“Tell me again why the hell I’m doing this?” Kat wheezed.
“Because you work in a bakery and you don’t want your ass getting as wide as the counter,” Arisia huffed out.
“Too late,” Kat grumbled, attempting to follow their instructor’s high energy movements but failing spectacularly.
It was obvious the early morning dance class at Club Gym was a new form of modern day torture. Kat Miller was too short and entirely too uncoordinated for any choreography more difficult than a Chicken Dance. The fact that she was expected to jump around to Cascada’s Evacuate the Dance Floor like she knew what she was doing was wrong on so many levels.
She still couldn't believe she’d let her best friend convince her to try out the new gym that had opened on their way to work. With its wide open spaces, glossy floors and full length windows that let everyone on the street see everything that was happening inside, it was not a place Kat would’ve tried out on her own. The first time she’d seen a class doing a routine, they were rolling on the ground to Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda.
It had not been a pretty sight.
“Alright, people! Push it out for the last minute! Come on! I wanna see you move!” Brandy, the perfect dance specimen shouted from her place in the front.
Kat concentrated, knowing the hour was almost over and then she would be free. Two bad stumbles and an elbow to her neighbor’s chest later and they were done.
“Oh, thank God!” Kat threw herself on the floor and tried to remember how to breathe.
Arisia laughed and lowered herself next to her best friend until she was sitting cross-legged beside her. She bent over, walking her hands out until she was stretching the muscles in her lower back and hips.
Kat turned her head and studied her best friend. Arisia was everything she wasn’t – tall, lithe, and blessed with great boobs. She could stop traffic in her little black dress and Italian heels. But if anyone made the mistake of thinking she had nothing going for her except being a candidate on America’s Next Top Model, they were quickly put in check. Arisia was sharp enough to cut – her dual degrees from Columbia University and Yale only the first drop in her hostile takeover of the academic community.
Kat was definitely much more girl-next-door material.
At 5’2,” it was a little hard not to feel like an umpa loompa around Arisia, but she was hardly the only one. Even Arisia’s sister Raven had felt a little like the Ugly Duckling growing up with such a beauty.
Still, Kat was more than happy with who she was – a short, cute baker, who knew how to accessorize and enjoyed dying her hair different colors depending on the season. She’d gone to school and received her degree in English Lit, always assuming she’d make her way to a bigger city. Charleston, South Carolina was nice but it wasn't New York or Chicago, but when her favorite uncle died, she knew where she was needed most and had accepted her life with the easy grace that had always been her nature.
Her parents were good people but they never really understood their only daughter, who enjoyed spending time in bakeries and book shops more than playgrounds and beaches. When all of Kat’s friends were cheerleading or going out for different teams, she got a job at the local bookstore. It wasn’t long before her old friends became more like acquaintances, and her parents warned her of the effects of being too solitary. They didn't understand that Kat was never alone. She had her books, and the characters in them - some of them the very best friends anyone could ever hope to have.
Plus, she hadn’t been alone for very long. It was at West Side Stories she’d first met Arisia and Raven – daughters of the popular owner of the long standing bookstore. They both attended a private school in New York, returning mostly on vacations and holidays. It was during her first Christmas at the bookstore, when they’d arrived in a tumble of laughter and colorful scarves that Kat knew she’d found friends for life.
They were smart and funny, gorgeous but without the vanity that often came with such beauty. They’d immediately accepted her as part of their bookstore family, welcoming her into their tight knit group and making Kat finally feel she was somewhere she belonged.
Kat had worked at the store all the way through college, until her last semester of her senior year, when Uncle Clark unexpectedly passed way from a stroke. She’d given her two week notice the next day and helped her Aunt Lucy run the bakery she’d owned with her husband for the last twenty years. Thankfully, The Bake Shop was only across the street, and Kat always managed to pop her head into the book store to chat it up with her old friends and former co-workers.
It was during her last visit the day before that Arisia had finagled her into trying out the new gym that had opened up only a few doors down from them. Really not feeling it, it was the price she’d grudgingly paid in order to bribe Arisia for the first spot in line at tonight’s midnight book release. It was for the latest book in her favorite paranormal series: Vampyre’s Crossing.
