Chapter Twelve - A Night Alone

“Come back to your room?” Caraline asked as she looked at him, “And just hang out and watch movies and stuff?”

“Yeah,” Nick said as he smiled and held his hands up, “I promise. No tricks involved. You don’t have to dress up,” he said as he looked at her overalls and smiled, looking back up at her, “You can wear your cute little overalls,”

“Okay,” Caraline said as she smiled, “We’ll hang out and stuff. That actually sounds pretty cool. I can handle that, but, we can’t watch any action movies. I pick what we watch,”

“Whatever you say goes,” Nick said as he smiled, “I have to go make a call about the recording tomorrow, so I’ll see you later?”

“Yep,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking up at Nick as he stood up, “Should I bring my pj’s?”

“Not unless you’re planning on sleeping over,”

“Well you asked me to stay with you tonight,”

“You have a point,” he said as he pointed at her, “I’ll see you later,” he said as he smiled at her. Caraline watched him as he walked over to the door and walked out of it and started to smile herself until she looked back up, seeing Faith standing there.

“Hey,” Caraline said as she started to laugh, “How did you get in?”

“I was about to knock on the door when Nick was walking out,” Faith said as she smiled, walking over to the bed and sat down, “I wanted to talk to you alone without Tim around or anything,” she said as Caraline looked at her, “Just make sure that you do what you really want okay?”

“You mean about the job?”

“Yes. Sweetie, it’s just,” Faith said as she looked down at her hands, taking a deep breath, “I see how you look when you talk about Nick and I know you really like him,” she said as she looked back up at Caraline. Caraline nodded her head agreeing with her. “I don’t want you to loose something that may be something you really want because you think you need to take a small job. Tim won’t be mad or upset if you don’t take it, I don’t want you to think that,”

“But what are you saying?” Caraline asked as she looked at Faith, “You mean you think maybe I shouldn’t take it and I should stay around here, getting to know Nick better?”

“I want you to do what you want to do. If you want to come on the tour, then you do that. If you want to go and spend some time there, then you do that and if you want to stay around here, getting to know Nick better, then do that. I can’t tell you not to rush into anything because look at me. Tim and I only dated a few months before we got married and I was pregnant with Gracie, but I knew it’s what I wanted and what he wanted,” Faith said as Caraline smiled, “I just saw how you talked about your kiss with him today and it reminded me of me. When Tim and I got together we acted like two fifteen year olds instead of grown adults, but that’s what love does,”

“I know,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking down at her bracelet, “He wants me to spend the night with him tonight, but it’s not like that. It’s just to hang out and talk and watch movies and stuff. I told him I would but I’m kind of scared to,”

“Scared that you’ll start to like him more?”

“Yeah, I am,”

“Don’t be scared,” Faith said as Caraline looked back up at her. She had a good point, “Just go with the flow and it’ll lead you to what you’re supposed to do,”

“Okay,” Caraline said as she smiled, leaning up to hug her, “Thanks,”

“And have fun tonight,” Faith said as Caraline laughed, “But be a good girl and don’t give in too easily,” she said as Caraline started to laugh.

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

Nick layed there on the bed, with his arm covering his eyes, resting. He wasn’t really resting because all he could think about was what happened the night before. He still couldn’t get Caraline off of his mind. It was inevitable. He knew it wasn’t going to leave anytime soon either.

She was even starting to influence his work. He was supposed to go into the studio to record a song that morning, but he went in, writing a song within a hour’s time and did a recording of it. He loved it. He was skipping over the other song and planned on recording a real version of the song he wrote, the next morning.

“The look in your eyes, the smile on your face,” Nick started to sing softly when he heard someone knock on the main suite door. He jumped, looking over at the clock to see that it was already 8:30 at night and he smiled, knowing that it was her, “Coming!!” he yelled as he jumped off of the bed, running out of the bedroom and up to the door. He peeked out of the peephole, seeing her standing there with, looking down at the ground, “Hey,” Nick said as he opened the door up. Caraline looked up and smiled at him, “Glad you came,”

“Well I told you I would,” Caraline said as she smiled, walking into the suite. Nick looked back at her, smiling himself as he shut and locked the door back, “You do have a nice suite,”

“That I do,” Nick said as he looked in her hands to see a bag, “What’s in the bag?”

“My pajama’s and some DVD’s,” Caraline said as she sat the bag down on the sofa, “You said spend the night and I’m not going to spend the whole night in my overalls,” she said as Nick smiled at her, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing kinky,”

“Damn,” Nick muttered as he snapped his fingers and looked down, remembering that he was in a t-shirt and his boxer briefs, “Well since I’m already dressed for bed,” he said as he started to lean up against the wall and almost fell over. Caraline cracked up laughing at him in return, “Damn, I’m making a fool out of myself.”

