“You should have seen it Taylor,” I said, “his eyes grew huge and he was just following me with his mouth open. It was hilarious.”
“I’m sure it was,” he said, looking up from his book. When we’d gotten back from the mall, I found Taylor reading a book. When he saw me there he quickly hid it, but it was too late. So after much laughter on my part, he was back to reading it.
“So what’d you do while I was gone?” I asked, climbing onto the bed next to him. “Don’t tell me you were reading all this time or I’ll die laughing.”
“No, I just started when you got back. I had Lauryn over. We had a rather lengthy conversation.”
“Oh really? About what?”
“Nothing specific. She was all alone so I invited her over. I got to know her a little. She’s coming over again later while you and Zac are at the symphony.”
“Oh,” I said. “I think someone’s getting the hook-up.” Taylor looked at me, shaking his head. “What?”
“Don’t ever say that again.”
“Okay, I won’t. I’ll go get ready now.” I got up and headed to the bathroom.
“Am I going to get to see you in your dress?” he asked, gesturing to my hanging dress on the wall. “I want to see how good you look to make Zac react like that.”
“I look sexy.”
“And modest too.”
“I am a sexy bitch.”
“You’ve got the bitch part right.”
“If you weren’t all the way over there I’d beat your ass right now.” He stuck out his tongue at me. “Go back to your book.” I walked into the bathroom, taking a quick shower. There I took my time putting on my makeup, then I dried my hair and set it. When my face and my hair looked perfect (I wasn’t accepting anything less than that tonight), I opened the door again and walked out.
“Go in that. It’ll surprise the hell out of him,” Taylor said.
“Oh, sure. I’ll go to the symphony in a towel.” I saw Darling sitting at the table. “Hey, why are you here?”
“Everyone wants to see you all dolled up. We all heard you look beautiful in your dress. Not all of us could come in even thought we all wanted to. I insisted it should be me.”
“Alright. Taylor, leave for a second while Darling helps me into my dress.”
“I can’t watch?” he asked.
“If you’ll be quiet and don’t gawk I might let you, but I’m naked under here.” He grinned. “You can’t stay, just don’t look until I have my dress on.”
“What’s the point then? I might as well just leave.”
“Then leave.”
“How come Darling gets to see you naked and I don’t?” he asked.
“Because for one thing, I know Darling won’t look, and she doesn’t care anyway.”
“Fine. I won’t look.” He covered his eyes with his hands.
“I’m watching you,” Darling said. I grabbed my dress first and quickly changed into it. Darling zipped it up and made sure it was laying right before looking over it.
“Oh my God you look so beautiful, Nic.”
“Can I look yet?” Taylor asked.
“Yeah.” I turned to him as he looked at me. He froze, the only thing moving were his eyes as he looked over me.
“Holy shit.”
“I know I’m beautiful,” I said, brushing a piece of hair from my face. “You can begin to grovel at my feet at any moment now.” Taylor got up and stood in front of me. I looked up at him.
“You look absolutely beautiful,” he said. He kissed me, surprising me. There was no one there but Darling—and she knew it was a scam. But hey, there wasn’t anything that could affect me right now.
“Thank you.”
“Oh I forgot,” Taylor said. He grabbed a box off the table. “When you were drying your hair Zac stopped by with this.” I looked at the jewelry box.
“I told him not to buy me jewelry.” I opened the box to find a matching necklace and earring set. The earrings were blue just like the stones on my shoes. The necklace was diamonds, making me wonder how much he actually spent on me. “Oh my God,” I said. They were so beautiful; they must have cost a fortune.
“What’d he get you?” Darling asked. I showed her. “What the hell? Now are you two going on your anniversary or are you going to the symphony as friends?”
“I hope these aren’t real.” I took off my necklace and put the one Zac got me on. I looked at myself in the mirror. It lay perfectly on my chest in just the right place. I put on my earrings, which just accented my whole look even more.
“If this didn’t look so beautiful I would so hurt him!” I said. The door opened behind me and Zac walked in. Our eyes locked through the mirror. He stopped, his hand still on the doorknob.
Taylor looked over and I saw Zac quickly compose himself. “Well, are you ready?” he asked. I turned around and caught his eyes again.
“Almost. Let me just put my shoes on.”
