Nina Cox Must Date (Girl Power Series)

Chapter 14 - Strawberry Shortcake

I decided to stay at Taylor's apartment for the whole weekend. He is completely capable of taking care of himself, but he looked as if he didn't want to be alone. I tried to cheer him by watching his favorite movies and playing games together, and it seemed to work. Last night, we were making dinner when he brought an album to the dining table.

"After all the years that we have been friends and everything that you have done for me, I guess that it is the time that I share this with you," he said.

I opened the album to find some news clippings of his accident.

"My 15 minutes of fame. The news made it to several papers. The guy that crashed into me was a politician," he shrugged.

The next page had a photo of a destroyed yellow car. A gasp escaped me.

"The accident looks worse than it actually was," Taylor said, looking at the picture. "I bought the car second-hand, and it was already an eyesore. I was 17 and was happy that it brought me places. I didn't have to beg my parents to lend me their cars. After the accident, my mom made a claim to the insurance and I only got a hundred bucks," Taylor said with a chuckle.

I look closer at the picture and see big pieces of red and blue foam-like stuff scattered on the ground.

"My surfboard," Taylor said, pointing at the pieces. "It got destroyed. I was so pissed. Not that I can surf again, but I had so many good memories with it. I even won a few amateur contests. It was my weekend hobby since I was fourteen,"

He then showed me a few pictures of him in the hospital. Both his legs were in plaster casts, and besides some cuts and bruises, he looked fine.

"My injuries were not even that bad. My spine got the most impact. The man hit my car next to the driver's door, and I took a tumble. He ended up crashing into a street light,"

"Thanks for sharing this with me," I said, kissing his cheek.

"Thanks for putting up with me,"

The rest of the evening went by with us behaving like in old times. When we said goodbye this morning, he looked even a bit relieved.

As I park in front of my house, I see Lisa's car parked there. I find her sipping a cup of coffee at the dining table while caressing Batman.

"I used my spare key," she says.

"Yeah, sure. Are you okay?"

"No. I requested some days free. I'm trying to be brave about the whole thing, but the truth is that I'm crumbling. Mom and Dad were so sweet. Dad even told me that he wanted to help me to punch his tires," she says laughing while a few tears of sadness escape her.

"Sounds like Dad. Has he contacted you?" I say, handing her a tissue.

"Yeah. He left me a million messages asking where I was. I got fed up and sent him a message telling him that he and his Ibiza girlfriend can go to hell. I haven't heard anything else since. I feel so foolish and betrayed. I wonder how long this has been going on,"

"Don't think about that anymore," I say, hugging her.

"I will try my best to get over this. Nina, I meant what I said over the phone. I give you a lot of shit about dating. Forget about the ten dates,"

"Don't worry about me. I'm already halfway and who knows, maybe I will meet a good man. What I'm having trouble is finding someone that interests me and that we have something in common,"

"And how are you picking the possible candidates?"

"Taylor sorts through them,"

Lisa lifts an eyebrow at my answer.