Chapter Three - Dinner For Two

“So,” Tim said early that evening as he stood there in his and Faith’s hotel suite, “Caraline is going out with Nick tonight?” he asked as Faith nodded her head, looking over some papers that she had to sign for her manager, “Does she like him?”. Faith shrugged her shoulders as Tim blinked his eyes at her, “Did you two have a girl talk?”

“Why yes,” Faith said as she looked over the papers at Tim, “She’s just going out to dinner with him she says,”. Then there was a knock at the door and Tim looked over at it, “And I would suppose that’s her considering it’s about 7:15 and her date is about 7:30,”

“I’ll get it,” Tim said as he walked over to the door, looking out the peephole and started to laugh. He opened the door up to see Caraline standing there. She was wearing a pair of tight, low cut, dark blue jeans, a red tank top that came right above her belly button, and a matching dark blue jean jacket, “Well well,”

“Don’t laugh at me please,” Caraline said as she walked into the room, looking over at Faith, “How do I look? Do I look to showy or not dressy enough or -”

“You look beautiful,” Faith said as she stood, putting the papers down in the chair and smiled, “Your hair is perfect,” she said as Caraline looked over into a mirror at her hair and then back at Tim and then at Faith, “You look good,”

“You look hot,” Tim said as he crossed his arms, “If you’re going for just dinner then you’re dressing the wrong way,” he said as Faith hit him lightly on the arm, “What?”

“I don’t look too slutty do I?” Caraline asked as she walked over to the mirror, taking her lip gloss out of her little purse and put some more on, “I don’t want to look slutty. I’m not going to have sex, I’m just going to have dinner,”

“You look fine. You don’t look slutty at all,” Faith said as she walked up behind her, putting her hands on Caraline’s shoulders, “Now go and have a good time, but you’ve got to give me all the details,”

“Okay,” Caraline said as she sighed, looking back at Faith, “It’s time to eat,” she said as she turned around, giving Faith a hug, “Thanks,”

“Go have some fun, you deserve it,” Faith said as Caraline walked by Tim, giving him a high five as she smiled, walking out of the door. She shut the door and Faith looked over at Tim smiling, “She’s so going to get herself into something she never bargained for.”

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

Nick sat down at a table in the hotel’s restaurant as the hostess walked back to the front. He looked at her and then at the menu that sat in front of him and started picking a the side of it. He looked down at what he was wearing and knew he looked like crap but he didn’t really have time to go buy anything to wear. He had stripped polo shirt and a pair of a jeans that looked a little nice, so he wore that.

He sighed, looking up and licking his lips nervously when he saw the hostess walking back towards him with someone walking behind her. Finally the hostess moved out of the way and he saw Caraline walking towards him, holding her small purse in her hands, in front of her, “Thanks,” Caraline said as the hostess started to walk away and Caraline looked at Nick, “Hi,”

“Hey,” Nick said as he watched her pull the chair out, and sit down across from him, “I was afraid that I wasn’t dressy enough, but I guess I’m okay,”

“Well it’s not like it’s a fancy restaurant,” Caraline said as Nick laughed and looked down smiling, “But it’s not McDonald’s either,” Nick laughed again and Caraline looked around, “If you were taking me to a McDonald’s, then I wouldn’t have came,”

“Really?”

“No,”

“Thought so,” Nick said as he looked up at her, propping his elbows up on the table, “So, you grew up with Faith huh?”

“Yeah,” Caraline said as she sat back in the chair and crossed her legs, “Sort of, well she left home when I was little to live in Nashville. But I was always in touch of her because of my oldest sister. Then I graduated college and she gave me a job and tada,”

“You’ve already graduated college?

“Yep,”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-three,” Caraline said as Nick raised an eyebrow at her, “I started college two years early. I’m gifted,”

“Yeah I bet,” Nick muttered as Caraline looked at him, “Sorry.” Caraline laughed a little and looked around the restaurant while Nick watched her, “So what did you graduate college with?”

“A degree?” Caraline asked as Nick rolled his eyes, “Fashion Design and Cosmetology. I was a double major. So that’s what I do with Faith. I’m her stylist,” she said as Nick nodded his head a little, “It looks like you need one,”

“Huh?”

“You seriously need a haircut,”

“Yeah, so?” Nick asked as he leaned back in the chair, looking at her, “Maybe I like my hair like this?” Caraline just smiled, rolling her eyes, looking down at her menu, “Why? You think I need a haircut?” He asked as she looked back up at him. “Nevermind, you just said I did,”

“Why are you rambling like that?” Caraline asked as Nick shrugged his shoulders, picking at the side of the menu again, “Did I hurt your feelings?”

