Oreos for Breakfast: Nick BSB Fiction

Oreos for Breakfast - Chapter 21

By
The Paperbag Princess & The Pumpkin Coach

Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11

"Very nice, sir." I looked up from staring at the necklaces under the glass and smiled at the saleswoman. She didn't even flinch at my t-shirt and jeans. I couldn't look like I had much money. I always hated coming into stores like this, but Mom and my sisters and just about every woman I'd ever known loved them. I recognized a bunch of the jewelry. Between Pops and I, we'd spent a lot here over the years.

I smiled and pointed at the necklace I'd been looking at for the last ten minutes or so. I kept coming back to it. Would Rachel like it?

The nice lady took it out of the case and held it out for me, "Very nice choice. It's our Paloma Picasso line. Double loving heart pendant. White gold, of course, and the diamonds are very clear, as you can see. For a special friend?"

I just nodded. "Girlfriend." I almost tagged on 'ex' but stopped myself. No, I needed to remain positive. I touched my chest to feel the new tattoo there. Hearts said love, right? I needed to prove to her that I loved her, and between the tattoo and this, maybe she'd at least hear me out?

And what the fuck was I gonna say? I needed to stop thinking so much and just pick a present.

"Well, I'm sure she'll love it. We have a matching brooch broach in sterling silver and, of course, another version of this necklace in sterling without the diamonds…"

As if. Rachel was getting the diamonds! Like I wanted her to find out I'd skimped on her present! I'd fucked up her birthday; I wasn't getting this wrong, too.

"Diamonds are good. I'm just not sure…"

"Perhaps these?" She went down to the next case and pulled out a pair of earrings that just screamed mom. Definitely not. There must have been a dozen or more diamonds dangling from them. No. Rachel wasn't that… what? She didn't try that hard. Had to be something she could wear with jeans. My Rachel wasn't a jewelry girl.

Sure, she had a couple of things she always wore - her dad's wedding band on a chain around her neck, a watch and sometimes earrings, if she remembered. She had that hoop she always wore in her second earring hole, but she'd given that to me. Instinctively I reached up and touched it. Still in my ear. I don't think I'd ever taken it out. Was that bad? She wore my earrings now- at least she used to. I closed my eyes, and for a moment I could see her in front of me, dressed in nothing but the earrings and necklace I'd given her for being on TRL as we made love on her deck at the Point house.

That night I'd told her I'd never hurt her. Never look at another girl. That she'd be enough. Phone sex and secret rendezvous… damn, I was such a punk ass idiot!

I couldn't think about that. And I definitely couldn't think about making love to her again. That was getting way too far ahead of myself. I'd be happy if she just talked to me again. Just to see her smile and know it was for me…

I wrinkled my nose, and the sales woman smiled, placing them back in the case. "She likes simple jewelry… Contemporary?"

Twenty minutes later, I think she'd shown me every version of a heart they had. The bangle bracelet that looked like a knot in the shape of the heart was the one that I thought she'd like the most, but that wasn't even $200. I had to spend more than that. Oh hell, I'd just get both.

Thank fucking god we were almost done. I was tired of fighting Shane off. I'd taken every opportunity to give him the cold shoulder, but he still kept coming over to me. Dude. I kicked him out of my bed last night. Shouldn't he have taken that as a hint?

I shut the door to my trailer and fell onto the couch. I had a few minutes while they filmed stuff with Jeremy, and I knew if I was on set, Shane would be bugging me. We had maybe an hour left of close-ups with the boys, and then they were letting the crowd in for the club shots and I could take this stupid skirt off that they'd made me wear. I was missing the jeans that took us forever to pick out this morning! Shane had better leave when the 'date' stuff was done. But after that, we still had stuff with the crowd, performance shots that they promised would only take a hour or so.

It was a three-minute pop song, why did it take two days to film the video?

I glanced at the clock, trying to figure out when we might be finished. It was 1 in the afternoon now, an hour before the crowd, maybe four hours with them… could we be done by six?

