Chapter Eight #2
Mia’s eyebrow shot up. “Oh, please. Girl, I’ve seen you getting all red in the face around Nick. Your face always gives it away. Even as a kid, you couldn’t hide it. Any time I asked you to cover for my mischief, Mom and Dad always knew the truth because you couldn’t stop blushing.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten into so much mischief,” retorted Claire.
“Anyway,” said Mia, “I’ve seen you in the throes of love before, and I know the signs.”
Adele hummed. “As your veterinarian, I think I’m going to have to pay a little unscheduled visit to the sanctuary. I need to meet this Nick.”
“You’ll meet him tomorrow at the party,” said Claire. “You’re still coming, right?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Adele, laughing. “Especially now.”
“I won’t be able to make it,” said Mia. “Lucas has a soccer thing. Adele will have to give me all the juicy details.” She and Adele did a high five.
“Guys,” warned Claire. “It’s nothing. I swear. There are no juicy details.”
“Yet.” Mia shrugged. “When I stopped by earlier in the week, I saw Nick checking you out.”
“You did?” Claire hated the eagerness in her voice. “I mean, I’m sure you’re mistaken.”
“Honey,” drawled Mia, “I’ve been married for fifteen years. Believe me, I know what I saw.”
Maybe hosting this party was a bad idea. Claire had only been trying to help when she’d offered up her house as a venue, but she was already counting the minutes until Nick arrived.
Her shoulders began to hunch the way they always did when she contemplated joining the world of dating again. What if she was wrong? What if Nick didn’t really have an interest in her? Of course, if Mia had seen it too…
Adele pointed at Claire’s cocktail. “Drink up. You look like you need it.”
“Is it that obvious?” asked Claire, as her head fell into her hands. “What a mess.”
Adele drew closer on the couch. “Claire, it’s okay. It’s perfectly normal to have the hots for a man.”
“Especially that man,” said Mia, her eyes wide. “Did you see his ass?”
“Mia, you’re not helping.” Claire stood and began to pace.
“All I’m saying is, as far as asses go, Nick’s is a superior one.” Mia performed a dramatic chef’s kiss. “The Venus de Milo of asses.”
“Good Lord,” muttered Claire.
“Ignore your sister.” Adele stood and put her hands on Claire’s shoulders to stop her. “What exactly is the problem here? You’re not feeling some weird sense of guilt, are you? Because it’s been three years since you lost Arthur. He wouldn’t want you to be lonely.”
“I realize that.”
“Okay,” said Adele. “Is it because of that stupid social media thing?”
“What are you talking about?”
Adele and Mia looked at each other.
“Guys,” pushed Claire, “what is it?”
“So,” said Mia, “I guess you haven’t heard of ‘HashtagNicksDick’?”
“What?”
They both clammed up.
Adele finally spoke. “Look, it’s just a bit of dumb celebrity gossip. I forgot you didn’t keep up with that sort of thing.”
“Is that hashtag still even going around?” asked Mia. “Because that was harsh. I felt so badly for Nick when that happened. Twitter had a field day.” She pulled out her cell phone and began to scroll. “It seems to have died down, but there’s still the odd post from trolls. Those people are gross.”
A fierce heat shot through Claire’s body, but it wasn’t the lovely sort of heat Nick usually inspired.
Had he been the target of a social media smear campaign?
Or had he done something stupid, like send out a dick pic?
Somehow, she couldn’t see that happening.
“I only have the Haven Twitter account and the only celebrities we follow are cats. What on earth is ‘HashtagNicksDick’?”
“Well,” said Adele, “he didn’t start it, that’s for sure. Did you know he was dating Kristy Moran a while back?”
“The host of that morning show?” asked Claire.
Adele nodded. “Toronto Morning.”
“I always liked that show, but I stopped watching,” said Mia. “Kristy’s lucky it didn’t get canceled because of her, um, social media slip up.”
“What did she do?” asked Claire.
Adele made a face. “Look, I shouldn’t have brought it up. It sounds like Nick’s a very nice man, and if you guys are getting along well, I don’t want to jeopardize that.”
