The next morning, stress was thick in the air; you can cut it with a knife. Nick and Brian's family were on a table eating breakfast. AJ and Howie were on another one. Kevin and his wife, who just joined tour this morning, were on a third one. Of course Chris, Karen and I had the last one. The restaurant was very quiet except for the sounds of cutlery meeting the porcelain dishes, and some whispers here and there.
"What is going on today?, everyone seems so gloomy." Karen leaned to ask me.
"Don't ask. It's a long story." I replied.
"I'm listening" She said looking me in the eye.
"Well I can’t talk. Confidential stuff and all" I never lied to my sister, and I won’t start now. The look on her face showed that she didn’t like that answer very much. But she didn’t comment anymore.
"I heard yelling yesterday" Forget what I just said.
"It's a part of the confidential stuff I am not supposed to say."
"Hmmm…" She uttered. "Why was Nick yelling at you then?, or is that still part of confidential stuff you talk about."
I simply nodded, making her annoyed. "Confidential my ass, what the hell is going on here?"
"Karen, leave her alone. If she can’t say, she can’t say" Chris, my savior (as usual) said.
"I have to go now, got to prepare my next session" I said, after that comment and left the table as fast as I could, to avoid any more interrogations from Karen.
In the corner of my eye I saw Nick rise from his seat as well, he followed me to the elevators, and even got in with me. We both stood silent for a while, even though that we were totally alone. Then I decided to break the silence since the elevator was slow and we were on a high level.
"Listen… I am sorry for what I said yesterday. It was uncalled for. I was just kidding but apparently my sense of humor didn't appeal to you." I said not even looking him in the eye.
"It's OK" he only answered.
I was so surprised, "did he just accept my apology?" I kept thinking. My head snapped up to look at him. He smiled a warm smile and said "What?"
"Nothing" I answered smiling back. He had a great smile. I felt that I stared at him too long, so I turned back and look at the floor blushing. The elevator dinged and we got off.
"Meet me in my room in 15 minutes, Ok?" I told him, and then I realized it must have sounded too horrible. Surprisingly he just nodded and didn't give me any weird smirks or anything. Oh my God, the boyfriend plan must have worked.
If only I knew…
In the room, we had a very silent session. We didn't exchange any words at all.
And it was driving me crazy, so the big mouth that I am, decided that I need to break that new kind of ICE. So, I started talking again.
“Nick, can I ask you a question?” He only moaned as an answer, he was so relaxed he didn’t even want to open his mouth, WOW I am good.
“Why are you nice to me?”
“Make up your mind Julie, do you want me nice or not? I don’t want to play games here” He answered lazily without even lifting his head from the massaging table.
“I was just curious, that’s all?”
“And you know what it did to the cat, hon”
“But I am not a cat”
“You will be if you don’t let me be for now, a dead one if I might add” only then did he look at me, to address the message properly, I guess.
“OK” I answered. “Umm, Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry, for calling you… for earlier, I mean”
“It’s ok, not the first time I hear it. I just don’t know how to take a joke I guess. Now back to that good massage of yours”
Only then did I realize that I stopped the massage. So, I resumed my work, and did the rest of the session in silence.
Little did I know that starting this night was the true beginning of Hurricane backstreet