Karmen
Crap. Crap, crap, crappity crap. I couldn’t go out with Nickel. Except I couldn’t think of a reason not to go. The best lie I could come up with was badminton, and he saw right through that. My brain was not functioning, and I had no idea what to say.
“One night, baby, that’s all.”
I swooned a bit when he called me baby. I had never been called anything but Karmen by anyone other than my dad. Nickel calling me baby made me weak in the knees, and I was sure I would say yes to anything as long as called me it again. “I don’t get off work ‘til seven.”
“Dusk isn’t until after nine. I can pick you up at eight.” He shoved his keys in his pocket and looked down at me.
Eight. I could do eight. Maybe. I only lived five minutes away from work, so I would still have almost an hour to get ready. “I don’t know.”
He reached out and caressed my cheek. “Just say yes. It’s easy.”
“Yes,” I breathed out, mesmerized by his touch and his piercing blue eyes.
His other arm snaked out, wrapping around my waist, and he pulled me flush against him. He leaned down, placing a kiss on my forehead. “You just made my day a whole lot better, baby.”
I leaned into him, burying my face in his neck and inhaled his soothing scent. My brain was fogged, and all I knew was, I had never felt more at home than in Nickel’s arms. “Glad to help,” I whispered.
His body shook while he laughed at me. He placed one more kiss on my forehead and pulled away. “All right, you get back into work, or neither of us is going to get anything done today if I touch you any longer.”
I stumbled out of his arms, catching my balance before I tumbled into a bush. “Um, okay. I’ll see you at eight?” I still couldn’t believe that I had just agreed to go on a date with Nickel tonight. I think I was losing my mind.
“Eight on the dot, baby.” He grabbed his keys out of his pocket, twirled them around his finger, and winked at me. Tearing my eyes away when he walked over to his bike was impossible. I couldn’t move from the spot I was in.
He swung his leg over the bike, cranked it up, revving the engine, and gave me a two finger wave right before he roared out of the parking lot.
“You did it, finally,” I heard from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Nikki holding the door to the nursing home. She had a huge, smug smile plastered on her face.
I rolled my eyes at her and glanced one more time at where Nickel had been before I walked back in. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Oh, please. It’s about fucking time you cut that gorgeous hunk of man a break. He’s been fawning over you for a year. I don’t know any man who would put that much time into a woman who hasn’t given him the time of day.” Nikki held the door open for me, and we walked over to the front desk.
“That man is going to go on one date with me and then run for the hills when he sees how boring and unfun I am.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the desk as Nikki walked around to the receptionist chair and plopped down.
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Karmen. What you see, is not what he sees.”
“He must be looking in the wrong mirror because I’m boring and nothing like the girls he is used to.”
“On that point, you’re right. You’re class, and those other girls are all trash. You aren’t even in the same realm as those skanks from the club.” And that was why Nikki was my best friend and had been since we were fourteen. She always told it to me straight.
“Oh, Nikki. What the hell have I done? Why did I say yes?” I buried my head in my arms and tried to figure out how to get out of this. Maybe when he showed up, I could say I was sick and couldn’t go. Or maybe when I opened the door—
“Stop!” Nikki yelled, pulling me from my scheming to get out of my date. “You’re going. I’m coming home with you and making sure you walk out with that man when he knocks on your door.”
“What?” My head snapped up, my mouth hanging open. “You can’t be serious. I can’t have you there acting like my mom, watching me go out on a date. For all I know, you’ll yell, ‘Have her home by ten,’ as we walk to his bike.”
Nikki threw her head back laughing, almost falling out of her chair. “You know me too well.”
“I do.”
“I’ll hide behind the curtains and promise not to yell anything besides ‘Nice ass’ when you walk out the door.”
“I’m sure you don’t need to tell him that, he probably already knows.” I laughed, grabbing the chart I needed and walked down the hall.
“I wasn’t talking about his ass,” she called. I shook my head but kept walking. Nikki was crazy and would probably do it. “I’m coming home with you, Karmen. You are not backing out of this date!”
I raised my hand in the air, admitting defeat and ducked into the medicine closet. I tried to calm my breathing, realizing I was on the brink of hyperventilating. I rested against the shelving, the cold metal of the rack cooling my forehead. What the hell did I get myself into?
Let’s review everything I knew about Nickel. 1. He was in a motorcycle club. 2. He had the sweetest grandma I have ever known.
That’s it. Those two facts were the only things I knew about this man. Well, I also knew he was the sexiest man I have ever laid eyes on, but that was something you would know as soon as you saw him.
I closed my eyes and counted backward from ten. By the time I got to two, I knew what I needed to do.
I had to find a box to put Nickel in. All I needed to do was break down everything I felt and knew about this man and put it all away into tiny boxes, then I could toss them all away and never think about him again.
Just looking at Nickel, I knew he was everything that could and would disrupt the tiny, peaceful world I had built.
After I had graduated high school and escaped my grandma’s house, I worked two jobs, went to school full-time, and got an apartment of my own. I still lived in that same tiny apartment because it was where I felt safe, and it always helped to remind me that I was independent and could do things on my own.
I worked my ass off for four years before I graduated and got a job at Acadia Nursing Home and finally had smooth sailing for the first time in my life.
Nickel was not about to walk into my life and mess everything up. All he was getting was one night. I’m sure he would see that I was not the woman he thought I was and that will be that. The only reason he had asked me out was because I was something unattainable to him. I was probably more of a challenge to him than someone he wanted to spend time with.
So, new game plan. Stop the freaking out, go out with Nickel, and then get back to my regularly scheduled life.
I grabbed the meds I needed and took a deep breath. Nickel wasn’t going to get more than I was willing to give him.
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