Chapter Eleven
Do you know what happens when you stick two people, who just got married, on a beautiful island?
A staring contest.
Yep, you read that last part right. Nick and I were in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places in the world, and we were having a staring contest. I was winning too, but it had been over a minute, and my eyes were starting to sting really bad. Nick knew it too, I could tell by the way his eyes were starting to water, he was feeling the same way. I just had to hold on a little longer…
Nick finally blinked and I jumped up. “YES! Take that Brady!” I yelled into his somewhat surprised looking face, doing a victory dance.
Nick just laughed. “What is that?” He said, referring to my dance. “It’s my victory dance, Nick, I know you’re jealous.” I told him, wiggling my hips.
“You’re doing it wrong, Tessa, it goes more like this.” He stood up and guided me through several dance moves (that were just as spazzy as my own, I might add). Somehow, we ended doing a complicated spin that ended with me in his arms, panting, and our faces inches away from each other. I felt like I was on Dirty Dancing or something, when did our victory dance turn into this? “Do you want to know what it’s like to kiss your new husband?” Nick asked me and I swallowed hard, staring into his eyes. I thought about the kiss that we had shared yesterday, and felt my cheeks heat up. Heck yes, I wanted more, but this seemed wrong. I didn’t even like him, did I? This mysterious, handsome man with player tendencies and a closet full of skeletons...
“Nick I-" I started, but Nick silenced me when his thumb traced my bottom lip.
“Shh, Tessa, don’t ruin the moment.”
I should have probably been angry with him at the rude comment, but I wasn’t really thinking straight. All I could concentrate on, was his full, delectable lips getting closer to mine. To heck with what’s right. I thought to myself. Nick was going to kiss me, and I was going to let him…
And then his phone rang.
That snapped us both out of our daze. Nick jumped a little and set, practically dropped, me on the ground to grab his phone. He checked the caller id and looked down at me with an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry Tess, but I have to take this.”
“Do whatever you want Nick, it’s not like I’m on the ground or anything.” I said with faux-sweetness, rolling my eyes at him.
“Hello?” Nick answered the phone. “Good afternoon, Mr. Harrison.” I tuned out the rest of his conversation with annoyance.
I put my head in my hands, propping my elbows up on my legs, letting my hair fall in a curtain around my face. I can’t believe that I almost let him kiss me... on the lips...For real! Why did I have to go and ruin everything? The whole slightly hateful relationship that we had before was gone forever. I might actually like him now. Which sucked, because he probably didn’t feel the same way. Sure he wanted to kiss me and all, but that was just part of who he was. Nick Brady was a player, he would willingly make out with any girl, just because he could. Ugh, why were guys always so confusing?
Right about then was when Nick finished his conversation with Mr. Harrison. “Bad news Tessa,” He told me, sitting down on the floor next to me. I lifted my head up to look at him.
“What?” I asked him. How could this day possibly get any worse?
“The sub that I had lined up for tomorrow just cancelled and Mr. Harrison can’t get anybody else on such short notice. We’ll have to fly back home tonight, so that I can go to work tomorrow.” He said and my heart fell. We literally just got here last night, and I was kind of hoping that I would get a chance to do a little sightseeing, or at least swim, before we left. “We have about three hours, or so, before we have to leave the hotel and catch our flight. Lucky for us, we haven’t unpacked yet. So, what do you want to do?”
“I want to swim.” I replied automatically. The beach was just a short walk away from our hotel and I was positively dying to get into the water. I wasn’t the best swimmer ever, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
“Then swim we shall,” Nick replied dramatically, standing up. He held out his hand for me to take and pulled me up as well, causing us to be a little too close for comfort, yet again. From the intense look that he was giving me, it seemed like he wanted to pick up right where we left off a few minutes ago, but I couldn’t let that happen. Not again.
