It was just after ten when I got home. Walking through the side door I saw that the lights were off, and thought that it was unusual. Ella was a night person and assumed she’d be up. As I walked in further there was a single candle lit on the table by the stairs; a note next to it.
I’ve missed you today. Come out back.
Love, E
I immediately had a smile on my face and was excited to see Ella. I went through the sliding glass doors that lead me outside and I could hear music playing. Candles lit the walk way to where Ella was, inside the hot tub. Her hair was piled on top of her head, a sexy smile painted on her face and a tiny hot black bikini.
“Hi,” her voice soft with love called out. I began to take my clothes off and got into the hot tub with my boxers on.
“Hey you,” I wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her glossed lips to mine. “What’s all this baby?”
“Just a little thank you,” she wrapped her arms around my neck giving me another kiss.
“For what?”
“Loving me and making me feel safe,” her voice was full of sincerity.
“Thank you for loving me,” I kissed her neck.
“Would you like some wine?” She asked gesturing to the bottle being chilled in an ice bucket.
“Let me,” I said and poured the two wine glasses to the top with wine. I handed her the glass and then held my glass up to hers. “Here is to us?” I asked.
“To us,” she smiled and our glasses clinked together. “How was rehearsal?”
“All I can say, is that I am extremely happy I have this hot tub,” I put my arm around Ella an leaned back; enjoying the jets on my back.
“ That good huh?”
“Just a lot of work. We had to do almost the whole show…ten times.”
“Eek. You have to go in tomorrow?”
“No. I get to sleep in with you!”
“You’re going to need to when I’m done with you tonight,” she teased and climbed on top of my lap; straddling me.
“Is that so?”
“Mmm hmm,” she began kissing my neck, my cheek and then lips. I couldn’t help myself, I am a guy; therefore I wanted to take her right there. “And upstairs, you have another surprise.” She whispered and pulled away. “Oh, this CD I made for you,” she said out of nowhere.
“This the Fray right now?”
“Yeah, this song, reminds me of you,” she blushed a little, tilting her head down. I took her into my arms at that moment, took the remote, pressed the back button and the song started again. I then began singing softly with the song.
I found Go on the corner of first and Amistad
Where the West was all but won.
All alone, smoking his last cigarette,
I said, “Where you been?” He said, “Ask
anything.”
Where were you when everything was falling apart?
All my days were spent by the telephone that never rang.
And all I needed was a call that never came.
To the corner of first and Amistad.
Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me.
Lying on the floor surrounded surrounded.
Why’d you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me.
But in the end everyone ends up alone. Losing her,
The only one who’s ever known. Who I am, who I’m not and
Who I wanna be. No way to know how long she will be next to me.
Lost an insecure, you found me, you found me. Lying on the floor,
Surrounded, surrounded. Why’d you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me!
The early morning, the city breaks,
And I’ve been calling for years and years and years and years.
And you never left me no messages
You never sent me no letters
You got some kind of nerve taking all I want!
Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor, where were you? Where were you?...-The Fray “You Found Me”
The song finished and Ella’s eyes were set on mine.
“That’s kind of a mixed up song,” I laughed lightly after. “Who am I to you? The one you found, or did I find you?”
“Both. To me, it’s just I was the one who was insecure and lost and well, you did run me over so I guess you found me,” she teased.
“That is true. So what is this next surprise?”
“It’s a surprise!”
“Yes, I understand that. But I’m ready for it,” I wiggle my eyebrows and she poked my side.
“Alright,” she laughed and started to climb out. I managed to get out before her and lifted her up over the side.
“I don’t need you slipping and having to make a trip to the E.R.,” I played setting her down. I handed her the crutches that were against the side of the hot tub.
“How sexy do I look right now?”
“They could make a calendar on you, ‘Gimps in Swimsuit Wear.’ H-O-T-T.” She punched my arm and we started walking inside. I had taken the bottle of wine and our empty glasses in with us. When we reached the stairs, I took her left crutch so she could hold the railing as she made it up the stairs.
“Your arms are getting pretty cut girl,” I noticed her triceps muscle.
“They should be it’s been almost three months on these damn things.” We reached the top of the stairs, I handed her the crutch and we went into the bedroom. Inside there were candles already lit on the night stands and dresser.”
“I’ll be right back,” she winked and disappeared into the bathroom. I took off my wet boxers, put on a pair of dry ones and played with my iPod to get some smooth songs playing. I usually wasn’t one for this romantic stuff; but I had to say, it was turning me on.
A couple minutes later, the bathroom door opened and Ella stood in the door way. Her blonde curly hair was down, she wore a sheer robe that was opened and wore a very small, low cut black laced baby doll lingerie. Her long legs seemed to glow in the candle light.
“Breath taking,” I said sitting up with a smile on my face. She started to walk toward me and noticed how hard she was trying not to limp; I jumped up to my feet and picked her light frame into my arms.
