As I moved to roll out of bed, I noticed that just about every moment I made caused something in my body to react with pain. I walked slowly around the bedroom, taking things in, examining everything in the morning light. It was nice… a little messy, but that was Nick. I went into the bathroom, searching for something to brush my teeth and wash my face with and was surprised by the amount of … crap he had in there. Pre-LA he was a totally a low-maintenance kind of guy, sometimes even a no-maintenance kind of guy if he wasn’t in the mood for showering for a couple of days. And now, while it wasn’t A LOT of stuff, it was definitely more than I’d have ever expected him to have. I located toothpaste and ran his toothbrush under crazy hot water for a minute or two while I searched for a comb. Apparently he still didn’t deem those worthy of his time. After my heat-treatment on the toothbrush I brushed my teeth and then rinsed it again while I washed my extremely tender face. I put his toothbrush back, wondering why I’d even really bothered to “sterilize” it … I’m sure we’d probably shared worse.
I had no idea where Nick would be this early… I’d expected he’d still be asleep. But then again, I had no idea where he’d slept. He could have slipped in next to me some time during the night, but that still wouldn’t have explained his absence when I woke up. I went meandering through the house and heard his voice coming from the general direction of the kitchen. He was sitting at the breakfast bar, talking on the phone.
When he saw me, walked out of the room, whispered a few things, came back into the kitchen, and hung up. “Mornin’!” he said, unreasonably chipper and awake for being… him in the morning.
“Hello…” I replied, suspicious.
“Breakfast is served!” he told me, pointing to the table where he had a bottle of orange soda sitting out next to a package of beef jerky.
I squealed and ran over to the table – my favorite breakfast. Ridiculous, yes. Nutrition-free, absolutely. And I LOVE it. I sat down and started nibbling on the jerky, “So, you deal better with mornings than you used to…”
“Yeah…” He said, putting the dishes he’d been using for his own breakfast into the dishwasher.
“Holy shit… he cleans up after himself now, too.” I said to myself, amazed.
He came over to sit by me, “You okay this morning?”
“Yeah, just… dazed and confused.” I told him.
“Crazy day yesterday, huh?”
“Yes, but I was referring to Nick Version 2.0.”
He laughed, “I guess some things have changed. A little.”
“So, who were you whispering to on the phone?” I asked. I knew it had to be a girl, so, of course, I was going to tease him about it.
He mumbled something – one word, probably a name – that I totally did not catch.
“What was that? Your girlfriend?” I razzed.
“Yes, that was my girlfriend.”
“Awwwww… you never told me you were dating anyone.”
“It was just kind of casual until recently, but … god, I really like her…” he said, getting this far-off look in his eyes.
I wrinkled my nose, “Ewww. Don’t get all smushy on me.”
He snapped back from wherever he was. “You’d like her, I think.”
“Okay.” I shrugged. He was probably right, I probably WOULD like her. We shared a lot of friends, so our taste in other people’s personalities was pretty similar.
“You’ll have to meet her while you’re here.”
“Sure.” I took a long drink of the soda, hoping this conversation would cease. I didn’t know if I could deal with a starry-eyed Nick just now. “So, what are you doing today?”
“I’ve got a meeting in about an hour, I have to leave pretty soon.” he said, giving me an apologetic smile. “Will you be okay here… or do you want to go out?”
“Um.. I have no idea where I’d go…and I look like shit.” I replied, finishing off my breakfast.
“I can give you directions to… wherever… aaaaannnddd…” he drug out the last word as he disappeared down the hall, and came back with a handful of stuff. He set it on the table in front of me… about 3 different shades of concealer and sometime of gunk I couldn’t even I identify.
My jaw dropped. “That’s MAKEUP!”
He shrugged, “I live in LA now, I’m allowed to be vain.”
“You. Own. Makeup.” I just couldn’t get my head around this concept. Nick… owned… makeup. Mr. I-will-howl-about-anything-on-my-face owned make-up. God… if LA was going to do this to him… I had to get away from here soon, for fear of what it would do to me. I’d probably develop an eating disorder and be considering breast implants by the end of the week.
“Do you want directions or not?” he asked, obviously ready to move on from the issue.
“I guess…” What the hell else was I going to do? It wasn’t like I was going to spend my day snooping around his house or something. His stuff wasn’t THAT interesting. Well, it wasn’t before, but now, though….
