Slipping Through My Fingers

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter 25

Rosalie's POV -

Cam and I walked over to the car and I wasn't exactly blown away by the fact that both men sat in the car, completely forgetting about chivalry. They glared into space, not even caring that we were kind of going on double dates and they were supposed to at least pretend to embody a gentleman.

When we reached the car door, before I could open it up, Cam held my wrist, stopping me. She knocked on the passenger window where Chris was sitting, and gestured for the window to be open.

"I know that you two are bastards. The idea isn't exactly a shocker. But I'm pregnant and this is Rose's first date. So swallow you're f*cking pride, get out of the car and open the doors for us or so help me God, I will chop off both of your d-"

"Cam!" I yelled, stopping the rest of her sentence, a blush creeping over me.

I looked into the car and found Chris staring at his girlfriend with a horrified expression, making him seem like a comical figure. I looked further and found Nate also staring, except his gaze went passed Chris and Cam and instead, was on to me.

When my eyes met his, he drew in a sharp breath and then smirked.

He turned the car off, and opened his door, coming around to me. Chris did the same and grinned sheepishly at Cam who continued glaring.

When Nate was near, his eyes raked up and down, before he took a step closer and pecked me on the lips.

"You look good." He smirked, leaning in for another kiss.

When we pulled away again, I took a step back to take him in. Nate looked absolutely perfect. He was already a stunner without even trying, but with the casual black jeans and navy button up shirt with three quarter sleeves, he was perfection.

"You look, um, really good too." I commented shyly as another blush elapsed onto my face.

"I know." He said smugly.

"Y-you're so-"

"Narcissistic? Cocky? Conceited? Egoistic?" He smirked. "Come on, Rose, I've heard it all. But I only agreed because it's true, I do look good."

Chris scoffed from beside him and rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you just kiss your own ass?" He said.

"Coming from the guy that declared himself the sexiest man alive?" Nate replied.

"Chris has every right to declare that title. He is the sexiest man alive." Cam piped in, looking lustfully at her boyfriend.

Nate looked at me, as if he was waiting for me to say something. I gave him a questioning look and he sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Aren't you going to say something nice about me?" He asked, a smirk playing on his lips.

Oh. Nate wanted me to fight with Cam over who was... sexier?

"Oh, um, right." I spoke hesitantly. "Um, uh, Nate is a very, uh, he's very attractive and nice." I averted my gaze to the floor, a blush manifesting its way onto my cheeks.

All three people chuckled, and I felt Nate wrap his arm around my shoulders.

"You're cute." He smirked and my face heated up even more.

"Can we just go to the restaurant already?" I asked, hoping they'd forget about my embarrassing moment of attempting to compliment Nate.

Nate pressed his lips to my temple, tightening his grip around my waist.

"Let's go." He announced.

Nate went and sat in the driver's seat while Chris opened his passenger door and slid inside, both men completely forgetting about why they had come out of the car in the first place.

Cam stood in front of the car, her hand on her hip in annoyance.

"Just get in the car." Nate told her, rolling his eyes.

"You should both go to hell." She grumbled, finally opening the door herself and sliding in. I followed her and sat behind Nate, who's eyes were looking at me through the rear view mirror in amusement.

"You guys better be good tonight because I am this close to chopping off you d-" Cam grumbled but was once again cut off by my yell.

"Camilla!" I yelled, a blush once again coming onto my cheeks.

Everyone began laughing at me and I felt myself slowly sink into my seat.

If they were going to behave like this all night, I should probably start digging my whole now.

***

When we arrived at the restaurant, being gentleman-like still didn't exist in the guy's minds and they walked into the restaurant, not a care in the world if we were following or not.

Cam grumbled something R rated which made me yell at her again while she laughed and walked into the restaurant. The guys were waiting at the front, talking casually.

"Why did you guys take so long?" Chris asked when we reached them.

"Chris, I swear to God, one more word and I am going straight to the kitchen and finding the largest knife possible and I will-"

"Chop our d-"

"Nate!" I yelled.

I was pretty sick of having to yell at them every time they were close to cussing. Couldn't they control themselves? I didn't know about them, but my ears were still innocent and I planned on keeping them that way.

Nate chuckled at my expression, which looked pretty horrified. He extended his arm and pulled me over to him, and he surprised me when he took my hand and entwined our fingers. His touch felt like electricity shots pumping through me. I ignored the feeling but I couldn't help the blush that made its way onto my cheeks.

"What are you blushing about?" He asked with a smirk, amusement filling his eyes.

I blushed even harder at the fact that he had caught me. Cam spoke to the person at the front, telling her name for our reservations. The man nodded and walked us over to a table on the edge which overlooked a beautiful scenery.

