MUSE sat on a bench, legs dangling from the seat, and waited for Adrien to finish her workout. She didn't know much about the gym, but she had made the intelligent observation that it had to be something along the lines of back and biceps today. Adrien's arms glistened with a sheen of sweat in the light, a vein in her bicep prominent under the smooth skin.
After ordering room service last night, they'd fallen asleep on opposite ends of the bed. They hadn't woken up cuddling like last time. Muse had tried to ignore the pang in her chest at that. She had asked for this. More than that, it was necessary.
Adrien had told Muse she wanted to get a workout in before breakfast and the tour. Muse hadn't wanted to be left alone in the room. She'd offered to come with Adrien.
"You're going to workout with me?" Adrien had asked hopefully.
"Yeah, sure, I'll copy you," Muse had said.
It had taken approximately one half-assed set of bicep curls with ten pound weights for Muse to set them back on the rack and declare she was done. Since then, she'd sat on various machines and watched Adrien, her back muscles rippling in her wife beater, and sprouted encouragements like a personal trainer.
"Push, push!" Muse yelled at Adrien now, on a set of hammer curls.
The gym was empty this early in the morning. Adrien's biceps strained, dark eyes narrowed in concentration.
Muse didn't know why it had gotten so hot in here. She wasn't even working out.
"Thanks so much," Adrien said with a grunt, setting the forty-pound weights down. "I don't know what I'd do with you."
Muse watched her pleated white minidress flutter around her thighs as she kicked her legs out back and forth. "Oh, you'd probably shrivel and die."
"I don't doubt it," Adrien said, almost seriously. Then she grinned. "Are you going to start up a fitness program when we're back in New York?"
Muse almost said, I don't have the funds for that, before she remembered the amount of money Adrien had deposited in her bank account.
She could do anything she wanted with the money she had. She could pursue anything, any career she had ever desired. Hell, she never had to work again if she wanted.
The freedom was almost paralyzing. She had spent so long in survival mode, making every pay check stretch so she could pay for heating and water and food. She had barely bought any new clothes in the past five years. She hadn't used her money for anything that wasn't essential to living. What was she supposed to do when she was back in New York?
"Yeah, maybe," Muse said. "A fitness program. Where I yell at people during their workouts. Could be cathartic."
"You know so much about fitness, right?"
"Yeah, a ton." She had to stop and think there for a moment. She had never exactly not cared for the gym. It was just that working for so many hours and then coming home and paying bills had exhausted her to the bone. She had never thought about the privilege it required to actually have the time to workout, or eat enough protein to see a difference. The gym was expensive. A high-protein diet was also expensive.
Now that she had time and money, she could try whatever hobbies she wanted. She could figure out who she was, when she wasn't tired and stressed trying to make ends meet every night.
Adrien started and finished another set of hammer curls while Muse kept thinking.
"Hey, what, no words of affirmation this time?" Adrien said.
She looked so infuriatingly gorgeous with her black hair tied back, her muscles strong and defined in the sunlight through the windows.
"Sorry," Muse said. She cleared her throat. "You're so big and strong."
"Thanks."
"You're like really big and strong. Huge. Massive. Enormous, actually."
"Muse."
Muse lowered her voice to a whisper, trying not to laugh. "Are you on something? You can tell me if you are."
"Don't make me come over there."
"And what? What are you gonna do, tough guy?"
"Tough guy? I'll throw you in the pool right now, I swear to God."
Muse hopped off the bench and started backing up. "Hey, we talked about this. If you throw me in some source of water again, I'll―"
Adrien's eyes glinted. "You're gonna what?"
Now it was Muse's turn. She paused. "I'll do really bad, horrible things to you."
"I'm listening."
Muse crossed the distance until only the forty pound weights remained between them.
"Do you actually want to know?" she breathed.
Adrien's mouth twisted into a smirk. "I do," she whispered back.
Before Adrien had the chance to react, Muse had reached over, grabbed her water bottle, and splashed it in Adrien's face.
