more blouses.