It was called the River Café for a reason. The moonlight perfectly reflected off of the eerie river, before the city view was shown. The scenery, was, well, very romantic.

I knew better than to wait for Nate to pull out a chair for me or something, so I quickly took the window seat and sat on my chair, Nate going to the chair opposite me and pulling out a chair. He didn't even look outside the window, taking in the breathtaking view.

Nope, he just casually sat down, picked up the menu and mumbled something like 'what's good here?'. Yeah, I definitely have myself a keeper.

We were all quiet, the boys looking at the menu and 'mming' loudly when their eyes read something they liked while Cam and I were basically entranced by our scenery. There were two loud couples behind us who were laughing together while speaking.

"Zach! You could have told me that Chase had his girlfriend with him!" The female scolded loudly.

"Elle, relax, the kids will probably be inside their rooms the whole time anyway. And I trust Chase not to do anything too explicit in front of the kids." The male, known as Zach, told his wife (she had a ring on the wedding finger) calmly.

"I will not relax! My brother cannot control himself. Ever! If he wants to do something with her, whether the kids are watching or not, he'll do it." Elle replied, seeming frustrated.

"Why don't you call him and threaten him? I'm sure he wouldn't do anything then. Your brother is a chicken." Another female at the same table laughed.

"Sherry," Elle said seriously, "My brother is stubborn. If I called him, he'd do something in front of the kids on purpose, just to get back at me for threatening him."

"I'm so glad Amber is still single." Sherry mused.

The male sitting opposite her widened his eyes and a sheepish grin elapsed onto his face.

"Um, yeah, about that." He said, his eyes looking anywhere but hers.

"Nick." Sherry said scoldingly. "What's wrong?"

"Amber, is kind of, um, seeing someone." He said slowly, as if he were scared of what the reaction might be.

"What!?" She yelled loudly, causing everyone in the restaurant to look at her.

She smiled sheepishly, a small blush coming across her cheeks.

"How the hell do you know my sister is seeing someone before I do? Who the hell is it?" Sherry exclaimed.

Her partner crouched down in his seat, averting his gaze anywhere but his.

"Um, Noah." He mumbled.

"Noah!?" She yelled, once again gaining the attention from everyone within a five table radius. "As in your best friend? The guy that's almost four years older than her?"

"That's the one." He nodded.

She began yelling; however the female, Elle, sitting next to her calmed her down and told her to go to the bathroom to relax. I smiled in amusement at the bickering when I heard voices calling my name.

"Earth to Rose? Are you paying attention?" Cam asked, waving a knife in front of my face.

My eyes widened, and just for a peace of mind, I looked towards the boys to make sure that while I was focusing on the other couples, that she hadn't injured them in anyway. They both seemed, fine, actually, amused by my expression.

"What were you looking at?" Chris asked, smirk playing on his lips.

"Um, nothing. Never mind. What were you guys talking about?" I asked, fighting back the blush that was trying to make its way onto my face.

"I was just telling Chris how I was going to sleep with you tonight." Nate said.

Of course, I couldn't fight back the blush that was coming onto my face this time. Nope, what Nate said was just way too out there, embarrassing me to no end.

"N-Nate!" I stuttered, ducking my head in mortification.

"What?" Nate asked, fighting an amused smile. "I meant I was going to sleep next to you. Why, what were you thinking about?"

"N-nothing!" I replied, the redness on my cheeks showing no sign of fading away any time soon.

"Get your head out of the gutter." Nate snickered.

I stood up in my seat, so quick that my chair fell backwards onto the floor.

"I need to use the bathroom." I announced quickly.

I fumbled with picking up my chair and placing it onto its four feet properly before I quickly grabbed my purse and made a beeline to the bathroom. As soon as I opened the door, I went straight to the sink and turned the water on, splashing cold water onto my face.

Blushing in front of people was humiliating, especially because they could see right through you. But, it also felt like your entire face and neck was on fire, and that was not a comfortable feeling. I needed a cold feeling to rush through me or I would die. Especially because I knew Nate was never short on trying to embarrass me.

I breathed in deeply, making sure to have a sufficient amount of oxygen inside of my body before I had to go back to dinner and face the wrath of the three people in this world that found my mortification something of satisfaction of peace to their minds.

I turned around and pushed the door and went out of the bathroom. As soon as I was out, something tugged on my hand hard, pulling me to a hard body. I looked up and saw Nate smirking down at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked in hushed tone.

"I felt like kissing you so I got up and came to kiss you." He shrugged.

"Um, th-thank you?" I replied, not knowing what to say.

"Just shut up and kiss me." He said, his gaze flickering down to my lips.

