Chapter 21
21
Monday
Nora
“ I think you missed something,” Nick said over my shoulder, pointing to the computer with one hand, his other was on my boob.
“Nick, you can’t do that. I’m trying to concentrate on your schedule for the week,” I said in my sternest voice.
“What about this?” he asked, sucking my earlobe, which he knew drove me crazy.
“No! We agreed. Work has to stay work, or I need to get another job.”
He backed off immediately. “I don’t want that. This place actually runs like a business now.”
It did run like a business. One of the things I knew I was good at, was managing small business finances. Before getting sucked into Rene’s con, I’d done an excellent job managing the income from social media. I’d made money on my money. Knew where every penny was spent, and had amassed a small fortune in a few years’ time, only to then give it all away.
But the mistakes didn’t diminish my accomplishment. Which meant if I’d done it once, I could do it again.
“Hello, anyone back there?”
Nick stepped out from behind my desk. I felt bad putting us in the dirty secret category, but I didn’t see any other way to do this. If it ended badly, and it very well could – I didn’t need the whole town to be aware of my heartbreak.
Again.
Plus, it was kind of sexy, too.
“Nick? Nora?” It was Peter, walking between cars, making his way towards the office.
“This fucking guy,” Nick muttered. “I’m getting tired of his shit.”
I agreed with Nick. A man I once considered a friend, was beginning to feel more like a stalker. But I put on a smile, in part because Nick was absolutely exuding fuck off energy.
“Hello, Peter,” I said, stepping forward in front of Nick. “What brings you to Nick’s place?”
“You crash that car you were speeding down a residential road yesterday?” Nick asked.
Peter blinked a few times, taken off guard by Nick’s statement. Something flashed over his expression. A hint of a scowl that turned his features into something less handsome.
“I don’t recall speeding,” he said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I was just taking a friend on a tour of this charming town.”
“What do you want?” Nick asked.
While I was ready to admit Peter’s incessant pestering was starting to grate on my nerves, I wasn’t quite as ready to be rude. He was just doing his job, so it was time to do mine and be the face of Nick’s garage.
“What Nick means is, how can we help you?”
“We?” Peter repeated, his gaze directed at me. “Nora, please don’t tell me you’re working here now.”
“You got a problem with that?” Nick asked, standing behind me like a centurion.
“Nora doesn’t need to work a job at a garage,” he sniped at Nick and looked back at me, like he was on a lifeboat and I was choosing to go down with a ship. “I’m offering you all the money you could want. Hollywood is calling. Hell, we can even talk a percentage of royalties. How can you turn that down?”
I stiffened with righteous indignation. I happened to love my new job. And Nick had built something from nothing – that was nothing to look down your nose at.
“Look, Peter, I heard your pitch. And trust me, being as broke as I was, wasn’t fun. Did I consider your offer? Sure, but not seriously. The sooner what happened to me is in the past, the sooner I get to move on with my life. Now, I hope I’m being as clear as I can be. I’m not interested in sharing my story with anyone. You need to find another creative direction.”
It was like he wore a mask – a congenial, persuasive mask, but it kept slipping, revealing something ugly. Desperate.
“You’re making a mistake,” he sneered. “You’re working a nothing job in a nowhere town. Just because you’re embarrassed. You were followed by millions, Nora. Millions! Who walks away from that?”
“This is my nothing job, in my nowhere town,” Nick said, stepping around me to get in Peter’s face. “Get the fuck out of here before you embarrass yourself. Because I know shits like you. You’re all mouth and no substance. When I was in juvie, your type was the first to fall to the ground crying like a baby anytime anyone called you on your shit. Go. Now.”
Peter got the message and backed out of the office.
“It’s your life, Nora,” he said over his shoulder.
“Yes, it is Peter. Yes, it is.”
“Holy crap, we’re right on the ice!”
Behind me, Nick grunted as we slid down the tight row of blue plastic seats.
After the scene with Peter this morning, he’d gone back to work and had been mostly quiet all day. Not even lobster rolls from the Lobster Pot had changed his mood.
“Are you going to be grumpy all night?” I asked him as he handed me the box of popcorn and the beer he’d ordered for me, before taking his seat. Nick’s large frame pressed all up into my space and it was comforting and thrilling all at the same time. “This is supposed to be our first date,” I whispered into his ear.
The arena was cold and we were dressed in thick sweat shirts. I wore a very cute navy blue hat, coral lipstick and adorable boots. In front of the mirror at my house, I’d thought about making a video. How to dress for a date to a hockey arena. I went so far as to get out my phone, but stopped myself before I opened the app. If I was going to get back on social media, I needed a plan. And I needed to toughen up my skin again so when the trolls showed up – and trolls always showed up – I’d be able to brush it off.
