Chapter Thirty - Eight

Elisabeth picked the note up, and sat down on the sofa, looking at it. She took a deep breath before unfolding it wondering if she should or not. Her brain told her no, because no matter what sweet lines he writes and how much he tells her he loves her, it doesn’t take away what he did. But then he heart was wanting to read what he said. Finally after taking another deep breath, she unfolded it and began to read it.

Hey,

I know you told me to leave and I’m leaving. I don’t want you to be any more mad at me than you already are. I hate what I did it to you more than anything that I’ve ever done in my entire life. I just want you to know that I never meant to hurt you and that’s the last thing that I have ever wanted to do since the day I met you. It was just a freak accident. I was drunk and I admit I was drunk. I shouldn’t have been drinking but I was and I seriously don’t remember even going into the bathroom. Maybe I had to use it and she followed me in or maybe I asked her. I don’t know what happened and I admit I could have done that. I don’t know half the shit I do when I drink. That’s why I try not to do it anymore.

I just want you to know that I love you and I really hope you don’t regret what happened last night. Last night was the best night of my life. Nothing could ever top that. Not a award or a concert or a number one album, nothing can ever top that and nothing will. I still love you and nothing and I mean nothing will ever change that. I still want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you and I know that you’re not just going to take my back automatically and come on that’s a big word for me, but atleast give me a chance okay?

I better go, I’m sure you’ll be out of the bathroom soon.

I love you, remember that,

Nick

Elisabeth folded the note back up, and leaned over on the sofa, pulling her feet up on it and layed down on her side, looking at the bed. She dropped the note down on the floor and just layed there, staring into space. She didn’t really know what to do or thing. She just felt betrayed. More than that, she just wanted to go to sleep.

Elisabeth slept all night. She never woke up once. In fact, she slept so long that Andrew had to send someone up to her room to wake her up because she was running late. She knew she had a long hectic day and she didn’t have time to worry about something as insignificant as a cheater like Nick. She had a huge show to prepare for and more things to do before that even started that afternoon.

She ignored every question that day that either came from someone on the crew, Andrew, Joe Don, or Lance asking about where Nick was. Finally once when Andrew sat her down asking her what was wrong, she told him that Nick left to go home for a family emergency and left it at that. She didn’t want them to find out and she didn’t feel like explaining it hearing about how much of an asshole Nick was considering she praised him all day long the day before.

Finally that afternoon the concert began. Elisabeth went from various points in the audience, hosting it, coming back and going to commercial breaks and everything else. They ran through and taped the concert twice, incase something messed up the first time. By the time they finished the last song in the last set, everybody was ready to pass out.

Everybody was going to be going to a huge after party at a club near the hotel but Elisabeth backed out, saying that she was just going to catch a flight back to Nashville instead of waiting until the morning. Lance and Andrew wondered if something was wrong but again, Elisabeth told them that she was just fine. She finally caught a flight out of Daytona, going to Atlanta then to Nashville only to arrive home that morning sometime around five in the morning.

She slept most of the way, so when she arrived in Nashville, she wasn’t that tired. Her car was at the airport already, so she drove back to her apartment, hoping that she would find Bunny asleep on her bed and she could cuddle up to him and go to sleep, forgetting about all the awful things that had happened to her the past few days.

She unlocked her apartment door and walked in, putting her suitcases down beside the door. She looked around to see that nothing in the apartment had been touched. She even wondered if the lady next door had even came over to feed Bunny. She rolled her eyes, turning around and locking the door back and kicked her shoes off. She ran her hands over her face as she started to walk over to the staircase and began walking up the stairs slowly, looking at a picture of the wall of the staircase of her and Nick.

She just rolled her eyes in return, continuing to walk up the steps. She took a deep breath, reaching the top step, reaching over to turn the light on only to see something she didn’t really expect to see.

There was Nick, lying on her bed asleep, with Bunny cuddled up next to him. She thought he had went home. She didn’t think he had the nerve to even come back here, but he did and there he was - asleep on her bed with her cat. She rolled her eyes, walking over to the bed and started to push him off, pushing him onto the floor and waking him up.

“What the hell?” Nick asked as he sat up on the floor and looked over the bed to see a tanned Elisabeth standing there, “Whoa, you weren’t supposed to be back yet,”

“I’m back, now get the hell off my bed,” Elisabeth said as she picked Bunny up, cuddling him and began to talk baby talk to him, “Hey baby, did the lady come feed you?”

“I fed him,” Nick said as he stood up off of the floor, “She never came and fed him so if I hadn’t of came here, he would have starved to death,” Elisabeth rolled her eyes at him. Yeah that was going to make up for it.

“Yep, and that little good deed will redeem yourself from having your dick sucked,” Elisabeth said as Nick looked away, “Get out of my room,”

“Can I stay here? I don’t want to leave you alone. I know how you get when you get depressed and I don’t want you to be alone,” Nick said as he looked at her, “Did you get my letter?” Elisabeth nodded her head in return, and looked back down at Bunny who was looking at her and purring, “I meant everything I said in there,”

“I know you did, but it doesn’t make me forgive you,” Elisabeth said as she looked at him, “You don’t realize how bad you hurt me. The day after I lost my virginity to you. I gave myself to you and you do that. Makes me feel cheap -”

“You’re not cheap -”

“Makes me feel that way. Just give me my space,”

“Can I atleast stay here? I’ll sleep in the other room. I won’t bother you,” Nick said as he looked at her, “Please?”

