Secret Diaries (Heartlake Cliche #1)

Chapter Twelve

June 4, 2011

Between a best friend and a boyfriend, I’d choose...

     “I hope Rach won’t eat dinner with one hand. She doesn’t seem to want to let go of her phone,” Julia Cleveland jokingly announced while preparing the dinner table with her son.

     Rachelle abruptly looked up from her iPhone and tried to apologize but Hubert Cleveland took everybody’s attention by turning the television off and coming over to sit beside his son’s best friend.

     He draped his arm around Rachelle’s shoulders and asked, “Rachelle dear, how many times do I have to tell you that if you want a boyfriend, you can always choose Nick?” He turned to glance at his dumbstruck son, then back at Rachelle. “God knows we’ve been too busy with work and Nicholas probably hated us for that, but you’re always taking good care of him that I’m sure you’ll make a fine girlfriend.”

     Rachelle sat there looking at Hubert, astonished, time and again, at his suggestion. Her parents had the tendency to say the same things, asking her or Nick why they never dated. Even until now, however, she hadn’t gotten used to it.

     “Well,” She took a breath, “it’s just that,” she took another breath, “Nick is a good guy—a great guy—but he’s my best friend and it’s—”

     “A bit short of incest if we ever get into a romantic relationship,” Nick interrupted, obviously annoyed at the topic of their conversation.

     “Yeah, sort of,” Rachelle helplessly agreed.

     “Hmph,” was Hubert’s reply. “If you think of my son as a brother, you would have argued with him the way you argue with Matt.” He raised his arm to stop anyone from talking. “I’m not going to pursue this topic further though. It’s obvious the two of you,” he glanced meaningfully at both Rachelle and Nick, “are not comfortable talking about it.”

     He stood up and went to his wife, lacing his arm around her waist and giving her a peck on the cheek. “Now honey, why don’t I help you so we can feed our guest?”

     Hubert commanded Nick to leave the preparations to them with a wave of his hand.

     By the time Nick was seated beside Rachelle on the sofa, it was obvious he was still thinking about his dad’s comments. “They keep making a match out of the two of us when they know it won’t work,” he hissed.

     What he said was true but there was something in his tone that made Rachelle feel as if he didn’t want it to be that way.

     “Do you really think it won’t work?” she asked him, wondering what he actually thought about it.

     He seemed to have caught his breath but since he wasn’t looking at her, she found it difficult to read what was on his mind. After five seconds, he sighed.

     “A relationship isn’t our problem right now so why don’t we just forget about it?”

     Nick stood up so Rachelle did the same. They ate dinner while discussing the Clevelands’ recent business trip, Rachelle’s recent hate letter, Liam Milton, Jessica Kirsch, Full Volume and Quarter To Five’s upcoming mini concert on Friday. Aside from Julia’s gasps and an indignant speech on proper decorum when she heard about the hate letter, as well as a small argument between Nick and Hubert about Full Volume’s involvement with Q25 Music, the entire dinner went well.

     They were now in Nick’s white Audi TT RS Coupe which he seldom used. Julia wouldn’t let her son go home via train or bus after he brought Rachelle home so she had practically shoved them into the car. She would have started the engine herself if Nick hadn’t stopped her. His parents had the tendency to be protective and overly attentive of Nick whenever they were around and Rachelle knew it was their way to make up for all the times they were absent from Nick’s life. She was sure that he didn’t hate his parents at all but it didn’t change the fact that they didn’t know their son as much as parents should.