Chapter Eight

So I’m sitting here having dinner with Joe Don in this really nice restaurant which I’m very underdressed for. I mean a jean skirt? Come on. But it’s going really nice so far. He’s interesting and he’s funny. He’s not like I thought he would be. He’s really smart and he’s got the music business all figured out.

I sit here and I look him in the eyes while talking to him and, I don’t know, I feel something. It’s nothing like I feel with Nick though. It’s nothing that I’ve ever experienced with him. But before you get all pissy and starting throwing things at me, let me explain what I feel.

I feel emptiness.

He’s really nice and he’s funny. He’s sweet, and he’s cute, but when I look into his eyes, I just see a member of Rascal Flatts whose CD I often have on repeat. But I do like him. That’s something that I can’t deny. And you know, I might would possibly go out with him again, but I don’t think anything would ever come from it.

How could it? I look in his eyes and feel emptiness.

Nick layed on the sofa, looking at the clock, watching each minute go by. It was now almost ten o’clock. She has probably been at dinner for an hour and a half. That’s more than enough time to order a meal, eat and come back home. He kept having all of the scenarios run through his mind that she went back home with him, making passionate love to him, and laughing about how he asked her to marry him the night before.

He would laugh at himself, knowing damn good and well that was not true and would never happen. There’s no way that she would ever go home with him. It took her three months to actually sleep in the same bed as him, and even then, they never did anything.

Suddenly the sound of a ringing phone made him jump out of his thoughts, and physically jump across the sofa, answering it.

“Elisabeth? Beth?” Nick asked, out of breath from moving so fast into the phone.

“No,” said the woman questionably, “Who is this?”

“Ms. Geller?”

“Yes,”

“Oh, hey. It’s Nick. Nick Carter, ” Nick said, rolling his eyes when he realized that it was stupid to say his last name because obviously she would know who Nick was.

“Nick, how are you? What are you doing there?” Mrs. Geller asked in her slow southern accent. She had a much thicker accent than Elisabeth. Maybe going to school in New York City actually did Elisabeth some good.

“Oh I’m fine. I’m on vacation and so I’m hanging out with Elisabeth, but she’s out right now. Something for work, I thought maybe it was her calling,” Nick said as he sat up on the sofa, looking at the clock. It was now 10:05, “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” Ms. Geller said as Nick looked around, realizing how unexcited she was to talk to him, “Well tell Lisa that I called.”

“Okay I will,” Nick said, “Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

“Bye,” Nick said as he reached over, hanging the phone back up. Lisa. Elisabeth hated when her mother and father called her that. If someone had to shorten her name, she would rather be called Beth than Lisa. Nick called her that once and well, he slept on the floor that night. He never called her that again.

Now it was 10:08. Where the hell was Elisabeth?

“Well, thanks for dinner,” Elisabeth said as her and Joe Don stood outside of her apartment building, beside both of their cars, “It was really nice getting to know you better.”

“Yeah, it was really nice,” Joe Don said as Elisabeth looked at him and smiled, before crossing her arm, rubbing them because of the cool night air. She looked around and looked back at him and finally decided to break the silence herself.

“Yeah, so I guess I’ll see you another time then,” Elisabeth said as she took a step away, “Thanks for dinner.”

“Yeah, when the tour ends, do you want to go out again?” Joe Don asked as Elisabeth closed her eyes for a minute and opened them back up, tilting her head a little.

“Sure, I guess. I mean I never know what’s going to happen in the future but that would be nice.” Elisabeth said as she smiled and walked back up towards the door to her apartment building, “Good luck on the tour.”

“Good luck on the show,” Joe Don said as Elisabeth smiled, waving to him. She turned around walking into her apartment building, reliving a huge sigh, and started to laugh, realizing how much of a non-connection she had with him.

That was on definitely one of those celebrity crushes that was and never will be ‘meant to be’.

Nick laid there on the sofa, looking at the ceiling. It was now 10:35 and he wanted to know where Elisabeth was. She should have been home by now. Maybe something bad happened. All of these different scenarios were running through his mind and he didn’t like them. They didn’t make him laugh at the ones he was thinking earlier like she went home with him and made passionate -

Finally he heard someone at the door. He jumped up, seeing Elisabeth walk in and turn around, locking the door back.

“About time you came back,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked over her shoulder at him and finished locking the door, “What took so long?”

“I had dinner, god. I can’t just throw the food down my throat and not talk,” Elisabeth said as she walked in, kicking her shoes off and tossed her bag down on the floor, “I’m so tired.”

