Chapter Fifteen

“What?” Jamie asked looking at him.

“Will you marry me?” Nick asked looking at her, “Will you be my wife?”

“Are you drunk?” Jamie asked as Nick started cracking up laughing.

“No, I’m not drunk. I’m completely sober.” Nick said as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a little gold ring that Jamie had given him back when she broke up with him, “Will you marry me?”

“Nick -”

“Jamie, just I’m asking you-”

“Nick -”

“Will you marry me?” Nick asked as Jamie looked down at his hand and back up at him.

“Yes but -”

“You will?”

“Nick.” Jamie said as she bit her bottom lip and looked down, then looked back up at him, “I can’t marry you if you’re still doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“This.” Jamie said as she looked around, “I can’t -”

“This what?” Nick asked, looking at her.

“Your career.” Jamie said as Nick tilted his head a little, looking at her, “It came between us once and how is now any different than it was two years ago? You don’t have one career anymore, you have two, and you can’t get married like that. If we did, it’d come between us again like it did before and I don’t want to go through that again.”

“What are you saying?” Nick asked, getting frustrated.

“I hate doing this.” Jamie said as she looked down.

“Doing what?”

“You love me more than anything right?”

“Yeah. I love you more than anything.” Nick said as Jamie looked back up at him.

“More than your career?”

“Uh -”

“That’s what I thought.” Jamie said as she looked away when they called for all the passengers on her flight to start boarding, “Nick -”

“I can’t choose between you and my career.” Nick said, “So if you can’t accept that.”

“I’m sorry.” Jamie said as Nick looked away and she walked up to hug him, “I’m sorry.”

“You better get going.” Nick said as they stopped hugging and Jamie looked at him.

“No, not yet.” Jamie whispered, “Do you understand why I did this?”

“Yeah.” Nick said, “The same reason as before.”

“No -”

“Yeah it is. You got mad because I put my career before us. I couldn’t have a baby because of my career so I told you to do that and you got mad.” Nick said, “I can’t just quit.”

“You can do whatever you want to.”

“I don’t want to quit.”

“Okay.”

“I want both. I want you and my career.”

“You can’t have both so don’t even fool yourself.” Jamie said as she wiped a tear away.

“You better go. The plane’s not gonna wait.” Nick said as Jamie looked at him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Just go Jamie.”

“When you come back to Orlando, look me up okay?” Jamie asked as Nick nodded his head a little, “Just ask Mike for my address and come by.”

“Alright.” Nick said, “Bye.”

“Bye.” Jamie said as she leaned up, kissing him on the cheek and turned around walking over to the terminal gate. Nick stood there taking a deep breath and turned around walking back through the airport wondering what the hell just happened to him.

He walked and thought the whole time until he finally reached the outside and got back inside of the car. The driver asked him where did he want to go but he just sat there until finally he told him to take him back to the hotel.

He looked out the window, looking at the planes taking off until they were out of the view of the airport. He sat there fighting back a few tears until he was atleast in his hotel room so nobody could see him.

__________________________________

Jamie sat there in her seat on the airplane after it had taken off and cried, whipping tears away as fast as they fell from her eyes, wishing she hadn’t of told him that because she thought that he would say that he would give his career up to be with her. She didn’t really want him to give it up, she was just saying that to see what he would say but the way he took it, she couldn’t tell him she was joking or just seeing what his response was.

“I fucked up this time.” Jamie thought as she took a deep breath and looked out the window, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

___________________________________

“Fuck.” Nick said as he walked into his hotel room and slammed the door. He opened up his cell phone, dialing Mike’s number and listened to it ringing, “Mike you better answering this fucking phone.”

“Helllo?”

“You, you son of a bitch.” Nick said as he heard Mike started chocking on some water he was drinking, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me she didn’t get an abortion?”

“Fuck, she told you?” Mike asked, clearing his throat.

“Yes.” Nick said as he opened up his backpack and pulled his notebook out, taking the picture of Dylan out of it, “I have a son and I didn’t know. Aren’t you supposed to be like my best friend?”

“Listen, she forced me not to tell okay? She was my friend too. It was better at the time.” Mike said, “You wanted her to get an abortion man. How am I supposed to tell you oh she’s pregnant still.”

“I asked her to marry me.” Nick said as he sat down on the bed and looked at Dylan’s picture.

“No fucking way.”

“Yes way.”

“What she say?”

“She said yes -”

“Oh my god.”

“But she wanted me to choose between her and my career.” Nick said, “I couldn’t do it.”

“Oh fuck.”

“She wanted me to give up my career.” Nick said, “I can’t just do that.”

“Damn. So what happened?”

“She left to go home.” Nick said as he started to cry a little, “She left. She said she couldn’t put up with the career because it would come between us and she didn’t want to go through that again.”

“Damn.”

“So she left.”

“I’m sorry man but -”

“She told me that when I came back to Orlando to drop by and see her. To get her address from you.” Nick said, “But I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry man.” Mike said as Nick looked back at the picture of Dylan, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

“Maybe. I so thought we were getting back together.”

“It’s better to find out now before you really get your heart back into it.”

“It already was.” Nick said, “Listen, let me go. I need some time alone.”

“Alright, call me if ya need me.” Mike said as Nick closed his cell phone and tossed it on the bed. He sat there looking at the picture of Dylan and then reached in his notebook and pulled out a picture of Jamie, looking at them both.

He laid back on the bed, looking over at Dylan’s picture and then back at Jamie’s, thinking about what if he did decide to do that, what it would be like. Then he laughed to himself as he put the pictures back in the notebook and tossed it to the side. There was no way he could give his career up - or Jamie.

All he had now were the memories and that’s all that it was going to be - he thinks. He wiped a tear away as he sat back up and looked over at the door and smiled.