Chapter Forty-FourShit!
Did he regret asking me out? Was he just making fun of me? Did he get scared and decide to leave instead?
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I waited for Nick to appear from his study to get it. By the second ring and he still didn’t show up, I decided to get the door.
When I opened it, I was surprised to see Nick standing in the doorway, wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a leather jacket. His hair looked wet and the scent of his aftershave filled my nostrils. He looked like he had just stepped out of the covers of a magazine. He was absolutely hot. I could feel my throat drying up.
He looked at me from head to toe and then he grinned. “Wow,” he whispered. “You look great.”
I smiled at him. “You’re… you’re not bad yourself,” I said. “By the way, why did you ring the bell?”
He shrugged. “I asked you out on a date. Usually, the guy picks the girl up.”
I raised a brow at him. “Seriously? Even if the girl lived in the guy’s house?”
He smiled sheepishly. “Corny, I know. But I told you I want to do this right as much as I can.”
“You know what, I wouldn’t have a clue whether you’re doing it right or messing it up anyway.”
“You would know.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “Someday, you’d know if I did it right or fucked it up. You would know when it all feels right.” The expression on his face was serious, thoughtful, and gentle all at the same time.
My heart gave a small flutter and stopped beating while I got lost in the window of Nick’s soul. It was like his soul was completely open to me at that moment. I knew every word he just said was true; he was being sincere about all of this. He didn’t have to ask but I knew I could fully trust him. He wouldn’t hurt me.
Lost for words, all I could do was nod at him. His eyes drifted to my lips and my heart suddenly did a triple somersault. “Hit me,” he whispered.
I raised a brow at him. “What? Why?”
He took a deep breath, then he looked into my eyes and replied, “Because I desperately want to kiss you again.”
“I hit you once. You kissed me more than a dozen times upstairs. Technically, I ought to give you a lot of punches before we can call it even before you can even think about kissing me again.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and I saw mischief cross his face when he said, “Fine. Then you can cripple me later, I don’t care. This is totally worth it.” And before I could even think of saying anything, Nick took a step forward, put his arms around my waist and pulled me toward him. His eyes were dancing when his face descended toward mine. My lips slightly parted on instinct, welcoming him, welcoming his breathtaking kisses.
His arms tightened around my waist as my own started to go around his neck, pulling him toward me. I kissed him back; I was responding to his kisses like I never thought possible at all.
When the kiss ended, Nicholas stared back at me with a contented look on his face. He touched my flushed cheek with his fingertips, feeling the heat of the blood rushing under it. He smiled gently and said, “Yes, even if I could never walk again, I’d still do that. It was totally worth it.” He gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead before he pulled me to him into a tight embrace.
I sighed contentedly as I rested my head against his hard, muscled chest. I never thought I would respond like this to a kiss or to any guy. I never thought it would take Nicholas Atkins to rock my world and turn it upside down.
I am Mackenzie Belle Clarke. And now, I know not all guys are unworthy of winning my heart.
***
I didn’t know how long we stood there, locked in each other’s embrace. It felt thrilling and comforting at the same time. It felt all new to me, yet the feel of Nick’s arms around me was something I had gotten used to. It was something I had grown to like. And I have always thought I wasn’t an affectionate person.
Gently, we pulled away from each other. Nick looked at me, his eyes dancing. Then he kissed me one last time on the forehead. “If we don’t leave now, we might not be able to leave at all,” he said, chuckling.
He took my hand in his and pulled me to the car.
“Where are we going anyway?”
He looked back at me and smiled. “We’ll have dinner first and then…” he shrugged. “We’ll allow time to take us away.” He winked at me before he started the engine.
That was a very mysterious answer. Vague! What was I going to make of that? Hello! Didn’t he know that it’s technically my first date with a guy? Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine going out on a date with a man! Nobody prepared me for this. I have no idea what I’m doing.
My phone kept on vibrating. Terry kept calling. And Brett was pestering me, sending me text messages such as, “Hey! What was Terry screaming about?”
I chose to ignore both of them. I’ll speak to Terry later.
I looked out the window as soon as Nick reversed the car. He drove away from the direction of the city. Good. This would be my first date. I didn’t want to be self-conscious about being seen around the city with him. Not that I wouldn’t be proud to be seen with him. I would be. But not yet. I just recently found out that I’m having feelings for Nick. I did not want to ruin it by overthinking things. I also did not want to be overwhelmed with people staring and whispering behind my back. And I thought Nick felt the same way.
I looked at him. He was focused on the road, but I noticed that he kept looking at the rearview mirror every few seconds. I looked at the side mirror and saw that there was a car trailing a hundred meters behind us. When Nick made a turn on the road, I saw that his eyes were glued to the rearview mirror, checking if the car would follow. I checked the side mirror again. We were alone on the road. Finally, Nick seemed to relax.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
He looked at me for a second and then he forced a smile on his face. “Nothing.”
“You know I’m not stupid, right?” I asked, raising a brow.
He reached out to take my hand in his. “I know. I’m sorry. But I thought that car had been behind us since we left home. I was wondering…” he paused. Then he took a deep breath and asked, “Has your father ever attempted to get in touch with you?”
I thought for a while. I haven’t thought about my father in a long time. And no, he never attempted to contact me at all.
“No. I think he’s letting me go for good.”
He gave my hand a squeeze. “You believe so?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care. Is that a problem?”
He shook his head. “If he comes for you again, that’s the problem.”
“Nick, I don’t want you to be involved in my war with him,” I said. “I’ll move out after graduation. I promise. I’ll move away from the city and I won’t be your problem anymore.”
I felt him stiffen for a second. When I stared at him, I saw a frown on his face. He let go of my hand and gripped the steering wheel as he made another turn on the road.
