Chapter Five

“Hello? Earth to Elisabeth! Who the hell is Joe Don?” Nick asked as Elisabeth stared at him and then looked at the phone.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know whether to lie and say she never said she would go out with him. She didn’t know if she should just take the phone from him and see exactly what the hell Joe Don actually wanted again. Maybe she should just tell him herself.

“I’m in the group Rascal Flatts. I was on her show today,” Joe Don said as Nick opened his mouth a little.

“Oh you’re the one that kissed her on TV tonight huh?” Nick asked as Elisabeth closed her eyes and looked away.

Okay, so maybe she didn’t have to tell him anything at all.

“Yeah, that’s me. Who are you?” Joe Don asked as Elisabeth walked over, taking the phone from Nick, “Hello?”

“Hey, sorry about that,” Elisabeth said as she looked over at Nick and then walked over to the kitchen, “What did you want?”

“Well,” Joe Don said as Elisabeth looked over to see Nick peeking around the corner, watching and listening to her, “I didn’t know if I needed to pick you up from work, or your place, or what.”

“Just come by the studios.”

“Oh okay.” Joe Don said as Elisabeth smiled into the phone, “I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”

“Okay bye,” Elisabeth said as she turned the phone off and looked back at Nick, “He’s from Rascal Flatts.”

“Yeah, so, what’s that about? Is that why you told me no?” Nick asked as Elisabeth looked at him. She rolled her eyes and walked past him, going into the living room and picking her papers about the Tim McGraw special off of the sofa, “Is it?”

“Nick, I never told you no,” Elisabeth said as she held the papers up to her chest, “I never told you yes either. It’s dinner that’s all. I feel bad because I embarrassed him on the show tonight, and he wants to apologize. That’s all it is, dinner. It’s simple as that.”

And with that she started to walk upstairs to the second floor which was her bedroom. Nick rubbed his chin and looked around, and started to run upstairs behind her, but tripped over his own feet.

“Damn, are you okay?” Elisabeth asked as she ran down the stairs midway, helping him up.

“Yeah, not that you care,” Nick said as he looked up at her and looked at his knee which had blood on it. He probably now had a bad case of carpet burn on it.

“You know that’s not true,” Elisabeth said as she started to walk back up to her room, “Come on you big baby. I’ll play doctor.”

“Oh really?” Nick asked as he raised her eyebrow at her and she looked back at him, shaking her head.

“Drop the pants and I will. I can’t doctor it if they’re still on.”

Nick laughed at himself as he walked up to her bedroom and went over to her bed. He unzipped his jeans, and let them fall to the ground. He looked down at his navy blue boxer briefs and smiled, sitting down on the edge. He looked over at Elisabeth who was standing in her bathroom, which was actually a part of her bedroom. There were no walls separating the two rooms. Elisabeth looked over at him as she reached for the alcohol in the cabinet above the sink and walked slowly back over to him.

“You’ve gotta learn you can’t run up the stairs,” Elisabeth said as she kneeled down on her knees in front of him and opened up the alcohol, putting a little on a piece of cotton ball, “You should have learned that the other times you’ve fallen, running up them.”

“Yeah well, I’m not very bright,” Nick whispered as he looked down at her, schwinching his eyes as the alcohol touched the carpet burn, “Shit.”

“Shut up, it doesn’t burn,” Elisabeth said as she leaned over, blowing on it lightly and looked up at him, “This looks so wrong by the way.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nick said with a smirk as Elisabeth laughed a little and rolled her eyes at him while reaching for the big band aid, “Promise that it’s just dinner tomorrow night?”

“It’s just dinner. I’d feel bad because he’s in one of the biggest groups right now in country music and I don’t want word to get back to the big bosses that a member of Rascal Flatts asked me out and I turned him down when I’m single. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah I get what you’re saying,” Nick said as Elisabeth put the band aid on his knee and slapped his thigh as she stood up.

“All better,” Elisabeth said as she leaned over, picking up the alcohol and dirty cotton ball, walking back into the bathroom. Nick looked down at his knee and kicked his jeans off, throwing them over into the dirty clothes hamper and walked up beside Elisabeth who was now standing at the sink, “Yeah?”

“So since you’re going out with him tomorrow night. The next night will you go out with me?” Nick asked as Elisabeth looked over at him smiling, “Please?”

“We’re going out?” Elisabeth asked as she looked back in the mirror at herself. She tried to cut her eyes, looking over at Nick. Nick smiled in return, leaning over to whisper in her ear.

“Yeah baby, we’ll go out.” Nick whispered in her ear as Elisabeth looked down and then walked away from the sink.

“Okay, we’ll go out not tomorrow night, but the next night,” Elisabeth said as she looked at Nick. She looked down at him, standing there in his t-shirt and boxer briefs and just laughed a little, crossing her arms and looked away.

