Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 25

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

Was that my car? Rachel had sent a text message that she was coming home, but that was like 45 minutes ago. I checked the clock. Okay, half an hour. Still!

I went over to the door to the garage, standing at the top of the stairs as I watched her and Anna get out of my car. She was wearing her palm tree sandals. That was good, right?

I was so grasping at straws here. She'd sent a text message that she loved me, but I couldn't tell if she meant it or not just from some letters on a screen.

"Rachel let me drive your car, superstar," Anna teased, but I just shrugged at her.

"Fun, isn't it?"

Anna expected a joke back, I could tell by her face. She glanced back at Rachel, and then walked past me. "I'll get my stuff and get out of here. Let you guys talk."

Anna disappeared and I just looked at Rachel. She didn't look mad, but she didn't look happy to see me, either.

"I'm really sorry," I offered. "I was an ass all night."

She shook her head. "No you weren't. I expected you to realize that I was annoyed when you were just having fun with your friends. That wasn't fair of me."

True… but I knew better than to tell her that. "My friends are jerks."

"Some of them are, yes," she agreed, moving past me into the kitchen. "Hey… pretty tidy," she said, looking around.

"Tony stuck around to help me clean up. And the cleaning service is coming tomorrow to take care of the big stuff."

"Is there big stuff?" she asked, giving me half a smile. I loved that teasing little smile of hers.

"Some," I admitted. "We didn't vacuum or anything like that. Just gathered up all the major crap."

"I'll vacuum," she offered. "I don't like crunchy carpet."

"I thought… maybe we should just go."

"To Marathon?"

"No. Miami. This was a big fuck up, making you meet all my friends when you're still tired and jet lagged. Let's go to Miami and have some time alone before we go to Marathon."

Shit. She didn't look excited by that. I even made reservations at that hotel she'd always wanted to stay in, the Delano. At least I hoped that was the right one.

But then she hugged me, wrapping her arms around my waist and resting her head against my chest. "In Miami, can we sleep together all night?"

"Promise," I assured her.

"You won't sneak out of bed in the middle of the night to watch TV?"

"I'll watch TV in bed while you sleep."

She hugged me tighter. "I'm so sorry that I wasn't in the mood to party last night."

"I was a jerk."

Nodding, she stepped away from me. "You were."

Damnit. She wasn't supposed to agree with that, even if it was true.

"Leaving!" Anna announced, coming down the stairs with her arms full of her costume from last night. "Bye!"

But Rachel went over to her, giving her a hug that Anna couldn't return because she had too much stuff in her arms. "I think we're going to Miami tonight. When will I see you again?"

Anna shrugged. "Tell your boyfriend to return my calls more often and we'll find a time." She blew me a kiss. "Now, you two kiss and make up. I'm tired of being your go-between!"

"Thanks for breakfast this morning," Rachel said, glancing over at me. So they were talking about me all morning?

Who was I kidding? They probably bitched about me all night. Only interrupted when they were bitching about Vinnie, I was sure.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Anna said, heading for the door. "If I'm not soothing his broken heart, I'm convincing you that he's a great guy. Figure it out, people!"

And she left. "Love you, Anna!" I called after her as the door slammed shut, and Rachel and I just considered each other for a moment. "Did she really convince you that I'm a great guy?"

"I already knew that," Rachel said, opening the fridge and pulling out the pitcher of iced tea. "She did point out that maybe I should have told you that Vinnie's a jerk."

"I knew that," I admitted, and she sighed, opening the cabinet for a glass.

"But you probably didn't know that he really wanted to see my breasts."

"I told him to stop that!" I did. Once we got out into Guavaween, it was all getting girls to flash us in exchange for beads, and Vinnie was getting pushy with Rachel. I told him to stop it and he did. Didn't he?

All of the glasses were gone, and Rachel shut the cabinet and went over to the dishwasher. "Well, right before I stormed off in a huff, he cornered me at the bar and told me I was uptight. Then he untied my bikini top and I nearly decked him."

"He did what?"

"Did he load this dishwasher?" She sighed, taking dirty dishes out.

Nick did look suitably furious at that. Maybe he shouldn't. Maybe I was being uptight. But I didn't want to flash my breasts, and Vinnie tried to undress me.

Nah. I should be pissed about that. Dick.

"Rache, I'm sorry, really. I didn't know. Is this when we started screaming at each other? What are you doing?"

"Whoever loaded this dishwasher didn't realize that what was in here was clean already. I ran it last night during the party." I piled the dirty dishes in the sink while I tried to see if I could salvage anything else.

Like any of these dishes were going to get clean, stacked up like this? Did these boys' mothers' never teach them to clean?

"Stop that," Nick insisted, taking dishes out of my hands. "What did Vinnie do to you?"

I went back to the dishes. "He was an ass. I can handle jerky boys. I've played plenty of bars and frat parties. But what I didn't like was how you ignored me all night."

