by Cara Malone
“Fair enough,” she said, pausing to consider. Then she said, “You know I love you, right?”
“Yes,” Max answered. She wasn’t looking Ruby in the eyes anymore, a sure sign that she was feeling uncomfortable. Ruby pressed on, though – they had to clear the air sometime.
“I really mean that,” she said, scooting closer to Max and wrapping her arms around her. She rolled onto her back again, pulling Max down onto her chest and thinking that if it wasn’t possible to make eye contact, it might be easier for Max to hear what Ruby needed to say, and easier for her to say it. “I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone, more than I realized was possible. I didn’t reject your proposal because I don’t want to be with you, or even because I don’t want to marry you. I just didn’t want you to be motivated by some unfounded fear that if you didn’t put a ring on my finger, you might lose me to Megan.”
Ruby could practically feel Max recoiling at the name, but it had to be said.
Max was silent for a long time and Ruby just kept her eyes on the stars, waiting for her. Eventually, Max asked timidly, “So you don’t not want to marry me?”
“Yeah,” Ruby said with a laugh. “I definitely don’t not want to marry you.”
***
The following morning, the three of them piled into Nick’s truck wearing jeans and matching polos. In the end, Ruby had to borrow a couple of Nick’s shirts on account of the height difference between her and Max – she didn’t really want to spend the day in a crop-top polo shirt, and although Nick’s shirt was baggier, it would do just fine.
The dew hadn’t yet burned off the grass by the time they pulled up in front of the restaurant. It was a squat brick building, the exterior finished and the interior filled with a separate crew of construction workers feverishly working to build the kitchen and dining room. The rest of Nick’s crew – four men with buff physiques that Ruby hadn’t expected in the landscaping business – showed up soon after and they all got to work.
Nick led Ruby and Max to a pair of large concrete squares along the front of the restaurant. They were about ten feet wide by two feet deep, a couple of empty flower beds ready to be planted.
“You’ll have to shovel about a foot of soil into each of them,” Nick said. “Plant three boxwoods from the back of my truck in each of them, put down the weed barrier, then finish them off with about three inches of pea gravel. Easy peasy.”
“Uh, sure,” Ruby said. Pea what now?
She listened and nodded as if his words made sense to her, hoping that Max knew what to do. Then Nick wandered away to direct the rest of his crew and Max handed her a pair of heavy-duty work gloves. Ruby was beginning to wonder if she’d made a miscalculation in her offer to help. When she volunteered to help landscape, she’d been thinking about flower bulbs and weeding and small trowels to work the soil – not work gloves and gravel.
But Max seemed to know exactly what to do, needing no further directions from her father. She led Ruby over to a large pickup truck at the far end of the parking lot, its bed piled high with dark, pungent top soil.
“Grab one of those wheelbarrows,” she said, nodding to a couple of up-ended wheelbarrows nearby. “It’ll go fastest if we do this relay-style, one of us shoveling soil into the wheelbarrow and the other one taking it to the flower bed and dumping it in. Which task would you prefer?”
Ruby looked skeptically from the pickup to the front of the restaurant, wondering if it would be a dumb question to ask whether the truck could be moved closer to the target.
“Dumping, I guess?” she asked with a laugh.
Max climbed into the truck bed, hoisting herself up effortlessly. Ruby got another glimpse of Max’s newly defined muscles and tan skin, and she tried not to stare while the other crew members were moving around them, gathering the tools they would need for their own tasks.
Max was looking good though.
Max picked up a shovel that someone had speared into the center of the soil heap and Ruby positioned the wheelbarrow at the end of the tailgate for her. As Max shoveled dirt and Ruby tried to stay out of the way, she looked again at the distance from the truck to the flower beds, and at the capacity of the wheelbarrow, and asked, “How long is this task supposed to take?”
“Maybe until lunch time,” Max said. “I’m sure my dad will have another job for us after that.”
