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My Happy Ending
Chapter 15

“Nicky…” Ashleigh purred as she climbed into bed the following week. She crawled up behind him and whispered in his ear. “I love you…”

Nick didn’t respond at all.

Frustrated with Nick’s lack of attentiveness, she attempted to roll him onto his back. Finally succeeding, she crawled on top of him and kissed his cheek. “Come on Nick, wake up.”

“Ash…it’s like four in the morning.” Nick mumbled, trying to roll back over on to his side. It didn’t exactly work very well with Ashleigh on top of him.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s two thirty eight.”

“I have to get up for a flight…” He said as he fell back asleep.

Ashleigh bent over and started to kiss his neck. “Your flight is at noon.” She said softly, trying to wake him up yet again.

The next day Nick was off to LA to record for a couple of months. Ashleigh had opted to stay back in Florida and continue to get things ready for the baby. It wasn’t too big of a deal, she and Nick had spent over a year long distance. Strangely enough, Ashleigh was looking forward to it a little bit. It seemed as though their relationship worked quite a bit better when they were miles away from one another. Ever since she’d moved down to Florida they’d had nothing but trouble.

Apparently, Nick finally caught on to what Ashleigh was trying to do. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down closer to him. She responded to him eagerly, moving one of her hands down to the band of his underwear.

“Impatient, are we?” Nick muttered in between kisses.

Ashleigh just nodded as she slid down onto him. She ran her fingers through his hair, and at that moment she couldn’t even remember why she’d been angry with Nick in the first place. He’d done nothing but kiss up to her all week, and now he was about to leave.

“I love you so much Nick.” She said, choking back tears as she buried her head in the crick of his neck.

“I love you too…” Nick replied, but soon felt her start to cry and she moved with him. “Ash? What’s wrong?”

Ashleigh just continued to cry as she rolled off of Nick and onto her side of the bed. “I’m sorry.” She said in between sobs.

Nick just looked at her, he was fully awake now and had no idea what was going on. First Ashleigh was seducing him, and the next thing he knew she was upset. As far as he could tell he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“It’s…okay…” Nick said, rubbing her back softly. What the hell was he supposed to do?

“I just don’t want you to leave.” She cried, her reply muffled by the fact that her face was in a pillow.

But Nick still didn’t quite get it. Ashleigh had known that he had planned to go out to LA, and it had been her decision to stay back in Florida. “It’ll be okay.” He tried to reassure her. “We’ve done this before, remember?”

She nodded slowly, and before Nick knew it, Ashleigh was clinging to him yet again, her face buried in his chest. “I just… don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“I’ll come back every other weekend, and you’ll have Joey come down for a bit, right?” Nick asked, hugging her. Ashleigh continued to cling on to him.

“Yeah. She is.”

Nick continued to hold her, wondering what has caused her sudden change in emotion. All through the past week she’d been a bit awkward towards him, this was the first time she’d come on to him and it was certainly the first time in quite a while that he’d seen her get so sad.

He sighed to himself, wishing that there was something more he could do to make things easier for her. He’d been trying as hard as he could to make up for his lack of enthusiasm before, but somehow Nick didn’t think he’d done enough. For the rest of the night, Nick lied awake with Ashleigh, trying to reassure her as she continued to get upset.


“Hey Bri, can I talk to you for a bit?” Nick asked once he had arrived in LA. The five boys were staying in a hotel, and had the entire 15th floor to themselves.

“Sure Nicky, what’s up?” Brian replied. He, Leighanne and Baylee had arrived at almost the same time Nick had. As such, they were the first ones there.

“Um, can you come to my room for a sec? And don’t call me Nicky.” Nick said, shooting Brian a glare.

Brian laughed, and followed Nick into his suite. “Oh, I’m sorry, Nickolas.” He said, causing Nick to glare at him once again. “What’s going on?”

