I Love My Chance (Nicole's Erotic Romance 3) (10 page)

These two are my
family. Without them, I will not make it. And I won’t let some guy come between
us. No way. No fucking way.

AMBER

When I watched
Jess leap out of her chair after Mark who was chasing Nico, I couldn’t believe
what I was seeing. What a mess. But if I could get out of the mess I’d gotten
Josh and I in, I felt I could help fix this, too. Especially since Mark had helped
me. I feel like I owe him one. Two if you could my boyfriend punching him in
the face.

So I reached
across the table and grabbed Chris’s hand. “Stay here. Trust me.”

Josh –
knowing the three us more than any other man on the planet (save for David,
maybe) – held a supportive hand on Chris’s back and agreed with me. “Just
give this a minute. Don’t react just yet.”

I agreed, looking
from Josh to Chris. “Josh should know. He reacted without knowing…”

“Amber.”

“Sorry.” I looked
at him thinking,
I really like this new
let-him-be-the-man thing. Josh has become so much sexier to me now
.

Chris looked from
one of us to the other, his face somber. “I’m not a child, guys.”

We both released
Chris. “Sorry.” “Oh, sorry, man. I just thought...”

He nodded and put
his elbows on the table, bringing his hands together in a fist-prayer position,
his light brown hair falling over his forehead. “So, she didn’t date that guy.
But she did…” He stopped himself and closed his eyes against the possessive
jealousy that Josh and I could plainly see.

“
Chris. You’re very
smart, so I’m not going to lie to you. She saw Mark briefly, very briefly, but
it was before you and you changed everything. You know that in your heart,
right?” Chris, looking grim, blinked an affirmation. It was better than
nothing. “You have nothing to worry about. What’s happening now is more between
Jess and Nicole.”

Chris frowned.
“And how is that?”

I raised my
eyebrows in surprise. “Seriously? Have you ever
met
women?”

Chris smiled, in
spite of himself. Josh took a drink of his Guinness, shaking his head. “Great,
so I’ve gotta go!” Picking up a napkin I’d wiped my hands like I was going into
surgery, threw it on the table and asked Josh, “You’ve got this?”

Josh raised his
eyebrows. “Chris isn’t a child.”

“Right. Sorry.”

And this is where
I am now.

Running out of
Angel’s Share. ““Josh has Chris hostage.”

Mark and Jessica
are in a childish standoff and poor Nicole is running off, looking insanely
upset. “Nico!” I turn back to the anti-lovebirds. “What’s happening?”

Jessica is pissed
as hell. Just like I thought. She’s jealous and this is not going to be easy.
Jealousy is a terribly hard problem to fix. It was so clear how important Nico
is to Mark, and that had to hurt. As soon as I stop Jessica from keeping Mark
here with her anger, Mark throws me a look
 
-
can you believe this
–
and rushes off to talk to Nico.

I look at Jessica.
I’m a little helpless here, wondering what to do. I look at her, my hands out,
imploring. “I didn’t know he was
that
guy.
You never told me his name! You just said you’d slept with some guy who was in
town for only one night. How could I know?”

She wraps her arms
around herself. “What are the odds?”

I stand next to
her. “I know, right?”

Her brown eyes are
fierce as she hisses, “Amber, she can’t date him.”

Oh, Jess. My heart
breaks for you, but it breaks more for Nico.
 
I can’t tell you that. You’re too
defensive right now. How can I help you see what Nico must be feeling without
divulging what happened with Michael? I promised not to tell. But Nico won’t
bounce back from this. Her moods are stronger than Jess’s.

 
“I don’t blame you. Well you know Nico
– she doesn’t get attached very often.” I take a dramatic pause. Sorry
Nico… this is for you. “Well… except for that guy.”

Jess faces me,
confused. “What guy?”

 
“Well, you know. Michael. She fell in
love with him. And it turned out he was married.” Oh God… she’s upset she
didn’t know. I pretend like I think she knew by adding sheepishly, “Remember?”

She stares at me,
appalled. “He was married? She slept with Mark
and
a married man? What the fuck?”

Oh shit. “No! No
no no. She didn’t
sleep
with Michael.
She didn’t know he was married and the second she found out, she stopped using
the studio and never saw him again!”

We all know how
awful it would be to love a married man. Jessica's face falls, shocked into
empathy.
 
“Oh. God,
married
. That’s so horrible! Wait… why
didn’t she want me to know?”

I think of a
reason and decide just to say the truth. “She was devastated. She asked me to
keep it to myself so she could get over it and never talk about it again. And
you were going through what you were going through. She and I didn’t say it,
but we were walking around eggshells with you for awhile.”

Jessica registers
this. “Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“Anyway…this, so
soon after that. It’s going to kill her.” C’mon Jess, c’mon. Try to understand
where Nico is coming from, what she needs! But then I look over to see Nico
kiss Mark and Jess sees it, too.
Oh,
shit.
I sneak a sideways glance at Jessica. Awkward. She grits her teeth.
This is so horrible. I’m doing the best, but I’m in over my head. I take Jess’s
hand. “I’m sorry, Jess. I can’t even imagine what you guys must be feeling
right now.”

Jessica sounds
tired, looking down. “We feel shitty. That’s how we feel.”

Nico walks toward
us. “She’s coming back.” I add “Alone,” so Jess will look up.

I can see from
Nico’s face that she ended it. My heart breaks for her. She has such rotten
luck with men. He was a really good guy. Why does life do things like this? I
just can’t understand why this worked out this way. When Josh and I left the
bar together on Friday night, seeing Nico laughing with Mark, it just made
sense to me. They fit. They just… fit.

Jess chokes out,
helplessly, “Nicole.”

