Rewind (2 page)

My jaw fell open, mom shook her head while trying not to laugh and Dad just shrugged his shoulders while he sipped on his coffee…trying to hide a grin. 

The rest of the weekend was spent helping Mom around the house while Dad and his club members met to make plans for a local charity event that would take place the following month.  Mom found some DVDs of my high school cheerleading so the two of us sat down and watched them after we had the house clean from top to bottom. 

“You and Theresa make the best team, I love watching you two on any team you cheer for.”  Mom said with a big smile.  “I know you can’t make much sense of what happened with Tony, but just remember that everything happens for a reason.” 

I smiled and gave her a hug, “I know.”

“You know, there’s this nomad that’s been coming around more.  Helping the club out, he’s young, handsome…” Mom was trying to hook me up with a guy?

“No…nope, not going to happen!  Thanks though.”  I said with a laugh. 

“Hey, you haven’t even seen him yet!  He really is very handsome.”  She tried protesting.

“Mother. NO!”  I said and laughed again.  “I’m swearing off men for a while.”

She rolled her eyes and smiled, “Right.”

After that weekend I decided to no longer worry about any man, I was going to focus on the cheer squad, my courses for Business Management, and just have fun.  Our cheer coaches were very strict about partying unless it was during the off season.  “We want you all to do the best you can, so many of you have the potential to move up to the big leagues if you choose to do so.”  Cindy, our lead coach had told us.  “I’m not saying don’t party at all, this is college but I beg you, PLEASSSE DO NOT  do it before practice or normal game time.  You have no idea how bad it will hurt a flyer like Sydney if her base Theresa and Michelle aren’t functioning on a fully alert system.”  Then she proceeded to show us a slide show of the injuries.  We each signed a contract that we had listened and agreed to what she was asking of us. 

Senior year of college, Theresa, myself, Ryan and Michelle were the returning four on the cheer squad.  We were at the football field getting ready to start practice when the players came out of the locker room to start their practice.  I was scanning all the familiar faces-- there he was.  Just as good looking as he was last year, and he was staring right back at me.  I smiled at Ronnie until one of his team mates slapped him on the shoulder and turned his attention back to the drills they were getting ready to start.  His tanned broad shoulders and muscles cut so perfect my fingers tingled at the thought of caressing every inch of him.  “He’s single you know?” Theresa said. 

“Huh?  No way!” I said a little louder than I probably should have.

She laughed then stood up and held her hands out to me, “Mmm, yep.  He broke up with what’s-her-face over the summer I guess.  Not sure what happened but they don’t even talk anymore.”

I turned at the same time Ronnie turned to look at me.  Our eyes met then the coach blew her whistle for us to get into formation to work on our stunts.  “Well he’s going to have to talk to me first.” I told Theresa

“Chicken.” She whispered in my ear.  One of the yell leaders Ryan came over and stood behind me as we waited for the coach to get into position in the grand stands. 

“She called you a chicken, so I’m going to throw you like one.  I hope you’re ready to fly, little sister Syd.”  Then he laughed.  I loved every single one of the people on the cheer squad; it was one big family away from family.  The rest of practice went great, nobody was injured, and we only had a couple of things the coach wanted us to work on before the first game.  “Go home, take some ibuprofen, and get ready for the best season yet!”  Cindy blew the final whistle then shooed us all away. 

Theresa, Ryan, and I were walking through the tunnel when a deep voice yelled my name and echoed through the tunnel.  We all three spun around to see who was yelling for me. There stood Ronnie in only his practice football pants, his helmet in one hand and his shirt hanging over his shoulder.  I squinted as he jogged towards us.  “Hey,”  he smiled down at me then said hello to the other two, “Can I talk to you?” he asked me. 

“Sure,” I turned to Ryan and Theresa hugged them then turned back to Ronnie, “What’s up?”  I asked with a smile. 

He ran a hand through his sweaty hair, “I-well, I wanted to ask you if you’d like to go out some time?  I wasn’t sure if you were single or not?”  He sounded nervous. 