I nodded and even in heels, I stood on my tiptoes and he put his head down so it would be easier for me and I placed my lips against his slowly. He kissed me back, his lips pressed against mine unbelievably softly, as if it were made out of fragile glass. He then pushed me against the wall and moved his head, placing kisses across my jaw, all the way up to my ear.

I let out a shaky breath, my body tingling at the shots and sensation shooting through me. He kissed back down my jawline before roughly hitting my lips again. I responded with as much force, my arms snaking around his neck as I tried to breath.

Suddenly, without warning, Nate pulled away and smirked at me.

"Eager, are we?" He asked, an eyebrow shooting up.

I grinned and stared at the eyebrow before my gaze went back to his eyes.

"You're the one that told me to kiss you." I exclaimed.

"A quick peck on the lips or even the cheek would have sufficed. I didn't know you wanted me so bad." He said huskily, snaking his arms around my waist. "Maybe I have to think twice about sleeping with you tonight. You might want to steal my virtue."

"You're virtue?" I snickered.

"Hey," He said, lifting his arms in innocence. "I'm not the one that stalked you to the bathroom and demanded a kiss."

"No, I think that was you." I rolled my eyes.

He laughed, and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me slowly. I pulled back after a few seconds and he pouted, pulling the cutest face in the world. It took all I had not to press my lips back to his.

"We have to get back to the table before they guess what we're doing." I told Nate.

He rolled his eyes and took my hand, entwining our fingers.

"What do you think they assume? We're braiding each other's hair?" He snickered. "Rose, I think they know what we were doing."

"They do not!" I argued.

That was ridiculous. Couples snuck away from their table during dinner all the time for innocent reasons. Not everything was about sexual desires.

When we reached the table, Nate let go of my hand which instantly went from feeling wholesome and warm to cold.

"Chris, Cam, you knew Rose and I were making out, right?" Nate spoke once he sat down.

My face unsurprisingly went into flames.

"Obviously." Chris nodded. "What do you think we thought? You were braiding each other's hair?"

And that's why Nate and Chris have been best friends since birth. They may as well be twins who send telepathic messages to each other.

"Well, Rose didn't think you'd guys would know what we were doing." Nate said, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"You can't just give me a break, can you?" I scowled.

Before anyone else could say anything, the waiter came and asked for our orders. I hadn't even looked into the menu so I quickly opened it up and scanned over the food. When I finally decided what I wanted, I put down the menu to tell the waiter what I wanted but instead, he wasn't there.

I frowned in confusion and looked towards Nate.

"Where'd he go?" I asked.

"I ordered for you." He replied nonchalantly.

"You couldn't possibly know what I wanted to get." I argued.

Nate rolled his eyes at me and surprised me when he reached over the table and held my hand in his. Warmth automatically spread through me, making me feel wholesome again.

"I think you'll like what I got you. And I made sure I ordered you something that I liked as well so I could eat from your food too." He grinned.

I rolled my eyes and tried to fight back the blush that wanted to take over my face. Geez, I was such a school girl! All Nate was doing was holding my hand and I couldn't help but blush, it was so annoying!

When our food came, I raised my brows, clearly impressed that Nate had indeed ordered something that I liked. He actually ordered the same plate I was going to order. I smiled in appreciation and just as I was about to thank him and take my first bite, I heard a loud choking sound come from beside me.

In alarm, I dropped my fork down onto the plate, obviously making a loud clank noise. I turned to Camilla who had her hand covering her mouth and her eyes widened.

Before I could process anything, Chris was already by her side and ran her to the bathroom. I quickly followed behind them and realised Cam was puking into the toilet.

I looked at Chris in concern and he shrugged.

"I guess she gets her morning sickness in the evening." He said.

"I thought I was lucky that I didn't get morning sickness." Cam groaned, banging her head on the toilet seat. "Turns out I'll be getting them at night. This baby better be worth it."

"It will be." I murmured, patting her back.

"Whatever." She grumbled. "Chris, we need to leave." She said.

He nodded in agreement and after Cam rinsed out her mouth and splashed cold water onto her face, she left the bathroom and walked back to our table where she picked up her purse and faced me.

"Rose, I am so sorry we had to cut this date short. I know you were looking forward to it." She apologised.

I smiled and let her know that it was okay. I forgot that Nate and I had to leave because we both came in one car.

"I didn't even get to finish my meal." Nate grumbled.

I shot him a warning look which he returned with a smirk.

"Fine." He muttered into my ear when he stood up. "I won't be selfish this time."

Nate and Chris paid for our food before we walked back to the car. Chris, this time, actually opened the door up for Cam however I had no such luck with Nate.

We were at Camilla's house in no time, what with Nate's speeding and all. Chris helped her out of the car and supported most of her weight back inside the house. As soon as the front door had shut, Nate accelerated fast, making me jump out of my seat.