That turned out to be a very inaccurate statement, although it was no fault of Max’s. She shoveled load after load of dirt into the wheelbarrow, making it all look feather-light, and every time Ruby had to push it over to the flower beds, she thought she’d tip over in the parking lot or miss the hole and dump it all over the sidewalk. She was more than a little embarrassed at how easy she’d assumed the day would be and how difficult she was finding the work, and she was sure that her presence was doubling or even tripling the time it would have taken Max to do the task on her own.
“Put a little muscle into it,” Max said, grinning at her as she wheeled the dirt away from the truck. She was enjoying the spectacle, and by the glances Ruby was garnering from some of the other crew members, Max wasn’t the only one finding entertainment at Ruby’s plight.
“I’ve got it,” Ruby said as the dirt pile shifted and the wheelbarrow wobbled, not at all sure that she did, indeed, have it. After only a half-dozen trips back and forth from the truck to the flower beds – and with only one of them full of soil – her legs felt like gelatin and sweat was pasting the polo shirt to her back.
“Let’s switch jobs,” Max said. “I think I can run the wheelbarrow back and forth faster than you.”
Ruby was in no position to object, so Max hopped down and she handed off the wheelbarrow.
“Can you climb into the truck or do you want my help?” Max asked, and Ruby rolled her eyes at her.
“I think I can manage,” she said.
It would have been an easier task if she wasn’t already feeling exhausted from the wheelbarrow, blisters beginning to form on her hands despite the gloves. Still, she wasn’t about to let her girlfriend see her struggling to climb into a truck. Ruby summoned all of her strength - and her abdominal muscles - and hoisted herself into the truck. She grabbed the shovel and started filling the wheelbarrow, which turned out to be a lot easier than her previous task despite the morning sun beating down on her.
As Ruby shoveled the soil, Max rolled up her sleeves to beat the heat. She looked like she could haul a hundred wheelbarrows full of dirt back and forth across the parking lot without getting winded, and Ruby found herself a little turned on. She tried to direct a sultry stare down at Max, but the sun at her back was casting her in a silhouette and Max was too focused on her task. She just picked up the wheelbarrow and started heading for the flower beds.
Max’s runs with the wheelbarrow were far faster and more efficient than Ruby’s, and she filled the second flower bed in no time. The mound of soil in the back of the truck was shrinking, and the sun was starting to really beat down on Ruby. By the time a couple of the other crew members took off their gloves and headed toward a shady spot on the side of the building for lunch, Ruby was tired and feeling like a rather ineffective member of the team.
Max helped her jump down from the truck bed and they headed back to Nick’s truck to collect their lunches. Janet had packed all three of them a sack lunch early that morning, and they’d been stashed in a cooler in the bed of the truck.
“I don’t think I’m being much help,” Ruby said apologetically to Max as she retrieved the three paper bags and a couple of water bottles.
“Nonsense,” Nick said, coming up behind them and overhearing her insecurity. “I’m sure you’re doing just fine.”
“No, she’s right,” Max said, handing her dad one of the bags. “I would probably have the bushes in the ground by now if I was working alone.”
Ruby and Nick both laughed at this, and Max led the way over to the shade. It was brutally honest, which was one of Max’s best qualities, and Ruby couldn’t argue w
ith the logic. Max was at least twice as fast as Ruby with the wheelbarrow, and a meticulously efficient worker.
“Fair enough,” Nick said as he sat down on the curb, joining the rest of the crew. “So I guess landscaping isn’t in your future, but that’s okay since it would make library school a waste of your time if it was.”
Ruby and Max sat down next to him and Max handed her a lunch. Janet had gone to a lot of trouble for them, making sandwiches thick with lunch meat and cheese, alongside macaroni salad and potato chips, plus an apple for each of them and a rich brownie for desert.
“I guess I’ll just stay the course, then,” she said, and Nick laughed.
“That’s probably wise,” Max said.
Ruby unwrapped her sandwich and took a big bite. She found that even though Max had done the lion’s share of the work, she was still ravenous. She savored every bite, her exertions this morning making the food taste like heaven.
