Chapter 97
AN: Thanks to Veronica and Bianca for their help with this
chapter!
“Lookin’
good in here, Nicky,” commented Howie.
Nick took a look around the living room of his new house. The brand new furniture had been moved in,
and Howie, AJ, Kevin, and Brian had helped him arrange it while Kristin and
Leighanne added their female insight, helping him decide where to put all of
the other crap he had, some which he’d brought from the house in Tampa, others
which he’d ordered new.
After hours
of work, the interior of the house was coming together nicely; all of the big
things had been moved in, and Leighanne, who had a decorating flair, had
offered several times to help Nick make it look less… “bachelor-esque,” was how
she’d put it.
“Sure,
that’d be great,” he’d replied agreeably.
He didn’t really care what the inside of the house looked like, as long
as he had his bed and his fridge and his TV and his video games.
All of that
was there now, and since it was going on one o’clock in the afternoon, he said,
“Hey, how about a lunch break? We could
order some delivery.”
“How about
take-out – sandwiches, from the deli?” AJ suggested.
“Would that
be Mary’s deli?” Howie asked with a teasing wink. They all knew AJ’s girlfriend was working
that day.
“May-be…”
AJ replied slyly, then protested, “Come on, their sandwiches are great! Whaddya say, Nicky? Deli?”
“You know
me; I’ll eat anything,” said Nick with a neutral shrug.
“Guys?” AJ
extended the question to Brian and Kevin and their wives.
They all
nodded. “Sounds good to me,” Kevin added
with a hint of eagerness; Nick figured he was just relieved that AJ wanted
something other than McDonald’s. It
seemed Mary had been a good influence on him, whether intentionally or not.
“Okay,
cool. How about I just pick up a bunch
of different stuff, and we can make our own sandwiches here?”
“Sounds
good,” came a chorus of echoes.
“Alright,
now who’s comin’ with me to help carry stuff?
Nick, you game?”
“Uh –
sure,” agreed Nick. “Y’all just hold
down the fort while I’m gone.”
“I’ll go
unpack more of the kitchen boxes!” announced Leighanne with enthusiasm.
Nick
snickered as she trotted out of the room, and Brian shot him a goofy grin. “You’ll never need a woman in your life as
long as you’ve got my wife, Frack,” he joked.
Nick begged
to differ, but he kept his comment to himself.
AJ, on the other hand, spoke up, “Jeez, Rok, that could sure be taken
more than one way. Don’t go spreading
the rumor that the Backstreet Boys share wives as well as tour buses.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and
Brian blushed.
“You know
what I meant,” he chuckled good-naturedly, but Nick and AJ laughed at his
expense the whole way out to AJ’s sports car.
They headed
to West Hollywood, to the upscale deli where Mary worked. As they walked inside, Nick spotted her
immediately, her head bowed over the various kinds of meat and side dishes
behind the counter as she helped a customer.
When the door opened, however, she glanced up, smiling over the
customer’s shoulder, first at AJ, then at Nick.
AJ led the
way up to the counter, and Mary offered him a coy smile. “Hi,” she said, continuing to scoop some kind
of salad into a clear plastic tub. “Hang
on a second, and I’ll get Veronica out of the back room to help you.”
Nick got a
kick out of how professional she acted around AJ when she was in front of
customers; normally the two of them were full of dirty talk towards one
another.
Mary secured
the lid on the tub of salad and said to the customer, “Sir, I’ll be right
back.” As she turned to walk into the
back room, Nick noticed AJ’s eyes lingering on her ass. Now that was more like it.
Mary was
back in a second. “Veronica will be
right out,” she told AJ quickly and flashed Nick a quick smile before turning
back to the man she was serving. “And
what else can I get for you, sir?”
Nick didn’t
hear the man’s answer, for at that moment, the door to the back room swung open
again, and another woman came out. “Hi,”
she said softly, stepping up to the other side of the counter. “I’m Veronica. What would you two like?”
She said
“you two,” but Nick couldn’t help but notice that she barely glanced at
AJ. The whole time, her eyes lingered on
him. Nick was used to being stared at,
and sometimes it bothered him, especially in the last three years, when he
could never be sure why a person was staring. Was it because they recognized him? Because they thought he was attractive? Or because they knew he’d had cancer? Or that he only had one leg? Because they pitied him?
Normally,
it was a little unnerving, but today, Nick found that he didn’t really
mind. Quite the contrary, it was sort of
a turn on, the way she was looking at him.
