Chapter Six - Beer For My Horses

Caraline sat there in a chair that afternoon, right after lunch as Faith was in another room, giving an interview. She had already done the photo shoot and Caraline’s job was basically done. Now all she had to do was wait for Faith to finish her interview. In the meantime, she had other things on her mind.

She really couldn’t stop thinking about Nick, and what they had said to each other that morning in the bathroom. She couldn’t believe she had the guts to tell him she actually wanted him and she hoped that he didn’t think he was going to going to actually get somewhere with her the next night when they were meeting up again.

“Caraline,” Faith said as she walked out of a room and Caraline jumped, looking over at her, “You were deep in thought, huh?”

“Yeah, kinda,” Caraline said as she smiled, standing up, “Is everything over?”

“Yep, let’s get back to the hotel so that we can get hour luggage and head for the airport,” Faith said as she reached over, picking up her bag as Caraline reached for her backpack, and then Faith’s make-up case. They started walking down the hallway with Faith’s security guard, George, and Faith kept looking over at Caraline who was biting down on her bottom lip, “Caraline?”

“Yeah?” Caraline asked as she looked over at Faith, “What is it?”

“You look like something’s bothering you,” Faith said as they walked outside and George held the limo door open for them, as they crawled inside, “Is everything okay? Tim said that he saw Nick coming from your room this morning.” Caraline just looked at her, “What happened?”

“Oh nothing really. He just came by to see me before I left this afternoon and everything,” Caraline said as she sighed and looked over at Faith, smiling. “I was in the bathroom this morning while he was there, getting ready for today, you know, and I was putting on my make up and he was telling me how I was beautiful without it,”

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Faith said as she smiled, “So what else happened?”

“We’re going to go out tomorrow night again, after we get back here,” Caraline whispered as she smiled and looked down at her watch, “I’m playing hard to get,”

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that hard,” Faith said as she laughed and Caraline cut her eyes to her.

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

Nick walked into the hotel that night. He had been working all day so that he could have most of the next day off so that he could go shopping so he would have something nice to wear for his other ‘date’ with Caraline. He sighed, walking through the lobby, seeing Tim walking off the elevator and waved at him.

“Nick,” Tim said as he walked up to him, ” Just in time my man,” he said as he wrapped his arm around his neck, “We need to have some man talk,”

“Man talk?” Nick asked as Tim moved his arm and they walked into the hotel bar, sitting up at the bar, “What kind of man talk?”

“About Caraline,” Tim said as he looked at the bartender, “Get us two beers,” Nick looked at the bartender and then back at Tim, wondering what he was getting at, “About Miss Caraline, who I hear you really like,”

“I really, really like her,” Nick said as he smiled, watching the bartender sitting their bottles of beer on the counter top in font of them, “So what’s this about?”

“Well,” Tim said as he took a sip of his beer, and looked at Nick, “I’m going to give it to you straight. I look at her like a little sister because I’ve known her since she was a kid, basically since I first met Faith. She’s basically become a part of family, especially over the past few years since she’s been working with Faith,”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Nick said as he took a swallow of his beer, with a petrified look on his face. He really had NO idea where this was going.

“I try to look out for her. Her father died a few years ago, and so I try to be a manly figure in her life, I guess you could say, besides her brothers of course. Trust me, they’re bigger than me, so you’re better off talking to me,” Tim said as Nick laughed a little, looking at his drink, “And I like you. I’ve always liked you and the other guys in the group. You seem like good, hard working guys,”

“We are,” Nick said as he nodded his head a little, looking over at Tim.

“Just don’t fuck over Caraline,” Tim said as he pointed his beer bottle at Nick before taking a sip of it. Nick just stared at him, “If you do, you’ll regret it,”

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on hurting her,” Nick said, drinking some more, “I don’t plan on it at all. It’s the last thing I want,”

“Well good,” Tim said as he smiled, “We have a mutual agreement,”

“Yes we do,” Nick said as they clicked their beer bottles together, “So tell me about her,” he said as Tim looked at him, “I mean I want to know more about her but she’s so secretive about things sometimes and mysterious,”

“Well what do you want to know?” Tim asked, turning around and looking at him, “Her favorite movie or if she’s single?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s single,” Nick said as Tim started to laugh, “I hope that I’m not out of line, but she’s a fucking tease,”

“A tease huh?”

