Dinner With Nick

I love Nick, in that ‘thank god we are friends because what would I do without you’ kind of way. Dinner with him was just what I needed to get my mind of Josh and the whole situation, I felt like my old self as we talked and laughed over our soup starter - Creole chicken gumbo for me and vegetarian vegetable for Nick.

“Switch?” Nick asked half way through the soup.

“What?” I glanced at him only to see him eye balling my soup bowl. “No!” I covered my bowl with my hands, “You could’ve ordered the gumbo if you wanted it.”

“But we always switch!” He looked horrified. “I should’ve known it wasn’t really you when you called me up and asked me out; Anna never asks me out!”

I rolled my eyes, “You are always busy with Amy.”

Nick sighed, lowering his head. “Not since she’s been pregnant, she tells me to go get busy with myself.”

If I didn’t see the smile on his face I would’ve thought there was seriously something wrong. “Don’t do that!” I kicked him. “I don’t think I could handle it if there was something wrong between you and Amy.”

“Neither could I,” he told me as he pushed his bowl towards me. “Amy and I are doing great,” he tugged my bowl towards him as he tried to distract me by telling me what they’ve been doing with the baby’s room.

Just when he thought he was home free, I grabbed hold of the plate that the bowl was on. “I believe that’s mine.”

“Damn it!” He laughed, “I was this close!” Taking his soup back, he started to talk about Jenna. “I can’t believe how funny she is, Jordan was never that funny when we were growing up and I don’t remember Heather letting loose enough to act like that.”

“What are you talking about? She is just like him!” I shook my head. “Just because you didn’t see the humor in the stuff Jordy did, doesn’t mean that no one else did.” I started to remind him of all the funny stuff Jordan did over the years but half of it he said he didn’t remember. “Whatever,” I said finally. “I think Jenna is exactly like her daddy.”

The waitress came to remove our empty bowls and the conversation changed a little. “What do you think of Bella?” Nick asked before taking a sip of his water. When I didn’t say anything right away he continued. “She seems alright and Jordan does seem happy but I’m a little worried that she may cause some problems for him.”

“What do you mean? Everything seems ok to me.”

Nick hesitated for a moment and then he told me he thought that Bella was a little needy. “She doesn’t seem to want him to do things on his own and the second your name is mentioned? She either gets upset or tries to change the subject.”

“It doesn’t really surprise me,” I told him. “Most of Jordan’s girlfriends had an issue with me; of course Bella is the only one who has any real reason to be concerned. I guess I should say had any real reason to be concerned.” Nick gave me a puzzled look. “What was that for?”

“Why would Bella have had any reason to be concerned? You and Jordan are just friends, nothing has ever happened,” Nick’s eyes went really wide and he stared at me. “Or has it? Has something happened between you and Jordan?”

I frowned, thinking that he must be joking when I remembered that Jordan told me he didn’t tell anyone but Bella that we weren’t speaking. “Oh my God! Jordan never told you, did he?”

“Never told me what?” He placed his glass in the table, almost knocking it over. “What are you talking about? What happened?”

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell you,” I was really shocked.

“Tell me!”

I started to fill Nick in on the last couple months and since I wasn’t sure what he knew already, I started from the time Josh came back into my life. When I told him that Jordan and I kissed on his bed that morning, Nick jumped up, knocking into the table and spilling his water over the table. “No freaking way!” He stared at me.

“Yeah,” I sighed. Once Nick sat down I continued. “And then Josh and Jess showed up.”

“Oh Anna,” Nick shook his head as he tried to soak up the water with the napkins on the table. “I can’t believe this! Why the hell didn’t Jordan tell me?” He glanced at me. “So what happened after?”

I went on to tell him about Josh’s reaction – Nick said he didn’t blame him – not speaking to Jordan for a month and then how I ran into Josh at the restaurant. “And now he wants to be friends,” I sighed. “Chad and Susan think that it’s a good thing because he didn’t say he ‘just’ wanted to be friends but that he thinks it’s a good place to start; they think he wants to be with me and is just doing this because he feels he needs a solid ‘foundation’ to build our relationship on this time.”

Nick nodded, “I think they could be right but my question is – where the hell have I been that I didn’t even know this was all happening?”

I smiled, “I believe you were busy worrying about Amy, the baby and how your life is going to change.”

“Yeah,” Nick sighed. “I really want this baby Anna but I don’t know what we are going to do.” I asked him what he meant. “The apartment is too small for a baby and Amy is having problems now climbing up all the stairs, what happens when she’s further along?” He groaned. “We can barely manage to pay our bills as it is and I can’t pick up any extra hours because Amy complains that she doesn’t see me now. Her parents want us to move in with them so her mom can help her with the baby but their place isn’t that big and they tend to drive me insane.”

He chuckled and then added, “But living with them would help us financially, we wouldn’t have the $900 rent to pay like we do now nor would we have all the other bills either. Of course we would still be paying them something for staying there but it wouldn’t be as much and I could look for work that pays more without worrying about where our next meal was coming from.” He sat back in his seat, “I guess we really don’t have much choice.”

I held off what I was going to say until the waitress finished placing our meals in front of us – sirloin steak with garlic potatoes, bean & carrot mix, garlic bread and a garlic shrimp skewer for Nick and grilled pork chops with sautéed mushrooms and red onions, garlic potatoes, corn and garlic bread for me.

“If there is anything I can do,” I told him. “You would tell me right?”

Nick looked back and forth between me and his plate, with a smile on his face he told me, “This really helps!” I laughed but stopped when he frowned. “I just wish Amy was here too, I know she really wanted to come when I called her and told her that we were going out for supper.”

I smiled at him, “And I wish that I have what you have with Amy.”

Nick gasped and stared at me. “You can’t have my wife!”

When I called him a moron, he laughed.

Before we left the restaurant, Nick ordered the chocolate caramel cake dessert to take home to Amy. “She isn’t expecting it,” he told me as I drove him home. “She might be upset that I spent the five bucks to buy it but she’ll love me for every second that she is eating it!”