CHAPTER 14
By the late afternoon, Max and Ruby had succeeded in planting the boxwoods and laying down the woven fabric weed barrier. Two hundred pounds of pea gravel awaited them tomorrow, and when they got home, they were both eager to change out of their work clothes. Max offered Ruby the shower first, but when her mother left the house to pick up a couple of pizzas for dinner and she heard her dad getting into the shower in the master bathroom, Max crept quickly down the hall and hopped into the shower with Ruby.
Suddenly, she understood the paranoia Ruby had felt in Chicago, the fear of being caught in a compromising position by her parents. Max had never so much as brought a friend over when she was a kid, and she never had romantic feelings toward the only other girl she’d ever brought home - Mira. Her heart was racing as she dashed down the hall on her way to the bathroom, but once the door was closed and locked, all her nerves faded away.
“What are you doing?” Ruby asked, her eyes wild.
“Seducing you,” Max answered, stripping off her clothes and stepping into the shower. “Come on.”
Ruby didn’t need any more convincing. She did the same, adding her clothes to the pile on the floor and joining Max beneath the water. She put her hands on Max’s arms, squeezing her biceps and grinning as she pushed Max up against the shower wall, and they made love passionately and quickly, still trying not to get caught.
Max made it back to her bedroom first, wearing the long terry cloth robe she usually reserved for winter so that Ruby could have the lighter cotton one. She was sweating already and looking through her closet for a new set of clothes when Ruby came in. She was drying her hair in a towel and she snapped it playfully at Max, then said, “I’m thinking about taking a yoga class this evening.”
“They’re open during the summer?” Max asked, still rooting through her closet for a comfortable t-shirt that wasn’t too wrinkly. She felt a twinge of anxiety in her stomach and she remembered all the times last year that Ruby couldn’t wait to run off to yoga classes.
“Of course they are,” Ruby said with a laugh. “I’ve been going to the studio in Chicago a lot and I don’t want to stiffen up too much by skipping a whole week. Besides, I’m really embarrassed at my poor showing today, and I’m sore. A little stretching and strength-building might do me some good.”
“Have fun,” Max said. She didn’t turn away from her closet.
Ruby came over to Max and wrapped her arms around her waist from behind. “You should come with me.”
“Really?” Max asked. Ruby had never invited her before – yoga was something she did with Mira, or something she went to alone right after her classes let out.
“Yeah,” Ruby said, kissing Max’s neck. “I was serious about wanting to spend every minute of the week with you. Please come. I’ll give you a massage after.”
“Fine,” Max said. Even if Ruby had invited her last year, Max probably wouldn’t have gone – yoga just seemed like an easy way to embarrass herself – but now it seemed like a good way to find out where her girlfriend preferred to spend a lot of her time. Maybe if Max saw the studio and met one of the instructors, she wouldn’t feel so passed over every time Ruby leapt off the couch, eager to get sweaty in a room full of other girls.
***
The studio was nearly empty when they arrived. Ruby had always said the classes were well-attended, and sometimes she even complained that she and Mira had trouble finding spots next to each other, but today there were only two other students in the studio.
“I thought you said this place was always crowded,” Max said as she shook out her rented mat like it was a beach towel, and Ruby shushed her.
“People whisper in here,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a calm space.”
Max glanced at the other two students. One of them had her eyes glued to her phone and the other was in the corner of the room helping herself to yoga blocks and straps. Max looked back at Ruby, not sure what the big deal was, but Ruby was laying out the spare yoga mat she always kept in her car.
“It’s summer,” she said. “I’m sure the majority of their business comes from college students since they’re so close to campus. This is good though – you’ll get essentially a private class for your first lesson.”
The four of them distributed themselves evenly throughout the room as if the goal of yoga was to get as far away from other people as possible without actually being alone. Max could at least relate to this desire. She followed Ruby’s lead and laid down on her back, closing her eyes until she heard footsteps at the front of the room.
