CHAPTER 18 - I WILL REGRET THIS SO MUCH
***
“The golden dress or the blue dress?” I asked Nathan and held up both of them
He just quickly looked at me from his position on the couch and then immediately turned back to the TV before giving an answer that I should’ve expected from the beginning on.
“They’re both sparkling, just toss a coin.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly. “Very helpful, I’m glad Anna is going to come by later so I can ask her.”
“Good idea.” Nathan just said without even looking away from the TV, sometimes he was such an idiot.
***
“I’m so glad you’re finally here.” I told Anna as soon as she had stepped into our hotel room.
“Why?” She asked kind of surprised. “Is he treating you badly?”
“Kind of. He’s being an idiot. He couldn’t even help me decide which dress to wear tonight. They look absolutely different and he just told me to toss a coin since they’re both sparkling.” I vented. Thankfully Nathan couldn’t hear me because I had told him to wear headphones in case he planned on continue watching Transformers.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you.”
“Thank you, you just made my day.”
I led Anna past Nathan on the couch, who even managed to greet her, and over to the area with our beds where I had spread my clothes and other stuff for tonight.
“Are those the dresses?” Anna asked after putting down her equipment and pointed at the dresses that were lying neatly on my bed.
I nodded quickly and held up both of them. “I just can’t decide which one would be better for tonight.”
Anna looked at the dresses for a few seconds before telling me her opinion. “I love both dresses and I think they would look amazing on you. But if I were in your position I would take the golden one. It will look great with your hair color and gold is also a perfect color for New Year’s Eve. And I’m a stylist; I know what I’m talking about.”
“You’re right.” I said after looking at both dresses again. “I will wear the golden one. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She replied. “But now put them down again, I need to start doing your hair and make-up otherwise you won’t be ready on time.”
***
For the next one and a half hours I had to sit still while Anna was doing her job. I hated not being able to move for such a long time but I was slowly getting used to it. It was part of my job and I always looked good in the end. I just wasn’t born with flawless skin and hair that was always looking perfect; it took time to make me look decent.
“I’m done.” Anna finally said after fixating my hair with a final layer of hairspray. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.” I replied and I really meant it. She had chosen an eye shadow that had the exact color of my dress and had bordered my eyes with black eyeliner. My eyelashes were covered in a layer of black mascara and my lips were bright red and looked absolutely kissable.
My dark brown hair was pinned-up and was shining beautifully. I was ready for tonight.
“I’m glad you do, now go and get changed, I’m going to take care of Nathan in the meantime.”
I got up from the chair in front of the mirror and grabbed the golden dress before entering our bathroom. I quickly undressed and put on the dress instead. Thankfully I didn’t have to put on new underwear since I hadn’t chosen the strapless dress and so my only problem was that I couldn’t close the zipper of the dress by myself.
After trying another few times I surrendered and decided to ask Anna for help. I opened the bathroom’s door and stepped back into our room but before I could even ask her, I collided with someone else.
“Careful!” I heard Nathan’s voice and quickly looked up at him.
“Sorry. I didn’t see you there. Do you know where Anna is?”
“She had to go to the toilet and went downstairs since you were in the bathroom.”
“Oh.” Was the only thing I said since I couldn’t think of a better reply.
“What did you need her help with anyway?”
“I can’t close my dress by myself.” I admitted and looked down on the ground; I never thought I would ever have to ask him for a favor like this one. “Could you please help me instead?”
He didn’t even think about this for a second and just told me to turn around.
I did as he said and had to regret it immediately.
“Nice underwear.” He commented as soon as he saw the red lace bra I was wearing today.
I groaned and felt my cheeks burning. My face must be as red as my underwear by now, this was extremely awkward.
“Could you just close the dress please?”
“Only if you tell me why you’re wearing red underwear.”
“Am I not allowed to do that?” I asked annoyed.
“Of course you are; it’s sexy. I just thought you would be one of the girls that prefer simple colors for their underwear.”
“Wearing red underwear on New Year’s Eve is supposed to bring you luck in love in the new year.” I quickly explained. “Now close the dress.”
But Nathan didn’t even seem to think about doing what I told him to do. “So you think you need luck for your relationship with Braden, have you already lost your rose-colored glasses?”
“You said I’d have to tell you why I’m wearing the underwear, I told you about it and now you have to close my dress. So do it already.” I snapped and this time it worked because my dress was closed just two seconds later.
“Thanks.” I muttered and then went over to the closet to put on accessories and shoes.
“Come on Payton. Stop sulking.” He said and went over to the chair in front of the mirror to continue waiting for Anna.
“I’m not sulking. I just don’t feel like talking about my underwear and my relationship with you.”
“Yeah sure.” He said and I could clearly hear the irony in his voice but before I could reply something we were interrupted by Anna who stepped back into the room.
“You look amazing.” She said as soon as she saw me. “Now I’m going to make sure you will be able to keep up with her, Nathan.”
“So I’m going to get red lips as well?” He asked with a cheeky smile on his face.
“I’m definitely going to consider that.” Anna replied and the three of us had to laugh loudly. Well who knew, maybe red lipstick would be a new trend among men afterwards.
