Another dreadful thing I had to endure was the freaking ice baths. Matt had showed Julio how to fill the tub with bags of ice and cold water, so when I was done with the run I could soak my legs in it. Despite my protesting, Matt said it was a necessity for my legs to avoid injury. Trust me, I was thinking of Matt the first time I got into it. But it included a lot of cursing, which only made Julio laugh hysterically. Matt was a lucky man that his game was away that weekend, because if he was anywhere near me I probably would have made him get in with me. Why should I have to suffer alone?
During that week I had the photo shoot for the running company, which made me a bit nervous. I asked Kelly to accompany me, since it was during one of her days off, and Matt would be at school. She was ecstatic about the idea of the photo shoot. Good to know one of us was.
When we arrived I realized we were doing the shoot at one of Portland’s famous trails, and my only job was to act like I was running as they shot photo after photo. When they told me this I wanted to laugh. I’d been so nervous that I wouldn’t be able to perform as a model. I was almost at the point of hyperventilating. Had I known I was going to be doing something I loved doing I wouldn’t have felt pressured.
Once I was dressed in an outfit from the selection they had provided, it was time to start. They had marked off a section of the trail for me to run on. My sole job was to start at the beginning of the mark, and run up the trail while the photographer took photos. When I reached the end, I would have to stop, then head back up to the start again and do it all over again.
I did this for half an hour, and then they had me stand around in different poses in the different outfits, looking vigorous from the run. I did this for the next hour and once the photographer was satisfied he had enough good shots I was done.
It was easier than I’d ever thought it would be and the company was satisfied with my work. They even let me keep everything they had brought to the shoot that day. I left a very happy girl.
With the help of the crew, I started collecting all my goodies from the day. All of a sudden I feel my phone begin to vibrate, singing at the same time to Just the Way You Are.
Confused, I look at the screen to see a picture of Matt smiling back at me. I instantly feel butterflies flutter throughout my stomach at the thought of Matt singing it to me.
“Hi Matt,” I say into the phone. “You know you really need to stop changing the ringtones on my phone.” Looking up, I notice some of the camera crew, Kelly, and Julio staring at me with a smile on their faces as well. The camera crew immediately goes back to packing up, but Kelly and Julio keep intensely staring at me, interested in my conversation.
I can almost feel his smile on the other end of the phone as he speaks. “Hey beautiful, you almost done?” he says back at me. “How’s it going?”
I turn away from the curious eyes. “I’m actually done,” I tell him.
“Already? That was quick. You’re that good?” he says, chuckling into the phone, which makes me feel dizzy again.
I chuckle back at him. “No, actually. I would have done this all day if they let me, but they said they got all the shots they needed.”
“That’s good.”
“What time are you done with classes?” I ask.
Matt has been so busy with practice and now classes that I rarely saw him anymore. I was starting to get a little sad about it. When he was home late at night, he was usually studying. The only time I did get to spend time with him now was when I’d help him study; it was his way of trying to spend time with me, while getting his school work done. I couldn’t complain though, he was making an effort by including me.
“I’m done with classes, but I’m going to head over to the gym before practice. I was thinking that maybe we could all go out to the Brewhouse for dinner, the game’s on tonight. What do you think, you up for it?” I could hear the hesitation in his voice as he asks, which makes me feel guilty. Why would he think he needs my approval?
“Matt, you don’t need to ask for my approval, if that’s what you think. I’m fine with whatever place we go to for dinner.”
“It’s not about me asking for permission, beautiful. It’s because I know I haven’t been spending much time with you lately and I feel really bad about it. Tonight’s the first night I don’t have the pressure of schoolwork or studying, so I thought we’d go out.” His cheerless voice intensifies my guilt.
I feel like I need to reassure him. “Sure, sounds fun. Do I need to tell Julio to come with us?” I ask, looking back in Julio’s direction, thinking he heard me, but he’s already walking over to Kelly’s car carrying the bags with my stuff.
“No, a bunch of guys from the team are going to be there too. They should be enough man power.” His response makes me laugh.
“Okay. I’ll see you after practice then,” I say to him before hanging up.
I start thanking everyone in the camera crew, along with the running company, and begin walking back to the car.
As I get into the front seat of the car, Kelly starts it up. “So missy, what’s really up with you and Matt? Have you guys kissed and made up?” she says, driving away from the trail.
“Matt has a way of getting me. I can’t seem to stay mad at him,” I grumble.
I hate saying it out loud. Even in my head it sounds lame. I’m pathetic when it comes to Matt.
“Mmmm, hmmm,” she says, while keeping her eyes on the road.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I snap back at her.
Keeping her hands on the wheel she quickly looks at me. “I’m only saying, that there’s something definitely going on between the two of you. Whether you see it or not, it’s there,” she says, refocusing on the road ahead of her. “And Julio could back me up on it,” she says, her eyes darting to the rearview mirror.
I whip my head around to look at Julio, but he’s acting like he’s ignoring us by looking out of the side window.
