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Author's Chapter Notes:
I've been feeling inspired lately! :) Enjoy, and please review if you get the chance!

 

“Can you drop me off right here?” Nick asked while handing a few bills over to the cab driver as the car came to a stop.

When he’d hailed a taxi outside of the train station he’d considered giving the guy his address like a normal person would, but he didn’t know what he would do if the cab dropped him off in the driveway off his house and Holly was there. It was sad, to be afraid of your own house. It wasn’t as if he was coming home all that early; he’d left early Friday morning and it was now late Saturday, a mere 24 hours premature.

He slung his laptop bag higher up on his shoulder, and couldn’t keep himself from thinking how he wished he’d been writing for the past two days instead of what he was really doing. He couldn’t blame Alaina for his guilt, no matter how heavy it weighed on him. As they always seemed to say, it did take two to tango, and he was part of that. He’d always had a lingering guilt in the back of his mind but there was something about how personal it was to share an intimate weekend that amplified everything in his mind. His worries didn’t seem to lighten any as he thought about the confrontation he was bound to have with Alaina, the explanation he was going to have to give her that would lead to their “breakup”. Breakdown was more like it.

Nick sighed deeply as his front door came into view and as he continued down the sidewalk his attention was drawn to a car sitting in the driveway. They parked in the garage normally, and that certainly wasn’t their car. His irrational side immediately wondered why Holly would have anyone over to the house that late, and what she was doing, but she was her own person and he couldn’t jump to conclusions. After all, if she was in there with a guy it’s not like he could be angry without being a hypocrite.

“She wouldn’t be in there with a guy,” he laughed to himself nervously, his pace picking up slightly as if he was going to catch his wife in some kind of lewd act if he just walked that little bit faster.

Once he hit end of the driveway, his shoulders were tired from the weight of his duffle bag and his laptop. He took note of the fact that the car (a red midsized sedan) was a rental, the company’s name and logo emblazoned on the rear bumper.  

As soon as he opened the front door Nick’s gaze went to the floor. He was checking for shoes, anything that might give him some indication of who might be over, but all he could see were his own, those of his daughter, and his wife. Of course, they could have come in through the kitchen door.

He could hear laughter coming from that direction after all, and he dropped his bags and made his way towards the kitchen full of curiosity. There was more giggling as he drew nearer, and he was sure it was the sound of two women not of his wife and her mystery lover. His cheeks flushed red with embarrassment that he’d even let himself get that worked up over it; after all, it was he who was the cheater not Holly.

Carefully he swung the kitchen door open, first seeing Holly as she raised a glass of wine to her lips then as the door opened further he saw someone he hadn’t seen in a long time. The last time he’d seen her they’d argued, he’d kicked her out of the house. He couldn’t see this going very well at all. Holly’s sister Gina after all, was a real bitch.

“Nick!” Gina’s voice sounded genuinely surprised as she eyed him above her glass, giving him a very obvious once-over.

“Gina,” he replied, his voice far less excited, “To what do we owe this pleasure?”

Gina scoffed and after taking a look at Holly’s flabbergasted expression cocked a questioning eyebrow, “I could ask you the same thing.”

~*~

Nick wrapped a towel firmly around his waist, reaching out with one hand to wipe steam off of the mirror in front of him.

He stared at himself for a few moments, wondering if he was the same person now as he was years ago, if he was the same person as the waiter in the restaurant knew. It seemed like he was in the same place in his life, he hadn’t done anything particularly special, but he didn’t feel like he believed the same things. As if being a father had made him a cynic, if that was at all possible. Maybe it was being a loner that made the change, not parenting.

With a sigh he ran his hands through his hair before resting them on the lip of the sink. Staring down to the drain he wondered what waited for him on the other side of the door.

