Falling for Santa's Son

❄️Chapter 18❄️

CAROL

"I'm sorry about my cousin." I apologized, speaking first after we had just laid in silence for a while.

"It's fine. She seems nice...very eccentric." He said laughing, and shifted for the 10th time since he got in bed.

That was one way to describe her. I snickered, "Yeah, she's unpredictable."

Nick chuckled, and then after that, we were back to the silence. It was awkward. I mean, just earlier, we were arguing, and now we were sharing a bed?

I was lying so close to the edge of the bed just to put some space in between us. If I moved just an inch I would be on the floor instantly.

I felt and heard him shift on the bed, again. He was now facing me, well my back.

"Carol," He began. I'm not sure how much closer he had gotten because I could feel his warm breath on my neck and it was making the knots in my stomach tighter.

"I'm sorry about how I treated you earlier." He continued, "I don't know where I got the idea that if I'm cold towards you, it'll help you not to fall for me." He said releasing a long sigh. I kept quiet listening. I wasn't sure what to say to that myself. I mean what was making him worry about something like that?

"It's just one of my flaws, I guess. I'm just worried about what would happen if either of us started caring about each other beyond this. But I need to find better ways of doing that." He said and I finally turned around to face him.

Even though we were in the dark, with help from the moonlight from the window, I could still make out some of his features, like his hair looked like it was sticking out in all sorts of directions.

Nick moved down a bit to my level and we made eye contact, looking at each other straight in the eyes.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to make excuses. I'm sorry, Carol." He repeated, waiting for my response.

As we continued facing each other, I just now realized how close we were. No—
wait now was not the time for that.

"I'm sorry too." I apologized as well. "I owed you an explanation earlier, sorry."

He shook his head "No. I was being a jerk about it. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to talk about it." He said moving his arm. It looked like he wanted to touch me but decided against it, his hand falling back on his side.

"I can't believe you even came here." He said, surprised, "You're very resilient, strong." He said with unblinking focused eye contact. A glint of something flashed in his eyes.

I laughed turning so that I faced the ceiling with my hands folded on my stomach.

"Resilient huh? Okay, I'll take it."I said, laughing lightly, and I could feel him watching me, even in the dark. His eyes glowing.

"The truth is I didn't have much of a choice but to 'move on.' " I sighed and turned back towards him with my arm supporting my head.

"Life doesn't exactly pause and give you time to recover from a heartbreak," I said with a sad smile which I doubt he could see.

"That's true. I remember going through one myself." He surprisingly opened up.

I gasped, "No way. Did someone reject you? Impossible." I joked earning myself a flick on the forehead.

"No, it was mutual." He defended.

"Pfft."I let out and said, "That's what I said to everyone after Keith had dumped me."