Chapter 4
Nick thought he'd go crazy, trying to figure out just when to call Kerry, and then waiting until that time. Friday seemed like an eternity away. He didn't want to call too soon and seem overanxious, but he didn't want to wait too long and seem like he wasn't that interested. He managed to hold off until Wednesday afternoon.
When he called, a girl's voice he didn't recognize, but figured was probably Kerry's sister, answered and told him she was at work, and asked to take a message. He said to tell her that he'd call and would try back later that evening. He hung up, making a mental note to find out where she worked and stop by with flowers sometime soon.
*****
Kerry arrived home from work exhausted and collapsed on the recliner to watch Blues Clues with Miah. Just when she'd dozed off Haley came into the room and said, "K, Nick called this afternoon."
At the mention of his name, Kerry was wide awake. "He did? When did he call? What did he say? What did you tell him? Did he leave his number? Is he going to call back?" Kerry asked so fast Haley almost didn't understand anything she said.
"He called a couple of hours ago, said he'd try back tonight." Haley replied casually, indicating her lack of approval for the whole deal.
Kerry jumped out of the recliner and went into the kitchen to get a snack, already impatient for his call. It'd seemed like forever since they were at the ice cream parlor, even though it had only been two days. She was anxious, she'd been feeling strange ever since the park- like an odd premonition that something good was going to happen, even if she didn't believe it was really possible.
*****
Nick was pacing around his kitchen, wondering if she'd be home from work yet or not. He realized he should probably come up with a plan before he called her. He'd been thinking about it, and couldn't really decide what would make exactly the right impression. What he really wanted to do was just talk to her find out more about her than just that idiot Josh, in a comfortable relaxed atmosphere she wouldn't feel threatened in. He actually just wanted to invite her over to his place, order in Chinese or something , hell, he might even try to cook for her himself, but he wasn't sure what she'd think of that. But, it was at least worth asking. He took a deep breath, and dialed the phone again.
*****
Kerry jumped when the phone rang and skidded across the kitchen tiles in her socks to get to it. "Hello??"
"Kerry?"
"Nick?" She already knew it was him, she instantly recognized the way he said her name.
"Yeah, hi. Is this an alright time?" he asked.
"Absolutely perfect." she smiled, glad to be talking to him.
"Cool. So, yeah, I was calling about Friday night... is that still okay?" He unconsciously crossed his fingers, in hopes she'd say yes.
"Yep. Got you on my calendar, and Haley agreed to watch Miah, so we're good to go."
"Alright. Um, I was wondering... if, uh... like, you'd maybe wanna just come over to uh, my place... and I'll try to make dinner for us..."
Kerry's hand was over her mouth in disbelief, this was too cute. He was going to cook for her?? "That sounds awesome, Nick." She was beginning to think he seemed just too good to be true. They talked a while longer and then hung up. Kerry walked back into the living room, and pretended to faint on the couch, smiling from ear to ear.
*****
Nick sighed to himself as he hung up, that had worked nicely. He'd given her directions to his house, and told her to be there around 6:30. He was excited about their impending evening, and more than a little stressed out, because he now had to come up with something to fix for dinner.
*****
Friday Night
5 pm
Kerry stood in front of her closet staring at it's contents, dismissing everything she saw. She wanted to look just perfect tonight, but she didn't want to come off like she was trying too hard. "ARRGGHH!!" she screamed, flopped back onto her bed.
Miah came walking into the room, covering her ears. "What you yelling about Momma?"
Kerry patted the bed beside her, and Miah crawled up onto the bed and sat next to her. "I can't decide what to wear, sweetie."
"Where ya goin'?"
"You remember Nick?" Kerry asked, looking over at Miah to see what kind of reaction her question would get.
Miah's face immediately lit up. "Yeah! I liked him!"
Kerry giggled and thought, 'that makes two of us'. "Well, I'm going to visit him tonight."
"I go too?"
"No, sweets, not this time." Kerry replied, ruffling Miah's hair.
"Oh. I find you something to wear." Miah said, sliding off the bed.
Kerry followed her over and watched as Miah scanned the closet. Miah pointed to Kerry's Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey.
"That, Momma."
"Ya think so, munchkin?" Kerry wondered why she hadn't thought of that before. Seemed like a pretty good idea to her. "Thanks babygirl."
"Welcome." Miah said as she scampered back out of the room.
Kerry slipped the shirt over her head and tugged on her favorite jeans, then glanced at herself in the mirror. 'Not bad.' she smiled and headed into the bathroom. She felt giddy, pre-date jitters, something she hadn't felt in years... not since the first few times she'd gone out with Josh... he was the only one she'd ever dated. After him she'd never wanted to get close enough to a guy to even try to have a relationship.