He took in her appearance, his eyes locking onto her round, brown ones,
which were still fixed on him. Startling
a little, he realized he still hadn’t answered her question.
Luckily, AJ
started to before he could react, and Veronica finally broke her gaze on Nick
and focused on him instead. “Let’s see…
how about a pound of turkey… and a pound of roast beef too. And um… Nick, any other kind of meat you
want? Ham? Chicken?
Salami?”
Nick
watched the deli clerk’s eyes flicker back to Nick. “I’d recommend the hard salami,” she
offered. “I really like it.”
At the
words “salami” and “hard,” all kinds of dirty thoughts began to parade through
Nick’s perverted mind. “You like your
salami hard, eh?” he joked automatically, but when Veronica’s eyes went wide
with embarrassment, he immediately regretted it. Why did I just say that? he berated
himself, blushing. Now he was
embarrassed too. If Kevin had been
there, he was sure he would have gotten an elbow in the ribs for that comment. Luckily, it was just AJ, who started
snickering at once.
“Nick likes
his salami hard too,” he kept the joke running.
Leaning into the counter, he added in a low voice, “How about giving him
some of that hard salami?”
“Okay,
okay, enough,” Nick interjected loudly, cheeks flaming by now. Flashing Veronica a sheepish smile, he added,
“Sorry… I-I didn’t mean-“
“It’s
okay,” said Veronica before he could finish and smiled a little. “AJ told me you had a sense of humor. That’s another thing I like… besides the, uh…
salami.” She winked, and Nick felt
himself smiling back at her automatically.
Until all of a sudden…
“Wait! You guys know each other?” he asked, looking
between the woman behind the counter and the man standing next to him.
“Of
course. V works with my girlfriend,
dipshit; I do drop by this joint from time to time,” AJ scoffed, as if it
should have been obvious.
Nick
shrugged; he hadn’t really thought of that.
Smiling shyly, Veronica shrugged herself and clarified, “I’ve only been
working here a few weeks actually. But
yes, AJ has been in a few times.” She
turned her smile upon AJ, and he responded with the charming smirk he gave all
ladies.
“Well, uh…
nice to meet you then, Veronica,” Nick offered, nodding to her. “Any friend of AJ’s is a friend of mine,” he
said with a meaningful look towards Mary, who was ringing up the older man’s
order. “And any friend of… well, of a
friend of mine is… a friend of mine… too…” he fumbled, then screwed his face up
in frustration – what the hell had he just said? That hadn’t come out as smoothly as he’d
hoped.
“I mean,
uh… yeah… nice to meet you,” he concluded and quickly looked away from her,
red-faced again. Man, he was out of
practice with the ladies. Why did he
have to go and say such stupid things?
He always came off sounding like such a moron around certain people –
interviewers… foreign fans… and naturally, pretty females. What a ‘tard, he thought, annoyed as
usual with his lack of eloquence.
But
Veronica didn’t laugh at him. She just
smiled and replied sweetly, “It’s nice to meet you too, Nick.”
***
“Nice to
meet you, Jamie,” said Laura, the receptionist on duty that day at Tampa
General Hospital’s oncology clinic.
Smiling pleasantly, she asked Claire, “And Claire, I assume your
insurance information is still the same?”
“Yep,
nothing’s changed,” replied Claire.
“Great. Then you can just have a seat, and someone
will call you back soon.”
Claire
nodded, offering the receptionist a quick smile. “Thanks, Laura,” she said and, holding
Jamie’s hand, led him over to a pair of empty chairs.
As they sat
down, he gave her a daunted look. “You
all are sure friendly here,” he remarked, raising his eyebrows.
Claire
chuckled ruefully. “Yeah, isn’t it
sad? Says a lot about how often I’ve
been at this place in the past few years… I know the staff, and they know
me. They get to know everyone after
awhile. It’s just like one big happy
family,” she said with a big cheesy grin to match her sarcasm. “The nurses and everyone here are really nice
though.”
Jamie
smiled tightly. “I’m sure they are, but
honestly, Clairie? I hope I never have
to get to know them myself. I’d rather
we just keep you away from this place.”
He patted her thigh roughly, and she gave him a crooked smile.
“Yeah. Me too.”
As they
settled into silence, Claire wondered if she was going to start regretting her
decision to let Jamie come along to her routine check-up in the cancer clinic
that day. When she’d told him she would
have to miss watching the Marlins vs. Cubs baseball game with him that
afternoon because of the appointment, he’d offered to go with her. “Oh, you don’t have to,” she’d blown
him off automatically. “I’m used to
going by myself; it’s no big deal.”
