“Flight 15A6 to Miami International Airport is now boarding.”

I looked over at Nick to see a smile on his face. This was the beginning of something good, I could almost feel it my bones – hell I was already starting to feel it in my heart. Things were going so well, it seemed like a fairytale.

Nick and I only spent a few nights together the past week and when we did, we only slept together once. The other times we just slept, holding one another and talking. I loved talking to him in the darkness and quiet of the night. It had become one of my favorite things to do.
While we were in Miami for this fashion week thing, my mother was going to be taking care of Katie. Nick was a bit nervous about it before but when my sister reassured him that my mother was great with her grandchildren, he was better. For some odd reason, my mother is crazy about that little girl. She says that Katie reminds her of me when I was a baby with her curly hair and big blue eyes.

On the other hand, I think my father is noticing the fact that Nick and I are becoming very good friends. He actually came over a few days ago, after work only to see Nick and Katie at my apartment. I wasn’t expecting him to drop by and he saw Nick when I opened the door. He took me into the hallway and asked what was going on. I told him that it was innocent and that Nick came over because his roommate was working and he was bored.

I guess my father bought the excuse, he hasn’t said anymore about it.

“Erin,” I heard a voice say. I looked over in my seat to see Nick smiling at me. “You’re beautiful today.”

I smiled. I thought I looked like crap. “Thank you,” I whispered back. I wanted to give him a kiss but it wasn’t safe on a public airplane. A photographer could be going undercover and you just never know when someone could snap a picture of you.

“I was thinking,” Nick whispered. I looked at the old woman across the isle from me and back at him. “And I came to the realize a few things and I think when we get to Miami we need to talk.”

Talk?

I hated talks.

Talks were never good.

“Don’t worry,” he said, reassuring me before I ever showed the slightest sign of nervousness.

“It’s nothing bad, I promise.”

We made it to the beach house, which was really a condo, small, but cozy and closer to the places we needed to go than the hotels were. Plus – it was right on the beach. On the way to there, the taxi driver told us about a tropical storm that would be hitting any day now, but that it would be nothing major – just rain and a few thunderstorms.

That ruined any thoughts of a romantic beach dinner that I had.

We ordered take out from some small, local restaurant and had it delivered to the condo so that we didn’t bother going back out and finding a place to eat. Plus – I was ready to find out what he wanted to talk about.

It had bugged me all day long. I was just anxious to find out what Nick wanted to talk about. I wanted to bring it up myself as we were watching television earlier but I didn’t. I was too scared to.

Now, I’m sitting on the bed in the room I’m sleeping in and reading a meditation book that Lily gave me. I honestly think it’s a crock of shit, but I told her that I would give it a shot.

“Erin,” I heard Nick say. I looked up, seeing him peek inside my room. “What are you doing up here alone? Why aren’t you in the living room?”

“You were watching TV and looking over some designs so I decided to come read this book Lily gave me,” I said. I showed him the cover and he laughed. “What’s up?”

“Well I had been waiting on you,” he said. He walked up to the bed and took the book out of my hands.

“You made me loose my spot,” I said. I watched him as he took my hands and led me out of the bedroom. I caught a glimpse of the living room behind him and it was lit in candles.

Speechless. I was speechless.

“I noticed at your apartment that you like candles,” he said, staring me in the eyes. “You like them right?” I nodded my head in return. “Good, I wanted to do something special and since it’s raining outside, I found some candles in the kitchen so I said what the hell.”

“Why did you want to do something special? Hell, it’s special enough that we’re here alone and nobody can see us, you know?”

I watched him as he walked over, turning the television on. It was on some all-music ballads channel. He did plan it out if he thought of that since we had no stereo. He walked up to me, putting his arms around my waste and asked me to dance.

I laughed slightly, thinking he was joking until I realized that he was serious. Hell, we hadn’t danced since the the second night we met when we almost had sex in the bathroom at the club.

This dance was different. It wasn’t dirty and flirty like we had danced before. It was slow, gentle, and romantic. In fact, I had rarely danced this way period. Daniel always hated to dance and actually made me come to resent it since I never had anyone to dance with.

“Erin,” he whispered. I moved my head back slowly, looking him in the eyes. “What I wanted to talk to you about tonight was about Katie.”

Katie? What could he possibly want to ask me about Katie? I barely knew his little girl. “What is it?” I asked.

“Well, I’m wondering if you know any good photographers around Los Angeles. I want to get some pictures of her done, really nice ones so that I can send some to her grandparents, you know, Katie’s parents,” he said. I smiled, thanking God it wasn’t anything too serious.