Haley stood in the doorway of the bathroom, watching Kerry finish pulling her hair into a french braid. "I can't believe you're doing this. Going to his house already? God, Kerry, you think you'd learn."
"And you'd think you'd learn to leave me alone after a while, wouldn't you?" Kerry retorted, lightly brushing her eyelids with silver.
"K, I just don't want you to get hurt again." Haley said softly, hopping onto the counter beside where her sister was working, skimming blush across her cheeks.
"Hayhay, I'm not ever going to let someone hurt me like that again. I honestly don't think Nick's that kind of guy, but if he is, and he tries anything, he is going to end up in serious pain himself." Kerry smiled at Haley. She was glad her sister was concerned with her safety, but also sad that Haley automatically tried to make every guy into a criminal.
5:30 pm
Nick glanced over the living room again, surveying to make sure everything was in it's place, or at least close enough. He went back into the kitchen, to check and make sure nothing that he'd set out on the table had walked off of it's own freewill. He laughed at himself, this was crazy. It wasn't like he'd never had a girl at his house. He thought about it for a second, and realized he'd never done this- tried to cook, for anyone but... his ex-girlfriend. At that was enough to make him even more nervous. He knew he'd go nuts if he kept worrying about everything, and headed upstairs to change clothes.
6:00 pm
"Are you sure I look okay?" Kerry asked Haley again, unsure of herself.
"For the EIGHT MILLIONTH TIME, you look FINE." Haley replied, rolling her eyes. "If I have this to look forward to every time you go out with him, I hope this date is horrible."
Kerry smacked Haley on the arm and then ducked her head into the closet to find her shoes. As she finished tying the laces, she let out a long sigh. "I'm insane." she said, nodding.
"At least you realize it." Haley said, sticking her tongue out at Kerry.
"Runs in the family." Kerry pushed her sister off the bed and onto the floor. "I gotta get going."
Kerry grabbed Miah and swung her up into a hug on her way out the door, telling her to be a good girl for Aunt Hayhay.
"I will. Have fun with Nick." Miah said, and gave her mom a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
"I intend to." Kerry said, then yelled goodbye to Haley and was out the door.
******
Kerry followed the directions Nick had given her, driving into a very affluent neighborhood. When she reached the gates to the subdivision Nick had directed her to, she had to give the guard her name, and then she was waved on through.
Nick heard her pull up, and he was too antsy to wait and opened the door. "Hey!"
Kerry saw his head poking out the front door, and laughed, "Hi!"
Nick flung the door open and smiled as she walked in. "Glad you're here."
"So am I." she returned his grin, and glanced around the room. "Very nice place you've got here."
Nick was a little embarrassed, the house was almost too big- especially for one person, and someone who wasn't there that often anyway. "Um, thanks. You hungry?" he asked, wanting to get the conversation headed in a direction he was more comfortable with.
"Actually, yes." Kerry followed him as he lead her into the kitchen and pulled the chair out for her at the table. She giggled and sat down.
He brought the food to the table, seafood salad and french bread. "Sorry I'm not much of a cook."
Kerry smiled, "Looks great to me! Definitely more tempting to the palate than 'psghettios' or peanut butter and jelly! You know... gourmet dishes to a four year old."
As soon as she smiled, Nick relaxed- this evening was going to go fine, despite his lack of culinary ability.
Their conversation got started easily and flowed well, each finding out more about the other, thanks to amusing antics and embarassing stories. After dinner, which Kerry praised sufficiently, they moved into the den on the couch and continued talking.
"So, I was told you were at work the other day... where do you work?" Nick inquired.
"You know the one-hour photo place in mall? You're looking at the assistant manager." Kerry laughed.
"Well, now I know where to take my pictures." Nick grinned. "You like it?"
"I do.. . but I mean, it's not exactly what I had planned for my life, y'know? It's okay for now, though. I just didn't wanna be mooching off my parents, and I knew one of the girls that worked there from school, and she hooked me up. Plus they work really well around my schedule- I work when Miah's in school and that's it. So, I get to spend time with her, and I'm still being responsible, not taking advantage of my parents."
"I doubt they'd think you were taking advantage of them..." Nick started to say.
"Probably not, I mean, they told me I could just stay in the house, and not work at all until Miah was in kindergarten, then they wanted me to try to find a job, but I didn't want to wait that long. So when she started preschool I went to work. I think they're sort of proud of the way I've handled things."