“No you’re not,” Caraline said as she smiled, “Can I go and change into my pajamas?”

“Sure, just go into my room,” Nick said, pointing to his bedroom as she leaned over, taking some DVD’s out of her bag, sitting them on the coffee table, “What are those?”

“Friends, seasons one through four,” Caraline said as Nick looked at her questionably as she picked the bag with her pajama’s and started to walk by him and stopped, “It’s my favorite TV show. I live by it. It’s like a Bible to me. You wanted to get to know one another better. I’m letting you get to know me,” she said as she smiled, and went into his bedroom.

Nick smiled, walking over to the DVD’s, picking them up and looked at them. He had hardly ever watched the show. He looked at them, figuring that they should start watching season one so he would know who was who. He only knew who the actors were and didn’t know the characters from a hole in the wall. He opened the DVD case up, taking out disc one and put it into the DVD player when he heard something behind him. He was scared to turn around at first incase she was standing there wearing some negligee that would surely make his heart stop at any given moment.

“Okay, done,” Caraline said as Nick looked over his shoulder, seeing Caraline walking towards him in a tight sky blue tank top with the Friends logo written on it and matching shorts. He paused for a second, taking a deep breath, staring at her until she paused, looking back at him, “Yes, I’m obsessed with the show okay?” she asked as she started to laugh, putting her bag down on the floor.

“Not why I was staring,” Nick said as Caraline walked over to the sofa, crawling up on it. Caraline laughed at him a little as he started to back up, almost falling over the coffee table but caught himself, “God damn I’m making an idiot of myself,”

“Why are you so uptight?” Caraline asked as Nick walked around the coffee table and sat down on the sofa beside her, “Are you nervous or something?” she asked as she put her arms around he knee that was propped up on the sofa.

“Yeah, aren’t you nervous?” Nick asked as he looked over at her. She nodded her head a little, smiling at him and he smiled back, “I’m sorry if I’m nervous just, you know, I don’t want you to hate me or anything,”

“Why would I hate you?”

“You always seem to bring the groupies thing up every time we start to get close. I don’t want to do anything to push you away,” Nick said as he looked back down at the remote that was in his hands, “I can’t help it,” he said as Caraline turned around, crawling up on her knees and faced him.

“You think I’m going to push you away with the groupie talk?” Caraline asked as Nick looked over at her. She stared into his eyes as he nodded his head yes and she smiled a little, pressing her lips together, “Do you think if I was trying to push you away that I would be here right now?”

“Then why do you always bring that up when something important is about to happen or we start to get really close?” Nick asked as he turned around, looking at her directly, “You always do that Caraline. I don’t get it, because I know that I’ve done things in the past that is wrong -”

“Nick,” Caraline whispered as she looked down at the sofa and then back up at him, “It’s just things I’ve experienced in the past and I can’t help it okay. It’s going to cause me to always wonder with you -”

“Why me?”

“Your lifestyle,”

“Did you get hurt by someone with the same kind of lifestyle as me?”

“Yes,” Caraline said as she looked down, “It was a mistake, a drunken mistake that’s caused me to be cautious of everybody that I’m around with that type of lifestyle -”

“But it’s not me,” Nick whispered as Caraline smiled at him, lifting her arm up and moving his hair off of his forehead, “I really, really like you okay and trust me, to me, right now, there’s no other girl in this city or the world and I’m not saying that to get you into bed. I’m saying it because I like you,”

“But you want to get me into bed,”

“God yes,”

“I want you to too,” Caraline whispered as Nick looked at her and smiled, “More than anything,”

“But not yet,” Nick said as Caraline smiled, “Because tonight is our hanging out night,” he said as Caraline smiled, leaning up closer to him. Nick moved in closer to her as they both started to close their eyes, and began to kiss each other softly on the lips. Nick took her mouth into his as he moved his hand up to the side of her face, cupping it as Caraline began to back away from his lips, sucking on them lightly.

“So,” Caraline whispered as she kissed his lips again quickly, “Shall we watch the DVD’s and you learn about me?”

“Yes we shall,” Nick said as Caraline smiled, moving off of her knees and sitting down on the sofa, curling up into the corner. Nick turned around, hitting play on the DVD player as the front screen came on, “Where do I go now?”

“Just hit play,” Caraline said as it started to come on, “This is the first episode so you’ll get to know everything in here,”

“Okay,” Nick said as he crossed his arms, looking at the screen seeing Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, and Ross, “Where’s Jennifer Aniston?”

“She’s coming soon,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking over at Nick who was watching the show closely, “I have a question for you,”

“Okay,” Nick said as he kept watching the TV and cut his eyes over to her before looking back at the TV, “Are we playing twenty questions again?”

“No it’s just a simple question,” Caraline said as she looked down at her hands, “Have you ever been in love?” she asked as Nick looked over at her, “Really, have you?”