He’d given
her a frown. “You mean Nick never
went with you?”
“Well… yeah, I guess he did,
but…” But you’re not Nick, she’d been thinking, but she knew not
to say it; he probably would have taken it the wrong way. “Seriously, Jamie, don’t worry about
it. It’s just a routine thing, and I can
go by myself; I’m a big girl.”
She flashed him a smile, but he did
not return it. Instead, he leaned
forward and pulled her hand into his.
“Listen… you’re my girl now, and I… I wanna be there for you,” he said
seriously. “I wanna be a part of your
life again, and that means fitting in with all the other parts of your life…
and as much as I wish it wasn’t, this is a part of your life.”
Claire had
nodded slowly, surprised and touched by his declaration. He really was trying to redeem himself for
running from her all those years ago, when her cancer had been too much for him
to handle. First he’d donated his sperm
to her, giving her the chance to have children of her own someday. Then, last year, when she’d thought her
transplant was rejecting, he’d come to the hospital to be with her after Nick
had fled. And now he wanted to come to
her check-up. It was a sweet gesture,
but Claire wondered, was he really up for it?
She’d been
sheltering Jamie from the realities of her illness for years, ever since she’d found
out he couldn’t handle them. He had no
idea what she’d been through in the six years since her diagnosis. He knew the basics – that she’d been in the
hospital, that she’d gone through chemo, and that her leukemia had relapsed
after two years in remission. He knew
that she’d started up chemo again, after having her eggs fertilized with his
sperm and safely preserved, and he knew that when the chemo did not cure her,
she’d received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. In Jamie’s eyes, she was perfectly fine
again, back to normal and as good as cured.
These check-ups were merely a formality.
But Jamie,
like many of her friends, did not know all the details. He had no idea how close she’d come to dying
after the transplant, sick as she had been with infection. He didn’t know what the first few months
after the transplant had been like for her… cooped up in her parents house, her
mom hovering over her like a mother hen all the time, having to wear a surgical
mask like Michael Jackson every time she went out because her immune system was
so shot that a simple cold could wreak havoc on her body. She’d had a relatively easy time of it,
compared to most people, but that didn’t mean it had been easy or pain-free. The side effects were still plaguing her –
the cataracts in her eyes, her weak bones, her crazy hormones, and of course,
the fact that she would never have children naturally. And there was always the chance that she
could still reject or relapse, like Casey had.
But Jamie
didn’t know any of that, because she’d hadn’t let him in on it. Letting him come to the clinic with her today
was a big step. She didn’t think he had
any idea what kind of tests she had done at these appointments, but he was
about to find out. And she had to admit,
she was curious to see how he would react.
Would he freak out on her? Or
would he fight his fears, be mature, and stick with her this time? She wasn’t the only one who was going to be
tested today.
“So how
long do you usually have to wait here?” Jamie’s
question brought Claire out of her thoughts, and she looked over at him. It was obvious he was restless; he kept
sliding around in his chair and leaning over, clasping and unclasping his hands
together.
“It
shouldn’t be too much longer here… it’s just busy today, I guess. But don’t hold your breath; the appointment
itself will take awhile too.”
“Why does
it take so long?” Jamie asked innocently.
“What kind of stuff will they do?”
She
explained briefly about the blood tests and bone marrow biopsy they always
did. As expected, Jamie blanched, but
when a nurse came to call Claire’s name, he took her hand and dutifully walked
back with her.
“Hi,
Claire; I’m Bobbi-Jo,” drawled the nurse in a slight Southern accent, as she
ushered Claire and Jamie through a door.
“How are you doin’ today?”
“I’m fine,
thanks; how are you?” Claire asked automatically.
“Just fine,
thank you! You wanna hop onto the scale
here?” asked Bobbi-Jo, stopping her at the large scale just beyond the door.
Grudgingly,
Claire took off her shoes and stepped onto the scale. When the nurse made adjustments and read off
the number, jotting it down on the chart in her hand, Claire groaned; she’d
gained since the last time she had been here.
Weight gain was supposedly one of the side effects of the new hormone
replacement drugs she’d been taking for the last couple of months, and she
hated it. Maybe I’ll see if Amber’s
ready to start working out with me like we said we would, she mused as she
climbed off the scale and glanced at Jamie, feeling herself blush slightly.
He must
have noticed her discomfort, because he grinned and playfully poked a finger
into her stomach. “Fatty,” he whispered
teasingly behind the nurse’s back as they followed her to the right examining
room.
