Cheap Champagne

WHEN THE PHONE RANG NEXT TO HER BED the following morning Cece grumbled but laid on her stomach, arm folded underneath her pillow and waited to see if Mel, her best friend and current vacation roommate, would answer, it was probably for her anyway. But when the shrill ringing kept going she realized that was unlikely so she rolled onto her back, and then her side, rolling across the queen size bed with her eyes squeezed shut still. She reached blindly for the phone, nearly knocking it off of the nightstand beside her before she pulled it from the holster and brought the receiver to her ear.

She mumbled out a grumpy and nearly completely incoherent, “Hello?”

“Morning sleeping beauty.” She recognized the voice on the other end of the line but she couldn’t place where she knew it from, at least until he responded to her silence by telling her, “It’s Auston.”

Lifting herself up onto her forearms Cece pushed her messy blonde hair from her face, her fingers tugging and pulling at the knots that had built up in her sleep. She squinted her eyes at the light pouring in from the balcony, rolling onto her side to glance at Mel’s empty and unslept in bed and Cece nearly laughed at that. As she dropped onto her back she stared up at the ceiling, letting her eyes shut as she asked, “Auston?”

“From Toronto?” He clarified on the other end of the phone.

“No, I know who you are. I meant it more as in like why are you calling me at this ungodly hour?” She questioned him.

“It’s 10:30 in the morning Cece.” Auston pointed out.

That that she opened one eye and turned her head to her right to glance at the clock on the nightstand. It was, in fact, after 10:30 in the morning. She grumbled something incoherently, turned her head back to the ceiling and closed her eyes again, asking him, “Okay, next question; how’d you even get this number?”

“Called the hotel and asked to be put through to your room.” It wasn’t until right now, saying those words out loud that he realized how ridiculous that sounded. When he had practiced it in his head it had sounded cute and charming, but now he just sounded like he was buckets full of crazy.

Cece called him on it too, joking, “Note to self; next time I travel ask the hotel not to give out my room number to stalkers.”

“Stalker, huh? Ouch.” He laughed.

“Don’t blame me, blame my magic 8 ball.” She proclaimed.

From the other end of the line Auston stated, “Well, I guess since you already think I’m a stalker I might as well come out and admit why I called.”

Cece dropped her forearm over her eyes, shielding them from the blinding sunlight that was pouring into the room. When everything was dark again her stomach growled and she made a mental note to order room service once she was off the phone, and then she joked with him, “Oh boy, is this the part where you say you’re actually on my balcony watching me?”

“Totally.” He told her.

“Knew it.”

His laughter filled her ear and it must have been infectious because the corners of her lips had turned up into a small smile in response to the sound. Maybe it was the deepness of his laugh coupled with the slight rise in octave right at the end, or how smooth it was, or maybe it was just the fact that Cece had a weakness for a guy with a good laugh. Whatever the reason was she found herself having to force a straight face.

“Actually…” He started and then he paused for a moment. From his end of the phone she could hear his voice, muffled in the way that someone who had covered the mic of their phone with their hand was, speaking to someone else from beyond that. After a second she heard a door shut and his voice came through the phone, returning to once again being clear as day as he apologized, “Sorry, sisters, yenno?”

“Brothers, actually, so I guess I can’t relate.” She told him.

He smiled, “Well… I wanted to know if I could take you out before you flew north for the rest of the summer.”

At his words Cece pulled her arm from over her eyes, squinting at the light again as she felt her heart rate pick up, beginning the slow climb up to hammering wildly against her rib cage. She pulled the end of the phone away from her face, sucking in a deep breath of air and tried to think of exactly how she was supposed to respond to that. Had he really just more or less asked her out after spending a grand total of an hour with her at a wedding he had crashed the night before? Or was she reading into things? Maybe he was just enamored to have met someone from Toronto all the way out in Phoenix, and that would wear off soon enough.

“You still there?” His voice broke through the silence. She could detect a spike in pitch again, breaking up his usually deep, smooth voice, and she wondered if he were nervous. That alone made her crack a smile again.

“Yeah, I’m still here. Sorry.” Her voice was so opposite of his; soft and raspy and when she was tired there was a certain gravel in it that made Auston wonder what she looked like on the other end of the line. It wasn’t until a few more seconds of silence had passed between them that Cece asked him, “So if I said that I was interested what’s the plan?”

“Are you really asking me for a play-by-play?” Auston asked her, amusement thickly coating his words.

She shrugged and said, “Maybe.”

“I gotta have some element of surprise here.” He informed her, taking only a second before he asked, “So are you free tonight?”

“I could be.”

“You up for an adventure?”

SEVERAL HOURS LATER AS THE CLOCK APPROACHED 8 Cece found herself sitting cross legged on one of the benches in the hotel lobby, cell phone in her lap. Her best friend and roommate both back home in Toronto and here in Phoenix had just strolled into the hotel and shot her a wide smile, dropping with a loud sigh onto the bench next to her.

Mel crossed one of her legs over the other and then she extended a bottle of orange juice Cece's way. Cece unscrewed the cap and took a sip, grimacing before swallowing, putting the cap back on and feigning annoyance said, “Next time warn a girl that there's vodka in there.”

“Figured you would have sniffed it out the second I walked in here.” Mel stated with a shrug, taking a gulp from the container herself. She then eyed Cece and her outfit of frayed denim shorts and an Aerosmith tank top with cut up fringe on the bottom half, covered mostly by a long-line, linen kimono, and she had topped the look off with a pair of retro platform sandals and her signature arm of bangles that jingled whenever she moved her left hand. Mel's brow raised, “Where are you going?”