"They should be! I think you've done really well for yourself."
"Thanks. I just want to get out of their house at some point. They aren't there that much, but still, I don't want to be living at home forever. That's my next goal, to get a place for me and Miah... maybe Haley, I dont know what I'd do without her."
"You and her are really close?" Nick wanted to keep her talking forever. He loved listening to her and finding out all he could about her.
"Yeah, she's my best friend. We used to drive each other crazy... but like, when I started being homeschooled and never got to see any of my other friends, I realized she wasn't so bad, and now I'd be so lost if I didn't have her, bad attitude and all." Kerry laughed, her mind quickly straying to how Haley would react when she went home to squeal about her evening. "Okay, we've been yapping about me forever. Time for you to 'fess up, bud."
"'Fess up?" Nick cocked his head and raised his eyebrow. "Whaddya wanna know?"
"Everything. But we'll start with... what do you do for a living?"
Nick was shocked that she honestly appeared to have no clue who he was. He'd loved that it hadn't come up yet, but knew he was going to have to see if she knew sometime. He just hoped it wasn't going to change anything. He started to tell her, but really didn't know how to say it. "I, uh, guess you don't watch tv very often..."
"No... but do I need to? Like America's Most Wanted or what?" Kerry didn't have any idea what he was getting at.
"Um.. no, I think I'd start with MTV..."
Kerry was getting more suspicious and confused with everything he said. "What are you getting at?"
"Do you listen to the radio?" He couldn't decide whether he should be laughing at how bizarre this whole conversation was, or thanking God he'd found the only girl in America who didn't know who he was.
"Yeah..."
"What kind of music?"
Kerry was about to go crazy, what the hell was he trying to tell her? "Just about anything, but Top 40, mainly..."
Nick knew he had the perfect opportunity to be cheesy, and a little romantic. He started to sing, "I'll never break your heart...I'll never make you cry..."
As he continued the chorus, Kerry suddenly figured it all out. "Guess I need to check out TigerBeat a little more often. Think I can get your autograph?" she teased.
Nick was pleasantly surprised with her reaction. She wasn't freaking out or shrieking. That was a good sign. "So, uh, yeah, that's what I do."
"And you do it very well."
"That's, like, cool with you, though?" He wasn't exactly sure of what to think, she was just so calm about it all.
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be? I mean, it's not as cool as like, the photo lab, but I suppose it's an alright way to earn a few bucks." She giggled.
Nick had to laugh, "I know, I'm only doing this until I can find a real job."
"I think you have potential, I'm sure you'll be able to find something. If nothing else works out, we need a janitor at the lab... " Kerry replied, trying not very sucessfully to keep a straight face.
"I'll keep that in mind." Nick chuckled. He definitely liked this girl. Really, really liked her.
They kept talking and laughing until the early morning, when at 3:30 Kerry realized what time it was.
Between laughs she gasped, "Oh god, I've gotta get home! I didn't know it was this late."
Nick didn't want her to leave, he couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun. "It's not THAT late..." He'd beg and plead with her to stay if he had to.
"Morning comes reallleee ear-leeeee when you have a munchkin that likes to watch Saturday morning cartoons." Kerry said, picking herself up off the floor, that she'd fallen onto from the couch during one of Nick's hilarious tales of life on the road.
"Oh fine." Nick pretended to pout and stood up to walk her to the door.
They stopped at the door and just looked at each other for a moment.
"I had the best time tonight, Nick. Thank you so much." Kerry said, giving him a grin that made his heart skip a beat.
"I did, too. I was thinking, maybe you and me and Miah could do the Disney thing next weekend, maybe?" The idea had just come to him. He thought it would be fun to spend time with both of them.
"That'd be awesome. Miah will go crazy." She was glad he was already thinking of next weekend, she had been for the past few hours. She looked him in the eyes, and started to say 'bye', but was caught by Nick gently tilting her chin back and softly pressing his lips against hers in the sweetest kiss she'd ever received.
He pulled back from her, hoping he hadn't been too sudden. Kerry was a little shocked, more from the tenderness of the kiss than the action itself. She stepped closer to him, slipped her hands around the back of his neck, pulling him closer to her, and leaned in to kiss him back. He wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her to him, and wondered if she could feel his heart pounding.
She broke the kiss and just hugged him, it felt so good to her just to be held. She let go, and smiled shyly at him. "Good night, Nick."
"Good night. I'll call later, k?" He said, knowing he was going to be counting the hours until he thought she'd be awake so he could call.
"You better." She turned and walked to her car, feeling like she was floating on air.