Disappointed with himself, Nick dived into his work and his blossoming relationship with Veronica.  He was hardly home anymore, he was either in the studio recording or he was at Veronica’s place hanging out or attempting to quench her insatiable appetite for sex.  And he had thought he was a sex addict.

“Nick,” Veronica purred into his ear one morning a few weeks after he had upset Lindsey.  He’d looked into the information she had given her.  She mostly shared stuff going on in her life, the accident, making a new friend because of it but none of it had mentioned who her new friend was.

“Nick,” Veronica purred again.  She started to crawl on top of him. He hugged her put moved her back to her side of the bed. 

“Not right now,” he said as he sat up running his hands through his hair. 

“Is anything wrong?” Veronica asked him as she got up and started to get dressed.  Nick had never mentioned Lindsey to Veronica so she never knew about the ass he made out of himself and he kept it that way.  No need to dwell he kept telling himself.  He’d tried calling Lindsey to apologize a few times, but she’d not answered her phone.  He was still wary about giving out his number; especially now that he found out she was a fan. 

“No, babe.  I’m okay, just tired.  I think I am going to stay at my place tonight after I finish at the studio.”  He really wanted a bed to himself, a bed where he wouldn’t have to worry about a girl crawling all over him during all hours of the night.  

“Okay,” she pouted giving Nick her best puppy dog face.  “It’s cool anyway, there are things I can get done tonight without you around, things I want you to think are magically taken care of.” She winked at him and headed into the bathroom.

Nick sighed as he pulled his shirt over his head.  He had plans to go home, take a shower and head to the diner that he’d met Lindsey at.  Maybe he could crack Gretchen and get some information out of her.  He had to at least apologize to Lindsey in person and then she could decide if she wanted to forgive him or not, he was ready for whatever she decided.

 “Bye,” he peeked his head into the bathroom to see Veronica behind the shower curtain.

She stuck her head out from behind the curtain and smiled warmly at him.  “Call me later?”

“Sure, I’ll talk to you tonight before bed.” He walked over and gave her a kiss before heading back to his own place.

He opened the door and took a deep breath and let out a huge sigh of relief.  He threw himself down on the couch and picked up his TV remote.  He turned it one and flipped through the channels, settling on Cartoon Network.  He hadn’t meant to but he closed his eyes, his phone buzzing in his pocket woke him up. 

“Hello?” Nick asked.

“Nick, did you forget something?” Brian’s voice came over the other end of the phone.

Nick sat straight up and looked at the date on his phone.  “Oh shit.” He cursed into Brian’s ear.  “I’m sorry Bri. I am heading out the door right now to meet you.”  Nick had forgotten the conversation with Brian earlier in the week where he said he would be out his way for business for a day and that they should get together and hang out.  They were supposed to meet for dinner before heading back to his place to play some Xbox together. It was a good thing he told Veronica he was busy that night, Brian was going to stay in his guest room until he left the next day. 

“I’ll see you in a few.”  Brian commented in his ear, he sounded a little upset but Nick couldn’t blame him. He had spaced their plans. 

He pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant to see Brian standing out front tapping his phone.  He was probably texting his wife or tweeting the fans.  He was sure there would be some smart ass comment about him being late blowing up twitter for the next hour.

“I’m sorry.” He said as soon as he reached Brian.

“Hey, I understand.” He held up his phone with twitter open.  There were a few tweets about Nick having a new girl in his life.  A few pictures of him and Veronica had been posted.  He smiled at the pictures.  They were taken paparazzi style but he did not mind that they had caught him enjoying his time with Veronica. 

“Fans work fast.” Nick laughed. 

“Tell me about it.” Brian patted Nick’s back and directed him towards the inside of the restaurant.  

Their dinner was full of conversation about Brian’s family, Bailey mostly, and about Veronica.  Nick couldn’t stop talking about her. Telling Brian all the things they shared in common, what a great girl she was.   

“I should take you to this diner my friend Lindsey introduced me to.” He said not meaning to bring up the topic of Lindsey.

“Lindsey? Don’t you mean Veronica?” Brian asked him obviously confused.

“No I meant Lindsey. I told you about the girl whose car I hit right?” Nick asked.

Brian nodded. “The one you generously offered to cover everything the insurance company didn’t?” Brian had told him what a bad idea that had been when he first told him about it but Nick hadn’t cared then and he didn’t let it faze him now.

“We ran into each other a few times after I took her home…”

“You took her home?” Brian asked.  “You didn’t tell me that.  Nick what were you thinking?”

“Brian, I hit her car.  I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to make amends.  We hung out a few times afterwards and enjoyed each other’s company, I thought of her as a friend.  She’s not talking to me anyway.”  He shrugged pushing his empty plate away.

“She’s a fan,” Nick started.

“So.” Brian interjected.

“She kept that from me.  All the times we hung out she kept the fact that she knew who I was and was a fan from me.”  Nick shot back. 

“Nick, what did you want her to fawn all over you and tell you how great you were?”  Brian laughed at his friend.

Nick shrugged.  “I know I overreacted.  She treated me like a normal person and I liked that, I was open with her and told her things I would never have told her if I knew…well if I knew she was a fan.  Fans work fast.” 

“As funny as it may be, I watch what the fans tweet every now and then.” Brian laughed at himself.  “I don’t remember seeing any mention, even rumor about you hanging out with anyone named Lindsey and today was the first day I saw anything about Veronica.”  Brian shrugged. 

“Brian, I told you I know I overreacted.  It just scares me how much I could have given away to her without knowing.  She was going to go into the studio with me; I was going to let her hear a song that I planned to have on my new album.” Nick shook his head.  “Doesn’t matter anyway, I have Veronica and plenty of other friends.”

Brian nodded and started to talk about something else.  Nick knew he had just lied; he hated that Lindsey thought so badly of him now.  Not only because she could tell hundreds of others with a few words in a matter of seconds, but because for some reason he couldn’t understand he wanted her to have a good opinion of him.