“Here, I’ll do it,” Taylor said. I shrugged, smiling. I held onto Darling for balance as Taylor put on my two-inch stiletto heels. I'm not used to heels, but I've worn shoes like these before. It was good on my part, because otherwise I'd be spending tonight on the floor. Taylor stood up. “Have fun.” He kissed me.
“I’ll try.”
“Try not to stay out too late. I want some time with you before I go to sleep.”
“Alright.” I kissed him again and left with Zac. “You know, I told you not to buy me any jewelry, Zac.”
“You knew I was going to do it anyway.” I sighed and looked at him.
“How much did it cost?”
“Why?”
“Zac, you spent three hundred dollars on me already. God knows how much money this cost. I want to know so I can find out how much I need to kick your ass.”
“Why are you even questioning it?”
“Zac we’re not even dating—”
“Oh you look so beautiful!” Lauryn’s familiar squeal filled the hallway. She ran over and grabbed my elbows, so she wouldn’t mess anything up. I shifted my purse in my hands. “Oh you’ve got a new dress and perfect shoes that even match your jewelry! Zac, you didn’t buy her jewelry too, did you?”
“No,” he said. I glanced over at him, long enough to question but not long enough to arouse suspicion.
“Then where’d you get it?” she asked. “Surely you didn’t have anything this beautiful from your scanty collection.”
“We’re leaving,” I said, and walked past her.
“What? I just said..”
“I said we’re leaving,” I told Zac, looking past Lauryn.
“That was really uncalled for, Lauryn,” Zac said and walked past her to me. He kept walking. I gave Lauryn a look and followed Zac. “I’m really sorry she said that.”
“Yeah, whatever. You know how to pick them. Amber, Lauryn, me...damn Zac.”
“Let’s try not to think about that tonight, shall we? And don’t go putting yourself down like that. I wouldn’t put you in the same league as them.”
“Thank you.”
We walked in another uncomfortable silence to the elevator. “Were you saying something before she came along?”
“It wasn’t really important.”
“You’re lying.”
“I know.”
“Stop.”
“We’re not dating. A week ago we were still not on speaking terms. We’re standing around in uncomfortable silence half the time. We’re barely friends. I was surprised beyond surprised when you invited me to come with you. Then you go and buy me a dress and shoes and a purse and now you’ve given me a necklace and earrings that are so beautiful, Zac. I just can barely believe it.”
"I’m only doing it because..." he stopped.
“Because why?” I asked.
“Just because.” He waved it off and pressed the button for the elevator.
“You’re lying.”
“No I’m not.”
“There you go again.”
“I can’t say anything, Nic. I’m with Lauryn and you’re with Taylor. It’ll jeopardize everything.” Oh yeah, he wants me. “Just don’t think about it. You look beautiful tonight.”
“Thank you. You dress up rather nice yourself, Zachary Hanson.” He smiled. “And trust me, you couldn’t have given me a better compliment than when you first saw me in this dress.”
“What’d I say?”
“That’s just it. You didn’t say anything. It was the look of shock and utter surprise and the way you couldn’t take your eyes off me. That’s enough to make a girl feel like a million dollars.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’ve never been looked at like that before. You don’t know how good it felt. Especially coming from you.”
I sat in our box seat of the symphony, grasping Zac’s hand in mine. Everyone else I knew would have hated this; I do admit there wasn’t much to explain. The music fills your ears in a way you can’t explain unless you’re truly a music-lover, especially of this kind. Both Zac and I were completely into this kind of artsy stuff.
It was the way every note blended together from a hundred different musicians so perfectly that made my heart race. Zac was just as intrigued as I was. We both were so lost in the music, we seemed to forget there was a life outside of this. We were transported back in time a year to when we dated. When I’d laced my fingers with his, he responded by squeezing my hand back. Neither of us thought anything of it.
As the audience lightly applauded, I took the opportunity to whisper to Zac. “This is so beautiful. Thank you so much for taking me.”
“I knew you’d like it.”
“Like it? I love it. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.”
“I have.” He was talking about me. I blushed and turned back to the symphony. I felt him raise my hand and kiss it. I turned back to him. He leaned in to kiss my lips, but as I felt his breath against my cheek, we both remembered that we shouldn’t be doing this.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even tried...” he said.
