***Chapter 16
Ana poked her head into Brian’s makeshift office/storage room and found him sorting through some papers. Ana watched him concentrate on whatever document he had in front of him and wanted to leave him be so she could continue to watch him. But she knew she could do that any other time and that Brian would want to know when everyone arrived. “Hey, baby?”
Brian smiled as he looked up and spotted his soon-to-be wife, “Yeah?”
“Christi and the gang’s all here.”
Ana laughed as Brian dropped everything and hurriedly straightened up the scattered papers.
“This is not that funny, you know?” Brian grumbled.
Ana laughed some more before helping him. She glanced at some of the papers and smiled at him.
Brian gave her a quick kiss before standing up, “Thanks.”
“No problem. Let’s go.”
Ana and Brian walked right out of the storage room and into a hug from Christi. Justin stood back and watched while he balanced Kaci on his hip.
Ana reached for Kaci as she greeted Justin, “Hey, Justin, who do we have here?”
“This is Kaci.”
Justin went to Christi’s side, and they both stood aside as Ana and Brian cooed at Kaci.
“I want one.”
“Honey, let’s get through the wedding first. Then, we’ll talk baby talk.”
“Speaking of weddings, I’ve got your gifts in the truck. Come on.”
The looks on Brian and Ana’s faces were priceless when they saw what was waiting for them in Christi’s truck. His and hers four wheelers aren’t typical wedding gifts.
Brian jumped in the back of Christ’s truck and began inspecting the bikes, “Are you serious?”
Christi laughed as she dangled the keys to both bikes. “Yeah. But before anyone plays, take us to get settled.”
Just then, Christi’s parents, brother, and sister-in-law parked their car next to Christi’s truck. Serena, Tomas, Chris, and Adriana had come along this weekend for Brian and Ana’s wedding. They all got out of the car as Christi and Justin drove off to their cabin, and Jessi and JC did the same. Brian and Ana divided everyone else up and took them to their rooms.
After they were all settled in, Christi and Brian went off to retrieve the other four wheelers that the resort had. They came back with four bigger ones. JC hopped on one and Jessi got on behind him. Chris got one to his self since Adriana was pregnant and settled for watching everyone else play around like little kids. Serena settled for watching Kaci and keeping Adriana company because she really didn’t care for riding an overpowered bike. Christi’s dad, on the other hand, didn’t let that stop him and hopped on one by his self. Unlike Jessi, Christi wasn’t going to just hop on the back. She wanted to drive. She wanted the adrenaline rush she got every time she got behind something powerful. So Christi and Justin played “rock, paper, scissors” for who was driving. Rock crushed scissors and Christi won. Christi hopped on the last four-wheeler and patted the back for Justin to hop on.
If he told truth, Justin didn’t really care if Christi drove the four-wheeler or not. He just had fun messing with her. After Marci passed, their banter was what got him through everything. He refused to lose that aspect of his relationship with Christi. He enjoyed it too much to lose it or Christi. That week she was mad at him drove him insane. As far as Justin was concerned, Christi‘s random childlike, yet passionate, persona grounded him more in the past several months. He has not been more grateful for anyone, besides his mom, that she had come into his life and stuck around. With his arms wrapped around her body, Justin felt kind of possessive, something he wasn’t sure he was suppose to love as much as he was at the moment.
If she told the truth, Christi loved him holding on to her just as much as he did. Ever since that night they deemed each other Jade and Karr, Christi hasn’t stopped herself from thinking how much of a potential Justin became in a just a month. Questions of Justin even liking her as more than a friend and thoughts of what a relationship with Justin would be like swirled around in her head. All the thinking about why she felt the way she did toward Justin confused her even more. In all her confusion she made the mistake of confiding in Jessi, who was more amused by Christi’s situation than was she was helpful at first. Jessi’s amusement eventually turned into advice whenever Christi needed it so she didn’t completely regret telling her best friend. Recently, the two girls concluded that Christi only had a crush, but Christi felt it was more than just a crush, way more.
The group played around on the four-wheelers for hours until Ana’s dad sent Brian’s groomsmen to fetch them for dinner. At dinner, Ana and Brian introduced the rest of the wedding party to Christi, Christi’s family, Jessi, JC, and Justin.