Nick sighed. He really didn’t know how to bring up the whole Ashleigh fiasco with Brian. Especially when Brian seemed to be handling family life so effortlessly. “It’s just…Ashleigh…”

Brian gave Nick a sympathetic look. He really had been dealt his fair share of relationship issues over the past little while. “What about her?”

“I don’t know! She just, got really upset last night and didn’t want me to leave. She’s been so mad at me over the last few weeks that it just seemed really weird.”

Brian pondered that for a second. “Well, I’m sure she’s been under quite a bit of stress lately.” He said, and Nick instantly felt guilty. He really hadn’t been helping in that aspect at all. “And girls do tend to have mood swings and that sort of thing…”

Nick nodded. What Brian said made sense to him, though he still felt awful about how he’d been acting before. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Just try to be there for her Nick.” Brian advised. “I know you haven’t been doing the best job so far, but keep trying.”

Nick scoffed. ‘Not doing the best job’ didn’t even skim the surface of how much of an ass he’d been.

“Just let her know that you love her.” Brian continued, and Nick nodded in agreement. That seemed like the only thing he really could do at the moment.


That following afternoon, Ashleigh and Joey were sitting in the living room of Nick’s house. Joey was planning to visit for a week while Nick was away, to help Ashleigh with preparations for the baby and to keep her company for the first little while.

“You weren’t kidding when you said he had a huge house.” Joey commented, glancing around. “This place is huge.”

Ashleigh giggled. “I know. I have no idea what I’m going to do here by myself. I think I’m going to get kind of freaked out.”

Joey laughed. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. There’s a huge gate outside.” She said, peering out the window. “So show me around.”

So, Ashleigh took Joey around the house, showing her the more interesting things. Finally, she stopped outside the bedroom door. “It’s a bit of a mess.” She warned, before walking inside.

“He has a king sized bed?” Joey asked, in shock. “What the hell do you need that for?”

Ashleigh shrugged. “He still manages to kick me in his sleep.”

Joey grinned, and looked around the room in amazement. “You know, ten years ago I never would have thought we’d be standing here.”

Ashleigh smiled as well, recalling what she was in the past. It was interesting to her, the fact that she was able to sit in Nick’s bedroom and not have a complete spaz attack. She laughed a little to herself, remembering the first time she’d ever spoken to him. “Ten years ago at this time we were working at the call centre, trying to save up money for Black and Blue.”

“See?” Joey said, putting her hand on Ashleigh’s shoulder. “That was the best idea I ever had.”

Ashleigh rolled her eyes. Though she had to admit, she was grateful to Joey for pushing her to go on to the tour, for getting her to go to the Unbreakable show, for giving Nick her phone number… “I guess. He’s got some cool tour videos, if you wanna watch.”

The girls settled on the couch in the den, watching old videos that the boys had taken during the Black and Blue tour. Not long afterwards, the phone rang and Ashleigh quickly answered it.

“Hey.” Ashleigh said, recognizing Nick’s cell phone on the caller ID.

“Hey, I just wanted to check in and see how you girls were doing. Joey got in the afternoon, right?” Nick said through the other end.

“Yup.” Ashleigh replied, giggling at something that she saw on the TV screen. “We’re watching your tour videos.”

Nick groaned. “Those ones that Kevin took? What year?”

“Black and Blue, of course.” Ashleigh said, as though it were obvious.

“Of course.” Nick said, laughing. “I’ve got to get going, I’m heading out to dinner with AJ and Rachel. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay Nick.” She said, she was feeling quite a bit better about him being gone. After all, as Nick had said, it wasn’t like they weren’t used to this. “I love you.”

“I love you too. I’ll have my cell phone, just call me if you need me.” He said before hanging up. Though he was glad that Ashleigh seemed to be in better spirits, the memory of her getting so upset the night before he left still shook him up a bit. He worried that she might get upset again, and that he wouldn’t be able to be there to help her. Nick sighed, slipping his phone into his pocket before leaving his room. Thankfully, Joey would be there with her for the first little while.