“Adele, please.”
Adele wrinkled her nose. “Okay. So, Kristy Moran uploaded a video of herself after she got drunk one night. She seemed to be drinking from a hotel minibar. Lots of tiny bottles everywhere. Anyway, someone must have said something to annoy her and I guess she was responding to that. It didn’t go very well.
The original video was deleted but someone out there saved it.
Frankly, I’d rather not give those people any clicks. ”
“Of course not,” agreed Claire.
“The gist of it was this,” said Mia. “Kristy got drunk alone and went on a tirade about how everyone thinks her life is so perfect. But then she let it slip that parts of her life weren’t perfect…like the fact her boyfriend Nick had issues in the bedroom.”
“Oh no.” Claire’s shoulders drooped.
“It was really bad,” continued Mia. “Kristy said she couldn’t understand how any man could have, and I quote, ‘erectile dysflunction’ around her.
Then she asked her fans to send him some encouragement at ‘HashtagNicksDick’.
She was mumbling and slurring her words and her makeup was smeared.
At one point, she even fell over. It was a really bad look. ”
Claire had to clap her mouth shut.
“As you can imagine,” said Adele, “the internet world jumped on it. People can be cruel sometimes.”
“Poor Nick.” Claire shook her head. “And I would imagine things didn’t go well for Kristy either.”
“I saw her apology post.” Mia grimaced. “Not good. It was one of those, ‘I’m sorry if I offended anyone’ posts.”
“Not exactly the sincerest apology I’ve ever seen,” said Adele. “She and Nick broke up afterward. I’m guessing he dumped her. Anyway, Claire, if things are progressing with you and Nick, I don’t want to put a damper on them.”
“You haven’t. And like I said, nothing’s happening with us. We’re just friendly with each other.”
“With a few smoldering looks here and there,” Mia added.
Claire sighed. “Okay, it may have progressed to some light flirting.”
Mia patted Claire’s knee. “I’m glad you’re flirting with someone. You deserve it, sis. You need some hot loving in your life, and if Nick Zorn is the one to give it to you, then so be it.”
“It sounds as if he has some baggage.”
“Are you worried about the ‘erectile dysflunction’?” asked Mia.
“Of course not. I’m not worried about that at all.
” Claire brushed off the idea, adamant. Even if what Kristy said was true, there were a hundred reasons why people might have issues in bed, and erectile dysfunction was nothing to be ashamed of.
God only knew she and Arthur had had moments of lackluster sex and times when they just weren’t into it, and yet she still would have described their sex life as amazing.
It was all about the connection, and Claire had definitely been developing one with Nick.
Those were the sorts of connections that carried people through their troubles.
“When I say baggage, I just mean his ex-girlfriend. Do you think she’s out of the picture? ”
“I’m pretty sure you won’t have to worry about Kristy Moran,” said Adele. “After a stunt like that, I doubt Nick would ever want to rekindle that flame.”
Adele was probably right.
But who was to say he didn’t have other flames in the background?
Still, Kristy was a beautiful woman, successful and influential.
She might have made an error, a big public error, but what if her relationship with Nick had loose ends?
Claire had had some bad breakups before she’d met Arthur, and they hadn’t always ended cleanly.
She’d slept with a couple of exes in moments of confusion or need.
Although, none of her exes had ever started a viral hashtag about her sexual prowess, or lack thereof.
HashtagNicksDick. She couldn’t begin to envision the sorts of vile posts that would have inspired.
Nick had said he wanted to keep a low profile.
Now she understood why.
“Anyway,” said Mia, “you have an opportunity to move on here, Claire. You do want to move on, don’t you?”
“In theory, I guess…”
“We don’t want to push you,” said Adele. “And, honestly, if you’re still questioning it, maybe you’re not ready.”
“You think so?” asked Claire. No one else had said those words before. Pretty much everyone she knew had been urging her to get out there again. Adele’s opinion meant more to her than others’, though.
“I’m not trying to persuade you either way,” said Adele. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that this has to be on your terms.”
Her terms.
If only she knew what they were.