Chapter Eleven - The Job Proposition

[ Nick Narrating ]

Wow.

Did I say wow? I meant W-O-W!!! Okay that sounds super hero Batman sound effects like, or something, I’m lost and I’m blonde and I’m so not thinking clearly this morning. I’m sitting here in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for my ride to the studio and all I can think about was last night.

I can’t stop thinking about Caraline. The way she looked, the way she smiled, the way she laughed, the way she kissed, the way she tasted - I can’t stop thinking about her. Yes, I had a hard on last night at the restaurant, but do you blame me? The way she was talking man, she’s lucky I didn’t cum right there on the spot. Hell, I guess that makes me lucky too because that would be hella embarassing.

Something else crossed my mind last night though.

Right before we kissed, she got defensive and brought the whole groupies thing up, out of nowhere. It totally blind sided me and I didn’t see it coming. It’s like she throws that in my face every time we start to get close to one another and I don’t get it. Yes, I’ve made mistakes in my life. Hell, I make a lot of mistakes, but I don’t get why she does that. I wish she’d open up a little bit more to me but she won’t, and I can’t force her.

But damn, I want her so bad. The way she looked last night in that dress at dinner and then when it was wet, clinging to her body. I wish I could have just tore it off of her. I wish I didn’t have to leave her room last night, even if all we did was sit and talk. Or make love all night long, listening to the rain fall outside. Trust me, that’s all I thought about as I layed there in bed.

Is it sad I hope she doesn’t get a job with Tim doing his tour and she can stay here in New York? That’s selfishness on my part, I know, but damn, I can’t follow Tim McGraw around on tour. How would that look? There goes my whole rock star image, but then again this fan today told me that my whole rock star wanna be image got ruined when I did that Twister Moves duet with Aaron. Cheesy ass pop shit.

Maybe I can make Tim reconsider?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Caraline stood there, waiting to knock on Tim and Faith’s door to their suite that day around lunch time. She knew they both had a early morning interview on a radio station call in special so she slept in, considering it was after three in the morning before she ever got to sleep. She took a deep breath, looking down the hallway at the elevator before she knocked on the door and heard Sandra saying ‘hold on a second’. She rubbed her hands over forehead as Sandra opened the door, holding Audrey in her arms.

“Morning, or Afternoon,” Caraline said as she laughed, leaning over to kiss Audrey on the cheek, “Where’s Faith?”

“She’s in the other room,” Sandra said as she put Audrey down on the floor, “You can go on in,” Caraline smiled, looking over to see Maggie and Gracie enthused in watching some cartoon on TV and walked around the corner in the suite to see Tim and Faith sitting at a table, looking over some papers.

“Hey guys,” Caraline said as she walked in, putting her hands in her overalls, “I’m up,”

“The dead has risen,” Tim said as he laughed, shaking his head at her, “We called your room at nine this morning and it’s like you weren’t there. Then we called Nick’s room and the front desk said that he had already left.” Caraline just rolled her eyes at him as she sat down at the table, “You know, we thought maybe you two had a very good night.”

“You wish,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking over at Faith, “We didn’t get back to the rooms until like two and by the time I got in bed it was three,”

“So, how was it? Where did you go?” Faith asked, leaning up on the table, waiting for Caraline to spill the details. Caraline looked over at Tim, and then back at Faith, “Oh right, boy in the room,”

“I don’t get why I can’t hear too. You know I love some gossip,” Tim said as Faith shooed her hand at him, “Did you at least have a good time?”

“We went to this fancy restaurant and ate and then came back to the hotel and went up to the roof and talked and just kinda hung out and then he brought me back to my room, he left after a minute, and I took a shower and went to bed. That’s it,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking over at Faith again, “I really like him,”

“Did you stop teasing him?” Tim asked as Caraline looked over at him, “What? He told me you were one hell of a tease,”

“We kissed,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking down at the table, “It was so intense. It wasn’t one of those just bang kisses and it’s over, it took a minute for our lips to finally reach each other and then it’s like it lasted forever,”

“That’s so sweet,” Faith said as she smiled, “I think you may have something here,”

“Can’t have too much,” Caraline said as she leaned back in the chair, putting her hands in the pockets of her overalls again, “We’re usually always in two places,”

“Well,” Tim said as he took his glasses off and looked at Caraline, when she interrupted him.

“You looked like a old man doing that,” Caraline whispered as Tim rolled his eyes at her. Faith just laughed at them.

“Whatever,” Tim said as he cracked up laughing and looked over at Caraline, “You know what we were going to talk about today right?”

“Right,” Caraline said as she looked over at Faith and then back at Tim, “About doing the costume designs and things for your turn,”

“Right,” Tim said as he looked down at a paper in front of him, “If you want to come on board and do that, then I want you to and of course Faith and the girls are going to be out there unless of course Faith has to do something in the meantime which you can go and do that with her since she’s your main boss,” Tim said as he pushed the paper over in front of Caraline and she saw that it was a contract to be his costume designer on the new tour, “But if you want to. The job is yours,”

“Really?” Caraline asked as she looked at Faith and then back at Tim. She looked down at the contract, reading it, realizing it was just a normal contract that says she will go on the tour and all of the other legal mumbo jumbo stuff.

“Yeah,” Tim said as Caraline looked up at him, “You know you and Faith help me pick out good clothes anyway so I trust you with it. We want you out there with us. Plus the girls would miss you,”

“Yeah,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking at the contract again.