Claire
stuck her tongue out at him and jabbed him right back in the gut. “You should talk,” she shot back,
winking. She was only kidding, and she
knew he was too. He’d been calling her
“fatty” since high school because she’d always been able to eat like a horse,
even though it had never really showed on her.
She missed her teenage metabolism.
“Right in
here,” Bobbi-Jo said, holding open the door of one of the exam rooms. She handed Claire a gown to change into, and
Jamie hung back as she went inside the room.
Once the
nurse had closed the door, Claire changed quickly and then opened it again,
motioning Jamie in from the hall. He
gave her a tight smile and slunk in, perching in a hard-backed chair against
the wall while Claire climbed up onto the paper-covered table. She watched Jamie look around the room, his
expression nervous. She could see his
Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard and felt a flutter of sympathy for him. Bless his heart; he was trying so hard, but
she knew he hated this. He’d always had
a fear of hospitals, a fear which had probably only been intensified by her
illness.
She shifted
her weight on the table a few times, purposely fidgeting around to make the
paper underneath her crinkle loudly.
Finally, Jamie noticed and looked over at her, cracking a smile. Mission accomplished, she thought,
smiling back. For a minute, the tension
in the room seemed to dilute.
Then the
nurse walked back in.
***
“Smooth,
Carter,” AJ joked sarcastically as he and Nick walked out of the deli, both
carrying paper bags filled with sliced meat, tubs of various sides, and a big
bag of kettle-cooked chips. “That’s a
way to impress a girl alright, start making crude jokes about boners.”
“It slipped
out,” mumbled Nick. Then, growing
defensive, he added, “And anyway, she thought it was funny! She said she liked my sense of humor!”
“Well after
you got her all flustered, sure.”
Nick gave
AJ a peevish look, narrowing his eyes.
“So why do you care, anyway?”
AJ just
shrugged. “She seems like a nice girl.”
The
statement was innocent enough, but something about the way AJ said it caused
Nick to cast another suspicious look in his direction. “Bone…” he said warningly. “What’s the deal?”
“What are
you talking about, Nicky?” AJ was
playing dumb; Nick could tell.
“That girl,
Veronica… why do I get the feeling it wasn’t just coincidence that you dragged
me to the deli today and she was the one to wait on us?” Nick probed. He had been set up with girls before,
courtesy of AJ, and right now he was starting to detect the signs of another AJ
McLean set-up.
“Gee, I
dunno, Nick… but if you’re keen on finding out, maybe you should follow that
feeling to the movies with Mary and me tonight,” suggested AJ, winking above
his sunglasses.
Nick gave
him an exasperated look. Oh yeah – he
was totally being set up. “Look, J, you
know I’m not interested in another relationship right now,” he protested. “’Specially with some random girl I don’t
even know.”
“So get to
know her first. Maybe then you’ll be
interested,” AJ pointed out. “Mary said
she’s really nice and that she’s definitely interested in you. She thinks you two would be good together. It’s worth a shot, don’t you think? What have you got to lose?”
Nick sighed
heavily, but he couldn’t think of an answer.
When he did not reply, AJ went on, “I mean, Claire’s pretty much out of
the picture, isn’t she? You said
yourself she was back together with that prick she dated in high school. So it looks to me like you got nothin’… nothin’
to lose, that is. And everything to
gain. Whaddya say, Nicky-boy? Come out with us tonight?”
Nick
struggled with his response, trying to think of a good excuse to turn AJ
down. “I got a lot of stuff left to do
around the house,” he said lamely.
AJ waved
his hand in front of his face, blowing Nick off. “You got the important stuff taken care of
already… a place to sleep, working plumbing, and a running fridge. What’s left to do that can’t wait till
tomorrow morning?”
Nick’s only
answer was a sigh; he knew he was losing this battle. “Look, J, I dunno… she… she doesn’t really
seem like my type.”
AJ eyed him
skeptically. “Why, cause she’s not
skinny and blonde and a bitchy, gold-digging whore? Well, Claire didn’t fit that model either,
and you proposed to her. I
think you could at least give this Veronica girl a shot.”
He has a point, Nick had to admit. His “type,” based on the category most of the
women he’d dated fit into, wasn’t really the right type for him at all. He’d failed so horribly at selecting
girlfriends for himself in the past that maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to follow
AJ’s – or Mary’s – advice instead, just this once. Like AJ had said… maybe it was worth a shot.
