Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Nick was sitting in a meeting. However, his mind was not on the new songs that they were going to be recording. His mind was racing with thoughts of his failed relationship.
No, not failed. Just… paused. Paused until he got to talk to her. Paused until he figured out exactly what he did and could do to get her back.
“Nick, concentrate!” Kevin snapped as he noticed Nick drift off into space once more.
“Sorry.” Nick replied sheepishly. He has been lost in his memories, trying to figure out exactly where he went wrong.
It was a clear afternoon in the city of Boston. Nick had just arrived there as he was performing a show on his solo tour that evening. He decided to wander around the city a little, before stopping in a Starbucks near the venue.
Surprisingly, the store was rather empty. Nick chalked that up to it being right after lunch hour. Everyone was probably back to work. Approaching the counter, he smiled at the brunette that was working the cash register.
“Good afternoon!” She smiled brightly.
Nick smiled back at her. She looked to be around the same age as he was, maybe a couple years younger. She was quite a bit shorter than he was as well. None the less, she was cute, so Nick turned on the flirting. “Hey gorgeous.” He winked. “How’s your day going?”
She bit her lip. Her day had been pretty boring. The day had been quite slow and she didn’t have much going on in the evening. “Pretty good.” She replied, blushing. “It’s really hot outside, I think I’m going to melt.”
Nick chuckled a bit. “I live in Florida, so I’m pretty used to it.”
She stared at him, wide-eyed. “Ergh, I’m so jealous! I’d love to go to Florida!” She sighed. “So what brings you to Boston? If I lived in Florida I’d never leave. I’d just hang out on the beach all day.” She giggled.
Nick shrugged. “I’m playing a show at The Avalon.” He said simply.
She looked at him for a moment, before recognition dawned on her face. “Holy crap.” She breathed. “Sorry… I totally didn’t realize who you were.”
Nick laughed. “It’s all good.”
Nick pouted a little as he recalled the day he met her. Things had been so simple back then. He’d invited her to his show, she’d gone along and before he knew it they were talking on the phone almost every night.
Once he’d finished his summer tour, he’d gone back to Boston to visit her. They’d spent a whole week hanging out in the city with her friends and family. Their relationship progressed rather quickly… a little faster than Nick would have liked, as he recalled. Still, by the end of the summer Camille had moved down to Florida to live with him. Hell, they hadn’t even slept together before she’d moved in with him!
“God, Florida is so gorgeous.” Camille gushed as she and Nick walked hand in hand down the beach. “Seriously, there are like, palm trees everywhere.”
“Seriously?” Nick looked at her, with face astonishment on his face. “I never noticed!”
Camille rolled her eyes at Nick’s mocking tone. “Shut up.” She giggled, standing on her toes and kissing him lightly on the cheek.
Nick turned to face her. There was water lapping softly against the shore, and moonlight making the stars seem brighter than usual. In short, all that romantic stuff which Nick usually hated. He leaned into kiss her, and she responded eagerly, snaking her arms around his neck and pulling him in closer to her.
They continued to kiss, the soft breeze blowing against them. Camille shivered, but it was hardly because of the wind. “Let’s go back inside…” She suggested in between kisses. “I’m kind of cold…”
Nick smirked, knowing that wasn’t her reasoning at all.
The two of them rushed back to the house and as soon as they were inside, Camille attacked him with kisses. As with the rest of their relationship, there was nothing slow moving about it. They kicked off their shoes and headed straight to the bedroom.
Nick sighed to himself. He couldn’t think of when things had gone sour at all. Everything had been fine. During her first year at school, she hadn’t been nearly as stressed as she’d been over the last few months.
Nick put his head in his hands momentarily. If only he could figure out what had gone wrong, he could begin to fix things.
Camille on the other hand, was walking around the University campus. She was by herself, accompanied only by the music of her mp3 player. She sighed to herself, thinking about what a mess the weekend had been.
If only things could go back to normal between she and Nick. That would make her life so much easier. She knew she’d flipped out a little too much over the marriage issue, and in turn that had spawned more problems, which had been overblown once Nick had decided he was moving.
She wasn’t even sure if things could go back to how they’d been. Everything was so different now. The house had been sold, and Nick was living on the other side of the country. Nick continued to call and attempt to talk to her, but even if he’d come to his senses she still wasn’t sure it could work.
Perhaps their relationship was only meant to live on in memories.
Camille arrived home from school that afternoon feeling rather giddy. She knew that Nick had something planned for her birthday, but of course Nick wouldn’t tell her what it was. “Nick?” She called out through the house.
“Up here!” Nick called from the second floor.
Camille rushed upstairs to find her boyfriend sitting on their bed cross legged with a silly grin on his face.
Happy birthday, baby.” He said. He held out his arms to hug her, and she quickly crawled on to the bed and accepted the invitation. Kissing her softly, Nick pulled a card out from behind his back and handed it to her.
Camille grinned and opened it eagerly. Along with the standard Hallmark greetings, the card only said a few simple words from Nick himself.
“Happy 22nd! I love you.”
She looked up at him once she was done reading the card. Nick had never uttered those words to her before. As she opened her mouth to say something to him, she was interrupted. “Nick..”
“It’s the truth Cam, I do love you.” He said softly, kissing her again.
Camille melted. At that moment, she didn’t feel she needed anything else for her birthday, she was content just being with him. “I love you too, Nick.”
Camille smiled a little bit at the memory. As angry as she was with Nick, her heart ached for him and the way that things used to be. Still, she didn’t want to back down. She wasn’t going to accept Nick’s empty apologies. As hard as it was going to be, she knew she had to move on without him.