“I’m single, I guess we can go out for dinner or something?” I said.

“Great, how about I pick you up at seven tonight or is that too soon?”  He asked and licked his lips. 

“That’ll work, I’m in the dorm house S, number fifteen, let’s just do casual if that’s okay?”

He smiled and winked at me, “See you then.” One of his teammates called his name, with a small wave he walked backwards then turned and jogged out of the tunnel. 

Theresa and Ryan were both waiting at her car, “So?”  Theresa asked with a big smile.

“He’s picking me up at seven at our dorm!  OH MY GOD, oh my God!”  I was so happy I wasn’t sure what else to say. 

Ryan shook his head and laughed at Theresa and me since we were hugging and jumping around, “Women!”  he said then hugged us both before he got in his car and drove off. 

On the drive to the dorm Theresa and I talked about what I would wear, “Definitely that cute denim skirt and your white tank top and your wedge sandals.”

“I think that’ll be perfect but we need to hurry it’s already five-thirty, and I still have to shave.”

“God, I can’t believe you are going on a date with him.  You are going to be the envy of all the other women on campus.  Maybe you can find out why him and his girlfriend broke up.”

“Right, like that’s a first date topic jeez.  Shouldn’t it be about just the essentials like where he’s from, what he’s majoring in, how many siblings, etcetera etcetera ?”

“That too!  I’m just curious because last I had heard he was going to propose to her, maybe that’s why they aren’t together.  Maybe he was moving too fast for her liking.”

I shook my head and laughed, “Who knows?  Maybe this will be the only date.”  I said.

Theresa snorted, “I highly doubt that but, I’m staying up until you get home so I can get full details.” 

Once we were back at the dorm I rushed up the stairs and to our room, to my closet for the clothes I was going to wear, then into the bathroom.  I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time, all that played over and over in my mind was his smile and that adorable wink.  His toned abs, his thick forearms, broad shoulders, and his ass in those football pants. Ronnie was, by far, one of the sexiest guys I had ever laid eyes on, and I was going out on a date with him.  I did a little happy dance then got out of the shower.  I dried off, ran a comb through my hair then twisted the towel around my head while I applied Midnight Pomegranate lotion from head to toe.  After I was dressed and had the mousse in my hair I finally came out of the bathroom.  Theresa whistled and twirled her finger in a circle, “Hot hot HOT!”  Then she jumped off of her bed and ran into the bathroom, “I have only had to pee for the last fifteen minutes!”  Then she sighed in relief causing me to laugh. 

“You could have come in there it’s never stopped you before.”  I told her. 

“Are you kidding me?  I was doing what any best friend would do, I was social media stalking Ronnie.”  She told me, then I heard the toilet flush and the sink water turn on then off. 

“Did you find anything interesting?”  I asked as I adjusted the strap on one of my sandals.

“Nope but I sent him a friend request from your account, check and see if he’s accepted it yet.  I’m going to take a quick shower.”

I adjusted the strap of my other sandal then grabbed my laptop off of Theresa’s bed and logged back into my account.  Sure enough, Ronnie had accepted the friend request.  I scrolled through his profile, then his pictures.  Not a single picture of his ex-girlfriend and him were on his page, only him with the football team, and some random pictures that he was tagged in from family and parties around campus.  Then a message popped up from him;

“
Hey beautiful

what’s your ph# ?  I’m patiently watching the time tick by on the clock.
”

“
Hey there

here’s my #  I’m ready to go if you want to come over?
”

“Be there in fifteen!!  BTW here’s my cell #.”

“Hey Theresa, he’s going to be here in fifteen minutes!”  I yelled.  I heard her mumble something, then about five minutes later the shower shut off and she came out with a thick pink towel wrapped around her body and a small yellow towel wrapped around her head. 

