Nearly Broken (6 page)

“Down, girl. I’m
sure if Nick had any interest in me whatsoever, he would’ve
asked me out on a date, not to split the rent.”

“You’re
seriously not riding that?” The surprise in her eyes slowly
became greedy. “Hmm… Just a forewarning. If you don’t
make your move soon, I’m going in.”

I huffed and rolled my
eyes, but inside, I felt a twinge of worry. Tish was a pretty girl
who wasn’t afraid of going after something once she wanted it,
so I knew she was completely serious. And I began to wonder. If I was
jealous of just the thought of those two together, then maybe I was
interested in Nick that way.
Oh, crap.

It was hard pushing
through my shift. Paul always spent his free time doing
business-related things in his office, so the hours passed with
little conversation. I guess I had taken Nick for granted in that
aspect. We’d spent most of our nights interacting in some way
and it always made the hours fly by.

By two A.M. I was
ready to drop. Following Paul out the back, my jaw slackened and my
poor heart quickened. Nick was sitting in his car waiting for me.
I
can’t believe he came for me.
I thought I’d still
have a few minutes to prepare myself for whatever was going to happen
next, and now, it was already here, smacking me in the face. But a
small part of me warmed inside too.

Paul seemed unaffected
by Nick’s arrival and said goodnight as he climbed into his
truck, so even he must’ve heard the rumors and assumed we were
dating. Funny he didn’t sound off his opinion of Nick like he
did with Joe.

I let myself in and
eased into the passenger seat, afraid to look him in those gorgeous
green eyes. “Hey,” he murmured.

“Hey,” I
returned. I knew he was looking at me but I just couldn’t brave
it in return.

“How’d
your night go?”

I took a moment to
think on it. “Slow.”

I sensed a smile
before he quietly chuckled, starting the engine to drive us home.
Only then did I have the courage to look his way.

“Mine, too,”
he said.

It only took a minute
to drive home. When I stepped into our apartment, I breathed in the
faint aroma of garlic, but saw nothing but a clean kitchen. “Did
you cook?”

“Yep. Go change
and I’ll heat you up a plate.”

I did like he said and
hid myself away to change into my nightwear. I returned to find a
pasta dish ready on the counter, with olive oil, basil, garlic and
diced tomatoes. So simple yet fantastic.

I focused on my food,
afraid to speak while he watched some old movie on TV. When I
realized he wasn’t going to bring up what happened earlier, I
relaxed and joined him on the sofa for the rest of the movie.

That was the first
night I had the nightmare.

I was standing in an
abandoned crossroad in the middle of the night, nothing but barren
wastelands in each direction. I didn’t know where I was or what
I was doing there, but something had me so terrified I was literally
quivering in my boots, fearful beyond comprehension.

Nick appeared off to
my left, the moon sucking all the color from his skin. He waved
frantically, desperately seeking my gaze. He cupped his mouth and
yelled, and the wind carried his scream all the way to my ear. “Air!”
He pointed towards me, again shouting, “AIR!”

I looked to the sky
but saw nothing more than the moon and the stars, staring down at me
with judgment, it seemed. When I looked to my right, I gasped.
Mom
and Dad!
Though white as ghosts, they looked exactly as I
remembered, but their faces were filled with so many negative
emotions – dread, pain, sorrow, disappointment. I couldn’t
put my finger on it, but something felt very wrong with them, like
something bad was about to happen.

But what?

My lead feet still
wouldn’t move. Desperate to reach out to them, to touch the
very skin I longed to embrace, I extended my arm their way. But my
hand was dripping red with blood, the only color in this world of
shaded grays. I tried to shake it off, and when I did, my hand burst
into a fiery glow.

I woke up screaming,
my hairline drenched with sweat, my hand tingling where it was
burning just seconds ago. Nick was on me in seconds, slamming the
doors into their hidden pockets with so much force they bounced back
at him.

“What’s
wrong?” he burst with panic, his eyes quickly scanning the room
he knew would be empty. “You okay?”

Feeling foolish, I
buried my face in my hands. “Yeah, sorry.” I took in a
few deep breaths, trying to help my stressed heart slow its quickened
rhythmic pace. “Just a bad dream. A really bad dream.”

He sat beside me and
gently stroked my back until I came out of hiding. “You want to
tell me about it?”

Shaking my head with
utter humiliation, I quickly blurted, “No.” A moment
later, I added, “I’m sorry if I woke you. I’ve
haven’t had a nightmare like that in a long time.”

“It’s
alright. I’ve had a few scare the shit out of me through the
years. I’m sure you’ll be fine now.”

But it wasn’t
fine. Over the next five nights, I had some version of the same
nightmare three more times, and Nick finally convinced me to tell him
about it.

“Sounds like
your subconscious is trying hard to tell you something.”

“Hell if I know
what it’s trying to say. I’m too scared to learn
anything. I’m suffocated with so much fear that I can’t
act on anything anyone is trying to tell me.”

“Don’t
worry,” he said, his hand brushing my hair behind my ear. “You
may have to have the dream a few more times, but you’ll figure
it out.”

I shook my head, in
annoyance with myself. After everything I’d been through, to
have my mind screwing with me now, when I finally felt like I was on
the verge of some actual happiness, just really pissed me off.

