Chapter Twenty - One

Nick layed there early that morning, watching Elisabeth sleep, with her eyes shut tightly and listening to the rain outside. It had been raining all night long and never stopped. He thought he remembered Elisabeth talking about a cold front coming in and that it was going to rain. To be honest he didn’t really give a shit if it flooded, as long as nothing bothered him and Elisabeth, lying in bed together.

Especially after a night like that.

He reached over, moving a little strand of hair from her face so he could look at her better and nothing would be in his way. He rolled over on his stomach, turning his head and propped it up on his pillow that he had smashed up under his head. He moved his eyes from her hair, to her eyes, her nose, and her lips. Every single thing about her was perfect. Well, at least to him it was.

Then the phone rang.

Nick grunted to himself as Elisabeth began to wake up, rolling over on her stomach, mumbling something to Nick. He couldn’t make it out.

“What baby?” Nick whispered as he moved her hair out of her face, and she mouthed the words, “Answer it” to him. Nick reached over her, picking up the phone from her nightstand and layed back down, and hit the talk button. This better be good, “Hello?”

“Who’s this?,” a man’s voice asked as Nick rubbed his left hand over his face, “Is this Elisabeth Geller’s home?”

“Yeah, she’s asleep,” Nick said as he looked over at her, “Can I take a message?”

“This is Andrew from CMT and I was just needing to talk to her about coming into the office today,” Andrew said as Nick rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath, “Around three?”

“I’ll be sure to tell her,” Nick said as they said goodbye. He turned the phone off, and layed it down in bed, looking over at Elisabeth, “Elisabeth -”

“Yeah?” Elisabeth mumbled as she opened her eyes lightly, looking at him and then closed them back. Nick just smiled at her. She was so damn cute when she was like that.

“That was Andrew from work. He wants you to come to the office today at 3,” Nick said as Elisabeth opened her eyes, looking at him, “Yeah it sucks but maybe it’s like good news from the Tim special,”

“Yeah,” Elisabeth whispered as she rolled over on her back, moving her arms up, lying beside her head, “Sleep good last night?”

“Perfectly,” Nick whispered as Elisabeth smiled at him, “Last night was really great.”

“Yes it was,” Elisabeth said as she sat up in bed, moving her hair out of her face and looked over at Nick as he sat up beside her, “What time is it?” Nick bit down on his bottom lip and looked over at her clock.

“10:30,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked out the window, “And it’s raining.”

“Fuck it,” Elisabeth whispered as she pulled the covers over her head, reaching over and tugging Nick’s arm for him to come under the cover too. Nick laughed as he leaned down kissing her, and tickling her.

If I ever questioned that I didn’t think Nick was my ‘one’ before, I’m pretty sure that all of those worries are gone now. I don’t know what it is exactly, but whenever he touches me, I just feel this little tingle inside of me. I know he’s my one. I know it. Maybe I’m still waiting for that one thing to happen, like what Faith told me happened with Tim, and even though she said that I may not have a moment like that happen to me, I think I am and after that, it’s going to be final. I know it.

It was so nice just laying with him in bed this morning, kissing and hugging each other. We haven’t done that in so long, well basically we first started sleeping together, and when I say sleeping together, I actually mean really sleeping and no sex, but of course, duh, everybody knows that.

Suddenly today for some reason, I want to go to the mall, but you know what? I don’t really want to sit and watch people. I want people who are sitting to look at me, holding Nick’s hand and walking around. That’s sad right? Although really, we won’t do that. We’ve never done that, especially when we were both on television. When we dated and I was at MTV, there was a rumor going around that we were dating, but we denied it. Then when I was in the “I Got You” video, there was another rumor, but we told the truth, we’re just best friends.

Now, I think we’re more than just best friends again, especially after last night. That’s the closest that I’ve ever come to doing it. I mean, in a way I did, because I had a, um, orgasm, I think, and I’ve never had one before. I think that’s what it was because my heart was beating really, really fast, and this pounding in my ears, and this tingling sensation all over my body that just washes away any slight pain that was ever in your body. I think I had an orgasm. Hell if having an orgasm just by doing that is like that, then I can’t wait to have one by actually making love.

“It’s raining so bad outside,” Elisabeth said as she walked downstairs from getting dressed later that day, after her and Nick had finally gotten out of bed from their kissing and giggling adventure. She walked over, sitting down in a chair, holding her legs out to look at her jeans and then over at Nick who was walking out of the kitchen, drinking a Mountain Dew, “I so don’t want to go to the office. I mean come on, it’s Sunday.”

“Well like I said, maybe it’s good news,” Nick said as he jumped over the sofa, sitting down on it, “I mean like maybe the ratings were so good for the Tim special or something.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping,” Elisabeth said as she started to laugh, “I mean, there’s nothing major coming up anytime soon except for the Flameworthy Awards next week, which I’m only presenting on at the moment, and then in three weeks I go to London to interview Shania Twain on the set of her new video.”

“Awards?” Nick asked, drinking his drink and looking over at her, “When did CMT get some awards?”

“They started last June,” Elisabeth said as she started to cough a little, “Lance is doing the pre-show party stuff, and Cledus, you know that country comedian guy that makes parodies of songs,” she said as Nick nodded his head at her, “They’re doing the pre-show and post-show stuff, and I’m supposed to present an award with Chris Cagle I think. I’m not sure. I forgot.”