Yeah, and monkeys might fly out my butt.

Tomorrow was our last show, and then I got to go home for a whole week before we needed to be in London. I couldn't wait.

My phone rang, and I lunged for it, checking the display. It might be Nick. I didn't have any voicemail from him today… had he given up?

"Mom!" I said happily, recognizing the number.

"No, its Katie!" a young voice said, and I sagged back onto the couch. Had Mom told them?

"Hey, sweetie!" I responded, hoping I sounded happy and cheerful.

"Grandma told us," she informed me. Hey, at least she cut to the chase. "Because, um, when we got home, Col and I had presents from Nick."

"You did?" What, was he trying to buy their affection now?

"Yeah, these really cool glittery faeries! He wrote a note, and said you got them in Canada."

Oh. Right. We did get those for all the girls. Sweet of him to send them, I guess…

"So we wanted to thank him, and Grandma made us sit down and told us that it didn't work between you and Nick, but he obviously still liked us, and we could write him a thank you note, but we're not sure how to mail stuff to him, and Grandma has his cell phone number, but she doesn't want to let us call unless you think it's okay. Is it okay?"

Her rush of words made me smile. "Of course, baby. He reads his email a couple of times a week, too. Got a pen? I'll give you his address, if you promise not to share it with all your friends. Because it's always nice to have a written thank you, too." I sucked with thank you notes, but it was a habit Vanessa had instilled in her girls from an early age. I had dozens of adorable thank you notes from the girls, and I loved getting them. In email, you didn't get cute little girl scribbles and stickers and glitter, but it was still sweet. Katie got a pen, and I told her Nick's email.

"So, do you like the faerie? Actually, it's called a deva Did you get the little explanation thingie in the box?"

"Yeah," she told me excitedly, reading the insert that came with each box, and we talked for a minute about how cool they were. I managed not to tell her that I had one, too. That would require explanations, and I wasn't sure I had any. It was so sweet and thoughtful, that he'd had one specially made for me… what had happened that two days later he was sleeping with someone else? He'd gone through all this trouble to get me a cool present and then couldn't wait a day or two to see me?

"Is that stupid Aunt Rachel?" I heard in the background as Katie chattered on.

"Is that Colleen?" I asked, and Katie stopped talking to sigh.

"Yeah. She's being a stupid baby."

"Am not! Aunt Rachel shouldn't have broken up with him! Nick was cool!"

And my beloved Colleen was a brat.

"Shut up!" Katie whined back, and I interrupted her before she could go on.

"Oh, stop, both of you. Colleen's allowed to be mad at me. Let her talk to Nick when Grandma calls."

"Why? He's a big jerk for letting you go," Katie defended, and I had to smile at the phone.

"Damn straight, baby," I said before I could censor myself. "But it's okay. You should call Nick and thank him for the sweet gift. Let him know the Connor girls are always polite and kind, even when their hearts are broken." Katie giggled at me, making me smile again.

"Okay, Aunt Rachel. I love you. Is the video really cool?"

"Totally cool, sweetie. I'll tell you all about it later; they're going to want me back in a minute. Love you."

I hung up with the phone and leaned back on the couch, sighing. Thank god I hadn't had to tell them myself. I'd give Colleen a day to cool off. She'd always had a temper, that one. I had no idea where she got it. It definitely wasn't a Connor trait. I, especially, was always calm and collected.

As if.

The saleswoman was wrapping up Rachel's presents in cute little blue Tiffany's boxes when my phone rang, making entirely too much noise in this quiet store. I jumped, reaching for my phone.

"Yeah?" I answered quickly. Please don't be Frank or one of the fellas… please…

"Why did you let her break up with you?" a little voice whined in my ear, and I blinked at the phone for a second, then looked at the number on caller ID.

I knew that number… was it Rachel's mom? "Is this Katie or Colleen?"

"Colleen!" she pouted. "Why did you let her break up with you?"

"Well, I… I mean…" Guess the girls just found out, huh? And Colleen was calling to yell at me about it? What the fuck?