“So… so if
I come to the movies tonight… are you saying this girl will be there?” Nick
asked hesitantly.
AJ winked
again. “Could be. Wait and see…”
***
“Will you
just wait?” Claire demanded, her voice rising as she put both hands on
Jamie’s chest and pushed him back down onto the padded table. “There.
Now just cool your jets and lie down for a few more minutes. I’m not gonna catch you if you faint again on
the way out to the car.”
“I won’t
faint,” muttered Jamie darkly, some of the color returning to his pale cheeks
as he blushed, clearly embarrassed by what had happened.
Claire
thought it was sort of funny. The moment
Bobbi-Jo had whipped out the syringe to suck out a sample of her bone marrow,
Jamie had gone white as a sheet. A few
minutes later, while she was pinned to the table, the large needle in her
pelvis, he’d passed out cold, sliding all the way out of his chair and onto the
floor. Bobbi-Jo had had to run out of
the room to get another nurse to tend to him while Dr. Rodrigo finished the
procedure.
Jamie was
fine now, of course, especially after the nurse had made him lie down on the
table for a few minutes after Claire was done.
He’d had enough of that though; now he was just humiliated and itching
to leave as soon as possible. Claire
didn’t blame him, and she should have known, judging by the shade of green he
had turned when the nurse had stuck a regular-sized syringe into the flesh of
her arm for the blood draw.
“I can’t
believe you can lie there and take that every time…” he murmured, closing his
eyes. “Those needles… God.”
Claire
shrugged. “Well, what else am I supposed
to do, Jamie? It’s worth it to know that
I’m still healthy… or to find out early if there is a problem so that something
can be done about it.”
“I-I know,”
Jamie stammered. “It’s just…” He shuddered.
“God.”
“I
know. It’s not particularly fun for me
either, I’ll tell you that much.”
Sighing, Claire sank back down into her chair and gingerly massaged her
lower back, her fingers meeting the gauze they’d taped over the fresh hole in
her flesh. She had quite a smattering of
tiny, round scars from all the bone marrow biopsies she’d had done over the
years; this would just make one more.
She wondered if they would make any interesting connect-the-dot
patterns.
She was
just about to suggest that Jamie look for some that night when he said, “Well,
lying in this room isn’t particularly fun for me either. Can we go now? I swear, I’m fine… I feel a hell of a lot better
now that they took that needle out of you.”
Claire
laughed. “Yeah, okay. You stay there while I change back into my
clothes. No peeking now,” she added with
a mischievous wink. He just
smirked. Standing up painfully, she
grabbed her bra and t-shirt and turned away from him as she expertly swapped
them with the gown she was wearing.
As they
walked out of the clinic a few minutes later, Claire pulled a small bottle of
Tylenol out of her purse and popped a couple of pills into her mouth, swallowing
them dry. Noticing her action, Jamie
asked, “Does it hurt?” He touched her
back lightly, keeping his hand well above the spot where they’d put the needle.
“Nah, not
too bad. It just throbs a little; this
helps take the edge off,” replied Claire casually.
They made
their way slowly out to the parking lot, at which point Claire turned to Jamie
and extended her hand. “Keys?”
“What?”
“I think I
should drive. Can I have your keys?”
Jamie
scowled. “No. You’re not driving; I’m fine.”
“You still
look kinda pale,” Claire observed, reaching up to touch his cheek, her fingers
brushing over the rough stubble along his jawline. He ducked away from her grasp and downright
refused to give her his keys. “Fine,”
she said. “You drive then.” Shooting him an impish grin, she added, “Just
don’t go swooning when you’re behind the wheel.”
***
Later that
night, Nick climbed out of the backseat of AJ’s car and looked up at the
brightly-lit multiplex cinema, already wondering why he’d come. How did I let AJ talk me into being the
third wheel to Mary and him? For crying
out loud, thought Nick, annoyed with himself.
Of course,
AJ had plainly hinted that Mary’s friend from work was going to be at the
movies tonight too… Nick supposed that was what had convinced him to go. AJ and Mary were trying to set him up, and he
figured he might as well play along. He
wasn’t sure if he was even interested in this girl – he couldn’t really judge,
when all he’d done was buy lunch meat from her (and make an ass of himself
talking about his ‘hard salami’) – but even so, ever since he’d gotten back
from Florida, the thought of hooking up with another woman had been on his
mind. Claire had moved on with
Jamie. Why couldn’t he move on with
someone too?
Maybe a new
fling was all he needed to get over her.