“What?” Nick asked as he looked down, “Don’t like my choice in underwear?”

“No comment,” Elisabeth said as she licked her lips and turned around, walking back over to her bed, setting her alarm clock for eight in the morning.

Nick just smiled, as he walked up to her as she leaned up, and wrapped his arms around her stomach, moving her up close to him.

“Nick -”

“Yeah?”

“Trying to seduce me isn’t going to get you anywhere,” Elisabeth said as she looked back at him, “Slowly.”

“Slowly,” Nick whispered as she turned around and looked at him. She put her hands on his shoulders, looking him in the eyes while Nick put his hands on her hips, moving closer to her.

“Now go to bed,” Elisabeth said as she leaned up slowly, as if she was going to kiss him. She stopped when she got to his lips, opening her eyes to see Nick moving his lips out to kiss her back. She smiled and leaned over to her left, kissing him on the cheek, “Sweet dreams.”

Nick sighed in return.

“You too,” Nick said as he walked over to the stairs and looked back at Elisabeth at the same time that she looked back at him, “Night.”

“Night night,” Elisabeth said as Nick began to walk downstairs slowly, shaking his head. Elisabeth took off her drawstring pajama pants and climbed into bed, adjusting herself so that she was comfortable and smiled as she looked at a little picture of her and Nick on her nightstand.

I think I need to clarify some things.

I really don’t believe in love at first sight. I do really think it’s something only in fairytales, romance novels, and made for TV movies. I guess what Nick said tonight made me think tonight. I did kind of know that it was something about him the moment I met him.

I still remember it like it was yesterday. Carson and I went backstage to meet them and to tell them they’d be going on the show 23 minutes into it. We walked into the room and there he was.

He was taking off his huge black jacket. He had on this blue hooded vest that was zipped all the way up with a little bit of blue hairspray stuff in his hair, celebrating the albums name which was, Black & Blue. I had on this black skirt and blue top that someone in wardrobe had picked out for me because Carson refused to dress in the colors of the guy’s album.

We introduced ourselves and he made some really cheesy joke about how we matched and we were meant for each other. I remember AJ cracking up at him and walked away and from that moment on, we never stopped talking to each other. He told me later that, that one time he used a cheesy pick up line like he used on me, was the only time one had ever worked for him.

Maybe it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. Maybe it was friends at first sight.

Actually Nick is almost all the type of guys in every girls’ life put together. He’s the celebrity that you can have a crush on. He’s a Backstreet Boy for god’s sake. Well to be honest, I never really cared for their music until I met them. But he’s the dreamy poster boy type. He’s so cute. He’s so sexy. Then he’s the ‘high school jock’ type. He’s athletic. He’s in shape, but not too much in shape that he looks like some gay guy that lives at the gym. I could watch his arms all day long, especially the one with the armband tattoo, which is his right one. Yes, I have it memorized. He’s not exactly the smartest person on earth, but sometimes that’s what makes him so damn cute.

And, he’s my best friend.

He said tonight that I’ve always been there for him ever since we met, but he failed to mention that he’s been there for me. He was there for me when my brother came out of the closet and I seriously lost it. I knew it was going to tear my family apart because my father is homophobic. He was there for me when I got so sick right after I moved to Nashville and had nobody else to take care of me because my parents were in the middle of their divorce, which he was also there for me. He flew all the way from Sweden, working on his album, over night to help take care of me. He forced me to go to the hospital and I had to be admitted for two days. He was there the whole time.

I guess me sitting here on the floor in the guest room, watching him sleep isn’t helping matters either. I’m just speechless that he actually asked me to marry him tonight. I didn’t even get a good look at the ring I was too in shock.

I wonder if it’s still in his jeans pockets upstairs.

Elisabeth stood up off of the floor, looking at Nick sleeping again. She smiled, walking over to him and kissing him on his forehead and turned around, walking out of the room. She walked through the living room, looking at the clock to see that it was three in the morning.

She had to be up in five hours.

She shook her head, sighing as she walked upstairs, thinking about what all Nick said tonight. She went to climb back into her bed and looked over at his jeans in the dirty clothes hamper.

It wouldn’t hurt to look and see if it was still in there.

She got off of her bed and walked over to the dirty clothes hamper. She pressed her lights together tightly as she held the jeans up and reached into the right pocket, feeling a ring case.

He actually forgot it was in there.

She pulled the ring case out of the jeans, dropping them back down in the hamper and started to walk back over to her bed slowly. She opened the ring case up to see the ring.

It was a princess cut white diamond ring, with a white gold band. It had to be around two, or two and a half carats. Hell maybe it was three. She didn’t know. She wasn’t very good with jewelry. She took it out of the ring case and looked inside the band to see something engraved.

“It’s the day we met,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked up to see him standing in the doorway.