**
With one shoe dangling from one hand and dress slightly lifted with the other, Christi cautiously dipped her foot into the lake. She swirled her foot around in the water and thought, “Another day. Another wedding.” Everywhere she looked someone was getting married in her eyes. Too many to count, but only few of the couples she actually cared about. She escorted Justin to Joey and Kelly’s wedding three weeks ago. Not too long ago, her brother married Adrianna, and way before that she married Jordan. All the thirty-something other weddings in-between those were all a blur to her. Why did Christi hate marriage so much? They all ended in divorce or some form of separation. Her and Jordan: Divorced. Ana’s parents: Divorced. Justin’s parents: Divorced. Adrianna’s parents: Separated for nine years. Gary, Brian’s best man, and his wife: Separated. She was pretty much in her “Been there, done that” mood, which occurred a lot lately. Christi didn’t want to bring everyone down so she isolated herself to the lake from the mingling over near the reception tent.
“Hey you. You trying to steal my spot?”
Christi looked up from her foot motion in the water and offered Brian a soft smile. “You’re spot? Last time I checked, it belonged to me.”
“Well, care to share?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” She returned her attention back to what she was previously doing. “Depends on what you need it for.”
“I’ve just been coming up here to think a lot lately.”
“Thinking of what?”“
**
“Stare much?”
Justin cringed at the sound of his neck popping when he turned to match Ana to the voice that brought him out of his trance. “Huh?”
“If you stare any harder, you just might burn a hole through them.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The look in your eyes. It’s the same look that Jordan use to walk around here with. He was always suspicious of Brian. He didn’t trust him with Christi.”
“I’m not Jordan.”
“Didn’t say you were. I was simply pointing out the similar feelings.”
Justin wasn’t even going to try and deny what Ana had figured out. “Do you ever find yourself suspicious of Christi and Brian?”
“You really don’t understand their relationship do you?”
“Actually, no. I’ve been trying to figure it out since the first time we were here.”
“Well, Justin, you’re lucky I like you enough to fill in the obvious. There’s nothing to it really. Christi and Brian’s friendship is strictly platonic. Brian is more like a second brother than a friend to Christi. People think they’re more because Brian and Christi like to just go with it and did little to dispel the rumors. Brian more so than Christi actually. You see, Brian could not like Jordan. So he got some kind of sick thrill in playing mind games with Jordan about stealing Christi away. Christi, on the other hand, did it for the rumors. There’s nothing I think she hates more. Her part in it was kind of her own type of mind games.”
“Does the flirting ever bother you?”
“No because I know my husband adores me and would do anything for me.”
Justin sighed, “But they look so…I don’t know…together.”
“But they’re not. He’s just confiding in her.”
“Ya’ll just got married. What does he have to confide in her already?”
“He’s been thinking about this for awhile. I actually caught him looking at some papers regarding it as ya’ll were arriving.”
**
“Business has really picked up around here. More than any of us would have imagined.”
“What’s so bad about that?”
“You know how Ana’s father can only handle so much so Ana does whatever he can’t? Well, extra business means extra work. The extra work has Ana so worn out that it’s affecting her school work. If things keep up the way that they are, Ana said she’ll dropout in-order to help her dad. I know she doesn’t want to dropout of school so I went to her dad and suggested that he hire someone to take over some of the workload with him instead of Ana.”
Christi could picture Ana’s dad’s face once he heard Brian’s suggestion and laughed, “What did he say?”
Brian gave her his best impersonation of his father-in-law, “Well son, bring me someone capable of getting things done and whom I can trust, and we’ve got a deal.”
“Have you started searching?”
Christi could tell now that Brian was more frustrated than the happy-go-lucky person he appeared to be all weekend, “Yeah, but I can’t even find someone I trust. And if I don’t trust them, then--”
“There’s no way Ana’s dad will.”
“Exactly, and this leaves me stuck between a rock and a hard place. Ana really doesn’t want to quit school but she will if she has to choose in the end. And if she does quit, I know she’ll be depressed, and I don’t want to see her so upset.”