He wasn’t looking for anything long-term or overly serious right off the
bat, but something beyond a strictly-physical relationship would be nice
too. If he was just looking for sex, LA
was full of women who would fuck even a one-legged Backstreet Boy, for the
right price. But no thank you; he wasn’t
interested in that. His love for Claire
had been much deeper than anything physical; she was the first woman he’d ever
truly loved, not just lusted over. If he
could just find someone else, someone like her… someone caring and
understanding, someone he could laugh with and just hang out with, someone he
could be himself around. Someone who
made him feel good about himself.
He had no
idea how he was going to find that someone, but he knew he would never find her
without looking, so he figured he’d might as well start that night. By the time he, AJ, and Mary reached the
doors of the movie theater and walked inside, he’d mentally pumped himself up
again. As he joined the long line to buy
tickets, he started looking around, trying to casually scope out the place for
the girl from the deli, Veronica. What
did she look like again? He tried
to picture her in his head: long, dark brown hair, tied back into a ponytail
beneath the hat she wore as part of her uniform at the deli; warm,
cocoa-colored complexion, like that of Halle Berry.
Mmm… Halle Berry, he thought, temporarily distracted by
the mental image of the beautiful actress in her tight leather Catwoman
costume. Veronica certainly hadn’t
looked like her… but he supposed she was alright. Nice eyes… he remembered her eyes, and the
way she’d been looking at him.
“Nick!” AJ
said sharply, and Nick felt a finger jab into his back. “Wake up, buddy – line’s movin’!”
Startling,
Nick hurried forward to catch up to the man in front of him, who had moved a
few feet since he’d last been paying attention.
AJ and Mary followed after him, hand in hand. He could hear them murmuring things to each
other behind him, the whispers of two lovers.
He sighed to himself, hoping Veronica was really going to show so that,
if nothing else, at least he would have someone to talk to the rest of the
night. AJ and Mary weren’t ignoring him
on purpose, but he obviously wasn’t the center of their attentions either. God, being the third wheel sucked.
Out of
nowhere, he conjured up the image of Claire’s best friend, Dianna. He wondered what she thought of Claire
and Jamie getting back together, when it meant being the perpetual third wheel
for her. He snickered to himself. Aside from a friendship with Claire, he
didn’t think he and Dianna had anything in common.
When he
finally reached one of the ticket kiosks, he bought a single ticket for the
comedy they had decided on and waited for AJ and Mary to join him.
“Well, hey,
look who’s here!” AJ announced loudly as he and Mary made their way over to
Nick. At first, Nick furrowed his brow
in confusion – AJ already knew he was here; he was the one who had driven him!
– but then he realized AJ’s gaze was not focused on him, but on a spot
somewhere over his shoulder. He turned,
and that’s when he saw her.
Veronica
looked different than his memory’s image of her from earlier that day. She was dressed in a springy, lavender
Bohemian skirt that swished around her calves and a white blouse. Nick couldn’t help but take a moment to
admire her body, the way her top showed just a peek of cleavage, and how the
skirt flattered her curvy frame. Then he
quickly brought his eyes up to her face.
She was wearing more makeup than she had been at the deli, he noticed;
it looked nice. Her hair was pulled up,
off of her neck, and little wisps of it framed her face.
When AJ
called to her, she came over quickly, beaming.
She had a nice smile, and Nick found it easy to smile back in
return. “Hello,” he said, striding
smoothly up to her. “Nice to see you
again.”
“You too,”
replied Veronica, tucking a stray wisp of hair behind her right ear.
“Funny
seeing you here tonight, Veronica,” spoke up AJ, a teasing tone to his
voice. “What are you seeing?”
Naturally,
Veronica listed the same movie Nick had just bought a ticket for, smiling at AJ
in a way that told Nick she had been in on this whole plot with AJ and
Mary. He just wondered if it had been
her idea, or if Mary had put her up to it.
Was this “Win a date with Nick Carter?” or “Please Veronica, I’ll pay
you twenty bucks if you show some interest my boyfriend’s pathetic, heartbroken
friend.”
“Well, how
ironic,” he spoke up, the surprise in his voice completely phony. “That’s what we’re seeing too! You should sit by us… unless you’re with a
date or something.” He pretended to look
around, knowing full well she was alone.
Veronica
shook her head. “Um… no, I… didn’t come
with anybody,” she said with a shrug, looking awkward and amused at the same
time.
“Oh,
yeah? Well, that’s no fun. You definitely need to come sit by me
then.” He gave her an exaggerated wink,
and she smiled.
