Chapter Twenty - Six

“Nick!” Elisabeth whispered harshly as she looked to see Nick sitting at her desk, which was surrounded by white roses all over the room. She walked in, putting her bag down in a chair and shut the door behind her, and looked back at him, “What are you doing?”

“Happy Monday,” Nick said with a cheesy grin. Elisabeth rolled her eyes and put her hands over her face. She didn’t know how much more she could seriously take, “What’s wrong? Don’t you like them?”

“Yes.” Elisabeth said as she walked around her desk, reaching down for his arm and pulling him out of the chair, “I love the flowers Nick. I’m so glad you came by to see me, but you can’t be here right now.”

“Why not? That Andrew guy saw me and told me to stay as long as I wanted,” Nick said as he sat down in another chair in her office as Elisabeth put her hands on her face again, walking back to the chair behind her desk, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Just you can’t be here right now,” Elisabeth said as Nick looked around, “It’s not you. Just I’m busy, you know?” Nick looked at her, and then back over at the clock.

“Okay,” Nick said as he stood up, and Elisabeth walked back around the desk, giving him a hug, “You like the flowers?”

“Yes,” Elisabeth whispered, giving him a kiss on the cheek. She hugged him back tightly, so that maybe he did understand that she appreciated what he did. She just wanted him to get the hell out of there, “I’ll see you tonight okay?” she said as she walked him over to the door.

“Yes, tonight.” Nick said as Elisabeth opened the door and he leaned over, giving her a kiss on the cheek when a tall, dark guy walked up to the door, looking at them, “Oh hi.”

“Hi.” the guy said as he looked at Elisabeth, “Elisabeth Geller?” Oh great, this had to be the guy from Rolling Stone, “I’m Mark Thompson, from Rolling Stone.”

Shit.

“Yes, that’s me. My friend was just leaving,” Elisabeth said as Nick looked at her and walked past the Rolling Stone guy, and turned around, mouthing the words ’sorry’ to her, “You can come on in.”

“Great.” Mark said as he walked into the room and Elisabeth shut the door behind him, walking back around her desk to sit down, “I didn’t realize you and Nick Carter knew each other that well,”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Yeah, we became friends when I interned at MTV while I was in college.” Elisabeth said Mark took out a small recording device and hit record. Then she shut up, not wanting to say anything else.

“Well you can keep talking.” Mark said as he crossed his legs, leaning back in the chair, “This is a little interview to showcase who you are.”

Yeah, well, Nick wasn’t everything she is.

“Yeah, but I’m not comfortable talking about my rela - friendship with Nick,” Elisabeth said, almost catching herself and then looked over at her clock. There was no way she was going to talk about Nick in this interview.

“But you said that you met while working at MTV and there’s rumors that it was you that were in a music video that was filmed in the Florida Keys with him,” Mark said as Elisabeth took a deep breath.

“Yes, but we’re just friends,” Elisabeth said as she looked over to see a picture of her and Nick on her desk and reached over, pushing it face down, “I did that as a favor. He has nothing to do with my job here. He’s just in town, looking for some songs for his next album, but I don’t see where this has to do with me. He’s my friend. I have a lot of friends.”

“Okay, I get the point,” Mark said as he laughed. About fucking time he thought the point Elisabeth thought as she looked over at a picture of her, Nick, and A.J. which was on her wall in a frame with other pictures, “So you said that you interned at MTV during college. How did you go from MTV to CMT?”

“I got the interning job at MTV through the University and when I graduated, I worked at MTV for a little while, being paid, until I got a job offer from CMT and that’s what I have always wanted to do, so I took it. It’s what I always wanted to do and luckily they started re-working the network so that there were actually some VJ’s.” Elisabeth said as she looked down at the recording device. She really hated the thing.

“So were you a big Backstreet Boys fan while working at MTV?” Mark asked as Elisabeth rolled her eyes, sitting back in her chair.

She wanted this interview to end.

Do people not understand the concept of ‘I do not want to talk about this’ anymore? Because I really don’t think that they do. This Mark guy from Rolling Stone repeatedly asked about Nick. I finally stood up and told him that if he didn’t stop asking about Nick that I would leave my office and not return. I told Andrew about it and he said he had no idea the guy was going to ask that.

It made me so mad.

I don’t like doing these interviews. I think these type of people are too nosey. I just help host a few country music shows. I don’t see where people want to know anything about me. I just don’t understand it and this interview today scared me because I don’t want people to put Nick’s name with mine and making me into something that I’m not.

I hate it.

The whole day at work has been weird. I couldn’t wait for the show to end tonight. It seemed like it went on forever. It’s not that I want to go home to Nick; I just want to go home period. I need some sleep. I feel like I haven’t slept in days, probably because I seriously haven’t had a really good night of sleep since he came to stay.