“Yes man,” Nick said as he turned around, facing the bar, looking at his beer bottle again, “She’s such a damn tease,”

“She’s only had two serious boyfriends that I know about,” Tim said as he took another sip of his drink, “One in high school and one in college, and that’s it. She hasn’t dated anybody since she’s been working with Faith,”

“She’s really smart,”

“She’s too smart for her own good. I told her she would make one hell of a music manager, but she’s too into fashion and design and all of that girly stuff. Lately she’s been getting into songwriting and she’s got some damn talent. We’ve been working on this song together that I want to do for Faith, and it’s great so far,”

“She’s too damn smart,”

“She is,”

“I want her so bad, damn,” Nick muttered as Tim reached over, hitting him on the arm, “Damn, what?”

“Hey, now you can’t be sharing all those thoughts with me now!” Tim said as Nick cracked up laughing, asking the bartender for another beer.

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

Caraline sat there in the hotel suite that she was sharing with Faith in Toronto. She snuggled back into the corner of the sofa, bending her knees up in the air and had a notepad pressed against her thighs, looking at it. She had been writing down some thoughts for a song for the past hour, trying to make them all come together but nothing was working.

She still kept thinking about Nick.

She looked over, seeing Faith come out Gracie and Maggie’s room in the suite. Whenever Faith and Tim had to travel alone, the kids always stayed with Faith and she also had a part time nanny that traveled with them sometimes, but she had her own room away from theirs for the night since Faith could take care of them alone.

“What are you doing?” Faith asked as she leaned over the sofa, propping her elbows on it, “Doing some writing?”

“Trying,” Caraline said as she smiled, “It isn’t working too well,” she said as she closed her notebook, tossing it over onto her backpack, “My mind is too scattered and I’m tired,”

“Thinking about Nick?”

“Kinda,”

“Kinda?”

“Yeah,” Caraline said as she smiled, leaning back on the sofa, putting her hands over her eyes, “I shouldn’t have even went out with him last night. I can’t really get him out of my mind,”

“Finally,” Faith said as she laughed a little, “She expresses her true feelings,” Caraline moved her hands from her eyes, staring at her, “It’s normal. You have a crush on him,”

“Oh it’s more than a crush. I want him,” Caraline said as she sat up on the sofa, as Faith looked a little shocked.

“You want him… like what?”

“Yeah,”

“Aren’t you a -”

“Sorry to break your heart, but I won’t be wearing white at my wedding if you know what I mean,” Caraline said as she laughed, “I lost that six years ago,” Faith just shook her head in return, “Hey, I loved the guy at the time, so, you know, it’s not like I wasted it on someone. I loved Bryan, he’s just not what I want in life,”

“But you want Nick,” Faith said, standing up and crossing her arms, staring at Caraline, “I mean, you want to have sex with him?”

“I wouldn’t consider it sex. I never consider it sex,” Caraline said as she smiled, shrugging her shoulders, “I just have this instant attraction with him. I swear if I didn’t have any inner control I would have kissed him this morning and taken him right there in the bathroom,”

“Stop!” Faith whispered as she put her hands over her ears, “I can’t hear about you having sex,” she said as Caraline rolled her eyes, laughing.

“Oh come on,” Caraline said as Faith moved her hands from her ears, looking at her, “I can’t help. This morning we leaned into kiss each other and I put my finger up, stopping us and he kissed it. You don’t know how much that turned me on -”

“This is too much,” Faith said as she shook her head and Caraline cracked up laughing, “I don’t know how I would react if you got yourself a boyfriend. When we have girl talks it’s always about me or other things. It never really involves you and a guy. I think I’ve learned more about you tonight than I have in the past three years,”

“I wonder how big he is,” Caraline said as she put her pen up to her mouth, smirking, “He has big hands and big feet and you know what they say about a man with big feet,”

“Definitely not big shoes,” Faith said as she laughed and Caraline started to giggle, “Just promise me one thing,”

“Sure, what?” Caraline asked, looking up at Faith.

“Don’t rush into anything because you think that you won’t have anymore time with him, because you will, trust me. You might not think it now, but if he likes you like I think he does, he’ll make time to see you,”

“Okay, I promise,”

“Good,” Faith said as she smiled, “Now I’m going to sleep after I talk to Tim,”

“Night,” Caraline said as Faith walked into her room, shutting the door behind her. She sat there, biting on the top of her pen, smiling as she thought about what Faith said. She had a point and there was no need to rush into anything at all.

But what if she didn’t want to wait?