Chapter Nine

Elisabeth stood there, tilting her head slightly, looking into Nick’s eyes, wanting to cry a little. She was trying her best to hold it back and not show it. Nick reached up, taking her hands and holding them, as she looked down at them and back up at him.

“I look into your eyes and I see someone that I love and that I care about,” Elisabeth said as she swallowed lightly and looked down at their hands, “I look into your eyes and I feel safe and I feel how much you love me.”

“Then why don’t we get back together? And you take the ring I bought you and be what we both are looking for?” Nick asked as Elisabeth smiled, looking back up at him, “I know, you want to take things slowly.”

“It’s just, we obviously lost the romance before for a reason you know?” Elisabeth asked as Nick nodded his head slightly, agreeing with her. Elisabeth moved her hands from his, placing her hands on the side of his face, moving closer, and looking down into his eyes while he placed his arms around her waist, holding onto her.

“You are really the only guy that has ever been in my life that I’ve ever really loved, and I love you. I just want to make sure that it’s right, and it’s for real, especially if it involves marriage. When I get married, it’s for life and there’s never going to be a divorce because I’m going to marry and be with the right person,” Elisabeth said as Nick smiled at her, pushing her closer to him lightly.

“Do you think I’m the right person?”

“I think so, but I’m not exactly sure yet. Just we haven’t been together in so long besides being just friends.”

“Yeah,” Nick said as he looked down and took a deep breath, looking back up at her, looking into her eyes, “I think you’re going to be sure tomorrow night.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t, but if you’re not exactly sure tomorrow night, you’re going to be really close to being sure,” Nick said as reached up, moving Elisabeth’s hands from his face and stood up, holding them in his hands, “I know that we’re meant for one another and I’m not trying this whole cheesy ordeal on you. I knew it from the moment I saw you and talked to you. I knew we would eventually find our way back to each other like this.”

“If you knew it, then why when we agreed to be friends did you start going out with Samantha?” Elisabeth asked as Nick looked away and took a deep breath, “I know why,” she said as she moved away from him, walking to the other side of her room, “It’s because I wouldn’t sleep with you and I know you never cheated on me -”

“I never cheated on you,” Nick said as he looked over at her, “But yeah, okay, you’re right. I only went with her because I didn’t want to sleep around and I needed someone. I was still kind of stupid then.”

“But if you were the one for you, my soul mate, you would have waited on me, no matter what kind of ‘manly’ needs you had,” Elisabeth said as she pointed at him. Nick just rolled his eyes and laughed in response, which only made Elisabeth even more upset, “It’s not funny Nick.”

“No, you’re right,” Nick said as he licked his lips, sighing and walked over to her, taking her hands in his again, “You’re right, but I waited for you. We grew apart though and you are the one that told us to just stay friends Elisabeth.”

Elisabeth pressed her lips together, looking away because she knew he was right. She was the one that said that they had grown apart and it would just be better to stay friends right now. Nick even asked her before he went out with Samantha the first time was it okay and Elisabeth told him yes. She knew she couldn’t really blame him for that.

“Sex just complicates things,” Elisabeth whispered as she looked up at him, looking into his eyes.

“It also makes it better and more real sometimes. How can you know what real love is if you’ve never experienced the real act of loving someone?” Nick asked as Elisabeth looked at him blankly, before looking away with a confused look on her face.

The boy actually had a point.

“You can’t disagree with that can you?” Nick asked as Elisabeth looked back at him, “I promise I’m not trying to get you into bed, you know me better than that.”

“I know,” Elisabeth said as she looked away again, with a perplexed look on her face.

“I made you think didn’t I?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll leave you alone and let you do your girly thing and shower or bathe or whatever,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked back in his eyes. Nick smiled at her, leaning over to kiss her lightly on the lips. He backed away gently to see Elisabeth standing there with her eyes closed. She opened them up slowly, looking back at him, “I’ll go call my brother and see what’s up.’

“Okay,” Elisabeth whispered as Nick smiled, and turned around, and walked out of her room slowly, going to the stairs and began walking down them.

Elisabeth put her hands over her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. She moved her eyes and suddenly began to bawl.

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

I hate Justin Timberlake. I hate bad hair days. More than those two things, I hate snakes. But do you know what I hate more than any of that? I hate when Nick’s right. The sad thing is, he was so damn right tonight.

Making love and having sex with someone is one of the most intimate ways to show someone that you love them. Of course, sometimes it’s done just for a quick tension relief, but not if you do it for the right reasons. And Nick was right about that, how can you know if you’re in love, if you’ve never experienced the act of making love.

I love him, I swear I do. I love him more than my family, which is sad but then again, considering my family - I love my cat more than them. I wish I could just tell him yes, I want to be back together and I want to marry him but I’m so scared.

