The Fake Girlfriend

Chapter 37

"And you look hot," a drunk Nick Jonas breathed into the night air. His voice floated up and over the luminescent swimming pool that sparkled between us. A plethora of unsaid words shifted within its ripples. 

I took in his appearance, his disheveled hair from one too many tugs of his hands, the glassy look in his eyes, the fitted patterned button-up that he only wore out clubbing.

So... he'd been out.

Why I had been sitting in a small hotel apartment slowly losing my mind...

I stood up. I couldn't do this. I couldn't deal with his drunk blubbering while I was seething through every pour in my body with anger and disgust-

"Where are you going?" he slurred.

I crossed my arms. "Anywhere but here."

He walked along the pavement around the pool, towards my rigid figure. "Don't you want to know where I've been? Why I haven't called?" he said it so non-nonchalantly that it sent pangs of hurt through my heart. 

I threw my hands in the air. "Is this some kind of sick joke to you, Nick? After everything that happened last night you have the audacity to throw it in my face like that?" I knew my voice was shrill, but I didn't really care. I had given him my heart after I had expressed how scared I was of opening up to someone. I was absolutely terrified of the risks that would ensue from jumping off the cliff. And now I felt as if I was laying at the bottom because my once-in-a-lifetime incident of a bungee cord broke.

He shrugged, looking down at his boots and crinkling his brow. "I guess I got scared too," he muttered.

"You guess  you got scared to? After we had just had sex?" I was astounded.

He looked up at the stars. There weren't many to see in the city due to all the lights surrounding us, but a few shined brighter than the rest and peered through the clouds. "After I had just heard you were trying to break the contract. After Scarlett told me there was a loophole to get you out of it... That I  had to be the one to dismiss it. You could be free of it."

I froze.  An icy chill working its way up my body. Nick had the power to eradicate our contract once and for all... He could end it right here and I would never see him again. He could make sure of that.

The thought terrified me.

"I-" I started.

He shook his head. "I'm too drunk to talk about this."

I looked down and swallowed the growing lump in my throat. As mad as I was- as upset as I was- this was not the place to have this conversation. I could pester him tomorrow when he was nursing a throbbing hangover.

I tilted my head toward the exit. "Let's go then," I sighed, resigned of this conversation of the night. "I'll make sure you get back to the right room."

Because- even after everything- I wanted him safe.

He nodded and waited for me to meet him in the middle of the walkway before walking along side of me. His head was down and he didn't try to talk anymore as we walked along side the sparkling pool.

Nick stumbled a bit beside me, still not gaining full stability on his own feet. It hadn't concerned me until he tripped on an imaginary rock and grabbed my arm for balance, catching me off guard enough to lean into his touch. With a few curses and a very disgraceful stumble, there was a splash as we both hit the water and my nose was burning chlorine. 

A tight grip wound its way around my bicep, yanking me toward the surface. It was an ironic thought because my first instinct was to make sure Nick wasn't too drunk to forget how to swim... and his was to make sure I was okay as well.