Chapter 66
“It’s not
much,” Claire said, as she unlocked the door to her apartment, “but it’s all I
can afford. I like to think of it as…
cozy.”
Having
followed Claire from the grocery store to her apartment building, Nick now
stood waiting as she jiggled the doorknob and slowly pushed open the door,
interested to see what the apartment looked like on the inside. On the outside, the building was old and
small, but well taken care of. The halls
they had walked through were in need of a paint job and maybe some new
carpeting, but other than that, the place seemed decent and clean.
As Claire led
him inside her apartment and flipped on the light switch, he saw right away
that the inside was nothing like the outside.
“Cozy” was an accurate word to describe it, for it was indeed tiny. But whereas the halls leading to the
apartment had been drab and dim, the apartment itself was bright and inviting,
decorated in a cute, thrifty fashion.
The tiny kitchen was painted pale green, with speckled white Formica
counters over white cupboards and a small, battle-scarred kitchen table made of
blonde wood in one corner, two matching chairs tucked neatly under it. A small vase of flowers and placemats on the
table added color to the room, while an amateur-looking still-life watercolor
of a bowl of fruit mounted on the wall over the table gave the room charm.
“I painted
that in one of my art classes in high school,” Claire said, noticing Nick
looking at the painting. “I know it’s
not very good, but my mom insisted I put it up.” She laughed, and he joined in.
“I think it’s
good,” he complimented her. “I’m not
much of a painter myself. I’m more into
drawing and cartooning and stuff.”
Claire cocked
her head at him. “Are you really?” she
asked. “I didn’t know that. That’s very cool. I should have you do a caricature of me
sometime.”
“Sure,” he
replied.
“Well, here,
let’s put the ice cream in the freezer,” she said, taking his plastic grocery
bags and stuffing them into her freezer, along with her pizza. “And I’ll show you the ‘living room’.” She made quotation marks with her fingers as
she led him into the small room that served as a living room. Its walls were painted a dark shade of
purple, which normally Nick would have thought hideous, but somehow, it worked
in this room. A big, slip-covered couch,
accompanied by two side tables, took up most one wall, and a small
entertainment center with a TV and VCR occupied the other wall. An old armchair sat under the window, a short
bookcase beside it, filled to the brim with books and magazines. All around the room, seemingly wherever she
could find room, Claire had placed colorful candles and lamps and other odds
and ends, leaving the room crowded, but charming.
“I like it,”
Nick said, looking around.
“Thanks,”
said Claire. “It’s getting a little too
cluttered looking, I think. I’ve got way
too much junk. One of these days, I’m
going to save up and move someplace bigger.”
Nick
shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve never liked big houses. I bought myself this giant mansion as soon as
I had the money, but I ended up selling it… it was just way too big to live in
alone; I kept getting freaked out.” He
laughed. “The house I live in now is
smaller.”
“Well, I’m
sure it’s still a glorified mansion compared to this,” said Claire.
“You should
come see it sometime,” offered Nick.
“Okay,”
Claire replied, apparently impressed by the proposition. “So… Aloe, right? I’ll run and get that; it’s in the
bathroom. Make yourself at home. There’s the remote.” She pointed out the remote control sitting on
one of the small tables beside the couch and walked down a tiny hallway leading
off the living room, ducking into a room that Nick assumed was the bathroom.
Sinking down
onto the couch, which turned out to be rather sunken in the middle, Nick picked
up the remote and turned on the television.
He was flipping absently through the channels when Claire came back and
squealed, “ET!”
“Huh?” Nick looked at the TV long enough to realize
that he had stopped on USA, and that ET
was on, then said, “Oh, yeah. ET.”
“Aww, I loved
this movie when I was a little kid,” Claire said fondly. “It was one of the first movies I saw in the
theaters. My mom took my brother and I
to see it when I was like two. Of
course, I don’t actually remember that, but… you know…”
Nick
laughed. “Yeah. My first movie was I think The Fox and the Hound.”
“Aww…” Claire
smiled. “That’s a great Disney movie…
makes me cry.” She laughed.