“Then, that’s another problem,” he whispered.
“What?”
“You moving away.” I didn’t know if it was just my imagination but I thought I heard the sadness in his voice.
“Why?”
He looked at me for a second and then he replied, “You realize I do not intend for this to be our last date, right?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know that. I don’t even know how to get through this date without messing it up.”
Nick smiled and then to my surprise, he reached out for my hand again. He intertwined our fingers and then he brought my hand to his lips and gave it a kiss. He stared at me and said, “You will never mess this up, I assure you. It’s me who needs to make an impression so I can make you say yes to me again.”
I probably stared at him for a full minute without breathing. Did Nicholas Atkins really say that? I felt the need to scream at the top of my lungs. I was doing the happy dance in my head. Shit! What was wrong with me? I have never felt like this before. No one had ever said those words to me before and I was surprised by how good they made me feel.
Hearing him say those words made me feel as if he didn’t just ask me out because we made out or that it was a gentlemanly thing to do. It felt as if it had been in his mind for quite some time now, and then the opportune moment finally came.
Nick parked in front of a small, vintage-looking hotel. He went down the car and was quick to go around and open the door for me. He took my hand and guided me in getting down from the car. Then he led me toward the hotel lobby.
The interior of the hotel looked a couple of decades old. The ceiling was high, decorated with classic chandeliers. There was a grand staircase, accentuated with gold-painted trimmings. It was so much different from the hotels that my father owned. They were all modern and contemporary. This hotel, on the other hand, looked as if it had history to tell, and that was a part of its charm.
We walked toward a door that led to the back of the hotel. It opened up to a huge garden, landscaped with bushes, fire trees, roses, and other wildflowers. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t mind the walk down the gardens. It felt so serene in here as if we were in a world of our own.
We stopped in a small building on the corner of the garden. I looked up and read the sign: Rosean.
When we went inside, we were greeted by the waiters. There were a few patrons inside the quiet, cozy restaurant. Then our waiter led us out the backdoor where he said our table was ready.
As soon as we stepped out, my mouth almost dropped. There was a smaller garden surrounded by trees facing a huge lake. It looked like they were constructing wood flooring under the trees. I didn’t understand why at first until I saw the side where the flooring was complete.
There was a table and a chair set up under one of the trees. It was surrounded by lamps, and the tree above it was covered in LED lights from the base up. I could hear birds tweeting and singing all around us. As we approached the table, I found that it was set for two. A violinist was sitting in a corner and started playing as soon as we walked in. It wasn’t just amazing. It was… magical.
Nick held the chair out for me. The waiter asked if he could serve the starters and Nick nodded. Finally, he looked at me and asked how I found the place.
“Enchanting,” I said. “How come we’re the only ones out here in the back?”
“Because this spot was a new concept. They haven’t opened it up to the public yet,” he replied.
“Then why are we here?”
He shrugged. “Well, they hired me to design their renovation. I made a suggestion regarding this outdoor dining area. Some quiet, romantic date place, away from the rest of the world. They bought the idea. Now, I thought we’d try it out. We still have a lot of work to do here, but how do you like it so far?”
I smiled brightly at him. “I think it’s a brilliant idea. And I think this is going to be a hit when you finish it.”
Nick nodded. “I hope so. The owners of the hotel were initially thinking of shutting it down. They asked me to redesign the whole hotel. The initial plan didn’t include this restaurant. I told them all they needed to do was remake it into an entirely different concept. Not everybody is fond of contemporary ambiance. I thought of a concept that would bring a sense of novelty and nostalgia at the same time.”
“Is this the project you’ve been working on the past few days?”
He nodded. “I’m not even halfway done. I come here often to meet with the owners. Sometimes, I come here so I could find inspiration on what to do with the place.”
“Are these floors here before?”
Nick shook his head. “This is a prototype. When I pitched in the idea, the owner couldn’t get it. So I had to have one model created so he could grasp the concept. His wife bought it. He couldn’t say no.”
“So, you’re going to tear it down after?”
He nodded slightly. “They’re going to close the whole hotel for renovation after I finish my designs. They were supposed to remove this model because they wanted it to be a surprise for the reopening. I figured I should use it first.”
The waiter arrived with our food. We both had salmon, vegetables, and wine. The food was tasty and the ambiance was great. I knew that Nick would still find a way to improve it, but I must admit that his prototype was great enough on its own.
“I know you could cook better than their chef,” he said.
“But the food is good.”
Nick shrugged. “Since I’ve tasted your dishes, everything else seemed average.”
I laughed. “You sound like you’re accusing me of depriving the world of my cooking skills.”
“But you are,” he said. “Their chef is thinking of retiring. That’s another problem of the owner. They’re looking for a resident chef to man this place.”
“I’m sure they could find one.”
“It would be nice if they could have somebody like you in the kitchen. Didn’t you say you have no plans of being a shrink now?”
“Yeah. But I don’t have proper culinary training.”
“That’s easier to get, isn’t it? I mean, you aced your major and you didn’t even like it. Imagine what you could do if you took cooking classes.”
I smiled at him. “That’s an idea.”
“It’s a great idea. Why don’t you think about it?”
“We’ll see. I will be graduating next month. I’ll check out some culinary schools in other states. Start fresh.”
Nick fell silent for a moment. When I stared at him, I thought I saw a shadow cross his face. Then he smiled at me, but that smile didn’t seem to touch his eyes this time.
I looked at my food. I repeated what I said in my head. And when I heard myself again, I felt a heavy lump inside my chest.
Nick…
If I move out of the city, that would mean I would see less of Nick.
“You realize I do not intend for this to be our last date, right?” he asked.