Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 25

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 25
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

"Nick?" I called, stepping out of the bathroom. I didn't hear him… maybe he went out on the balcony to talk to Aaron? We were heading into the shower, then his phone rang and it was Aaron.

There was a time when a phone call from Aaron wouldn't have stopped Nick from showering with me. But we had weeks together now. We'd promised to sleep together every night, but we hadn't pledged the showering thing. I sorta liked having the shower to myself. I got to shave my legs, and use the deep conditioner on my hair without him getting in the way.

I poked my head out on the balcony, but didn't find him. Turning around, I found clothes spread out on the badly made bed and a note. "See you on the roof." The roof? Was there a secret pool up there or something? He'd left me a bikini and a sarong thingie with palm trees all over it. Where did this come from?

Stepping into the suit, I remembered. This was one of the suits I'd tried on for my Halloween costume. I'd rejected it because it was too sporty, not hula girl enough, and it cost a fortune. When the hell did Nick go back and buy it?

And the sarong was just cool. Guess he found that at the same time? I tied it in a very bad knot around my waist and grabbed my beach bag before leaving. I had a tacky novel and sunscreen and all those things you need at the beach. Lying on the beach, in October. Florida ruled!

Or the rooftop pool, also good.

No, the rooftop spa was even better! I stepped off the elevator and was greeted by a very nice receptionist who handed me a mimosa. She informed me that Mr. Carter had arranged for a massage and facial and pedicure, if that was to my liking?

That was absolutely to my liking! He was so amazing. I had to come up with some good surprises for him.

Outside of the slinky Victoria's Secret lingerie I'd worn for him last night, that was. Dinner or presents or something.

The receptionist led me back to the changing area, where she gave me a robe and told me to enjoy my drink before my facial in ten minutes. I shrugged out of my suit and into the robe. Maybe we were going to the pool later. Maybe Nick just wanted me to wear a swimsuit all day.

For this spa day, I'd wear whatever he wanted. Two hours later, I walked into the salon to find him already in one of the pedicure chairs, flipping through a magazine. "Bunny!" I cooed, and he looked up with a grin.

"Having a nice day, buttercup?"

"Sweetie, this is amazing. Thank you so much. Why are you here?"

He picked his feet up out of the water, wiggling his toes at me. "You said I needed a pedicure."

Giggling, I kissed him, before my technician told me to sit down. I did, leaning over to take his hand. "Let me guess. Did you get the works, too?"

He shrugged. "I had to do something while you were getting your alone time."

"Is that what this was?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I remembered you saying you needed alone time after a tour. I know it was only a couple of hours, but…"

He remembered that? I barely remembered that. He was so right, though. I felt so much more relaxed and centered now, after just a couple of hours. "You are too cool, Nick. Honestly. It is so sweet of you to remember that."

He grinned, looking very proud of himself. "After this, we've got lunch in a cabana on the beach."

"Sweet! Then do I get to work on my tan?"

"Like the suit?" he asked with a leer, and I nodded.

"I already got a suit the other day. You didn't have to get me another one." I glanced around, but we were alone in this little alcove. I could see two of the technicians gathering stuff together while our feet soaked. God, I loved these little whirlpool things. "Really, bunny, this has been amazing, but you don't have to do all this to impress me. We could have just laid on the beach today. Hell, we didn't have to stay in the penthouse suite at the Delano."

I considered her for a second. Did she not like this surprise? She saw the look on my face and spoke before I could say anything.

"It's not that I don't like it. It's amazing. But if you're doing all this because you think I'm still mad at you or something, don't. I just want to be with you, bunny. I don't need the superstar treatment. You know that, right?"

I did. Sometimes I forgot, like yesterday morning when I was cleaning up from the party and all I could think about was that she and Anna were out of the house, talking about what an asshole I was. That was when I picked up the phone and called the Delano and asked for the penthouse. But this morning, when she was in the shower… I just thought she'd like a massage. Then I thought I could use one, too, after all that driving yesterday.

I kissed her hand, as our nail girls came back. What were they called? There were hairdressers, or hair stylists, and massage therapists… but what were the nail girls called?

