“Ah, yes, sir, they’ve already arrived.” He waved over a woman wearing black dress pants and a white blouse and said to her, “Could you please show the gentleman to the Ryan party.”
“Right this way,” the woman beckoned to Nick, leading him through the classy restaurant. Les Tambours was one of Tampa’s finest, and he was supposed to be meeting Claire and her family there for dinner that night. It was a Friday evening, and after a whole week of tests in the hospital, Claire had been granted a reprieve of sorts, an evening to leave the hospital. This had seemed somewhat strange to Nick, and when he had asked her about it, she had explained in her flippant, ‘I’m going act like this is all one big joke to cover up my real emotions’ kind of way.
“Oh, it’s going to be like the Last Supper... or the calm before the storm, maybe... anyway, they’re letting me out of this dump for a few hours because tomorrow I start ‘Phase 2’ of the BMT – bone marrow transplant, that’s what they call it - oh God, now I’m starting to talk like a doctor - not cool! Um, anyway, yeah, ‘Phase 2’ means going into isolation – new, special, super-clean, sterile, germ-free room – and starting on chemo and immune suppressants drug, and then the actual transplant. Dr. Rodrigo said it’ll be at least six weeks before I can leave the hospital after the transplant, and that’s just if there’s no complications. So yeah, basically they’re giving me one last look at the outside world before they lock me away.”
“Whoa,” Nick said, blinking in astonishment. “Sucks to be you. So will you be allowed to have visitors during all that?”
“Supposedly only immediately family, but hey, the staff up there likes me. I’m sure I can kiss some ass, pull some strings, and get them to let you in,” she replied with a cheeky grin.
He laughed. “All right, you do that.”
Well, Claire was getting her “Last Supper” indeed, and her parents had picked a fine place to have it in. It reminded him of when he was little – every time he’d had to go to the doctor as a child, for physicals or immunizations or stitches or whatever, his mother had taken him straight out for ice cream or a toy right afterward. He wished it still worked like that, for he would have earned a buttload of ice cream cones and Nintendo games by now. Anyway, the fancy restaurant that Claire’s family probably never would go to normally was like a toy, some kind of bribe or reward for what she was about to go through. Well, as far as he was concerned, she more than deserved it.
The hostess led Nick to a large, round table in a far corner of the spacious restaurant, where five people were sitting. Nick hadn’t met any of Claire’s family before, so he didn’t know what they looked like, and he almost didn’t recognize Claire at first either. He was about to tell the hostess she had the wrong table when the black-haired young woman looked over at him and waved, smiling.
Stunned, he realized it was Claire and immediately hurried over, his face a mask of shock and surprise at her appearance. She had traded her usual bandana for a wig of sleek, raven black hair, styled in a perfectly straight, layered bob that fell to her shoulders. So this was the “goth” wig she had described at the pizza place that night, the one she only wore for “special occasions”.
“Claire,” he gasped. “Your hair...”
“You like?” she smiled, self-consciously stroking one side of it.
Actually, he wasn’t sure he did. It was strange to suddenly see her with hair, and it looked kind of funny on her... maybe it was just that the color wasn’t right. It looked fake. But of course, he wasn’t about to tell her that, so he returned the smile and said, “Yeah, it looks awesome!”
“Well, here, sit down,” Claire said, patting the back of the empty chair beside her. “And let me introduce you to my family.” Nick sat down, smiling nervously at the four unfamiliar people, and Claire went around the table, introducing them all. “Nick, this is my dad, Kris... my mom, Carrie... my brother, Kyle... and Kyle’s wife, Amber. And guys, meet Nick Carter.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Claire’s father, a big man with dark, reddish-brown hair, said, shaking Nick’s hand.
“We’ve heard so much about you from Claire,” added her mother, who was small and blonde, offering a petite hand to Nick from across the table.
Claire’s brother, who had to be close to thirty and looked a lot like his father, with dark red hair and the physique of a football player, gave Nick a quick handshake and a hello, and his wife Amber did the same.
“So you’re going to be Claire’s donor?” Nick asked Kyle, but Claire answered before her brother could get a word out.
“Yes,” she said, “but we’re not going to talk about that tonight.” Smiling sweetly at Nick, she picked up her menu and glanced at it. “You ever been here before?” she asked him. “I haven’t – way too hoity-toity for me. Look, I even had to put on a dress tonight.” She looked down at herself, her lip curling in distaste. Nick followed her eyes to see that she was indeed dressed nicely in a short, halter-top dress made of red fabric with little white polka dots. That was a new one too – he’d never seen her in anything but t-shirts and pants before.
“You look nice,” he complimented her, sensing that she was feeling insecure.
“Well, thanks. You look nice too,” she returned, eyeing the button-up shirt and dark gray slacks he had grudgingly put on for the night and adding in a whisper, “And you look more comfortable than me too – my back is killing me. I just need to be lying down with my sweats on.” She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.
“Ohh, that’s right. You doing okay?” Nick had almost forgotten about Claire’s “harvesting operation,” which they had done Wednesday morning. It had been a very minor surgical procedure to take out some of her bone marrow. The intent was to keep it frozen and stored in case her body rejected Kyle’s marrow later; then they could put back her old bone marrow long enough to keep her alive until a new donor was found. She had compared the operation to “about 50 million bone marrow aspirations,” and he bet she was pretty damn sore... he hurt bad enough after just one bone marrow test.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said with a shrug. “But on top of that, this damn wig is itching the hell out of my head, my shoes hurt to walk in, and my bra feels like it’s about to fall down. Being a girl sucks sometimes, you know that?”