“I shouldn’t have either.” Too embarrassed to think, I let go of his hand and we scooted away from each other. “I mean, I love Taylor.”
“And I love Lauryn.”
“And this isn’t right.” He shook his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
“It’s silly, us ever getting back together,” he said. The words stung. “While we’re seeing other people, I mean.”
“Yeah, silly.”
“But if we weren’t…”
“Then it’d be alright.”
“But not now.”
“Oh, no.”
What I really wanted to do was just kiss him right then and there—get it over with. But it wasn’t going to be that easy. We weren’t going to do much of anything while Taylor and Lauryn were still a threat. We both got lost in the music very quickly after that. As my mind found the music again, I felt Zac’s hand back in mine.
As the symphony ended, Zac still didn’t let go of my hand. We walked out of the theatre and were nearly to the car when he realized what he was doing.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s alright,” I told him. “I didn’t do much to stop it. I didn’t really want to.” He opened my door and I got in the car. I watched him go around to his side of the car.
“Do you want to go back to the hotel or do you want to go somewhere else? You hungry? We could go out to eat.”
“No, I’m not hungry,” I said. I looked at the clock. It wasn’t even late yet. “But let’s go somewhere, it’s too early to go back to the hotel.”
“Alright,” he said. “Now I know I’m the creative one here, so I’m going to have to come up with somewhere to go. If I ask you, all you’ll say is ‘I don’t know.’ ”
“You know me too well.” He thought about it.
“I got it.” He started the car and pulled out onto the road. I looked at him, waiting for an explanation. “I’m not saying anything. You just wait.”
“Oh, alright. You’re not going to make a fool out of yourself, are you?”
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.” I watched as he took off his tie and threw it to the back. He unbuttoned his two top buttons then put his hand back on the wheel. He was looking good that night. His suit was somewhat traditional, his shirt was white and he had on a black tie (now resting comfortably on top of the back seat.)
I couldn’t help but wonder where we were going. Zac never ceased to amaze me. He always had some thought, some idea in his mind that was perfect for the mood I was in.
He stopped by a dimly lit grassy field, surrounded by trees. It was abandoned at that point, I was sure people came there during the day. But now it was virtually deserted.
“What are we going to do here?” I asked. Already I knew I was going to like it.
“Well, there’s not much. There’s a tire swing over there but I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t want to get your dress dirty.” I looked down at my dress.
“No, not really. It’s so beautiful.”
“Well, if you use that lovely imagination of yours, we just might find something to do,” he said, lightly tapping my forehead. “I know you can do it.”
“Let’s watch the stars,” I said, and laid down on the grass. He rolled his eyes and laid his head down next to me, his body facing the opposite way. “Imagination is still involved here.”
“How?”
“Well there are constellations, you know. You can make up your own.” I pointed to a cluster of stars. “Like that one. That’s a crab.”
“No, it’s a dog.”
“A dog? Where the hell did you pick out a dog? It’s a crab.”
“No, you see over there.” I followed his finger. “That’s the tail and it goes into the body, it’s got long ears and that one really shiny star is his nose.”
“You’re fucked up.”
“I’m serious! I don’t get where you’re seeing a crab.”
“It’s because you’re backwards. If you were smart and turned this way, then you’d see things my way. The right way.” He turned around so he was lying next to me. I pointed again. “See? It’s a crab.”
“It still looks like a dog, it’s just an upside down dog.”
“Come here,” I said. He moved his head close to mine. I could lightly feel his skin next to mine. It made me shiver. “It’s right there. Start out on the left there. That’s the claw, then the body and the other claw.”
“Oh...”
“Yeah, who’s smart now?” I asked. He sat up. “What?”
“I don’t think I got to tell you how much I missed you.”
“You missed me?” I asked, genuinely surprised. “Seriously?” Okay, that sounded grossly pathetic but I was surprised.
“Well, yeah. You left and I couldn’t even say goodbye. Darling said you were going and I ran outside as fast as I could but it was too late. You were already gone. I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again.”
“I had no reason to stay.”
“You could have at least said goodbye! I was just mad at you and I get like that. You know I get like that. I was going to just get over it but I couldn’t because you were gone already.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do you want to go back to the hotel?”
“In a little while. I like it here.”
“I knew you would.”