“You don’t have to sign it right this minute,” Faith said as Tim looked at her. Caraline looked up at Faith and then back down at the contract, “Because if you feel like you don’t want to do this because you may want some time off to yourself to do whatever it is that you feel like doing, then by all means do what you want. You need to live our own life because I know that you’re usually always with me and since you’ve met Nick -”

“Oh no,” Caraline said as she smiled, shaking her head as she looked up at Faith and then over at Tim, “There’s nothing going on with Nick. Yeah, I like him but I’m not giving up a job that I’ve wanted to do since I was little for a guy that I sort of like right now. It has nothing to do with Tim,”

“Whatever you say,” Tim said as he laughed, “But we’d really like for you to come out with us on the tour and don’t sign it right now. You don’t need to have your decision right this minute. Just think it over and give it back to us in the morning okay?”

“Okay,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking at them, “I know that I’ll take it though. There’s no question about it really, I’m pretty sure of it,” she said as Tim and Faith smiled. She looked back down at the paper, smiling as she read it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[ Caraline Narrating ]

I have two choices that I can take:

Choice A: I can take Tim’s job position of being his tour’s costume designer while Faith is taking a little downtime while he’s on the tour, but have Faith be my main boss and when she needs me, then I go with her. Mainly all I would do is help pick out clothes for Tim, because his band usually wears whatever the hell they want. I think more or less, it’s just them wanting me to stay on the tour with them. That makes me feel good inside because at least I know that someone wants me around and cares about me enough to want me around.

Being Tim’s designer is another thing I can put on my resume, along with the work I’ve done for Faith. Plus I’ll be around Faith and she’s probably one of my best friends in the world. And Maggie, Gracie, and Audrey, I would miss them a lot too if I wasn’t around them.

Choice B: I could decline Tim’s offer and I could either go home to Star, go to Nashville to work on my songwriting, or I could stay here in New York and check out some fashion shows and do some research on the latest styles. Plus I guess the fact that Nick’s here doesn’t hurt much either.

I didn’t want it to seem like a big deal with Tim and Faith because I know Tim would make fun of me. It’s his nature, he’d tease me because I really like a boy. It’s the older brother type thing in him I guess. I’m just not one to share all of my inner most secrets to anybody. Faith knows just about everything about.

Almost everything.

There’s some things that nobody knows. To be honest, I don’t want anybody to know either. I would tell Faith about them, but, I’m ashamed of myself and I don’t want to. She seriously thought I was a virgin until the other night. I swear I told her before that I’ve had sex, maybe she forgot.

As for Nick, last night was great and I feel so bad. I feel bad that I jump down his throat about the groupies all the time but I can’t help it. It’s always there in my mind, wondering if he wants me just to get me into bed and then not care about me anymore, or is he serious and he really likes me and he wants more with me. I think maybe last night might have proved that he does. He seemed really genuine about it all and the kiss… oh man, THE kiss.

It was almost like one of those fairy tale kisses, where Prince Charming comes up and rescues Cinderella and they kiss for the first time. It’s like every emotion in my body was boiling with fire at that moment. I almost wish it went a little bit further but I’m glad that it didn’t because trust me, I wanted to. After that kiss, I was so turned on, I almost grabbed him by the tie and just pounced him.

That sounds a little graphic but.. I can’t help it. I really like him and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind having something more with him. I wouldn’t mind spending all night, lying in bed with him and feeling his arms wrapped around me. I wouldn’t mind kissing him all over his body until he was in complete ecstasy.

I wouldn’t mind any of it. In fact, I want it bad.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Caraline sat on her hotel bed late that afternoon, looking at a fashion magazine while the TV was on CMT, playing Rascal Flatts’ “These Days” video. She sang along with it softly, while twirling her hair when she heard a knock at the door and looked up.

“Coming,” Caraline said as she climbed off of her bed and walked over to the door and peeked out, seeing Nick standing outside. She smiled a little, unlocking the door, and opened it up seeing him standing there in a white t-shirt and pair of jeans, “Hey,”

“Hey,” Nick said as he looked around, “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Caraline said as she backed up a little as Nick walked into the room and she shut the door behind him, “How was recording today?”

“It was so-so. I wrote a song though,” Nick said as he looked over at her, “Which I’m gonna record tomorrow, so I guess everything went pretty good,” he said as Caraline walked back over to the bed as Nick stood there, looking around, “Can I sit down on there too?”

“Sure,” Caraline said as she smiled and he walked over, sitting down on the bed too, “So, Tim offered me to the job to be his designer and all on his tour,” she said as Nick looked over at her, “He told me I could just let him know my answer in the morning,”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll probably take it,”

“Well that’s cool,” Nick said as he looked down at his hands and looked up at the TV, “So how did you sleep last night?”

“Pretty good,” Caraline said as Nick looked over at her, smiling, “How did you sleep?”

“It was alright,” Nick said as he laughed a little, “Eight came really early this morning though but it’s all good. It was worth it,” He looked over at Caraline as she smiled at him and then looked back down at her magazine, “So I’ve got this idea,”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,”

“What is it?” Caraline asked, not taking her eyes from her magazine.

“I want you to come back to my room and stay with me tonight,” Nick said as Caraline looked back at him, “Not that, so don’t even go there. Just so we can hang out and we can talk. I’ve got a suite so it’s more room and stuff so that’s why I said mine. So do you want to?” he asked as Caraline looked at him, taking a deep breath.