“I know,” she says,
her eyes exhausted and sad.

Jess fumbles for
what to say, but she’s shocked by Nico’s tears. She mumbles only, “It’s just
too weird.”

Nico pauses and
just looks at her. “It’s more than weird. It’s impossible.” Her voice catches
in a sob and Jess and I wrap ourselves around her in a hug.

I will always
protect these two. I will always help them find happiness. I will always be
here when they need me. No matter what.

NICOLE

Two Long Weeks Later

Walking up to Ella
,
a hip trendy bar in the East Village
where I’m due to meet Jess and Amber for cocktails, my phone goes off. It’s
awful how sensitive I’ve become to the ringtones, or the vibration when I’m in
a place so loud I can’t hear the sound. A call or text from Mark never goes
unnoticed and my heart always jumps high and fast. We’re only talking business
now, but it never feels that way. My cells are still attached to ideas I can’t
let myself entertain.
 

I stop just
outside the front door of Ella
and
dig in my bag, disappointed by the name
Jack
Fleming
staring back from the screen.

“Jack. Hi.”

His tone has the
usual been-there, done-that quality. “Good news, Ms. Henry.”

I cover my free
ear so I can hear him better. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“The R.S.V.P. list
is growing exponentially. We’re going to have a packed reception.”

My stomach flips
over. “Ugh.”

He chuckles.
“Remember when I said…”

“Good news,” I
finish for him.

“Yes.” He chuckles
again. “This is probably normal for a first show. I wouldn’t know… I don’t give
people their first shows, normally.”

I look toward a
few men walking up to the bar. I step aside so they can go in, ignoring one of
them who smiles at me. Don’t smile at me.

“Well, I’m more
than a little freaked.”

Mashing the phone
against my ear to hear him better over the bouncer’s talking, I step aside for
privacy as Jack says, “Well, go have a drink and make it all go away.”

“Are you watching
me?” I laugh. “I’m in front of a bar right now.”

He snorts. “Of
course you are. And when you toast tonight, toast to
The New Yorker
.”

I choke, “
The New Yorker
is coming?”

“Mmmhmmm. Are you
ready for greatness?”

“You know I’m
not!” He laughs again and I blurt out, “Jack, you’re enjoying this too much.”

I can hear his
sick little smile. “I am, aren’t I?”

“I’m hanging up
now.”

He sings
goodbye
just as I click off the phone.

I’m beginning to
really like that jerk.

I swing open the
door and look toward the shiny bar for my girls, to see if they’re sitting on
the stools. It’s hard to see in here at first, but I can’t see Amber’s blond
hair – always an easy thing to spot in a dark room. The framed portrait
of Greta Garbo hanging over the bartender’s head beckons for me to hold it
together; she urges me to maintain glamorous grace and style no matter what. I
flip her off.

Jess calls out
through the crowd, “Nicole!” I look ahead of me, from where I’m standing by the
front door, and see her and Amber waving in a red leather booth. I amble over
to them and slide in next to Amber, sitting opposite Jess.

“I need a drink!”
I look down at a pink martini thing that’s sitting in front of me. “What’s
this?”

Amber smiles
naughtily. “We ordered it for you. It’s called the Social Smoker.”

I roll my eyes.
“Funny. Ha. Ha.” What they don’t know is that hearing the word
smoker
makes me want a cigarette.
Badly.
 
But I’m not going to tell
them that. I can’t take Amber’s disappointment right now. Or a lecture.

Jess laughs and
raises her cocktail. “To Nicole’s show coming up!!”

Amber raises hers
fast, excited and happy for me. “To Nicole’s show!”

I pick up the
Social Smoker and say, in a flat, dry tone, looking at my glass, my eyes heavy,
“To
The New Yorker.
”

 
“What?!!!” “Oh my God!!!” “You’re
kidding!!” “The fucking New YORKER?!!”

I nod,
emotionless. I don’t even feel scared. I just feel… nothing. “Yep. The fucking
New Yorker.”

We clink glasses
and I down the whole thing. I set it on the table and look at their widened
stares. “What? It’s a celebration, isn’t it?”

Amber exchanges a
look with Jess, but Jess just grins, ignoring my mood. To acknowledge it would
mean we’d talk about the thing we haven’t talked about since that night at
Angel’s Share. “Wow. This is really happening.”

I frown, circling
the rim of my empty glass with my finger. “What if they hate me?”

Jessica reaches
forward, her hand flat on the table. She slaps it down. “Hey! They wouldn’t be
coming if you weren’t ah-mazing. I’m sure the guy who owns the gallery –
what’s his name?”

“Jack Fleming.”

“I’m sure
Jack Fleming
wouldn’t be sullying his
rep for someone he didn’t believe in.”
 

I shrug.

Amber nods,
looking back and forth between us as she takes over. “This whole nervous thing
you’ve got going on…you know what it tells me?”

I shake my head,
eyeing her suspiciously. “No, what?”

“It tells me you
care. You care a lot. And that’s why you’re so scared. Remember when you guys
helped me paint my office?”

Jess and I both
say, “Yeah.”

“Remember how
nervous I was?”

Jess and I say
again, “Yeah.”

“And what did you
tell me?”

My mind is blank.

Jess knows the
answer, because Jess is the one who said it. She has a guru side to her that
surprises you when you least expect it. She hits the table again as she
remembers. “I said,
you’re only scared
because you’re meeting up with where you’re supposed to be
!”

Amber points in
the air and nods dramatically. “Yep! That’s what you said.”

I look at her, not
amused or entertained. “Jess said it.”

Jessica ignores my
tone again, which is beginning to annoy me. “I can’t believe I forgot about
that. God, how long ago was that? Never mind. That’s not the point. The point
is this!”