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Chapter Twenty-Two


Nick grinned from the driver's seat as Addison talked a mile a minute in the back about how long she'd dreamed of this moment, how nice Cora and Hugh had been, and thanked him about a hundred thousand times for bringing her for the audition. "You're insanely, fucking incredible," she told him, slapping his shoulder, "I could fucking kiss you," she announced.

"It was no problem," Nick replied, hands firmly on the wheel.

Addison elbowed me and winked in a watch this kind of way. "So is it you or Hugh that I owe the blow job?" she asked Nick.

Nick choked and the car swerved as he recovered from his choking. I clutched the arm rest even harder. He laughed nervously, and I could tell the way his eys were shifting that he wasn't sure if he should joke back or let her know that no blow job was neccessary. He glanced in the mirror at her, but Addison's amazing deadpan expression gave him no clues. "I, uh --"

Addison laughed, "It's okay Nick. Sam can give it to you instead. I'm sure you'd prefer that anyway, right?" She winked at him in the mirror and I felt my face turn neon red. "I can tell you like my girl here. Are you single, Carter?" Addison rested her cheek on the side of my seat and smiled wickedly up at Nick, expecting an answer.

Nick muttered something incomprehensible.

Addison's eyes were sparkling.

Nick drove us back to his place to get my car. Addison got out and stared up at Nick's house. "Well fuck me," she announced, staring up at it, "This place is over the top. What the hell are you, the Great Gatsby?" she looked at Nick.

Nick laughed, "I dunno... maybe."

The irony of the question wasn't missed by me. Cora made the perfect Daisy. I wondered if Nick had ever read the book - or seen the movie at this point - and if he caught the irony behind Addison's question.

"I bet you have like a ball room and fifteen indoor swimming pools," Addison said, shaking her head. "You know what my place has? Indoor plumbing. The management company actually brags about there being a fully functioning bathroom in every unit." She laughed.

Nick smiled. "There's only one pool," he said.

"Is this where you're having your big party you've been making poor Sammy go crazy over?" Addison asked.

"Yeah. You wanna see the backyard? You might as well see where your debut concert's going to be held..." he winked at me and ushered us through the house - Addison oohing and aaahing all the way through it - and out the back french doors.

"Jesus, you own the ocean, too?" Addison joked as he led us down the steps.

Nick laughed. "I'm a big fan of the ocean," he said.

Addison stared out at it. "Gorgeous. So where's this stage I'm gonna be working on?"

"Well originally, I envisioned it spanned across the water here..." he waved his hands at the pool, "But if Hugh's gonna be involved there'll probably be a whole light and staging crew and I guess we'll put you up there." He waved back at the top of the staircase at the wide deck area.

Addison stared up at it, smiling.

On the way back to the club to get Addison's Vespa, she turned to me, "He's really nice; Nick is."

"Yeah, he is," I said.

"Did you see his face when I suggested you give him a blow job? He got all excited," she teased.

"He did not," I laughed.

Addison studied me a moment. "Something happened between you two tonight," she said, "Before you came to get me. Didn't it?"

I took a deep breath. "He almost kissed me."

"Tell me every single last bloody detail," Addison demanded.

And so I told her all about the movie night and the Nightmare on Elm Street trivia and the way he'd held me and how he'd smelled and the sound of his heart beat and the feeling of the aura of his lips. It was the last really great conversation that Addison and I had.

When I pulled up to the club, she got out and hovered in the window after closing the door. "Can you believe it?" she said, "A couple hours ago, I was on the stage in here thinking that I'd never go anywhere, never do anything, except exactly where I was and what I was doing." She shook her head. "Who knew, huh?"

"I did," I said. "I knew when we were five and we tied ribbons in our hair and wore leg warmers and stood on the bench of the picnic table out back. I knew then."

Addison smiled, "You're the only person in the world that's believed in me always, no matter what. You're the only one that's never stopped or given up on me." A tear slid across her face. "Even when I did, you didn't." She let go and turned and I watched her walk away and get on her bike.

I drove home thinking about Cora, Hugh, Z, Nick, and Addison and how convoluted and crazy my life had become in the last week. I didn't think, at that point, that it could get crazier. But I've learned since then that just when you think that, it gets so much crazier... almost instantly...