“Out.” Cece stated, and the brunette rolled her eyes in response.

“With who and to do what though?” Mel questioned her, and Cece shrugged her shoulders.

As she ran her fingers through her loose, blonde curls Cece informed her, “Met a guy at the wedding last night.”

“You what?”

“He's from Toronto, crashed the wedding on a more or less dare from his friends.” Cece told her, and when a black SUV rolled up to the curb outside of the hotel it came to a stop and parked. When the window rolled down and she saw Auston behind the wheel Cece glanced over at Mel to find her taking a drink from her orange juice bottle and couldn't resist telling her, “He plays for the Leafs.”

Mel choked on her mouthful of orange juice, swallowed and then sputtered, “I'm sorry, come again?”

But Cece didn't answer that, not that Mel truly expected her to.

She stood up and plucked her large, round sunglasses from the top of her head, sliding them onto the bridge of her nose before she turned on her heels and walked backward to the door, telling Mel, “At least now you know where to point the finger if I don't come home tonight and they find me dead in a ditch.”

“That's the spirit.” Mel called out after her as Cece headed out of the lobby for the car parked at the curb, heels clicking against the flooring.

To Cece's surprise Auston was out of the car and jogging around the front of it to meet her at the passenger side door by the time she arrived outside. He shot her a smile and as he opened the door for her he said, “Nice to see you again.”

“And you.” She made him laugh when she gave a tiny curtsy before getting into the car.

Once Auston was back behind the wheel and had pulled away from the hotel he turned to glance at her for a moment, asking, “So you're a night-owl, huh?”

“It is my very firm believe that nobody should have to be up before at least 11 o'clock in the morning.” Cece told him with an affirmative nod of her head. She reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, the bangles on her arm jingling, pulling his attention away from the road for a mere second, and then she asked, “What about you?”

“I like the idea of sleeping in until late morning, borderline afternoon but my body is so used to having to be up early that I've kind of lost the ability to really sleep in.” He revealed, flicking his signal light on and shoulder checking before switching lanes and then merging around a corner.

There was an airiness to her voice as she informed him, “That is the single most unfortunate thing I think I've ever heard in my life.”

He laughed and nodded his head and as he drove just outside of downtown Auston asked her, “Wait, you're not like epileptic or anything, are you?”

Cece turned slightly in her seat, bringing her left leg up onto the seat and tucking her ankle behind her other knee as she quirked a blonde brow at him and asked, “No... but now I'm questioning what the fuck you have planned for the night.”

He grinned at her, “You'll see.”

She narrowed her eyes at him but the corners of her lips were turned up just the slightest at him. He pulled into a parking lot and parked the car, cutting the engine and getting out, but Cece had already gotten out of the passenger seat by the time he made it around to open the door so he closed it for her. After stuffing his keys into the pocket of his dark wash jeans Auston placed his hand on Cece's lower back and guided her inside.

She attempted to protest when he pulled his wallet out to pay for their way in, but Auston gave her hands a gentle push back and then handed a selection of bills to the person at the door before their hands were stamped. It was too dark for Cece to see what the stamp was as Auston lead her into what appeared to be a theater, following the little lights that lined the aisles down to the front.

Once they were both seated he turned and he commented, “I hope you weren't kidding about liking classic rock.”

The evening that he had planned had turned out to be the one saving grace of her entire trip to Phoenix thus far. In fact, she would go on record to say it was the sole reason she hadn't written the trip off as an absolute disaster.

Because only a minute after they had taken their seats, a plastic cup of tequila and grapefruit soda in the cup holder between them, the opening chords of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love filled the dark room. Cece turned to Auston and quirked an eyebrow, and then the room lit up with neon and she finally realized where they were. He had really taken her to a Led Zeppelin laser show.

A laugh bubbled out of her mouth, something that despite being unable to hear it Auston noticed. It was the way she tilted her head back, lips spread into a smile, eyes squinted just the slightest. She reached out and placed her hand on his forearm, just above his wrist, and Auston found himself moving to instead tangle their fingers together.

She used her free hand to pick up her cup, taking a drink of the liquid concoction inside before she extended it to him, offering to share. The one nice thing about going on dates in Toronto was that at not quite 21 years old he he never had to share his dates drink. But he pushed away whatever manly pride threatened to rear its ugly head and accepted the drink, his hand brushing against hers as he took the cup and brought it to his lip.

He set the cup down when he was done, and brushed his thumb against Cece's hand before he turned to look at her. She was too enamored with the scene before her to notice his staring, her eyes flickering back and forth each time a new laser design shot up above them. This gave him a good chance to study her in an attempt to gauge if this had been a good idea after all.

If the general sparkle of bewilderment her eyes held and the soft smile that was practically a permanent fixture on her face right through was any indication he would say that this was probably the smartest thing he had ever thought of.

When the show had finished and the lights had come on Auston had lead Cece outside, noting the fact that she had taken their empty cup with them and tossed it in a trash can by the door.

He lead her to the car, once again opening the passenger door for her and closing it behind her and when he got behind the wheel he asked her, "What time do you leave tomorrow?"

He turned the key in the ignition and the engine sprang to life, and when he turned in his seat to face her Cece was on her phone, scrolling through an email before she stated, "6 am, and yes I had to look."

"So does Cinderella need to get back to the castle or can she stay out just a little longer?"