Chapter 5
Closing the door to the bedroom Nick walked across the room and grabbed something from the top drawer of the dresser. “I have something else for you,” he told Chelsea who was sitting on the bed brushing her hair.
“Nick,” she sighed. “You, you already gave me so many wonderful things downstairs with your family.”
“I know,” he told her. “But this is something special. This is something I wanted to wait to give you when we were alone.”
It was Christmas morning. Their favorite holiday to spend together because it always seemed to be the most magical time of year. Walking towards her he placed a small velvet black box in her hand and sat down beside her. Her heart started racing, he was…wow. A smile couldn’t help but come across her face. It was the moment she never knew she wanted so much until then. Finally, finally he had gotten serious about their relationship.
“Aw Nick,” she gasped. “You, you amaze me,” she leaned over and kissed his cheek still keeping her eye on the box. It was perfect. Christmas morning, the celebration of the birth of Christ and the birth of a new level in their relationship.
“Well,” he urged. “Aren’t you gonna open it?”
“Of course,” she smiled. Her fingers trailed along the rim of the box. It felt so soft, so smooth, so perfect to her touch. Creeping it open her mouth dropped at the sight of, “Diamond…diamond earrings,” she gulped.
He lifted his hand and rubbed it down her hair to her neck.
“I,” she paused, “I don’t know what to say. They’re, so…beautiful.” She couldn’t help but regret the way her heart felt right then and to stop herself from appearing upset she leaned over to hug him and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips. “Thank you, I love them.”
“Aren’t they what every girl wants?” he asked sheepishly and she nodded.
“They’re exactly what I wanted. Thank you,” licking her lips she stared back down at them. They were stunning. But somehow they weren’t stunning enough. “I can’t believe it. You, you really didn’t have to do this.”
“I know,” he touched her hand. “But I wanted to. You’re so special to me and I wanted you to have something beautiful that you can cherish the way I cherish you.” Did he? Did he cherish her? “Aren’t you, aren’t you going to put them on?”
“Of course,” she gasped with a faint smile. Carefully she removed them from the box and one by one put them in her ears. Turning to him she smiled sweetly without a twinkle in her eye, “What do you think?”
“Perfect,” he said and kissed her. “Almost as perfect as you.” He kissed her once more and looked into his eyes so heavenly happy. “I love you,” he told her and she looked down at her baren left hand placed gently in her lap before raising her gaze back into his eyes.
Blinking back the tears that were starting to build she whispered, “I love you too.”
* * * *
Things never seemed to go the way Chelsea wanted in their relationship. Sitting in her desk chair she looked down at her fingers. “Guess he never loved me enough,” she shrugged and continued work on an ad campaign she had been putting together for the last two months.
“Distant look,” Diane said walking into the room. “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about the Williams account.”
“No,” she shook her head. “I was just thinking about the slogan. Trying to figure out if there’s an even better one we can use. This account means a lot to the company and I want to be sure that everything runs perfect and smoothly.”
“It will work,” she assured Chelsea. “So how are things at home?”
“At home?” she asked looking down at a stack of papers she needed to read through. Documents and more documents. Always the boring part about her job. “Oh,” she gulped. “I think things are going to work out even better then expected. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick’s moving out by tomorrow.”
“You sound sure of yourself,” she raised her eyebrows. Intrigued. “Tell me, what is it that you did this time.”
“Well, first…” she leaned over and started to fill Diane in on the fine details.
* * * *
Jogging to the front door Nick flipped through his pockets for the keys. He had spent the entire afternoon at the studio hard at work on his next album and was ravishing for something to eat. Putting the key in the door he smirked as it didn’t open. “What the?” he asked jiggling it in the lock. “Well I’ll be damned,” he groaned. “She’s gone and changed the locks on me.”
He snuck around the house checking every lock hoping the locksmith was clumsy and had missed one of the doors. “Fuck!” he yelled. Opening his cell phone he realized that he didn’t know how to get a hold of a locksmith. Imagine that. He looked up and saw a police man driving by the house patrolling the neighborhood. “Amen for public service,” he chuckled and waived him over.
