For LaPaige's prompt challenge: #11: Cheating
Of Flowers and Misunderstandings
By angellwings
Nate knew Ella was attractive—correction: gorgeous, but he hadn't quite thought about what other men would see when they looked at her. The only males he'd ever really seen her around were his brothers and Baron and Sander. And maybe when they were younger there'd been a time he'd thought Sander had a thing for Ella, but even then he'd never been jealous. Jealousy wasn't something Nate really understood, and it wasn't something he enjoyed having aimed at him or centered around him.
Which was why he knew he was lucky to have Ella.
Ella understood that there would always be people around him who wanted a piece of him, and she accepted that. She knew that the other girls may want him but she had him, and that was all that mattered.
But today, Nate was being tested. The fact that other men found his girlfriend attractive was suddenly being shoved in his face.
First of all, Ella had gotten a job on E! Network as a fashion commentator. She had her own show with rotating co-hosts. She would give women suggestions on affordable ways to stay fashionable, the best purchases to splurge on, and the best celebrity style to emulate. She was brilliant. She came across as quirky, caring, funny, and enchanting.
He'd expected this, though. Ella was very good at giving advice and she knew what looked good and what didn't. What he hadn't expected was the large male fan base that Ella had suddenly gained, and the surplus of celebrity male clients that had been calling her for appointments.
Shane made sure to show him every single blog post about Ella. At first Nate had looked to read the praises he knew would be there, but after a while he'd stopped. The blogs had gone from posting educational critiques to posting rather strongly worded praises about different aspects of her person. Shane knew this bothered Nate, but he still kept reading them out loud.
"Oh, dude! I like this one the best! It's a picture from when Ella left the venue to pick up our food last week and she's taking a sip of her soda out of a straw, and the captions says, 'DAY-YUM,' spelled D-A-Y-Y-U-M, that's important, and then says, 'What I wouldn't give to be that straw and ha—"
"Shane," Nate sneered. "Shut up."
"Oh, and here's one with a picture from that award show last month," Shane said with a laugh. "Man, they cropped you out. They just took you completely out of the picture. All I can see of you is the hand you had on her waist. Oh man, that's classic."
Nate glared at him. Jason suddenly walked into the room and grabbed Shane's phone out of his hands.
"Stop, reading blogs about Ella to Nate. That's not cool, dude."
"Thank you, Jason," Nate said with a sigh.
"Did you guys know Christopher Wilde is here?" Jason asked. "I saw him headed toward Ella's office."
Shane shrugged. "He probably has an appointment. James Conroy was here yesterday and then Chad Dylan Cooper before that—"
Nate huffed and tightened his grip on his guitar as he stood up.
"Yeah, but I bet none of them brought a single red rose with them to give to—" Jason cut himself off. "To give to Ella's secretary. You know, for all the hard work she does handling all of those phone calls…and things."
Shane struggled to keep from laughing at the grimace on Jason's face. "Now who needs to shut up, bro?"
"So Christopher Wilde brought her a rose. Whatever," Nate said with a clenched jaw. "I don't care. She's gotten lots of flowers since that show of hers started."
"Including large bouquets from guys like Zac Efron and that Green dude from Entourage," Shane smirked.
"She got a few from some old dudes too. Tad Hamilton sent her that huge display of orchids, remember?" Jason said with a nod.
Nate put his guitar on the stand in the corner and then crossed his arms over his chest. Nate had to keep reminding himself that none of these guys were dating Ella. He was.
Shane grumbled. "I remember. That was the day Mitchie asked me why I never buy her flowers. I ended up spending a lot of money the next day."
Jason rolled his eyes. "Man, don't you know girls like to get flowers every now and then?"
"Hey! She never really seemed to care about them! How was I supposed to know that?" Shane said defensively.
"Every girl likes flowers. Even if they say they don't. Trust me," Jason told him.
"Yeah, well, I know now."
"You should have known before, dude. C'mon. Right, Nate?"
"What?"
"Shane should have known that every girl likes flowers, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he said distractedly.
Jason shot Shane an accusing glare, and Shane held up his hands and shook his head as he mouthed, "Not my fault."
Jason rolled his eyes and continued to glare at him. Shane huffed and stood from his chair. He approached Nate and patted his shoulder.
"Dude, we're just teasing you. Come on, you know you have nothing to worry about."
"There are other men hitting on my girlfriend, Shane," Nate said seriously as he gave his brother a dry look.
"So?" Shane shrugged. "People hit on us all the time, and you don't see her complaining."
"Yeah, but—but that's different."
Jason shook his head. "Actually, it's really not."
Nate glared at both of them. "You know, I was doing pretty okay dealing with this until the two of you started talking."
"Hey! Mine was an accidental slip. Shane was the one torturing you," Jason said as he pointed a finger at Shane.
"I was only torturing him because he's Nate and I didn't realize he could be jealous. He wasn't jealous during that stretch of time where Sander obviously had a thing for Ella so why would he be jealous now?" Shane said defensively. "I just thought I was annoying him slightly. You know, like a flick on the ear."
"A flick on the ear?" Jason asked. "If I'd been reading aloud those same things about Mitchie you would have punched my lights out."
"That's because I'm Shane. I'm impulsive and jealous and slightly obnoxious. It's what I do."
"What are you two girls yelling about?" A new voice asked. They both turned to find Caitlyn staring at them with a hand on her hip.