They both stood there in silence watching any little bit of light reflect into the lake. Brian thinking of how he could convince Ana to stay in school since he didn’t think he would find anyone trustworthy enough, in the eyes of his father-in-law, to take on some of the work. Christi continued to think of the stupidity of marriage and almost solidified her opinion before she stopped herself. She realized the difference in the marriages that lasted and the ones that didn’t. Beside her, stood a man stressing over making his bride completely happy. Somewhere else was a man that didn’t give a crap about his wife and cheated on her with her own cousin. It was so simple that she felt like laughing. And she did.
“What’s so funny?”
“I came over to the lake thinking of marriage as some joke. Something nobody takes seriously. Then, you come along and prove me wrong. I went through six years of it and look where I am, divorced. You and Ana are together for two or three years and look where you are. Not just married but truly in love and devoted to one another. Of course, I thought Jordan and I were going to make it at the time because we had been together for so long and I saw a future in him. But I see now that we didn’t have all it took to keep it together. You see, if I was Ana and he was you, Jordan would have just sat around and encouraged me to give up college because that’s the most ‘logical’ choice regardless of how much I loved school. You, on the other hand, don’t plan on sitting by and watching Ana regret her decision of dropping out despite how much stress it puts on you.”
Brian sighed, “True. But no matter how much I try, my best may not be enough.”
Christi hated seeing Brian so distraught over anything. She hated the fact that she didn’t know how to fix his problem even more. Usually she was the one down on her luck. Not Brian. Usually Brian was the one comforting her. He always knew what to say to make everything seem okay. If only she could help him out somehow. If only she knew someone that Brian could present to Ana’s dad as trustworthy and knew how to get things done. Then, out of nowhere, something clicked.
“I could do it.”
Brian looked at her funny, “Do what?”
“What if Ana’s dad hired me? He trusts me. Well, I think he does. I use to run my own restaurant so I know how to train and get things done. I love this place. I know it like the back of my hand.”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on. You would be doing me a favor just as much as I would you. I need a job. I can’t keep living off of my dad’s money.”
Brian wanted to shout from the rooftops at Christi’s solution. It made perfect sense. But he wanted to make sure Christi didn’t just jump into the idea head first without thinking. “What would you do about the whole living situation? You live an hour away.”
“How about I move into the cabin I’m staying in now? This way, there won’t be a problem with me being gone. You’ll always be able to reach me anytime. It’s not like anyone else uses it anyways.”
“You sound so sure of yourself.”
“Come on Brian I really want to do this. It would be perfect with Kaci. I can take care of her and do my job around here. And when I’m busy, there’s always someone around to watch her for me. I wouldn’t have to get a babysitter or anything like I would with any other job.”
“Of course.”
“Does that mean you’ll give me a chance?”
“You got it, but Ana’s dad has final say in this. You’re a life saver, you know?”
Christi hugged Brian, “So are you.”
**
Three months later, Christi sat on her bed and channel surfed for something remotely eye-catching to watch.
“Hey, Blondie, you ready?!” Jessi called from her bathroom.
“Stop calling me that. And why are you yelling? I’m not deaf.”
“Well I must be color blind then because the last time I checked you’re blonde. And I’m raising my voice not yelling because you haven’t responded to a normal level.”
“Well that doesn’t mean you can call me that. Man, I finally get a break from work and choose to spend it with you. And this is how you treat me. Oh, the abuse.”
“Whatever. Are you ready for you’re make-up?”
Christi turned off the television when she didn’t find anything interesting on and walked into her bathroom, “Yeah.”
Jessi unzipped her makeup kit and neatly began arranging the different cosmetic products on the counter.
“How about this? You could have just called me,” Christi pretended to think, “Christi.”
Jessi laughed as she pulled Christi’s face toward her and began applying eye make-up, “Shut your mouth and close your eyes.”
She takes all day to get ready
And frequently she glances at the clock
The dress that makes her skinny
And the shoes that make her taller
So that she can match his height
A knock at the door and he’s arrived
And gracefully she descends the stairs
Jessi pauses her singing to check the eyeliner and all that good stuff as Christi opens her eyes. She continues on, moving to Christi’s lips and as she starts back up with the singing.