He hadn’t really talked to Holly or her sister since he’d come in. He had immediately excused himself for a shower in order to avoid having to explain to both of them why he was home early. After all, they’d both been drinking and Gina was a ball-buster at the best of times. She was everything Holly wasn’t as far as personality went: strong, independent, quick-tempered, and not afraid to speak her mind. He often theorized that was how the younger of the two sisters ended up the way she did. The rest of their siblings were male, and Gina had taken up the job of being Holly’s defender. In the end Holly had ended up the meek, nerdy sister and Gina the more assertive of the two. He still believed he’d gotten the better end of the deal because just like their personalities Holly and Gina were like night and day when it came to looks not in a sense of skin pigment but just that Holly was pretty and Gina was a dog... in his personal opinion.

Nick continued to stare down at his hands, chuckling to himself over how obvious a tan line he had on his left ring finger.

“Oh my god,” he muttered deadpan as he realized what was missing from his hand. Repeating his mantra to the lord he grabbed for his clothes from atop the toilet lid and began frantically going through the pockets. He turned them all inside out, checked and double checked but there was no ring.

“I know I put it in my pocket,” he told himself trying to retrace the moment in which he’d taken it off. He was wearing the same jeans as he had been when he’d removed it, but who knew what could have happened, “It must have fallen out when I put the pants in my bag,” he reasoned to himself figuring it was probably lying at the bottom of his duffle bag.

Abandoning his clothing on the floor Nick swung the bathroom door open, headed for his bag. He did a quick scan of the hallway to make sure he was alone before barrelling through; past Olivia’s room and into the master bedroom, for a moment not even realizing that Holly had been sitting on the bed waiting for him, wine glass still in her hand.

“Hey,” he said softly, his hand going to hold his towel up while he watched her play with the stem of the glass.

He knew he had to wait it out and get through a potentially uncomfortable conversation before he could check the bag because it was currently sitting next to his wife on the bed. She continued to stare down and he wondered how long and painful she was going to make this. It wasn’t until she sniffled that he realized she wasn’t really preparing a long winded speech like he’d thought.

Nick took a moment to close the bedroom door to keep out wandering sisters and tilted his head to the side for a better view, “Are you... crying?”

Another sniffle and she lifted her head and with red, tearstained eyes downed the rest of the wine from the glass. She set it on the bedside table then turned to him, giving him a once over as he stood there in just a towel, “What’s going on Nick?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, playing dumb, “What has your sister implanted in your head?”

With a roll of her eyes she shook her head at him, “Nothing! She hasn’t planted anything in my head. I am legitimately confused here. You say you need to go away to write and that you’ll be back Sunday night yet here we are on Saturday and you’re back already. Do you have any explanation at all or are you going to beg off to have another shower?”

Nick sighed and moved to sit next to her on the bed, “That doesn’t really explain why you’re crying but if you must know I came home early because I missed you guys.”

“You missed us?” she repeated, clearly not believing that excuse.

“Yes,” he replied defensively, “The whole time I was wondering what you and Olivia were up to. I guess I kinda missed all the disruption rather than having all that time to actually write.”

“So you missed Olivia?” she asked, trying to clarify.

“I missed both of you,” he said, taking the moment to grab his bag. He rummaged through, looking for his ring briefly before coming out with a pair of underwear.

“And you wrote all weekend?”

Before he could move to put his boxers on Holly grabbed them from his hands, her fingers playing with the waistband, “Yes!”

“I need you to be honest with me Nick,” she said in a soft voice.

“Now I’m lying when I say I missed you and that I wrote while I was gone? Give me a break,” he scoffed.

“I didn’t mean that,” Holly interrupted to explain, “I just... I have this sick feeling that this is all falling apart.”

“You’re also drunk and your sister Negative Nancy is here so I wouldn’t be surprised if you were thinking that,” Nick replied sarcastically, eyeing her as she continued to play with his underwear, “Speaking of which... why the hell is she here?”

“Please don’t change the subject I’m trying to be serious here and I’m not drunk!”

“Not drunk?” he laughed, “How many bottles of wine did the two of you breeze through?”