Sitting down on their little stools, they introduced themselves to us. I got Sydney and Rachel got Sophie. Sophie handed Rachel a basket of nail polishes and had her pick out a color, but I held up a hand. "I am not getting toenail polish."

All the girls giggled, and Rachel held out a purple to me. "Aw, I think this would be cute on your tootsies, baby."

"Don't even," I warned Sydney. "There are many things I'll do for her, but not this."

"Fine," Rachel pouted. "Obviously, you don't love me."

I gave her a look. "I'm getting a pedicure, Rache. Don't push it."

She smiled at me, and I felt my heart melt a little bit. That's exactly why I hung up with Aaron as soon as I heard the shower start this morning. I wanted Rachel to give me that sweet little smile of hers that told me she loved all the surprises I ever gave her.

Then she looked down at Sydney. "I wish you luck, Sydney. His feet might be irreparable."

"Hey!" I whined. My feet were not that bad!

"I've seen worse," Sydney assured her.

"Yours aren't great, Rachel," Sophie teased, and I cracked up when Rachel pouted.

"It's been a while," she whined. "I've been on the road for months. I don't have time for pedicures!"

Sydney assured her she was only joking, and then Rachel asked me to choose a nail polish for her. I just raised an eyebrow at her, and she smiled.

"What color do you like? You've been giving me all these great presents the last couple of days. I can at least have my toes a color you like."

"Rache… really, baby, I don't care what color your toes are."

"You don't?"

"Boys don't care how good your toes look, Rachel," Sydney interjected. "I've been doing this for years, and I've never found a guy who cared what a girl's toes look like."

"Well…" Sophie said. "That's not entirely true."

They looked at each other and giggled, and Rachel and I exchanged a mystified look. "What?" Rachel demanded.

"We have a couple of strange clients who like to watch," Sophie said meaningfully, and Rachel leaned forward to look at her.

"Really?"

"I don't know what it does for them. I just know he's always standing too close, making sure I polish his girl's toes just right."

Rachel shuddered and looked at me. "Okay, you don't need to care about my toes that much."

"I don't spend a lot of time looking at them, baby. You have better things to look at," I flirted, making her giggle.

"Is that why you bought me that new suit?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, you might think these presents are all about you, but it's really just that I want to see you in that suit."

She considered me for a second. "Did you just want a massage this morning?"

"I drove for four hours yesterday!"

"Three!" she countered. "I drove for an hour."

"And you totally stressed me out, so my shoulders were all tense," I teased, rewarded with a whack.

"Shut up. Fine, I'll pick my own polish. Anything you don't like?"

"That purple you picked for me is really ugly."

"See? You have an opinion! I'll get you to care yet."

"I'm not James, baby. Haven't we had this discussion already? I don't talk about relationships, and I don't care if your toes are pink or silver."

"Does that mean you don't like red?"

I had to laugh at her determination to get an answer out of me. "You have a pink in one hand and silver in the other, Rache. I think you don't like red."

"Then you do like red?"

Sophie reached up and took the silver out of Rachel's hand. "Silver."

That made both of us laugh, and Rachel put the basket of polishes on the floor. "Thank you, Sophie. I am feeling indecisive today." She took my hand again. "So you get to decide what we should do tonight."

"It's going to rain," Sydney warned, and Rachel shook her head.

"No, it's not. Nick says it never rains in Florida!"

"Sometimes it rains, baby." Was it going to rain today? I looked out the window. Looked sunny to me. Sydney told us thunderstorms were expected later, and I shrugged.

"Can we just stay in?"

Rachel smiled, meeting my eyes, and I knew we were having the same thought. Usually when we were together, we locked ourselves in a room for as long as we could and had as much sex as possible. We hadn't gotten a chance to do that yet. I'd start with her new pretty, painted toes…

"Absolutely, bunny." She interrupted my fantasy and I smiled over at her, "We can use that big tub and then maybe order some overpriced movies."

She never let me get porn!

"I think I saw they're showing The Matrix. I love Keanu Reeves."

Oh. She meant real movies. That was good, too. "You don't want me to decide, then. I'll get all the horror films that you hate."

