The Stretch Mark Club

Chapter 10: Beautiful, Inside and Out

It breaks my heart to think one day Zoe will hate the body I made for her.

Shea

6 1/2 Months Old... 

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Three overworked mothers going to the spa. Everett planned it for my birthday and even performed some trickery to get Hector to agree to watch the twins for a few hours.

Riley, Jasmine and I met that Saturday in front of Breathe. We stood outside and stared up at the building for five minutes before we walked in--me, because I felt like a man at Home Depot; Riley, because she was trying to come up with a clever way to make fun of the name; Jasmine, because she thought spas were a myth. Our elation deflated when we got to the point of taking off our clothes.

"Somehow I forgot that people get naked at the spa," I said. Riley looked at the locker and wrinkled her nose.

"We're supposed to get naked?" Jasmine asked, and Riley and I burst into laughter.

"Bathrooms," Riley said, and each of us took a stall to change into our robes like we were back in high school gym class. 

"Enjoy your massage," I told them as we split in the hallway and headed to our separate rooms. 

The therapist was a tiny little thing. At first glance I wondered if her hand could make it around my wrist, but once I closed my eyes, she could have been using her feet or elbows or knees and I wouldn't have noticed the difference. I felt uncomfortable in the beginning--her touching the still-dark marks on my hips--but she quickly put me at ease with the sweetness of voice. It's my personal belief I fell into a coma. She assured me that a lot people snore on her table. 

After our massages, we met up for a lunch of Cobb salads and iced tea, and then it was back to our private rooms for facials and body scrubs. By four o'clock I was so relaxed, I could have melted into a puddle. The final event on our schedule was half an hour in the sauna, where we all met up again.

"Did you have a male masseuse?" Riley asked me in a whisper. I smirked and shook my head.

"I did," Jasmine said.

Riley gasped. "Not fair!"

"He was cute too," she added.

We all filed into the sauna where there were several other women sitting on the benches. The sound of the door closing behind us made of all us jump, and we stood there looking at the other women, their robes spread wide, lounging around in nothing but the skin their mothers gave them.

"Um," I mumbled and glanced back and forth between Riley and Jasmine. Jasmine plastered on a tentative smile and shuffled forward politely. One of the women, a redhead about the same age as us, lifted her head, smiled and then closed her eyes again. Riley shrugged, so we tip-toed to the bench in the corner.

The three of us sat there, not speaking, not moving, our legs close together and our arms wrapped tightly around the fronts of our robes. The pressure to get naked pushed in on us from every angle, but we were determined to maintain our dignity.

And then it started to get hot. Really hot. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead and upper lip. Jasmine waved her hand in front of her face to no avail. We stared at each other, willing ourselves to be strong, but it was too much. Riley gave a frustrated sigh, stood up and pulled the belt of her robe loose.

It's a weird thing seeing your friend naked for the first time, but I couldn't help but stare at her in admiration. Her stretch marks weren't as bad as mine, but they moved in tiny metallic slivers from her belly button to her pelvis, like they were years old, not months. Her breasts hung slightly from the weight of breastfeeding, but she was beautiful. Really beautiful. She gave an unapologetic shrug and sat back down, her robe loose beneath her.