Beyond Eighteen(50)

“Protect me…from what?” I blurted out as I tried to process everything she was saying.

“From your broken heart. Honey, we all want to protect you, even Nick.”

I wanted to tell her I didn’t need protecting, but that wasn’t true. If I didn’t need to be protected, I wouldn’t have called Nick or her to come “save” me when my heart was shattered.

“Nick told me that he really liked you from the moment you introduced yourself to him,” Joanie said lightly. The edge to her words gave me the notion that she was feeling something for Nick.

“J, you don’t have to convince me that Nick can be a nice guy…I know he is…was. I liked Nick…as a friend. I’m hurt…that’s all…confused,” I choked, wanting to change the topic of conversation from me to someone else. “When did you get back from the hospital last night?” I asked quickly. Joanie took the hint and moved on in our conversation.

“Around midnight. The doctors were concerned with him having a concussion but Nick insisted that he was fine. He kept telling them that he wanted to go home. The docs wouldn’t release him if he was going home alone, so I told them that I’d stay with him. I guess the fact that he needed to be woken up every three hours was pretty important.”

I knew she wasn’t telling me all this to make me feel bad or sorry for him. She was quite aware of the fact that I am not one to hold grudges, so she knew all she had to do was buy a little time and I’d forget the sting of betrayal soon enough. When I didn’t respond, she just kept talking.

“Well, come to find out, I didn’t have to worry about waking him up because he never went to sleep. We stayed up most of the night, talking. We talked about his family and how different he is from them. I told him about how I really don’t fit in with my family much either. God, we pretty much talked about everything,” her voice softened and excitement bubbled in her words. The type of excitement only a best friend would recognize as something more than friendship.

Even though, in my heart, I knew Nick was a good guy, I wanted to warn her about getting hurt. He’d been pretty deceitful with me.

“J—” I started.

“And he told me about kissing you and how Cindy found you guys,” she continued, not hearing me say her name. “He knew he let down several people by his actions. He wasn’t there for Cal…he kept you from being with Max…he realizes what he did was totally fucked up. Wilson, he wants to apologize.”

“Well, it’s probably best if we wait on that. I think I need a little time with that one.”

“You’re right, I totally understand. That’s enough about Nick anyway. Tell me what’s going on with Max. Did you guys get a chance to talk?” I could hear it in her voice. She had fallen for him. Damn it.

Joanie was my best friend, my sister, my family. What in the hell was I going to tell Max? What was I going to do? She deserved happiness. I wanted her to be happy, but did it have to be with Nick?

I started to try and tell her about my situation with Candi and my grandparents’ estate when Max came out of the bathroom. He had an earthy brown towel wrapped tight around his waist, clinging flawlessly to his lower body. The muscles in his torso flexed and relaxed as he walked past me and opened his dresser drawer. I watched random drops of water fall from the tips of his sharp black hair then track down his shoulders and across his back. Seductively, he started to loosen the tuck of his towel and his eyes slowly grazed up my body as he bit his bottom lip. Oh my God, what is he trying to do to me? I lost my words. It was a measurable minute before I picked my jaw back up off the floor and was able to talk.

“Wilson? Heeelllooo? Are you there? I swear this cell coverage sucks!”

“Hold on a minute,” I sighed as I dropped the phone away from my mouth. “You can’t do that right here, right now; I’m trying to talk to Joanie.”

“Do what?” he asked as he let go of the towel from around his waist and dropped it at his feet. “I’m just getting dressed,” he said, turning his back to me. I watched as every single muscle from his calves to his shoulders flexed while he reached for his boxers. Could there be anything more sensual than watching my boyfriend pull on his clingy Calvin Klein’s, one leg at a time? I think not.

I did my best to look away as he finished getting dressed, so I could focus on my conversation with Joanie. Even though I could tell Max was getting dressed slower than usual, I pushed the phone to my ear and started telling her about my situation back home.

“So, J, Max and I have to go back to California tomorrow morning.”