Forever Strong (Book 7 in Nemi Forever Series)

Chapter 8

Demi

I felt so bad for hurting Nick. And the award for 'Worst wife of the year' goes to..... me. Yea I am a horrible wife. I swear it was sometimes, like, I was the husband & Nick was the wife. He was the romantic one, the one who remembered the occasions & made them special. He was the one who was sensitive & easily hurt by me. I was an emotional wreck the day of the concert, for several reasons. Not only was I nervous about this show, but I hurt my husband, the man I'm supposed to love & cherish forever. He was mad at me. At this point, I didn't even know if we'd be okay. I called him several times throughout the day, but he never answered. I left him one message that morning & the other times, I just hung up.

I talked to Blanda later, who told me Joe & Nick were out golfing. She told me Nick was upset, mostly because he felt like I'd get bored with him one day or stop loving him at some point & I'd find someone else. Probably because I kissed another man a few years ago. That & because I acted like I didn't care about our anniversary. I cared, I just didn't realize he had made such big plans. Then when he cried & told me what each year together means to him, I felt like the biggest asshole. I felt the same way, actually. I mean there were two years when I feared he would marry someone else & now that he was mine, I thanked God every day for that. I hated the fact that Nick ever thought I loved him less than he loved me. It's just my brain & how it's wired. My personality makes me focus on one thing so severely that sometimes other things get overlooked. When I got invited to do this concert, it was the only thing I could think about. It was probably because it was so huge, that I was scared & nervous & it consumed my brain.

Trying to not be sad, all day, while I prepared for this show & smiled for backstage cameras, was incredibly difficult. I really wanted to talk to Nick & hear his voice, tell me he loved me, before I took the stage, but that didn't happen. He was really making me suffer now. I guess I deserved it, but Jesus, I was already in an emotionally unstable frame of mind. He knew I was emotional. Dammit, I hated when Nick was mad at me. I chuckled, to myself, when I realized he was right. I hated when he didn't kiss my ass.

I got through my opening number with Ed & I thought I did pretty well. Natalie said she could tell I was upset, but she knows me well, so, that doesn't count. When I was onstage with Ed, after we performed my song & he brought up my anniversary, I about died. I could feel my breath hitch & my heart ached in my chest. Then Ed said he was bringing some strange guy onstage & I was going to sing with him. I wasn't feeling too great about that. For one, I was about to start crying & I didn't even know why. For two, I didn't want to sing with a stranger. Lord, I hoped it was a surprise celebrity. I envisioned some homeless man coming onstage with me. I was so nervous & when the lights went off & I heard the strumming of a guitar near the back of the stage, I closed my eyes. I was terrified right now. This was live on the entire world's televisions, phones or computers. This could be very bad. What if I was so frazzled, I forgot the words. Or what if this guy did & so did I? Lord, I hoped Ed would come in & help us out.

The guitar strumming changed to an actual song & I recognized the melody. It was one of my favorite songs of all time, not just Ed's. I hadn't heard it in a long time since it came out in 2014. They started singing, "When your legs don't work like they used to before..." I knew that voice. I looked to the direction I heard the voice & I saw Nick walking toward me, singing, "And I can't sweep you off of your feet. Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love? Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?" The lights came on a little & the crowd started to yell as I started sobbing. Nick's eyes were glued on mine as he walked to stand a foot from me. "And darling, I will be loving you til we're 70. And baby, my heart could still fall as hard at 33." I smiled since he changed the age to suit him. "And I'm thinking 'bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe just by the touch of a hand. Oh me, I fall in love with you every single day, and I just want to tell you right now." I was wiping my tears as fast as they were coming, not being able to take my eyes off of Nick as he smiled while he sang. I was a blubbering mess on world wide tv & I really didn't even care. I forgot for a moment that we even had an audience. Nick's voice was amazing as he continued to sing, "So, honey now, take me into your loving arms, kiss me under the light of a thousand stars.." God, I wanted to kiss him right here, right now.