I’m so scared that I’m going to be making a mistake. I don’t want to make any mistakes in my life. I’ve been having a pretty good life except I was born into the wrong family, but that’s fate’s problem. Not mine. Then again, fate lead me to meet Nick. Fate lead me to fall in love with him, and lead him back to me to ask me to marry him.

Maybe I’m being the stupid one for just holding out on him. He loves me. He asked me to marry him. That says a lot right there. I want to make love him to him. I’ve wanted that for the long time but I’m just scared of making a mistake.

Maybe the problem isn’t finding ‘the one’. Maybe the problem is realizing I’ve found my ‘one’ and I’m petrified of it.

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

Nick closed his cell phone after talking to his brother on the phone for the past thirty minutes. He held it up to his chin, pressing it against it thinking about the words Aaron told him.

Just get on your knees and beg her to take you back you dumbass.

Not that Aaron knew a damn thing about being in a real relationship or anything about women, especially one like Elisabeth. Nick laughed at himself even having that though. How could Aaron know about a girl, well, a woman like Elisabeth? Hell, Nick didn’t even know and knew it was hard to figure her out.

Nick sat his cell phone on the sofa and stood up, walking over to the stairs and began walking up them slowly. He closed his eyes walking up the stairs and finally reached the top, and peaked around the corner.

And there she was.

Elisabeth was laying in a bubble bath, with her hair pulled up on top of her head and her eyes closed. A few candles were lit around the room and some song was playing on her stereo. He leaned up against the doorframe, watching her moved her fingers through the bubbles, moving her lips lightly to the words of the song.

“I talked to Aaron,” Nick said as Elisabeth opened her eyes and looked at him, standing there, shirtless with a pair of boxers on. She smiled at him and looked back in front of her, at a candle on the little window still, “He sends his love.”

“He’s growing up,” Elisabeth said as Nick walked into the room more, pulling up a chair from a small desk in the room to the side of the tub and sat in it backwards, putting his arms and chin and the back of the chair, “He looks just like you.”

“Kind of scary isn’t it?” Nick asked as he started to laugh a little, “He told me to be a man. To just get on my knees and beg you to take me back.” Elisabeth just laughed in response, looking and smiling at him at the same time. Nick smiled back, looking down into the water, following the outline of her body, all the way down to her feet that was propped up against the opposite end of the tub.

“What do you think you would be doing right now, if we had never met?” Elisabeth asked as Nick brought his eyes back up to hers, staring at her, “I mean, do you think you would have been out partying or something?”

“God only knows,” Nick whispered as he tilted his head a little, smiling at her, “You’re so beautiful right now.”

“I’ve had a day from hell,” Elisabeth said, “Work was so annoying today. They’re worrying the hell out of me about this damn Tim McGraw special and I know it’s a big deal. But they act as if I’ve never interviewed anybody before.”

“You totally just blew off my comment,” Nick said as he sat up, and moved his hands over, running the tips of his fingers in the water. Elisabeth looked down at his fingers and moved her eyes up his right arm to see his armband tattoo. She smiled lightly, looking up in his eyes to see him, looking into hers.

“I just don’t see what’s so beautiful,” Elisabeth said as she ran her fingertips through some of the bubbles on top, and cut her eyes over back to him.

“The way your hair is pulled up off of her neck, but a few strands are falling down on your shoulders, getting wet each time you sink down into the water,” Nick said as he looked at her neck and down to her shoulders, “The way your shoulders are just barely coming out of the water, covering up everything that I really want to see with the bubbles.”

Elisabeth just layed there, looking at him as he surveyed every inch of her body that he could see. Nick paused for a minute, looking her in the eyes, until he moved his eyes down to the bubbles.

“The way you’ve got your knee bent up a little out of the water, knowing what you’re doing because it wasn’t like that until you knew I was watching you makes you beautiful,” Nick said as Elisabeth smiled at him and looked away, blushing a little, “I’m not dumb. I know you’re teasing me showing me you’re smooth, wet skin.”

“You sound like a romance novel now,” she whispered as she pointed over at a towel on the sink, “Will you hand me that please?”

“Sure,” Nick said as he picked the chair up, taking it back over to the desk. He looked back at her as he walked over to the sink, picking up the white towel. He held it up to his chest as he walked back over to the tub slowly and handed it to her, “Here you go.”

“Thank you, now turn around so I can get out.”

“Damn,”

“Do it,” Elisabeth said as Nick smiled and walked back over to the bed, turning his back to her and crossed his arms. He thought about looking back once, just to get a glimpse but he knew if he did, she’d kill him. He listened, hearing the water move and smiled even more, looking down at his arms.

Elisabeth climbed out of the tub, tying the huge white towel around her and walked up to Nick slowly, putting her arms around his neck. Nick started to laugh a little and turned around, looking at her standing there, soak and wet, in nothing but a towel and froze.

“What?” Elisabeth asked as Nick looked down at her, and then back up, looking her in the eyes, “What is it?”