"Can we compromise on action movies where things blow up?"

I leaned over to kiss her. "As long as it's not 'When Harry Met Sally,' whatever."

Why did I say that in a room of three women?

This was so nice. The cabana gave us some shade, but the breeze still came in, and I settled back into my comfy chair, looking out at the ocean. I had a margarita, and I'd just ordered some amazing sounding veggie wrap thingie for lunch. My toes were a lovely shade of silver, everything was relaxed from my massage, and it would just be perfect if my boyfriend wasn't on the phone.

He was just checking his messages, but still. He never did that when we were together!

I should check my messages when we got back to the room. Or did I throw my phone in my bag? My bag was next to my chair, and I leaned over, looking inside. Yep, there was my phone. I considered pulling it out, and then leaned back in my chair again. Screw it. I talked to Mom yesterday and the world knew I was on vacation. I might call James later, when we were sitting in the sun, just to rub it in. Was it cold at home?

I started to poke Nick with my pretty new toes, but he pulled off his sunglasses, rubbing his eyes as he listened to a message. He didn't look at me, but I could tell something wasn't right. All morning - hell, since we got to Miami - he'd been smiling. Okay, last night, he got agitated talking about Backstreet, but even then… he was relaxed enough to talk about it, finally.

Taking a deep breath, he flipped his phone shut and put it down on the table, just staring at it for a second before he looked up at me with a smile. "Aaron's way too bored," he said, leaning back in his chair.

"Is everything okay?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. He's just sick of Marathon."

"Because this is the first time since I've known you, really, that you carried your cell phone around with you everywhere."

"I've always got my phone, Rache. How else would I ever talk to you?"

I shook my head. "Not when I'm with you. You told me once that if we were together, there wasn't anyone else you wanted to talk to anyway." He started to say something and I went on. "So either you want to talk to someone else more than me, or something's wrong. I sorta think the last one, because all you're really doing is obsessively checking your messages."

"It's… nothing. Just family stuff."

"Nick! I'm about to meet your entire family for the first time. Am I allowed to know what's going on?"

"It's not you, Rache. Everyone really wants to meet you."

"Then what is it?"

He took a long drink of his beer, looking out at the ocean. "They're just fighting."

Man, weren't we just joking that he didn't like to talk about relationships. I knew he had some family issues, but we'd managed to never really talk about them. I was a lousy girlfriend, wasn't I?

"Who's fighting?"

He shrugged. "Mom and Dad, mostly. But it's about Aaron, so he's in the middle. They're always fighting about him and wanting him to take sides."

"That's not very fair. What's there to fight about with Aaron?"

I knew she wouldn't get it. She had the perfect family. I bet her parents never fought. Even though they ran the winery together, I was sure they never fought like Mom and Dad did. "What's there not to fight about is the real question. They can't fight about me so it's Aaron's turn."

She looked confused so I backtracked. "It's like they divided us up. Mom was always with me when Backstreet started, but then… she wasn't and Dad was driving the bus, so she put her energy into Aaron."

"What about the girls?"

The girls aren't famous, I almost said, but then caught myself. I didn't want to have this conversation. I just wanted to sit here on the beach with my girl and talk about silly things like what color her toes were. I settled for trying to change the subject, but she wouldn't let me.

"Well, it's his career," I reasoned, "So he needs to decide what he wants to do and tell them both to butt out. But he's not going to do that."

"He's only a kid, Nick!" Rachel countered, sounding horrified. "How much can he decide? It's certainly not fair that your parents are putting him in the middle…"

"He's not really in the middle… he's just… I guess he's the reason they're fighting. His career. Mom thinks he needs to do a winter tour, and Dad thinks he needs some time off. But if he gets time off, what the hell is he supposed to do? Hang out in Marathon?"

"What did you tell him to do?"

I looked over at her. "I don't tell Aaron anything. I'm not getting in the middle of this."

"Because he'll do whatever you think he should do."

I shook my head. "No, he won't. He'll do the exact opposite."

"That's still sorta doing what you said." It kinda was, wasn't it? "I don't really know Aaron. I just met him that one day. But you're the one he looks up to."

