Chapter Twelve

Do you remember when you’re little and you look up to this one person so much, that you stand in front of the mirror, pretending to be them? See, when I was little, I did that to two people: Reba McEntire and Debbie Gibson. I admired Reba because, well, she was this big country singer and Debbie Gibson, well what little girl didn’t admire Debbie? Besides the Tiffany fans. Well when I was in middle school, my idol became Faith Hill and it’s continued until this day; especially this day.

It’s kind of weird, sitting there talking to someone you look up to and admire so much about something in your personal life that she seriously has no idea about. I mean, obviously she knows what she’s talking about. She’s married to Tim McGraw and you can tell when they’re together that they are totally in love with one another.

I actually feel sort of bad, canceling things with Nick tonight, but he understood. I still feel bad about it. I’ve got to make it up to him. I really do. Maybe, after tonight, I can make it up to him the way he wants. I can tell him that he’s my ‘one’. I hope that I can. I really want to. I just need to know that he’s my ‘one’. Maybe Faith can help tonight.

Wow, is it whack that I’m getting love advice from Faith Hill?

Nick sat there in Elisabeth’s apartment, waiting for her to come downstairs. She had been home from work for 10 minutes and had already changed outfits three times. He told her she looked perfect, but did she listen? No. Nick had gotten ready in a whole 10 minutes and hadn’t changed clothes since. He looked down, liking his new blue buttoned up shirt and jeans, and smiled as Elisabeth started to walk back downstairs.

“How’s this?” Elisabeth asked, wearing a dark navy blue skirt, and matching top with a jacket that matched it perfectly. She twirled around and looked back at him smiling.

“Perfect,” Nick said as he stood up, smiling at her, “Now let’s go.” Elisabeth just stood there with her purse in her hands, “What?”

“I’m nervous Nick,” Elisabeth said as Nick shook his head smiling, walking over to her and took her hand, “Really I am.”

“It’ll be fine,” Nick said as Elisabeth stopped walking. Nick stopped and turned around, walking back up to her, taking her hands in his, “Listen, it’ll be fine. You talked to Faith tonight and today, it’s all good. You looked completely comfortable on TV with her.” Elisabeth just stared at him, “Beth come on.”

“Do you promise that you’re not mad about tonight?” Elisabeth asked as Nick smiled at her. She couldn’t help but smile back after that, “Promise?”

“I promise,” Nick whispered, looking into her eyes, “Saturday night, you are mine.”

“Saturday night,” Elisabeth said as she smiled even more and Bunny rubbed up against her feet, “Oh baby,” she said as she leaned over, picking him up, rubbing her nose against his, “I forgot to say hey to the baby. We’ll be back soon.”

“Talking to a stupid cat,” Nick said as he laughed at her, while Elisabeth sat Bunny back on the floor, “I know. He’s your baby.”

“Well, besides you,” Elisabeth said with a smirk as she started to walk the door. She turned around, looking at Nick and motioned for him to follow her, “Let’s go.”

“Yes ma’am,” Nick whispered as he leaned over, petting Bunny and ran up to the door, following her out the door and shut the door behind her.

After getting lost three times and finally finding Tim and Faith’s huge house outside of the Nashville, then getting stopped by security, waiting for Faith to approve them to come to the house, Nick and Elisabeth stepped out of her car and looked around, before looking at each other.

“Don’t scream okay?” Nick asked as Elisabeth nodded her head yes to him, “I know you won’t, but I’m just reminding you. You’re good at meeting people.”

“Nick, I know. Let’s go okay?” Elisabeth said as she walked around the car, and took his hand in hers, “Okay?” Nick nodded his head at her and they started walking up the walk way to the front door. Nick looked over at Elisabeth, who looked back at him and they both smiled at the same time.

“Okay ring the door bell.” Nick said, pointing at it.

“You.”

“You.”

“Okay,” Elisabeth said as she hit the door bell and squeezed Nick’s hands even more. She leaned over, putting her head on his shoulder, waiting for someone to come to the door, “Think anybody’s home?”

“Hm,” Nick hummed as he moved his head over against hers, “Maybe they decided not to let us in,” he said when they heard someone start to unlock the door, “Maybe not.”, he said as he Elisabeth stood up straight, holding Nick’s hand and straightened her jacket. Just then Faith opened the door and looked at them both.

“Elisabeth, you’re here,” Faith said as she looked over at Nick, tilting her head a little, “Nick?” Nick wanted to crack up laughing, figuring that they both had just confused the hell out of Faith Hill considering the fact she kept looking from him, over to her, “That’s your Nick?”, she asked, pointing at Nick.

“That’s my Nick,” Elisabeth said, with a big smile on her face, pointing over to him. Faith looked even more confused as she moved out of the way, so that they could both walk in. Nick wanted to laugh the entire time.

“Yeah, I’ve met Nick several times. I didn’t realize this was the Nick that you were talking about Elisabeth,” Faith said as she looked at Nick and back at Elisabeth, “Wow.”

Then Tim walked into the room.

“Wow” Elisabeth whispered lightly as Nick elbowed her. Elisabeth just stood there in slight awe as Faith introduced Nick to Tim, who had already met each other before.

“And you’re the one that’s hosting the show tomorrow night,” Tim said as him and Elisabeth shook hands, “We’re always watching you on the show. You’re just as cute in person.” And with that, Elisabeth’s heart stopped. All she could do is smile, “But when Faith said you were bringing your best friend, I had no idea it was this Nick.”

