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Author's Chapter Notes:
So holy freakin crap...you guys are awesome. So dun dun dun! Another chapter for you! I figure this will help me get more inspired for WSIT this weekend (since i plan a major writing party to get the next few chapters of that rolling). Enjoy!
Chapter Five: In The City, City of Angels Lonely As I Am...

"So where are we?" She asked as they walked down the boardwalk. It was a sunny beautiful day out, the Santa Anna winds were blowing making it warmer this time of year the both of them only needing a light jacket in the slightly chilly air. They'd been to a few of his favorite places in downtown LA but now they had made their way around town to smaller spots, much less city-like places. They'd been to the Santa Monica Pier and up and around Malibu. Now they'd made their way to Surf City USA and were enjoying the conversation that had come over them. She learned rather quickly that he wasn't the typical Hollywood type. He didn't constantly have his blackberry glued to his ear or wore movie star shades or really acted like anything but just a very humble guy who loved his siblings and consistently was doing things for them going above and beyond what most siblings would do.

He grinned and sighed breathing in the cool salty sea air. "Huntington Beach. It's a favorite spot of mine. Relaxed and definitely not the glitz and glamour of the normal Los Angeles." He replied, it was true for him it wasn't the normal red carpet version of LA that if you really wanted to be seen you just had to make a trip to Robertson or Rodeo...or one of the many restaurants where it was all about seeing and being seen.

She smiled at him as they continued on their way stopping as they looked over the to the ocean. "It's so different here, you know from New York. We have the beach and all that but I don't know it just seems so different, the people are much different in LA than New York that's for certain." She replied making him grin at her. "So tell me about you...what do you do for a living?"

He sighed, the million dollar question he never had to answer. It was rather refreshing that she hadn't recognized him at all. He figured it must have been his change in appearance or maybe she wasn't a fan at all. Whatever it was he kind of liked having someone who didn't automatically know who he was, his occupation, birth date and favorite color just off the top of their head. "I'm a musician...a singer. I'm surprised though you didn't recognize me..." He said hoping that didn't come off as too cocky.

Marie shot him a glance. "Should I recognize you?" She looked him over, he didn't look anything like what her mind thought of when it came to anyone famous. He was dressed comfortably, jeans, sneakers a light hoodie and a tee-shirt underneath the sleeves pushed up his forearms. In fact based on his appearance alone he looked more like a college guy, maybe a grad student than a musician. Of course the musicians she was used to either sat on the street with a guitar case open, were in the philharmonic or were dressed up in their performance gear at one of the many concerts she'd attended at Irving Plaza over the years.

"What kind of music do you like?" He said ignoring her question. He didn't know how he should approach the subject, but he figured the direct approach would be the best course of action. He did have to admit, having a real conversation with a woman instead of what his greatest onstage memories were or if touring life was really as crazy as it seemed to be made him a little sad that he had to have this conversation at all.

"All types, mostly indie music though. That and I love bands like The Postal Service, Jane's Addiction, Muse..." She explained listing off some of his latest and oldest obsessions.

"Good bands..." He said with a grin. He didn't want to ask her but he figured he should probably get it out of the way and over with. "Have you ever heard of the Backstreet Boys...?"

"Yeah, they were huge in like the 1990s right? My sister was in love with them, with their overtly sexual songs and cheesy ballads and the ridiculous costumes and dance routines." She said making his smile fade every second as the realization dawned on her. "And oh my God you're one of them..."

Nick sniggered and nodded. "Yeah...Nick Carter nice to meet you." He retorted making her eyes widen and her brow furrow in embarrassment. "What?"

"Nothing just my sister is going to kill me...I insulted her favorite." She replied sheepishly giving him an apologetic glance.

He sighed and shook his head, "Of course, did anyone ever like the other guys at all?" He questioned.

"I kinda thought the tall one with dark hair was hot." Marie responded making him feel marginally better. "But I kind of liked to tease her about her insane crush on you. It was rather comical. But yeah she's going to have my head for insulting you."

"Nah she won't." He replied figuring that though they may fight, they were sisters and much like his own sisters, nothing could break that bond, not even a few little minutes or years of discourse.

"Obviously you don't know my sister. Even married with kids she's still a teenybopper." She quipped making him chuckle. She thought back to when her sister was a teenager, when they both were in those tumultuous adolescent years, the massive amounts of posters on the walls. Marie's posters had all been movie posters of all her favorites while her sisters were much more geared to the popular music persuasion. She looked at Nick and remembered those posters thinking of how different he looked now compared to then.

