At The Club…
Veronica slowly made her way in with Nick. It was crowed and the sent of cigarettes and alcohol hung in the air. They found a table and sat.
“This is nice,” Nick announced, looking around.
Veronica nodded, looking around as well. She felt completely uncomfortable, and she kept putting her hand to her chest in a feeble attempt at covering herself up. It was different coming with Lynne, but now she was here with a guy. She felt more out of place than usual.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Ummm…”
“I know you said you don’t drink, but one drink isn’t gonna get ya drunk. C’mon…” Nick pleaded.
“Uh, sure, why not.”
“Great, what would you like?”
“Uh, how bout a Pina Colda?” She responded, grabbing her purse and getting some money from her wallet.
“Sounds good and don’t worry, I got it,” Nick said as he stood and made his way to the bar.
“Nick…” Veronica frowned as he made his way off, the money clutched in her hand. Letting out a breath, she continued to look around. Girls and guys breezed by, hugging and holding hands, that longing she felt to be like them, was even stronger now. Here she was at a club with the guys of her dreams and she felt like a fish out of water. What was she doing here with him? Why had she even suggested it?
“Here ya go,” Nick smiled, setting the large glass down in front of her.
“Thanks, I would’ve paid for the both of us Nick.”
“Nah, it’s cool.”
“Wow that was fast, usually it takes Lynne forever,” Veronica commented, taking a small sip, the sweetness of the coconut filling her mouth.
Nick sat, taking a swig of his beer, “Yeah, the bartender was going pretty fast actually. I’m surprised myself. I’ve waited a good ten or fifteen minutes at the clubs in Florida.”
She nodded, taking another sip of her drink.
“How is it?”
“Good, really good. I love these things.”
“You should have em more often,” Nick grinned, taking another drink of his beer.
Veronica shrugged, “I guess, they’re so expensive, all drinks are it seems.”
“Aww, it’s not too bad.”
“Well…in the grand scheme of things I guess they’re not.”
“There ya go,” he laughed.
“Excuse me…”
Veronica looked over; she hadn’t realized that a woman had come up.
“Do you want to dance?” She smiled at Nick.
Veronica stared at the woman, her face flaming. She was beautiful, long blonde hair, thin, perfect smile. She looked away, her stomach churning.
“Oh, no thanks honey…”
She didn’t know why she said it; the words came out before she could stop them.
“Go on Nick, it’ll be fun.”
The woman looked over at her, “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were with someone.”
“He’s not, we’re just friends. Go ahead Nick,” Veronica forced what she hoped looked like an unforced smile.
Nick looked over at Veronica, his head cocked to the side, expression unreadable.
She smiled wider, giving him a wink, “You know you want to.”
“I really want you to,” the woman chuckled.
Nick continued to stare at Veronica when he replied, “Ok, sure.”
The woman smiled, taking a step back and offering her hand. Nick stood, finally looking up at her, a smile on his lips. He slipped his hand into hers and let her lead him away.
Veronica watched as the woman led him to the dance floor, smiling as he turned to her, pulling her closer. Blindly she picked up her glass, she took a sip and then pulled the straw out and took a long drink before setting it back down. It’d been the right thing to do, she knew it, but why did she feel so lousy?
“Would you like to dance?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nick looked over at the table, narrowing his eyes. A guy was standing there talking to Veronica. He looked away quickly; the woman in front of him smiled and moved in even closer, resting her hands lightly on his waist. Nick smiled at her and then focused his attention back to Veronica. She shook her head, a small smile on her lips. The anger was upon him fast, he let out a frustrated breath, fighting the urge to go over and see what was happening. Suddenly the guy smiled and left and Veronica went back to her drink. Nick swallowed hard, the tension slowly draining from his body.
The song ended and he thanked the woman and quickly made his way back over to the table.
“Enjoy the dance?”
Nick sat, picking up his beer, “Mmmhmm.”
“It looked like it, that woman looked like she wanted to devour you,” Veronica giggled.
Nick groaned, shaking his head. “So…I saw some guy here just a minute ago…”
“Oh yeah…”
Nick looked up at her, she was blushing. “What?”
“Nothing it’s just…he asked me to dance.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah, well I told him no.”
“Obviously, but why?”
“You know why, I told you I don’t dance.”
“I didn’t believe that for one second then, and I don’t now.”
“Well it’s true.”
“Would you like to dance?”