“It’s this Nick,” Nick said as he nodded his head slightly, pressing his lips together, “You’ve got a nice house. Much nicer than mine since I’m never home to actually make a home out of it.”

“Touring all the time? Not with the other guys though right?” Tim asked as him and Nick started in a conversation about the group and touring. Faith interrupted them, telling them that her and Elisabeth were going into the kitchen to set dinner up. Elisabeth almost didn’t want to go. She was just so interested in watching Tim and Nick have this intense conversation about touring. But it’s not like she was going to tell Faith no either.

“Elisabeth, you didn’t tell me that your Nick was a singer,” Faith said as Elisabeth looked around, taking a deep breath, “You said you met him working at MTV, but you didn’t say that he was in the Backstreet Boys.” Elisabeth nodded her head, agreeing with her. She didn’t tell her that. Of course, she never went around telling her personal business either.

“Yeah, I guess I didn’t mention it,” Elisabeth said as she laughed a little, “But that’s my Nick. Cute isn’t he?” Faith just laughed in return and tried to look out of the kitchen.

“Well you two look cute together and you both came in holding each other’s hands.” Faith said as she looked over at Elisabeth, “But I never knew he was in the music business. Is that one of the complicated things?” Elisabeth looked down at the ground, crossing her arms and then looked up at Faith.

“Well, he’s certainly not a country singer so he can’t be in Nashville for business,” Elisabeth said as Faith nodded her head, agreeing with her, “I live here. My job is here. He has a few places of his own and he’s never there. He’s always on the road or in New York or Los Angeles or overseas. And I’m not giving up what I worked so hard for just when I’m getting started,”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Faith said as she picked up plates, carrying them into the dining room as Elisabeth followed her, “He can take some time off or plan time to be off. If he wants that bad enough and you think he’s the one, then, he can do whatever he wants,”

Again, Faith had a point.

“I had no idea that you knew the CMT girl,” Tim said as him and Nick sat in the living of the house talking, “Well Elisabeth. I have this thing about calling her the CMT girl. She’s always on there.”

“She lives at work,” Nick said as he started to laugh, “But yep. I met her when she was with MTV while still in college and we dated for a while and drifted apart and became best friends more than boyfriend and girlfriend. But I’m trying to get back with her, but she’s just so stubborn.” Tim just laughed at him in response, “What?”

“Boy, don’t you know all women are stubborn?” Tim asked as Nick shrugged his shoulders, looking over at a picture of him and Faith, “It’s a common trait that all women carry. They’re stubborn.” Nick just laughed in response, “Tried being romantic?”

“I asked her to marry me. She said that she never told me no and she never told me yes. She said she doesn’t know if I’m her soul mate. She thinks I am but she’s not sure. It’s some messed up shit man,” Nick said as Tim shook his head, laughing at him. Nick leaned back in the chair, looking around the corner to see if there was a sign of Elisabeth around and then looked back at Tim, “I had this date planned tonight, because she went out with this Joe Don dude from Rascal Flatts last night -”

“She went out with him?” Tim asked, looking surprised.

“Yeah, don’t ask. She said she hated every minute of it and that she felt nothing with him,” Nick said as Tim laughed in return, “But this date, man it was so good I don’t even want to say what I had planned. But she met Faith and Faith asked her to come here and told her to bring me, so here I am.” Nick said as he sighed, shaking his head lightly, “Women.”

“Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t live without them.” Tim said as Nick nodded his head, agreeing with him.

“Now ain’t that the damn truth.”

Dinner went ahead as it was expected. They had ordered take out since Faith was busy doing the show and there was really no time to actually cook anything. Not that Nick and Tim cared because, they would have actually ate anything. Elisabeth on the other hand was kind of nervous and overwhelmed at the same time. Not only was she in the home of two of her famous performers, but Nick and Tim were getting along too good.

Elisabeth sat there, watching the three of them talk about some awards show that they were all at one time, and some weird guy ran up onstage in the middle of ‘N Sync’s acceptance speech. That conversation went into one about Tim doing a show with ‘N Sync down in the Bahamas for some CBS special. Every so often, Nick would look over at Elisabeth and smile. She didn’t really know what to do except for smile back and watch him.

“Elisabeth, you’re so quiet over there,” Tim said as Elisabeth looked over at him and then at Nick, “So are you ready for the special tomorrow?” Elisabeth sighed, looking back over at Faith and then over at Tim again, taking a sip of her drink.

“Yep, I’ve been working on it all week. If I ruin it CMT will probably fire me and I”ll have to get a job at McDonald’s,” Elisabeth said as they all laughed. She laughed a little, looking down at her plate that was almost empty. It was funny, but damn if it wasn’t the truth.

“You won’t ruin it. You did great tonight,” Faith said as Nick and Tim nodded their heads agreeing with her.

“She’s been working on it all week. She gets up in the morning and goes to the mall, and sits and watches people walk by while working on it. She’s working on it at night and even at work,” Nick said as he looked over at Elisabeth, smiling, “You could tell when she worked for MTV that it wasn’t really her element. She did great, but now that she’s doing this you can tell she’s more comfortable because she knows more about the music and it’s actually her element.”

“Well that’s a really sweet thing to say Nick,” Faith said as Nick smiled at her and looked back at Elisabeth who just stared back at him.

“Well it’s true though, I mean it. When I first met her she worked so hard between school and interning at MTV. She was always there, working every time that she got a chance, and wasn’t even paid for it. She’s like me, she doesn’t take no for an answer and goes after what she wants,” Nick said as Elisabeth took another sip of her drink, and then took a deep breath.