“Whoa, okay, TMI,” he said, holding up his hands in defense.
She giggled, looked at the menu in her hands a second time, and asked again, “So, have you been here before? What should I get?”
He had been there before, but it had been awhile. Picking up his own menu and looking it over, he shrugged. “I dunno... I think I’m gonna go for the steak.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” she agreed, reading the description of the steak dinner in the menu. “I think I’ll have that too.”
“Cool,” he said, impressed. Most girls he went out to eat with ate like birds and ordered light things with chicken or just a salad or something.
“I told ya I have a healthy appetite,” Claire said with an impish grin. “Besides, this is going to be the last good meal I’ll have for awhile – better make the most of it, right?”
“Right,” Nick agreed. “You go for it.”
She smiled. “I think I will.”
***
“Oh my God, I’m stuffed,” Claire groaned to Nick awhile later, as the others finished eating amid light conversation.
“Me too,” he chuckled. He pushed back his plate and played with the cloth napkin in his lap, balling it up in his hands and twisting it around until he realized what he was doing and set it back on the table. Now that dinner was over, he was rather bored. He felt removed from the family’s conversations most of the time, not knowing any of them except Claire. Luckily, she was paying plenty of attention to him and seemed to notice he was getting restless (could it be the napkin-twisting that gave him away?)
“You wanna walk outside?” she whispered to him.
“Sure,” he replied.
Clearing her throat, Claire caught the attention of her mother and said, “Nick and I are gonna step outside. I want some fresh air.”
“Are you feeling okay?” her mother asked, her eyes boring into Claire with concern.
Claire rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. So we’ll be outside, okay?”
“All right, hon,” Carrie relented.
Claire started to get up from her seat, but almost immediately, her face contorted into a grimace of pain, and she sank back down again. “Claire, you all right?” Nick asked quickly.
“You sound like Mom,” Claire groaned, then added, “I’m fine... just the back, you know... I forgot how stiff it was...”
“Here,” Nick said, sliding his arm underneath hers and slowly helping her up. “You good?” he asked when she was on her feet.
“Fine. Thanks,” she said sheepishly. “Come on, let’s go.” She started to walk quickly away from the table, but he noticed how she slowed down after just a few steps. She was hurting and trying hard not to show it. He didn’t say anything when he caught up to her though and simply walked slowly alongside her as they navigated between tables and made it outside the restaurant.
“Phew, that’s better,” Claire said, inhaling deeply as they got outside. It was a beautiful night out, warm, but not too hot, a light breeze tickling their skin as they walked slowly down the landscaped sidewalk in front of the restaurant. “Look at the sky,” Claire sighed, glancing up. Nick followed her gaze to see a gorgeous array of twinkling stars spattered across the cloudless, darkening sky. On the horizon, the sun was setting, a medley of golden and pinkish hues tingeing the sky around it and slowly melting into shades of blue, which dimmed to the velvety navy of night.
“It’s pretty,” Nick said softly. “Sometimes I take my boat out at night... you can really see the stars when you’re out on the ocean, away from the city and the lights and everything... they’re beautiful.”
“I’d love to see that,” she said huskily, and he smiled at her.
“I’ll take you sometime,” he promised.
“Okay... hey, mind if we sit down up here?” She had spotted a stone bench along the end of the sidewalk.
“No, sounds good to me,” he said, walking toward it with her. He noticed how her body was slightly hunched over, almost like an old lady’s, and knew her back must be just killing her. They reached the bench, and he helped her sit down, then sank down beside her. She was sitting stiffly on the backless bench, and, realizing her discomfort, he scooted back and slung one of his long legs over the other side of the bench, so that he was straddling it. “Here,” he said, “Turn this way and put your feet up.” He eased her back so that she was leaning against his chest, and she pulled her legs onto the bench, stretching them out straight in front of her. “Is that better?” he whispered in her ear.
“Much,” she said, glancing up at him, a smile on her face. “You’re good to me, you know that?”
“Well, you’re good to me too. That’s what friends are for, right?” he asked with a chuckle. “Cheesy, you know, but true...”
“Sure,” she agreed, laughing lightly.
They fell quiet, simply enjoying the pleasure of each other’s company and the silence, interrupted only by the soft chirping of crickets, the whispers of the trees as the soft summer breeze ruffled their leaves, and the occasional car passing by.
“Nick?” Claire said softly.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve been thinking...” Her voice trailed off, and he sat waiting for her to continue.
“About?” he prompted after a moment, when she did not go on.
She let out a sigh and slowly pulled herself off of him, painfully swinging her legs off of the bench so that she was sitting properly. She turned to face him, her blue eyes large and luminous in the soft glow of the moon and distant streetlights that played across her face, the sun’s dying rays bathing the world behind her in dim, golden light. The smile she gave him was wavering and uncertain, but when she spoke, her eyes radiated conviction.
“I don’t know if it’s the right time to say this, but I just feel like... if I don’t say it tonight, I might not have another chance.” She bit her lip, yet never took her eyes off him, looking at him in a way that made him uncomfortable.
“So say it,” he whispered, perplexed. Honestly, he was anticipating another conversation like the one they’d had at the hospital on Monday, with her suddenly opening her heart to him and pouring out her feelings, how scared she was about what might happen to her... he braced himself for this and was fully prepared to take her in his arms again and let her cry. Crying girls made him uncomfortable, and he hated to see her in tears... but if any girl had a reason to do so, it was Claire. He didn’t mind.
He sat still and waited for whatever it was she had to say. But when she finally did say it, it was the last thing on Earth he was expecting to hear.
“Nick,” she said softly. “I... I think I’m falling in love with you.”
***