Nick looked up; another woman was standing there, smiling hopefully. “Uh, no thanks.”
“Are you sure?”
Veronica opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when Nick replied.
“I’m sure, but thanks anyway.”
The woman shrugged and walked off.
“Nick, why’d you do that?”
He looked over at her, his gaze intense, almost fierce.
“In case you’ve forgotten Veronica, I’m here with you. I’m not looking to dance with random women.”
She blinked, “Nick…”
“Would you like to dance?”
Veronica looked up at the guy staring at her.
“Excuse me?”
“Would you like to dance?”
She looked over at Nick who was watching the guy closely, his eyes sparkling coldly. “Uhh…n-no thanks,” she smiled. The guy nodded and walked off, Veronica watched as Nick’s gaze followed him until he was out of view. Shaking her head, she picked up her drink, putting the straw back in.
“Why’d you do that?”
She looked up at him, “Do what?”
“Turn him down, why?”
“Cause I…you know why. We just discussed this. Ohh I love this song,” she sighed as one song faded into the current single from Gorillaz.
Nick stared at her for a moment, “Dance with me.”
Her eyes widen a bit and she set her drink down on the table a bit too hard, the table rattling slightly.
“Uhh…”
“C’mon…”
“No, that’s alright. You go ahead, I’m fine.”
“It’s a shame to hide that outfit Veronica, and as much as you don’t want them to, guys are noticing it. It seems to be working, you‘ve already been asked to dance twice, and now three times. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Her heart dropped, what did that mean?
“Nick, please, I really don’t want to.”
He pushed away from the table and stood, walking over to her. Reaching out, he took her hand and pulled her up and leading her out to the dance floor.
“Nick…Nick stop, don’t do this.”
Nick refused to listen, he couldn’t stop himself. He refused to sit through another guy asking her to dance, no if anyone was going to dance with her, it was going to be him damnit.
“Nick…no! People are gonna stare!”
He whirled her around, pulling her up against him, “Let them stare, they’re probably jealous.”
She shook her head no and cautiously started moving in time with him.
“This is so wrong,” she whispered harshly.
“Doesn’t feel that way,” Nick replied, sliding his arms around her waist.
Veronica stared at him, swallowing hard.
“Would you please just relax? I’m not some stranger you’ve just met, this is me. Please try to enjoy this,” he said softly.
Clearing her throat, looking from side to side.
“No…” Nick reached out, placing his fingers under her chin and turning her head so she was looking at him. “Never mind anyone else, just look at me.”
And she did, and never stopped looking the entire time.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A Few Hours Later…
“I love this movie, is the next one any good?”
“Yeah, but I dunno, I’m partial to the second one at this point. The third book and movie are not my favorites…the second one isn’t either, but until the fourth movie comes out, this pulls rank.”
They had gotten home a few hours ago and started right in on the Harry Potter movies.
“I can’t believe you’ve only seen the two, well then again I can, I know you’re busy.”
“Yeah well me and the guys try to go out and do normal things when we’re on the road or like, overseas for album stuff, but it’s so hard cause there’s always some shit going on you know? I was lucky I was even able to see this one. I’m gonna try damn hard to see the forth movie.”
“Well good luck.”
Nick looked over at Veronica; he couldn’t believe he’d acted the way he had at the club. He was lucky she hadn’t slapped him. It wasn’t in his nature to force women to do what they didn’t want to, but he’d wanted to dance with her so bad, that he was almost animalistic in his need to be the one to get her to dance. The guy that had approached her the last time had pushed him over the edge. Never had he felt so angry, or so mad at a perfect stranger before.
“Well that’s it, ready for the next one?”
“Did you have fun tonight?”
Veronica looked over at him, smiling, “Yes I did.”
“Really? Cause I mean…I was a major ass.”
She laughed, “No you weren’t.”
“Yes I was, I practically forced you to dance…”
“And I’m glad you did.”
He smiled a bit, “Yeah?”
“Absolutely, once I got out there, I forgot about everyone else and yeah, it was fun.”
“Yeah, you should dance more often, you’ve got natural rhythm.”
Veronica grinned broadly, “Do I?”
“Well I mean, I’m no expert that’s for damn sure, but ya know, Fatima was always talkin’ about that crap and we had dancers and I’ve seen people in movies and in clubs and…”
“Nick…it’s ok, I got it. And thank you.”
Nick scooted closer, slinging an arm around the back of the couch.