"Relax!" I yelled. "Slow down!"

He didn't answer me; instead, his usual trademark smirk elapsed onto his gorgeous features.

"You relax." He finally answered.

I rolled my eyes and tightened the seatbelt around me as I held onto anything beside me in hopes of being secure if a crash did occur. When I noticed that Nate wasn't driving back to our house, I frowned and turned to look at him.

"Where are we going?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Took you long enough to figure out we weren't going home." He snickered.

"Where are we going?" I repeated, ignoring his remark.

"We're here." He stated.

I averted my gaze from him and instead looked in front of me. Nate had parked in the parking lot of an ice cream parlour. I smiled at the cliché-ness of the setting and looked at Nate.

"An ice cream parlour?" I asked amusedly.

He grinned back and opened his door at the same time I did. When he came around to my side, he took my hand, once again entwining our fingers. We walked inside the place, a soft ring of a bell sounding once we hand opened the door. The place was almost empty. There were two couples sitting in booths while the rest of the place was deserted.

Instead of directing me to a booth, Nate took me towards the counter where there were ice cream shaped chairs all over.

"This is our first official date alone." He smirked.

And just like that, as if a tsunami hitting me, the feeling of complete and utter nervousness washed through me. And that was not good. Because when I was nervous I blushed a lot and couldn't keep my mouth shut.

"Yeah that's really cool." I murmured, my glance dropping to the floor.

"Cool? What are you, five?" Nate snorted.

Before I could say anything, an elder woman behind the counter walked towards us and asked what we wanted. Again, Nate ordered me triple choc ice cream with chocolate fudge and crumble on top while he ordered a plain vanilla.

We spoke awkwardly, making small talk until our cones came. As soon as the cone came into my hand, nervousness once again washed through me.

"You know, ordering plain vanilla ice cream at an ice cream parlour is kind of boring. And you got it in a cup too? That's weird." My lips were moving at an unusually fast pace and I couldn't stop the words from escaping my mouth. "Ice cream can only be enjoyed in a cone. That's the whole point of having ice cream. And vanilla? Like seriously Nate, vanilla?"

"Rose-"

I cut him off, my lips not being able to stop.

"What is it with you? This place has every imaginable flavour and you order vanilla? There is absolutely no fun in that. Get something fancy. Not like totally fancy but yeah, you know what I mean."

"Rose-"

"Cookies and Cream? Or deluxe mousse? Or strawberry. Or blueberry. Or grapeberry. Wait, is there even such thing as a grapeberry?" He opened his mouth to answer but I cut him off yet again.

"But Vanilla?" I said the word as if it were disgusting. "That's like, insulting this place. And to get it in a cup. Nate, I must teach you the importance of eating ice cream from a cone."

By now, Nate had one hand on the counter, resting his head on it while he watched me with an amused smile.

"If you ordered me a triple choc ice cream with chocolate fudge and chocolate crumble, then why couldn't you order something like that for you? I may be able to understand you getting a plain old vanilla ice cream but to not get any toppings? Is there something wrong with you?"

I finally finished, taking a deep breath. When I was done, Nate was still staring at me, that same amused gleam in his eye as he grinned at me.

"Rose, I love you." He spoke, as eloquent as ever.

I felt like butterflies - no, elephants - no, the entire freaking population of all animals in the world were stampeding in my stomach right now. My heart felt like it had skipped a million beats but was racing at the same time.

Nate had actually... Nate said he loved me? As in love? Like that four lettered word that I was so cynical about? I wanted to reply to him, tell him I felt the exact same way. Because yes, Nate was an asshole and was mean and rude and didn't exactly treat me like a princess.

But, I still loved him. He was my Nate and I was in love with him. And that's exactly what I had planned on saying when I opened my mouth. I planned on saying 'Nate, I love you too.' But no. My nervousness, mixed in with the stampede and my brain freeze didn't allow me to say those words to Nate.

Nope, instead it thought of something entirely different. And it shocked me when I spoke those words. Yep, the next words that came out of my mouth right after Nate had said he loved me was ridiculous. So you could imagine the surprise Nate had elapsed onto his features when I said,

"Bullshit!"

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Authors Note:

So I was going to make Nate say I love you during dinner but then I thought back to the vow, and if anyone has seen that movie, I think you would understand why I put Nate to say it like that :D

Also, ignore the whole Sherry, Nick, Elle and Zach part.

Anyhow, technically this isn't late. Exactly one week! And this may be the last update for a while. I'll try to squeeze one in before my holiday :)

OHH, and there are going to be a few more light hearted chapters until I hit you guys with a BANG! Like it might even blow my mind. And then we'll have some issues and then maybe I'll try wrapping it up :) but you never know, I might change my mind?

Vote, comment and fan.

Farewell xx