[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter Thirty-Six


I woke up alone.

I stretched. Every muscle in my body ached. I looked where he'd been and found only rays of sun coming in the window in his place. A quick glance around and I knew he had to be here somewhere - only his boxers were missing from the floor. I got up and tugged my t-shirt on over my head. I walked down the hallway, touching the knob of the wide-open bathroom door, until I found Nick sitting on the couch, staring at the TV, a muted game of The Price Is Right blinking and flashing from the screen.

I sat down next to him and he looked over, "Hey, you woke up," he said. He smiled.

"Yeah," I said. I laid down so my head was in his lap and stared up at him. He turned the TV off and looked down at me. "That was insanely amazing," I cooed.

"It was pretty good," he said, smirking.

"I literally wouldn't have minded if I'd died," I exaggerated. "It would've been a good way to go."

Nick laughed.

"So the Price is Right, huh?" I asked, turning my head to look at the screen.

"Yeah," Nick said, "It's all I could find to watch." His hand slid along my back.

"Muted?"

"It's better muted. You can't hear all the idiots screaming."

I laughed. I rolled again to watch him as he watched the screen. He yawned and I found myself thinking the roof of his mouth was cute. Oh God, I thought, disgusted with myself. I really was in way deeper than I ever should've allowed myself to be... but after that mind-blowing sex, how could I not be? I would've been perfectly happy living on a deserted island with him and doing nothing but... well, him.

He glanced down. "What?" he asked, a bemused smile playing across his lips.

"Just you," I replied.

"Me?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah," I replied.

He stared down at me for a moment. "I'm not that great," he said. "You think too much of me." He lifted my head gently and slid out from under me. Nick paced across the room and looked out the window.

"You okay?" I asked, sitting up.

Nick licked his lips, "Yeah, I'm alright." He sighed.

"No you aren't," I argued. "What's wrong?"

Nick shook his head. He turned to face me. "Just when you look at me like that, when anyone looks at me like that... I feel... responsible to be what they think of me. And I'm not really, I'm just... me. It's hard having people look up to you and adore you when they don't know you."

"Nobody expects you to be more than that - more than just you. At least I don't," I said.

Nick sighed.

"You do know this whole moody, brooding rocker thing went out, right?" I asked, smirking.

Nick laughed, a genuine laugh that reached his eyes and made them sparkle. "You're nuts," he said.

"I must be," I answered.

He flapped his arms and let out a sigh that indicated a topic change. "Anyway, I gotta go downtown, get some work done, got a meeting with Hugh. You know. Work stuff. I'll call ya later." He grabbed his phone off the coffee table.

"Have a good day," I offered.

"After the way it started, babe, I couldn't have a bad one if I tried," he answered with a wink. He slid his phone into his pocket, fluffed my hair with his fingers, and headed for the door. "Hey also, while I'm thinkin' about it, lemme leave you some cash... if you could run by the house real quick today, I need to pay the landscape artist and I don't really have time to go by and meet him. Could'ja do it?"

I nodded, "Sure," I said.

"Thanks," he smiled. "You're so helpful. You're like Siri." Nick laughed. He pulled out his wallet, threw a wad of cash onto the table, and repocketed the wallet. He started to turn to the door again, then stopped and turned back. "Oh... and tell him to make sure he gets the backyard el perfecto for the party. Can you believe that's only a few days away already?" he laughed, "It's sneaking up on us."

I nodded, "I know. Thank God it's not raining this weekend."

"Thank God indeed," Nick nodded. "Alright. See ya." He opened the door and disappeared outside into the sunlight.

I spent a good part of the next few hours day dreaming about that morning, to be completely honest. I mean, sex with Nick was that mind blowing that I had to actually process it, and even then I wasn't entirely positive I hadn't dreamed the whole affair. Maybe I'd just slept real late or something... So to prove to myself that it hadn't been a dream, I looked up Addison's GMA performance on YouTube. The video loaded and I watched it muted, thinking about Nick and the sex and everything when I spotted something.

I reversed the video a few frames and paused it and stared at it, leaning close to the computer to really get my eyes on it.

Addison had a tattoo.

But not just any tattoo.

It was a tattooed bracelet, a chain of birds in the various stages of flight, encircling her wrist and fading away up her inner forearm with the words Free to Fly in script among them. This tattoo was exactly like Cora's.

I blinked at it, wondering when she'd gotten it, why she'd gotten the same thing Cora had. I looked up on Google for Cora's tattoo, and compared the two of them. It really was almost exactly alike except for one small detail that, unless you were looking for it you'd never see: two of the birds had switched positions so that the wings seemed to flap out of tune on Addison's arm where they glided peacefully across Cora's.

I took a screen cap of the tattoo comparison and saved it in a folder. I don't even know what made me do it except that I wanted to show Nick later and see what he thought of it.

I decided it was time to head out to Nick's place to pay the landscape "artist" as he'd called him. I pocketed the cash Nick had left on the table and got in my car and drove across town. I stopped by the McDonalds for lunch on the way and was licking the salt off my fingers from the french fries as I pulled up to the gate.

As I drove through the little community staring at the various houses, it occurred to me that nobody was out washing their cars or playing in sprinklers like in a normal neighborhood, nobody was playing catch with their pets or their kids. It was like being in a Stepford neighborhood. No wonder Nick was staying at my place lately instead of going home.

His place was fucking depressing as shit.

When I pulled up to the big ass mansion overlooking the water, I spotted the landscape artist standing by a bush, running a weed whacker. He looked up as I pulled up behind his white van in the driveway and pulled a pair of headphones off as he turned off the weed whacker. He waved and walked across the lawn towards me.

"Hello," he called, wiping his hands on a full body jump suit he wore. It was dirty. "Who are you?" he asked, eyeballing me. He had a thick hispanic accent and his mouth was outlined with a goatee.

"I'm Samantha," I said, "Nick sent me to pay you..." I reached in my pocket and pulled out Nick's wad of cash. "Do you give him like a receipt or anything?" I asked.

The guy stared at me funny. "No," he said, "Of course not."

"Okay," I smiled. I looked around. "Nick wanted me to make sure you knew to get out back for the party this weekend," I said.

The guy nodded. "Of course I will," he said.

"Thanks."

He waved back at the bush, "I better get back to this, uh, weed whackin'. You have a good day, alright now?"

"Thanks," I waved and walked back to the car.

I was on the drive home when Nick called. "Did you get to pay the landscape artist?" he asked.

"I just left him," I answered. "Is he supposed to give you a receipt or anything? He said no but I just wanted to make sure."

Nick laughed, "No receipt. I'm good."

"When are you coming home tonight?" I asked.

"I'm actually headed to New York tonight," he replied. "I gotta sign a contract out there with this new producer at the label, you know?"

"Ohhh."

"I thought I told you about that. I'm sorry," he apologized. "I guess I got all caught up in...you know...this morning."

I blushed. "Yeah, this morning was... wow."

"It certainly was..." Nick chuckled. "I hope for a repeat soon?"

"Anytime," I said.

"I'll hold you to that," he said in a husky voice. Then, "Okay babe, I gotta go but I wanted to call and check in that everything got taken care of..."

"It did. Of course it did... I'm so helpful, remember?"

Nick laughed, "I'll never forget. Okay, you have a good night babe. I'll call you again later if I get a chance."

"Have a safe flight," I said.

"Thanks," he answered, and he hung up.

When I got home, I decided to spend the rest of the evening trying to find paparazzi trails of Addison getting Cora's tattoo. Something about it was bugging me, and I wanted to figure out why -- besides the obvious, I mean, of course.