Hey, it might be good to have the nieces on my side. I handed the woman my AmEx card, and she pointed to an overstuffed chair by the wall. I plopped down in it as Colleen went on about how I'd said I'd loved her. You didn't let people you love just leave you. Damn, she was smart for 9. Finally, I interrupted her, "I'm trying to fix that, Col. What present should I buy her?"

"Get her a glittery fairy, like you got us! They are so cool, Nick! They were here when we got home from school, then Grandma told us stupid Aunt Rachel broke up with you. But we still had to thank you, and Aunt Rachel said it was okay, so Grandma gave us your number. It's okay that I called, right?"

Rachel said it was okay? The girls called to tell her about the presents, and Rachel said it was okay to call me? She could have been mean and told the girls not to speak to me. That was hopeful, right?

"Of course it's okay, sweetheart! I'm glad you like the faeries." Frank had handed them to me a couple of days ago. He was going to mail them for me, but he didn't know which ones went to which girl, so I did it myself. I might have gotten them mixed up, but they were still cool, so I didn't figure it mattered much.

"Aunt Rachel would like that. She likes sparkly things!"

"I already got her one, actually."

"Did she like it?"

"Um… I don't know. She didn't call to say so."

Maybe she didn't get it? No, that'd been her birthday, and the hotel had called to tell me they'd gotten them to her late. So unless there'd been a few birthday presents at the Peninsula last Monday and they got mixed up, Rachel had the guitar playing fairy I'd special ordered. Just so she'd have it for her birthday. The birthday I'd fucked up by cheating on her…

"That wasn't very polite," Colleen huffed, and I smiled at the phone. "Oohhh… was it gold?"

"Uh…" Why would it be gold? Rachel hated gold. I might not know much, but I knew that much. Everything she wore was silver. "I don't think so. Aren't they all silver?"

"Because that would be a cool gold gift. We were wondering what you'd get her for going gold."

"What?" I whispered.

"Aunt Rachel's CD went gold!" Colleen informed me happily. "Isn't that cool? Dad says it's a very big deal."

They went gold? How did I not know this?

When did Rachel find out? Must have been after we broke up, because two weeks ago, she would have called me immediately, giddy and adorable, and I could have been one of the first people to hear how excited she was.

I shut my eyes, willing back tears. I could not cry here in the middle of Tiffany's. But I'd missed it. I'd missed a huge thing in her career, and I'd loved celebrating those milestones with her. Even if I did convince her to take me back today, I still would never see her first reaction to going gold.

Fuck. I had to…

"Yeah, Col, that is totally cool. I'm really proud of her, aren't you?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "She said when she gets the big plaque thingie, she's going to give it to Grandma to hang in the living room next to all our other trophies and stuff."

Of course. In Rachel's family, a gold record was as cool as Colleen's softball trophy and the medals the wines had won over the years. I remembered that wall at the vineyard house, a cabinet with various awards and other things hanging around it. They'd have to rearrange for a gold record.

I wanted to go back there. I wanted to be with Rachel, and I wanted to be part of her family. They were so fucking normal and happy.

"That is cool. I'd love to see that. So give me some ideas on how to get Aunt Rachel to forgive me, okay?"

"Okay," Colleen agreed, obviously pleased with this responsibility. "Well, she likes things that are sparkly. And pink. Kittens are always good."

Kittens… yeah, Rachel liked kittens. I could get her a kitten, and we could train the kitten to like being on the bus, and they'd have a traveling cat. She'd love that…

Alright, I was taking advice from a nine year old here. That was pretty bad.

But… pink and sparkly and kittens. Rachel liked Hello Kitty stuff. And Howie'd said there was a Power Puff girl named 'Buttercup', right? Was that better than the jewelry I'd been looking at?

"How about Hello Kitty stuff, Col?"

"Cool! She likes that! She's got stickers on her guitar."

"See, you're so smart. Tell your sister I say hi, I have to go shop."

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