A comfortable silence grew over them for a few moments and he turned to her as they leaned on the railing. "So are you hungry? I am a little bit and maybe we could get something to eat?"

Marie grinned, "How about the grocery store. I'll make something for us." She said happily.

"You cook?" He asked smiling at her. He did always love a woman who could cook. Many of the women he dated however thought Chef Boyardee was gourmet. So it was definitely a most welcome and refreshing change to see someone who could really cook.

"I'm a chef..." She stated simply making his eyebrows raise in silent happy approval to her admission. Now that was something he hadn't expected. He realized rather quickly that she was becoming the single most interesting girl he'd ever met. He nodded and grinned widely before leading her off to his truck to take her to the store both of them finding their conversation to be both comfortable and entertaining to say the least.

---

Nick watched as she wielded the chef knife over the herbs she'd bought mincing them up quickly. She glanced up at him and smirked. "What?" She asked as she scraped them up and sprinkled them over the chicken in the sauté pan in front of her.

"Nothing just you're really good at that." He said with a grin. "Almost like I'm watching the Food Network." He marveled amusedly at the ease at which she made her way around a kitchen. The happy glow on her face as she kept a watchful eye over the food making sure it was cooked to perfection

She looked over at him as she turned the chicken breasts over showing the golden browned skin. "You watch the food network?" She asked with a grin. It more than amused her to find that he would actually enjoy watching people like Tyler Florence and Mario Batali make the culinary arts seem so effortless for people to try their hands at.

He nodded, "Yeah my life kind of requires me to know how to cook and take care of myself. Lord knows I don't have anyone to do it for me." He said subtly implying his single-dom as he reached for his wine glass taking a long sip of the rich Bordeaux.
    
"Good wine?" She asked happy he seemed to like her choice in wines and with her style of cooking.

"Yeah it's fantastic...I haven't had a good drink in a long time." He admitted. After he lost his wife he had gone off the deep end for a couple of months, when he wasn't being the dutiful and doting father he was binge drinking to stave off his broken loneliness. But thanks to his friends and band mates he'd pulled himself out of his funk. But now he felt confident enough to be able to have a few drinks here and there and not have a problem.

"Don't get out much do you?" She asked playfully. He watched how her eyes crinkled slightly whenever she smiled and then his eyes moved to her mouth something he instantly regretted. The curve of her lips were far too inviting at the moment and he looked away cursing himself for thinking that way.

He shrugged answering her question silently as he watched her finish plating up dinner smirking at how she meticulously placed everything on the plate. "Wow you'd think we're going to the Ivy with that kind of attention to detail." He remarked making her roll her eyes and hand him his plate. They moved over to the small dining table and sat both with full wine glasses before them.

They ate in silence for a moment Marie, paying special attention to his reaction of every bite of food. She grinned amusedly at his soft moan indicating that it was really appetizing. "You like?"

He looked over and nodded as he finished chewing then swallowed. "Yeah, this is amazing...Did you learn how to cook this in culinary school?" He was amazed the light sauce and how she'd made the vegetables tender and actually tasty instead of bland and boring made him really enjoy the meal entirely.

"No my grandmother taught me. She was actually a better teacher than any of the chefs at school or in my internship and at least she didn't throw plates at me when I messed up." She remarked remembering the days of spending time with her grandmother in the kitchen learning all the old family recipes. She was however always intrigued but the multitude of sweets they always made every holiday together, from cookies, to cakes, to canolis and homemade gelatos. It was in her childhood that she'd found her passion for food and as much as her parents may have been against it to begin with she was happy to have proven them wrong and had become successful and even professionally recognized through her associations and certifications.

Nick's eyes widened in shock. "You've had plates thrown at you?" He had watched enough of Hell's Kitchen to realize that some chefs in the industry were exactly "people persons" as he would call it. But throwing plates for messing up? That was something he definitely would not be able to handle getting ceramic plates thrown at his head? He would have quit immediately on the spot.

Marie chuckled and nodded, "Yeah on my first internship, French chef from Alsace. He was rather ornery if you even did a so-so job on a plating he would verbally rip you a new one. I mean I've dealt with some real jerks in the industry and all but they're really few and far between. The people who work with me now are the best people I know." It was true, her friends she'd made over the years had become the best business partners she'd ever had, dashing the rule that you never go into business with your friends. She smiled thinking of them as she poured them each yet another glass of wine finishing off their second bottle of Bordeaux for the evening.