***
Doing Nathan’s hair and covering some blemishes on his face had only taken Anna about five minutes.
In the meantime I had decided to wear a pair of black heels, golden earrings, a golden ring with a black gem and a golden bracelet with my dress.
Anna was currently taking care of Nathan’s outfit and so I walked over to the window front of our room to look down at the city. The sun had already vanished behind the skyscrapers when Anna had still been doing my hair and so the whole city was shining because of all the lights by now. From our room you had a great view of Times Square where thousands of people were already gathering for the annual New Year’s Eve party that would start in a bit.
“I told you you’d be back in New York soon.” I suddenly heard Anna say and turned towards her.
“I know and I’m glad you were right. It’s an amazing city.”
“Yes, it really is.” She said when I turned back to the window front again.
***
“Do you know where I put my phone?” I asked Nathan while I was running through the room with a black clutch in my hand.
Anna had left about five minutes ago and now I was packing my things that I wanted to take with me to the party. The only problem was that I couldn’t find my phone anymore which was a complete disaster.
“It’s here.” I suddenly heard Nathan behind me and spun around. “You told me to charge it and so I took it over to the couch with me.”
I face palmed, of course I had told him to do it. How could I forget about it? I hadn’t even turned twenty yet meaning I couldn’t use age-related dementia as an excuse.
“Thank you.” I mumbled and took my phone from his hand to put it into my clutch. “I’m ready, what about you?”
“I was just waiting for you.” He replied and handed me the key card for the hotel room which I put into the clutch as well before we left the room together.
***
The party was already in full swing when we arrived and after a few seconds I had already spotted a few familiar faces.
Waiters were running around carrying trays with glasses full of champagne but Nathan and I decided to go to the bar to get something else to drink instead.
“We have created a special drink for tonight.” The bartender told us when we asked him if he could recommend us something since we couldn’t decide what to get.
“We’ll take two of them.” Nathan replied before I could even say something at all and so I had no choice but to try it.
Gladly I didn’t have to regret his choice because the drink tasted better than it looked. It was dark green and looked a bit like a smoothie made out of algae but instead it tasted a bit sweetly. The smell of it was very alcoholic but you couldn’t taste that at all, which could be a bad or a good thing. I would have to wait till the end of the party to decide about that.
“Do you really think it’s such a good idea to drink something like this again?” I asked Nathan when we ordered the second round. “I guess you remember what happened on Halloween, don’t you?”
“I do. But this time you won’t leave me alone and I’ll make sure to stop drinking before I have to throw it all up again. Deal?” He said and put out his hand.
“Deal.” I laughed and shook his hand to seal it.
“Here are your drinks.” The bartender said behind us and we took our glasses and thanked him.
“Let’s separate.” I suggested. “I’m sure there are a lot of people we have to talk to so that they don’t feel like we ignored them today.”
“You might be right about that.” He chuckled and so we went separate ways.
Most people I knew where people I had met at events or movie sets and so the following two hours consisted mostly of small talk, drinking the champagne and eating the snacks the waiters were handing out.
I hadn’t even counted the glasses of champagne I had had during the two hours but when I was finally facing Nathan again I could clearly feel the alcohol that was running through my veins by now.
“Payton.” He greeted me, overly excited. And at the latest now I was sure that he was at least as drunk as I was.
I had another one of the special drinks in my hand before I could even greet him as well.
“To us!” Nathan said and raised his glass.
“To us!” I replied and raised my glass as well.
Nathan downed the drink and put the empty glass onto the tray of a passing waiter.
“The year will be over in ten minutes.” Someone suddenly announced.
“Come on Payton, down it as well. We have to get good places on the rooftop terrace.” Nathan rushed me and so I quickly drank the drink and put my glass onto the waiter’s tray as well.
He grabbed my hand and we went over to the stairs that led up to the terrace. But we weren’t the only ones who had that idea and so we were soon slowed down by the crowd that wanted to go up with us. I eventually had to admit that it was good like that because it was impossible for me to walk fast on my heels while being drunk. That last drink had finished me off, I could only hope I wouldn’t do too many stupid and embarrassing things tonight.
“Five minutes left.” Someone announced when Nathan and I finally stepped onto the terrace. There were several patio heaters positioned on it and so it wasn’t even cold up here.
We were lucky and still found a place at the edge of the terrace from which we had a beautiful view over Manhattan and the Hudson River.
“The year went by way too fast.” Nathan slurred next to me and leaned against the railing to have an even better view down at the city.
“I know right. It’s the same every year. In January it feels like the year will never go by and then it’s suddenly New Year’s Eve again and you feel like the year has only just started.” I replied and had to admit that I was slightly slurring as well.
“And half of our contract is already over.” He added and I agreed.
“I don’t even know if I should be happy about it or not.”
“I think I’m happy about it. We can still stay friends afterwards but we don’t have to worry about our fake relationship anymore. I don’t even want to know what will happen if anyone should ever find out about it.” He said and put an arm around me.
“That’s true.” I replied and leaned against him.
“One minute left.” The guy from earlier said again.