“Thanks,” she said sheepishly. I gingerly set her on the bed, and kissed her bare shoulder as I slipped her robe off her. My hand ran from her shin up her thigh, caresssing as I kissed her lips. She had on her Victoria Secrets “Heavenly” perfume that I couldn’t keep from indulging myself in.
Our night continued with love making, the rest of the bottle of wine and the chocolate dipped strawberries she had made herself. It was four am when we went to bed…
~*~*~*~*~
“Ella, I don’t think this is a good idea,” I tried to convince her for the hundredth time. We were at the dance studio to rehearse and Ella decided to come to start her dancing again. It’s only been two weeks since she started walking on her severely broken ankle.
“Nick, I have to start sometime.” She looked at me sternly as she slipped on a pair of her flat ballet shoes, or whatever they’re called.
“You can’t even go down the stairs yet because it won’t bend right.”
“Go do your boy band dancing,” she flung her hand up in the air at me and stood up at the Barr on the wall.
“Let’s go Nicky,” Howie came and pulled me away and Ella shook her head laughing a little. “She’s a big girl.”
“Stubborn is what she is.”
“How much is she actually going to dance? She’ll probably start with warm up stuff.” Howie tried to assure me. I sighed and went over to where the other guys were working on ‘Beautiful Woman’ for our routine.
I couldn’t help but look in our mirror to watch Ella and see what she was doing. It looked like a lot of bending and stretching, so far, so good.
“NICK!” Brian yelled.
“What?”
“You missed your cue.”
“Sorry,” I said and the music started over. “Do you think she should’ve wrapped her ankles or gotten braces? We should call her Doctor and get something.”
“Stop being over protective, she knows what she’s doing,” Brian patted my shoulder and once again started the music. We went through the song three times, and it went rather smoothly. I like this dance a lot; it was kind of sexy, flirty and fun. I know I sound like I should be Gay but I’m not.
Another forty minutes of dance Brian finally let us take a break. Sweaty and thirsty I went over to my gym bag, which happened to be near Ella and I grabbed my towel and water bottle. I watched her as she up on toe, not Pointe; I guess the balls of her feet and was trying to do some turns.
She was so concentrated in what she was doing, with her iPod in her ears, she didn’t see me. Her forehead and chest glistened with sweat, her hair was starting fall out of the messy bun she had on. As she put her left foot in front of her, she went up on toe and went to spin around.
Her foot immediately went on heel and she fell to her knee. “Shit,” she swore, grabbed her ankle, rolled it around and stood back up. She did a few toe raisers and tried the spin again. Same thing happened and she remained on the floor.
“Give it time,” I said taking a seat next to her and she took the towel from my neck and dabbed her forehead with it.
“I know, just frustrating. I’m doing beginner beginniner stuff and it won’t hold my fat ass up.” Her voice was sharp and annoyed. She stood up on her feet and went to go for it again and I grabbed her wrist.
“Elle,” I pulled her to me and she glared at me.
“What?”
“You’ve been practicing for an hour. Your ankle is swollen already; you told me you weren’t going to overdo it.”
“No pain no-”
“No future.” I cut her off. She pulled away from me, rolled her eyes and started practicing again.
“Nick breaks over,” A.J. called. I let out a sigh and walked back over to the guys. For the next two hours while we danced, fixed corrections and took at least three more breaks; Ella continued to dance, stretch and was doing some sort of leaps. Every fall she took to the ground seem to give her the initiative to get back up and go for the skill harder.
“Maybe you should tell her to stop Nick. She seems like she’s in pain, I saw her just take a couple of pills.” A.J. pointed out taking a sip from his G2.
“I tried earlier. I didn’t realize she still had pain pills left over.” I said. “Are we done? If we are, then she’ll leave easier.”
“Yeah, its lunch time,” Howie pointed out and I walked over to my stuff. Ella was on the ground, her legs straight out in front of her and her chest was flat to her knees.
“Ella, you ready?” She nodded her head and sat up slowly. I heard her take in a sharp breath and let it out unevenly. I squatted down and tilted her face to look at me. “Hey, what are the tears for?” I brushed a stray tear.
“I just didn’t realize how weak I’d be,” she wiped her face. I looked down her long legs, she had bare feet now and both ankles were twice the size of what they were when we came.
“Let’s get you home to ice,” I took both of her hands into mine and pulled her up. She slipped on her flip flops and picked up her bag. We said good-bye to the guys and walked to my truck. Ella was limping badly and I had this feeling in me that she wouldn’t be able to get her ankles strong enough to where she once was.
“What?” She asked.
“Nothing,” I looked up.
“You’re staring at me.”
“It’s nothing babe, let’s go, I’m hungry.”
“Surprise.” She smiled and we got into the truck. The ride home was rather quiet and I kept stealing glances at Ella. “You keep staring at me, what gives?” She asked.
“You seem distant.”