"So what exactly do you do. I know you're a chef and all but what kind?" He asked watching her swirl the red wine in her glass before smelling it and taking a long sip smiling at the distinct and bold flavor in it. He didn't know where his sudden interest in her life came from. He found it so easy to talk to her, and her life, being so completely different from what he normally encountered it intrigued him to no end.

"Pastries mostly. I specialize in specialty cakes for weddings and birthday parties. But I also do chocolate sculptures, pastillage, all sorts of stuff like that. We're going down to Daytona next summer for the wedding cake competition. If we win there's a big fat 100,000 dollar check. Which would let me expand our kitchen and increase volume by about 15 percent."

"That would be awesome. How did you meet my sister?" He asked wondering how exactly a model would meet and become friends with a pastry chef. The concept to him was almost comical, a model and a chef...the best of friends. Although Angel did know how to pack food away she was after all a model where most hardly ever ate or if they did they either got rid of the excess calories with massive amounts of exercise or by some other less healthy compulsion.

"She was living in New York doing something with photo shoots and runway modeling and her birthday was coming up and she stumbled into my shop and asked if we made cakes. So I made her and Aaron this two tier cake that was one of my favorites that I made, it was white fondant and then it had black musical notes and staff all over it."

"You made that cake? Wow..." He said marveling at her talent. He remembered the cake, not just because it was for his siblings' birthday but that it was the first holiday season without Anna there beside him. 

"You were at the party?" She asked smiling at him. "I couldn't go, I had to go to Jersey, my Grams was very sick at the time and it was the last cake I'd made before she passed away." She said shaking her head as she looked away feeling the emotions involuntarily rise up within her.

Nick saw the emotion on her face and felt a pang of sympathy surge in him. He of all people knew what it felt like to lose someone near and dear to your heart. He watched her stand clearing their empty plates taking them to the kitchen silently her face showing the pensiveness that was sure to be going on within her mind. He stood and began to clear the two empty bottles of wine and the glasses. He went into the kitchen to toss the bottles and rinse the glasses in the sink. He turned her with a simple hand on her shoulder giving her a look as if to ask if she were all right.

She breathed deeply and cursed at herself. She couldn't believe that she'd let herself get all maudlin on him. "I'm sorry just it's not easy sometimes remembering that stuff." She replied feeling herself once again in control of her emotions as she scrubbed the plates.

Nick nodded and watched her, seeing her that vulnerable for a moment made something in him just seem to snap...some invisible force had invaded his heart for a brief moment warming it to her. As if he were a man possessed he turned her away from the sink to face him and deliberately leaned down to her pressing his lips to hers gently their eyes closing simultaneously losing themselves in the intoxicating contact. His hands went to her sides holding her in front of him almost afraid she would pull away from his bold move. Their lips moved against each other neither moving farther than the simple-ness to the original kiss but both feeling their hearts and breaths quicken from the chaste embrace. He gripped her sides wanting to deepen the kiss which, shocked the hell out of him to begin with that he'd even thought to kiss her, something he hadn't done in such a long time. Sufficiently freaked out at his own bold behavior and her heated response made him break the kiss both of them keeping their eyes closed their mouths open savoring the ended touch between them for just a few moments longer.

He removed his hands from her waist and looked down at them cursing himself for being too bold, what if she hated it? She definitely seemed to welcome it but he knew in his experience that the physical response could and usually was the opposite of the mental one. He looked at her face seeing her eyes searching his for something, for what he didn't know, maybe an explanation as to why he so boldly but gently kissed her.

"I'm sorry...I shouldn't have done...that..." He said apologizing as he stumbled over his words. He definitely hadn't intended on kissing her but maybe it was the situation, maybe it was the wine but he was certainly glad he did kiss her.

Marie took a breath and looked at him slightly amused by his stumbling mumbled apology. "Would you...mind...doing that again...?" She asked just going with the moment. It wasn't all that often that she had a man over for dinner, and even so it was even less often that she'd received such a kiss. The men she'd dated in New York had always pushed for things to go very fast and this was such a difference. The fact that he'd kissed her at all had shocked her but to feel him do so without expectation of a reaction, and his hands so gingerly on her waist only increasing in pressure before he broke the kiss.