I hope I can just go home and go to sleep.

Elisabeth walked out of her office, after pulling her hair up in a ponytail and her messenger bag wrapped around her body, ready to go home. She couldn’t stay at work another minute. She hoped Nick had nothing planned when she got home because she just wanted to take a long bubble bath and go to sleep.

No talking. Not kissing. No touching. She just wanted some sleep.

“Elisabeth,” Lance said as Elisabeth paused and looked over her shoulder at him, coming from the set, “Andrew told me to tell you that tomorrow the People magazine people would be here. They’re interviewing both of us.” Elisabeth rolled her eyes.

“Okay,” Elisabeth said as she smiled, “Night.”

“Night.”

Elisabeth continued walking down the hallway, crossing her arms over her chest, praying that those interviewers tomorrow would not be as bad as the one today was. If it was, she was going to act like a famous person and throw a temper tantrum. She smirked thinking that there was no way she was going to act that way.

Elisabeth unlocked her apartment’s door, and pushed the door open to see that the apartment was completely dark. There were no lights on and the TV wasn’t on. She sighed, walking in and throwing her bag over in the corner as she shut the door and locked it back. She looked over her shoulder; to her bedroom upstairs where she saw a little light and knew Nick had already done something.

She closed her eyes, unbuttoning her jacket and tossing it on the sofa as she walked over to the stairs and began walking up them slowly. He had better not anything. She took another deep breath before reaching the top step and walked into her room, looking around to see a few candles lit. It wasn’t a hundred candles like last time, but there were a few.

Then she looked over to see Nick in her bathtub, in a bubble bath.

“Nick?” Elisabeth asked as she kicked off her shoes and he opened his eyes, looking over at her. “What the hell are you doing?” Nick just smiled, motioning for her to come over. Elisabeth stood there, looking at him and shook her head as she started to unzip her skirt from the back and slipped it off, “Nick I’m not really in the mood.”

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked as she looked back over at him and layed down across her bed, resting her head on her arms, “What’s wrong Elisabeth?” She just sighed in return, not even wanting to explain it, “Come on, I just got in. The water’s warm.”

“I don’t feel like it.” Elisabeth said as Nick looked around, looking almost disappointed, “I’ve just had a long, long day and tomorrow is going to be just as long.” Nick stood up in the bathtub, and stepped out of it, stepping onto the rug and reached for a towel, wrapping it around him. “I just want to go to sleep,”

“Want me to get you something to eat?” Nick asked as he walked over to her, kneeling down on the floor, in front of her. She just looked at him and smiled, “You look tired. Why was today so bad?” She leaned up, giving him a little kiss on the cheek, before laying her head back down on her arm. Nick didn’t really know what to think. He was afraid he had done something to her to make her mad.

“That guy from Rolling Stone interviewed me. He was the one at the door when you left and all he could do was ask me about you.” Elisabeth said as she looked back up at him, “And I love you, but I don’t want you to be a part of my career because they are two separate things.” Nick smiled at her in return and leaned over, kissing her lightly on the lips, “It’s not that I’m ashamed of you. Just, this is my thing, you know? You didn’t help me with it and I don’t want people to think that.”

“Just let it be known.” Nick said as Elisabeth smiled at him, “Want me to go get you a milkshake?”

“You always know what makes me feel better.”

“Because I know you.”

“Thanks.” Elisabeth whispered as she smiled, and layed her head back down. Nick smiled, standing up and looked back down at her face. His eyes moved down her body, to the little top she had on, and then down to her panties. His eyes moved all the way down her long legs to a little flower tattoo on her ankle and smiled.

“Be back in a little bit.” Nick whispered as Elisabeth smiled, telling him okay. He tightened his towel and walked out of her bedroom, leaning her laying there, almost falling instantly asleep.

Elisabeth layed there on her bed asleep. She had already rolled over on her back from lying on her stomach earlier. She had been asleep ever since Nick had left to go get her a milkshake. Suddenly she began to move and wake up from some weird dream.

Actually it wasn’t too weird. She was with Nick in some green room, and they were, um, doing something that she had never done before. She sat up on her bed, running her hands over her face and looked over at the clock. She had only been asleep for about ten minutes but it seemed like so much longer. She crawled off of the bed, taking her top off, tossing it onto the floor. It’s not like she needed it anymore.

She reached down, feeling the water which was still warm and bubbly and smiled, reaching to her back and unfastening her bra, taking it off and dropping it on the floor too. Then came down her panties and she stepped into the bubble bath, sinking down into it and leaned her head on the back of the tub sighing.

“Elisabeth, I’m back,” Nick said as he walked up to her room, looking over to see her in the tub, “Oh um, I got your milkshake,” he said as Elisabeth smiled at him, motioning him to get in. Nick stood there in shock, spilling the milkshake all over him.