A tomboy in the daytime
But a princess this evening
She looks a different person tonight
She’s baseball in the morning and basketball at noon
And sometimes swimming at twilight
But now he sees that she’s a lady
And a beautiful one at that
They’re going to the prince’s ball.
Cinderella for the night
Music fills the air as they enter
And everyone quietly stares
Normally a buddy
Just one of the guys
But she’s the only lady there tonight
He asks her if she’d like to dance
And proudly he holds her close
But he steps on her toes
So she slips off her shoes and quietly stands on his feet
Jessi finished up the singing as she applied the liner and gloss then started again as she quickly finished up with a dab of blush to Christi’s cheeks. She stepped back to let Christi check out her work in the mirror.
She’s finally the belle of the ball
Cinderella for the night
“I liked that. Who sings it?”
“Me. I record it next week.”
“We’ve been through a lot this past year. I mean think about it. Months ago, you weren’t even thinking about pursuing singing let alone singing for fun.”
“A year ago, I almost overworked myself.”
“Not almost. You were overworking yourself. A year ago, I was pregnant, working, and fed up with Jordan.”
“Two months later, you went into labor early and nearly ruined the seats of my car.”
“In the end, we met your now boyfriend and befriended the rest of NSYNC.”
“We helped them through Marci’s death and they helped us through the Jordan and Courtney saga, our worst fight, and getting through the accident two years ago.”
“K Dot and Justin helped. JC and the other two still don’t know.” Christi pointed out.
“Minor detail. We attended many events, including Challenge for the Children and Joey and Kelly’s wedding.”
“Jordan and I got divorced.”
“You got custody of Kaci.”
“Not permanently.” Christi lightly licked her lips.
“I doubt he’s going to come back for her, Christi.”
“Actually, he’s working on it.”
“What? How come you didn’t tell me?”
“Before you start, I just read the letter his attorney sent me today, and it appears that he wants to share custody of Kaci.” Jessi looked like she was about to explode into one of her tirades so Christi stopped her. “Please. Just for today, can we pretend it’s not happening?”
Jessi sighed, “Okay. But, let’s reminisce some more.”
“Oh, big word,” Christi teased.
“Shut it. Ohh, I got a good one.”
“What is it?”
“Watching you beat the crap out of Courtney.”
Christi laughed, “Yeah, and it felt good, too.”
“We visited Ana and Brian for the first time in a long time.”
“That’s when JC and Justin really got to see us for us and loved it.”
“You sang at your and JC’s party and had everyone talking and offering you recording deals for weeks.”
Jessi rolled her eyes, “You would think a simple ‘no’ from me would mean something, but some bozos just had to go and approach my agent, who promised me my long-time coming break I deserve, in exchange for recording when I got back.”
“Roll your eyes all you want. We both know you’ve loved it ever since JC volunteered to produce your CD for you. Anyways, it’s your turn for another memory.”
“After the party, you stopped talking to Justin for a week.”
“Roughest week of the year.”
Jessi pouted, “I’m hurt. What about the month you didn’t talk to me? I’m supposed to be your best friend.”
Knowing Jessi was joking, Christi smiled and batted her eyelashes, “Roughest month?”
“Geez, say it like you mean it. That’s okay. I see how it is. Replaced for a crush.”
Christi groaned, “I should have never told you I like Justin.”
“You know, he’s going to go ballistic when he sees that you practically chopped it all off.”
She argued, “I didn’t chop it off. I just took a few inches off. It’s still past my shoulders.”
“Ha. Barely.”
Christi curled a few strands in between her fingers and analyzed them, “Whatever. I just can’t believe it took months for me to consider dying it back.”
Jessi nodded, “It’s not the same look though. You used to wear it long and curly, but now its short and straight.”
“It’s not short,” Christi insisted, giggling. She watched herself smack her lips together for the millionth time through the mirror, and made some refreshing noise with her mouth. “Tasty gloss. Bubble gum?”
Jessi nodded as she laughed. “So, you like?”
“Yea. But I don’t think the gloss is going to make it through the night.”
“I’m going to go get dress. You should do the same. It’s almost time to go.”
**
“Hey, stranger, you look amazing.”
