Sweet Caroline

#29 New Year's Eve

She sips her champagne before the answers. "And you're sure he's a good guy? He's not gonna hurt you?"

"I told you that you don't have to worry about that." She knows about everything that happened, every single little thing. I called her after finding out about Trevor, in the middle of the night, and she had listened and judged. Not in a bad way, but she had judged every single person that had messed up. Michael Thompson, Trevor, and she even had a few bad words to say about Annabel for making me think that she'd been dating Nathan. She did ask me every time we talked if I was sure I wanted to go down this route, still not convinced that she trusted that Nathan wasn't just some thug.

"Then call him and tell him."

I almost choke on my drink when she says that. When I'm done coughing, I finally manage to get out some words. "Call him?"

"Yeah, call him. Tell him you like him and want him and want to keep dating him." She smiles at my shock. "Car, you're one of the most honest people I know. From what you told me he likes that about you. Why not just tell him?"

"I already told him all those things. And yet I haven't heard from him all week."

"Car..." She grunts and gulps down the rest of the booze. "I love you, but you're dumb as hell. He's living with his ex and his kid right now, all of them going through some major trauma. And sure, you told him before everything went down that you like him, but I think he could use a reminder. How is he supposed to know you're not totally wigging out over all the intense adult issues he's going through right now?"

Is she right? Do I need to make a move to let him know that nothing has changed? Surely he already knows that, right? Then again, I have no idea how he feels. I assume he's done with me, but he hasn't actually told me that to my face or even over the phone.

"Good girl," Shaughna laughs when I take out my phone.

I take a deep breath before tapping his name and putting the phone to my ear. It rings eight times before he finally picks up, sounding flustered.

"Yeah?"

Not the response I hoped for. "Erm... it's me."

"Oh." He sounds confused, like he hadn't checked his screen before picking up. "Is everything okay?"

This is not going the way I wanted to at all. "I'm fine. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Now is not a good time," he says briskly.

"Oh, are you with Elise?"

"Yes."

Fuck. He can't talk to me right now. I should have known better than to just call him without texting first. What if Elise had seen my name light up on his screen? That would totally screw up my life. And his. I'm being an idiot.

"Sorry," I say, getting ready to say goodbye.

Before I can, Shaughna pulls the phone from my hand. "Hi, this is Caroline's best friend," she says, pushing me off of her so I can't stop her. "And she likes you. A lot. She's amazing, as I'm sure you know. We're going out tonight and if you don't want her to hook up with the hottest guy at the party, I suggest you call her back sooner rather than later and talk to her. She has a lot of things to say to you and I think you should hear them." She nods at his response and hangs up with a smirk.

"Shaughna!" I can't believe she just did that. What the fuck was Nathan supposed to think now? There is no way I am hooking up with anyone. This is the kind of stuff you pull when you're sixteen and want the quarterback to notice you. How is this something an adult would do? Nathan will certainly think twice about our relationship now, if there even is one anymore.