“You don’t have to whisper. There are twenty-thousand Bruiser fans shouting their asses off. No one is going to hear us.”
It was early in the season, but the place was packed and loud. The teams were streaming out onto the ice and we were close enough we could see their faces.
Liam must have known where we were, because he skated past the thick glass with a huge smile on his face.
“Is that her ?” he mouthed to Nick and pointed with his stick at me.
I waved and pointed to my chest to show off the team logo. I’d made Nick buy me a Bruiser’s hoodie on the way inside so I could wear team gear. Nick had drawn the line at a Locke jersey.
Liam mouthed something else to Nick which I had a harder time following, then he gave us two thumbs up and skated off.
“Did he say you’re fucked?” I asked Nick.
“Something like that,” he muttered.
I munched on my popcorn and prepared myself for the show. Absolutely huge men skating so fast and then slamming into each other so hard the glass shook. Apparently, there was a puck somewhere on the ice, but I never saw it.
“This is fun,” I said, smiling up at Nick.
Nick slid his hand over my thigh and squeezed. And it was all so natural. So…meant to be. I watched his face to see if he was freaking out. He didn’t seem to be. His eyes tracked the players, he winced when someone took a big hit. He seemed happy. Really happy.
Was I freaking out? Maybe. I might be. Hard to say. Getting too comfortable felt risky. He’d broken my heart so hard, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
“You all right?” he asked, like he could read my mind, and of course he could.
“Great,” I said. He watched me like he knew I was lying. Like he knew I was scared he was going to hurt me, that we were going to get this wrong, and I could only sit there and let him see all that fear.
He nodded once, like the message had been received, and squeezed my leg again. Nick had always been a man of action and very few words. That thigh squeeze was his way of saying he wasn’t going anywhere.
Or that was me making up fairy tales about a man who was emotionally stunted by his childhood. God, I was on a date, could I stop exhausting myself for one minute?
“Feed me,” he said and opened his mouth.
I laughed and popped some popcorn in his mouth. We couldn’t really talk between the noise on the ice and the noise in the stands, but it was okay because we were here together.
And after this game was over, we were going to go back to his apartment and make love.
Then I was going to scramble back into my clothes, like a teenager, make him drive me home, and hope we didn’t get caught by my parents.
Maybe he was right and we should just tell my family, because it was starting to feel wrong to hide him. Us.
My phone, in the back pocket of my jeans, buzzed. A text. Followed by another one. And another one. And another one.
Uh oh. I had a feeling I knew what this was. Family group chat.
Slipping my phone out of my pocket, I realized it wasn’t a group chat, just my sister Charlie having some kind of meltdown.
Charlie: HOLY SHIT! WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Charlie: Also, how could you not tell me. ME? You’re closest sister. So mad at you right now.
Charlie: Does Mom know? Wait! Does Dad know?
Know what?
“What is it?” Nick asked, bumping his shoulder into mine. A buzzer went off and the crowd was deafening.
“I don’t know,” I shouted over the roar. “Charlie’s blowing my phone up about something.”
“Really?” he shouted back. “Because my phone is also going crazy. I was going to ignore it.”
Me: What are you talking about?
Charlie: The video!!!! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?! YOU AND NICK? OMG.
Video? What…
My stomach sour, I turned to Nick. “Did you post the video?”
“What video?”
“The one from the wedding?” I asked, like there was any other kind of video that had the power to blow up our phones like this.
“I don’t know,” he said. “How do you post a video?”
“Gimme your phone,” I said. He handed it over, and sure, fucking enough. There was the video posted on his account. Twenty-five thousand views. I refreshed the screen. Thirty thousand views.
I was going to be sick. There were no hashtags and his was a nothing account, it should have sunk into obscurity. But someone found it. I looked at the comments.
@buzzybaby: Is this @anamericaninparis? with like fifty other people tagged.
@whatever1234# Looks like it. She’s doing new content? #goodgirlsgonebad #slutty
@juicylucy hey @americaninparis let’s team up. Check your DM’s
@lifeinblue who is the guy? He’s hot. Not as hot as Rene…but he probably won’t take all her money #sucker #dumbgirlsgetwhattheydeserve
There was a roaring in my ears that had nothing to do with the crowd. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat.
I refreshed the video, two hundred thousand views.
“It’s going viral,” I muttered.
“What?” he tried again to shout over the crowd.
“Viral.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, his face scrunched up in confusion.
“It means Liam was right. You are fucked.”