“Can I come?” Nick asked as Elisabeth smiled at him, “I’m good at award shows.”

“Nick, will you be my date?” Elisabeth asked as Nick pressed his lips together, thinking. He looked around the apartment, taking a deep breath before finally looking back at her.

“I’ll be your date,” Nick whispered as Elisabeth smiled at him, “I mean, you know, I can get my chaps and my tight jeans and cowboy hat, and be stylin’ ya heard?” Elisabeth cracked up laughing at him because sometimes he really did try too hard, “Who all is going to be there?”

“Tim and Faith are performing,” Elisabeth said as Nick smiled, “Rascal Flatts is performing and Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow -”

“Oh Bob, that’s cool man. At least I won’t be the only MTV person there,” Nick said as Elisabeth laughed at him, “I like Kid man. He’s a cool dude.”

“They’re video is actually doing pretty good on CMT and country radio. It’s whack because I used to play his videos on TRL all the time and now they’re on MWL and it’s like whoa,” Elisabeth said as she stood up from her chair, running her hands over her jeans on her hips, “These jeans feel too tight,”

“Looks perfect from here,” Nick said as Elisabeth gave him a look, “What? I’ve seen you naked now, you can’t live it down.”

“I’m never going to live that down,” Elisabeth said as she sighed, walking over to the closet in the living room, pulling out in her big white jacket, “Are you going to come with me to see what the deal is at work?”

“I’m invited?” Nick asked as he hopped up off of the sofa, drinking the rest of his drink. He ran into the kitchen, throwing the can in the trash and walked into the guest room, and picked up his jacket, slipping it on.

“Well it’d be hard to say you’re not now since you’re ready to go,” Elisabeth said as she shook her head, laughing at him as she put her messenger bag on. She gave him a big kiss on the cheek and he opened the door up. They both walked out and Nick turned around, shutting the door back with a smile on his face.

“Andy,” Elisabeth said as she knocked on his office door a little bit later at the CMT studios. Nick sat down in the waiting room, down the hall where Elisabeth told him to sit so that he wouldn’t get in any trouble.

“Elisabeth, hey,” Andrew said as he stood up from his desk while Elisabeth walked in and sat down across from him, “Sorry to call you to come by on a Sunday, especially with the weather like it is,” he said as he looked down at some papers and back up at her, “You look happy today.”

“Yes, I’m having a really good day,” Elisabeth said as she smiled, “And it’s fine, I mean I did take off yesterday. So what’s up?” she asked, afraid he was going to tell her for some odd reason that she was fired and to never show her face in Nashville again.

“Well there’s a few things,” Andrew said as he looked down at a piece of paper, and back up at her, “The numbers came back in from the McGraw special and well, here you take a look,” he said, reaching over to hand her the sheet of paper, “9.4 million viewers on CMT alone.”

“Wow, are you serious?” she asked, looking down at the paper, “That’s like a helluva lot of people,” she said as Andrew started to laugh, “I mean, this many people the show and watched the channel Friday night?” She looked back down at the paper, amazed by it. She didn’t know what else to say.

“Yes ma’am,” Andrew said as he leaned his hands up on the desk, “And I want to talk to you about two more things actually,” he said as Elisabeth looked back up at him, “Nick, the Backstreet Boy that was here all day long Friday with you,”

Oh this had to be good.

“My friend, yes,” Elisabeth said as Andrew looked at her, “Okay, so, it’s a long story,” she said as she took a deep breath, “I met him when I was interning at MTV during college and we dated for like six months but it ended and we’ve stayed best friends the whole time. He’s my best friend, but we’re sort of in the process of getting back together. He’s taken time off to stay in Nashville with me for a while.”

“Well, thanks for that explanation,” Andrew said as Elisabeth looked at him, with a blank look, “But I’ve known that you two were friends from talk around the office,”

Talk around the office?

“You know, since you were in his video a few months ago,” he said as Elisabeth nodded her head. Right. She forgot about that. “I was just wondering if he would like to present an award with you on the awards,” Andrew said as Elisabeth laughed a little, “We are switching Chris Cagle to another presenter and rearranging. We have different people outside of country music coming in like Wilmer from That 70’s Show and a few others. Do you think he would?”

“I’m sure he would,” Elisabeth said as she laughed, “I thought I was going to get in trouble for him being here Friday,”

“Oh no no,” Andrew said as he looked back down at a paper on his desk and back up at Elisabeth, who seemed nervous, “The other thing is that the past few months you’ve really taken into your own here, especially on the MWL Star specials and on Most Wanted Live and a lot of people are becoming interested in you. We’ve been getting a lot of interest from People and Teen People wanting to run stories about you, and Rolling Stone is going to be doing a special edition about people from all the music video channels and they want to have you represent CMT.”

Whoa.

“Really?” Elisabeth asked as she put her hand on her chest in shock, “Just because I’m on CMT?”

“Well, you’ve gathered quite the following,” Andrew said as he shook his head laughing a little, “You should check the CMT message boards sometimes. They’re always talking about you, what you’re wearing, and all of that.”

“I’m speechless,” Elisabeth said as she looked down at the paper he had given her with the numbers from the Tim McGraw special and back up at Andrew, “You don’t think this has to do with me knowing Nick do you?”