“He can’t wait an hour?  Is there anything interesting on his profile?”  She asked and took the laptop from me to look.  “God that’s weird,”  she chewed on the side of her thumb nail, “Not a single picture of him and his ex or any other women for that matter.  Unless you count this one that must be his momma and him at Christmas.”

I laughed, “Why wait for an hour if we are both ready anyways… I’m guessing that his ex must have deleted any pictures with him.”  I said as I applied a light layer of lip gloss.

“Hmm-maybe,” Theresa shrugged a shoulder, “I’d better get dressed so he doesn’t run the other direction.” 

Exactly fifteen minutes had passed when there was a knock on our door, Theresa and I both went to answer but she pushed me away then pulled the door open. “Hey there, come on in.”  She said with her sweetest southern voice.  Ronnie walked in and immediately his eyes were on me.  We both stood there in silence as we took in each other’s appearance.  He was dressed in a pair of dark wash blue jeans, a black Hurley V-neck t-shirt, and a pair of black chunky work boots.  His black hair looked like he simply ran a dab of gel through it and let the messy look complete his stunning good look. 

“You ready?”  he finally asked me.  When I looked at his face he winked and grinned at me then held out his hand. 

“So ready.”  I replied.

“You two behave, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Theresa said as we walked out the door.

Ronnie placed his hand against my lower back as we walked through the building, numerous women were standing in the hallway staring and glaring at us as we walked out.  When we got to his pickup he opened the passenger side door and helped me into the jacked up forest green Ford 4x4 pickup.  He hurried around to the driver’s side and got in and started the pickup then backed out of the stall.  Silence filled the cab until he was pulling out of the parking lot onto the main road, then he chuckled, “I’ve never been this nervous on a first date.”  He said and shook his head then looked over at me then back at the road. 

“Not gonna lie, I’m pretty nervous too.”  I tucked my hair behind my ear.

He blew out a breath, “Okay, so let’s start off with where we should eat. I was thinking about that new Italian place that opened a few months ago if that’s okay with you?”

“I love Italian so that will be wonderful,” a couple seconds passed by, “What made you ask me out?”  I asked and almost immediately regretted it. 

“Well, honestly?” He looked over his shoulder to switch lanes then back at the road, “I watched you all last year and was pretty much attracted to you since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

I could feel myself blushing, “Umm-but you had a girlfriend.”

Ronnie blew out a breath again and nodded his head once, “I did, but now I don’t.  All I’m asking for is a chance for us to get to know each other.  I’ve wanted to talk to you, but Shelby would have confronted you and it would have just started a big drama fest that I didn’t want you to get mixed up in.”  He said and smiled at me. 

“Oh, okay, that’s understandable.”  I replied. 

He pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, luckily it wasn’t as packed as it had been the last few weeks.  “We’ll talk more inside, hang tight.”  He put the pickup in park, got out then hurried around the front and to the passenger’s door.  He didn’t let go of my hand until we were seated in a back corner booth away from the loudest part of the restaurant.  The waiter had given us each a menu then a few minutes later returned with two glasses of ice water.  He apologized that there was still about a twenty minute wait time on meals, I smiled and told him that we weren’t in a big hurry.  “Great! I’ll be back in a few to take your orders.”  He smiled and relaxed then walked away.  I knew immediately that I wanted a nice juicy slice of lasagna and some garlic bread.  Then I decided I’d better just go for regular bread instead of garlic in case Ronnie decided to kiss me at some point.  Ronnie put his menu down, “I know what I want.”  He stretched his arm across the back of the booth and lightly ran his finger over my shoulder. 

“Me too.”  I smiled and placed my menu on top of his at the edge of the table.  I took a drink of water and was trying to think of something to talk about when Ronnie started the conversation. 

“So, I know you had a boyfriend last year.  How long have you been broke up and what happened?  If you don’t mind me asking?”

I rubbed my lips together and took a deep breath in, “Well…we broke up the day of graduation, although we are still friends who occasionally text and what not.  He uhm, well,”  I lightly shook my head, “He actually discovered that he was gay.”