Tish wasn’t
kidding about the rumors flying around about me and Nick, because
they were finally coming directly to me. Three of my regulars had
already asked if we were dating and so had two high school chicks I
didn’t know, who were probably just fishing to find out if he
was really off the market.

As if he’d go
for jailbait.

I told the truth to my
regulars and lied to the jailbait.

True to her word, Tish
also moved in on Nick. She gave me a little more than a week before
she started hanging around after her shift, talking his ear off while
I worked the tables and he cooked the orders. Ever the kind soul, he
didn’t run her off, but some of the looks he flashed through
the pass-through were priceless.

I realized right away
I had nothing to worry about when it came to Tish. And just for fun,
I kept doing the, “Tish, tell Nick about the time you…”
game.

Oh, if looks could
kill.

“Just for the
record,” he stated, now that Tish had gone home for the night,
“You will pay dearly for that.”

The playfully wicked
expression he reserved just for my benefit had me laughing for hours.
At least until Joe arrived at nine-fifteen. Though he’d dropped
his grumpy attitude, he wasn’t as friendly as he used to be,
like he was before Nick came to town. And I may not have wanted to
date the guy, but I didn’t exactly want to have a negative
relationship with him either. So I tried to remain friendly through
it all.

Boy, did that bite me
in the ass.

“So are
festivals your thing? Ya’ know we have that annual one coming
up tomorrow. Can ya’ come hang out for that or are ya’
otherwise preoccupied
?”

Those last two words
were surely directed at Nick, who was casually walking by the
pass-through to keep a curious eye on us.

“Isn’t
that the night owl or lightning bug thing?” Hell to the no on
anything night-related. That was when my mind played the cruelest
tricks.

“Yeah, the
Firefly Festival.”

“Well, then I’ll
probably be working through the whole thing. Sorry.”

“Can’t
‘cha take the night off?”

My hand went to my hip
as my head tipped sideways at him. “Joe, you come in here like
six nights a week. Have I ever
not
been here for you? You know
I don’t have a back-up to cover my shift.”

He sighed and
stretched his arms up, leaving his hands behind his head for a
moment.

“What about
Tish?” I asked.

Furrowing his
forehead, he replied, “That waitress chick?”

I withheld the roll my
eyes were itching to make. Wasn’t I a waitress chick?

I nodded my head
encouragingly, hoping to knock out two birds with a single lovestone,
but he muttered, “I don’t like blondes.”

Good Lord. I shook my
head and began my retreat. “Well, sounds like you guys will
have fun regardless.”

“What sounds
like fun?” Nick asked the moment I stepped into the kitchen. Of
course he’d be eavesdropping where Joe was concerned.

“Oh, nothing. He
was trying to get me to go to that Firefly Festival tomorrow night. I
was just making friendly conversation.”

Confused, he repeated,
“Firefly Festival? What the hell kind of festival is that?”

“I don’t
know. I remember it from last year but I didn’t go. I think
it’s just a family-friendly celebration they do to kick off
summer, and they do it at night because the lightning bugs are
everywhere. The kids get to spend the evening trying to catch those
bugs in glass jars. I think they even give the kid with the most bugs
a prize or something.”

“Is there free
food? I’m in. Do you want to go?”

“Did you forget
we’ll be working?”

He lightly snapped at
me from behind with his towel, hitting my jeans. “That doesn’t
answer my question.” I just shrugged it off, so he added, “It’d
be good for you to get out. All you do is go back and forth to work.”

“Hey!” I
snapped, pointing my finger at him threateningly, as he was winding
the towel for another strike. Sarcastically, I said, “Sometimes
I go to the grocery store.”

“Look out! Wild
woman approaching.”

“Shut up,”
I replied, letting loose a few laughs. There was hardly any cloth
left to wind on the towel, and it now resembled a really thick,
twisted rope, so I moved in to grab it, grasping onto his hand in the
process. He playfully tugged in every direction but I held on,
bringing myself dangerously close as our bodies began to rub. I
finally began to understand why people always said they had
butterflies in their stomach, because at that moment, something was
definitely happening inside me. A playful tickle of sorts was
bouncing around in my abdomen like a crazy, messed-up game of
ping-pong, and it was both uncomfortable and exciting at the same
time.

My other hand snatched
on and I put more effort in my tug, determined to come up the winner,
even though he was literally playing with me by not using his full
strength. He lifted the towel above his head, and me in the process.
I was on my tippy-toes when he suddenly let go, both hands
immediately tickling my sides. I let out a quick scream before the
laughing took hold of my chest. Twisting, I tried desperately to
escape his attack, but he easily wrapped his arms around me, hands
continuing the assault with ease. The strength behind my hands was
nothing compared to his.

“Please! Stop.”
I blabbered pathetically between screams, laughs and desperate
breaths for air. But truthfully, I didn’t want him to stop.
Ever.

I twisted within his
grasp again, slamming my stomach into his for protection. He’d
let me turn, but the moment I did, he snatched my hands and held them
at the base of my spine. The towel lost to the floor, we had nothing
but our fingers to fight over as we slowed our bodies to a gentle
sway. His arms squeezed against me, limiting my movement as we angled
our heads towards one another, wicked grins controlling our lips.
Closer than I’d ever been, I found the cologne mixed with the
natural scent of his skin intoxicating, and my eyes fluttered like
they just had an orgasm. My gaze connected with his, and his
playfulness began to soften, as did his grip on my hands.