“Yes?” the officer asked.
“Good afternoon,” he greeted him. “I was, I was wondering if you could possibly help me. See, my girlfriend she was planning to get the locks changed and I entirely forgot that it was today. So now, she’s gone for the day at work and my key doesn’t work. That silly woman, always managing to ruin my day in the most simple of ways.”
“Can I see some ID?” the officer asked and Nick kindly obliged showing his drivers license which stated the house as his home address. “Alright sir, but just this once. In the future you should confer with your girlfriend ahead of time or call a locksmith.”
“See, I was going to do that but then I saw you driving by and thought maybe you could help…”
“Alright,” he nodded. “Follow me.” Nick followed the officer to the front door who easily picked the lock to the house setting off the home alarm. Funny, they never set the alarm.
“Thanks so much,” Nick said politely and walked into the house to press the code of the alarm. Once. Twice. Three times. “That’s funny,” Nick winced his eyes. “The code’s not working.”
“Right,” the officer nodded not buying it. “And I suppose you’re gonna say your girlfriend had the alarm changed too…”
“Yes,” Nick gasped. “She did. I mean, this is my house. I’m not lying.”
“You’re gonna have to come with me,” the officer told him abrasively.
“What! You’re arresting me? But…I live here.”
“Seems to me like this is a simple case of breaking and entering.” He wasn’t laughing.
‘God,’ Nick thought to himself. ‘When is this going to end.’
“Officer, this is my house. I’m not lying. This is all just a big misunderstanding. I’ll give my girlfriend a call at work right now to solve the problem.
“No,” he touched his arm as Nicked reach for his cell phone. “You’re coming with me.”
“But I live here! I can even show you the deed!”
“Can you?” the officer asked, obviously doubting him.
“Yes, it’s…it’s in the safety deposit box at the bank.”
“Alright then, I’ll escort you to the bank.”
This was really turning out to be a huge nuisance. Changed locks. New alarm codes. Chelsea really had gone over the edge this time.
* * * *
Watching the evening news Chelsea smiled at the emptiness of the house. It was certainly much nicer without Nick home. Thinking a moment too soon she frowned as she heard him walk in the front door.
”Honey you’re home,” she smiled innocently trying hard to ignore the agitated expression on his face. “Where have you been?”
“First at the police station, then…then at the bank getting into the safety deposit box.” He walked straight up to her. “Do you know you almost got me arrested today for breaking and entering!” he yelled and she couldn’t help but drop her mouth in astonishment. She really wasn’t planning for him to be taken into custody. Looks like her plan played out better then she’d thought.
“Oh really,” she gasped. “That’s horrible! I can’t even imagine why…”
“Oh you know damn well why. You changed the locks so I asked an officer driving by if he could help me get in and when I couldn’t turn off the alarm he thought my ID was fake or something and took me down to the police station and THEN followed me to the bank so I could prove that this was indeed my house. You know, I can handle a lot but this Chelsea…this is taking it too far.”
“Really Nick,” she told him. “I thought I’d told you that I was having the locks and the alarmed changed today. You can never be too safe. I like to have the code and locks changed twice a year for safety.”
“Right,” he rolled his eyes. “Right. You did that on purpose just to piss me off! Well, fine! It worked…but only because I nearly landed in jail because of your stupid little stunt.”
“Honestly Nick, I thought you enjoyed practical jokes.”
“This wasn’t a joke Chelsea. This was you purposely being cruel,” he dropped his hands to his side. “Fine! Whatever, I’m gonna go take a shower. I want a working copy of the key and the alarm code put on my dresser by the time I get out or I’m going to sue you for tampering with my property because yes it is my name on the deed and not yours.”
“Nick, you would never sue me…”
“Try me!” he snapped and walked away. Maybe he wasn’t joking. Maybe she had taken it too far this time but that didn’t mean she had to stop. She just needed to do different, better, more simple things to coerce him into moving out.
Chapter 6
Cardboard Boxes Main
Homepage