"And I'm never there. I know." I spun my phone around on the table, watching it spin for a minute. "Should I be there now? I'm a big coward for leaving, aren't I?"

"What would you do if you were there?"

I shrugged. Something. That was my job, right? I was the big brother. Only when I was supposed to learning all that big brother stuff, I was on the road, where I was the little brother.

What would Kevin do?

"I think maybe your parents need to figure it out themselves. If Aaron wants your advice, he can ask for it. Has he?"

"No." I knew that. "He just complains about them. I think he sorta wants to tour. He likes that."

"Does he?"

She sounded surprised by that, and I looked up at her with a smile. "He really does, Rache. So do I. So do you," I teased, rewarded by a smile.

"I do," she admitted. "But when I was 14, I never wanted to leave the Point."

"You're still that way."

"I am not!" she protested. "Well… I always want to go back. But you guys don't have that."

"No," I agreed. "We don't have a place like that… that means home. We get bits and pieces of family when they can join us on tour. Aaron has about a million times more of Mom than I ever did, because she tours with him."

"But you said she was with you for a while and your dad drove the Backstreet tour bus?"

"He did," I said with a laugh. "The guys were out having fun and I was 13 and stuck with my dad. It sucked!"

I didn't want to get into the whole mom thing. Rachel would be horrified if she knew that I'd kicked mom out of my career. I just knew it. Granted, it sounded harsh… but… no, it was the right thing to do at the time. Even Kevin had agreed.

That made her smile. "It was probably a good thing. So, are you worried about your parents fighting? It always used to freak me out when my parents fought."

"Your parents fought?" I couldn't imagine Kate ever being mad at anyone… especially not Rachel's dad. Not the way they all talked about him, anyway.

She giggled. "I think all parents fight, Nick. Hell, my parents started a business together. There was plenty to fight about. And me running off to join a rock band… Dad really fought for that. That's why… well, you know that whole story."

Her eyes were sad, thinking about her dad. That's another reason I didn't want to talk about my stupid family. At least I had a dad for my mom to yell at. Rachel's parents couldn't fight any more. "Anyway. Yeah. It sorta freaked me out when my parents fought. It was really tense for about a week when I told them I wanted to tour with the band."

"Did you give it up?"

"The band? No. I didn't care how much Mom thought it was a horrible idea. I wouldn't have cared if Dad thought it was. But I didn't like that it was making them argue. At least I was an adult. Sorta. But Aaron's just a kid. Does he even know what he wants? Did you?"

I nodded. "I wanted it. I didn't really know what I wanted when I started singing, but I wanted… something. At least Aaron knew he could be a pop star, because I was."

Rachel considered me for a second, and then shook her head. "So, are you worried about your family? Should we pack up and go to Marathon and save the day?"

I considered it for a second. "No. I don't know what I'd do. It's not like I'm going to go and step in between my parents."

"Not a good idea," Rachel agreed. "They're the grown-ups."

Sometimes they managed to act that way, yeah. And when they didn't, I didn't want to be around them. "The girls all have friends in town. Aaron does, too. The only thing I'd be able to do is distract Aaron a little, but I'd rather be here with you."

"Part of this visit was supposed to be to see your family, sweetie. I've got to be in New York again next week. But I guess you could stay here while I go on…"

I interrupted her. "No. A few days is fine. We'll go to Marathon tomorrow or the day after, whenever. A few days at home is plenty." I was not going to leave Rachel unless I had to. My family would be fine. She started to say something and I went on, leaning across the table to take her hands.

"I was home for a couple of days already. They're going to work it out. They've worked out plenty of other things while I was on the road. It's better than we're here, together, just relaxing, before we have to deal with all that drama."

"You're sure?" she asked, and I nodded, kissing her.

"It's fine. Mom and Dad always work it out, that's what I keep telling Aaron. If we go now, I'm just going to be annoyed that they made me give up this vacation with you, and then everyone will be miserable."

She giggled at me. "I don't want that. Then everyone will hate me!"

"They are going to love you, Rachel. How can they not?"

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