Someone Like You

Chapter Thirty

I am standing in front of a two story building with glass windows on the second floor. I can already see people running on treadmills and people lifting heavy weights.

I read the name of the building.

Reload Gym.

I take a deep breath and nervously walk as I enter the building. Loud heavy metal music welcomes me. I can see heavy gym equipment everywhere. Mirrors are covering the entire wall inside. Muscles with big men... er... men with big muscles are all around.

It's intimidating. I feel like I don't belong here at all. I feel small and awkward even just by standing in the corner. In a place where people who care so much for their bodies gather, a person like me should not be here. This feels like I'm walking to a bear's cave or something.

"Melissa?" Dominic pats my shoulder.

"Hi." I say shyly. After all I've said a few days ago, it's a little hard for me to face him now, especially here.

"I'm glad to see you here." He says. Surprise is pretty obvious in his voice. "I'm really glad to see you here."

"Yeah." I giggle.

"So does this mean -?"

I nod. "I'm here to formally accept your... am... proposal."

His face brightens and a big smile splits his face in half. "That's great. I'm very glad to hear that."

I did a lot of thinking and I came up to this decision. I want to be someone I would be proud of – a confident woman who sees herself beautiful in every way. A woman proud of her own self. I want to change myself. I want to be stronger and love myself more. Dominic was right, this pageant is the best opportunity to do it. All these time I was scared of what people would say about everything that I do. Now is the time to don't mind anything about that and just do what I think would make me happy.

"Do you have extra clothes with you?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"That's great. Let's start the training then."

"Yeah sure."

* * *

The waiter walks near us with a paper on one hand and ball pen on the other.

"May I take your order, ma'am?"

"Hi. We'll have three of your special burgers..." Erika looks at Toni. "You want spaghetti right?"

"Yeah. The classic." Toni responds nodding her head.

"Okay. Three special burgers, one classic spaghetti and three bottomless iced tea. Also add a one large fries and -."

"Wait." I say cutting Erika off. They all look at me. "I... you know... I just want some water."

They both roll their eyes on me. "Diet." They say in unison.

"Are you serious?" Erika snaps.

"Yeah. Dead serious." I smile. "It's still not my scheduled meal time. I'll just eat with Dominic after this."

Erika shakes her head. "Just give us two special burgers, one classic spaghetti, two bottomless iced teas, one large fries, and..." She looks at me playfully. "... a gallon of water."

The waiter smirks and presses his lips together trying to control himself from laughing. "Okay ma'am. I can't give you a gallon of water though but I would deliver as much water as I could." He then takes his leave.

The three of us bursts in laughter.

It has been quite a while since the last time we'd been together like this. I've been very busy preparing for the pageant that I don't have time to be with them anymore. This is just a lucky day to be able to be with them for a couple of hours.

They both look at me at the same time.

"Are you sure don't want to eating anything?" Toni asks.

I nod. "Don't worry about it. I'll eat later."

"Yeah right. You'll eat leaves again. I didn't know you are a goat." Erika says sarcastically. "I am amaze by how dedicated you are into this diet. If I would do that... I could not even imagine myself doing that."

"I know right." Toni agrees. "But seeing you right now in this awesome shape... damn girl you're killing it. You have our full support with this."

"That so sweet. Thank you."

We talk about a lot of things while waiting for our food.

Finally the waiter comes back carrying a tray full of our orders. As he puts down the tray on our table, I notice a familiar flower lying on there. He picks up the flower and reaches his hand to me. "Someone told me to give this to you." He says with a smile.

"Thank you." I receive it. "Who gave you this?"

"He's standing there –." He points outside the store. "... he's gone." He shakes his head and continues placing our orders on our table and after he's finish, he leaves.

I stare at the flower. It is a beautiful big half bloomed blue rose with a long stem. I place it under my nose and sniff it. It smells so good... so familiar but I can't identify where I smelled this first. It's a very pretty flower.

"That's so sweet. Do you know from whom is it?" Toni says.

"No."

"Secret admirer?" Erika says in a high pitch voice full of excitement.

I shrug. "This is not the first time I receive this kind of flower. For this month, I think I already received a total of ten blue roses. A complete stranger would just approach me and give me a blue rose."

"Whooow. Really? That's so amazing." Erika gasps. "But it's a little creepy too. It sounds like he is following you."

"Yeah. I felt that way too but I think he is a good guy. He has done nothing wrong to me and just gives me flowers."

"Isn't it Zac?" Toni asks.

I shake my head. "Knowing Zac, I know he would just hand me flowers everyday himself than asking someone to give this to me."

"You've got a point there." Toni agrees. "Who is it then?"

I shrug. "I don't know."

"This is so mysterious yet so romantic!" Erika blurts.

I smile. I stare at the place where the waiter pointed to be where the person who sent me this stood. There is no one there now but he was there a moment ago looking at me. It sounds bad but somehow, I am not worried about it at all.

Who are you?