“Just thinking.”
“Obviously, about what?”
“I’m trying to be positive about this whole situation but how far do I go?” She sounded like a lost child, looking for answers.
“You’ll just know I have a feeling Elle, your body will just know. But you have to listen to it. Today, you pushed too far, too soon; you know it.”
“If I want to audition for the winter session I have to get moving.”
“But you’ll also push yourself back if you don’t let yourself heal,” I put the truck into park after we pulled into the driveway. Ella let out a sigh as she gathered her gym bag and opened the door. “Ella,” I grabbed her arm so would turn to look at me. “I’m not trying to be mean; I’m trying to be rational.”
“But you don’t know me or my body Nick,” she hopped out of the truck and as she did she let out a cry and was on the ground. I hurriedly climbed out and ran to her side. She was on her hands and knees, her head down.
As I went to help her up, she pushed my hand away and sat down grabbing both ankles, her head in her knees. I didn’t really know what to do, if I were to help her I’d make her feel worse than she already felt, if I left; that would just be me being a shitty boyfriend. I knew she was feeling a thousand emotions right now aside from being in pain.
“Baby you should get your feet up and ice,” I hesitated to put my hand on her shoulder and when I finally did she shrugged me away.
“Go,” she whispered, keeping her head down. I sighed, took both of our bags and went inside. I threw the bags on the floor frustrated and went to the refrigerator and took a beer out. I twisted the cap off and took a long pull on the cold refreshment. My phone rang and I answered it before it rang the second time.
“What?” I snapped.
“Whoa, bad timing?” A.J asked on the other line.
“Kinda, what’s up?” I took another pull.
“Sammy and I were wondering if you two wanted to do something. She’s kinda freaking out about missing her best friend when tour comes.”
“I don’t know, Ella is sitting in the driveway crying.” My voice sounded annoyed.
“What?”
“She’s hurt and won’t let me help her, she’s just having a break down.”
“Sammy wants to talk to you,” A.J. told me and I finished my beer.
“Nick?” Sammy spoke into the phone.
“Yeah?” I asked taking another beer out of the fridge.
“What’s going on?”
“We were talking about her dancing in the truck, and I told her how I thought she pushed herself too hard today and she jumped out of the truck, pretty literally and it was too much on her ankles and she fell. But she won’t let me get her inside, she told me to just go,” I now sounded more upset and hopeless, I looked out the window and she still sat on the black pavement. Her arms wrapped around her knees, her knees to her chest, head on her knees.
“How long she been there?”
“About ten minutes now. It looks like it’s going to rain.”
“Look, I don’t know if she wants me telling you this but the anniversary of her brother’s death is kinda soon.”
“How soon?”
“Tomorrow.” Sammy’s voice was sad. “It’s only been a year Nick. Cam was her best friend and that’s when Anthony went crazy; he was his best friend too. She needs you, don’t let her tell you otherwise.” I put the beer down I was about to finish off and the rain started to come down.
“Thanks Sammy,” I said.
“Call me if you or her needs me. Especially tomorrow, I may come out to see her. I’ll call you to see how she is. Let her come to you, just let her know you’re there and not leaving her.”
“I will, I’ll talk to you later,” I hung up the phone and walked outside into the rain. I knelt down onto one knee, tilted up Ella’s chin and she looked up to me.
“I’m sorry Nick, I didn’t mean to be a bitch.”
“I know, can you stand?”
“I don’t know, they’re throbbing,” she said and I put her arm around my neck to help her up. “Ah no, my left one is shot,” both of her arms were around my neck for balance. “Nick, I don’t want to treat you the way I do, I just…” She looked up into my eyes, her lower lip quivered and tears rolled down her face.
“We’re soaked come on,” I picked her up into my arms and brought her into the living room. I turned on the fire and wrapped a blanket around her shaking body. “Take your clothes off, I’m getting you some ice,” I walked into the kitchen to get the ice packs and when I came out, Ella’s clothes were on the floor and the blanket wrapped tightly around her.
“Nick,” she whispered and put her legs up onto a pillow and gently put the ice packs on. “Ah,” she winced as I put it on her left ankle.
“Sorry,” I said and took my shirt off. “What am I going to do with you?” I asked sitting on the couch with her.
“Leave me,” she pressed her lips together.
“I am not leaving you.” I cupped her face with my hands. “You need to open up with me though. You know you pushed yourself too far today don’t you?” I asked sternly but with care. She nodded her head.
“You know what you need to do to get stronger and by putting everything into one day is going to give you a setback,” I studied her face and she nodded her head and put her face into her hands. “There’s reason you went so hard.” I got behind her and pulled her into my arms and kissed the top of her head.
I felt Ella’s arms tighten around my waist, her face buried into my chest. “I’m so alone” she choked out and sobbed into me.
Chapter End Notes:
Just wanted to thank everyone for the feed back! Keep them coming and the story will keep coming!