“Well,
thank you… I think I will.”
“Well,
great, you two. Now that that’s settled…
can we go find the theater?” AJ asked, looking pointedly at his watch. “It’s gonna start in a few minutes.”
“Hold up, J
– popcorn first!” Nick exclaimed. He
pointed to the concession counter, unable to believe how AJ could forget such
an important part of the movie-going experience. Nick rarely sat through a movie in the
theater without popcorn.
AJ held up
his hands in defense. “My mistake,” he
conceded. “To the popcorn counter we
go!”
“Want me to
go and get us some seats?” offered Mary.
“Sure,
babe. What do you want?” AJ asked his
girlfriend, motioning to the concession menus.
“Just a
diet Pepsi is fine. I’ll eat some of
your popcorn.” She smiled sweetly and
winked before walking away in search of the right theater.
Shaking his
head, AJ turned back to Nick and Veronica and said, “Come on, we better get in
line, or we’re gonna miss half the movie.”
They joined
the concession line, which was thankfully moving quickly. As they neared the counter, Nick glanced down
at Veronica, who was at least a foot shorter than him. “You wanna split a combo or something?” he
asked her, pointing to the value combo that included a large popcorn and two
drinks. “Cheaper that way,” he added
with a grin.
“Oh…
uh…” Veronica hesitated. “Actually, I don’t want any popcorn. Just a bottled water.”
“Just
water?” Nick wrinkled his nose. “Are you sure?”
“I already
ate dinner,” said Veronica, shrugging apologetically.
“Ah,
okay. Well, I’ll just get the large
combo anyway, and we’ll ask for a bottled water instead of the second
soda. Then you can have some of my
popcorn if you get hungry.”
“Oh… well,
you don’t have to do that-“
“Girl, I’m
getting a large popcorn anyway; you might as well help me eat it if you want,
cause Lord knows I don’t need all the extra calories.” He patted his stomach for emphasis and shot
her a smirk.
Veronica
smiled awkwardly. “You don’t need
to worry about calories, Nick. You look
great.”
Nick
studied her for a moment, then smiled back.
“Well, thanks. So it’s settled
then… I’m gettin’ the large.” He
ordered the large combo, with a bottled water for Veronica, and when she tried
to offer him money for it, he pushed the bills back into her hand. “Don’t worry about it; I got this,” he
said. Naturally, she started to protest,
but he picked up his popcorn and his Mountain Dew and held both up, showing her
that his hands were full; he conveniently couldn’t take her money now.
“You can
make it up to me later,” he said as they followed AJ to the theater. “Just, uh… give me some hard salami on the
house next time, or somethin’.” He was
trying to make a joke, but he didn’t quite realize how bad “give me some hard
salami” sounded until it was out of his mouth and the embarrassed look had
registered on Veronica’s face. “Er…
sorry,” he apologized quickly, blushing.
“I didn’t really mean… well… you know.
I-I really do think about more than boners, I swear,” he added, a little
more emphatically than he’d intended – a couple of older women’s heads turned
quickly to look at him as he walked past their row of seats in the theater.
“That’s
good,” Veronica laughed lightly as they sat down with AJ and Mary.
As the
lights dimmed, and the previews began, Nick sat wondering if Veronica thought
he was a total asshole (and a horny one at that). He hadn’t meant to sound like a dick all day,
but he probably had. She would probably
think the same of him as Claire had before she’d gotten to know him – that he
was just another crude, conceited celebrity jackass.
Oh well. If that’s true, then it’s her loss, he tried to tell himself. It was the kind of thing Claire would have
said. She’d always known what to say to
make him feel better about himself. But
she wasn’t here, and the words didn’t sound as convincing coming from his own
mind.
Next to
him, he heard Veronica giggle along with the rest of the theater at a funny
scene in the preview that was playing.
Nick had missed it. Not caring,
he stole a glance at her through the darkness of the theater and found himself
wishing she was Claire instead.
The screen provided just enough light in the dark theater for him
to see her face… She was smiling, her eyes still sparkling
with moisture, and all of a sudden, he felt his heart begin to pound with
yearning. Taking his hand out of hers,
he gently reached out and touched her cheek, lightly brushing her tears
away. Her hand rose to take hold of his,
and slowly, she guided it down her face, to her lips. She pressed her lips to his fingers, kissing
them tenderly and then slowly lowered them.