Snapping my head back to the front to look back at Kelly, I argue, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. He obviously cares about me, but not in an I want you as a girlfriend way, and I’m not going down the road of adding myself to his special list of friends,” I assure both of them. “He’s really protective of me, that’s all, and with all the shit going on in my life right now, I’ll take it,” I finish telling her.
She groans, pinching her lips together. My eyes avert to look in the rearview mirror to Julio in the backseat. He looks suddenly uncomfortable with the conversation, like we’re discussing tampons and periods.
Deciding that a change of subject is needed, I inform Kelly of dinner plans, and let Julio know he’s done for the day. He tries reassuring me that he doesn’t mind tagging along, but I tell him exactly what Matt said about the team being there, and this makes both him and Kelly laugh. Matt might not be telling me how he really feels about me, but he sure is declaring how protective he is.
I’M SITTING AT our new table finishing a salad when Trey comes into the room. He keeps looking deviously in the direction of the hallway, where Matt’s currently in the shower.
They had both came home really stinky after practice. After the usual game of rock, paper, scissors, Matt won the shower leaving me stuck with a stinky Trey. We couldn’t use both showers at the same time, unless you wanted to take a really, really fast one. Having seen what guys do to each other, I was getting a bit worried about why Trey kept looking behind his back.
“Care to tell me what exactly you’re trying to hide from Matt,” I ask amusedly.
He checks behind him one more time. “I’ve arranged for us to go out for Matt’s birthday and I want it to be a surprise,” he says. “He insists on not wanting to celebrate this year, being that Emily is gone and everything, but I thought it might be better if we celebrate anyways. You know, maybe cheer him up.”
It makes me sad to think that this would be the first year he’d have to celebrate without his sister. I don’t know what’s it’s like to have siblings, but I’ve b
ecome really close to my new set of friends and I would be sad if I didn’t have them around during my birthday.
Trey walks over and leans his hands on the chair across from me, the one facing the hallway, before continuing. “I booked us a VIP section at one of the new clubs that just opened. It’s really hard to even get in so it should be awesome,” he says, dragging out the last word.
Okay, now I know why he’s being sneaky other than wanting it to be a surprise. “Trey Johnson, how is it exactly you got us into this club?” I narrow my eyes at him not wanting to hear the answer I already know he’s going to tell me.
His face immediately becomes worried. “Come on supermodel, it’s for Matt.” He pleads, “You know I had to drop your name in order to get us in. It’s really no big deal, I told them you’ve really been wanting to go, but couldn’t get in. The manager practically groveled at my feet with apologies, so I took advantage.”
I angrily groan out loud. Being that it’s Trey this doesn’t surprise me. But he knows damn well that I wouldn’t use my name to get us in anywhere. I’m pretty sure that if Matt got wind of it, he would be just as pissed. No wonder he’s being so sneaky when he’s telling me, it has nothing to do with it wanting to be a surprise for Matt.
Rolling my eyes, I brace myself and ask, “When is Matt’s birthday anyway?” I wonder how much time we have to soften him up to the idea.
Trey drops the bomb on me by saying, “The end of this week.”
If I was currently eating something I swear you’d need to do the Heimlich on me to prevent choking. “Trey Johnson, why are only telling me this now?” I practically shout at him, but keep my voice down since I heard the water turn off a minute ago.
“It took a couple of phone calls to get to the right person who would definitely get us into the club. I finally got through just a couple of minutes ago. Like I said, Matt doesn’t want to celebrate his birthday, so that’s where you come in,” he placates me, smiling.
My temper is starting to flare and I’m about ready to walk around the table and smack that smile off his face. “Besides using my name against my will, what is it I’m going to have to do?” I seethe to him.
He desperately tries to plead his case. “I need you to somehow convince Matt that you really want to go to the club this weekend. We’ll act like it has nothing to do with it being his birthday, even though he’ll probably know it is.”
I finally find an excuse to avoid the club, shaking my head at Trey in disagreement. “We can’t go out this weekend, we leave for San Fran on Friday for my race,” I say. “Or did you forget?”
“We can leave really early on Saturday. I checked your schedule and you were technically going to sightsee anyways.” He’s still supplicating. “Come on Abigail, don’t be a meanie. That boy has done a lot for you lately, the least you can do is make him happy on his birthday.” He throws that last piece in, while pointing in the direction of the bathroom.
Oh great, he’s going to play that card on me. Does he really think I don’t know how much Matt has done for me?
“That’s low, Trey, even for you,” I snarl at him. I hate the fact that I’m taking a chance at upsetting Matt. “Fine. We’ll leave on Saturday, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.”
“Be happy about what?” Matt says from the hallway, and I instantly go rigid. I look at Trey pleading for help, because God knows I can’t lie to Matt. Well, maybe I would be able to, but I don’t want to.
Trey looks up in Matt’s direction with a smile. “Abigail got a phone call from that new club downtown, you know, Ardent, so she agreed for us to go this Friday. Isn’t that cool?” he eagerly tells Matt. “She’s not going to be happy about the lack of sleep, but oh well.” He shrugs his shoulders.
