“Nice to see you, too, Frick,” Nick laughed.
“It’s…” He stopped to look at his watch. “Eleven o’clock? Wow, I guess it’s not that early. Come in.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. I wasn’t expecting you to be sleeping this late.”
“That’s okay. I need to get up anyway. Give me a few minutes to get dressed and brush my teeth.”
Nick went into the living room and stared at the pictures on the wall. There was one of Brian and Leighanne, a wedding picture, and without even realizing it, Nick found himself replacing the faces with himself and Michelle. She would look great in that dress…or out of it. “Stop it, Carter!” he scolded himself. The next picture was of Brian and Leighanne having fun on the beach. Gosh, how he would kill to have a love like that! He wasn’t ready for a relationship right now? Where the hell had that come from? It certainly wasn’t true.
Brian stepped into the room. “So what’s up? What are you doing here?”
“I’m having some problems.”
“Bitchy roommate?”
“Opposite. I’m in – “ He stopped. He wasn’t in love with her. “I made out with her last night.”
“What?” Brian exclaimed. “You hate her!”
“No, I don’t. We’re friends now, I guess. I haven’t talked to you in a while, have I?”
“No. How did you become friends?”
“She’s terrified of storms. That one night a couple weeks ago when we had the storm, she came in and asked if she could stay with me in my room, and I let her. Since then, we’ve been friends.”
“Okay, so how did you end up making out with her? I thought she had a boyfriend.”
“We watched the football game together on Sunday, and she’s a Falcons fan. We made a bet. If the Falcons won, I was her slave for a day, and vice versa. The Falcons won. Then she went to her boyfriend’s house, and she caught him making out with some other girl. She came home, and she was crying and everything, so I had to comfort her. That was all good. I convinced her he wasn’t worth her time, and she was pretty okay after that.”
“Okay…”
“Well, yesterday, she decided, was my day of slavery, so she ordered me around all day. I was okay with it; it was a fair bet. Then last night, there was a really bad storm again, so I slept in her bed. We were talking, and we lit candles because the power went out. Now you remember how gorgeous I told you she was? Multiply that by ten with candles. She pried it out of me that I thought she was pretty, and she disagreed. She said Brad never complimented her like that. I said Brad didn’t deserve her.”
“Brad is her boyfriend, right?”
“Yeah, her ex.” He paused, recalling the whole conversation. “She looked so sad, Brian. I felt so bad for her. She really did love him. She looked at me, and she said, ‘Nick, you’re my slave, right? You’d do something for me?’ I said yeah. She told me to make the pain go away. I was about to say I didn’t know how, but she kissed me before I had the chance.”
“Okay, and?”
“To make a long story short, before I knew it, we were making out.”
“So are you together now or what?”
“No because we freaked out this morning. We decided it was just a fling and nothing serious.”
“Are you sure? You look like you want something more.”
“No, I don’t,” Nick lied.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“It’s gonna be all awkward now.” He had originally intended to tell Brian the truth, but he couldn’t. What he felt toward her was simply an attraction based on looks.
“If you’re good friends, you can get past it, you know. Are you sure there’s nothing more there?”
“God, Brian, I’m sure! She’s pretty and all, and I guess I would date her, but I’m comfortable with it being a friendship.”
“No, you’re not. I can see that.”
“Fine, I’d love to date her, but I’m not in love with her or anything,” Nick snapped.
“Gosh! Sorry!” Brian paused. “I still think you need to reevaluate your feelings. From the way you’re acting, you seem to care about her a lot more than a friend does.”
Nick shook his head. Brian didn’t know what he was talking about. He and Michelle were friends, and that was all they’d ever be. There was nothing there.