Nick rolled
his eyes. “Girls… But yeah, anyway, ET… man, I haven’t seen this in years,” he said, glancing back at
the movie.
“Yeah, me
neither.”
So,
wordlessly, they agreed to leave it on.
“Here’s the
Aloe,” Claire said, handing him a small bottle of pink-tinted, clear liquid
with little blue sparkles or something floating in it.
“Ugh,” he
said, reading the label. Sure enough, it
was from the Bath and Body Works store, and it was pink. With sparkles. Could you get any girlier? “Dude, I dunno about this… I don’t wanna look
like I put body glitter on my head…” he said uncertainly.
Claire
laughed. “Don’t worry, it rubs in and
doesn’t show. Here, take off your
hat.” He slowly pulled his hat off and
set it down on the table, while Claire positioned herself next to him on the
couch, rising to her knees so that she could reach his head properly. She squirted a glob of the stuff into her
hand, rubbed her hands together once, and laid them lightly on the top of his
head.
“Shit, that
stuff’s cold!” he exclaimed, shivers running down his spine.
“Sorry,” she
said, rubbing it in with gentle hands.
“But it feels good, doesn’t it?”
He had to
admit, it did feel good, cool and soothing on his hot skin. And it had a nice scent, too, like
coconuts. It reminded him of the
beach. “Mmm, that does feel good,” he
said, closing his eyes as her fingers continued to massage his scalp. She paused to squirt some more into her hands
and then kept going, rubbing the cool gel into his skin. After awhile, her fingers began to descend
downward, gently kneading his neck and shoulders.
“Do you like
that?” she asked softly.
“Oh yeah,
that’s wonderful,” he breathed, eyes still closed in bliss. How long had it been since he’d had a girl
massage his shoulders like that? Had
Leah ever done that to him? He couldn’t
remember… and didn’t really want to either, for thinking of Leah was still
slightly painful. He forced the thoughts
of Leah out of his mind, focusing instead on the feel of Claire’s fingertips on
his skin. Damn, she was good. He decided they’d have to hang out more often
from now on.
It had been
awhile since he’d had a female friend.
Most of the girls he was ever with wanted to be more than friends, and
that caused problems because it always turned out that they were only interested
in Nick Backstreet, not Nick Carter, and only wanted his money or a record
deal, not his love. Or they just went
and cheated on him, like Leah had. It
was better just to stay friends with girls, like he was with Claire. It was a great relief to be able to hang out
with someone like her and be assured that it was only a friendship, nothing
more.
“You’re
really good at this,” Nick commented.
Claire
snorted. “Well, it’s not really an art
or anything,” she laughed. “It’s just
something you do…” She shrugged. “My friends and I used to take turns rubbing
each other’s backs at our sleepovers when we were younger.”
Nick glanced
over at her. “Really…” he said
interestedly. “Shirts on or off?”
“On,” she
said, rolling her eyes. “Not to spoil
whatever kinky lesbian fantasies you had going there, but yeah, we didn’t strip
and have some back-rubbing orgy or whatever you were thinking.”
Nick laughed. “Well, that’s still a new
one to me. Must be a girl thing cause
the guys and I never did anything like that.”
“You mean the
Backstreet Boys guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’m
glad you didn’t cause then people really would think you guys were gay… well,
even more than they do already.” She
snickered.
“Hey! We’re not gay! And anyway, you said it wasn’t a gay
thing to do!” exclaimed Nick.
“Whoa, chill,
I’m kidding,” she giggled and let her hands travel down his back, rubbing it in
small circles, using her fingernails.
His skin tingled pleasantly with her touch. “Want me to keep going?” she asked.
“Ohh yeah…
that is, if you don’t mind.” He shot her
his half-smile. “It does feel really
good.”
She smiled
and nodded. After a moment, she said
casually, “You know, it probably would feel better if you did take your shirt
off.”
Nick whipped
his head in her direction. “Claire
Ryan,” he said, feigning shock, really just teasing her, “are you trying to get
me to strip for you?”
His goal was
achieved when her cheeks flushed bright pink.