“So when’s the wedding?”

“Wedding?”

“You know, to Joe Don,” Nick said as Elisabeth cut her eyes over to him, and then rolled them. She couldn’t believe he was asking such.

“I’m not marrying him,” Elisabeth said as she walked over, petting Bunny who was sitting on the back of the sofa, “Any calls?”

“Your mom called. She didn’t seem thrilled to hear me answering the phone,” Nick said as Elisabeth smiled at him. Nick crossed his arms, staring at her until finally she turned around, looking him dead in the eyes, “It seems like you’re hiding something.”

“Just wondering why you’re interrogating me,” Elisabeth said as she crossed her arms, looking him in the eyes, “I was like two and a half hours. We didn’t even get our food until almost 9:30 Nick. Trust me, nothing is going to happen there.”, she said as she walked over to the coffee table, picking up the mail and looking through it.

Nick just stood there, watching her, as she moved her hair over in a pile on her left shoulder. He looked around for a minute and started to think. She didn’t seem all giggly and in love after her little ‘date’ like someone who really enjoyed it would.

“Didn’t like him?” Nick asked as he walked around the sofa, walking up beside her as she looked at the mail.

“He was nice,” Elisabeth whispered as she smiled at him and then looked back down at her credit card bill. Nick watched her eyes, as it skimmed over the piece of paper and then looked away.

“Just nice?”

“Just nice.”

“Not going out with him again?” Nick asked as Elisabeth dropped the mail back down on the coffee table and turned around, looking at him. She stood there looking into his eyes, like she did Joe Don’s at dinner but she didn’t see emptiness. She saw something completely differently.

“Well?” Nick asked as Elisabeth shook her head, leaving her thoughts and looked back in his eyes, “Are you not going out with him again?”

“I doubt it,” Elisabeth said as she smiled a little, “For one he’s going on tour, and I didn’t feel anything there.”

“Feel what?”

“I felt emptiness.”

“Emptiness what?” Nick asked as Elisabeth turned around, and walked over to the stairs. Nick watched her as she walked upstairs slowly, unbuttoning her red shirt. Nick watched her until he couldn’t see her anymore and then walked over to the stairs and walked up them, following her upstairs. He reached the top of the stairs, seeing her standing in front of her dresser, taking her jewelry off.

He stood there for a minute, waiting for her to talk but she didn’t say anything. She turned around and looked over at him as she walked over to her sink in the bathroom. He knew she wasn’t going to say anything so he knew he had to make her. That wasn’t going to be an easy task. He knew not to piss her off too much or his ass would be back at the hotel but he had to know what she meant about ‘emptiness’.

“Elisabeth, what did you mean about emptiness?” Nick asked as Elisabeth looked over at again and smiled lightly. Nick walked further into her bedroom and sat down on the edge of her bed, watching her as she walked over to him slowly.

He watched her, playing with the ring that she always wore on her right hand, as she walked towards him. He bought it when the guys went to Japan, to finish up their Black & Blue World Tour and had given it to her for their one year anniversary of meeting. He watched her fingers and then looked down a little, seeing her white tank top with an American Flag on it, that ended just a inch before her skirt started, showing a little bit of her stomach.

She was always too shy and self-conscious about the way she looked, and showing skin. When she was visiting him in Florida for the weekend back in November when he was shooting the video for “I Got You”, she almost killed him when he tricked her into being in the video, after the model that was hired came down with a bad case of Poison Ivy.

“When I looked into his eyes, I felt emptiness,” Elisabeth said as she looked down at Nick, looking into his eyes, “When I met him yesterday, we had this little moment, and that’s why I wasn’t so hesitant about not going out with him. I wanted to see you know?”

“Yeah,” Nick said, nodding his head, agreeing with her. Elisabeth smiled in return, and looked back down at her hand. She looked back at Nick and smiled again.

“There was nothing there. The moment was just a moment and that’s it. We’re completely different. We don’t share the same thoughts and feelings about things, and all he could do the whole time was talk about his ex-girlfriend who is in SheDaisy, a country group who is like Dixie Chick wannabes that I can’t stand,” Elisabeth said as Nick smiled in return, looking at her, “It’s not like it is with you. I don’t see emptiness when I look into your eyes.”

“What do you see then?” Nick asked as Elisabeth looked away for a moment, taking a deep breath. She looked back at him, and saw that he was looking so eager to know what exactly she was talking about. The thing is she just didn’t know how to say it.