“Please!” she pleaded, finally looking up into his eyes now that the tears had started again, “Why does everything have to be a fight with you?”

For a split second Nick wished he hadn’t stormed out of the hotel, that he was back with Alaina and away from the urge to battle he always got during his conversations with Holly, “I’m sorry,” he said, taking a deep breath, “It doesn’t have to be a fight.”

“I feel like all we do is fight anymore.”

“That’s all we’ve ever done, that’s just how we work,” he reminded her.

“It doesn’t work, Nick!”  

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” he admitted, “What do you want me to do here?”

“Do you want a divorce?” she asked and his heart stopped for a split second. Surely this wasn’t going to be the day the rug got pulled out from under him, was it?

His voice was shaky but he managed to speak, “No. Do you?”

She didn’t even hesitate before answering, “No!”

Instantly he was relieved. He reached out and pushed her hair behind her ear, taking a moment to let her recover from her crying, “Then what’s the problem? I love you, you love me... we’re a happy family?” he tried to lighten the mood with a good old-fashioned Barney reference.

“Lately...” she began softly, wiping her eyes with a tissue, “I just don’t feel like I know you anymore; like you’re becoming a different person.”

Because I am, he thought but couldn’t tell her that truth, or tell her that he’d been struggling with the same thoughts just moments before, “I’m the same person.”

“Are you happy?” she asked him point blank, turning her attention back to the fabric in her hands.

“Yeah, sure,” he shrugged but was met with her annoyed gaze.

“The truth Nick, tell the truth.”

“The truth?” he asked rhetorically, “No. Most of the time... I’m not happy. Are you?”

She took a moment to breathe deeply before answering, finally looking up into his expectant gaze, “No.”

~*~

He wasn’t sure what exactly had happened between then and now. First they were admitting their unhappiness in their marriage, talking about how things weren’t working quite the way they should; as if the dreaded break-up really was on the horizon but now they were feverishly tearing each other’s clothes off, only stopping to connect in passionate kisses.

Had Nick known all he needed to do to get Holly in the mood was fill her full of wine, he’d have done it long ago.

In no time he had Holly writhing underneath him, but despite her pleas for his touch he pulled away taking a moment just to look at her. Clearly different than Alaina, her body, but it was something he knew intimately. He knew exactly what she liked and didn’t like, and didn’t have to worry about keeping up to any kind of expectation since he was the only person Holly had to compare against. Sure it didn’t make for much opportunity for improvement but it was comfortable, and familiar, the only problem being that it never happened.

As his gaze moved up her body so did his hands, caressing her soft skin over lean legs, her taut stomach, and small breasts that barely filled the palms of his hands. That’s where her hands joined his, lacing their fingers together.

He was kissing the same path his hands had just taken when he heard her sniffle and looked up to see tears silently falling down her cheeks one after another.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked with his voice full of concern.

“It’s just...” Holly started but the words got caught in her throat. She wiped at her eyes and Nick’s hands cupped her cheeks, catching the strays with a thumb, “It suddenly hit me that you’ve been nothing short of perfect this whole time and I’ve been treating you like dirt.”

“No,” he sighed, leaning in for a quick kiss, “You haven’t been. I haven’t appreciated what you really do around here. I depend on you a lot more than I thought I did. You make sure there’s a roof over our head, and food on the table so who am I to complain? Despite what I may say sometimes, I really do need you. We’ll find a way to make this work, I promise you.”

No more words were necessary for Holly. She yanked him down against her, crushing her lips against hers with a renewed sense of passion. As if instinctually her legs wrapped around his sides and she urged him closer with her heels and they fell into a routine that had been second nature to them at one time.

Nick couldn’t help but do up the comparison in his head between the woman below him now and the one that had been just a day earlier and there was one thing he couldn’t deny; what he had with Alaina wasn’t worth costing him Holly. He knew then that he had to do two very important things. He had to break things off for good with his mistress, and he had to find that ring.