"Shane upset Nate by reading aloud blogs about Ella! And now Nate's paranoid! Tell Nate he's stupid for worrying. Tell him, Caity!" Jason demanded.
She quirked a brow at him. "I would be happy to…if he were in the room."
Shane and Jason glanced around frantically then and their shoulders sagged.
"When do you think he left?" Jason asked.
"Probably sometime around 'flick on the ear.'" Shane said with a sigh. "You think he went to go spy on Ella?"
"It's what I would have done."
"Yeah, me too."
Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "You're both idiots."
Nate didn't really know what he was doing. All he knew was that he wanted to get to Ella's office as quickly as he could. He ignored Ella's secretary as she asked him if he had an appointment, and then stopped outside of Ella's closed door. He could hear voices on the other side.
"Chris, seriously, stop."
And then he heard a laugh. No, more like a giggle.
From Ella.
"What? Come on, I think it's kind of cute."
"It's ridiculous. You're much too attractive for that."
What?
"Come on, you like it and you know it. It's sexy."
And that's when he shoved the door open. He glared at the sight that greeted him. Chris was kneeling in front of Ella holding out a rose and small black ring box. And wearing a massive pair of brightly colored clown glasses. "What the hell is this?"
Ella's head snapped toward the door at the sound of Nate's growl. "Nate? What are you doing here?"
"Better question: what is he doing here?" Nate asked with a sneer.
Chris stood and snatched the obnoxious glasses off of his face. He pocketed the ring box too. "Hey, man. Long time no see."
"I'd rather not be seeing you right now, honestly," Nate said angrily.
"Nate!" Ella yelled with a scolding glare.
"What? I'm supposed to be happy after walking in on…well whatever that was. He was kneeling, Ella, with a ring and a rose. I think I have a right to be rude," Nate told her.
"You know," Chris said as he cleared his throat. "I'm, uh, gonna go. Thanks for your help, Ella. I appreciate it."
She turned and smiled apologetically at Chris. "You'll be fine, Chris. And trust me don't wear those hideous glasses."
"Oh come on!"
"Do you want her to say yes?"
"Of course I do," Chris said with a grin.
"Then listen to my words. Ella knows best," She told him with a wink. "Good luck."
Ella walked Chris to the door and shut it behind him. She turned the deadbolt and then whipped around to face Nate. Nate's eyes widened and he nearly let out a cowardly whimper. He was dead. Or he should be considering the look on Ella's face. "Explain yourself. Now, Nate."
He lost his nerve for a moment before the image of Chris Wilde kneeling in front of his girlfriend popped back into his head. "Maybe you should explain, Ella. What the hell did I walk in on?"
"Walk?" She scoffed. "You didn't walk, you charged."
"Ella," He said in a warning tone.
"Nate," She said with another glare. She walked toward her desk and leaned against it. "What do you think happened? Seriously? Do you think he proposed?"
"That's what it looked like."
"Well, then I guess that's what must have happened since we both know that everything is exactly what it seems in this world," Ella spat venomously. "And so what if he did? Does that mean I'd say yes? Do you have such little faith in me to think that I would do that to you? Really? Because if that's true then what's the point of us dating? You clearly don't trust me."
Suddenly he felt three inches tall. His anger vanished from his face. "Ella—"
"No, Nate, I'm not done," She snapped.
"Yes, ma'am," He muttered quietly.
"I cannot believe you did that. One of the great things about us is that there's very rarely ever been any jealousy. Until today, I thought we were pretty confident in our relationship and each other. Was I wrong? I mean where did all of that come from?"
He stood and stared at her thoughtfully for a moment as he considered how to answer.
"Nate? I'm waiting."
He sighed. "You weren't wrong. We are confident in our relationship, and I'm not usually jealous. I trust you. I do—"
"Could have fooled me," Ella muttered.
Nate closed his eyes and continued. "But I'm not used to you having all of these men pursuing you. It makes me uneasy. I mean I don't know if you realize this, Ella, but you're gorgeous. Exceptionally gorgeous. Almost too gorgeous to really exist, and until recently I've been a part of the select few who truly understood just how beautiful you really are. But that select few has very quickly grown into mass of people, and I haven't—I haven't really had time to adjust yet."
He heard her footsteps as she crossed the room, but he didn't dare open his eyes. He didn't want to know if she was still angry. Her arms wrapped around his torso, and his eyes opened. He glanced down and breathed a sigh of relief. Her head was buried in his chest as she continued to hug him tightly. He closed his eyes again and wrapped his arms around her in return.
"Chris was rehearsing," Ella said softly.
"Rehearsing?"
"He's proposing to Jessica, his girlfriend, tonight and he wanted to rehearse."
"Oh," Nate said he shut his eyes tighter and winced. "That…makes sense."
"And, Nate…"
"Yes?" He asked when she cut herself off.
"All of those other people may find me attractive, but I'm willing to bet you're the only one who honestly sees me," She said as she pulled away slightly to look him in the eyes. "They admire me, but you love me. That's the difference."
He smiled softly at her and placed a slow lingering kiss on her lips. Ella sighed happily when he pulled away and he brought a hand up to softly caress her cheek. "You're right; I love you that's the difference."
She blushed and leaned into his hand. "I love you too."
There was a brief moment of silence before Ella gave him a stern look, "But if you ever burst in here like that again I will slau—"
Nate chuckled and kissed her again before she could finish her sentence. She made a noise in protest before she whimpered and melted in his arms. There was definitely no one else who could kiss her like this.