“No!” she protested quickly. “I
just thought… never mind.”
“Nah, I’m
just playin’ with ya,” Nick said.
Actually, he had had the same idea in mind but didn’t want her to think
he was trying to put the moves on her.
As if he would. “I think you’re
right, actually. You wouldn’t mind,
would you? If I took off my shirt?”
“No,” she
laughed. “I wouldn’t have suggested it
if I minded. Go ahead; it’s no big deal
to me.”
He nodded and
took off his t-shirt, grimacing as he glanced down and saw the small gauze pad
covering the exit site of his catheter.
But his embarrassment faded quickly when he realized that there was no
need to be embarrassed at all, for Claire had one too. That was the good thing about Claire – there
was no reason to feel awkward or insecure around her because she was going
through the same thing as he was.
“Scoot up,”
she said, nudging him forward so that he was perched on the edge of the
couch. Then she sank down so that she
was sitting properly, turned him a little so that his back was facing more
toward her, and pressed her fingers into his back again, kneading his skin,
working his muscles.
“Oh god,” he
whispered. “That feels great… I’m gonna
hire you to be my personal masseuse from now on, ‘kay?”
“Oh
yeah? How much you gonna pay me?”
“Whatever you
want,” he moaned as she dug her nails into his flesh. “Or I can just get you a record deal, if you
want – that’s what most other girls want when they hang out with me.”
She burst out
laughing. “A record deal? Me?
Haha, you apparently haven’t heard me sing before.”
“Oh, you don’t
have to be able to sing,” he assured her. “Look at Mand- I mean, Willa Ford. You think she can sing?”
“Good point,”
snickered Claire. “But then again, Willa
Ford’s a one-hit wonder, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, I
guess so. Okay, so maybe being able to
sing is fairly important.”
“Well then
I’m out cause I’m fairly tone deaf,” Claire replied. “Ask any of my friends.”
He
laughed. “Well now, I gotta hear that…
we should hit a karaoke bar sometime,” he said, his eyes gleaming wickedly.
“Oh yeah,”
she said sarcastically, playfully hitting his shoulder.
“You hit like
a girl,” he told her matter-of-factly.
“Now get back to that back-rubbing, woman.”
“Oh, woman,
is it?” she repeated in mock offense.
“Well, in that case, I think I’ll just stop…”
“No, don’t!”
Nick begged. “Keep going, baby… all
night long!”
“Nick!” she
hissed. “Can you say that any
louder? My neighbors are gonna think
we’re up to something in here…”
“So let ‘em
think it,” he replied deviously, moaning loudly, “Ohhh, Claire!”
Smacking him,
she tried to keep a straight face, but burst out laughing and, gasping for
breath, screamed, “Ohhh, YES! YES! NICK!”
Laughing,
Nick said, “See, now we gotta go to your bedroom and jump on your bed… make the
people below you think we’re really going at it.”
She burst out
laughing. “Uh, no, I don’t think
so. You’re already shirtless – you don’t
need to tempt me any more.” He must have
blushed or gotten a look on his face or something, because she glanced at him
and then started laughing again. “Whoa,
chill, I’m kidding! I’m not gonna rape
you or something, don’t worry. You’re
not even my type.”
“Oh yeah?” he
shot back defensively. “Well, what’s
‘your type’ then?”
“I dunno… I
guess I like ‘bad boys’,” she said seductively.
“And you… well, you’re kind of a pussy...”
“Hey!”
She started
laughing again, holding her stomach as she did so, and when she finally
stopped, she was breathless. Panting,
she said, “Hey, how about some of that ice cream? I dunno about you, but I’m starving. I never did get around to putting that pizza
in the oven.”
“Ooh yeah,
I’m starving too. Ice cream sounds
great,” he said, temporarily forgetting all about his massage and focusing on
the next best thing – ice cream. They
both got up from the couch and wandered into the kitchen, where Claire hauled
out the four cartons of ice cream, two spoons, and two bowls.
“There you
go,” she said, slapping a bowl and spoon down on the counter in front of
him. “Have at it!”
***