Adrien sputtered, wiping the water from her face.
"I'm so clumsy," Muse said. "I don't know how that happened."
"Refreshing," Adrien replied, dripping wet. "Do you want a kiss now?"
Muse backed away, laughing so hard she snorted. "Get away from me, you wet little dog."
"Wet little dog? No, I think you want a little kiss. Come here, wife."
"Sorry, breakfast is calling my name. I'm starving. I've gotta go now. Have a good rest of your workout."
ADRIEN joined Muse at the breakfast buffet fifteen minutes later. Her hair was still damp. She smelled irritatingly good even after her workout, like men's cologne.
"Do you just sweat Bleu de Chanel or what?"
"Yeah, don't you?" She pushed a strand of dark, wet hair out of her face and added wryly, "I showered and put on some cologne after."
"Shut up. Here, I grabbed you some food."
"You didn't have to do that."
Muse shrugged. "You're a growing young woman."
"I'm twenty-eight."
"You're a baby."
"I'm older and taller than you."
"You're still a baby."
"I have never been called a baby in my life before."
"There's a first for everything."
"I am not a baby."
"You are such a baby. Your babyness is overpowering. You radiate baby. Your essence is baby. You're the biggest baby in babyland. You eat other babies for breakfast."
"Did you drink coffee?"
Muse glanced at her empty mug of coffee with three shots of espresso. "Maybe. Yes."
"Makes sense." Adrien looked down at her plate, noticing the eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and fruit for the first time. "How'd you know―"
"I pay attention, too." Muse shrugged again. "I remember how you like your food, okay? No big deal."
"Yeah . . . no big deal. Thank you."
Adrien looked a little startled, as if nobody had ever remembered what she liked for breakfast before. But that didn't make sense. She had so many employees and housekeepers to tend to her every need that Muse couldn't imagine why she would consider it out of the ordinary. Maybe she was misreading her reaction.
"Howdy, young lovers!"
Grey's voice jarred both Adrien and Muse. They looked away from each other―only then did Muse realized they had been staring―and up at Grey's form as he rounded their table with Sherry.
Sherry wore large Chanel sunglasses, but it didn't hide the fact that she looked sickly.
Muse wondered how much differently their honeymoon would have gone if Grey hadn't invited himself along with them. But, dimly, she realized there wouldn't be a honeymoon. Their argument had severed any chance of that. If it wasn't for performance's sake, they wouldn't be here right now.
What if her and Adrien had never fought? What if Adrien had never lied? What if, when they'd confessed they both loved each other, they could have just stayed happily, blissfully in love, already married? Would they have worked as a couple, without the obstacles marring their relationship?
But there was no point in pondering over a fate that wasn't theirs. It was useless. It would only hurt her. Maybe those things had happened to show them how they weren't meant to be.
"Howdy," Adrien responded coolly to Grey.
"How are you two this morning? Sleep well? I hear you have a tour soon. Sherry and I have one right after yours, at eleven a.m. We're really excited to try the jet skiing, aren't we, Sherry?"
Sherry looked like she was ready to faint at the thought of a jet ski. "Yes."
For the first time, Grey looked irritated with her. "What's the matter with you? And don't tell me you're just sick again. It's like you don't want to be here."
"I do, I just―"
"Because I can send you home on a private plane today, if you don't want to be here. Nobody's forcing you to do anything you don't want. Is that it? Is that what you want? Do you want to go home?"
"No, I―"
"Good." Just like that, any hint of irritation had cleared from Grey's face, like sunlight splitting through clouds. "Great. Now that that's settled, how about we go get some breakfast? Fuel for the day ahead. Tour soon and everything. I can already tell it's gonna be a good one, can't you, Adrien?" He pinned her with a stare.
"I agree," Adrien said, meeting his gaze with no hint of weakness. "I think it's going to be a perfect day."
Famous last words, Muse thought.
***
Thoughts on if I should start writing a lesbian vampire story?
From the moon and back,
Sarai