“Okay, you can stay but do not get in my way. Do not try to be sweet and nice to me. Do not suck up. And better yet, don’t try to win me back. It wont work,” Elisabeth said as Nick nodded his head at her. She hugged Bunny up against her again as Nick started to walk around the bed, pulling his pajama pants up a little, looking at her.

“Thanks,” Nick said as he smiled a little and began walking downstairs. Elisabeth stood there, as she put Bunny back down on the bed, and unzipped her jeans, slipping out of them. She pulled the covers back, and crawled into bed, patting the part in front of the stomach. Bunny meowed and walked up to the spot and layed down up next to her and began to purr.

She smiled, cuddling into her pillow and tried to think positively. It didn’t last long because then a tear rolled off of her cheek and she buried her head into the pillow as she began to cry.

Nick woke up really late the next day. In fact, it was just after noon. He sat up in the bed and looked around to see a note on the pillow. He reached over, wondering what it was and then unfolded it.

Nick sighed, putting the note up to his nose, smelling it and put it back down on the pillow. He layed back in bed, figuring there was no reason he had to get up at the moment since she was gone. He knew the mall was her thinking place and he was hoping she would be there thinking about the idea of taking him back.

He knew it was a little far fetched but hoped that’s what was going on.

Elisabeth sat there on her bench at the mall, snacking on a thing of large fries she had bought from the McDonald’s there. It was pretty crowded in the mall that day since it was Sunday and a lot of people were there shopping or hanging out. She never really went there on Sunday’s, it was usually during the weekdays when it wasn’t as busy.

Of course today - she shopped.

She probably spent more money than she should have. It made her feel a bit better, especially after she bought that Justin Timberlake poster that she planned to hang in the middle of her living room so Nick can lust after it. Some girl had even walked up to her, asking for her autographed and asked was that an engagement ring she was wearing. Elisabeth didn’t really know what to say to that. So instead of explaining it, after the girl walked away, Elisabeth moved it over to her right hand and not her left. She didn’t know what it was exactly and she wasn’t going to explain it to a stranger.

Elisabeth took a bite of a fry and looked over to see a middle aged couple, walking hand in hand. She smiled, wishing that sometimes she wished her parents were like that. They never walked hand in hand or kissed each other when she was growing up. That’s why it surprised her so much that they had three children together and well, soon to be four. She hadn’t talked to her mother in a few days and felt like calling her to find out if she had told her father, but didn’t want to get into the Nick situation with her because she would say those famous four words:

I told you so.

She reached over beside her, picking up her drink and took a sip through a straw as she looked up to see a guy catch her attention. He was cute, but not cute in the way Nick was cute. He was probably the complete opposite of Nick. He was a little bit more built, but not in the way that he looked gay, or like Nick Lachey and he was a bit bigger than him. She noticed that he was looking at her and she looked away, reaching down in her lap to the McDonald’s bag and grabbed another fry, taking a bite of it and looking the opposite way.

“Is this seat taken?” a guy’s voice asked as Elisabeth froze, and looked over at him. She nodded her head, telling him he could sit down and he sat down beside her, looking down in a bag he was holding. Elisabeth smiled a little, reaching over to take another sip of her drink and looked away. He looked a little familiar but she couldn’t place where she knew him. She put her drink back down and reached into her bag for another fry, only realizing she had ate them all.

“Damn,” Elisabeth muttered as she looked into the bag and looked over at the guy to see him looking at her. She sat there a minute realizing they were looking into each other’s eyes and she looked away, crumbling the paper bag up.

“All of your fries are gone?” he asked as Elisabeth smiled, looking back at him, “You can always go buy more,”

“Yeah, but I had a large. I don’t really need anymore,” Elisabeth said as he smiled back at her and she looked away, tossing the bag over into the trash can on the other side of the bench. She saw her engagement ring there on her right hand and then looked down, putting her hands in her lap. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and then looked back up, seeing the guy look at her out of the corner of his eyes, “Really don’t need anymore,”

“Anymore what?” he asked as she looked back over at him, looking into his eyes again, “You look so familiar, do I know you or something?” Elisabeth wanted to laugh, looking away, remembering that she thought he looked familiar also, “Are you a singer?”

“Far from it,” Elisabeth said as she laughed, looking back at him, “I host stuff on CMT, the country channel you know?” She looked at him, seeing that he looked a little in shock and she looked around, wondering if she was going to have a psycho on her hands or something.

“That’s where I know you. You’re Elisabeth,” he said as Elisabeth smiled, nodding her head a little and reached her hand out to shake his, “I’m Joshua Gracin. I was on American Idol.”

Elisabeth stopped shaking his hand and looked at him blankly, realizing that’s where she knew him from.