“Well, we better get going if we want to have enough time.” I said, turning away from him to get my swimming suit from my suitcase. Nick was right before, our suitcases were basically packed already. We arrived less than twenty four hours ago, there wasn’t really much time for unpacking, once you factored in how long we both slept. Twelve hours, twelve straight hours in the two, comfy twin beds the hotel provided for us. Nick’s excuse was that he hadn’t slept in an actual bed for a week and he needed to catch up. I didn’t really have an excuse, other than the fact that I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. Nick didn’t say a word, but looked a little disappointed as he grabbed his swimming suit and walked into the other room to change. I changed as well, wondering if I had made the correct decision by not letting him kiss me again. I was almost certain before, but now I felt myself wishing that I had just given in…
*****
The short walk to the beach was quiet and more than a little awkward. Nick seemed to be in a mood and I, well, I was in a mood. We both stared ahead and walked to our destination quickly, with as much space in-between us as possible. It was quiet when we arrived at the beach as well, it wasn’t as packed as I expected (probably because at noon on a weekday, everyone was either at work or school.), but Nick lightened the mood a bit by making a snide comment about my cover-up.
“This is the beach, not a convent.” I rolled my eyes and pushed him, catching by surprise and making him stumble a bit.
“Not everybody’s as confident as you, Hasslehoff.” I shot back, referring to the fact that he was currently shirtless. It was very distracting. He was so muscular, his freaking six pack had a six pack, for goodness sake!
Nick’s face turned serious for a moment. “I think you’re beautiful Tess,” He almost whispered. I kind of wondered if I was even meant to hear it. “You don’t have anything to hide.”
I blushed and used the sudden burst of confidence he gave me to get rid of my cover-up.
“See, don’t you feel better now?” Nick asked looking at me, well not exactly at me. Ugh, he was such a guy sometimes.
“Eyes up here, Nick.” I told him, pointing at my face and enjoying the fact that, for once, I made him blush. Needless to say, I no longer felt self-conscious.
“Maybe we should start swimming now, we don’t have a lot of time…” He said. He was trying to change the conversation, I could tell.
“That sounds like a grand idea Nicholas.” I told him. He winced at my use of his full name, but didn’t say a word, racing into the waves instead.
We swam out pretty far and then we just kind of stopped, deciding to float in the clear, warm water. I couldn’t touch anymore, so I was kind of doing this weird, spazzy paddling thing to keep myself afloat. Like I said, I couldn’t swim very well.
Nick gave me a weird look. “What are you doing? “
I smiled sheepishly. “I only dog paddle.” I said, quoting one of my favorite movies of all time: The Princess Bride.
Nick looked alarmed. “You didn’t think that that would be good information to share before we started swimming?” He asked me. “Why did you even suggest that we go swimming in the first place? Do you have a death wish Tessa?” His voice suddenly very serious
. “Chill out Nick! I can keep myself afloat, that’s all that really matters.” I told him. I was annoyed on the surface, but deep down, deep, deep down, I was touched that he was actually worried about me. “And I suggested that we go swimming because we’re in freaking Hawaii. Just because I suck at it, doesn’t mean that I don’t like to swim. Honestly Nick, not everyone was the captain of the swim team in high school.” I rolled my eyes at him.
Now it was Nick’s turn to look sheepish. “I wasn’t the captain of the swim team.” He muttered.
“Co-captain?” I asked him.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes it does.”
We bickered like that for a while, until Nick convinced me to move to shallower water. He offered to give me a few swimming lessons before we had to go and I gratefully accepted. He may not like me, but I knew that at least some part of Nick cared about me. He wouldn’t have made me move to safer water if he didn’t. A small part, probably, but a caring one nonetheless.
I had a rough childhood, with the death of my father and having to deal with my crazy mother all by myself. And an even rougher adulthood, I dated a bunch of guys that treated me like crap and I let them. It felt good to know that, for once in my life, at least somebody cared.
Even if that somebody was Nick Brady.
A/N: Another one of my favorite chapters. Something's definitely going down with Tessa and Nick, any theories? I saw This Is Us last night, it was AMAZING! Even if you aren't a directioner, you should definitely make time in your schedule to go and see it, I guarantee that your feelings about them will change. It's impossible to not love them after seeing that fantastic movie!
Side note, yes I did change my username. Harry Styles does indeed rock, I just felt I needed a change and a tribute to one of my favorite books The Fault in Our Stars seemed appropriate. If you haven't read it, go out and read it NOW. it is an amazing book, very touching and well written, and will surely change your life. I read it in the space of just a few hours, ending at 3 a.m. it was so good I couldn't put it down!
Anyways, that's all for my fandom rant....for now. The next update is on Tuesday, thanks for reading!