“No,” Nick said as he started to pout a little, “You didn’t hurt my feelings. I just wonder why you think I need a haircut, that’s all,” She laughed in return, looking over at a waitress that walked by, looking at them, “So why do you think I need a haircut?”

“I don’t really like long hair on guys that much,”

“Well it gives you something to pull during sex,”

“Which, I’m sure you have experience in that,” Caraline muttered softly as Nick looked at her. She looked up at him and smiled a little, before looking back down at the menu while pressing her lips together as a waitress walked up to them and began taking their orders.

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

Both Nick and Caraline had been sitting at the table a good ten minutes waiting on their food. They had hardly said anything to one another but kept giving one another looks, that was almost like speaking to one another. She would look over to see him looking at her and he would roll his eye sand she would do the same.

“So what did you mean about I have experience with people pulling my hair during sex?” Nick blurted out as Caraline started laughing hysterically. She moved her hands down to her stomach, holding it and moved her left hand up to her mouth, covering it up, “What is so funny? We’ve sat here for like ten minutes and haven’t said crap to one another,”

“You’re a celebrity so in one word, groupies,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking at him. Nick smiled, rolling his eyes, looking over at the hostess showing an older couple to their table, “Now see, you smiled and didn’t deny anything,”

“Can’t change the things you’ve done,” Nick said as he looked back to her, “I’m sure you’ve done things in your past that you’re ashamed of and that you wish you could redo,”

“To be honest, no,” Caraline said as Nick looked down and she started to smile a little, “Even if I have had some bad experiences, I wouldn’t want to go back and change my past because they wouldn’t make me who I am today,”

“Well damn,” Nick said, looking back at her, “You’re all deep and psychological and shit. You should become a writer,”

“Well I am, sort of,”

“Sort of?”

“I’ve got a publishing deal. I write songs. I didn’t start out doing it but I do that in my spare time,” Caraline said as Nick looked down at his plate, realizing he wasn’t really hungry. This girl was way too focused, “I had a top fifteen song this year,”

“Really? By who?” Nick asked, looking back up at her.

“Jessica Andrews. She’s a country singer, you probably don’t know her,” Caraline said as Nick nodded his head no, “I thought so, but yeah, and Martina McBride is recording one of my songs too,”

“Is there anything that you don’t do?” Nick asked as Caraline rolled her eyes at him, “Oh, you don’t do that huh?”

“Do what?”

“You know, what you talked about earlier,”

“Groupie stuff?” Caraline asked as Nick smiled, nodding his head, telling her yes, “I don’t know you well enough to tell you about my sex life.” Nick smiled even more, “And stop smiling like that. That doesn’t mean that I have a sex life but doesn’t mean that I don’t have one either. I like to be mysterious,”

“You are mysterious,” Nick said as he looked around, and then back at her, watching her as she pressed her lips together, picking at her food, “Not really hungry?”

“Not really,” Caraline said as she looked back up at him, “But you said 7:30 so I came,” Nick nodded his head, knowing that he did the same exact thing and laughed, “So why did you ask me to dinner?”

“Because I wanted to get to know you better?”

“Why?”

“You intrigued me?” Nick asked as he shrugged his shoulders, “You seemed normal and I never thought I’d see you again, much less in New York. I figured you lived in Los Angeles because I had seen you there twice,”

“To be honest, I don’t really live anywhere,” Caraline said as she laughed, “I guess I still live back home in Star. That’s the only home that I have. Whenever Tim and Faith have time off, and they’re at home, I usually either go home or when I’m in Nashville, working on some songs, especially lately, I stay with them for a day or two. But that’s it. My home is usually in hotels,”

“Yeah, that’s how I am,” Nick said as he looked down, playing with a napkin. He looked up to see her tucking her hair behind her ears again and watched her as she looked back up at him, “You wanna get out of here and walk around the hotel or something?”

“Sure, I guess,” Caraline said as they both stood up from the table. Nick walked over, talking to the waitress, telling her to charge the food to his hotel bill and then looked back over at Caraline, motioning for her to come over. She walked over to him, holding her purse and they walked out of the hotel restaurant and into the lobby, “So where exactly are we walking to?”

“My room?” Nick asked as he looked over at her smirking. She just rolled her eyes in return, “Admit it. You would like it,”

“You’re way too sure of yourself,” Caraline said as she started to walk off and Nick stood there watching her, and started to check her out a little, “Stop looking at my ass and come on,” she said as Nick laughed, and started to slowly run, catching up with her.