The corner of his mouth twitched into a crooked half grin as he leaned back in, stepping towards her as he slipped his fingertips along her side wrapping his hand on her waist, the other hand tipping her chin up towards him creating the perfect angle as he kissed her once more. This kiss was different from the way they had kissed just moments before. Both of them meeting their mouths eagerly the kiss deepening as she pressed her fingers to the back of his neck and the other arm wrapped around his shoulders pulling him to sandwich her between the countertop and himself. She opened her mouth as he had sucked on her bottom lip moaning slightly into the kiss. He took the opportunity and searched out her tongue with his own massaging it gently as his hand that had been on her chin drifted back from her jaw to the place where her head and neck met holding her to him.

Before they could get any farther Nick's blackberry began to ring on the bar countertop on just the other side of the sink. They broke the kiss staring at each other for a split second before Marie grabbed his phone, instinctively looking at the caller id before handing it to him. "Livie..." She said handing it to him then realized what she had done. "Sorry...that was rude..." She said her eyes widening at herself for her own audacity to look at who was calling him. She figured that it was just instinct taking over since she too would look at her own the same way before answering. She watched him take the phone and walk away from her answering it with a smile on his face.

"Hey..." He said into the phone smiling at the sound of his daughter's voice. He suddenly regretted getting both of his daughters the Migo, a cell phone for children that only allowed the user to reach only the numbers that had been programmed into the phone, Nick's cell phone being one of them. Sometimes being the overprotective father that he was actually ended up biting him in the butt like it had just moments ago and as much as he loved that they missed him and wanted to talk to him, their timing was always impeccable. Under any normal circumstance the phone calls often became a blessing, finding salvation from horrendously bad dates and awkward situations. But right now...when he'd had singularly one of the most enjoyable evenings he'd had in a long time it seemed almost an annoyance, which bugged him to no end. He loved his daughters more than life itself and he figured now more than ever he needed to compartmentalize his life so he could effectively have a romantic relationship eventually and be the dutiful loving father he was to his daughters. He listened to his youngest daughter giving her kind words of missing her too, and to give his affections to Meredith and Ted as well before glancing over at Marie who he noticed was ignoring the conversation to the best of her ability.

Marie busied herself cleaning up the rest of the kitchen as she tried half heartedly not to listen to the conversation. She sighed, figuring he was talking to some girl he was dating. After all that was her luck wasn't it? She finds a guy she gets along with rather incredibly well and then the kissing...oh the kissing she thought to herself how unexpectedly wonderful that was. She watched him ring off the phone and smile at her. She blushed and wiped her hands having finished doing the dishes for the evening. 

He thought a moment and watched her noticing her little habit of as she walked she moved her hands to her hips almost not knowing what to do with them for the moment. "Can I see you tomorrow?" He asked completely taken aback by his forwardness. He couldn't believe that he'd some how become attracted to someone again but whatever this was, whatever magnetic pull she had over him for this brief moment, he didn't want it to completely end. "I'm meeting some friends tomorrow night at a Jazz club just on the outskirts of town. I'd like it if you could you know...make it..." He said remembering that his friends would be bringing dates and he certainly did not want another night with them to be spent alone.

Marie's eyebrows raised in pleasant surprise but hadn't he just gotten off the phone with the girl he was seeing? Confused she decided it was better to keep him at a distance for the time being and quickly tried to come up with some alternative. "I don't know I mean...I was thinking about going to the local museum tomorrow evening but if something changes yeah...sure I'd love to..."

His face fell in slight defeat as he sighed looking at his phone. Then an idea dawned on him, "Well if you change your mind and decide to drop by, I have the address..." He said flipping through his digital rolodex in his blackberry. He wrote it down on a small scrap of paper on the bar counter sliding it and the pen towards her once he was done.

She smiled and nodded, "If my plans fall through I guess I'll be seeing you there." She said firm in her resolution to stay as far away from him as possible. It wasn't that she didn't like him, quite the opposite in fact. But the idea that he quite possibly could be just like every other guy, a player, made him suddenly less appealing to her.

He smiled and bid her a goodnight before leaving the condo. She locked the door behind him and then silently went up the stairs into the bedroom and collapsed onto the bed laying in it's inviting cushiness. She sighed and closed her eyes her mind mentally and emotionally reliving the day with special emphasis on the few kisses they'd shared, the shared smiles and laughter throughout the evening. She rolled over and cradled a pillow to her slight depression rolling over her as she thought, what are the odds? I find a nice guy and he's just like the rest of them...men... She huffed and pressed her face into the pillow trying to will the thoughts of him away from her.

 
Chapter End Notes:
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