Shiny Celebrity Skin

"What are you watching?" Josh asked, pausing to glance at the television as he crossed the room.

"I think it's Woody Woodpecker. But in Spanish."

"And why, exactly, are you watching it?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea. It's kind of... entrancing."

Josh reached over and snatched the remote, flicking off the TV. "Better?" He asked, tossing the remote onto the bed beside me. "Becky, you need to get dressed. We've got those reservations in half an hour."

I sat up and stretched my arms over my head. "What's the point in going to a fancy restaurant when we could get a burger down by the pool?"

"Because it'll be nice. What kind of a girl would rather get a cheap burger than a gourmet meal? Not to mention that mariachi band that plays there every night. Why would you want to pass that up?"

My head snapped up in mock excitement. "Do you think they'll play La Bamba?"

He matched my faux enthusiasm perfectly, clapping his hands together. "Oh golly, I sure hope so! You'd better get dressed so we can find out!"

I laughed as I got up and began to dig through my suitcase. Josh and I didn't go out to fancy places often, so it was kind of out of the ordinary for us. Of course, so was the whole Mexico trip. We'd spent the first few days going on various excursions and shopping at flea markets. The worst idea we'd had so far was going whale watching. It was fun for the first ten minutes, but by the end I was getting morbidly seasick. I literally kissed the ground when we returned to shore. I had gone to bed early that night, due to a combination of heat exhaustion and the lasting effects of the boat trip. I had spent the majority of the following day in the hotel room, trying to recuperate so that I could fully enjoy the rest of our vacation. Now, however, Josh seemed to have had his fill of laziness.

"Is that a new dress?" He asked as I came out of the bathroom and modelled my appearance for him.

I frowned. "Is that all you have to say?"

He shrugged, but an impish grin was inching its way across his lips. I rolled my eyes.

"You know damn well that it's a new dress. I just bought it two days ago. But I have to admit, I look pretty hot in it." I spun around again, then leaned against the door frame and shot Josh a seductive stare.

"That's not even fair," he scowled, walking past me. "As much as I would like to get you out of that dress, we just don't have time right now."

"Since when are you worried about missing a reservation?"

He didn't answer, he merely pulled on his sneakers and opened the door. I loved the fact that he still paired a nice suit with a pair of electric blue Converse. I felt like it would be impossible for him to leave out some kind of accessory that showed off his personal style. I paired my deep purple dress with a pair of strappy black heels, then followed him out of the room.

"Seriously, what's the rush?" I asked, raising my voice a little to cover the clicking noise of my heels on the floor.

"I just want to have a nice evening, don't you? You've been cooped up in that room all day. I know you can't possibly be sick anymore, so I felt the need to get you out of there."

I clasped my hands over my chest. "My hero."

Josh draped his arm over my shoulders. I was certain that his red shirt and white tie clashed horribly with my own colour choice, but I wasn't really concerned about it. We both enjoyed showcasing our own sense of style. I wrapped my arm around his waist and pulled myself even closer to him as we walked. Josh had extremely long legs compared to me, and I had to take nearly twice as many steps as him to keep up. Eventually, we both dropped our arms and settled for holding hands, as it was much easier to maneuver that way. When we reached the restaurant, a waiter in a tuxedo ushered us to our table.

"I don't see a mariachi band," I told Josh, looking around at the other couples and families gathered in the dining room.

"Okay, I lied," he admitted. "They've played just outside of here every night, so I assumed that they would be here. But it's nice to get out of bed, isn't it?"

We ordered from the very limited menu, and it wasn't long before the waiter was clearing our plates. I sipped my daiquiri and listened to Josh tell me a story from the early days of the band. I truly never tired of hearing him speak. Even when we were fighting, he could always come up with something charming to say.

"Did Matt ever tell you about the time that we left Mike at a gas station?"

"You didn't! Josh, that's horrible!" Despite the truth to my words, I couldn't stop myself from giggling at the thought.

"I know! He was so mad at us though. He didn't forgive us until we did the same thing to Ian a week later. And then he was the one driving, so he had to admit that it was easier to leave someone behind than he'd thought."

"For what it's worth, thanks for never leaving me behind anywhere."

He chuckled. "I don't think I'd ever live it down if I left you somewhere."

"Damn straight. I'd milk that for all it was worth."

The waiter reappeared with a thick slice of chocolate cake. I couldn't conceal my bewilderment; neither of us had ordered any dessert. The waiter tried to give Josh a secretive wink, but he failed to hide it from me. I felt my pulse race uncomfortably.

"Becky, I have to ask you something."

I nodded dumbly. "Okay."

He reached over and stabbed a fork into the dessert. As he chewed on the morsel, he seemed to contemplate how to word his request. "Eat some cake," he urged.

I arched an eyebrow, but took a bite nonetheless.

"Oh shit," Josh said as his fork slipped from his fingers and clattered to the floor. He disappeared under the table to retrieve it.

I chewed mecahnically as I waited for him to reappear. When after a few seconds he still didnt, I looked down. I felt my own fork tumble from my grasp as I saw Josh down on one knee.

"Becky, will you," he paused to take a deep breath. I wished I could do the same. In fact, I seemed to have forgotten how to breathe at all. "Go for a walk with me?" He finished, smirking at me.

I hit him on the shoulder and got to my feet. "You bastard," I grumbled. "Don't scare me like that!"

He laughed loudly as he followed me. "Does the thought of spending your life with me really terrify you?"