“Thanks. So do you.”
Justin noticed the length of her hair and glared at her, “What did you do?”
Christi playfully batted her eyelashes and smiled, “What? You don’t like the blonde? I thought you would’ve loved it. You liked it before.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about. Why’d you cut your hair?”
“I want something different from when I dyed it blonde before, but since I’m blonde again, I thought the cut would be different. Besides, it’s not that short. It’s still past my shoulders.”
Before Justin could respond, Jessi dragged Christi out on the dance floor, “Come dance with me.”
Justin wanted to keep her around to talk to some more but also understood that he wouldn’t be able to hog her all night. After all, he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t seen much of Christi. Jessi missed her too. The two friends spent their lives doing everything together and were inseparable when Christi moved into Jessi’s home.
Justin knew that Jessi hadn’t seen Christi just as long as Justin and still missed her despite living in the same city together. The forty-five minute drive up to Silver Leaf wasn’t worth the hassle in the end, when Christi was busy running all kinds of errands and solving minor problems all day. Talking to her on the phone was just as bad as driving up to see her. Every time anyone called her, she was in the middle of something or too tired to talk. More times than Justin cared to count, Christi nodded off to sleep while talking to him on the phone. Justin worried she’d overworked herself into exhaustion trying to keep up with everything because, from what he could tell, she loved the job.
But Christi didn’t look the least bit exhausted, Justin thought as he watched her dance with Jessi. She looked really amazing. Her simple yet glamorous strapless dress showed every bit of it too. Justin could tell that either the physical aspect of her new job did a wonder on her body, not that she was big or anything before, or she found time to work out. Just as simple as her dress, her makeup and jewelry added to her whole glamorous look she had going on. The most expensive thing she was wearing rested on her thumb. She didn’t know it, but Justin did because he surprised her with it and a day visit for her birthday a month ago. When he saw it in the store, the ring had Christi written all over it. The platinum-lined green ring wasn’t flashy with diamonds or anything extravagant. To anyone that didn’t know her, she’d look like she dropped a lot of cash for the look. But being Justin and knowing Christi as well as he knew her, Justin knew that the whole look cost Christi, herself, under two hundred and him a few hundred more for the ring alone. The funny thing is that every other girl surrounding her on that dance floor probably paid ten times what Christi did but she still looked equally as glamorous or more so.
Not only could Justin tell Christi looked good, but he could also tell she was having fun. She was glowing for some reason, and that alone made him happy. It made him want to dance. Justin moseyed over to where he spotted Christi, Jessi, and now JC dancing. The foursome continued to dance nonstop for a couple of hours before they sent Justin for some drinks and Christi looked for a quiet corner so that she could call and check up on Kaci, whom Adriana and her brother was babysitting, along with the month old Chris Jr., back in Houston while she spent the weekend with Jessi, JC, and Justin in Miami. Christi finished up her conversation with her family as she heard everyone counting down from ten. She tried to squeeze her way through the crowd in search of Jessi and Justin but didn’t get far when she felt some stranger grab her arm. And just as she turned to yank back her arm, Christi felt a pair of lips crashing down on hers.
Justin didn’t know what had possessed him to do it but didn’t regret it as he felt the difference in emotions going through Christi’s head at the time. When she recognized whose lips consumed hers, Christi went into shock for all of two seconds. Justin felt her deepen the kiss and nearly went into shock himself. All night long he set himself up for rejection that he didn’t plan for what was actually happening. Justin didn’t let that stop him though as he continued to lock lips with Christi.
Christi reluctantly pulled back from the kiss when she felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore. She leaned into Justin and placed her head on his shoulder as they both watched everyone, oblivious to the kiss, ring in the New Year.
Breaking the silence, Christi stated, “For a second there, you scared me.”
“So was that a relieved-he’s-not-some-psycho kiss or what?”
Christi looked around for a second before smiling up at Justin, “Happy New Year’s kiss.”
“Happy New Year,” Justin whispered before licking his lips, “Mmm. Bubble gum?”
Christi giggled, “That’s what I said.”
Justin shook his head and laughed, “Leave it to you to find something like that.”
“Cinderella” by Megan McCallon
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