When she opened her eyes, a short brunette with her hair in a fluffy top knot was walking gracefully to the front of the room. As she laid down her mat, she whisper-talked, saying, “Hi everyone. I’m Tracy and this is the Warm Slow Flow class.”
Max had heard that name before. Ruby went to a lot of Tracy’s classes, and toward the end of the school year, Max had even begun to resent it whenever she heard the name. It just seemed to come up too often, and Max wondered why Ruby couldn’t take classes from a wider variety of instructors.
“Is anyone here new to yoga?” Tracy asked, smiling at each of them and pausing to wave at Ruby when she recognized her. Max hated Tracy already, and she didn’t respond to the question.
“Max is,” Ruby said, raising her hand and pointing to her. She always was a bit of a teacher’s pet in the library school classes Max had with her, and apparently that trait extended to yoga classes, too.
“Awesome, thanks for bringing a friend, Ruby,” Tracy said with a hundred-watt smile, and then almost as an afterthought, she turned to Max and added, “Thanks for joining us.”
Max wondered if Ruby was going to correct her – she most certainly wasn’t Ruby’s friend – but the moment passed and Tracy walked over to a sound system on the wall, queuing up the music for the class. Max started to lean over to Ruby’s mat, wanting to ask her why she allowed Tracy to mislabel her, but then the lights were dimmed and class began.
“Let’s all start in child’s pose,” Tracy said, walking around the room while Ruby and the other two girls immediately assumed the position and Max had to study them before approximating it herself. She hated not knowing what to do, especially when everyone else around her seemed to have knowledge that she was not given.
Max discovered very quickly that she was clueless, adrift in a sea of terms that weren’t even in English, and even when Ruby leaned over and whispered an explanation of the poses Tracy was describing, Max had a hard time contorting herself into them. Hot air pumped into the room from the ceiling, sweat was pouring down her face after just ten minutes, and Max appeared to be the only one not enjoying the torture this class was providing.
Ruby seemed to find her zen partway through the class, closing her eyes and flowing effortlessly through Tracy’s directions, leaving Max to glean the poses from observation alone. She had no idea how hard it was to do something as simple as bend over and touch her toes, or sit in an invisible chair for an extended time, while everyone else in the room assumed every pose w
ith ease and grace. They made it look so easy.
Tracy walked around the room throughout the class, never stopping except to correct someone’s form. The first time it happened, she put her hand on Max’s lower back to straighten out her posture and it startled her so much that she fell completely out of the pose. Tracy did this a few more times for Max – the remedial student in the group - and went over to the other two girls in the class to make minor corrections as well.
And then she corrected Ruby’s form.
Max watched her walk up behind Ruby and put her hands on her hips during something called Exalted Warrior, and she had to fight the urge to get off her mat and slug Tracy. Ruby had the best form in the class and to Max’s eye, there was nothing wrong with her pose. She hardly needed intervention from the instructor, and yet Tracy had the nerve to put her hands on Max’s girlfriend right in front of her.
She spent the rest of the class quietly seething and keeping a close eye on Tracy, and when they walked into the cool mid-summer night afterward, Ruby threw her arm around Max’s shoulder and asked, “What did you think?”
“It left a lot to be desired,” Max said, gritting her teeth. She felt sweaty and irritated, and like she needed a shower for a couple of reasons.
“Like what?” Ruby asked, oblivious to Max’s sour mood as they headed for her car parked on the street.
“A professional instructor, for one thing,” Max snapped.
“What?” Ruby asked with a laugh. “Tracy’s very professional.”
“She sure couldn’t keep her hands to herself,” Max said.
“Babe,” Ruby chastised. “Are you talking about when she goes around and corrects people’s form? That’s just what yoga instructors do, to help you get better.”
“I didn’t see a whole lot of room for improvement in your form,” Max pointed out.
“That’s because this was only your first class,” Ruby said, brushing off Max’s objections. “Come on, let’s go home. I believe I promised you a massage, and I intend to make good.”