My eyes are now shooting daggers at Trey for putting me into this situation.
Matt walks over to us dressed in his usual boxer briefs with a towel around his neck, holding an end in each one of his hands. I have to bite my lip to keep myself from drooling at him. When he’s half-naked like this you can see every ripple of muscle lining his body and I just want to run my tongue over every… single… one.
Matt’s stern voice snaps me out of my imaginary lick session. “No. This race is very important to you Abigail. The club thing can wait for another weekend.”
Trey is looking at me with desperation in his eyes, ready to throw me under the bus. How in the hell did I get stuck with this task? I know the only way I am going to convince Matt is to use the female power I had over him. “Matt please, it sounds like it’d be really fun,” I beg him.
Deep down inside I feel like the biggest traitor in the world right now as I stand up from the table. I walk over to Matt with my pouty lips and think to myself, I’m going straight to hell for what I’m about to do. “Please Matt, it would be really fun to be able to go out to a club. You haven’t taken me to one, and I got really excited when they invited me. Come on Matt… for me?” I say to him as I’m standing directly in front of him, tugging on the towel ends he’s holding to pull him to my body.
His eyes go dark as he’s staring down into mine. I know exactly what I’m doing to him right now, and I’m pretty sure he knows it.
“Fine, but don’t complain when you don’t make the 3:30 mark,” he says out loud so Trey can hear. Then he lowers his lips next to my ear to whisper, “Beautiful, I expect you to be the cake I’m eating that night.”
I take in his husky voice whispering in my ear, imagining exactly what he means by that. He takes my hands, releasing them from the towel. He turns around, leaving me swaying to catch myself as I watch his hard ass walk away. Thinking about what he just said, combined with the sight of his sexy body in front of me, I swear I feel like I am about to come at this very moment.
I hear Trey’s shout of triumph behind me and pull myself together. I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack from my rapid heart rate. I turn around and give Trey the evil eye before stomping off to my room to take the next shower.
There probably isn’t any warm water yet, which is fine with me, ‘cause right now I need something just as cold as one of those damn ice baths I dreadfully hate.
KELLY AND I decided to go shopping the next day for Friday night. We were both really excited, but I don’t think Julio enjoyed it as much as we did. We must have gone to more than ten stores and I still hadn’t chosen anything. Kelly had found her dress at the second store, but as she was claiming, I was being difficult.
The problem was that I wanted the dress to be perfect for Matt’s birthday. Trust me, at that point I was frustrated too.
As we are in a small boutique, browsing around, frustrated again, I hear Kelly say, “I bet your old closet is filled with all the right dresses that you needed.”
Thinking back to the enormous closet that held a massive amount of clothes, I nod my head before saying, “Yeah, it was huge, and it probably did have a dress I would have been satisfied with. But the size of that closet and the amount of clothing it had, it only proved one thing, how shallow and unhappy I was. I don’t care what anybody says, money and clothes won’t buy you happiness. Your friends and family give you that,” I say, smiling over at her.
She smiles back, “Have you ever thought about going back for your stuff?”
I take in her question, then say, “No. Especially since I would risk coming across Bill again. I’d rather take the loss than run into him.”
She nods, satisfied with my answer and we exit the boutique, moving on with our shopping. I’m about ready to make Julio drive us to Seattle if I don’t find the dress soon. I’m so frustrated by that point that I’d even take the risk of being seen by Bill.
As I was about to give up we go into a shop claiming to hold high end couture dresses and the moment I walked in I saw it at the back of the store. It was on a mannequin, but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Needing to try it on, I quickly asked the store attendant to take it off the mannequin and I headed straight to the dressing rooms. Five minute
s later I had the dress on and it fit perfectly. I was about ready to cry from happiness of finally finding the dress.
It was white, with a v-neck front and back that fitted tightly at my waist and flared out at the skirt. It had a bit of tulle under the skirt giving it a puffy look. I was in love with it and I knew Matt would love it as well.
“Damn girl, if that boy doesn’t declare his love for you when he sees you in this dress, I’m going to have to hit him upside the head with that football he throws around,” Kelly says behind me as she’s looking at the mirror.
I turn around to look at her. “You think he’ll like it?” I cautiously ask.
She snickers. “I should have known you were shopping for him. I wish you had told me that five stores ago, I could have helped a little. You sure this is the one?” she asks, tilting her head to really examine the dress. “Of course it is. You look smoking hot.”
I nod my head in approval and begin taking the dress off so I can pay for it. Finally satisfied, I leave the store, with dress in hand, thinking that tomorrow night was going to be perfect. With Kelly’s help, I quickly picked out some shoes to go with it and we were out the door.
THE DAY OF Matt’s birthday comes sooner than I expected. After a quick lunch at the Brewhouse, we all head back to the house to get ready for our night out on the town.
Since we were leaving early in the morning we had agreed it would be a good idea for David and Kelly to stay over for the night. So they’re here getting ready with us. Kelly helped me with my make-up, and also did my hair, throwing it into a stylish ponytail.
Unspoken Memories (Unspoken Series) Page 21