But his heart was racing now, and his tingling fingers longed to touch
her again. They went to her shoulder and
crept around, his arm encircling her, gradually pulling her closer to him as he
leaned forward, his head tipping to the side, his lips drifting toward hers as
if there was a magnetic field between them, steadily drawing them nearer…
“That looks good, don’t you think?” Veronica’s whisper brought Nick out of his
daydream. He jumped in his seat and
looked over at her, then back at the screen, blinking in surprise. He hadn’t realized how long he’d just spaced
out until he noticed that they’d moved on to a completely different movie
trailer.
“Oh… yeah!” he whispered back.
“Looks awesome.” He had no idea
what movie they were talking about; he’d been watching the screen without
really seeing what was on it at all. The
only thing he’d been able to see, flickering in his mind like an old movie on
screen, was Claire, looking as she had that night they’d shared their very
first kiss, in a theater much smaller and more intimate than this one.
I miss her, he thought. He didn’t
want to admit it, but he couldn’t deny it either. He did
want to move on and stop thinking of Claire all the time, but it wasn’t
easy. Everything reminded him of her,
and he was constantly remembering all the special little things they’d shared,
moments he’d sometimes taken for granted.
Going to movies together, their hands brushing as they both reached into
the jumbo bucket of popcorn between them… or just watching DVDs together at
home in their sweats, snuggled together beneath a blanket on the couch, with a
bowl of microwave popcorn and a six-pack of cold beer. He would give anything to be with her that
way right now, instead of here, with a girl who was still virtually a stranger.
But it was not to be. He
knew this, and as the feature presentation began, he settled back in his seat,
took a handful of popcorn, and hoped he could lose himself in the plot of the
movie.
***
Claire poked her hand out from under the blanket just long enough
to reach for her bottle of beer. She
took a swig, enjoying the smooth sensation of the cold lager gliding down her
throat, and set the bottle back down on the side table next to Jamie’s
couch. Then she pulled the blanket back
up around herself. It was almost May,
and the Florida summer heat was in full swing, but Jamie kept his air
conditioner cranked up, and she would freeze otherwise.
Besides, it was cozy, curled up on the couch with Jamie, a
blanket, and her most comfortable pair of sweatpants. Three
of life’s little pleasures, she thought, burrowing her head deeper in
Jamie’s chest. His t-shirt was warm and
soft and smelled like boy, in a nice way… the Axe bodywash and Old Spice
deodorant kind of way. It was a
comforting scent, one that brought her back to the days when she and Jamie
would cuddle on the couch of his parents’ house after school, jumping off each
other every time his mother came in. It
was nice to be adults this time around, to be able to spend the night lying on
the couch together, watching the baseball game they’d taped that afternoon into
the wee hours of the morning.
“Lee’s up,” Jamie murmured, his voice rumbling in Claire’s ear as
his chest vibrated beneath her. He
rubbed her arms in anticipation as the Chicago Cubs’ first basemen, Derek Lee,
came up to bat. The Cubs were down to
the Marlins, 2-3, in the bottom of the eighth inning, and a single homer by Lee
would be enough to tie the game.
“Lee’s gonna choke – again.
He’s, what, 0 for 3 this game?” Claire teased. As a Florida fan, she couldn’t resist giving
Jamie a hard time when it came to his cursed, “loveable loser” baseball team.
“All the more reason for him to get a hit this time,” Jamie
countered. And as the Marlins’ bullpen
pitcher threw the first pitch of the bat, they both fell silent to watch.
Only half-listening to the commentary between pitches, as Lee
fouled a couple of balls into the stands, Claire amused herself with the
knowledge that she and Jamie could have just watched Sports Center for the
score earlier that evening and saved themselves a lot of agony. But hell, the suspense was half the fun of
the game. It was the exact reason they’d
purposely avoided all the sports channels after they’d gotten back from the
clinic that afternoon, choosing to watch the taped game in its entirety that
night.
All of a sudden, Jamie gasped and jerked upwards, jostling Claire
off of him. “Oh – oh – that’s goin’ all
the way! YES!!” he shouted, as Derek
Lee’s full-count pitch sailed over the ivy-covered wall in the outfield of
Wrigley. “3-3 – how do ya like that,
baby? I so called it!” gloated Jamie,
whooping as Lee trotted around the bases on TV.
“Yeah, yeah, so what? They
haven’t won yet, you know; there’s still an entire inning left,” Claire
retorted with a wry smile, pushing Jamie down onto the couch again and settling
back against his chest.
She had missed nights like this with Jamie. And as she lay there, watching the end of the
game play out from the comfort of his embrace, there was no other place she
would rather be.
***