Just one minute, one minute until the year would be over. I always had goose bumps during the last minute of the year even though New Year’s Eve happened every twelve months. It shouldn’t be something special anymore after all these years but it still was, it still was something special every time a year ended and a new one started.
“Ten, nine, eight ….” The people around me, including Nathan, suddenly started counting and so I quickly joined in.
“Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, happy new year.” Everyone shouted in unison and people around us started hugging and kissing each other.
I wrapped my arms around Nathan’s torso and he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
“Happy new year.” He whispered into my ear.
“Happy new year.” I mumbled but I doubted he had heard it.
By now my whole body was covered with goose bumps and I still couldn’t believe we had just started a new year. It was just way too surreal.
Nathan and I let go off each other again after a few seconds and the sky immediately caught my eye.
“Wow.” I exclaimed and turned back towards the edge of the building. “Look at that.”
Nathan turned around as well to see what I was talking about. The sky above the city was enlightened by a huge firework that painted the sky in all existing colors. It was impressing, far more impressing than the fireworks I had experienced at home during my childhood and also more impressing than the fireworks in Los Angeles.
I looked up at Nathan the exact second he was looking down at me. The light of the firework was being reflected in his eyes and I just couldn’t look away anymore.
He seemed to feel the same because he was making no move to turn back to the railing again. Instead our faces were getting closer and closer to each other and in the blink of an eye his lips were on mine.
I couldn’t even explain what made me kiss him back, it was probably the alcohol but right now I was pushing that thought far away from me.
I pressed my body against his body and wrapped my arms around his neck to deepen the kiss. Nathan responded by wrapping his arms around my waist to pull me even closer to him than I already was right now. After a few seconds I felt his tongue against my lips and I willingly opened my mouth so that our tongues could touch.
I just enjoyed the moment and forgot everything around me. The people, the firework, the fact that it was Nathan who I was kissing and not Braden; I basically forgot my whole life for a second.
I couldn’t even say how long we were standing on the terrace like that but we were interrupted when someone was tapping my shoulder.
I reluctantly broke away from Nathan and turned around. A friend of mine from a movie I had once filmed was standing behind me to wish me a happy new year and so I talked to her and some other people for a bit while Nathan was exchanging New Year’s greetings with his acquaintances as well.
When I reached him again, after what felt like half an eternity, the tangling in my stomach was immediately back again and I couldn’t help but kiss him. Thankfully he immediately kissed me back and so I didn’t embarrass myself.
“We should really go home now.” He said when he broke away to catch his breath.
I was breathless as well and so I just nodded my approval.
***
The drive back to the hotel felt like one of the longest journeys of my life and I was extremely relieved when Nathan and I finally reached our room.
I slammed the door shut behind us and he immediately kissed me again. I stumbled back a bit until my back was pressed against the wooden door.
“You will regret this tomorrow.” A voice in my head said, but it was a very quiet voice and so I simply ignored it.
“Jump.” He whispered against my lips after a few minutes and so I jumped up to wrap my legs around his waist before kissing him again.
He started carrying me through the TV area and over to the beds and I quickly threw my clutch onto the couch when we passed it. I wouldn’t need it anymore tonight.
I had already shrugged off my heels when we were still standing at the door and so I didn’t have to worry about them anymore.
Suddenly I was thrown onto one of the beds and gasped in surprise. But a second later my mouth was already covered by Nathan’s again.
I helped him get out of his suit coat before I started unbuttoning his shirt. This was harder than I thought at first because I was still kissing him and so I couldn’t see any of the buttons, but I eventually managed to unbutton it completely and he took it off and threw it onto the floor.
I pushed Nathan off of me so that he was lying on his back on the bed and then I rolled to the side so that I was on top.
I let my hands wander over his torso and followed the lines of his abs. I had to admit that he had the perfect amount of muscles, not too much and not too little.
I was following the lines down to the waistband of his briefs which was a bit higher than the waistband of his pants. I slightly ran my finger nail over his skin right above the waist line and smiled when I felt that goose bumps appeared below fingers.
Nathan suddenly sat up and I was surprised when his lips where on mine again. I could feel his fingers on my back and in the blink of an eye the zipper of my dress was opened completely. His fingers were running over my back and a shiver ran down my spine.
I got up from his lap and from the bed to step out of the dress. His eyes were looking my body over when I was standing in front of him in only my underwear and he licked his lips before pulling me onto his lap again.
I could feel the bulge in his pants between my legs and moaned with pleasure before pressing my lips onto his again.
“You will regret this tomorrow.” The voice in my head repeated itself but by now I was completely ignoring it even though it was probably right.
I would regret this so much.
***
Question of the chapter: What's your name?
Answer of the chapter: My name is Nina, but I guess most of you already knew that since it's part of my user :D
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1) Ooooooh finally some more action again. I hope you liked the chapter :D
2) Just three and a half weeks left till spring break. I'm so sick of school and don't have any motivation anymore :( But I guess most of you exactly know what I'm talking about!
3) Today I went running outside for the first time this year and it was amazing *-* The weather was finally better again and it's even starting to feel like spring again, when I was at the cemetery with my grandma yesterday (it was my great-grandma's birthday) we could even see the first crocuses that were already starting to grown *-*