I listen as well as possible to the directions he’s giving and try to take notes… I don’t have a freakin’ clue where I’m going, so it’s just like, “Uh huh, sure, uh huh, right… yeah… okay…” I’ll probably end up in Mexico. Or Washington. Or was it Oregon that came first?
He left a set of keys and a credit card on the table and told me to take whatever I needed and have a good day, he’d see me later in the afternoon. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, “We’ll talk tonight, okay?”
I nodded and then watched him leave in a white convertible and wondered what he’d left me to drive. I went back to his room, looking for something I could wear. I found a pair of track pants that with the waist rolled over about six times might not slide completely off my ass. Then I slipped on a wifebeater, tying a knot at the small of my back to pull everything tight enough it didn’t look like I was swimming in the shirt. I dabbed on some concealer, still amazed that he owned such a girly product, and determined I pretty much still looked like hell. I scrounged around until I found a pair of sunglasses I didn’t hate and put them on, hoping maybe they’d cover the bruises and that I’d just be mistaken for one of the city’s many Beautiful People wanting some privacy.
As I went to grab the plastic that would allow me to finance my day, I noticed how much I still liked the way I felt in his clothes. I always had and apparently, still did. It was safe… familiar… comfortable. Just like he was. Big enough to surround me, soft enough to soothe my pain.
I walked out to the garage, half pleased to see a BMW sedan waiting for me and half annoyed. Why’d he leave me the boring car? Whatever, it was wheels. I backed out onto the road, thinking he’d told me to go right, but then again it could have been left…
~~~
Seven hours later, I miraculously managed to end back up in Nick’s driveway, now thankful he’d given me the car with the backseat and the trunk. The white convertible was back, which meant he was, too, so I went into the house and summoned him to help me bring in my bags. I caught him on the phone again – and more whispering commenced – then he was walking back outside with me and marveling at the damage I’d done to his credit card.
“I see you’re figuring this place out pretty quick,” he said, chuckling as he grabbed a few bags.
“Yeah, I got a few pointers from the Queen of Los Angeles…” I said, rolling my eyes and clearing out the backseat.
“Queen of Los Angeles?” he asked.
“Yeah, Paris “I put the “ho” in hotel” Hilton…” I said, waiting for his reaction.
“What?!” he yelped.
I laughed, “I saw her today…”
“And you talked to her??” He looked shocked or offended, maybe both.
“Yeah, I picked up a shirt she wanted… only I was holding it up to see if it was really as hideous as I thought it was from across the store, but it wasn’t… it was worse. She asked if I was going to buy it and I said no, but I thought it was perfect for her. She bought it. And then told me a few places where I could find other great stuff.” I told him. I knew I should have beaned her over the head with something, or started a fight and blamed my bruises on her… THAT would have been hysterical. But still, I was at least marginally smug she now owned possibly the ugliest shirt I’d ever laid eyes on.
He was just staring at me, “You’re serious?”
“About what? Her buying the shirt?”
“You didn’t, like, throw things at her?” He had that appalled look again. I knew that while he may never say anything bad about her publicly, his hatred – like all his emotions- runs deep. And I’m sure he thought that because I was on his side, I should have done something in a display of support and retaliation.
“I know, I know, I should have… believe me, the thought crossed my mind.” I assured him.
Yeah, it had crossed my mind. Not only did she try to make everyone think Nick was something he was not… she’d taken him from me and that alone was an offense worthy of a beatdown. In all the time I’d known Nick, the only time we’d ever not spoken for any significant length of time was while he was with her. I hadn’t liked her from the beginning and I’d told him about it, but he was smitten – for reasons I will never comprehend (and looking back, I don’t think he has a clue either)- and didn’t want to listen. But they broke up, we started talking again and everything was fine. Well, aside from now knowing he had a girlfriend he hadn’t bothered to tell me about.
He frowned all the way back into the house and on the next trip out to the car.
I grabbed his arm, “I’m sorry, Nick.”
“It’s okay… just still pisses me off sometimes.”
“I know…” There were a lot of things I could have said there, but chose not to. I grabbed the last of the bags and said, “What’s on for tonight? Pizza and a movie? A long discussion of my issues and failures?”
He cracked a little smile when I changed the subject, “Yeah, let’s talk about you… and you can explain…” He paused like he was searching for the right words, and then gently touched my face, “… this.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I gotta figure some things out… maybe you can help.”
“Help? I don’t know about that… BUT I can get you the best pizza in LA and listen for a while.”
“That works, too.” I said, letting him fold me up in a hug as we got back into the house.