Arisia and Raven were both sticklers when it came to the rules of book selling. They would not open the boxes of the newest book in the long running series until exactly midnight tonight. But at 12:01 am, Kat would be the first one to purchase the first book from the first box, as was their tradition. She was sure Arisia would’ve let her buy the first one even without saying yes to Club Gym, but it was the least she could do for her best friend.
Kat turned her head and stared up at the plain white ceiling. “I really think we should try something a little less painful next time…something we’d both really enjoy,” she suggested.
“Yoga? Pilates?” Arisia suggested.
Kat snorted. “I was thinking more like Starbucks or Orange Julius.”
Her friend laughed and shook her head.
“What?” Kat asked, unable to hide the humor in her voice. “It’s like three blocks away. That’s a workout,” she pointed out.
“Hey ladies, hope you enjoyed the class,” the instructor smiled cheerfully as she passed by.
“Hey,” they both said in unison.
Kat studied their dance instructor Brandy, a new arrival to the South judging by her accent and clothes. She was decked out in skin tight black leggings and tank top, with designer dance shoes and an engagement ring big enough to choke a small dog. Kat realized she was only a bit taller than Brandy, but where she was a little soft, Brandy was not. She had the well toned body of a lifelong gymnast and dancer. Her blonde hair was pulled away from her face in a high ponytail, and her perfectly applied makeup was still as fresh as it had been an hour earlier. The younger woman hadn’t even broken a sweat throughout the grueling workout.
Some people were just naturally gifted Kat thought. Brandy was obviously born with a high capacity for aerobic activity, whereas she was better suited for standing on her feet for twelve hours a day, rolling dough and pulling trays of fresh orange muffins out of large industrial sized ovens.
Kat thought back to earlier in the morning, when she'd faced the ugly truth of all those muffins, cookies and double frapuccinos. She’d given in to temptation and hopped on the bathroom scale. She’d gained five pounds since the last time she’d mustered up the courage to ruin her day before breakfast.
She sighed. Maybe she’d skip the frapuccino today after all.
Arisia turned back to her friend and noticed the slight shift in her mood. “You know what I think?” she asked breezily, jumping to her feet. She held her hand out, waving at Kat to grab it.
“What?” she asked, reaching up and letting Arisia pull her to her feet. She winced at the dull ache in the back of her thighs and calves, knowing she’d feel all those lunges for most of the day.
Her friend threw one arm around her shoulder and steered them towards the exit. “I think we’ve burned just enough calories to cover at least one Orange Julius and a breakfast bagel.”
Kat laughed, feeling her spirits lifting already. “God, now you’re talking.”
Arisia gave her a knowing wink. “Besides, we need to save our energy for tonight…”
“Midnight book party!” They both squealed in girlish delight as they left Club Gym.
Neither one of them saw the gorgeous stranger who’d paused by one of the windows to watch them leave.
Des smiled, realizing he had plans for tonight after all. It was a good thing, too. He’d been bored lately and was feeling the burden of his curse more than usual. He needed a boost, a way out of his growing madness. The Fates had cursed him so long ago he hardly remembered any other life. Still, the joke was on them. They’d thought to punish him for his transgression against love, but what those crazy chics hadn’t realized was that he got off on it. He enjoyed finding the lovesick, the love starved, or even better, the settled-in, totally-comfortable-in-life women and throwing them into crazy, dangerous, sometimes out of this world adventures where nothing except the truest form of love was up for grabs.
Except recently he’d hit a bit of a dry spell. No doubt to his latest fascination with Tinder – technology was truly one of the amazing feats of humanity.
But now it was back to business.
And he’d just discovered his latest winner – the perfect soulmate for one immortal captain he was dying to see knocked off his high horse. If any soul needed true love more, Des had yet to find it.
Katrina “Kat” Miller was just the girl he’d been looking for.
He turned, but not before flashing his best smile at the cute little dance instructor, who’d frozen in her tracks at the sight of him.
Des knew tonight, when she slept next to her body-builder fiancé, it would be his face she’d see in her dreams.
He laughed.
It was good to be him.
*
*
*
*
*A/N: Song Selection: Evacuate the Dance Floor - Cascada
Image Credit: Des Inspiration (young Gabriel Garko)