Unbreak My Heart (18+, ManxMan)

Chapter 20 Opening at Juntado, part 1

"I've sent a car for them," Nico assured me giving me another squeeze on my shoulders.  "Let's go, everything is covered, the only thing needed now is for you to show up."

"Sorry," I sighed, "I always get nervous right before a show opens, it's silly I know, I've done enough of them by now, but it never seems to go away."

"It's okay baby," he whispered in my ear as he pulled my into a warm embrace.  "It's going to be perfect."   Benji had herded everyone out of the apartment, Ajax giving my arm a quick squeeze and a smile as he was the last to leave before the two of us.

I took a deep breath.  "Okay, let's blow this popcorn stand," I said on the exhale, straightening my back and pushing my shoulders back as if I was ready to go into battle.  Nico took my hand and led me out the door, making sure it was locked after pulling it shut. 

We were quiet on the ride to Juntado as I reflected on the last two weeks since the mind blowing night on Nico's boat.  It had been a whirlwind since that amazing, incredible, life-changing night.  

Nico had put on some relaxing classical music while we drove and I rested my head on the window, closing my eyes as I thought about 'that night'.  

I remember, as much as I had wanted to never leave Nico's side once we were officially together again, at the light of that next day, it had suddenly hit me how little time was left until tonight and I had to go into hyper mode to finish all of the paintings I wanted to present. 

Chris and Thomas were great!  They did all the cooking and cleaning at the apartment and when Liam needed a ride home, they took care of it.  When I was working they left the apartment and went off to explore the city while Liam quietly worked on his own paintings and took care of all the studio tasks; like cleaning brushes, putting away paint, even stretching canvas for me.

Nico...saying Nico was also great would be an understatement.  Nico was Nico, isn't that enough said?  He was there supporting me as much as I let him, while giving me the space I needed to work.  He'd made me breakfast the morning after we made love and we talked about what was to come.  We both decided to take things slowly, I had a show to get ready for and Nico wanted me to take my time to figure out what I wanted.  

I had my new apartment, school was starting soon, was I just going to move in with him? I don't know.  And I didn't expect him to want to move into my little apartment.  So we were going to, I guess, date for a while and see where it went from there.

That being said...we seemed to be spending most nights together.  Other than a few when I had plans with Chris and Thomas or Benji, most were being spent on Serenity or now at Nico's L.A. apartment which he had finally opened up again since it was a lot closer to the office, and well, me.  The marina was only about a half hour away, but L.A. traffic could sometimes double or triple that and it could be a pain.

So I would spend my days painting, then meet up with Nico for dinner and we would invariably end up in bed.  What can I say, we had a lot of time to make up for.

I thought of the nights we've been having lately and making love with Nico.  It was more than I could ever have hoped for.  It was intimate, passionate, loving, caring and filled every need that I'd been suppressing, even when I was with other boyfriends.  There was just no comparison.

Nico had his confidence back in comparison to that first day I saw him at the café.  In all of this, everyone seemed to be so focused on what happened to me and kind of forgot what happened to him.  It really changed Nico; he would never be the same as he was.  But I changed too and I felt like even with all of our changes, we were never more in sync and ready to be together.  Maybe it was all necessary to get to this point.  Maybe I had to leave him to grow up and become my own man.