He decided it was easier to do dishes than argue with me, so he just took the last dirty ones and I started putting clean ones away, not looking at him. "I didn't…" he started to say, and I interrupted him.

"I know. At first, I was happy to let you hang out with your friends. I know you never see them, and that was fine. I talked to the evil angels and then Anna came and… hey, do you know who the evil angels are?"

"Anna's band?"

"No!" I yelled. "They're the Queen Bees. Do you not pay attention?"

"I knew that," he defended. "Hell, they did a demo at the Marathon studio. But Evil Angels would be a really good name for a girl group."

"Or a new style of lingerie at Victoria's Secret." He gave me a relieved smile at my joke, and I smiled back.

"Anyhow. That's Anna's nickname for Vinnie and Tony's girls. And their friend…" I looked at him, searching for a reaction. But he just laughed, turning on the water to wash the dishes.

"That sounds like something Anna would say, yeah."

"You don't know their friend? Sandrine?"

"Sand… oh, Sandy? She's the blond, right?"

Still holding a glass I was putting away, I went over to study his face. "Do you really not know her?"

He just shrugged, washing a plate. "They got together when I was still on tour. I don't know her."

"That's really funny, because there are pictures all over the Internet of your tongue down her throat."

"What? I… oh, shit!" he finally yelled, dropping his sponge. "Is she… fuck. Rache, really, I didn't…"

I cracked up, shaking my head at him. "Don't worry, sweetie, I believe you. I'm not sure if I should be worried that you don't remember somebody you made out with, or amused by that."

"I think you should pick amused," he offered, and I had to kiss him.

"Fine. I will. You can't remember names, either. Anyway, she wasn't a problem. I wasn't worried that you'd be flirting with someone else when I was right there."

"Why would I flirt with a trampy bunny when I had my hula girl?"

He was trying to be sweet, but I just raised an eyebrow at him. "Not that you paid attention to either one of us."

Foiled, he concentrated on the dishes again. "I guess I… I'm sorry, Rache. Really. The guys were there and…"

"And I let you. You looked so happy, hanging out with them and being a guy, I didn't want to seem all clingy or anything. But Anna pointed out that perhaps I wanted you to figure out that I wasn't having a good time, and that's not fair."

"You didn't have a good time?" He sounded so disappointed by that, but I could only shrug.

"I had a lot of fun with Anna, and her band. I don't get to hang out with a lot of girls. Well… girls that I like. The other girls at the party last night, Vinnie and Tony's girlfriends and all their friends, those are girls that boys like and…"

He finished for me. "Other girls hate."

I smiled at him. Guess I said that a lot. "I'm not good with those girls. And except for Anna and her friends… that was all the girls. The boys hung out and the girls watched the boys hang out and that's so not my scene, Nick."

He seemed very interested in the platter he was washing, staring at it intently. "I never really… I guess I just never thought about it. Usually it's just the guys. I'm not around for a lot of the parties."

"What about Mandy? Did you hang out with these guys when you were with her?"

"Mandy knows Vinnie," Nick reminded me, and I bit back a laugh. That's right. Mandy knew Vinnie intimately. "Mandy was one of the guys," he went on, considering. "She was always around. She drank with us and encouraged us to be stupid. Which might be why they…"

He stopped himself, going back to washing his dish, and I laughed. "Say it. What do they say about me?"

"Vinnie always says I'm whipped. Pretty much whenever I talk about you, he says I'm whipped."

"Are you?"

"No," he answered quickly, meeting my eyes. "I don't think. If I am, I don't care."

"You care when you're around them. You cared a few weeks ago, when you were taking his advice."

"I don't care when I'm around them. Really. I thought you were okay last night. If I had any idea that you weren't, fuck them. I would have blown them off to be with you."

I raised an eyebrow at him, and he shook his head. "Remember, before the party, when we were upstairs? I meant that, Rache. I would have told them all to go home if you wanted me to."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

I believed him. Of course, he knew I was pissed at him, but at this moment, he would have sent them away. Smiling, I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Okay. I promise to tell you the next time if I'm with your friends and I'm not having fun."

"Good." He placed the last dish in the drainer and turned to face me, fumbling for a towel before he put his arms around me.

"You have to promise to stop taking Vinnie's advice."

"I already made that promise, weeks ago," he reminded me, kissing the tip of my nose.

"True. Because what does Vinnie know?"

"Nothing," he answered, grinning down at me. I could feel the tension in my body lifting as he held me closer.

"Who is Vinnie dating?"

"Some boring girl."

"Who did Vinnie give up? Which lovely, funny, amazing girl that we both love did Vinnie fuck over?"

"Anna. If he knew what he was doing, he'd still have her, right?"

I giggled. "Exactly what I was getting at. So, are we good?"

"Absolutely, buttercup. No more sleeping on the couch!"

"Good," I said with a giggle, kissing him.

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