Then again, he had me worrying all day long about a photographer?

“Yeah, I know some. I’ll give you a list when we get home.”

“Thanks baby.”

“Baby?” I asked, looking at him questionably. He smiled, looking a bit shy. “Do you like calling me that?”

“Isn’t that what a guy is supposed to call his girlfriend?” he whispered, leaning over to kiss me gently next to my mouth.

“Know what I think?” I whispered, kissing him on the lips the same way he had kissed me. “I think you could have asked me about the photographer on the plane. I think somebody wanted to get laid.”

“Nah, I don’t want to get laid,” he said softly. He reached down, putting his fingertips in the top of my pajama shorts and smiled at me. “I just wanted to be with you, Erin.” He looked around and then smiled at me again. “We’re in Miami and I could be out visiting old friends and all of that but I’d rather spend this time with you.

My heart was hurting because of that. I leaned up and began to kiss him passionately, before practically pushing him down on the sofa. It was happening so fast that before I knew it, the clothing that we had on were scattered about on the floor. Thankfully we didn’t know any candles over and if we had, we probably wouldn’t have paid attention to it.

We began teasing one another constantly. It had become some weird habit for us, he would move his hand down and tease me while I did the same thing to him. The only thing was, this time, he actually went down there to tease me instead of his hand. I opened my eyes, looking around at the candle light, wondering if he was going to let me return the favor. Then as he started to do something he never did with me before, those thoughts completely left my head. He was touching and licking lightly lightly and right when I was about to become unable to take anymore, he stopped. He kissed his way back up to face and smiled at me.

“They in your bag?” he whispered, giving my neck little butterfly kisses.

“They what?” I asked. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He stopped and looked at me with a blank face.

“Condoms.”

“We used the last ones the other night and I never had time to go get any. I thought you’d have some,” I said. A look of disappointment washed over his face as he rolled off of me, onto the floor. “What? You don’t have any?”

“No, you just, you usually have them.”

“I’m sorry, I was rushed and didn’t think about it.”

“God, we shouldn’t have even started nothing if we didn’t have any, it’s too late to go out for those now and by the time we got back, the mood would be over.”

“Do we absolutely need any? We know each other now,” I said, seeing him look at me in a state of shock. I began to wonder if what I said was out of the question, shocking, or just wrong. “I mean –“

“I’ve only did it once without a condom and I was drunk and I have Katie now and killed one of my best friends,” Nick said, looking away. “I’m not killing you too. You mean too much to me.”
I mean too much to him? What did I mean to him?

“Nick, you’re not going to kill me and I’m not going to get pregnant. I know about that ovulating stuff and I’m not right now and plus, I’m on the pill,” I whispered, scooting down to the floor. I smiled and leaned up to kiss him softly on the lips. “I’ve never been with someone without one either but for some reason, I trust you.”

So part of that was a lie, but part of it was the truth. There was one time when Daniel and I didn’t know if we used one or not and that’s when I had a pregnancy scare. I really think we did but, for some reason I do trust Nick. I think I would trust him with my life if I had to.

“At least this time I’ll remember it,” Nick said bluntly, before leaning over to kiss me deeply. He pushed me back on the floor gently, hovering over me and smiled. “I trust you too.”

Before I even had time to register what he told me, he had entered me and I could tell why he was upset there wasn’t a condom. He was a little too worked up. It was getting hot in the room and it wasn’t just the candles.

Our bodies began to stick to one another from the humidity and the heat from the candles. We moved together like we had been doing it our entire lives but sadly it had only been just a few weeks. We had already become acquainted with one another’s bodies and knew when what was going to happen and what one certain look meant.

While my mind was drifting away, thinking about how good being with him felt, he began to push my hips into his. He knew I liked it when I did that so in return, we rolled over so that I was on top. I knew he liked it and the smile on his face proved that. I began moving on top of him slowly at first and then faster, only to slow back down to tease him.

It was starting to drive him crazy and I could tell it by the expression on his face. He was starting to get restless and I wanted to laugh at him. He reminded me of a little kid who got aggravated when he didn’t get his way. I knew that he was about to come to the point where he was going to explode inside of me and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. Physically I was, but mentally I wasn’t.

I was starting to reconsider the whole “no condom” thing. Voices in my head were talking a hundred miles per hour and my heart beat was increasing. What if I did become pregnant? What the hell would I do and how in the hell would I explain that to my father?

I moved my hands up to my face, covering my eyes when I felt him reach his orgasm. A few seconds later, I reached mine but it wasn’t as great as I had imagined.

I was now scared to death.