"You keep doing that to me! One of these times, I'm going to have a stroke. Then what will you do?" I pushed the restaurant doors open and felt the cool night air wash over me.

Josh caught up with me, and then spun around so that he was walking backwards in front of me. "I guess, in that case, I would have to rush you to the hospital. And maybe when you regained consciousness I would have some wonderfully romantic gesture planned to win you back."

"You think that it would be that simple to win me back after I had a stroke?"

"Come on, Becky, you know that you wouldn't be able to resist it if I tried to win you over. Hypothetically, if you had been pissed at me when I asked you to come to Mexico, you would have forgiven me. When I decide to pull out all the stops, you know that I can accomplish a lot."

I gave him an annoyed stare as we continued down the manicured walkway. "Before you have to worry about that, can you do me a favor?"

"Of course. What do you need?"

I smiled widely. "Hold your breath for a few seconds, okay?"

He cocked his head to one side in confusion. "What do you-" he lost his footing on the tiled edge of the pool. He didn't even have time to yell out in alarm before he plunged into the deep water. When he stood up, he was glowering. "Nice, Becky."

I shrugged, trying not to laugh and failing miserably. "You're the one that decided to walk backwards. How could I possibly pass up that opportunity?"

"Okay," he wiped the water from his eyes and began to walk toward the shallow end. "You've made your point. I won't pretend to propose anymore. The next time I get down on one knee, it'll be the real thing."

"I'm glad you learned your lesson," I waited by the edge of the pool as Josh sloshed through the waist-deep water.

He scowled as he made his way over to the ladder, where I was ready to give him a helping hand. "Yeah, but I think that it might be time for you to learn one too."

I didn't even have time to process his words. His arms were around my legs, and he was pulling me into the pool. I screamed before falling face first into the warm water. I did a very clumsy somersault before surfacing. I had every intention of getting mad, but when I looked at Josh's water-logged appearance, I couldn't find any rage inside of me.

He looked me up and down once, then slipped his arms around my waist and leaned in close. "Your makeup is smeared," he whispered.

"You're just a mess in general."

I was stretching up as tall as I could so that I could close the tiny gap between us when an angry voice rang out.

"Out of the pool! Nobody can be in there when there's no lifeguard!"

We both looked up to see a security guard rushing over. I wanted nothing more than to run away before he reached us, but we couldn't even reach the edge of the pool in time. The burly man frowned as Josh helped me up the ladder. He graciously fixed my dress to save me from further embarassment.

"Thanks," I smiled and turned to help Josh out of the chlorine-rich water.

We both stood there, dripping from head to toe, waiting for the security guard to say something. Josh didn't look even remotely ashamed; on the contrary, he looked almost like he was challenging the guard to get mad at us.

"You can to your rooms and get dried off," the man said finally.

"Actually, I think the ocean is calling my name," Josh grinned.

I cupped a hand behind my ear, pretending to listen intently. "That's funny, all I hear is it telling me to push you back in the pool."

Josh gave me a devilish smile. "Race you!"

Before I had time to react, he was gone. I pulled off my heels, and when they were safely in my hands, I chased after him as fast as I could, listening to the security guard yelling at us as we darted past a few puzzled guests. My feet hit the sand, and my speed was diminished. Josh stopped running and waited for me to catch up with him.

"Hypothetically," Josh's voice was soft and serious as he put his arm loosely around my shoulders and began to walk at a slow pace. "If I really had been proposing tonight, what would you have said?"

I sighed. "I don't think I like this conversation."

"Why not?"

"Because if I'm not on the same page as you, it might make things wierd. And that's the last thing that I want right now."

"We're past the point where things get wierd, Becky. I won't be upset at all. I'm just curious."

I could feel the sand, which was damp from the evening air, sticking to the moisture on my feet and ankles. I led Josh a few steps to the side so that I could walk in the edge of the waves. "I think I would have said yes," I admitted. "But I might not have been totally ready to. I would have just said it because it's the answer that you were looking for."

Josh scoffed. "Since when do you say things just to please me?"

I hesitated, watching the water lap at the sand in front of us. "I'm scared to lose you. And I'm scared to hurt you."

"So you would accept a marriage proposal that scared the ever-loving shit out of you? That would be pretty much your dumbest move ever." He tried to lighten up the mood of our discussion.

"It's not that being with you forever scares me. It's just that we're still young. I like that we've been taking things day by day, and I'm just not sure that I'm ready to look fifty years into the future right now. But if I had to, I would like to think that you would be the one that was with there with me in that vision."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think I'm ready to pop the question yet. Even if I was a hundred percent sure that you would say yes, it's a hell of a lot of pressure."

"So we'll stay away from rings and labels for a little while, then. But tell me this: why did the waiter wink at you?"

Josh laughed loudly. "I told him that we met on this trip, and it was our first real date. I asked him to make it special."

"And to him that meant that we needed cake?"

"Maybe he thought you were out of my league and I needed you to gain a few pounds so that you wouldn't leave me for someone hotter."

"Fat chance of that ever happening."

The sun had slipped completely past the horizon, though there was a faint purple glow touching the bottoms of the sparse clouds.

"Feeling better now that you've been out of the room for a couple of hours?" Josh asked suddenly.

"Yes. Thanks for making me get up."

"Fantastic. I've booked us a tour of a tequila factory tomorrow."

"What? Josh, you know tequila kicks my ass!"

He laughed. "Yeah, I know. But it does the same thing to me. Plus, we only have two days left here. If we spend the last day hungover on the beach, that's alright with me."

"Actually, that sounds like pretty much the best day ever."